Speaker 1: Just before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge and
Speaker 1: pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and torrest Right Islander people's.
Speaker 1: They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and
Speaker 1: the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing
Speaker 1: and caring for the land on which we are able
Speaker 1: to learn. We pay respects to elders past and present,
Speaker 1: and we share our friendship and our kindness.
Speaker 2: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 3: Millennials who Want Financial Freedom. Welcome back to another shot
Speaker 3: back Money Diary Monday, where we chat to a beautiful
Speaker 3: community member. We learn their story, their insights, and we
Speaker 3: kind of just get to hear a little bit about
Speaker 3: some one who might be living their life differently to us,
Speaker 3: or maybe it's the same.
Speaker 4: Maybe you're going to relate.
Speaker 3: I don't know, because I don't know.
Speaker 4: Victoria. This week's story.
Speaker 1: Haha, it is me again coming in solo and just
Speaker 1: like telling you what's going to happen. It was actually
Speaker 1: very funny this week guys, because Jess messaged me and
Speaker 1: she's like, oh, like, have we be organized anybody for
Speaker 1: Money direst and I was like, oh, yes, I completely
Speaker 1: forgot to tell you. I've had this booked in for
Speaker 1: a few days now, and our Money Diarist, I'm just
Speaker 1: going to go out on a whim here. We're Instagram friends.
Speaker 1: We've never met, but we converse in my DM's a
Speaker 1: fair bit. We have a chat. She's on the same
Speaker 1: page as me. I feel like she always replies about
Speaker 1: my food memes or my pet memes, and like she's
Speaker 1: just my people, you know. So Jess. The other day,
Speaker 1: this Money Diarist sent me a gorgeous DM and literally
Speaker 1: made me tear up, which apparently is not that hard
Speaker 1: to do these days, but this one was really moving.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to read you the DM before we
Speaker 1: have a chat to her. So it said, Victoria, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to personally thank you for keeping me motivated
Speaker 1: while on my own money journey. I found shees on
Speaker 1: The Money when it was still in its first season,
Speaker 1: and I knew I needed to get my finances back
Speaker 1: in order. Back then, my husband and I had eighty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in personal debt and at two hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty four thousand dollar mortgage, we're on a good wage
Speaker 1: and still living week to week. I knew something had
Speaker 1: to give. Two years on and a lot has changed.
Speaker 1: We are totally consumer debt free, and we now also
Speaker 1: only owed two hundred and eight thousand dollars on our mortgage.
Speaker 1: It hasn't always been smooth sailing, though, as eighteen months
Speaker 1: ago I was involved in a workplace accident where I
Speaker 1: had my back broken. I've been on workers' compensation ever since,
Speaker 1: and now it's to the point where I'm about to
Speaker 1: lose my six figure salary. I'm only twenty nine, so
Speaker 1: I knew I needed to do something to keep myself employable.
Speaker 1: Then in brackets, she says, as there's been no help
Speaker 1: from any insurance company. So last semester I enrolled to
Speaker 1: do a bridging course to get into UNI. I worked
Speaker 1: incredibly hard and quote this is very Jessica Ricci manifested
Speaker 1: good grades in the hope of getting a scholarship. I
Speaker 1: got an ATAR equivalent of ninety three, which is massive, guys.
Speaker 1: With this my newfound love of personal finance, I decided
Speaker 1: to go on in enroll in a double degree doing
Speaker 1: business and commerce, with the aim of one day also
Speaker 1: becoming a financial planner. Well, I have news. I've just
Speaker 1: started week four of my double degree and I've just
Speaker 1: received the news that the Financial Planning Association has granted
Speaker 1: me their Women in Finance Scholarship, Hard Work Manifestation or both.
Speaker 1: This is the biggest money win ever and I just
Speaker 1: wanted to share it with you. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: keeping me motivated and for helping me unlock a passion
Speaker 1: for finance. Yes, that's why she's on the show and
Speaker 1: money diarist. Welcome to she's on the money.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I was so grateful to get that message.
Speaker 1: It just makes my heart sing when people are getting
Speaker 1: out of consumer debt but also finding their passion, and
Speaker 1: that message was everything. But then the added complexity of
Speaker 1: you being on workers compensation. I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is a diary we have to hear. And it
Speaker 1: was quite literally typing out, hey like, if you've ever
Speaker 1: thought about doing a money diary, let me know, And
Speaker 1: you said, if you ever want a diarist, let me know.
Speaker 1: I was like, come on down, I will book you in,
Speaker 1: I will clear the decks. When can you record? Because
Speaker 1: it's just genuinely such a beautiful story that I want
Speaker 1: to share with everybody because one you're killing it, but
Speaker 1: two we want to know the pervy details and money dirests.
Speaker 1: I don't think we've ever spoken to someone on workers
Speaker 1: comp but it's something that is actually sadly very common,
Speaker 1: but also fraught with a lot of worry and you know,
Speaker 1: not knowing what's going to happen next, and potentially insurance
Speaker 1: issues that are going on because you did mention you
Speaker 1: didn't have insurance. But can we get into it so
Speaker 1: that we can get to the juicy part of Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, money diarist. First question off the bat
Speaker 1: is can you tell us a little bit about your
Speaker 1: money story.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I was raised by a single mum. My
Speaker 4: parents broke up before I was born, and then unfortunately,
Speaker 4: my father passed away when I was also very young.
Speaker 4: So my mom totally did it on her own. She
Speaker 4: is an absolute power woman. She's insane. Growing up, we
Speaker 4: always kind of lived in our own house. Mom was
Speaker 4: into her property investing, even if that meant, you know,
Speaker 4: making sacrifices elsewhere a queen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so investing in property, yeah.
Speaker 4: I know. But other than that, I think there was
Speaker 4: a lot of encouragement, I would say to save money.
Speaker 4: In saying that money was a topic that was never
Speaker 4: really spoken about. I vividly remember, you know, asking her
Speaker 4: when I was probably about eight, you know, what certain
Speaker 4: things would cost, and what would a house cost, and
Speaker 4: this and that, and she pretty much sushed me and said,
Speaker 4: why are you so obsessed with money? You don't talk
Speaker 4: about that, blah blah blah, and oh. So it was
Speaker 4: one of those things that yeah, I never Yeah, it
Speaker 4: was just a topic I never really got to speak
Speaker 4: too much about. But I did, you know, have that
Speaker 4: habit of saving money that was up until I moved
Speaker 4: out and realized what everything actually costs. I was also
Speaker 4: on a low income when I moved out, and think
Speaker 4: has got a little bit out of control? Oh, really somewhat, Yeah.
Speaker 1: What do you mean out of control?
Speaker 4: Well, I was pretty good until it's just going to
Speaker 4: sound really bad, and I don't mean it in a
Speaker 4: bad way towards my husband, But when we combined finances,
Speaker 4: we were very separate people or different people. So he
Speaker 4: was a bit of a spender and I was a saver.
Speaker 4: And because we had then joint funds, I didn't feel
Speaker 4: like I had a right to tell him not to
Speaker 4: spend on certain things. So I kind of let it go.
Speaker 4: And then one credit card ended up into two credit cards,
Speaker 4: which then ended up into three, so and.
Speaker 1: It just keeps rolling. I actually think that that's more
Speaker 1: common than we think it is. A lot of people
Speaker 1: end up combining finances and it could be your situation
Speaker 1: where you didn't want to tell your partner like not
Speaker 1: to spend it, or people get into relationships combine finances
Speaker 1: and then kind of breed this massive sigh of a
Speaker 1: relief and go, I don't have to worry about it
Speaker 1: anymore because it's all combined. And so they just don't
Speaker 1: track their spending anymore. And it's snowballs. Like I've said
Speaker 1: it before on the show, nobody gets into debt on purpose,
Speaker 1: and I guarantee it you wouldn't have been in that situation.
Speaker 1: It just kind of snowballs over time, and you stick
Speaker 1: your head in the sand, and one thing leads to
Speaker 1: another and eighty grand in debt and you just don't
Speaker 1: know where it's all.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, exactly. And the thing is, you know, the
Speaker 4: first credit card, it had a ten thousand dollar limit,
Speaker 4: and then he tried to roll it over to another
Speaker 4: bank to get the interest free thing.
Speaker 1: Very common.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they would only cover six thousand, so they then
Speaker 4: gave him a six thousand credit card, and I didn't
Speaker 4: realize because I suppose communication around money also wasn't probably
Speaker 4: where it needed to be, and so that sixteen thousand
Speaker 4: ended up being sixteen thousand maxed out between two credit
Speaker 4: cards rather than paying the other four grand down on
Speaker 4: the other one and then closing it. But then on
Speaker 4: top of that, we then also both ended up with a.
Speaker 1: Car loan out out.
Speaker 4: So yeah, lifestyle creep got us when we started to
Speaker 4: earn more money.
Speaker 1: Got you really good? Hey?
Speaker 4: It did?
Speaker 1: All right, let's move into the next questions because I
Speaker 1: have so many questions, but I know woman to leave
Speaker 1: the part to the end. My friend, what do you
Speaker 1: do for work now? And how much money do you earn?
Speaker 4: So when I got hurt, I was in the mining
Speaker 4: industry as a truck driver. I was on a permanent wage,
Speaker 4: so I was on salary of one hundred and twelve grand,
Speaker 4: and that also had a ten percent super and ten
Speaker 4: percent bonus every year, so the total was about one
Speaker 4: hundred and thirty seven thousand.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, to do mining and truck driving. That
Speaker 1: is epic. I've always known that mining have really good salaries.
Speaker 4: Yes, and to work only six months out of the
Speaker 4: year technically was what.
Speaker 2: That is?
Speaker 1: Genius? No wonder so many people want that.
Speaker 4: Oh definitely, yeah. I was doing one week on, one
Speaker 4: week off. Oh, and making the.
Speaker 1: Actual dream and making absolute bank like you arguably would
Speaker 1: have been making way more than what our community makes
Speaker 1: on average. And you're working half as hard. Come on now,
Speaker 1: not pretty much. You're probably working just as hard during
Speaker 1: that period of time.
Speaker 4: But oh my gosh, when I'm there, Yes, the lifestyle, yep,
Speaker 4: it was great. It was like I was a full
Speaker 4: time worker but also a full time mom, like stay
Speaker 4: at home mum.
Speaker 1: I like that for you, it was so good, the best.
Speaker 1: But you did mention in passing that you are currently
Speaker 1: on workers' compensation. How much does that pay and how
Speaker 1: does that work?
Speaker 4: So I'm still in the middle of it yet. So
Speaker 4: at the moment, my employer is still paying me, although
Speaker 4: it is less than before, so I don't have an
Speaker 4: actual salary figure to compare it to, but there is
Speaker 4: a four hundred and fifty dollars difference every fortnight after
Speaker 4: tax that hits my account. That will change very soon
Speaker 4: again though, because they are trying their darndaest to fire me,
Speaker 4: which apparently is perfectly illegal.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 4: Yes, and my new salary, once the insurance company picks
Speaker 4: it up, will be a whopping twenty six thousand dollars
Speaker 4: per annum.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Yeah, and you mentioned before that you're
Speaker 1: a mum. We hadn't talked about that yet, but that
Speaker 1: is a significant difference when you're supporting a family, like huge,
Speaker 1: significant difference for anybody, but like you've got the responsibility
Speaker 1: of small humans on top of all of that. You
Speaker 1: must be so stressed, my friend.
Speaker 4: It has been the darkest time of my life.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4: It's okay. I just think that's why it's really important
Speaker 4: to speak about because you know, you mentioned before me
Speaker 4: that it is quite common, and it really is. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm one of four people that I know wow, And yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm sure there is plenty others that I don't know about,
Speaker 4: and that's just in my workplace alone.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm going to get into asking
Speaker 1: more questions about this after because they do try to
Speaker 1: stick to it. But yeah, oh, let's come back to
Speaker 1: that hot minute. Next question, my friend, just what's currently
Speaker 1: your big money goal.
Speaker 4: So my husband and I really want to get out
Speaker 4: of the town that we're in. So we are living
Speaker 4: and owning at home with a mortgage in the mining
Speaker 4: town that I was working in. He and I both
Speaker 4: have different goals now that we won't really be able
Speaker 4: to achieve here anyway, so we want to move into
Speaker 4: a bit closer to the city. So the next big
Speaker 4: money goal would be trying to buy a house closer
Speaker 4: to the city. But to do that, we are looking
Speaker 4: at a mortgage. It's probably going to be at least
Speaker 4: three times the size of our current mortgage. That's even
Speaker 4: after the nice deposit that we'll have once we sell
Speaker 4: this place. So I'm trying to save up as much
Speaker 4: money as i can while I am still on that
Speaker 4: nicer income because I would like to pay for you know,
Speaker 4: stamp duty and everything out of pocket. I don't want
Speaker 4: to have that in the mortgage, So just try to
Speaker 4: save all those fees while I'm still doing a bit
Speaker 4: of market research and shopping around trying to find different
Speaker 4: locations with prices that I'm comfortable with.
Speaker 1: Fair call fair Coal all right, next question is do
Speaker 1: you currently have any investments.
Speaker 4: I do. So if you ask me this question two
Speaker 4: weeks ago, I would have said I had eighty thousand
Speaker 4: dollars in super that's currently sitting at seventy seven four hundred.
Speaker 4: But I'm not too worried. That's why.
Speaker 1: That's yeah, right, These things fluctuate over time, exactly.
Speaker 4: And I'm still young. I've got heaps of time. On
Speaker 4: top of that, I have one thousand dollars in spaceship.
Speaker 4: I do still salary sacrifice one hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 4: into souper every fortnight. And I do own an investment
Speaker 4: property with my mom and we own that outright.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, you're a queen. Check you out. Single
Speaker 1: mom now owns an investment property with her daughter. Is
Speaker 1: she insanely proud of what she's done?
Speaker 4: Yes, definitely. She still owns between my stepdad and her,
Speaker 4: she owns four, but she has her name on three.
Speaker 1: Need money diary what I mean, I'm gonna get to
Speaker 1: her later. Yeah, we're going to move on to the
Speaker 1: next question though, money diars. This one's an exciting one.
Speaker 1: Do you have any debts?
Speaker 4: Yes, I do. I currently have a mortgage of two
Speaker 4: hundred and eight thousand.
Speaker 1: But that's it, isn't it.
Speaker 4: That is it?
Speaker 1: There is no consumer debt, There are no credit cards,
Speaker 1: there are no personal loans, there is nothing. You just
Speaker 1: have good debt. Isn't that exciety?
Speaker 4: That is it? And I did just have a five
Speaker 4: thousand dollars HEX bill, but that's about to get wiped,
Speaker 4: so that's not even a debt.
Speaker 1: Gosh, you're not even gonna have hex anymore.
Speaker 4: Nope. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I know you're going through a lot of stress. And
Speaker 1: you were saying before it's super dark, and I totally
Speaker 1: get that, but holy moly, a lot of people would
Speaker 1: dream to be in a similar position when it comes
Speaker 1: to not being in debt and you know, finally getting
Speaker 1: out of hex and oh, I'm like, I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of you at the same time as going, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: how do we help you make sure this is all?
Speaker 1: I know?
Speaker 4: I find I feel a little bit guilty sometimes too
Speaker 4: when I do feel down about my situation, because I
Speaker 4: know that there really is a lot of privilege there
Speaker 4: and I am still lucky to have what I have,
Speaker 4: especially at this young age. So I'm losing a lot,
Speaker 4: but I already have a lot as well. It's kind
Speaker 4: of like a yeah yo yo effect with my own emotions.
Speaker 1: About it's such an interesting space to be in at
Speaker 1: the moment, and I feel like, you know, cancel culture
Speaker 1: on social media and the pressure that we're all under
Speaker 1: to make sure that we're acknowledging our privilege always, which
Speaker 1: I think is really important, but also seeing what's going
Speaker 1: on in the media often makes you feel even more
Speaker 1: guilty for feeling bad about a situation that you're in.
Speaker 1: And I think now is a really good time to
Speaker 1: remind you that, you know, just because you're going through
Speaker 1: something doesn't mean you have to go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: but somebody else has it worse. You're right, there is
Speaker 1: always going to be someone who has it worse, absolutely,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't invalidate that we are going through something
Speaker 1: that is traumatic or upsetting or you know, not what
Speaker 1: we want to go through ourselves. And I think so
Speaker 1: quickly we put so much pressure on ourselves, which then
Speaker 1: translates into guilt and feeling like trash about a situation
Speaker 1: because you're like, oh my god, like I feel so bad,
Speaker 1: and you genuinely would be so stressed about losing your income,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure there are few people thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: listening to this, going, oh what she worried about? Like
Speaker 1: she's fine, Like she's going to lose her income, big whoop,
Speaker 1: and like that's not the point. The point is your
Speaker 1: situation is dramatically going to change. You've worked your butt
Speaker 1: off to get to exactly where you are, and you
Speaker 1: absolutely deserve it, and the right thing is not being
Speaker 1: done by you right now, by an employer who should
Speaker 1: arguably be looking after you. And I think that that
Speaker 1: shouldn't be downplayed, Like just because you're right, somebody else
Speaker 1: has it worse, and somebody else is still in debt,
Speaker 1: and somebody else is going through something that you know,
Speaker 1: we would never wish upon anybody. It doesn't invalidate the
Speaker 1: fact that your situation is emotionally draining and hard and
Speaker 1: a challenge. And I just think that whatever you're going through,
Speaker 1: stop downplaying the fact that it's you know, oh, it's
Speaker 1: not so bad. Somebody else has it worse, Like you
Speaker 1: can have those upset times, like, don't not be upset
Speaker 1: because somebody has it worse. That just makes us feel
Speaker 1: guilty and it doesn't help anybody grow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're so right, and thank you so much for
Speaker 4: saying that. I suppose a lot of my frustration comes
Speaker 4: from the fact that I didn't ask for this, and
Speaker 4: I also didn't hurt myself. Somebody else hurt me. Oh so, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's been very difficult, very frustrating. Yeah, I've gone through
Speaker 4: the motions, I think. To be honest, I think I've
Speaker 4: gone through grief and.
Speaker 1: Are going through grief. That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I totally have been grieving my past life, or
Speaker 4: at least life how it was, and knowing that the
Speaker 4: person who did this to me can live as normal.
Speaker 4: They don't lose anything, they didn't even get in trouble.
Speaker 4: In fact, they didn't even know that they had hurt
Speaker 4: me until months later. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I'm going to ask you about that later
Speaker 1: because I feel like that's a really deep conversation to
Speaker 1: have and I really want to understand the semantics of that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, oh I'm.
Speaker 1: So sorry, my friend. That sounds that sounds hit.
Speaker 4: It's been horrific, and that is an understatement. Oh my love.
Speaker 1: All right, I have to ask the next money question.
Speaker 1: The next money question, my friend, is, in light of
Speaker 1: all that negativity, what's your best money habit?
Speaker 4: My best money habit is shopping around for the best deal, Yes, queen,
Speaker 4: So I don't care if something takes me three days,
Speaker 4: three weeks. I will buy something at the cheapest possible
Speaker 4: price for the highest possible quality.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I adore that. I feel like that
Speaker 1: is so me as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, especially now that I have so much time at home.
Speaker 4: I mean not so much now I'm doing UNI, but yeah,
Speaker 4: I shop around and that includes utilities, items, clothing, everything.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I love that. What's the most recent
Speaker 1: money when you had.
Speaker 4: Other than my scholarshipy lifestyle and a scholarship most recent
Speaker 4: I haven't done it yet, but I've been looking through
Speaker 4: car insurance at the moment because my renewal has just
Speaker 4: come and it has just gone through the roof. So
Speaker 4: who I'm with now to who I'm possibly going to,
Speaker 4: there'll be a fifty dollars savings each month, Oh each month,
Speaker 4: each month.
Speaker 1: That's a money win for sure, legend. I love that.
Speaker 1: To counteract this, what are you bad at? What's the
Speaker 1: worst money habit you have?
Speaker 4: Worst one would be playing iou with myself, So every
Speaker 4: so often I'll take from one account to use it elsewhere.
Speaker 4: But in saying that, it is very controlled. As soon
Speaker 4: as I move anything, it's written down and it goes
Speaker 4: back next pay out of you know, the bucket that
Speaker 4: that was supposed to come from. So I'm pretty much
Speaker 4: playing after pay with myself, and I'm totally okay with that.
Speaker 3: I'd rather you play after pay with yourself than play
Speaker 3: after pay with actual after pay so exactly.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, yes, I feel like that's such a
Speaker 1: cool thing as well, to be able to play after
Speaker 1: pay with yourself. Like you said, that's a bad habit,
Speaker 1: but the fact that you're you know, maybe dipping into
Speaker 1: some savings or something that was allocated for something else,
Speaker 1: but doing an iou nah, that's responsible. That's a good
Speaker 1: money habit because a lot of people would just dip
Speaker 1: in and be like, let's pretend it didn't happen.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No. But every time I do it, I kind
Speaker 4: of think to myself, Oh, maybe I should redo the budget.
Speaker 4: Maybe this is something I should have budgeted for. So
Speaker 4: I do write that down as well, and I am
Speaker 4: at the point where I need to go back through
Speaker 4: and redo the budget, especially now that my wage is
Speaker 4: going to drop again very soon.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you're thinking about that, though you're not
Speaker 1: just burying your head in the sand. I need to
Speaker 1: find it new catchphrase, jes Let's work on that after
Speaker 1: the show, because bury your head in the sand is
Speaker 1: getting really old after four seasons. But I do genuinely
Speaker 1: think that that's really empowering to hear that you are
Speaker 1: on top of your budget and you're like, you know what,
Speaker 1: we're going to have to rework this and be on
Speaker 1: top of it, because so many people would actually end
Speaker 1: up in consumer debt after this situation because they would
Speaker 1: just go, all right, well, I'm going to continue to
Speaker 1: live the same lifestyle with the same spending habits when
Speaker 1: I had a higher income. And I've seen it a
Speaker 1: lot of times from a lot of people because they
Speaker 1: just weren't ready to deal with it, and it was
Speaker 1: I get it. You might not be ready, but you
Speaker 1: kind of have to force yourself into being ready because
Speaker 1: you're not choosing when your income's changing.
Speaker 4: My friends, No, And something that keeps playing on my
Speaker 4: mind is I started this finance journey six months before
Speaker 4: I got hurt, and back then I was thinking to myself,
Speaker 4: what happens if, for some reason I end up on
Speaker 4: a forty K wage again, like I used to be on,
Speaker 4: I can't maintain our lifestyle, especially with all of the
Speaker 4: bills when we were so deep in that consumer debt
Speaker 4: as well as mortgage and normal bills and everything else
Speaker 4: that comes with owning a house. So it was nearly
Speaker 4: like something was telling me that I needed to sort
Speaker 4: it out because something was coming. And I'm just so
Speaker 4: grateful and so thankful towards myself for actually getting all
Speaker 4: that done before I did lose my wage, because otherwise
Speaker 4: the bills would have stacked up and so would of
Speaker 4: the debt.
Speaker 1: So I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud.
Speaker 4: Even though I'm losing my wage, I still know that
Speaker 4: we're going to be okay, and we will still be
Speaker 4: able to put some savings aside while I'm on that
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a good position to be in. But it
Speaker 1: breaks my heart that you've been working so hard and
Speaker 1: sacrificing so much much to not be looked after. Like, honestly,
Speaker 1: it's frustrating me beyond belief. I can't tell you the
Speaker 1: gripe I have right now. I want to be asking
Speaker 1: who your employee is, and I want to talk to them.
Speaker 1: I want to like run up to them and be like,
Speaker 1: excuse me, do you know what she's on? The money
Speaker 1: could do if we talked about this. But that's not
Speaker 1: what we should do. That's not the right thing, Victoria, and.
Speaker 4: You would die if I told you who my employer was,
Speaker 4: because they are worldwide known.
Speaker 1: I am going to ask you when we're not recording
Speaker 1: a podcast, my friend, all right, speaking about money Habits
Speaker 1: money diarist, I have to ask you. I know you're
Speaker 1: really good at finding a bargain, but do you use shopback?
Speaker 4: I do use shop back?
Speaker 1: Of course she does, Jess. Of course she does.
Speaker 4: Yes, but only when that is the best deal that's
Speaker 4: out there.
Speaker 1: So are you saying you're finding better deals?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Sometimes?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, tell us how.
Speaker 4: Being a UNI student, I have access to UNI Days.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good one, and I don't get access
Speaker 1: to that I'm envs.
Speaker 4: Yeah it's pretty good. But on top of that, I
Speaker 4: just kind of get online on Google, and I like
Speaker 4: to Google, you know, say, if I'm shopping at Meyer
Speaker 4: or somewhere random, I'll just type in the company and
Speaker 4: discount code, and sometimes Google comes up with ones that
Speaker 4: I can use.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: So good. Yeah. Or if it's a brand, say like
Speaker 4: Moody Body for example, that influencers tend to promote, I
Speaker 4: just go to their tagged Instagram and try to find
Speaker 4: a discount.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that is a genius hack. But money Diarist,
Speaker 1: you know you can use discount codes with shot back, right,
Speaker 1: so you can like double whammy them together.
Speaker 4: I did not know that. What are you doing? Oh
Speaker 4: my goodness.
Speaker 1: So I turned shop back on and then it check out.
Speaker 1: You can put your little discount code in. I mean
Speaker 1: sometimes it might go invalid and you'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: getting the bin and then pick which works best for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I have actually shot back so many times when
Speaker 1: I've like signed up to a website. Because this is
Speaker 1: also me being cheeky, Like if I want to buy something,
Speaker 1: I will check the website and nine times out of ten,
Speaker 1: if it's a bigger retailer, they will have like a
Speaker 1: sign up to our EDM to get ten percent off
Speaker 1: your first order. I can tell you right now if
Speaker 1: that works, we shot back so you get both.
Speaker 4: That's a good tip because I do that too, and
Speaker 4: I just changed my email every time. Haha.
Speaker 1: You're way more committed than I am.
Speaker 4: I like a bargain. I don't like paying full price
Speaker 4: for anything.
Speaker 1: That is so fair. But last question of the set
Speaker 1: series of questions, I feel like this is going to
Speaker 1: be a goodie though. What grade would you give yourself?
Speaker 1: If I forced you to give yourself a money grade?
Speaker 4: I would give myself a B. And I'm saying that
Speaker 4: because I am really happy with what I've already done.
Speaker 4: I'm so thankful that I had the tools and the
Speaker 4: nolly and the drive and the motivation to get it done.
Speaker 4: The reason I can't give myself an A is because
Speaker 4: I was under the assumption that I had income protection
Speaker 4: insurance through my superannuation, and I yes, and I did not.
Speaker 4: So if I had.
Speaker 1: That, you'd be in a very different position.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the income thing wouldn't have been such a big issue.
Speaker 1: Far out Brussels Sprout. Let's go to a quick break
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to ask you so many questions
Speaker 1: about this because I feel like we can all learn
Speaker 1: so much from you. All Right, So we are chatting
Speaker 1: to a money DRS who has been through an absolute
Speaker 1: rollercoaster financially. You've gone from being an eighty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: worth of personal debt to being out of that situation
Speaker 1: to now being on workers' compensation, which you feel like
Speaker 1: you're about to lose. So I want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about that process and what it means
Speaker 1: and how it works, because I'm very great, but I've
Speaker 1: never been on workers' compensation, but I can imagine it's
Speaker 1: quite a stressful process with making sure that you're claiming
Speaker 1: the right things and doing the right things. But before
Speaker 1: we get there, can we ask a little bit more
Speaker 1: about your accident and how you ended up in this position? Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, So, my friend, what happened? You were at work?
Speaker 4: I was I was at work under normal conditions. I
Speaker 4: was in my truck and I went to go and
Speaker 4: get a load of dirt, and the digger operator he
Speaker 4: picked up a bit of wet material which acts a
Speaker 4: little bit different to dirt, as one could assume, and
Speaker 4: it got stuck in his bucket and all came out
Speaker 4: at once into the back of my tray. So instead
Speaker 4: of having like a smooth movement, he dropped one hundred
Speaker 4: and twenty tons worth of material in the back of
Speaker 4: my tray at once and nearly put me through the roof.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Yeah, that is so scary, that's terrifying.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll be the first of me.
Speaker 3: I have no understanding of his industry at all or
Speaker 3: how anything works, but I would assume when you're working
Speaker 3: in kind of a more high risk situation where you're
Speaker 3: working with large quantity use the materials and things, is
Speaker 3: there a process that should have been followed in that
Speaker 3: situation that wasn't.
Speaker 4: Yes, most definitely so. In the procedure, and this is
Speaker 4: pretty much industry ride, it says that they need to
Speaker 4: get what they call fines, which is just basically like
Speaker 4: normal dirt, right, So no rocks, no nothing, just the
Speaker 4: smallest stuff that they have, and they put that in
Speaker 4: the bottom of your tray first to act as like
Speaker 4: a cushion so that then they can put the bigger
Speaker 4: stuff on top. The stuff that he picked up was
Speaker 4: like a wet clay material, so even though it wasn't big,
Speaker 4: he probably just assumed that it would come out as normal. However,
Speaker 4: this material I had clay in it, so it all
Speaker 4: stuck together in one big chunk and it didn't come
Speaker 4: out of his bucket until he'd put the full thing
Speaker 4: over my truck. And yeah, one hundred and twenty tons
Speaker 4: came out at once and just went bang.
Speaker 3: What did that feel like sitting in a car when
Speaker 3: did you have your seatbelt on? I mean, you were stationary,
Speaker 3: so you did all that sucky, But did you physically
Speaker 3: lift up like I'm imagining that the whole thing like
Speaker 3: a sea Sawdier just went ooh.
Speaker 4: That's exactly what happened. And these trucks, I don't know
Speaker 4: if you've seen them, but they're huge. They're massive.
Speaker 1: They look pretend.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're like the size of a two story house.
Speaker 4: And the force that this created ended up lifting the
Speaker 4: whole front of the truck off the ground.
Speaker 1: And he did back to what he'd done.
Speaker 3: Nope, Oh my goodness. So that happened. Did you feel
Speaker 3: the pain immediately or is it something that after you'd
Speaker 3: gone home from the day you kind of, oh, something's
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the thing. I didn't. I felt like a jump,
Speaker 4: as you could only imagine. But you know when you know,
Speaker 4: you hit a bump in the road and you kind
Speaker 4: of jump and you're like, oh my god, that scared me.
Speaker 4: I wasn't expecting that. I kind of had that feeling
Speaker 4: and it was kind of like the feeling of that
Speaker 4: in your stomach, but it was in my back as well.
Speaker 4: It was kind of like full body, but it didn't hurt,
Speaker 4: so I thought I was fine. I was just like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, that scared the hell out of me,
Speaker 4: and kind of kept going with it. It wasn't until I
Speaker 4: got to the top of the dump, so I, you know,
Speaker 4: drove it up to where I had to put this
Speaker 4: dirt and I went to reverse backwards. And in these trucks,
Speaker 4: the cabs are so big that you have to lean
Speaker 4: forward to look out your mirror so that you can reverse.
Speaker 4: And that motion of leaning forward, I felt like a
Speaker 4: It was kind of like between a pinch and a pull,
Speaker 4: and I was like, oh my god, I have actually
Speaker 4: done something. Go something's not right. So I called up
Speaker 4: my supervisor, who then came to see me, and they
Speaker 4: took me up to do a drug test and a
Speaker 4: statement before I was even seen by paramedics. You're joking
Speaker 4: what I'm not.
Speaker 1: That's disgusting. That's actually disgusting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, horrific that.
Speaker 1: I feel like you're going to carry some trauma from
Speaker 1: that as well.
Speaker 4: That's yeah, that's huge up, which is why it's another
Speaker 4: reason why we want to get out of this town.
Speaker 4: I just I can't be here. I want to just
Speaker 4: move on with my life, and I can't move on
Speaker 4: probably while I'm still surrounded by the same people.
Speaker 1: Gross, I'm so sorry. That is so trash. The fact
Speaker 1: that they didn't even seek medical help. Are you suing
Speaker 1: this legally? I am yeah, great, good good. That's what
Speaker 1: I would do. That's exactly what I would do. And
Speaker 1: if you weren't doing it, that's what i'd say.
Speaker 4: Do yes, And I'm happy to talk about that too,
Speaker 4: because there are quite a few options that I can
Speaker 4: pick from, or you know, paths I can choose to
Speaker 4: go down, and they're all completely different.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, my heart. This just sounds like a
Speaker 1: whole heap of stress. Like it sounds like so much
Speaker 1: is going on. The fact that the company, we're trying
Speaker 1: to protect themselves before even looking after you medically, that's
Speaker 1: messed up. But the fact that now it's in your
Speaker 1: hands to probably pursue all of this, Like, no one's
Speaker 1: going to help you do that, no one's gonna go
Speaker 1: all right, money, diarist, you need to get a lawyer
Speaker 1: and do this and that. How have you learned? How
Speaker 1: have you I guess worked out what the next steps
Speaker 1: are without going into hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
Speaker 1: of legal costs.
Speaker 4: When I realized that no one was on my side, you.
Speaker 1: Know, so we're on your side, I promise.
Speaker 4: Thank you. I keep saying to my husband, thank God.
Speaker 4: Family life is so good because yeah, between my employer,
Speaker 4: my doctors, my specialists, my physiotherapists, the insurance company, and
Speaker 4: all my other rehab providers, they're all working together as
Speaker 4: one team. And then there's me. When I realized that
Speaker 4: they were looking after themselves and no one was actually
Speaker 4: really looking after me, that was when I was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I need someone on my team. So I went and
Speaker 4: sought out a lawyer. I had the first lawyer for
Speaker 4: a little while, but I didn't really click with him,
Speaker 4: and I didn't really feel like he was on my
Speaker 4: team so much either. So I went and found another lawyer,
Speaker 4: and I'm so glad I found her. She's fantastic. The
Speaker 4: line of communication is great. I speak to her weekly.
Speaker 4: If ever I have any question, no matter how big
Speaker 4: or small, she's there to answer it straight away. Yeah,
Speaker 4: she's finally I have someone on my team that can
Speaker 4: actually help me.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, it's so sad that you need to
Speaker 3: like find or work so hard to find people to
Speaker 3: support you, Like in this situation, you've done nothing wrong,
Speaker 3: you know, it's such bad luck that it had literally
Speaker 3: nothing to do with you. And I'm so sorry that
Speaker 3: it is really challenging to find that support network to
Speaker 3: help you through something that you've got no training and
Speaker 3: you've got no understanding in, and nor would anybody expect
Speaker 3: you to. So I can only imagine how stressful that
Speaker 3: would have been on top of the pain, on top
Speaker 3: of everything else that you're managing all at once.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. And it's sad that I had to find
Speaker 4: a lawyer, like it had to go as far as
Speaker 4: to finding a lawyer who was then going to be
Speaker 4: on my team. Like I just feel like and I
Speaker 4: wish it didn't have to go that far, Like I
Speaker 4: wish I was just looked after I was rehabilitated and
Speaker 4: then you know, I just go back to work. But
Speaker 4: that's not the case.
Speaker 3: And they've just been really difficult the whole way along.
Speaker 4: Have they really difficult. So in two weeks time, I
Speaker 4: have to go for a full medical assessment with a
Speaker 4: doctor that's employed by the company that I work for
Speaker 4: It's a two and a half hour assessment, and I
Speaker 4: know I'm going to be walking out with a bit
Speaker 4: of paper that says that I have no job.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's an actual joke. I am so
Speaker 1: sorry that that is the case.
Speaker 4: This isn't even the half of it.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 1: I just I can't comprehend why companies can get away
Speaker 1: with stuff like this, because obviously there is a certain
Speaker 1: level of risk involved in your job. That's why you
Speaker 1: were remunerated so well. Like you said before, I'm truck driver,
Speaker 1: but like, I don't think that really defines what you
Speaker 1: did before, because if you compare that to a truck
Speaker 1: driver that you know does deliveries for Woolies, like, that's
Speaker 1: very different to the fact that you are driving mega
Speaker 1: trucks and there is mega risk involved. Like I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that there's no risk in driving trucks as usual,
Speaker 1: but this is next level and their insurance arguably would
Speaker 1: cover them for situations like this, because I guarantee you
Speaker 1: are not the first person to ever be injured on site.
Speaker 1: Whether you know, someone twists their ankle and breaks their
Speaker 1: ankle and they're out of work for eight weeks or something.
Speaker 1: Way more significant, like this has happened to you. I
Speaker 1: just can't comprehend why they aren't putting you guys in
Speaker 1: the best possible position, because this is horrendous, Like I
Speaker 1: just there's no care, there's no love, there's no and
Speaker 1: I know that you know they don't have to love you,
Speaker 1: but it just makes no sense that they wouldn't, you know,
Speaker 1: want to put you in a situation where they're looking
Speaker 1: after you, given it was their lack of compliance and
Speaker 1: training that put you in this situation exactly. Oh my heart,
Speaker 1: I feel so bad. Oh that's such a terrible situation.
Speaker 1: But I feel like you've got the right people on
Speaker 1: your team and that there's light at the end of
Speaker 1: this tunnel, my friend, I really feel like there.
Speaker 4: Is, I hope, so there has to be.
Speaker 3: Before we head off. I'm sure, as they said, it's
Speaker 3: such a common thing. If anyone's listening who is finding
Speaker 3: themselves in a similar battle to you, where their workplace
Speaker 3: is perhaps not doing the right thing by them, what
Speaker 3: would you recommend they do? What first step should they
Speaker 3: look at taking? Is there a resource they can look
Speaker 3: into for me?
Speaker 4: I think it's probably just getting legal advice from the start,
Speaker 4: even if you don't think you'll need it in the future. Yeah.
Speaker 4: At least that way, everything's more likely to be documented
Speaker 4: as well from the beginning, and you will know your
Speaker 4: rights as well as what you actually have to do
Speaker 4: to be compliant with their procedures rather than what they
Speaker 4: want you to do. Yeah, because what you actually have
Speaker 4: to do and what they want and expect from you
Speaker 4: are totally different things.
Speaker 1: Money, Darst. Something that is really important to me, especially
Speaker 1: because I am a financial advisor, guys, is income protection.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned very early on that you thought you
Speaker 1: had income protection through superannuation. Can you take us through
Speaker 1: why you thought you did and why maybe you don't
Speaker 1: now and what that looked like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I've kind of always been told, and I
Speaker 4: know I shouldn't listen to people that don't have finance experience,
Speaker 4: but I was always kind of told, you know, Super
Speaker 4: takes care of income protection and TPD and you know,
Speaker 4: life cover, so I just kind of assumed I had
Speaker 4: all three. But you know, previously I went and did
Speaker 4: get you know, a life cover insurance outside of Super,
Speaker 4: so I wished I looked into the other two and
Speaker 4: just kind of did both of those as well. So
Speaker 4: that's That's probably been my biggest money mistake, because if
Speaker 4: I had that insurance this twenty six thousand income that
Speaker 4: I'm now going to be on, it wouldn't have been
Speaker 4: the worst thing because I would have also had that
Speaker 4: other insurance to bulk it up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I feel like that would have put you
Speaker 1: in a position where you wouldn't be having chats with lawyers.
Speaker 1: I know that you deserve that, and that's really important.
Speaker 1: But something we've said before on the podcast is sometimes
Speaker 1: your mental health is actually way more important than the
Speaker 1: financial benefits that you might get from suing somebody or
Speaker 1: pursuing something legally, because it's a financial freedom to be
Speaker 1: financially free, right, and that's something that income protection could
Speaker 1: have afforded you. No, you wouldn't have got your entire salary.
Speaker 1: You would have got about seventy five percent of your salary,
Speaker 1: and then you know, there would have been other insurances
Speaker 1: that could have topped that up because TBD would have
Speaker 1: come into play given that you're not able to return
Speaker 1: to work in the role that you had before. But
Speaker 1: it just breaks my heart to think that you just
Speaker 1: assumed that you were in the best possible position, because
Speaker 1: people should look after us, right, Like yes, it's an
Speaker 1: Australian mentality and like that's such a nice thing, right
Speaker 1: that we just assume that other people want the best
Speaker 1: for us. And it kind of breaks this facade when
Speaker 1: you realize that people don't want the best for you.
Speaker 1: She's on money community does. But insurers and superannuation companies
Speaker 1: are just doing the best thing for them as a business,
Speaker 1: and that's okay, Like that's what should happen. But I
Speaker 1: think as Australians we just make the grand assumption that
Speaker 1: it'll be right, they'll look after us. I mean, we
Speaker 1: live in a world where that is kind of true.
Speaker 1: But I think we need to really take action when
Speaker 1: it comes to things like total and permanent disability and
Speaker 1: income protection, because that's what would have put you in
Speaker 1: the position where you money direce could have said, you
Speaker 1: know what, this is really shit. They deserve to get
Speaker 1: into trouble for it, but it's not worth my mental health.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to pull the pin on this because
Speaker 1: financially I am okay, But that is a grace that
Speaker 1: you don't have right now, and I think that everybody
Speaker 1: deserves that, regardless of their situation or what has happened
Speaker 1: to them, and that's what insurance can afford you. And
Speaker 1: I just think that too many times you go, oh,
Speaker 1: i'm young, I don't need that, but money darist. And
Speaker 1: everybody can't see you because you are obviously anonymous, but
Speaker 1: you're twenty nine years old. You are gorgeous, like you are,
Speaker 1: this gorgeous little blonde thing that I just want to
Speaker 1: hug and say, I'm sorry that you're going through this.
Speaker 1: But insurance is not something that you just get when
Speaker 1: you're older, or just get when you have kids. It's
Speaker 1: something that we all need and if you're not prioritizing it,
Speaker 1: you really need to asap exactly.
Speaker 3: Thank you for sharing your story. I think that it'll agat.
Speaker 3: I mean we say this whenever we talk about insurances,
Speaker 3: but you know, it's something that's so common that people
Speaker 3: don't think about. And this is a situation, as we said,
Speaker 3: we haven't spoken to anyone on the podcast before going
Speaker 3: through the worker's comp process and going through that really
Speaker 3: hard time with their employer where you're having to fight
Speaker 3: for your rights, which you absolutely shouldn't have to do.
Speaker 3: And I have no doubt that there are other people
Speaker 3: in our community who have gone or will go through
Speaker 3: the same thing. So thank you for being so open.
Speaker 3: Please keep us updated. Like I am so angry on
Speaker 3: your behalf, Like it is just like steaming out of
Speaker 3: my head like a cartoon character.
Speaker 4: I'm so mad. Oh my lord.
Speaker 1: Yes, you're going through this process.
Speaker 3: It's just absolutely ridiculous, and I truly hope that you
Speaker 3: get what you deserve because the fact that they're trying
Speaker 3: to give you anything less is appalling.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you, all right, Well, that unfortunately is all
Speaker 1: we have time for today, So Jess, do you want
Speaker 1: to wrap the show?
Speaker 3: And remember the advice sheared on She's on the money
Speaker 3: is generally nature and does not consider your individual circumstances.
Speaker 3: She's on the money existecurely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 3: not be relied upon to make an investment or a
Speaker 3: financial decision. And we promise Victoria Divine is an authorized
Speaker 3: representative of Infocused Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN four seven
Speaker 3: oh nine seven seven nine seven O fortnine AFSL two
Speaker 3: three six five two three
Speaker 1: See next week, guys, hie Ye