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$40K Deposit, Two Government Schemes and a Home by 25 · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: My name is Satasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
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Speaker 1: woman and I'm here to acknowledge country te glennyan Ganya
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Speaker 1: nian ar Kaka yah y and Binahwaka nian our gay
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Speaker 1: In Mbini, yakarum Jar Doumayagumika Umaga Ihowaka Nile Waman damon
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Speaker 1: Immalan Bumba bang gad obama In and now in Waka
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Speaker 1: Ghana and yakarum jar Watanadana. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather
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Speaker 1: on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank acknowledge
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Speaker 1: and respect the Aberiginal people's land that we're gathering on today.
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Speaker 1: Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that
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Speaker 1: you see. She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country,
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Speaker 1: community and connections, bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources
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Speaker 1: for you to thrive.
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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
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Speaker 2: that lets you reperb about other people's money stories for
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Speaker 2: educational purposes of course. Welcome back to another one of
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Speaker 2: our moneyes, brought to you by our friends at my Wealth,
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Speaker 2: where I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with
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Speaker 2: one of our incredible Shees on the Money community members
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Speaker 2: and talking to them all about their journey. Let's jump
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Speaker 2: straight into it, because this week I got a message
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Speaker 2: and it sounds exactly like this high shees on the money.
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Speaker 2: I'm twenty seven, work in STEM and became financially independent
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Speaker 2: at eighteen after moving out of home and very glamorously
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Speaker 2: into a garage. While juggling two STEM degrees, work and
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Speaker 2: some attempt at a social life, I taught myself how
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Speaker 2: to manage money through sheer persistence rather than any natural
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Speaker 2: passion for it. Two years after graduating, I bought a
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Speaker 2: home just two kilometers from the beach without financial help
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Speaker 2: from my parents, using the first Home super Savior scheme.
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Speaker 2: I've recently landed a major promotion, earning one hundred and
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Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars a year, and I'm now focused on
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Speaker 2: building my investment portfolio without sacrificing the life I have
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Speaker 2: worked so hard to create money.
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Speaker 3: Diarist to the show, Hello, thank you, it's exciting to
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Speaker 3: be here.
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Speaker 2: You sound so fun. Also, I love that, I don't know,
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Speaker 2: I feel like I can pick up a vibe from
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Speaker 2: someone when they say, oh, I'm just two kys from
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Speaker 2: the beach, like you're cool, your fun, you love going
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Speaker 2: to the beach regularly, like you are on my team.
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Speaker 2: Are you ready to do a money diary?
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Speaker 3: Yes?
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Speaker 2: I am very excited. All right, First, cab off the
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Speaker 2: rank as always money diarist, What grade would you give
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Speaker 2: your money habits from A through to F if I
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Speaker 2: asked you to give them a grade?
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Speaker 3: Look, I think I'm going to break up all the
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Speaker 3: bees recently and give myself an A. But definitely like
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Speaker 3: for my age and circumstances.
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Speaker 2: Love, All right, tell me a little bit more. Let's
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Speaker 2: dive in. Tell me more about your money story.
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Speaker 3: Sure. So, I actually grew up in a pretty small
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Speaker 3: country town in New South Wales, and our family actually
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Speaker 3: got to move around a lot around Australia for my
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Speaker 3: dad's work. Apart from moving like, our lifestyle overall was
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Speaker 3: pre average, Like my sister and I went to a
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Speaker 3: bit of a mix of public and private schools, and
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Speaker 3: then any holidays we did have were either local, like
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Speaker 3: back to visit our family in New South Wales usually
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Speaker 3: for Christmas?
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Speaker 2: Was that because I'm just on the school thing? Was
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Speaker 2: the mix of public and like private just because you
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Speaker 2: were moving around or was it because you like had
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Speaker 2: different financial circumstances at the time or like, what was
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Speaker 2: the reason for the jumping.
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Speaker 3: I think it was just whatever was close to home,
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Speaker 3: Like I think my parents liked to send us to
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Speaker 3: private schools. But yeah, honestly, it was just whatever was
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Speaker 3: easiest for our family. So one of my earliest money
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Speaker 3: memories as well is I remember my dad sitting down
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Speaker 3: at our family computer every month and tracking our family
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Speaker 3: budget on a spreadsheet and like having to run around
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Speaker 3: the house collector receipts from my mum's handbag and all
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Speaker 3: those places. So money was never really a huge conversation
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Speaker 3: as a family, but it did always feel like we
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Speaker 3: had an but it all was like on the other hand,
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Speaker 3: it also felt like something that was important to keep
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Speaker 3: track of. And then thankfully we settled in a bigger
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Speaker 3: city in Queensland for high school, which felt a bit
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Speaker 3: more stable rather than having to move around every couple
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Speaker 3: of years.
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Speaker 2: So tell me a little bit more about high school.
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Speaker 2: I touched on it before and was like, oh, why
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Speaker 2: did you jump around, and like that makes a lot
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Speaker 2: of sense, but like, tell me a bit more about
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Speaker 2: your experiences there.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, So early high school, a really good thing
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Speaker 3: my parents started was allowances, So it was similar to
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Speaker 3: pocket money in the fact that we had to do
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Speaker 3: chores to earn it, but like the money was deposited
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Speaker 3: into our own bank account, so I literally had like
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Speaker 3: a debit card since I was thirteen, And funnily enough,
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Speaker 3: that kind of stemmed from my sister and I arguing
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Speaker 3: over like she got twenty dollars for the movies last week.
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Speaker 3: Like it essentially covered like social things with friends and
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Speaker 3: like friend's birthday presents as well, And it was also
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Speaker 3: easier having family into state because they could just transfer
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Speaker 3: for birthdays and thing. But yeah, it was something that
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Speaker 3: just kind of happened. Again, there wasn't really huge conversation
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Speaker 3: around budgeting or anything. And also because both my parents
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Speaker 3: work full time from a young age, we also had
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Speaker 3: to do things like pack our own lunch, get ready
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Speaker 3: for school, do are washing things like that, so it
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Speaker 3: wasn't our only financial independence. It was also time management.
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Speaker 3: And yeah, I feel like kids can be really good
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Speaker 3: at being independent if you give them the responsibilities. Which yet,
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Speaker 3: looking back, definitely we felt a bit hard done by
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Speaker 3: at the time, like our biggest problem was having to
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Speaker 3: iron our school uniform. But yeah, looking back to I
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Speaker 3: was definitely grateful for that I feel like it set
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Speaker 3: me up at a young age with really good habits.
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Speaker 2: Oh totally, And it's so funny now as an adult,
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Speaker 2: Like I remember my parents were exactly the same, Like
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Speaker 2: mum was like, oh, everything's in the cupboard, Like you
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Speaker 2: can make your own lunch. You're in high school now,
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Speaker 2: and I remember being like, what everybody else's mum makes
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Speaker 2: their lunch. And now I just have more skills, I
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Speaker 2: would say, in terms of like being resourceful and like
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Speaker 2: pulling things together and even like ironing a shirt. I
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Speaker 2: didn't realize until university that not everyone knows how to
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Speaker 2: do that and I can just whip it out do
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Speaker 2: a shirt. My stuff's always pressed. I feel like I'm
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Speaker 2: always put together, but I didn't realize that's what I
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Speaker 2: was being taught at the time.
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Speaker 3: Definitely, and I feel like it's just all those adult
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Speaker 3: jobs that you don't realize you have to make time
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Speaker 3: for until you do. So yeah, definitely that time management
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Speaker 3: was a really good skill to learn. And then as
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Speaker 3: I got older, I wanted like the same things as
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Speaker 3: other kids my age, so like my own phone, start
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Speaker 3: saving for my first car. So at fourteen, I got
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Speaker 3: a part time job in retail as soon as I could.
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Speaker 3: My first job was actually it came out, so shout
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Speaker 3: out to anyone who also had that as their first job.
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Speaker 2: I love that as a first job though, like I
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Speaker 2: love the consistency. I love that they have processes and
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Speaker 2: platform I feel like it does teach you a lot.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely good skills and having to balance that on
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Speaker 3: top of school as well. Yeah, it was good. And
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Speaker 3: I also remember mom and dad saying like, once you
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Speaker 3: start working, you never stop. So I definitely got a
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Speaker 3: taste back then for if you work hard enough, you
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Speaker 3: can get what you want.
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Speaker 2: Yees so fair. So then what happened as you got older.
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Speaker 3: So towards the end of grade twelve, formal and schoolies
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Speaker 3: and those things came around, which were really expensive, and
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Speaker 3: because some of my friends came from wealthier families, there
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Speaker 3: was a lot of comparison and pressure to have lack
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Speaker 3: a nice dress, have the whole Gold Coast schoolies experience.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, yes, but.
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Speaker 3: I didn't have enough money for the super nice hotel
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Speaker 3: that my friends picked, even though, like I sold my
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Speaker 3: formal dress, so they told me don't come. Basically what yeah,
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Speaker 3: it's yeah, girls can be mean, but yeah, it was
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Speaker 3: pretty much like if I didn't have enough money to
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Speaker 3: afford to come too bad, Like they didn't really want
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Speaker 3: to downgrade their experience for a cheaper hotel, so I
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Speaker 3: wasn't able to go celebrate the Unfortunately.
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Speaker 2: Please tell me you're not still friends with those people
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Speaker 2: or those people have really grown.
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Speaker 3: No, definitely not still friends with them. But yeah, it
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Speaker 3: was the first time I really felt shame around, like
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Speaker 3: not having enough money even though I worked really hard,
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Speaker 3: like it still wasn't enough to keep up with them.
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Speaker 3: So that really taught me that I never want to
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Speaker 3: make anyone feel that way, Like you should never have
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Speaker 3: to afford someone's friendship.
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Speaker 2: No, no, exactly, I really like that you never have
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Speaker 2: to afford someone's friendship. But also why a girl so mean, Like,
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Speaker 2: isn't it about compromise? Isn't it about being like, oh
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Speaker 2: my god, I'm so excited to go with my group
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Speaker 2: of friends. It's about the company you have, not necessarily
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Speaker 2: the hotel you stay in.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I guess they just got you get
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Speaker 3: caught up at that age in like comparison culture, and
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Speaker 3: like you see other people doing it, so you want
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Speaker 3: the same thing. But yeah, it was an important lesson
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Speaker 3: to even if it was just me who like learned
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Speaker 3: that lesson.
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Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. All right, so you do schoolies or
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Speaker 2: you don't do schoolies, and then you're kind of an
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Speaker 2: adult and you move out relatively quickly after that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I kind of went straight off to UNI
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Speaker 3: after high school because I was one of those lucky
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Speaker 3: people who knew exactly what I wanted to do from
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Speaker 3: a really early age, and weirdly enough for me, that
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Speaker 3: was engineering.
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Speaker 2: Very cool. We love a woman in stam.
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Speaker 3: I probably should have mentioned before, but I actually started
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Speaker 3: a scholarship in grade twelve to start UNI. So I
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Speaker 3: was this random grade twelve girl showing up to this
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Speaker 3: huge first year engineering lecture and like the lecturer did
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Speaker 3: his sort of first year speech and pretty much said like,
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Speaker 3: look around like this many of you will drop out
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Speaker 3: and this many will graduate. So what are you going
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Speaker 3: to do with your time here that will make you
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Speaker 3: stand out? And I thought, oh, I know, I'll do
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Speaker 3: a double degree because one degree wasn't enough. But yeah,
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Speaker 3: I kind of just thought that would give me more
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Speaker 3: flexibility and give me more job options when I graduated.
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Speaker 3: So I enrolled in not one but two stem degrees.
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Speaker 2: Oh, just go hard or go home, But how do
10:13
Speaker 2: you manage that? And also being financially independent, because that's
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Speaker 2: a lot like, you know, you said that you've got
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Speaker 2: a scholarship in year twelve, but you're still finishing year twelve,
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Speaker 2: you're doing some uni stuff, Like that's a lot of
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Speaker 2: pressure on someone who arguably isn't eighteen year.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so at eighteen years old, another sort of thing
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Speaker 3: that my parents expected me to be was one hundred
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Speaker 3: percent financially independent. So yeah, I had always kind of
10:39
Speaker 3: paid for my phone and like the running costs for
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Speaker 3: my car and everything before then, but on top of that,
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Speaker 3: they also wanted like one hundred dollars a week rent
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Speaker 3: to cover food and bills, which so fair, but yeah,
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Speaker 3: I was a pretty typical stubborn teenager back then, and
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Speaker 3: I thought, well, if I have to pay my parents,
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Speaker 3: I might as well move out. So I started looking
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Speaker 3: on flatmates and found like the literal cheapest room that
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Speaker 3: I could, which turned out to be a refurbished garage,
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Speaker 3: which I'm not sure if that is legal.
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Speaker 2: Honestly, perfect, perfect, Like we're not asking about legalities, we're
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Speaker 2: asking how we can be financially savvy.
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Speaker 3: Exactly, and it definitely was savvy, like it was a
11:21
Speaker 3: good location if at my budget. The only downside was
11:25
Speaker 3: it had like this one tiny little window, like the
11:28
Speaker 3: inside had been plastered and like had walls and stuff
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Speaker 3: like it looked like a bedroom. But yeah, it was
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Speaker 3: just really cheap. Yeah. So by that time I was
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Speaker 3: full time doing double engineering and a science degree as well,
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Speaker 3: and then I had two jobs and then also trying
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Speaker 3: to balance a social life as well. So my budget
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Speaker 3: was pretty tight because if I worked too much, I
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Speaker 3: couldn't keep up with my studies, but then if I
11:56
Speaker 3: studied too much, I couldn't make enough money to pay
11:58
Speaker 3: my bills. Definitely a fine balance. And I didn't qualify
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Speaker 3: for seenlink either because that went off your parents' income,
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Speaker 3: even though they weren't really supporting me at that stage.
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Speaker 3: So it was definitely character building. I felt like a
12:15
Speaker 3: stereotypical UNI student eating like two minute noodles and those things,
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Speaker 3: and my budget was such a mess. It was definitely
12:22
Speaker 3: figuring it out as I went along.
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Speaker 4: Love.
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Speaker 2: I also find that really interesting because you came from
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Speaker 2: a small town, and from my understanding, sometimes that would
12:31
Speaker 2: negate your parents' income, but how annoying. I'm sure you
12:34
Speaker 2: went through all of that, but it's so frustrating when
12:37
Speaker 2: you're like, hey, here's this really smart young woman who's
12:40
Speaker 2: going out on her own to try and better her situation.
12:42
Speaker 2: She's doing two STEM degrees. Like, I don't know about you,
12:45
Speaker 2: but that's where I would love to see more of
12:47
Speaker 2: my tax dollars going.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, and like, yes, we're very lucky with the
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Speaker 3: hex system, but it's all the other costs on top
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Speaker 3: of that that you don't realize, like young people are
12:57
Speaker 3: having to budget for. And yeah, definitely in this economy,
13:01
Speaker 3: it's a little bit different because yeah, back then, my
13:03
Speaker 3: rent was a lot more affordable.
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Speaker 2: Oh totally.
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Speaker 3: I also remember back then randomly reading The Barefoot Investor
13:10
Speaker 3: to try and learn how to budget better, and that
13:13
Speaker 3: was the first time I heard about investing. But yeah,
13:16
Speaker 3: it wasn't really relatable because I was lucky to have
13:20
Speaker 3: any money in savings by the end of the year.
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Speaker 3: Like it always kind of just felt like I was
13:24
Speaker 3: getting by, and and like I was young, so any
13:27
Speaker 3: extra money was going to things like music festivals and clothes.
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Speaker 2: I love that, But I also think it's so relatable
13:34
Speaker 2: too because I remember way back when I was trying
13:36
Speaker 2: to get my money story together, I looked at the
13:38
Speaker 2: Barefoot Investor, but the percentages just never worked for me
13:43
Speaker 2: because there was no way I could save my you know,
13:45
Speaker 2: ten percent for a splurge. I was like, what ten percent?
13:48
Speaker 2: What are you talking about? And now, obviously I'm a
13:50
Speaker 2: financial educator, I work in this space. I look at
13:53
Speaker 2: it and I go, that suits a very specific family
13:56
Speaker 2: and a very specific household, because if you earn less,
14:00
Speaker 2: you feel less than, and if you earn more, I
14:02
Speaker 2: would argue you need to be saving and investing even
14:05
Speaker 2: more than that. So like, it just doesn't work for everybody,
14:08
Speaker 2: and that's okay, but I feel like you can become
14:11
Speaker 2: really disheartened when you find a system. You go, Wow,
14:14
Speaker 2: this system's changing everybody's lives, and then it doesn't work
14:17
Speaker 2: for you and you immediately go, well, maybe I'm bad
14:20
Speaker 2: with money. So what did you think after finding a
14:23
Speaker 2: system that you were like, Oh, I'm not really able
14:25
Speaker 2: to stick to this.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely isn't a one size fits all thing.
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Speaker 3: But I think by that time I had learnt to
14:32
Speaker 3: set up my own sort of buckets for money, so
14:35
Speaker 3: I did have a bill's account, and then everything else
14:39
Speaker 3: was kind of just slumped in together, and it was
14:41
Speaker 3: a big mess. And I was always like drawing money
14:44
Speaker 3: out of one account and transferring into another, and you know,
14:47
Speaker 3: getting sucked into like buy now, pay later schemes as well.
14:50
Speaker 3: Like I just, yeah, I didn't know how to set
14:53
Speaker 3: up a system for myself that works. Yeah, when you
14:57
Speaker 3: don't have enough at the end of the week.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I feel sometimes there's a little bit too
15:01
Speaker 2: much month left at the end of my money. So
15:04
Speaker 2: tell me a little bit more about what happens once
15:07
Speaker 2: you graduate. So you go through UNI, you have a
15:09
Speaker 2: relatively stereotypical noodle's experience, which I can absolutely relate to.
15:15
Speaker 2: How did you get through that? Because two STEM degrees?
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Speaker 2: Did you finish them both?
15:20
Speaker 3: Yeah? So then COVID happened, so our little garage sharehouse
15:25
Speaker 3: had to go our separate ways because unfortunately my housemates
15:29
Speaker 3: lost their jobs.
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Speaker 2: No. Yeah, that's the last thing you need, like, especially
15:34
Speaker 2: if you're like, oh my god, this sucks, but at
15:37
Speaker 2: least we're all in this together and not lonely. And
15:39
Speaker 2: then they're like, so money diarist, we're going to have
15:42
Speaker 2: to move out. I would have been like, what am
15:43
Speaker 2: I going to do.
15:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was definitely like, Okay, I didn't expect this
15:47
Speaker 3: to happen. But thankfully, because I was classified as low income,
15:51
Speaker 3: I ended up qualifying for rental assistance under like the
15:55
Speaker 3: National Rental Affordability Scheme, so I was able to get
15:59
Speaker 3: my own apart apartment in the city closer to UNI.
16:03
Speaker 3: And yeah, even though that was subsidized, my rent pretty
16:06
Speaker 3: much still doubled. So I had to unfortunately make the
16:10
Speaker 3: tough decision to drop down to part time study because yeah,
16:14
Speaker 3: it just felt like I was doing way too much
16:16
Speaker 3: at that stage, so I think it was a responsible
16:19
Speaker 3: decision to make. So I was then working two jobs,
16:24
Speaker 3: but I actually managed to get an engineering placement job
16:28
Speaker 3: and then I was still doing my original camp job
16:31
Speaker 3: at nighttime.
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Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, were you burning out because that sounds
16:35
Speaker 2: like a lot.
16:36
Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I think back in COVID as well, like because there
16:39
Speaker 3: were so many restrictions, Like doing my night job was
16:42
Speaker 3: actually fun because it was actually like the only legal
16:45
Speaker 3: way I could socialize with friends. But yeah, definitely dropping
16:50
Speaker 3: back to part time, I think it was just something
16:52
Speaker 3: that was get inevitable, like something was going to give
16:56
Speaker 3: at that stage, so yeah.
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Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, so what happens we're coming let's like jump forward,
17:01
Speaker 2: we're coming out of COVID. Did you get to finish
17:04
Speaker 2: your degrees at some point during that process or is
17:07
Speaker 2: that post COVID?
17:08
Speaker 1: Ah?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, So in the second last year of UNI, I
17:12
Speaker 3: actually met my current partner cy you. So he moved
17:17
Speaker 3: into my apartment in our final year, which really helped
17:21
Speaker 3: take the stress of my budget to be able to
17:24
Speaker 3: quit my second job and go back to full time
17:27
Speaker 3: study to finish my degrees. And then he was also
17:32
Speaker 3: a double degree student, actually studying finance. Funnily enough, so
17:37
Speaker 3: with the little savings I put aside, I also managed
17:40
Speaker 3: to start my own investment journey, which we can talk
17:43
Speaker 3: about a bit later.
17:44
Speaker 4: Oh.
17:45
Speaker 2: I'm excited to get into that because I just know
17:46
Speaker 2: you're a hustler, Like I have picked up that you're
17:49
Speaker 2: not only like fun live by the beach, but also
17:51
Speaker 2: like really switched on. So I just I know everything
17:54
Speaker 2: is going to be so fun. So you met your partner?
17:57
Speaker 2: Do we live together?
17:58
Speaker 3: Like?
17:59
Speaker 2: What's the stitch there?
18:00
Speaker 3: Yes, we still live together. We have a house together now.
18:04
Speaker 3: But yeah, he's definitely a hard worker like I am.
18:08
Speaker 3: He's an engineer as well. So it really feels like
18:10
Speaker 3: we're on the same wavelength with our life goals and
18:12
Speaker 3: things like that.
18:13
Speaker 2: Love and so, tell me a little bit about today.
18:16
Speaker 2: What do you do for work and how much money
18:18
Speaker 2: do you earn?
18:19
Speaker 3: So my job titles have been a bit all over
18:21
Speaker 3: the place, but I generally refer to myself as a
18:24
Speaker 3: civil and environmental engineer. And I'm currently on one hundred
18:29
Speaker 3: and forty thousand dollars base salary plus bonuses.
18:33
Speaker 2: And plus super yes, plus super Oh my goodness. So
18:36
Speaker 2: she's on like one sixty ish depending on the year.
18:40
Speaker 2: That is not crazy, That is just crazy cool money
18:45
Speaker 2: dist with that income, what are your big money goals?
18:47
Speaker 2: What are you currently working towards? Because you said you
18:49
Speaker 2: have a house, like and I feel like that's the
18:51
Speaker 2: great Australian dream. So once you kind of tick that box,
18:54
Speaker 2: where do we go from there?
18:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, So my smaller goals at the moment is tidying
18:59
Speaker 3: up our shared and then some of my larger goals
19:03
Speaker 3: is we're currently in a townhouse at the moment, so
19:05
Speaker 3: we would love to get a house with a backyard
19:08
Speaker 3: one day and hopefully keep our current place as an
19:11
Speaker 3: investment and also things I think a little bit further
19:15
Speaker 3: down the track, like I would love to be able
19:18
Speaker 3: to semi retire by fifty, so I need to figure
19:21
Speaker 3: out how to like optimize my investment goals to get there.
19:25
Speaker 2: Oh I love that, So tell me a little bit
19:27
Speaker 2: more about that process, because I feel like sometimes when
19:30
Speaker 2: we're planning to purchase property, like we really get set
19:35
Speaker 2: on just that property and not like the longer term strategy.
19:39
Speaker 2: And you mentioned that you were like, oh, well, you know,
19:41
Speaker 2: we live there, but like we want it to be
19:43
Speaker 2: an investment. Was that always the plan or were you
19:45
Speaker 2: kind of like, good to buy this house, like that's
19:47
Speaker 2: you know, my ride or die plan. I haven't thought
19:50
Speaker 2: about strategy, or were you like, look, this will be
19:53
Speaker 2: our first home and we'll go into our next after that.
19:55
Speaker 2: Like what were your thought patterns there?
19:57
Speaker 3: I don't think we really thought too much of it.
20:00
Speaker 3: I think, being in like the economy sort of that
20:03
Speaker 3: we are at the moment, our plan was just to
20:06
Speaker 3: get into the market as soon as possible, because unfortunately,
20:10
Speaker 3: like if me living in a garage wasn't enough of
20:13
Speaker 3: an indication. But I had some bad experiences with the
20:17
Speaker 3: rental market, and like our rent just kept going up
20:20
Speaker 3: and up and up after COVID, so we just wanted
20:24
Speaker 3: to get out of that system. But definitely selecting the
20:28
Speaker 3: property that we were going to buy, like I think,
20:31
Speaker 3: we did want to see a bit of potential in
20:33
Speaker 3: it that we could potentially use it as an investment
20:36
Speaker 3: one day.
20:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, very cool. All right, let's go to a really
20:39
Speaker 2: quick break because I have a lot of questions and
20:42
Speaker 2: it's all about the juicy stuff. So guys don't go anywhere,
20:49
Speaker 2: all right, money, dirist, We are back, and I really
20:51
Speaker 2: want to talk about your investments now. So you mentioned
20:54
Speaker 2: that you have a portfolio because you want to retire earlier.
20:58
Speaker 2: Tell me a little bit more about the first time
20:59
Speaker 2: you invest it.
21:00
Speaker 3: Sure, So my portfolio is a little bit all over
21:04
Speaker 3: the place. But I first started investing maybe in my
21:08
Speaker 3: second last year of UNI. As I mentioned, my partner
21:12
Speaker 3: studies finance, so I think it was a little bit
21:14
Speaker 3: of jealousy that he had investments and I didn't. So
21:19
Speaker 3: with the little savings that I had back then, I
21:22
Speaker 3: put a little bit into crypto, which I'm not proud of.
21:26
Speaker 3: I feel like it's such a gateway for a lot
21:28
Speaker 3: of people.
21:29
Speaker 2: You're allowed to be like obviously not proud of I
21:32
Speaker 2: get that, but also like I don't think we should
21:34
Speaker 2: be embarrassed of it either, because it just means that
21:37
Speaker 2: you wanted to be on the investing journey and you're like, wow,
21:40
Speaker 2: this sounds like something for me, and like we all
21:42
Speaker 2: get a bit caught up with peer pressure and what
21:44
Speaker 2: everyone else is doing. But like, how cool that you
21:46
Speaker 2: had that experience you could reframe what it looked like
21:49
Speaker 2: and now be on a different journey, Like you're the
21:51
Speaker 2: type of person who wants more for themselves and like
21:54
Speaker 2: that's beautiful.
21:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, And as I learned a little bit more about
21:58
Speaker 3: the sort of risk profiles and things like that, once
22:01
Speaker 3: the initial money that i'd invested in that kind of
22:05
Speaker 3: like the profits work their way up, I took the
22:08
Speaker 3: original amount out, so at the moment it's just fluctuating
22:12
Speaker 3: between like around two grand ish and then around At
22:16
Speaker 3: the same time, I also started micro investing, so I
22:19
Speaker 3: have a little portfolio in spaceship as well, which I
22:24
Speaker 3: do regular transfers into Love and that's sitting at about
22:28
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars currently.
22:31
Speaker 2: Yeah. Love, Oh that's not so micro anymore, my friend.
22:33
Speaker 2: I love that you're like I have a little micro
22:35
Speaker 2: investing platform and then bam, it's five grand.
22:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely been going along for a long time though,
22:41
Speaker 3: so it's good to see it finally reaching a like
22:43
Speaker 3: larger number. And then within spaceship as well, I also
22:47
Speaker 3: have some ETFs, so that's sitting at about two and
22:50
Speaker 3: a half thousand as well. Love and then on top
22:53
Speaker 3: of my micro investing as well, I also have a
22:56
Speaker 3: Comsec account which I've been contributing to a lot more
22:59
Speaker 3: regular so I've been trying to bring that up, and
23:01
Speaker 3: that's sitting at five thousand dollars as well. And then
23:05
Speaker 3: all together my portfolio is sitting at about fifteen thousand dollars.
23:08
Speaker 3: But yeah, as you heard, it's quite spread out all
23:11
Speaker 3: over the shop, so I'd probably like to consolidate that
23:14
Speaker 3: a bit in the future.
23:15
Speaker 2: Totally. I think that a lot of people in your
23:18
Speaker 2: situation have started on micro investing platforms, so they're kind
23:21
Speaker 2: of like, I don't know when the right time is
23:23
Speaker 2: to like transition to like the bigger platform or like,
23:26
Speaker 2: you know, go into a more quite serious investment strategy,
23:30
Speaker 2: And sometimes the best strategy is to kind of start fresh.
23:33
Speaker 2: I'm not giving advice here, I promise, But sometimes if
23:36
Speaker 2: you've been invested for so long in a micro investing
23:40
Speaker 2: platform and it's doing well, there's actually no need to consolidate. Like, yes,
23:44
Speaker 2: you're paying double fees, but you're paying fees on that
23:47
Speaker 2: amount of money and then you're paying fees on this
23:49
Speaker 2: other amount of money, and I think that sometimes it's
23:52
Speaker 2: not worth triggering the capital gains. But at the same time,
23:56
Speaker 2: for some people, they're like, well, Victoria, I just want
23:58
Speaker 2: it to be clean, and like, I'm the same. I
24:00
Speaker 2: love cleaning house and feeling like everything's in the same wheelhouse.
24:04
Speaker 2: Sometimes buying and selling in the same market is what
24:07
Speaker 2: they do, so they like sell down their portfolio on
24:09
Speaker 2: one platform and then buy within the same few days
24:12
Speaker 2: to make sure that, like if you're buying a share
24:15
Speaker 2: and it's worth X, it's worth while basically during the
24:18
Speaker 2: same period so that they can clean it up. Have
24:20
Speaker 2: you thought about your transition period or whether it's even
24:23
Speaker 2: worth it not.
24:24
Speaker 3: At this stage, I don't mind having a few different
24:26
Speaker 3: accounts because it kind of also shows my journey. So
24:29
Speaker 3: as long as things keep making profit, I'll probably leave
24:33
Speaker 3: them as is. But yeah, maybe when it gets to
24:36
Speaker 3: a higher amount I'd probably like to seek some more
24:39
Speaker 3: financial advice on kind of what I should do with
24:42
Speaker 3: everything and like the best strategy to have moving forward
24:45
Speaker 3: to get my goals totally.
24:47
Speaker 2: All right, tell me a little bit about your superannuation.
24:49
Speaker 2: You've been working since you were really young, so I
24:52
Speaker 2: have a sneaky suspicion it probably looks okay.
24:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, my super is actually sitting at the moment at
24:59
Speaker 3: ninety thousand.
25:00
Speaker 2: Stop it, ninety grand You are only twenty seven years old,
25:04
Speaker 2: my friend.
25:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy. And that's after the first Home Super
25:08
Speaker 3: Saver withdrawal as well, So yeah, I'm pretty happy.
25:11
Speaker 2: Stop it all right? So you have ninety thousand dollars
25:14
Speaker 2: in Super. I'll ask you in a hot minute about
25:18
Speaker 2: your first Home Super Savior scheme because we'll get to
25:20
Speaker 2: talking about your property. But how do you have ninety
25:23
Speaker 2: thousand dollars?
25:25
Speaker 3: I think it's just a combination of I've been working
25:29
Speaker 3: in like a government job for a long time, so
25:31
Speaker 3: they do like a deal where if you put in
25:34
Speaker 3: extra then they'll kind of match it. So I was
25:37
Speaker 3: doing that for a little while, and then with my
25:40
Speaker 3: recent pay rise, I've also bumped up my salary sacrifice
25:44
Speaker 3: contributions to about two hundred dollars a fortnight, So I've
25:47
Speaker 3: always been like putting a little bit extra in there
25:50
Speaker 3: as well.
25:51
Speaker 2: So tell me about what the plan is for that.
25:53
Speaker 2: You said that you wanted to maybe retire early. Is
25:56
Speaker 2: that something that you're going to keep aggressively contributing to
25:58
Speaker 2: because girl, you're doing well or is it like a
26:01
Speaker 2: split between your actual investments and then your super like
26:04
Speaker 2: what does that look like in your head?
26:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I'm going to keep doing both at
26:08
Speaker 3: this stage, just because it is nice to see the
26:11
Speaker 3: number keep going up. But I think I'll probably reassess
26:15
Speaker 3: things once my Hex debt is paid off as well,
26:18
Speaker 3: because that'll give me a little bit extra to play with.
26:21
Speaker 2: Love. So I want to kind of pivot to debt
26:23
Speaker 2: and your home buying journey, and I'll ask you about
26:26
Speaker 2: the first time super savory in a second. But do
26:28
Speaker 2: you have any debt? If so, how much?
26:31
Speaker 1: So?
26:31
Speaker 3: I have my Hex debt, which two STEM degrees are
26:35
Speaker 3: pretty expensive, So that started at sixty thousand dollars. So
26:39
Speaker 3: I was very grateful for the twenty percent cut last year. Yeah, yes, yeah,
26:44
Speaker 3: and I've just been letting that pay itself in the background,
26:47
Speaker 3: and it's currently at about thirty thousand dollars, so hopefully
26:51
Speaker 3: that'll be gone by the time I'm thirty.
26:53
Speaker 2: Hey, that's not too bad. Honestly, with the tracking, I
26:55
Speaker 2: feel like for a lot of people they were like,
26:58
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I'm getting a little bit off my head.
27:00
Speaker 2: But for people who had double degrees, I think where
27:02
Speaker 2: you were all like, oh my god, this is like
27:04
Speaker 2: a wizardry. Like I was so secretly excited for it,
27:07
Speaker 2: because just like you, I haven't been contributing extra and
27:10
Speaker 2: I've just been letting it like tick away in the background.
27:13
Speaker 2: But seeing that come off, I was like, oh, that
27:15
Speaker 2: feels nice, like thank you. And it's not often that
27:18
Speaker 2: a government scheme benefits me, and that's obviously incredibly privileged
27:22
Speaker 2: and I don't need them too, but I was like, oh,
27:24
Speaker 2: this is cool. Yeah.
27:26
Speaker 3: I was so grateful actually start to see it go
27:28
Speaker 3: down for once, especially with all the indexation the last
27:30
Speaker 3: few years.
27:31
Speaker 2: Totally. So tell me more about this first home super
27:35
Speaker 2: saviort scheme. How much you put in, how much you
27:37
Speaker 2: pulled out, and what all of that looks like.
27:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, as I said before, we had a few
27:43
Speaker 3: bad experiences renting, so my partner and I one of
27:48
Speaker 3: our biggest goals once we graduated was to start to
27:52
Speaker 3: save for a home and I think back then, like
27:57
Speaker 3: I just I didn't really know where to get started.
28:01
Speaker 3: So I've kind of written down all the numbers because
28:04
Speaker 3: I think they were the numbers that would have sort
28:06
Speaker 3: of helped me get my head around it.
28:08
Speaker 2: Love, So what did those numbers look like?
28:10
Speaker 3: So when we first started researching all of the government schemes,
28:14
Speaker 3: we came across the first home super savers scheme and
28:17
Speaker 3: we didn't really know what it was or if we
28:20
Speaker 3: had any money that was eligible. So we learned that
28:24
Speaker 3: you can do a check through the ATO and it'll
28:27
Speaker 3: like you check your numbers and see if you've got
28:29
Speaker 3: anything eligible. And I actually found out that I had
28:32
Speaker 3: ten thousand dollars eligible. So I thought I was starting
28:36
Speaker 3: my home deposit saving journey from zero, but thankfully I wasn't,
28:40
Speaker 3: which was really motivating.
28:42
Speaker 2: That's actually so fun, and I think that's something a
28:44
Speaker 2: lot of people don't know. So if they have been
28:46
Speaker 2: contributing extra to their super over time, that actually can
28:50
Speaker 2: be pulled out if you wanted to. I'm not saying
28:52
Speaker 2: it's always a good idea but how good if it's
28:56
Speaker 2: an additional contribution you made that it can actually like
28:59
Speaker 2: kick start your home savings scheme. Like that's cool.
29:02
Speaker 1: Yeah.
29:02
Speaker 3: And the other thing was like the tax savings as well,
29:05
Speaker 3: because I think when you take it out, you pay
29:07
Speaker 3: less tax on it as well. So I started playing
29:11
Speaker 3: around with my salary sacrifice just through like my company's
29:15
Speaker 3: payroll team, and I think I had that up at
29:18
Speaker 3: about five hundred dollars a fortnight towards the end. But
29:21
Speaker 3: because of the tax exemptions or I don't know how
29:25
Speaker 3: to explain it, but it didn't reduce my take home
29:28
Speaker 3: as much as what I was putting in, if that
29:30
Speaker 3: makes sense.
29:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally totally. It would have been because you're not
29:33
Speaker 2: like close enough to the band. So like I think
29:36
Speaker 2: a lot of the time people hope that they drop
29:38
Speaker 2: down a tax or like a marginal tax, right, but
29:41
Speaker 2: unfortunately that's not the case for everybody. How much did
29:46
Speaker 2: you end up putting into the first Home super Saviors
29:48
Speaker 2: scheme and how much did you end up pulling out?
29:50
Speaker 3: I think by the end of it, I had about
29:52
Speaker 3: twenty five thousand dollars sitting in there that was eligible.
29:56
Speaker 3: But like I said, with my tax bracket. It kind
29:59
Speaker 3: of felt like I was getting a bit of free
30:00
Speaker 3: money from that system because like, you put money in,
30:03
Speaker 3: but it's not affecting your take home pay. So I
30:06
Speaker 3: was really trying to like put as much of it
30:08
Speaker 3: in there as I can to make the most out
30:10
Speaker 3: of that scheme totally.
30:12
Speaker 2: And I feel like people just don't hear me when
30:14
Speaker 2: I go, it's really sexy. You should absolutely look into
30:17
Speaker 2: whether it suits you, because like, I just feel like
30:20
Speaker 2: it doesn't sound sexy, like the first time Super Saviors
30:23
Speaker 2: game is a mouthful and not something that like when
30:26
Speaker 2: we talk about it, people go, Yay, that's exciting, But
30:28
Speaker 2: you're right, it can be like free money, which is
30:30
Speaker 2: really really fun. How much did you end up purchasing
30:34
Speaker 2: your first home for?
30:35
Speaker 3: So I wasn't really sure what our budget should be
30:38
Speaker 3: at the start, so we actually went and sat down
30:41
Speaker 3: with a mortgage broker, which helped us sort of run
30:44
Speaker 3: different versions of like, if we've bought a house for
30:47
Speaker 3: this much, how much the repayments would be. So through
30:51
Speaker 3: doing that, we kind of settled on that our budget
30:54
Speaker 3: was around the seven hundred thousand dollar mark, so we
30:59
Speaker 3: also eligible for the five percent I think it's the
31:03
Speaker 3: first home guarantee scheme, so we only had to save
31:06
Speaker 3: four or five percent deposit. So we ended up finding
31:10
Speaker 3: our townhouse for six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which
31:14
Speaker 3: we purchased in October twenty twenty four. It was an
31:18
Speaker 3: older townhouse that was two kilometers from the beach and
31:23
Speaker 3: it's been rented out its whole life as well, so
31:25
Speaker 3: it's pretty low maintenance. And our original loan amount was
31:30
Speaker 3: for six hundred and ten thousand, so of that we
31:33
Speaker 3: had a forty thousand dollars deposit, and then we were
31:36
Speaker 3: also able to keep ten thousand dollars in living expenses
31:42
Speaker 3: in our offset account, which I didn't realize at the
31:46
Speaker 3: time how strict some of the schemes could be. So
31:49
Speaker 3: the five percent deposit scheme, they don't let you keep
31:53
Speaker 3: a lot of money in savings. You kind of have
31:55
Speaker 3: to put everything that you have into the loan. So yeah,
32:00
Speaker 3: it interesting having to calculate all that, but thankfully we
32:02
Speaker 3: had really good mortgage brokers to help us through all
32:05
Speaker 3: of the terms and conditions totally.
32:07
Speaker 2: And it can be really frustrating because sometimes you see
32:10
Speaker 2: a scheme like that and go, wow, it's only five percent,
32:12
Speaker 2: so we'll have so much cash left over. But it's
32:14
Speaker 2: kind of like, yes, it's five percent if you only
32:17
Speaker 2: have five percent, but if you have more, they kind
32:19
Speaker 2: of want you to tip that towards it as well
32:21
Speaker 2: to bring down your LVR. And it can be frustrating
32:25
Speaker 2: because you see it as a kind of not a
32:27
Speaker 2: get out of jail free card. But you go, well,
32:29
Speaker 2: I've got the twenty percent, I only want to use five,
32:31
Speaker 2: but they'll go, oh, no, no, no, this is probably
32:34
Speaker 2: not for you. So has that restricted you in it
32:36
Speaker 2: any way? Or are you kind of like, yeah, it
32:38
Speaker 2: kind of sits in our offset. But at the same time,
32:40
Speaker 2: like we still got into property at a sooner point.
32:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the benefit of just getting into property
32:46
Speaker 3: early was worth it because although we only had to
32:49
Speaker 3: save a forty thousand dollars deposit, which like even though
32:53
Speaker 3: I say, although like the split between two people, it's manageable,
32:57
Speaker 3: but it was really the repayments that we're kind of
33:01
Speaker 3: making us a little bit more nervous about our budget
33:04
Speaker 3: because I think our payments at the moment are sitting
33:07
Speaker 3: around thirty six hundred dollars a month, so split between
33:12
Speaker 3: two people, it's the equivalent of about I think four
33:15
Speaker 3: hundred dollars a week in rent, So it's a little
33:18
Speaker 3: bit more than what we were paying before. But yeah,
33:22
Speaker 3: it's just the numbers that you kind of have to
33:24
Speaker 3: get your head around at the start. I think before yeah,
33:27
Speaker 3: jumping into such a huge property purchase.
33:29
Speaker 2: Totally, and I think it can be as you mentioned
33:32
Speaker 2: or like similarly mentioned, it can be much easier saving
33:37
Speaker 2: for the deposit because you're so happy to like scrimp
33:39
Speaker 2: and save and be like, oh my goodness, if we,
33:41
Speaker 2: you know, cut the budget this month, we can get
33:43
Speaker 2: an extra thousand dollars or whatever it might look like
33:45
Speaker 2: for you. But the reality is, once you get the mortgage,
33:48
Speaker 2: that's actually for the next thirty years, So that thirty
33:51
Speaker 2: six hundred dollars commitment every single month you have to
33:53
Speaker 2: think about it and you go, well, that is equivalent
33:56
Speaker 2: to paying four hundred dollars a week rent. Am I
33:58
Speaker 2: comfortable with committing to that financial outlay? Even though yes
34:02
Speaker 2: we are creating wealth and yes we own the roof
34:04
Speaker 2: over our head and all of that fun stuff, Like girl,
34:07
Speaker 2: that's still a lot of money, like the lifestyle that
34:10
Speaker 2: surrounds that, Like, would you arguably go and rent something
34:14
Speaker 2: for four hundred dollars a week and then leave that lifestyle.
34:16
Speaker 2: Are you comfortable with that? Because that's the question we
34:19
Speaker 2: have to ask ourselves. Obviously there's like overlays of like
34:22
Speaker 2: wealth building and like but I own it and whatnot,
34:24
Speaker 2: And I totally get that, But I also just look
34:26
Speaker 2: at it and go, well, if you wouldn't do that
34:28
Speaker 2: because you don't want that lifestyle, that's what that mortgage
34:31
Speaker 2: is going to push you into.
34:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I feel like there's schemes they are and
34:35
Speaker 3: they sound like a really good thing to get people
34:38
Speaker 3: into the market, but yeah, when you're faced with the
34:40
Speaker 3: reality of what you have to pay, it's that's where
34:43
Speaker 3: the house pricing sort of craziness comes into it. But yeah,
34:48
Speaker 3: because we were lucky enough to get a three bedroom townhouse,
34:52
Speaker 3: we were able to get a roommate as well, so
34:55
Speaker 3: she also contributes a little bit of money every week
34:59
Speaker 3: and we're put that straight into our home loaners extra
35:02
Speaker 3: repayments to try and get our loan to value ratio
35:05
Speaker 3: a little bit higher because it does start so low.
35:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. So tell me you purchased pull
35:11
Speaker 2: six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in twenty twenty four,
35:14
Speaker 2: what's the property worth today? And how much have you
35:17
Speaker 2: paid off?
35:18
Speaker 3: So our property is currently worth eight hundred and ten
35:22
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, which stop it in two years, Like, I
35:26
Speaker 3: can't believe that it's gone up that much. And our
35:29
Speaker 3: current loan amount is five hundred and seventy five thousand
35:33
Speaker 3: dollars and we've kept black a similar sort of amount
35:36
Speaker 3: maintained in our offset account. But yeah, our bank gives
35:40
Speaker 3: us these statements, and because of the extra repayments we've
35:44
Speaker 3: been making, we've already cut four years off the life
35:47
Speaker 3: of our loan within those two years. So I'm really
35:49
Speaker 3: proud of us. First, so exciting, Yeah, putting some extra
35:53
Speaker 3: money in there, and it really.
35:55
Speaker 2: Does d up. Like at the time, you're kind of like,
35:57
Speaker 2: does this make sense? Like is it actually like you know,
35:59
Speaker 2: cheapy away at what the mortgage looks like. But then
36:03
Speaker 2: over the two years, four years off your mortgage is huge, Like,
36:07
Speaker 2: and I know that life is going to look a
36:08
Speaker 2: little bit different, and you've probably got plans to purchase
36:11
Speaker 2: a different home and this can be an investment, but like,
36:13
Speaker 2: how good your investment has increased in value and you're
36:16
Speaker 2: also chipping away at the time it will take to
36:19
Speaker 2: pay off that loan. What's your next property step, Like
36:22
Speaker 2: you're already talking about different properties or you like, Victoria, no, no, no,
36:26
Speaker 2: we're just gonna sit here for a while. Like it's
36:28
Speaker 2: already a little bit uncomfortable.
36:30
Speaker 3: We're happy just to sit for a little while and
36:33
Speaker 3: sort of see how our life circumstances go. Because we're
36:37
Speaker 3: still quite young, so we're not really sure what the
36:39
Speaker 3: future holds in terms of like family and things like that.
36:43
Speaker 3: So yeah, we're just happy to knuckle down and keep
36:46
Speaker 3: paying our mortgage. At the moment.
36:48
Speaker 2: I love this. And how's having a housemate going? Like
36:51
Speaker 2: is that something that you're like, yeah, it's really good,
36:53
Speaker 2: Like it's great, or you're like, look, it's good for
36:55
Speaker 2: the mortgage, but like I would love to have my
36:57
Speaker 2: own space.
36:58
Speaker 3: I think because we've got right from being like poor
37:01
Speaker 3: unique students living in share houses to then like young
37:05
Speaker 3: graduates also living in share houses. Like it's just we've
37:09
Speaker 3: always been used to living with other people. But in
37:12
Speaker 3: saying that, we have gotten really lucky and found a
37:15
Speaker 3: really good roommate that's easy to live with. So yeah,
37:18
Speaker 3: that'll definitely help us out longer term love.
37:21
Speaker 2: So tell me I'm really interested here. Now you have
37:24
Speaker 2: a mortgage. Do you have your personal insurances set up?
37:27
Speaker 2: If so, how did you work that out? If not,
37:30
Speaker 2: why not?
37:30
Speaker 3: My friend so, I do have personal insurance with him,
37:33
Speaker 3: my super which I just bumped the amounts up again
37:37
Speaker 3: with like my promotion and like a house purchase as well.
37:42
Speaker 3: So I feel like it's all good and well to say,
37:44
Speaker 3: like yes to having insurance, but if you don't, like
37:46
Speaker 3: bump it up as your life changes and like check
37:48
Speaker 3: your beneficiaries and things like that, Yeah, it's important to do.
37:52
Speaker 2: You are not wrong. It's something that whenever my friends
37:55
Speaker 2: are like, oh we bought a house, I'm that really down.
37:58
Speaker 2: A friend that's like, oh my god, congrats, I can't
38:00
Speaker 2: I to come over and see it. So did you
38:01
Speaker 2: log into your insurances and check what coverage you have?
38:05
Speaker 2: Or someone says, oh my goodness, Victoria, were so excited
38:08
Speaker 2: we're having a baby. I go, oh my goodness, that's
38:09
Speaker 2: so good. Check your life insurance like it's crazy, but
38:13
Speaker 2: like I just from my position as an ex financial advisor,
38:17
Speaker 2: I'm just so on top of stuff like that because
38:20
Speaker 2: I just want the best for you. But I also
38:22
Speaker 2: just go there's so much risk in not having enough, Like,
38:26
Speaker 2: just make sure you're protecting yourselves. Now you seem really
38:29
Speaker 2: financially savvy. What do you think is your best money habit.
38:32
Speaker 3: I think I just say consistency, Like, although I'm only
38:36
Speaker 3: twenty seven, I've had some level of financial independence literally
38:40
Speaker 3: from when I was thirteen and got my first bank account.
38:43
Speaker 3: So I think it's just experienced building systems that work
38:47
Speaker 3: for me and then changing them as my life changes.
38:51
Speaker 3: So I have all my auto chancewers for everything, and
38:55
Speaker 3: of course, like not everyone's perfect, like you do have
38:58
Speaker 3: little splurges you have on expected payments coming up, But
39:02
Speaker 3: I feel like it all kind of balances out in the.
39:04
Speaker 2: End, love, and I feel like that's a really good
39:06
Speaker 2: mindset to have as well, like being like, look, it
39:09
Speaker 2: all balances out in the end because I have a
39:10
Speaker 2: system in place, and yes, I sometimes splurge, Like to me,
39:14
Speaker 2: that's really healthy.
39:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think also it is easy big able
39:18
Speaker 3: to be honest with your friends, Like people in their
39:20
Speaker 3: twenties are at such different stages. So if one of
39:24
Speaker 3: my friends is saving for a euro trip, will go
39:26
Speaker 3: to a picnic instead of a bar, like there's no
39:28
Speaker 3: shame around having different savings goals.
39:30
Speaker 2: Or budgets exactly, And I think that it is so
39:34
Speaker 2: much more. I don't know. I feel like your twenties
39:36
Speaker 2: and thirties is a period of really high contrast, Like
39:39
Speaker 2: we shouldn't be comparing, but we inherently do.
39:42
Speaker 3: Right.
39:42
Speaker 2: We look at our friends and be like, Wow, they're
39:43
Speaker 2: going on a europe trip, or Wow, they're buying their
39:45
Speaker 2: first home. But like, you're twenty seven, You've got your
39:48
Speaker 2: first home, you're paying off a mortgage, like you're a hustle,
39:51
Speaker 2: you're earning one hundred and forty grand a year. It's
39:53
Speaker 2: very likely that you still have friends that are still
39:55
Speaker 2: at UNI. Like I feel like at that point in time,
39:59
Speaker 2: you're like, Wow, everyone so different. And it isn't until
40:01
Speaker 2: you start to get to your late thirties that things
40:03
Speaker 2: start to get a little bit similar. But we're all
40:06
Speaker 2: so different, and I think that that's genuinely so nice
40:09
Speaker 2: because it's like everyone's having different life experiences and everyone's
40:13
Speaker 2: you know, doing their own thing. Like we should continue that.
40:16
Speaker 2: Like I personally, I am not planning my Michanos euro
40:20
Speaker 2: trip because I have two small kids, but I'm so
40:23
Speaker 2: excited for my friends that are tell me on the
40:26
Speaker 2: flip side, what do you think your worst money habit is.
40:29
Speaker 3: So, although I have really good budgets set up, I've
40:33
Speaker 3: never really tracked my actual spending. So I feel like
40:37
Speaker 3: we have so much going on now that we have
40:39
Speaker 3: a mortgage and we have shared bills, firsuts, personal bills,
40:42
Speaker 3: and then like savings on top of that. So I
40:45
Speaker 3: want to be really mindful of lifestyle creep. So I
40:48
Speaker 3: need to get a bit of a better system in
40:50
Speaker 3: place for I guess tracking actual spending to see how
40:54
Speaker 3: that's going.
40:54
Speaker 2: And what does it look like when you have conversations
40:57
Speaker 2: about money with your partner, Like obviously, you know, being
41:00
Speaker 2: really open and honest is really helpful, but like if
41:03
Speaker 2: you're not super on top of budgeting, is it something
41:07
Speaker 2: that comes up often in your household or is it
41:10
Speaker 2: something we're like, nah, we're kind of just on the
41:11
Speaker 2: same page. Or does your partner like have a super
41:13
Speaker 2: strict budget or something like that.
41:15
Speaker 3: No, it's pretty good because we both still bank separately,
41:18
Speaker 3: but then we have a shared account together for all
41:21
Speaker 3: our shared spendings. Because I think it's good, Like I
41:24
Speaker 3: don't want him to feel guilty for going and playing
41:27
Speaker 3: golf or going out with his friends and vice versa, Like,
41:30
Speaker 3: I don't want to feel guilty if I'm prioritizing like
41:34
Speaker 3: a Pilates membership or yeah, going to out with my friends. Like,
41:38
Speaker 3: we both sort of keep things separately and then we
41:41
Speaker 3: sort of discuss how we want to combine that together.
41:45
Speaker 3: And another good thing we do is we have like
41:47
Speaker 3: a date night account together as well.
41:49
Speaker 2: So yeah, stop, that's really cute. That's really cute. So
41:53
Speaker 2: what you both contribute on like a weekly or a
41:55
Speaker 2: monthly basis to your date night?
41:58
Speaker 3: Does that?
41:58
Speaker 2: I don't know that sounds really but like in a
42:00
Speaker 2: way do you guys both look at it and be like, oh,
42:03
Speaker 2: there's x amount in there, we can go out to
42:05
Speaker 2: a bougie dinner or are you like just banking it up?
42:07
Speaker 2: How does that work?
42:08
Speaker 3: Yeah? It definitely reminds us when it starts to get
42:11
Speaker 3: a little bit more money in it, that we need
42:13
Speaker 3: to use it. So yeah, if we do find that
42:15
Speaker 3: it's saved up a little bit too high, we'll go
42:17
Speaker 3: camping or we'll go on a little we can get away.
42:20
Speaker 3: So it's yeah, it's a really good way to save together.
42:23
Speaker 2: Oh, it's like a little like and this is probably
42:25
Speaker 2: not how you're seeing it. I'm like, look, it's like
42:27
Speaker 2: an investment into your relationship fund. So if you haven't
42:29
Speaker 2: gone out in a while, like it kind of tells you, Hey,
42:32
Speaker 2: you haven't gone out in a while. Because there's more
42:34
Speaker 2: money in here than there usually is, you can have
42:36
Speaker 2: a weekend away.
42:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
42:38
Speaker 2: I love that money diarist. Now we've had a chat.
42:41
Speaker 2: Do you feel like the grade you gave yourself at
42:44
Speaker 2: the start was accurate? If not?
42:46
Speaker 3: Why not?
42:47
Speaker 2: If so, how are you doubling down? Yeah?
42:51
Speaker 3: I think so. Like I'm pretty happy with my A.
42:54
Speaker 3: I think it's good to keep a little bit of
42:55
Speaker 3: room for improvement.
42:56
Speaker 2: So yeah, I feel like you are absolutely smashing it.
42:59
Speaker 2: Like you are twenty seven, you work in STEM, you
43:03
Speaker 2: have two degrees, Like I feel like your head is
43:05
Speaker 2: screwed on so well. Like I just I'm so proud
43:08
Speaker 2: of you, so proud that you're in my community. And
43:10
Speaker 2: I wish we had so much more time to keep
43:12
Speaker 2: yapping because I feel like we absolutely could. So thank
43:15
Speaker 2: you so much for sharing your journey with that She's
43:17
Speaker 2: on the Money community, because I just know we don't
43:19
Speaker 2: get enough women in stem on the show who are
43:22
Speaker 2: also quite young and trying to carve their way out.
43:25
Speaker 2: So thank you. I really really appreciate it.
43:27
Speaker 3: No, thank you for having me. It's been really fun.
43:35
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43:37
Speaker 4: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
43:41
Speaker 4: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
43:45
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Speaker 2: Advice tailored towards your needs.
43:56
Speaker 4: Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized represented
44:00
Speaker 4: gives of money sirper P T Y L t D
44:02
Speaker 4: A b N three two one six four nine two
44:05
Speaker 4: seven seven.
44:06
Speaker 2: Zero eight a F s L four five one two
44:09
Speaker 2: eight nine