Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerney Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: She's on the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on
Speaker 2: the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where
Speaker 2: I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down and talking
Speaker 2: to one of our incredible She's on the Money community
Speaker 2: members all about their money story. Let's jump straight into it,
Speaker 2: because this week I got a message and it went
Speaker 2: like this. Hi Victoria, I'm a twenty seven year old
Speaker 2: full time agricultural student and working in an affiliated field
Speaker 2: who is coming to terms with no family support after
Speaker 2: needing to cut them off in recent years, having studied
Speaker 2: and needing to take a break to prioritize my mental health.
Speaker 2: I'm perpetually feeling like I'm at square one on my income.
Speaker 2: I can't save, i can't invest, and I'm feeling stressed
Speaker 2: about the future. Help. I need financial security asap. Money Diarist,
Speaker 2: welcome to the show. I think you're in the right place.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I think I am too.
Speaker 2: I love this story that you want to share with
Speaker 2: us because I feel like there are going to be
Speaker 2: a lot of people in our community who are going
Speaker 2: to instantly recognize that story and feel like they really
Speaker 2: related to it. I just think that it's actually more
Speaker 2: common than we think it is to have to go
Speaker 2: through circumstances where cutting family members off happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. Even in my friendship circle, I'm
Speaker 3: not the only one who's had this kind of experience.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think I'm really Yeah, I'm really excited
Speaker 3: to share and hopefully other people resonate.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to learn more about you. All right,
Speaker 2: let's jump straight in the first question, as always, is
Speaker 2: if I asked you to give yourself a money grade
Speaker 2: from A through to F, what would it be.
Speaker 3: I think at the moment, I would give myself a
Speaker 3: c I think, with what I'm earning at the moment
Speaker 3: and where I'm at in my life, I think I'm
Speaker 3: doing pretty well, but I think there's still some room
Speaker 3: for improvement.
Speaker 2: Okay, interesting, we'll get into it. My favorite question, money
Speaker 2: deris can you tell me a little bit more about
Speaker 2: your money story?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, So I'll start When I was nineteen, I'd
Speaker 3: just gotten back from my gap year. I lived abroad
Speaker 3: for a year and just had the most wonderful time.
Speaker 3: Came back and got straight into UNI, which was sort
Speaker 3: of the expectation from my family and where I grew up.
Speaker 3: I was studying something that I was really interested in,
Speaker 3: but not that passionate about. I was sort of like
Speaker 3: going through the motions. And then about a year and
Speaker 3: a half into studying, so I was about twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: I started to have memories resurface from my childhood and
Speaker 3: some childhood trauma that I'd experienced, and that came with, yeah,
Speaker 3: a lot of mental distress. So my mental health really
Speaker 3: plummeted at that point. And for the first like, yeah,
Speaker 3: the next year or so, I tried to keep up
Speaker 3: with UNI, I was doing a little bit of counseling,
Speaker 3: and then it got to a point where I was like,
Speaker 3: hold on, like I really need to Yeah, I really
Speaker 3: need to go deeper into this it's not going away,
Speaker 3: and really connecting with that belief that I can get better.
Speaker 3: So I'd been on a wait list for some specific
Speaker 3: therapy for what I'd experienced for about eight months.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's such a long time.
Speaker 3: It is. It's a really really long time, which also
Speaker 3: just goes to show how many people need relying on
Speaker 3: that support. Yeah, my gosh. Yeah, after that long wait,
Speaker 3: I was able to access counseling with a couple of
Speaker 3: amazing social workers who I worked with for about two years,
Speaker 3: getting therapy once a week every week. And yeah, apart
Speaker 3: from just the time that that took, it was also
Speaker 3: really mentally exhausting. So I took time off UNI to
Speaker 3: stop studying completely for two years, and I was sort of, Yeah,
Speaker 3: the most that I could manage working was three days
Speaker 3: a week, sometimes four, but yeah, mostly three days a week.
Speaker 3: So I sort of continued living on that student budget
Speaker 3: that I had had since I was nineteen. So after
Speaker 3: the next two years, really doing the work getting the
Speaker 3: help that I needed to get better and feel a
Speaker 3: lot better in myself and capable in my life. I
Speaker 3: decided to go back to UNI to study agriculture, which yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm really really passionate about. I get super super nerdy
Speaker 3: about it. Yeah, and I'm sort of, yeah, halfway through
Speaker 3: that degree. Now I've got another two years to go,
Speaker 3: and yet working in an affiliated field now part time,
Speaker 3: which is really awesome. But yeah, as I mentioned when
Speaker 3: I wrote in part of that recovery journey has been
Speaker 3: making a disclosure to my parents about what I experienced
Speaker 3: as a child, and unfortunately they did not respond well
Speaker 3: to that.
Speaker 2: Oh no, yeah, I'm so sorry that was your experience,
Speaker 2: because it would have been hard to even bring it up.
Speaker 2: That's not something that I can imagine was easy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was awful. It's obviously I wanted to tell
Speaker 3: them for a long time. But then yeah, because it's
Speaker 3: so shrouded in secrecy and shame, and yeah, for such
Speaker 3: a long time. Even like the biggest part of the
Speaker 3: recovery was like understanding that it wasn't my fault. And yeah, obviously,
Speaker 3: like spending all those years believing that it was my fault.
Speaker 3: I couldn't even come to terms with telling my parents
Speaker 3: because yeah, if I thought it was my fault, then
Speaker 3: obviously they would too. But yeah, unfortunately I didn't get
Speaker 3: a positive response from them, and that sort of yeah
Speaker 3: led to me making the decision, with support from my
Speaker 3: counselors and my support team, to create some yeah wall
Speaker 3: like boundaries towards them and yeah, have to cut them off.
Speaker 3: So it's been almost three years now since I've had
Speaker 3: direct contact with them, and obviously that means, yeah, not
Speaker 3: having any financial support, like as well as all the
Speaker 3: other stuff obviously, but yeah, I think in terms of money,
Speaker 3: that's the biggest thing for me is like knowing that
Speaker 3: if I ever needed help financially, it couldn't come from
Speaker 3: my parents or you know, even some of my friends
Speaker 3: moving back home so that they can save money to
Speaker 3: buy a house. That's not an option for me. People
Speaker 3: sort of talk about, like when you're in your twenties, like, oh,
Speaker 3: just ring up the bank of mum and dad, and
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, that's not an option, that's not a thing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And instead of looking further ahead, it's like, oh, I
Speaker 3: don't know, I doubt that I'll get an inheritance and yeah,
Speaker 3: looking towards the future, bigger things that I want for
Speaker 3: my life, knowing that, yeah, I'm not going to have
Speaker 3: that support from them, and just like, yeah, it's quite
Speaker 3: an emotional burden, like feeling like I have to do
Speaker 3: it all alone.
Speaker 2: I'm so proud of you, Like I'm just so proud
Speaker 2: of everything you've been through because that wouldn't be easy.
Speaker 2: And it's one of those things that I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people, especially going through traumatic circumstances, would you
Speaker 2: say fantasize about. They go, I wish I could do that,
Speaker 2: and you've actually done and I'm sure that you're in
Speaker 2: a better mental space. And as much as one hundred
Speaker 2: people feel like you've lost something, I can guarantee they've
Speaker 2: lost more, Like they have lost so much more than
Speaker 2: you have ever lost, And I think that that is
Speaker 2: a reflection of them, not a reflection of you. And yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just so nice to hear from somebody who's like, no,
Speaker 2: I've actually put myself first and I know that that
Speaker 2: could impact my finances and could do all of these things.
Speaker 2: But I promise there's so many resources out there that
Speaker 2: you don't need them. I promise you don't thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: It blows my mind that you've been able to do
Speaker 2: that because I know that there are going to be
Speaker 2: people listening going I wish I was as strong as that.
Speaker 2: How did you make the decision to go, you know what,
Speaker 2: I'm going to cut them off, like we're done here.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put these barriers up, because that's not
Speaker 2: an easy decision to make, not at all.
Speaker 3: I think it was definitely a journey. I think at
Speaker 3: the start when memory started to surface, I was just
Speaker 3: in denial for quite a long time and just kept
Speaker 3: thinking like, Okay, I can see that these things happened,
Speaker 3: but it doesn't affect me. I'm fine. I think I'd
Speaker 3: just been living with such an intense level of anxiety
Speaker 3: for so many years that I didn't even understand how
Speaker 3: unwell I was. And then through therapy, part of what
Speaker 3: we looked at was around different dynamics and how the
Speaker 3: situation that we are living in, whether it's family or
Speaker 3: community or school, like wherever these traumatic experience happened, like
Speaker 3: the dynamics within that system that perpetuate that secrecy. So
Speaker 3: it was sort of breaking that down and understanding that like, oh,
Speaker 3: I couldn't tell my parents up until this point because
Speaker 3: of all these other dynamics at play, and then getting
Speaker 3: to a point where I felt confident in myself, confident
Speaker 3: that it wasn't my fault. I felt like I'd recovered
Speaker 3: a sense of myself and who I want to be
Speaker 3: in the world and who I can be and really
Speaker 3: believing in that. Yeah. And then the next step was
Speaker 3: making the disclosure, and I did a lot of work
Speaker 3: with my therapists around potential outcomes of that. We did
Speaker 3: sort of role plays of like, oh, it could go
Speaker 3: this way, or it could go that way, and sort
Speaker 3: of helping me feel prepared for whatever the response would be.
Speaker 3: And then when it wasn't a supportive response, it was
Speaker 3: just yeah, it sounds simple, but it was a matter
Speaker 3: of me saying to myself, like, their response is not
Speaker 3: my responsibility, and there's actually nothing I can do on
Speaker 3: my own to help them understand. I've given them everything
Speaker 3: that I am willing to give at this point to
Speaker 3: help them understand, and yet they just they are going
Speaker 3: to have to meet me where I am. And that's
Speaker 3: sort of the boundary that I've put up is like,
Speaker 3: here am I, Here's what I would like you to
Speaker 3: do and if you would like to come and meet
Speaker 3: me here, then I would be open to that. But
Speaker 3: if not, it's not my responsibility.
Speaker 2: And they haven't stepped up and tried to make any
Speaker 2: progress towards meeting you at that level.
Speaker 3: I don't know in terms of what they've communicated to me. No, yeah,
Speaker 3: the most I get is kind of an emotionally manipulative
Speaker 3: email every couple of months.
Speaker 2: Oh no, thank you, absolutely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not great, but yeah, I don't respond to those,
Speaker 3: and I've made steps in terms of like, yeah, I
Speaker 3: have an old email address that they have, which yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't check. It's not my regular email address. And
Speaker 3: I set up a PO box which they have that
Speaker 3: adres but they don't have my home address, mobile number,
Speaker 3: personal email, any of that. So that's yeah, been really
Speaker 3: really important for me to create that clear separation.
Speaker 2: I'm just in awe that you've been able to create
Speaker 2: such a clear separation, and like, I want to know
Speaker 2: so much more about your life today, because that's not
Speaker 2: something that defines you, but I just know that you know,
Speaker 2: given that's what you're wrote in about. I just think
Speaker 2: it's important to really sit in that for a moment
Speaker 2: and go, well, what does that mean? How does that work?
Speaker 2: Tell me a bit more about what it means to
Speaker 2: you now, Like, have you got really good friends around you? Like,
Speaker 2: what does support look like now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely looks different to I guess the conventional
Speaker 3: sort of idea of Yeah. I kind of laugh when
Speaker 3: people throughout phrases like blood is thicker than water and
Speaker 3: family is everything. Absolutely not. It's just not my experience.
Speaker 3: I love it for people that do have that, but yeah,
Speaker 3: that's that's not my life. Yeah. I have incredible friends,
Speaker 3: just yet the best, most amazing supportive people who love
Speaker 3: and adore me, and I love and adore them, and
Speaker 3: they are my family and I treat them like my family.
Speaker 3: I have, yeah, beautiful housemates. I live in a sharehouse
Speaker 3: with there's five of us, which is.
Speaker 2: Just fancy and busy all at one time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so where Yeah, we just have a beautiful dynamic.
Speaker 3: I feel really supported in my home, which is really
Speaker 3: important to me. Up until February, I went through a breakup, which.
Speaker 2: Is a whole thing, but just what you needed exactly.
Speaker 3: I had, Yeah, just a beautiful, supportive, loving partner who
Speaker 3: was with me through, yeah, through the whole journey. Really
Speaker 3: we got together when I was twenty and we broke
Speaker 3: up when I was twenty six. So yeah, she was
Speaker 3: there through all of it, providing a lot of just
Speaker 3: like love and care and emotional support and affirmation which
Speaker 3: was amazing.
Speaker 2: And yeah, therapists, I just the best, solid tens out
Speaker 2: of tens, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I don't see those same therapists that I saw for
Speaker 3: that two year period anymore. I sort of got to
Speaker 3: a point where I needed to leave the public system.
Speaker 3: So now I see someone who I yeah, is someone private,
Speaker 3: so I pay to go and see them. But it's
Speaker 3: so so important. Yeah, therapy, body work. Yeah, I'm obsessed
Speaker 3: with acupuncture and boween therapy and getting that you know,
Speaker 3: somatic system involved. Yeah, so I have a lot of support.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm so so glad to hear that. All right,
Speaker 2: I want to know so much more about you as
Speaker 2: a human being, not about what you've been through. So
Speaker 2: tell me. Let's get into the nitty gritty of it.
Speaker 2: What do you earn and what do you do for work?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So in my degree, my major is in soil science.
Speaker 3: So I got a job this year at a soil
Speaker 3: and environmental science consulting firm. So I'm working in the
Speaker 3: lab there, which is really really fun. So that's what
Speaker 3: I do for work three days a week, and this
Speaker 3: semester at UNI, I made the decision to drop back
Speaker 3: to part time because that had credits from previous study
Speaker 3: that I can fill in some of those elective spots.
Speaker 3: I've been able to create a little bit more space.
Speaker 3: So yeah, doing part time UNI and part time work,
Speaker 3: So that's yeah, Monday to Friday what I'm doing. And
Speaker 3: I still am on sentling I actually, which yeah, some
Speaker 3: people might not know, but yeah, you get youth allowance
Speaker 3: from twenty one depending on your circumstances, but you transition
Speaker 3: out of youth allowance when you turn twenty five and
Speaker 3: move on too oz study. But because both of the
Speaker 3: degrees that I've done are undergraduate degrees, they only give
Speaker 3: you three and a half years of student support payments.
Speaker 3: So at the beginning of the year I got a
Speaker 3: lot from Centalinks saying that my odd study payment time
Speaker 3: had run out, which was hell is.
Speaker 2: Stressful, I guess it sounds it, but yeah, I was.
Speaker 3: Able to talk to them and I was able to
Speaker 3: go on a different type of payment, which yeah, has
Speaker 3: been great. So I still get senlink. But between senalincn work,
Speaker 3: I own about one one hundred dollars a fortnite.
Speaker 2: What does that look like? So you were saying in
Speaker 2: your letter into me, like, look, I can't say if
Speaker 2: I can't invest, I don't feel like the one one
Speaker 2: hundred dollars a fortnite goes that far. Does that mean
Speaker 2: that you're really constricted? Like what does your budgeting look like?
Speaker 2: Because obviously there's things in your budget that might not
Speaker 2: be in mine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, well, my biggest expense is rent. That's
Speaker 3: about a third of my income. I yeah, obviously pay
Speaker 3: for groceries, bills, incidental things. Now that I'm paying for therapy, again,
Speaker 3: that's an expense. I have a gym membership. I try
Speaker 3: and not restrict myself too much. So I still like
Speaker 3: to buy myself something nice every now and then, or
Speaker 3: ye go out to dinner with my friends or my housemates,
Speaker 3: or go and get drinks. So I try to have
Speaker 3: a balance of like making sure that my material needs
Speaker 3: are met and then also yeah, being involved in life.
Speaker 3: But yeah, there's just not really any room to try
Speaker 3: and save a lot of money. I do try and
Speaker 3: build up an emergency fund, but yeah, I often have
Speaker 3: to dip into it.
Speaker 2: So that's okay, that's so fine.
Speaker 3: It feels kind of demoralizing sometimes.
Speaker 2: No, absolutely not. What you've got to remember is this
Speaker 2: is a season of your life. Like life is not
Speaker 2: going to be like this forever. You're not going to
Speaker 2: be studying forever. You're not going to be on sending forever.
Speaker 2: You're not going to have this income forever. And if
Speaker 2: you can't save right now, do you know why? Because
Speaker 2: it makes sense. It makes sense that you can't save
Speaker 2: with that. It's not because you're bad at money. It's
Speaker 2: not because you're, you know, maybe not good at navigating things.
Speaker 2: It's because, babe, there's not enough of it.
Speaker 3: It just makes sense.
Speaker 2: And the fact that you even prioritize an emergency fund
Speaker 2: tells me that you are so financially literate, like you're
Speaker 2: ready to take all of those next steps, and like,
Speaker 2: look what you'll be able to create when you do
Speaker 2: have more income because of the priorities you've set up.
Speaker 2: If you're dipping into your emergency fund, that's what it's for,
Speaker 2: to make sure you're not going into debt. Don't let
Speaker 2: that be demoralizing. Let that be something that you go
Speaker 2: so glad I put that to the side because I
Speaker 2: completely forgot this was coming up this month. Look what
Speaker 2: past you did for future you? Like that's kind of sexy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it is. Okay, that's so much nicer way
Speaker 3: to think about it.
Speaker 2: One thousand percent it is. Don't think it's a bad thing.
Speaker 2: I feel like so many times people crucify themselves for
Speaker 2: being bad at money, when the reality is that just
Speaker 2: isn't enough of it in that season of life for
Speaker 2: you to do all the things that you prioritize. So
Speaker 2: I think everybody says things like I really want to save,
Speaker 2: I really want to invest like we do, because if
Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast and you're part of my community,
Speaker 2: you know the value of that. You know what that
Speaker 2: can do for future you. And it does feel like
Speaker 2: you're missing out when you're not able to do those things.
Speaker 2: But I think we have to be reasonable right now. Technically,
Speaker 2: my friend, you could go out and get a full
Speaker 2: time job. You absolutely could, but you're setting yourself up
Speaker 2: in a career that you're going to love, a career
Speaker 2: that you're going to have a really good time in
Speaker 2: while making good income. But we've got to study first.
Speaker 2: We've got to go through this to get out the
Speaker 2: other side. And that's okay. Yeah, it's so okay. But
Speaker 2: I do have a dumb question, Yes, what is soil science?
Speaker 2: And how did you get involved in that? How does
Speaker 2: someone wake up one day and say, do you know what?
Speaker 2: I'm just so interested in soil science? Yeah, where would
Speaker 2: I use that in my everyday life?
Speaker 3: It's a great question. In most people's everyday life. I
Speaker 3: just don't think you would use it.
Speaker 2: I'm glad because I've never heard of it.
Speaker 3: If you've got some pot plants, you might want to
Speaker 3: know a few things about soil, But yeah, for most people,
Speaker 3: it's not part of everyday life. Basically, what it is
Speaker 3: is a series of sort of things that make up soil,
Speaker 3: so the chemistry, the physical structure, and the biology and
Speaker 3: how all of those things interact and then how they
Speaker 3: interact with plants and the broader environment. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: really interested in things like sort of helping stop erosion,
Speaker 3: which causes huge problems for the environment. In Australia, we
Speaker 3: have very old soils, so they don't have a lot
Speaker 3: of nutrients in them compared to other places in the world,
Speaker 3: So it means that when we're growing food, we have
Speaker 3: to apply a lot of fertilizers, and then if we're
Speaker 3: not being responsible with how we're applying those, it can
Speaker 3: leach out into the environment in our waterways and cause
Speaker 3: all sorts of issues there. So it's a pretty Yeah.
Speaker 3: I feel like it's really important.
Speaker 4: That's very cool.
Speaker 2: I'm glad I asked. I feel smarter because I asked, Oh,
Speaker 2: that's good, and that's something that's so necessary. And here
Speaker 2: you are being like, oh, I don't think I'm doing
Speaker 2: that well, and you're basically saving our planet. Ten out
Speaker 2: of ten you.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Vin.
Speaker 2: All Right, I need to know more. What are your
Speaker 2: big money goals. I know you said I'm not able
Speaker 2: to save, I'm not able to invest, But talk to
Speaker 2: me about what your big money goals are and what
Speaker 2: we're working towards.
Speaker 3: At the moment, my biggest money goal is to travel more.
Speaker 3: I yeah, did a gap year and it was amazing,
Speaker 3: And one of the most amazing things about it was
Speaker 3: meeting incredible people who, yeah, I just my people, but
Speaker 3: they just happened to live very very far away from me.
Speaker 3: So I haven't seen two of my best friends in
Speaker 3: all most five years. So I really really want to
Speaker 3: go and see them ones in Mexico and the other
Speaker 3: ones in England.
Speaker 2: So not bad places to visit, not at all.
Speaker 3: And there's yeah, a bit of a UNI exchange that
Speaker 3: I'm looking at for next year over my winter UNI break,
Speaker 3: so it would be summer in Europe where I want
Speaker 3: to go. So I would really really love to do that,
Speaker 3: But obviously travel costs a lot of money. And then
Speaker 3: thinking longer term, I really would like to have kids
Speaker 3: one day. And I'm gay, so that makes it a
Speaker 3: little bit more complicated and expensive than for our hetero friends.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's sort of something that I think about
Speaker 3: for the future. And yeah, I think just being able
Speaker 3: to move outside of the paycheck to paycheck mindset is
Speaker 3: yet a big goal of mine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's going to be so easy once you
Speaker 2: have a full time job. I feel like you're in
Speaker 2: the right mindset. I love it. I feel like you've
Speaker 2: come so far. Let's go to a really quick break.
Speaker 2: And on the flip side, I'm going to ask you
Speaker 2: about maybe if you have investments and then invest and
Speaker 2: worse money habits, because I feel like you've probably got
Speaker 2: a few good ones up your sleeve, don't go anywhere. Guys.
Speaker 2: All right, money diarist, we are back, and I want
Speaker 2: to know first cab off the rank. I know you
Speaker 2: said you don't have money to invest, but do you
Speaker 2: have any investments? If so, what are they?
Speaker 3: I do listen to your podcast, so I know that
Speaker 3: superannuation is an investment. This is where I was going.
Speaker 3: I looked it up before this. I have almost ten
Speaker 3: thousand dollars in super.
Speaker 2: Well that's good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is good. Yeah. I think having that and
Speaker 3: knowing that I've got that also helps me understand investing more,
Speaker 3: which is really cool. Looking at my little graph of
Speaker 3: how much my money has grown is really fun. But
Speaker 3: I would like to invest more. I'm just in a
Speaker 3: situation now where if I have money in investments and
Speaker 3: I'm on settlink, it'll mess with that whole thing and
Speaker 3: might mean that I get kicked off sent a link.
Speaker 3: So yeah, just super at the moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now is the season of your life where you're
Speaker 2: supposed to be learning about investments, Maybe not investing immediately,
Speaker 2: maybe not like kicking it off, but putting yourself in
Speaker 2: a position where you're ready you can do it. You
Speaker 2: know what you'd want to do, how it would work,
Speaker 2: what that would look like. You're totally across your super
Speaker 2: and how that has been performing and working over the
Speaker 2: last few years. And I think that too many of
Speaker 2: us when we listen to the Sheese on the Money podcast,
Speaker 2: immediately go I really need to be investing, and yeah, great,
Speaker 2: Like I want you to invest as soon as possible too,
Speaker 2: but I want you to invest as soon as it
Speaker 2: is financially feasible and doesn't put additional pressures on you.
Speaker 2: I think that a lot of people get FOMO, and
Speaker 2: if that's the case, there are so many resources out
Speaker 2: there where we can learn about it for free. Listen
Speaker 2: to the pod, hang out with us for a while.
Speaker 2: I don't care if you haven't invested yet or not,
Speaker 2: like there's going to be a good reason why you haven't,
Speaker 2: and that's totally okay. But I just know the second
Speaker 2: you have your full time job and you hit the
Speaker 2: ground running, oh my gosh, you're going to kill it.
Speaker 2: It's going to be great.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Next question I have my friend is do you have
Speaker 2: any debts? If so, what are they?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I do have debt in terms of my hex.
Speaker 3: I've been really careful about taking out personal loans just
Speaker 3: because I know that I don't have a backup plan
Speaker 3: if that starts to snowball. I do use after pay
Speaker 3: every now and then, but yeah, I really make sure
Speaker 3: that I am going to be able to pay it off.
Speaker 3: So my HEX set at the moment, combined with the
Speaker 3: startup loans that I've received over the last few years,
Speaker 3: is almost thirty four thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Pretty standard, which is a bit scary now, pretty standard,
Speaker 2: especially if you're halfway through your degree. There was one
Speaker 2: point in my life where my HEX s deet was
Speaker 2: more than six figures. I think that gave me mad anxiety.
Speaker 2: But you know what you get what you get. Yeah,
Speaker 2: all right, next question, I feel like you've got probably
Speaker 2: a few good ones up your sleeve. What is your
Speaker 2: best money habit?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was thinking about this question. I think my
Speaker 3: best money habit is prioritizing my mental health. I always
Speaker 3: prioritize spending money on therapy. I go to therapy regularly,
Speaker 3: but if I'm having a particularly difficult week or fortnight
Speaker 3: or month, I prioritize booking in that extra session. Yeah,
Speaker 3: going to acupuncture, getting a massage, doing simpo, and like
Speaker 3: all these things that I have in my toolbox. To
Speaker 3: help me stay mentally, well, yeah, if it means eating
Speaker 3: beans and rice for a week, because I've spent money
Speaker 3: on therapy instead, I'd always rather spend that money on
Speaker 3: my mental health. Yeah. In terms of other money habits,
Speaker 3: I do have a budget, which I try stick as
Speaker 3: close to as possible. But I really like to visualize
Speaker 3: where my money is going because it's so easy for
Speaker 3: me to just tap on my card and let it
Speaker 3: fly away.
Speaker 2: So relatable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just so easy. If I yeah, I'm thinking
Speaker 3: of buying myself something I do really like to treat myself.
Speaker 3: But I do have that conversation with myself of like, Okay,
Speaker 3: can I afford this right now? Can I afford this
Speaker 3: in a month? If I buy this now? What else?
Speaker 3: What do I have to sacrifice? Because my income is
Speaker 3: so small. If I am spending money in one area,
Speaker 3: it might have to come out of another area, So
Speaker 3: I try and be quite conscious of that.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that you're so thoughtful in
Speaker 2: your purchases because so many people on similar income just
Speaker 2: go eh, I don't care or deal with it later.
Speaker 2: And this idea of your asking yourself can I afford
Speaker 2: it next month? Is this something that is going to
Speaker 2: be compromise. In other areas, people don't ask themselves these questions.
Speaker 2: I've got serious issues to take up with you after
Speaker 2: about why you think you're only a set. But we'll
Speaker 2: get there in a minute. I want to know next, though,
Speaker 2: what is your worst money habit?
Speaker 3: Yeah, my worst money habit. I think it comes with
Speaker 3: the territory. But I always make plans for when I
Speaker 3: have extra money, which just doesn't really happen. So it
Speaker 3: sort of keeps me in the cycle of like always
Speaker 3: feeling like I don't have enough and always wanting for things. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I sort of when I do get a little
Speaker 3: bit more money, like yeah, I just recently sold a
Speaker 3: bunch of clothes that I don't wear anymore, and I
Speaker 3: already had in my head like, oh, I'm going to
Speaker 3: spend this money on this, this, and this, which yeah,
Speaker 3: is probably fine, but because it it's sort of like
Speaker 3: this idea I have of like, oh, this is extra money.
Speaker 2: It's that girl math that's going around. I feel like,
Speaker 2: have you seen all of those tiktoks and those instagrams?
Speaker 2: It's a girl math. If it's on a gift card,
Speaker 2: it's free money. If I sold an outfit. It's free money.
Speaker 2: Like I laughed so much because that is our mentality.
Speaker 2: I mean, we as women are smarter than that. But
Speaker 2: I don't know. Sometimes you need to give yourself a
Speaker 2: little treaty treat and that's okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, yeah, it does create extra stress sometimes
Speaker 3: to be like, oh I need to Like I had
Speaker 3: a righty pair of Doc Martins that I'd had for
Speaker 3: like eight years and they were just disgusting, Like I
Speaker 3: just it got to the point where I just like
Speaker 3: would be out wearing them.
Speaker 2: They were well loved, Yeah, I would.
Speaker 3: Just feel like embarrassed to have them on my feet.
Speaker 3: And they're expensive shoes, and I was always like, oh,
Speaker 3: when I have a bit of extra money, I will
Speaker 3: buy that pair of shoes. And then when I did
Speaker 3: get a bit of e X your money, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: actually I'm going to spend this money on this instead. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a bit of a trap.
Speaker 2: So where are we at with the Doc Martins Now
Speaker 2: we're still wearing my loved ones? Oh good way.
Speaker 3: No, I found some on marketplace for about half the
Speaker 3: retail price, so I was very happy with that money.
Speaker 2: En I love that. Yeah, she's savvy with those shopping too.
Speaker 3: Uh huh. Yeah. I think the other like money habit
Speaker 3: that I thought of, which, yeah, I don't know if
Speaker 3: it's as much of a habit as it is a mindset,
Speaker 3: is that because I don't have that connection with my family,
Speaker 3: I know that whatever money I earn, or whatever big
Speaker 3: financial decisions I want to make in the future, it's
Speaker 3: all going to come down to me and like money
Speaker 3: that I personally have. So it's sort of this belief that, like,
Speaker 3: no matter how much money I have, or how much
Speaker 3: money I save or invest, it's never going to be enough.
Speaker 2: That's not true, though, is it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's such a commonplace to be. But
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't want to compare circumstances because everybody
Speaker 2: else's circumstances are different. But there are so many people
Speaker 2: in our community who have really great relationships with their
Speaker 2: parents and still can't rely on them financially. And I mean,
Speaker 2: it's so nice to think that, you know, you've got
Speaker 2: that support in the background. But I am a very
Speaker 2: big believer that family has made and you can create
Speaker 2: your own and there are going to be you know,
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, if sh one t
Speaker 2: hits the fan, I promise from what you've told me,
Speaker 2: there are people around you that would support you through
Speaker 2: anything that you were going through. And that is more
Speaker 2: than what a lot of people have, even if they
Speaker 2: have relationships with their parents. So I think it's one
Speaker 2: of those things where it feels really lonely and it
Speaker 2: feels really awful because you're comparing to a reality that
Speaker 2: you thought was going to be yours, but in the
Speaker 2: grand scheme of things, it's not. And now you're creating
Speaker 2: your own financial freedom, and you know you've got the
Speaker 2: big goals. You want to have kids, and I'm assuming
Speaker 2: that if you want to have kids, you probably want
Speaker 2: another partner at some point, and then there'll be a
Speaker 2: dual income and you get to create your own reality
Speaker 2: and your own family and have you know, the respect
Speaker 2: that wasn't afforded to you in that family. And I
Speaker 2: think that that that's so beautiful, Like that's better than going, oh,
Speaker 2: we might get an inheritance, or we might get some cash,
Speaker 2: or we might do Now we don't need that. We
Speaker 2: can do it on our own. We don't need other
Speaker 2: people to come in and save us when we're completely
Speaker 2: capable human beings. And I think that That is a
Speaker 2: very hard pill to swallow, especially if you grew up
Speaker 2: in a family that from the outside looking in looked
Speaker 2: really loving and kind and supportive and all of those things,
Speaker 2: when in reality they've shown you that that's not what
Speaker 2: they are, and that's heartbreaking.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So no, oh my gosh, no bad money habits. Last
Speaker 2: question I have for you, At the very start of
Speaker 2: this conversation, when I asked you what your money habits
Speaker 2: were graded, you said, I'm a C. Can you expland
Speaker 2: a little bit more on why you think curious? And
Speaker 2: if after this conversation you still think you fall into
Speaker 2: that bucket, and if you do, why.
Speaker 3: I thought I was a C. I think exactly what
Speaker 3: you just talked about. I think I was comparing myself
Speaker 3: to what I thought I should have and because I'm
Speaker 3: in my late twenties now, so are all my friends.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at my friends who have been working full
Speaker 3: time for you know, like five plus years, and looking
Speaker 3: at their investments, terrible comparison to get to spend money on. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So I was sort of like, oh, I think I'm
Speaker 3: doing all right for where I am. So I'll give
Speaker 3: myself a C. But I definitely feel a lot better
Speaker 3: since this chat. I think I would even I think
Speaker 3: I would give myself an A.
Speaker 2: I would give you an A too, I absolutely would.
Speaker 2: Like I just feel like hearing this story and what
Speaker 2: you've been through and what you're like currently going through,
Speaker 2: and what you earn and how you're allocating it, and
Speaker 2: how thoughtful you are with the way that you spend
Speaker 2: your money in the act that you budget, and you
Speaker 2: just have this level of reflection that a lot of
Speaker 2: people don't have when going to make purchases. I just go,
Speaker 2: there's no way you're a C like, absolutely not. And
Speaker 2: I think that sometimes we grade ourselves lower because we
Speaker 2: think that to be good at money we have to
Speaker 2: have lots of it, and you don't have to have
Speaker 2: lots of money to be good at money. Like, from
Speaker 2: my understanding, you're killing it basically, And that's really cool
Speaker 2: because do you know how many full time people have
Speaker 2: incomes of six figures and also six figures of personal debt? Yeah,
Speaker 2: like my friend, they think they're killing it. And I
Speaker 2: don't mean to throw shade at that, but there's just
Speaker 2: this demographic of people who you might look at and go, wow,
Speaker 2: I really can't believe that they're doing so well and
Speaker 2: they're you know, absolutely loving life, but you don't see
Speaker 2: what's going on under the hood. And I think it's
Speaker 2: just so important to put those blinkers back on and
Speaker 2: only look at your journey and how well you're doing
Speaker 2: for you and stop comparing yourself to friends. I do
Speaker 2: it all the time. It's so toxic. One out of
Speaker 2: ten cannot recommend doing that. Terrible strategy. Yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 2: sucks one out of ten. All right, money Darrist. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: that is all we have time for today. I have
Speaker 2: a door getting to know you, have a chat with you,
Speaker 2: and really just shed some light on a topic that
Speaker 2: we hadn't discussed on the podcast before. As I said before,
Speaker 2: I'm so ridiculously proud of you, and I just know
Speaker 2: you've got so much to achieve and you're going to
Speaker 2: go so far, and I hope that you keep in
Speaker 2: touch and keep me updated and let me know what
Speaker 2: goes on.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for it's been awesome chatting with you.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, right back at you.
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