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MONEY DIARIES: One Step at a Time After Losing the Love of Her Life · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
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Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
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Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
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Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
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Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
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Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
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Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
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Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
0:33
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
1:00
Speaker 2: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another
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Speaker 2: one of our money diaries where we get to talk
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Speaker 2: to one of our incredible Shees on the Money community
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Speaker 2: members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, though,
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Speaker 2: because this week we got a message and it went
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Speaker 2: a little bit like this. Eighteen months ago, my partner
1:19
Speaker 2: was in an accident and passed away at twenty eight.
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Speaker 2: I'd just resigned from my job as a personal injury
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Speaker 2: lawyer when he died and on top of my world imploding,
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Speaker 2: my financial stress went through the roof. I'd luckily been
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Speaker 2: on a good path financially for a few years before
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Speaker 2: this happened with my emergency savings and had thirty thousand
1:39
Speaker 2: dollars saved. It took eight months for my income protection
1:42
Speaker 2: to set in, and I didn't have cover for psychological injury.
1:46
Speaker 2: I hope that by sharing my story I might help
1:49
Speaker 2: others in need. Money diarists, what, I don't want to
1:53
Speaker 2: call it a journey? What a situation?
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Speaker 3: Yes, I as you say, zero out of ten? Record?
2:01
Speaker 2: No, no, not even zero, like negative ten out of ten? Like, oh,
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Speaker 2: I'm so sorry to hear that. Thanks, are you? Are
2:09
Speaker 2: you doing okay?
2:10
Speaker 1: Now? Oh?
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Speaker 3: That's it to be continued even okay? Is that a
2:14
Speaker 3: little hard?
2:15
Speaker 1: Do you know what?
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Speaker 2: There's nothing to say that. That's just real shit. I'm sorry,
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Speaker 2: money diarist. But without further ado, let's get into the
2:23
Speaker 2: money Diary and we're shaking it up this year. I'm
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Speaker 2: going to ask you first, what grade would you give
2:29
Speaker 2: your money habits? If I forced you to give yourself
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Speaker 2: a grade from A to F.
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Speaker 3: We'd probably say a B. Maybe that's generous, But I'm
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Speaker 3: going to say.
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Speaker 2: A B I don't know. Let's have a chat and
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Speaker 2: then we'll come back to that at the end of
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Speaker 2: the f So money diarist, talk to me. I want
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Speaker 2: to know a little bit about your money story.
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Speaker 3: I grew up in a very low income household, and
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Speaker 3: on top of that and all the challenges that that
2:56
Speaker 3: has for families in that situation, one of my parents
3:00
Speaker 3: I had a gambling and money spending a problem, which
3:04
Speaker 3: effectively meant that my other parent was really the sole
3:08
Speaker 3: income provider and also domestic provider, and that was quite stressful.
3:13
Speaker 3: They did their best with their resources to provide like
3:15
Speaker 3: what opportunities they could for us, and we're really grateful
3:19
Speaker 3: for what they were able to achieve. I actually do
3:21
Speaker 3: say that I am quite lucky in that situation. But
3:25
Speaker 3: it sort of made money a bit of a non
3:28
Speaker 3: topic in our house, Like it wasn't something that was
3:30
Speaker 3: discussed because it was only a discussed in the context
3:33
Speaker 3: of not having it and not being able to do
3:35
Speaker 3: certain things or you know, that other people were doing.
3:38
Speaker 3: I think also there was probably a bit of embarrassment
3:43
Speaker 3: or stigmatization around it, so it just wasn't something that
3:46
Speaker 3: was talked about. And obviously parents obviously don't want to
3:48
Speaker 3: talk about that stuff with their kids if they're in
3:50
Speaker 3: financial difficulty. Anyway, when I was in school, in high school,
3:54
Speaker 3: I got a job, a part time job, just to
3:55
Speaker 3: help supplement our household income. But even then there was
3:58
Speaker 3: no discussion about what it is actually meant to have
4:00
Speaker 3: a job and budget and saving and superannation all those things.
4:04
Speaker 3: And school didn't assist with that education at that time
4:08
Speaker 3: because I was in an OP class, and OP classes
4:11
Speaker 3: they you know, look at all complex maths, whereas the
4:14
Speaker 3: non OP classes they actually do deal with you know,
4:17
Speaker 3: money and vegeting, budgeting and you know things like that.
4:21
Speaker 3: So that was I was a little unhelpful. After school,
4:24
Speaker 3: I moved to go to university, I had to sport myself.
4:29
Speaker 3: I lived out of home, I had to move, and
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Speaker 3: that was really where my money education started because it
4:33
Speaker 3: was the experience of having to live through, you know,
4:36
Speaker 3: providing for own utilities and and all that sort of stuff.
4:39
Speaker 3: I was on centraling whilst working and working part time
4:43
Speaker 3: in studying, but clive and often I was really just
4:45
Speaker 3: living week to week. If I did have a little
4:47
Speaker 3: bit of scrapper money that I could spare, I honestly
4:50
Speaker 3: would usually put that into my one of my parents.
4:52
Speaker 3: Disole provided parent their bank account because I knew that
4:55
Speaker 3: they were still struggling. But yeah, I did struggle week tweek.
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Speaker 2: Like that's so wholesome that even though you were struggling,
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Speaker 2: you were like, oh, even if I had some dollars free,
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Speaker 2: I'm just going to give it to one of my parents.
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Speaker 2: Like that's so wholesome and so thoughtful. You must be
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Speaker 2: the kindest human ever.
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Speaker 3: I don't know about that, but you know, the income
5:14
Speaker 3: the income provided parent worked really hard, and this was
5:17
Speaker 3: just my way of being able to help, word could.
5:20
Speaker 3: I then had a few negative experiences. I made the
5:22
Speaker 3: mistake that a lot of UNIE students do, and I
5:24
Speaker 3: got a credit card because you know, banks then just
5:26
Speaker 3: offer them to you anything can go step on for emergencies.
5:30
Speaker 3: But when you're leaving week to week, all of a
5:31
Speaker 3: sudden everything becomes an emergency, and all of a sudden
5:33
Speaker 3: that credit card gets away from you. And then I
5:37
Speaker 3: also took out a loan which I could not afford,
5:40
Speaker 3: and it was because of the insistence of the parent
5:45
Speaker 3: that had the spending problem. They sort of insisted that
5:48
Speaker 3: I get this loan out so that they could do
5:50
Speaker 3: something to surprise the other parent and or obviously lots
5:53
Speaker 3: of red flags and I said no, but they just
5:56
Speaker 3: sort of wore me down, and eventually I was like,
5:58
Speaker 3: you know, fine, I'll take out this loan. You know,
6:00
Speaker 3: they said they would pay it all back and paid
6:02
Speaker 3: back quickly, but that did not happen. And you know,
6:05
Speaker 3: as someone who was living week to week, all of
6:07
Speaker 3: a sudden, I was paying for a very high interest
6:09
Speaker 3: loan for a substantial amount of money. Could not afford it.
6:13
Speaker 3: We already had quite a complex relationship and that just
6:15
Speaker 3: completely destroyed it. And it took me about twelve months
6:18
Speaker 3: before I ended up going to speak to my other parent,
6:21
Speaker 3: letting them know what was going on and take possession
6:24
Speaker 3: of the thing that my other parent had used my
6:27
Speaker 3: money to buy. But I still had to pay up
6:29
Speaker 3: that loan. Eventually they were sort of able to assist. Eventually,
6:32
Speaker 3: you know, we got rid of that loan, but it
6:34
Speaker 3: took years. I spent a lot of money, a lot
6:36
Speaker 3: of stress. I had to go get counseling for it
6:38
Speaker 3: because I was just in a state so lesson learnt,
6:42
Speaker 3: so I didn't have a good run with money after university.
6:45
Speaker 3: I got my full time job, and I started on
6:48
Speaker 3: a wage of like seventy seven thousand dollars, So straight
6:50
Speaker 3: out of UNI, that's a really excellent.
6:52
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, going from being on sentilink, coming
6:55
Speaker 2: from a lower income household, seventy seven grand, did you
6:59
Speaker 2: know what to do with it? Thought?
7:00
Speaker 4: I did, And I told myself I was going to
7:04
Speaker 4: be smart with that money, you know, I would, you know,
7:09
Speaker 4: let myself live in a better circumstance, but be really
7:11
Speaker 4: wise with that money.
7:13
Speaker 3: But look, it just gets away from you. And a
7:14
Speaker 3: couple of years in, as my wage had gone up,
7:16
Speaker 3: I sort of reflected back and realized, oh, my gosh,
7:19
Speaker 3: I had earned all this money, and you know, I
7:22
Speaker 3: actually didn't have much to.
7:24
Speaker 2: Show for it. Lifestyle creepy.
7:26
Speaker 3: I got your lifestyle creep for sure. And I guess
7:28
Speaker 3: because I had this bittersweet, reluctant, messy relationship with money,
7:34
Speaker 3: I had thought, well, yes I want to be better,
7:36
Speaker 3: and yes I want to educate myself with money. But
7:38
Speaker 3: I'd been almost too afraid to do those things at
7:40
Speaker 3: that point. So I actually hadn't set myself up very well.
7:44
Speaker 3: So I got myself together and fixed all of that,
7:48
Speaker 3: and at this point I did have the credit card
7:50
Speaker 3: on the loans. That was great. I actually did start saving.
7:53
Speaker 3: I was in a really good you know, for a
7:54
Speaker 3: few years, and it was actually in a really good position.
7:56
Speaker 3: But it does still make me quite sick to look
7:58
Speaker 3: back on those first three sort of years and understand,
8:01
Speaker 3: like the amount of money in that just vanished.
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Speaker 2: No, we're not sick over it. We were learning, We
8:08
Speaker 2: were doing the best that we could.
8:10
Speaker 3: It was learning, but it's so bad, you know. I
8:12
Speaker 3: could have put myself in a much better financial position,
8:15
Speaker 3: but I didn't, and I've definitely learned from that mistake.
8:18
Speaker 3: I didn't buy things that were you know, I was
8:21
Speaker 3: really scared of buying big things that actually have meaning
8:24
Speaker 3: and I could maybe resell later. But I was absolutely
8:27
Speaker 3: happy to spend on friends and my co workers who
8:30
Speaker 3: earned less and buy them coffees and lunches and all
8:32
Speaker 3: those things, and all of a sudden the money disappears.
8:36
Speaker 3: But yeah, I got my situation together. I was lucky
8:39
Speaker 3: enough to meet my partner, and my partner is really
8:41
Speaker 3: financially mind and he loves talking about it, which is
8:44
Speaker 3: great because it wasn't a thing that I had anyone
8:46
Speaker 3: to speak to about before. He loved talking about all
8:49
Speaker 3: things money, and so we just had this really lots
8:52
Speaker 3: of discussions him. It just well to grow together.
8:54
Speaker 2: Did he grow up in a lower income household or
8:57
Speaker 2: like what was his money story?
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Speaker 3: Like, I wouldn't say that it was a lower income household,
9:02
Speaker 3: but he was one of many children, and so you
9:04
Speaker 3: know that has a lot of cost associated with.
9:06
Speaker 2: Having budgeting comes into playing when you have multiple children.
9:10
Speaker 3: And I know his parents did have times when they
9:12
Speaker 3: had quite a lot of financial pressures, but generally speaking,
9:15
Speaker 3: they were quite ed. Their parents were quite educated how
9:17
Speaker 3: about money. His grandfather was quite educated about money, and
9:20
Speaker 3: so this sort of filtered down to him, and so
9:23
Speaker 3: he was varying with his money. He was very frugal.
9:25
Speaker 2: What a catch. Oh my gosh, Yes, she is on
9:28
Speaker 2: the money dream boat.
9:29
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, definitely.
9:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:31
Speaker 3: So I was in a Leigan position and we were
9:34
Speaker 3: looking at buying a house because we were both earning
9:38
Speaker 3: over six figures. We both had decent savings. He also
9:41
Speaker 3: had quite a lot of investments that he at that
9:43
Speaker 3: time was ready to pull out and you know, just
9:45
Speaker 3: pay off a substantial part of the morgo you know, deposit.
9:48
Speaker 2: Upfront, and he was twenty eight and he's got investments,
9:51
Speaker 2: six week income. He was getting it done.
9:54
Speaker 3: And he had his own side hustle business as well,
9:56
Speaker 3: so sexy to be absolute king about. And I I
10:00
Speaker 3: wanted a career change at that point, so I resigned
10:03
Speaker 3: from my job at that time. But I wasn't concerned
10:06
Speaker 3: about that because in the work that I do in
10:09
Speaker 3: the industry I am, there's a lot of opportunities, So
10:10
Speaker 3: I wasn't too concerned about that. However, literally a couple
10:14
Speaker 3: of days after I finished it up there, he passed
10:17
Speaker 3: away in an accident. So all of a sudden, just
10:21
Speaker 3: a world imploded.
10:22
Speaker 2: And yeah, that is literally the worst thing in the
10:28
Speaker 2: entire world to happen. And I'm so sorry you went
10:31
Speaker 2: through that, Like, oh, I cannot begin to imagine. So
10:35
Speaker 2: I want to go back to, like, I guess, the
10:37
Speaker 2: money side of things. Obviously, you guys had a very
10:40
Speaker 2: similar attitude towards money. What were you working towards? So
10:44
Speaker 2: you said, I want to buy a house. You know,
10:45
Speaker 2: he had some investments. What did the bigger future, I
10:49
Speaker 2: guess look like at that point.
10:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we've been together for quite some years at
10:53
Speaker 3: this point, and we were both very financially stable. I
10:56
Speaker 3: guess at that point We've been talking about buying Hustle
10:58
Speaker 3: quite some time, but we were really at that point
11:00
Speaker 3: now where we wanted to make that step where the
11:03
Speaker 3: other circumstances in our life didn't need providing for. We
11:06
Speaker 3: were just ready to go. So our next step was
11:08
Speaker 3: looking at buying house. We were at the time of
11:10
Speaker 3: his passing actually in discussions with brokers. We were going
11:13
Speaker 3: out to see properties, were talking builders, all that sort
11:16
Speaker 3: of stuff. I had actually wanted to be slowed down
11:18
Speaker 3: by an extra couple of months. He was really really keen.
11:21
Speaker 2: You're a little bit more conservative.
11:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I've always been really conscious of having an
11:25
Speaker 3: emergency fund. That actually he wasn't because he was like, well,
11:29
Speaker 3: I've got so much savings that's in effect, you know,
11:32
Speaker 3: includes my emergency, but I always have that separate kitty,
11:36
Speaker 3: and I sort of had said to him, look, I
11:37
Speaker 3: probably just want to wait three months just to make
11:39
Speaker 3: sure that that's exactly where I want it so that
11:41
Speaker 3: we can get it. So we were probably maybe like
11:43
Speaker 3: three months or so away from that, but otherwise, yeah,
11:47
Speaker 3: that was sort of a big goal. And then our
11:49
Speaker 3: sort of the second goal was just to continue our
11:52
Speaker 3: investment journey. So the house that you buy we were
11:55
Speaker 3: going to live in, and then we wanted to build
11:57
Speaker 3: out sort of stocks and other sorts of things. I'm
12:00
Speaker 3: also really big on obviously building supernovation, so I was
12:03
Speaker 3: quite keen to continue to builop that as well.
12:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, so the next question on my list
12:08
Speaker 2: leads really well into the next thing I want to
12:10
Speaker 2: talk about about you, and that is what do you
12:13
Speaker 2: currently do for work and how much money do you earn?
12:15
Speaker 3: So currently, I actually have only just returned to work
12:18
Speaker 3: since my partner's passing. As I said, I had just
12:21
Speaker 3: finished up a job, so I didn't have someone to
12:24
Speaker 3: go back to and ease me back into work, and
12:26
Speaker 3: that is a real barrier to returning to work once
12:28
Speaker 3: you've lost someone or had a significant event. So I've
12:32
Speaker 3: only just started a new job at the beginning of
12:33
Speaker 3: this year.
12:34
Speaker 2: Congrats, thank you.
12:36
Speaker 3: I'm still adjusting to that. It's a new area of
12:38
Speaker 3: flaw at a community legal center. It is only part
12:42
Speaker 3: time because I'm easing myself into it as part of
12:44
Speaker 3: a sort of a grief and brievement process. Your brain
12:47
Speaker 3: just shuts down and I have a color neal appreciation
12:49
Speaker 3: for mothers who have baby brain, because I never feel
12:52
Speaker 3: like it. I can actually relate to that because I
12:55
Speaker 3: have grief brain, and it is such a thing and
12:57
Speaker 3: it is ongoing. So I'm sort of easing my I've
13:00
Speaker 3: back in work. I'm working part time. It's three days
13:03
Speaker 3: a week. I'm only about seventeen hundred net a fortnite,
13:06
Speaker 3: which is about fifty three thousand gross a year. If
13:10
Speaker 3: I was working full time, that would be about just
13:13
Speaker 3: almost like it's over eighty eight thousand gross full time
13:16
Speaker 3: a year, but I'm obviously doing that in a limited
13:18
Speaker 3: capacity at the moment.
13:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, how good is it that you found a role
13:22
Speaker 2: I guess in a different what would you say, a
13:25
Speaker 2: different silo of law, so that you can still practice law,
13:29
Speaker 2: but maybe not in the space where you were.
13:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I don't know that going back into
13:33
Speaker 3: that space is an option for me now after what
13:35
Speaker 3: I've been through. But I had been considering maybe making
13:37
Speaker 3: a change anyway, but working at communityleague or centers just
13:40
Speaker 3: really fits with my value.
13:41
Speaker 2: So I'm very fortunate totally. I told you earlier that
13:43
Speaker 2: you're a super kind person, and then you told me, oh,
13:46
Speaker 2: and I spent all my money on paying for other
13:48
Speaker 2: people's lunches, and now you're telling me you're in community law,
13:51
Speaker 2: like you cannot change my mind on this, my friend,
13:53
Speaker 2: I guess it fits a little bit. I Oh, my gosh,
13:57
Speaker 2: all right, I want to know. So obviously the goalpost
14:00
Speaker 2: have changed significantly. And you said before you have grief brain,
14:04
Speaker 2: which sounds really frustrating because I'm sure you just want
14:08
Speaker 2: to be able to put that aside sometimes and just
14:10
Speaker 2: go to work normally and feel like you can just
14:13
Speaker 2: get stuff done. But I want to know. Have you
14:15
Speaker 2: thought about what your new big money goals are going
14:19
Speaker 2: to be?
14:19
Speaker 3: I have, but that's really difficult now because everything in
14:25
Speaker 3: my life has changed now, so the things that we
14:28
Speaker 3: could achieve before just not realistic anymore. But also I've
14:32
Speaker 3: changed as a person from this, so on top of
14:36
Speaker 3: not having finances to achieve those goals anymore, because my
14:39
Speaker 3: finances have significantly diminished over the last year and a half,
14:43
Speaker 3: I actually don't really know what my life is going
14:45
Speaker 3: to look like moving forward. I'm still working that out.
14:48
Speaker 3: I guess my main goal at the moment now that
14:49
Speaker 3: I return to work is replenishing my emergency find like
14:52
Speaker 3: that is my number one priority. That's always been really
14:56
Speaker 3: important to me. So that is definitely something that I
14:58
Speaker 3: really want to do. Well, I'm not entirely sure as
15:03
Speaker 3: the second step.
15:04
Speaker 2: That's okay though, That's why I said, have you thought
15:06
Speaker 2: about it not?
15:07
Speaker 3: What are Yeah? Maybe just making sure that I can
15:10
Speaker 3: after I sort of work myself into this job and
15:14
Speaker 3: I feel a bit more comfortable over time. Obviously at
15:16
Speaker 3: some point I would like to increase that to full time.
15:18
Speaker 3: So that's just a bit more of my longer journey
15:20
Speaker 3: in terms of my finances.
15:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good to know where you're at at the
15:25
Speaker 2: moment because sadly this story is going to be really
15:28
Speaker 2: relatable to a portion of our community. I want to
15:32
Speaker 2: know a little bit more though about You said before
15:35
Speaker 2: your finances diminished, you were a personal injury lawyer, and
15:39
Speaker 2: you said that you applied for income protection but you
15:42
Speaker 2: weren't covered for psychological injury. Obviously that can be a
15:47
Speaker 2: really big one, and in MySpace as an ex financial advisor,
15:51
Speaker 2: I'd always talk about IP making sure that we had
15:54
Speaker 2: cover for psych How did you find that out? And
15:58
Speaker 2: what is your journey around personal insurance seances and the
16:01
Speaker 2: necessity for them.
16:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm actually a huge advocate for this, and
16:05
Speaker 3: certainly after what has happened. But even before my partner's accident,
16:10
Speaker 3: I had thought that I'd had decent ish approach. So
16:14
Speaker 3: I made sure it's through my superannuation fund, which is
16:16
Speaker 3: not always the best place to get your personal insurances.
16:20
Speaker 3: But whilst I wanted to explore external personal insurances, I
16:24
Speaker 3: want to make sure that at least in the meantime
16:25
Speaker 3: I had sufficient through my superannuation. So I'd increase my
16:30
Speaker 3: life insurance policy to reflect my circumstances. I increase my
16:34
Speaker 3: total and permanent disability insurance. It's quite a significant amount.
16:38
Speaker 3: And then I actually did increase my income protection to
16:42
Speaker 3: reflect the wages that I've been earning over the last
16:45
Speaker 3: few years. So I did that actually got four months
16:48
Speaker 3: before my partner's accident. However, my super fund came back
16:51
Speaker 3: to me and said, hey, look, two years elo you
16:53
Speaker 3: had work stress, and work stress is actually not a diagnosis.
16:58
Speaker 3: I've had work stress brief period of time where.
17:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I was a personal injury lawyer.
17:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, and our team had been going through some changes
17:05
Speaker 3: at the time, and so we had a lot on
17:07
Speaker 3: our fate. So I'd been to the doctor and had
17:10
Speaker 3: like a couple of days off work, et cetera, et cetera.
17:13
Speaker 3: It was very minor, it was very short lived. But
17:15
Speaker 3: the super fun said, two years ago you had this,
17:18
Speaker 3: we want another year of clean psychological health again, keeping
17:22
Speaker 3: in mind that's work. Stress is not a diagnosis of depression,
17:26
Speaker 3: of PTSD or anything like that.
17:28
Speaker 2: No, it's not. It's I was putting my mental health
17:31
Speaker 2: first by even taking that step.
17:33
Speaker 3: That's right. I didn't think to challenge it at that
17:36
Speaker 3: time because I thought, all, everything's.
17:37
Speaker 2: Going great whatever. Yeah, nothing's going to happen in the
17:40
Speaker 2: next twelve months.
17:41
Speaker 3: Nothing's going to happen next twelve months, and you know
17:44
Speaker 3: that I'll be right as rain. Of course, a couple
17:46
Speaker 3: of months later, my partner passed away in an accident.
17:49
Speaker 3: When we applied for the income protection, they said, we
17:54
Speaker 3: will pay you your base rate, but we won't pay
17:57
Speaker 3: the rate that you've been paying because you have had
18:00
Speaker 3: a psychological history. We appealed that because obviously, and the
18:05
Speaker 3: death of a partner is significantly different, and you know,
18:09
Speaker 3: realistically those protections that the Superannuation Fund and injuries have
18:13
Speaker 3: really that you know, shouldn't include exceptional circumstances like this.
18:17
Speaker 3: So we did appeal, but it wasn't successful and I
18:19
Speaker 3: could have gone to court about it, but it just
18:21
Speaker 3: didn't have the energy too. So instead of being paid
18:24
Speaker 3: at a rate that was like eighty five percent of
18:26
Speaker 3: my income, I was paid at about in my pocket
18:30
Speaker 3: twenty two hundred dollars a month. So it's not that
18:33
Speaker 3: much more than sent a link, to be honest. And
18:37
Speaker 3: you know, if we had bought a house, I would
18:39
Speaker 3: have been in very difficult circumstances. So I'm really disappointed
18:42
Speaker 3: that we didn't get that opportunity. It's really really sad
18:45
Speaker 3: for me.
18:45
Speaker 2: But financially it would have been awful.
18:47
Speaker 3: That's right. In the eight months before I got the
18:50
Speaker 3: income protection arabel, out of my emergency savings, which I'm
18:53
Speaker 3: so glad that I have, there's such a necessity. I
18:55
Speaker 3: did obviously have to change the way that I spent
18:58
Speaker 3: because I had to plan and my money over that time.
19:01
Speaker 3: I wasn't sure that I was going to get income protection.
19:03
Speaker 3: When I did, they back paid me that amount for
19:06
Speaker 3: the eight months, so that was good.
19:07
Speaker 2: That's helpful, but still not enough.
19:09
Speaker 3: That's still not enough, and income protection, my income protection
19:12
Speaker 3: is capped at two years, so I'm more than three
19:15
Speaker 3: calls away through that two years. Obviously, other people have
19:18
Speaker 3: circumstances where they're, you know, the injury they suffer, they
19:21
Speaker 3: might be out of work for longer than two years.
19:23
Speaker 3: So you know, I'm lucky that I've just returned to
19:27
Speaker 3: work so I'm within my time limit. But yeah, it's
19:29
Speaker 3: just not great.
19:31
Speaker 2: See, that's what breaks my heart. And as a financial advisor,
19:34
Speaker 2: I used to harp on about income protection not being
19:37
Speaker 2: good enough through your superannuation fund or obviously the exclusion
19:41
Speaker 2: is not great.
19:41
Speaker 3: And if I had a motivatal accident or if so,
19:44
Speaker 3: if I had a physical injury, I would be paid.
19:46
Speaker 3: I'd be getting paid the level that I'm currently paying
19:48
Speaker 3: my fees for. But because I am having a psychological injury,
19:53
Speaker 3: I don't get that benefit that I've been paying for.
19:56
Speaker 3: So that is pretty disappointing. I have to say, I
19:58
Speaker 3: was pretty disappointed in my fund and I am considering
20:01
Speaker 3: changing funds as a result of that.
20:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would too, my friend, I absolutely would be,
20:06
Speaker 2: especially if they declined to appeal given the circumstances. Can
20:12
Speaker 2: we talk a little bit about the income protection or
20:15
Speaker 2: the insurances that your partner might have had. Was he
20:18
Speaker 2: all sorted in that aspect or what did that look like?
20:21
Speaker 2: Because obviously twenty eight is so young. You just don't
20:24
Speaker 2: think that anything is going to happen, and you just
20:27
Speaker 2: don't prioritize those things most of the time. So what
20:31
Speaker 2: did that look like.
20:32
Speaker 3: Yes, so we had a lot of discussions about money
20:34
Speaker 3: all the time, and one of those things was also,
20:36
Speaker 3: we need to get a will, we need to write
20:38
Speaker 3: a will. But because we're young and we don't you know,
20:41
Speaker 3: we're quite risk adverse in our lives. We don't have
20:44
Speaker 3: any health issues, we thought, yeah, we'll get to it.
20:47
Speaker 3: It's not a necessity, you know, maybe when we buy
20:49
Speaker 3: a house or set all that. So at the time
20:51
Speaker 3: he passed, he didn't have a will, which has his
20:53
Speaker 3: own complications. His obviously income protexture was a role and
20:58
Speaker 3: if he'd survived, his TVD was not it was at
21:01
Speaker 3: the base level. If he survived, it would not have
21:03
Speaker 3: been enough to support him. His life insurance policy was
21:10
Speaker 3: just the standard through his super fund. We actually have
21:12
Speaker 3: the same super fun and it was very low. So
21:16
Speaker 3: the standard is that it's that default amount. It is
21:18
Speaker 3: quite low, you know, it is six figures, but it's
21:20
Speaker 3: not a lot.
21:21
Speaker 2: It's not a lot in the grand scheme of things.
21:23
Speaker 3: That's right. If we had a house, if we'd had children,
21:26
Speaker 3: it just would not have been enough. I'm not fortunate
21:29
Speaker 3: that we have missed out on those things at all.
21:32
Speaker 3: But it really makes me concern for other people who
21:35
Speaker 3: have a mortgage, who have children, who haven't got their
21:38
Speaker 3: personal insurances at least set up, because it means all
21:42
Speaker 3: the world, and it takes that pressure off you. And
21:44
Speaker 3: it's that security of knowing that if something happens, you've
21:47
Speaker 3: got that to fall back on, and it's appropriate. A
21:50
Speaker 3: lot of people have spoken to since my partner's accident
21:52
Speaker 3: because I'm now I'm so I feel so strongly about this.
21:55
Speaker 3: I talk to everyone I know about this, and more
21:57
Speaker 3: often than not, despite the fact that they are mortgages
22:00
Speaker 3: and partners and their narrative and they have children and
22:02
Speaker 3: sometimes multiple children and dogs and cats and all those things,
22:05
Speaker 3: they quite off and say, oh, I don't have a will,
22:06
Speaker 3: and actually I don't know if I having come protection.
22:08
Speaker 3: I don't know my life insurances, and I don't know
22:10
Speaker 3: what my TPD amount or trauma insurance is and I'm
22:13
Speaker 3: just it sort of makes my heart flutter and anxiety
22:17
Speaker 3: for them because the fact is, you know these things
22:19
Speaker 3: can happen to anyone, and you know it happened to us,
22:23
Speaker 3: so it really can just happen to anyone. I think
22:25
Speaker 3: people don't like to think about.
22:27
Speaker 2: It because it feels morbid. It feels gross to think
22:30
Speaker 2: about your own reality, right, Like, no one wants to
22:32
Speaker 2: talk about it.
22:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's so important just to have that coverage.
22:37
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I could not agree with you more in
22:39
Speaker 2: this space. Having worked in financial advice for a number
22:43
Speaker 2: of years before leaving, the amount of stories and you
22:46
Speaker 2: would have been the same in personal injury, like you
22:48
Speaker 2: would just see people go through these to refix circumstances.
22:52
Speaker 2: No one expects it. Nobody goes out one day expecting
22:56
Speaker 2: all the worst is going to happen today. I wish
22:58
Speaker 2: I had set my will up. I just think it's
23:01
Speaker 2: one of those things that we need to get done
23:03
Speaker 2: as a hygiene factor, because you touched on it before
23:06
Speaker 2: and you said, oh, that has its own set of issues.
23:09
Speaker 2: Not having a will in Australia means you have to
23:11
Speaker 2: go through the Supreme Court to access any assets that
23:15
Speaker 2: that individual had. It's not oh, it just defaults to
23:19
Speaker 2: the partner. That's not the case at all. It is
23:21
Speaker 2: a more than twelve month process, and if they then
23:24
Speaker 2: have any type of significant assets, it can take even longer.
23:28
Speaker 2: So I can't imagine what you have gone through.
23:31
Speaker 3: And with managing a stage without a will, it really
23:35
Speaker 3: becomes quite burdensome to the people that are left behind,
23:39
Speaker 3: who are already going through so much grief and trauma
23:43
Speaker 3: and financial difficulty of their own to then have to
23:46
Speaker 3: find work out how to manage someone's a state without
23:49
Speaker 3: a will. Obviously, without a will, you don't have an executor.
23:52
Speaker 3: You have to apply for letters of administration and just
23:55
Speaker 3: do all these things, and it's just so much more
23:56
Speaker 3: complicated than it needs to be. Yeah, highly recommend everyone
24:01
Speaker 3: get one.
24:01
Speaker 2: You do not have a will for you, You have
24:04
Speaker 2: a will for your friends and your family, Like, it's
24:07
Speaker 2: not actually an asset that you go, oh, I'm so
24:09
Speaker 2: glad I have my will for me. It's no, I'm
24:11
Speaker 2: so glad I have my will for my partner, for
24:14
Speaker 2: my friends, for my family that will have to go
24:16
Speaker 2: through this situation should the worst happen.
24:18
Speaker 3: That's right, and well. Another part of this process is
24:21
Speaker 3: that there's something I just got along long as journey.
24:25
Speaker 3: Even if you have a will, you superannuation isn't covered
24:27
Speaker 3: in your will in most circumstances. And so you know,
24:30
Speaker 3: if you have your life insurance through superannuation, or if
24:33
Speaker 3: you have significant superanuation that you want to lead to
24:35
Speaker 3: your family, it's actually not covered. Even if you do
24:37
Speaker 3: have a will, the superannuation fund can it's our dair
24:40
Speaker 3: discretion as to who they give it to. Yeah, and
24:42
Speaker 3: that isn't it itself another really difficult process. So a
24:46
Speaker 3: lot of people aren't aware of that either, and that
24:48
Speaker 3: has its own challenges.
24:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you nominate somebody who's not actually a
24:54
Speaker 2: quote legitimate beneficiary, they can decline it and it will
24:57
Speaker 2: have to then go through the state again. So yeah,
25:00
Speaker 2: have a chat to an estate planning lawyer if you're
25:03
Speaker 2: getting a little bit stressy about this conversation, have a
25:06
Speaker 2: chat to a good financial advisor about putting in place
25:09
Speaker 2: your wills and a state planning process is because it's essential.
25:14
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I have to say, you know, when you
25:15
Speaker 3: go through that process, I think we've put off because
25:17
Speaker 3: we think it's going to really hard. But once you
25:18
Speaker 3: sit down and you actually knock it out. You realize
25:20
Speaker 3: I've been stressing about that for no reason. You know,
25:22
Speaker 3: the right people will help you put all those things
25:24
Speaker 3: in face, and it actually brings you so much peace
25:27
Speaker 3: of mind.
25:27
Speaker 2: And it can actually be quite an empowering process to
25:30
Speaker 2: go through with your partner, as well as somebody who
25:33
Speaker 2: has done that with their partner. It sounds a little
25:35
Speaker 2: bit sappy, but to go. You know, if one day
25:37
Speaker 2: we have kids, who's going to look after those kids?
25:40
Speaker 2: And we have these wholesome conversations about our friends and
25:43
Speaker 2: our families, and I promise it's not the morbid conversation
25:46
Speaker 2: you think it's going to be.
25:47
Speaker 3: I actually think it really legitimizes us and validates your relationship.
25:50
Speaker 3: It's such a great.
25:51
Speaker 2: Feeling one hundred percent. I mean ex financial advisor and
25:55
Speaker 2: personal injury lawyer here, Like, we're probably not the best
25:58
Speaker 2: people to talk to this because we enjoy the process,
26:01
Speaker 2: but I just think it's so important. Or at Money
26:04
Speaker 2: direst let's go to a really quick break and then
26:06
Speaker 2: after that, I want to jump back into investments and
26:09
Speaker 2: debts and money habits that you have. So guys don't
26:12
Speaker 2: go anywhere, all right, Money Diarist tweet are back and
26:19
Speaker 2: we just wrapped a very good chat about personal insurances
26:23
Speaker 2: and estate planning that I think if anyone is listening,
26:25
Speaker 2: needs to follow up. I'm actually going to put a
26:27
Speaker 2: whole heap of links in our show notes today so
26:29
Speaker 2: that you guys can put yourselves in the best possible positions.
26:33
Speaker 2: But money, darist, I want to know, do you have
26:36
Speaker 2: any investments currently? I do?
26:39
Speaker 3: And my partner was the reason for this.
26:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I see king behavior. I told you he was
26:44
Speaker 2: a she's on the money dream guy.
26:45
Speaker 3: He was. I had always wanted to invest, but was
26:48
Speaker 3: a little bit afraid and I was worried that I
26:50
Speaker 3: wasn't diligent enough in my research when he gave me
26:52
Speaker 3: the confidence to do this. So I do. I have
26:57
Speaker 3: a little bit of money in cryptocurrency. Obviously it's a
27:00
Speaker 3: speculate ave asset. It was actually that that got me
27:02
Speaker 3: confident in having a crack at the investing in real stock.
27:07
Speaker 2: You were like, well, if I've got crypto, it can't
27:09
Speaker 2: get much worse, That's exactly it.
27:11
Speaker 3: And I, you know, in order to do that, I
27:13
Speaker 3: sort of used a cryptocurrency platform that was similar to rays,
27:16
Speaker 3: so it was sort of putting those little pennies in
27:18
Speaker 3: and watching it do his thing, and I realized, I'm like, oh, like,
27:21
Speaker 3: if I'm doing this, why am I not dealing with
27:23
Speaker 3: real money? So I then invested in ETF. So overall
27:27
Speaker 3: I have probably about maybe just over twenty seven thousand
27:32
Speaker 3: dollars in like EFTs and a little bit of the cryptocurrency.
27:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, airpiic that is a very good innings for your age.
27:39
Speaker 3: And my superannuation is about eighty thousand dollars, And during
27:43
Speaker 3: my time off work, I always made sure that a
27:45
Speaker 3: portion of my income protection I always allocated that to
27:48
Speaker 3: my superannuation. I con't contributed Oh my gosh, really yeah.
27:51
Speaker 3: It was really important for me that I had some control.
27:54
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't have a lot of control at
27:56
Speaker 3: that point. I didn't know where my life was going.
27:57
Speaker 3: But I wanted to invest in my future, and I
27:58
Speaker 3: didn't know how to do that with my current circumstances.
28:01
Speaker 3: So contributing to my renovation was a way that I
28:03
Speaker 3: was able to feel that and also contributing just a
28:06
Speaker 3: little bit of my income protection to my investments over
28:09
Speaker 3: that time gave me a little bit of a sense
28:11
Speaker 3: of control and building towards the future that I didn't
28:14
Speaker 3: know what would shape up to be.
28:15
Speaker 2: You don't know what's going to happen, but you know
28:17
Speaker 2: it's there and you know it's bright.
28:19
Speaker 3: That's right.
28:20
Speaker 2: Oh, that actually makes my heart so happy because obviously
28:23
Speaker 2: those things are small steps in the right direction, but
28:26
Speaker 2: really give you purpose and really help you get through
28:29
Speaker 2: a process that is not very nice. Money Diarist, we
28:33
Speaker 2: spoke about debt before that got taken out in your name,
28:36
Speaker 2: But do you have any other debts?
28:38
Speaker 3: No, just my hex debt. So the credit card's gone,
28:40
Speaker 3: the loan's gone, and my hextebt is at about thirty
28:43
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, so only good.
28:44
Speaker 2: Debt, only good debt and only thirty thousand dollars. And
28:47
Speaker 2: you're a lawyer, that is a good amount of debt
28:49
Speaker 2: to still have, Like, yeah, killing it money, darist, I
28:52
Speaker 2: want to know what would you think is your best money?
28:55
Speaker 3: Have it the emergency fund? Hands down? I just I
28:58
Speaker 3: claiming question that you know. I sort of went back
29:01
Speaker 3: and looked at my planning over the last few years
29:03
Speaker 3: and I always allocated it amount to an emergency fund.
29:06
Speaker 3: So for me, that was like having at least three
29:08
Speaker 3: to six months wages, you know, just in case something happened,
29:11
Speaker 3: I couldn't work or you know, sorry is now, I
29:13
Speaker 3: couldn't access income protection. On top of that, I also
29:16
Speaker 3: had like a little sub emergency account because I shouldn't
29:19
Speaker 3: have taken out private health insurance when I was earning
29:21
Speaker 3: really well, but I didn't, So you know, I always
29:23
Speaker 3: had majorre There's a little kitty there for if something
29:25
Speaker 3: came up for my health as well, that that was there.
29:29
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, I want to know where that habit came from,
29:32
Speaker 2: because obviously it's a great habit. Everyone should have an
29:35
Speaker 2: emergency fund. But earlier in the show, you told us
29:38
Speaker 2: that you came from a lower income household and one
29:41
Speaker 2: of your parents had an issue with gambling. That doesn't
29:45
Speaker 2: usually lead towards actually having an emergency fund, because in
29:48
Speaker 2: those circumstances, emergency funds usually get extinguished pretty quickly. So
29:53
Speaker 2: where did that habit come from? How did you know
29:55
Speaker 2: to do this for yourself?
29:57
Speaker 3: I think it was unconsciously because of my mystery. So
30:00
Speaker 3: when I did start earning well, I did start educating myself,
30:05
Speaker 3: and I just was always planning for the unknown. Having
30:10
Speaker 3: seen my family, I suppose be in situations where they
30:12
Speaker 3: were quite tight with them in difficult circumstances, their money.
30:17
Speaker 3: It just made sense. I never wanted to be in
30:18
Speaker 3: a position where if something happened, I didn't have something
30:21
Speaker 3: to fall back on. Yeah, it was just an unconscious
30:24
Speaker 3: behavior that obviously was founded in the background. I think.
30:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, I kind of love asking people, well, how
30:30
Speaker 2: did you come to the conclusion of an emergency fund
30:33
Speaker 2: And it's either I was taught or it was I
30:35
Speaker 2: came out of a situation that I knew I didn't
30:37
Speaker 2: want to be in again, and that seemed like the
30:40
Speaker 2: only logical step.
30:41
Speaker 1: Yeah.
30:42
Speaker 3: I think I was also subconsciously planning for you know,
30:45
Speaker 3: at some point I was going to have a house
30:47
Speaker 3: and if something happened in the future where I wouldn't
30:49
Speaker 3: be able to pay for a payment or you know whatever,
30:52
Speaker 3: that I did have a really good kitty of emergency
30:55
Speaker 3: funds so that I wasn't ever financially stressed. Financial stress
30:58
Speaker 3: is just the worst, and on top of all my
31:00
Speaker 3: grief and areement, being financially stressed over the last eighteen months,
31:03
Speaker 3: it really has not helped the situation. So I just
31:06
Speaker 3: I've always wanted to alleviate that. Yeah, so I would say,
31:09
Speaker 3: hands down, my best money how it is always having
31:11
Speaker 3: an emergence fun and I wouldn't be able to get
31:12
Speaker 3: through the last eighteen months without.
31:14
Speaker 2: It one hundred percent. All right, let's flip it. What
31:16
Speaker 2: is your worst money have they?
31:19
Speaker 3: I think definitely spending on others. That's not my love language,
31:23
Speaker 3: but it's often the love language of the people that
31:25
Speaker 3: I know, so I spend for them. I spend as
31:29
Speaker 3: a way to say thank you to them, whether it's family, friends,
31:32
Speaker 3: my coworkers, and that tends to wear my money. It
31:35
Speaker 3: sort of flitters off to I think otherwise, though, I
31:39
Speaker 3: probably stress about money too much. I think about money
31:42
Speaker 3: a lot. I stress about money a lot, and I
31:45
Speaker 3: really am disappointed that I spend a lot of energy
31:48
Speaker 3: thinking about the worst case scenarios because I would like
31:52
Speaker 3: to have a bit more of a healthier mindset about money,
31:54
Speaker 3: and I have a really positive attitude about money. But
31:56
Speaker 3: instead I do seem to tend to think about money
32:00
Speaker 3: and stress about money for maybe longer than it's probably helpful.
32:04
Speaker 2: It kind of makes sense in your circumstances, though my friend,
32:07
Speaker 2: like the story checks out. It's not a nice thing
32:10
Speaker 2: to go through, but I can see why money would
32:12
Speaker 2: put additional pressure on you at this point in time. Yes,
32:16
Speaker 2: all right, I'm going to quickly recap because I'm about
32:18
Speaker 2: to ask you what grade you would give your money
32:20
Speaker 2: habits again, because I want to see if after having
32:23
Speaker 2: this chat, they've changed. And what I've learned is that
32:25
Speaker 2: you've come from a low income household that did have
32:28
Speaker 2: the gambling addiction in it. You killed it coming out
32:31
Speaker 2: of UNI. You have an emergency fund. You always prioritize that.
32:35
Speaker 2: You told me you have a sub emergency fund. Like
32:37
Speaker 2: you don't just have an emergency fund. You've got a
32:39
Speaker 2: sub emergency fund, You've got investments. You're always thinking about
32:42
Speaker 2: the future. During literally the shittiest period of your life,
32:46
Speaker 2: you were still contributing to your super Who does that
32:49
Speaker 2: except a queen? So do you really still think you're
32:51
Speaker 2: a bee?
32:52
Speaker 1: Yeah?
32:53
Speaker 3: I do. I do think there's things I could have can't.
32:55
Speaker 3: I mean, I can improve things. I'm still a little
32:58
Speaker 3: bit afraid of some of the the risks, and I
33:01
Speaker 3: think I still have a bit of a negative mindset. Yeah,
33:04
Speaker 3: be hoping to one day B and A.
33:06
Speaker 2: You're going to be an A and GINO. What I
33:08
Speaker 2: think it has a lot to do with money mindset
33:10
Speaker 2: and changing that and putting your space back into a
33:13
Speaker 2: space where you feel really, really in control, because I
33:16
Speaker 2: can tell that you don't feel that yet, but I
33:18
Speaker 2: can see that you're working towards it, and honestly, I
33:21
Speaker 2: am so proud of you. Like the idea that you're
33:24
Speaker 2: back at work this year, like ah queen behavior, I'm
33:27
Speaker 2: obsessed with you. Thank you so so much for sharing
33:30
Speaker 2: your story with us, and I know that our community
33:33
Speaker 2: is going to adore you just as much as I have.
33:41
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33:44
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33:48
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33:51
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33:55
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Speaker 2: Money are authorized representatives of Money sherper P T y
34:08
Speaker 2: L t D A B N three two one six
34:11
Speaker 2: four nine two seven seven zero eight a F s
34:14
Speaker 2: L four five one two eight nine