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MONEY DIARIES: Geophysicist at the Top of Her Game · 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.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 4: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the the podcast for
1:01
Speaker 2: millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one
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Speaker 2: of our money diaries where I get the absolute privilege
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Speaker 2: of talking to one of our incredible She's on the
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Speaker 2: Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight
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Speaker 2: into it, because we got a message this week and
1:15
Speaker 2: it sounded like this. Hi, She's on the Money team.
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Speaker 2: I'm a thirty two year old mother of two who's
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Speaker 2: a geophysicist in the energy industry making one hundred and
1:24
Speaker 2: fifty two thousand dollars only working four days a week.
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Speaker 2: I followed in my father's career footsteps, but not before
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Speaker 2: going through my own cycle of consumer debt. I'm passionate
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Speaker 2: about pay transparency, and I wanted to shed some light
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Speaker 2: on the earning potential in industries many people don't know
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Speaker 2: about money. Garis welcome to the show.
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Speaker 3: Hello, thank you for having me.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, do you get really excited being able
1:48
Speaker 2: to say, well, I'm a geophysicist, Like, I just feel
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Speaker 2: like that's big dog energy.
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Speaker 3: I mean, it sounds a lot fancy than it actually is.
1:55
Speaker 3: But it's kind of funny to see people's looks for me, Like,
1:58
Speaker 3: I have no idea what that is.
1:59
Speaker 2: I love that, Like, I'm not going to pretend I
2:02
Speaker 2: know what that is. I think it's got something to
2:04
Speaker 2: do with rocks, but I would love to get into it.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks slowly, slowly. Let's not make me look
2:11
Speaker 2: too silly, too early, but let's get into it, because
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Speaker 2: I'm really excited to learn about this. Pay transparency is
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Speaker 2: obviously something I am wildly passionate about, but I also
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Speaker 2: I need to know how a mum of two who's
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Speaker 2: only thirty two, we're basically the same age as earning
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Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty two grand, not even having to
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Speaker 2: work a full work week. So let's get into it.
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Speaker 2: But first things first, I want to ask what grade
2:32
Speaker 2: would you give your money habits on a scale of
2:34
Speaker 2: A through F.
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Speaker 3: So I actually don't like this question most of it
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Speaker 3: because it reminds me of doing performance reviews at work
2:41
Speaker 3: where you're having.
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Speaker 2: To, oh, sorry to trigger you to.
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Speaker 3: Straddle the line of like, you know, humble, but also
2:49
Speaker 3: trying to tell it how it is, but also trying
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Speaker 3: to get that promotion.
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Speaker 2: Oh, this is anonymous. This is not the time to
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Speaker 2: be humble, my friend. So let's be corporate. Let's circle
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Speaker 2: back and answer the question. So gonna say a yes, queen.
3:01
Speaker 3: Yeah.
3:03
Speaker 2: We'll get into why when we're in how right after this.
3:06
Speaker 2: But I think that this is not the community to
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Speaker 2: be humble in, my friend. Like I will celebrate any win.
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Speaker 2: You bought your first house, let's celebrate you saved money
3:14
Speaker 2: on your groceries, let's celebrate you got out of consumer
3:16
Speaker 2: that I am partying with you, Like, I don't care
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Speaker 2: how big or small your money in is, Like they're
3:22
Speaker 2: all for me. Like humble is not a word that
3:24
Speaker 2: I think should exist in our vocabulary, and I think
3:26
Speaker 2: for so long, and I'm sure given the industry you're in,
3:30
Speaker 2: women have put themselves behind by trying to be too
3:33
Speaker 2: humble and like go, oh well, my own horn too much,
3:37
Speaker 2: and then it ends up biting you in the backside,
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Speaker 2: and that's not a good thing at all. So like,
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Speaker 2: let's just throw humble out the door and just be honest.
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Speaker 2: How about that?
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Speaker 3: Great, Let's do that, all right?
3:48
Speaker 2: Agreed? Agreed, Let's carry on with the interview. I'm gonna
3:51
Speaker 2: ask my favorite question of all time. Can you please
3:54
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit more about your money story.
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Speaker 3: Yes, I was thinking a lot about this, and I
3:59
Speaker 3: actually I don't think money has ever really stressed me out.
4:02
Speaker 3: I've always worked a lot, and even when I had
4:05
Speaker 3: no money because I was spending a lot of money,
4:07
Speaker 3: I'd never really I didn't really find it very stressful.
4:10
Speaker 3: I had three jobs in high school, and I was
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Speaker 3: just always really busy, and I found money to be
4:16
Speaker 3: very fluid, like it came in and then it went
4:18
Speaker 3: straight back out again. And that was pretty much happening
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Speaker 3: for most of my teenage life and then into my twenties.
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Speaker 3: I did the classic credit cards and got into quite
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Speaker 3: a lot of consumer debt. And I'd go on a
4:32
Speaker 3: holiday and be like, oh, I just put that all
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Speaker 3: in the credit card. I'll pay for it later. It's fine.
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Speaker 3: But because I was always working so much, it never
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Speaker 3: really stressed me that I couldn't pay it. It was
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Speaker 3: just it just came in and out. Really, when I
4:43
Speaker 3: bought my first car, I got a car loan. It
4:45
Speaker 3: didn't actually occur to me that you didn't buy a
4:47
Speaker 3: car using a car loan. I didn't realize that people
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Speaker 3: just paid cash for cars. It was very I just
4:52
Speaker 3: thought that's what you did.
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Speaker 2: I was the same, don't worry, my friend. I just
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Speaker 2: assumed that's how people acquired cars, Like who on earth
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Speaker 2: would have fourteen one thousand dollars just in their account?
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Speaker 2: To me, that was absolutely absurd. Nowadays, I'm like carloons,
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Speaker 2: like I mean, I write my business and they're not
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Speaker 2: the worst thing in the entire world. They can be
5:10
Speaker 2: quite constructive. But I wouldn't have one myself by yes, So.
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Speaker 3: It kind of all changed when I met my now husband,
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Speaker 3: and we are very money transparent with each other from
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Speaker 3: a really early in our relationship, and I remember him
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Speaker 3: telling me that he had forty thousand dollars in savings,
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Speaker 3: and I was blown away. I was like, how do
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Speaker 3: you have that much money?
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Speaker 2: That what made you get married? Because I would have
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Speaker 2: been like, that's really.
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Speaker 3: Sexy, So basically like really doesn't.
5:43
Speaker 2: So it actually became my sugar daddy, and I just say,
5:46
Speaker 2: I'm a geophysicist, and I just I don't do any.
5:49
Speaker 3: Of that victoria. You've just seen right through me here
5:52
Speaker 3: and maybe put a mirror to myself and be like,
5:54
Speaker 3: what are you doing. You're making a good income. You
5:57
Speaker 3: need to sort this out. So we didn't classic sort
6:00
Speaker 3: of barefoot investor and then really got into podcasts like
6:03
Speaker 3: She's on the Money and really turned it around to
6:07
Speaker 3: make our money, start working for us, and work to
6:12
Speaker 3: benefit from the great salaries that we have. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: No, I think that that is such a relatable journey.
6:18
Speaker 2: I have a few questions, though, how do you meet
6:20
Speaker 2: a husband?
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Speaker 3: We met at work? Oh we met it?
6:24
Speaker 2: Well, Hey, that's a really wholesome story. I feel like
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Speaker 2: every man and his dogs met their partner on bumble
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Speaker 2: at the moment, and that's the boat I'm in. So
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Speaker 2: I just kind of expected any other thirty two year
6:33
Speaker 2: old woman to be like, yep, tinder bumble pinge something.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, he's an engineer and I'm a GEP physicist and
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Speaker 3: we were working on the same project. And it makes
6:41
Speaker 3: it sound like we sort of like locked eyes across
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Speaker 3: this like you know program that we were doing, and
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Speaker 3: it wasn't like that at all. We just became friends
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Speaker 3: and then it's sort of blossomed from there. But it's
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Speaker 3: quite Hanny.
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Speaker 2: We not ruined the magic. Please. I've just got this idea.
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Speaker 2: It's a bit like a Big Bang Theory style romance.
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Speaker 2: So I would like to carry that on in my
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Speaker 2: head for the of this interview. If that's okay, Money Diarist, absolutely,
7:06
Speaker 2: I also really want to ask, so you said a
7:08
Speaker 2: lot about Look, I worked a lot when I was
7:10
Speaker 2: in high school. Money wasn't really stressful to me. It
7:13
Speaker 2: was very fluid. That tells me a lot about your
7:17
Speaker 2: money story in itself. I kind of want to ask
7:20
Speaker 2: in a pervy way, I guess what was money like
7:23
Speaker 2: growing up? So did your parents have a lot or
7:26
Speaker 2: a little? Is that something that you weren't too stressed
7:29
Speaker 2: about money because your parents weren't. Are they values that
7:32
Speaker 2: were instilled in you or was it you're going, you
7:34
Speaker 2: know what, I really need to work myself because I
7:36
Speaker 2: don't have enough. I want to know a bit more
7:38
Speaker 2: about that because it kind of helps to contextualize the
7:42
Speaker 2: information you've given us about how you currently feel about money.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we always had enough, like when it was
7:48
Speaker 3: never never an issue, I guess in our household. My
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Speaker 3: dad is a dear physicist too, and he made you know,
7:56
Speaker 3: good money as well. But my mum didn't work. She
7:58
Speaker 3: was a stay at home mum, and then she did
8:00
Speaker 3: bunch of other bits and pieces, but mostly it was
8:02
Speaker 3: my dad supporting the family. But they have a very
8:05
Speaker 3: casual approach to money as well. I'm pretty sure my
8:07
Speaker 3: dad would just give everything he has a way and
8:10
Speaker 3: not even blink and eye like he just didn't. Really
8:12
Speaker 3: it wasn't stressful for him either. But I do remember
8:15
Speaker 3: my mum being very budget conscious and like, you know,
8:18
Speaker 3: we're going to spend one hundred dollars on gross fees
8:19
Speaker 3: this week and that's all we're going to spend. Or
8:21
Speaker 3: you've got, you know, fifty dollars to buy new clothes
8:23
Speaker 3: for this winter or whatever it is. That's fifty dollars
8:26
Speaker 3: is not nearly enough nowadays, but for the extra curriculous things,
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Speaker 3: it was you can do it, but you have to
8:31
Speaker 3: pay for it yourself. So there was ski trips at
8:34
Speaker 3: school that I wanted to go on that I had
8:36
Speaker 3: to save money and pay for myself. There was a
8:38
Speaker 3: volunteer program that was two weeks in Africa that I
8:43
Speaker 3: had to save two thousand dollars for. And when I'm sixteen, that's,
8:47
Speaker 3: you know, a huge amount of money. So that's why
8:49
Speaker 3: I just started working so.
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Speaker 2: Much, so much money. I'm so glad, I asked, because
8:53
Speaker 2: I feel like sometimes when people say, oh, yeah, money
8:56
Speaker 2: was really fluid, I didn't care too much. Often you
8:59
Speaker 2: find that the reality of that, I guess situation is
9:03
Speaker 2: that they just were given everything. And obviously money is
9:05
Speaker 2: really easy if you're given a free thing. But to
9:08
Speaker 2: know that, I guess that came from your own work
9:10
Speaker 2: ethic and being taught Okay, well, we'll give you all
9:13
Speaker 2: the bare necessities, and if you want to do all
9:15
Speaker 2: the fun stuff like going to Africa or going on
9:18
Speaker 2: a ski trip, like you've got to work for that.
9:20
Speaker 2: That probably set you up really nicely for a good
9:23
Speaker 2: work ethic going I guess into adult life. Do you
9:26
Speaker 2: think that that was the.
9:26
Speaker 3: Case, definitely. I mean I was never shy of working,
9:31
Speaker 3: even when I was at UNI. Even when I was
9:33
Speaker 3: you know, it was always if you want something, you
9:36
Speaker 3: just work hard for it and then you'll be fine.
9:39
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think I think it definitely set me
9:41
Speaker 3: up work ethic wise. But it did sort of because
9:44
Speaker 3: they never really taught me about saving. I would save
9:46
Speaker 3: up for these trips and then I would go back
9:48
Speaker 3: to a zero bank account and have to start all
9:50
Speaker 3: over again.
9:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. All right,
9:54
Speaker 2: let's talk about your bank account though. I want to
9:56
Speaker 2: know what do you do specifically for work and how
9:59
Speaker 2: much money do you earn?
10:01
Speaker 3: So I'm a geophysicist. Well, actually currently I'm on maternity leave,
10:04
Speaker 3: so things are a little bit different right in this
10:06
Speaker 3: very second. But as of six weeks ago, I was
10:09
Speaker 3: a geophysicist earning one hundred and fifty two thousand, only
10:12
Speaker 3: working four days a week because I have a toddler
10:14
Speaker 3: at home and didn't want to go back full time.
10:16
Speaker 3: I'm in the energy industry, and I guess you probably
10:20
Speaker 3: want to know what a geophysicist is and does. Yeah.
10:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you could just make me not look too
10:25
Speaker 2: silly while explaining it. That would be fantastic, but you
10:28
Speaker 2: know what you do.
10:28
Speaker 3: You so basically I work with seismic data. And you've
10:33
Speaker 3: probably heard the word seismic.
10:35
Speaker 2: Frast oh yeah, totally yeah, yeah, seismic data.
10:38
Speaker 3: M m yeah yeah from like earthquakes, emit seismic data,
10:43
Speaker 3: and it's basically sound waves. But a really good way
10:46
Speaker 3: of thinking about it is, I mean everyone knows what
10:48
Speaker 3: an ultrasound in is and what a sonographer does, yes,
10:51
Speaker 3: where they take pictures of your belly and your babies
10:54
Speaker 3: and everything like that and they use tiny little sound
10:56
Speaker 3: waves to see what's inside. I basically do that but
10:59
Speaker 3: to earth, so it's on a much bigger scale and
11:03
Speaker 3: it's a lot more expensive, but it's it's the same technologies.
11:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.
11:07
Speaker 2: I've had ultrasounds before and just one ultrasound cost me
11:11
Speaker 2: like three hundred and thirty dollars and I got like
11:14
Speaker 2: not that much back. So like, I can't imagine, now,
11:16
Speaker 2: when do they pay you one hundred and fifty two
11:18
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, my friend? Because like I'm pretty small, the
11:21
Speaker 2: Earth is pretty big.
11:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's not unusual for a seismic survey
11:25
Speaker 3: to cost about ten million dollars. That's really not unusual
11:28
Speaker 3: at all.
11:29
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, but that's a really good way of
11:31
Speaker 2: putting it, And that's kind of a really cool job.
11:33
Speaker 2: But I need to know because like, obviously one hundred
11:36
Speaker 2: and fifty two thousand dollars, that's pretty sexy, Like a
11:39
Speaker 2: lot of people want to earn that. So, like, if
11:41
Speaker 2: I'm listening to you, you sound super relatable, you sound
11:44
Speaker 2: super fun. You obviously have really good work life balance.
11:47
Speaker 2: I mean at the moment, you've got a six week old,
11:49
Speaker 2: so maybe not that greater like life life balance, but
11:52
Speaker 2: like we'll get there. How do we become a geophysicist?
11:55
Speaker 2: If this income sounds very attractive.
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Speaker 3: It's absolutely doable. Like it's I did a Bachelor of
12:00
Speaker 3: Science majoring in geology and geophysics. There's not nearly as
12:04
Speaker 3: much maths as you think there is, and you get
12:07
Speaker 3: to go on a lot of field trips and spend
12:09
Speaker 3: a lot of time outside doing a geology degree. So
12:10
Speaker 3: I can recommend I read somewhere that geologists are the
12:13
Speaker 3: happiest people on campus because they just get to spend
12:15
Speaker 3: all this time outside like looking at the earth. And
12:19
Speaker 3: then I did an honors in specific geology in geophysics
12:24
Speaker 3: at a different university. But that's it. It was a
12:26
Speaker 3: four year degree and then I got hired by the
12:28
Speaker 3: company i'm at now.
12:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's it. It's real specific. Yeah, yeah,
12:35
Speaker 2: you are really playing, yes, my friend.
12:37
Speaker 3: I just I mean, if you every university degree is
12:40
Speaker 3: difficult when you're in your early twenties and you're you know,
12:43
Speaker 3: struggling to focus and you've got to put the effort
12:45
Speaker 3: in and you've got to put the time in. But
12:47
Speaker 3: it's you don't have to be like, you know, a
12:50
Speaker 3: super whiz at maths or a super wiz at physics
12:53
Speaker 3: or a super like. It is an achievable thing to
12:55
Speaker 3: do and it's fun. And then I mean base salaries
12:59
Speaker 3: come out of that kind of degree into the energy
13:04
Speaker 3: industry or into the resources industry. You're starting at one
13:07
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars easily, easily, Like I started at ninety
13:12
Speaker 3: two thousand dollars and that was ten years ago. Oh
13:14
Speaker 3: my gosh.
13:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really interesting as well, because I'm just going
13:19
Speaker 2: to back it up a little bit. Obviously, that is
13:21
Speaker 2: really epic, Like the idea that you did a Bachelor
13:24
Speaker 2: of Science and then you know, an honors in specific geology,
13:27
Speaker 2: like all of that, you know, as much as I'm
13:29
Speaker 2: being silly, is really impressive. But it's also relatively specific.
13:34
Speaker 2: And when I was eighteen years old or I was seventeen,
13:37
Speaker 2: and I was putting down my preferences of which universities
13:41
Speaker 2: I wanted to go to, I'm not going to lie.
13:43
Speaker 2: I don't think I even knew that this career existed,
13:46
Speaker 2: or that it was an option for me, or the
13:48
Speaker 2: earning capacity of that role looked like that. And I
13:51
Speaker 2: think that that's something that as a teenager trying to
13:54
Speaker 2: pick your future career, like you kind of just pick
13:57
Speaker 2: what you're passionate about. And obviously you had your dad,
14:00
Speaker 2: so you said, I followed in my father's footsteps. So
14:03
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that your dad probably helped you pick what
14:05
Speaker 2: you need to do to get where you need to go.
14:08
Speaker 2: But I guess how did you forge this career path
14:11
Speaker 2: because obviously it's relatively specific, and if we want to
14:14
Speaker 2: do something as well, a lot of us are going
14:16
Speaker 2: to go, oh, my gosh, like, how did you even
14:18
Speaker 2: know that that was what you needed to major in?
14:20
Speaker 2: How did you know?
14:21
Speaker 3: It's an interesting one because I took a gap year
14:24
Speaker 3: between school and UNI and did a couple of ski
14:28
Speaker 3: seasons as you do, and sort of fluffed about a bit.
14:31
Speaker 3: And I really didn't think I was going to go
14:33
Speaker 3: into science and into gear physics. I'd gotten into UNI
14:37
Speaker 3: to do something completely different. But I spent like about
14:40
Speaker 3: three months working for my dad and just went on, no,
14:44
Speaker 3: we are very similar, and I find this very interesting.
14:48
Speaker 3: And then I just was like, oh, I'm going to
14:50
Speaker 3: become my dad, like just but then at the same time,
14:53
Speaker 3: going well, I've lifted the pressure from all my siblings,
14:55
Speaker 3: so I guess that's a that's good. So I think
14:59
Speaker 3: that's one of the reason. That's why I really wanted
15:00
Speaker 3: to talk to you guys, because if I didn't have
15:03
Speaker 3: my dad or know someone in the industry, you just
15:05
Speaker 3: don't know about it, and people just don't know about it,
15:07
Speaker 3: and they don't people don't talk about earning potential and
15:10
Speaker 3: resources industries. I don't know why, because it's like very
15:14
Speaker 3: attractive and you're getting to do really cool stuff and
15:17
Speaker 3: now is a really great time to be into it
15:19
Speaker 3: because there's so much change happening in terms of like
15:23
Speaker 3: how we operate looking at climate change and the impact
15:25
Speaker 3: of all of that, like, it's a really interesting time
15:28
Speaker 3: to be looking into resources. And if you don't know,
15:32
Speaker 3: you don't know. So that's one of the reasons why
15:34
Speaker 3: I really wanted to talk to you guys and just
15:35
Speaker 3: sort of be transparent about what's possible.
15:38
Speaker 2: Thank you. I am obsessed with that. I think having
15:41
Speaker 2: conversations not only about pay, transparency about career progression is
15:46
Speaker 2: so important because, as I said, like, I wouldn't have
15:48
Speaker 2: had a clue, Like I didn't have a dad that
15:50
Speaker 2: could tell me how that worked, and I definitely didn't
15:53
Speaker 2: have anybody else in the family that I could do that.
15:56
Speaker 2: I mean, I grew up with brilliant parents. And when
15:59
Speaker 2: you said, oh, I'm becoming my dad, like we have
16:01
Speaker 2: so much in common, I laughed because I was at
16:03
Speaker 2: dinner the other day with my parents and I was
16:06
Speaker 2: sitting there and my dad and I threw our heads
16:09
Speaker 2: back it exactly the same time and had like a
16:11
Speaker 2: cut paste laugh, and then we looked at each other
16:14
Speaker 2: and I was like, you are me, I am you
16:17
Speaker 2: like we are we like we are exactly the same.
16:20
Speaker 2: And then later that evening, like my mom and I
16:22
Speaker 2: did something super similar again, and I was just like
16:25
Speaker 2: when I was younger, I think my worst nightmare was
16:28
Speaker 2: becoming my parents. Like I used to think, oh, like,
16:30
Speaker 2: I don't want to be anything like my parents, and
16:32
Speaker 2: now I'm like, what a privilege? Like these are the
16:35
Speaker 2: coolest people in the entire world, and I'm so similar
16:38
Speaker 2: to them, it's not funny. I find that the biggest
16:40
Speaker 2: compliment when they're like, oh, you're so much like your dad,
16:43
Speaker 2: or you know, both you and your dad aren't funny
16:45
Speaker 2: at all, are you? And I'm like, ha ha ha,
16:47
Speaker 2: Like it's to me the best thing ever. But a
16:49
Speaker 2: lot of us don't have that privilege of education or
16:53
Speaker 2: just learning. I mean, my dad was an accountant, which
16:56
Speaker 2: is probably where I got some of my love of
16:58
Speaker 2: talking about money. But I so used to cry a
17:01
Speaker 2: lot when he was trying to teach me my time's tables.
17:03
Speaker 2: So I'm not sure if that was constructive or if
17:05
Speaker 2: it was traumatic. I haven't decided yet, and I'm still
17:08
Speaker 2: like thirty one. And my mum she worked as a coroner,
17:12
Speaker 2: So yeah, I used to be in grade three telling
17:15
Speaker 2: people oh yeah, I no, my mom works with dead people,
17:18
Speaker 2: And to me that was really normal. Neither of those
17:20
Speaker 2: career paths I wanted so I forged my own. But
17:24
Speaker 2: it's just so interesting because I didn't even know that
17:27
Speaker 2: you could become a geophysicist in four years, like with
17:31
Speaker 2: four years of study. I just thought that would be
17:33
Speaker 2: like ten twelve years of study. And now you're telling me, oh, yeah,
17:36
Speaker 2: like if you go do a Bachelor of Science, like
17:38
Speaker 2: obviously there's some specifics to it, but then you go
17:41
Speaker 2: and do an honors and you know you're in for
17:43
Speaker 2: a very good career and that's life changing, right, Like
17:46
Speaker 2: that changes the trajectory of people's lives. And if we
17:50
Speaker 2: can even have a small impact on that, I guess
17:53
Speaker 2: spheer of people who were relatively like me, Like, I
17:56
Speaker 2: don't know what, I don't know. How do we learn
17:59
Speaker 2: what different careers do and what those trajectories look like
18:02
Speaker 2: because Google doesn't do this for us.
18:05
Speaker 3: No, it's really interesting actually because you look at those
18:07
Speaker 3: charts that say what are the best careers to get
18:09
Speaker 3: into and the income next to it, and never does
18:13
Speaker 3: anyone say gear physicist.
18:15
Speaker 2: It's not there, No, it's not something we've talked about.
18:17
Speaker 3: I love that.
18:19
Speaker 2: I feel like it's so important to be transparent, but
18:21
Speaker 2: also really important to just go Actually, I love my job.
18:24
Speaker 2: It's really cool. While we're still talking, I guess about
18:27
Speaker 2: your job. How are you able to work a full
18:30
Speaker 2: day work week? Is that because you have one of
18:32
Speaker 2: those workplaces that's taken the five day work week down
18:35
Speaker 2: to four or is that because you're part time or like,
18:38
Speaker 2: how does that work with? I guess work work balance?
18:41
Speaker 3: So they actually they do do a nine day fortnite
18:43
Speaker 3: at my work currently, but I was working part time,
18:46
Speaker 3: so I was only working four days a week. And
18:48
Speaker 3: it's really project based and it's not as a g
18:51
Speaker 3: you can there's a whole bunch of different things you
18:53
Speaker 3: can do, like work in the field, you can work
18:56
Speaker 3: on roster, you can work you know, there's a bunch
18:58
Speaker 3: of different ways you can you can make it happened.
19:01
Speaker 3: But I was just working at a desk and doing
19:04
Speaker 3: a nine to five and just when I came back
19:06
Speaker 3: from having my eldest, decided I didn't want to work
19:09
Speaker 3: full time, and they went, great, you can work however
19:13
Speaker 3: much or as little as you want. And I just
19:14
Speaker 3: came back four days a week. Yeah.
19:16
Speaker 2: Wow, so you have two bambinos. I got the aleage
19:19
Speaker 2: of seeing your youngest who is six weeks old, how
19:22
Speaker 2: old is your other child, she's just turned too. How sweet.
19:26
Speaker 2: I want to know how, at your age you made
19:30
Speaker 2: the decision Okay, now's the time to have babies, Like,
19:33
Speaker 2: what did you think of when you were I guess
19:35
Speaker 2: working out what your career would look like, because for
19:38
Speaker 2: a lot of women, the idea of stepping away might
19:41
Speaker 2: be a little bit daunting or scary. And now you're
19:43
Speaker 2: telling me you've got what two under three? That's terrifying,
19:46
Speaker 2: especially to someone who doesn't have any kids yet. But
19:49
Speaker 2: how are you managing that and your career and what
19:51
Speaker 2: that looks like going forward.
19:52
Speaker 3: That's a really interesting question because it wasn't a career
19:56
Speaker 3: decision per se. I did a test to see, how,
20:02
Speaker 3: you know, how many eggs I have left or how
20:04
Speaker 3: long I could have left to potentially have kids, and
20:06
Speaker 3: the results came back terribly and it was like, you
20:10
Speaker 3: either need to start doing this or risk not being
20:12
Speaker 3: able to do it at all. And my husband and
20:14
Speaker 3: I just went all right, well we'll just give it
20:16
Speaker 3: a go. And we were really lucky and had my
20:18
Speaker 3: daughter quite quickly, and then we thought, well we may
20:21
Speaker 3: as well just keep it rolling and had the second one,
20:24
Speaker 3: and we were so lucky that we had the ability
20:27
Speaker 3: to make those decisions and had the information in order
20:31
Speaker 3: to do that. So I'm a real advocate for getting tested,
20:34
Speaker 3: but it's sort of I was at a point in
20:36
Speaker 3: my career where I had enough technical background that I
20:40
Speaker 3: knew that if I stepped away, I'd feel comfortable coming
20:43
Speaker 3: back and not have lost too much in terms of
20:46
Speaker 3: credibility or in terms of career progression, which is really real.
20:51
Speaker 3: The other thing that made it a lot easier was
20:53
Speaker 3: that my work offers paternity leave for both men and women.
20:57
Speaker 3: It's eighteen weeks full time, which means we're get more
21:00
Speaker 3: and more men who were taking Yeah, it's amazing. We're
21:02
Speaker 3: getting more and more men taking eighteen weeks full time
21:05
Speaker 3: away from work or thirty six week part time away
21:08
Speaker 3: from work, and so you're having more men stepping away
21:11
Speaker 3: from the job for long periods of time, which sounds
21:15
Speaker 3: like it shouldn't be benefiting women, but that absolutely is
21:17
Speaker 3: because they're getting that same separation and they're not just
21:21
Speaker 3: you know, pushing through for that next promotion, next promotion.
21:24
Speaker 3: That was a huge benefit I'm starting to see now
21:26
Speaker 3: as well.
21:27
Speaker 2: Ah, I love it. That's actually epic. You mentioned something
21:31
Speaker 2: that I haven't done. And I'm thirty one. You said
21:34
Speaker 2: that you went and got your eggs tested and your
21:37
Speaker 2: fertility tested. What drew you to say, all right, well,
21:41
Speaker 2: I want to get this done because up until I
21:43
Speaker 2: guess you know, this point in my life, I haven't
21:45
Speaker 2: really thought about it. I mean, I got engaged and
21:47
Speaker 2: that's when I thought, oh my gosh, like life's getting
21:49
Speaker 2: pretty real. Like you know it always talked hypothetically about
21:53
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, when we get married, we'll then have babies.
21:56
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't a prerequisite. It was more that's just
21:59
Speaker 2: how I thought my life was going to pan out.
22:02
Speaker 2: What drew you to have your fertility tested because so
22:04
Speaker 2: many people don't.
22:06
Speaker 3: I think probably two things. One, I'm such a scientist
22:09
Speaker 3: in that I just love data. I just want all
22:12
Speaker 3: the information to make the best decision I could possibly make.
22:15
Speaker 3: And to the women in my family are not good
22:18
Speaker 3: at having kids in their thirties, And that was a
22:20
Speaker 3: real eye opener for me to say, Okay, if this
22:23
Speaker 3: is something I want to do, let's just get as
22:26
Speaker 3: much information as we can and then we can, you know,
22:30
Speaker 3: be better prepared for whatever way it's going to go.
22:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a bit similar. You know what, I
22:35
Speaker 2: didn't even know that you could get your eggs tested.
22:38
Speaker 2: I'm assuming I would have had I known that that
22:40
Speaker 2: was an option. I did do genetic testing. I got
22:43
Speaker 2: my at their time fiance to also do it with
22:46
Speaker 2: me so that we could plan that way. I didn't
22:48
Speaker 2: know how easy it was going to be. I worked
22:50
Speaker 2: with a company called Eugene Labs, and like, that's not
22:53
Speaker 2: a sponsored mention, that's just the company I worked with.
22:55
Speaker 2: And I think it cost about eight hundred dollars to
22:58
Speaker 2: get done. And they sent us a pack and we
23:00
Speaker 2: both just put saliva in a jar and then sent
23:03
Speaker 2: it back and that was honestly so simple. And then
23:06
Speaker 2: we had like a debrief with a doctor and that
23:09
Speaker 2: was done via zoom. So everything was super super easy.
23:12
Speaker 2: But that's about eight hundred dollars.
23:13
Speaker 3: To have done.
23:15
Speaker 2: How much did it cost to get your eggs tested?
23:18
Speaker 2: And I guess all that fertility testing.
23:20
Speaker 3: Initially it's just a blood test actually really Yeah, you
23:23
Speaker 3: just go to the GP and they do it. It's
23:24
Speaker 3: like a proxy to sort of estimate how many eggs
23:28
Speaker 3: you have left, and it gives you like an age range,
23:30
Speaker 3: like you have the blood test results of someone in
23:35
Speaker 3: their forties or someone in their twenties or someone in
23:37
Speaker 3: you know, between thirty five and forty eight or whatever.
23:40
Speaker 3: I can't remember what the it was, but mine was
23:42
Speaker 3: really bad, like forty five plus not good. And then
23:46
Speaker 3: you can take the next step of actually getting your
23:49
Speaker 3: egg your follicles counted to see how many you actually
23:52
Speaker 3: have left, or you can start going down like you
23:55
Speaker 3: can go see a fertility specialist. But I think for us,
23:58
Speaker 3: because it had come back and said that this is
24:00
Speaker 3: not you know, it's not looking good. It doesn't actually
24:04
Speaker 3: impact the quality of your eggs. You just have to
24:06
Speaker 3: start trying sooner.
24:07
Speaker 2: And we went, well, yeah, because you've got less eggs.
24:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, even if we did more tests, it probably wouldn't
24:12
Speaker 3: change the decision to just start trying. So let's just
24:15
Speaker 3: start trying.
24:16
Speaker 2: Wow, do you know what? That's blown my mind. I
24:18
Speaker 2: had absolutely no idea it was just a blood test
24:21
Speaker 2: and that it could be so simple. And I'm assuming
24:24
Speaker 2: I'm not the only one. So I'm glad that we've
24:25
Speaker 2: captured this on the pod because I think that there's
24:27
Speaker 2: going to be a few women maybe driving to work
24:30
Speaker 2: in their car going what the hell, like we should
24:32
Speaker 2: go and do this asap.
24:34
Speaker 3: This chat took a real right hand hand.
24:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it literally did. I'm so sorry that I've
24:40
Speaker 2: gone so off track. Let's get back on track, but
24:42
Speaker 2: that has been so helpful. To be honest, I've been
24:45
Speaker 2: thinking a lot about the cost of fertility, so there's
24:47
Speaker 2: probably a lot of episodes coming up on that and
24:50
Speaker 2: what it costs and how much costs to actually freeze
24:52
Speaker 2: your eggs and do all these things, because I feel
24:54
Speaker 2: like it can be such an overwhelming space to navigate,
24:57
Speaker 2: especially as a young woman who you know, you might
25:00
Speaker 2: might not even be ready to have babies, who might
25:01
Speaker 2: not even have a partner, so you're just like, oh,
25:03
Speaker 2: I can't even consider this. So I kind of want
25:06
Speaker 2: to break that down. But let's get back onto the
25:08
Speaker 2: money track. Yeah, I really want to know. You're obviously
25:12
Speaker 2: making bank, but what is your big money goal? What
25:15
Speaker 2: are we currently working towards.
25:17
Speaker 3: So we've got a few and I say wee because
25:21
Speaker 3: everything with my husband and I is very joint, so
25:23
Speaker 3: it's sort of like I don't have a specific one
25:25
Speaker 3: separate to him, but we really want to pay off
25:28
Speaker 3: our house by the time I'm forty, And that sounds
25:30
Speaker 3: like a really weird number to go for, but I
25:33
Speaker 3: felt like it was a stretch target that we could
25:35
Speaker 3: maybe hit. So having a goal, really specific goal like that,
25:39
Speaker 3: I quite liked. So we're heading for that. And then
25:43
Speaker 3: we want to buy like a piece of land that
25:46
Speaker 3: has enough space for some chickens and an orchard and
25:50
Speaker 3: just that sort of rural lifestyle to be able to
25:54
Speaker 3: relax in as we sort of head into the peak
25:58
Speaker 3: of our careers and then sort of wind down and
26:00
Speaker 3: hopefully retire a bit early.
26:02
Speaker 2: I adore that. I'm so excited about that. Tell me
26:05
Speaker 2: a little bit more about this goal of paying off
26:08
Speaker 2: your house by forty How much was your house, how
26:11
Speaker 2: much has left on the mortgage, and how are you tracking.
26:14
Speaker 3: So we bought the house for seven hundred and fifty thousand,
26:18
Speaker 3: and it was at auction, and when they said sold,
26:21
Speaker 3: I just burst into tears so heavy, and then I
26:26
Speaker 3: didn't know, you, this is weird to do this. But
26:28
Speaker 3: when we went in to go sign all the papers,
26:29
Speaker 3: I gave her, the current owner, a massive hug.
26:32
Speaker 2: I think she was I would have done the same pin.
26:36
Speaker 3: She was very confused.
26:38
Speaker 2: I've never won an auction, I've only lost them, so
26:40
Speaker 2: I've never had that experience, but I have every I
26:43
Speaker 2: guess belief that had I won any of the auctions
26:46
Speaker 2: that I've bid, I would have hugged everybody in the
26:48
Speaker 2: near vicinity.
26:49
Speaker 3: It was, Yeah, it was. It was really exciting. We
26:51
Speaker 3: actually got it for nobody else bid at the auction,
26:54
Speaker 3: which we thought was mad, so we did get it
26:56
Speaker 3: under the reserve price. Money win, yes, very big, huge money.
27:00
Speaker 3: But we actually we now only have about four hundred
27:02
Speaker 3: and sixty thousand dollars left on the mortgage. Yeah, we've
27:07
Speaker 3: just been pouring money into it basically love.
27:10
Speaker 2: That's so exciting, So by forty is really achievable.
27:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, if we keep on the current trajectory, I think
27:17
Speaker 3: we're we're looking good.
27:18
Speaker 2: Very very sexy. Sorry to be so pervy, but this,
27:21
Speaker 2: after all, is she's on the money, and it's quite
27:23
Speaker 2: literally my job. So let's go to a really quick
27:25
Speaker 2: break because I actually have more pervy money questions right
27:28
Speaker 2: after this, all right, money diarist, we are back, and
27:36
Speaker 2: I'm genuinely so invested in this conversation with you. I
27:39
Speaker 2: feel like you have so much knowledge to share with us,
27:43
Speaker 2: Like there's just so many interesting bits and pieces about
27:46
Speaker 2: either your money story or about what you've learned and
27:48
Speaker 2: about what you're sharing with us that I think a
27:50
Speaker 2: lot of people are going to get a lot of
27:51
Speaker 2: value out of this. But I want to know. The
27:53
Speaker 2: next question I've got is do you currently invest?
27:55
Speaker 3: If so, what in we do invest? And I should
27:59
Speaker 3: preface this by saying, my husband also makes a good wage,
28:02
Speaker 3: so he's in management now and is earning more than
28:05
Speaker 3: I am. So like it's we're in such a good
28:08
Speaker 3: position that we do have enough money to invest in
28:11
Speaker 3: different places. We have some shares and ETFs at about
28:15
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand dollars at the moment. There's some index ETF,
28:18
Speaker 3: some emerging industry and tech stock, and then our company
28:21
Speaker 3: shares that we get issued every year. And then we
28:24
Speaker 3: have our super and my super sitting at about one
28:27
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty thousand at the moment. And also my
28:31
Speaker 3: husband got crazy and decided to invest in some crypto,
28:35
Speaker 3: which he's holding, he tells me, So there's about twenty
28:38
Speaker 3: thousand dollars sitting in crypto at the moment. And then
28:40
Speaker 3: we saw a financial planner a few years ago, and
28:43
Speaker 3: just to make sure that we were on the right
28:45
Speaker 3: track of what we were doing with our income, and
28:48
Speaker 3: we started an education bond. Ah, yes, that they recommended
28:52
Speaker 3: that has really good tax implications if you're spending money
28:55
Speaker 3: on education. So, because our kids are really young still,
28:59
Speaker 3: we thought, well, we'll start doing this now so by
29:01
Speaker 3: the time they do get to high school, university, whatever,
29:05
Speaker 3: there's money there that we can then leverage the tax
29:08
Speaker 3: benefits from. So there's about sixty thousand dollars sitting in
29:11
Speaker 3: the education bond at the moment.
29:13
Speaker 2: I bloody love an education bond, Like, I feel like
29:15
Speaker 2: that's such an interesting addition because education bonds are not
29:19
Speaker 2: something that a lot of people know about. I've mentioned
29:21
Speaker 2: them on the show before, but I think a lot
29:24
Speaker 2: of people don't realize I guess the power in them.
29:27
Speaker 2: Do you think that that was something that you would
29:29
Speaker 2: have gotten into without an advisor?
29:31
Speaker 3: Not at all. It made getting the financial advisor really
29:33
Speaker 3: worth it because you just you don't know what you
29:35
Speaker 3: don't know, Like, we're not money you know, we're not
29:38
Speaker 3: financial specialists. And to have someone be like, actually, this
29:41
Speaker 3: is a really good way to make the most and
29:43
Speaker 3: let your money work for you. We thought that. I mean,
29:46
Speaker 3: it just made it worth it really.
29:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, airpic Oh my gosh, all right. So the next
29:50
Speaker 2: question I have my friend is we already know about
29:53
Speaker 2: your four hundred and sixty thousand dollars on your mortgage left,
29:56
Speaker 2: but do you have any other debts? If so, what
29:59
Speaker 2: are they?
30:00
Speaker 3: No, my hex is all paid off. I was actually
30:02
Speaker 3: really lucky when I went through Science was quite cheap
30:05
Speaker 3: because they were trying to get a lot more people
30:07
Speaker 3: through science degrees. So definitely, and I didn't know this
30:11
Speaker 3: until I started paying it off, that some of my
30:13
Speaker 3: classes were half price, and so I can end up
30:16
Speaker 3: going and having a look. Yeah, so it was really
30:18
Speaker 3: I just was like, oh, great, so that was a
30:21
Speaker 3: money win. But no, we don't have any other debt.
30:24
Speaker 2: Love all I want to know. I feel like you've
30:26
Speaker 2: probably got a number of good ones, But what do
30:28
Speaker 2: you think is your best money habit?
30:30
Speaker 3: I think I've got two really good ones. The first
30:33
Speaker 3: one is that the money transparency between my husband and
30:36
Speaker 3: I just makes everything so much easier. We share a
30:39
Speaker 3: Google Sheets account like spreadsheets, where we both update. It's
30:44
Speaker 3: all live, and we can see exactly what my money's
30:46
Speaker 3: doing and exactly what we've budgeted and exactly where things
30:50
Speaker 3: are being allocated every month, and we look at it
30:52
Speaker 3: quite regularly if something changes and the conversation is very open,
30:56
Speaker 3: and that just makes everything so much easier. And then
30:59
Speaker 3: the other, the one is that we hardly ever go
31:01
Speaker 3: out to dinner or breakfast or anything. Like we're real
31:04
Speaker 3: homebodies and we just we're quite I love shopping at Audi,
31:08
Speaker 3: and I go and we do like our weekly shop.
31:11
Speaker 3: And for us, it's not, you know, we spend like
31:13
Speaker 3: less than two hundred dollars a week on groceries, but
31:15
Speaker 3: if we do go out, we go out hard. Like
31:17
Speaker 3: we'll go and do like a ten course degas station
31:20
Speaker 3: and just make it really worth it.
31:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're a bit similar. But my friend, how are
31:25
Speaker 2: you doing all of your groceries for under two hundred
31:28
Speaker 2: bucks a week? Like what the heck in is that
31:30
Speaker 2: because you shop at Audi? Or is that because you're
31:32
Speaker 2: a super wiz meal planner or like what's the secret there?
31:35
Speaker 2: Because that's pretty good.
31:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think meal planning definitely helps. And we do
31:41
Speaker 3: shop at Audi, but we'll go and we're very like
31:45
Speaker 3: simple meals. It's not everything's not too complicated, you don't
31:48
Speaker 3: have too many ingredients, You pay enough for good quality
31:52
Speaker 3: meat and then you just get fruit and veg and
31:54
Speaker 3: then whatever else you need, and like, honestly, my kids
31:57
Speaker 3: don't eat very much. I've got a two year old
31:58
Speaker 3: and someone who just drinks expres milk, so they're cheap
32:01
Speaker 3: at the moment. So really it's just a family of
32:03
Speaker 3: two and.
32:04
Speaker 2: Like a third and like a half third a third
32:07
Speaker 2: that probably just throws food and isn't that grateful for
32:10
Speaker 2: it at this point in time. That's right, All right,
32:14
Speaker 2: let's flip the narrative. What is your worst money habit?
32:18
Speaker 3: This is probably going back to me still feeling like
32:23
Speaker 3: money is a bit fluid and if I'm in the
32:25
Speaker 3: mood to spend, it will just pour out of me,
32:28
Speaker 3: like I be like, we need new bed linen. I
32:31
Speaker 3: won't even look for a deal. I'll just go to
32:34
Speaker 3: Sheridan and spend eight hundred dollars and I won't even
32:37
Speaker 3: think about it. And it's terrible, but I'm I feel
32:40
Speaker 3: so lucky that I can do that and not like
32:42
Speaker 3: and obviously I don't do that very often, but when
32:44
Speaker 3: I do, I'm just like, oh, well, here it is,
32:46
Speaker 3: here's all my money. Oh oh.
32:49
Speaker 2: I feel like that's not the worst thing ever, especially
32:51
Speaker 2: if it's in line with your budget. And you have
32:53
Speaker 2: all these other savings and investing goals and you're kind
32:55
Speaker 2: of smashing it everywhere else. I mean, the best thing
32:58
Speaker 2: in this situation is you're super aware of it. So
33:01
Speaker 2: I'm not too worried about that, if I'm being honest.
33:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think my husband probably worries about it a
33:06
Speaker 3: bit more than I do.
33:08
Speaker 2: That's always the way. That is absolutely always the way.
33:11
Speaker 2: All Right, now that we've talked, I feel like I
33:14
Speaker 2: know the answer to this already, but I'm going to
33:16
Speaker 2: ask anyway, now that we've talked, do you still think
33:19
Speaker 2: that you would give yourself the grade of A?
33:22
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think so. We're in such a fortunate position,
33:26
Speaker 3: and I think we've really taken the steps to make
33:29
Speaker 3: sure the money that we have and the money that
33:31
Speaker 3: we're earning goes into really good places. So I'm really
33:34
Speaker 3: comfortable that we're doing a good job at the moment.
33:37
Speaker 3: So i'd give myself an A.
33:38
Speaker 2: I love that. What do you think it would take
33:40
Speaker 2: to get you to an A plus?
33:42
Speaker 3: Probably hitting some of the money goals that we have,
33:46
Speaker 3: paying off our house and getting that property and seeing
33:50
Speaker 3: us retire a bit early. But they're really long term goals.
33:54
Speaker 3: But I think if you don't have something to strive for,
33:56
Speaker 3: you stop trying. I think that's probably what's stopping me
33:59
Speaker 3: from saying, well, we're just amazing, because for us there's
34:03
Speaker 3: still stuff we want to achieve.
34:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, I love that. Oh my gosh, I
34:07
Speaker 2: have adored this conversation. Money Direstic has been an absolute
34:11
Speaker 2: pleasure and a privilege having you on. I will let
34:14
Speaker 2: you get back to your six week old. Thank you
34:16
Speaker 2: so much for your time.
34:18
Speaker 3: No, this has been great, Thanks so much for having me.
34:26
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