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When the Cost of Living Hits Hard · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
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Speaker 1: woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t Glenn Young
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Speaker 1: Ganya nianar Kaka yah y and beIN Ahaka nian Our
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Speaker 1: gay In Mbina, yakarum Jar, Dominyama, Domaga Ithawaka, Waman dam
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Speaker 1: and Imlan Bomber bang Gadabomba in and now in wakah
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Speaker 1: Ghana on yak rum jar Watnada. Now Hello, beautiful friends,
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Speaker 1: we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We
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Speaker 1: thank acknowledge and respect the Abiginal people's land that we're
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Speaker 1: gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land and
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Speaker 1: respect all that you see. She's on the Money podcast
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Speaker 1: acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools,
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Speaker 1: knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
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Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
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Speaker 2: that lets you be pervy about other people's money habits.
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Speaker 4: For educational purposes, of course.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to another one of our money daries, where
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Speaker 2: I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down and talking
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Speaker 2: with one of our incredible She's on the Money community
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Speaker 2: members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it,
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Speaker 2: because this week I got a message and it sounded
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Speaker 2: just like this, dear, she's on the money. I feel
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Speaker 2: like I'm doing everything right and still going backwards. My
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Speaker 2: partner and I both earn really good money, around one
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Speaker 2: hundred grand each. We bought a home well under what
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Speaker 2: the bank said we could borrow, and we've cut every
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Speaker 2: non essential from our budget. We've got two kids under two,
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Speaker 2: and I even went back to work early to help
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Speaker 2: make ends meet. We're trying to do all of the
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Speaker 2: right things, but we don't feel like we're getting ahead money. Diarist,
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Speaker 2: Welcome to the show. I feel like this is going
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Speaker 2: to be so relatable for so many people in our community.
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Speaker 5: Hi, welcome.
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Speaker 2: I am genuinely very excited about this, because you know,
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Speaker 2: so often we get money Diress, and like, you know,
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Speaker 2: I'm from overseas and I earn a million dollars or
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Speaker 2: you know, I've found my way into tech and I,
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Speaker 2: you know, earn all of this big amount of money,
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Speaker 2: and like that's cool. I love learning from people. But
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Speaker 2: like what we haven't heard on the show recently is
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Speaker 2: like I feel like I'm doing absolutely everything right and
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Speaker 2: I'm not getting ahead and let you clearly earn good money.
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Speaker 2: So let's get into it. I want to know first,
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Speaker 2: cab off the rank. If I asked you to give
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Speaker 2: your money habits a grade from A through to F,
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Speaker 2: what would that grade be?
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Speaker 5: I'd say, even though we feel like we're going backwards
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Speaker 5: at the moment, I think how money habits are still okay,
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Speaker 5: So I'd give myself a B plus.
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Speaker 2: I feel like that's a pretty good place to start. Now,
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Speaker 2: let's talk a little bit more about it. I want
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Speaker 2: to dive in. Can you tell me a little bit
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Speaker 2: more about your money story?
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Speaker 5: Yeah, So with money, I think it's one of the
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Speaker 5: things that I grew up, And I grew up in
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Speaker 5: a family that always had like just enough to get by,
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Speaker 5: Like we weren't necessarily missing out on things, but we
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Speaker 5: also weren't living lavishly or anything. And I think that's
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Speaker 5: sort of growing up. I was good at saving and
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Speaker 5: frugal and things that didn't matter, but I was also
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Speaker 5: willing to spend money on the important things. Though. Also,
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Speaker 5: I feel that because I did sometimes miss out on
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Speaker 5: a few things growing up, I may spend a bit
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Speaker 5: more than I should on opportunities and experiences.
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Speaker 2: Now that I'm an adult, I mean, that's not the
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Speaker 2: worst thing. I feel like that's super relatable. Tell me
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Speaker 2: what money looks like now that you are an adult,
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Speaker 2: because I feel like I don't know what you do
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Speaker 2: yet and we'll get there. But I feel like once
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Speaker 2: you get to an age where you're earning six figures,
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Speaker 2: like you feel like, I don't know when I was little,
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Speaker 2: that in my head was you've made it, and you
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Speaker 2: don't feel that way right now. You just feel like
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Speaker 2: you're training water and in fact you're like no v,
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Speaker 2: I'm going backwards.
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Speaker 5: I think for me, like travel is something that I
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Speaker 5: really at the moment it is a case of more
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Speaker 5: just local trips away, like a weekend away locally where
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Speaker 5: it's just a few hour drive or something where previous
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Speaker 5: to kids it might have been like either an interstate
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Speaker 5: or occasionally even an international holiday, but definitely now it's
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Speaker 5: rained back in. And then other things like just being
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Speaker 5: able to catch up with friends and be able to
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Speaker 5: have like lunches out and all that. They're probably more
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Speaker 5: the experiences that I'm spending money on, yeah.
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Speaker 2: And I feel like they're the things that you're like, no, sorry,
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Speaker 2: Like I've cut everything. I'm not cutting that too, Like,
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Speaker 2: don't take my entire social life away. So talk to
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Speaker 2: me a little bit more about I guess what this
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Speaker 2: looks like. Because you said you have two under two
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Speaker 2: and that you and your husband, I'm assuming this was
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Speaker 2: like planned, right, like because you've said, I don't know,
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Speaker 2: it seems very I don't want to be rude, but
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Speaker 2: very stereotypical. We went to the bank, we have a
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Speaker 2: good loan, I'm married to my husband. We now have
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Speaker 2: two kids under two. Like, was this the game plan?
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Speaker 2: Did you go okay, cool, like we're in a really
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Speaker 2: good finance position, and then you found yourself maybe having underbudgeted,
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Speaker 2: or like, how do you find yourself in a position
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Speaker 2: where you're like, v I still feel like we're not
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Speaker 2: getting ahead.
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Speaker 5: I feel we like we got married and we had
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Speaker 5: decided to have kids before all the prices in housing
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Speaker 5: and everything went up. So initially when my husband and
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Speaker 5: I started planning to have kids, we actually did have
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Speaker 5: an investment property as well, which was a good thing
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Speaker 5: because when everything went up, interest rates mortgage repayments went
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Speaker 5: up as well, and meant that we did have that
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Speaker 5: safety net to sell that investment property in saying that
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Speaker 5: all the money that we made from that investment property
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Speaker 5: we lost within the first year, or like not lost,
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Speaker 5: but we used it, allowing me to be on that
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Speaker 5: lead for six months with my son.
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Speaker 2: Right, And that's so hard, right because you're like, oh,
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Speaker 2: this will be fine, and then you're like, hold on,
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Speaker 2: we worked so hard for this, and that's not how
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Speaker 2: we saw in our heads that working out. Was that
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Speaker 2: disappointing or was that like nope, we're really happy with that,
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Speaker 2: because I fee like so many times.
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Speaker 5: It felt like we had put ourselves, like we had
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Speaker 5: tried to get ourselves in the best position as we could,
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Speaker 5: but then it seemed like things out of our control
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Speaker 5: just meant that we couldn't keep those things and it felt.
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Speaker 4: Like we're going backwards.
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Speaker 5: Not that we regret having kids, they're still like we
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Speaker 5: had a second one after that anyway, But yeah, you
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Speaker 5: were like, this is actually the.
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Speaker 2: Best, but it's not the point.
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Speaker 5: It just is, Yeah, we weren't able to maintain that
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Speaker 5: good financial position that we thought we were in prior
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Speaker 5: to having kids.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. So tell me a
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Speaker 2: little bit more. What do you and your partner do
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Speaker 2: for work and how much money do you earn?
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Speaker 5: So I'm a VET, I earn about one hundred and
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Speaker 5: ten thousand dollars pro rata. At the moment, I am
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Speaker 5: going back like part time, so that's one hundred and
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Speaker 5: ten thousand parora full time, though I will probably be
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Speaker 5: going back full time in February next year.
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Speaker 2: And what would your salary look like in February?
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Speaker 5: So going back it will be the one hundred and
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Speaker 5: ten thous and currently it's I think this financial year
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Speaker 5: was about sixty seven thousand because Matt Lee part time.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, of course. So tell me what does
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Speaker 2: your husband do.
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Speaker 5: He's a building designer and he's also on one hundred
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Speaker 5: and ten thousand a year.
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Speaker 2: Okay, how cute you're like matching salaries. But also sorry,
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Speaker 2: you're a vet. You are insanely smart, aren't you. You're
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Speaker 2: a ductor? You laugh, but like that's actually very serious.
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Speaker 5: Sometimes I definitely feel like I've got my baby brain.
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Speaker 2: Oh honestly, like I haven't lost mine, which is, you know,
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Speaker 2: a little bit disappointing but not surprising to anyone who
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Speaker 2: has kids.
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Speaker 4: So talk to me about this, because I feel like a.
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Speaker 2: Building designer and a vet like that sounds very established
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Speaker 2: to me. I'm like, girl, you have studied for ages
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Speaker 2: to become a vet, and I'm sure that your husband
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Speaker 2: had to put in some pretty hard yards to get there.
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Speaker 2: You are thirty, Tell me where did it all start
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Speaker 2: to kind of feel like v I'm really not getting ahead, Like,
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Speaker 2: did you have and this is me just trying to
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Speaker 2: get some context. Did you your heads in the sand
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Speaker 2: before this? Or have you always been good at money?
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Speaker 2: I feel like you might have always You had an
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Speaker 2: investment property, so tell me about that, and like, how
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Speaker 2: then the money just became maybe not enough.
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Speaker 5: I think I was accidentally okay with money. It wasn't
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Speaker 5: very intentional, I think because I wasn't necessarily spending a
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Speaker 5: lot of money on things that I didn't deem important.
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Speaker 5: I did put, like unintentionally put money in savings, and
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Speaker 5: I think that's probably my shot for is I wasn't
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Speaker 5: intentional about it, it did mean because I was trying
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Speaker 5: to save money on tax I did do salary sacrifice
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Speaker 5: into my super when I was younger, which meant I
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Speaker 5: did actually have I'm still above average even after taking
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Speaker 5: two matt leave breaks for my age, which is nice.
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Speaker 5: But I think because I wasn't very intentional. It was
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Speaker 5: just more that I knew as long as I spent
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Speaker 5: less than I earned, i'd be okay, which was fine
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Speaker 5: pre kids, but now post kids, it seems like I
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Speaker 5: need to be a lot more intentional to be able
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Speaker 5: to maintain budgets and things.
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Speaker 2: And I feel like that can be a really big
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Speaker 2: mindset shift, especially if you've kind of gone I don't know,
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Speaker 2: you've gone from being like, you know, very educated and
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Speaker 2: you're like, no, I worked really hard so I didn't
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Speaker 2: have to be as like, I'm assuming strict with your
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Speaker 2: budgeting to like completely flipping and being like, okay, cool,
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Speaker 2: we have cut back literally every non essential from our budget.
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Speaker 2: What's that like? Because I'm assuming you didn't go great,
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Speaker 2: like once we have kids will really knuckled down with
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Speaker 2: the budgeting.
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Speaker 4: That was probably something you probably didn't bargain for.
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Speaker 5: No. I think because when we first planned kids, the
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Speaker 5: interest rates were really low, and we were hearing that
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Speaker 5: like the RBA weren't going to increase for a little
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Speaker 5: bit yet, and we're like, I think we made the
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Speaker 5: mistake of going, oh, yeah, that will work, Like the
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Speaker 5: RBA won't increase interest rates until after I go back
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Speaker 5: to work from at Lee. But no, it happened right
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Speaker 5: as I was due that all the interest increases were.
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Speaker 2: Going, Oh, that's so stressful. So then trying to sell
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Speaker 2: the house while I was in labor. Excuse me, while
10:04
Speaker 2: you're in labor, you're trying to sell a house.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I was trying to sell the house while I
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Speaker 5: was in the middle of labor. Like the real estate
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Speaker 5: agent was like calling me, going like these are the
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Speaker 5: offers and everything.
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Speaker 2: So that was a little bit stressful. Oh my god,
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Speaker 2: And you were answering when I was in labor. I
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Speaker 2: have my phone on, do not disturb, Like I did
10:21
Speaker 2: not have my head in the game. Like if you'd
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Speaker 2: ask me any logical question, I would have been the yes,
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Speaker 2: whatever you say, sir, like not an option for me.
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Speaker 5: I did get to the point that I'm like, I
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Speaker 5: authorize you to make these decisions with my husband.
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Speaker 2: You don't have to.
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Speaker 5: The problem was the house was solely in my name,
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Speaker 5: so they kept on calling me, and I'm like, I
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Speaker 5: give him full permission to make all these decisions, like
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Speaker 5: stop calling me.
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Speaker 2: And did this real estate agent know that you were
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Speaker 2: in labor?
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Speaker 5: We did tell them, and I think they did eventually
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Speaker 5: after that point, start talking to my husband instead.
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Speaker 2: Okay, but like leave the whole family alone. Oh I'm
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Speaker 2: mad about this. I'm like, sorry, your husband had a
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Speaker 2: job in that moment and it was to support you,
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Speaker 2: not not apply to the real estate. Oh h anyway,
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Speaker 2: so tell me when you say, look, we've cut every
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Speaker 2: non essential from our budget. What's that like? Have you
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Speaker 2: gone and done a really big spreadsheet? Are you doing
11:13
Speaker 2: it on the back of an envelope? What does that
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Speaker 2: budgeting process look like?
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Speaker 5: I did. I like Excel sheets, So I went through
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Speaker 5: one year of all my bank details, so the offset
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Speaker 5: account as well as our spending account, and I put
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Speaker 5: everything into Excel and then I diviated up into like categories.
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Speaker 5: So from there, like we cut out gym memberships. We've
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Speaker 5: even gone to the point that sorry, that's my girl,
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Speaker 5: hi baby.
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Speaker 2: Hey.
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Speaker 5: So we got to the point that, like we've even
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Speaker 5: cut out like internet because we have so much phone data, so.
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Speaker 2: So literally everything, literally everything.
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Speaker 5: And we've given ourselves like a fifty dollars a week
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Speaker 5: discretionary budget that we can spend all fifty dollars for discretionary,
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Speaker 5: fifty dollars for takeaway, and that's it. So like, if
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Speaker 5: we want to do like a family outing or something,
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Speaker 5: and it's going to be like one hundred dollars, we
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Speaker 5: either have to take from like one of the other,
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Speaker 5: like next week's budget or like allowance, or take it
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Speaker 5: out of the takeaway allow It's like we're trying to
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Speaker 5: cut way back.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, And is that having an impact? I feel
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Speaker 2: like you mentioned, Look, it just doesn't feel like we're
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Speaker 2: getting ahead. Is this like a forever thing? Do you
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Speaker 2: think interest rate drops are going to help? Or when
12:27
Speaker 2: you go back to work, like, where's the light at
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Speaker 2: the end of the tunnel? Work? What are we looking towards?
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Speaker 5: I think because with my job there does seem to
12:34
Speaker 5: be a bit of a high demand. I think once
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Speaker 5: I'm back at work full time and I can potentially
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Speaker 5: pick up extra shifts, hopefully our budget won't be as tight.
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Speaker 5: I did a budget for this year while I'm on
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Speaker 5: matt leave, and it's not possible to break even with
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Speaker 5: all our expenses. But next year, once I'm back full time,
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Speaker 5: we should be able to actually start to put money
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Speaker 5: aside in savings or investments.
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Speaker 2: Again, yeah, it looks like you've got a plan. What
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Speaker 2: does it mean to not break even does that mean
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Speaker 2: that you're relying on credit cards or you know, relying
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Speaker 2: on savings or you mentioned you sold that investment property.
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Speaker 2: What does that look like savings? Yeah, I mean that's
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Speaker 2: a good position to be in. Like, I'm so glad
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Speaker 2: you've got them.
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Speaker 5: We currently are just relying on our savings and our
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Speaker 5: savings account. It's we're not dipping into it too much,
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Speaker 5: and it hasn't got below like our emergency fun level,
13:23
Speaker 5: but we have been like dipping into our savings. Fortunately,
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Speaker 5: we've been able not to rely on personal loans credit cards.
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Speaker 2: I do have.
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Speaker 5: An overdraft account, but we haven't needed to touch that either.
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Speaker 4: See that's it.
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Speaker 2: I know that you don't feel like you're getting ahead,
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Speaker 2: and I know that it feels I don't know, it
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Speaker 2: always feels really personal. But at this point in time,
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Speaker 2: I feel like so many of us are just treading water.
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Speaker 2: We're waiting for interest rates to come down or the
13:48
Speaker 2: cost of living crisis pressures to like literally ease up,
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Speaker 2: and it just it feels like we're not getting anywhere.
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Speaker 2: Are you able to in this period of time have
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Speaker 2: big money goals you like?
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Speaker 1: No?
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Speaker 2: V We are trading water until I get back to
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Speaker 2: work and I have like a little bit more freedom.
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Speaker 5: I do have big money goals, Like our big long
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Speaker 5: term goal is to pay off the mortgage, be completely
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Speaker 5: debt free, as well as like invest enough that when
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Speaker 5: we get to fifty, we have the option of just
14:17
Speaker 5: like working part time and hopefully get to the point
14:21
Speaker 5: that we can live off dividends. I mean, we haven't
14:23
Speaker 5: started properly investing yet, but it is something that I
14:28
Speaker 5: would love to.
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Speaker 2: Do long term and short term.
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Speaker 5: Just want to get us to the point that we
14:34
Speaker 5: can start saving again. And we want more than two kids,
14:37
Speaker 5: so we want to save up and off that I
14:39
Speaker 5: can afford to go on that leave again.
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Speaker 2: I love that what are we looking at? We're looking
14:43
Speaker 2: at just like maybe one more for three? Or are
14:45
Speaker 2: we doing five? Like I wouldn't ever ask someone how
14:49
Speaker 2: many more kids do you want? Like you open to
14:51
Speaker 2: that door or me, Yeah, ideally we would love four kids.
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Speaker 2: I love that so much. Like literally, I have one baby,
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Speaker 2: and I'm like, give me all the baby, like I
15:01
Speaker 2: love it so much.
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Speaker 5: Pri my son, I was good with two maybe three kids,
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Speaker 5: and then after I had my son, I'm like, I
15:05
Speaker 5: want four.
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Speaker 4: I want them more.
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Speaker 2: I love that I've got one of my girlfriends has
15:09
Speaker 2: four and like chaos. But at the same time, I'm like,
15:13
Speaker 2: that just looks so fun. Like when people are like, oh,
15:16
Speaker 2: you must be so busy, I'm like, girl, you must
15:18
Speaker 2: be having so much fun, Like, imagine that so cool. Also,
15:23
Speaker 2: in the cost of living crisis, the idea of four
15:25
Speaker 2: children gives me like anxiety.
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Speaker 4: But we can talk about that later.
15:29
Speaker 2: Let's go to a really quick break because on the
15:31
Speaker 2: flip side, I have a lot of questions for you,
15:32
Speaker 2: and I really want to talk about your super. So
15:34
Speaker 2: you guys, don't go anywhere, all right, we are back
15:41
Speaker 2: a money direst I want to talk about investing. So
15:44
Speaker 2: you mentioned when you.
15:45
Speaker 4: Were a little bit younger.
15:46
Speaker 2: You said, Look, I wasn't very intentional, and I also
15:49
Speaker 2: wanted to, like, you know, make the most of my
15:50
Speaker 2: tax situation, so I was really loading my super. What's
15:54
Speaker 2: your superannuation look like at the moment.
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Speaker 5: It's Joshi have one hundred thousand I think last I checked,
15:59
Speaker 5: I was like nine eight thousand.
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Speaker 2: Okay, and you're only thirty. That is looking very attractive.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, so I'm glad past me did that because yeah,
16:09
Speaker 5: I have not been topping up my super when I've
16:10
Speaker 5: been on Matt leave.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly fair and at this point in time, you
16:15
Speaker 2: I can almost guarantee you said you have a four
16:17
Speaker 2: month old. You gave birth before the first of July,
16:20
Speaker 2: which is when the contributions to superannuation kicked in for
16:24
Speaker 2: people on Matt leaf, which honestly, I just think is rude.
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Speaker 2: I know.
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Speaker 5: And then the fact that they don't start giving it
16:29
Speaker 5: even after first of July you have to have your
16:31
Speaker 5: baby after.
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Speaker 4: Get rude, so rude. Like, I just have thoughts and feelings.
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Speaker 2: I mean, I'm glad we've got it, but like, if
16:37
Speaker 2: you're already on Matt leave, come.
16:39
Speaker 4: On, cough up.
16:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wish now money, dirist. I want to know
16:43
Speaker 2: more about your investing plans because you mentioned before my
16:47
Speaker 2: husband and I would love to be part time by
16:49
Speaker 2: the time we're fifty and live off dividends, et cetera.
16:52
Speaker 2: But we haven't started investing like properly yet. What does
16:55
Speaker 2: investing look like for you guys? You're having conversations about
16:58
Speaker 2: it obviously right now we don't have extra cash, so
17:01
Speaker 2: it makes sense that we're not, But like, where are
17:03
Speaker 2: the conversations at.
17:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, so at the moment, it's just the micro investing
17:08
Speaker 5: with charez Eas as part of like the non negotiable
17:11
Speaker 5: in our budget. I had been putting aside twenty dollars
17:14
Speaker 5: per child into their bank account. So I've now actually
17:17
Speaker 5: switched that to putting that into like charez Eas, just
17:21
Speaker 5: to try to build up what I would have been
17:23
Speaker 5: pain anyway.
17:25
Speaker 2: So at the moment, it's.
17:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, forty dollars a week, not much, but the chare
17:28
Speaker 5: Ceas account is at about twelve hundred.
17:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean that's very good. Like the fact
17:33
Speaker 2: that you're investing already and you are like not failing ahead.
17:37
Speaker 2: What you're telling me right now is maybe you're a
17:39
Speaker 2: little bit more ahead than you think you are because
17:41
Speaker 2: at the moment, you're in the middle of that season
17:43
Speaker 2: of life where you don't have as much of an
17:45
Speaker 2: income and you are going I guess a little bit
17:47
Speaker 2: quote backwards, but you're going to get forwards, which is
17:50
Speaker 2: also really exciting.
17:52
Speaker 4: So talk to me about debt.
17:55
Speaker 2: You said that you had an investment property sold that
17:58
Speaker 2: use the profits for your first maternity lead, but you
18:00
Speaker 2: also own a property at the moment, and I guess
18:03
Speaker 2: interest rates are what's really like keeping you guys a
18:06
Speaker 2: little bit back. Tell me about what that debt looks like.
18:09
Speaker 2: What did you purchase when where?
18:10
Speaker 5: How So with the house, we purchased Gold Coast, which
18:16
Speaker 5: was nice, and we purchased at the end of twenty
18:18
Speaker 5: twenty one this house, and we sold our investment property
18:23
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty three. Fortunately at that point the house
18:28
Speaker 5: values had both risen, but there was a little bit
18:31
Speaker 5: of problems with the investment property with getting it sold
18:34
Speaker 5: because problems we weren't.
18:35
Speaker 4: Aware of came up.
18:37
Speaker 5: As far as debt, the mortgage that we currently have
18:40
Speaker 5: five hundred and ninety five thousand remaining on the mortgage.
18:45
Speaker 5: I think at the time we were allowed to borrow
18:49
Speaker 5: up to I think one point one million, but we
18:52
Speaker 5: only borrowed six hundred and fifty thousand for our house
18:55
Speaker 5: because we wanted to borrow a lot less than we needed.
18:58
Speaker 2: To honestly smart, and I'm sure that you are thanking
19:01
Speaker 2: past you for that decision, because I can't imagine the
19:04
Speaker 2: financial pressure you would have been under if you had
19:06
Speaker 2: borrowed one point one million dollars at this point in time,
19:10
Speaker 2: like chaotic, I feel like you might have been forced
19:14
Speaker 2: to sell. So tell me a little bit more you
19:17
Speaker 2: borrowed six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for this home.
19:21
Speaker 2: What do you think it's currently worth if you purchased
19:23
Speaker 2: it in twenty twenty one?
19:25
Speaker 5: For what we can see like on real estate dot Com,
19:27
Speaker 5: it's worth over just over a million.
19:29
Speaker 2: Now, okay, see this isn't as bad. I feel like
19:34
Speaker 2: the more I get into your money story, the more
19:36
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, cool, Like, it probably feels like you're
19:39
Speaker 2: drowning and you're just like not getting ahead, but as
19:42
Speaker 2: time's going on, you're like supers ticking away. I'm sure
19:44
Speaker 2: that your husband has a relatively healthy super account doing
19:48
Speaker 2: what he does. You've got a nice amount of equity. Like, girl,
19:51
Speaker 2: if you've got five hundred and ninety five thousand remaining,
19:54
Speaker 2: you've got nearly four hundred thousand dollars worth of equity.
19:57
Speaker 2: And that doesn't mean that we are cashing out and
20:00
Speaker 2: borrowing more. But how good if like, let's be honest,
20:03
Speaker 2: the sh one t hit the fan and you needed
20:06
Speaker 2: to sell, knowing that you'd be sitting on a nice
20:08
Speaker 2: amount of cash, I'll take some pressure off.
20:11
Speaker 5: Yeah, it definitely does.
20:12
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And then also in the future, once you go
20:16
Speaker 2: back to being on your like full time, because you
20:18
Speaker 2: mentioned before you're like, look, pro rather, I'm earning what
20:21
Speaker 2: like sixty seven thousand dollars this last financial year, but
20:24
Speaker 2: you're going to go back to one ten, Like you're
20:27
Speaker 2: going to have some more wiggle room. We probably have
20:29
Speaker 2: some more investment opportunity, and we could even potentially talk
20:32
Speaker 2: about investment property like you guys aren't so behind that.
20:36
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, Like I don't know how we're ever
20:38
Speaker 2: going to get back. But it still doesn't feel good,
20:41
Speaker 2: especially when you are two incredibly educated human beings who
20:44
Speaker 2: are doing their best and you're like, I can't even
20:47
Speaker 2: work out how to do this, Like how are other
20:49
Speaker 2: people doing this? Because I'm giving myself literally fifty bucks
20:52
Speaker 2: a week, and if I want to do stuff with
20:53
Speaker 2: the kids, I've got to use that cash. Yep. So
20:56
Speaker 2: we're asset comfortable and maybe hash flow poor.
21:01
Speaker 4: At the moment. Yeah, that would be it.
21:03
Speaker 2: I feel like that's not the worst position to be,
21:05
Speaker 2: but also not the most fun position, given you've had
21:09
Speaker 2: to really knuckle down over the past little while. What
21:12
Speaker 2: do you think your best money habit is?
21:14
Speaker 5: I can be very disciplined with money when I want
21:18
Speaker 5: to be so once I realized that we were cash
21:20
Speaker 5: flow poor and I put in the budget. We've been
21:23
Speaker 5: really good at sticking with it, so we put that
21:25
Speaker 5: in place back in May. And May and June were
21:29
Speaker 5: like the first months that we actually spend less than
21:31
Speaker 5: we're budgeted to spend, which.
21:33
Speaker 2: Is very cool and very exciting. Do you think that
21:36
Speaker 2: will continue?
21:37
Speaker 5: Yeah? I think so. Now that we're both being a
21:39
Speaker 5: lot more mindful with how we're spending money, I think
21:42
Speaker 5: that will definitely rain in the amount that we're losing
21:45
Speaker 5: or spending.
21:46
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
21:46
Speaker 2: And I feel like I talk to people all the
21:48
Speaker 2: time about budgets, right, I'm like loke obsessed with budgeting
21:51
Speaker 2: and cash flow and finance. I don't think that's a
21:53
Speaker 2: secret in this community. But it's really interesting going through
21:57
Speaker 2: your budget and realizing where your money is flowing. What
22:00
Speaker 2: do you think was the most surprising thing that you
22:03
Speaker 2: were going through your budget going hold on, that's costing
22:05
Speaker 2: us what? Because I don't think it's surprising when you go, oh,
22:08
Speaker 2: oh cut out this, like gym membership, but like, was
22:11
Speaker 2: there a spending category that shocked you? Oh?
22:14
Speaker 5: It's one that I hear all the time on money diaries.
22:17
Speaker 5: But I think it's the takeaway. The amount that we're
22:20
Speaker 5: spending on takeaway was almost half our grocery budget, which
22:22
Speaker 5: was ridiculous. Like my husband and I we enjoy, like
22:25
Speaker 5: our thing to do together would just be to go
22:28
Speaker 5: to a nice cafe and spend some time together at
22:31
Speaker 5: a cafe. So I think we did a lot of takeaway.
22:34
Speaker 5: So now we're just being a bit more mindful. But
22:36
Speaker 5: it was, yeah, probably half of our grocery budget. We'll
22:39
Speaker 5: spend in on takeaways.
22:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, when I went on my leg very short, but
22:43
Speaker 2: when I went on maternity leave with Harvey, I was
22:47
Speaker 2: tracking all of my spending and like I hadn't tracked
22:50
Speaker 2: my spending as aggressively as I had until I had,
22:54
Speaker 2: you know, a little bit more breathing room.
22:55
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, I do the budgets because.
22:57
Speaker 2: Like any normal person on their matt leave, that's exactly
23:00
Speaker 2: what they want to do. It's not but I was
23:02
Speaker 2: very excited about it. I was shocked at how much
23:05
Speaker 2: and like I should know, right, like we're smart people.
23:08
Speaker 2: But like the little coffees, the fact that I would
23:11
Speaker 2: go to the cafe and like use it as my like, oh,
23:13
Speaker 2: Harvey and I going out like you know, I've got
23:15
Speaker 2: a four week old baby. I thought I was on
23:17
Speaker 2: top of the world, you know, even getting out of
23:19
Speaker 2: the house in the morning for a walk on my own,
23:21
Speaker 2: by the way, because like, to me, that was a
23:23
Speaker 2: big feat. Are you telling me? Like I'm walking the
23:26
Speaker 2: dog and pushing a pram at the same time by myself,
23:29
Speaker 2: Like to me, that was massive.
23:31
Speaker 4: So I would get to the cafe.
23:32
Speaker 2: What do you mean and almond croissant is nine dollars
23:35
Speaker 2: and at the time, I was like, yep, just an
23:36
Speaker 2: Alma cissant and a latte. And then I'd reflect on
23:39
Speaker 2: my like budget, and I'd be like, hold on, this
23:42
Speaker 2: is like getting a bit embarrassing. And I was like, Steve,
23:44
Speaker 2: did you know they've we spent like, you know, over
23:47
Speaker 2: this week. I think it was like two hundred and
23:50
Speaker 2: fifty dollars or something at cafes And I was like,
23:52
Speaker 2: this is just a week. And he's like, well, how
23:54
Speaker 2: did that happen? Because he didn't believe me, And I
23:57
Speaker 2: was like, well, you know, we spent sixty dollars on
23:59
Speaker 2: the Saturday, and then on this Sunday we spent thirty
24:02
Speaker 2: dollars because we both had like a little you know,
24:05
Speaker 2: treat and a coffee and I've been spending some money
24:08
Speaker 2: during the week and then your coffee's added up, like
24:11
Speaker 2: it just added up. And I was like, that's a
24:12
Speaker 2: bloody grocery budget. That was so embarrassing, Like cut that out,
24:16
Speaker 2: don't worry. But it's really confronting, isn't it.
24:20
Speaker 5: It is? And it's so easy to do, I know.
24:23
Speaker 2: I feel like they're the little treats that I'm like, no,
24:26
Speaker 2: surely that doesn't eat into the budget too much, and
24:29
Speaker 2: it really does. So I'm not cutting out coffee. I
24:32
Speaker 2: think I've said that on the show before, not cutting
24:34
Speaker 2: that out, but I will cut out the additional little
24:37
Speaker 2: sweet treat or maybe we can have a few pieces
24:39
Speaker 2: of toast before we go for our walk and just
24:42
Speaker 2: have a coffee.
24:43
Speaker 4: Yeah.
24:45
Speaker 5: So yes, going out with the pup and the bub
24:48
Speaker 5: together is a big.
24:50
Speaker 2: Feat when you're a new mom too. I feel like
24:52
Speaker 2: people underrate that right, Like I remember my husband came
24:55
Speaker 2: home and I said, guess what I did today? And
24:57
Speaker 2: he was like what, And I was like, I went
24:59
Speaker 2: for a w awk with Lucy and Pavey and he
25:01
Speaker 2: was like, congrats, I guess, and I was like no, no, no,
25:06
Speaker 2: I walked the dog and pushed the premp and he
25:08
Speaker 2: was just like looking at me like I was crazy. Sorry,
25:11
Speaker 2: I felt so naked. I was like, this dog that
25:13
Speaker 2: is incredibly well trained, for some reason in my head
25:16
Speaker 2: was going to be the worst trained dog in the
25:18
Speaker 2: entire world. She was probably going to run across a
25:19
Speaker 2: main road. In my head, I did it. And I
25:22
Speaker 2: don't think we talk about that enough because to me,
25:25
Speaker 2: I got out of that. And do you know what
25:26
Speaker 2: I was wearing clean active wear?
25:29
Speaker 4: That's also an achievement.
25:31
Speaker 2: It's do you know what I had it made? I
25:33
Speaker 2: had it made it four weeks.
25:36
Speaker 5: Yeah. I think sometimes just washing your hair when you
25:38
Speaker 5: have the new bubbers an achievement as well.
25:40
Speaker 4: Do you know what I reckon that that needs to
25:42
Speaker 4: be the priority.
25:43
Speaker 2: Like, you need a partner, a partner, birthing partner, friend,
25:47
Speaker 2: come over watch my baby for the twenty minutes that
25:49
Speaker 2: I'll be in the shower. You come out, you feel
25:52
Speaker 2: like an entirely new human being. Like sometimes you just
25:55
Speaker 2: need a shower and to step away from the baby
25:58
Speaker 2: for like ten minutes. I know you don't want to,
26:00
Speaker 2: but you will be six million times better as a
26:03
Speaker 2: mum after you've had that shower promise.
26:05
Speaker 5: It makes such a difference.
26:06
Speaker 2: Now at money Dirives, we need to flip the narrative here.
26:09
Speaker 2: What do you think your worst money habit is?
26:11
Speaker 5: I think because we both were earning a decent amount
26:15
Speaker 5: before I went on that leave, it was so easy
26:18
Speaker 5: to have lifestyle creep and just justify it. Like if
26:21
Speaker 5: I picked up an extra shift before having my bub
26:24
Speaker 5: I would just be like, oh, well, I've WoT this
26:26
Speaker 5: extra shift. I'm having more money that justifies me having
26:29
Speaker 5: takeout lunch, at a coffee or all those things. So
26:32
Speaker 5: I definitely think lifestyle creep unchecked definitely ate up a
26:37
Speaker 5: lot of potential savings.
26:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I feel like it's nice to reflect on that,
26:41
Speaker 2: but also sorry, I enjoyed those things as well. Money
26:44
Speaker 2: darist at the start of the show, you said, I
26:47
Speaker 2: reckon I'm a B plus because we might not have
26:49
Speaker 2: heaps of cash at the moment, but we're not bad
26:52
Speaker 2: with money. What do you think it would take to
26:55
Speaker 2: get you to like an A or an A plus?
26:57
Speaker 2: Like what would have to change? Is it just an
26:59
Speaker 2: increase in cash or they're like things You're like, nah,
27:02
Speaker 2: I would need to do ABC and D Like, what
27:04
Speaker 2: does that look like for you.
27:05
Speaker 5: I think at this point in time, an increasing cash
27:08
Speaker 5: flow will be the majority of it, and the other
27:11
Speaker 5: thing will be sticking with the budget longer term, because
27:15
Speaker 5: at the moment it's got like a lot of momentum
27:17
Speaker 5: having had the budget for about three months and been
27:19
Speaker 5: doing well. But I know previously I've done all this,
27:23
Speaker 5: done the budget, and about the six month mark, I
27:25
Speaker 5: get a bit sloppy with it, and lifestyle creep starts
27:28
Speaker 5: to creep back in, and so I think for it
27:30
Speaker 5: to get higher, I need to be better at reevaluating,
27:34
Speaker 5: sticking to the budget, and then tweaking it is needed.
27:36
Speaker 2: I've been saying this to my team. Actually we need
27:39
Speaker 2: to get like a little group. And I don't even
27:41
Speaker 2: know how to facilitate this, but like maybe a reminder
27:44
Speaker 2: where we all get every three months to hey, we
27:47
Speaker 2: know you're starting to slip off your budget train. Now's
27:49
Speaker 2: the time to redo it. Because we all do it.
27:52
Speaker 2: I'm guilty of it. Like I get in a mood
27:54
Speaker 2: and I do my whole budget and I am perfect
27:57
Speaker 2: for a week and then things start to slip or
28:00
Speaker 2: there's something that popped up in my budget that I
28:02
Speaker 2: forgot to budget for and then I'm like, oh, I
28:04
Speaker 2: fix that later, and then all of a sudden, it's
28:06
Speaker 2: three months and I haven't looked at that spreadsheet.
28:09
Speaker 4: I feel like we're all guilty of it. So we
28:11
Speaker 4: need to find some way in.
28:12
Speaker 2: This community to foster more group accountability, because that would
28:15
Speaker 2: be I don't know, for me, a lot more motivating.
28:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, have the what Monday money wins and every three
28:22
Speaker 5: months are budget need to come up with a catchy
28:25
Speaker 5: phrase for it?
28:26
Speaker 2: But yeah, exactly, And I'm not even sure if money
28:29
Speaker 2: win is like that catchy, but I've said it so
28:32
Speaker 2: often that people who have just adopted it and we're
28:34
Speaker 2: just not gonna question it. So I'll think of some
28:36
Speaker 2: kind of catchy like accountability something. But there's no day
28:40
Speaker 2: of the week that starts with an A, So I've
28:44
Speaker 2: got to get crafty.
28:45
Speaker 4: I might ask my friend chat GPT money darist.
28:49
Speaker 2: This has been such a good money hirie. I feel
28:52
Speaker 2: like it just disreally relatable, like so many people in
28:55
Speaker 2: our community are earning what you're earning and feeling justice stuck,
28:59
Speaker 2: and I feel that it is a point of maybe
29:02
Speaker 2: not contention, but a point where you're like, oh, I
29:05
Speaker 2: feel a bit embarrassed because you're not a low income earner,
29:09
Speaker 2: so you don't want to be seen to be like complaining,
29:12
Speaker 2: but you also are working really hard for the money
29:15
Speaker 2: that you've gotten gotten to that stage, and you go,
29:18
Speaker 2: hold on, but I want to talk about it as
29:20
Speaker 2: well and make sure that I'm on the right track
29:22
Speaker 2: and doing the right things. And it would be so
29:23
Speaker 2: nice to be able to share this load with somebody,
29:26
Speaker 2: But then you don't want to because you feel like, oh,
29:29
Speaker 2: I know, I'm not in the worst position ever, right,
29:31
Speaker 2: So this I think has been the perfect little conversation
29:35
Speaker 2: so many people who are in your position, My love,
29:38
Speaker 2: Thank you. It has been an absolute pleasure getting to
29:41
Speaker 2: share your story. Thank you so much, and I know
29:43
Speaker 2: the community is just going to.
29:44
Speaker 4: Love the fact that this was just so relatable. I hope.
29:47
Speaker 2: But we get to cross pubs at some point in
29:49
Speaker 2: Person two so that I can meet that little lady
29:51
Speaker 2: who's been snugging you the whole time we've been doing
29:54
Speaker 2: this money diary.
29:55
Speaker 5: Well, thanks so much, it's been so much fun.
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