Speaker 1: Just before we head into today's episode, we'd like to
Speaker 1: acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Speaker 1: Islander peoples. They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the
Speaker 1: waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you
Speaker 1: for sharing and for caring for the land on which
Speaker 1: we are able to learn. We pay respects to elders
Speaker 1: past and present, 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 get to chat to
Speaker 3: one of our community members, learn about them, their story,
Speaker 3: their journey and all of the challenging bits in between. Victoria,
Speaker 3: as always, I'm giving you hello this week, I have
Speaker 3: a really good one.
Speaker 1: Oh that's shocking. I can't believe you've got another good
Speaker 1: podcast for us, Jess.
Speaker 3: I know, it's almost like there's millions of amazing stories
Speaker 3: and we have not enough times don't hear them all.
Speaker 3: But it's a little short and sweet teaser, so I'm
Speaker 3: excited to learn a little more our diarist says, a
Speaker 3: year ago, I was in hospital, just trying to survive.
Speaker 3: Now I'm earning six figures and planning to fire. This
Speaker 3: is my money story.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, from hospital to six figures. Oh I
Speaker 1: did this and that. I have to know more. That's
Speaker 1: a they sent in.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 1: So we didn't get anything else. No, like, oh I
Speaker 1: did this and that.
Speaker 3: Okay, cool, I'm really excited to learn about them. A
Speaker 3: little content warning before we get into it, though, We're
Speaker 3: going to be chatting about mental health, specifically around eating disorders.
Speaker 3: If that's something that's a little bit challenging for you
Speaker 3: right now, give this episode a miss because we're going
Speaker 3: to dive into it.
Speaker 1: I have so many quest gents, money darist. As always,
Speaker 1: you're hanging in the wings. Welcome to the show. We
Speaker 1: are so excited to have you.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, so are we. Mainly because I hate
Speaker 1: it when people don't give me enough information and I'm like,
Speaker 1: excuse me, you can't just drop that and walk away.
Speaker 4: I knew I knew it would be something like that.
Speaker 5: I think when I purposely wrote it, I was like Ooh,
Speaker 5: I wonder what they'll think.
Speaker 2: Haha.
Speaker 1: It's like she's gone fishing for us, Jess. And it worked.
Speaker 3: It absolutely worked. You got me full client and singer.
Speaker 1: QUI love it. Let's get into it though. First question
Speaker 1: as always money darist, Can you tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about your money story?
Speaker 5: Okay, So growing up I was never good with money.
Speaker 5: I kind of had parents on the opposite end of
Speaker 5: the spectrum. So I had a father who did really
Speaker 5: well and worked really hard for his money, and we
Speaker 5: never had to kind of worry about anything.
Speaker 4: Growing up.
Speaker 5: We weren't like extremely privileged, but we were very comfortab
Speaker 5: probably more than comfortable. However, when I was in high school,
Speaker 5: my parents divorced and my mom was always very bad
Speaker 5: with money and she never worked, so she provided for
Speaker 5: us as a family, and so when they divorced, it
Speaker 5: was a couple year long divorce and there was a
Speaker 5: lot of fighting about money. My dad had a lot
Speaker 5: of investment properties, so there was always that like mixed
Speaker 5: kind of view on money. My dad was always like,
Speaker 5: if property, save your money, do this, and he was
Speaker 5: very very frugal. My dad could live with nothing, but
Speaker 5: my mom loved to shop and it's just they were
Speaker 5: just completely different. So I actually really loved to shop,
Speaker 5: and I kind of saw that, well, take money while
Speaker 5: you have it and have fun. And I never truly
Speaker 5: adopted my dad's kind of view on money.
Speaker 1: I didn't listen to my day growing up either. And
Speaker 1: he was an accountant and like so good with it,
Speaker 1: and he used to be like, Victoria, you need to
Speaker 1: do AB and C. And I'd be like, I'm not listening.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I feel like that's very very common with our parents
Speaker 5: growing up, that we never truly listened, even though we
Speaker 5: know that they're probably really right.
Speaker 1: What would they and their financial security know about money, honestly?
Speaker 4: Right, exactly? And growing up I never really had consistent jobs.
Speaker 5: I've actually when I went to UNI, I went on
Speaker 5: exchange for a year and then I came back and
Speaker 5: then I went back overseas and worked for the Walt
Speaker 5: Disney Company.
Speaker 1: Oh what, how cool is that you worked for Disney?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, what did you do?
Speaker 1: Is that too pervy? Would that give it away?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 4: No? No?
Speaker 5: So I worked actually in Animal Kingdom, So I worked
Speaker 5: in the parks. They have an international kind of college program,
Speaker 5: exchange kind of situation.
Speaker 4: So I worked in Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 5: Well, I also worked all around other parks because you
Speaker 5: can actually pick up shifts. But I worked in merchandise
Speaker 5: at the parks and that was really fun.
Speaker 4: For a year.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, how cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So basically I never had consistent income.
Speaker 5: I never like I was moving overseason coming back, and
Speaker 5: then I was just trying to get settled.
Speaker 4: To get whatever job I could.
Speaker 5: My very first full time job was I think like
Speaker 5: forty four thousand, and I stayed with that for a
Speaker 5: year and I can go more to it later, but
Speaker 5: my health during that time wasn't the best and that
Speaker 5: led me to go part time. And essentially until now,
Speaker 5: I've never had a full time job. I've never saved.
Speaker 5: I've always just you know, spent what I could. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I haven't really bothered to save apart from when I
Speaker 5: was in that one full time job where I actually
Speaker 5: ended up saving around twenty two thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: What I haven't ever bothered saving or just saved a
Speaker 1: capsule twenty two kdus all right, no problems.
Speaker 5: That was the only time I saved, and it was
Speaker 5: because I didn't know how long I could do this job.
Speaker 4: So it was kind of that like get through mentality.
Speaker 5: Just you need to have some kind of saving buffer,
Speaker 5: and then I spent all that savings when I wasn't
Speaker 5: working fair.
Speaker 1: All right, money diarist, I want to know more about
Speaker 1: this six figure job. What do you do for work?
Speaker 1: How much money do you earn?
Speaker 5: So? I am an independent support worker working with one family.
Speaker 5: In particular, I work with a kind of high needs
Speaker 5: eleven year old boy with complex disability, so he has
Speaker 5: one on one care basically twenty four seven.
Speaker 1: As a special human You are thank you.
Speaker 5: It is hard work, but honestly, I'm pretty privileged to
Speaker 5: be able to be a part of his story and
Speaker 5: help his family, and.
Speaker 4: It's rewarding, amazing.
Speaker 3: And what when you say six figures to be really noisy,
Speaker 3: what does that mean?
Speaker 1: I know exactly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, so it will be depending on how if
Speaker 5: I produce more hours, but it'll be between one twenty
Speaker 5: and one.
Speaker 4: Thirty k okay.
Speaker 1: So I want to know the specifics of this as well.
Speaker 1: When you say you're a support worker for an eleven
Speaker 1: year old, that's a super special job. But yeah, how
Speaker 1: do you get paid?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 1: Are you paid by that family? Are you paid by
Speaker 1: an agency?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: How does that work? How does this family get you
Speaker 1: as a part of their team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So essentially the family found me through my previous job.
Speaker 5: I actually worked as a professional organizer and I came
Speaker 5: to help unpack their house and she realized that I
Speaker 5: had a background in behavioral science and I'm a current
Speaker 5: nursing student, and she was really interested in that as
Speaker 5: well as she was really impressed by my work ethic,
Speaker 5: and she asked if I would spend some time with
Speaker 5: her son, and then she offered me the job through
Speaker 5: that way. But essentially, I'm paid through the NDIA. I'm independent,
Speaker 5: so I have an ABN. I'm a soul trader.
Speaker 1: Very cool. I love that story because everybody phones support
Speaker 1: workers in different ways or like maybe they advertised or
Speaker 1: maybe you actually work for an agency. So I'm always
Speaker 1: a bit pervy when it comes to stuff like that
Speaker 1: because everybody in this industry seems to have such a
Speaker 1: different journey. But then also if you're not privy to
Speaker 1: that industry, you have no idea how these things come
Speaker 1: to fruition, and it's such a special industry. Anyway, I
Speaker 1: won't go on about that because we have to keep
Speaker 1: on with these questions money direst I want to know
Speaker 1: what is your big money goal.
Speaker 5: Okay, so obviously my big money goal is to retire early.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean you did dangle the lure of
Speaker 1: and I'm working towards fire in your email. And for
Speaker 1: those of you who don't know, fire is financial independence
Speaker 1: retire early? Is that not?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 1: And how is that going to work for you? My friend?
Speaker 5: So basically, what I'll be using is investing in shares,
Speaker 5: mainly exchange traded funds to basically get some passive income
Speaker 5: working for me, so that way I don't actually have
Speaker 5: to depend on full time work, and I mean I
Speaker 5: don't have to retire, but it gives me that flexibility.
Speaker 5: And I've always loved the idea of having that financial
Speaker 5: freedom and having the choice to make whatever decision I
Speaker 5: wanted to.
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with you. I love this and I love
Speaker 1: your mindset. When I talk to a lot of people
Speaker 1: about retirement, I think that they make this assumption that
Speaker 1: retirement means that you no longer work and that you
Speaker 1: take up golf and maybe you're really good at gardening.
Speaker 1: But the reality of the situation is actually it means
Speaker 1: you're completely financially independent and you can do whatever you want,
Speaker 1: like if you want to keep working part time, or
Speaker 1: go and do some volunteer work, or just keep on
Speaker 1: keeping on, knowing that you could quit your job any
Speaker 1: day you like, because you don't rely on that income. Like,
Speaker 1: that's what financial independence is. That's what I guess retirement means,
Speaker 1: because I think we really need to change this perception
Speaker 1: that retirement's in age. It's not. It's a number. The
Speaker 1: second you have that number in your bank account, or
Speaker 1: in your investments or in the way that you are
Speaker 1: running your life, you're actually going to have so much
Speaker 1: more financial freedom. And I think that there's just this
Speaker 1: misconception retirement sixty five. Right. So the next question I
Speaker 1: think you answered before because you said ETFs. But my friend,
Speaker 1: do you have any investments and if so, what are they? Please?
Speaker 1: Juicy details?
Speaker 5: Okay, So it's funny because I feel bad in saying that,
Speaker 5: but I haven't technically started investing yet.
Speaker 1: That's okay.
Speaker 5: A part of that is because I started this job
Speaker 5: around a month and a week ago.
Speaker 1: So oh my gosh, congratulations.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you. So I will make my first investment
Speaker 4: next week.
Speaker 5: And at the moment, I think I do love Vanguard,
Speaker 5: so I'll be sticking with one of those ETFs.
Speaker 4: Probably they're diversified the high growth.
Speaker 5: Option, just because that's a great way to be automatically
Speaker 5: diversified straight off the bat, and then obviously further on
Speaker 5: I can go a little bit more niche if i'd lack,
Speaker 5: but I'd love to have that diversification straight off the bat.
Speaker 1: I love that and the fact that so many people
Speaker 1: that are going to be listening to this money daring.
Speaker 1: Oh of course she already in and you're like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: like this is the plan. How did you start learning
Speaker 1: about that? I mean you've mentioned Vanguard, which is a
Speaker 1: very common ETF provider here in Australia. Where did you
Speaker 1: learn about Vanguard? How did you start that journey?
Speaker 5: So it's funny, it started probably four years ago when
Speaker 5: I actually got my first full time job that I
Speaker 5: was on that forty four k salary.
Speaker 4: I read The Barefoot Investor, which.
Speaker 5: As we all do, I do, and I've known a
Speaker 5: little bit about it before. But I always thought stocks
Speaker 5: to be very risky and you have to have so
Speaker 5: much knowledge, and you have to be a banker, and
Speaker 5: like you have to be this old man and know
Speaker 5: everything there is to do about investing. But I read
Speaker 5: that and that kind of got me excited and started
Speaker 5: to learn about personal finance. And then since then, I've
Speaker 5: basically just been consuming everything. I watch a lot of
Speaker 5: YouTube videos about investing, obviously, podcasts, you guys. I've read
Speaker 5: quite a few books, so I love like specifically fire books.
Speaker 4: There's some great ones out there, and I'm.
Speaker 5: Just always reading about it like I love it so much,
Speaker 5: Like I would love to just like do that as
Speaker 5: my full time job, be like a finfluencer.
Speaker 4: If you've heard of.
Speaker 1: That, I have.
Speaker 5: Surprisingly, Yeah, I consume just a lot of stuff online.
Speaker 4: I actually created personal finance Instagram.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, can you please send it to me?
Speaker 1: I'm going to follow you? Do I already follow you.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is.
Speaker 5: No, you probably don't follow me. It's not that big.
Speaker 5: I just started getting back into it. But it's saving
Speaker 5: with Jess, but instead of with it's just a W
Speaker 5: so saving w Yes.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I want everyone to go and follow
Speaker 1: you because you sound so sweet and your journey is
Speaker 1: just starting and I feel like that's so relatable. But
Speaker 1: next question, let's move on. I feel like this is
Speaker 1: going to be a no because you haven't mentioned it
Speaker 1: thus far, but you never know, my friend. Do you
Speaker 1: have any debts?
Speaker 5: No, so ironly have Well, technically I have my HEX
Speaker 5: which technically it's forty one thousand.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. So tell me a little bit about
Speaker 1: what you studied.
Speaker 5: So I have a degree in behavioral science, so psychology,
Speaker 5: and essentially the reason why my hex stat is so
Speaker 5: high there is because I took an exchange here and
Speaker 5: we were able to get a loan as well, so
Speaker 5: that's why my debt is a little bit higher. And
Speaker 5: also I'm a current nursing student, so I'm about to
Speaker 5: start my second semester of a graduate entry program, so
Speaker 5: it's two years.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. So you're just an all around cool
Speaker 1: human doing cool things and smashing it out of the park.
Speaker 1: I love this.
Speaker 4: You're so nice.
Speaker 1: Just keep talking, all right, sorry, Like you're also really pretty,
Speaker 1: and I think you're really nice.
Speaker 3: What else?
Speaker 1: What else can we say, Jess, If you've got any
Speaker 1: like really nice things to throw in there? Very smart
Speaker 1: of course, yeah, obviously, yep, honest kind all of those things.
Speaker 1: But let's get into the next question, because I feel
Speaker 1: like this is one of our favorites because there's always
Speaker 1: a really colorful response money Dires, Do you use shot back?
Speaker 4: So, yes, I have you shot back.
Speaker 5: So my very first shot back was me switching over
Speaker 5: my phone plan. I actually saved a bunch of money.
Speaker 5: I was on a contract and I switched to a
Speaker 5: different provider and I actually got my first month free
Speaker 5: and I loved it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know you could get phone plans on
Speaker 1: shop pack.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: I am being like, oh my gosh, you just buy
Speaker 1: stuff on there and you're like, no, no, like the
Speaker 1: phone plans through there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was through a little provider called Circles Life,
Speaker 5: and it was great. It was such a good deal
Speaker 5: compared to my previous phone Dylan. Actually I posted it
Speaker 5: on the Facebook group I think, yeah, and it got
Speaker 5: a bit of traction.
Speaker 1: I think, oh my gosh, how cool. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know you could do phone plans through shot back. And
Speaker 1: we literally work with them and I find out something
Speaker 1: new about them every week when we speak to your
Speaker 1: money I's someone was like how though, Like, how does
Speaker 1: that work? It's genius. I feel like everybody can save
Speaker 1: money on things that they're already spending money on, Like
Speaker 1: it's not even a hey, go and pay this and
Speaker 1: then you get a discount. It's like you were going
Speaker 1: to change your PHWN plan anyway, you got a better
Speaker 1: deal and you got money back money in anyway. Sounds
Speaker 1: like you've got some pretty good money habits. Money darist,
Speaker 1: what are your best money habits?
Speaker 5: I think my best money habit is that I'm just
Speaker 5: very personally interested in personal finance and my own money,
Speaker 5: and that I'm always looking to learn new things. And
Speaker 5: you know what do people do investing in? You know
Speaker 5: what a ways to save money. I'm just I think
Speaker 5: my knowledge is my best kind of money habit. Like
Speaker 5: I just realized how privileged I am to know as
Speaker 5: much as I do and have the background that I
Speaker 5: do to be able to, you know, make the best
Speaker 5: money choices for myself.
Speaker 1: That's a really sweet money habit. I really like that.
Speaker 1: That's really kind. But to flip this and bring down
Speaker 1: the mood again, what is your worst money habit?
Speaker 5: So I feel like my worst money habit is that
Speaker 5: I can be quiet impulsive in my purchases.
Speaker 4: So I'm a lot better at it now.
Speaker 5: Okay I say better, but a lot better than I
Speaker 5: have been previously. But if I get really interested in something,
Speaker 5: then I'm very much inclined to just go out and
Speaker 5: buy like a bunch of things like hobbies, for example.
Speaker 5: I'll just go out and buy everything that I need
Speaker 5: for that hobby, and then like a month later, you
Speaker 5: know that hobby doesn't exist, doesn't That.
Speaker 1: Happens to me all the time, all the time. Was
Speaker 1: so I'm going to get really good at this. I'm
Speaker 1: a genius, and then like next week someone's like, are
Speaker 1: you still doing that? And I'm like, no, that's not
Speaker 1: happening anymore.
Speaker 4: It's like, don't ask me please.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I needed all of the stuff for it, right.
Speaker 4: Everything, Yeah, always, all right.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of questions for you, but we
Speaker 1: do have to ask one more question before we go
Speaker 1: to a quick break, and that question is money. Grist.
Speaker 1: If we forced you to give your money habits a great,
Speaker 1: what would you grade yourself.
Speaker 5: I was thinking about this and I was really wondering
Speaker 5: what to say. I feel like maybe I want to
Speaker 5: say BE minus.
Speaker 1: You can say B minus, but you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: tell me why.
Speaker 5: So I feel like I'm gonna say B minus because
Speaker 5: I have really good foundations and I have the knowledge,
Speaker 5: but I haven't been the best at implementing it in
Speaker 5: the past.
Speaker 4: Well, yes and no.
Speaker 5: I have been able to save and you know, do
Speaker 5: some good things in the past, but I haven't really
Speaker 5: really buckled down and started it. Like I've known about
Speaker 5: investing since I was twenty, and you know, I've had
Speaker 5: five years like that compound interest is killing me. So
Speaker 5: I want to give myself a B minus because I've
Speaker 5: wasted a couple of years of you know, not really
Speaker 5: knuckling down and taking advantage of the time in the market.
Speaker 1: I would not call that time wasted. I would say
Speaker 1: that you were using that time to get comfortable with
Speaker 1: the idea of investing and educating yourself and being on
Speaker 1: that journey. And I think a lot of us are
Speaker 1: on that journey because we get messages from the Sheese
Speaker 1: on the Money community and we've existed what jess for
Speaker 1: like four years now, which is crazy to think about.
Speaker 1: We get messages from people They're like, I've been in
Speaker 1: your Facebook group from the very beginning and I've been
Speaker 1: hearing you telling me that investing is important, that I
Speaker 1: need to prioritize it, but I haven't started it. Why
Speaker 1: am I so silly? And it's like you're not like
Speaker 1: you're on that journey. And if you didn't spend that
Speaker 1: time getting comfortable with that idea and you just jumped
Speaker 1: into it at the very beginning, I guarantee you would
Speaker 1: have made a decision that doesn't sit well with you,
Speaker 1: and you might have been like, oh, like this makes
Speaker 1: me feel uncomfortable. I don't want to engage in it
Speaker 1: in the long term. And the plan is to not
Speaker 1: have just engaged with it over the last few years,
Speaker 1: my friend, It is to engage with it for the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. So if that's how long that took,
Speaker 1: that's cool, that's all right, because we've got literally the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. And look how much compound interest
Speaker 1: you're going to get out of that. Like, let's focus
Speaker 1: on that side of it, and the fact that you
Speaker 1: already know where you're going to invest, what you're going
Speaker 1: to invest in, and how you're going to allocate your cash,
Speaker 1: like you are miles, like millions of miles ahead of
Speaker 1: so many people.
Speaker 4: That's nice to hear. Thank you.
Speaker 3: All Right, we're going to go to a quick break
Speaker 3: and then when we come back, we have a lot
Speaker 3: of questions because you baited us and you got us.
Speaker 1: Good you did, and I'm mad about it, and I
Speaker 1: feel like I still haven't got the juicy details. Don't
Speaker 1: go anywhere. All right, we are back Money Diarist. We
Speaker 1: are jumping straight into it. No structured questions here, there
Speaker 1: are no rules. In the After the Break Money Diaries segment,
Speaker 1: you said that you had been in hospital and now
Speaker 1: you are on six figures. Can you explain to us
Speaker 1: why you were in hospital and what that meant and
Speaker 1: how that impacted you.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 5: So, essentially, throughout my life, I was always very physically healthy,
Speaker 5: but I really struggle with my mental health and it
Speaker 5: essentially it was just always in the background.
Speaker 4: I just pushed through.
Speaker 5: It, just kind of felt like, this is what it is, like,
Speaker 5: who cares.
Speaker 4: I'm just going to get on with my life.
Speaker 5: That's what everyone has to do, right, And I just
Speaker 5: always pushed it aside until about four years ago, where
Speaker 5: I really noticed how much of a toll it was
Speaker 5: taking on me. I worked in quite a high pressure job.
Speaker 5: I worked for the Department of Human Services and we
Speaker 5: dealt with a lot of people in vulnerable situations and
Speaker 5: that took its toll on my mental health. And essentially
Speaker 5: that's when I cut down to part time because it
Speaker 5: like going into work every day.
Speaker 4: It was so hard. And I was okay for a while.
Speaker 5: Obviously my mental health was still suffering, but I just
Speaker 5: got on with my life. But about a year and
Speaker 5: a half two years ago, it really took a turn
Speaker 5: and I ended up being caught in a really restrictive
Speaker 5: eating disorder, and that landed me in hospital for a
Speaker 5: couple of months as I was so physically unwell as
Speaker 5: well as obviously very mentally unwell. And yeah, it just
Speaker 5: took me out of the game for quite a few
Speaker 5: months there. I went through a couple of different programs
Speaker 5: and hospitals, and I'm glad to say that I'm doing
Speaker 5: so much better now. It's hard when you're in the
Speaker 5: middle of you know, your lowest. And like, I consider
Speaker 5: myself to be a very smart like a very smart person.
Speaker 4: I have a behavioral science background. I have knowledge.
Speaker 5: But and I thought that kind of protected me, and
Speaker 5: it really didn't. I thought I still had control, but
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, I can do whatever I want,
Speaker 5: I can turn it off whenever.
Speaker 4: It's fine.
Speaker 1: I'm smart enough, right, Like, yeah, and intelligent. I've got
Speaker 1: a degree, I did really well in school. What do
Speaker 1: you mean, No, I'm not struggling with this. I could
Speaker 1: just change if I wanted to.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. I honestly, at my lowest, I thought I
Speaker 5: was fine. I was like, well, yes, I know, like
Speaker 5: my body has changed physically and there's so many things
Speaker 5: that have changed in my routine. But I was like
Speaker 5: it's fine. Like I was losing weight. So people were
Speaker 5: quite happy with that because I was always in a
Speaker 5: very very large body and so people automatically see that
Speaker 5: as wow, like what have you done? And people would
Speaker 5: ask me for tips every day, and I just thought
Speaker 5: I was the most like I'm like, I'm healthy.
Speaker 1: Now, like inspirational, right, Yeah.
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm so much healthy, Like I look
Speaker 5: like a completely different person to people.
Speaker 4: They were like that is the most amazing success stor
Speaker 4: I've ever seen.
Speaker 5: Like, no, it's not, it's not, And like it just
Speaker 5: solidifies like you really don't know what's going on with people,
Speaker 5: Like we really shouldn't be commenting on people's bodies regardless.
Speaker 1: Oh that resonates so much with me, Money Diarist, But
Speaker 1: it resonates with me so much because that's what I
Speaker 1: went through. Like I've been open about this on the
Speaker 1: She's on the Money podcast before but I suffered with that.
Speaker 1: I have been hospitalized multiple times for an eating disorder.
Speaker 1: It's not something that I am proud of, but I
Speaker 1: also think it's something that I need to share with
Speaker 1: our community because there is this massive misconception that eating
Speaker 1: disorders are weak or they are you know, mainly about
Speaker 1: what you look like, when in reality, for me, for
Speaker 1: me personally and because eating disorders and their journeys are
Speaker 1: always so different, for me, it was about control. Had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with looking skinny. It had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with not lacking food, and everything to do with
Speaker 1: me trying to be in control of a situation that
Speaker 1: I didn't feel with in control of. And that's a
Speaker 1: mental health issue. It's not a food issue. It's a
Speaker 1: mental health issue. And it makes me so happy to
Speaker 1: hear the way you're reflecting on your journey because you've
Speaker 1: got that help that you needed, and like, looking at
Speaker 1: you today and obviously our listeners can't see you, but
Speaker 1: like you're this bright, glowy human and we've just learned
Speaker 1: so much about this impact that you're having on the world.
Speaker 1: And I think people just make this grand assumption that
Speaker 1: people who have eating disorders maybe aren't functional members of
Speaker 1: society in a way, whereas they are usually people who
Speaker 1: are contributing a whole heap and giving so much, and
Speaker 1: that's what ends up taking away from themselves and away
Speaker 1: from their own mental health. Is that something that you go,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Yeah, that's exactly it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, definitely. There's such horrible stigma around it, and
Speaker 5: I think, you know, people in the community deserve better.
Speaker 5: I think people need to understand just how hard it is.
Speaker 5: And yeah, it is a mental health issue, and so
Speaker 5: many people are struggling regardless of if you think you
Speaker 5: can see it or not. Eating disorders aren't a physical
Speaker 5: like you can't see it, They're a mental health issue.
Speaker 3: Like you said, absolutely, I wanted to ask you how
Speaker 3: you found yourself. So obviously you got your new role
Speaker 3: in an unusual way. You've come through a really challenging
Speaker 3: time with your health, which obviously takes a toll on
Speaker 3: your life pretty holistically, and then you've stepped into this
Speaker 3: role in a really unique way. A lot of the
Speaker 3: time when we're applying for jobs, obviously there's a salary
Speaker 3: guide or you interview with someone and they say, okay,
Speaker 3: we've allocated X to X for this role. Whereas it
Speaker 3: sounds like the way that you kind of went about things,
Speaker 3: that guide wasn't available to you. How did you have
Speaker 3: that conversation with your now employer around money? Did you
Speaker 3: have to do any research yourself? Did they bring it
Speaker 3: to the table, What did that look like?
Speaker 5: So, Yeah, because I was kind of like poached from
Speaker 5: my other job, I didn't have like a contract or
Speaker 5: anything like that to just like look at in a
Speaker 5: salary range, I basically spoke to the mother of the
Speaker 5: family directly. She gave me a bit of a ballpark
Speaker 5: once I did a couple shadow shifts with her son
Speaker 5: and essentially said, this is how much I'd paid previous
Speaker 5: support workers. I actually hadn't had previous experience in disability work,
Speaker 5: so she gave me a certain figure. However, I actually
Speaker 5: negotiated for the second time in.
Speaker 4: My life, Yes, Queen.
Speaker 5: The first time was actually two weeks before this, because
Speaker 5: an agency actually wanted me for disability support without like,
Speaker 5: without me ever really wanting to, like I never.
Speaker 4: Like searched for the field.
Speaker 5: She kind of just said, hey, like, I think you'd
Speaker 5: be really great for this, and so I negotiated with her,
Speaker 5: and so after like I felt it a little bit
Speaker 5: good about that. I went to this lady, and you know,
Speaker 5: I just I told her, this is my skills, this
Speaker 5: is what I'm going to bring. I think I'd be
Speaker 5: really good for your family. I'm going to be doing
Speaker 5: long hours. I'm going to commit to you long term.
Speaker 5: And so I negotiated my pay.
Speaker 4: Up a little bit.
Speaker 5: The pay was pretty good to start with, it would
Speaker 5: have been around ninety to one hundred K.
Speaker 1: But I negotiated congratulations. That takes some serious confidence. And
Speaker 1: to have done it not once, but twice in a
Speaker 1: very short period of time, you are someone who knows
Speaker 1: their worth. I love this.
Speaker 5: Yes, I was so nervous at first, and I remember
Speaker 5: thinking to myself, you know, men wouldn't think twice about
Speaker 5: asking for their worth?
Speaker 4: No, they Why should I?
Speaker 1: So we need to borrow some of their audacity, right, like,
Speaker 1: right exactly. My girlfriends and I, this is wildly inappropriate.
Speaker 1: We're still going to put it on the podcast because
Speaker 1: I think people will love. But my girlfriends and I
Speaker 1: and Jessica RICI, you have heard this before. My girlfriends
Speaker 1: and I always say when we're feeling a little bit
Speaker 1: less confident, we're always like, what would a mediocre, middle
Speaker 1: aged white man do and then we just do that.
Speaker 1: We do whatever they would do, and do you know what, Lucolia,
Speaker 1: it's worked so far exactly.
Speaker 4: Goodness.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is pretty crazy. How are you going in
Speaker 3: terms of balancing that with being a student, Because you
Speaker 3: said you're studying nursing as well, and you've just mentioned that,
Speaker 3: you know, it's long hours, disability support work, particularly with
Speaker 3: a child who needs brown the clock care, I imagine
Speaker 3: you're often maybe doing like unusual shift times. How does
Speaker 3: that all balancing with your study as well? It feels
Speaker 3: like you've just got so much going on.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I was really lucky that the family had
Speaker 5: previous experience with students before, and so she was really
Speaker 5: happy to be flexible with my studies, which is amazing
Speaker 5: and I'm so thankful for that. So I have two
Speaker 5: days off a week on Thursday and Fridays, and that
Speaker 5: allows me on Thursdays usually to go to university, which
Speaker 5: hasn't technically started yet because of floods.
Speaker 4: In Prisone, but it will. Yeah. Essentially, I'll have the.
Speaker 5: Thursday and Fridays off and I've fit all the classes
Speaker 5: that I need to in person attend on a Thursday.
Speaker 1: Very cool. And another question I have that I feel
Speaker 1: like you're going to have a priority on is your
Speaker 1: mental health. How are you going to make sure that
Speaker 1: you don't regress to where you were, Like that was
Speaker 1: obviously a very pivotal part of your life that I'm
Speaker 1: absolutely certain you didn't enjoy. But how are you going
Speaker 1: to make sure that that doesn't become a reoccurring event?
Speaker 1: Because from my perspective, it's so easy to slip back
Speaker 1: into old behaviors.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so look, I'm really lucky because I have an
Speaker 5: amazing sister who has really just she's been super supportive.
Speaker 5: A big part of my eating disorder is it was
Speaker 5: obviously really easy, and really it thrived a lot when
Speaker 5: I lived alone, and now I don't. So that's something
Speaker 5: that I realized I need to keep a part of
Speaker 5: my life for a little while. But basically I've changed
Speaker 5: so many habits now it's completely different. Like I make sure,
Speaker 5: you know, do I need to do a meditation, I
Speaker 5: try and incorporate that at night, I just go for walks.
Speaker 4: So hard of my eating.
Speaker 5: Disorder is that I had a really big problem with
Speaker 5: over exercising, and now the way I look at exercise
Speaker 5: is completely different.
Speaker 4: Instead of doing exercises that I don't love to do,
Speaker 4: I just like go for a walk, like I.
Speaker 5: Make sure that I'm doing like exercise where I can
Speaker 5: just relax on wine, like oh, go listen to your
Speaker 5: podcast on a walk, and I make sure like every
Speaker 5: day that I incorporate that and that essentially I take
Speaker 5: that time to unwind after.
Speaker 4: Each shift because it can be a really difficult job.
Speaker 5: It is kind of emotionally taxing too, and especially when
Speaker 5: you're dealing with high needs sometimes there's quite a few
Speaker 5: behaviors that you just it takes its toll if you
Speaker 5: aren't careful.
Speaker 4: So the family is really great.
Speaker 5: I can always debrief with the mother and just I
Speaker 5: prioritize self care.
Speaker 4: Before I really didn't.
Speaker 5: I was very much go go go, and like just
Speaker 5: get through it, like who cares. Today's a hard day,
Speaker 5: Just do everything you need to do, and who cares.
Speaker 4: Tomorrow's a new day. But I'll do it all over again.
Speaker 5: So I just really take time for myself now and
Speaker 5: actually do things that I love and enjoy.
Speaker 1: For someone who's listening to this and going, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this resonates so much, I just don't know what to
Speaker 1: do about it, Like I'm so bad with my eating
Speaker 1: habits or even just like negative habits that are not
Speaker 1: helping you in any way, shape or form to thrive.
Speaker 1: What would be your advice to help them? I guess
Speaker 1: take the next steps to getting help. And how did
Speaker 1: you do that? Because that's not easy?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So look, basically what was my detriment initially is the
Speaker 5: thought that, well, I just have to push through this,
Speaker 5: that's what everyone has to do, and I don't want
Speaker 5: to get help because that would be admitting that I
Speaker 5: actually am really suffering, and I don't.
Speaker 4: I just don't want to do that.
Speaker 5: My whole thing was I needed to portray this perfect
Speaker 5: image and that like I just didn't want to break
Speaker 5: that facade. So my advice to someone would just be like,
Speaker 5: no matter how hard you think breaking that facade is
Speaker 5: going to be, or how bad you think it's going
Speaker 5: to be, when you do, it will never be as
Speaker 5: bad as staying in your current habits.
Speaker 4: Like you will thank yourself.
Speaker 1: And you will and it's crazy and it breaks, Like
Speaker 1: it's literally giving me goosebumps to think about this journey
Speaker 1: and how hard it is for people, because it's just
Speaker 1: it genuinely is so frigging hard. How did you do that?
Speaker 1: How did you go? You know what, I need some help?
Speaker 1: And what were your first steps? I know that that's
Speaker 1: very personal, but I feel like it's such a helpful
Speaker 1: piece of information because it's so we've all heard, like, oh,
Speaker 1: prioritize yourself. You can't pour from an empty carp and
Speaker 1: just get help. What does that mean? How did you
Speaker 1: do it? Who did you speak to first? And what
Speaker 1: did that journey look like?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so look, it's kind of a long process. So
Speaker 4: when my mental health started to.
Speaker 5: Go down, I engaged a psychologist and I was actually
Speaker 5: working with a psychologist for a year and a half
Speaker 5: throughout that process, and like, I was proactively trying to
Speaker 5: help myself, and I just like I was engaging a psychologist,
Speaker 5: but I wasn't really doing the work essentially, and so
Speaker 5: I really didn't prioritize that. And technically, in the end,
Speaker 5: it wasn't my decision to go into hospital and get help.
Speaker 5: It was a decision that was placed upon me. And
Speaker 5: I was under a mental Health Act because I wasn't
Speaker 5: able to make decisions in the state that I was.
Speaker 5: But I was actually the funny thing is is despite
Speaker 5: me not wanting to accept that help initially, I actually
Speaker 5: was helping myself. So I was actually listening to a
Speaker 5: lot of eating disort of recovery podcasts at my lowest,
Speaker 5: which was really kind of odd when you think about it,
Speaker 5: but I think I realized how at my end I
Speaker 5: was and how much I was struggling. So I actually
Speaker 5: did end up speaking with my psychologist and I was
Speaker 5: listening to those recovery podcasts, and I was ed ducating
Speaker 5: myself as much as possible while I was in the
Speaker 5: depth of my eating disorder, And even though I wasn't
Speaker 5: willing to accept that help initially, if I didn't do
Speaker 5: all that work beforehand, my recovery would have taken so
Speaker 5: much longer. So I feel like I was in like
Speaker 5: kind of I was accepting recovery and kind of open
Speaker 5: to thoughts and stuff like that beforehand, and I think
Speaker 5: that really helped me. Just recovery is quick. I'm not
Speaker 5: fully recovered, and I don't think I don't know if
Speaker 5: I ever will be, but I think I was really
Speaker 5: able to kick start that recovery and spend less time
Speaker 5: in hospital and more time getting on with my life.
Speaker 4: Because throughout that whole process.
Speaker 5: I was in hospital, but I was actually just getting
Speaker 5: as much information as possible and trying to be kind
Speaker 5: to myself and just giving myself that education so that way,
Speaker 5: like I had the tools for when I knew, I
Speaker 5: was ready to implement them.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, you are you are special. I am
Speaker 1: so glad that we get to share you with our community.
Speaker 1: And I feel like so many people are going to
Speaker 1: listen to this and go wow, Like that really resonates
Speaker 1: with me. I was engaging with something, wasn't doing the work,
Speaker 1: though doesn't necessarily mean it has to be about eating disorders.
Speaker 1: It could just be in life. You're going through a
Speaker 1: university degree, you're not really doing the work, you're turning
Speaker 1: up to the lectures, you're not really listening, and you're
Speaker 1: not absorbing it, so you're not going to be as
Speaker 1: successful as you could be. And I think that there's
Speaker 1: just so much to learn from that. And thank you
Speaker 1: for sharing so much about your journey and being so
Speaker 1: open about it, because the only way we can start,
Speaker 1: you know, really breaking down these barriers of having these
Speaker 1: conversations and ensuring that people are getting the help that
Speaker 1: they deserve earlier is by having open, honest conversation and
Speaker 1: not making it a taboo topic where we're like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, like Victoria's going through this thing. We had
Speaker 1: no idea where, you know, historically past me could have
Speaker 1: felt really comfortable to turn to a friend and being like, oh, Jess,
Speaker 1: I'm actually really struggling with this. What do you reckon
Speaker 1: I should do next? Because I never in a million
Speaker 1: years would have done that. In fact, my money, Daris
Speaker 1: got to the stage that you were in where decisions
Speaker 1: were being made for me and I wasn't a part
Speaker 1: of those decisions anymore, and that was in the best
Speaker 1: interest of me. But you shouldn't have to get that
Speaker 1: far before you can go you know what, Maybe I
Speaker 1: do need to do some.
Speaker 5: Work, yeah, And I think I just want to mention
Speaker 5: like a lot of people think that reaching out is
Speaker 5: like the hardest thing to do and that people won't understand,
Speaker 5: or people think that they have this whole picture in
Speaker 5: life together, and what would they think if you reached
Speaker 5: out and told them that you.
Speaker 4: Were actually struggling.
Speaker 5: And people are much more accepting than you think, and
Speaker 5: people are much more aware of what you're going through
Speaker 5: than what you may think that they are, so I think,
Speaker 5: just reach out when you can, and I promise you
Speaker 5: people are going to be a lot more understanding and
Speaker 5: helpful then you. Basically, your mental health is trying to
Speaker 5: make you believe and yeah.
Speaker 1: That's so helpful. Well, unfortunately, I do think that is
Speaker 1: all we have time for today. But thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. I am so grateful to learn
Speaker 1: a little bit about your money story, a little bit
Speaker 1: about your mental health and your journey and how much
Speaker 1: you are giving to our world. And guys, don't forget this.
Speaker 1: Money Diarist has let their anonymity if that's the right word, slip,
Speaker 1: and they have shared their Instagram, So go follow our
Speaker 1: money diarist on Instagram. Her instagram is saving with Jess,
Speaker 1: but the with is just a doub.
Speaker 3: The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally
Speaker 3: nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on
Speaker 3: the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not
Speaker 3: be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision.
Speaker 3: And we promise Victoria Divine is an authorized representative of
Speaker 3: in Focused Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN four seven oh
Speaker 3: nine seven seven ninety seven zero four nine AFSL two
Speaker 3: three six five two three See you next week, guys.
Speaker 1: Bye,