Latest / She's On The Money / Protecting Your Assets in a Relationship

Transcript

Protecting Your Assets in a Relationship · She's On The Money

0:00
Speaker 1: Just before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge and
0:03
Speaker 1: pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and torrest Rate islander peoples.
0:07
Speaker 1: They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and
0:10
Speaker 1: the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing
0:13
Speaker 1: and for caring for the land on which we are
0:16
Speaker 1: able to learn. We pay respects to elders past and present,
0:19
Speaker 1: and we share our friendship and our kindness.
0:22
Speaker 2: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
0:45
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
0:48
Speaker 3: for millennials who want financial freedom. In twenty twenty, almost
0:52
Speaker 3: seventy nine thousand marriages were registered in Australia and over
0:55
Speaker 3: forty nine thousand divorces were granted. While we've dedicated an
0:59
Speaker 3: episode in the past to safeguarding our finances in the
1:01
Speaker 3: event of a divorce, one of the topics we yet
1:04
Speaker 3: to have properly untangled is that of de facto relationships.
1:07
Speaker 3: What happens if I split with my partner who lives
1:10
Speaker 3: with me in the house that I own, How will
1:12
Speaker 3: my super be impacted should we split, and most importantly,
1:15
Speaker 3: how can I make sure my finances are protected? My
1:19
Speaker 3: name is Georgia King, and joining me to help answer
1:22
Speaker 3: these questions and plenty more is financial advisor Victoria Divine.
1:27
Speaker 4: The Today we're.
1:28
Speaker 3: Talking about the financial implications of de facto relationships. Why
1:33
Speaker 3: do you think we need to be talking more openly
1:35
Speaker 3: about this topic in a financial.
1:37
Speaker 4: Context, because at the end of the day, ge de
1:39
Speaker 4: facto actually here in Australia nowadays has exactly the same
1:43
Speaker 4: rights that a married couple would have, but literally the name.
1:48
Speaker 4: So I think it's really really important to have this
1:50
Speaker 4: conversation because unfortunately you could be accidentally de facto, Like
1:55
Speaker 4: that would be a really good podcast series, like accidentally
1:58
Speaker 4: de facto and it's talking about all these boys who
2:00
Speaker 4: were like not wanting to come in, but then you're
2:02
Speaker 4: living with them for like three years and you're like
2:05
Speaker 4: hashtag accidentally de facto.
2:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love the accident to facto. What I don't
2:10
Speaker 3: know that we tried, you tried, thank you.
2:12
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, if you're legally married,
2:14
Speaker 4: or you're in a registered relationship, which is where you've
2:17
Speaker 4: literally gone and registered the relationship with the Registry of Birth,
2:21
Speaker 4: Deaths and Marriages, which did you know you could do that?
2:24
Speaker 4: Bit you didn't know you could do that. Absolutely not No,
2:26
Speaker 4: you can register your relationship, but you could actually just
2:30
Speaker 4: be accidentally de facto and living with a partner and
2:33
Speaker 4: you just didn't know that that's how you were categorized
2:36
Speaker 4: until you break up and you realize, oh my gosh,
2:38
Speaker 4: I was de facto and I have these rights or
2:40
Speaker 4: vice versa. They come for you for something you oh,
2:43
Speaker 4: and you're like, no, we were never de facto, but
2:45
Speaker 4: legally you were. So it can be a little bit scary,
2:48
Speaker 4: and being in a de facto relationship actually just means
2:51
Speaker 4: that you're in a relationship that is legally binding. That's
2:54
Speaker 4: a scary word when you make it that serious. Hey,
2:57
Speaker 4: I would say so, so g A de facto relationship
2:59
Speaker 4: is also legally binding in the event of a breakup,
3:03
Speaker 4: which is why we're talking about it today. And this
3:05
Speaker 4: means that you essentially have legal entitlements and rights if
3:08
Speaker 4: your relationship ends. So we are here surprised to talk
3:12
Speaker 4: to you today about what that means, how that works,
3:14
Speaker 4: owning assets, getting rid of assets, getting rid of a
3:17
Speaker 4: partner if you don't want them, and how to protect
3:19
Speaker 4: yourself because from my perspective, that is the most important
3:22
Speaker 4: thing you can do for yourself financially.
3:24
Speaker 3: Is de facto in quotetion marks the same in each state?
3:28
Speaker 3: Or do we have different definitions all over the shop?
3:31
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, but the family law that actually governs de
3:34
Speaker 4: facto relationships are slightly different in WA. So I do
3:37
Speaker 4: apologize for all my friends over there. As always, you
3:40
Speaker 4: guys know that everything we say on this podcast is
3:43
Speaker 4: general advice, and if you're in this sticky situation, you
3:45
Speaker 4: need to get advice. But essentially the biggest difference is
3:49
Speaker 4: around superannuation and being able to split that up. And
3:52
Speaker 4: in every state and territory except for WA, you are
3:56
Speaker 4: able to request half your partner super whereas in WA
4:00
Speaker 4: it's actually protected. So say you were married for like
4:03
Speaker 4: thirty years and then you go, you know what, we're
4:05
Speaker 4: going our separate ways. But you were a homemaker for
4:08
Speaker 4: that entire period of time and your partner was like,
4:11
Speaker 4: I don't know, fi fo and making bank and you know,
4:14
Speaker 4: has this epic superbalance that is more than enough to
4:17
Speaker 4: set you both up for life and for retirement. You're
4:20
Speaker 4: actually not entitled to that, wild right?
4:22
Speaker 2: Hang on?
4:22
Speaker 3: Hang on? Was that WA or every other state?
4:24
Speaker 4: WA?
4:25
Speaker 3: Oh?
4:26
Speaker 4: Just Western Australia interesting, so every other state is up
4:30
Speaker 4: to date on it except for Western Australia.
4:32
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a case for that because some people
4:34
Speaker 3: would be like, my super yeah, it's mine, etc.
4:37
Speaker 4: Et cetera. But if you really want to get into
4:39
Speaker 4: the conversation about sacrifice, relationships are not all about financial contributions.
4:44
Speaker 4: It's about sacrifice and it's about equity exactly. Financial equity
4:48
Speaker 4: and equity isn't just financial. And we did an entire
4:50
Speaker 4: podcast on this because I am wildly passionate about making
4:54
Speaker 4: sure that women in particular know their rights and also
4:58
Speaker 4: know what they're giving up. And this is why I'm
5:00
Speaker 4: so passionate about talking to you partner about well, are
5:03
Speaker 4: you going to contribute to my super while I'm or
5:04
Speaker 4: mattlee Because at the moment, matt leave doesn't include superannuation,
5:09
Speaker 4: So you're taking a step back so your family can
5:11
Speaker 4: take a step forward, but you're taking a step back financially.
5:15
Speaker 4: When shouldn't that be a burden that both parties in
5:18
Speaker 4: the relationship carry.
5:20
Speaker 3: So before we get into the thick of things, let's
5:23
Speaker 3: start by defining what de facto means, what types of
5:26
Speaker 3: de facto relationships exist? Fd in case you're accidentally de
5:30
Speaker 3: facto g correct monto. So, a de facto relationship is
5:33
Speaker 3: when two people who are probably in love but they
5:36
Speaker 3: don't have to be, but they're not married. They live
5:39
Speaker 3: together or they live together as a couple on a
5:41
Speaker 3: genuine domestic basis. As the definition is quite broad, and
5:46
Speaker 3: when there is actually a dispute over property, assets or
5:48
Speaker 3: partner support, it goes to court. The court is actually
5:51
Speaker 3: going to look at a few things, and I think
5:53
Speaker 3: that's worthy of bringing up right here. So they'll look
5:56
Speaker 3: at one of three things. Firstly, that the couple was
5:59
Speaker 3: in a de fact relationship for at least two years
6:03
Speaker 3: or gee a child was born during their de facto relationship.
6:07
Speaker 3: They will also look at the couple having lived at
6:10
Speaker 3: least a third of their de facto relationship together in
6:13
Speaker 3: Australia other than in Western Australia. Again, they have a
6:17
Speaker 3: few different rules and regulations, and the couple separated after
6:22
Speaker 3: the first of March two thousand and nine. Okay, new rules,
6:25
Speaker 3: weird flex but okay, family Court. So just to be
6:29
Speaker 3: really clear here, we're not talking housemates. There has to
6:32
Speaker 3: be some kind of romantic entanglements commitments, Yes.
6:35
Speaker 4: And usually that's a sexual relationship. So there's a few
6:38
Speaker 4: things that they'll consider. They'll consider how long the relationship lasted,
6:42
Speaker 4: if you two lived together, and for how long you know.
6:44
Speaker 4: They might look at it and be like, mate, you
6:46
Speaker 4: had separate bedrooms, you didn't have sex, you had separate
6:49
Speaker 4: you know, lease agreements, etcetera, etcetera. You were basically housemates,
6:53
Speaker 4: So you're not going to fall into this trap with
6:55
Speaker 4: your housemate. Don't get too scared. They will look at
6:58
Speaker 4: whether you were financially depend on each other and any
7:01
Speaker 4: other types of arrangements you might have had between the
7:03
Speaker 4: two of you for financial support. They might look at
7:06
Speaker 4: property and see how it was owned and also how
7:08
Speaker 4: it was used and how you came to own it.
7:11
Speaker 4: So they might go, all right, well, G that came
7:13
Speaker 4: from an inheritance, or G. You owned that way before
7:16
Speaker 4: meeting them, or G. That person let you save while
7:20
Speaker 4: you lived together by them paying more rents so you
7:22
Speaker 4: could save for a property. So there are lots of
7:24
Speaker 4: different factors in the property ownership side of things. They
7:27
Speaker 4: will look at whether you had quote a commitment to
7:30
Speaker 4: a shared life together. They'll look at how you cared
7:32
Speaker 4: and supported for any children that you had, and they'll
7:35
Speaker 4: also look at how other people saw your relationship. It's
7:38
Speaker 4: spasif how do they do that? So they actually might
7:41
Speaker 4: audit your social media. They can go through they can
7:44
Speaker 4: get photos of you together. In situations I've seen where
7:47
Speaker 4: people are applying for like residency here in Australia, I
7:50
Speaker 4: know they've been asked to prove their relationships because it's
7:53
Speaker 4: actually not uncommon for people to apply as like oh
7:56
Speaker 4: i'm her waf yeah ha ha haa, please let me
7:59
Speaker 4: into the country, like prove it. So they might ask
8:02
Speaker 4: for pages and pages and pages of WhatsApp messages, or
8:04
Speaker 4: they might ask for photos of you together or anniversary photos,
8:08
Speaker 4: and most legitimate relationships gee have some kind of photographic
8:13
Speaker 4: or paper trail, like there's stuff you've done together. It
8:16
Speaker 4: might have been a webjet dot com don a you
8:19
Speaker 4: booking where you both just flying to Tazzi together, but
8:22
Speaker 4: that was like a trip you did together as a couple,
8:24
Speaker 4: So it could be small. But they might actually go, hey,
8:27
Speaker 4: how'd your friends and family see that? Can we interview them?
8:30
Speaker 4: Because that happens, so we have skipped straight to the
8:33
Speaker 4: messy breakup here. But so being like hey, Georgia King,
8:37
Speaker 4: could you please come in and tell us how you
8:40
Speaker 4: saw Victoria and Steven's relationship. I would have glowing things
8:43
Speaker 4: to say, thank you, but you would tell them that
8:46
Speaker 4: we were in fact in a relationship, right or well.
8:49
Speaker 1: I don't know what you would say.
8:51
Speaker 3: Maybe you'd be like, but I was in the relationship. Hello,
8:54
Speaker 3: it's me exactly what I wanted to talk about here.
8:57
Speaker 3: V is something we talk about all the time that
8:58
Speaker 3: she's on the money. And that's how integral it is
9:02
Speaker 3: to have open and honest conversations with our partner. Absolutely,
9:05
Speaker 3: especially if we are in this de facto situation, this accidental,
9:08
Speaker 3: de facto situation, de facto exactly.
9:10
Speaker 4: I'm bringing it. I'm getting on board with it. I'm
9:13
Speaker 4: not mad.
9:13
Speaker 3: So tell me more about why it's so important in
9:15
Speaker 3: this context.
9:16
Speaker 4: It's so important because you could be compromised at the
9:19
Speaker 4: end of the day. We need to be very clear
9:21
Speaker 4: about who owns what and when and where. And I
9:24
Speaker 4: know that it's not a conversation you want to have,
9:26
Speaker 4: like no one wants to fall deeply in love and
9:28
Speaker 4: then have things questioned like no one expects to, you know,
9:32
Speaker 4: spend arguably, what's the average I think it's thirty six
9:35
Speaker 4: thousand dollars here in Australia is the average cost of
9:38
Speaker 4: a wedding. You don't spend that amount of money going
9:41
Speaker 4: you know what, I'm going to get married to g King,
9:43
Speaker 4: spend my thirty six grand and DIVORCEO three years later.
9:46
Speaker 4: That is never the intention. So that's the thing that
9:48
Speaker 4: makes people feel a bit icky when they want to go,
9:51
Speaker 4: oh hey gee, so you know if we broke up,
9:53
Speaker 4: what would this mean? Like that should always be a
9:56
Speaker 4: conversation that you have. And I know it probably sounds
9:59
Speaker 4: like a bit too much, but it should be exactly
10:03
Speaker 4: how we approach conversations, regardless of whether it's financial or not.
10:07
Speaker 4: If you're making a big life decision, I think that
10:09
Speaker 4: we should be having open honess conversations with your partner.
10:12
Speaker 4: And I probably take this a step too far because
10:15
Speaker 4: when I got my cat, I was like, hey, cool,
10:18
Speaker 4: so see this cat that's mine if we break up
10:20
Speaker 4: and se was like, oh, okay, you can have any
10:23
Speaker 4: I'm not going anywhere, and I was like, great, no problems.
10:25
Speaker 4: Same thing happened with the dog. I was like, I'm
10:27
Speaker 4: going to get this dog and if things don't work
10:30
Speaker 4: out between the two of us. I'm just letting you
10:32
Speaker 4: know that that is something that is mine. Let's agree
10:35
Speaker 4: to it now. I'm sure he'd argue with me now
10:37
Speaker 4: because it's very easy to say no, that's absolutely fine
10:40
Speaker 4: Victoria before he was in love with the puppy. But
10:43
Speaker 4: I think it's so important to have these conversations. And
10:46
Speaker 4: it's not to say that we can't revisit that conversation
10:48
Speaker 4: and renegotiate those terms, but we need to be having
10:51
Speaker 4: those conversations about everything financial because if you're coming to
10:55
Speaker 4: the relationship with the house, or you're coming to the
10:57
Speaker 4: relationship with I don't know, gee, you're a little snap.
11:00
Speaker 4: What if you got in this brand new relationship and
11:03
Speaker 4: the partner that you got was just not good at
11:05
Speaker 4: saving and your plan was to purchase a home. Is
11:08
Speaker 4: that then their home or is that your home? Have
11:11
Speaker 4: you had that conversation? And if not, I would be
11:14
Speaker 4: having that conversation because it's really unfair for them to
11:17
Speaker 4: then assume all I thought we were doing it together,
11:19
Speaker 4: and in court that's what they'll say. Yeah, they'll go, oh,
11:22
Speaker 4: but like G and I were in such a loving relationship,
11:25
Speaker 4: and you know, we never talked about it because everything
11:27
Speaker 4: we did we did together because we were so in love.
11:30
Speaker 4: So we bought this house together because to them, you
11:33
Speaker 4: brought the money to the table, but they were so
11:35
Speaker 4: invested on that journey. And I think you really need
11:37
Speaker 4: to draw the line, regardless of how icky that can feel,
11:42
Speaker 4: because it can actually be really liberating. And I think
11:44
Speaker 4: that a lot of people are viewing this from the
11:46
Speaker 4: lens of oh yeah, that's so yuck, like I don't
11:49
Speaker 4: want to have this conversation to my partner. But nobody
11:52
Speaker 4: ever gets in a relationship with the intention of breaking up.
11:56
Speaker 4: Nobody ever gets in a relationship with the intention of
11:58
Speaker 4: losing an asset they worked their life for. No one
12:01
Speaker 4: intends to, you know, have these really bad outcome But
12:04
Speaker 4: do you know what's really empowering knowing every single day
12:07
Speaker 4: what I owe, what I earn, what I spend, and
12:10
Speaker 4: what I own, and knowing that the relationship I'm in
12:14
Speaker 4: I'm choosing to be in not I'm so confused financially
12:17
Speaker 4: about what would happen if, oh well, if I ask
12:19
Speaker 4: Steve for a breakup, like what would he take? What
12:22
Speaker 4: would I take? Like I always know where I'm standing,
12:24
Speaker 4: and I always know exactly what I can take from
12:27
Speaker 4: that relationship, and I think everybody else should too.
12:30
Speaker 3: In terms of cementing this though, be because I'm sure
12:33
Speaker 3: people would have conversations in the early days of their relationship.
12:36
Speaker 3: You've said, you shotgun Henry. I should the worst happen.
12:39
Speaker 4: You can have the house, you can have the car.
12:41
Speaker 4: I just want the pets.
12:42
Speaker 3: Do you have that in writing, though, because surely Steve
12:44
Speaker 3: could dispute that if it wasn't written down no evidence.
12:47
Speaker 4: He could absolutely dispute that. I'm more referencing that because
12:51
Speaker 4: I'm like, it's important to have these conversations so that
12:53
Speaker 4: you're always on the same page. But we did an
12:55
Speaker 4: episode on binding financial agreements not that long ago, and
12:59
Speaker 4: if you're interested in having that conversation, definitely do it.
13:02
Speaker 4: T LDR. I do have a binding financial agreement with
13:06
Speaker 4: my partner because it was really important to me, Like,
13:08
Speaker 4: I can't just talk the talk, I've got to walk
13:10
Speaker 4: the walk.
13:11
Speaker 3: One hundred Okay, very interesting. I'm gonna put a little
13:15
Speaker 3: little peg in the chat, a peg in the check
13:17
Speaker 3: peg it right here, and then I BUMI the other
13:20
Speaker 3: side of the break. We will be getting into the
13:22
Speaker 3: nitty gritty of different kinds of scenarios, So please don't
13:24
Speaker 3: go anywhere, guys already, let's dive into a few situations
13:33
Speaker 3: here about how my relationship is going to affect or
13:36
Speaker 3: be affected in certain situations. Genius, let's start with some
13:40
Speaker 3: role play again. Well, maybe I don't know how things
13:42
Speaker 3: will go. See that's a good part of relationships. Moving on, Saucy,
13:46
Speaker 3: let's start with Centerlink.
13:48
Speaker 4: Gee, I can't stop laughing. But if you are a
13:50
Speaker 4: member of a couple, then it can actually affect what
13:53
Speaker 4: payments you get and your payment rate, which is why
13:55
Speaker 4: during university you probably had a lot of conversations about
13:58
Speaker 4: people being like Central Link think, so I'm single, and
14:01
Speaker 4: I say that because I feel like every second friend
14:04
Speaker 4: I had at Uni was single and living with their
14:08
Speaker 4: housemate and sharing a quote room because it made the
14:12
Speaker 4: most financial sense to them. And I guess that's usually
14:15
Speaker 4: our very first experience of what de facto looks like
14:18
Speaker 4: and how it impacts us, and how that can actually
14:21
Speaker 4: drag us down in a way, because if we are
14:24
Speaker 4: de facto, our joint income is taken into consideration, and
14:27
Speaker 4: sometimes that means that you don't get access to benefits
14:31
Speaker 4: when really you should be getting access to benefits because
14:34
Speaker 4: the de facto your relationship you're in is maybe new,
14:37
Speaker 4: or maybe you're just both really young and you don't
14:39
Speaker 4: want to be financially dependent on one another because situations
14:43
Speaker 4: are so different. I'm absolutely not advocating for lying to sendslink.
14:47
Speaker 4: I don't think anyone should do it, but it would
14:50
Speaker 4: be a miss of me to not recognize that a
14:52
Speaker 4: lot of people do, I guess quote gameless system because
14:55
Speaker 4: it makes sense for them. Definitely not saying we should
14:58
Speaker 4: do that. Moving on from that, Centilling generally consider you
15:01
Speaker 4: a couple if you are one of the following quote
15:04
Speaker 4: you have a partner, are married, in a registered relationship,
15:08
Speaker 4: or you are de facto. You don't even necessarily need
15:11
Speaker 4: to be living together for Sentilling to actually consider you
15:13
Speaker 4: a couple, which sucks. But you might need to let
15:16
Speaker 4: sentlingk know of your relationship status to make sure everything
15:19
Speaker 4: is hunky dory. So I won't go over it too
15:22
Speaker 4: much G But many of the way Sentilling considers whether
15:24
Speaker 4: you're in a de facto relationship or not is exactly
15:27
Speaker 4: the same way that the family courts would do that,
15:29
Speaker 4: and we describe that in the first half of the episode.
15:32
Speaker 4: But there are a few different rules. So first different
15:35
Speaker 4: rule is if you are twenty one or younger and
15:38
Speaker 4: getting the ABS, Study Living Allowance or youth allowance as
15:41
Speaker 4: a student, or you are getting the Australian Apprentice Payment,
15:45
Speaker 4: or you are twenty one and younger and getting youth
15:47
Speaker 4: allowance as a job seeker, or you are twenty one
15:50
Speaker 4: and getting a disability support pension, so all of those
15:53
Speaker 4: things are treated a little bit differently, but important to
15:56
Speaker 4: understand that it really does affect your payments, which, as
15:59
Speaker 4: I said before, can be a little bit of a
16:01
Speaker 4: kick in the guts if you're at UNI and you're
16:02
Speaker 4: studying and you just really need the cash to get by.
16:05
Speaker 3: Interesting, you said that even if you're not living together,
16:08
Speaker 3: it can impact your finances.
16:10
Speaker 4: As well well. Absolutely, because remember how we said if
16:12
Speaker 4: you're financially dependent on one another, or your inter sexual relationship,
16:16
Speaker 4: or you're romantically involved, like you don't necessarily have to
16:19
Speaker 4: live with a person to think that they're your one
16:21
Speaker 4: and only do you.
16:23
Speaker 3: Let's move on to assets here, V say you and
16:27
Speaker 3: I get married, I should be social lucky.
16:29
Speaker 4: I should be so lucky. Half a move over.
16:33
Speaker 3: What would you say the difference is between a pre
16:36
Speaker 3: marital asset and a combined asset. I feel like they're
16:40
Speaker 3: a little bit straightforward. Pre marital, pre marriage, pre relationship.
16:46
Speaker 3: So pre marital assets are properties or assets that were
16:49
Speaker 3: bought by a party before they got into the marriage
16:52
Speaker 3: or before they got into a de facto relationship. The
16:55
Speaker 3: asset might be in the form of real estate or
16:57
Speaker 3: shares or bank deposits or any type of financial assets.
17:00
Speaker 4: And then combined assets are classified as property owned by
17:04
Speaker 4: you and your partner, So that doesn't necessarily mean that
17:08
Speaker 4: a pre marital asset can't become a joint asset. Depending
17:11
Speaker 4: on the conversations or the situation that you're in, that
17:14
Speaker 4: either means that you own something directly with your partner
17:18
Speaker 4: or you come to acquire something while in that relationship
17:21
Speaker 4: in your individual name, which then goes into what's known
17:25
Speaker 4: as a g Are you ready for this a matrimonial asset? Pool? Well,
17:29
Speaker 4: fun fun pool, fun pool, let's go swimming. But these
17:34
Speaker 4: can include things like the family home you buy, any
17:36
Speaker 4: other real estate you might buy, cash, cars, other vehicles, investments,
17:39
Speaker 4: and super entitlements. But not in Western Australia, and these
17:43
Speaker 4: things aren't limited to just the big things. They could
17:46
Speaker 4: also be household items like your fancy smag toaster. It
17:49
Speaker 4: could be jewelry, it could be a trady boyfriend's tools.
17:52
Speaker 4: It could be the value of a business that you
17:54
Speaker 4: create in a relationship, which is one of the reasons
17:57
Speaker 4: why I was a staunch advocate of a binding financial
18:01
Speaker 4: agreement before I got into a relationship being a bit
18:03
Speaker 4: personal now g because from my perspective, I was like, Wow,
18:07
Speaker 4: I think I'm, you know, onto something here. I'm obsessed
18:10
Speaker 4: with she's on the money. I don't think I'm a
18:11
Speaker 4: half bad financial advisor. I think that Zella and She's
18:14
Speaker 4: on the money. Over the next ten, twenty thirty, hopefully
18:17
Speaker 4: fifty years will continue to grow. And I'm not naive,
18:22
Speaker 4: like it's not as though I one hundred percent get
18:24
Speaker 4: all of that if Steve and I break up, because
18:26
Speaker 4: I do genuinely believe he puts a lot into our
18:29
Speaker 4: relationship to enable me to grow those things. But I
18:33
Speaker 4: want to own those things at the end of the day.
18:35
Speaker 4: I don't want him to be my business partner. I
18:37
Speaker 4: don't want half the shares to go straight to Steve
18:39
Speaker 4: and I end up being in business with my ex husband,
18:43
Speaker 4: Like that would suck. But we really needed to define that.
18:46
Speaker 4: So it could be everything, and don't forget debt either,
18:49
Speaker 4: g because it could be anything. It could be a
18:52
Speaker 4: personal loan that you two get together to go on
18:53
Speaker 4: a fancy holiday that you both will like super Pump
18:56
Speaker 4: to go on. Or it could be that one party
18:58
Speaker 4: in the relationship has a gambling in day and didn't
19:00
Speaker 4: tell anyone and got a personal loan and it all
19:02
Speaker 4: just racked up from there and they've got a couple
19:04
Speaker 4: of credit cards that you didn't know about. Could be
19:06
Speaker 4: a shopping addiction. It could be literally anything, but if
19:09
Speaker 4: it was made during the relationship, it's very likely to
19:13
Speaker 4: be seen as a joint debt, which sucks and gets
19:16
Speaker 4: me really on my high horse when we're talking about
19:18
Speaker 4: abusive relationships, because as we've seen on Money Diaries, historically
19:23
Speaker 4: there have been a number of women, and I'm sure
19:25
Speaker 4: it happens to men as well, but on the She's
19:27
Speaker 4: on the Money podcast, we've only ever had conversations with
19:29
Speaker 4: women about this, But women who have been left with
19:32
Speaker 4: massive debts because of their partners and have had to
19:35
Speaker 4: pay it off because they were in the relationship, and
19:38
Speaker 4: that sucks, and I think that there should be more
19:40
Speaker 4: rules and regulations around that, because it is honestly absolute junk.
19:45
Speaker 4: But I think it's really important to talk about because
19:48
Speaker 4: if you created something in your relationship that's not a
19:51
Speaker 4: pre marital asset, just because G did it well she
19:53
Speaker 4: was married to V doesn't mean that V didn't again
19:57
Speaker 4: put any equity into that asset.
19:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, Well on that note, then let's talk about
20:02
Speaker 3: how we can protect ourselves and our assets in these situations.
20:05
Speaker 4: We have good conversations. Oh, this is a really hard
20:08
Speaker 4: one to say because again making this quite personal, because
20:11
Speaker 4: the easiest way to describe things is for me to go, hey,
20:14
Speaker 4: here's the situation, and the situation I know best happens
20:17
Speaker 4: to be my own. But relationships sometimes pop up out
20:20
Speaker 4: of nowhere. I totally get that Steve and I met
20:23
Speaker 4: and then I think we decided that that was it
20:26
Speaker 4: two weeks after we met, like, and that's very nice
20:28
Speaker 4: and very exciting, But that doesn't leave a lot of
20:31
Speaker 4: wiggle room to have those big conversations. So they came
20:34
Speaker 4: laid down the track, and thankfully I was in a
20:36
Speaker 4: relationship with someone who's really supportive and really understanding. But
20:40
Speaker 4: I think we need to be quite wary of relationships.
20:42
Speaker 4: I don't want to scare people. I don't want people
20:44
Speaker 4: to be like, oh, biggie, you're right. I never getting
20:47
Speaker 4: back on the dating apps. I promise you can find
20:49
Speaker 4: someone good on there. Found Steve on there, so you
20:52
Speaker 4: know that's one person who's had a very solid experience.
20:55
Speaker 4: But having conversations early and having chats with your accountant
21:00
Speaker 4: or people who are in your sphere of I guess
21:03
Speaker 4: influence to make sure that they know what's up. Like
21:06
Speaker 4: if you're buying a house and you know, as we
21:09
Speaker 4: use that example before, G wants to buy a house,
21:11
Speaker 4: but she gets into a relationship, start talking about that early.
21:15
Speaker 4: Don't go on the house hunting journey with your partner
21:18
Speaker 4: and go, oh my god, what about this one babe,
21:19
Speaker 4: brah rah, get them so invested to then turn around
21:22
Speaker 4: and be like, oh, you know, this isn't going to
21:24
Speaker 4: be your house, right Like, I'm the one with all
21:27
Speaker 4: the money, so obviously that's not going to be yours.
21:29
Speaker 4: I think you need to make sure that there are
21:31
Speaker 4: really clear boundaries from the beginning. Okay, Hey, I'm g
21:35
Speaker 4: I'm going to be buying a house, partner, are you
21:37
Speaker 4: okay with that? Understanding their financial situation and the journey
21:41
Speaker 4: there on, and making sure that they're complimentary to one another,
21:45
Speaker 4: because you might desperately want to own a home, but
21:47
Speaker 4: your partner might go, please wait for me, and then
21:50
Speaker 4: you make a decision together to wait for them to
21:53
Speaker 4: save their part of the deposit, or they might go, oh,
21:56
Speaker 4: I don't mind, go buy your own house. That's totally okay.
21:58
Speaker 4: Document it. I think people really underestimate the I guess
22:03
Speaker 4: value in just documenting things as well. I sound so
22:06
Speaker 4: creepy like I'm trying to keep receipts on people, But
22:09
Speaker 4: a paper trail, a pay per trail, is really important.
22:12
Speaker 4: And regardless of whether you have a binding financial agreement
22:16
Speaker 4: or not, you can rely on past communications. So if
22:20
Speaker 4: you have been in a situation where you've had that conversation,
22:23
Speaker 4: you can just shoot them a quick email and be like, hey,
22:25
Speaker 4: just wrapping our conversation. I'm going to be buying a house.
22:28
Speaker 4: It's going to be in my name. You aren't going
22:31
Speaker 4: to be financially responsible for the mortgage. That means you're
22:34
Speaker 4: not going to be financially able to take half of
22:37
Speaker 4: it if we should ever break up. And I know
22:39
Speaker 4: that that's not very sexy. What I promise being protected
22:42
Speaker 4: is you need to be thinking with your head, not
22:45
Speaker 4: your heart right and they're conflicting. They don't want the
22:47
Speaker 4: same things. They don't know, they don't they never have.
22:51
Speaker 4: So let's move on from that.
22:52
Speaker 3: All right, they let's talk homelands. I have two scenarios
22:55
Speaker 3: for you. The first, you and I are in a relationship.
22:58
Speaker 3: I'm really pushing this.
23:00
Speaker 4: And I'm picking up or you are pushing down.
23:03
Speaker 3: We're applying for a loan together, yes, and we're going
23:06
Speaker 3: to be co contributing to the mortgage.
23:08
Speaker 4: Very nice.
23:09
Speaker 3: How does our relationship impact that scenario?
23:12
Speaker 4: Okay, so hot take from me is that both of
23:16
Speaker 4: our financial circumstances are going to be taken into consideration.
23:19
Speaker 4: In that circumstance, that could be my shopping addiction that
23:24
Speaker 4: I have and I spend a lot on shoes, and
23:25
Speaker 4: that could stop you, who's really good at budgeting and
23:28
Speaker 4: cash flow, from being able to access as much money
23:31
Speaker 4: as you might want, or even being able to get
23:32
Speaker 4: a loan in the first place. So you really need
23:35
Speaker 4: to make sure if you're going to get a loan
23:37
Speaker 4: with your partner, you're not just you know, on the
23:39
Speaker 4: same page, about the outcome. But you need to be
23:41
Speaker 4: on the same page about your journey. And I always
23:44
Speaker 4: recommend to my clients to start that journey six months
23:47
Speaker 4: before you're purchasing. And I say that because that puts
23:51
Speaker 4: you in the prime position to get your budgeting and
23:54
Speaker 4: cash flow sorted out. Have a few tricky conversations, maybe
23:57
Speaker 4: improve a credit score, get rid of I now pay
24:00
Speaker 4: laters that you might want to get rid of. It
24:03
Speaker 4: enables you to pay down some credit cards if you've
24:05
Speaker 4: got them, and get on the right page. It also
24:08
Speaker 4: enables you to put yourself in a position where you
24:10
Speaker 4: are paying into a savings account exactly what you think
24:14
Speaker 4: that mortgage or a payment might be, each and every
24:16
Speaker 4: single month, so you can start getting into the motions
24:19
Speaker 4: of quote paying the mortgage. Because too many times do
24:23
Speaker 4: I see people in our community biting off more than
24:26
Speaker 4: they can chew. Because if you go to a broker,
24:29
Speaker 4: they're going to go, all right, GMV, we're so excited
24:31
Speaker 4: to buy your first marital home, and this is how
24:35
Speaker 4: much you can spend up to. And too many people
24:38
Speaker 4: take that spend up to amount as gospel and they go, oh,
24:42
Speaker 4: they said, we can borrow a million dollars. Gee, we
24:44
Speaker 4: should spend a million dollars, But that might not actually
24:48
Speaker 4: be the smartest thing for your cash flow, because what
24:51
Speaker 4: that is saying is, with your current financial situation, you
24:55
Speaker 4: have that money at your disposal so you can pay
24:58
Speaker 4: that mortgage. But what it actually might mean is you're
25:01
Speaker 4: on rice and noodles and you're not able to go
25:03
Speaker 4: on any holidays. And yes, with your current financial situation,
25:07
Speaker 4: you've been sacrificing for a really long time to get
25:09
Speaker 4: that home deposit together, which means you might not have
25:12
Speaker 4: done any of those things. You might not have eaten out,
25:14
Speaker 4: and you're kind of waiting until you get to the
25:16
Speaker 4: point where you're like, great, gee, we've got this mortgage.
25:18
Speaker 4: Now we're going to pay the minimum repayments and we're
25:21
Speaker 4: going to go and we're gonna go out for dinners
25:23
Speaker 4: and we can get back to having holidays now we've
25:25
Speaker 4: got the house. But your mortgage repayments might actually be
25:28
Speaker 4: so much that you can't do that. So you need
25:31
Speaker 4: to look at how much those mortgage repayments are going
25:33
Speaker 4: to impact your lifestyle, and a good way of doing
25:36
Speaker 4: that is six months before getting a mortgage, starting to
25:40
Speaker 4: save that amount even if that is, you know, more
25:44
Speaker 4: than what you think you'll spend. I think it gives
25:46
Speaker 4: you a really good indication of what you could or
25:49
Speaker 4: couldn't do. Does that make sense.
25:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially as a duo to kind of exactly what
25:53
Speaker 3: another is doing.
25:53
Speaker 4: It always looks really good to a bank if you go, hey, look,
25:56
Speaker 4: we've been actually saving that amount because rent isn't taken
25:59
Speaker 4: into consideration, which is a joke. But we've been saving
26:03
Speaker 4: the amount that the mortgage is going to be for
26:04
Speaker 4: the last six months, aren't we. You're responsible humans who
26:07
Speaker 4: should be given a home loan.
26:08
Speaker 3: Stunning. Let's move on to scenario two. Yes, sir, you
26:12
Speaker 3: and I are in a relationship. Noyes just think about it, but.
26:15
Speaker 4: You keep making me think about it and everybody else listening.
26:19
Speaker 3: But here's the twist. Yeah, I'm the baller.
26:22
Speaker 4: You are the baller.
26:23
Speaker 3: You're just my little girlfriend. Anyway, I'm just your little girl.
26:26
Speaker 3: Fair Well, I'm going wait to make me feel menial.
26:29
Speaker 3: I'm going to be applying for a home loan all
26:32
Speaker 3: my I don't like this power dynamic doing it all
26:34
Speaker 3: by myself, and I feel repating at all. But you
26:37
Speaker 3: might pay some rent in the future.
26:39
Speaker 4: What about what about the cleaning I do, well, what
26:42
Speaker 4: about the emotional support I give you?
26:44
Speaker 3: Talk to me about that? What happens in that situation.
26:46
Speaker 4: So that's a really hard situation because if you're in
26:49
Speaker 4: a de facto relationship, your partner's spending and your partner's
26:53
Speaker 4: income is still going to be taken into consideration. And
26:57
Speaker 4: I think it is an absolute joke. Even if you
27:00
Speaker 4: are one hundred percent financially independent, saying you are in
27:03
Speaker 4: a position where you have a partner is going to
27:06
Speaker 4: mean that the banks are going to want to know
27:08
Speaker 4: what position your partner is in, because the banks are
27:12
Speaker 4: going to assume and I know that this sounds really unfair,
27:14
Speaker 4: but there's good reason to their rhyme. What if your
27:18
Speaker 4: partner lost their job. Ge, if I went out and
27:21
Speaker 4: I got fired, you would then, hopefully, as my partner,
27:24
Speaker 4: go don't worry the I've got us. So the bank
27:27
Speaker 4: needs to take that situation into consideration. Whether I've been
27:31
Speaker 4: made redundant or lose my job, or you know, get
27:33
Speaker 4: ill or injured or something happens, that is a risk
27:36
Speaker 4: that the bank is taking into consideration. So pragmatically, I
27:40
Speaker 4: completely understand it. But I have a friend going through
27:44
Speaker 4: that exact situation at the moment, and the amount that
27:47
Speaker 4: they're able to borrow is like, I think eighty thousand
27:50
Speaker 4: dollars less than what it would be if they had
27:52
Speaker 4: applied as a single person with no de factor relation. Really, yeah,
27:56
Speaker 4: it's a joke. And I say it's a joke because
27:58
Speaker 4: they obviously think it's really unfair. I think it's really unfair,
28:01
Speaker 4: and it's putting them in a position where they can't
28:04
Speaker 4: buy what they want to buy, but they can afford it,
28:06
Speaker 4: and they're completely financially independent of their partner. But because
28:10
Speaker 4: they've lived together and they had a factor and they're
28:12
Speaker 4: doing the right thing and telling the broker that there's
28:15
Speaker 4: not much you can do. Apologize if you've already answered this.
28:18
Speaker 4: But what if I'm just thinking of a mate of mine.
28:21
Speaker 4: What if you've been with someone for three years?
28:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've lived together for two in a house that
28:26
Speaker 3: they own, yep, then you break up suddenly, Yeah, what
28:30
Speaker 3: is my friend in title too? From a financial position, so.
28:34
Speaker 4: It completely depends on the situation, how much they lent
28:37
Speaker 4: on each other financially, whether they were thinking that they
28:41
Speaker 4: were contributing to that mortgage or not, whether they were
28:45
Speaker 4: very clear from the get go, like I've got a
28:47
Speaker 4: mate who bought a property in Richmond, and she turned
28:50
Speaker 4: around and was like, all right, if you're my boyfriend
28:52
Speaker 4: and you're moving in, you're paying rent. Here's your rental agreement,
28:55
Speaker 4: and made it crystal clear that they were never contributing
28:59
Speaker 4: to them. More so in that situation, it's a little
29:03
Speaker 4: bit clearer, but as a base, if you know, the
29:06
Speaker 4: proverbial hit the fan and they ended up in family court.
29:09
Speaker 4: The family court actually starts at a fifty to fifty
29:12
Speaker 4: basis and then goes back and forth from there.
29:14
Speaker 3: Interesting.
29:15
Speaker 4: It's terrifying, right, yeah, it is.
29:18
Speaker 3: It is.
29:18
Speaker 4: It's scary, and I think that's why we should be
29:21
Speaker 4: having these open, honest conversations when we're both in our
29:24
Speaker 4: right mind. Like g we are so deeply in love
29:27
Speaker 4: with one another, which is why we should be talking
29:30
Speaker 4: today about, well, gee, what happens if you know, we
29:33
Speaker 4: break up? Because right now I am going to assume
29:36
Speaker 4: that you want the best for me and I want
29:38
Speaker 4: the best for you, So let's document that outcome, and
29:41
Speaker 4: even if we break up, I don't want to have
29:43
Speaker 4: that conversation with you when I've worked out that you've
29:45
Speaker 4: cheated on me with Jess, Like yeah, oh yeah, but
29:48
Speaker 4: let's just go back to the document that we drew
29:50
Speaker 4: up where we both wanted the best for each other
29:53
Speaker 4: and rely on that regardless of the situation that's making
29:56
Speaker 4: us really bitter at that point in time.
29:58
Speaker 3: So that could be a BFA or could be a
30:00
Speaker 3: rental agreement.
30:01
Speaker 4: Yes, and even if you don't want to go and
30:04
Speaker 4: get a BFA, which I obviously very very much endorseed.
30:07
Speaker 4: So that's a binding financial agreement, even writing it out
30:11
Speaker 4: and going all right, gee, let's just ride out our
30:14
Speaker 4: own binding financial agreement because we can't afford the lawyers,
30:17
Speaker 4: We can't afford to go and have it set up.
30:19
Speaker 4: Let's just find a template online.
30:21
Speaker 3: I do genuinely believe that that is better than nothing, Like,
30:24
Speaker 3: if you can't afford the actual document, I totally understand
30:28
Speaker 3: that it is an investment, and I hope it's an
30:31
Speaker 3: investment that doesn't pay a fitself right like, And I
30:34
Speaker 3: say that kindly because I.
30:35
Speaker 4: Don't want you to have to break up. I don't
30:37
Speaker 4: want you to have to lean on that, but it
30:38
Speaker 4: would be an investment in peace of mind. But if
30:40
Speaker 4: you can't afford that that's okay. Let's just draw up
30:44
Speaker 4: what we have and in the future we can take
30:46
Speaker 4: that to a lawyer and get that drawn up when
30:48
Speaker 4: we're more financially stable.
30:50
Speaker 3: Let's move on now, V and talk about super. Oh
30:54
Speaker 3: a sexy topic is that saying my favorite of all
30:58
Speaker 3: the tax structures.
31:00
Speaker 4: Super is my favorite.
31:01
Speaker 3: Say again, it's you and I. We split up, We're
31:05
Speaker 3: in a de factor relationship and it ends. How does
31:07
Speaker 3: super come into the fold if it's something that we
31:09
Speaker 3: can't access for another fifty years.
31:11
Speaker 4: So it can be taken into consideration when the family
31:14
Speaker 4: courts come to play. So it is not safe and
31:17
Speaker 4: locked away from your partner sadly, so after separation, supranuation
31:22
Speaker 4: is treated as property. It's essentially a property under the
31:25
Speaker 4: Family Law Act. However, as we said before, that's very
31:28
Speaker 4: different in WA. So please please please, wherever you are
31:32
Speaker 4: if you're going through this, get advice. But it is
31:35
Speaker 4: different from other types of property because that asset is
31:38
Speaker 4: being held in trust. So, as I mentioned before, superranuation
31:42
Speaker 4: is my favorite tax structure. Supranuation is not an investment,
31:47
Speaker 4: but when you put your money into that tax structure,
31:50
Speaker 4: you then therefore invest that money, and that is the
31:53
Speaker 4: asset that the family court looks at and goes, all right, well,
31:55
Speaker 4: we probably should divide it. And again, the family court
31:59
Speaker 4: usually starts with a fifty to fifty basis and then
32:02
Speaker 4: like that's back and forth from there, which I think
32:04
Speaker 4: is a fair starting point, but not everybody sees it
32:07
Speaker 4: that way. So, as I said before, g the laws
32:10
Speaker 4: to splitting supranuation applies to everybody except for our friends
32:14
Speaker 4: in way who aren't actually eligible to split supranuation, which
32:18
Speaker 4: I think is a joke. Like, honestly, can you imagine
32:22
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty two a woman not being able to access,
32:25
Speaker 4: or anybody for that matter, not being able to access
32:28
Speaker 4: the superannuation of their partner that they supported all the
32:31
Speaker 4: way through their career.
32:32
Speaker 3: Does seem like a pretty outdated, archaic way of doing it.
32:36
Speaker 4: It just seems a bit wild. And I know that
32:38
Speaker 4: a lot of people listening to this are going to
32:39
Speaker 4: be like Va, I'm in my twenties, like my maner
32:41
Speaker 4: has not much supers so like, I don't care about it.
32:44
Speaker 4: They're not the people that I'm worried about. I'm worried
32:47
Speaker 4: about the women who are currently experiencing massive amounts of
32:50
Speaker 4: disadvantage and knowing the current statistics that say the biggest
32:54
Speaker 4: growing demographic of people experiencing homelessness is women over the
32:58
Speaker 4: age of fifty five. I genuinely believe that this discrepancy
33:03
Speaker 4: and this I guess power imbalance has a lot to say.
33:06
Speaker 4: And then the fact that these women who are going
33:08
Speaker 4: through a divorce, who are experiencing homelessness are not able
33:12
Speaker 4: to access superannuation. No, no, sir, to me, that's wild.
33:16
Speaker 4: So I get it. If you're twenty and you're like,
33:18
Speaker 4: that doesn't worry me. I broke up with him, Good riddance.
33:21
Speaker 4: I don't want his super I get that, But there
33:24
Speaker 4: are a lot of people who are significantly disadvantaged by that.
33:28
Speaker 3: Let's talk now, VI about trusts. Surely they're owned by
33:32
Speaker 3: the individual and aren't going.
33:34
Speaker 4: To be oh, you know, everything is fair game. I
33:38
Speaker 4: think it's a very is outdated the right word here,
33:41
Speaker 4: I don't think it is. It's a very American view
33:44
Speaker 4: to think you can hide assets from your partner, you
33:47
Speaker 4: know how an American TV shows that like, oh my god,
33:49
Speaker 4: put it in a trust and she won't be able
33:51
Speaker 4: to access it, or like right before in American TV,
33:54
Speaker 4: right before they ask their wife for a divorce, they
33:56
Speaker 4: like hide all their shit, or the wife finds that
34:00
Speaker 4: the husband's cheating and she's like, oh my god, I'm
34:02
Speaker 4: going to go see a lawyer before he figures it out.
34:04
Speaker 4: I'm going to move this and this. That doesn't happen
34:06
Speaker 4: in Australia. In Australia it is completely transparent. You can't
34:10
Speaker 4: hide anything from the family courts, which I think is very,
34:13
Speaker 4: very important and is another reason why our system is
34:16
Speaker 4: better than America's. But as I said, massive misconception that
34:20
Speaker 4: assets that are owned in quote a discretionary trust will
34:24
Speaker 4: not form part of the property pool available for division
34:27
Speaker 4: between the spouses. As I said before, the starting point
34:30
Speaker 4: is always fifty to fifty and then they go back
34:33
Speaker 4: and forth from there. It's also super common for separated
34:36
Speaker 4: spouses or separated partners to argue about whether a trust
34:40
Speaker 4: forms part of the property pool because they think that
34:43
Speaker 4: that's a protected asset. They're like, no, that's a trust,
34:46
Speaker 4: that's mine, rah rah, because they see it as a
34:48
Speaker 4: resource that is ultimately entirely theirs, when that's just not
34:52
Speaker 4: the case. But again, this all completely depends on the
34:56
Speaker 4: nature of the spouse's interest and their degree of control
34:59
Speaker 4: over the trust and how all of that works. But no,
35:02
Speaker 4: there's always, always, always visibility in these things. Even if
35:06
Speaker 4: like let's say that you and I we were do
35:09
Speaker 4: you know what we're going to become. We're going to
35:10
Speaker 4: become property investing moguls g And what we do is
35:14
Speaker 4: we go and establish a trust because we're like genius
35:18
Speaker 4: a trust to keep all our properties. That sounds genius,
35:22
Speaker 4: But you're the director and you're the person who set
35:25
Speaker 4: it up, and somehow I just got completely missed. That
35:27
Speaker 4: doesn't mean I'm going to miss out because you had
35:30
Speaker 4: to put that asset on the table, so you can't
35:32
Speaker 4: screw me over. It is harder because obviously if it's
35:35
Speaker 4: one hundred percent in your name, there's probably a lot
35:37
Speaker 4: of hurdles that would have to go over in the
35:39
Speaker 4: legal system. But at the end of the day, thankfully
35:42
Speaker 4: we live in a world where everything is transparent.
35:44
Speaker 3: Sophy, are we out.
35:46
Speaker 4: Of the woods?
35:47
Speaker 3: If you and I break out? Like what if we
35:49
Speaker 3: have a BFA we sorted, what's the deal?
35:51
Speaker 4: Who knows? Maybe did you cheat on me? I don't
35:54
Speaker 4: know how savage I'm going to be about this breakup?
35:56
Speaker 4: Was it mutual? Did I ask for it. You don't know, Okay,
36:00
Speaker 4: no you did. I did. I did cheat?
36:02
Speaker 2: You did?
36:04
Speaker 4: You didn't. I wouldn't do that to you. Well you
36:07
Speaker 4: never know, though, you never know. Oh my gosh. I've
36:10
Speaker 4: just been watching a new Netflix series where a guy
36:13
Speaker 4: kind of remember what it's called, but the guy cheats
36:15
Speaker 4: on his wife and he's in politics, The.
36:17
Speaker 3: Anatomy of a Scandal.
36:18
Speaker 4: Yes, I just sashed it.
36:20
Speaker 3: I started watching it in the bar.
36:21
Speaker 4: It's absolutely trash. I was very unhappy with how that ended.
36:26
Speaker 4: But that's a very interesting plug. Anatomy of a Scandal
36:29
Speaker 4: on I think it's Netflix.
36:30
Speaker 3: Check it out.
36:31
Speaker 4: It's awful Netflix. Do you know what? It's very easy
36:34
Speaker 4: to waste time. And it was kind of pervy as well,
36:37
Speaker 4: because like.
36:37
Speaker 3: And Ciana Miller, isn't it who doesn't know?
36:39
Speaker 4: She's so at the end of the day, g if
36:41
Speaker 4: you do actually have a binding financial agreement that has
36:44
Speaker 4: been prepared by a lawyer, not just one that you've
36:46
Speaker 4: downloaded and put in your emails for a paper trail,
36:48
Speaker 4: which I said, I think is a very good option.
36:51
Speaker 4: If you can't afford a binding financial agreement that would
36:54
Speaker 4: be able to sort out your property and maintenance according
36:57
Speaker 4: to that agreement, the next best thing is, you know,
36:59
Speaker 4: having that paper trail, because gee, as we always say,
37:02
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter if you can afford it or not.
37:04
Speaker 4: There's always another option that you can pursue. I think
37:06
Speaker 4: it's really naive of us to go, oh, gee, we
37:09
Speaker 4: can't afford a binding financial agreement, so therefore we're just
37:11
Speaker 4: not going to do it. I think that that is
37:13
Speaker 4: really detrimental and let's just do the next best thing.
37:16
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, I need to
37:18
Speaker 4: be brutally honest, and if everything goes south and you
37:23
Speaker 4: and I are fighting like cat and dog, and I
37:25
Speaker 4: now want the worst for you and you want the
37:28
Speaker 4: worst for me. A binding financial agreement can be challenged
37:31
Speaker 4: in Australia. Unfortunately, it is not like a prenup, which
37:35
Speaker 4: usually can't be challenged in the US, But in Australia
37:38
Speaker 4: you can challenge them. It obviously would involve court fees
37:41
Speaker 4: and actually being quite dramatic about it. But sometimes people
37:44
Speaker 4: believe it is worth it, and that is okay, each
37:47
Speaker 4: to their own. And I think that if you think
37:49
Speaker 4: that you're binding financial agreement that you set up at
37:51
Speaker 4: the start of a relationship is no longer putting everybody
37:54
Speaker 4: in the best possible position. Then yes, I do think
37:57
Speaker 4: you should challenge it, but not just to be bitter
38:00
Speaker 4: about it. But that's just my own personal take. But
38:03
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, I just think that
38:05
Speaker 4: having as many things documented as possible is the key
38:08
Speaker 4: to success.
38:10
Speaker 3: Okay, V My last question, maybe it's a dark one,
38:12
Speaker 3: so shoot me. You are really dark this week though,
38:15
Speaker 3: I am. I am. So we're in a de facto relationship.
38:18
Speaker 3: Sadly one of us passes away. What is me other partner?
38:22
Speaker 3: You're trying to kill me or well maybe you're trying.
38:24
Speaker 3: But essentially, you have the same rights as a married
38:27
Speaker 3: person nowadays, which is very cool because for a very
38:30
Speaker 3: long time, if you were just the boyfriend of you know,
38:34
Speaker 3: a partner for the last thirty years, you weren't entitled
38:37
Speaker 3: to the same rights as a married person because historically
38:40
Speaker 3: you might not have been able to marry your partner.
38:42
Speaker 3: So nowadays you are entitled to exactly the same rights,
38:45
Speaker 3: and I think that that is perfect. And this includes
38:48
Speaker 3: rights and entitlements that regard the following g I've listed
38:51
Speaker 3: them out to make them super speedy at the end.
38:53
Speaker 3: Number one, a share of an estate where no will exists,
38:56
Speaker 3: that is, and we discuss this on the episode with
38:59
Speaker 3: Lucy about wills and estate planning. So go and find
39:02
Speaker 3: that your partner dies in test state. That means they
39:05
Speaker 3: have no will and no estate plan. Number two, I've
39:08
Speaker 3: written down the right to challenge a will if you're
39:10
Speaker 3: not adequately provided for. So for example, if your partner
39:14
Speaker 3: of Rota will ages ago, didn't think about it, got
39:17
Speaker 3: in this de fact a relationship. You and your partner
39:19
Speaker 3: are five years into a relationship, you have a two
39:21
Speaker 3: and a three year old, life's pretty hectic, and their
39:23
Speaker 3: will says that one hundred percent of their assets go
39:25
Speaker 3: to their parents. You can absolutely say probably not though,
39:28
Speaker 3: because I have two small children to provide. Four or
39:31
Speaker 3: maybe you're a stay at home girlfriend or a stay
39:34
Speaker 3: at home boyfriend, or they are significantly financially responsible for
39:37
Speaker 3: you or number three receive compensation entitlements under workers' compensation
39:41
Speaker 3: law if your partner dies during the course of employment,
39:44
Speaker 3: and number four you will be able to claim their
39:47
Speaker 3: Social Security entitlements. Okay, that's a very dark place to
39:51
Speaker 3: leave it, but it's a little bit very important. If
39:53
Speaker 3: you haven't listened to our binding financial agreement episode. Go
39:56
Speaker 3: and listen to that. If you haven't listened to Our
39:58
Speaker 3: Wills an estate planning episode with our friend Lucy Percy
40:01
Speaker 3: from Head and Heart estate Planning, who is an absolute delight,
40:04
Speaker 3: go and listen to that, because there is so much
40:06
Speaker 3: information in that that is going to put you in
40:08
Speaker 3: the best possible position, which is all I want. Perfect
40:12
Speaker 3: all right, So moral of the story, you're probably entitled
40:14
Speaker 3: to more than you think in a de facto relationship. Absolutely,
40:18
Speaker 3: it's important we use our head and not our heart
40:21
Speaker 3: though it can be hard.
40:22
Speaker 4: And yeah, it can be hard. That's very moving gee.
40:24
Speaker 3: And finally, it's really really important to keep a paper
40:28
Speaker 3: trail along the journey.
40:29
Speaker 4: Absolutely, because I don't want people to think that I'm
40:32
Speaker 4: super entitled recommending a binding financial agreement, because then you're like, great,
40:35
Speaker 4: v I want to set one up, and I'm like, okay, cool,
40:37
Speaker 4: it's going to be more than a thousand dollars and
40:39
Speaker 4: you're like, well, I don't have more than a thousand dollars,
40:41
Speaker 4: but I still want to be protected in my relationship,
40:43
Speaker 4: and the family courts are going to look really I
40:46
Speaker 4: guess fondly on that and go, okay, cool, here's all
40:48
Speaker 4: this evidence, let's sort it out. Let's actually look at
40:51
Speaker 4: this and a paper trail, regardless of what you're going through,
40:54
Speaker 4: whether that is a relationship, an argument, an employment situation
40:58
Speaker 4: like pay per trails are just in and if you
41:00
Speaker 4: don't use them, great, they're just sitting in your room
41:02
Speaker 4: box exactly. No harm done, my.
41:04
Speaker 3: Friend, perfection.
41:06
Speaker 4: We have a boring style.
41:07
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
41:09
Speaker 3: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
41:11
Speaker 3: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
41:15
Speaker 3: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
41:19
Speaker 3: not be relied upon to make an investment or a
41:21
Speaker 3: financial decision. No so, and we promise. Victoria Divine is
41:24
Speaker 3: an authorized representative of Infocused Securities Australia propriet You Limited
41:29
Speaker 3: ABN four seven zero nine seven seven nine seven zero
41:32
Speaker 3: four nine AFSL two three six five two three And
41:36
Speaker 3: as always, we would love it if you joined our
41:38
Speaker 3: Facebook group, where our community shares money tips and tricks
41:41
Speaker 3: every single.
41:42
Speaker 4: Day of the week.
41:44
Speaker 3: Just search She's on the Money on Facebook and please
41:46
Speaker 3: join us.
41:47
Speaker 4: If Facebook's not your thing, you can also find us
41:50
Speaker 4: on Instagram and embarrassingly enough, on TikTok. At she's on
41:53
Speaker 4: the money a US and as always, don't forget to rate, review, subscribe.
41:57
Speaker 3: That's a little review.
42:00
Speaker 4: I've been on the reviews lately.
42:01
Speaker 3: Three good ones and I.
42:04
Speaker 4: Always need don't leave that ones that make steek crack.
42:08
Speaker 1: Bye.