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. She's on the Money.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on Them, the podcast for
Speaker 4: millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one
Speaker 4: of our money daries where I get the absolute privilege
Speaker 4: of talking to one of our beautiful She's on the
Speaker 4: Money community members all about their money story. Let's jump
Speaker 4: straight into it, because this week I got a message
Speaker 4: and it went a lot like this, Hi, She's on
Speaker 4: the Money. I wanted to share my story because it's
Speaker 4: been quite a journey. When I was six, my family
Speaker 4: immigrated from Ukraine in nineteen ninety five. We stayed with
Speaker 4: relatives and had nothing when we arrived. Fast forward to
Speaker 4: meeting my husband at nineteen on a group trip to Israel.
Speaker 4: We fell in love and have been together ever since.
Speaker 4: We bought our first home at twenty two, intertwined with family,
Speaker 4: which makes things quite complex.
Speaker 3: We renovated and flipped it.
Speaker 4: We then bought a second home and now have two children.
Speaker 4: Last week we cut up all of our credit cards,
Speaker 4: and I have never been more proud. I'm listening to
Speaker 4: every single episode of She's on the Money, and I
Speaker 4: am obsessed money.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: What did you do when you cut up all of
Speaker 4: your credit cards? Did you actually get the scissors out?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I didn't actually cut them. I let my kids cut them.
Speaker 2: So we've always spoken to them about credit cards. And
Speaker 2: I said, I actually took photos to post on Monday
Speaker 2: money wins. I'm meaning to do that, but yeah, I
Speaker 2: got my kids to cut them up.
Speaker 3: Make sure you scribble out the numbers.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yep, they're in tiny little pieces. And my
Speaker 2: children loved that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, all right, I just I don't want any
Speaker 4: issues if you posted or cut up a card and.
Speaker 3: Then it's like, well that's not too hard to put
Speaker 3: back together, babe.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, yep.
Speaker 4: Then we might need to get the credit card back
Speaker 4: together and then pay it off again, which would just
Speaker 4: not be the vibe. It's not the vibe. But I'm
Speaker 4: so excited for you. Were your kids excited about that?
Speaker 4: Was that something that you communicated with them about, you know,
Speaker 4: getting out of debt? And what kind of I guess
Speaker 4: accomplishment that is we have?
Speaker 2: And I've got a big spreadsheet printed out in color
Speaker 2: in our laundry that they can access any time, and
Speaker 2: it shows how much money we've got saved, how much
Speaker 2: we've got, what goals we're working towards, so they can
Speaker 2: always refer to that. And they knew that getting rid
Speaker 2: of the credit card was number one. So that was
Speaker 2: a really exciting achievement for everybody.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I love that.
Speaker 4: I love how open and honest you are about money
Speaker 4: communication with your kids.
Speaker 3: Has that always been the way?
Speaker 4: Has that been something that is new or I guess
Speaker 4: even how do they take that?
Speaker 2: It's always been the way that I've chosen to parent
Speaker 2: with them. I read The Barefoot Investor when I was
Speaker 2: quite young, and it really helped me start my financial literacy.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to get my kids a bit of
Speaker 2: a head start to what I had. And so my
Speaker 2: son has had his little money boxes since he could
Speaker 2: do his little chores. He bought his own skateboard when
Speaker 2: he was four. We ended up emailing Scott Paper about
Speaker 2: that and he replied saying it was really cool, it
Speaker 2: was really cute. So he's really proud of himself. And yep,
Speaker 2: so we've always had conversations around there's a difference between
Speaker 2: money that we save, money that we can spend, and
Speaker 2: money that goes to say, charity or you know, whatever
Speaker 2: else they want to spend their money on.
Speaker 3: I adore that.
Speaker 4: I have another perfect question before we actually get into it,
Speaker 4: because I feel like talking to children about money is
Speaker 4: a topic in our community that can divide a lot
Speaker 4: of people. Some people say it's too much responsibility to
Speaker 4: share something like that with kids, whereas others say, no,
Speaker 4: absolutely share it all. Obviously you're way more liberal in
Speaker 4: sharing it all and the journey and your savings and
Speaker 4: what that looks like. And I think that's amazing. But
Speaker 4: do you think that there are any negative impacts of
Speaker 4: that or if parents are wondering how much do I
Speaker 4: share with my kids, like, what would your advice be?
Speaker 2: I think what I've noticed a lot of my friends
Speaker 2: have children that are the same age as mine, So
Speaker 2: money is a conversation happening in every house because kids
Speaker 2: will always have wants and needs, and they'll want the
Speaker 2: latest toy or book or whatever else it is that
Speaker 2: their friends have, So no matter what, that conversation will
Speaker 2: come up. I think with it's always been about empowering
Speaker 2: the children to understand that they are able to save
Speaker 2: for their goals. So it's never been about I've never
Speaker 2: framed it as we can't afford that as a family.
Speaker 2: It's been we're going to save for that. Here is
Speaker 2: how we're saving for it, here's the steps we're going
Speaker 2: to take, and this is the date that we expect
Speaker 2: to get to that. And they've seen us achieved so
Speaker 2: many money goals that for them it's just a given that.
Speaker 2: You know, Mum and Dad said, we've got a holiday
Speaker 2: booked for Queensland next March, and they know that we're
Speaker 2: going in March because that's how long it will take
Speaker 2: us to save for the flights. So in March they
Speaker 2: will go on that flight on that holiday and they'll
Speaker 2: know that it just took us a little while to
Speaker 2: get there, but we can still have the power to
Speaker 2: do what we want. Sometimes it just takes us a
Speaker 2: bit longer.
Speaker 3: I love that. I love that so much.
Speaker 4: Sorry for going on such a tangent at the start
Speaker 4: of the episode. I feel like I should have been
Speaker 4: more structure. But when you started talking about kids and money,
Speaker 4: I was like, Oh, can I be a pair of me?
Speaker 4: Because it's really fun. Let's get in to the questions though,
Speaker 4: because I feel like I would say that's why everybody comes,
Speaker 4: but they don't come for the questions. They come for
Speaker 4: the pervy dates. But I want to know if I
Speaker 4: asked you to give your money habits a grade from
Speaker 4: A through to F, what would you grade them?
Speaker 2: I think if I had to grade myself from A
Speaker 2: to F, I would give myself a B minus. And
Speaker 2: that's mostly to do with what I've recently realized some
Speaker 2: limiting beliefs I have around my earning capacity and my
Speaker 2: ability to grow wealth. So I can see a lot
Speaker 2: of things that I need to work through and educate
Speaker 2: myself on. I think at the moment.
Speaker 3: I love this all right.
Speaker 4: So next question I've got for you, and you gave
Speaker 4: us a little bit of insight in your message in
Speaker 4: but I want to know can you tell me a
Speaker 4: little bit more about your money story.
Speaker 2: I was born in a beautiful city called Kiev in Ukraine,
Speaker 2: and during the day I was raised by my grandparents
Speaker 2: because my parents were both working for time, but my
Speaker 2: parents would come over for dinner every night. Right before
Speaker 2: I turned to the Soviet Union fell and what that
Speaker 2: meant for our country was a lot of upheaval, especially
Speaker 2: in the economy, so there was a lot of hyperinflation.
Speaker 2: I'm too little to remember this, but I've spoken to
Speaker 2: my parents a lot about it, and they would go
Speaker 2: to work and you know, for a whole day's work,
Speaker 2: they would come home and not be able to afford bread.
Speaker 2: I remember my parents saying that they could only afford
Speaker 2: to buy meat for me, like no one else in
Speaker 2: the family could afford to eat meat. They couldn't afford
Speaker 2: to buy a car, my mom said, they couldn't afford
Speaker 2: to buy things like a radio. So economically it just
Speaker 2: was really really hard, and my grandparents they lost all
Speaker 2: of their retirement savings. My parents were really fortunate in
Speaker 2: that we'd already had family that had come out immigrated
Speaker 2: to Australia before us, and they were really kind. They
Speaker 2: invited us out, and we made the choice to leave,
Speaker 2: mostly so that we could have some economic stability in future.
Speaker 2: That was really hard for my parents. They came with nothing.
Speaker 2: We moved in with my cousins in their two bedroom
Speaker 2: apartment while we looked for a rental. And I think
Speaker 2: a lot of my money story is really about what
Speaker 2: happened at that stage, because we ended up renting my
Speaker 2: whole childhood. All of our furniture was donated to us
Speaker 2: by charities like the Salvation Army, and I've got a
Speaker 2: really clear memory of walking into a room at a
Speaker 2: charity and I was allowed to pick one toy and
Speaker 2: that was a really special toy and I've still got
Speaker 2: that little bear. But it was always a story of
Speaker 2: working really hard to make ends meet. And it wasn't
Speaker 2: that we felt poor, because that's not how my parents
Speaker 2: saw themselves. They worked any job to make money. But
Speaker 2: we definitely had to be really mindful about what we bought.
Speaker 2: And I remember my parents always including me in the
Speaker 2: big purchase discussion. So I don't mean big purchases house,
Speaker 2: I mean when my parents were ready to change the
Speaker 2: donated charity couch to a leather couch. We went shopping
Speaker 2: and it took us a really long time to find
Speaker 2: the perfect couch because that was a big purchase and
Speaker 2: they still have that twenty years later. So I was
Speaker 2: always involved in those discussions. They always wanted to know
Speaker 2: what I thought, and I could understand that we had
Speaker 2: a certain budget to work towards. And I also remember
Speaker 2: my parents were never above any job. They would work anywhere,
Speaker 2: do anything. My dad worked as a laborer. My dad
Speaker 2: sold things at VIC Market. My mum was a cleaner,
Speaker 2: and both my parents a university educated. My dad's an engineer,
Speaker 2: but they weren't able to work in their field when
Speaker 2: they immigrated here. They couldn't speak the language. So I
Speaker 2: think that's mostly where a lot of my values towards
Speaker 2: money come from. For me, money provides choice and stability.
Speaker 2: It means that we at the moment aren't rent because
Speaker 2: I rented as a child and we had to move
Speaker 2: around a lot, and I never really had my own space.
Speaker 2: I had to be super mindful of, you know, putting
Speaker 2: pictures on the walls. So I grew up. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think I don't know how to go past that point,
Speaker 2: I've got more to say, but I don't know how
Speaker 2: to link it.
Speaker 3: That's rare.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's a really interesting insight as well,
Speaker 4: because obviously my money story is very different to that.
Speaker 4: But it's obvious that your parents have instilled such a
Speaker 4: good work ethic and understanding of money and values.
Speaker 3: And I don't know.
Speaker 4: I love that you said, you know, my parents never
Speaker 4: saw themselves as poor, because I do think that poor
Speaker 4: when you use it in that type of I guess
Speaker 4: reference is really about mindset, Like wealth is so much
Speaker 4: more than just the cash that is in your account.
Speaker 3: And I just think that you had such a.
Speaker 4: Rich childhood, Like it sounds like you were surrounded by
Speaker 4: so much love and so much happiness and even just
Speaker 4: so much planning.
Speaker 3: Like the couch. I love the couch.
Speaker 4: I love that they still have it, and they probably
Speaker 4: still think it's like the best investment they've ever made
Speaker 4: because so much thought went into it, right, so much thought.
Speaker 2: And then also they involved me in all of the
Speaker 2: big purchases and they thought a lot about them. But
Speaker 2: then the flip side of that was they really didn't
Speaker 2: see certain things as necessary. So I remember I went
Speaker 2: to Year nine camp and the snow, and that was
Speaker 2: just for a couple of days, and my parents thought
Speaker 2: it was completely unnecessary to buy me snow boots. So
Speaker 2: I was the only kid at camp that had plastic
Speaker 2: bags on her feet and runners.
Speaker 3: I mean, did it work?
Speaker 2: Though it did not work, But I can see where
Speaker 2: they were coming from. They thought it was a complete
Speaker 2: waste of money because we didn't go to the snows
Speaker 2: so they thought, why would we spend that money on
Speaker 2: shoes that you will never wear again?
Speaker 3: You can wear them once. I totally understand that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then also I remember in year nine, everybody
Speaker 2: got to go to Japan and I was the one
Speaker 2: kid that didn't. I sat in a classroom for a
Speaker 2: week alone with a teacher. And I never blamed them
Speaker 2: for that, but I totally understood that it was beyond
Speaker 2: what they could afford. It didn't match up with what
Speaker 2: financially they were ready to do, so I just had
Speaker 2: to accept that. But it did mean that I missed
Speaker 2: out on a lot of things growing up.
Speaker 4: And do you feel like that might have changed the
Speaker 4: way that you deal with money and your children. So
Speaker 4: if you feel like you missed out, do you find
Speaker 4: yourself trying to give them all the experiences you didn't have.
Speaker 2: Yes, my kids complain and go, oh, why do we
Speaker 2: have to go to swimming lessons? It's so unfair, And
Speaker 2: I don't want to turn around and say it.
Speaker 3: Sounds like they're worse.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: Yes, I am so sad for you that you are
Speaker 2: being taken to this beautiful swimming pool with these lovely teachers,
Speaker 2: and I'm so sorry that I have taken you on
Speaker 2: holiday here. And I place value on experiences for them
Speaker 2: and not on if they want things that I don't
Speaker 2: think they need. I'm happy for them to get them,
Speaker 2: as long as they work towards that saving gold themselves.
Speaker 2: I will never say you can't buy that. I'm currently
Speaker 2: holding my emotional support water bottle with cats.
Speaker 3: We've all got one.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was three dollars that kmart. And my son
Speaker 2: is downstairs with a Frank Green that he purchased.
Speaker 4: And you're like, absolutely not. I'm going to be very
Speaker 4: happy with my three dollar drink bottle.
Speaker 2: I mean it has cats.
Speaker 4: Don't judge me and my frank Green that I know
Speaker 4: you can see. But yeah, you're right, mine doesn't have cats.
Speaker 4: Mine is lacking a lot, and I probably need to
Speaker 4: do a lot of self reflection at this point as
Speaker 4: to why I've made the decision.
Speaker 2: I have made yep, Camart all the way. But that's
Speaker 2: the thing. So my son said, I would like a
Speaker 2: Frank Green, and I said, you're welcome to buy whatever
Speaker 2: you want with your saved money, but you're going to
Speaker 2: save that yourself, because that doesn't align with what I'm
Speaker 2: saving for for our family. I can't afford a sixty
Speaker 2: dollar bottle. You've got to work for it, and then
Speaker 2: you're going to start at zero.
Speaker 3: It's fair, It's a lot.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of money, one hundred percent, especially as
Speaker 4: a key as well. You're like, you do not need that.
Speaker 4: You're probably going to lose it too, Definitely.
Speaker 2: He's actually it's probably the one thing that he's taken
Speaker 2: really good care of. And he's also started to have
Speaker 2: this identity of someone that has the ability to save
Speaker 2: for a good quality item, whereas I will just be
Speaker 2: happy to get anything if it's cheaper and it does
Speaker 2: the job, but he will really put the research and
Speaker 2: time into it. And he's only nine.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 4: I love that so much. I want to know more
Speaker 4: about you, though, Can you tell me what do you
Speaker 4: do for work and how much money do you earn.
Speaker 2: I work as a radiographer and I started there over
Speaker 2: a decade ago. I started at the bottom and took
Speaker 2: X rays and worked in theater and did all of
Speaker 2: the things on call night shifts. Over time, I've specialized,
Speaker 2: so now I am a supervisor of a department and
Speaker 2: I work part time. I wrote down my numbers because
Speaker 2: I find it really can using to work out my
Speaker 2: salary because I do salary package. So I'll say it
Speaker 2: in a couple of different bits, but last year I
Speaker 2: earned sixty nine thousand dollars before tax, and then because
Speaker 2: I salary packaged my mortgage, my taxable income came down
Speaker 2: to forty eight thousand.
Speaker 1: Oof.
Speaker 3: That's so good.
Speaker 2: It is so good. But what I didn't realize was
Speaker 2: that salary packaging is not great when you have a
Speaker 2: HEX step. So when I did my tax return, that's
Speaker 2: when I realized that actually I still had a lot
Speaker 2: of money to ow because I think they look at
Speaker 2: my full salary.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: HEX is calculated on pre tax income, so it is
Speaker 4: not calculated on what you take home, but rather every
Speaker 4: single dollar that technically comes through your hands, whether it
Speaker 4: gets paid into tax or not. And that is a
Speaker 4: sticky point that some people get caught up in every
Speaker 4: single year. I see it in my community all the time.
Speaker 4: Come like July when people are doing their tax returns
Speaker 4: and they were so excited for a return, they're like, Victoria,
Speaker 4: I found out because I have salary packaging that I
Speaker 4: actually owe money for HEX.
Speaker 3: And this was me, Yeah, yeah, bites you in the bottom.
Speaker 3: It's the worst.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I owed money because I hadn't realized that
Speaker 2: my HEX would be impacted by salary packaging. On top
Speaker 2: of my salary, I also get a CPD allowance, which
Speaker 2: is an amount of money that my employer gives me
Speaker 2: every year towards my education and courses that I want
Speaker 2: to attend. So I'm doing a Master's at the moment,
Speaker 2: and I've been putting that towards the fees so that
Speaker 2: the Masters doesn't get added to my HEX to grow that.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, she's doing her masters. She's fancy. So
Speaker 4: what is that CPD allowance it is now?
Speaker 2: I'm not certain if it's sixteen hundred a year or
Speaker 2: if I've used the last two years amount. But this
Speaker 2: year I was able to use sixteen hundred.
Speaker 4: Hey, that's pretty good. I like that they're furthering your
Speaker 4: education and actually giving you cash so you can allocate
Speaker 4: it towards what you want to do. Tell me a
Speaker 4: bit more about your masters, So what made you want
Speaker 4: to do your masters and what's the plan after?
Speaker 2: I like to learn, and if I don't have a
Speaker 2: path that's educating me, I tend to just teach myself
Speaker 2: heaps of random stuff, and so I wanted something that
Speaker 2: would help me in the future, something that I would
Speaker 2: be excited to learn. My masters is in public health,
Speaker 2: so it's teaching me about different health systems and why
Speaker 2: people make the choices they make, and how we can
Speaker 2: improve systems around them to support them and making better
Speaker 2: choices and have better health outcomes. I knew that I
Speaker 2: wanted to do a master's, but I couldn't afford it
Speaker 2: for a long time because they usually cost between forty
Speaker 2: and sixty thousand dollars, and I think that's a lot
Speaker 2: of money.
Speaker 3: It is a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do plan to pay my hex off. But
Speaker 2: I I did some research and I realized that you
Speaker 2: can get something called a Commonwealth supported place a CSP.
Speaker 2: So even though I wanted to do a master's in
Speaker 2: a certain field. I wasn't set on the exact university
Speaker 2: or course. What I did was I found the ones
Speaker 2: that are Commonwealth supported places, and then I looked a
Speaker 2: little bit further into it. I found the ones that
Speaker 2: let me do it online and the ones that let
Speaker 2: me use my degree for credit points, because that also
Speaker 2: reduces how much I owe at the end. So in
Speaker 2: the end, I think my masters is going to cost
Speaker 2: me about eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: What hell, that's ridiculous, like in a good way, ridiculous. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was credited for my degree, and I got extra
Speaker 2: credits because I got an honors degree. Because it's a
Speaker 2: Commonwealth supported place. I'm pretty sure it's already half of
Speaker 2: the amount. And then on top of that, I've been
Speaker 2: putting my work credits towards that. So it's wild, Like,
Speaker 2: I'm so happy with that. It's not going to grow
Speaker 2: my hexs a lot.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I love this for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did wonder when you said, hey, I'm getting
Speaker 4: a sixteen hundred dollars allowance because my masters, so I
Speaker 4: have a Master's of Business Administration cost me seventy eight
Speaker 4: thousand dollars on HEX and I want to be sick
Speaker 4: every single time I think of that. I mean a
Speaker 4: bit of that was international study, so like popped that
Speaker 4: on there too, because obviously when in Rome, however, when
Speaker 4: you said, oh yeah, we get sixteen hundred bucks and
Speaker 4: I'm you know, trying not to put it on hex,
Speaker 4: I was like, the math isn't mathing? How is she
Speaker 4: not putting on on hex? Sixteen hundred dollars is not
Speaker 4: going to cut? But it would it would almost cover
Speaker 4: your entire degree. There would be such a small out
Speaker 4: of pocket. How exciting.
Speaker 2: It's really exciting. I love it.
Speaker 3: I adore that for you, all right. I want to know,
Speaker 3: so you mentioned before that.
Speaker 4: You're going to Queensland for a holiday in March, and
Speaker 4: the kids know what's going on. You're saving for it
Speaker 4: and you're planning for it. But I want to know
Speaker 4: what is your big money goal? What are you guys
Speaker 4: working towards At the moment.
Speaker 2: We have a few money goals them a short term.
Speaker 2: One of the short term ones was the credit card.
Speaker 2: So we've ticked that off.
Speaker 3: That's a big one though, that's a big one.
Speaker 2: It was really exciting we've had a credit card our
Speaker 2: whole relationship. So it was really nice to cut that off.
Speaker 2: We both have aging parents, and at the moment we
Speaker 2: have a two story townhouse. All the showers and bathrooms
Speaker 2: are upstairs, and we've got a powder room downstairs, so
Speaker 2: we're now saving to put a shower downstairs. We've got
Speaker 2: my husband's dad living with us a few days a
Speaker 2: week every week, so I think it would be really
Speaker 2: nice to make the downstairs kind of accessible for them
Speaker 2: into their old age. But it's expensive to put a
Speaker 2: shower in, so that will slow us down.
Speaker 3: It's so spent on.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I didn't realize how expensive bathroom renovations
Speaker 4: were until I did one myself, and oh my gosh,
Speaker 4: I promise you right now, money, darrest the next.
Speaker 3: House side buye, It'll be done. It'll be done.
Speaker 4: There won't be any renovations necessary because it just all
Speaker 4: adds up, and then it's more expn Then someone says, oh,
Speaker 4: you need this fancy waterproofing and what about the tiles
Speaker 4: that it adds up.
Speaker 3: I totally get it.
Speaker 2: We bought this townhouse for that exact reason. It didn't
Speaker 2: need anything done. The first house that we bought was
Speaker 2: a nineteen twenty eight California and Bungalow. We had to
Speaker 2: gut everything ourselves, and after we did that, we realized
Speaker 2: that we needed to raise stump it, redo all the wiring,
Speaker 2: all the plumbing. And that was before we even did
Speaker 2: anything exciting. So it does add up. And we had
Speaker 2: no intention of renovating the townhouse, but now that we've
Speaker 2: got elderly parents living with us, it's making sense to
Speaker 2: make it more accessible for them, so we've got to
Speaker 2: start saving for that. That was an unexpected cost. Long term,
Speaker 2: I think we'd like to save for an overseas holiday
Speaker 2: when the kids are a little bit older. That will
Speaker 2: take us a few years. We are salary packaging a car,
Speaker 2: so we're saving to pay off the bubble at the
Speaker 2: end of that. I think that'll be about fourteen thousand
Speaker 2: dollars a couple of years. And very long term, we'd
Speaker 2: like to pay our mortgage off before we retire.
Speaker 3: Yes, so exciting.
Speaker 4: I feel like paying off your mortgage before retirement is
Speaker 4: a really good goal because it gives you so much
Speaker 4: more financial freedom during retirement. And it's not something that
Speaker 4: a lot of people think about because they go, yeah,
Speaker 4: we'll just pay it off all the way through and
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden you get to retirement, you
Speaker 4: might need to take some money out of super to
Speaker 4: just extinguish the rest of it. And it just doesn't
Speaker 4: feel as good. It doesn't feel like you're achieving as much,
Speaker 4: even though you might have planned it that way.
Speaker 3: But I think it's a very good goal.
Speaker 4: All right, let's go to a really quick break, because
Speaker 4: on the flip side, I have so many more questions
Speaker 4: for you. Don't go anywhere, all right, money direst We
Speaker 4: are back, and I want to know a bit more
Speaker 4: so before the break, you said that you've got some
Speaker 4: aging parents. Obviously one of your goals is to put
Speaker 4: a bathroom or a shower downstairs so that it can
Speaker 4: kind of be a bit self contained and older parents
Speaker 4: don't have to go up and downstairs. Moving forward, what
Speaker 4: does that caregiving role look like? I guess for your
Speaker 4: partner and for you, does it look like, you know,
Speaker 4: your partner's dad moving in full time?
Speaker 3: Does it look like your parents moving in full time? Like?
Speaker 3: What does that look like?
Speaker 2: That's a really good question, and that's something we've been
Speaker 2: speaking a lot about. My in laws have just bought
Speaker 2: a couple of acres pretty far from where we live
Speaker 2: a few hours away, so I don't anticipate them moving
Speaker 2: into our home, but at the moment, it just makes
Speaker 2: sense for them to live with us because they're still
Speaker 2: working in the city. I would expect one day my
Speaker 2: parents to possibly want to move in, and even if
Speaker 2: it's not full time, to come and stay with us
Speaker 2: when they need help. I grew up in a multi
Speaker 2: generational family. I believe that if we've got room for
Speaker 2: anybody in our home, they're welcome to use it. But
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure that that's really comfortable
Speaker 2: and accessible for them. So I think long term, I
Speaker 2: just want to have everything ready, and should they need
Speaker 2: in illness or in health to come and stay with us,
Speaker 2: I want them to just know that that's there for them.
Speaker 3: Oh I love that. I love that so much.
Speaker 4: It's interesting as well, because I feel like I've got
Speaker 4: a couple of friends who are Ukrainian and that's very
Speaker 4: common to have parents move in with them, and it's
Speaker 4: kind of like expected, whereas in the Australian culture it's
Speaker 4: not as expected. I feel like often we pum off
Speaker 4: our parents and like I would love for my parents
Speaker 4: to live with me. That's always been something that I
Speaker 4: have said to them. I'm like, yeah, one day I'll
Speaker 4: chuck you in the granny flat out the back and
Speaker 4: then you can come and look after my kids. And like,
Speaker 4: it's one of those things that I think would be
Speaker 4: so special, but it's not the way everybody sees it.
Speaker 4: Have you and your partner always been on the same
Speaker 4: page about this idea of multi generational households.
Speaker 2: We've been really open and flowed about it the whole time.
Speaker 2: My husband's one of six kids, he's the second oldest.
Speaker 2: He's very much a caregiver, and even choosing to have
Speaker 2: kids in our twenties was such a wild choice compared
Speaker 2: to our friends who were all going to Europe and whatever.
Speaker 2: I can't even name it because I didn't go clubbing
Speaker 2: when I was younger. Yeah, I think we've always moved
Speaker 2: in and out between their homes when we've needed to.
Speaker 2: We've been really privileged that they have the same attitude.
Speaker 2: So when we were renovating our home, we moved into
Speaker 2: a spare bedroom in his parents' house and we lived
Speaker 2: there for a couple of years while we were putting
Speaker 2: all of our money into the renovation. And we're kind
Speaker 2: of giving back now. So they're welcome to come stay
Speaker 2: with us if they need to.
Speaker 3: I love that so much.
Speaker 4: You mentioned before that you had kids in your early
Speaker 4: twenties and that was a decision that you and your
Speaker 4: partner made. In your letter into Us, you said I
Speaker 4: met my husband when we were nineteen on a group
Speaker 4: trip to Israel. How old were you when you decided
Speaker 4: to have babies, like, and what type of decision was
Speaker 4: that was at hard?
Speaker 2: It wasn't hard. I think the way that I was raised,
Speaker 2: everyone in my culture has kids really young. I've got
Speaker 2: cousins or their children are the same age as mine,
Speaker 2: if not older. Actually, my husband when I was eighteen
Speaker 2: i finished high school. I thought I'm free, I'm going
Speaker 2: to go travel the world. And then I went overseas
Speaker 2: two weeks later met him and that was it. Sold,
Speaker 2: sold done. We did long distance for four years. So
Speaker 2: while I was doing Manis, I was working part time
Speaker 2: so I could pay for flights. We flew back and
Speaker 2: forth every month, Melbourne to Brisbane. It's been a long ride.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, but that is so exciting and so wholesome.
Speaker 4: I actually love when I get to ask people like, oh,
Speaker 4: when did you decide to have babies, because even in
Speaker 4: my thirties now I think about having children, I'm like,
Speaker 4: what are people going to think about this teenage pregnancy
Speaker 4: I'll have.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's right.
Speaker 3: They will definitely think that's really irresponsible of me.
Speaker 4: Even though I am married owner house and my husband
Speaker 4: and I have both spoken openly about wanting children for
Speaker 4: a very long time, I still feel like that's really irresponsible,
Speaker 4: even though it's not.
Speaker 2: I think for me, it's always been this really clear
Speaker 2: vision where I wanted to have them young so that
Speaker 2: they could experience life with me for as long as
Speaker 2: they could. So I wanted to go on holidays with them,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to grow up with them. And I
Speaker 2: think I've been really lucky to do that.
Speaker 3: I love that. I love that so much. All right,
Speaker 3: let's get back to money.
Speaker 4: I want to know, do you have any investments, If so,
Speaker 4: what are they?
Speaker 3: If not, why not? And when I have my.
Speaker 2: Super I checked it the other day. It's at sixty
Speaker 2: nine thousand, which I'm pretty happy with.
Speaker 3: That is very exciting.
Speaker 2: It is exciting. But I've just written a big assignment
Speaker 2: about the super gender gap, and I got really fired
Speaker 2: up about it. And then I looked at how much
Speaker 2: my husband has, and it is way more. So I
Speaker 2: would love to grow mine. I called my salary sacrifice
Speaker 2: company the other week, and I'm going to start making
Speaker 2: extra contributions because I'd like to pump it up. I
Speaker 2: want to use all the compounding that I can while
Speaker 2: I'm young. And I've got a shares Us account. I
Speaker 2: used the sheese on the money code to sign up,
Speaker 2: and I invested one hundred dollars into a lithium company
Speaker 2: just to see what that's like. And now I have
Speaker 2: thirty six dollars.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, but lithium. Where did that?
Speaker 4: I guess Idea come from, because obviously she's a little
Speaker 4: bit temperamental.
Speaker 2: Didn't realize how temperamental. How to look at Chasy's and
Speaker 2: it said risk profile seven and I thought.
Speaker 3: Yolo, go harder, go home, Go harder, go home.
Speaker 2: Which has always been my attitude. Anyway, if you're going
Speaker 2: to do it, you just do it. I think I
Speaker 2: listened to one episode of Millennial Money and they were
Speaker 2: talking about call Lithium, and I just was like, done, Yep,
Speaker 2: that's my inn right.
Speaker 1: No worries.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to have a good chat with Gloody
Speaker 4: James Can. I have to let him know that that
Speaker 4: was a terrible option.
Speaker 2: It was. I literally every time I open it, I
Speaker 2: just watched the graph go lower. It's just a very
Speaker 2: steep down. But i haven't sold any of my shares,
Speaker 2: so I'm just going to hang in there and one
Speaker 2: day that little share will climb.
Speaker 4: I feel like that is definitely what I guess the
Speaker 4: advice would be is to sit and wait and see
Speaker 4: when it climbs back up, and potentially not advice, but
Speaker 4: potentially considered disposing of it when you're breaking even and
Speaker 4: maybe pick a more stable asset.
Speaker 2: Yep?
Speaker 4: Has that given you anxiety going straight into charess and
Speaker 4: picking an asset that kind of just went straight down?
Speaker 4: And you were like, Oh, I don't know if I'm
Speaker 4: very good at this investing thing, or has it scared
Speaker 4: you off, or has it made you feel more empowered
Speaker 4: or educated? Or I guess where are you at with
Speaker 4: your mentality for investing now?
Speaker 2: When I bought my shares, I felt like coin of
Speaker 2: the world. They were heading up. I was showing my kids,
Speaker 2: I was going, look at this, I've made twelve dollars.
Speaker 2: This is the best day of our money. Money win
Speaker 2: and then it just plummeted. It hasn't given me anxiety.
Speaker 2: I've listened to so many of your podcasts, and it's
Speaker 2: about time in the market, not timing the market. So
Speaker 2: I've just decided to hang in there, and it's fun
Speaker 2: to open that and watch it. It's really good practice
Speaker 2: watching it go downhill one hundred percent. It is. I
Speaker 2: expect one day to see that happening with bigger investments
Speaker 2: that I have, So it's just mentally preparing me for
Speaker 2: when I've got money to invest more.
Speaker 4: Love all right, tell me about debts. I know you
Speaker 4: have a mortgage that you haven't paid off. What does
Speaker 4: that look like? And what other debts.
Speaker 2: Have you got. The earliest step that I got was
Speaker 2: by HEX and that is sitting at twenty nine thousand.
Speaker 2: It was a little bit lower until I got indexed
Speaker 2: at seven percent, so that's pushed it up again. Yes,
Speaker 2: so all of the stuff that I paid off kind
Speaker 2: of came back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thankfully that was the ones off and hopefully indexation
Speaker 4: next year is much lower so it doesn't sting nearly
Speaker 4: as much.
Speaker 2: YEP. On top of my HEX, we took out a
Speaker 2: salary packaged car loan because we couldn't afford to buy
Speaker 2: a bigger car, but we had completely outgrown our little
Speaker 2: hatchback and we were tired of telling the kids they
Speaker 2: can't bring their bikes and we can't go on holidays
Speaker 2: because we just could not fit anything in that little car.
Speaker 2: We have a couple of years left to pay that off,
Speaker 2: and I think that would be fourteen thousand dollars as
Speaker 2: a bubble when that time runs out, and then our
Speaker 2: biggest debt is our mortgage. But we have about fifty
Speaker 2: percent equity.
Speaker 3: Now, so oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Because we flipped our house, we ended up having
Speaker 2: a lot of money to put down when we bought
Speaker 2: our townhouse, and also we chose to go many suburbs
Speaker 2: out from where we were because we wanted to make
Speaker 2: our money go further and we knew we wouldn't be
Speaker 2: buying again for a long time, and townhouses have gone
Speaker 2: up in value, so we've been really lucky. But I
Speaker 2: have to say, when we bought our home to renovate,
Speaker 2: we actually had to buy it with my husband's parents
Speaker 2: on the mortgage on the title, and I hadn't realized
Speaker 2: at the time that when you want to buy someone out,
Speaker 2: you actually have to pay stamp duty do and you've
Speaker 2: got to pay them out at market value. So we
Speaker 2: actually ended up I don't want to say losing a
Speaker 2: lot of money, because we wouldn't have bought without their help.
Speaker 3: But it wasn't the situation you'd envisaged.
Speaker 2: That's right, and it really slowed us down in selling
Speaker 2: because it took such a long time to buy them out.
Speaker 2: We would have moved a long time before that, but
Speaker 2: we we're just restricted by the steps we had to
Speaker 2: take first.
Speaker 4: Yeah, fair, and it's always good to discuss that upfront.
Speaker 4: I don't know the conversations you had before that, but
Speaker 4: if you were about to do something like that, I
Speaker 4: would say, please sit down with a good mortgage broker.
Speaker 4: I mean, I know some are Zella money, but please
Speaker 4: sit down with a good mortgage broker and go, well,
Speaker 4: what are the pros and cons of this? If you know,
Speaker 4: my parents go on the mortgage, what are my exit strategies?
Speaker 3: How will that work? So that it can all be mapped.
Speaker 4: Out, Because as much as it sounds like sunshine and
Speaker 4: roses at the start, and even if everyone's on exactly
Speaker 4: the same page, there are legalities about it, Like no
Speaker 4: one wants to pay stamp duty twice, and that's unfortunately
Speaker 4: what you had to do. Obviously, it got your bit ahead,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't the pathway that you thought it was
Speaker 4: going to be. And I think that the best thing
Speaker 4: in these circumstances is to be super educated and on
Speaker 4: top of what that means and how that works, because
Speaker 4: I'm not saying it would change your decision, but it
Speaker 4: could potentially change how you make that decision, or when
Speaker 4: you make that decision, or what those timelines look like.
Speaker 4: And I think that everybody deserves to have that upfront.
Speaker 4: So make sure if you're thinking about it, not necessarily
Speaker 4: you money direct, but people who want to learn from this,
Speaker 4: you actually have a really good conversation with a mortgage
Speaker 4: broker who can do all the numbers for you and explain, okay, cool,
Speaker 4: Well if you disposed of it, here, here's what stamp
Speaker 4: duty would look like, Here's what it would cost to
Speaker 4: buy them out. Here's what your mortgage repayments would look
Speaker 4: like after you do buy them ount if you've got
Speaker 4: enough equity, and all of that other fun stuff. So
Speaker 4: I think it's yeah, it's a very important thing to happen.
Speaker 4: But you now have your actual town house that you
Speaker 4: love and have fifty percent equity in. So it's not
Speaker 4: like you're doing badly, my friend.
Speaker 2: I'm really happy with how we're doing. We wouldn't have
Speaker 2: afforded the mortgage and our other home after we brought
Speaker 2: his parents out. It pushed it up so high that
Speaker 2: our hands were tired. We would have had to sell
Speaker 2: it either way, and at the current interest rate, there's
Speaker 2: no way we could have service that loan. So we're
Speaker 2: really lucky at the moment. It's not easy. Every dollar
Speaker 2: is accounted for, but we're not in a position where
Speaker 2: we have to sell.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Fair, all right. I want to know.
Speaker 4: I feel like you've probably got some very savvy savings tips,
Speaker 4: but I want to know, what do you think your
Speaker 4: best money habit is.
Speaker 2: I think my best money habit is I am open
Speaker 2: to being uncomfortable to reach my savings goals. It isn't
Speaker 2: everyone's ideal to move into a little bedroom upstairs at
Speaker 2: their in laws when they're newly married, but it's the
Speaker 2: only way that we could renovate a home and build
Speaker 2: our future wealth. While we were renovating, I took on
Speaker 2: every on call weekend night shift that I could, and
Speaker 2: that I would still go after work and scrape paint
Speaker 2: and rip up carpet and put the hard work in.
Speaker 2: So I think my best money habit is I'm always
Speaker 2: thinking about how to set us up for the future.
Speaker 2: And if that means that we miss out on a
Speaker 2: holiday now, but long term we're feeling safer than that's
Speaker 2: something that I'm really happy to do.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 4: Can we flip the narrative, though? Have you got any
Speaker 4: cheeky or naughty money habits?
Speaker 3: What's your worst one?
Speaker 2: I definitely have one, and my husband points this out
Speaker 2: all the time. I have a joke that my house
Speaker 2: is a hobby graveyard. I tend to get really excited
Speaker 2: on hobby.
Speaker 4: Hobby graveyard, Yeah, and that sounds really awful, but my hobbies.
Speaker 4: Have you just got a graveyard in your backyard that
Speaker 4: we need to like? Do we need to talk about this?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: It's more that I get really excited and hyper fixate
Speaker 2: on something and I decide I'm going to be the
Speaker 2: best at it, and I'm not just gonna buy like
Speaker 2: a little cheap keyboard. I bought a piano and guitars
Speaker 2: when I decided I was going to learn guitar.
Speaker 3: Okay, this is making a lot more sense.
Speaker 4: It's full of you have a graveyard for your hobbies
Speaker 4: that have passed away.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 4: Hobby is not graveyards, no, no, no, I just have
Speaker 4: a museum of hobbies that I started and I was
Speaker 4: certain that I would.
Speaker 2: Love and do them forever. And I've got a sewing
Speaker 2: machine and a treadmill and a piano and guitars and
Speaker 2: all sorts of things that were really expensive, and now
Speaker 2: I just get to smile at them as I walk by.
Speaker 3: I love that. I love that. So you're saying that
Speaker 3: they still spark joy, So is it a bad thing? Husband,
Speaker 3: They do spark joy exactly. Sit down. I love that
Speaker 3: so much. I feel like I can relate to that.
Speaker 4: I very much think that I've just got this idea
Speaker 4: that if I see something on TikTok or if I
Speaker 4: see something online, I'm like, I could do that.
Speaker 3: I could be great at that. And then I get it.
Speaker 3: And obviously you.
Speaker 4: Have to get all of the things for it, because
Speaker 4: you have to go all in, and then yep, you
Speaker 4: don't use it.
Speaker 2: Oh, I get all the accessories, and I'll never get
Speaker 2: like the entry level because I'm going to be really
Speaker 2: good at piano exactly.
Speaker 4: We are very good at the things that we do.
Speaker 4: I don't know where this audacity comes from, but I've
Speaker 4: just decided, you know what, I'd probably be good at that.
Speaker 2: And that's my home. You can just walk around and
Speaker 2: it's like a tour of all the hobbies that's okay
Speaker 2: I've picked up and then lovingly stepped away from.
Speaker 4: If we ever go into lockdown again, I think I
Speaker 4: might move in with you because I feel like it
Speaker 4: would be a very well resourced.
Speaker 3: Home to have, you know, a little bit of a
Speaker 3: waytime it.
Speaker 2: Is, and you're very welcome to move in. You can
Speaker 2: bring your kiddies. I have two cats of my own,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you. Yes, I've got a kitten. He's divine.
Speaker 3: My boys, I'm not.
Speaker 4: So they're social with each other and with humans. The
Speaker 4: second you introduce a different pet, they're like, get out.
Speaker 3: We are the Kings.
Speaker 2: That's fair, all right.
Speaker 4: I need to know at the very start of this episode,
Speaker 4: when I asked you, hey, like.
Speaker 3: What do you think your money habits would be graded?
Speaker 4: You gave yourself a B minus and then you said, ah,
Speaker 4: but that's because I have some self limiting beliefs. I
Speaker 4: want to know what are those self limiting beliefs and
Speaker 4: how did you identify them.
Speaker 2: I think I identified them when I saw jobs come
Speaker 2: up that I think that i'd be really good at
Speaker 2: and they pay well, and I instantly felt so uncomfortable
Speaker 2: about asking for more money and being worthy of earning more.
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of that comes from being
Speaker 2: raised in a way that I was always taught how
Speaker 2: to save money and be really frugal. I was always
Speaker 2: taught to turn the lights out. We never had the
Speaker 2: heater on when I was growing up, things like that.
Speaker 2: But I've never been given the tools to feel comfortable
Speaker 2: growing my wealth. And I think when I get offered money,
Speaker 2: I just freak out and I think, no, I've got
Speaker 2: a salary and it's a safe job, and I've got
Speaker 2: bills to pay, and I'll just stay here because it's comfortable.
Speaker 2: And I'd really like to be able to be uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: I'd really like to be brave and take those risks
Speaker 2: and know that I'm worthy of earning more.
Speaker 4: You one hundred percent, like a thousand percent, are so
Speaker 4: worthy of earning more. I feel like it's so good
Speaker 4: that you've been able to identify that. It makes me
Speaker 4: a bit sad because obviously, from my perspective, I'm like, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: you definitely deserve it, Like, go for that promotion, go
Speaker 4: for that other job, put yourself out there, obviously within reason,
Speaker 4: making sure that like everything's okay. But the worst thing
Speaker 4: someone can say is no, And is that the worst
Speaker 4: them saying oh no, thank you? There was a better candidate.
Speaker 4: You go, yeah, no worries. I put my hat in
Speaker 4: the ring. That's actually a really good thing. I love that.
Speaker 4: I want to know what steps can you take? So
Speaker 4: if you wanted to be an A plus? What steps
Speaker 4: would you have to take to get there? Oh, to
Speaker 4: get to an A plus?
Speaker 2: That's totally thrown me.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Oh that's okay.
Speaker 2: I thought you could be like, what is your what
Speaker 2: would you give yourself? And I'd be like, oh maybe
Speaker 2: a bee?
Speaker 4: Oh no, no, no, we hard and then I'm gonna
Speaker 4: make you regrade yourself after sit down.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Okay, how would I get to A plus?
Speaker 2: I honestly have no idea. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I feel like we need to do some inner work
Speaker 4: on believing in ourselves, my friends. Yeah, because everything you've
Speaker 4: told me, like I adore it, like you are obviously
Speaker 4: so caring and so kind and want to look after
Speaker 4: your you know, parents and have people move in with you.
Speaker 4: And your money story is honestly so interesting and I
Speaker 4: guess complex that I can see why you feel that way.
Speaker 4: But also look what you've done, Like you're already investing,
Speaker 4: you are completely across what you have in super you're
Speaker 4: already talking about adding more so that you don't have
Speaker 4: such a big gap between you and your husband, Like
Speaker 4: you're so clear on what your mortgage is and what
Speaker 4: you know. Salary packaging a car actually looked like and
Speaker 4: I mean, you're salary packaging your mortgage. So to me,
Speaker 4: I'm like, she's killing it, like she's doing so well.
Speaker 4: But obviously you don't feel that way because you know
Speaker 4: you've got some stuff that you want to work through.
Speaker 4: And this is one that I don't want to argue
Speaker 4: with you on because I go, oh, well, that's really valid.
Speaker 4: Like if you feel like you've got heaps of space
Speaker 4: to go, then you've got heaps of space to go.
Speaker 4: And so much of the time a grade is just
Speaker 4: it's so different for each and every single person. Because
Speaker 4: I could say, oh, I'm an A plus and people
Speaker 4: would smile and nod and agree. But I don't feel
Speaker 4: like I'm an A plus, like I'm good at money,
Speaker 4: but my gosh, I definitely could be so much better.
Speaker 4: But from the outside looking in, I think everybody would
Speaker 4: think I'm incredible, right like where she's on the money.
Speaker 4: Obviously I must be good with it, and I am
Speaker 4: in principle, But do what I say, not what I do.
Speaker 4: I think is definitely more the lesson here. So I'm
Speaker 4: not gonna argue with your bus. But having heard your
Speaker 4: story back, having had this conversation, do you want the
Speaker 4: opportunity to change it?
Speaker 2: I think I might bump it up to a B.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 4: I feel like that feels a little bit more comfortable.
Speaker 4: And that's not that far to an A plus, my
Speaker 4: friend at all. All right, unfortunately, that is or we
Speaker 4: have time.
Speaker 3: I'm for today, money dires. This has been a pleasure.
Speaker 3: I have loved learning about you.
Speaker 4: I have loved learning about your money story and how
Speaker 4: you grow up and all of.
Speaker 3: The stuff in between. So thank you, honestly, thank you
Speaker 3: so much. It has been a pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Victoria. I listen every morning, so it's going
Speaker 2: to be really exciting to listen to today's episode when
Speaker 2: we're done recording.
Speaker 4: I can promise you that when you listen to it back,
Speaker 4: you're going to be like, Oh, I'm an as Now
Speaker 4: You're going to upgrade yourself again.
Speaker 2: I promise.
Speaker 4: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 4: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 4: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 4: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 4: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
Speaker 4: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice.
Speaker 3: Tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 4: Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized representatives
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