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How Victoria Devine Went From Hiding $40k Debt to Financial Freedom (And Lessons You Can Steal) · She's On The Money

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  Speaker 1: My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
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  Speaker 1: woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t glennyan Ganya, Niana,
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  Speaker 1: Kaka yah Ya bin Ahaka Nian our gay In Nimbini,
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  Speaker 1: yakarum jar Dominyama, Domagahawakawaman, damon imlan Bumba bang Gadabomba in
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and now in wakah ghana on yak rum jar Watnadaa. Hello,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: We thank acknowledge and respect the Aberiginal people's land that
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land
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  Speaker 1: and respect all that you see. She's on the Money
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  Speaker 1: podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools,
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  Speaker 1: knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
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  Speaker 2: She's on the Money. She's on the Money. Hello and welcome,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and she's on the Money.
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  Speaker 3: The podcast that proves being financially savvy doesn't mean you've
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: always been financially flawless. I'm beck sired and with me
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  Speaker 3: is the woman who might actually kill me when she
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  Speaker 3: realizes what we're doing today, Victoria, are we doing today?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: We're going for a run. I'm just kidding. How would
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: you feel like? I was like, let's just get up
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  Speaker 2: and run. Do you know I used to run and
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  Speaker 2: it's not for me. No, I understand. It's like you're
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: gotta keep yourself entertained for a long time. Wasn't even that.
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  Speaker 2: It just ruined my body. It was so like my
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: knees always hurt. I ended up with like stress fractures
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: in my shins. I was just not made. My body's
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: not made for Annie. He's not a runner. I wish
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I could say, Beck, I have a pilates body, but
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: like I have a body that's meant to do pilates,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and I don't I look like I have a pilates body.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I wish it was the ladder.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think you're plenty pilates, thank you, But no,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: we are doing something a little bit different. That's almost
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: as bad as running. You are back in the hot
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: seat by very popular demand. Hey, well, everyone loves it.
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  Speaker 2: You love it. I love it because you're all sadistic.
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  Speaker 2: That's why.
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  Speaker 3: So last time we got the juicy details of your
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  Speaker 3: money's story, you did, yes, But today we're digging into
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: the actual strategy, the good stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Not that do I have strategy? I think your mind
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  Speaker 2: strategy is fly by the siege of my pants. Hey
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: that might work.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Actually, so far, so good. Yeah, that's fantastic. So we
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: all need to know how did Victoria Devine get herself
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: out of debt?
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  Speaker 2: Oh that's a good question. Actually that's a very and
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you know what, it's really hard, like it was really hard. Yeah, Well,
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  Speaker 2: I mean just answering that question straight out or have
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: you got a list of questions?
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  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, do have a longest questions. I can see some
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: hope in your eye, like that's the only question. Are
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: you ready as ready as I'll ever be?
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  Speaker 2: Great?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, we talked about this in Great Tetail last time,
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  Speaker 3: but just in case anyone needs a refresh to kick
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: things off, can you paint a quick picture of what
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: life looked like when you realize your debt had to
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: be dealt with and what were your very first steps?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so let me go back a little bit further
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  Speaker 2: and tell you how I got into debt really quickly, quickly,
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  Speaker 2: And then also I guess why I got into debt
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: because I think that people are always like, well why
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: like and people who haven't been in debt are often
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: very much like, well, why did you do that? That's
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: so silly, And at the time you just don't know
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  Speaker 2: what you don't know. No, So I was working in consulting.
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  Speaker 2: I had finished two degrees, so I'd done my undergrad
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  Speaker 2: in psychological science and then I had just finished my
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: postgrad in organizational psychology, and I had what I thought
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: was my big dog, like my big dog consulting job.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: And I remember my contract. I think it was like
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: for fifty five thousand dollars plus super and at the
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: time that was the most amount of money that I'd
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: ever earned. Like prior to that, I was just working
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: part time and I was like, I would say I
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: was pretty good, Like my work ethic has always been.
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  Speaker 2: I would say fantastic, Like I'm the type of person
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  Speaker 2: that's like not like if I've got some spare time,
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  Speaker 2: I would just do it. So I was working like
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: retail jobs, I was working hospitality jobs. There was a
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: time where I was like a swim teacher. In between
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: that I was like doing some tutoring of some other
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: people at UNI, Like there was just like lots of
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: bits and bobs floating around. But even though I had
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: all of those jobs, I think people who go to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: UNI can probably resonate with that. You feel like you
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: work like a dog day and day out, like you
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: go to UNI and then like straight after UNI, I
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: would like go to my like hospitality job that night
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  Speaker 2: and work until midnight or one am, and then you
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: look at your tax return and I'd be like, oh,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I've worked my butt off, and then like, I remember
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: one year. I think it was like the year before
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: I got this big dog job, my like taxable income
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: was like thirty two thousand dollars, yes, yes, And like
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  Speaker 2: in my head, I was like, but all I did
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: was work, I like, and I mean that's minimum wage
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  Speaker 2: for you, right, Like that's exactly how it works. Anyway.
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  Speaker 2: So I get this big dog job and I start
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: to feel like I really want to fit in, and
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: like this is just upon reflection at the time, you're
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: not thinking, oh I really want to fit in, Like
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: that's just not it. And I remember I got this
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Virgin Money credit card, and to me, that's kind of
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know why I'm telling you it's Virgin money.
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  Speaker 2: I think I'm telling you it's a Virgin Money credit
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: card because it didn't feel as real as like a
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: NAB or a combank or a Westpac credit card because.
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  Speaker 3: It wasn't a real bank, do you know what I mean,
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  Speaker 3: but also kind of like gives some validity to it.
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  Speaker 3: It's like if you had a bloody I don't know,
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  Speaker 3: what's that one that's like a latitude.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like a latitude. It was like, yeah, virgin money.
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  Speaker 2: It was a proper credit card. Yeah, And I remember
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: the interest rate on it was probably like twenty two
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  Speaker 2: percent because I was just like, well, I'll never pay
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: that obviously, like yeah, so that doesn't matter, and it
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  Speaker 2: had I think, just this is just me reflecting. I
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: could be completely wrong, but I think I had like
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  Speaker 2: a forty five day interest free period. In how most
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: credit cards have a month. This was like a little
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: bit longer. And I'm like, well, that's helpful. And I
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  Speaker 2: remember the first credit card I got was like five
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  Speaker 2: hundred dollars, and that felt like a lot of money
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: at the time, because like, I don't think I often
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: had five hundred dollars in my savings account, like you know,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: it comes, it goes. I would pay rent and then
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  Speaker 2: it had drop back down. So I got this five
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  Speaker 2: hundred dollar credit card, and very quickly they sent me
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: an email or like a letter. After that, I can't
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: remember how, but I remember it going up to one thousand,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: and I remember thinking four figures like that, like it
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  Speaker 2: starts slow and it starts small, right, and I'd maxed
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: that out just buying things to fit in. I suppose
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: like I'd bought a new suit from Saba and I
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: had bought like a couple of pieces from Scanlan Theodore
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  Speaker 2: and then bam, like the credit card was maxed out.
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  Speaker 2: Like we're not talking, oh V, like you were using
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  Speaker 2: it for costs like the living costs or anything like that.
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  Speaker 2: It was literally like clothes that I otherwise couldn't afford.
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  Speaker 2: In in my head, I was like, if I put
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  Speaker 2: it on the credit card, I can just pay it
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  Speaker 2: off and then I get nicer pieces, like in my head,
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  Speaker 2: I was their investment pieces for work, like this will
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  Speaker 2: be good. And yet things started to like snowball from there.
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  Speaker 2: The debt didn't feel too bad. I was paying the
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  Speaker 2: minimum repayments. It was probably like fifty two dollars. I
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  Speaker 2: feel like in my head it was like fifty two
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  Speaker 2: dollars a month, and I was like, that's fine. I
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  Speaker 2: hadn't done the maths on what that actually meant for
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  Speaker 2: me over the long term. Spoiler. I was basically never
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  Speaker 2: going to pay that credit card off. That's all I
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  Speaker 2: was paying, right of course, And so it starts snowballing.
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  Speaker 2: And then I'm in this big dog job. And I
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: say big dog job because at the time I felt
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  Speaker 2: very cool. And I think March the next year rolls
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  Speaker 2: around and I must have been before that. Actually I
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: find out that I got into a Master's of Business Administration.
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  Speaker 2: So I get into my MBA like this is so cool,
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  Speaker 2: Like this is the coolest thing ever. And like I
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  Speaker 2: start doing that and I'm studying and I'm working at
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  Speaker 2: the same time, and it's so hard. And at this
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  Speaker 2: time I didn't have any other debt. I'm just like
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  Speaker 2: paying off this credit card and I reckon. It would
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: have been about mid year, like I got offered to
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: travel to a place called Glennorb in the south of
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  Speaker 2: France to study. I was able to go and do
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  Speaker 2: two units. Ye kind of not in exchange, but like
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: a I don't know, you go overseason, you study for
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  Speaker 2: a little bit. And it was over that Christmas period,
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  Speaker 2: like it was like a Christmas like semester where it
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: was going to be two full time units. I was
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: over there for about three months, and I knew that
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I could take that period of time off work, like
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  Speaker 2: I would negotiate whatever I couldn't afford to do that
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: beck like my university did, I think subsidize the education component,
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  Speaker 2: Like I could put the actual course fees on my
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: hex because it was like an exchange thing with r
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: MIT and the university over there. And that was fine.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: But I still had flights, I still had accommodation. And
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  Speaker 2: then I remember my car blew up and I used
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: to drive this old Toyota Avalon and whenever I turned right,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: because it had been converted to LPG for some reason,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: something in the car would cut the LPG and the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: car would literally stop if you turned right to her.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Oh I see, yeah, it was really cool. And so
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  Speaker 2: you'd be like getting onto the freeway or something and
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: your car would cut out, and I remember just being
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  Speaker 2: like this is so unsafe, and like I'd taken it
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: to a heap of people and they're like, oh, you'll
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: have to replace the whole LPG thing, and I'm like, no,
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  Speaker 2: absolutely not, like that's so expensive. So I kept putting
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: up with this car and my Dad I remember, was
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: like Victoria, like you need to get something safer, like
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: we have to get something safer, and so I was like,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: oh okay, like I can't really, Like I had no savings,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: I had no income that would support a new car
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: and an overseas trip, and I thought, why don't I
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: just get a loan, like I can just get a
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: personal loan, Like I was already looking like I think
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: that the car thing was there thing that started my
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: thought patent on the loan situation, because I was like,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: I'll get a car loan and I'll get a better car.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: And I bought a secondhand car. I bought a little
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: two door Mercedes. She was very cute. Beck I haven't
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: been able to get rid of her yet, I still
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: have her.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Oh cute.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I do have another car because I have
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: to be an adult and drive my child around in
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: a car that is relatively safe. But my little two
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: doors still lives down at my parents' house, and I
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: just I probably need to sell it, but like I
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: just have an emotional connection to her. Anyway, I decide
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: that I'm going to get a car loan, and then
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: what's wrong with just putting a little bit more onto
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: that car loan, making it a personal loan so that
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I can go do this thing in France. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: And I remember the car was I think fourteen thousand
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: dollars and then to study and you know, organize flights
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: accommodation three months in Europe, and obviously I wanted to
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: have a good time too, Like I ended up going
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: to the snow over there, like dude, I was like
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: skiing in living shops, like I spent some time in Paris,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: I spent some time with friends in London, like very cool.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: All of that meant that I got a forty thousand
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: dollar personal line. Sure. Sure, And at the time that
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: didn't feel scary. That actually felt like I remember signing
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: the contract and being like this is so freeing. I'm
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: getting exactly what I want. Yeah, And like in my head,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars that wasn't my annual income, so it's
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: not that bad, right, right.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: And I guess like you're kind of thinking, oh, I'll
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: never like I will get there eventually, but if you're
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: giving it to me all right now, and then I
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: can just like kind of.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: I can pay it off, pay it off. How hard
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: would that be? Yeah? I totally understand how that would
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: have that's not and that hard. No, And like I
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: remember then and like, this is actually really funny because
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I have since I since joined a class action and
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I actually got all of the money that I paid
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: on that loan, that loan's insurance back, really because ages
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: going NAB. Like I remember my loan with NAB and
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I went down to the bank and it was so easy,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Like we're talking twenty eleven, twenty twelve. Maybe I got
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: this loan and I just remember walking in and then
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: being like, oh, have you got payslops And I was
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: like yeah, and like I had them on my phone
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: and I emailed them to them and then they're like, oh,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: sign all of these things. Yeah, we'll call you tomorrow.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: And then the next day I had a personal loan.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: That's crazy. It's so easy. And I was like, oh, maybe,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: like I remember thinking of the time, maybe I should
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: have gotten more. I know, I know, like maybe I
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: should have gotten more because like that freedom felt good
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: and like that's not freedom, that's delusion. Just to be
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: very clear, anyway, got this loan and lived my best life,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: went overseas. When you get a personal loan, it's not
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: like a line of credit. They actually put all of
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: that cash into my bank account. So I paid for
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: that car and then I had, well, I would say,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: a very healthy fund to go overseas with. Yeah, And
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: I made a lot of financial decisions while I was
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: overseas that were definitely aligned to not my income, because
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: I'd be like, well, I've got heaps of money in
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: my account, why don't we go to Heston Blumenthal's like restaurant,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Why don't we go to these expensive places? Or why
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: don't I buy And I remember, you guys have probably
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: seen it online because like I do wear a lot
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: of clothes that I have had for years and years
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: and years, and there's these beautiful I think it's beautiful
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Ted Baker dress that I have right, and it's just
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: like it's red, and it's a meaty dress and it's
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: quite high cart and it's got this beautiful orchid pattern
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: on it. I love it. I bought that in London
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: for an exorbitant amount of money at the time, but
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: I was like, have heaps of cash in my account,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: so like does it matter?
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it didn't matter, No, And even just the whole
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: experience and stuff like that, it's like, you know, I
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: don't encourage anyone to get into dead.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: No, this is terrible. I'm just I feel like I
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: need to talk about how I got there, because so
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: many people would be like, oh, how did you get
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: out of it? And getting out of debt is very hard,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: but I think also coming to terms with the idea
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: that I remember all of that. Right, I come home
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and I had a little bit of savings, so even
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: when I got home, the pain wasn't like the pain
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: of being in debt wasn't there because I could still
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: make the monthly repayments really easily, and they were eight
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty three I think dollars per month, and
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: that was easy because like there was still that cash
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: in my account from the actual loan. So I was like, not,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: there was no pain right totally. That dried up really quickly. Yeah,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, you're back home. All
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: you've got in your pocket or experiences, and I had
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: a really nice dress. I had started to live paycheck
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: to paycheck again. And when you're on a fifty five
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars salary, eight hundred and fifty three dollars a
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: month means you don't have any extra money. That's like,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: like I remember my rent was about the same, and
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: like I had good rent because I took the smallest
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: bedroom in this sharehouse. I lived with my best friend
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: and her brother, and I had the tiniest little bedroom
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: back and I had eight hundred and fifty three dollars
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I think of debt repayment, and my rent was like
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: eight fifty yep, And that's wild between that food, like
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: there was not much to spare, no, Like there was
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: just nothing, and like by the time you pay for
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: petrol and your train tickets every day and you know,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: the odd coffee at work, Like I just didn't have
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: any extra and I just remember how suffocating that felt. Yeah,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Like I started to go, oh my goodness, like what
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: am I going to do about this debt thing? But
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: I bury my head in the sand. Yeah, I didn't
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: tell anybody i'd taken that loan out because like I
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: kind of like, at the same time as not caring
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: about it, I also knew that there was some level
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: of shame involved in it. Yeah, like anyone around upon
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: you don't really know why. Yeah, Like I didn't want
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: to tell people I had it, and at that point
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: my financial literacy was not very good. Like, keep in mind,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: I wasn't working in finance. She's on the money didn't
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: exist at this point, and yeah, like I just buried
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: my head in the sand for a very long time
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: about it paid the minimum repayments. So I remember looking
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: into getting it refinanced, so because I was like, if I,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: you know, lower the monthly repayments, maybe life will be
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: a bit more comfortable. But I actually couldn't get it
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: refinanced because like, no one would refinance a personal debt.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Why would you refinance a personal debt. Ye, it's not
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: like I had. Oh and I still had that credit
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: card that was outstanding.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: At that point, I remember going, oh, wait, hold on,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: And I think because I'd had a taste of, quote
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: the good life. Yeah, I'd had cash to dispose of,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: like i'd you know, done this stuff in London. I'd
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: been to Paris and I had all of this cash,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: and you know, when I got home, it wasn't that bad.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I was going out for brunches with my friends. I
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: was shouting them like it was fine. But all of
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: that was on the debt, Like that was the personal
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: loan money. Yeah, and then all of a sudden, it
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: just got really tight. Yeah, and then that feels suffocating,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: That feels really hard, and I just I I didn't
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: tell anyone. My parents didn't know my like literally my
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: family and friends didn't know, and they'd be like, oh
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: we should. I remember like at the time, it was
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: like the cool thing to do, and probably still is
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: a cool thing to do, right. Bali trips for New Years. Yeah,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Like my girlfriends were like, let's go to Bali for
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: New Years. I don't remember thinking like I would love to,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: but I can't afford that, Like I don't have any cash,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Like I couldn't afford and at the time, like return
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: flights to Bali were like eight hundred bucks. Oh my god.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: I remember thinking like, that's my debt repayment. Yes I do,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: like I quote have the money, but it has to
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: be allocated to something else, like because that was direct
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: debited out of my account. So it didn't feel like
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I even had a choice, you know. So I just
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: felt like I wasn't going to get anywhere. And then
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: I started to go, well, maybe this is my life.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: And I kept looking around at the people at work
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: and being like wow, were they doing it? Like are
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: they just earning more. Do I need a pay rise?
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Like's what's going on? I know. And I mean I
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: still had that idea that I wanted to go out
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: for brunch and I wanted to steal. And it's not
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: the coffee. The coffee's not going to ever get you
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: out of debt. But like I wanted to have that
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: lifestyle of where I was still out and about but
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: like them to live life. Yeah, because the reality of
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: getting out of debt is hard. You do have to restrict,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: you do have to pull back. I just wasn't ready
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: to do that.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: No, Okay, so I'm picturing little you. You're paying so
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: much money every month. What were like the first things
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: you did to get yourself.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Out of it? Continue to bury my head in the
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: sand if I set and I did that literally for years.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Like we're not saying, oh, I buried my head in
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: the sand for a few months and then I just
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: got my stuff together and got out of debt. I
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: feel like that's a sunshine and rose, this story and
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: that comes out of our community all the time. And
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: I think that I wish I had the resource that
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: was she's on the money at the time to go hey,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: like doesn't mean you're a bad person because I felt
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: like a bad person. Yeah, I probably did that for
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: three years back, couldn't sleep properly, was really stressed about it. Like,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: you know, I would be able to scrape together a
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: few things to do, like trips here and there, like,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: but not anything stupidly extravagant. It wasn't until I started
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: to realize that everybody around me was able to live
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: their lives and I wasn't. I got to pay rise.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: I remember I went for and get this fifty five
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: thousand to sixty thousand dollars and like that feels big,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Like yeah, and I'm not being condescending when I say that,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: I promise, Like at the time, I was like, oh
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: my god, like I'm sixty grand plus SuperH Like to me,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: that was such a big deal. And I remember going, oh,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna have so much more cash to pay back
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: this debt, and like that was the point in time
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: where I thought, do you know what, I can probably
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: do something about this, and you shouldn't wait, And I
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: wish I didn't, but I didn't know. Beck, you shouldn't
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: have to wait until you have more income to be
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: able to pay off a debt or prioritize debt reduction
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: because there are so many strategies you can implement. But like,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: I just didn't know what I didn't know. So I
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: worked out how much per month I was getting additional
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: and I started paying that off my debt and acted
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: like I was still on the same salary. So that
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: was working really well. And then you know, my income
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: started to increase, and I started to get excited watching
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: the numbers come down, because when you start to pay
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: a little bit more than the bare minimum, you actually
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: do start to see movement, even if it's like fifty
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: dollars a month, you do actually start to see movement.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: And that, to me was really motivating. I was like, oh,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: hold on, Like instead of the monthly repayment and then
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: you get like this. I remember getting the letters in
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: the mail and like it would be this graph of
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: how long it would take me to get out of debt,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: and a like a never changed. I was like, oh,
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: hold on, like it's starting to change, Like this is
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: really Excitingly amount of years have like started to come down.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh, okay, hold on, Like what if I
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: you know, what if I got a job at a
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: cafe or something, and I'm like theorizing other ideas. Anyway,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: at the same time, I was like, I can't do
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: this on my own, and I decided to see financial
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: advice because in my head, I was like, if I
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: go see a financial advisor, like they'll tell me what
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: to do. What's decision of my life. I think I've
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: told you before. This guy was so condescending, so rude,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Like he got out this like whiteboard and started talking
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: me through, like, oh, what are your debts? What's this?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: And I told you about my credit card that I
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: still hadn't paid off, and I told him about my
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: personal loan and he was like, oh, yeah, like you're
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: never going to be able to like really invest and
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: like at the same time, and this is silly again,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: I had savings set to the side, so over this time,
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I instead of adding absolutely everything to my debt, like
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: I got this pay rise and I added that to
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: my debt, but like on the side, I was like
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: putting fifty dollars here in there into savings. And I
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: remember thinking, oh, I've got some money and I could
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: like make some investing decisions with this, and he was
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: literally like, girl, you can't afford to invest if you've
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: got this debt. And I remember being really disheartened by that. Yeah,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: so I was like, what do you mean I've got
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: all these savings, What do you mean I can't invest? Yes,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: I can. I want to get rich, I want to
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: get wealthy. I've started doing my research. I've started looking
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: at YouTube videos on superannuation, like I get this, and girl,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: I'm so sorry. If you have debt and you also
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: have savings, you actually don't have savings. Yes, you're just
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: putting off your debt. But like I again didn't know
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: what I didn't know, and like, I guess that's what
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: kick started me onto this pathway of understanding finance and
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: then working out how cool that was. And you know,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I started watching YouTube videos and that was basically the
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: only financial literacy at that time that was available. They
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: weren't finance podcasts to listen to. There weren't Instagram accounts
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: of people like you know, getting out of debt that
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: you could follow just stay motivated. Like that just wasn't
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: a thing. And so yeah, I decided to do that. Anyway,
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I won't bore you with the whole story because I
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: feel like I've spoken about it before, but one thing
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: led to another, and I decided I did have a
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: passion for financial literacy. Yes, I was benefiting from it
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: because I was getting out of debt myself. But I
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: was like, oh, this is so powerful, Like if my
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: friends knew about this, or if my friends knew about
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: contributing extra to super or I remember thinking about my
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: best friend who I lived with. I'm like, she's not
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: that I was aware of. She's not in any debt. Like,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: imagine how much she could save, well, she could invest
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: because she doesn't have to do what I do, but
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: she doesn't have to pay off her debt.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Like that's crazy, Like imagine you were putting eight hundred
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: a month away for Oh, my goods.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: I don't even want to talk about what I could
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: have died and myself at that point. So yeah, that's
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: I guess what kicks started it. And it was like, honestly,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: it was me getting a pay rise and realizing that, oh,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: actually contributing more to your debt does start to have
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: an impact, even though it was like I think, like
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: fifty bucks a week or something. Okay, So what advice would.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: You give to someone trying to choose the right repayment
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: strategy for the situation. What motivates you For me, I
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: just liked seeing it come down. And I mean when
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: you're picking like the snowball or the avalanche method, often
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: they're really aligned to having multiple small debts and you pick.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: You know, with the snowball method, you pick the smallest
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: debt and try and pay that off as quickly as
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: possible so that then you have less total debts. And
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: with the avalanche method, you're picking the debt that has
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: the highest interest and paying that off aggressively and then
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: moving down from there. And there are financial benefits for both,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: and there are also like motivational benefits for both, right,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: because like, if you're feeling good about paying off your debt,
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: I actually don't care if it costs you a bit
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: more interest in long term, as long as you're prioritizing it,
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: because like, look at what I did for more than
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: three years back, I did not pay more than the
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: minimum repayment. In fact, I wasn't even looking at the
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: total debt. I can't remember ever looking at any statements
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: or logging into the online account.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to know what the total was. And
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: if during that period of time you said how much
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: debt were you in? In my head, all I had
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: was that forty thousand dollars, Like, I didn't know how
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: much had been paid off. I didn't know what that
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: eight hundred and fifty three dollars a month was doing,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: because like I was just kind of scared to look,
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: but also embarrassed to look, and like, you know what,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: it's like you just don't want to, like you don't
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: want to look. I know. So I think for me,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: the best advice I have is not picking a strategy,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: but picking yourself up and going, do you know what,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: debt doesn't make me a bad person. I don't think
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: anybody would look at me now and go o V
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: when you're in debt, you're a terrible person, or beck
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: when you were in debt, awful person. I was still me.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: I was judging myself harder. I was being so harsh
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: on myself. I was not kind in the way that
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: I spoke to myself, like sorry, I deserved so much
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: more than that. Yeah, and do you know what, by
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: looking at my debt, I would have been able to go, oh,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I could get out of this. I could have gotten
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: out of it so much easier. Like I literally didn't
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: get out of that debt until after I met my husband. Yeah,
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: and I remember that was so embarrassing to me, Like
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: you know when people are like, oh, do you ask
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: about finances on the first aid? Absolutely not. If he
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: had asked, honest to god, I would have lied to him. Yeah,
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: he'd been like, oh, do you have any personal debt?
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: I'd be like, no, you're an idiot, But that's a
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: sexy question. But neither of us asked because it turns
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: out we were both in personal debt where we met
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: each other. That's so comforting for some reason, you know,
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: do you know what I remember Like we were together
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: for a while and it didn't ever come up. And
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: then we moved in together and we had separate finances
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: and that was fine, and we'd both like you know,
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: agreed on what rent we could pay. And at that time,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I'd started earning a bit more money, so like there
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: was a little bit more to like wiggle around with.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: And we got this little apartment together and it was
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: all sunshine and roses. And then I think I was
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: him that brought up, oh yeah, and I have this
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: debt repayment. I remember being like, sorry, what, like right me?
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Judging him calling the kettle black. I remember being like, wait,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: you've got personal debt and then asking about it and
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: like he had like probably I don't know, like a
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: ten thousand dollar personal loan or something for something along
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: the way, and like, I don't I don't think anybody
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: ever goes into debt, being like, do you know what
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: I really want debt? Yeah, Like it's always out of
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: necessity or need. And I remember being like, oh, good,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: he's also got this debt and that made me feel
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: comfortable to tell him that I had it. And then
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: we spoke about, well, if we ever want to buy
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: property together, or have kids together, or do this stuff together,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: we're going to have to get rid of that. And
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: so we both kind of knuckled down on our own
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: debts and like we were paying all of that out
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: because I think at that stage we realized we do
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: really love each other. We've just moved in together, this
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: is all sunshine and roses, and we would love to
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: start saving for a house, but we can't start saving
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: for a house until we get rid of these debts.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: So we were doing that, but delusional me, I still
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: kind of had that little savings account to the side.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: With a little bit of cash in it, and again,
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: don't do that. You can have an emergency fund, that's fine.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: But I remember being like, oh, that's so that's for
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: the future. I should have just put it on my debt.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: But sure. Anyway, hindsight is twenty twenty, and yeah, it
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: wasn't until then that I really really wanted to knuckle down,
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: because if I'm being honest, I didn't have the motivation
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: to pay it off because I didn't have any carrot
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: that was worth paying it off for until I realized, oh,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: I actually want to build a life with someone, and
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: debt's not going to get me there. Debt's not going
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: to help me. We can't get a home loan, We can't,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: you know, say for our deposit. We can't do any
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: of these things until I get my shit together. Yeah,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: for sure, I.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Think that is so relatable. Sometimes you just thrown up
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: the motivation until there's something that you really want.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: You can see when it was just about me, but
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: then it's about somebody else. I don't know, I get it.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that you should wait for that. In fact,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: I wish that I had entered that relationship, you know,
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: completely debt free and super financially empowered and all of
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: like I wish all of that for baby me, but
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: you know it didn't work out so badly totally and
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: you see to find your carrot. Let's go to a
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: really quick break and when we get back, I want
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: to get into what be actually cut from a budget,
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: whether she hustled for extra cash, and the mindset shift
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: that changed everything. Alrighty guys, we are back, and I
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: want to get straight into the juicy stuff, so via,
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: I want to know what your budget looked like, what
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: did you slash and what were your non negotiables that
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: you kept A long story short, I think after I
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: got that credit card and was splashing on like this Scanlan,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: theat All pieces and that suit from Saba, I kind
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: of got scared of it. And I wasn't really spending big,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: but because I didn't have a massive salary, most of
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: my income was going to debt reduction. So like quote,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: slashing things from my budget wasn't really helping. I wish
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I could be like, oh, yep, I slashed this and this.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: I remember sitting down with Steve, my now husband, and
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: we were like okay, cool, Like where can we save
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: some money so that we can both pay off our
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: debts a bit better. And at the time, I think
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: in that first, you know, two years of our relationship,
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: we were eating out a lot, Like you know, when
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: we were cooking dinner together, we weren't necessarily cooking budget meals.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: He was always like calling me before he got home
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: from work and we'd be like, oh, what we want
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: for dinner? And I'd be like, oh, I don't know,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: like salmon or something from the supermarket, and like salmon
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: on this is so niche, but like that would be
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: one of our go to meals. Yeah, before we started
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: planning to get out of debt. Salmon's like at least
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: ten dollars fourteen dollars at the moment per packet for
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: two pieces of fish, and then he'd get sides, and
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: we'd always get broccolini, and that all of a sudden
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: becomes a thirty plus dollar dinner yea, even though you're
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: just quote swinging past the supermarket. So it was things
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: like that where we were like, oh, we probably should
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: be more planned with our meals. We probably should be
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: better at you know, meal planning and meal prepping and whatnot.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: So I think once we both got the clarity that
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: hold on, we both actually have personal debts. We probably
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: should be prioritizing this. It was much easier to cut
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: out brunches on the weekends. We'd eat at home and
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: go for a walk and grab a coffee and like,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: it sounds so silly because I tell you guys to
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: do that, but that's because that's what worked for me.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Would and we still, even though we are very financially
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: secure now to this day, do this. We're always like, oh,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: do you want to have a piece of toast, and
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: then we'll go for a coffee walk with our son Harvey.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: Like we always say that we'll go for a coffee
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: walk because historically, when we were getting out of debt,
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: the coffee walk was like our treat and our in
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: between of not going to brunch anymore. Yeah, so we
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: would sometimes jump in the car, drive to the Tan,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: grab a coffee, and then do the walk around the Tan,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: and that was like our mid morning activity on the weekend.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Or like now we live in our like the area
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: that we live in, we just like, you know, go
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: for a walk around that area. But yeah, like the
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: whole idea of a coffee walk for us really originated
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: from not going out for brunch, not going out for lunch,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: trying to save on the weekends, but also being people
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: that love dining out, being people who love a cafe coffee,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: being people who still want to feel like we're not
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: restricting ourselves. So that really worked for us. Would it
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: work for you? Who knows? But I think thinking about
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: what are you gonna place that with was really helpful
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: for us. So swap don't stop? They say, yeah, and
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: I think, not going, Oh well, we can't go out anymore.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: What are we going to do? Sit on the couch
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: and twitterle our thumbs. Like, I'm not saying don't spend money,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: but can you swap it for a cheaper activity? Can
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: you work out what you could do? Like, you know,
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying that the cheap Tuesday movie night tickets
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: are gonna save you heaps of money, but if going
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: out is a really big priority to you and having
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: a date night once a month is really important, how
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: can you make that as cost effective as possible? And
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: we started thinking like that. And when you start to
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: think that way, it kind of becomes like a game,
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: It kind of becomes fun. I totally get it. Yeah,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: like the steak night at the Spread Eagle Hotel became.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: It was back when we were getting out of debt.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: It was much cheaper. I think it was like eighteen
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: dollars and it was like steak a drink, so you
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: could have like a beer or a wine or a
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: soft drink or whatever. It was steak insides and like
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: it was a really nice night out. And I remember
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: it was like a date night that we could go
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: on maybe once a month, we'd go out for a
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: fancy dinner and it was less than fifty dollars for
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: the both yes, right, yeah, And so I wouldn't say
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: gammify it, but it was kind of like a game
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: where you were like, okay, well, how could we go
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: out have a really good night and we kind of
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: still felt like we were winning. Yeah, I think that's
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: really cute.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: And I guess if you are already you can't cut
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: anything from the budgets. It's like, well do I just
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: stop eating? Like I literally am on End's meat here.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: I've just there's so many fun things you could do
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: with your own Like you have a deb mash and
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: a bloody sausage and you just write it down on
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: an a for paper and pretend it's a menu and.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: You can just like make some fun out of it,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: you know, dude. And like, I think a lot of
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: that still because we were doing that together, that stuff
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: still sticks with us, like it's become part of what
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: we just default to now. And I like, I find
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: that some people in our community have said, oh, you're
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: not relatable anymore, Victoria, And it's because I'm not in
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the financial situation that people can relate to. But like,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: I'm still the same person. I still love cheap steak die,
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: I still love going for my coffee walks. I still
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: find brunches that cost more than forty dollars absolutely exorbitant.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Just because I have more money does not mean that
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: I'm a different person. It doesn't mean I've lost my
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: way or lost my ability to understand the cost of
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: living crisis. Like I see it, I feel it. It's
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: why I'm so wildly passionate about continuing to create the
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: content that we create, because nobody deserves to be in
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: the position that I was in and feeling as guilty
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: and bad about themselves as I did. Like, it's why
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: She's on the money, was born and continues to be there.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: So I just I look at it and I go, oh,
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: I don't think you guys realize that. Yes, I drive
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: a really fancy car now, but do you know how
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: much I appreciate that because of where I've come from.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: I think that when you have been in debt, when
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: you have lived below your means, and once you get
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: out of that, and once you learn you can actually
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: keep yourself out of that, you don't want to go back. Yeah, Like,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: once you taste financial freedom and once you realize what
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: that gives you, and once you realize that financial freedom
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean being rich, it means having choices and being
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: able to make a decision, you go, wow, this is
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: really cool. This is what I want for me, And
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: I'm willing to sacrifice a lot, because Becky, if I
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: lost absolutely everything tomorrow, you best believe I'd be back
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: in a cafe working behind the bar. I would absolutely
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: hustle my way back up to make sure that I
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: had my emergency fund, to make sure that I had
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: the ability to put food on the table and be
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: able to make choices totally.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: Now, this leads me to my next question, because I
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: know that we're having talking about like cutting things from
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: the budget, But did you boost your income while paying
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: off your debt like a side hustle, extra work things
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: like that.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I wish I had the capacity to do, so. I
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: thought about it a lot of times. I remember going
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: to a job interview for a cafe because I was like, Oh,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: what if I like just worked on a Saturday or
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: a Sunday. And I remember, like Sunday rates were really attractive.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, what if I did that? But honestly,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: during that period of my life, I was working full time.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: I was trying to start She's on the money and
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: I didn't at the time think that she's on the
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: money was like a side hustle.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: To me.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: It felt like more of a I want to say,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: community service. But I was not doing it because I
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: thought i'd make money. I didn't think I would make money. Sure,
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: I didn't think it would become a podcast. I was
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: doing that, but I was also studying full time, I
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: was doing my MBA, so like that was a lot
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: to take on and I just simply didn't have the capacity.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: That's so fair. I wish i'd known more about like
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: air Tasker. I wish I'd known more about all of
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: these kind of like husty apps where I didn't have
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: to commit to every single Saturday, like I wish that
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: i'd had. I don't know, like maybe I was a
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: casual at a cafe and they text me occasionally said, oh,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: do you want a Saturday shift this week? I would
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: have loved that, because, like you know, some weeks you've
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: got the capacity, some weeks you don't. Or I wish
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: I'd been able to jump on air tasker and like
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: take up tutoring or something, but I didn't know that
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: was an option. I don't even think it was an
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: option then. But like I wish I had more flexible
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: side hustle options because I know I would have taken
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: them if I could have. I just didn't know they existed. No,
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: I totally get it. Well, we're almost done by the
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: way I went, almost out of time. I am so sorry. No, no, no,
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: I want to Yeah, this was my this is my
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: warning to you, but just so you know, almost off
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: the hook. I have two more questions for you.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Okay, So this one is, you've seen so many people
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: get out of debt and turn their money stories around.
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: Is there one habit or change made that you constantly
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: see in those who are successful.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, consistency, Yes, that's so lame, right, Like I wish
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: it could be like, oh my goodness, it's this one
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: sparkly thing. But getting out of debt isn't sexy. Getting
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: into debt can be. And I think that's why you
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: want getting out of debt to be equally fun, right,
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: because like getting into debt, no word of lie had
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: a great time. Oh my god, not gonna lie, not
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: gonna lie. Like sorry, I walked Like, let's just frame this.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: I walked into a bank deck. I gave the minimum paperwork,
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: they gave me forty thousand dollars. I got to spend
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: it based on free will. Yeah, and I sure did.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: But do you know what I mean? Like getting into
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: debt is fun, getting out of debt is the hardslog.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: That is not what you paid, Like, that's not what
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: you signed up for. I don't think anyone goes, oh,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize that. We just don't think these decisions
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: through properly. I think if I was talking to somebody
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: about like what one change or habit, I think it's
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: it's a bit of a mindset shift. So it's realizing
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: that you're not a shitty person because you're in debt.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: That is not a reflection of your self worth. And
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: for so long I genuinely saw my self worth as
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: being deeply tied to the fact that I was in debt.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: I felt shameful about that. I felt like that should
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: be a hidden part of me. I mean I literally
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: didn't even tell my boyfriend that I had debt until
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: after i'd moved in with him. Would I ever recommend
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: that to someone in my community. Absolutely not.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: There.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: I was absolutely relieved when I found out he was
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: also in debt, at the same time as being like,
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: what the hell, what do you mean you're also in debt?
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Like now we both have to get out of this anyway.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: So I think when it comes to mindset shift, really
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: understanding that it's not tied to your self worth. But
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: then also it's about consistency, and we're not saying it
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: has to be the same amount of debt repayment each
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: and every single month. If you mess up one month
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: or you make a decision one month, that means that
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: there's less great. All I care about is that next
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: month you go, yeah, I'm prioritizing it again, I'm stepping
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: back up. I've spoken before on the podcast about this
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: concept of grit. There is this fantastic book by Angela Duckworth,
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: and we can put the link in the show notes.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: For you guys, it's not about debt reduction, but it's
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: about what creates successful people. And it is not your intelligence.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: It's not who you know, it's not even what you know.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: It's actually about how many times you get pushed over
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: and you're willing to get back up. Like the most
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: successful people in the world, whether they are entrepreneurs or
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: they are just average people like you and me, they
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: are the ones that just go that didn't work, or
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: I'll get up and try again. Oh that didn't work.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: That doesn't mean I'm a shitty person. I'm aa just
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: try again. Like, and I don't know about you back,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: but I have so much respect for my friends who
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: do that, who are like, oh, it didn't work, but
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: I'll just give it another crack. Yeah, absolutely, you know
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: when you're just like I asked a friend the other
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: day she had an interview, and I said, how'd that
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: job interview go? She goes, I didn't get it, but like,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: there'll be another one. I was like, oh my god,
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Like I remember going to job interviews, and if I
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: didn't get it, i'd see that as a like personal
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: reflection of me not being worthwhile. I know that's not
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: the truth at all. And she was just like, yeah, yeah,
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: they must have just been somebody that fit the role better. Yeah,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: Like she was able to separate it and just be like, oh,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: get up and just do something else. Absolutely, what an icon.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: But like that, I would say, is the defining factor
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: of what I see our community doing and what I
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: see our community learning. They seem to be going, Oh, actually,
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: my self worth isn't tied to debt. I can keep trying,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: and I can keep plugging away at this and maybe
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: one month you have an extra two hundred bucks and
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: you throw it at your debt. But that's not wasted
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: like we see it as consistency. Yes, So for me,
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: I would say, it's just slow and steady wins the race. Okay.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: I like that, and I do want to acknowledge that
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: some people do have aspects of their identity that make
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: it a little.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: Bit harder to get by in life.
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: But just you know, we're all gonna just keep doing
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: what we're doing, and if it takes you a little
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: bit longer, it's a little bit harder.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: That's something that we just acknowledge. And then I never
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: met one person who I would say was an inherently
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: good person who would judge someone based on being in debt. No,
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: totally judge someone based on them being in debt. You're
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: kind of a shitty person. So I actually I just
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: don't have a lot. It's it's a weird thing to
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: judge someone for and like some of the best people
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: in my entire life, like you, right, thank you, You've
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: been in debt? Is that but like, does that change
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: the situation?
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: No?
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Does that make you a worse off human being?
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: No?
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: I would say you're better than most people that I
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: come across. It's so sweet, but like you've got a
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: better moral compass. You know, I see what you're saying.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: All the type of person I want to surround myself
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: with as opposed to do you know what I mean.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: It's just I know you're saying. I know you're saying,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: they're so sweetet you, thank you. People don't give themselves
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: enough credit for that. Yeah, it builds a lot of uh,
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: you know, multi layered personalities. So I know I really
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: like it.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: So how do you feel about debt now. And this
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: is the last question, by the way, how do you
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: feel about debt now? And what is your approach to
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: credit and loans. I'm so angry about debt. I just
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: I still hold so much anger about it.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: I think because I remember my journey and I just
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: don't want anybody else to have to go through that,
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: the shame, feeling awful about it, feeling like you're not
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: getting anywhere, feeling like you're missing out on life. Like
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: I remember just thinking there was a very big period
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: of my life where I was like, well, I'll never
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: be to afford property, Like that's just not a reality
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: for me. That's fine, And I remember like framing it
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: as though that didn't matter, and you don't have to
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: have property, you don't need to need that. But I
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: remember trying to justify it to myself because like, in
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: my head, the reason I would never have property was
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: because I was bad with money, right, And it was
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: because I would never be able to save a deposit,
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: and it's because I would always have personal debt. And
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: in my head, this was just gonna spiral for my
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: entire life. So I don't like debt. I also would
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: like to acknowledge that for some people, debt is such
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: necessary evil, Like it is a necessary part of getting
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: through We're in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: Do you think I am so naive to think that
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: the single mum who is earning fifty grand a year
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: and has three kids that she needs to get through
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: school is not going to go into debt to do
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: that because she's got some deadbeat dad on the side. Like,
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: we are doing the best that we can, and if
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: you are in debt or you're about to go into debt,
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: I think it's just more about understanding that sometimes it
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: can be a tool, sometimes it is a necessary evil,
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: but we're just all doing the best that we can.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: So I think my approach to credit and loans is,
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: if you don't have to have them, don't get them.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: I never needed it. You've heard my story. At no
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: point did I say, beck I needed it to put
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: food on the table. Beck I needed debt to pay
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: my rent and put a roof over my head. Beck
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: I needed it for my medical costs. Those are completely
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: different situations. Mine was all vanity. Mine was I'm going
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: overseas and I'm traveling, and I bought a car I
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: did not need any of that. I should never have
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: gotten into debt. But if my story was, oh, medical costs,
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: or I was in hospital for a long time and
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: I ended up with a whole heap of debt because
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: I had to pay for my rent otherwise I was
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: going to lose my house, that's a different story and
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: that needs to be treated differently as well. So, no,
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: I don't like debt, and my approach is to avoid
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: it at all costs. But I also am very aware
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: that there are a lot of people in our community
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: that use debt and need debt to get by, and
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: I see it as my job to educate you on
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: how to use it as responsibly as possible and how
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: to get out of it when you need to take
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: those steps, Like when you're ready, I'm here. I've got
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: all the tools and I've got all the resources, and
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: I will be your best friend. I'll be your biggest cheerleader.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: But I'm never going to judge you for getting into debt.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: That is so beautiful and so empowering, and I think
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: that's a perfect place to leave this if you feel yeah,
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: because I would love to stop talking about it. So fair.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: Okay, so you're officially off the hook. Thank you so
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: much for letting Usteep dive into how you became debt free.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: I'm always willing to overshare when it comes to hopefully
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: benefiting our community. Yeah, thank you. And just to reiterate
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: everything that I've been saying, if you're in debt right now,
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: please know that it literally does not make you a
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: bad person. It does not mean that you are bad
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: with money, it doesn't mean you've failed, and it definitely
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: does not mean that you can't turn things around.
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: We hope this chat gave you the tools, the courage,
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: or even just the permission to start tackling your own
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  Speaker 3: debt without the shame. And of course, if you love
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: this episode, please share it with someone who might need it,
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: leave us a review, or slide into the comments and
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: tell us what you want.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: To hear more of. Bye guys, Bye guys.
• 46:17
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• 46:20
  Speaker 4: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
• 46:24
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• 46:27
  Speaker 4: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
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  Speaker 2: Advice tailored towards your needs.
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