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MONEY DIARIES: A Total Game Changer! · 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 Kerney 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. She's on
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Speaker 2: the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money,
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Speaker 2: the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back
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Speaker 2: to another one of our money diaries where I get
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Speaker 2: the privilege of talking to one of our incredible She's
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Speaker 2: on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's
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Speaker 2: jump straight into it, because this week I got a
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Speaker 2: message that went like this, Hi Ve, I'm a Torres
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Speaker 2: Strait Islander woman who is twenty nine years old with
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Speaker 2: two kids. I was a single mum at twenty three
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Speaker 2: years old after my ex left me eight months pregnant
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Speaker 2: and I had to pay our mortgage. I'm now in
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Speaker 2: the final year of my doctor of medicine. My income
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Speaker 2: comes from scholarships and tutoring. I have a new side
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Speaker 2: hustle making med students notes that I sell on Etsy,
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Speaker 2: and I'm saving for my wedding to my beautiful five
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Speaker 2: fo fiance. Money Diarist, What how good is that you
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Speaker 2: just like sell your med notes? Yeah, yeah, your genius.
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Speaker 2: I used to do that, like, not med notes. I
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Speaker 2: never did med school like, so that would make no sense.
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Speaker 2: But I used to photocopy my notes and sell them
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Speaker 2: at UNI. What are you doing just taking this to
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Speaker 2: the fiftieth level by selling them online?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I use Canva. So I guess medical notes.
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Speaker 3: I guess there's a lot of similarities between a lot
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Speaker 3: of the unis and Australia and overseas and stuff where
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Speaker 3: I guess, you know, we get kind of given, you know,
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Speaker 3: information about like things we need to ask patients for
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Speaker 3: specific problems, and so usually the UNI will just give
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Speaker 3: you like a PDF. It's just like a table and
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Speaker 3: it's really just boring and ugly, not that sexy. No,
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Speaker 3: And you basically have to memorize this and then you know,
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Speaker 3: in your kind of exams, your clinical like tests and stuff,
2:37
Speaker 3: you basically have to memorize that whole thing and ask,
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Speaker 3: you know, the patients those questions. Like, my undergrad was
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Speaker 3: in arts, so I did sociology and international studies, so
2:50
Speaker 3: I kind of identify a little bit artsy. And yeah,
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Speaker 3: I just figured like I'm a very visual learner, and
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Speaker 3: if I was able to see these kind of like
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Speaker 3: summaries of histories and physical examinations right in front of
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Speaker 3: me that were like color coded and super pretty, like,
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Speaker 3: it would be really good for my recall.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you're a genius.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, So I started making those. I just launched last week.
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Speaker 3: I've made about one hundred dollars so far.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, money weed.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it would like force you to study to
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Speaker 2: put it in the best possible format to themselves, so
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Speaker 2: you're like business making and studying at the same time.
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Speaker 2: You're an actual genius.
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Speaker 3: Yes, I use it as like a form of meditation
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Speaker 3: as well. Like I have a very full on life,
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Speaker 3: so when my partner's not here, when he's away at work,
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Speaker 3: I kind of use it as kind of like a
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Speaker 3: meditative practice. But I'm also studying at the same.
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Speaker 2: Time, I'm obsessed. A week on Etsy and you've made
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Speaker 2: a hundred bucks. That is actually really really good. That
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Speaker 2: never happens.
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Speaker 3: I know nothing about business. I know nothing about any
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Speaker 3: of that, so I'm kind of stumbling my way through.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I am obsessed with that. I feel
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Speaker 2: like that is such a good way of sharing content
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Speaker 2: as well. I love it. I can't say that any
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Speaker 2: of the notes that I wrote were that esthetic, like
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Speaker 2: they were literal photocopies, but that's okay. I had a
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Speaker 2: little loyal client base and I no longer serve them.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well, hopefully this can be kind of like
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Speaker 3: a long term.
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Speaker 2: Yeah it's yeah, you pop it out. I feel like
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Speaker 2: it's is so underrated. Do you know how many times
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Speaker 2: I've looked at it and gone, you know, what, I
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Speaker 2: should be putting finance content on there, because our community
4:32
Speaker 2: are always asking me for like saving hacks and templates
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Speaker 2: and whatnot, and it just makes no sense for me
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Speaker 2: at this point in my life to be making those
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Speaker 2: and sitting down and going okay, like cause I just
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Speaker 2: don't have time, Like I don't have time, and if
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Speaker 2: I pop it on the website for free, Like it
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Speaker 2: doesn't get that much traction because we don't like market
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Speaker 2: it or anything. And the amount of times I get
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Speaker 2: messages from people then I'm like, oh my god, I
4:54
Speaker 2: didn't realize you had free budget tenplates on your website, which,
4:57
Speaker 2: by the way, free budget templates, there are saving hacks.
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Speaker 2: There are heaps of free things on our website. But like,
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Speaker 2: we don't market it. Why would we do that. I'm silly.
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Speaker 2: I'm not good at this.
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Speaker 3: I offer my resources free to abridge Ontosure and the
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Speaker 3: medical students.
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Speaker 2: Also, you're like the most wholesome person in the entire world.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's been difficult for me throughout med
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Speaker 3: school and so.
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Speaker 2: You know, we just want to help people in own community.
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Speaker 3: That's right, That's what it's all about. Oh love.
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Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's get into a money diary because
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Speaker 2: I want to ask you more about the financial side
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Speaker 2: of things really really soon. But let's start the way
5:30
Speaker 2: we always start a money diary. If I asked you
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Speaker 2: to grade your habits from an A through to an F,
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Speaker 2: what do you think they would be?
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Speaker 3: So this year I would say probably like a B
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Speaker 3: compared to the rest of my life. So I feel
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Speaker 3: like I've exponentially improved in the last jilt.
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Speaker 2: So good. Oh my gosh. All right, let's get into it.
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Speaker 2: Money diarist, I want to know this is my favorite question.
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Speaker 2: Can you tell me a little bit more about your
6:00
Speaker 2: money story.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. So I am a Torres Strait Allander woman. I
6:03
Speaker 3: grew up in Darwin. Both my parents, one of them
6:07
Speaker 3: finished high school, the other one didn't. I guess they
6:10
Speaker 3: were kind of told like they need to get a
6:12
Speaker 3: job as soon as possible to kind of, you know,
6:16
Speaker 3: make a family, things like that, and so my parents
6:19
Speaker 3: kind of didn't go to university. A lot of people
6:21
Speaker 3: in my family didn't go to university. I guess we
6:24
Speaker 3: were all kind of just told, like, just get a
6:27
Speaker 3: job in the government. You'll be safe, you'll have a
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Speaker 3: solid income, and everything will be you know, everything will
6:33
Speaker 3: be great. You'll be set up for the rest of
6:34
Speaker 3: your life. However, that kind of changed a little bit
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Speaker 3: when I was quite young. My dad got diagnosed with
6:42
Speaker 3: like a very severe psychological illness which put him out
6:46
Speaker 3: of the workforce, so he could no longer work and
6:50
Speaker 3: was on a disability pension. And my mum kind of
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Speaker 3: was like the main breadwinner. She worked like two or
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Speaker 3: three jobs, which it was insane. Yeah, Like I think
7:00
Speaker 3: about it now and I'm just like, what on earth
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Speaker 3: are you? Like, what were you doing?
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Speaker 2: I'm not not to spoil the story, but now that
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Speaker 2: you're a mum, do you now go, Mum, what the hell?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
7:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, like how did you balance this?
7:12
Speaker 3: Yeah? And you know, the reality was was that she didn't,
7:16
Speaker 3: you know, like it was very difficult and so yeah,
7:20
Speaker 3: like she kind of was doing so many things. So
7:24
Speaker 3: it was kind of like this parallel where she was
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Speaker 3: super super tight with money and my dad was kind
7:31
Speaker 3: of a little bit like I wasn't sure if he
7:35
Speaker 3: ever contributed to the bills or anything like that with
7:37
Speaker 3: his pension, but he was the kind of one where
7:40
Speaker 3: like if we wanted like a Maca's ice cream or
7:43
Speaker 3: something like, he would buy it for us, you know.
7:46
Speaker 3: Or you know, if we wanted to go to the
7:49
Speaker 3: movies or something, you know, he would buy it for us.
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Speaker 3: So I kind of grew up with those two parallels,
7:55
Speaker 3: and I was, I guess, kind of encouraged to start
8:00
Speaker 3: work early. So I started working at a part time
8:02
Speaker 3: job when I was twelve years old, which is like,
8:04
Speaker 3: you know, back then, I don't think there were any
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Speaker 3: laws about how old you could be when you worked.
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Speaker 3: So I was twelve.
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Speaker 2: You look very young. You're only twenty nine. So no,
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Speaker 2: they're definitely laws. But I'm going to make some grand
8:16
Speaker 2: assumptions here, my friend, you paid in cash, weren't you?
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Speaker 3: No, I wasn't. It was all yeah, it was all
8:22
Speaker 3: on the books. I was paid super yeah, twelve. Yeah,
8:27
Speaker 3: I'm impressed.
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Speaker 2: Honestly, I'm very impressed.
8:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I don't know if they're Yeah. So anyway,
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Speaker 3: that was and I got like six dollars fifty an
8:35
Speaker 3: hour or something. So I started working when I was twelve,
8:39
Speaker 3: in like part time jobs, and I guess kind of
8:42
Speaker 3: growing up, you know, we didn't have a lot, Like
8:44
Speaker 3: my parents had to default on their home loan, so
8:47
Speaker 3: we you know, we're just moving rentals every year, and
8:51
Speaker 3: so you know, we got the bare minimum, and you know,
8:55
Speaker 3: we got food on the table, and there wasn't really
8:58
Speaker 3: kind of anything that I didn't get. So there wasn't
9:04
Speaker 3: like this energy, like the vibe that I you know,
9:08
Speaker 3: was poor or anything like that, but it was just
9:11
Speaker 3: kind of like, oh, we just don't spend the money
9:13
Speaker 3: on a lot of things, right, So when I started working,
9:16
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, I'm so rich, Like
9:18
Speaker 3: I have all this money. And the only thing I
9:21
Speaker 3: guess that was told to me from my mom. She
9:23
Speaker 3: had to be very strict with her money. It was
9:25
Speaker 3: just like, you just need to save your money. Like
9:27
Speaker 3: that was kind of the extent of my financial education.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, what do I do?
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Speaker 1: Mom?
9:32
Speaker 2: Yep, just say that You'll be fine.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, And so what did I do? I spent all
9:37
Speaker 3: of it.
9:37
Speaker 1: Yeah.
9:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, you come across as someone who I can relate to.
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Speaker 2: My dad also told me to save all my money,
9:43
Speaker 2: but I didn't listen. No, I'm much smarter than an accountant.
9:48
Speaker 2: When I was fourteen years old and nine months.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, well like yeah, like I kind of you know,
9:54
Speaker 3: like there were these like cool like custom shoes that
9:58
Speaker 3: were at City Beach that were like super pop. There
10:00
Speaker 3: were like eighty bucks, which is just ridiculous for that time,
10:03
Speaker 3: like when I was that age. Yeah, like my parents
10:06
Speaker 3: could not afford that, and so I was just like,
10:09
Speaker 3: you know, earning maybe one hundred dollars of week or
10:13
Speaker 3: a fortnight or something, and then like straight away I'll
10:15
Speaker 3: be like I'm getting these new shoes, I'm getting this,
10:17
Speaker 3: I'm getting that, and I didn't save any of.
10:20
Speaker 2: It, and then absolutely not any context, Like it makes
10:24
Speaker 2: no sense. Like looking back, you're like, eighty dollars, Like
10:27
Speaker 2: that is so much money when you're earning six dollars
10:30
Speaker 2: fifty an hour, Like if you do some quick colts,
10:33
Speaker 2: that's twelve hours of work that you did for a
10:37
Speaker 2: pair of shoes. Yeah, but at the time they were
10:39
Speaker 2: real cool shoes, weren't they.
10:41
Speaker 3: Yeah they were. Like even now at twenty nine years old,
10:43
Speaker 3: I'm like, would I pay eighty dollars for shoes? Like
10:46
Speaker 3: maybe maybe not, But that was just really interesting. And
10:50
Speaker 3: then I guess kind of, you know, I kind of
10:52
Speaker 3: went through a few different part time jobs, like various
10:55
Speaker 3: kind of retail outlets, which was great. And afterwards, at sixteen,
11:01
Speaker 3: my my dad passed away, and so that was kind
11:05
Speaker 3: of like a very difficult time for a teenager and
11:10
Speaker 3: for you know, my mum, who was like the sole
11:12
Speaker 3: supporter of our family. My dad, I guess, you know,
11:16
Speaker 3: he didn't really have any insurances or anything like that,
11:20
Speaker 3: so we kind of had to rely on family to
11:23
Speaker 3: try and support us financially for a little bit and
11:27
Speaker 3: to support like the funeral costs and all these things.
11:30
Speaker 3: And I guess at the time, I was just kind
11:32
Speaker 3: of like, oh, you know, that sucks, you know, But
11:35
Speaker 3: now I'm like, oh, you know, I wish he kind
11:37
Speaker 3: of knew a little bit more about that, you know.
11:40
Speaker 3: And then, yeah, I guess around that time it was
11:44
Speaker 3: the first time that I was broken up with.
11:47
Speaker 2: Well, so you were heartbroken as well.
11:50
Speaker 3: I was absolutely heartbroken by my boyfriend of like, I
11:53
Speaker 3: don't know, three months.
11:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you're in love after three months.
11:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I distinctively remember to this day just being so
12:01
Speaker 3: like heartbroken and like not knowing what to do with myself.
12:04
Speaker 3: So I just kind of went to my bank. You know,
12:06
Speaker 3: back then internet banking didn't exist.
12:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course you have to go down to the bank.
12:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. I went to my bank and I took out
12:11
Speaker 3: like two hundred dollars, which was like my entirety of
12:14
Speaker 3: my savings, and I just shopped until I dropped.
12:17
Speaker 2: Oh my god, emotional spending.
12:20
Speaker 3: That's been my life until like two or three years ago.
12:24
Speaker 2: Oh we just kept that up, did we?
12:26
Speaker 3: Yeah? We did?
12:27
Speaker 2: Oh? Good?
12:27
Speaker 3: Yeah?
12:27
Speaker 1: Good?
12:28
Speaker 2: Yeah. At least did you enjoy it? Did you get
12:30
Speaker 2: some more good shoes?
12:31
Speaker 3: I mean at the time, yeah, it was great fun.
12:34
Speaker 2: We've just got to live and learn through these things. Honestly,
12:36
Speaker 2: there's no point holding any shame about parts of our
12:40
Speaker 2: money story because what does that do for us? Literally nothing?
12:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. I feel like I went through like trial
12:46
Speaker 3: by fire though when it came to my finances.
12:49
Speaker 1: Yeah.
12:49
Speaker 2: Wow.
12:50
Speaker 3: And then I kind of, you know, after losing my dad,
12:54
Speaker 3: I transferred to a new school and I kind of
12:57
Speaker 3: I want a scholarship to go there. It was one
12:59
Speaker 3: of the best private schools in Duhwin, and so I
13:02
Speaker 3: went there, and you know, I just decided that even
13:05
Speaker 3: though I was a good student, that I was just
13:08
Speaker 3: not gonna, you know, be that involved in class and
13:14
Speaker 3: things like that. And I kind of like, you know,
13:18
Speaker 3: decided that, like by then, I had my car and
13:22
Speaker 3: my pea plates, you know, because in dah And back
13:25
Speaker 3: then you could get it at like sixteen years and
13:27
Speaker 3: six months you could get your pea plates.
13:29
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Really I had to wait till eighteen.
13:32
Speaker 2: Down in Victoria, they were very strict on there. So
13:35
Speaker 2: I used to think it was a joke, but that
13:36
Speaker 2: is okay.
13:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely what I see now in the hospital.
13:40
Speaker 3: It's definitely appropriate.
13:42
Speaker 2: I was about to say it's a good idea.
13:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I kind of just rocked after school whenever
13:46
Speaker 3: I felt like it. A lot of my friends had
13:48
Speaker 3: already dropped out to do kind of like apprenticeships or
13:51
Speaker 3: go work in government, and I was very close to
13:54
Speaker 3: doing that as well, but I can't remember why. I
13:57
Speaker 3: just decided that I wasn't going to do it. And then,
14:00
Speaker 3: you know, one day I kind of just you know,
14:02
Speaker 3: walked out of class and I was like, I don't
14:04
Speaker 3: like this school. I don't like that one anymore, Like
14:06
Speaker 3: it was just getting a bit too much for me,
14:09
Speaker 3: and so I just decided I was going to go
14:10
Speaker 3: to boarding school.
14:11
Speaker 2: You're going to boarding school?
14:13
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah?
14:13
Speaker 2: With who's money? Who was who was funding that one?
14:16
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, No one's no one, No one could fund
14:19
Speaker 3: it for me. So I kind of just I found
14:23
Speaker 3: some boarding schools down South that looked good. I kind
14:26
Speaker 3: of just typed in like boarding schools South Australia, and
14:28
Speaker 3: then the first one I just called up and I
14:30
Speaker 3: was like, Hey, I'm like keen to come to your school, like,
14:34
Speaker 3: you know, can I talk to your principal?
14:35
Speaker 2: Like they's just free straight to the top, babe.
14:38
Speaker 3: I was seventeen. I just there was no fear. I
14:40
Speaker 3: was just like, can I just have chat?
14:41
Speaker 2: And they allowed that and they were like, oh, yeah,
14:43
Speaker 2: he's free. Let's like let's just yeah quick, like, oh
14:46
Speaker 2: he's free, yeah, okay, and then what happened? You've got
14:48
Speaker 2: to tell the whole story here my friend.
14:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then I kind of just like spoke to him.
14:53
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, hey, like I'm year eleven student
14:56
Speaker 3: in Darwin, Like I really want to attend your boarding
14:59
Speaker 3: school down South, Like I really at the time, I
15:02
Speaker 3: wanted to be a lawyer. I was doing legal studies.
15:05
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed it. And I was like, you know,
15:07
Speaker 3: I just don't think that if I stay here, I'm
15:09
Speaker 3: going to get the grades that I want to be
15:12
Speaker 3: able to get into law. And he was like okay.
15:15
Speaker 3: And then it just so happened that, like you know,
15:18
Speaker 3: a lot of the boarding schools down South they go
15:21
Speaker 3: to kind of like rule remote areas to try and
15:23
Speaker 3: like get interest in boarding and things like that, and
15:27
Speaker 3: so he was like, oh, we're actually coming up to
15:30
Speaker 3: Darwin like next week, Like why do we? I was
15:32
Speaker 3: like sweet, And then we kind of went through the interview,
15:35
Speaker 3: you know, he was like, you know, like why do
15:38
Speaker 3: you want to be a lawyer, why do you want
15:39
Speaker 3: to come down south? Blah blah blah. And you know,
15:42
Speaker 3: I was just like a very good talker, which is
15:43
Speaker 3: why I wanted to be a lawyer. And he was like, well,
15:46
Speaker 3: we'd love to have you at our school. And I
15:48
Speaker 3: was like, so, my mom is a single mom. She
15:51
Speaker 3: can't afford it. She's on like fifty k year Yeah. Wow,
15:57
Speaker 3: Like she just can't afford your like forty k year
15:59
Speaker 3: feet Yeah, that's not going to happen. Yeah. And he
16:02
Speaker 3: was like, oh, look like leave it with me and
16:04
Speaker 3: I'll like get back to you. This was like a
16:05
Speaker 3: couple of months before the next school year started, and
16:08
Speaker 3: then he kind of like called my mom up the
16:11
Speaker 3: following week and he was like, oh, hey, like I
16:13
Speaker 3: found like one of our previous students or like I'm
16:17
Speaker 3: an old scholar, like has their own scholarship fund and
16:20
Speaker 3: they'd be really happy to like pay for her to
16:23
Speaker 3: come down and study for a year twelve what and
16:26
Speaker 3: like pay for boarding as well.
16:28
Speaker 2: And then it all just happened.
16:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it was just amazing.
16:32
Speaker 2: Baby. You was like, what do you mean that private
16:34
Speaker 2: schools are restrictive? I'll be going to one. I actually,
16:37
Speaker 2: you know what, I'll just pick one. Whichever one I want,
16:40
Speaker 2: we'll be going there.
16:41
Speaker 3: I actually picked this one because it was the first
16:43
Speaker 3: co ed school on the list, So.
16:45
Speaker 2: Oh well, yeah, were they're boys there. Obviously you don't
16:49
Speaker 2: want to just go to an all girls school if
16:50
Speaker 2: you're planning your own life.
16:51
Speaker 3: Out right, No, So I was like, you know, I
16:54
Speaker 3: gotta keep my options open.
16:56
Speaker 2: And she's a genius. Yeah, the devil works hard, but
17:00
Speaker 2: this money darist, she works harder. Guys.
17:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I absolutely loved it, Like it was just
17:07
Speaker 3: I came down, I was getting really good grades. You know,
17:11
Speaker 3: the teachers were super supportive. I had a lot of
17:13
Speaker 3: tutoring support that the boarding house provided to me, and
17:18
Speaker 3: it just was just such a change from being you know,
17:21
Speaker 3: in a rural place and coming to a different kind
17:23
Speaker 3: of environment where you know, I guess they were just
17:27
Speaker 3: so encouraging and like, yeah, you can do it, and
17:31
Speaker 3: you know, I just hadn't really experienced that before, and
17:35
Speaker 3: so you know, I really really enjoyed it. And I
17:38
Speaker 3: can't speak like highly enough of that school, Like it
17:40
Speaker 3: was just amazing. And so yeah, after that, I decided
17:45
Speaker 3: to stay you know, down south for UNI because I
17:48
Speaker 3: wanted to go to UNI. I did start doing law,
17:52
Speaker 3: Like I managed to get like a cadet ship, so
17:55
Speaker 3: I was able to do like a couple of days
17:57
Speaker 3: in a law firm and the rest of the days
17:59
Speaker 3: at UNI. And so I guess throughout that time, I
18:04
Speaker 3: started like coming into a lot of money. Like for
18:07
Speaker 3: at that time, it was a lot of money for me.
18:09
Speaker 3: So I guess I was getting maybe around five hundred
18:12
Speaker 3: dollars a week, which was like quite a lot.
18:15
Speaker 2: That's a lot of money, especially with the background that
18:18
Speaker 2: you had come from, and you know, the income that
18:22
Speaker 2: you were historically earning just individually as a young teenager.
18:25
Speaker 2: Like that's I feel like some people would look at
18:28
Speaker 2: that and go, oh, well, that's not that much money.
18:31
Speaker 2: That's so much money, I think for.
18:33
Speaker 3: An eighteen year old, which was like how I was
18:36
Speaker 3: at the time. And I also applied for a scholarship
18:40
Speaker 3: to get my accommodation like paid for, so I was
18:45
Speaker 3: kind of living in and it was like a university college,
18:49
Speaker 3: and so I had pretty much free accommodation. But you
18:53
Speaker 3: know a lot of the students there, you know, they
18:56
Speaker 3: were just really focused on having fun and all of
18:58
Speaker 3: that stuff. And I kind of had to work like
19:00
Speaker 3: two days a week in an office, and like, I
19:03
Speaker 3: just wasn't really vibing the place. And so I decided
19:07
Speaker 3: to move out after my year had ended and my
19:10
Speaker 3: family moved down from Darwin.
19:12
Speaker 2: Oh really, so I.
19:13
Speaker 3: Was living with them for a while, which was great,
19:15
Speaker 3: And then my sister went to the same boarding school,
19:18
Speaker 3: so you know, she was able to have that same experience,
19:22
Speaker 3: which was lovely.
19:23
Speaker 2: How beautiful is that?
19:25
Speaker 3: Yeah?
19:25
Speaker 2: Or because you decided to just call the first person
19:28
Speaker 2: that came up on Google?
19:29
Speaker 3: Yeah? Literally?
19:30
Speaker 2: How good is that? And you've kind of like obviously
19:34
Speaker 2: you had worked out at that age you were seventeen.
19:37
Speaker 2: You're like, look, my trajectory isn't going to work out
19:39
Speaker 2: the way I want to. I need this level of support.
19:42
Speaker 2: You've not only changed the trajectory of your life, but
19:45
Speaker 2: also your sister's life in making that decision. Isn't that wild?
19:49
Speaker 3: Yeah? And she's doing very well now?
19:51
Speaker 2: Or does she do?
19:52
Speaker 3: Tell us? So she's a final year neuroscience shootent would yeah,
19:57
Speaker 3: but I'm trying to get her on the podcast because me,
20:00
Speaker 3: you know, she's having a little bit of problems with money,
20:03
Speaker 3: like in terms of budgeting and stuff, so I'm helping
20:06
Speaker 3: her out a little bit as well.
20:07
Speaker 2: So, oh my gosh, you're finishing your doctor of medicine.
20:10
Speaker 2: She's doing Europe what like that is so crazy?
20:14
Speaker 3: And my brother is also a lawyer. What Yeah, I
20:17
Speaker 3: have a brother as well.
20:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, the brother who's a lawyer. You have, Yeah, two
20:21
Speaker 2: basically doctors in the family.
20:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.
20:24
Speaker 2: What does your mum think of all of this? Is
20:26
Speaker 2: she the most proud woman in the entire world?
20:29
Speaker 3: She is? Yeah?
20:30
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I would be too, Like, my heart
20:32
Speaker 2: is so happy hearing this story. Imagine how proud your
20:35
Speaker 2: dad would be of you. I know, Oh my god,
20:38
Speaker 2: he would be over the moon. I bet he wouldn't
20:40
Speaker 2: even believe it.
20:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, he would be. Yeah, Like I often have like
20:45
Speaker 3: a psychic that I talked to, and she kind of
20:48
Speaker 3: connects with my dad, and you know, he does verbalize
20:51
Speaker 3: that like, you know, be a part of you. I
20:53
Speaker 3: can't believe that you're a doctor, like all these things,
20:56
Speaker 3: And that gave me goosebumps.
20:58
Speaker 2: I feel like it's so nice to know. And I
21:00
Speaker 2: know that so many people are going to be skeptical
21:02
Speaker 2: of things like that, but it's just even if you
21:04
Speaker 2: don't believe in it, and I do. But even if
21:07
Speaker 2: you don't, isn't it beautiful that someone's found a way
21:10
Speaker 2: to deal with grief and loss and change and feel
21:14
Speaker 2: connected to a person in a way that without it
21:17
Speaker 2: you wouldn't be able to. Like It's just ye, I
21:20
Speaker 2: don't care what people think, because I definitely am of it.
21:22
Speaker 2: I actually spoke to This is crazy. I spoke to
21:26
Speaker 2: a psychic before I got pregnant both times, so I
21:30
Speaker 2: don't know how closely people follow me on social media,
21:34
Speaker 2: but recently I've gone through two pregnancy losses, both at
21:37
Speaker 2: relatively late stages, which has been awful. But the psychic
21:42
Speaker 2: that I spoke to predicted both of them perfectly. I
21:45
Speaker 2: mean she didn't say that I'd lose them, but she
21:48
Speaker 2: predicted absolutely everything around it. She predicted gender, she predicted
21:53
Speaker 2: how I'd feel. She gave me all of these things.
21:55
Speaker 2: And it's crazy because I've shown my team. They're like
21:58
Speaker 2: notes that she gave me, and they were so specific.
22:02
Speaker 2: They were like this song, this sign, and all of
22:04
Speaker 2: them are not common. Like it's not as though, oh, Victoria,
22:07
Speaker 2: he's a top ten song that's going to be playing
22:09
Speaker 2: and you'll feel connected to it. It was just like
22:12
Speaker 2: too many she told me, the dates, she told me everything.
22:15
Speaker 2: Isn't it crazy how the world and the universe works,
22:18
Speaker 2: like it just it blows my mind.
22:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's I've definitely relied on it a lot
22:23
Speaker 3: actually ever since I was a teenager to really get
22:25
Speaker 3: me through periods of grief and as well. I've had
22:29
Speaker 3: two miscarriages as well, and I've used that kind of
22:32
Speaker 3: as this before I was studying medicine, and not that
22:36
Speaker 3: I don't do it now, because I still do. I
22:38
Speaker 3: have like a three monthly like psychic appointment.
22:41
Speaker 2: I love it.
22:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, like it's quarterly and you know, like it's it
22:45
Speaker 3: helps me feel a bit more kind of like at
22:49
Speaker 3: ease and spiritually connected, and like that's very common in
22:52
Speaker 3: Torres sh Islanders culture as well, you know, to feel
22:55
Speaker 3: very you know, like spiritually connected and things like that,
23:00
Speaker 3: and we rely on a lot of those kinds of
23:02
Speaker 3: things to kind of place ourselves in the world and
23:05
Speaker 3: that kind of thing. So I've definitely relied on that
23:08
Speaker 3: a lot. And like I often have like my pre
23:10
Speaker 3: pregnancy psychic appointment, like all these things like same, so yeah.
23:16
Speaker 2: Literally same. I feel like it's so beautiful that it's
23:19
Speaker 2: part of your culture, and it just kind of makes
23:22
Speaker 2: sense that that's then what grounds you, and that's then
23:24
Speaker 2: what makes you feel so connected to like your ancestors
23:28
Speaker 2: and your family. Like it just it kind of makes sense.
23:30
Speaker 2: And I love the fact that even though you know,
23:33
Speaker 2: you moved down to South Australia and like you went
23:36
Speaker 2: so far, you're still kind of in a way connected
23:39
Speaker 2: to that level of spirituality, because yeah, let's be honest,
23:43
Speaker 2: a lot of the time when you uproot yourself in
23:45
Speaker 2: such a way, you actually lose a lot of that
23:47
Speaker 2: connection to culture, which ultimately is probably one of the
23:51
Speaker 2: most important things to.
23:52
Speaker 3: You, absolutely, and yeah, it's super important around like twenty two.
23:58
Speaker 3: So this is before I kind of, you know, i'd
24:02
Speaker 3: finished UNI. I dropped out a law because I didn't
24:05
Speaker 3: like it. I was doing international studies in sociology, which
24:07
Speaker 3: I really really enjoyed. Worked in government for a bit,
24:10
Speaker 3: got a graduate position, and like the pay was great,
24:13
Speaker 3: the entitlements were great, I just didn't feel that fulfilled,
24:18
Speaker 3: like working nine to five at a desk the whole week.
24:21
Speaker 3: So I kind of decided then like that I would
24:27
Speaker 3: attempt to get into medicine.
24:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, biggie, no, biggie just a really small thing
24:32
Speaker 2: that you could go and do.
24:34
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I mean I was previously told by teachers
24:37
Speaker 3: that I would not be smart enough to like get into,
24:40
Speaker 3: you know, anything, Like I was told that I couldn't
24:42
Speaker 3: even get into journalism, which is something that I really enjoyed.
24:45
Speaker 3: So that kind of, you know, when I was a teenager,
24:47
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, okay, I guess I'm not doing that.
24:49
Speaker 2: Some teachers need to be sat down and spoken to.
24:52
Speaker 2: Because I had a very similar experience where I was
24:54
Speaker 2: told I wouldn't go anywhere.
24:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I had interest in medicine, but I was
24:58
Speaker 3: just like, oh, there's no way I can do it
25:00
Speaker 3: because people told me I wasn't smart enough. But then
25:03
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, just have a crack, Like there's
25:05
Speaker 3: no problem. I already have a safe job, Like there's
25:07
Speaker 3: already like some kind of you know trajectory that I
25:10
Speaker 3: can probably you know, get a bit higher whatever. So
25:13
Speaker 3: I kind of like studied for all of that, did
25:17
Speaker 3: very well, got in, and then I decided that I
25:22
Speaker 3: was actually really worried that I would not have kids
25:26
Speaker 3: because I would be super focused on my career. And
25:29
Speaker 3: so for me coming from like aatosha on a background
25:32
Speaker 3: like family is super important and it was something that
25:35
Speaker 3: I really valued. But I knew just my personality like
25:39
Speaker 3: so far I had just gotten myself into just like
25:43
Speaker 3: every single kind of extracurriculous thing you could think of.
25:47
Speaker 3: And I was really worried that, like if I just
25:49
Speaker 3: jumped straight into medicine, that I would.
25:51
Speaker 2: Hit the ground and run and just sid and just
25:53
Speaker 2: like not look back.
25:54
Speaker 3: And then it would it would be a bit you know,
25:56
Speaker 3: too late by the time I considered that. So at
25:59
Speaker 3: the time, my partner was like, I said to him,
26:03
Speaker 3: you know, like I'd really like to have a baby
26:07
Speaker 3: before I start medicine, just to like, you know, get
26:10
Speaker 3: the ball rolling that kind of thing. And you know,
26:12
Speaker 3: he agreed at the time, and so you know, we
26:15
Speaker 3: got pregnant. We bought a house. Back then I just
26:19
Speaker 3: thought I knew things about finance. I one hundred percent
26:21
Speaker 3: did not. I just kind of went to a broker
26:24
Speaker 3: and they just said sign here. His you're like your house,
26:26
Speaker 3: Like his parents guaranteled the loan, so like we really
26:29
Speaker 3: didn't need to work hard for anything, like and you know,
26:33
Speaker 3: that was very privileged position to be in, Like no
26:35
Speaker 3: one in my family owns a house, so like that's
26:38
Speaker 3: kind of been told to us, like, oh, you know,
26:40
Speaker 3: if you own a house, like you've made it in life.
26:42
Speaker 3: And so I was like, well, I just like got one,
26:45
Speaker 3: so what's what's the problem. But like, honestly, I knew nothing,
26:49
Speaker 3: Like I just walked in blind, did not do my research,
26:53
Speaker 3: did not really care for like anything. I just kind
26:58
Speaker 3: of thought, Okay, we've decided to have a family, let's
27:00
Speaker 3: buy a house. And so we did, and then about
27:05
Speaker 3: like thirty five weeks pregnant, my partner, or previous to that,
27:10
Speaker 3: my partner had been in an accident when I was
27:12
Speaker 3: like two months pregnant. He accidentally got really quite injured
27:15
Speaker 3: and was in hospital for like two or three months,
27:17
Speaker 3: and because it didn't happen at work, he didn't obviously
27:20
Speaker 3: have any insurances to cover anything. Yeah wow, So I
27:23
Speaker 3: ended up paying for everything, like the mortgage, all of
27:28
Speaker 3: our joint bills. We had a car loan at the time,
27:30
Speaker 3: and I was only on about eighteen hundred dollars a
27:33
Speaker 3: fortnite from my government job, and it was very much
27:37
Speaker 3: a tie squeeze. It was very stressful, and then he
27:41
Speaker 3: couldn't go back to work. Or like rather he didn't
27:44
Speaker 3: want to go back to work, I think, and so
27:47
Speaker 3: about like thirty six weeks he just decided that, like
27:51
Speaker 3: he didn't want to be together anymore. Yeah, wow, Oka,
27:54
Speaker 3: he was just kind of like, oh yeah, I just
27:56
Speaker 3: like don't love you anymore, so like let's just break up.
27:58
Speaker 2: Oh good, idea, babe, by my only thirty six weeks
28:01
Speaker 2: pregnant with your baby, and we have a mortgage and
28:04
Speaker 2: a car loan together and probably a lot of connection,
28:07
Speaker 2: but that's okay, have a nice laugh.
28:10
Speaker 3: Set. It was very very just nonchalant, like it was
28:13
Speaker 3: very shocking, and I felt, I guess after that, like
28:17
Speaker 3: I had to move back in with my mum, which
28:19
Speaker 3: I was like really grateful that, you know, like I
28:23
Speaker 3: definitely do not have the bank of mum and Dad,
28:25
Speaker 3: but if I ever need anywhere to stay, I can
28:27
Speaker 3: always stay with them, So that's always been great. And
28:30
Speaker 3: so I moved back in with her, gave birth. At
28:34
Speaker 3: the time, I was able to get matt Lee from
28:37
Speaker 3: my government job and from Senlink, so you know, I
28:41
Speaker 3: did have quite a lot of income at that time,
28:45
Speaker 3: but I was still having to like pay for my
28:46
Speaker 3: half of the mortgage even though I had moved out,
28:49
Speaker 3: and I kind of gave him a deadline. I was like, look,
28:52
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you like six months to get
28:55
Speaker 3: back to work and decide what you want to do
28:58
Speaker 3: with the house. Like, I can't continue paying this mortgage.
29:02
Speaker 3: It was like eight hundred dollars a month for me
29:05
Speaker 3: to pay. I was like, look, I'll help pay for
29:08
Speaker 3: a little bit, but like we need to sort it out, like,
29:10
Speaker 3: you know, because I just thought legally I still was
29:14
Speaker 3: on the mortgage, so I still should have paid it,
29:16
Speaker 3: even though I wasn't living there. Yeah, and so by
29:19
Speaker 3: the time I stopped paying it, I was like, hey,
29:21
Speaker 3: he hadn't made a decision about what we were going
29:22
Speaker 3: to do, and that I just thought, okay, well you
29:25
Speaker 3: can just pay it because you're living there. And then
29:27
Speaker 3: I got a call from the bank to say that
29:29
Speaker 3: we had defaulted because he had not paid the mortgage
29:33
Speaker 3: for like two months in a row or something. Yeah.
29:36
Speaker 3: So I was like, my baby was like five months old,
29:39
Speaker 3: and then here I was just being like, oh my god,
29:41
Speaker 3: my credit is just going to go through the floor. Yeah,
29:45
Speaker 3: Like I was just so it was just such a
29:47
Speaker 3: stressful time. Thankfully, Like that's kind of what got his
29:53
Speaker 3: parents kind of made him sell the house so that
29:56
Speaker 3: we could get out of it. Yeah, but that's kind
29:59
Speaker 3: of I guess what happened. And yeah, like he doesn't
30:04
Speaker 3: pay child support. He's not really involved in our life,
30:06
Speaker 3: which is fine, Like I'm happy to pay for.
30:09
Speaker 2: My kid, Yeah, but it would be nice to know
30:12
Speaker 2: that he wanted to support it. Like, yeah, it's a
30:15
Speaker 2: crazy juxtaposition, right, Like, yeah, some people really really need
30:19
Speaker 2: the money, which makes sense. But knowing the rest of
30:23
Speaker 2: your money story, which our listeners don't write, now, your
30:25
Speaker 2: life has turned around completely, Like you have a beautiful fiance, right, Like,
30:29
Speaker 2: tell us about that side of it, because right now
30:32
Speaker 2: it's looking a little bit grim.
30:34
Speaker 3: Yes, So at that point, I started using after pay
30:37
Speaker 3: a lot. I relied on after pay for all of
30:40
Speaker 3: my purchases from when my son was like one years old,
30:43
Speaker 3: and then a couple of years later, I started medicine again.
30:47
Speaker 3: I was able to win a scholarship which allowed me
30:50
Speaker 3: to move out of my mum's house and I was
30:52
Speaker 3: able to rent, you know, just a small place for
30:55
Speaker 3: me and my son at the time, which was really amazing.
30:59
Speaker 3: And then shortly after that I met my fiance now exciting.
31:04
Speaker 2: How did you meet?
31:05
Speaker 3: So we met on Hinge stunning. Yes, So I kind
31:10
Speaker 3: of think it's a little bit of fate because he
31:12
Speaker 3: was only like here down South for like two months
31:17
Speaker 3: before he was moving overseas. So this was like at
31:21
Speaker 3: the start of twenty twenty, right, So this is when
31:23
Speaker 3: everyone was like super happy and everyone was going really well.
31:26
Speaker 3: And then we started dating. You know, we decided like
31:31
Speaker 3: our values a line, and you know, we'd like to
31:33
Speaker 3: be serious. And you know, he knew that in the
31:35
Speaker 3: long term, like he would be considered by son's dad,
31:38
Speaker 3: but at the time, he was training for a job
31:41
Speaker 3: that would be based overseas, so because he was a pilot,
31:43
Speaker 3: so he went overseas. I think about a month after
31:47
Speaker 3: we started dating. You know, we had all these plans like, yeah,
31:49
Speaker 3: we'll go back and forth and all these things. And
31:51
Speaker 3: that's when I started to get a little bit better
31:53
Speaker 3: with my money because I was like, Okay, I got
31:55
Speaker 3: to save money so I can go overseas and see
31:58
Speaker 3: like my partner and COVID hit oh no, and so
32:03
Speaker 3: like he couldn't get back, I couldn't get to him.
32:06
Speaker 3: And then throughout that period of time, throughout all of
32:08
Speaker 3: twenty twenty. Then my money habits like went pretty bad again.
32:12
Speaker 3: Like I pretty much spent the entirety of my money
32:15
Speaker 3: on either plants or Uber eats.
32:17
Speaker 2: That's relatable for COVID though, Yeah, that's really really.
32:20
Speaker 3: It was like an exorbitant amount of money, Like it
32:23
Speaker 3: was crazy, Like it was kind of like that whole
32:26
Speaker 3: like just emotional spending again. Like I really was just like,
32:30
Speaker 3: you know, I had my son at home with me
32:32
Speaker 3: for the he like he couldn't go to childcare. Like
32:35
Speaker 3: I was trying to study medicine online which was very
32:37
Speaker 3: difficult and like pass my exams and things like that,
32:40
Speaker 3: and so yeah, it was just really difficult to deal
32:43
Speaker 3: with that, like by myself.
32:44
Speaker 2: Yeah wow.
32:45
Speaker 3: Obviously I had the support of my partner, like he
32:47
Speaker 3: would you.
32:48
Speaker 2: Know, emotionally there but not physically right.
32:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so like you know, he would like skype
32:55
Speaker 3: us every day and like built a really good relationship
32:57
Speaker 3: with my son, which was amazing. But then towards the
32:59
Speaker 3: end of that year, he got told that he was
33:02
Speaker 3: being made redundant because of COVID because he was a
33:06
Speaker 3: recent higher So then he kind of came back to
33:08
Speaker 3: Australia and yeah, since then he told me to tell
33:14
Speaker 3: you that, like my money habits have gotten way better
33:16
Speaker 3: because of him. Oh okay, yep mm hmm, yeah, and
33:19
Speaker 3: I disagree. You know what, we can give it to him,
33:22
Speaker 3: let him have it, Let him have it. I mean
33:24
Speaker 3: we had similar upbringings, but he kind of went in
33:27
Speaker 3: a different direction, Like he went in the hole, like
33:30
Speaker 3: he needed to hold all of his money, like he
33:32
Speaker 3: really needed to save all of it. He wasn't allowed
33:34
Speaker 3: to buy anything, and I was kind.
33:36
Speaker 2: Of like to spend it because emotionally that makes me.
33:40
Speaker 2: It's like a little bit of an emotional crutch. It's
33:42
Speaker 2: funny how trauma and just the way we go through
33:45
Speaker 2: different circumstances can send us one way or the other. Yeah,
33:49
Speaker 2: it's crazy to think that for one person, you come
33:52
Speaker 2: out of a level of trauma and you save every
33:55
Speaker 2: cent you've ever had and become the best with money
33:57
Speaker 2: you've ever been, or you flip and you go, you
33:59
Speaker 2: know what, I'm really good out you have to pay
34:01
Speaker 2: brilliant at it. And it's just crazy to think that
34:04
Speaker 2: different people just respond to different circumstances in ways like that.
34:08
Speaker 2: I love learning more about people's stories purely because they're
34:11
Speaker 2: always so different.
34:13
Speaker 3: Yes, Well, like we kind of had to come to
34:15
Speaker 3: a happy medium because you know, we kind of like
34:19
Speaker 3: we're getting mad at each other a lot about money,
34:23
Speaker 3: So we kind of came to a happy medium. And then,
34:26
Speaker 3: you know, I was still studying. I was in my
34:29
Speaker 3: second or third year at UNI. We decided to have
34:32
Speaker 3: another baby because my son was getting a bit older
34:35
Speaker 3: and we didn't know when he was going to go
34:37
Speaker 3: back overseas, so we thought, let's just have another baby.
34:39
Speaker 3: So that was kind of the first time that I
34:42
Speaker 3: attempted to save money or apart from the flight thing
34:46
Speaker 3: to like go see him in twenty twenty, but I
34:48
Speaker 3: attempted to save money because I was a student. I
34:52
Speaker 3: wasn't eligible for maternity leave from send lengths, so like
34:56
Speaker 3: I wanted to take the whole year off to be
34:58
Speaker 3: at home with my daughter. And so I kind of
35:02
Speaker 3: said to him, like, like that's what's important to me,
35:04
Speaker 3: that's what I need before I go back to medicine,
35:06
Speaker 3: and like we're going to have to like work out
35:09
Speaker 3: all of our expenses and bills and like save up
35:13
Speaker 3: so that can cover that for when I'm at home. Basically,
35:17
Speaker 3: so we saved up I think maybe thirty or forty
35:21
Speaker 3: grand because he was still working, so it was just
35:24
Speaker 3: kind of like to cover our additional expenses while I
35:28
Speaker 3: was at home. So that was last year, and yeah,
35:32
Speaker 3: that we just kind of decided, like I started getting
35:35
Speaker 3: super on my matt leave because I'm a very busy person.
35:38
Speaker 3: I just can't like sit down and take care of
35:40
Speaker 3: a baby. That's like really difficult. So I just kind
35:43
Speaker 3: of decided last year like that I was going to
35:47
Speaker 3: organize all these things and get my finances in order.
35:50
Speaker 3: And then I found like, she's on the money.
35:52
Speaker 2: Welcome to the family. Thank you, We've done nothing. Your
35:55
Speaker 2: partner did it all.
35:56
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, he's going to claim that. And then I
36:00
Speaker 3: just like I just told him, like, hey, we should
36:02
Speaker 3: probably get married.
36:03
Speaker 2: You just told him, I feel like you're a vibe.
36:06
Speaker 2: You just called a principal and said, hey, you should
36:09
Speaker 2: give me a full scholarship to your boarding school. That's
36:12
Speaker 2: what's going to happen. You just told him, you know what,
36:14
Speaker 2: we're gonna have a baby. You're at home. Also, by
36:17
Speaker 2: the way, we're getting married.
36:18
Speaker 3: Did you know that?
36:20
Speaker 2: Did he take it well? He agreed or he did?
36:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it was definitely something we had previously
36:25
Speaker 3: talked about we just couldn't entirely sure when it was
36:30
Speaker 3: going to be right, because you know, we're just in
36:32
Speaker 3: different like our career paths were a little bit like,
36:35
Speaker 3: you know, like tumultuous. We just didn't know when like
36:37
Speaker 3: the perfect time would be. And so I kind of
36:40
Speaker 3: said to him last year, like, hey, I figured out
36:41
Speaker 3: the perfect time for us to get married is going
36:44
Speaker 3: to be at the end of this year. So once
36:46
Speaker 3: I finished my med degree and before I start working
36:49
Speaker 3: as a doctor. Yep.
36:50
Speaker 2: Stunning, She's planned it all out, yep.
36:52
Speaker 3: And then so that was like in the middle of
36:54
Speaker 3: Matt Leaf and I just said like, hey, I'm just
36:56
Speaker 3: going to start doing all of this stuff and I'm
36:59
Speaker 3: just going to like look it in, just get it in,
37:02
Speaker 3: save all our money, sort it all out.
37:05
Speaker 2: Yeah.
37:05
Speaker 3: So that's kind of what happened. And that was last year.
37:08
Speaker 3: And the wedding's pretty much all sorted. I don't need
37:10
Speaker 3: to worry about that at the moment.
37:11
Speaker 2: How exciting, But.
37:13
Speaker 3: It is an expensive wedding, like it's going to be
37:16
Speaker 3: you know, it's in Darwin. Here's Chinese arm Treasure Islander.
37:20
Speaker 3: We have like a billion family members who will one
37:23
Speaker 3: hundred percent need to all be invited, and you know
37:26
Speaker 3: that's really important to us as well. We're very like
37:28
Speaker 3: family orientated.
37:30
Speaker 2: What's expensive when it comes to a wedding, Well, like
37:33
Speaker 2: I didn't.
37:33
Speaker 3: Think it was that expensive because I've just heard that
37:36
Speaker 3: this is the general price. But whenever I say to people, oh,
37:39
Speaker 3: it's this much money, they're like, they're like really shocked,
37:41
Speaker 3: Like so ours I think is going to be in total,
37:44
Speaker 3: like for everything, Maju, we have cut expenses here or there.
37:48
Speaker 3: I think it was going to be fifty seven k.
37:50
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, it feels like a lot of money. But
37:52
Speaker 2: at the same time, that's about the average of what
37:55
Speaker 2: an Australian wedding is now, and I mean the average
37:58
Speaker 2: is probably not that reflect because that takes into consideration
38:02
Speaker 2: those outliers of people who do spend hundreds of thousands
38:05
Speaker 2: of dollars on their weddings. But at the same time,
38:08
Speaker 2: I don't think it's shocking when people spend that anymore.
38:12
Speaker 2: I think in you know, maybe nineteen ninety, if you're
38:14
Speaker 2: saying that was what your wedding costs, people would be horrified.
38:18
Speaker 2: But these days, I think times have changed, right, Like
38:21
Speaker 2: marriage is no longer some kind of prerequisite to having
38:25
Speaker 2: a successful relationship. And you know, as you've shown, you
38:28
Speaker 2: don't need to get married to then have kids and
38:31
Speaker 2: have you know, perfect timeline. You can kind of just
38:33
Speaker 2: make it up and do whatever you want that makes
38:35
Speaker 2: you happy. And I think that nowadays because marriage I
38:38
Speaker 2: don't know. I feel like, from my perspective, marriage now
38:41
Speaker 2: feels like a luxury, Like it is a luxury to
38:44
Speaker 2: me to have had the opportunity to get married to
38:46
Speaker 2: my partner because to achieve all the other life things
38:49
Speaker 2: that we wanted to do, we didn't need to be married.
38:51
Speaker 2: And technically I feel like I had very very similar
38:55
Speaker 2: rights before we got married. But I think it's now
38:58
Speaker 2: exactly become a luxury. So when you talk about the
39:01
Speaker 2: expense of it, it feels like a bit of a
39:03
Speaker 2: cheeky expense, whereas historically it was like oh money, jarist,
39:07
Speaker 2: how very dare you move in with your not married men?
39:11
Speaker 2: Like it's crazy right to think how different the world
39:14
Speaker 2: used to be and now it's just you do whatever
39:16
Speaker 2: you want. Like I lived with my partner four years
39:18
Speaker 2: before we got married. We had pets, like we didn't
39:21
Speaker 2: have kids yet, but it wouldn't have surprised me if
39:23
Speaker 2: we had had kids yet, Like, it's just it's the
39:26
Speaker 2: world we live in now where I think that people
39:28
Speaker 2: are shocked because it feels like a luxury expense, right, And.
39:32
Speaker 3: I know a lot of people have said to me like, oh,
39:34
Speaker 3: wouldn't you like think that money could be better spent elsewhere?
39:38
Speaker 3: And I've kind of said, like.
39:39
Speaker 2: Well, why are you questioning my money values and the
39:42
Speaker 2: way that I'm running my life? Maybe for you if
39:46
Speaker 2: you had that, But it's crazy because I had quite
39:50
Speaker 2: an extravagant wedding. My wedding was very over the top.
39:53
Speaker 2: I regret nothing, not one thing. Yeah, not one thing.
39:56
Speaker 2: The amount of times people like do you wish you
39:57
Speaker 2: spent less? No, probably could have spent more. Best day
40:01
Speaker 2: of my entire life. Like, I loved every second of it.
40:04
Speaker 2: My husband and I talk about it weekly. Still we're
40:07
Speaker 2: always like, oh, our wedding, we could do it again,
40:09
Speaker 2: Like it was the best thing ever. But then there
40:12
Speaker 2: are people who say, oh, I'd never get married, it's
40:14
Speaker 2: a waste of money. You do you boo? That's fine.
40:16
Speaker 2: I could not care what you spend your money on.
40:19
Speaker 2: But what I do ask is that you respect the
40:21
Speaker 2: decisions I make around my finances because they do not
40:24
Speaker 2: impact anybody but me. They don't, So I think it's
40:27
Speaker 2: wild to me that people can be so judgmental, like, oh,
40:31
Speaker 2: couldn't you spend that better? Yes, Suzanne probably could not
40:35
Speaker 2: gone to though.
40:36
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
40:37
Speaker 2: I have lots of questions and I want to dive
40:39
Speaker 2: straight back into your money story right after this. All right, guys,
40:47
Speaker 2: we are back. This money diarist is incredible. I am
40:51
Speaker 2: so excited to be sharing her with you. I want
40:54
Speaker 2: to know, now, though, what are you currently doing for
40:57
Speaker 2: work and how much are you earning?
40:58
Speaker 3: So, Like, I'm a fine year medical student. I have
41:02
Speaker 3: like some scholarships that I've accumulated over the years from studying,
41:07
Speaker 3: so from those I get about seventeen hundred dollars a fortnight.
41:12
Speaker 3: I'm also a tutor for aboriginal torture under university students,
41:18
Speaker 3: so I tutor ound about four different universities.
41:21
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Yeah, you're doing all of this stuff
41:24
Speaker 2: and someone at some point had the audacity to tell
41:27
Speaker 2: you you weren't smart enough for medicine, and now you're
41:29
Speaker 2: teaching it to other people. Okay.
41:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's also kind of a little bit of a
41:33
Speaker 3: selfish thing, like in that I really enjoy, you know,
41:38
Speaker 3: like helping them and helping them understand things that I
41:41
Speaker 3: didn't necessarily have that same tutoring support in my early
41:45
Speaker 3: years of medicine, especially not from someone who was Aboriginal
41:48
Speaker 3: troisure islander. So there was that kind of mutual understanding
41:52
Speaker 3: of lifestyle and culture and like our kind of expectations
41:59
Speaker 3: of our commitment to medicine. Like it's just a little
42:02
Speaker 3: bit harder, Like not all of us are living with
42:04
Speaker 3: our parents. You know, we have kids. We just have
42:08
Speaker 3: a lot of things that we need to juggle it around,
42:10
Speaker 3: especially if we need to go you know, go away
42:12
Speaker 3: and see family and things like that. And so you know,
42:15
Speaker 3: I feel like, you know, like I kind of help
42:19
Speaker 3: my students understand stuff so that they can just like
42:22
Speaker 3: shut off and just focus on their life as well,
42:26
Speaker 3: like have a good work life balance, focus on family,
42:28
Speaker 3: focus on their kids, focus on you know, if they
42:31
Speaker 3: need to work as well. Like it's really really difficult,
42:34
Speaker 3: and when you're studying medicine, like my unied particularly it's
42:38
Speaker 3: only four years, so it's just like bam bam, bam,
42:40
Speaker 3: bam bam, Like it's just NonStop.
42:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really condensed.
42:44
Speaker 3: Like it's NonStop, and so people, you know, have a
42:47
Speaker 3: really tough time like trying to work through that and
42:50
Speaker 3: like just having so many things that they need to do,
42:54
Speaker 3: and also just emotional support as well.
42:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally totally, And I mean I can't empathize with
43:00
Speaker 2: it because I haven't been in that situation, but I
43:03
Speaker 2: can completely understand that that's actually really necessary. Like you
43:07
Speaker 2: just want people to get where you've come from and
43:09
Speaker 2: get your I guess background and what you've been through,
43:12
Speaker 2: and it just makes sense that you would fall perfectly
43:15
Speaker 2: into that situation to be I guess, that supportive person.
43:19
Speaker 2: I love that you get to do that, and I
43:20
Speaker 2: love that people get to experience you in that way.
43:23
Speaker 2: They get to actually, you know, connect, and I feel
43:26
Speaker 2: like that's so important, especially during UNI when it can
43:29
Speaker 2: just feel all consuming and overwhelming.
43:31
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, absolutely So from my tutoring, it's quite variable
43:34
Speaker 3: because it just depends on the student's requirements. But since
43:37
Speaker 3: I'm shooting for four unis, I generally get about one
43:41
Speaker 3: thousand to two thousand a fortnite from shooting. Well, yeah, so.
43:45
Speaker 2: You're just doing really well financially as well while studying
43:49
Speaker 2: at UNI, and you've started your etsy side hustle.
43:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
43:53
Speaker 2: Made one hundred bucks from that, thus far passive income.
43:56
Speaker 2: We love to see it, Is it any other way
43:58
Speaker 2: that you're generating income?
44:00
Speaker 3: Also do and this is like very casual, Like I
44:03
Speaker 3: kind of do, like writing reviews for a local kids
44:07
Speaker 3: social media presence, like if we go to a new playground,
44:10
Speaker 3: or write a review on that. If we go to
44:12
Speaker 3: a new like recently we had the Adelaide Fringe, So
44:15
Speaker 3: like a lot of the shows that are directed towards kids,
44:17
Speaker 3: I can write reviews on that. That's very casual. I
44:20
Speaker 3: only do it when I have time and if you know,
44:23
Speaker 3: my kids are interested in what we're going to do.
44:25
Speaker 3: But generally, like around four hundred a year I'll get
44:28
Speaker 3: from that as well.
44:29
Speaker 2: Oh how cool is that? I feel like you're the
44:31
Speaker 2: ultimate side hustler going to be a doctor?
44:34
Speaker 3: Yes? Yeah, how good? Yeah?
44:36
Speaker 2: All right. You mentioned before that you're getting married soon
44:40
Speaker 2: and that's all kind of like sorted. But I want
44:42
Speaker 2: to know what big money goals are you currently working towards.
44:46
Speaker 3: So that's one of them. Like I still have about
44:50
Speaker 3: forty k left I need to save for that, which
44:53
Speaker 3: I think will be fine. Like over the next couple
44:55
Speaker 3: of months just like that. With my partner's income as well,
44:58
Speaker 3: because he works FIFA, so he kind of covers a
45:02
Speaker 3: lot of the things, and I save for the wedding
45:04
Speaker 3: pretty much my entire income.
45:07
Speaker 2: Yeah wow, yeah, so we have that.
45:08
Speaker 3: I recently just started my own chasa's portfolio. I guess,
45:13
Speaker 3: like being a little bit. I felt really comfortable after
45:16
Speaker 3: I had listened to a lot of things on She's
45:18
Speaker 3: on the Money and some other kind of like finance podcasts,
45:21
Speaker 3: I finally felt comfortable enough to just, I guess start that.
45:25
Speaker 2: Congrats, that's so exciting.
45:28
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I put fifty dollars a fortnite into that
45:31
Speaker 3: and just kind of like alternate. I love chasas, like
45:33
Speaker 3: I alternate automatic investment profiles or whatever they call it.
45:38
Speaker 3: One fortnite I invest into blue chip stuff, and the
45:41
Speaker 3: following fortnite I invest into ETFs, and so I have
45:44
Speaker 3: around six hundred in that at the moment. But I
45:47
Speaker 3: really like the automaticity of that, So that just kind
45:49
Speaker 3: of does its own thing for me.
45:51
Speaker 2: I feel like that makes things so easy. That was
45:53
Speaker 2: actually my next question to you. I was going to say,
45:56
Speaker 2: do you invest if so whatdy? I already answered that,
45:58
Speaker 2: But do you invest in any other or is it
46:00
Speaker 2: just Sharez's at this point.
46:02
Speaker 3: At the moment, I just have share ease. I have
46:04
Speaker 3: been putting away money for my current kids slash future kids,
46:09
Speaker 3: which I probably I've been looking into a few different
46:12
Speaker 3: ways where I can invest at the Vanguard kid's account
46:15
Speaker 3: also sounds pretty good. Cool, So as I kind of
46:19
Speaker 3: start working properly next year, that'll be my focus to
46:22
Speaker 3: kind of really up my shares investments and really get
46:25
Speaker 3: all of that going. Yeah, and also like next year
46:28
Speaker 3: probably we do want to buy a house, so that'll
46:31
Speaker 3: be like another block of saving we'll have to do.
46:34
Speaker 2: How good?
46:34
Speaker 3: All right?
46:35
Speaker 2: I want to know you mentioned that you used to
46:37
Speaker 2: be pretty good at after pay. Do you currently have
46:40
Speaker 2: any debt? If so, what is it and what is
46:42
Speaker 2: it for?
46:43
Speaker 3: So I stopped using after pay it's been almost a year.
46:48
Speaker 2: Now, good behavior.
46:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I used it for such a long time.
46:51
Speaker 2: It just becomes a habit. It just becomes a way
46:53
Speaker 2: that you function, right. It becomes part of your budgeting
46:56
Speaker 2: cash flow system and it can be really hard to
46:58
Speaker 2: move away from if you've become on it.
47:00
Speaker 3: And see, my partner doesn't use it ever because he
47:03
Speaker 3: always just if he needs to buy something here already
47:05
Speaker 3: he has cash on hand or like in it that
47:07
Speaker 3: he's already saved for, so like he's never used it.
47:10
Speaker 3: And so, you know, as I started, you know, educating
47:13
Speaker 3: myself a little bit more about finance and listening to things,
47:16
Speaker 3: and then I looked at my credit score, which is
47:18
Speaker 3: like average, it's not great, and so I was like, oh, like,
47:21
Speaker 3: I really need to stop using this. So I stopped
47:23
Speaker 3: using it about a year ago, and it's been great.
47:25
Speaker 3: I haven't been tempted to use it again. Like I
47:27
Speaker 3: feel like there were a lot of times where I
47:29
Speaker 3: was like, I paid it off and I was like,
47:30
Speaker 3: I'm not going to use it again, and then within
47:32
Speaker 3: like a month I would use it again. But yeah,
47:34
Speaker 3: like I haven't used it for a year. I don't
47:36
Speaker 3: think i'll use it again now because I've actually been
47:38
Speaker 3: able to put myself in a position where if I
47:41
Speaker 3: need to buy something, I have money sitting now, Like
47:43
Speaker 3: I don't need to put it over a month per se.
47:46
Speaker 3: I have a car loan it's currently sitting out seventeen K,
47:50
Speaker 3: but I pay make regular payments on that and then
47:53
Speaker 3: it finishes up next year. So I'm keen to just
47:56
Speaker 3: pay that out and then just like leave it there
47:58
Speaker 3: and like not get another the car loan. That's the
48:01
Speaker 3: only debt that I have at the moment.
48:02
Speaker 2: How good? All right, Yeah, it sounds like you've got
48:05
Speaker 2: some pretty good money habits. What would you say is
48:08
Speaker 2: your best money habit?
48:09
Speaker 3: I think, just at the moment, like the fact that
48:12
Speaker 3: I'm saving quite a lot of money for the wedding
48:15
Speaker 3: and not digging into it is just next level for
48:19
Speaker 3: me because that's never been the case for me for
48:21
Speaker 3: such a long time, for like my whole life. Basically, yeah. Wow.
48:25
Speaker 3: So the fact that I've been able to like get
48:28
Speaker 3: educated enough and like manage my self control and just
48:32
Speaker 3: kind of you know, not be needing to buy a
48:36
Speaker 3: lot of things. I think that's my best money habit
48:39
Speaker 3: at the moment is the fact that I'm literally not
48:41
Speaker 3: spending the money that I'm saving.
48:43
Speaker 2: See, that's a good money habit. It takes a lot
48:46
Speaker 2: of discipline and change for that to occur. Like, let's
48:49
Speaker 2: bring down the mood again, though, I want to know,
48:52
Speaker 2: what do you think is your worst money habit?
48:54
Speaker 3: So I particularly don't think I have one, to be honest,
48:58
Speaker 3: because I'm just amazing now. But according to my partner,
49:02
Speaker 3: he reckons my blest money habit is that I use
49:05
Speaker 3: the heater too much.
49:06
Speaker 2: That's not a bad money habit, that's an essential service.
49:08
Speaker 2: I don't know why, because I.
49:10
Speaker 3: Pay for it so so I don't care who you
49:12
Speaker 3: called here.
49:13
Speaker 2: I will put your like. This was an ongoing argument
49:16
Speaker 2: growing up for me. My dad would always set the
49:18
Speaker 2: heater in our house to twenty one. He would go
49:21
Speaker 2: to work, I'd put it up to twenty four. He
49:23
Speaker 2: was on his way home from work, I'd put it
49:25
Speaker 2: back down to twenty one. Pretend it never happens. That's
49:28
Speaker 2: literally me genius. I still do that. I still do that.
49:31
Speaker 2: The best thing about being an adult is being able
49:33
Speaker 2: to regulate your own heater in your own house. I know,
49:36
Speaker 2: I know, I'm not talking to your partner about that.
49:38
Speaker 2: He can have the credit for your financial literricy, but
49:41
Speaker 2: I'm not letting him tell you that using the heater
49:44
Speaker 2: too often is a bad idea one out of ten
49:46
Speaker 2: can't recommend.
49:47
Speaker 3: I also do tend to like whenever there's a scrub sale,
49:52
Speaker 3: so like hospital scrub. Yes, I literally have like ten
49:56
Speaker 3: different pairs of hospital scrubs that are all different beautiful colors,
49:59
Speaker 3: and I love them. I've just kind of like gone
50:02
Speaker 3: from not wearing professional clothes now in the hospital because
50:07
Speaker 3: it's just uncomfortable. And I also just had a baby
50:09
Speaker 3: and none of them fit me, and I don't want
50:11
Speaker 3: to buy new clothes, and so to buy a pair
50:14
Speaker 3: of scrub sets on sale is like about forty or
50:18
Speaker 3: fifty dollars, and so I've just kind of like, as
50:20
Speaker 3: I've had spare money as I go along, I've just
50:22
Speaker 3: kind of bore one hero or there and now that's
50:24
Speaker 3: my uniform.
50:25
Speaker 2: Now you've got a gorgeous collection.
50:27
Speaker 3: I mean, but if I was left to my own devices,
50:31
Speaker 3: I would definitely auto more.
50:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair. We'll try and manage that. Oh my gosh,
50:35
Speaker 2: this has been an epic money diary. The last question
50:39
Speaker 2: before we go, though, is you mentioned at the start
50:42
Speaker 2: of this episode that you were a bee when it
50:44
Speaker 2: came to grading your money habits. And I feel like
50:46
Speaker 2: I've learned so much about you, so much about what
50:49
Speaker 2: you've done for your family, but also just the fact
50:52
Speaker 2: that you've managed a baby, having had a mortgage historically,
50:56
Speaker 2: getting out of that, now having another baby, going through medicine,
51:00
Speaker 2: getting rid of after pay, like doing everything that you've done,
51:03
Speaker 2: having the side hustle that you have, and then also
51:06
Speaker 2: doing tutoring and having your scholarship. I feel like you
51:08
Speaker 2: are just way smarter at money than you probably give
51:11
Speaker 2: yourself credit for. Do you still think that you're a
51:15
Speaker 2: B and if so, why? But if not, what would
51:18
Speaker 2: it take to get to an A?
51:21
Speaker 3: Look, you've convinced me, so I feel like I can
51:23
Speaker 3: be an A. I know you can be an A.
51:25
Speaker 2: We can all be as it just takes a lot
51:27
Speaker 2: of work.
51:28
Speaker 3: It does. I feel like I'm on such a good
51:30
Speaker 3: trajectory now, like I'm have a good income coming in
51:35
Speaker 3: and next year as I start working as well as
51:38
Speaker 3: a doctor, like, I'll continue to have a good income.
51:41
Speaker 2: And it's just going to go up from there.
51:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I really want to focus on investing a lot,
51:47
Speaker 3: Like I don't necessarily want to retire early, but I
51:50
Speaker 3: want to have a good, you know, investment portfolio with
51:53
Speaker 3: a good like passive income so that you know, I
51:57
Speaker 3: can kind of just start working part time because you know,
52:02
Speaker 3: spending time with my family is really important to me,
52:05
Speaker 3: and I don't really buy into the whole like six
52:07
Speaker 3: days working a week as.
52:09
Speaker 2: A doctor, So yeah, that's fair, especially when you have
52:12
Speaker 2: kids and you did drop future children, so I'm assuming
52:15
Speaker 2: that you're going to have more than two. And I
52:17
Speaker 2: feel like, yes, you're going to need a lot more
52:19
Speaker 2: work life balance.
52:20
Speaker 3: Yes, and that's huge for me. So yeah, I really
52:23
Speaker 3: want to set myself up so that that's possible and
52:25
Speaker 3: I don't need to be working for money.
52:27
Speaker 4: You know.
52:28
Speaker 2: I love this. I feel like this has been such
52:30
Speaker 2: a beautiful story to share with the community. Unfortunately, that
52:33
Speaker 2: is all we have time for today, Money direst Thank
52:36
Speaker 2: you so much. I'm so grateful that I get to
52:39
Speaker 2: share this story and that people get to learn from you,
52:42
Speaker 2: if not about becoming a doctor, but just about putting
52:44
Speaker 2: yourself out there and asking because what's the worst thing
52:47
Speaker 2: people can say, No, you're just calling other school and
52:50
Speaker 2: ask for a different scholarship.
52:51
Speaker 3: Thank you, thanks for having me.
53:00
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