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I Was a Broke Single Mum with Bad Credit… Now I Own a Home and Invest · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: My name's Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations woman
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Speaker 1: and I'm here to acknowledge country t Glenn Young Ganya,
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Speaker 1: nianaar Kaka yah y and Binahwaka Nian our gay In Nimbini,
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Speaker 1: yakarum Jar, Doumayagumika, Dumaga, Ihowaka, Nilewaman damon Imlan Bumba bang
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Speaker 1: Gadabomba in and now in Waka ghana on yak rum
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Speaker 1: Jar Watanadana. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather on the lands
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Speaker 1: of the Aboriginal people. We thank acknowledge and respect the
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Speaker 1: Aberiginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure
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Speaker 1: in all the land and respect all that you see.
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Speaker 1: She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections,
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Speaker 1: bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
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Speaker 2: She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
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Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
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Speaker 3: that lets you be pervy about other people's money stories
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Speaker 3: the educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another one
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Speaker 3: of our money diaries, brought to you by our friends
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Speaker 3: at sky Wealth, where I get the absolute privilege of
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Speaker 3: sitting down with one of our incredible She's on the
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Speaker 3: Money community members and talking all about their journey. Let's
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Speaker 3: jump straight in because this week I got a message
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Speaker 3: and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's on the
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Speaker 3: Money Leaving home at sixteen, I was financially illiterate, ruined
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Speaker 3: my credit due to ADHD, and struggled below the poverty
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Speaker 3: line as a young single mum. I had to lock in.
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Speaker 3: I built a career in banking and saved aggressively to
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Speaker 3: buy my first home. Before thirty, I overcame money avoidance
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Speaker 3: and impulse spending to clear my debts, fix my credit,
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Speaker 3: and start investing. I finally feel like the best is
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Speaker 3: yet to come after years of money dread, ah money diarist,
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Speaker 3: I just know this is going to be a goodie.
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Speaker 2: I just know. Yeah, I'm pretty excited. What a wild story, right?
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Speaker 1: Is it?
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Speaker 3: Because we've been yapping about how men suck for twenty
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Speaker 3: minutes before we even started recording, I think it might be.
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Speaker 2: Why not sounds fun? Sounds like fun?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: Ten out of ten? Ten.
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Speaker 3: Well, let's learn a little bit more about you and
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Speaker 3: your money story. But before we get there, I want
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Speaker 3: to ask you the question that I ask everybody, what
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Speaker 3: grade would you give your money habits if I asked
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Speaker 3: you to give them a grade from A through to F.
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Speaker 2: I had a bit of a think about this one,
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Speaker 2: and I think of B just a solid B is
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Speaker 2: fair above average, but definitely room for improvement.
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Speaker 1: I like it.
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Speaker 3: So now let's dive into the juicy stuff. Tell me
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Speaker 3: a little bit more about your money story and there's
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Speaker 3: things that have impacted it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly, she is messy. I come from a working
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Speaker 2: class background, and like in our family growing up, my
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Speaker 2: dad always handled the money right. He's a saver, and
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Speaker 2: my mum would always say things like she's terrible with
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Speaker 2: money and would spend like every dollar that she's ever
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Speaker 2: had given the opportunity. So for me, they really only
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Speaker 2: had two rules growing up, and that was like number one,
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Speaker 2: never get a credit card and save most of your money.
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Speaker 2: That was pretty much it.
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Speaker 3: When you didn't listen to either, I love that.
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Speaker 2: I know shock.
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Speaker 3: I just don't know what they're talking about though, So
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Speaker 3: that's fine bit.
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Speaker 2: Of a rude revelation to come to because then I
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Speaker 2: became a parent and I was like, oh, yeah, my
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Speaker 2: kid's also not going to listen to me.
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Speaker 3: So that's fantastic. Also cool that at least you are prepared,
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Speaker 3: that's right.
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Speaker 2: So that was kind of a funny upbringing because for me,
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Speaker 2: like I worked like three jobs when I was as
3:25
Speaker 2: soon as I could get a job, I had like
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Speaker 2: three after school jobs. I'd work at like a supermarket,
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Speaker 2: like a little cafe, and like a little retail store,
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Speaker 2: and I just like had no idea what a budget was.
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Speaker 2: Like I was really good at saving if I had
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Speaker 2: like a goal, but other than that, if I didn't
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Speaker 2: have a goal, I was like, make it rain, Like
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Speaker 2: it's fine, but.
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Speaker 3: I feel like that's really relatable, Like so many of
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Speaker 3: us are like, oh, I can save if it was
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Speaker 3: for a holiday, or I can save if it was
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Speaker 3: for an item I really want. Then you kind of
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Speaker 3: feel lost the rest of the time because you're like,
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Speaker 3: am I meant to have structure?
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Speaker 2: Am I not?
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Speaker 3: Like this money's just here?
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Speaker 2: And also like I wasn't paying bills.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, make it rain.
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Speaker 2: I was just like, cool, Well, my money is mine
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Speaker 2: and this is what I want, so I'm going to
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Speaker 2: buy it. So that's that's kind of where that kind
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Speaker 2: of I guess stemmed from. I moved out at sixteen
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Speaker 2: because where I lived, you couldn't. You did have the
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Speaker 2: option to do like distance education, but I couldn't finish
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Speaker 2: year eleven and twelve. So to get like a high
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Speaker 2: school certificate, I had to sort of move into a
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Speaker 2: regional center and do it there. So moved out at sixteen.
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Speaker 2: Wow had Yeah, I know, right, wild I had. I
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Speaker 2: guess my own money, paid the I guess rent that
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Speaker 2: I had to pay, and then just kind of didn't
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Speaker 2: really know what I was doing with money. I was like, oh,
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Speaker 2: what do you I don't know, you know, like when
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Speaker 2: I have to have money for like it was just
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Speaker 2: kind of a wild ride. I mean, like to compound that,
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Speaker 2: I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until I turned It was
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Speaker 2: around my thirtieth birthday. Yeah, so I got like diagnosed
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Speaker 2: with ADHD, and I was like, oh my god, all
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Speaker 2: of this makes so much.
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Speaker 3: Well everything thinks suits. These tiktoks are really to speak
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Speaker 3: to me.
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Speaker 2: Oh what a victim.
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Speaker 3: I'm a victim of the algorithm as well, So like
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Speaker 3: my tiktoks do is attack me. They're like, oh do
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Speaker 3: you feel this this in this And I'm like, yeah,
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Speaker 3: I've never had an original experience in my life that
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Speaker 3: I really wish i'd known earlier.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was like, what do you mean every single
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Speaker 2: facet of my personality can be like drilled down to
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Speaker 2: the fact that I have a condition that is in
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Speaker 2: the da sampire so rude. I could not believe it.
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Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, I thought I was just unique.
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Speaker 3: I thought I was quirky. Okay, I was just spicy,
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Speaker 3: just cool.
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Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm actually I'm actually extremely typical of
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Speaker 2: a typical person.
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Speaker 3: Well, let's not dive too far into that. I do
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Speaker 3: want to backtrack a little bit though, because you said
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Speaker 3: that you moved out at sixteen, which is obviously massive,
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Speaker 3: Like you're not in your state. I believe you're allowed
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Speaker 3: to drive a car, but in my state you're not
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Speaker 3: allowed to drive a car. You have to be eighteen.
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Speaker 3: So obviously what led to that decision was you having
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Speaker 3: to move out to finish your eleven and twelve. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: how supportive of that were your parents?
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Speaker 2: Like what did that look like?
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Speaker 3: Or where they like, you don't need.
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Speaker 2: To go to school or oh no, my parents were
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Speaker 2: big on education. Okay, being working class, they were like,
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Speaker 2: no lack. Good plan is go to school, go to university,
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Speaker 2: get a good job perfect, and that's how you're secure, right,
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Speaker 2: because obviously to them that's they were like, cool, that's
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Speaker 2: what you do to get a good job, and that's
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Speaker 2: the pathway, that's how you become secure. Yeah correct, Yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 2: so that real standard thing. And yeah, like they were
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Speaker 2: supportive of me moving out because really, to do distance
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Speaker 2: education for year eleven and twelve it was not going
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Speaker 2: to work for me. It wasn't going to get sort
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Speaker 2: of where I wanted to go, I guess at the time,
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Speaker 2: so because I wanted to go to university and things.
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Speaker 2: It was just yeah, that's and.
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Speaker 3: Now you've been diagnosed with ADHD. That makes absolute sense
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Speaker 3: because there's absolutely no way people with ADHD are not
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Speaker 3: good at self directed learning.
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Speaker 2: Oh we just not. I'm good at self directed learning
6:52
Speaker 2: when I'm hyper focusing or fixating on something that I
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Speaker 2: just yeah, really interested.
6:57
Speaker 3: If someone said write an essay, no, can you please
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Speaker 3: do your English? I say, You're like absolutely not until
7:02
Speaker 3: the very last minute, and then I will cram it.
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Speaker 3: And you know what I learned it out of that,
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Speaker 3: nothing except that I'm good at cramming and I can
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Speaker 3: do it last minute. So I've learned nothing. I've learned nothing,
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Speaker 3: and then I forget it all because we crammed and
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Speaker 3: we were just trying to pump out a piece of
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Speaker 3: work to get to the deadline. We don't remember any
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Speaker 3: of that.
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Speaker 2: No, way, absolutely not. No. What is it? Due date?
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Speaker 2: Is do date? Yeah?
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Speaker 3: Exactly?
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Speaker 2: Yeah. You mean there's like three thousand word essays, do
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Speaker 2: you Yeah? Absolutely, I'll just smash that out six hours.
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Speaker 2: No worries. Absolutely not.
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Speaker 3: At school when people were like, oh, how's your essay going,
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Speaker 3: I'd be like, babe, it's doing like two weeks and
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Speaker 3: they'd be like, oh, well, I just finished it off.
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Speaker 3: I had time, And I'm like, what is that concept?
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Speaker 2: I'm like, actually, I actually need a little bit of
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Speaker 2: panic and pressure.
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Speaker 3: Get no panic, I'm not doing it.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: It's a great motivator, or it was at least yeah
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Speaker 2: at the time. So the time, you know, all of
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Speaker 2: those things happen. You move out, spending money, no idea,
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Speaker 2: what about what's a budget? I'm like, do I have savings? No?
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Speaker 2: What are you talking about? Just being silly doing all
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Speaker 2: the I guess the typical things that a sixteen year
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Speaker 2: old who probably has no idea and haws access to
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Speaker 2: money is doing. I mean, you know, that's just the
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Speaker 2: way it was. I was living the dream. I did
8:18
Speaker 2: then move to Melbourne for university for a little bit,
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Speaker 2: but I was just a mess, like it had sort
8:24
Speaker 2: of all unraveled by that point in my life because
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Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I can just do whatever I
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Speaker 2: want with my money and spend it and like it's
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Speaker 2: all dopamine seeking stuff, right, like going out with my friends,
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Speaker 2: drinking lots of alcohol, going to gigs, like spending money
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Speaker 2: on clothes and things. So yeah, I just kind of
8:42
Speaker 2: continued to do that. I did also then move back
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Speaker 2: home and whoopsie ended up pregnant that twenty small town
8:51
Speaker 2: If you all like it, It's an interesting time in
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Speaker 2: my life. When I reflect on it, I'm like, that's
8:57
Speaker 2: probably the natural conclusion of the behaviors that I is
9:00
Speaker 2: sort of exhibiting anyway, And that's when I think it
9:03
Speaker 2: really kind of hit rock bottom for me. Like it
9:06
Speaker 2: was fine because before it was just me and like
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Speaker 2: if I didn't pay a villain time, like, no big deal,
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Speaker 2: it's fine. I'll just deal with it the next time.
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Speaker 2: And you know, you just like kind of roll the punches.
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Speaker 2: But as soon as you have like a little person
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Speaker 2: that you like fully responsible for and I could not
9:20
Speaker 2: believe that they had let me leave the hospital with
9:22
Speaker 2: this child.
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Speaker 3: I don't even require a license.
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Speaker 2: It's crazy. What do you mean, like I can just
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Speaker 2: it's just mine because I yeap okay, and I'm responsible
9:31
Speaker 2: for it. I'm not even responsible for myself. It's such
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Speaker 2: a wild revelation that they just let that happen. You know,
9:36
Speaker 2: I was just so shocked. But you know, I dropped
9:39
Speaker 2: out of university at the time because I was like,
9:42
Speaker 2: this so much happening in my life. I just couldn't.
9:45
Speaker 2: I couldn't do everything. And that's where I was. That's
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Speaker 2: I think where it really came to a head. And
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Speaker 2: it was like super terrifying, Like I had really bad
9:53
Speaker 2: postpartum depression and anxiety. I was, you know, like unemployed.
9:59
Speaker 2: To be honest with your we had depression and anxiety
10:01
Speaker 2: whilst I was pregnant as well, because I was just
10:03
Speaker 2: spiraling like, oh my god, what am I going to do?
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Speaker 2: How am I going to fix fix this? What am
10:09
Speaker 2: I going to do to continue to lead a life
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Speaker 2: that I want to lead? Like it just kind of
10:15
Speaker 2: all came to a head. It was super tumultuous, and
10:17
Speaker 2: you know, I was pretty much doing everything on my own.
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Speaker 2: I mean not that I didn't have like my family
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Speaker 2: around me to help or like things like that.
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Speaker 3: No, but you're her parent, like and that's kind of
10:27
Speaker 3: the role you step into as well, right, so you
10:29
Speaker 3: just go right, well, nobody else is going to book
10:31
Speaker 3: the vaccinations, no one else is going to take her
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Speaker 3: to the dentist, Like, I'm just going to step up here.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got to do all of the things. So
10:38
Speaker 2: it was like a massive learning curve. And it was
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Speaker 2: also financially like at that time, we were living below
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Speaker 2: the poverty life like well below like we I was
10:51
Speaker 2: receiving Centerling payments and pay rent and doing all of
10:54
Speaker 2: those things.
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Speaker 3: And so you'd moved out of your parents at that point.
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Speaker 2: Well, I hadn't lived with my parents day bought an
11:00
Speaker 2: investment property. But I was living in a pain ranch.
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Speaker 2: So it's not like I had absolutely zero support and
11:06
Speaker 2: they were not around. Absolutely they were. And I understand
11:09
Speaker 2: that that's like a massive privilege because like his parents
11:11
Speaker 2: can just buy an investment property and go, well, you
11:13
Speaker 2: can live in it and pay you know, min minimal rent, right,
11:18
Speaker 2: like minimal rent. It was in a safe neighborhood, all
11:20
Speaker 2: of that kind of stuff.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's still a rough time, Like and I
11:24
Speaker 3: think that you can't compare, Like I feel like, obviously
11:27
Speaker 3: someone's going to go well, I had it worse, Like
11:29
Speaker 3: we're not trying to compare our traumas. Yeah, yeah, it's
11:33
Speaker 3: not extractions, Like it can still be rough and that's fine.
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Speaker 3: I like that you acknowledged the privilege there, but also
11:41
Speaker 3: at the time that did not feel like a privilege.
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Speaker 3: You were like, this is trash. I live in my parents'
11:46
Speaker 3: place and I'm saying rent, what the hell?
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Speaker 2: Like that's hard. Yeah, yeah, And at the time, like
11:52
Speaker 2: it was again, I still had no skills with money, right,
11:55
Speaker 2: I was just like, cool, well, this is the amount
11:58
Speaker 2: of money I get. This is the rent that I
12:00
Speaker 2: have to pay, and I guess I've got to pay
12:02
Speaker 2: for everything else that comes along out of that. I mean,
12:07
Speaker 2: like my daughter never ever went without, but like I
12:10
Speaker 2: was literally eating megori and toast like it it was grim.
12:15
Speaker 2: We did also have our power cut off because I
12:19
Speaker 2: was just like I was just like, I don't have
12:22
Speaker 2: the money to pay it. And I was in such
12:26
Speaker 2: like a I guess crisis point in my life where
12:28
Speaker 2: I was like dealing with this postpartum depression and anxiety,
12:33
Speaker 2: you know, being medicated for that, going to appointments, and
12:37
Speaker 2: I was just like totally dazed out, powers cut off.
12:41
Speaker 2: I just I was like, I don't know what I'm
12:43
Speaker 2: going to have the money.
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Speaker 3: For it, But you have your head in the sand,
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Speaker 3: Like and it's not even that you're trying to actively
12:49
Speaker 3: avoid it, Like there's just so much going on, there's
12:51
Speaker 3: so much mental load we're in reality, Yes you couldn't
12:55
Speaker 3: pay it, but had you had the mental capacity to
12:57
Speaker 3: pick up the phone and talk to the power company
12:59
Speaker 3: with organized something and the power would have stayed on
13:02
Speaker 3: and like absolutely just didn't have to be as hard
13:04
Speaker 3: as it was.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, but you just don't know what you don't know. No,
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Speaker 2: And like again I think because of the age I was,
13:11
Speaker 2: I was so like determined to prove myself and be
13:15
Speaker 2: like I can do this, I can do anything. I
13:18
Speaker 2: don't need any of this help. I got myself into
13:21
Speaker 2: this situation. I'm going to fix it. Like it was
13:24
Speaker 2: that side of it, And you just also don't know
13:26
Speaker 2: what you don't know, Like, yeah, you just don't know
13:27
Speaker 2: that you can call the power company and go Hey,
13:29
Speaker 2: I am this is not I can't do this right now,
13:32
Speaker 2: Like this is where I'm at. But again, I didn't
13:35
Speaker 2: have those skills that didn't know that that was an option.
13:37
Speaker 2: You just kind of like you're at a point where
13:39
Speaker 2: you're like, I can't get a foothold on anything, don't
13:42
Speaker 2: know where to go.
13:43
Speaker 3: No, And then the conversations that I have with our
13:45
Speaker 3: community who are in similar situations to you, there's often
13:49
Speaker 3: a lot of shame, and there's often a lot of
13:51
Speaker 3: like no, no, no, I don't want to call the
13:53
Speaker 3: power company and say that you know, I'm experiencing financial
13:56
Speaker 3: disadvantage because like I'm not like I'm going to be
13:59
Speaker 3: fun and you go, yeah, you're right, but like this
14:02
Speaker 3: situation that I'm seeing in front of me, yeah, is
14:04
Speaker 3: actually telling me that you're eligible for this, So just
14:07
Speaker 3: put your hand up and take it. And then they
14:09
Speaker 3: will use the comparison thing and go, well, other people
14:12
Speaker 3: have it way worse, Like I don't need that, Yes
14:14
Speaker 3: you do, just call them, just set it up, use
14:17
Speaker 3: the system to your advantage.
14:19
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And it's it's those kinds of like crisis
14:22
Speaker 2: things that you just don't realize and your brain, you know,
14:25
Speaker 2: also the sleep deprivation of having a small child that
14:28
Speaker 2: doesn't sleep through the night.
14:30
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that was not helpful.
14:33
Speaker 2: I was like, cool, you want to wake up six
14:34
Speaker 2: times a night? That is fantastic, your.
14:37
Speaker 3: Friend, just give me a break.
14:39
Speaker 2: So, you know, you just in this time in your
14:41
Speaker 2: life where you're like, I have no idea what I'm doing.
14:44
Speaker 2: I'm going to try and do it all. And yeah, loky,
14:47
Speaker 2: you know how successful can you be doing it all?
14:49
Speaker 2: Yeah that sounds when you're that sweet You're at and
14:52
Speaker 2: it's really rough. It was really rough.
14:55
Speaker 3: But I'm proud of you because I know that's not
14:57
Speaker 3: the situation you're in now, because I've already read your
14:59
Speaker 3: money Diaria. We all know that that's not where you're
15:01
Speaker 3: at now. Yeah, tell me how did you go from Oh,
15:05
Speaker 3: this is really rough, my powers being cut off? I'm
15:08
Speaker 3: a single mum.
15:09
Speaker 2: How did you lock in?
15:10
Speaker 3: Because you said how I locked in and then I
15:12
Speaker 3: built a career in banking. God, that's like a one eighty.
15:15
Speaker 3: Like that's not like I didn't see that coming.
15:18
Speaker 2: No, And look it was a lock in because I yeah,
15:21
Speaker 2: power got cut off and I was like, oh my god,
15:24
Speaker 2: like this is not I basically just got to a
15:28
Speaker 2: breaking point where I was like, I cannot keep doing this.
15:30
Speaker 2: I don't want to live like this, the dread of
15:32
Speaker 2: like I don't have any money to both groceries, how
15:36
Speaker 2: much money is in my account like it. I just
15:38
Speaker 2: didn't want to live like that anymore. So initially what
15:40
Speaker 2: I did as I actually went to tape to study
15:43
Speaker 2: and became qualified as a hairdresser and beauty therapist. So
15:46
Speaker 2: that was kind of like a little thing along the path.
15:49
Speaker 2: And I did probably work in that sort of sector
15:51
Speaker 2: for maybe eighteen months, and things obviously began to improve, right,
15:56
Speaker 2: Like I obviously had like a little bit of a
15:57
Speaker 2: purpose outside of parents and being stuck at home, and
16:01
Speaker 2: you know, got through that postpartum depression and anxiety, and
16:05
Speaker 2: just I noticed that not being in that I guess
16:08
Speaker 2: state of like absolute fight or flight when it comes
16:11
Speaker 2: to money, I was like, cool, this feels good, but
16:14
Speaker 2: I need more. Yeah, I was like, I know that,
16:17
Speaker 2: Like I want to buy a house for stability and
16:19
Speaker 2: security for my daughter, and I I knew, you know
16:23
Speaker 2: that I wanted more. And I was lucky enough to
16:29
Speaker 2: basically know somebody who already worked in the bank. They
16:31
Speaker 2: referred me for a position in the call center, and
16:34
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I'll take it. Yeah, perfect, because
16:36
Speaker 2: at that point I was like, hey, that's entry level.
16:38
Speaker 2: I don't need like a degree to do that. I
16:40
Speaker 2: can go in there. No foot in the door, Yeah,
16:42
Speaker 2: foot in the door, full time work, all the benefits
16:45
Speaker 2: that come along with that. And within six months of
16:48
Speaker 2: starting I've been promoted into I guess a higher position,
16:53
Speaker 2: which was yeah. I was really like thrilled about that.
16:56
Speaker 2: And you know again, within another kind of couple of
16:59
Speaker 2: years in that position, I ended up in the role
17:02
Speaker 2: that I'm in. I work in AML in the bank.
17:04
Speaker 3: Oh very cool, Yeah, very cool.
17:06
Speaker 2: It's lots of investigating stuff, so analysis that kind of thing. Oh,
17:10
Speaker 2: I love it.
17:11
Speaker 3: So tell me exactly what you do now and how
17:13
Speaker 3: much money you earn?
17:14
Speaker 2: Cool. So I do work in a bank. I am
17:17
Speaker 2: in AML slash ky see, and I earn ninety five
17:21
Speaker 2: thousand dollars plus super okay, queen.
17:24
Speaker 3: Finally, so for those of you who don't know AML
17:27
Speaker 3: and KYC, do you want to just give a little
17:30
Speaker 3: bit of a synopsis, because ki see is the bane
17:35
Speaker 3: of my existence when I was a financial advisor. But
17:38
Speaker 3: you can tell us why.
17:40
Speaker 2: So I mean, a lot of it's sort of born
17:43
Speaker 2: out of and a lot of the changes of the
17:46
Speaker 2: sector that I'm in have been born out of, I
17:47
Speaker 2: guess the Royal Commission. Right, So like back in the day,
17:50
Speaker 2: you could go into the bank and go and I
17:52
Speaker 2: opened a bank account for you know, myself as an individual,
17:56
Speaker 2: my kid, my company, my you know, what have you,
18:00
Speaker 2: and they would take very minimal information from you. You'd
18:03
Speaker 2: sign something, you know that set it's done.
18:05
Speaker 3: Oh your name's Victoria, you no worries, We trust people agit.
18:09
Speaker 3: So you said that with confidence.
18:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got conviction. So then yeah, basically our Royal
18:15
Speaker 2: Commission happened, which anyone who works in finance knows that
18:19
Speaker 2: lots and lots and lots of fun changes came out
18:21
Speaker 2: of that. But one of those was ensuring that when
18:24
Speaker 2: we on board or I guess go to open an
18:29
Speaker 2: account for an existing customer or go to onboard a
18:32
Speaker 2: new customer, we have to do our due diligence. So
18:35
Speaker 2: there's like a policy that everybody kind of has to follow.
18:38
Speaker 2: Each kind of institution would do slightly different interpretation of that,
18:42
Speaker 2: but effectively it's just checking that we're doing our due
18:45
Speaker 2: diligence that we've got the right person, that we've checked
18:48
Speaker 2: the relevant source information things like ASIC and equavax and
18:52
Speaker 2: all of those kinds of fun things.
18:54
Speaker 3: You are who you said you were?
18:56
Speaker 2: Yeah? Are you?
18:56
Speaker 3: Are you Victoria Devigne? Where is your identity?
19:00
Speaker 2: Yes? Exactly? Why does your driver's license have a different
19:03
Speaker 2: name than your passport? Or telling you? But it's true,
19:08
Speaker 2: all of those kinds of things, right, Like, it's just
19:11
Speaker 2: really involved in that side of it. And I work
19:14
Speaker 2: in the business side of it, so I do a
19:16
Speaker 2: lot of business customers and clients, and that can be
19:20
Speaker 2: really fun and challenging depending on what kind of entities
19:24
Speaker 2: you've got.
19:25
Speaker 3: So that's really fun. But also was when I was
19:27
Speaker 3: a financial advisor, the legitimate bane of my existence, because
19:30
Speaker 3: I'd be like, oh my god, Like I've uploaded their
19:32
Speaker 3: license like four times. They'd be like, yeah, we just
19:35
Speaker 3: need it verified in this and we need a copy
19:37
Speaker 3: of X y Z. And you'd be like, ah, so no,
19:41
Speaker 3: I appreciate what you're doing and I know it's important,
19:45
Speaker 3: but sometimes I'm like, yeah, she's Victoria. I promise you
19:47
Speaker 3: she's Victoria.
19:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. I know. It can be really, really
19:52
Speaker 2: tricky but.
19:53
Speaker 3: You've got this all right. So you said that you
19:55
Speaker 3: overcame your money avoidance and impulse spending, You got rid
19:58
Speaker 3: of your debts, you fixed your credit score, and you
20:00
Speaker 3: started investing. You've also bought your first home before thirty.
20:04
Speaker 3: Do you even have any big money goals left or
20:06
Speaker 3: just you've smashed them all out? Like what's going on here,
20:09
Speaker 3: my friend?
20:10
Speaker 2: I am one of those people that like constantly wants
20:13
Speaker 2: a new goal because made a deadline made us something
20:16
Speaker 2: to achieve. So my big money goal, I mean, like realistically,
20:21
Speaker 2: the really big money goal, the one that I'm like, oh,
20:23
Speaker 2: that would be fantastic, is financial freedom. Like I just
20:26
Speaker 2: want to live the way I want to live and
20:31
Speaker 2: do things and experience my life in the way that
20:34
Speaker 2: I want to.
20:35
Speaker 3: As you should, queen, And is that what you're currently
20:38
Speaker 3: working towards or you were like, no, I'm working towards
20:40
Speaker 3: education fees or I'm working towards you know, other things
20:44
Speaker 3: in my life before that's possible.
20:46
Speaker 2: So I guess to me, it's like I work backwards,
20:48
Speaker 2: like I look at realistically like financial freedom is what
20:51
Speaker 2: I want? What do I need to do to get there?
20:52
Speaker 2: And how can I do that? Right? You can't just
20:54
Speaker 2: go from you know, being employed in a nine to
20:57
Speaker 2: five corporate role to financial freedom over night. It's just
21:00
Speaker 2: like not how it works.
21:01
Speaker 3: Well, you do ky, so you should know me and
21:04
Speaker 3: that I can do that. Surely, Surely I can.
21:07
Speaker 2: Just do whatever I want. I mean, I can honestly
21:10
Speaker 2: do whatever I want, but like within reasons.
21:12
Speaker 3: So I don't have the money for it right now.
21:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. I'm like, a, well, if I quit
21:17
Speaker 2: my job tomorrow, that would be a big problem. So
21:19
Speaker 2: we can't do that. But my current goal, like I
21:23
Speaker 2: want to get our emergency fund to like probably what
21:26
Speaker 2: I would like it to be is about sixteen thousand
21:29
Speaker 2: dollars by next March, So that's kind of the deadline
21:31
Speaker 2: I've set for myself there. And then also like investing,
21:36
Speaker 2: so I kind of like look at, okay, well what's
21:38
Speaker 2: in my super what does that look like for my
21:41
Speaker 2: retirement stuff long term? And if I want to retire
21:45
Speaker 2: early or co part time or start a business at
21:49
Speaker 2: some point, what am I going to need to back
21:51
Speaker 2: myself in first? And I'm going to need to work
21:54
Speaker 2: towards investing.
21:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really exciting. Let's go to a really quick
21:58
Speaker 3: break and on the flip side, need to know more
22:01
Speaker 3: about this investing strategy because I feel like you've got
22:04
Speaker 3: all of your ducks in a row and you're just
22:07
Speaker 3: starting to crack down on them. So guys, don't go anywhere,
22:13
Speaker 3: all right, money drives. We are back and you touched
22:16
Speaker 3: on investment just before, and I was like, cannot wait.
22:20
Speaker 3: Tell me what are you investing in? What's the plan?
22:23
Speaker 3: What are you doing with your super how does it
22:25
Speaker 3: all fit together?
22:26
Speaker 2: I guess I was a bit of a I guess
22:28
Speaker 2: analysis paralysis gal with the investing side, but I was like,
22:32
Speaker 2: how much can I learn about this before I just
22:34
Speaker 2: like jump in wildly and do it. I've learned to
22:37
Speaker 2: just think about things before I do them. That your
22:39
Speaker 2: pulse controls there, thankfully. So I finally got Chezis set
22:44
Speaker 2: up and have sort of started investing. So I do
22:47
Speaker 2: about fifty dollars a fortnite at the moment because that
22:51
Speaker 2: kind of allows me to keep working towards my other
22:54
Speaker 2: money goals as well as doing this.
22:56
Speaker 3: Very cool.
22:56
Speaker 2: I can tell you, like, what's I guess in my chaesis?
22:59
Speaker 3: Yeah upo, yeah, people are of course I want to know.
23:03
Speaker 3: I'm always so pervy and the community is true. They're like, sorry,
23:06
Speaker 3: money Doors, you can't just say, oh, I invest like
23:09
Speaker 3: half of the analysis paralysis is in what and like
23:14
Speaker 3: we can't make recommendations, but money dors What did you
23:16
Speaker 3: pick and why?
23:17
Speaker 2: So I could probably actually open the app and tell
23:20
Speaker 2: you exactly specifically what I have.
23:22
Speaker 3: Oh, yes, I want the Yeah.
23:23
Speaker 2: I was like, I know, I could probably tell you
23:25
Speaker 2: off the top of my head a couple of them.
23:26
Speaker 2: But I did sort of do that thing where I
23:28
Speaker 2: went a bit gum ho and like picked like five
23:31
Speaker 2: ETFs and I was like, oh, they probably have like
23:33
Speaker 2: a lot of overlap in hindsight, but that's okay, that's fine,
23:36
Speaker 2: But that's fine. We live and we land. So I
23:39
Speaker 2: have five, I've got DHG, Yepol, I've got vas, I've
23:43
Speaker 2: got IVV, I've got Fie and Earth.
23:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, very cool. And do you have a favorite?
23:49
Speaker 2: I mean a favorite? They're all kind of down at
23:53
Speaker 2: the moment because that's good, that's an opportunity exactly. But
23:58
Speaker 2: it has really tested my wriskile, right, I'm like, am
24:01
Speaker 2: I really high growth? If I'm freaking out? I'm not
24:03
Speaker 2: freaking out where Okay, we can keep just doing what
24:06
Speaker 2: we're doing. Stay the course. I would say that I
24:09
Speaker 2: quite like the idea of the ethical investing ones, but
24:13
Speaker 2: I guess in practice, like that whole ethical thing, it's like, well,
24:17
Speaker 2: you look at what they're made up of, and you're like,
24:19
Speaker 2: that's probably not you know, ethical is like a really
24:21
Speaker 2: broad term and it's really up to as the individual
24:25
Speaker 2: whether they it's really right, like.
24:27
Speaker 3: Because you try to do your research as well, and
24:29
Speaker 3: you're like, oh, do my research into something ethical, and
24:32
Speaker 3: the start like you go down a rabbit hole and
24:34
Speaker 3: you're like, this isn't a rabbit hole, this is a
24:36
Speaker 3: whole warren, and like there's no right end.
24:39
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly, because like something might be ethical for the environment,
24:43
Speaker 2: but they might not like actually treat their workers very well,
24:46
Speaker 2: and then is that ethical and all of those kinds
24:48
Speaker 2: of things. So it's kind of like hard, but I
24:51
Speaker 2: like the idea of ethical investing. But to be honest
24:54
Speaker 2: with you, I think my favorite is probably just BDHG
24:56
Speaker 2: because it's like it's high growth. That's why I'm like
25:00
Speaker 2: ultimately after, but yeah, that's probably my favorite.
25:03
Speaker 3: I mean, it's up one percent. I just googled it
25:05
Speaker 3: while we're talking. So today today she's up one point
25:09
Speaker 3: two percent as of recording. Let's tell everybody it's Wednesday,
25:13
Speaker 3: the twenty fifth of March. As of recording. This morning,
25:16
Speaker 3: Donald Trump actually announced that he has been having good
25:19
Speaker 3: conversations with Iran, and that has meant that the market
25:22
Speaker 3: has decided to think, oh, that's a good thing. Maybe
25:24
Speaker 3: the war isn't happening anymore, and it's bounced back. Let's
25:28
Speaker 3: see what he does next, because that could crash it.
25:31
Speaker 3: And I'm not gonna lie. I've got a little like
25:33
Speaker 3: I purchased this ETF as well. Again, not a recommendation,
25:36
Speaker 3: just what I am sharing, but I've got a little
25:38
Speaker 3: notification on that if it drops to like sixty nine
25:42
Speaker 3: dollars a share, like I've got an auto by On
25:45
Speaker 3: now I've got an autoby on. I'm like, right, well,
25:47
Speaker 3: I wonder if it goes down to that, please, I'm
25:49
Speaker 3: bargain exactly exactly. But she's been a little bit tumultuous
25:54
Speaker 3: over the last six months.
25:55
Speaker 2: I'd say, fare to say it was a really interesting
25:58
Speaker 2: time to decide to get into the share. We're testing
26:01
Speaker 2: you early, so that's right, I'm like, we're testing my resolve, right,
26:05
Speaker 2: Am I really a high growth investor. I guess I
26:07
Speaker 2: am because I can deal with this.
26:09
Speaker 3: Good girl, I like to see it. Tell me a
26:12
Speaker 3: bit more about your super what's that look like?
26:14
Speaker 2: So, because I sort of spent I guess quite a
26:18
Speaker 2: chunk of my early twenties not in the workforce. My
26:21
Speaker 2: super balance at the moment is about sixty six thousand dollars.
26:25
Speaker 3: That's not too bad.
26:26
Speaker 2: No, it's not. It's not too bad.
26:27
Speaker 3: The average thirty three year old, I believe has about
26:31
Speaker 3: seventy ish thousand, So you're not that far behind. It
26:34
Speaker 3: doesn't feel good, but you're not kind of far behind.
26:37
Speaker 2: No, No, it's not like twenty thousand dollars behind and
26:40
Speaker 2: I'm stressing. Yeah, But when I first started working at
26:44
Speaker 2: the bank, I was like, I'm going to salary sacrifice.
26:46
Speaker 2: So I was salary sacrificing because I was like, I'm
26:48
Speaker 2: not used to getting paid like a higher wage, so
26:51
Speaker 2: I'm not going to miss this money that's going in
26:53
Speaker 2: smart And I did that actually up until I bought
26:55
Speaker 2: my house and then I had to turn that off
26:57
Speaker 2: so that, you know, serviceability stuff, But that's okay. I'm
27:01
Speaker 2: also outside of the super stuff. We actually are fortunate
27:04
Speaker 2: enough to have an employee share scheme at work, so
27:08
Speaker 2: like every year we get like a thousand dollars worth
27:11
Speaker 2: of shares. They just grant them to us. There's like
27:14
Speaker 2: investing period. I think it's like three years and I've
27:17
Speaker 2: got about eleven thousand dollars in there.
27:20
Speaker 3: Okay, that is very nice, I know.
27:22
Speaker 2: So I just sit and forget that one. I've set
27:24
Speaker 2: it up to just dig it and reinvest because then
27:27
Speaker 2: I don't have to think. No, I don't have to
27:29
Speaker 2: think about it. And also before I set that up,
27:32
Speaker 2: the money would just drop into my account and I
27:34
Speaker 2: was like, oh, I just got paid more, and I'm like,
27:37
Speaker 2: that's not that's not right. You have to yeah, you
27:41
Speaker 2: have to kind of keep it out of your hands.
27:42
Speaker 3: Sometimes out of sight, out of mind.
27:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the one. That's the one. So that's good.
27:47
Speaker 2: That's kind of where all of that investing side of
27:50
Speaker 2: it is. And I did actually call my souper the
27:52
Speaker 2: other day and have a chat with them because I
27:54
Speaker 2: wanted to make sure that my super was like all
27:57
Speaker 2: high growth invested, because I was like, I'm young, I've
28:00
Speaker 2: had some time in the workforce. Let's make sure that's
28:03
Speaker 2: not on the wrong investment.
28:05
Speaker 3: No, that is perfect. Tell me how that went, because
28:08
Speaker 3: I believe that so many of us go, oh, it's
28:11
Speaker 3: a bit too hard to call me Super fun, like, oh,
28:14
Speaker 3: I don't really know what questions to ask. How did
28:16
Speaker 3: that conversation go?
28:17
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it was so easy. It was so easy.
28:19
Speaker 2: It was one of those like life admin tasks where
28:22
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I know I have to do this,
28:24
Speaker 2: but it just can't be bothered. And it was actually
28:27
Speaker 2: fine because I went online and my super hasit seen
28:30
Speaker 2: where you can like book a call in and they
28:32
Speaker 2: basically give them a time and they call you at
28:34
Speaker 2: that time and it's great. And the guy that I
28:36
Speaker 2: spoke with was like so lovely.
28:39
Speaker 3: Oh I love this.
28:39
Speaker 2: I said a whole bunch of other questions because I
28:42
Speaker 2: had to. I also wanted to ask him about all
28:44
Speaker 2: of my insurances and stuff in Super because I was like, oh,
28:47
Speaker 2: I just want to double check this. Yeah kind of
28:49
Speaker 2: stuff as well. But yeah, it was super simple. I
28:53
Speaker 2: think I was on the phone with him for like
28:54
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes.
28:55
Speaker 3: Got your answers, and skipped away.
28:57
Speaker 2: Got my answers. That's right.
28:59
Speaker 3: I was like, cool, I love it all right, Well,
29:01
Speaker 3: tell me do you have any debts. What does that
29:04
Speaker 3: look like?
29:05
Speaker 2: I do I have my home loan. The home loan's
29:08
Speaker 2: currently at three ninety six yep, and I do have
29:12
Speaker 2: a six and a half thousand dollars credit card, but
29:15
Speaker 2: heeding my parents warning and everybody else's warnings, I actually
29:18
Speaker 2: just use that for points. So it was more of
29:21
Speaker 2: a Hey, I've got a money system, a cash flow
29:24
Speaker 2: system in place. Now I'm like really good with my budgeting.
29:27
Speaker 2: My money goes everywhere, like I've got all these little
29:29
Speaker 2: split accounts and things, and I was like, I could
29:31
Speaker 2: totally manage this now. Had you asked me that ten
29:34
Speaker 2: years ago, that would have been an absolute disaster. But
29:37
Speaker 2: now so much more in control of my money, and
29:41
Speaker 2: yet just basically sits there to accumulate points and it's
29:44
Speaker 2: at a zero balance, like I I'm just not paying
29:47
Speaker 2: interest on it. If ever I slip up and I
29:49
Speaker 2: pay interest, I've told myself I have to close the card. Okay. Yeah, yeah,
29:52
Speaker 2: because I'm like, no slippery slope not doing it. Yeah.
29:55
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, what does that feel like as
29:58
Speaker 3: somebody who did get into and maybe wasn't as good
30:01
Speaker 3: at it as you could have been. Because for me,
30:04
Speaker 3: I carry a lot of anxiety with the credit card
30:06
Speaker 3: that we have, and like we do now and have
30:08
Speaker 3: shared my story and like you know, we do it
30:10
Speaker 3: for points as well because it just makes sense and
30:12
Speaker 3: like life is expensive, so I'm like I want to
30:14
Speaker 3: get as much out of this as possible. Absolutely, But
30:17
Speaker 3: I also am always thinking about it, Like I don't
30:19
Speaker 3: keep it on my Apple ID and I don't keep
30:22
Speaker 3: it like you know, if I go shopping, it's not
30:24
Speaker 3: in my handbag. Like I was like, oh no, this
30:26
Speaker 3: is for like direct debits and our electricity bill and
30:30
Speaker 3: stuff like that. At you managing it in a similar way.
30:33
Speaker 2: So I am managing it in the way that when
30:35
Speaker 2: I like sat down and really thought about, Okay, i'd
30:38
Speaker 2: like a credit card. This is what I'm going to
30:40
Speaker 2: use it for. I basically was like, these are my
30:42
Speaker 2: own rules I have with it, right, this is the
30:45
Speaker 2: way I want to use it. If I use it
30:47
Speaker 2: for a purchase, I must put that money on my
30:51
Speaker 2: credit card straight away.
30:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, that day, transfer it on smart But.
30:55
Speaker 2: If you do not have the money in any of
30:57
Speaker 2: your little accounts that you have budgeted for, you do
31:00
Speaker 2: not get to spend it. Yeah, okay, do you know
31:02
Speaker 2: what I mean. I was just like, no, we're going
31:04
Speaker 2: to be very very sensible here because I just know that, like, yeah,
31:08
Speaker 2: a credit card can be a lot of trouble if
31:10
Speaker 2: you're not on top of it.
31:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is very fair. And that's why I ask,
31:14
Speaker 3: because I'm like, oh, if we've been in sticky situations before,
31:18
Speaker 3: how are we avoiding not getting in another sticky situation?
31:21
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, but that is good.
31:22
Speaker 3: So is that the only debts that you have?
31:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're the I mean debts I have.
31:26
Speaker 3: Perfect How sexy is that? I know you earn really
31:30
Speaker 3: good money. How are we're protecting it? Do you currently
31:32
Speaker 3: have personal insurances set up?
31:33
Speaker 2: If not?
31:34
Speaker 1: Why not?
31:35
Speaker 2: No?
31:35
Speaker 1: Why not?
31:36
Speaker 2: So? Okay, all right? I am lucky enough that I
31:42
Speaker 2: have it within Super and I have called them and
31:45
Speaker 2: spoken to that. As part of that conversation, I had
31:48
Speaker 2: to ask about it. Oh good girl. So I do
31:50
Speaker 2: have two separate I guess insurances. We have TPD and
31:54
Speaker 2: then we have is it a death benefit? Yeah, TPD
31:58
Speaker 2: and a death benefit.
31:58
Speaker 3: In Super you'll be able to hold everything except for trauma.
32:02
Speaker 3: Trauma if you wanted, it would have to be held
32:04
Speaker 3: outside of superannuation. But you'll have some type of total
32:07
Speaker 3: and permanent disability, usually some kind of death life insurance. Yes,
32:12
Speaker 3: and you might have income protection as well, but it
32:15
Speaker 3: depends we do.
32:16
Speaker 2: Yeah. So with the separate TPDY and death benefit, each
32:20
Speaker 2: of those would pay out four hundred thousand dollars respectively.
32:24
Speaker 2: They're the same amount for whatever I did. When I
32:27
Speaker 2: was speaking on the phone to the representative from my
32:30
Speaker 2: super the other day, I said, Hey, can I have
32:33
Speaker 2: a chat with somebody about the possibility of increasing these
32:37
Speaker 2: because I know that I don't then have to go
32:38
Speaker 2: through like a medical or any of that kind of stuff.
32:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally, Oh you smart girl, you know, I.
32:44
Speaker 2: Know, I know. So I was like, I know that
32:47
Speaker 2: I don't then have to go through all those hoops,
32:49
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to have a chat with them
32:51
Speaker 2: first about that, find out how much it was going
32:53
Speaker 2: to cost me to increase that all of those kinds
32:56
Speaker 2: of things, and then yet decide what I want to
32:58
Speaker 2: do there. We all also have salary continuance within our super.
33:02
Speaker 2: So it is seventy percent of your income is the
33:05
Speaker 2: amount that I would be paid. There's like a forty
33:07
Speaker 2: two day waiting period.
33:08
Speaker 3: That's pretty good.
33:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I was like, oh, that's pretty reasonable, which
33:12
Speaker 2: is kind of why for my emergency fund, I was like, well,
33:14
Speaker 2: maybe I don't need as much because if it's only
33:18
Speaker 2: forty two days, like then, you know, that's kind of
33:21
Speaker 2: one of those things that I've factored in.
33:22
Speaker 3: This is just like ex financial advisor me and like
33:25
Speaker 3: my little like spidery senses in the background. The only
33:29
Speaker 3: thing I'd be checking on that is how long you
33:31
Speaker 3: get paid for because often on those yeah, I was
33:34
Speaker 3: about to say, often on those policies, they are capped
33:36
Speaker 3: at two years being paid out. And if you think
33:39
Speaker 3: about it, if you do get significantly injured at work
33:43
Speaker 3: or you get you know, an illness that knocks you
33:45
Speaker 3: for six a lot of us, unfortunately, who claim on
33:49
Speaker 3: income protection need to be on it until the age
33:51
Speaker 3: of sixty and so I would be considering thinking about that,
33:57
Speaker 3: but at the same time, you're obviously thinking about it
34:00
Speaker 3: and putting yourself in the best possible position. The only
34:02
Speaker 3: thing I would say is you can still put a
34:05
Speaker 3: till sixty year old policy through SUPER. I don't know
34:07
Speaker 3: if you know that.
34:08
Speaker 2: Yeah. So when I was speaking to the rep from
34:12
Speaker 2: my super the other day, I sort of said, hey, look,
34:14
Speaker 2: I'd actually really like to increase some of these things.
34:17
Speaker 2: The salary continuance because it's a group policy, it's kind
34:21
Speaker 2: of a separate thing, and actually don't offer it anymore.
34:23
Speaker 3: So no, no, no, keep it, keep it so any yeah,
34:26
Speaker 3: ex Actually, well I'm keeping much exactly, and you know what,
34:29
Speaker 3: can't give advice, but if you went to see an
34:32
Speaker 3: advisor and they are an insurance advisor, it might be
34:36
Speaker 3: that they go, do you know what, money, darrest, we're
34:38
Speaker 3: going to keep that policy because money, I mean, we've
34:40
Speaker 3: already got it. We don't have any exclusions, there's nothing
34:43
Speaker 3: on that thing. What we will do is get another
34:46
Speaker 3: policy and also put it in your super but we'll
34:49
Speaker 3: have the longest like weight period ever, like we don't
34:53
Speaker 3: need it because like you could have a twelve month
34:55
Speaker 3: weight period and that would bring down how much it
34:57
Speaker 3: costs because they go, oh, it's not really going to
35:00
Speaker 3: unless she really really needs exactly. Smart girl keeping it though,
35:03
Speaker 3: because so many people cancel them, and I'm like, no, no, no, no,
35:06
Speaker 3: I no. I said that two years is not ideal,
35:08
Speaker 3: but that's two years with no exclusions, And sometimes I was.
35:12
Speaker 2: Like, that's two years. That's better than I think.
35:14
Speaker 3: That's money win, that's right, right.
35:16
Speaker 2: I was like, cool, I don't That's fine. I didn't
35:18
Speaker 2: have to do anything for it. It's there, Why would
35:21
Speaker 2: I remove it? Exactly?
35:22
Speaker 3: A win is a win sometimes too.
35:23
Speaker 2: Absolutely so when I did speak to the super guys
35:26
Speaker 2: the other week about that, they've like referred me to
35:29
Speaker 2: a senior advisor to have a bit of a chat
35:30
Speaker 2: about all of that kind of stuff. So I'm onto it.
35:33
Speaker 2: But like, in absolute one hundred percent transparence honesty with you.
35:38
Speaker 2: I did have a chat with Skywalth like shortly after
35:41
Speaker 2: I bought my house, but I was just so overwhelmed
35:43
Speaker 2: with life admin that I was just like, I can't
35:45
Speaker 2: do this.
35:46
Speaker 3: Well, at least you've got good advisors, good job do it.
35:49
Speaker 2: I was like, I just like ghosted them because I
35:51
Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, I just bought a house
35:53
Speaker 2: and like I've i mean settlement period. It's just like
35:55
Speaker 2: a nightmare.
35:56
Speaker 3: And honestly, so fair. I mean, I won't tell them
36:01
Speaker 3: that you ghosted them, but you did just put it
36:02
Speaker 3: on a podcast and low key most of their advisors
36:05
Speaker 3: listened to it.
36:06
Speaker 2: So so sorry.
36:08
Speaker 3: I mean, this is anonymous, they don't know who it is,
36:09
Speaker 3: so sorry. If you recognize her voice though, maybe reach
36:13
Speaker 3: out and be like, hey, money direst it's time we
36:14
Speaker 3: picked up that.
36:15
Speaker 2: Conversation super awkward, like it was just a demand avoidance
36:19
Speaker 2: thing at the time, like I've got so much on
36:21
Speaker 2: my plate, that's very ADHD. I struggled and like, and
36:25
Speaker 2: when I was preparing for this, I was like, oh
36:27
Speaker 2: my gosh, you know what, I'm just going to be
36:28
Speaker 2: honest about it. I'm going to be honest. That's what happened,
36:31
Speaker 2: you know what.
36:32
Speaker 3: I much like obviously I prefer it, but like, sorry,
36:36
Speaker 3: relatable quick.
36:38
Speaker 2: So true.
36:39
Speaker 3: Basco is so guilty of that, so I appreciate it.
36:42
Speaker 3: All right, let's move off personal insurance before we dig
36:45
Speaker 3: you a grave. Tell me what do you think your
36:48
Speaker 3: best money habit is.
36:49
Speaker 2: I think it is that when I set a goal,
36:53
Speaker 2: I am absolutely reslentless in achieving that goal. I'm like, okay,
36:57
Speaker 2: I want to buy a house before thirty as a
36:59
Speaker 2: single parent. I'm going to do it.
37:00
Speaker 3: How hard could it be?
37:01
Speaker 2: You know, how hard could it be? Right?
37:05
Speaker 3: Like, men do it, Men do it all the time.
37:07
Speaker 2: People do it all the time. It's fine. And then
37:09
Speaker 2: you did, and then I did. I was like, cool,
37:11
Speaker 2: so like I'm going to set this goal it's insane,
37:15
Speaker 2: and I'm also going to achieve it, and whatever it is,
37:18
Speaker 2: I'm like constantly optimizing, like checking spreadsheets. I love spreadsheets now,
37:23
Speaker 2: Like my cash flow is like my absolute life, Like
37:28
Speaker 2: I love that. Const to love that.
37:30
Speaker 3: But what's your best tip there? Because I feel like
37:33
Speaker 3: that is definitely your best money habit. But I want
37:36
Speaker 3: to pull some more out of this. How do we
37:38
Speaker 3: also lock in? Because like I have ADHD, I know
37:42
Speaker 3: how hard it is to manage. When you decided to
37:44
Speaker 3: lock in, what was the thing that really helped you save?
37:47
Speaker 3: Was it your system? Was it your process? Was it
37:49
Speaker 3: your cash flow?
37:50
Speaker 2: It was all of those things, But I think the
37:52
Speaker 2: biggest part of that for me was the mindset. So
37:55
Speaker 2: it was, hey, like I have a lot of shame
37:58
Speaker 2: around this, and I need to like deal with that
38:01
Speaker 2: because otherwise I'm just going to keep making the same
38:03
Speaker 2: mistakes and like admonishing myself and making a mistake, Like
38:06
Speaker 2: I had to get over that, frying myself over doing
38:10
Speaker 2: like something that really was quite innocuous.
38:12
Speaker 3: And I'm really proud of you because that's big, Like.
38:15
Speaker 2: The mindset thing is the biggest hurdle because I think
38:18
Speaker 2: for me, like it was I was avoiding checking my bank,
38:23
Speaker 2: statements in my cards and all of those things because
38:26
Speaker 2: I felt so much shame around like my money situation,
38:31
Speaker 2: what I was spending my money on, I was guilty.
38:34
Speaker 2: It just felt sick all the time, and like until
38:37
Speaker 2: I dealt with that and when okay, this is what
38:40
Speaker 2: it is. Yeah, you are going to make mistakes and
38:43
Speaker 2: you are going to have to learn to like live
38:46
Speaker 2: with those mistakes and forgive yourself for them. That meant
38:50
Speaker 2: that I wasn't avoiding checking my bank all the time.
38:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's a big one. Like we avoid it
38:55
Speaker 3: because it makes us feel like trash. And I get
38:57
Speaker 3: it because in every other situation they don't do it
39:00
Speaker 3: if it makes you feel like trash, Like why would
39:03
Speaker 3: we do that? We shouldn't put ourselves in those positions.
39:06
Speaker 3: But sorry, when it comes to money, we have to
39:08
Speaker 3: put ourselves in this position because money makes the world
39:10
Speaker 3: go around, and that's actually your ticket to freedom. So
39:13
Speaker 3: let's not feel bad about that because the situation you
39:16
Speaker 3: were in, it wasn't your fault. And how were you
39:20
Speaker 3: meant to know? How were you meant to deal with
39:22
Speaker 3: these things? Like past you had a specific set of
39:25
Speaker 3: tools and resources, and you know what, they weren't the
39:27
Speaker 3: right ones to do the job. But you were trying,
39:30
Speaker 3: and that's really impressive. And I think if we can
39:32
Speaker 3: come to that conclusion, they're like far out past me.
39:36
Speaker 3: She struggled. She was doing the best that she could. Yeah,
39:39
Speaker 3: but goddamn she had the wrong resources. Like I wish
39:42
Speaker 3: she had a spreadsheet, or I wish she had this,
39:44
Speaker 3: or I wish I wish she just knew that that's naughty.
39:47
Speaker 3: Don't do that, you know, yeah, exactly, And like, h
39:51
Speaker 3: it's not even that for me.
39:52
Speaker 2: I think it's just that there is help out there
39:55
Speaker 2: as well, right, Like it's okay to be like fucking struggling.
39:59
Speaker 3: Actually, I mean, yeah, can we all do that though,
40:02
Speaker 3: because like, yeah, I've got the tools for your babe,
40:05
Speaker 3: and there's no judgment. And the second you can go, oh,
40:09
Speaker 3: I need to get this together. Do you know what,
40:11
Speaker 3: even if you're just talking about it, not even with professionals,
40:14
Speaker 3: with friends, go oh my god, actually this is so embarrassing.
40:18
Speaker 3: Money's really hard right now, They go, oh, babe, same,
40:21
Speaker 3: And you just feel this weight lift off your shoulders
40:24
Speaker 3: and you go, wait.
40:25
Speaker 2: It's not just me.
40:25
Speaker 3: I thought it was because I was bad and if
40:27
Speaker 3: you're not bad, you're just struggling. And I'm sorry. We're
40:31
Speaker 3: in the middle of a cost delivion crisis. There are
40:33
Speaker 3: going to be so many people truly that are in
40:35
Speaker 3: the shoes that you were in, that are going this
40:37
Speaker 3: is never going to change. Yeah, and your proof that sorry,
40:40
Speaker 3: it changes when you change your mindset and you're able
40:43
Speaker 3: to start stepping into where you deserve to be.
40:46
Speaker 2: And it's also I think being gentle with yourself in
40:48
Speaker 2: regards to when you set your goal and you go cool,
40:52
Speaker 2: that's really hard to achieve. That's really really far away.
40:55
Speaker 2: It's like backwards engineering that right. For me, I was
40:58
Speaker 2: like buying your house. You don't just like get a
41:00
Speaker 2: house deposit overnight. That's actually not how that works, right.
41:03
Speaker 3: Oh, isn't it?
41:04
Speaker 2: Unfortunately? I thought, yeah, sucks right, But like by the
41:09
Speaker 2: same token, like the more that I had in my savings,
41:12
Speaker 2: the easier it felt. Right, Actually starting a savings account sucks.
41:17
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, life admin absolutely not.
41:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you put like whatever your budget is.
41:23
Speaker 2: Like for me, at one point it was like fifty
41:25
Speaker 2: bucks a week that I could put in ye a
41:27
Speaker 2: savings account, and I felt like I'm never going to
41:29
Speaker 2: get anywhere because that feels so meaningless.
41:33
Speaker 3: How am I going to get a whole house? I
41:35
Speaker 3: can only say fifty bucks? But like it compounds, and
41:39
Speaker 3: it's it's the behaviors. It's not actually the amount of money.
41:43
Speaker 2: The behavior.
41:44
Speaker 3: It's the plan.
41:45
Speaker 2: And also it's the it relieves that like real anxious
41:47
Speaker 2: thing of oh my god, something's come up that I
41:49
Speaker 2: have to pay for. How the hell am I going
41:51
Speaker 2: to pay for it? No? I have I have money,
41:53
Speaker 2: I can do this.
41:54
Speaker 3: It's okay, okay, baby, I got the cash.
41:55
Speaker 2: That's that's that's right. So that's for me. It's the
41:59
Speaker 2: mindset thing. Then it's the you know, the little tiny
42:02
Speaker 2: habits that you set your big goal, you work back
42:05
Speaker 2: from it, break it down, make it easy, and be
42:08
Speaker 2: kind to.
42:08
Speaker 3: Yourself about it too totally, and I feel like we
42:11
Speaker 3: are not kind enough to ourselves to flip it though.
42:15
Speaker 3: Do you have a worse money habit? Are we still
42:17
Speaker 3: bat at it? I mean, you said you were a
42:19
Speaker 3: solid bee, so there's clearly something that you think can shift.
42:23
Speaker 2: What is it?
42:23
Speaker 3: Yeah?
42:24
Speaker 2: I think the analysis paralysis is pretty high up there.
42:28
Speaker 2: A bit of a procrastination with ADHD because it is
42:31
Speaker 2: it's like putting off those phone calls and things. But
42:34
Speaker 2: I'm like, actually it didn't.
42:36
Speaker 3: Take very long, but it sounds like you've been doing
42:37
Speaker 3: it recently.
42:38
Speaker 2: Yeah. I know. It's the capacity, right, you're bra and
42:40
Speaker 2: you're like, I do this when I have capacity.
42:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
42:43
Speaker 2: But actually I think the worst money habit that I
42:47
Speaker 2: have is probably the comparison. So I still struggle with
42:52
Speaker 2: that sometimes that oh my god, it could be so
42:55
Speaker 2: much further along in my journey. You know. I think
42:58
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, I could actually have more, which is
43:01
Speaker 2: also not you know, more is an interesting way to
43:04
Speaker 2: put that, but I just feel like I could be
43:07
Speaker 2: further along in my journey. And I often compare myself
43:09
Speaker 2: to other people in my life who I feel like
43:12
Speaker 2: are absolutely killing it in their careers, who you know,
43:15
Speaker 2: have big, fancy houses or you know, their superbalance is
43:19
Speaker 2: really big, and I'm like, oh my god, also could
43:22
Speaker 2: have less.
43:23
Speaker 3: Yes, you also could have taken no steps towards creating
43:26
Speaker 3: your own financial freedom. You also could be in a
43:28
Speaker 3: worse off position. And I think the thing with analysis
43:31
Speaker 3: paralysis and like even comparing ourselves to our friends, we
43:35
Speaker 3: actually don't know our friends' situations. Like you might feel
43:39
Speaker 3: super open, like this friend that you're talking about, maybe
43:41
Speaker 3: you have wines with them every Friday, and you do
43:43
Speaker 3: talk about your budgets, but you don't know deeply how
43:48
Speaker 3: they're feeling about it. They might feel really behind. They might,
43:51
Speaker 3: you know, have had a step up. Who knows. Maybe
43:53
Speaker 3: they didn't tell you that their parents went garrantor on
43:55
Speaker 3: their property because they're feeling a bit guilty about it,
43:58
Speaker 3: which I see all the time. You just don't get
44:01
Speaker 3: the additional pieces of nuance that would make the story
44:05
Speaker 3: a lot more relatable. And that's why money diaries are
44:08
Speaker 3: anonymous because more often than not, we're not willing to
44:11
Speaker 3: talk about the nitty gritty to an extent like we
44:14
Speaker 3: do today. Yeah, when we have to put our names
44:17
Speaker 3: to it, because like there is guilt and there is
44:20
Speaker 3: shame around money. Your mate'sren't going to tell you they're
44:22
Speaker 3: shitty things like they're just not. They might tell you
44:25
Speaker 3: one and you go, oh my god, so relatable hahaha,
44:28
Speaker 3: and they're sitting there being like, oh my god, she
44:29
Speaker 3: thought that was bad. Wait until she finds out X,
44:32
Speaker 3: Y or Z. Like we all do it right.
44:34
Speaker 2: Yes, No, absolutely, I think everybody is a bit of
44:37
Speaker 2: a victim of that. And I mean, obviously, in the
44:39
Speaker 2: social media age, you just see so much absolutely unrelatable
44:43
Speaker 2: content out there, and I'm.
44:44
Speaker 3: Like, absolutely absolutely. And I was talking to a friend
44:49
Speaker 3: about this the other day, and it's kind of like
44:52
Speaker 3: with people, even if you trust them, you're like kind
44:55
Speaker 3: of testing the waters. It's like when you don't think
44:57
Speaker 3: your joke plans and you're like, oh, well, I'm not
44:59
Speaker 3: going to can continue having jokes like that. It's like money.
45:03
Speaker 3: You go, oh, one little thing, you might go, oh yeah,
45:06
Speaker 3: I always just put it on my credit card, and
45:07
Speaker 3: then your friend goes, oh, that's terrible. Well you're not
45:10
Speaker 3: going to open up about anything else, are you. Absolutely,
45:12
Speaker 3: So you just don't know where their limit is or
45:15
Speaker 3: what that actually looks like, which is why I think
45:17
Speaker 3: having open, honest conversations is so important. But let's not
45:20
Speaker 3: compare ourselves as silly. Yeah, you're setting yourself up for
45:23
Speaker 3: failure there, my friend.
45:24
Speaker 2: Absolutely, It's like, also, you're not seeing a full picture.
45:27
Speaker 3: Well sometimes I like to romanticize it.
45:30
Speaker 2: Same my life as a Disney movie.
45:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, the same. Absolutely. Now that we've spoken though, I
45:36
Speaker 3: know comparison is a massive thing for you, but what
45:39
Speaker 3: do you think would take you from being a solid
45:41
Speaker 3: bed to like a solid a.
45:42
Speaker 2: There's a couple of things. I think I need to
45:45
Speaker 2: absolutely sort out some more personal insurance stuff. That's like
45:48
Speaker 2: definitely on there. The next one for me is just
45:52
Speaker 2: like really leaning into yeah, absolutely having you know, a
45:56
Speaker 2: bit of a bigger goal for my emergency fund and shares.
45:59
Speaker 2: I think investing is just the thing that really long term,
46:03
Speaker 2: it's going to make a massive difference in my life
46:05
Speaker 2: and like the life of my child.
46:07
Speaker 3: So that's really important. Oh well, that sounds easy. You're
46:11
Speaker 3: already on the way.
46:11
Speaker 2: I love this.
46:13
Speaker 3: How exciting. Oh my gosh, I feel so privileged to
46:16
Speaker 3: spend this time with you and get to have a
46:18
Speaker 3: chat about your sitch and how fun.
46:20
Speaker 2: I love this.
46:21
Speaker 3: Thank you. I feel like it's been eye opening but
46:24
Speaker 3: also really motivating, like the fact that you're like Victoria,
46:27
Speaker 3: I went from being financially illiterate. I literally was struggling
46:31
Speaker 3: on the poverty line. I had my bloody power cut
46:33
Speaker 3: off and still had my head in the sand to yes,
46:36
Speaker 3: so built a whole lass career in banking. I bought
46:39
Speaker 3: my first home before thirty. I don't avoid money conversations.
46:44
Speaker 3: I'm not an impulse spender. And look, I've got a
46:46
Speaker 3: credit card and I can use it responsibly.
46:48
Speaker 2: Like who is she? Who is she?
46:50
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's like, we want to go back and tell
46:52
Speaker 3: past you. Hey, by the way, this is how we
46:54
Speaker 3: turn out, this is how the girls turn out.
46:56
Speaker 2: It's all gonna be okay, everything's okay.
46:59
Speaker 3: I stop. I promise it'll be really good.
47:02
Speaker 2: I promise. That's just absolutely to come like you will.
47:05
Speaker 2: You will smash it, you will surprise yourself, and you
47:09
Speaker 2: can do hard things.
47:10
Speaker 3: You absolutely can do hard things. But I think the
47:13
Speaker 3: funniest part about that is if we were able to
47:15
Speaker 3: do that, and if we were able to go back
47:17
Speaker 3: and tell our pastselves by the way, it works out
47:19
Speaker 3: all right. Past me, she would have been like, you're lying,
47:23
Speaker 3: that's not true. Like I was so stuck in my
47:26
Speaker 3: little rut that even if I came and told me that,
47:28
Speaker 3: I'd be like, you're a liar, that's not how things
47:31
Speaker 3: are gonna go.
47:31
Speaker 2: Yes, so you're being unrealistic. Exactly.
47:34
Speaker 3: I just needed to go on my journey, okay, yep.
47:37
Speaker 2: And I think like present me just needs a bit
47:39
Speaker 2: of delusion.
47:39
Speaker 3: You know, may your delulu come true true. Absolutely well,
47:42
Speaker 3: it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for sharing
47:45
Speaker 3: your journey and your story with the She's on the
47:47
Speaker 3: Money community. I am absolutely over the moon to be
47:50
Speaker 3: able to share it with everybody. I just know they're
47:52
Speaker 3: going to love you as much as I have. Like
47:54
Speaker 3: this has been so good, and I just think I've
47:55
Speaker 3: made best friends with everyone on Money Diaries today. Like
47:58
Speaker 3: it's been a pleasure.
47:59
Speaker 2: I'm so three. Thank you so much for having me
48:02
Speaker 2: and allowing me to yap about my story.
48:05
Speaker 3: HiPE, I was born to yap.
48:06
Speaker 2: Thank you.
48:12
Speaker 3: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
48:14
Speaker 3: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
48:18
Speaker 3: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
48:22
Speaker 3: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
48:25
Speaker 3: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
48:28
Speaker 3: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
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Speaker 3: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
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