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MONEY DIARIES: Transcending Tax Bill Trauma · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
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Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
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Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
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Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
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Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
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Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
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Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
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Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
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Speaker 2: Let's get into it. She's on the Money.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: Hello and welcome.
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Speaker 4: She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want
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Speaker 4: financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries,
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Speaker 4: my favorite episode of the week where we get to
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Speaker 4: talk with one of our incredible She's on the Money
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Speaker 4: community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it,
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Speaker 4: because this week I got an email and it sounded
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Speaker 4: like this, Hi, She's on the Money team. Three years ago,
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Speaker 4: my husband and I found ourselves drowning in debt after
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Speaker 4: traveling and treating ourselves a little too much with no regrets.
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Speaker 4: We were overwhelmed by the task of sorting out our finances.
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Speaker 4: We have a little boy with special needs who is
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Speaker 4: the center of our world, and in between juggling family life,
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Speaker 4: working part time as a teacher's aid, and terrible surprise
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Speaker 4: tax bills, we've paid off eighty thousand dollars.
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Speaker 2: Worth of debt in only three years.
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Speaker 4: We are very close to being debt free and we
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Speaker 4: cannot wait for the next step in our money journey.
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Speaker 4: Money Diarist, you just sound like a queen all round.
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Speaker 4: Not only eighty grand, you're still working, you have a
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Speaker 4: little special boy, Like, what's going on?
2:01
Speaker 2: How good is that?
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Speaker 5: Yes, we've been very dissy.
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Speaker 2: Thank you, Welcome to the show.
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Speaker 4: I'm very excited to be able to share your story.
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Speaker 4: Do you want to just dive right in? Let's start
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Speaker 4: with the question that I ask every single Mundy Diarist
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Speaker 4: money Dirist before we dive into your story. What grade
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Speaker 4: would you give your money habits if I asked you
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Speaker 4: to grade them from A through to an F.
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Speaker 5: I think at the moment I would give myself a B.
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Speaker 2: Minus a B minus.
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Speaker 4: All right, Well, now my favorite question, let's dive into
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Speaker 4: the juicy stuff. Can you tell us a little bit
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Speaker 4: more about your money story.
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Speaker 5: Absolutely, so I guess our money story would start when
2:38
Speaker 5: we got married. We got married quite young, and my
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Speaker 5: husband and I have very different money backgrounds. So for me,
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Speaker 5: I remember growing up, I was always very aware of money.
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Speaker 5: My parents worked really hard and they never burdened my
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Speaker 5: brother and I with any challenges they had or anything
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Speaker 5: like that. But I just remember my friend's not having
3:01
Speaker 5: a care in the world, and you know, I wanted
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Speaker 5: to save. I wanted to buy my own things at
3:05
Speaker 5: a young age, and when I got my first part
3:07
Speaker 5: time job, I would always put money aside, even though
3:10
Speaker 5: it was only like twenty dollars a week, and I'd
3:12
Speaker 5: create these little tracking sheets where I could keep track
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Speaker 5: of how much I could save. So that's definitely continued
3:18
Speaker 5: on into my adult life. However, my husband, his family
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Speaker 5: moved countries twice when he was ten and then eighteen.
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Speaker 2: Wow, So yeah.
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Speaker 5: He's got a very different background. He's just grateful for
3:29
Speaker 5: anything he has, which is such a beautiful attitude. And
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Speaker 5: for him, if his bills are paid, he wants to
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Speaker 5: use the rest of his money to be generous to
3:37
Speaker 5: his friends and family and to enjoy, which I really appreciate,
3:41
Speaker 5: but it's definitely different to my approach, Like I'm definitely
3:44
Speaker 5: a saver. So yeah, that's how we've kind of had
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Speaker 5: to meet in the middle, and I feel like now
3:49
Speaker 5: we're in a great place where we are able to
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Speaker 5: do that and we share the same money values.
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Speaker 2: That's really sweet.
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Speaker 4: Though he sounds like a honey, this is so sidetracked.
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Speaker 4: But everyone wonders, I don't know, how did you meet
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Speaker 4: your husband?
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Speaker 5: We just met through friends, actually, and it was one
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Speaker 5: of those things where we just connected straight away, got
4:08
Speaker 5: to know each other and just have never spent a
4:12
Speaker 5: moment apart since. Really, like we just really connected and
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Speaker 5: very in love still, which I'm grateful for because we
4:18
Speaker 5: never could have foreseen the challenges that would come our way.
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Speaker 5: And yeah, probably if we did, it would have been
4:25
Speaker 5: a lot more stressful.
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Speaker 4: Absolutely, when you say challenges, what are we looking at?
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Speaker 4: Are we talking debt? Are we talking family? Tell me
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Speaker 4: a little bit more about that side of your story.
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Speaker 5: Yeah. So, once we got married, we wanted to travel
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Speaker 5: and we did not have much money, but we would
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Speaker 5: just save up, book a flight, save up, go kind
4:43
Speaker 5: of thing, and we loved that and we had really
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Speaker 5: not a care in the world, like, we didn't care
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Speaker 5: if we came home and we had nothing. We were
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Speaker 5: just enjoying those experiences together and like I said in
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Speaker 5: the intro, like no regrets whatsoever. And a couple of
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Speaker 5: years after we got married, we fell pregnant with our son,
5:00
Speaker 5: which was a big surprise. And we'd been to America
5:04
Speaker 5: and Singapore and Fiji, and an opportunity came up to
5:07
Speaker 5: go to Europe with one of my husband's best friends,
5:10
Speaker 5: and it was kind of a once in a lifetime
5:12
Speaker 5: opportunity because he'd had two friends pull out. So we
5:16
Speaker 5: were just feeling those spots and a lot of things
5:17
Speaker 5: were already paid for. He just wanted some companies. So
5:20
Speaker 5: I was heavily pregnant, but we were like, we're not
5:22
Speaker 5: passing that up. So obviously amazing experience and so so grateful.
5:27
Speaker 5: But we got home we had nothing, and I'm like, oh,
5:29
Speaker 5: my goodness, We've got to buy all this stuff for
5:30
Speaker 5: a baby now. But you know that all works out.
5:34
Speaker 5: And then when our son was quite young, I think
5:38
Speaker 5: he was probably about eighteen months, my husband was a
5:41
Speaker 5: subcontractor at the time, and we received some information from
5:45
Speaker 5: our accountant that basically said we had a big tax
5:49
Speaker 5: bill coming of twenty eight thousand dollars. I wouldn't say
5:52
Speaker 5: we were struggling, but we were finding it hard to
5:54
Speaker 5: make ends meet. We were definitely saving a little bit, but
5:58
Speaker 5: mostly living week to week because I was working, I
6:00
Speaker 5: was home with our son and that was really important
6:03
Speaker 5: for us to have that time with him. So that
6:07
Speaker 5: was quite daunting. That was probably the biggest challenge we've
6:11
Speaker 5: ever faced. And we just kind of looked at each
6:13
Speaker 5: other and we're like, you know, our life's going to
6:15
Speaker 5: be very different while we pay this off. And we
6:18
Speaker 5: had some beautiful friends who knew what were going through
6:20
Speaker 5: and offered to pay it off for us, but we
6:23
Speaker 5: just felt we needed to do this on our own,
6:25
Speaker 5: and we ended up coming to the decision to move
6:28
Speaker 5: in with my parents, and my parents, you know, did
6:31
Speaker 5: not hesitate for a second. They were more than happy
6:34
Speaker 5: to have us there while we were to pay that
6:36
Speaker 5: debt down.
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Speaker 4: So tell me a little bit more about how a
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Speaker 4: surprise twenty eight thousand dollars tax debt happens Like that
6:44
Speaker 4: to me is terrifying, Like I hate the idea that
6:47
Speaker 4: one day you wake up and wow, twenty eight thousand
6:49
Speaker 4: dollars is owed, Like what happened was your husband, you know,
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Speaker 4: not paying tax or not paying enough for like got
6:56
Speaker 4: bad advice, like what happened.
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Speaker 5: So basically what happened was we were always paying tax.
7:01
Speaker 5: I always put aside twenty percent from each of his incomes.
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Speaker 5: That was something we always stressed about a lot. Was
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Speaker 5: this situation that ended up happening At the end of
7:10
Speaker 5: the day, it was just an error. When you work
7:14
Speaker 5: for yourself, I guess your accountant will send you all
7:17
Speaker 5: of your tax return, your income statements, all of those things,
7:21
Speaker 5: and you have to look over it as well as
7:24
Speaker 5: them and to us. So we're like, yeah, everything's fine,
7:27
Speaker 5: and there was an error in it, unfortunately, so we
7:30
Speaker 5: thought we'd paid quite a lot of tax and GST,
7:33
Speaker 5: but it clearly wasn't enough, and so it wasn't until
7:36
Speaker 5: things were checked at a later date that it was
7:38
Speaker 5: discovered that this mistake had been made. And luckily it
7:41
Speaker 5: wasn't a really really bad situation. You get a payment
7:44
Speaker 5: plan from the ATO, there's no interest or anything like that.
7:48
Speaker 4: I was about to ask, Yeah, I was about to
7:50
Speaker 4: be like, surely they let you have a payment plan.
7:52
Speaker 2: Please tell me they did.
7:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know that was my first question. I'm like,
7:58
Speaker 5: what are we going to do and he's like, oh,
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Speaker 5: there's a payment plan. It's eight hundred a month was
8:02
Speaker 5: like the minimum. Don't quote me on that, but it
8:04
Speaker 5: was a lot. So we'd just taken out a car
8:07
Speaker 5: loan of forty grand. No. Yeah, I was a bit
8:11
Speaker 5: hesitant to do that, but we were like, oh, it's
8:13
Speaker 5: you know, a business expense because the car would be
8:15
Speaker 5: used for work. So yeah, well like, oh my goodness.
8:19
Speaker 5: So that plus this is like seventy thousand dollars of
8:23
Speaker 5: debt pretty much overnight. So yeah, it was daunting.
8:26
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. And then what happened?
8:29
Speaker 4: So you sorted out this payment plan with the atiro
8:32
Speaker 4: started smashing that down at a minimum of eight hundred
8:34
Speaker 4: bucks a month. How long did that take you or
8:37
Speaker 4: is this something that you're still working through? Like where
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Speaker 4: does that additional ten thousand dollars worth of debt come from?
8:43
Speaker 4: When we're talking about that eighty grand that you said
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Speaker 4: that you're in in your letter into the show.
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Speaker 5: Right, So we found out about the tax debt at
8:52
Speaker 5: the end of twenty twenty, and thankfully our rental lease
8:55
Speaker 5: was up in March, so we just paid the minimum
8:58
Speaker 5: for those couple of months, and we moved in with
9:00
Speaker 5: my parents and we had it all paid off by
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Speaker 5: I think September that year. It was between six and
9:09
Speaker 5: nine months we paid off. So we would do the
9:11
Speaker 5: minimum repayments, but we would just do as much as
9:13
Speaker 5: we could on top of that. Yeah, of course, to
9:16
Speaker 5: just smash it out. And it's such a daunting amount,
9:18
Speaker 5: Like I feel like, you know, anything from the ATO
9:21
Speaker 5: is daunting, but that was quite confronting.
9:25
Speaker 4: It's really scary when something like that happens because you
9:28
Speaker 4: also just don't have anything to show for it. You go, oh,
9:32
Speaker 4: but this isn't because of my quote spending habits, So
9:35
Speaker 4: this isn't a car loan, or this isn't something that
9:38
Speaker 4: you know, it was an asset that I could sell
9:40
Speaker 4: and get the tax down, Like I can't do that.
9:43
Speaker 4: I actually have to pay every single dollar of this,
9:46
Speaker 4: and I don't have any choice. I'm glad they set
9:48
Speaker 4: you up on a payment plan, but even that if
9:51
Speaker 4: feels like a more serious payment plan than paying a
9:53
Speaker 4: bank about k.
9:55
Speaker 5: Absolutely, there's no flexibility, like you really need to pay
9:59
Speaker 5: that off every month, and like you said, there's no
10:02
Speaker 5: satisfaction at the end of it, it's just off. Now
10:04
Speaker 5: we're at zero great, so yeah.
10:08
Speaker 4: The worst and you know what, it happens to a
10:10
Speaker 4: lot of people. And that's why I'm so passionate about
10:14
Speaker 4: Like she's on the money stuff, and we obviously do
10:16
Speaker 4: the Business Bible because it is actually on you. And
10:20
Speaker 4: I know that you said, oh, there was an error
10:21
Speaker 4: in it, and like that could have come from anywhere,
10:23
Speaker 4: but it's just you need to be in a position
10:25
Speaker 4: where you can read.
10:26
Speaker 2: It too and go, actually, that's not quite right.
10:28
Speaker 4: Even if you didn't know how to submit all of
10:31
Speaker 4: your forms or you didn't know how to do a
10:32
Speaker 4: full tax return yourself. Like I want to put people
10:35
Speaker 4: in the position where they can look at a tax
10:37
Speaker 4: return form and go, oh, actually that doesn't add up,
10:40
Speaker 4: so that they don't end up in your situation because
10:43
Speaker 4: it's trash, Like that's not fun. You probably had a
10:46
Speaker 4: million and one other things that twenty eight grand could
10:48
Speaker 4: have gone towards, and unfortunately it didn't exactly.
10:52
Speaker 5: And that's why I'm so grateful for the podcast, because
10:55
Speaker 5: like before that, we were definitely like the kind of
10:58
Speaker 5: people who thought, Okay, let's just ignore that and hope
11:01
Speaker 5: it goes away. But the podcast has empowered me to,
11:05
Speaker 5: you know, just look at what's happening with our finances,
11:08
Speaker 5: and there's no secrets, there's no room for hiding. It
11:11
Speaker 5: is what it is, and the black and white is
11:13
Speaker 5: right in front of you. So now I have no
11:15
Speaker 5: issue looking through any of those documents and I just
11:17
Speaker 5: want to be informed about where we're at.
11:19
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that so much.
11:20
Speaker 4: It makes me genuinely so happy because I just look
11:24
Speaker 4: at it and go, all right, well, I've seen people
11:26
Speaker 4: in these situations where the tax thing has scared them
11:29
Speaker 4: off so much that they don't do subcontracting work anymore,
11:33
Speaker 4: or you know, they change roles, or they don't you know,
11:35
Speaker 4: pursue having their own small business anymore because they're like,
11:38
Speaker 4: I'm not smart enough or I'm not good enough, or
11:40
Speaker 4: I was too silly with it and I couldn't be responsible.
11:43
Speaker 2: When that's not the case at all. It's just about education.
11:45
Speaker 4: And I'm sure you know, now, money direst You just
11:48
Speaker 4: read through it and you have a look and you go, oh,
11:50
Speaker 4: that doesn't make sense. I'll do a bit more research
11:52
Speaker 4: as to what that means, but it actually is quite logical.
11:56
Speaker 4: You just have to be taught the language, and that's
11:58
Speaker 4: what we're trying to do with She's on them money
12:00
Speaker 4: is like, give you the tools so you can read
12:02
Speaker 4: something and go, oh, that that makes sense. One plus
12:04
Speaker 4: one equals two. No worry, so I can see. So
12:07
Speaker 4: tell me you said that you were very close to
12:09
Speaker 4: being debt free. What does that mean? How long have
12:11
Speaker 4: we got to go? And what does the journey after
12:13
Speaker 4: that look like?
12:15
Speaker 5: So we have almost paid off our car. We also
12:19
Speaker 5: had another tax bill after that, twenty eight thousand dollars
12:22
Speaker 5: one which was twelve thousand you know. We paid that
12:24
Speaker 5: off quite quickly as well, and then my husband had
12:28
Speaker 5: no work for six months, so that was really hard.
12:30
Speaker 5: We used up our savings to get through that time.
12:34
Speaker 5: So I feel like it has been like one thing
12:35
Speaker 5: after another. But we're finally in a place where we've
12:38
Speaker 5: moved out of my mum and dads now, and we
12:41
Speaker 5: are very very very close. I think within the next
12:44
Speaker 5: few weeks we'll have our car paid off, so we'll
12:46
Speaker 5: owe that.
12:46
Speaker 2: Anah, that's so exciting.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you.
12:50
Speaker 2: It feels like that though.
12:51
Speaker 4: Hey, when it rains, it pause like when one thing happens,
12:54
Speaker 4: I feel like it's a domino effect and you're like, Wow,
12:57
Speaker 4: this must just be an entire season of my life
13:00
Speaker 4: because it's one thing after another, and when it's money stuff.
13:03
Speaker 2: You're just like, can you give it a rest?
13:05
Speaker 4: Like I'm done with this, Like I'd like to just
13:07
Speaker 4: feel a little bit comfy for a little bit of time.
13:09
Speaker 5: Oh, definitely, can definitely relate.
13:11
Speaker 2: I want to know.
13:12
Speaker 4: Now you mentioned that you're still working, Tell me what
13:14
Speaker 4: do you do for work? How much money do you earn?
13:17
Speaker 5: So I am a teacher aid and currently I am
13:20
Speaker 5: just working casually. I went back to work in the
13:24
Speaker 5: middle of twenty twenty two. I was offered a contract
13:28
Speaker 5: three days a week and that was a lifesaver because
13:31
Speaker 5: that was the time when my husband wasn't working much
13:34
Speaker 5: and the last financial year, I think I earned just
13:38
Speaker 5: eighteen thousand. But this year I've decided to take a
13:41
Speaker 5: break because it's the last year before our beautiful sun
13:44
Speaker 5: goes off to prep So I just really want to
13:47
Speaker 5: have that time with him and have the flexibility to
13:50
Speaker 5: say yes or no to the work depending on what
13:53
Speaker 5: my family's needs are at the time. So very grateful
13:56
Speaker 5: for that.
13:57
Speaker 4: What will that look like? You mentioned that your son
13:59
Speaker 4: has special needs. What are they and what kind of
14:02
Speaker 4: financial impact does that have.
14:04
Speaker 5: Yeah, so our son has autism level three and EIGHTYHD
14:09
Speaker 5: and that has been a huge challenge for us. It's
14:13
Speaker 5: not what we plan for at all. I don't think
14:15
Speaker 5: anyone does. But he was diagnosed at a young age,
14:20
Speaker 5: so we were able to access NDIS funding really early on.
14:23
Speaker 5: We did pay out of pocket for therapies for a
14:26
Speaker 5: couple of months, which was obviously hard, but we knew
14:29
Speaker 5: he needed it and it was very beneficial. And now like,
14:33
Speaker 5: obviously all of his therapies and things like that are covered,
14:35
Speaker 5: which we're so grateful for. But I feel like the
14:38
Speaker 5: financial implications are more just the fact that I can't
14:41
Speaker 5: work full time. I can't even really commit to part
14:43
Speaker 5: time work at the moment because his needs are high
14:46
Speaker 5: and I need to be available for him if he's
14:49
Speaker 5: not able to go to Kindy that day or something
14:51
Speaker 5: like that, because some days he just needs to be
14:54
Speaker 5: at home in his safe space.
14:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's what I was going to stretch into.
14:59
Speaker 4: I was hoping that you would mention the impact on
15:01
Speaker 4: you not being able to work, and like, obviously that's
15:04
Speaker 4: a choice for a lot of families, but you seem
15:06
Speaker 4: motivated to want to work and get back into the
15:09
Speaker 4: community and do all this stuff. But obviously you're unable
15:12
Speaker 4: to what will that look like when he's at school
15:15
Speaker 4: or is that something that you just don't know yet.
15:18
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we definitely don't know. Luckily, he attends
15:21
Speaker 5: a program one day a week at the school where
15:24
Speaker 5: he'll be attending, and that's why we've moved is to
15:26
Speaker 5: be closer to that. So I'm very confident that he
15:28
Speaker 5: will settle in beautifully because he's kind of familiar with
15:31
Speaker 5: the environment.
15:32
Speaker 2: Oh that's so good.
15:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's amazing. So I'm really really hoping that once
15:37
Speaker 5: he settled into school next year, I can continue with
15:40
Speaker 5: my teacher aid work and we're just going to have
15:43
Speaker 5: to see how it goes, obviously, but we're in an
15:45
Speaker 5: area where there's a lot of local schools, so I
15:47
Speaker 5: think even if I just do casual for a while,
15:49
Speaker 5: that'll be fine too.
15:51
Speaker 2: Yeah. How good. I love that you've found something that
15:53
Speaker 2: fits in.
15:54
Speaker 4: And teachers aids are so undervalued, and I would argue
15:58
Speaker 4: very underpaid given how to work you end up doing,
16:01
Speaker 4: but I think that that's such a special role for
16:03
Speaker 4: someone in your position, where there's that level of flexibility,
16:07
Speaker 4: but also you probably have a level of empathy that
16:09
Speaker 4: not a lot of people do because you're going through
16:12
Speaker 4: a situation like you know how to deal with autism
16:15
Speaker 4: and ADHD and probably respond a lot better to those
16:19
Speaker 4: kids than someone who doesn't just have that first hand experience.
16:22
Speaker 4: So they're lucky to have you too.
16:24
Speaker 5: Oh, thank you. I love my job. It's amazing and yeah.
16:28
Speaker 2: It's so sweet.
16:29
Speaker 1: All right.
16:29
Speaker 4: I want to know what are your big money goals?
16:32
Speaker 4: What are you and your husband currently working towards.
16:35
Speaker 5: Well, obviously the first one is being completely debt free
16:37
Speaker 5: for the first time in our whole relationship. I think
16:40
Speaker 5: we'll just soap that in for a little bit.
16:42
Speaker 2: That's big.
16:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, are you planning to celebrate? Like, what will we
16:46
Speaker 4: do when we get out of debt? Surely there's something
16:49
Speaker 4: has to be.
16:49
Speaker 5: Well, I'm going to set aside five hundred dollars and
16:52
Speaker 5: I think we're going to just spend the day together,
16:54
Speaker 5: go out for a lovely lunch and do a little
16:56
Speaker 5: bit of shopping. And I feel like things like that.
16:59
Speaker 5: Last few years, every dollar's counted and we've had to
17:02
Speaker 5: be so careful. So I just want to day where
17:04
Speaker 5: we just do whatever we want and then get back
17:06
Speaker 5: on track with our goals.
17:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it, but you do have to celebrate
17:10
Speaker 4: these things. I think that they're so important to celebrate
17:12
Speaker 4: because it's kind of like a pivot point not only
17:15
Speaker 4: in your relationship, but in your financial journey. And you
17:18
Speaker 4: want to remember that. You want to be like, remember
17:20
Speaker 4: the time we got out of debt completely, Like that
17:22
Speaker 4: was special? Like that was cool? Yeah, definitely, And what
17:26
Speaker 4: else are you currently working towards apart from the debt
17:28
Speaker 4: free goal?
17:29
Speaker 5: So we would love to buy a property just to
17:32
Speaker 5: really help our son to have, you know, a home
17:34
Speaker 5: base that he can always come back to and where
17:37
Speaker 5: he feels safe and supported. And obviously we feel that
17:40
Speaker 5: home is where the heart is and we know wherever
17:42
Speaker 5: we move, he'll be okay because he's got us. But
17:45
Speaker 5: we would just love to have that for him where
17:47
Speaker 5: he can grow up and create memories. And one day,
17:51
Speaker 5: once we're in there, we would love to have a
17:53
Speaker 5: pool for him because water is his favorite thing in
17:56
Speaker 5: the world and I think that would just be amazing
18:00
Speaker 5: to have access to that every day.
18:02
Speaker 2: That would be so sweet. I love that.
18:04
Speaker 4: And I know that you're in Queensland, so having a
18:07
Speaker 4: pool in Queensland would be elite, Like I'm coming over
18:11
Speaker 4: one day. I want to ask about that because I
18:13
Speaker 4: feel so many of us in different stages of our lives,
18:16
Speaker 4: Like you might be quite young and you're like, I
18:18
Speaker 4: never want to own property?
18:20
Speaker 2: Was that you?
18:21
Speaker 4: And then just life has happened and pivoted and you're like, actually,
18:24
Speaker 4: that level of stability and that goal has now become
18:28
Speaker 4: quite attractive. Given our lives are very different to what
18:31
Speaker 4: they were when I was, you know, twenty two and
18:33
Speaker 4: didn't care so much about the property market, Like, at
18:36
Speaker 4: what point did you realize that was like, oh, actually
18:39
Speaker 4: we didn't want this, but now we do absolutely.
18:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, So we were definitely not interested in buying a home.
18:46
Speaker 5: We're kind of like why would we, Like, we can
18:48
Speaker 5: keep traveling, and after having our son, that was definitely
18:51
Speaker 5: a turning point. And I think also the obstacles we've
18:54
Speaker 5: faced over the last few years, we've realized how much
18:58
Speaker 5: we can achieve. I never thought could pay off you know,
19:01
Speaker 5: almost eighty thousand dollars of debt in a couple of years,
19:04
Speaker 5: but that's also shown me, Okay, well we can probably
19:07
Speaker 5: save that much.
19:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent.
19:11
Speaker 4: I love your mindset at the moment, because so many
19:13
Speaker 4: people get swallowed by debt and don't see it as
19:16
Speaker 4: an achievement. Like, don't get me wrong, being in debt
19:19
Speaker 4: it feels awful. But if you can create a plan
19:23
Speaker 4: and you go you know, before you mentioned your tax debt,
19:25
Speaker 4: you had to pay eight hundred dollars a month off, Like,
19:28
Speaker 4: if you can create that type of plan, the second
19:32
Speaker 4: that's paid off, if you can consistently contribute that to
19:35
Speaker 4: now a savings account, like that all becomes yours instead
19:38
Speaker 4: of it becoming the taxman's, instead of it becoming a
19:41
Speaker 4: debt repayment. It's now your money to create financial freedom with.
19:45
Speaker 4: And I think it's so much easier. And you know,
19:49
Speaker 4: people aren't going to like to hear this, but once
19:50
Speaker 4: you've been in debt and you've seen how much actually
19:54
Speaker 4: goes out and you go fire out, twenty eight thousand
19:55
Speaker 4: dollars is so much money, and then you realize I
19:59
Speaker 4: could create that for myself. I feel like there's a
20:01
Speaker 4: really powerful turning point for us where we go, actually,
20:05
Speaker 4: I'm going to get out of debt and I am
20:07
Speaker 4: going to turn all of this around. And some of
20:10
Speaker 4: the most incredible journeys I've seen have been from people
20:13
Speaker 4: who have been in debt to people who are now
20:15
Speaker 4: investors or now owning property or you know, absolutely killing
20:19
Speaker 4: it financially because they know what it's like to be
20:21
Speaker 4: on the other end of the scale and they just
20:23
Speaker 4: go never again and they just have this deeper level
20:26
Speaker 4: of motivation. Do you think that's going to be you guys?
20:29
Speaker 5: Absolutely?
20:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.
20:30
Speaker 5: It's created big motivation for us to work out what
20:33
Speaker 5: we want to do. And it's been, like you said,
20:36
Speaker 5: very empowering to know that we can achieve our goals
20:40
Speaker 5: and to just put that into action, make it practical
20:42
Speaker 5: and make it happen.
20:43
Speaker 2: I love it.
20:43
Speaker 4: All right, let's go to a really quick break and
20:45
Speaker 4: on the flip side, I've got a lot of questions
20:47
Speaker 4: for you, So guys, don't go anywhere, all right, money dirist,
20:55
Speaker 4: We are back and I want to talk about investments.
20:57
Speaker 4: Do you have any If you don't, what's the plan
21:00
Speaker 4: for the future.
21:01
Speaker 5: So at the moment, I have between four and five
21:04
Speaker 5: thousand in my super and I have four hundred dollars
21:10
Speaker 5: in Charez eas so I just kind of contribute a
21:12
Speaker 5: little bit each week to that, which is exciting.
21:15
Speaker 4: I love that you're on this journey, but you're also
21:17
Speaker 4: like no and prioritizing investing. Tell me why you picked
21:20
Speaker 4: Chazi's and I guess how you got started. Did you
21:23
Speaker 4: just put some.
21:24
Speaker 2: Cash on there? And then how did you pick which investments.
21:26
Speaker 4: I feel like that's the biggest question from our community
21:29
Speaker 4: at the moment.
21:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm still definitely working it out how to choose
21:34
Speaker 5: wisely and all of those things. But I think just
21:36
Speaker 5: listening to the podcast, obviously chazys is mentioned a lot,
21:39
Speaker 5: and having access to the free ten dollars, I was like,
21:43
Speaker 5: I'm not going to turn away free money.
21:45
Speaker 2: It's free money. Hey, yeah, yeah, exactly.
21:48
Speaker 5: So I did that and I just kind of thought, oh,
21:50
Speaker 5: let's just have a look and you know, if it
21:52
Speaker 5: goes nowhere, it's okay, it's ten dollars.
21:54
Speaker 2: So yeah, and it was free ten dollars.
21:56
Speaker 5: Obviously not super educated in this at all, but I
21:59
Speaker 5: get little dividends paid back into my account from certain
22:03
Speaker 5: ones that I've invested in, So you know, at the moment,
22:06
Speaker 5: it's not the right time in our life for me
22:08
Speaker 5: to be putting a lot into that, but I'm like, Okay,
22:10
Speaker 5: I can see this actually works. I've learned from the
22:13
Speaker 5: podcast that you know, if I just keep my money
22:15
Speaker 5: in there, just keep chipping away at it, popping what
22:17
Speaker 5: we can afford in each week, it will grow and
22:20
Speaker 5: I'll have something to show for it in the future.
22:23
Speaker 4: Yes, I love that, and I feel like sometimes people
22:25
Speaker 4: just go, oh, it's not worth it. I don't have
22:28
Speaker 4: heaps and heaps of money, but you can see that
22:30
Speaker 4: you've learned the process, you've learned the plan, you've seen
22:33
Speaker 4: the dividends, and it kind of proves to you that
22:36
Speaker 4: it's possible.
22:37
Speaker 2: And that you can do it.
22:38
Speaker 4: You don't need to be, you know, a stockbreaking genius
22:41
Speaker 4: to be able to jump in on the action. You
22:42
Speaker 4: can just go all right, this works, and at some
22:45
Speaker 4: point in your life you can turn that up.
22:47
Speaker 2: But I'm sure that'll be after you buy property. But
22:49
Speaker 2: that's so exciting.
22:50
Speaker 4: I'm glad I asked about it because it's just very
22:53
Speaker 4: relatable to be.
22:53
Speaker 2: At that stage.
22:54
Speaker 5: Yes, definitely.
22:56
Speaker 2: Next question I have is how much debt are you
22:58
Speaker 2: still in? What does that look like? And do you
23:01
Speaker 2: have any other debts floating around?
23:03
Speaker 5: So we have no other debts apart from the car loan,
23:06
Speaker 5: and we've got ten thousand dollars owing on that and
23:09
Speaker 5: that is due to finish dune next year, so when
23:13
Speaker 5: we pay it off, we'll be paying it off about
23:15
Speaker 5: a year early.
23:16
Speaker 2: Oh exciting.
23:17
Speaker 4: Congrats And how did you end up paying it off early?
23:20
Speaker 4: Are you just smashing down the debt or is that
23:23
Speaker 4: just part of the plan, Like, how did you decide,
23:25
Speaker 4: all right.
23:26
Speaker 2: We're going to get rid of this before the time
23:28
Speaker 2: is up.
23:29
Speaker 5: We have just been saving. We haven't done extra payments
23:33
Speaker 5: just because it was a little bit tricky with the
23:34
Speaker 5: way the loan is set up. So we've just made
23:37
Speaker 5: extra payments into our savings account that we will just
23:40
Speaker 5: do one final payment very soon and just finish that off.
23:43
Speaker 1: Ah.
23:44
Speaker 2: How exciting.
23:45
Speaker 4: All right, you have gone from being eighty thousand dollars
23:48
Speaker 4: in debt to now only ten thousand dollars, but with
23:51
Speaker 4: a plan to get rid of it. What do you
23:53
Speaker 4: think your best money habit is? We need to learn
23:55
Speaker 4: from you, my friend.
23:58
Speaker 5: So I would say my best man habit is, I'm
24:02
Speaker 5: really good at budgeting, and you know, I know what's
24:05
Speaker 5: coming in and coming out at any given time of
24:08
Speaker 5: the week or whatever. So I have a you know,
24:10
Speaker 5: general budget that we stick to. But I always check
24:14
Speaker 5: each week, you know, do we have something extra? Do
24:16
Speaker 5: we have a wedding coming up? That I need to
24:17
Speaker 5: put aside money for a gift for whatever. So I
24:20
Speaker 5: do have a lot of different accounts, like we've got
24:22
Speaker 5: gift fund, regio fund, all different accounts like that. But
24:26
Speaker 5: for me, it's just so good to have it all
24:29
Speaker 5: separated and I can see what we've got for each
24:32
Speaker 5: necessary item.
24:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so exciting. I love budgeting as well.
24:36
Speaker 4: I am biased, but I would say that's one of
24:39
Speaker 4: my best skills because it's automated. Do you automate your
24:42
Speaker 4: budget or is this something that you go in and
24:45
Speaker 4: manually change things and flip them around? Like what does
24:48
Speaker 4: that budgeting process look like?
24:50
Speaker 5: I don't automate it. I probably could. I like to
24:53
Speaker 5: just do it myself and know it's done correctly. Though.
24:56
Speaker 2: Oh that's definitely a thing. That's good.
24:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I just go through, you know, when the
25:02
Speaker 5: pay comes in, I'm like, okay, cool, let's distribute those
25:06
Speaker 5: necessary funds to those accounts.
25:08
Speaker 4: So yeah, no, it makes absolute sense. Flipping the narrative though,
25:12
Speaker 4: what's your worst money habit?
25:14
Speaker 5: So I asked my husband this because I wasn't sure
25:18
Speaker 5: what to say, and he answered very quickly that I
25:22
Speaker 5: definitely don't treat myself enough. That's been a bit of
25:25
Speaker 5: an issue for us.
25:26
Speaker 2: Oh what a honey.
25:29
Speaker 5: He's always saying, like, just go and get your nails done,
25:31
Speaker 5: just do this. But I think I definitely have a
25:33
Speaker 5: little bit of an obsessive personality. And I'm like, no,
25:36
Speaker 5: I either do it every week or I don't do
25:39
Speaker 5: it at all, Like I'm either budgeting for this or
25:40
Speaker 5: I'm not.
25:41
Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm like that. I'm an all in kind
25:44
Speaker 4: of girly like it's all or nothing for me. Like
25:46
Speaker 4: if I am getting my lashes done, I'm getting them
25:49
Speaker 4: every two weeks and we are committed to.
25:51
Speaker 2: The cause I don't want them one off.
25:53
Speaker 4: Because I feel like I'll get used to them, Like
25:55
Speaker 4: if I budgeted just once, I'll be like, well now
25:58
Speaker 4: I don't want to get rid of them, like if
25:59
Speaker 4: I can't thought it ongoing, like I can't afford it
26:01
Speaker 4: because I can't afford it mentally to be taken off me.
26:05
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm the same, like it's easier to not do
26:07
Speaker 5: it than to miss out one time.
26:09
Speaker 2: Yep, No, I agree.
26:10
Speaker 4: It's so silly though, hey, because you're like, oh, but
26:13
Speaker 4: like getting your nails done once should be a little
26:15
Speaker 4: treaty treat exactly.
26:18
Speaker 5: So yeah, that's definitely my worst money habit. I think
26:21
Speaker 5: I still stress. I still have that scarcity mindset of
26:24
Speaker 5: oh my goodness, like there's a bit of trauma bay,
26:26
Speaker 5: I think from what we've gone through. So yeah, I
26:28
Speaker 5: think I still think, oh no, we're going to get
26:30
Speaker 5: another tax bill, but it's all done. My husband has
26:32
Speaker 5: a wager's job now, so it's not going to happen.
26:35
Speaker 4: Oh okay, So that really takes the pressure off, especially
26:38
Speaker 4: that side of things. And also the stability is probably
26:42
Speaker 4: very attractive. Hey oh yes, definitely, subcontracting can be quite
26:47
Speaker 4: tough because albeit really good rates, it's not consistent.
26:52
Speaker 5: Yes, exactly, like he was earning such good money, but
26:56
Speaker 5: I would prefer a consistent pay each week any day. Then, yeah,
26:59
Speaker 5: you sporadic.
27:00
Speaker 4: Payments well literally, all right, money dives. At the very
27:04
Speaker 4: start of the show, you said you thought you're a
27:06
Speaker 4: B minus and I'm hearing a lot about how good
27:09
Speaker 4: you are with money and you're smashing down debt and
27:12
Speaker 4: like basically being a queen juggling family life and work
27:16
Speaker 4: and your husband's work and everything else in between. Do
27:19
Speaker 4: you still think you're a B minus? If so, why,
27:22
Speaker 4: if not, what do you think you are now?
27:24
Speaker 5: Look, I probably could be a little bit more generous
27:28
Speaker 5: with myself. I think I'm definitely in the B range. Like,
27:31
Speaker 5: I'm still working on getting our budget to the best
27:34
Speaker 5: it can be, so you know, I feel like we've
27:36
Speaker 5: got a bit more room for improvement, and I think,
27:39
Speaker 5: you know, what we've achieved has been amazing. But I
27:41
Speaker 5: think once we get to that next stage and I
27:43
Speaker 5: can see that we're able to say, for a home
27:45
Speaker 5: and pay a deposit, then I'll definitely put myself up
27:48
Speaker 5: into that A range.
27:50
Speaker 2: I love it well.
27:50
Speaker 4: I can take you immediately to at least a B plus,
27:53
Speaker 4: maybe an A minus because I'm going to give you
27:56
Speaker 4: my money masterclass.
27:57
Speaker 2: You've said a couple of times that you want.
27:58
Speaker 4: To just get a little bit more on top of
28:00
Speaker 4: your budgeting, and like, I don't mean to be biased,
28:03
Speaker 4: but I'm pretty good at it, and it made a
28:05
Speaker 4: whole money masterclass so that I can basically do it
28:07
Speaker 4: for you. And if you love a spreadsheet, this one
28:10
Speaker 4: is all automated for you and then obviously has a
28:12
Speaker 4: whole heap of like videos to get back on top
28:15
Speaker 4: of it.
28:15
Speaker 2: And at this.
28:16
Speaker 4: Point, I feel like they might be really constructive for
28:19
Speaker 4: you and your husband to sit down and do because
28:21
Speaker 4: it goes through a lot about like money stories and
28:23
Speaker 4: money mindsets, so that this next chapter of your money
28:27
Speaker 4: life can be, you know, starting exactly on the same
28:30
Speaker 4: page and maybe having deeper discussions about you know, where
28:33
Speaker 4: he's come from, because you mentioned before he moves countries twice,
28:37
Speaker 4: and you know you're meeting in the middle. I reckon
28:39
Speaker 4: we could make that middle a little bit clearer so
28:41
Speaker 4: that you can both be super excited for the next
28:44
Speaker 4: chapter ahead. So I'm going to give that to you
28:46
Speaker 4: because I just think it's gonna help.
28:48
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. I'm so excited.
28:50
Speaker 4: Well, after the show, I'm gonna slip into your emails
28:53
Speaker 4: and make sure all of that is set up. But
28:56
Speaker 4: I'm excited that you think that you're on the way
28:58
Speaker 4: and that we are both on the same page. But Moneys, unfortunately,
29:02
Speaker 4: that is all we have time for today. It has
29:04
Speaker 4: been an absolute pleasure getting to know you. And as
29:07
Speaker 4: I said at the very start, before we even started recording,
29:10
Speaker 4: you just look so familiar and you sound so familiar.
29:13
Speaker 2: So I am convinced.
29:14
Speaker 4: We've cross paths before, but I know the community is
29:17
Speaker 4: going to love your story as much as I have
29:19
Speaker 4: loved hearing it, so thank you so much for sharing it.
29:21
Speaker 2: It has been an absolute pleasure.
29:23
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
29:34
Speaker 4: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
29:36
Speaker 4: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
29:40
Speaker 4: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
29:44
Speaker 4: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
29:47
Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read.
29:50
Speaker 4: The PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
29:54
Speaker 4: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
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