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MONEY DIARIES: From being in hospital and just surviving 12 months ago, to THRIVING and earning six figures today · She's On The Money

0:02
Speaker 1: Just before we head into today's episode, we'd like to
0:04
Speaker 1: acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait
0:08
Speaker 1: Islander peoples. They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the
0:11
Speaker 1: waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you
0:15
Speaker 1: for sharing and for caring for the land on which
0:17
Speaker 1: we are able to learn. We pay respects to elders
0:20
Speaker 1: past and present, and we share our friendship and our kindness.
0:23
Speaker 2: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
0:47
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
0:50
Speaker 3: Millennials who want Financial Freedom. Welcome back to another shot
0:53
Speaker 3: back Money Diary Monday, where we get to chat to
0:56
Speaker 3: one of our community members, learn about them, their story,
0:59
Speaker 3: their journey and all of the challenging bits in between. Victoria,
1:03
Speaker 3: as always, I'm giving you hello this week, I have
1:06
Speaker 3: a really good one.
1:07
Speaker 1: Oh that's shocking. I can't believe you've got another good
1:10
Speaker 1: podcast for us, Jess.
1:12
Speaker 3: I know, it's almost like there's millions of amazing stories
1:14
Speaker 3: and we have not enough times don't hear them all.
1:16
Speaker 3: But it's a little short and sweet teaser, so I'm
1:18
Speaker 3: excited to learn a little more our diarist says, a
1:22
Speaker 3: year ago, I was in hospital, just trying to survive.
1:25
Speaker 3: Now I'm earning six figures and planning to fire. This
1:28
Speaker 3: is my money story.
1:29
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, from hospital to six figures. Oh I
1:33
Speaker 1: did this and that. I have to know more. That's
1:37
Speaker 1: a they sent in. That's it. So we didn't get
1:40
Speaker 1: anything else. No, like, oh I did this and that.
1:42
Speaker 3: Okay, cool, I'm really excited to learn about them. A
1:45
Speaker 3: little content warning before we get into it, though, We're
1:48
Speaker 3: going to be chatting about mental health, specifically around eating disorders.
1:53
Speaker 3: If that's something that's a little bit challenging for you
1:55
Speaker 3: right now, give this episode a miss because we're going
1:58
Speaker 3: to dive into it.
1:58
Speaker 1: I have so many quest gents, money darist. As always,
2:02
Speaker 1: you're hanging in the wings. Welcome to the show. We
2:05
Speaker 1: are so excited to have you.
2:07
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
2:09
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, so are we. Mainly because I hate
2:12
Speaker 1: it when people don't give me enough information and I'm like,
2:15
Speaker 1: excuse me, you can't just drop that and walk away.
2:18
Speaker 4: I knew I knew it would be something like that.
2:21
Speaker 5: I think when I purposely wrote it, I was like Ooh,
2:23
Speaker 5: I wonder what they'll think. Haha.
2:25
Speaker 1: It's like she's gone fishing for us, Jess, and it works.
2:28
Speaker 3: It absolutely worked. You got me full client and sinker.
2:31
Speaker 1: QUI love it. Let's get into it though. First question
2:35
Speaker 1: as always money darist, Can you tell us a little
2:38
Speaker 1: bit about your money story?
2:40
Speaker 5: Okay, So growing up I was never good with money.
2:46
Speaker 5: I kind of had parents on the opposite end of
2:49
Speaker 5: the spectrum. So I had a father who did really
2:51
Speaker 5: well and worked really hard for his money, and we
2:53
Speaker 5: never had to kind of worry about anything.
2:56
Speaker 4: Growing up.
2:56
Speaker 5: We weren't like extremely privileged, but we were very comfortab
3:00
Speaker 5: probably more than comfortable. However, when I was in high school,
3:04
Speaker 5: my parents divorced and my mom was always very bad
3:07
Speaker 5: with money and she never worked, so she provided for
3:11
Speaker 5: us as a family, and so when they divorced, it
3:14
Speaker 5: was a couple year long divorce and there was a
3:16
Speaker 5: lot of fighting about money. My dad had a lot
3:18
Speaker 5: of investment properties, so there was always that like mixed
3:23
Speaker 5: kind of view on money. My dad was always like,
3:25
Speaker 5: if property, save your money, do this, and he was
3:27
Speaker 5: very very frugal. My dad could live with nothing, but
3:30
Speaker 5: my mom loved to shop and it's just they were
3:34
Speaker 5: just completely different. So I actually really loved to shop,
3:37
Speaker 5: and I kind of saw that, well, take money while
3:39
Speaker 5: you have it and have fun. And I never truly
3:43
Speaker 5: adopted my dad's kind of view on money.
3:46
Speaker 1: I didn't listen to my day growing up either. And
3:48
Speaker 1: he was an accountant and like so good with it,
3:51
Speaker 1: and he used to be like, Victoria, you need to
3:53
Speaker 1: do AB and C. And I'd be like, I'm not listening.
3:58
Speaker 5: Yeah. I feel like that's very very common with our
4:01
Speaker 5: parents growing up, that we never truly listened, even though
4:04
Speaker 5: we know that they're probably really right.
4:06
Speaker 1: What would they and their financial security know about money, honestly?
4:11
Speaker 4: Right, exactly? And growing up I never really had consistent jobs.
4:18
Speaker 5: I've actually when I went to UNI, I went on
4:20
Speaker 5: exchange for a year and then I came back and
4:23
Speaker 5: then I went back overseas and worked for the Walt
4:26
Speaker 5: Disney Company.
4:27
Speaker 1: Oh what, how cool is that you worked for Disney?
4:31
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, what did you do?
4:32
Speaker 1: Is that too pervy? Would that give it away?
4:34
Speaker 3: Oh?
4:34
Speaker 5: No?
4:35
Speaker 2: No?
4:35
Speaker 5: So I worked actually in Animal Kingdom, So I worked
4:38
Speaker 5: in the parks. They have an international kind of college program,
4:41
Speaker 5: exchange kind of situation.
4:43
Speaker 4: So I worked in Animal Kingdom.
4:45
Speaker 5: Well, I also worked all around other parks because you
4:48
Speaker 5: can actually pick up shifts. But I worked in merchandise
4:51
Speaker 5: at the parks and that was really fun.
4:53
Speaker 4: For a year.
4:53
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, how cool.
4:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, So basically I never had consistent income.
4:58
Speaker 5: I never like I was moving overseason coming back, and
5:01
Speaker 5: then I was just trying to get settled.
5:03
Speaker 4: To get whatever job I could.
5:05
Speaker 5: My very first full time job was I think like
5:08
Speaker 5: forty four thousand, and I stayed with that for a
5:12
Speaker 5: year and I can go more to it later, but
5:15
Speaker 5: my health during that time wasn't the best and that
5:18
Speaker 5: led me to go part time. And essentially until now,
5:22
Speaker 5: I've never had a full time job. I've never saved.
5:25
Speaker 5: I've always just you know, spent what I could. Yeah,
5:28
Speaker 5: I haven't really bothered to save apart from when I
5:31
Speaker 5: was in that one full time job where I actually
5:34
Speaker 5: ended up saving around twenty two thousand dollars.
5:37
Speaker 1: What I haven't ever bothered saving or just saved a
5:41
Speaker 1: capsule twenty two kdus all right, no problems.
5:46
Speaker 5: That was the only time I saved, and it was
5:47
Speaker 5: because I didn't know how long I could do this job.
5:50
Speaker 5: So it was kind of that like get through mentality
5:53
Speaker 5: just you need to have some kind of saving buffer,
5:55
Speaker 5: and then I spent all that savings when I wasn't
5:58
Speaker 5: working fair.
6:00
Speaker 1: All right, money direst I want to know more about
6:02
Speaker 1: this six figure job. What do you do for work?
6:05
Speaker 1: How much money do you earn?
6:07
Speaker 2: So?
6:08
Speaker 5: I am an independent support worker working with one family.
6:13
Speaker 5: In particular, I work with a kind of high needs
6:18
Speaker 5: eleven year old boy with complex disability, so he has
6:21
Speaker 5: one on one care basically twenty four seven.
6:23
Speaker 1: As a special human You are thank you.
6:27
Speaker 5: It is hard work, but honestly, I'm pretty privileged to
6:29
Speaker 5: be able to be a part of his story and
6:32
Speaker 5: help his family, and.
6:34
Speaker 3: It's rewarding, amazing. And what when you say six figures
6:38
Speaker 3: to be really noisy, what does that mean?
6:40
Speaker 1: I know exactly.
6:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, so it will be depending on how if
6:46
Speaker 5: I produce more hours, but it'll be between one twenty
6:50
Speaker 5: and one.
6:50
Speaker 4: Thirty k okay.
6:52
Speaker 1: So I want to know the specifics of this as well.
6:54
Speaker 1: When you say you're a support worker for an eleven
6:57
Speaker 1: year old, that's a super special job. But yeah, how
7:00
Speaker 1: do you get paid?
7:01
Speaker 3: So?
7:01
Speaker 1: Are you paid by that family? Are you paid by
7:03
Speaker 1: an agency?
7:04
Speaker 3: Like?
7:04
Speaker 1: How does that work? How does this family get you
7:07
Speaker 1: as a part of their team.
7:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, so essentially the family found me through my previous job.
7:14
Speaker 5: I actually worked as a professional organizer and I came
7:18
Speaker 5: to help unpack their house and she realized that I
7:22
Speaker 5: had a background in behavioral science and I'm a current
7:25
Speaker 5: nursing student, and she was really interested in that as
7:30
Speaker 5: well as she was really impressed by my work ethic,
7:32
Speaker 5: and she asked if I would spend some time with
7:34
Speaker 5: her son, and then she offered me the job through
7:37
Speaker 5: that way. But essentially, I'm paid through the NDIA. I'm independent,
7:42
Speaker 5: so I have an ABN. I'm a soul trader.
7:45
Speaker 1: Very cool. I love that story because everybody phones support
7:49
Speaker 1: workers in different ways, or like maybe they advertised or
7:52
Speaker 1: maybe you actually work for an agency. So I'm always
7:54
Speaker 1: a bit pervy when it comes to stuff like that
7:56
Speaker 1: because everybody in this industry seems to have such a
7:59
Speaker 1: different journey. But then also if you're not privy to
8:03
Speaker 1: that industry, you have no idea how these things come
8:06
Speaker 1: to fruition, and it's such a special industry. Anyway, I
8:09
Speaker 1: won't go on about that because we have to keep
8:11
Speaker 1: on with these questions money direst I want to know
8:14
Speaker 1: what is your big money goal.
8:17
Speaker 5: Okay, so obviously my big money goal is to retire early.
8:21
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean you did dangle the lure of
8:26
Speaker 1: and I'm working towards fire in your email. And for
8:29
Speaker 1: those of you who don't know, fire is financial independence
8:32
Speaker 1: retire early? Is that not?
8:34
Speaker 4: Yes?
8:35
Speaker 1: And how is that going to work for you? My friend?
8:37
Speaker 5: So basically, what I'll be using is investing in shares,
8:43
Speaker 5: mainly exchange traded funds to basically get some passive income
8:47
Speaker 5: working for me. So that way I don't actually have
8:50
Speaker 5: to depend on full time work, and I mean I
8:52
Speaker 5: don't have to retire, but it gives me that flexibility.
8:55
Speaker 5: And I've always loved the idea of having that financial
8:58
Speaker 5: freedom and having the choice to make whatever decision I
9:00
Speaker 5: wanted to.
9:01
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with you. I love this and I love
9:03
Speaker 1: your mindset. When I talk to a lot of people
9:06
Speaker 1: about retirement, I think that they make this assumption that
9:08
Speaker 1: retirement means that you no longer work and that you
9:11
Speaker 1: take up golf and maybe you're really good at gardening.
9:14
Speaker 1: But the reality of the situation is actually it means
9:17
Speaker 1: you're completely financially independent and you can do whatever you want,
9:20
Speaker 1: like if you want to keep working part time, or
9:22
Speaker 1: go and do some volunteer work, or just keep on
9:25
Speaker 1: keeping on, knowing that you could quit your job any
9:28
Speaker 1: day you like, because you don't rely on that income. Like,
9:31
Speaker 1: that's what financial independence is. That's what I guess retirement means,
9:35
Speaker 1: because I think we really need to change this perception
9:38
Speaker 1: that retirement's in age. It's not. It's a number. The
9:41
Speaker 1: second you have that number in your bank account, or
9:43
Speaker 1: in your investments, or in the way that you are
9:45
Speaker 1: running your life, you're actually going to have so much
9:48
Speaker 1: more financial freedom. And I think that there's just this
9:50
Speaker 1: misconception retirement sixty five. Right. So the next question I
9:58
Speaker 1: think you answered before because you said ETFs. But my friend,
10:04
Speaker 1: do you have any investments and if so, what are they? Please?
10:06
Speaker 1: Juicy details?
10:07
Speaker 5: Okay, So it's funny because I feel bad in saying that.
10:11
Speaker 5: But I haven't technically started investing yet.
10:17
Speaker 4: Okay.
10:17
Speaker 5: A part of that is because I started this job
10:22
Speaker 5: around a month.
10:23
Speaker 4: And a week ago.
10:24
Speaker 1: So oh my gosh, congratulations.
10:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you.
10:30
Speaker 5: So I will make my first investment next week, and
10:33
Speaker 5: at the moment, I think I do love Vanguard, so
10:37
Speaker 5: I'll be sticking with one of those ETFs. Probably they're
10:40
Speaker 5: diversified the high growth option, just because that's a great
10:44
Speaker 5: way to be automatically diversified straight off the bat, and
10:47
Speaker 5: then obviously further on I can go a little bit
10:50
Speaker 5: more niche if i'd lack, but I'd love to have
10:52
Speaker 5: that diversification straight off the bat.
10:54
Speaker 1: I love that and the fact that so many people
10:56
Speaker 1: that are going to be listening to this money daring.
10:58
Speaker 1: Oh of course she already in and you're like, no, no, no,
11:01
Speaker 1: like this is the plan. How did you start learning
11:04
Speaker 1: about that? I mean you've mentioned Vanguard, which is a
11:06
Speaker 1: very common ETF provider here in Australia. Where did you
11:10
Speaker 1: learn about Vanguard? How did you start that journey?
11:13
Speaker 5: So it's funny, it started probably four years ago when
11:19
Speaker 5: I actually got my first full time job that I
11:22
Speaker 5: was on that forty four k salary.
11:24
Speaker 4: I read The Barefoot Investor, which.
11:27
Speaker 5: As we all do, I do, and I've known a
11:32
Speaker 5: little bit about it before. But I always thought stocks
11:35
Speaker 5: to be very risky and you have to have so
11:37
Speaker 5: much knowledge, and you have to be a banker, and
11:39
Speaker 5: like you have to be this old man and know
11:43
Speaker 5: everything there is to do about investing. But I read
11:46
Speaker 5: that and that kind of got me excited and started
11:49
Speaker 5: to learn about personal finance. And then since then, I've
11:53
Speaker 5: basically just been consuming everything. I watch a lot of
11:56
Speaker 5: YouTube videos about investing, obviously, podcasts, you guys. I've read
12:01
Speaker 5: quite a few books, so I love like specifically fire books.
12:06
Speaker 4: There's some great ones out there, and I'm.
12:08
Speaker 5: Just always reading about it like I love it so much,
12:11
Speaker 5: Like I would love to just like do that as
12:14
Speaker 5: my full time job, be like a finfluencer.
12:16
Speaker 4: If you've heard of.
12:17
Speaker 1: That, I have.
12:19
Speaker 5: Surprisingly, Yeah, I consume just a lot of stuff online.
12:23
Speaker 4: I actually created personal finance Instagram.
12:25
Speaker 1: Oh my god, can you please send it to me?
12:28
Speaker 1: I'm going to follow you? Do I already follow you.
12:29
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is.
12:31
Speaker 5: No, you probably don't follow me. It's not that big.
12:34
Speaker 5: I just started getting back into it. But it's saving
12:36
Speaker 5: with Jess, but instead of with it's just a W
12:39
Speaker 5: so saving w Yes.
12:40
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I want everyone to go and follow
12:43
Speaker 1: you because you sound so sweet and your journey is
12:46
Speaker 1: just starting and I feel like that's so relatable. But
12:50
Speaker 1: next question, let's move on. I feel like this is
12:52
Speaker 1: going to be a no because you haven't mentioned it
12:54
Speaker 1: thus far, but you never know, my friend. Do you
12:57
Speaker 1: have any debts?
12:58
Speaker 5: No, so ironly have Well, technically I have my HEX
13:02
Speaker 5: which technically it's forty one thousand.
13:05
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. So tell me a little bit about
13:07
Speaker 1: what you studied.
13:08
Speaker 5: So I have a degree in behavioral science, so psychology,
13:12
Speaker 5: and essentially the reason why my hex stat is so
13:15
Speaker 5: high there is because I took an exchange here and
13:17
Speaker 5: we were able to get a loan as well, so
13:19
Speaker 5: that's why my debt is a little bit higher. And
13:22
Speaker 5: also I'm a current nursing student, so I'm about to
13:24
Speaker 5: start my second semester of a graduate entry program, so
13:27
Speaker 5: it's two years.
13:28
Speaker 1: Oh my god. So you're just an all around cool
13:31
Speaker 1: human doing cool things and smashing it out of the park.
13:33
Speaker 1: I love this.
13:34
Speaker 4: You're so nice.
13:36
Speaker 1: Just keep talking, all right, sorry, Like you're also really pretty,
13:40
Speaker 1: and I think you're really nice.
13:41
Speaker 3: What else?
13:42
Speaker 1: What else can we say, Jess, If you've got any
13:43
Speaker 1: like really nice things to throw in there? Very smart
13:47
Speaker 1: of course, yeah, obviously, yep, honest kind all of those things.
13:52
Speaker 1: But let's get into the next question, because I feel
13:55
Speaker 1: like this is one of our favorites because there's always
13:57
Speaker 1: a really colorful response money Dires, Do you use shot back?
14:01
Speaker 4: So, yes, I have you shot back.
14:05
Speaker 5: So my very first shot back was me switching over
14:09
Speaker 5: my phone plan. I actually saved a bunch of money.
14:11
Speaker 5: I was on a contract and I switched to a
14:14
Speaker 5: different provider and I actually got my first month free
14:17
Speaker 5: and I loved it.
14:18
Speaker 4: Yeah.
14:18
Speaker 1: I didn't even know you could get phone plans on
14:20
Speaker 1: shop pack.
14:21
Speaker 3: Here.
14:21
Speaker 1: I am being like, oh my gosh, you just buy
14:23
Speaker 1: stuff on there and you're like, no, no, like the
14:25
Speaker 1: phone plans through there.
14:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was through a little provider called Circles Life,
14:31
Speaker 5: and it was great. It was such a good deal
14:34
Speaker 5: compared to my previous phone Dylan. Actually I posted it
14:37
Speaker 5: on the Facebook group I think, yeah, and it got
14:39
Speaker 5: a bit of traction.
14:40
Speaker 1: I think, oh my gosh, how cool. I didn't even
14:43
Speaker 1: know you could do phone plans through shot back. And
14:45
Speaker 1: we literally work with them and I find out something
14:48
Speaker 1: new about them every week when we speak to your
14:50
Speaker 1: money I's someone was like how though, Like, how does
14:52
Speaker 1: that work? It's genius. I feel like everybody can save
14:55
Speaker 1: money on things that they're already spending money on, Like
14:58
Speaker 1: it's not even a hey, go and pay this and
15:00
Speaker 1: then you get a discount. It's like you were going
15:02
Speaker 1: to change your PHWN plan anyway, you got a better
15:05
Speaker 1: deal and you got money back money in anyway. Sounds
15:09
Speaker 1: like you've got some pretty good money habits. Money darist,
15:12
Speaker 1: what are your best money habits?
15:15
Speaker 5: I think my best money habit is that I'm just
15:19
Speaker 5: very personally interested in personal finance and my own money,
15:23
Speaker 5: and that I'm always looking to learn new things. And
15:26
Speaker 5: you know what do people do investing in? You know
15:29
Speaker 5: what a ways to save money. I'm just I think
15:32
Speaker 5: my knowledge is my best kind of money habit. Like
15:35
Speaker 5: I just realized how privileged I am to know as
15:38
Speaker 5: much as I do and have the background that I
15:40
Speaker 5: do to be able to, you know, make the best
15:42
Speaker 5: money choices for myself.
15:44
Speaker 1: That's a really sweet money habit. I really like that.
15:48
Speaker 1: That's really kind. But to flip this and bring down
15:51
Speaker 1: the mood again, what is your worst money habit?
15:55
Speaker 5: So I feel like my worst money habit is that
15:57
Speaker 5: I can be quiet impulsive in my purchases.
16:02
Speaker 4: So I'm a lot better at it now.
16:05
Speaker 5: Okay I say better, but a lot better than I
16:07
Speaker 5: have been previously. But if I get really interested in something,
16:12
Speaker 5: then I'm very much inclined to just go out and
16:14
Speaker 5: buy like a bunch of things like hobbies, for example.
16:18
Speaker 5: I'll just go out and buy everything that I need
16:20
Speaker 5: for that hobby, and then like a month later, you
16:22
Speaker 5: know that hobby doesn't exist, doesn't That.
16:28
Speaker 1: Happens to me all the time. All the time was
16:32
Speaker 1: I'm going to get really good at this. I'm a genius,
16:34
Speaker 1: and then like next week someone's like, are you still
16:36
Speaker 1: doing that? And I'm like, no, that's not happening anymore.
16:40
Speaker 4: It's like, don't ask me please.
16:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I needed all of the stuff for it, right.
16:48
Speaker 4: Everything, Yeah, always, all right.
16:50
Speaker 1: I have a lot of questions for you, but we
16:52
Speaker 1: do have to ask one more question before we go
16:54
Speaker 1: to a quick break, and that question is money. Grist.
16:57
Speaker 1: If we forced you to give your money habits a great,
17:00
Speaker 1: what would you grade yourself.
17:02
Speaker 4: I was thinking about this and I was really wondering
17:07
Speaker 4: what to say.
17:09
Speaker 5: I feel like, maybe I want to say be minus.
17:15
Speaker 1: You can say B minus, but you're gonna have to
17:17
Speaker 1: tell me why.
17:19
Speaker 5: So I feel like I'm gonna say B minus because
17:25
Speaker 5: I have really good foundations and I have the knowledge,
17:28
Speaker 5: but I haven't been the best at implementing it in
17:31
Speaker 5: the past.
17:32
Speaker 4: Well, yes and no.
17:33
Speaker 5: I have been able to save and you know, do
17:37
Speaker 5: some good things in the past, but I haven't really
17:39
Speaker 5: really buckled down and started it. Like I've known about
17:42
Speaker 5: investing since I was twenty, and you know, I've had
17:44
Speaker 5: five years like that compound interest is killing me. So
17:48
Speaker 5: I want to give myself a B minus because I've
17:50
Speaker 5: wasted a couple of years of you know, not really
17:53
Speaker 5: knuckling down and taking advantage of the time in the market.
17:57
Speaker 1: I would not call that time wasted. I would say
18:00
Speaker 1: that you were using that time to get comfortable with
18:02
Speaker 1: the idea of investing and educating yourself and being on
18:05
Speaker 1: that journey. And I think a lot of us are
18:07
Speaker 1: on that journey because we get messages from the Sheese
18:10
Speaker 1: on the Money community and we've existed what es for
18:12
Speaker 1: like four years now, which is crazy to think about.
18:15
Speaker 1: We get messages from people They're like, I've been in
18:17
Speaker 1: your Facebook group from the very beginning and I've been
18:20
Speaker 1: hearing you telling me that investing is important, that I
18:23
Speaker 1: need to prioritize it, but I haven't started it. Why
18:26
Speaker 1: am I so silly? And it's like you're not, like
18:28
Speaker 1: you're on that journey. And if you didn't spend that
18:30
Speaker 1: time getting comfortable with that idea and you just jumped
18:33
Speaker 1: into it at the very beginning, I guarantee you would
18:36
Speaker 1: have made a decision that doesn't sit well with you,
18:38
Speaker 1: and you might have been like, oh, like this makes
18:41
Speaker 1: me feel uncomfortable. I don't want to engage in it
18:43
Speaker 1: in the long term. And the plan is to not
18:45
Speaker 1: have just engaged with it over the last few years,
18:47
Speaker 1: my friend, It is to engage with it for the
18:50
Speaker 1: rest of your life. So if that's how long that took,
18:53
Speaker 1: that's cool, that's all right, because we've got literally the
18:55
Speaker 1: rest of your life. And look how much compound interest
18:57
Speaker 1: you're going to get out of that. Like, let's focus
18:59
Speaker 1: on that side of it, and the fact that you
19:01
Speaker 1: already know where you're going to invest, what you're going
19:04
Speaker 1: to invest in, and how you're going to allocate your cash,
19:06
Speaker 1: like you are miles, like millions of miles ahead of
19:09
Speaker 1: so many people.
19:11
Speaker 4: That's nice to hear. Thank you.
19:13
Speaker 3: All Right, We're going to go to a quick break
19:15
Speaker 3: and then when we come back, we have a lot
19:17
Speaker 3: of questions because you baited us and you got us.
19:19
Speaker 1: Good you did, and I'm mad about it, and I
19:22
Speaker 1: feel like I still haven't got the juicy details. Don't
19:25
Speaker 1: go anywhere, all right, we are back Money Diarist. We
19:29
Speaker 1: are jumping straight into it. No structured questions here, there
19:32
Speaker 1: are no rules. In the After the Break Money Diaries segment,
19:36
Speaker 1: you said that you had been in hospital and now
19:39
Speaker 1: you are on six figures. Can you explain to us
19:42
Speaker 1: why you were in hospital and what that meant and
19:44
Speaker 1: how that impacted you.
19:46
Speaker 3: Yes.
19:46
Speaker 5: So, essentially, throughout my life, I was always very physically healthy,
19:53
Speaker 5: but I really struggle with my mental health and it
19:58
Speaker 5: essentially it was just always in the background.
20:01
Speaker 4: I just pushed through.
20:02
Speaker 5: It, just kind of felt like, this is what it is, like,
20:06
Speaker 5: who cares.
20:07
Speaker 4: I'm just going to get on with my life.
20:08
Speaker 5: That's what everyone has to do, right, And I just
20:10
Speaker 5: always pushed it aside until about four years ago, where
20:14
Speaker 5: I really noticed how much of a toll it was
20:16
Speaker 5: taking on me. I worked in quite a high pressure job.
20:19
Speaker 5: I worked for the Department of Human Services and we
20:21
Speaker 5: dealt with a lot of people in vulnerable situations and
20:24
Speaker 5: that took its toll on my mental health. And essentially
20:26
Speaker 5: that's when I cut down to part time because it
20:29
Speaker 5: like going into work every day. It was so hard,
20:32
Speaker 5: and I was okay for a while. Obviously my mental
20:34
Speaker 5: health was still suffering, but I just got on with
20:37
Speaker 5: my life. But about a year and a half two
20:40
Speaker 5: years ago, it really took a turn and I ended
20:44
Speaker 5: up being caught in a really restrictive eating disorder, and
20:48
Speaker 5: that landed me in hospital for a couple of months
20:53
Speaker 5: as I was so physically unwell as well as obviously
20:57
Speaker 5: very mentally unwell. And yeah, it just took me out
21:01
Speaker 5: of the game for quite a few months there. I
21:03
Speaker 5: went through a couple of different programs and hospitals, and
21:06
Speaker 5: I'm glad to say that I'm doing so much better now.
21:09
Speaker 5: It's hard when you're in the middle of you know,
21:13
Speaker 5: your lowest. And like, I consider myself to be a
21:17
Speaker 5: very smart like a very smart person.
21:19
Speaker 4: I have a behavioral science background. I have knowledge.
21:22
Speaker 5: But and I thought that kind of protected me, and
21:25
Speaker 5: it really didn't. I thought I still had control, but
21:28
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, I can do whatever I want.
21:29
Speaker 5: I can turn it off whenever.
21:30
Speaker 4: It's fine.
21:31
Speaker 1: I'm smart enough, right, Like, yeah, and intelligent. I've got
21:34
Speaker 1: a degree, I did really well in school. What do
21:36
Speaker 1: you mean, No, I'm not struggling with this. I could
21:38
Speaker 1: just change if I wanted to.
21:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. I honestly, at my lowest, I thought I
21:44
Speaker 5: was fine. I was like, well, yes, I know, like
21:46
Speaker 5: my body has changed physically and there's so many things
21:48
Speaker 5: that have changed in my routine. But I was like
21:51
Speaker 5: it's fine. Like I was losing weight. So people were
21:55
Speaker 5: quite happy with that because I was always in a
21:57
Speaker 5: very very large body and so people automatically see that
22:01
Speaker 5: as wow, like what have you done? And people would
22:04
Speaker 5: ask me for tips every day, and I just thought
22:07
Speaker 5: I was the most like I'm like, I'm healthy.
22:10
Speaker 1: Now, like inspirational, right, Yeah.
22:13
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm so much healthy, Like I look
22:15
Speaker 5: like a completely different person to people. They were like
22:17
Speaker 5: that is the most amazing success stor I've ever seen. Like, no,
22:20
Speaker 5: it's not, it's not, and like it just solidifies like
22:25
Speaker 5: you really don't know what's going on with people, Like
22:27
Speaker 5: we really shouldn't be commenting on people's bodies regardless.
22:30
Speaker 1: Oh that resonates so much with me, Money Diarist, But
22:34
Speaker 1: it resonates with me so much because that's what I
22:36
Speaker 1: went through. Like I've been open about this on the
22:39
Speaker 1: She's on the Money podcast before, but I suffered with that.
22:41
Speaker 1: I have been hospitalized multiple times for an eating disorder.
22:45
Speaker 1: It's not something that I am proud of, but I
22:48
Speaker 1: also think it's something that I need to share with
22:50
Speaker 1: our community because there is this massive misconception that eating
22:54
Speaker 1: disorders are weak or they are you know, mainly about
22:58
Speaker 1: what you look like, when in reality, for me, for
23:01
Speaker 1: me personally and because eating disorders and their journeys are
23:04
Speaker 1: always so different, for me, it was about control. Had
23:07
Speaker 1: nothing to do with looking skinny. It had nothing to
23:11
Speaker 1: do with not lacking food, and everything to do with
23:14
Speaker 1: me trying to be in control of a situation that
23:16
Speaker 1: I didn't feel with in control of. And that's a
23:18
Speaker 1: mental health issue. It's not a food issue. It's a
23:21
Speaker 1: mental health issue. And it makes me so happy to
23:24
Speaker 1: hear the way you're reflecting on your journey because you've
23:27
Speaker 1: got that help that you needed, and like, looking at
23:29
Speaker 1: you today and obviously our listeners can't see you, but
23:32
Speaker 1: like you're this bright, glowy human and we've just learned
23:34
Speaker 1: so much about this impact that you're having on the world.
23:38
Speaker 1: And I think people just make this grand assumption that
23:41
Speaker 1: people who have eating disorders maybe aren't functional members of
23:44
Speaker 1: society in a way, whereas they are usually people who
23:47
Speaker 1: are contributing a whole heap and giving so much, and
23:50
Speaker 1: that's what ends up taking away from themselves and away
23:53
Speaker 1: from their own mental health. Is that something that you go,
23:56
Speaker 1: oh my god, Yeah, that's exactly it.
23:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, definitely. There's such horrible stigma around it, and
24:04
Speaker 5: I think, you know, people in the community deserve better.
24:07
Speaker 5: I think people need to understand just how hard it is.
24:09
Speaker 5: And yeah, it is a mental health issue, and so
24:12
Speaker 5: many people are struggling regardless of if you think you
24:14
Speaker 5: can see it or not. Eating disorders aren't a physical
24:18
Speaker 5: like you can't see it, They're a mental health issue.
24:20
Speaker 3: Like you said, absolutely, I wanted to ask you how
24:24
Speaker 3: you found yourself. So obviously you got your new role
24:27
Speaker 3: in an unusual way. You've come through a really challenging
24:31
Speaker 3: time with your health, which obviously takes a toll on
24:34
Speaker 3: your life pretty holistically, and then you've stepped into this
24:37
Speaker 3: role in a really unique way. A lot of the
24:39
Speaker 3: time when we're applying for jobs, obviously there's a salary
24:43
Speaker 3: guide or you interview with someone and they say, okay,
24:46
Speaker 3: we've allocated X to X for this role, whereas it
24:49
Speaker 3: sounds like the way that you kind of went about things,
24:52
Speaker 3: that guide wasn't available to you. How did you have
24:55
Speaker 3: that conversation with your now employer around money. Did you
24:59
Speaker 3: have to do any research to yourself? Did they bring
25:01
Speaker 3: it to the table, What did that look like?
25:04
Speaker 5: So, Yeah, because I was kind of like poached from
25:06
Speaker 5: my other job, I didn't have like a contract or
25:10
Speaker 5: anything like that to just like look at in a
25:12
Speaker 5: salary range, I basically spoke to the mother of the
25:16
Speaker 5: family directly. She gave me a bit of a ballpark
25:19
Speaker 5: once I did a couple shadow shifts with her son
25:23
Speaker 5: and essentially said, this is how much I'd paid previous
25:26
Speaker 5: support workers. I actually hadn't had previous experience in disability work,
25:31
Speaker 5: so she gave me a certain figure. However, I actually
25:34
Speaker 5: negotiated for the second time in.
25:36
Speaker 4: My life, Yes, Queen.
25:39
Speaker 5: The first time was actually two weeks before this, because
25:42
Speaker 5: an agency actually wanted me for disability support without like,
25:47
Speaker 5: without me ever really wanting to, like I never like
25:50
Speaker 5: searched for the field. She kind of just said, hey, like,
25:53
Speaker 5: I think you'd be really great for this, and so
25:55
Speaker 5: I negotiated with her, and so after like I felt
25:58
Speaker 5: it a little bit good about that.
26:00
Speaker 4: I went to this lady.
26:01
Speaker 5: And you know, I just I told her, this is
26:03
Speaker 5: my skills, this is what I'm going to bring. I
26:06
Speaker 5: think I'd be really good for your family. I'm going
26:08
Speaker 5: to be doing long hours. I'm going to commit to
26:10
Speaker 5: you long term. And so I negotiated my pay.
26:13
Speaker 4: Up a little bit.
26:14
Speaker 5: The pay was pretty good to start with, it would
26:17
Speaker 5: have been around ninety to one hundred K.
26:18
Speaker 1: But I negotiated congratulations. That takes some serious confidence. And
26:23
Speaker 1: to have done it not once, but twice in a
26:26
Speaker 1: very short period of time, you are someone who knows
26:29
Speaker 1: their worth. I love this.
26:31
Speaker 5: Yes, I was so nervous at first, and I remember
26:34
Speaker 5: thinking to myself, you know, men wouldn't think twice about
26:37
Speaker 5: asking for their worth?
26:39
Speaker 4: No, they Why should I?
26:41
Speaker 1: So we need to borrow some of their audacity, right like,
26:46
Speaker 1: right exactly. My girlfriends and I, this is wildly inappropriate.
26:50
Speaker 1: We're still going to put it on the podcast because
26:52
Speaker 1: I think people will love. But my girlfriends and I
26:54
Speaker 1: and Jessica RICI, you have heard this before. My girlfriends
26:57
Speaker 1: and I always say when we're feeling a little bit
27:00
Speaker 1: less confident, we're always like, what would a mediocre middle
27:02
Speaker 1: aged white man do and then we just do that.
27:05
Speaker 1: We do whatever they would do, and do you know what, Lucolia,
27:08
Speaker 1: It's worked so far exactly.
27:10
Speaker 4: Goodness. Yeah, that is pretty crazy.
27:13
Speaker 3: How are you going in terms of balancing that with
27:17
Speaker 3: being a student, Because you said you're studying nursing as well,
27:20
Speaker 3: and you've just mentioned that, you know, it's long hours,
27:23
Speaker 3: disability support work, particularly with a child who needs brown
27:26
Speaker 3: the clock care, I imagine you're often maybe doing like
27:29
Speaker 3: unusual shift times. How does that all balancing with your
27:33
Speaker 3: study as well? It feels like you've just got so
27:35
Speaker 3: much going on.
27:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I was really lucky that the family had
27:39
Speaker 5: previous experience with students before, and so she was really
27:43
Speaker 5: happy to be flexible with my studies, which is amazing
27:45
Speaker 5: and I'm so thankful for that. So I have two
27:49
Speaker 5: days off a week, on Thursday and Fridays, and that
27:52
Speaker 5: allows me on Thursdays usually to go to university, which
27:56
Speaker 5: hasn't technically started yet because of floods.
27:58
Speaker 4: In Prisone, but it will. Yeah. Essentially, I'll have the.
28:01
Speaker 5: Thursday and Fridays off and I've fit all the classes
28:03
Speaker 5: that I need to in person attend on a Thursday
28:06
Speaker 5: very cool.
28:07
Speaker 1: And another question I have that I feel like you're
28:10
Speaker 1: going to have a priority on is your mental health.
28:13
Speaker 1: How are you going to make sure that you don't
28:15
Speaker 1: regress to where you were, Like that was obviously a
28:18
Speaker 1: very pivotal part of your life that I'm absolutely certain
28:21
Speaker 1: you didn't enjoy. But how are you going to make
28:24
Speaker 1: sure that that doesn't become a reoccurring event, because from
28:27
Speaker 1: my perspective, it's so easy to slip back into old behaviors.
28:31
Speaker 4: Yeah.
28:32
Speaker 5: So look, I'm really lucky because I have an amazing
28:37
Speaker 5: sister who has really just she's been super supportive. A
28:41
Speaker 5: big part of my eating disorder is it was obviously
28:45
Speaker 5: really easy, and really it thrived a lot when I
28:48
Speaker 5: lived alone, and now I don't. So that's something that
28:51
Speaker 5: I realized I need to keep a part of my
28:53
Speaker 5: life for a little while. But basically I've changed so
28:56
Speaker 5: many habits now it's completely different. Like I make sure,
29:00
Speaker 5: you know, do I need to do a meditation, I
29:02
Speaker 5: try and incorporate that.
29:03
Speaker 4: At night, I just go for walks. So hard of
29:05
Speaker 4: my eating.
29:06
Speaker 5: Disorder is that I had a really big problem with
29:08
Speaker 5: over exercising, And now the way I look at exercise
29:12
Speaker 5: is completely different.
29:13
Speaker 4: Instead of doing exercises that I don't love to do,
29:16
Speaker 4: I just like go for a walk, like I.
29:20
Speaker 5: Make sure that I'm doing like exercise where I can
29:23
Speaker 5: just relax on wine, like oh, go listen to your
29:25
Speaker 5: podcast on a walk, And I make sure like every
29:28
Speaker 5: day that I incorporate that and that essentially I take
29:32
Speaker 5: that time to unwind after.
29:33
Speaker 4: Each shift because it can be a really difficult job.
29:36
Speaker 5: It is kind of emotionally taxing too, and especially when
29:40
Speaker 5: you're dealing with high needs sometimes there's quite a few
29:42
Speaker 5: behaviors that you just it takes its toll if you
29:46
Speaker 5: aren't careful.
29:46
Speaker 4: So the family is really great.
29:48
Speaker 5: I can always debrief with the mother and just I
29:51
Speaker 5: prioritize self care.
29:53
Speaker 4: Before I really didn't.
29:54
Speaker 5: I was very much go go go, and like just
29:58
Speaker 5: get through it, like who cares. Today's a hard day,
30:02
Speaker 5: Just do everything you need to do, and who cares.
30:04
Speaker 4: Tomorrow's a new day. But I'll do it all over again.
30:06
Speaker 5: So I just really take time for myself now and
30:09
Speaker 5: actually do things that I love and enjoy.
30:12
Speaker 1: For someone who's listening to this and going, oh my gosh,
30:15
Speaker 1: this resonates so much, I just don't know what to
30:18
Speaker 1: do about it, Like I'm so bad with my eating
30:21
Speaker 1: habits or even just like negative habits that are not
30:24
Speaker 1: helping you in any way, shape or form to thrive.
30:27
Speaker 1: What would be your advice to help them? I guess
30:30
Speaker 1: take the next steps to getting help. And how did
30:33
Speaker 1: you do that? Because that's not easy?
30:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, So look, basically, what was my detriment initially is
30:40
Speaker 5: the thought that, well, I just have to push through this,
30:42
Speaker 5: that's what everyone has to do, and I don't want
30:45
Speaker 5: to get help because that would be admitting that I
30:47
Speaker 5: actually am really suffering, and I don't.
30:51
Speaker 4: I just don't want to do that.
30:52
Speaker 5: My whole thing was I needed to portray this perfect
30:55
Speaker 5: image and that like I just didn't want to break
30:59
Speaker 5: that facade. So my advice to someone would just be like,
31:03
Speaker 5: no matter how hard you think breaking that facade is
31:07
Speaker 5: going to be, or how bad you think it's going
31:11
Speaker 5: to be, when you do, it will never be as
31:14
Speaker 5: bad as staying in your current habits.
31:17
Speaker 4: Like you will thank yourself.
31:20
Speaker 1: And you will and it's crazy and it breaks. Like
31:22
Speaker 1: it's literally giving me goosebumps to think about this journey
31:26
Speaker 1: and how hard it is for people, because it's just
31:28
Speaker 1: it genuinely is so frigging hard. How did you do that?
31:32
Speaker 1: How did you go? You know what, I need some help?
31:34
Speaker 1: And what were your first steps? I know that that's
31:36
Speaker 1: very personal, but I feel like it's such a helpful
31:38
Speaker 1: piece of information because it's so we've all heard, like, oh,
31:41
Speaker 1: prioritize yourself. You can't pour from an empty carp and
31:44
Speaker 1: just get help. What does that mean? How did you
31:46
Speaker 1: do it? Who did you speak to first? And what
31:48
Speaker 1: did that journey look like?
31:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, so look, it's kind of a long process. So
31:53
Speaker 5: when my mental health started to go down, I engaged
31:56
Speaker 5: a psychologist and I was actually working with a psychologist
32:01
Speaker 5: for a year and a half throughout that process, and
32:04
Speaker 5: like I was proactively trying to help myself, and I
32:08
Speaker 5: just like I was engaging a psychologist, but I wasn't
32:10
Speaker 5: really doing the work essentially, and so I really didn't
32:16
Speaker 5: prioritize that. And technically, in the end, it wasn't my
32:20
Speaker 5: decision to go into hospital and get help. It was
32:24
Speaker 5: a decision that was placed upon me. And I was
32:25
Speaker 5: under a Mental Health Act because I wasn't able to
32:28
Speaker 5: make decisions in the state that I was, But I
32:32
Speaker 5: was actually The funny thing is is, despite me not
32:34
Speaker 5: wanting to accept that help initially, I actually was helping myself.
32:38
Speaker 5: So I was actually listening to a lot of eating
32:41
Speaker 5: disort of recovery podcasts at my lowest, which was really
32:45
Speaker 5: kind of odd when you think about it, but I
32:47
Speaker 5: think I realized how at my end I was and
32:51
Speaker 5: how much I was struggling. So I actually did end
32:54
Speaker 5: up speaking with my psychologist and I was listening to
32:57
Speaker 5: those recovery podcasts, and I was ed ducating myself as
33:00
Speaker 5: much as possible while I was in the depth of
33:04
Speaker 5: my eating disorder. And even though I wasn't willing to
33:06
Speaker 5: accept that help initially, if I didn't do all that
33:10
Speaker 5: work beforehand, my recovery would have taken so much longer.
33:14
Speaker 5: So I feel like I was in like kind of
33:17
Speaker 5: I was accepting recovery and kind of open to thoughts
33:21
Speaker 5: and stuff like that beforehand, and I think that really
33:23
Speaker 5: helped me. Just recovery is quick. I'm not fully recovered,
33:27
Speaker 5: and I don't think I don't know if I ever
33:28
Speaker 5: will be, but I think I was really able to
33:32
Speaker 5: kick start that recovery and spend less time in hospital
33:36
Speaker 5: and more time getting on with my life.
33:37
Speaker 4: Because throughout that whole process.
33:40
Speaker 5: I was in hospital, but I was actually just getting
33:44
Speaker 5: as much information as possible and trying to be kind
33:46
Speaker 5: to myself and just giving myself that education so that way,
33:51
Speaker 5: like I had the tools for when I knew, I
33:53
Speaker 5: was ready to implement them.
33:54
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, you are you are special. I am
33:58
Speaker 1: so glad that we get to share you with our community.
34:01
Speaker 1: And I feel like so many people are going to
34:03
Speaker 1: listen to this and go wow, Like that really resonates
34:06
Speaker 1: with me. I was engaging with something, wasn't doing the work,
34:09
Speaker 1: though doesn't necessarily mean it has to be about eating disorders.
34:13
Speaker 1: It could just be in life. You're going through a
34:15
Speaker 1: university degree, you're not really doing the work, you're turning
34:18
Speaker 1: up to the lectures, you're not really listening, and you're
34:20
Speaker 1: not absorbing it, so you're not going to be as
34:22
Speaker 1: successful as you could be. And I think that there's
34:25
Speaker 1: just so much to learn from that. And thank you
34:28
Speaker 1: for sharing so much about your journey and being so
34:30
Speaker 1: open about it, because the only way we can start,
34:33
Speaker 1: you know, really breaking down these barriers of having these
34:36
Speaker 1: conversations and ensuring that people are getting the help that
34:39
Speaker 1: they deserve earlier is by having open honest conversation and
34:43
Speaker 1: not making it a taboo topic where we're like, oh
34:45
Speaker 1: my gosh, like Victoria's going through this thing. We had
34:47
Speaker 1: no idea where, you know, historically past me could have
34:51
Speaker 1: felt really comfortable to turn to a friend and being like, oh, Jess,
34:53
Speaker 1: I'm actually really struggling with this. What do you reckon
34:55
Speaker 1: I should do next? Because I never in a million
34:58
Speaker 1: years would have done that. In fact, my money, Daris
35:00
Speaker 1: got to the stage that you were in where decisions
35:02
Speaker 1: were being made for me and I wasn't a part
35:04
Speaker 1: of those decisions anymore, and that was in the best
35:07
Speaker 1: interest of me. But you shouldn't have to get that
35:10
Speaker 1: far before you can go you know what, Maybe I
35:13
Speaker 1: do need to do some work.
35:15
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think I just want to mention like
35:18
Speaker 5: a lot of people think that reaching out is like
35:22
Speaker 5: the hardest thing to do and that people won't understand
35:25
Speaker 5: or people think that they have this whole picture in
35:27
Speaker 5: life together, and what would they think if you reached
35:30
Speaker 5: out and told them that you.
35:31
Speaker 4: Were actually struggling.
35:32
Speaker 5: And people are much more accepting than you think, and
35:36
Speaker 5: people are much more aware of what you're going through
35:39
Speaker 5: than what you may think that they are. So I
35:43
Speaker 5: think just reach out when you can, and I promise
35:47
Speaker 5: you people are going to be a lot more understanding
35:49
Speaker 5: and helpful then you. Basically, your mental health is trying
35:53
Speaker 5: to make you believe and yeah.
35:55
Speaker 1: That's so helpful. Well, unfortunately, I do think that is
35:59
Speaker 1: all we have time for today. But thank you so
36:02
Speaker 1: much for joining us. I am so grateful to learn
36:05
Speaker 1: a little bit about your money story, a little bit
36:07
Speaker 1: about your mental health and your journey and how much
36:09
Speaker 1: you are giving to our world. And guys, don't forget this.
36:12
Speaker 1: Money Diarist has let their anonymony if that's the right word, slip,
36:17
Speaker 1: and they have shared their Instagram, So go follow our
36:20
Speaker 1: money Diarist on Instagram. Her instagram is saving with Jess,
36:24
Speaker 1: but the with is just a doub.
36:26
Speaker 3: The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally
36:28
Speaker 3: nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on
36:32
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Speaker 3: three six five two three See you next week, guys. Bye,