Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: My name's Sanatasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yor the
Speaker 2: Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 2: and lasting impactful tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Let's get into it.
Speaker 4: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money the podcast
Speaker 1: let's you be pervy about other people's money habits for
Speaker 1: educational purposes of course. Welcome back to another one of
Speaker 1: our money daries where I get the absolute privilege of
Speaker 1: sitting down and talking to one of our incredible She's
Speaker 1: on the Money community members all about their journey. I
Speaker 1: got an email this week and it sounded exactly like this, Hi,
Speaker 1: She's on the Money. At thirty six, things were pretty settled,
Speaker 1: married toddler at home, another baby on the way and
Speaker 1: a mortgage in Melbourne. But in January we made a
Speaker 1: huge call. We packed up our life and moved to
Speaker 1: the US for my husband's job at a startup. I
Speaker 1: left behind my career and income to become a full
Speaker 1: time mum and we now get the fun part of
Speaker 1: paying tax in two countries. It's a big gamble. If
Speaker 1: the startup takes off, we could be looking at paying
Speaker 1: off our house and setting ourselves up for life right now,
Speaker 1: though we're in that messy middle part, hoping that the
Speaker 1: risk really does pay off. Money Doris, this is so
Speaker 1: exciting to talk to you. I have so many questions.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. Thank you, thank you, and thanks
Speaker 1: for doing this across the world. I mean it is
Speaker 1: what it's one pm for me and I think eight pm.
Speaker 3: For you, eight pm last night, eightpm.
Speaker 1: Like she's living in the past. She's living in the past.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we are a little bit in the past here.
Speaker 1: I love that. All right, let's get into it. As always,
Speaker 1: I ask every single money diarist the same question to
Speaker 1: start the show, Money Dorist. If I asked you to
Speaker 1: give your money habits a grade from A three to F,
Speaker 1: what grade would you give them?
Speaker 3: Probably a B or B minus. Okay, we went too
Speaker 3: bad and then yeah, we've made this big gamble, which
Speaker 3: I don't know could be a good money habit could not.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that you're bad at money. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that at all. But I need to know more.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me a little bit more about your
Speaker 1: money story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So my husband and I have very different money stories,
Speaker 3: which has been interesting at times. So I grew up
Speaker 3: in what I consider like quite a well off family.
Speaker 3: We didn't really want for anything. When I was kind
Speaker 3: of in grade five, though, we made this big call
Speaker 3: and the whole family moved to ironically enough, America for
Speaker 3: three years while my dad did his masters. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: a little bit of history repeating itself. And so we
Speaker 3: went from being in a very good position to having
Speaker 3: really no money. He didn't earn anything, my mom didn't
Speaker 3: earn anything, and that was a really big shock for
Speaker 3: all of us, but I think a really good lesson.
Speaker 3: And then when we came back, things are a little
Speaker 3: bit tough at the start, and my parents were very
Speaker 3: good at age appropriate information about you know, we can't
Speaker 3: just go and get this because we're a little tight
Speaker 3: at the moment, because we've had to put some money here,
Speaker 3: but he's that paid off for them as well. And
Speaker 3: then things got much better again and we went back
Speaker 3: to that kind of more well off lifestyle, which has
Speaker 3: been good that we got that little bit in the
Speaker 3: middle where I was like, oh, money doesn't just come
Speaker 3: really easily. It can be there and then it can go,
Speaker 3: and sometimes you've got to make a sacrifice to get
Speaker 3: a head in life.
Speaker 1: It's actually such a good lesson, especially at that age.
Speaker 1: Like it might not have felt super comfortable, but like
Speaker 1: in retrospect, I'm assuming you're like, hold on, that was
Speaker 1: actually a really valuable lesson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it was not comfortable at all, but no,
Speaker 3: it was a really good lesson because I think otherwise
Speaker 3: I could have definitely gone down a path of like privileged,
Speaker 3: where I didn't really realize how hard do you have
Speaker 3: to work with things. Whereas my husband's from the exact
Speaker 3: other side, where he grew up with not quite as
Speaker 3: well off a family and he's had to work very
Speaker 3: hard for what he's got. So I think we kind
Speaker 3: of mesh quite well because I've had that experience, So.
Speaker 1: Tell me a bit more, like I'm just so pervy,
Speaker 1: and thankfully this is anonymous, So I get to be's start, right,
Speaker 1: So your husband not growing up in such a well
Speaker 1: off family. It does, I won't say surprise me, but
Speaker 1: it just doesn't seem as on brand to then be
Speaker 1: making really big, risky decisions like moving to the US,
Speaker 1: because usually if you've had a little bit of, like,
Speaker 1: you know, a financially tumultuous upbringing, you're usually a bit
Speaker 1: more about the stability. Do you think his money story
Speaker 1: has changed? Are you like kind of pushing him to
Speaker 1: get out of his comfort zone? Like how does someone
Speaker 1: who grew up in that situation then be comfortable to
Speaker 1: go Let's go to another country, babe?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I think. I mean I don't want to.
Speaker 1: Take full credit, but you're the ringleader.
Speaker 3: Yeah. When he was like, oh, I've been asked to
Speaker 3: move to the States, I was like, let's do it.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's lots of considerations, but my immediate thought
Speaker 3: was like, we have to do this, Like it's something
Speaker 3: he's always wanted to do. We have to do it.
Speaker 3: He's also very close with my parents, and so he
Speaker 3: knows that story about us also packing up and going
Speaker 3: away for a few years and coming back in the
Speaker 3: payoff that that had so even though it didn't come
Speaker 3: from his family, he has seen that in family. That
Speaker 3: makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very cool. Tell me a little bit more
Speaker 1: about this move, Like that happened at the start of
Speaker 1: the year for you guys, how quick was the turnaround?
Speaker 1: Because you said in January we made the call. But
Speaker 1: it's now like midyear and you already live there, You're
Speaker 1: set up, you have kids overseas. Like that just feels
Speaker 1: like a massive change. Talk me through how you moved
Speaker 1: to a different country on I would say relatively short notice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so actually we made the call in so he's
Speaker 3: worked for his company for a few years and he
Speaker 3: came back from a work trip in August and was like,
Speaker 3: I've been to move. We took about a month to
Speaker 3: really well convince him that it was going to happen
Speaker 3: and work through all of the financials and his salary
Speaker 3: and all of that, because it was all going to
Speaker 3: change moving here. And then by the time we could
Speaker 3: have moved within a month of us making the decision,
Speaker 3: but then it got close to Christmas, so we thought,
Speaker 3: let's let's do Christmas at home. Yeah, let's do Christmas
Speaker 3: at home. And also just found out I was pregnant
Speaker 3: because moving overseas was not enough craziness and I didn't
Speaker 3: really want to move first trimester anyway. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: we made the call to wait until late January so
Speaker 3: we could have that time with family, get over the
Speaker 3: first trimester, and then yeah, start the year fresh.
Speaker 1: So does that mean you're about to have another baby?
Speaker 3: Yeah in July. So I'm one of my thirty three weeks.
Speaker 1: Oh. I was like trying to do the maths in
Speaker 1: my head, and I was like first trimesteric. No one
Speaker 1: wants to do anything in their first trimester like that
Speaker 1: is that's a ride off.
Speaker 3: So we moved out of our house six weeks before
Speaker 3: we left and moved in with my parents. The same
Speaker 3: week we moved, I was seven weeks pregnant and got gastro.
Speaker 1: No, no, that should be illegal.
Speaker 3: It was just the worst. Like we've moved a few times,
Speaker 3: and that was the worst experience of my life. It
Speaker 3: was horrendous.
Speaker 1: No thank you, no thing I'd like I remember that
Speaker 1: for me, and I just really wish I could cut out,
Speaker 1: you know what, not the whole thing. That's fine, but
Speaker 1: maybe from week five to eleven, like they don't have
Speaker 1: to exist.
Speaker 3: That's fine, it wasn't great, and gastro on top of
Speaker 3: it was just the icing on the cake.
Speaker 1: That's rude, because do you know if it's morning sickness
Speaker 1: or gastro or like a mix of both, or like
Speaker 1: how do you decipher?
Speaker 3: Well, I rang my obsttrician marks, like I think I've
Speaker 3: got really bad morning sickness, and she's like, oh, you
Speaker 3: didn't last time, and also going from nothing to not
Speaker 3: being able to keep any liquid down in like two hours,
Speaker 3: not morning sickness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay, So tell me, does that mean that
Speaker 1: you're going to have a baby in the American healthcare system?
Speaker 3: It does, and it also means i'll be an American citizen.
Speaker 1: Oh that's kind of cool, isn't it? Dual citizenship baby.
Speaker 3: Well, actually we have to apply for the Australian one,
Speaker 3: which is a bit of a process as well as
Speaker 3: I'm learning, but they'll be automatically yeah Americans.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 3: When we come back to visit again at Christmas, she
Speaker 3: probably won't be Australian yet, which is really weird.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, that's actually kind of Oh I find
Speaker 1: that kind of crazy.
Speaker 3: No, I find that very very strange. Yeah, navigating the
Speaker 3: US healthcare system. That's been a steep learning curve as well.
Speaker 1: So can I ask you a little bit about that
Speaker 1: because I'm so per like, it's obviously astronomically more expensive.
Speaker 1: Did you go through the private or the public system
Speaker 1: with your first baby?
Speaker 3: Private?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you went through private, which in Australia, you know,
Speaker 1: not absolutely necessary. I did it as well, and I
Speaker 1: felt like all of the reasons that most people picked
Speaker 1: private were the reasons I picked it. But did you
Speaker 1: go private in America? Like, how does their health insurance
Speaker 1: work over there? Because I'm assuming when your husband moves
Speaker 1: you got insurance as a part of his job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were really lucky. His work paid for our
Speaker 3: Australian health insurance to start with, which they thought was
Speaker 3: a great bargain because our health insurance here now for
Speaker 3: three of us is forty thousand US dollars. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wild, No, that's crazy and there's like different hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on, backtrack. I just had to swallow that information.
Speaker 1: It's costing your husband's company forty thousand dollars a year
Speaker 1: for three people for health insurance in America? Yes, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you didn't stut o, Okay, sorry.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, that's correct, and there's different tiers, but
Speaker 3: we just kind of went with the best one because
Speaker 3: we don't know anything else, which is expensive for them,
Speaker 3: but it's actually cheaper for us to have her here
Speaker 3: because of the level of cover that we've got. So
Speaker 3: it's the way we're doing It is basically the same
Speaker 3: as the private system in Australia. So I've got my
Speaker 3: own obstetrician. We're going to what is a very bougie
Speaker 3: American hospital. We walked in and I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is what you see in the movies, Like, oh,
Speaker 3: is it really a gallery or a hospital. Yeah, it's very,
Speaker 3: very different to anywhere I've been before. But it's actually
Speaker 3: going to be cheaper to have our baby here.
Speaker 1: I love that for you because that could have been
Speaker 1: a significant financial burden, which is why I was asking.
Speaker 1: I was like, I have all of these questions, but
Speaker 1: just the idea, which is.
Speaker 3: Why there was a lot of stress when we moved,
Speaker 3: and I kept asking these questions, and so my husband
Speaker 3: told his boss very early in the piece that I
Speaker 3: was pregnant because his boss is like, why are you
Speaker 3: so hung up on health insurance.
Speaker 1: Because she's pregnant, babe? Yeah, why do you know what,
Speaker 1: Like sometimes you don't want to tell people early, but
Speaker 1: like that would have taken a weight off everyone's shoulders
Speaker 1: because they're probably thinking, is he just trying to come
Speaker 1: up with every excuse under the sun to not move,
Speaker 1: Like is this man just like clutching its straws? But
Speaker 1: the reality was that's actually really important for us right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because if you don't have good health insurance, like
Speaker 3: it is very expensive. My husband ended up in an
Speaker 3: emergency here. He had a skiing accident, and his part
Speaker 3: of the bill was three hundred and fifty dollars. That's
Speaker 3: pretty good, but the hospital charged insurance sixty thousand.
Speaker 1: What those numbers for me are just astronomical, Like there's
Speaker 1: no way that that's what it costs, Like, there's just no.
Speaker 3: Way, absolutely not. We've seen just for like little visits,
Speaker 3: like a physio I think charged insurance fifteen hundred dollars
Speaker 3: to insurance. We pay ten percent of that, So that's.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, but that's also crazy. It's crazy. So you've
Speaker 1: already made money on the health insurance side of things.
Speaker 1: I love that for you. Guys talk to me about
Speaker 1: the cost of moving though, so often when we hear
Speaker 1: that people are moving overseas for roles, especially to the US,
Speaker 1: they'll often like pay for your flights and accommodation. They'll
Speaker 1: like pay for your removal US cost. Like what was
Speaker 1: covered for you guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a lot of that was covered. So our
Speaker 3: lawyer vis a lawyer was covered for all three of us.
Speaker 3: Our flights were covered. We didn't ship that much stuff,
Speaker 3: but shipping was covered. A hotel for I think we're
Speaker 3: in a hotel for a week that was covered, and
Speaker 3: a little bit of furniture came out of that allowance
Speaker 3: as well as well as a very expensive tax consult
Speaker 3: to figure out the tax situation in both countries.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so talk to me a little bit about that
Speaker 1: tax situation because you mentioned that you're paying tax in
Speaker 1: both countries, which from my perspective is a little bit
Speaker 1: more complex and probably tells me that your husband might
Speaker 1: be a little bit more intertwined in this startup than
Speaker 1: just a salary and payg employee. Is that a correct assumption.
Speaker 3: Yes and no. So his package is salary plus options,
Speaker 3: which also gets complicated because it's a startup, so he
Speaker 3: actually can't sell the options at the moment.
Speaker 1: It's nice to have, but you can mainly just talk
Speaker 1: about them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it also means we don't have to pay
Speaker 3: tax on them, so that is good. They sit there,
Speaker 3: We ignore them except for when we get home sick
Speaker 3: and we fantasize about what happens when they best.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, perfect.
Speaker 3: Don't want to get two technical, but there's a treaty
Speaker 3: between Australia and America, and basically, you.
Speaker 1: Pay the top tax rate in either country and you're
Speaker 1: not going to get double taxed.
Speaker 3: You're not going to get double tax. But the tax
Speaker 3: rate in America is lower. So we'll pay tax here
Speaker 3: and then we'll submit our Australian tax return and then
Speaker 3: we do the top up tax because we're still considered
Speaker 3: Australian tax residents because we own a house in Australia
Speaker 3: and our visa shows an intent to return to Australia.
Speaker 3: He also pays for private health insurance in Australia that
Speaker 3: he obviously can't use because we live in a different country.
Speaker 3: But because of the Medicare levy.
Speaker 1: Searcharge I was about to say, the Medicare levy did
Speaker 1: not leave you out, No.
Speaker 3: It did not. So he pays for the cheapest health
Speaker 3: insurance that he could find one.
Speaker 1: Hundred percent, because otherwise it doesn't financially make sense.
Speaker 3: No, for me it was less important, but on his
Speaker 3: salary it was.
Speaker 1: Oh no, it just does not make sense. Because for
Speaker 1: those of you following along at home, if you earn
Speaker 1: more than ninety thousand dollars Australian and you don't have
Speaker 1: private health insurance after the age of thirty, you have
Speaker 1: to pay the Medicare levy searcharge. And for some people
Speaker 1: they just go, well, it doesn't matter either way because
Speaker 1: I'm just like, bang on ninety thousand dollars. But once
Speaker 1: you start earning more than that, the surcharge is more
Speaker 1: than private health insurance costs, at which point you'd prefer
Speaker 1: to just pay private health insurance and essentially save some money,
Speaker 1: which makes sense as to why he's paying it. But
Speaker 1: that must just be like a little bit annoying.
Speaker 3: A little bit yeah, annoying.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you do finally come back home to Australia,
Speaker 1: it means that there won't be any loading for having
Speaker 1: not had private health insurance for that period of time,
Speaker 1: So like, not the end of the world. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to reframe it so it looks really nice for you,
Speaker 1: because I'd be annoyed.
Speaker 3: No, it's just one of those, like so many annoying, frustrating,
Speaker 3: little extra expenses that popped up that we didn't realize,
Speaker 3: even like, you know, coming here, you know we've got
Speaker 3: a bit of a furniture allowance, but we had to
Speaker 3: buy more stuff, which we totally expected. But even the
Speaker 3: first month we were here, there was it takes a
Speaker 3: while to get an American bank account, so he didn't
Speaker 3: actually get paid for the first month. So we were
Speaker 3: paying everything for this first month in Aussie dollars, which
Speaker 3: is not a good exchange rate. At the moment it
Speaker 3: was nearly double.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that would have got you. Is it hard
Speaker 1: the exchange rate? Are you finding that, yes, the exchange
Speaker 1: rate is challenging, or are you finding it relatively easy?
Speaker 1: Talk to me about that.
Speaker 3: Not so much anymore, because we are in USD now
Speaker 3: and we're paying for everything in USD like we just
Speaker 3: work in US dollars, but we do still have an
Speaker 3: austream mortgage. Sometimes we have to send money back there.
Speaker 3: So when it was really low a few weeks ago,
Speaker 3: we transferred a little bit extra, yes, we did, and
Speaker 3: made a little bit of that we never picked things right,
Speaker 3: but we managed to get it right at the bottom
Speaker 3: of the exchange rate, so that was really really good
Speaker 3: for us. But yeah, that's been a bit of a
Speaker 3: learning curve, not as bad now that. Yeah, we work
Speaker 3: mostly in US dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was in the US now a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago and I just I found myself even though
Speaker 1: I had transferred money over to my wives card soil
Speaker 1: was operating you in USD and I was paying things
Speaker 1: in USD, I was still doing the mental like loopy
Speaker 1: loop of mats to work out how much my Starbucks
Speaker 1: coffee was costing. And I was like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: making me sick. Do you still go this is astronomical?
Speaker 1: Because I do feel like when you look at the
Speaker 1: cost of living in America, it is much higher than
Speaker 1: in Australia. Are you seeing that or feeling that or
Speaker 1: what does that look like on a day to day basis?
Speaker 3: It is, so I don't do that as much as
Speaker 3: my husband does. I kind of I don't know. A
Speaker 3: dollar is a dollar for me in my head, which
Speaker 3: is probably a terrible way to go into it. But
Speaker 3: there's definitely been things in a more expensive like I
Speaker 3: mean groceries on a whole are probably more expensive. If
Speaker 3: something costs five dollars in Australia, it costs five usd here,
Speaker 3: so that would be more expensive. I'm in California. Electricity
Speaker 3: is outrageously expensive here, so that was a shock.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We moved in winter. Our apartment hadn't been lived in
Speaker 3: for a bit. It was cold. We pumped the heaters
Speaker 3: up and two weeks of electricity costs US six hundred
Speaker 3: US dollars.
Speaker 1: No, it didn't, Yes it did. Oh I would have cried.
Speaker 3: I was like, we're going to have to go home.
Speaker 3: We can't afford this.
Speaker 1: We can't live this.
Speaker 3: This is We have now rained that into about two
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty dollars a month, which is huge.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good difference.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been working hard on it. It's also getting
Speaker 3: into summer here, so that helps.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. I'm obsessed. I love like knowing the
Speaker 1: ins and outs of travel and moving and just the
Speaker 1: idea that you were like, oh at thirty six, I
Speaker 1: did that because I don't know. I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: thirty nearly thirty four, and I look at it and
Speaker 1: I go, oh, like I've had a kid. I want
Speaker 1: to have another kid. Like my husband and I have
Speaker 1: careers here. I can never imagine moving. And then you're like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: we did that at thirty six. I'm like, oh, so
Speaker 1: there's still like opportunity to like do these big moves.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the money side of it though. You
Speaker 1: said that you went from having a job in a
Speaker 1: career here and you left that behind and now your
Speaker 1: full time mum. Can I know what were you earning?
Speaker 1: What if you like kind of hung up so that
Speaker 1: you can make this big career move for your husband.
Speaker 1: And then we're going to ask about his income.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I was earning one hundred and twenty five
Speaker 3: thousand Australion dollars.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, pro routed to four days a week yep.
Speaker 1: And what kind of career did you have?
Speaker 3: So? I worked in fundraising and philanthropy.
Speaker 1: Oh, very cool. That's a very nice place to be
Speaker 1: and how lovely.
Speaker 3: It was fantastic. I really liked it.
Speaker 1: Oh well, I'm sure you'll get back into that because like,
Speaker 1: people who do that are few and far between, Like
Speaker 1: I feel like there's not that many people who are
Speaker 1: good at that.
Speaker 3: No, but in America is a good country for that,
Speaker 3: But there is so many things to weigh up with
Speaker 3: me going back after this baby, including I don't want
Speaker 3: to work full time, and America does not have a
Speaker 3: good part time work culture, or really any part time
Speaker 3: work culture, and childcare here is outrageously expensive.
Speaker 1: And I've heard it's not how do I say this nicely,
Speaker 1: not to the quality that you would expect either, So
Speaker 1: like then finding a good place might be challenging.
Speaker 3: It depends. Yeah, so some places are not so great,
Speaker 3: some places are really good. And where I am, a
Speaker 3: lot of people just have nanny's.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, that would be expensive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a nanny costs. A nanny for a single
Speaker 3: child costs sixty thousand US dollars a year. And if
Speaker 3: you do a nanny share so they look after two children,
Speaker 3: I think it's about thirty five forty per person, which
Speaker 3: I mean, it's insane, but it's also like it's their income,
Speaker 3: like you were paying someone's whole rage but yeah.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. But like there's no government subsidies there.
Speaker 3: No, So we've but a financially probably irresponsible decision. Our
Speaker 3: daughter goes to daycare one day a week, even though
Speaker 3: I'm a stay at home, mum, and it's one hundred
Speaker 3: and seventy five US dollars a.
Speaker 1: Day, Oh my goodness, And like, well, we could compare
Speaker 1: it to Australia too. And I'm about to ask about
Speaker 1: your husband's income because obviously I'm expecting it to be
Speaker 1: good enough that you left the country, right, But the daycare,
Speaker 1: if your husband earned that in Australia, I'm assuming you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have got subsidies anyway. And like at the moment,
Speaker 1: I think my daycare is now two hundred and fourteen
Speaker 1: Australian a day, and like I'm not complaining about that
Speaker 1: because you know, there's a lot that goes into that,
Speaker 1: and I mean, you know, lots of people will be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's ridiculous, I pay like one hundred and ten or whatever.
Speaker 1: But like, my day care fees are very reflective of
Speaker 1: the area that we live in. Again privileged to live there.
Speaker 1: But then it also includes things like all of his meals,
Speaker 1: all of his nappies, all of his like formula, which
Speaker 1: lots of places don't include and you have to. So
Speaker 1: there's like good and bad. But like once you reach
Speaker 1: a certain income level, even in Australia, you get no subsidies,
Speaker 1: but I believe there's nothing at a bear minimum in
Speaker 1: America at all?
Speaker 4: Is there?
Speaker 3: So? I mean I sharing where I am. I'm in
Speaker 3: San Francisco, so it's a very kind of liberal city,
Speaker 3: and if you are a very low income earner, then
Speaker 3: there are some subsidies from the city, which is I
Speaker 3: bely rare and not that common in other places in
Speaker 3: the States. But we absolutely do not qualify for that.
Speaker 3: I did try the little calculator just in case, Like
Speaker 3: it cost me nothing to open a website.
Speaker 1: No, I can have a little look.
Speaker 3: You were looking at the answer I expected.
Speaker 1: It's called wishful think you exactly talk to me. Now,
Speaker 1: what does your husband earn and what does he do
Speaker 1: for work?
Speaker 3: And we're in San Francisco. He works in tech. He's
Speaker 3: head of AI for his company.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that sounds spoogey.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very cool and a little creepy. And he
Speaker 3: earns two hundred and fifty five USD which I believe
Speaker 3: is I checked earlier on the conversion it was about
Speaker 3: three hundred and ninety six thousand Australian dollars, which is
Speaker 3: not what he was earning in Australia. But you got
Speaker 3: to pay rise to move here. His boss saw our
Speaker 3: budget spreadsheet.
Speaker 1: I love that and was like, you're going to need
Speaker 1: a little bit more money.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well my husband was like, we're going to need
Speaker 3: a little bit more money. Here's why.
Speaker 1: And also like, I mean you've stepped back from earning
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars so that he
Speaker 1: can take this step up. You mentioned before that his
Speaker 1: job is like salary plus options. What does options mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so he has a share component to his compensation.
Speaker 3: He was a very very early employee with this company,
Speaker 3: so he's got a very good option package. But it's
Speaker 3: a startup so at the moment, we can't actually access
Speaker 3: those options or sell them.
Speaker 1: Of course not, but it's nice to know that's why
Speaker 1: it's going on.
Speaker 3: That's what we're working towards. That we're working towards some
Speaker 3: kind of event where we will then be able to.
Speaker 1: Cash that in. Yeah, absolutely, one hundred percent. Like we're
Speaker 1: thinking early Apple employee, Like I'm manifesting the same journey
Speaker 1: for you guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think he was employee number like nine or ten.
Speaker 1: Oh that's cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So all the early kind of no one who
Speaker 3: joins the company gets quie as good package anymore, because
Speaker 3: that was kind of the extra compensation for he joined
Speaker 3: it before they were even earning any money, so you know,
Speaker 3: you could lose your job tomorrow. He's some like added
Speaker 3: bonus if we actually do well.
Speaker 1: That's crazy And can I be real pervy? What did
Speaker 1: your husband do in Australia Because to go from you know,
Speaker 1: working in Australia to working for a US startup as
Speaker 1: the head of AI, like, I feel like that's just
Speaker 1: not that much of a traditional pathway. Like what did
Speaker 1: he study to get this opportunity?
Speaker 3: So way back when it is bachelor, he did finance.
Speaker 1: Very sexy, nice guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's very sexy, and then worked for government and
Speaker 3: then decided that he didn't love that and he went
Speaker 3: and did a master's in business analytics. It's not an MBA,
Speaker 3: but like an MBUSA, and then he got some jobs
Speaker 3: working in Australian startups and kind of data science, and
Speaker 3: then literally came on a trip to the States and
Speaker 3: he was like San Francisco's where it's at. I need
Speaker 3: to work for a US company And he found this
Speaker 3: job and he worked remote, started in data and then
Speaker 3: it's kind of worked his way as the company has
Speaker 3: grown into AI and as AI has grown.
Speaker 1: That is very cool. I'm so like, I've just got
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because my husband has a very similar role
Speaker 1: in Australia, Like he's head of in a particular company
Speaker 1: like data and analytics, and his background is econometrics, so
Speaker 1: like he's also super nerdy.
Speaker 3: They would get on very well.
Speaker 1: Yes they would. And I'm vibing that you and I
Speaker 1: would get on very well. And I'm like, well, we
Speaker 1: probably have very similar tasting men. I'm like, oh, so
Speaker 1: maybe we could move to San France, Steven.
Speaker 3: It's so funny. So I found a mum's group here
Speaker 3: and everyone not that many people who live in San
Speaker 3: Francisco are from San Francisco. Everyone's moved here, and it
Speaker 3: was like one of our first meetings. We all kind
Speaker 3: of went around and said, like who we are and
Speaker 3: what we do, and like why we moved here, And
Speaker 3: if they weren't in tech, their partner was in tech,
Speaker 3: except for one couple who were both lawyers, but one
Speaker 3: works for Google. Talk to me about.
Speaker 1: Big money goals. You've obviously made some pretty big I
Speaker 1: guess money moves and literal moves. What is your big
Speaker 1: financial plan. What are we currently working towards?
Speaker 3: Paying off for Australian mortgage would be amazing. So we
Speaker 3: own a house in Australia. We currently rent that out.
Speaker 3: The rent doesn't cover the mortgage, but it wasn't like
Speaker 3: we really liked the house and it financially didn't make
Speaker 3: sense to sell it. So paying that off and we
Speaker 3: would love for an exit event so that we can
Speaker 3: sell our options. That would be amazing. And I say
Speaker 3: our options because in the States, your partner has to
Speaker 3: sign the Contracts and Options Form two.
Speaker 1: So ha ha, my name's on it.
Speaker 3: I moved to the other side of the world. They
Speaker 3: also my options.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I feel like your name deserves to be
Speaker 1: on it. At this point. You gave up one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five thousand dollars a year to move for
Speaker 1: somebody else's career. And while we would do it for
Speaker 1: our partner right now, you never know what the future holds.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. We need to also secure our own back.
Speaker 1: Like sorry, that's the rules. Like we are in this together.
Speaker 3: We are very much in this together.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 1: So we want an exit event. We want to pay
Speaker 1: off our mortgage. What else do we want to do.
Speaker 3: I mean really, we want to get to the point
Speaker 3: where he can then start up his own thing, which
Speaker 3: is what he really wants to do. So we're all
Speaker 3: working towards him being able to. You know, he's hooked
Speaker 3: on the startup thing now, he's a typical startup San
Speaker 3: Francisco junkie. I mean, he'd love to do it in Melbourne,
Speaker 3: back with family and friends. Our goal is to get
Speaker 3: back there.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't have the legs. It just doesn't have
Speaker 1: the same ability to scale or scope.
Speaker 3: He would because like now he's here making the connections
Speaker 3: that he needs to make, it will be easier back there.
Speaker 3: I won't need the funds.
Speaker 1: To do it ote hundred percent, like and that stuff
Speaker 1: is expensive.
Speaker 3: It is. It is even just enough for him to
Speaker 3: like pay even if I, like we move back and
Speaker 3: I get a job that pays the same that again
Speaker 3: doesn't cover our mortgage, so enough for him to have
Speaker 3: there that we can just pay off our mortgage and
Speaker 3: living expenses while he can do his own thing. That's
Speaker 3: kind of what we're working towards.
Speaker 1: Well, fingers crossed, let's go to a really quick break
Speaker 1: because on the flip side, I've got a lot more
Speaker 1: questions like, I just have more perviey questions, So guys
Speaker 1: stick around, all right, money dice, So we are back.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that you've got options, which are essentially shares
Speaker 1: in the organization or the business that your husband works for,
Speaker 1: which is very cool. Are you investing in any other way?
Speaker 1: Like what does that look like?
Speaker 3: Yes? Not as much as we were. So we've got
Speaker 3: a Nabtude account with I think it's about nine thousand
Speaker 3: dollars in it, and that's on a dividend reinvestment plan,
Speaker 3: so that just keeps ticking over every quarter, and that
Speaker 3: is specifically set aside for our kids so when they
Speaker 3: the youngest one turns eighteen, they can split it and
Speaker 3: they can whatever is in there is their's to help them.
Speaker 3: And I've got I think it's four thousand dollars in
Speaker 3: a superhero account that we used to put about two
Speaker 3: hundred dollars a month in, but we're not at the moment. Oh,
Speaker 3: and I've got some Telstra shares I've had since I
Speaker 3: was like ten.
Speaker 1: Oh, how do you end up with Telstra shares at ten?
Speaker 3: I think it was ten maybe whenever they first came out.
Speaker 3: My parents got me some. Oh that's cool, and I've
Speaker 3: just again, I set them up as like a given
Speaker 3: any reinvestment thing a few years ago, and they just
Speaker 3: sit there ticking away. I could not tell you what
Speaker 3: they're worth, but yeah, I've had them for a long
Speaker 3: long time.
Speaker 1: Literally since you were ten. That's actually very cool. I
Speaker 1: mean that means that you beat Warren Buffett in terms
Speaker 1: of early investing. He started at eleven and you started
Speaker 1: at ten, so he can really just sit down and retire.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's probably doing a bit better at it than
Speaker 3: I am.
Speaker 1: But yes, yeah, I mean true, but he's ninety four.
Speaker 1: You've got heaps of time, baby, you got heaps of
Speaker 1: time exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I was probably not as smart at him
Speaker 3: as the start. Like I think it was like a
Speaker 3: seventy dollars diven and I got every so often. I
Speaker 3: just you know, thirteen year old me thought that was
Speaker 3: so cool and I was so rich.
Speaker 1: That is so cool.
Speaker 3: In hindsight, I'm like, I wish i'd invested all of.
Speaker 1: That back, But you know what hindsight is twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: talk to me about what you're doing about your superannuations.
Speaker 3: Well, you're away nothing.
Speaker 1: That's cool.
Speaker 3: Why because we can't afford to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so fair. I mean, you've got a baby
Speaker 1: on the way, and while you do have a high income,
Speaker 1: it sounds like you have a high living cost at
Speaker 1: the moment as well, and a mortgage and all of
Speaker 1: that other stuff. Have you at least set it to
Speaker 1: the right profile and like checked in with them to
Speaker 1: make sure that it's ticking along the way that it
Speaker 1: needs to.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, we still check it quite regularly. Mine is
Speaker 3: I think I'm at like ninety thousand dollars, which is
Speaker 3: pretty good, and my husband's at oh, I think two.
Speaker 1: Hundred, very cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we can afford to sit back for a
Speaker 3: few years with.
Speaker 1: That, which is yeah easy. But you did think about
Speaker 1: it like we might not be contributing, But we just
Speaker 1: dotted all our eyes and crossed all our teas before
Speaker 1: that happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no, that was one of the many things
Speaker 3: that we had to cross off our list before we left.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Now, talk to me about debt. You
Speaker 1: mentioned that you have a mortgage here in Australia. When
Speaker 1: did you purchase your first home?
Speaker 3: So it's actually our second, So we purchased our first.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, big dog.
Speaker 3: Yeah, little humble brag there.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: We purchased our first in March twenty twenty in Sydney.
Speaker 3: It was an apartment. Our mortgage closed the day I
Speaker 3: lost my job from COVID and my husband lost all
Speaker 3: week later.
Speaker 1: I would have just cried the whole week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I still drank the sham.
Speaker 1: I would have too, Honestly, you've got to take whatever
Speaker 1: win you can.
Speaker 3: I was like, we just got to drown this. Yes,
Speaker 3: so that was not ideal, but that was our first home.
Speaker 3: And then that whole building sold to a developer for
Speaker 3: quite a good profit, which helped us get into the
Speaker 3: home we're in now. I will be completely transparent that
Speaker 3: my parents paid the twenty percent deposit for that as
Speaker 3: well and then helped us out very much great as well.
Speaker 1: So talk to me like that's brilliant, But I actually
Speaker 1: care more about the developer story. How does that happen?
Speaker 1: So you closed on your first home, that's really exciting.
Speaker 1: You bought an apartment and then what a developer knocks
Speaker 1: on the door and says, we want to buy this
Speaker 1: whole building and we're going to give you over market
Speaker 1: for your apartment or like, how does that work?
Speaker 3: That's exactly what happened. They said, we want to buy
Speaker 3: this building, we want to develop it. It goes through strata.
Speaker 3: I think they needed a seventy five percent approval like
Speaker 3: resident approval to do it. It was something like ninety percent.
Speaker 3: I think two apartments said they didn't want to do it,
Speaker 3: but they got forced too. Oh yeah, and then they
Speaker 3: paid us above market rate for it.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a good money win.
Speaker 3: It was an amazing, amazing money when that was unexpected.
Speaker 1: And then you're coming to purchase your second property and
Speaker 1: I'm assuming some of the profits from that, and then
Speaker 1: obviously your parents helped out, which is really cool. But
Speaker 1: was that a family home? Was that another apartment?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Well, what did we buy a second time around?
Speaker 3: Now? So that was a family home? So it's a
Speaker 3: three bedroom townhouse in like inner Melbourne.
Speaker 1: Oh, very cool? And what did you purchase that four ish?
Speaker 3: That was in twenty twenty two and that was for
Speaker 3: one point three two five million?
Speaker 1: Very cool? And what do you reckon that's worth now?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like the Melbourne market has slightly increased,
Speaker 1: So one point three are we looking at like one
Speaker 1: point six?
Speaker 3: Maybe it's probably about the same to be honest, you reckon,
Speaker 3: I reckon. It's probably about that because it dropped a bit,
Speaker 3: and then it's now the interest rates are going down,
Speaker 3: it might go up. I feel like it's yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, I've got my fingers crossed for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, maur is always better.
Speaker 1: Oh, I feel like the things. And this is coming
Speaker 1: from a relatively educated perspective for those of you playing
Speaker 1: along at home who might not know. I own a
Speaker 1: mortgage broken company, so I talk about mortgages literally every
Speaker 1: single day. I feel like a three bedroom townhouse in
Speaker 1: Melbourne has been quite popular. Like the three bedrooms not two,
Speaker 1: it's three would push you up a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And as you probably know, when you purchased that for
Speaker 1: what one point three to two, you were probably paying
Speaker 1: more than you wanted to. But it was because it
Speaker 1: had three bedrooms.
Speaker 3: Right, yes, but also less because we were living in
Speaker 3: Sydney at the time and property in Melbourne was way
Speaker 3: cheaper than property in Sydney.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so you've like reframed it to be very sexy.
Speaker 3: We thought we're getting a great bargain. Meanwhile, all my
Speaker 3: friends in Melbourne are like, you did what?
Speaker 1: They what?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: That's a good deal.
Speaker 3: I like it, but compared to Sydney way cheaper.
Speaker 1: I love that for you. She's positive. So what's the
Speaker 1: long term plan? Like we obviously you said before, I'd
Speaker 1: love to pay off, you know, our entire Melbourne mortgage.
Speaker 1: We want to have an exit. We'd love to essentially
Speaker 1: get rich. But is the plan like the dream plan
Speaker 1: to come home your husband gets to start off his
Speaker 1: own startup in Melbourne, Like what does life hopefully look
Speaker 1: like in the future.
Speaker 3: That is a dream plan. Currently it's just survive because, yeah,
Speaker 3: his income sounds high. But we also haven't touched on
Speaker 3: the rent that we pay in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Oh could you tell us more about that please.
Speaker 3: The third most expensive city in the world to live in. Gross, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it is. Our rent is about four eight hundred USD
Speaker 3: a month, which is about seven and a half thousand
Speaker 3: Australian dollars for a two bedroom apartment.
Speaker 1: I was about to say what does that get you?
Speaker 1: And you said a two bedroom apartment. I was like,
Speaker 1: wish I didn't ask yep, so is that normal? Have
Speaker 1: you got like a really boogie apartment? Like, have you
Speaker 1: got like a butler?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: What's going on? With like that amount of money that is.
Speaker 3: Normal, that is actually probably on the lower end. Right,
Speaker 3: it's a nice apartment. It's not a super boogie apartment,
Speaker 3: but it is also not a really crappy apartment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so talk to me about general living costs because
Speaker 1: I think I'm a little bit shook about four and
Speaker 1: a half thousand USDA for rent per month. Like, what's
Speaker 1: groceries costing? What's like your average bills? Like, what does
Speaker 1: all of that look like?
Speaker 3: Groceries are about two hundred dollars a week. We eat
Speaker 3: out Friday nights and maybe a couple of lunches on
Speaker 3: the weekend, but that's probably another one hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: dollars a week. Yeah. I mentioned electricity that's gotten cheaper.
Speaker 3: We don't own a car here, so that is helpful.
Speaker 3: Public transport here is also cheaper, which is really nice
Speaker 3: and free for under nineteen.
Speaker 1: Oh that's kind of cool. Yeah, yeah, very cool. Daycare
Speaker 1: was one hundred and seventy five dollars a day.
Speaker 3: Don't think of other expenses. I told it does a
Speaker 3: couple of classes as well, so they're I think twenty
Speaker 3: something dollars a class. But the city also does lots
Speaker 3: of free kids activities here, which is fantastic. So we've
Speaker 3: got some kind of regular freebies that we do as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is very cool. I feel like it all
Speaker 1: adds up. Talk to me about when eating out, what's
Speaker 1: tipping culture like, because I feel like that just gives
Speaker 1: me anxiety.
Speaker 3: Oh I hate tipping culture. I am the worst. I
Speaker 3: am giving all the Australians a bad reputation. I am
Speaker 3: so sorry. But no, I don't tip my hairdresser, even
Speaker 3: though you apparently tip your hair dresser here. Tipping culture
Speaker 3: is huge and I am terrible at it.
Speaker 1: See, I just I get it for restaurants and stuff
Speaker 1: like that because we know that they get really bad
Speaker 1: minimum wages or whatever. But then it's like a hairdresser,
Speaker 1: what do you mean, like are you on a bad
Speaker 1: I just don't comprehend it.
Speaker 3: I'm still paying you three hundred dollars to do my hair, like.
Speaker 1: And that's three hundred USD like that's yes, yes, it
Speaker 1: is five hundred and fifty Australian.
Speaker 3: Oh let's add that expensive. Yeah there's the hair every
Speaker 3: like eight weeks that I pay And no, so I
Speaker 3: think some of the chipping I get, like the uberik drivers. Absolutely,
Speaker 3: that is mostly how they earn their money tip them.
Speaker 3: But I feel like it's gotten even since, like I
Speaker 3: lived here when I was younger, it's gotten way more
Speaker 3: excit and higher amounts. Now you buy a coffee and
Speaker 3: it's like, would you like to tip twenty five percent
Speaker 3: of your seven dollar coffee? Well? No, not really?
Speaker 1: Actually yeah, I feel like I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: I would say that I'm good at money, and that
Speaker 1: just still makes me uncomfortable. I feel like, if anything,
Speaker 1: when I was in the US a while ago, I
Speaker 1: was over tipping because I didn't know exactly what to do,
Speaker 1: and I just I'm such a people pleaser. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to offend anybody. And then I'm like, oh what
Speaker 1: am I doing? But if I lived there, that's not sustainable.
Speaker 1: You can't do that.
Speaker 3: No, I undertip because otherwise everything is like twenty five
Speaker 3: percent more expensive and it's already more expensive.
Speaker 1: Wild Oh my goodness, I have loved this. Talk to me,
Speaker 1: what do you think your best money habit is?
Speaker 3: We work quite good at saving, and I know if
Speaker 3: we're so good at saving at the moment.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's a bit challenging at the moment
Speaker 1: it's a little.
Speaker 3: Bit challenging at the moment, but we are very good,
Speaker 3: I would say, at kind of choosing where we want
Speaker 3: to buy things that are a bit more expensive and
Speaker 3: where we find ways to save money or buy things
Speaker 3: that are maybe on the cheaper end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, smart, smart, What do you think your worst money
Speaker 1: habit is? And I'm super interested in this because at
Speaker 1: the start you said, oh, I think I'm a B
Speaker 1: or a B minus and that's gone down. Like, I
Speaker 1: just feel like you've got a reason for thinking your
Speaker 1: money grade has gone down, and I need to know.
Speaker 3: Oh Amazon, it's so easy here. You just like think
Speaker 3: of something and then like suddenly it appears in your Amazon.
Speaker 1: Order because it's like same day, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like, oh, that pair of shoes is cute.
Speaker 3: Oh it's arrived at two o'clock in the afternoon. And
Speaker 3: I'm getting better at it. My husband is terrible, Like
Speaker 3: we go over our budget every month and and he
Speaker 3: gets to it and he's like, oh, we spent how
Speaker 3: much on Amazon? And I'm like, yeah, because you were like, oh,
Speaker 3: just do it, just at it. He's even got the
Speaker 3: Amazon like credit card. He's like, oh, we got five
Speaker 3: percent back on everything and points.
Speaker 1: And oh my goodness, he's got got by the Amazon bug.
Speaker 1: I order stuff on Amazon in Australia and I think
Speaker 1: that's bad, but like in the UAY, i'd be unstoppable.
Speaker 3: We did an Australia too, and it is just the
Speaker 3: whole like next level here. Also, there's not a lot
Speaker 3: of like shops. All of the shops are closing. In
Speaker 3: San Francisco itself is doing a big push to like
Speaker 3: bring retail back to the city because we got decimated
Speaker 3: in COVID. But all across in America, like you know,
Speaker 3: I'm pregnant, I'm having another baby. There are no baby stores.
Speaker 3: You can't go look at baby things. There's a couple
Speaker 3: of like small, super bougie ones and they're really expensive
Speaker 3: areas where I was like, I just need to look
Speaker 3: at cots. We're going to go, But.
Speaker 1: Then you're like, I wish we never came.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's nothing. You know, my daughter grew out of
Speaker 3: her pants all of a sudden, almost like overnight, and
Speaker 3: there's a H and M in the city I could
Speaker 3: get to, but that's the only place to really buy
Speaker 3: kids clothes really, other than like online or if you
Speaker 3: track like way out to the suburbs, which we have
Speaker 3: a car. Are we not going to go an hour
Speaker 3: on a bus to get to Walmart?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Crazy?
Speaker 3: I miss clothes shopping in person?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I would miss that as well.
Speaker 1: So you reckon, that's your worst one habit and that's
Speaker 1: why your money score has gone down. I feel like
Speaker 1: you guys are killing it though, Like do you have
Speaker 1: picked up your entire life at like thirty six and
Speaker 1: been like, Nah, we're going to give it a crack.
Speaker 1: We're going to go international, especially with kids, Like, girl,
Speaker 1: you're giving me anxiety, Like I don't even want to
Speaker 1: leave the house with my toddler sometimes, Like that's not me.
Speaker 1: It sounds very attractive.
Speaker 3: The flight was the easy part, I think because I'd
Speaker 3: done it before. Like we were older, Like I was
Speaker 3: ten when I moved. My youngest sibling was six, So
Speaker 3: we were older when we moved. But like we've done it,
Speaker 3: we've seen that it was it was feasible. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was feasible. And like she's young, she misses like
Speaker 3: my parents terribly, but she sees every day on FaceTime
Speaker 3: and she's living her best little life.
Speaker 1: I love that for her. She's just a little San
Speaker 1: Francisco baby, and she's going to have a San Francisco
Speaker 1: sibling soon, an American sibling at that she will.
Speaker 3: We took her on a cable car for the first
Speaker 3: time on the weekend because she loves like trains and trams.
Speaker 3: I think it was the best day of her entire life.
Speaker 1: I love that for her.
Speaker 3: Like she's a tray kid. She was waving at everyone
Speaker 3: passing by like she was just the queen. She was
Speaker 3: the queen she was, and every time it stopped, she'd
Speaker 3: like clap like yay. It was just the best.
Speaker 1: I love kids so much, it's ridiculous. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: for you. Has she started to adopt an American accent yet?
Speaker 3: No, not yet. She still has a very Australian accent.
Speaker 3: Especially there's this thing over here about the way we
Speaker 3: say the word no, no, yeah exactly, that's exactly how
Speaker 3: she says it. So no, she hasn't yet, but we
Speaker 3: play a lot of wiggles to keep that accent going.
Speaker 1: Yeah good, I like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure she'll get one.
Speaker 1: Oh no, and little America that's coming soon. I definitely
Speaker 1: think like they're just going to copy the American accent.
Speaker 1: To begin with, she.
Speaker 3: Will, Yeah, she'll just come out with it straight away.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So now that we've had a chat,
Speaker 1: I feel like you said to your BEE or a
Speaker 1: B minus. I don't know. I feel like you're doing
Speaker 1: really well, especially for like the risk that you're taking
Speaker 1: in the hope that it will pay off. And I
Speaker 1: have no doubt that even if it's like not the
Speaker 1: options that you thought it would be, like, it's a
Speaker 1: I guess life changing experience that is arguably going to
Speaker 1: pay off for the rest of your careers. Do you
Speaker 1: really think like you're a B or a B minus
Speaker 1: or like what would it take to get you guys
Speaker 1: to an A? At this point.
Speaker 3: I think it's just because it's so I feel like
Speaker 3: we're in such a precarious position with like we are
Speaker 3: kind of just covering expenses. You know, we have a
Speaker 3: huge mortgage, we have a huge rent. There is a
Speaker 3: tax bill coming at some point. I feel like, yeah,
Speaker 3: if we knew that was all going to be fully okay,
Speaker 3: then yeah, probably like an A. But it's just that
Speaker 3: unknown is really.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the unknown is very challenging.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just eats away at you a little bit
Speaker 3: and you're like, oh, have we made the right choice.
Speaker 1: I feel like even if financially you haven't made the
Speaker 1: right choice, Like, what an experience for you guys, what
Speaker 1: an experience for your kids? Like this is so cool,
Speaker 1: but also like dual citizenship.
Speaker 3: This is how I sold my husband. My biggest thing
Speaker 3: was because he's like, oh, this could be a really
Speaker 3: bad financial decision, and I was like, yeah, but I
Speaker 3: don't want you to look back when you're sixty and
Speaker 3: retiring and being like, oh, I wish i'd done that,
Speaker 3: like I always I think you'd always.
Speaker 1: Regret not having made the move. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm
Speaker 1: excited for you guys. I hope you stay in touch
Speaker 1: because I think that's really fun. And then when you're
Speaker 1: in Melbourne, we can get our husbands together and they
Speaker 1: can talk about data and analytics, and I think that
Speaker 1: that would be very wholesome for them.
Speaker 3: Oh he needs someone because he tries to talk to
Speaker 3: me about like all the new models that are coming out,
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I have no idea.
Speaker 1: It's so nice that you wrote algorithms all day. I
Speaker 1: don't know what that means.
Speaker 3: Thank you, exactly. I'm so glad you're so passionate about this,
Speaker 3: but this is not my passion.
Speaker 1: I love that money direst it. It has been a pleasure
Speaker 1: getting to know you. Thank you for staying up late
Speaker 1: and doing a money diary with me. I know the
Speaker 1: community is going to love hearing this as much as
Speaker 1: I loved interviewing you. It has been a pleasure.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
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