Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud or
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money. The podcast
Speaker 2: lets you be pervy about other people's money habits for
Speaker 2: educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another episode of
Speaker 2: Money Dies, where we get to talk to one of
Speaker 2: our incredible She's on the Money community members all about
Speaker 2: their journey. Let's jump straight into it because we got
Speaker 2: a message this week and it sounded exactly like this, Dear,
Speaker 2: She's on the Money. I went to UNI to study
Speaker 2: property economics with the big dreams of working in property
Speaker 2: development and having my own portfolio despite graduating top of
Speaker 2: my class, life had other plans for me. An operation
Speaker 2: on my foot, three babies, COVID and reoccurring cancer meant
Speaker 2: I've never had the chance to use my degree, and
Speaker 2: the jobs I've held have never felt secure. Now I'm
Speaker 2: feeling stuck. I want to start a new career, but
Speaker 2: I know how hard that can be when you can
Speaker 2: only work part time. But with everything I've been through,
Speaker 2: the one thing I've learned is that you never know
Speaker 2: what's around the corner, and sometimes taking life day by
Speaker 2: day is more than okay. Money Diarist, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: I am genuinely so excited to learn a little bit
Speaker 2: more about your money story. As always, I kick off
Speaker 2: the show asking all of our money dirist, it's the
Speaker 2: exact same question, So let's start there, money tourist, if
Speaker 2: I asked you to give yourself a money grade from
Speaker 2: A three to F, what would you give yourself?
Speaker 4: Probably currently I reckon somewhere in the middle for like
Speaker 4: a C. I reckon I've gone up and down on
Speaker 4: that at times.
Speaker 2: Though, let's learn a little bit more about that. I'm
Speaker 2: not going to ask specifically about it yet because we'll
Speaker 2: go into that can you tell me a little bit
Speaker 2: more about your money story.
Speaker 4: So essentially, I probably gosh, ten or so years ago,
Speaker 4: studied a Bachelor of Business Property I hope to get
Speaker 4: into property development. At the time, I did quite well
Speaker 4: at UNIQ, got highest GPI my course, got a medal
Speaker 4: for that. Ooh, was you all looking pretty awesome? And
Speaker 4: I ended up starting to work in a credit union,
Speaker 4: which definitely wasn't for me.
Speaker 5: It wasn't my vibe.
Speaker 4: So I went back to the retail job I had
Speaker 4: during UNI, and then I started interviewing through a few
Speaker 4: property evaluation jobs and found out I needed a bone
Speaker 4: removed from my foot what which stopped me working for
Speaker 4: six months essentially, and then even after that I had
Speaker 4: to ease back.
Speaker 5: I couldn't stand full time on my feet.
Speaker 2: How do you discover? Ah, hey, money, darrist we would
Speaker 2: like to take a whole bone from your foot. She like,
Speaker 2: was your foot soul? Like?
Speaker 5: What was it was an extra one?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just had it? Did you have bonus bone?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Pretty much?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I said it was generally feel like a bonus.
Speaker 4: It would stop me walking properly.
Speaker 5: So I had that out. So I've been I probably
Speaker 5: should say as well.
Speaker 4: I've been with my husband since we were probably like fourteen,
Speaker 4: So through all of this time, he also went to
Speaker 4: UNI and also got a job out of UNI, so
Speaker 4: he was working through all this stuff for me and
Speaker 4: I also did come into a bit of inheritance, so
Speaker 4: we were able to once I had gone back a
Speaker 4: little bit into my retail job. Actually know I'm saying
Speaker 4: that I reckon. We bought a house before I had
Speaker 4: that surgery, so yeah, we use some of that inheritance,
Speaker 4: mostly his job.
Speaker 5: We always spent.
Speaker 4: About two hundred and eighty two thousand, so in today's market,
Speaker 4: quite a quite a cheap house just of entered the market.
Speaker 4: So that was a big win for us. At that point,
Speaker 4: we were pretty stoked. We were very good savers, very
Speaker 4: I don't like to this the word stitchy, but yeah,
Speaker 4: like we yeah, we're pretty stingy. We just lived within
Speaker 4: our means and we were pretty good savers back then.
Speaker 2: We called that frugal. We call that savvy. We can
Speaker 2: reframe that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, savvy, that's the right way. Yes, Yeah, yeah, she's savvy.
Speaker 2: She's smart with her money, she's strategic.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, And having studied property like I was all
Speaker 4: over it and knew exactly what to look for, so
Speaker 4: that helped us for sure. And then I actually found
Speaker 4: out while I was still kind of recovering from that
Speaker 4: foot surgery that I was pregnant, which very exciting.
Speaker 2: That is very exciting. Not so good with us are
Speaker 2: foot because like it's already not a comfortable experience.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean it wasn't too bad.
Speaker 4: I was starting to get back into it, but it
Speaker 4: did just mean I couldn't work full time, so I
Speaker 4: wasn't eligible for paper rental eve, I hadn't been able
Speaker 4: to get back into working, so in the end, yeah,
Speaker 4: I just had to work my few hours a week
Speaker 4: and try and save enough money to have a baby
Speaker 4: without any pay per rental leave. And then obviously going
Speaker 4: into that knowing I didn't really have a good job
Speaker 4: or a career set up with now the challenges of
Speaker 4: parenting and motherhood and the fact that it would make
Speaker 4: it quite difficult to get into full time work, especially
Speaker 4: within the property sector.
Speaker 5: I'm in South.
Speaker 4: Australia, not as many options as say the East Coast,
Speaker 4: for example, so that also limited it, but especially with
Speaker 4: part time work, so I would either need to kind
Speaker 4: of be in full time and put my daughter in
Speaker 4: care full time, which wasn't something I really felt was
Speaker 4: right for me. So I ended up getting just a
Speaker 4: sales job when she was about ten months old, and
Speaker 4: at that point, like I was selling wedding gowns. So
Speaker 4: it was good, it was fun, it wasn't I kind
Speaker 4: of liked that there wasn't too much sort of pressure
Speaker 4: and I could go home and be mum and then
Speaker 4: bring in a little bit of extra money. But at
Speaker 4: that point then COVID hit, and I also was pregnant
Speaker 4: with my second daughter, and she was a much rougher pregnancy,
Speaker 4: but also the bridal store I ended up closing down
Speaker 4: just after COVID hit. Oh no, yeah, they were about
Speaker 4: to sell the business anyway, and then obviously when everything
Speaker 4: turned they ended up just closing. So luckily it was
Speaker 4: around the time I was going on maternity leave anyway,
Speaker 4: but I knew I wasn't going back to a job,
Speaker 4: but I was able to get paid parentally for that time,
Speaker 4: so we were in a much better kind of standing
Speaker 4: that time around good.
Speaker 2: I was like, did you get the parental leave this time? Like,
Speaker 2: please tell me that you did.
Speaker 5: It makes such a difference because I.
Speaker 2: Know for some people who are like, oh, like it's
Speaker 2: minimum wage, it doesn't matter, but like, like it's the
Speaker 2: thing that takes the weight off your shoulders, like you
Speaker 2: just don't feel like your hamstrongly in higher time, Like
Speaker 2: it is so powerful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And we were able to save half of that
Speaker 4: so that we could kind of extend it out because
Speaker 4: we were able to kind of get by on my
Speaker 4: husband's wage. His wage is pretty decent he as an engineer,
Speaker 4: but it did just mean we could put a bit
Speaker 4: aside as well to extend the time I had off.
Speaker 4: It was sort of after that point that everything kind
Speaker 4: of as much as it already kind of felt a
Speaker 4: little bit crazy, it went even more so. So I
Speaker 4: ended up being diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker 5: When my daughter was probably just over a year old,
Speaker 5: I think at that point.
Speaker 4: So I think I just actually had a big interview
Speaker 4: at a job i'd really hoped to get. It was
Speaker 4: full time, but it was really at that point I
Speaker 4: resided that's the only way I was going to get
Speaker 4: into property. And I got pretty closely and I had
Speaker 4: a fair few interviews and I unfortunately did miss out.
Speaker 4: But blow and behold, I think the next day I
Speaker 4: got the call to say that we need to take
Speaker 4: this out.
Speaker 5: It looks like it probably is cancer.
Speaker 4: And if I had gotten that job, I wouldn't have
Speaker 4: been able to do it anyway, So I suppose it
Speaker 4: kind of.
Speaker 2: The universe had a way of just like making it
Speaker 2: not feel like you missed out and had to say
Speaker 2: no because of that. But like that is just so trash.
Speaker 2: So you had two kids, one was one and what
Speaker 2: one was three? Is that right? Yes, that's right, just
Speaker 2: like doing some mental maths and going, okay, well she
Speaker 2: said you baby here and then she did this, and
Speaker 2: then she.
Speaker 5: Did the Yeah, I know there's a two years between them.
Speaker 2: Yet, but like one in a three year old and
Speaker 2: you get diagnosed with cancer, that is shit. I am
Speaker 2: so sorry. Tell me a bit more about that journey.
Speaker 4: So it was a relatively kind of simple, like I
Speaker 4: just had to have surgery.
Speaker 5: They removed it so it was actually in my neck.
Speaker 4: It's quite a rare form in my salary gland, so
Speaker 4: there's not in a like a double edged sword. There
Speaker 4: was no like keybo doesn't work on it. So there
Speaker 4: was limited treatment options. So in a way that was good,
Speaker 4: but also it meant really all they could do was surgery,
Speaker 4: So I just had surgery healed. My next few scams
Speaker 4: over the following months came back all fine, so they
Speaker 4: kind of gave me to go ahead when.
Speaker 5: I said, oh, would it be okay?
Speaker 4: Do you think if I had another baby and They're like, yeah, no,
Speaker 4: everything's looking good.
Speaker 5: You're set. That's fine.
Speaker 4: I mean, I always knew there was a possibility it
Speaker 4: would come back, but I think we all felt pretty positive.
Speaker 5: It was small. They've got it early, so I did, probably.
Speaker 4: Before I got pregnant. I did get a new job
Speaker 4: working at a car dealership and again through COVID. That
Speaker 4: was a fun time when cars were like eighteen month waits.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like, I'm here to sell cars, but I
Speaker 2: have no cars to sell. Hello, welcome, Would you like
Speaker 2: a coffee?
Speaker 4: It was I got the fun job of like updating
Speaker 4: everyone and telling everyone that they would have to wait
Speaker 4: another few months, and they were delayed even more so
Speaker 4: it was quite stressful. But it was also the time
Speaker 4: we were wearing masks a lot, right, so I started
Speaker 4: having some symptoms twitching in my mouth. Luckily no one
Speaker 4: could see me because I would have looked like a
Speaker 4: complete lunatic. But we then went to kind of investigate
Speaker 4: what was causing that. They thought it could have just
Speaker 4: been a side effect from the surgery, but unfortunately, well,
Speaker 4: they did just scan actually when I was pregnant with
Speaker 4: my third child, and it looked okay, but I did
Speaker 4: request they do it again once he was born, because
Speaker 4: I couldn't do the contrast and die while pregnant. So
Speaker 4: I had sort of gone on maternity leave at that point,
Speaker 4: so I was intending to go back to this job.
Speaker 4: And then we found out when he was probably two
Speaker 4: months old and I had that scan done again, that
Speaker 4: it was back, and so this time I had to
Speaker 4: have surgery again and then also radiation treatment, but it
Speaker 4: was quite a substantial one of the biggest thing. I
Speaker 4: went for seven weeks every day to have radiation and
Speaker 4: she couldn't really eat.
Speaker 5: It affects your energy and things, so.
Speaker 2: That kind of yeah, and you've got three babies, Like,
Speaker 2: you've got three little kids at home, which is exhausting
Speaker 2: in itself, Like you're probably stressed out of your brain
Speaker 2: because you're thinking, what the hell am I going to do?
Speaker 2: Like that all adds to oh my goodness, Like I
Speaker 2: just want to scoop you up and be like what
Speaker 2: can I do? How many Lasagnas. Do you need I know, well, I.
Speaker 5: Mean it goes on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we really got a bit too used to it,
Speaker 4: like it's so normal to me now and in a
Speaker 4: terrible way.
Speaker 5: But I suppose also I'm at peace with it in
Speaker 5: a way.
Speaker 4: But yeah, So my boss called me, I think like
Speaker 4: just around I'd got started treatment and wanted to work
Speaker 4: out when I might want to come back.
Speaker 5: And I did say to him, look, we've just found
Speaker 5: this out. I've got to have treatment.
Speaker 4: He said, no worries, Like course back when you're all
Speaker 4: sorted and you're ready kind of to.
Speaker 5: Yeah, get back to work.
Speaker 4: So I waited a few months, waited to treatment was
Speaker 4: over and I'd regained a bit of energy and called
Speaker 4: them and he decided that there was a downturn in
Speaker 4: trade and that I would be terminated. And because I
Speaker 4: was casual it, Yeah, it wasn't a lot I could
Speaker 4: could do about it. And even if I could, I
Speaker 4: think it wasn't worth the wasn't worth the energy. I
Speaker 4: didn't have much energy at that point.
Speaker 2: I don't want to work for someone who does that.
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, but like, if this ever happened to
Speaker 2: someone in my team, like and I'm a small business,
Speaker 2: I would be bending over backwards. Like and the fact
Speaker 2: that you called and said, hey, I feel like I'm
Speaker 2: ready to return to work, Like you just know that
Speaker 2: people in that situation you would have been going above
Speaker 2: and beyond because like you're just so excited to get
Speaker 2: back into work. You're like probably so ready, like it's
Speaker 2: just something that you need. And for him to do that,
Speaker 2: no trash human. We don't want to associate with that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, essentially kind of I was like, Yeah, I really
Speaker 4: don't want to go back into that kind of vibe anyways,
Speaker 4: So let.
Speaker 5: That kind of go.
Speaker 4: We at that point, I probably need to go backwards
Speaker 4: a little bit. So while I was working while I
Speaker 4: was pregnant, we did also buy a second house, so
Speaker 4: we moved to a bigger house. So we essentially we
Speaker 4: are amazing broker, A really good friend of ours was
Speaker 4: able to manage to get everything to work so that
Speaker 4: we could keep our previous house. We refinanced and turn
Speaker 4: that into an investment. Rented that out, which was awesome,
Speaker 4: didn't turn out to be very awesome. We had terrible
Speaker 4: tenants and a terrible property manager, and it was just
Speaker 4: a nightmare.
Speaker 2: That's being kicked while you're down, You're like, I'm going
Speaker 2: through a lot right now. I do not need this.
Speaker 4: Yes, we do have a bit of a running joke
Speaker 4: that there's gonna be some kind of curse because it
Speaker 4: would always just come all at once, like yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 4: But yeah, to the point, like even the property managers
Speaker 4: admitted they'd done such a terrible job. They did refund
Speaker 4: us ten weeks of our property management fees, so that
Speaker 4: was kind of great, but also like they didn't do
Speaker 4: inspections for like the first six months I think, and
Speaker 4: it was Yeah, we had the tenants were terrible when
Speaker 4: we got the house back, so we did go on
Speaker 4: to sell it one year after when I lost my job.
Speaker 5: We did.
Speaker 4: Interest rates had gone up by that point quite significantly.
Speaker 4: We were just having a third child, and as much
Speaker 4: as you know, we're pretty grateful from our husband's income,
Speaker 4: it certainly wasn't enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even with just like the stress, no, thank you,
Speaker 2: like let's dispose of this and just take a lot of.
Speaker 4: The pressure exactly, and especially with like added medical expenses
Speaker 4: and things like that, we were just like, no, it's
Speaker 4: too much. And because we were having such a nightmare
Speaker 4: with the tenants and them not paying rent and things
Speaker 4: like that. We decided we just couldn't. Yeah, even if
Speaker 4: we could make it work financially, we.
Speaker 2: Don't want to. We don't want to.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we sold it, which was a journey in
Speaker 4: its own, but at least eventually we did so.
Speaker 5: And luckily it was after the market had sent to
Speaker 5: take off, so we got after we refinanced.
Speaker 4: As I said, we bought it for two hundred and
Speaker 4: a two thousand, and I think we sold in the
Speaker 4: end for.
Speaker 5: I reckon it was six fifty.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's pretty okay, but.
Speaker 4: We had refinanced for about four eighty, so I think
Speaker 4: after all the fees and stuff, we ended up with
Speaker 4: like around two hundred thousand dollars back in our pocket.
Speaker 4: And I thought, oh my gosh, that's amazing. That takes
Speaker 4: a load off. That will kind of give us a buffer.
Speaker 4: I then found out I'd be having well essentially it
Speaker 4: said it's been anotherst of four or five surgeries since then,
Speaker 4: so we were like, I won't go back to work.
Speaker 5: We'll just kind of have that as a buffer. And yeah.
Speaker 4: So unfortunately though, and as cost of living obviously hit,
Speaker 4: I kind of kept turning a bit of a blind
Speaker 4: high to it, and that money unfortunately got chewed.
Speaker 5: Off a lot quicker than I would get to a bit.
Speaker 4: So I definitely to regret not going back and probably
Speaker 4: making a few changes earlier on to save us a
Speaker 4: bit of money, because yeah, we did go out and
Speaker 4: buying your car without a loan, like that's always been
Speaker 4: important to us.
Speaker 5: We never wanted a loan for a car. That was
Speaker 5: just sort of one of our values. We did that.
Speaker 4: We renovated a kitchen, which took a chunk of it out,
Speaker 4: We had to pay off a heck's dead, a few
Speaker 4: things like that, So it did get chewed up pretty
Speaker 4: quickly by a few bigger things as well. Like it's
Speaker 4: amazing how quickly money can diminish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it feels like it just like falls through fingers.
Speaker 2: You're like, hold on, hold on, that was two hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. How on earth did that get lost? And
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden you're like, hold on, you
Speaker 2: do the maths and then unfortunately the math checks out
Speaker 2: and you're like, oh that's how like, oh.
Speaker 4: Yes, unfortunately I only decided to do the maths on
Speaker 4: sort of how much like obviously I kind of knew
Speaker 4: cost of living was growing up in that sort of
Speaker 4: probably about a year there where I kind of just
Speaker 4: let our finances go, just ignored it, let the bills
Speaker 4: go up, like without really you know, checking on whether
Speaker 4: we could be getting cheaper insurance or whether we were
Speaker 4: having the best price for all our bills. Really we
Speaker 4: wanted to get sold, but I put it off for
Speaker 4: a year and I regret that immensely because we finally
Speaker 4: got it and we were paying. I think our predicted
Speaker 4: last quarterly bill was eighteen hundred dollars for the three months,
Speaker 4: and now it's looking like it'll be about three or
Speaker 4: four hundred dollars for this quarter. Now we've got solar,
Speaker 4: so it's massive difference. So they're the sort of things
Speaker 4: like I do kick myself for not doing earlier.
Speaker 2: You can't crucify yourself for not knowing.
Speaker 5: Exactly yes, so.
Speaker 2: It's wasted energy, and like we don't have time for that.
Speaker 2: So tell me how are you now? Because that's a
Speaker 2: lot Like you got to the part where you know
Speaker 2: the cancer was back, your third baby was two months old.
Speaker 4: What happened so so far cancer wise, it's been clear.
Speaker 4: I'll have my next lot of scancer check ups. So
Speaker 4: they say I'm the most checked patient at the hospital
Speaker 4: in their department, And I don't know if that's a compliment.
Speaker 2: Or I don't know how i'd take that either.
Speaker 4: Neither way, It's good that they wanted to be pretty closely.
Speaker 4: So so far, so good in that regard. Just stealing
Speaker 4: with side effects still from treatment. I also am a
Speaker 4: Bracker one carrier, so the breast cancer bearing cancer gene.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So the other surgeries I've had were four a bilateral
Speaker 4: preventative mistiketo me essentially, So there were complications with the
Speaker 4: first one.
Speaker 2: No, that is not what you deserve, like to make
Speaker 2: that decision to be like, all right, well, I'm going
Speaker 2: to be here for my family. I'm going to be
Speaker 2: here for my kids. I'm going to have this very
Speaker 2: life changing surgery that is preventative. And then they messed
Speaker 2: that up. Are you kidding? That is rude?
Speaker 5: Right, So I had to go and do it all
Speaker 5: over again.
Speaker 4: They had to reput these expanders that were called in
Speaker 4: and about seven weeks ago I had the actual Finally,
Speaker 4: almost year later, had the expanders replaced for the implants.
Speaker 4: So hopefully most of that surgery now out of the way,
Speaker 4: and then just last week I had the other preventative
Speaker 4: surgery for the Brakawe gene, which is a radical hysterectomy.
Speaker 5: So yeah, that one was from with me. It was
Speaker 5: like a week notice, so that one was a lot
Speaker 5: more to come to terms with.
Speaker 2: Why was it sprung on you? Was it just like
Speaker 2: the public system or like, by the way, we've got
Speaker 2: a spot or that. Yeah, okay, sort of.
Speaker 4: So I did sign the paperwork like two years ago
Speaker 4: to consent to the surgery, but it was all decided
Speaker 4: hormone wise and everything. It's best to do the other
Speaker 4: surgeries first, so it was kind of put off. And
Speaker 4: then it actually changed apartments within the hospital, so it
Speaker 4: was a bit of a crazy kind of thing and
Speaker 4: they could get me in sooner. We discussed the end
Speaker 4: of May, but when they called, they said, no, there's
Speaker 4: theater closures. Then when it's called in flu season, we
Speaker 4: put things on hold. So it's either now or probably
Speaker 4: the end of the year.
Speaker 2: You're all, well, let's go, they say, my first radio Yeah, because.
Speaker 4: In a monthst all that I actually taught the end
Speaker 4: of last year was like right, like, we really need
Speaker 4: some more income here with chewing through that savings and
Speaker 4: I applied for a temporary job for the election doing
Speaker 4: some admin assistant work.
Speaker 5: And I got that.
Speaker 4: So I started that earlier this year, which was awesome,
Speaker 4: and then when I found out i'd be having the
Speaker 4: first surgery, I thought, well, it'll probably be like in
Speaker 4: line with the election and I'll probably be finished.
Speaker 5: But they were really they were amazing.
Speaker 4: They said, no, just let us know when you're ready
Speaker 4: to come back, if there's things you can do without
Speaker 4: heavy lifting, things like that, like, we can get you
Speaker 4: back when you're ready.
Speaker 5: But then literally the day before I was meant.
Speaker 4: To go back is when I I've got the phone
Speaker 4: call to say we're going to do this next surgery
Speaker 4: next week. So I ended up pretty well having to
Speaker 4: quit because by the time that's the surgery recovery period's over,
Speaker 4: obviously you've had the election now and there was a
Speaker 4: little bit of work after it. But yes, it's pretty
Speaker 4: much lined up with that. So unfortunately, it was an
Speaker 4: incredible job and I was loving it and I had to, yeah,
Speaker 4: leave that one. So the one positive though, is now
Speaker 4: it's all out of the way, I can hopefully finally
Speaker 4: a little bit of time and the ability now to
Speaker 4: actually get a job and maybe actually start a career.
Speaker 2: I just feel like that is a lot for one
Speaker 2: person to carry. How are you, like, because that's a
Speaker 2: lot to go through, my friend.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, there's been a lot, to be honest, sometimes
Speaker 4: I think I probably just ignored this blitter.
Speaker 5: Just ignore it associate. Probably not the best thing to do.
Speaker 4: But no, I'm pretty good considering like I grew up.
Speaker 4: My mum had cancer my whole childhood and past when
Speaker 4: I was quite young as well. So as much as
Speaker 4: that was rrible, it kind of put a lot of
Speaker 4: things in perspective for me and to seeing her go
Speaker 4: through it, and she was so incredibly strong and resilient.
Speaker 4: I think that set me up to be in much
Speaker 4: the same mindset. Really, as terrible as it is.
Speaker 2: No, but that's also just like so nice to have
Speaker 2: had like a positive role model in that space. And
Speaker 2: like I'm not saying that that is good, like it
Speaker 2: is really not. I'm so sorry your mum went through that,
Speaker 2: but I can see how that must be really, I
Speaker 2: guess soothing in a way to be like, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: Like I really resonate with my mum, like she's not
Speaker 2: around anymore, but I really feel her presence, and I
Speaker 2: really feel like I'm guided by how she acted, and
Speaker 2: that's kind of, in a way, morbidly beautiful.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: Like, Yeah, a lot of the time people do ask
Speaker 4: how I do it or how I cope, and it's
Speaker 4: just you just do. Like it's with any challenge life
Speaker 4: throws at you, I suppose you kind of you don't
Speaker 4: have a choice.
Speaker 5: You just have to find a way through it.
Speaker 4: But I think the biggest thing has been that I've
Speaker 4: been able to find that you're I suppose in you know,
Speaker 4: having three kids and watching them grow as much as
Speaker 4: it's also been incredibly difficult, especially all my husband as well,
Speaker 4: because he's been working full.
Speaker 5: Time, doing a lot of caring for me a.
Speaker 4: Lot of the kids, like carry the kids and you know,
Speaker 4: cleaning and things. So I mean through that year last
Speaker 4: year where we had that extra money in the bank account,
Speaker 4: we had a weekly cleaner, and they're the sort of
Speaker 4: things that probably did you have that money, which I
Speaker 4: don't regret because it did make take a lot of
Speaker 4: file plates and in that time. But yeah, it's when
Speaker 4: you go back and you kind of scan the bank
Speaker 4: accounts and you're like, how did all this money disappear
Speaker 4: and you go, Okay, there's all these little things that
Speaker 4: just add up and yeah, so we've had to really
Speaker 4: reassess that now, So.
Speaker 2: What does life look like moving forward? Because I'm assuming
Speaker 2: having a full by ladder all masterectomy and also a
Speaker 2: full hysterectomy. Stuff doesn't end there. Like there would be
Speaker 2: a lot of like hormone replacement therapy and things that
Speaker 2: you need to go through moving forward. And I'm glad
Speaker 2: on the like mistectomy side of things, like you've gone
Speaker 2: through the expanders and now you've got your plans, Like
Speaker 2: what are the next steps when it comes to your
Speaker 2: health now, I.
Speaker 4: Mean there's still a few I've got a couple of
Speaker 4: other underlying conditions. So for me, it'll be I mean,
Speaker 4: even with my cancer, it's pretty much a lifelong monitoring.
Speaker 5: For that one.
Speaker 4: It is one of the few cancers that's actually more
Speaker 4: likely to come back over time, so the likelihood of
Speaker 4: it coming back increases each year. So I'll be monitored
Speaker 4: for life for that. So we kind of know that
Speaker 4: I'm always going to have a bit of that medical
Speaker 4: scans and you know that big portion it's just sort
Speaker 4: of sitting there.
Speaker 5: Always going to be a part of my life.
Speaker 4: So I think I've kind of confident with the fact
Speaker 4: that I will probably struggle to ever work full time,
Speaker 4: both with the amount of medical appointments I have and
Speaker 4: also with the level of fatigue and other symptoms are
Speaker 4: now our experience is that it's probably not going to
Speaker 4: be practical unless I can can find the right job.
Speaker 5: I suppose, you know, nothing's impossible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, But yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Think I've come to tensify, especially well I've got young
Speaker 4: kids taking that pressure of wanting to find a full
Speaker 4: time job and career.
Speaker 5: Like, I think the hardest thing is that I'd.
Speaker 4: Really like to start a career, but I just I
Speaker 4: suppose I don't really know how to do that going
Speaker 4: into something part time. So I feel like so many
Speaker 4: jobs are full time and totally understandable as to why,
Speaker 4: especially when entering them. So I think, especially with anything
Speaker 4: in my background, I suppose so or anywhere I have
Speaker 4: transferable skills because I don't necessarily want to go back
Speaker 4: to sales or anything like that. I'd really like to
Speaker 4: start something new and kind of Yeah, but if I've
Speaker 4: learned anything is that you never really know what's around
Speaker 4: the corner anyway. So I think both with money and
Speaker 4: me thinking probably a year and a half ago, they oh, yes,
Speaker 4: we don't have to worry about money anymore.
Speaker 5: We've got this money enough savores account.
Speaker 4: We've got that buffer to now kind of having a
Speaker 4: terrible wake up call like okay, that buffer can disappear
Speaker 4: quickly if you're not careful, and now having to go
Speaker 4: back into a bit more like living to paycheck to
Speaker 4: paycheck kind of levels of you know, scrutinizing how much
Speaker 4: money we're spending, being savvy those sorts of things, less
Speaker 4: impulsi wittnesses, which I'm very good at. But yes, I
Speaker 4: think there's a lot of things I realized, like, yeah,
Speaker 4: money comes and goes, things will come out of nowhere.
Speaker 4: We did make one investment in a business that we
Speaker 4: still have that money sitting there, so we know we've got.
Speaker 5: That kind of buffer as well.
Speaker 4: So that's yeah, Like I feel like we've done like
Speaker 4: a few good decisions and then we've made a few
Speaker 4: poor decisions, but hopefully in the longer term even out
Speaker 4: and we can just kind of sit somewhere in the
Speaker 4: middle and at least be comfortable. And yeah, so I
Speaker 4: don't really know what the future holds is very much
Speaker 4: a question mark.
Speaker 5: But yeah, just take it each day.
Speaker 2: And I don't like each week really as it comes
Speaker 2: so totally. So tell me a little bit more about
Speaker 2: your babies. How old are they? How are they doing?
Speaker 2: Like there's three of them, you lucky duck.
Speaker 4: Yes, they're pretty good. My eldest is now seven and
Speaker 4: she so she's in school. My middle daughter is about
Speaker 4: to tend five in ten days, I think, so she'll
Speaker 4: start midyear reception.
Speaker 5: That's what we call it here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like kinder here. I think like prep.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's called different everywhere. And
Speaker 5: then my son, he is two, and he is.
Speaker 4: Like I reckon, he could put Johnny Knox with a
Speaker 4: shame like his. There's a reason I've started to go
Speaker 4: so great since he was born.
Speaker 5: I think.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's any of the hell stuff. I
Speaker 4: think it's the fact that he probably always gives me
Speaker 4: multiple heart attacks a day.
Speaker 2: He was born to do pakol.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he'll be very good at that, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: Always jumping off things he should have been On Easter,
Speaker 4: he fell down like a couple of steps onto the concrete,
Speaker 4: gone up and kept running. I was like, I think
Speaker 4: we should probably like it.
Speaker 5: You checked like not. He was just often going like.
Speaker 2: He's not faved by anything that cute, Like, yeah, I
Speaker 2: feel like my son Harvey's probably had a call from
Speaker 2: your son and been like this is how we do it.
Speaker 2: Because there's a running joke in my family that there's
Speaker 2: always something going on with Harvey, like he's always got
Speaker 2: like a bump on his head or a scratch or something,
Speaker 2: because he just he doesn't stop. Like the second this
Speaker 2: kid learned to walk, he was like walking, I'm going
Speaker 2: to run into things, like just ran full pelt at
Speaker 2: literally everything, and you're just like, why do you have
Speaker 2: no level of self preservation? Like none?
Speaker 5: Right, I know they don't, like no sense of like fear.
Speaker 2: Really he falls over like your son and I just go,
Speaker 2: are you all right? And he's like running off in
Speaker 2: the other direction, and you're like that looks like it
Speaker 2: could have been a concussion exactly.
Speaker 4: Yes, I have too many of those moments or my
Speaker 4: daughters will like to eat him on as well. To
Speaker 4: be honest, he's less scared of climbing play equipment playgrounds
Speaker 4: than my middle daughter is, Like no fear at all,
Speaker 4: but his absolute joy, like it makes us laugh constantly,
Speaker 4: just also levels that out with a little bit of
Speaker 4: fear and terror at the same time.
Speaker 5: Anxiety.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, So talk to me, what big money
Speaker 2: goals do you have at the moment? I feel like
Speaker 2: we've talked a lot about money, but like what are
Speaker 2: your goals? What are you currently working towards?
Speaker 5: So we like to do a.
Speaker 4: Lot of DIY renovating. That was a big part of
Speaker 4: the reason. Like I love property, I always have. And
Speaker 4: while I recovering this time around, I got back into
Speaker 4: watching a few like Selling Houses Australia and other renovation shows,
Speaker 4: so I've now got myself back into the mindset.
Speaker 5: I also watched a movie that really inspired me.
Speaker 2: What was it.
Speaker 5: It's called The Life List, I think.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, the Life List.
Speaker 4: Yes, and it inspired me so much to kind of revisit,
Speaker 4: especially having cancer, like the person I was pre cancer,
Speaker 4: but also younger me, and like what I really wanted
Speaker 4: to do and where I've kind of ended up versus that,
Speaker 4: And I kind of realized my goals were really properly
Speaker 4: related or I always really wanted to be interior designer.
Speaker 4: People always said you're so creative why did you end
Speaker 4: up going into business?
Speaker 5: Like why did you go for that business side? And
Speaker 5: I like both, to be honest, so I don't know.
Speaker 4: I could see maybe a bit of study to try
Speaker 4: and get me into maybe something bit more creative or
Speaker 4: residential drafting, like maybe something sort of similar but different,
Speaker 4: and hopefully get myself a job would probably go number one.
Speaker 4: But also, yeah, we've been doing a lot of renovating
Speaker 4: in both our previous house and this house. And we've
Speaker 4: always said though that we want to own maybe like
Speaker 4: a bit of landist and me acreage, and my dream's
Speaker 4: always been to like own a B and B. So
Speaker 4: that's the kind of probably next goal at some point,
Speaker 4: And really I think that would be ideal having some
Speaker 4: sort of passive income if my health does ever turn
Speaker 4: around again, having something that we kind of can keep
Speaker 4: running relatively easily, especially because whenever I do need.
Speaker 5: To be at home a lot, like at least already.
Speaker 4: Be be there, I suppose. So that's probably our other
Speaker 4: longer term goal. Definitely not in the short term. Still
Speaker 4: got a lot of probably saving and pivoting to do.
Speaker 4: We factored in things like a couple of games tax
Speaker 4: so we because we lived in our last house, we
Speaker 4: didn't need to pay I think like the seven year rule.
Speaker 5: I think it's cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you would have got like a seven year exemption.
Speaker 2: Did you own it for more than seven years? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: so there would be like a little bit of CGT payable.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then we sold it like within a year,
Speaker 4: I think, So we didn't really have it as.
Speaker 5: A rental for very long at all.
Speaker 4: So but now if we sell this house within seven years,
Speaker 4: we have to pay capital gains on this house.
Speaker 5: So I always have that in the back of my mind.
Speaker 2: We maybe want to hold it for a little bit longer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. So this is a much bigger house on
Speaker 5: a much smaller block.
Speaker 4: So my husband lost his shed and a few things
Speaker 4: like that, which he would really love to have back
Speaker 4: as a.
Speaker 5: Big shared or something.
Speaker 4: So I suppose and the kids we have enough few
Speaker 4: but it's not as big as what we had before,
Speaker 4: so I.
Speaker 5: Think a lot of us.
Speaker 4: We only have three bedrooms for the girls share, so
Speaker 4: I think there's a few things there we would eventually,
Speaker 4: you know, the next few years, like to probably get
Speaker 4: a bit more space.
Speaker 2: But I like that you're thinking about it as well,
Speaker 2: and you're clearly thinking about it relatively strategically, because I
Speaker 2: don't think a lot of people think about that CGT rule.
Speaker 2: They don't go, okay, cool, we got an exemption on
Speaker 2: the first property, which means we need to wait for
Speaker 2: seven years for the second property. They're probably listening to
Speaker 2: this going, oh, I didn't know that was a thing,
Speaker 2: And that means that I can see your strategy brain
Speaker 2: working out what's going on and like what your next
Speaker 2: move might look like.
Speaker 4: Yes, I've always said, at least if I didn't end
Speaker 4: up in a property job or career, that that degree
Speaker 4: has already paid itself off in the knowledge I had
Speaker 4: around purchasing and selling and capital gaze like all that
Speaker 4: sort of stuff. Like that knowledge in itself has definitely helped,
Speaker 4: not to say that you have to study a property
Speaker 4: degree to kind of be able to do well in property,
Speaker 4: of course, by any means, but it definitely helped.
Speaker 2: No, but you don't know what you don't know. Having
Speaker 2: the benefit of understanding is very helpful. Money dis let's
Speaker 2: go to a really quick break because on the flip side,
Speaker 2: I want to talk a little bit more about investing
Speaker 2: and debt and then like what your best and worst
Speaker 2: money habits are so don't go anywhere, all right, money Dice.
Speaker 2: We are back and you I feel like your life
Speaker 2: has been an absolute roller coaster, like and it's probably
Speaker 2: felt like that from your perspective, and you are so positive,
Speaker 2: like you are literally so like oh no, Like I
Speaker 2: I've just come to terms with it. I asked you
Speaker 2: how you're doing. She's like, yeah, I'm fine, kind of
Speaker 2: burying my head in this sad like how you are
Speaker 2: carrying this, I don't know, And it like reminds me
Speaker 2: of that quote like just because it's heavy doesn't mean
Speaker 2: it's easy to carry. And I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people think that, you know, Oh well, she says, it's fine,
Speaker 2: like it must be. Like I just I'm in awe
Speaker 2: of you, Like I'm just like, can we go off
Speaker 2: coffee or something when I'm in the same state, Like
Speaker 2: I just want to be friends with you just seem
Speaker 2: like a hustler, like even to be like, oh cool,
Speaker 2: Like I went ahead and just had a biladd or
Speaker 2: a mastectomy, and I also had a full hysterectomy. Like
Speaker 2: those are giant surgeries, and I know to have made
Speaker 2: that decision that wasn't a like oh yeah, I would
Speaker 2: love to do that. It was a oh, I'm going
Speaker 2: to do that for my kids like you one thousand
Speaker 2: percent weren't thinking about you in those moments, And I
Speaker 2: just go, this person is a person I want to
Speaker 2: know better. Like she's just she's just wholesome. She's the
Speaker 2: type of people that you want to be surrounded by. Right,
Speaker 2: But we are getting to talk to you about your
Speaker 2: journey and about money and it's a privilege. But talk
Speaker 2: to me about investing, because I feel like you've got
Speaker 2: a strategy brain do you invest? What does that look like?
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
Speaker 4: Well, I suppose with my background having studied property, my
Speaker 4: love of property previously, our investment was really largely based
Speaker 4: around property.
Speaker 5: My goal for a long long time was to.
Speaker 4: Kind of purchase a house, renovate it, keep it as
Speaker 4: a mental move on, purchase another one, kind of keep
Speaker 4: working ourselves up, use the equity.
Speaker 5: But unfortunately life kind of made that tricky.
Speaker 4: And then obviously with COVID and the housing market and
Speaker 4: interest rates, that all kind of happened as well and
Speaker 4: made it very hard. I really wanted to kind of
Speaker 4: get to the goal of having three property so that
Speaker 4: we'd have one three kind of each old they could
Speaker 4: either live in it or so I thought whatever they
Speaker 4: wanted to do. That was kind of in the back
Speaker 4: of my mind is like that was my goal.
Speaker 5: And then that obviously.
Speaker 4: Became a bit unattainable, and it was a little bit
Speaker 4: hard to break away from that and realize that that's,
Speaker 4: at least for this point in our life, it's not achievable.
Speaker 5: But then we kind of pivoted.
Speaker 4: So I feel like I'm still relatively even though I
Speaker 4: did study a fair bit of business and investment, I
Speaker 4: still feel like I know very very little about shares
Speaker 4: in the share market, and you know, really any other
Speaker 4: form of investing. We were lucky enough to stumble across
Speaker 4: an acquaintance that was starting a business. We were able
Speaker 4: to invest in that business for her to kind of
Speaker 4: set up her like premises, and it actually paid off
Speaker 4: for us as well as we're getting a ten percent
Speaker 4: return on that money. And then we also got free
Speaker 4: swimming lessons out of it for three kids, which if
Speaker 4: anyone has kids, known swimming lessons are not cheap, so
Speaker 4: that saved us so much money. And yeah, so it's
Speaker 4: been pretty cool to have kind of done that. We
Speaker 4: started to get our returns and stuff back that that
Speaker 4: period's almost almost finished.
Speaker 5: So we were a bit like, oh my gosh, what
Speaker 5: do we do, Like is this the right thing to
Speaker 5: do for us?
Speaker 4: It paid off, and we were pretty key. I don't
Speaker 4: know if we'll go down much more business investing, but.
Speaker 2: I'm glad because you're right, like in some of those situations,
Speaker 2: it just goes barey up and people were just like,
Speaker 2: oh my goodness, like I wish I never and we
Speaker 2: destroyed our relationship and like it becomes dramatic, but I'm
Speaker 2: just well, luckily we weren't.
Speaker 4: I suppose, like I don't think I'd ever do it
Speaker 4: with someone close like family, all close friends, because yeah,
Speaker 4: I could see that was my fear. But luckily we
Speaker 4: were far enough apart that we didn't have to worry
Speaker 4: too much about that. And because it was also going
Speaker 4: towards property, we also had the added like kind of
Speaker 4: security that that could be sold off. Like I think
Speaker 4: most others, I probably wouldn't have gone ahead. I would
Speaker 4: have been like that would have been too risky for me.
Speaker 4: But because we knew we had that buffer, it was
Speaker 4: all in the contract and everything that if for some
Speaker 4: reason something went wrong, the property be sold off when
Speaker 4: we get paid back, So.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that worked out as well.
Speaker 4: I've got to like really recently started. I actually downloaded
Speaker 4: shares Is as per your recommendation, and we've only got
Speaker 4: not very much money in there, but it's starting to
Speaker 4: kind of grow each week. I just put a little
Speaker 4: bit in there, like literally only sixty dollars, like I'm
Speaker 4: talking like, I've only been very very cautious, trying to
Speaker 4: learn things, like trying to get my head around it all.
Speaker 2: I feel like you, of all people are going to
Speaker 2: love Ariits would your real estate investment trusts, like that's
Speaker 2: where you want to live.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's still very new, but I think especially
Speaker 4: going forward, because I do like that we can just
Speaker 4: gradually add to it. It's not something like property where
Speaker 4: you really need to have a big lot of money
Speaker 4: and really a lot on the line, a lot at stake,
Speaker 4: and a lot more stress. Really, I suppose in managing
Speaker 4: even if you're not managing the property, there's still a
Speaker 4: lot that kind of goes on that you have to
Speaker 4: worry about, make decisions if maintenance issues come up.
Speaker 5: I think we probably.
Speaker 4: Did have a slightly more difficult experience, probably than many
Speaker 4: people have. But I think going forward, yeah, property wouldn't
Speaker 4: be the top of our list personally anymore. I think
Speaker 4: anything that's easy is kind of my life model at
Speaker 4: this point, whether it be food preparation or cleaning the
Speaker 4: house or investing it is, whatever's nice and simple totally.
Speaker 2: So talk to me about debt. Because you currently own
Speaker 2: the property that you live in. What does that look like?
Speaker 4: So we do have a mortgage still on this house,
Speaker 4: so we put all of the money originally that we
Speaker 4: had into we've had it in the homelands so we
Speaker 4: could offset someone of the interest, but we did redraw
Speaker 4: that back down and so we're still sitting probably with
Speaker 4: about a four.
Speaker 5: Hundred thousand dollars loan. I think I've put of my head.
Speaker 4: The property now would be worth around eight to fifty
Speaker 4: so I know eventually we'll have a bit of equity
Speaker 4: sitting in it, which I'm pretty keen for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so nice because I know that your plan
Speaker 2: is to go to a bigger property and get a
Speaker 2: little bit more space, and like, maybe this is part
Speaker 2: of your investing strategy, and you might get to keep
Speaker 2: hold of this property and lease it out and then
Speaker 2: make your way back to planning on having three properties
Speaker 2: for your kids, Like I don't see that as too
Speaker 2: far out of reach one.
Speaker 5: Day, Yes, exactly. That's if I've learned anything.
Speaker 4: It's just that nothing's impossible, even if it just might
Speaker 4: be finding a different way of there, or even if
Speaker 4: you decide to change strategies, like, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 4: So I had to kind of come to terms with
Speaker 4: the fact that, yeah, property wasn't going to be our
Speaker 4: main thing at least for a little while, and that
Speaker 4: was very hard for me to break out of that
Speaker 4: very set mindset in my head. But I realized, look,
Speaker 4: it really doesn't matter. Like we felt like a bit
Speaker 4: of a failure after selling it after and having it
Speaker 4: as an investment for a year, and we kind of
Speaker 4: eventually realized, like I think it was our broker that
Speaker 4: sort of said, look, you've just got to do what
Speaker 4: you've got to do at that time, Like, just because
Speaker 4: you make a decision doesn't mean you have to stick
Speaker 4: with it if it doesn't work out. There's nothing wrong
Speaker 4: with that, and that goes for you know, most things
Speaker 4: in life. So I think that was a bit hard
Speaker 4: to get my head around, but I've definitely accepted that
Speaker 4: more now, so I think, yeah. Otherwise, debt wise, We've
Speaker 4: always tried to not really have too much debt. Every
Speaker 4: now and then I do get myself into a bit
Speaker 4: of an after pay trap, which I did do again
Speaker 4: when we were renovating and then over Christmas, so I'm
Speaker 4: trying to get that gone. So yeah, I think that's
Speaker 4: really about it. And hex So we paid out my
Speaker 4: husband's HEXTT. We had to pay it out to get
Speaker 4: our loan for this current house. We wouldn't get aproved
Speaker 4: without paying that out, so we paid his out. But
Speaker 4: I still have mine, which Viz, I find quite frustrating
Speaker 4: because I've watched it grow and grow and grow like
Speaker 4: crazy and not.
Speaker 5: Being able to work and really paid off.
Speaker 4: So we literally put like I think it's forout ten
Speaker 4: dollars a week into it at the moment, just to
Speaker 4: try and slowly chip out it or to completely keep
Speaker 4: going up. It's probably really only covering the extra sort
Speaker 4: of CPI increases.
Speaker 2: But and I mean, elbows just come back in and
Speaker 2: he promised to give all of us a very nice
Speaker 2: hex cut, so I'm sure you're looking forward to that.
Speaker 5: I very much am. When I saw that I was like, oh, yes, please.
Speaker 2: Yes, please, that'll take a little bit of pressure off.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know, shout out to albow would
Speaker 2: be okay if you just get rid of all of
Speaker 2: our hex stets completely, Like we don't want a discount,
Speaker 2: we just want you to get rid of them.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love you, I love you. I would not complain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there are main debts. We don't have any others.
Speaker 4: We've never had a credit card, so I'm probably kind
Speaker 4: of glad because I don't think I could trust myself
Speaker 4: with a credit card.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, that's fair, that's fair. I feel like for everything
Speaker 2: that you have just shared with us, that you've gone through, like, girl,
Speaker 2: you are in a good position still, Like it's clear
Speaker 2: that you are very intelligent, like and I think everyone
Speaker 2: can hear it, Like the way that you're speaking. I'm
Speaker 2: like this woman, she's smart, smart, like she knows her shit.
Speaker 2: Like I know that you said, oh yeah, like I
Speaker 2: can't believe two hundred grand got away from me, and
Speaker 2: like that could feel a bit silly, but like I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: two hundred grand didn't get away from you. You already
Speaker 2: explained was a kitchen. You know, you bought a new
Speaker 2: car because you didn't want debt. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you know this, but you went through a very very
Speaker 2: very significant health event and to come out still owning
Speaker 2: your house massive win. Like I think that we really
Speaker 2: undervalue being financially stable when coming out of these situations,
Speaker 2: like so many times, like I see families financially ruined.
Speaker 2: And this is why I am so passionate about insurance,
Speaker 2: Like I just I want to jump up and down
Speaker 2: about it consistently and be like, these things happen, Like
Speaker 2: you're listening to this money darist who has three small babies,
Speaker 2: Like I can almost guarantee that when you found out,
Speaker 2: oh I'm pregnant for the first time, that wasn't on
Speaker 2: your Bingo card, Like that wasn't the plan. That wasn't
Speaker 2: you were like, all right, well take a bit of time,
Speaker 2: because you know, we can have a baby and then
Speaker 2: I can be you know, a career girl in property.
Speaker 2: And it just that's not the way the cookie crumbled.
Speaker 2: And I think that it does remind you consistently, Yes,
Speaker 2: insurances are important, but like, yes, a career would be
Speaker 2: so nice, but like time with your family, like that
Speaker 2: is the most important thing. And like the decisions that
Speaker 2: you're making, especially around your health, Like I can tell
Speaker 2: that you just care so much about your babies and
Speaker 2: your husband and putting them first. Because of the decisions
Speaker 2: you're making are not small, Like that's a massive life
Speaker 2: changing thing, and like that's a lot, and I'm just
Speaker 2: I'm so glad they have you, like they're so lucky.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I really don't think that there's moments where I'm
Speaker 4: probably a little bit too too cranky or too high maintenance.
Speaker 2: Well wait until they're teenagers. They won't say that. They
Speaker 2: won't say that, but like, live in the moment for
Speaker 2: now exactly. I want to know. I feel like you
Speaker 2: know with your DIY renovating, and like you seem pretty savvy.
Speaker 2: What do you think your best money habit is?
Speaker 5: Well, that is a good question.
Speaker 4: I feel like my best money habit is also sometimes
Speaker 4: my worst money habit in a way in that I
Speaker 4: have spent an awful lot of time, probably because I
Speaker 4: also have had a lot of time perfecting when things
Speaker 4: go on sale, for example, so like I know exactly
Speaker 4: per one hundred sheets, what I'm willing to spend on
Speaker 4: toilet paper, so I won't buy if it's less than
Speaker 4: you know, whatever it is, one hundred sheets. It's the
Speaker 4: same with things like Peter Alexander sounds. I've decided we're
Speaker 4: going to splurge on some pajamas, I know exactly when
Speaker 4: to wait. So yeah, like I've worked all these little
Speaker 4: hacks out, and I do not buy like anything full price.
Speaker 4: I genuinely get this way if I have to buy
Speaker 4: something full price. But obviously in times in the past,
Speaker 4: that has led to buying things that I probably didn't need,
Speaker 4: and therefore, you know, spending money that I didn't need
Speaker 4: to spend just because I save some money.
Speaker 5: So I am very aware of that. But at the
Speaker 5: same time, I now have a.
Speaker 4: List on my phone of things that I know we
Speaker 4: will need coming up, and then I keep a bit
Speaker 4: of an eye out. So that's been able to curb
Speaker 4: that a little bit in the sense of overspending. So
Speaker 4: I think I have, yeah, spent a lot of time
Speaker 4: perfecting it, to be honest, But I know all different stores,
Speaker 4: you know when their sales are most likely to happen. When, Yeah,
Speaker 4: a lot of stores go on sale around like the
Speaker 4: click frenzy times or like after Payday.
Speaker 5: And even though even if I'm not really using those platforms.
Speaker 4: I still know that there'll be a lot of good
Speaker 4: sales and a lot of the time I won't buy
Speaker 4: anything unless it's even like a further percentage off the
Speaker 4: sale price. But you do obviously run a lot of
Speaker 4: risks if you might if there's something you really want
Speaker 4: and you wait that long, it might not be there.
Speaker 4: It might not be acide you need those sort of things.
Speaker 4: But I'm pretty okay with that. And yeah, to be honest,
Speaker 4: I've probably waste a lot of my time doing that,
Speaker 4: which sometimes drives me nuts. And I'll shot across like
Speaker 4: supermarket specials each week, for example, which can just waste time.
Speaker 4: So sometimes if when I have been working and a
Speaker 4: bit time for I'm more likely to buy things at
Speaker 4: higher prices.
Speaker 5: But I'm okay with.
Speaker 4: That, because you know, convenience, Yeah, exactly, So I've had
Speaker 4: to balance that out. But I dare say that the
Speaker 4: amount of effort and time I put into making sure
Speaker 4: we don't overpay for anything at all has been yeah,
Speaker 4: other than maybe at the time there with bills.
Speaker 5: I don't like bills. I'll ignore bills.
Speaker 2: No, I feel like that's fair. So what do you
Speaker 2: think your worst money happened? Is is it that?
Speaker 4: Probably? I would dare say I've had different worse money home.
Speaker 4: Its like, for a while there it was I just
Speaker 4: would eat takeout or coffees for that year we had
Speaker 4: that money sitting in the bank account without even thinking
Speaker 4: about it. And I think for a while there I
Speaker 4: just got way with purchases and that I've rained right in.
Speaker 4: So let's say, yeah, currently, probably I just always feels
Speaker 4: like so much if it having to go and change
Speaker 4: and make phone calls. I hate making phone calls to
Speaker 4: try and see if we can get things lower or
Speaker 4: this and that. So I dare say, yeah, that at
Speaker 4: this point probably is my worst habit because I just
Speaker 4: really avoid it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like I hate making phone calls as well.
Speaker 2: But when you get on a roll and you get one, yes,
Speaker 2: You're like, I could get the rest of them. I'm
Speaker 2: going to keep going on this, So I feel like
Speaker 2: I need to like push you a little bit to go,
Speaker 2: why don't you just do like the car insurance and
Speaker 2: then see what happens?
Speaker 5: Yes, exactly, you know.
Speaker 4: I do find like if I make one full phone
Speaker 4: call on like, yeah, okay, I'm in the right energy
Speaker 4: and rights metal state now and I'll just make the
Speaker 4: whole ether frind calls.
Speaker 2: I hate making phone calls. I just don't like it. Like,
Speaker 2: if there is an option to email someone, I've already
Speaker 2: emailed you. But that's exactly how we're communicating money diarist.
Speaker 2: At the start of this episode, I said, what's your
Speaker 2: money grade? And you said, look, I reckon, I'm like
Speaker 2: middle ground. I think I'm I don't know. I want
Speaker 2: to kind of like argue with you on that because
Speaker 2: I think you're just you're better than a sea. But
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna argue with you because like that would
Speaker 2: be bored alone disrespectful. So I want to know as
Speaker 2: someone who's gone through the journey that you've gone through,
Speaker 2: and you have three beautiful babies and a loving husband,
Speaker 2: and you've bought property and sold property, and you've clearly
Speaker 2: got some good equity in the one that you've got,
Speaker 2: and like I know that you said, look, we went
Speaker 2: through that figure really quickly and we lost the buffer
Speaker 2: that we had. Like I don't think that defines it.
Speaker 2: I think that you actually used it how you your
Speaker 2: bloody needed to use it at the time, Like that's
Speaker 2: exactly what your family needed. Like, yes, you could have
Speaker 2: done something else with it, But at what cost, Like
Speaker 2: at the cost of not having the comfort during a
Speaker 2: really stressful period of time, at the cost of not
Speaker 2: having somebody that came through and cleaned your house and
Speaker 2: took away that mental load, and the cost of all
Speaker 2: of those other things. Right, do you genuinely think after
Speaker 2: having this conversation you're like, oh, V, I still think
Speaker 2: I'm as see.
Speaker 4: No, I must say I do, like after you've pointed
Speaker 4: out a couple of things, I definitely don't feel as
Speaker 4: bad about it as I probably did.
Speaker 2: Again, Look, I'm glad. I'm very glad, but.
Speaker 4: Like, I don't know if I'd put me in an A,
Speaker 4: but I'd at least helped me out to a bee.
Speaker 2: We can be a bee. But what in your eyes
Speaker 2: is like an A? Like what would that take to
Speaker 2: get you there? Is that you owning those three properties
Speaker 2: for your kids and like, you know, having paid off
Speaker 2: all of your hecks in doing all of those things,
Speaker 2: or is it like a mindset? What does that look like?
Speaker 4: I think for me at the moment, I would feel
Speaker 4: a bit more like the A if we could, like,
Speaker 4: I feel like I've got a few like another short
Speaker 4: term goals. At the moment, we are expending still a
Speaker 4: little bit over my husband's wage, so I'd really like
Speaker 4: to get that at least to begin with, back to
Speaker 4: like breaking even that what we're spending is the same
Speaker 4: as his wage, so we'd not kind of going into
Speaker 4: that savings. That would be my first kind of I
Speaker 4: think if we got to there, i'd feel a little
Speaker 4: bit like we were getting closer to that A. But
Speaker 4: I think longer term, to do that and be saving,
Speaker 4: then i'd be happy. Like, I don't think I necessarily
Speaker 4: need to get to those three properties to feel like
Speaker 4: I'm at the A. I just think I like to
Speaker 4: at least know that we are either saving or investing
Speaker 4: just a little bit to begin with, Like I'd be
Speaker 4: happy with that. I'd still obviously have the longer term goals.
Speaker 4: But if we were able to ye just manage us
Speaker 4: spending enough that we just were at least saving a little,
Speaker 4: I think I'd be happy and at that paid point
Speaker 4: for us anyway.
Speaker 2: I can get behind that, and I feel like you're
Speaker 2: perfectly on truck for that, Like that is not that
Speaker 2: far off. I feel like with your brain, like I
Speaker 2: can just see that you've got lots of places to
Speaker 2: be and lots of places to go. Money dist It
Speaker 2: has been an absolute privilege to learn more about you,
Speaker 2: about your journey, and like the idea that you're happy
Speaker 2: for me to share your journey with our community so
Speaker 2: that they can learn and they can you know, be
Speaker 2: better at money because you were so willing to share.
Speaker 2: I'm obsessed, like, thank you. It is really really valuable,
Speaker 2: and I'm just I'm very grateful that we got to
Speaker 2: cross parts.
Speaker 5: No, thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Of course, Oh my gosh, I've adored this.
Speaker 6: The advice sheared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 6: in nature and does not.
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