Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerney Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the the podcast for
Speaker 2: millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one
Speaker 2: of our money diaries where I get the absolute privilege
Speaker 2: of talking to one of our incredible She's on the
Speaker 2: Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight
Speaker 2: into it, because we got a message this week and
Speaker 2: it sounded like this. Hi, She's on the Money team.
Speaker 2: I'm a thirty two year old mother of two who's
Speaker 2: a geophysicist in the energy industry making one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty two thousand dollars only working four days a week.
Speaker 2: I followed in my father's career footsteps, but not before
Speaker 2: going through my own cycle of consumer debt. I'm passionate
Speaker 2: about pay transparency, and I wanted to shed some light
Speaker 2: on the earning potential in industries many people don't know
Speaker 2: about money. Garis welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Hello, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, do you get really excited being able
Speaker 2: to say, well, I'm a geophysicist, Like, I just feel
Speaker 2: like that's big dog energy.
Speaker 4: I mean, it sounds a lot fancy than it actually is.
Speaker 4: But it's kind of funny to see people's looks for me, Like,
Speaker 4: I have no idea what that is.
Speaker 2: I love that, Like, I'm not going to pretend I
Speaker 2: know what that is. I think it's got something to
Speaker 2: do with rocks, but I would love to get into it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks slowly, slowly. Let's not make me look
Speaker 2: too silly, too early, but let's get into it, because
Speaker 2: I'm really excited to learn about this. Pay transparency is
Speaker 2: obviously something I am wildly passionate about, but I also
Speaker 2: I need to know how a mum of two who's
Speaker 2: only thirty two, we're basically the same age as earning
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty two grand, not even having to
Speaker 2: work a full work week. So let's get into it.
Speaker 2: But first things first, I want to ask what grade
Speaker 2: would you give your money habits on a scale of
Speaker 2: A through F.
Speaker 4: So I actually don't like this question most of it
Speaker 4: because it reminds me of doing performance reviews at work
Speaker 4: where you're having.
Speaker 2: To, oh, sorry to trigger you to.
Speaker 4: Straddle the line of like, you know, humble, but also
Speaker 4: trying to tell it how it is, but also trying
Speaker 4: to get that promotion.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is anonymous. This is not the time to
Speaker 2: be humble, my friend. So let's be corporate. Let's circle
Speaker 2: back and answer the question. So gonna say a yes, queen.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We'll get into why when we're in how right after this.
Speaker 2: But I think that this is not the community to
Speaker 2: be humble in, my friend. Like I will celebrate any win.
Speaker 2: You bought your first house, let's celebrate you saved money
Speaker 2: on your groceries, let's celebrate you got out of consumer
Speaker 2: that I am partying with you, Like, I don't care
Speaker 2: how big or small your money in is, Like they're
Speaker 2: all for me. Like humble is not a word that
Speaker 2: I think should exist in our vocabulary, and I think
Speaker 2: for so long, and I'm sure given the industry you're in,
Speaker 2: women have put themselves behind by trying to be too
Speaker 2: humble and like go, oh well, my own horn too much,
Speaker 2: and then it ends up biting you in the backside,
Speaker 2: and that's not a good thing at all. So like,
Speaker 2: let's just throw humble out the door and just be honest.
Speaker 2: How about that?
Speaker 3: Great, Let's do that, all right?
Speaker 2: Agreed? Agreed, Let's carry on with the interview. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: ask my favorite question of all time. Can you please
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit more about your money story.
Speaker 4: Yes, I was thinking a lot about this, and I
Speaker 4: actually I don't think money has ever really stressed me out.
Speaker 4: I've always worked a lot, and even when I had
Speaker 4: no money because I was spending a lot of money,
Speaker 4: I'd never really I didn't really find it very stressful.
Speaker 4: I had three jobs in high school, and I was
Speaker 4: just always really busy, and I found money to be
Speaker 4: very fluid, like it came in and then it went
Speaker 4: straight back out again. And that was pretty much happening
Speaker 4: for most of my teenage life and then into my twenties.
Speaker 4: I did the classic credit cards and got into quite
Speaker 4: a lot of consumer debt. And I'd go on a
Speaker 4: holiday and be like, oh, I just put that all
Speaker 4: in the credit card.
Speaker 3: I'll pay for it later. It's fine.
Speaker 4: But because I was always working so much, it never
Speaker 4: really stressed me that I couldn't pay it. It was
Speaker 4: just it just came in and out. Really, when I
Speaker 4: bought my first car, I got a car loan. It
Speaker 4: didn't actually occur to me that you didn't buy a
Speaker 4: car using a car loan. I didn't realize that people
Speaker 4: just paid cash for cars.
Speaker 3: It was very I just thought that's what you did.
Speaker 2: I was the same, don't worry, my friend. I just
Speaker 2: assumed that's how people acquired cars, Like who on earth
Speaker 2: would have fourteen one thousand dollars just in their account?
Speaker 2: To me, that was absolutely absurd. Nowadays, I'm like carloons,
Speaker 2: like I mean, I write my business and they're not
Speaker 2: the worst thing in the entire world. They can be
Speaker 2: quite constructive. But I wouldn't have one myself by yes, So.
Speaker 4: It kind of all changed when I met my now husband,
Speaker 4: and we are very money transparent with each other from
Speaker 4: a really early in our relationship, and I remember him
Speaker 4: telling me that he had forty thousand dollars in savings,
Speaker 4: and I was blown away.
Speaker 3: I was like, how do you have that much money?
Speaker 2: That what made you get married? Because I would have
Speaker 2: been like, that's really.
Speaker 3: Sexy, So basically like really doesn't.
Speaker 2: So it actually became my sugar daddy, and I just say,
Speaker 2: I'm a geophysicist, and I just I don't do any.
Speaker 3: Of that victoria.
Speaker 4: You've just seen right through me here and maybe put
Speaker 4: a mirror to myself and be like, what are you doing.
Speaker 4: You're making a good income.
Speaker 3: You need to sort this out.
Speaker 4: So we didn't classic sort of barefoot investor and then
Speaker 4: really got into podcasts like She's on the Money and
Speaker 4: really turned it around to make our money, start working
Speaker 4: for us, and work to benefit from the great salaries
Speaker 4: that we have.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I think that that is such a relatable journey.
Speaker 2: I have a few questions, though, how do you meet
Speaker 2: a husband?
Speaker 3: We met at work? Oh we met it?
Speaker 2: Well, Hey, that's a really wholesome story. I feel like
Speaker 2: every man and his dogs met their partner on bumble
Speaker 2: at the moment, and that's the boat I'm in. So
Speaker 2: I just kind of expected any other thirty two year
Speaker 2: old woman to be like, yep, tinder bumble pinge something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's an engineer and I'm a GEP physicist and
Speaker 4: we were working on the same project. And it makes
Speaker 4: it sound like we sort of like locked eyes across
Speaker 4: this like you know program that we were doing, and
Speaker 4: it wasn't like that at all. We just became friends
Speaker 4: and then it's sort of blossomed from there. But it's
Speaker 4: quite Hanny.
Speaker 2: We not ruined the magic. Please. I've just got this idea.
Speaker 2: It's a bit like a Big Bang Theory style romance.
Speaker 2: So I would like to carry that on in my
Speaker 2: head for the of this interview. If that's okay, Money Diarist, absolutely,
Speaker 2: I also really want to ask, so you said a
Speaker 2: lot about Look, I worked a lot when I was
Speaker 2: in high school. Money wasn't really stressful to me. It
Speaker 2: was very fluid. That tells me a lot about your
Speaker 2: money story in itself. I kind of want to ask
Speaker 2: in a pervy way, I guess what was money like
Speaker 2: growing up? So did your parents have a lot or
Speaker 2: a little? Is that something that you weren't too stressed
Speaker 2: about money because your parents weren't. Are they values that
Speaker 2: were instilled in you or was it you're going, you
Speaker 2: know what, I really need to work myself because I
Speaker 2: don't have enough. I want to know a bit more
Speaker 2: about that because it kind of helps to contextualize the
Speaker 2: information you've given us about how you currently feel about money.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we always had enough, like when it was
Speaker 4: never never an issue, I guess in our household. My
Speaker 4: dad is a dear physicist too, and he made you know,
Speaker 4: good money as well. But my mum didn't work. She
Speaker 4: was a stay at home mum, and then she did
Speaker 4: bunch of other bits and pieces, but mostly it was
Speaker 4: my dad supporting the family.
Speaker 3: But they have a very casual approach to money as well.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure my dad would just give everything he
Speaker 4: has a way and not even blink and eye like
Speaker 4: he just didn't. Really it wasn't stressful for him either.
Speaker 4: But I do remember my mum being very budget conscious
Speaker 4: and like, you know, we're going to spend one hundred
Speaker 4: dollars on gross fees this week and that's all we're
Speaker 4: going to spend. Or you've got, you know, fifty dollars
Speaker 4: to buy new clothes for this winter or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: That's fifty dollars is not nearly enough nowadays.
Speaker 4: But for the extra curriculus things, it was you can
Speaker 4: do it, but you have to pay for it yourself.
Speaker 4: So there was ski trips at school that I wanted
Speaker 4: to go on that I had to save money and
Speaker 4: pay for myself. There was a volunteer program that was
Speaker 4: two weeks in Africa that I had to save two
Speaker 4: thousand dollars for. And when I'm sixteen, that's you know,
Speaker 4: a huge amount of money. So that's why I just
Speaker 4: started working so.
Speaker 2: Much, so much money. I'm so glad, I asked, because
Speaker 2: I feel like sometimes when people say, oh, yeah, money
Speaker 2: was really fluid, I didn't care too much. Often you
Speaker 2: find that the reality of that, I guess situation is
Speaker 2: that they just were given everything. And obviously money is
Speaker 2: really easy if you're given a free thing. But to
Speaker 2: know that, I guess that came from your own work
Speaker 2: ethic and being taught Okay, well, we'll give you all
Speaker 2: the bare necessities and if you want to do all
Speaker 2: the fun stuff like going to Africa or going on
Speaker 2: a ski trip, like you've got to work for that.
Speaker 2: That probably set you up really nicely for a good
Speaker 2: work ethic going I guess into adult life. Do you
Speaker 2: think that that was the.
Speaker 4: Case, definitely. I mean I was never shy of working,
Speaker 4: even when I was at UNI. Even when I was
Speaker 4: you know, it was always if you want something, you
Speaker 4: just work hard for it and then you'll be fine.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think I think it definitely set me
Speaker 4: up work ethic wise. But it did sort of because
Speaker 4: they never really taught me about saving. I would save
Speaker 4: up for these trips and then I would go back
Speaker 4: to a zero bank account and have to start all
Speaker 4: over again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk about your bank account though. I want to
Speaker 2: know what do you do specifically for work and how
Speaker 2: much money do you earn?
Speaker 3: So I'm a geophysicist.
Speaker 4: Well, actually currently I'm on maternity leave, so things are
Speaker 4: a little bit different right in this very second. But
Speaker 4: as of six weeks ago, I was a geophysicist earning
Speaker 4: one hundred and fifty two thousand, only working four days
Speaker 4: a week because I have a toddler at home and
Speaker 4: didn't want to go back full time. I'm in the
Speaker 4: energy industry, and I guess you probably want to know
Speaker 4: what a geophysicist is and does.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you could just make me not look too
Speaker 2: silly while explaining it. That would be fantastic, but you
Speaker 2: know what you do.
Speaker 4: You so basically I work with seismic data. And you've
Speaker 4: probably heard the word seismic.
Speaker 2: Frast oh yeah, totally yeah, yeah, seismic data.
Speaker 4: M m yeah yeah from like earthquakes, emit seismic data,
Speaker 4: and it's basically sound waves. But a really good way
Speaker 4: of thinking about it is, I mean everyone knows what
Speaker 4: an ultrasound in is and what a sonographer does, yes,
Speaker 4: where they take pictures of your belly and your babies
Speaker 4: and everything like that and they use tiny little sound
Speaker 4: waves to see what's inside. I basically do that but
Speaker 4: to earth, so it's on a much bigger scale and
Speaker 4: it's a lot more expensive, but it's it's the same technologies.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I've had ultrasounds before and just one ultrasound cost me
Speaker 2: like three hundred and thirty dollars and I got like
Speaker 2: not that much back. So like, I can't imagine, now,
Speaker 2: when do they pay you one hundred and fifty two
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, my friend? Because like I'm pretty small, the
Speaker 2: Earth is pretty big.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's not unusual for a seismic survey
Speaker 4: to cost about ten million dollars.
Speaker 3: That's really not unusual at all.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, but that's a really good way of
Speaker 2: putting it, And that's kind of a really cool job.
Speaker 2: But I need to know because like, obviously one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty two thousand dollars, that's pretty sexy, Like a
Speaker 2: lot of people want to earn that. So, like, if
Speaker 2: I'm listening to you, you sound super relatable, you sound
Speaker 2: super fun. You obviously have really good work life balance.
Speaker 2: I mean at the moment, you've got a six week old,
Speaker 2: so maybe not that greater like life life balance, but
Speaker 2: like we'll get there. How do we become a geophysicist?
Speaker 2: If this income sounds very attractive.
Speaker 3: It's absolutely doable.
Speaker 4: Like it's I did a Bachelor of Science majoring in
Speaker 4: geology and geophysics. There's not nearly as much maths as
Speaker 4: you think there is, and you get to go on
Speaker 4: a lot of field trips and spend a lot of
Speaker 4: time outside doing a geology degree. So I can recommend
Speaker 4: I read somewhere that geologists are the happiest people on
Speaker 4: campus because they just get to spend all this time
Speaker 4: outside like looking at the earth. And then I did
Speaker 4: an honors in specific geology in geophysics at a different university.
Speaker 3: But that's it. It was a four year degree and
Speaker 3: then I got hired by the company i'm at now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's it. It's real specific. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you are really playing, yes, my friend.
Speaker 4: I just I mean, if you every university degree is
Speaker 4: difficult when you're in your early twenties and you're you know,
Speaker 4: struggling to focus and you've got to put the effort
Speaker 4: in and you've got to put the time in. But
Speaker 4: it's you don't have to be like, you know, a
Speaker 4: super whiz at maths or a super wiz at physics
Speaker 4: or a super like. It is an achievable thing to
Speaker 4: do and it's fun. And then I mean base salaries
Speaker 4: come out of that kind of degree into the energy
Speaker 4: industry or into the resources industry. You're starting at one
Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars easily, easily, Like I started at ninety
Speaker 4: two thousand dollars and that was ten years ago.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's really interesting as well, because
Speaker 2: I'm just going to back it up a little bit. Obviously,
Speaker 2: that is really epic, Like the idea that you did
Speaker 2: a Bachelor of Science and then you know, an honest
Speaker 2: in specific geology like all of that, you know, as
Speaker 2: much as I'm being silly, is really impressive. But it's
Speaker 2: also relatively specific. And when I was eighteen years old
Speaker 2: or I was seventeen, and I was putting down my
Speaker 2: preferences of which universities I wanted to go to, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to lie. I don't think I even knew
Speaker 2: that this career existed, or that it was an option
Speaker 2: for me, or the earning capacity of that role looked
Speaker 2: like that. And I think that that's something that as
Speaker 2: a teenager trying to pick your future career, like you
Speaker 2: kind of just pick what you're passionate about. And obviously
Speaker 2: you had your dad, so you said, I followed in
Speaker 2: my father's footsteps. So I'm assuming that your dad probably
Speaker 2: helped you pick what you need to do to get
Speaker 2: where you need to go. But I guess how did
Speaker 2: you forge this career path because obviously it's relatively specific,
Speaker 2: and if we want to do something as well, a
Speaker 2: lot of us are going to go, oh, my gosh, like,
Speaker 2: how did you even know that that was what you
Speaker 2: needed to major in? How did you know?
Speaker 4: It's an interesting one because I took a gap year
Speaker 4: between school and UNI and did a couple of ski
Speaker 4: seasons as you do, and sort of fluffed about a bit.
Speaker 4: And I really didn't think I was going to go
Speaker 4: into science and into gear physics. I'd gotten into UNI
Speaker 4: to do something completely different. But I spent like about
Speaker 4: three months working for my dad and just went on, no,
Speaker 4: we are very similar, and I find this very interesting.
Speaker 4: And then I just was like, oh, I'm going to
Speaker 4: become my dad, like just but then at the same time,
Speaker 4: going well, I've lifted the pressure from all my siblings,
Speaker 4: so I guess that's a that's good.
Speaker 3: So I think that's one of the reason.
Speaker 4: That's why I really wanted to talk to you guys,
Speaker 4: because if I didn't have my dad or know someone
Speaker 4: in the industry, you just don't know about it, and
Speaker 4: people just don't know about it, and they don't people
Speaker 4: don't talk about earning potential and resources industries. I don't
Speaker 4: know why, because it's like very attractive and you're getting
Speaker 4: to do really cool stuff and now is a really
Speaker 4: great time to be into it because there's so much
Speaker 4: change happening in terms of like how we operate looking
Speaker 4: at climate change and the impact of all of that, like,
Speaker 4: it's a really interesting time to be looking into resources.
Speaker 4: And if you don't know, you don't know. So that's
Speaker 4: one of the reasons why I really wanted to talk
Speaker 4: to you guys and just sort of be transparent about
Speaker 4: what's possible.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I am obsessed with that. I think having
Speaker 2: conversations not only about pay, transparency about career progression is
Speaker 2: so important because, as I said, like, I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: had a clue, Like I didn't have a dad that
Speaker 2: could tell me how that worked, and I definitely didn't
Speaker 2: have anybody else in the family that I could do that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I grew up with brilliant parents. And when
Speaker 2: you said, oh, I'm becoming my dad, like we have
Speaker 2: so much in common, I laughed because I was at
Speaker 2: dinner the other day with my parents and I was
Speaker 2: sitting there and my dad and I threw our heads
Speaker 2: back it exactly the same time and had like a
Speaker 2: cut paste laugh, and then we looked at each other
Speaker 2: and I was like, you are me, I am you
Speaker 2: like we are we like we are exactly the same.
Speaker 2: And then later that evening, like my mom and I
Speaker 2: did something super similar again, and I was just like
Speaker 2: when I was younger, I think my worst nightmare was
Speaker 2: becoming my parents. Like I used to think, oh, like,
Speaker 2: I don't want to be anything like my parents, and
Speaker 2: now I'm like, what a privilege? Like these are the
Speaker 2: coolest people in the entire world, and I'm so similar
Speaker 2: to them, it's not funny. I find that the biggest
Speaker 2: compliment when they're like, oh, you're so much like your dad,
Speaker 2: or you know, both you and your dad aren't funny
Speaker 2: at all, are you? And I'm like, ha ha ha,
Speaker 2: Like it's to me the best thing ever. But a
Speaker 2: lot of us don't have that privilege of education or
Speaker 2: just learning. I mean, my dad was an accountant, which
Speaker 2: is probably where I got some of my love of
Speaker 2: talking about money. But I so used to cry a
Speaker 2: lot when he was trying to teach me my time's tables.
Speaker 2: So I'm not sure if that was constructive or if
Speaker 2: it was traumatic. I haven't decided yet, and I'm still
Speaker 2: like thirty one. And my mum she worked as a coroner,
Speaker 2: So yeah, I used to be in grade three telling
Speaker 2: people oh yeah, I no, my mom works with dead people,
Speaker 2: And to me that was really normal. Neither of those
Speaker 2: career paths I wanted so I forged my own. But
Speaker 2: it's just so interesting because I didn't even know that
Speaker 2: you could become a geophysicist in four years, like with
Speaker 2: four years of study. I just thought that would be
Speaker 2: like ten twelve years of study. And now you're telling me, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: like if you go do a Bachelor of Science, like
Speaker 2: obviously there's some specifics to it, but then you go
Speaker 2: and do an honors and you know you're in for
Speaker 2: a very good career and that's life changing, right, Like
Speaker 2: that changes the trajectory of people's lives. And if we
Speaker 2: can even have a small impact on that, I guess
Speaker 2: spheer of people who were relatively like me, Like, I
Speaker 2: don't know what, I don't know. How do we learn
Speaker 2: what different careers do and what those trajectories look like
Speaker 2: because Google doesn't do this for us.
Speaker 4: No, it's really interesting actually because you look at those
Speaker 4: charts that say what are the best careers to get
Speaker 4: into and the income next to it, and never does
Speaker 4: anyone say gear physicist.
Speaker 2: It's not there, No, it's not something we've talked about.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 2: I feel like it's so important to be transparent, but
Speaker 2: also really important to just go Actually, I love my job.
Speaker 2: It's really cool. While we're still talking, I guess about
Speaker 2: your job. How are you able to work a full
Speaker 2: day work week? Is that because you have one of
Speaker 2: those workplaces that's taken the five day work week down
Speaker 2: to four or is that because you're part time or like,
Speaker 2: how does that work with? I guess work work balance?
Speaker 4: So they actually they do do a nine day fortnite
Speaker 4: at my work currently, but I was working part time,
Speaker 4: so I was only working four days a week. And
Speaker 4: it's really project based and it's not as a g
Speaker 4: you can there's a whole bunch of different things you
Speaker 4: can do, like work in the field, you can work
Speaker 4: on roster, you can work you know, there's a bunch
Speaker 4: of different ways you can you can make it happened.
Speaker 4: But I was just working at a desk and doing
Speaker 4: a nine to five and just when I came back
Speaker 4: from having my eldest, decided I didn't want to work
Speaker 4: full time, and they went, great, you can work however
Speaker 4: much or as little as you want.
Speaker 3: And I just came back four days a week. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, so you have two bambinos. I got the aleage
Speaker 2: of seeing your youngest who is six weeks old, how
Speaker 2: old is your other child, she's just turned too. How sweet.
Speaker 2: I want to know how, at your age you made
Speaker 2: the decision Okay, now's the time to have babies, Like,
Speaker 2: what did you think of when you were I guess
Speaker 2: working out what your career would look like, because for
Speaker 2: a lot of women, the idea of stepping away might
Speaker 2: be a little bit daunting or scary. And now you're
Speaker 2: telling me you've got what two under three? That's terrifying,
Speaker 2: especially to someone who doesn't have any kids yet. But
Speaker 2: how are you managing that and your career and what
Speaker 2: that looks like going forward.
Speaker 4: That's a really interesting question because it wasn't a career
Speaker 4: decision per se. I did a test to see, how,
Speaker 4: you know, how many eggs I have left or how
Speaker 4: long I could have left to potentially have kids, and
Speaker 4: the results came back terribly and it was like, you
Speaker 4: either need to start doing this or risk not being
Speaker 4: able to do it at all. And my husband and
Speaker 4: I just went all right, well we'll just give it
Speaker 4: a go. And we were really lucky and had my
Speaker 4: daughter quite quickly, and then we thought, well we may
Speaker 4: as well just keep it rolling and had the second one,
Speaker 4: and we were so lucky that we had the ability
Speaker 4: to make those decisions and had the information in order
Speaker 4: to do that. So I'm a real advocate for getting tested,
Speaker 4: but it's sort of I was at a point in
Speaker 4: my career where I had enough technical background that I
Speaker 4: knew that if I stepped away, I'd feel comfortable coming
Speaker 4: back and not have lost too much in terms of
Speaker 4: credibility or in terms of career progression, which is really real.
Speaker 4: The other thing that made it a lot easier was
Speaker 4: that my work offers paternity leave for both men and women.
Speaker 4: It's eighteen weeks full time, which means we're get more
Speaker 4: and more men who were taking Yeah, it's amazing. We're
Speaker 4: getting more and more men taking eighteen weeks full time
Speaker 4: away from work or thirty six week part time away
Speaker 4: from work, and so you're having more men stepping away
Speaker 4: from the job for long periods of time, which sounds
Speaker 4: like it shouldn't be benefiting women, but that absolutely is
Speaker 4: because they're getting that same separation and they're not just
Speaker 4: you know, pushing through for that next promotion, next promotion.
Speaker 4: That was a huge benefit I'm starting to see now
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 2: Ah, I love it. That's actually epic. You mentioned something
Speaker 2: that I haven't done. And I'm thirty one. You said
Speaker 2: that you went and got your eggs tested and your
Speaker 2: fertility tested. What drew you to say, all right, well,
Speaker 2: I want to get this done because up until I
Speaker 2: guess you know, this point in my life, I haven't
Speaker 2: really thought about it. I mean, I got engaged and
Speaker 2: that's when I thought, oh my gosh, like life's getting
Speaker 2: pretty real. Like you know it always talked hypothetically about
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, when we get married, we'll then have babies.
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't a prerequisite. It was more that's just
Speaker 2: how I thought my life was going to pan out.
Speaker 2: What drew you to have your fertility tested because so
Speaker 2: many people don't.
Speaker 4: I think probably two things. One, I'm such a scientist
Speaker 4: in that I just love data. I just want all
Speaker 4: the information to make the best decision I could possibly make.
Speaker 4: And to the women in my family are not good
Speaker 4: at having kids in their thirties, And that was a
Speaker 4: real eye opener for me to say, Okay, if this
Speaker 4: is something I want to do, let's just get as
Speaker 4: much information as we can and then we can, you know,
Speaker 4: be better prepared for whatever way it's going to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a bit similar. You know what, I
Speaker 2: didn't even know that you could get your eggs tested.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming I would have had I known that that
Speaker 2: was an option. I did do genetic testing. I got
Speaker 2: my at the time fiance to also do it with
Speaker 2: me so that we could plan that way. I didn't
Speaker 2: know how easy it was going to be. I worked
Speaker 2: with a company called Eugene Labs, and like, that's not
Speaker 2: a sponsored mention, that's just the company I worked with.
Speaker 2: And I think it cost about eight hundred dollars to
Speaker 2: get done. And they sent us a pack and we
Speaker 2: both just put saliva in a jar and then sent
Speaker 2: it back and that was honestly so simple. And then
Speaker 2: we had like a debrief with a doctor and that
Speaker 2: was done via zoom. So everything was super super easy.
Speaker 2: But that's about eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 3: To have done.
Speaker 2: How much did it cost to get your eggs tested?
Speaker 2: And I guess all that fertility testing.
Speaker 4: Initially it's just a blood test actually really Yeah, you
Speaker 4: just go to the GP and they do it. It's
Speaker 4: like a proxy to sort of estimate how many eggs
Speaker 4: you have left, and it gives you like an age range,
Speaker 4: like you have the blood test results of someone in
Speaker 4: their forties or someone in their twenties or someone in
Speaker 4: you know, between thirty five and forty eight or whatever.
Speaker 4: I can't remember what the it was, but mine was
Speaker 4: really bad, like forty five plus not good. And then
Speaker 4: you can take the next step of actually getting your
Speaker 4: egg your follicles counted to see how many you actually
Speaker 4: have left, or you can start going down like you
Speaker 4: can go see a fertility specialist. But I think for us,
Speaker 4: because it had come back and said that this is
Speaker 4: not you know, it's not looking good. It doesn't actually
Speaker 4: impact the quality of your eggs. You just have to
Speaker 4: start trying sooner.
Speaker 2: And we went, well, yeah, because you've got less eggs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, even if we did more tests, it probably wouldn't
Speaker 4: change the decision to just start trying.
Speaker 3: So let's just start trying.
Speaker 2: Wow, do you know what? That's blown my mind. I
Speaker 2: had absolutely no idea it was just a blood test
Speaker 2: and that it could be so simple. And I'm assuming
Speaker 2: I'm not the only one. So I'm glad that we've
Speaker 2: captured this on the pod because I think that there's
Speaker 2: going to be a few women maybe driving to work
Speaker 2: in their car going what the hell, like we should
Speaker 2: go and do this asap.
Speaker 3: This chat took a real right hand hand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it literally did. I'm so sorry that I've
Speaker 2: gone so off track. Let's get back on track, but
Speaker 2: that has been so helpful. To be honest, I've been
Speaker 2: thinking a lot about the cost of fertility, so there's
Speaker 2: probably a lot of episodes coming up on that and
Speaker 2: what it costs and how much costs to actually freeze
Speaker 2: your eggs and do all these things, because I feel
Speaker 2: like it can be such an overwhelming space to navigate,
Speaker 2: especially as a young woman who you know, you might
Speaker 2: might not even be ready to have babies, who might
Speaker 2: not even have a partner, so you're just like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can't even consider this. So I kind of want
Speaker 2: to break that down. But let's get back onto the
Speaker 2: money track. Yeah, I really want to know. You're obviously
Speaker 2: making bank, but what is your big money goal? What
Speaker 2: are we currently working towards.
Speaker 4: So we've got a few and I say wee because
Speaker 4: everything with my husband and I is very joint, so
Speaker 4: it's sort of like I don't have a specific one
Speaker 4: separate to him, but we really want to pay off
Speaker 4: our house by the time I'm forty, And that sounds
Speaker 4: like a really weird number to go for, but I
Speaker 4: felt like it was a stretch target that we could
Speaker 4: maybe hit. So having a goal, really specific goal like that,
Speaker 4: I quite liked. So we're heading for that. And then
Speaker 4: we want to buy like a piece of land that
Speaker 4: has enough space for some chickens and an orchard and
Speaker 4: just that sort of rural lifestyle to be able to
Speaker 4: relax in as we sort of head into the peak
Speaker 4: of our careers and then sort of wind down and
Speaker 4: hopefully retire a bit early.
Speaker 2: I adore that. I'm so excited about that. Tell me
Speaker 2: a little bit more about this goal of paying off
Speaker 2: your house by forty How much was your house, how
Speaker 2: much has left on the mortgage, and how are you tracking.
Speaker 4: So we bought the house for seven hundred and fifty thousand,
Speaker 4: and it was at auction, and when they said sold,
Speaker 4: I just burst into tears so heavy, and.
Speaker 3: Then I didn't know, you, this is weird to do this.
Speaker 4: But when we went in to go sign all the papers,
Speaker 4: I gave her, the current owner, a massive hug.
Speaker 2: I think she was I would have done the same pin.
Speaker 3: She was very confused.
Speaker 2: I've never won an auction, I've only lost them, so
Speaker 2: I've never had that experience, but I have every I
Speaker 2: guess belief that had I won any of the auctions
Speaker 2: that I've bid, I would have hugged everybody in the
Speaker 2: near vicinity.
Speaker 3: It was, Yeah, it was. It was really exciting.
Speaker 4: We actually got it for nobody else bid at the auction,
Speaker 4: which we thought was mad, so we did get it under.
Speaker 3: The reserve price. Money win, yes, very big, huge money.
Speaker 4: But we actually we now only have about four hundred
Speaker 4: and sixty thousand dollars left on the mortgage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've just been pouring money into it basically love.
Speaker 2: That's so exciting, So by forty is really achievable.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if we keep on the current trajectory, I think
Speaker 4: we're we're looking good.
Speaker 2: Very very sexy. Sorry to be so pervy, but this,
Speaker 2: after all, is she's on the money, and it's quite
Speaker 2: literally my job. So let's go to a really quick
Speaker 2: break because I actually have more pervy money questions right
Speaker 2: after this, all right, money diarist, we are back, and
Speaker 2: I'm genuinely so invested in this conversation with you. I
Speaker 2: feel like you have so much knowledge to share with us,
Speaker 2: Like there's just so many interesting bits and pieces about
Speaker 2: either your money story or about what you've learned and
Speaker 2: about what you're sharing with us that I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people are going to get a lot of
Speaker 2: value out of this. But I want to know. The
Speaker 2: next question I've got is do you currently invest?
Speaker 3: If so, what in we do invest?
Speaker 4: And I should preface this by saying, my husband also
Speaker 4: makes a good wage, so he's in management now and
Speaker 4: is earning more than I am. So like it's we're
Speaker 4: in such a good position that we do have enough
Speaker 4: money to invest in different places. We have some shares
Speaker 4: and ETFs at about one hundred thousand dollars at the moment.
Speaker 4: There's some index ETF, some emerging industry and tech stock,
Speaker 4: and then our company shares that we get issued every year.
Speaker 3: And then we have our super and my super sitting
Speaker 3: at about one hundred and fifty.
Speaker 4: Thousand at the moment. And also my husband got crazy
Speaker 4: and decided to invest in some crypto, which he's holding,
Speaker 4: he tells me, So there's about twenty thousand dollars sitting
Speaker 4: in crypto at the moment. And then we saw a
Speaker 4: financial planner a few years ago, and just to make
Speaker 4: sure that we were on the right track of what
Speaker 4: we were doing with our income, and we started an
Speaker 4: education bond. Ah, yes, that they recommended that has really
Speaker 4: good tax implications if you're spending money on education. So,
Speaker 4: because our kids are really young still, we thought, well,
Speaker 4: we'll start doing this now so by the time they
Speaker 4: do get to high school, university, whatever, there's money there
Speaker 4: that we can then leverage the tax benefits from. So
Speaker 4: there's about sixty thousand dollars sitting in the education bond
Speaker 4: at the moment.
Speaker 2: I bloody love an education bond, Like, I feel like
Speaker 2: that's such an interesting addition because education bonds are not
Speaker 2: something that a lot of people know about. I've mentioned
Speaker 2: them on the show before, but I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people don't realize I guess the power in them.
Speaker 2: Do you think that that was something that you would
Speaker 2: have gotten into without an advisor?
Speaker 3: Not at all.
Speaker 4: It made getting the financial advisor really worth it because
Speaker 4: you just you don't know what you don't know, Like,
Speaker 4: we're not money you know, we're not financial specialists. And
Speaker 4: to have someone be like, actually, this is a really
Speaker 4: good way to make the most and let your money
Speaker 4: work for you.
Speaker 3: We thought that. I mean, it just made it worth
Speaker 3: it really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, airpic Oh my gosh, all right. So the next
Speaker 2: question I have my friend is we already know about
Speaker 2: your four hundred and sixty thousand dollars on your mortgage left,
Speaker 2: but do you have any other debts? If so, what
Speaker 2: are they?
Speaker 3: No, my hex is all paid off.
Speaker 4: I was actually really lucky when I went through Science
Speaker 4: was quite cheap because they were trying to get a
Speaker 4: lot more people through science degrees. So definitely, and I
Speaker 4: didn't know this until I started paying it off, that
Speaker 4: some of my classes were half price, and so I.
Speaker 3: Can end up going and having a look.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it was really I just was like, oh, great,
Speaker 4: so that was a money win. But no, we don't
Speaker 4: have any other debt.
Speaker 2: Love all I want to know. I feel like you've
Speaker 2: probably got a number of good ones, But what do
Speaker 2: you think is your best money habit?
Speaker 4: I think I've got two really good ones. The first
Speaker 4: one is that the money transparency between my husband and
Speaker 4: I just makes everything so much easier. We share a
Speaker 4: Google Sheets account like spreadsheets, where we both update. It's
Speaker 4: all live, and we can see exactly what my money's
Speaker 4: doing and exactly what we've budgeted and exactly where things
Speaker 4: are being allocated every month, and we look at it
Speaker 4: quite regularly if something changes and the conversation is very open,
Speaker 4: and that just makes everything so much easier. And then
Speaker 4: the other, the one is that we hardly ever go
Speaker 4: out to dinner or breakfast or anything. Like we're real
Speaker 4: homebodies and we just we're quite I love shopping at Audi,
Speaker 4: and I go and we do like our weekly shop.
Speaker 4: And for us, it's not, you know, we spend like
Speaker 4: less than two hundred dollars a week on groceries, but
Speaker 4: if we do go out, we go out hard. Like
Speaker 4: we'll go and do like a ten course degas station
Speaker 4: and just make it really worth it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're a bit similar. But my friend, how are
Speaker 2: you doing all of your groceries for under two hundred
Speaker 2: bucks a week? Like what the heck in is that
Speaker 2: because you shop at Audi? Or is that because you're
Speaker 2: a super wiz meal planner or like what's the secret there?
Speaker 2: Because that's pretty good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think meal planning definitely helps. And we do
Speaker 4: shop at Audi, but we'll go and we're very like
Speaker 4: simple meals. It's not everything's not too complicated, you don't
Speaker 4: have too many ingredients, You pay enough for good quality
Speaker 4: meat and then you just get fruit and veg and
Speaker 4: then whatever else you need, and like, honestly, my kids
Speaker 4: don't eat very much. I've got a two year old
Speaker 4: and someone who just drinks expres milk, so they're cheap
Speaker 4: at the moment.
Speaker 3: So really it's just a family of two and.
Speaker 2: Like a third and like a half third a third
Speaker 2: that probably just throws food and isn't that grateful for
Speaker 2: it at this point in time. That's right, All right,
Speaker 2: let's flip the narrative. What is your worst money habit?
Speaker 4: This is probably going back to me still feeling like
Speaker 4: money is a bit fluid and if I'm in the
Speaker 4: mood to spend, it will just pour out of me,
Speaker 4: like I be like, we need new bed linen.
Speaker 3: I won't even look for a deal.
Speaker 4: I'll just go to Sheridan and spend eight hundred dollars
Speaker 4: and I won't even think about it. And it's terrible,
Speaker 4: but I'm I feel so lucky that I can do
Speaker 4: that and not like and obviously I don't do that
Speaker 4: very often, but when I do, I'm just like, oh, well,
Speaker 4: here it is, here's all my money.
Speaker 3: Oh oh.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's not the worst thing ever, especially
Speaker 2: if it's in line with your budget. And you have
Speaker 2: all these other savings and investing goals and you're kind
Speaker 2: of smashing it everywhere else. I mean, the best thing
Speaker 2: in this situation is you're super aware of it. So
Speaker 2: I'm not too worried about that, if I'm being honest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think my husband probably worries about it a
Speaker 3: bit more than I do. That's always the way.
Speaker 2: That is absolutely always the way. All Right, now that
Speaker 2: we've talked, I feel like I know the answer to
Speaker 2: this already, but I'm going to ask anyway, now that
Speaker 2: we've talked, do you still think that you would give
Speaker 2: yourself the grade of A?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 4: We're in such a fortunate position, and I think we've
Speaker 4: really taken the steps to make sure the money that
Speaker 4: we have and the money that we're earning goes into
Speaker 4: really good places. So I'm really comfortable that we're doing
Speaker 4: a good job at the moment. So i'd give myself
Speaker 4: an A.
Speaker 2: I love that. What do you think it would take
Speaker 2: to get you to an A plus?
Speaker 4: Probably hitting some of the money goals that we have,
Speaker 4: paying off our house and getting that property and seeing
Speaker 4: us retire a bit early. But they're really long term goals.
Speaker 4: But I think if you don't have something to strive for,
Speaker 4: you stop trying. I think that's probably what's stopping me
Speaker 4: from saying, well, we're just amazing, because for us there's
Speaker 4: still stuff we want to achieve.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, I love that. Oh my gosh, I
Speaker 2: have adored this conversation. Money Direstic has been an absolute
Speaker 2: pleasure and a privilege having you on. I will let
Speaker 2: you get back to your six week old. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for your time.
Speaker 3: No, this has been great, Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 2: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 2: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 2: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
Speaker 2: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
Speaker 2: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
Speaker 2: authorized representatives of Money sheper Pty Ltd ABN three two
Speaker 2: one is six four nine two seven seven zero eight
Speaker 2: AFSL four five one two eight nine