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MONEY DIARIES: Bridging Worlds · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
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Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
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Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
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Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
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Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
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Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
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Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
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Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
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Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
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Speaker 2: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another
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Speaker 2: one of our Shop Back Money diaries, where I get
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Speaker 2: to sit down each and every single week with one
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Speaker 2: of our She's on the Money community members and talk
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Speaker 2: about their money story, their approach to cash and everything
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Speaker 2: in between. This week I got a message and it
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Speaker 2: went like this. I grew up in a poor migrant
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Speaker 2: family and we always struggled to make ends meet. My
1:25
Speaker 2: parents migrated from China and Malaysia and neither had the
1:28
Speaker 2: opportunity to finish high school. My sister and I were
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Speaker 2: the only Asians at my school, and I only ever
1:35
Speaker 2: had hand me down clothes, With my parents unable to
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Speaker 2: afford all of the normal things that kids around me
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Speaker 2: had access to. My mum's family lived without electricity and
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Speaker 2: hot water in rural China, and I really do feel
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Speaker 2: the strain of bridging these different worlds working now. I
1:51
Speaker 2: feel like I want to leave the opposite to the
1:53
Speaker 2: life I grew up with, but it does make me
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Speaker 2: feel guilty for my parents who still live in the past.
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Speaker 2: Money Diarist, welcome to the show. What a story.
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Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, of course, money Darist, I'm really excited
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Speaker 2: to learn more about your money story, So let's start there.
2:11
Speaker 2: Can you tell us a little bit more about your
2:13
Speaker 2: money story?
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Speaker 4: Well, I feel like for me it was a very
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Speaker 4: like love hate relationship. I really loved how you know
2:20
Speaker 4: money can buy you a lot of things? Can you
2:23
Speaker 4: know can travel with it? I guess you need it
2:27
Speaker 4: for everyday life. But on the other hand, I also
2:29
Speaker 4: felt like it brought a lot of unhappiness as well,
2:32
Speaker 4: like especially when I was growing up, like I felt
2:34
Speaker 4: we didn't have a lot of money, and so there
2:36
Speaker 4: was a lot of experiences or things that other kids
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Speaker 4: seemed to have and were able to do, but I
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Speaker 4: felt because we didn't have the money for it, just
2:43
Speaker 4: felt like it was holding me back a bit. So
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Speaker 4: I guess having that attitude towards money, I kind of
2:51
Speaker 4: hated it, but also wanted more of it as well,
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Speaker 4: So I really wanted to earn a lot of money.
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Speaker 4: So I feel like I always swing between like saving
3:00
Speaker 4: up money and not being willing to spend it, and
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Speaker 4: then I'll go to like the spending like binges almost, So.
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Speaker 2: That is a beautiful place to start. I want to
3:10
Speaker 2: know what do you currently do for work and how
3:12
Speaker 2: much money do you earn.
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Speaker 4: I'm working in a hospital as a pharmacist, and I've
3:17
Speaker 4: just recently started a new job, so I think my
3:21
Speaker 4: current salary is about ninety one thousand. But we do
3:24
Speaker 4: also have to do overtime, which is not counted in
3:27
Speaker 4: that we're rostered on for weekends and public holidays, so
3:31
Speaker 4: they'll just be counted as like extra overtime.
3:33
Speaker 2: On top of that, are the overtime rates good or
3:36
Speaker 2: something that you see as a bit of a burden
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Speaker 2: because you get less time.
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Speaker 4: I think they're okay, I'm actually really bad. I don't
3:42
Speaker 4: check the pacelips. I think I did do one public holiday,
3:45
Speaker 4: but I think it might be one and a half
3:48
Speaker 4: or two. I think I would prefer not to work
3:51
Speaker 4: if possible, but it is I guess expected that we
3:54
Speaker 4: do do the weekends and the public holidays, so it's
3:57
Speaker 4: just extra.
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Speaker 2: That makes absolute, especially if you're in a hospital. They
4:02
Speaker 2: don't just shut for public holidays. All right, I want
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Speaker 2: to know. Next question I've got for you is what's
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Speaker 2: currently your big money goal. What are you working towards.
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Speaker 4: I think in the future, like my current goal, I
4:14
Speaker 4: guess would be to get on top of my mortgage.
4:16
Speaker 4: Only just recently bought a house back in August. It
4:20
Speaker 4: was a bit of like a last minute kind of
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Speaker 4: thing because my rent was going up by one hundred
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Speaker 4: a week, so I was like, oh, maybe I should
4:28
Speaker 4: just buy my own place. So it would be really
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Speaker 4: good to sort of get on top of the repayments.
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Speaker 4: But it's a bit hard with all the interest rates
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Speaker 4: going up, so I can't really put as much money
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Speaker 4: towards towards it as I wanted to, because that needs
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Speaker 4: a lot of renovations, but long time, it would be
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Speaker 4: nice to get like a proper house with like three
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Speaker 4: bedrooms maybe and to have like a yard with a dog.
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Speaker 4: Because at the moment I've bought a unit, so that
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Speaker 4: would be the dream house. But yeah, I think that
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Speaker 4: long time it would be nice to just have like
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Speaker 4: a proper house.
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Speaker 2: I love that you're financial goal included a dog. I
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Speaker 2: ten out of ten can absolutely approve of this.
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Speaker 4: I just don't think it's nice to have a dog
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Speaker 4: in a unit with no backyard.
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Speaker 2: So, yeah, they do get bored, I promise you that.
5:13
Speaker 2: All right. I want to know next, do you have
5:15
Speaker 2: any investments? If so, what are they.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, so a couple of years ago, my friends and
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Speaker 4: I started investing in stocks. It was pro pre COVID
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Speaker 4: and yeah, so I've been slowly trying to work myself
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Speaker 4: into like trying to put some money aside every couple
5:31
Speaker 4: of months, about one thousand every month, so I think
5:34
Speaker 4: at the moment it's about sixteen thousand. Unfortunately, some of
5:37
Speaker 4: my shares didn't do so well, so I kind of
5:40
Speaker 4: sold them and lost a lot of a few thousand
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Speaker 4: from that.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, what made you sell them? If they
5:47
Speaker 2: were down.
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Speaker 4: I think the company was just not doing very well,
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Speaker 4: and I was just worried that they were going to
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Speaker 4: like liquidize or like they were gonna shut down. So
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Speaker 4: I was like, Oh, I might get out of it
5:59
Speaker 4: before like the come zero.
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Speaker 2: I need to know more about this. How did you
6:03
Speaker 2: pick the companies? Are we talking like small caps where
6:07
Speaker 2: the company's like really small and it was a bit
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Speaker 2: of a punt. Are we talking about big companies that
6:11
Speaker 2: maybe you were a bit anxious about. I need to know.
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Speaker 4: It was more like my friends or bought it and
6:16
Speaker 4: then they were telling me, oh, you should get on it.
6:18
Speaker 4: It's going up. And then when I bought it, it
6:20
Speaker 4: went down by over like maybe fifty percent. Yeah, it's
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Speaker 4: not a blue chip, so it's I think it was
6:27
Speaker 4: a pharmaceutical company. But then I was just like, this
6:30
Speaker 4: is not looking good. This company is like prices up,
6:34
Speaker 4: it's like going down. So I just kept monitoring for
6:37
Speaker 4: the longest time, hoping you'll go up, but it just
6:39
Speaker 4: kept going down. So I was like, I'm just gonna
6:41
Speaker 4: cut my losses and not be so risky.
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Speaker 2: Sometimes you have to do that in the investment world.
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Speaker 2: But that's why I wanted a little bit more clarification,
6:51
Speaker 2: because I was like, is this anxiety or is this
6:53
Speaker 2: maybe a small company that you've invested in with the
6:56
Speaker 2: hope of a really high upturn. And it sounds like
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Speaker 2: that might have been it. So I want to know
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Speaker 2: if you had your time again, would you still invest
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Speaker 2: in them or what would you have picked instead?
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Speaker 4: If I could turn back time, I would have instead
7:08
Speaker 4: invested in something more stable and long term instead of
7:11
Speaker 4: thinking that I could get you know, short term gains
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Speaker 4: with my shares.
7:14
Speaker 2: So you got bitten because you wanted to get rich quick.
7:17
Speaker 2: I love that.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not bad. I did that a lot at
7:20
Speaker 4: the start, and then in the end I realized you
7:22
Speaker 4: have to pay capital gains tax, and then I was
7:25
Speaker 4: just like, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm just gonna
7:27
Speaker 4: invest for long term and get the dividends from that, yeah,
7:31
Speaker 4: or reinvest. So some of them I choose to reinvest
7:34
Speaker 4: the dimonands. Most of them I just get the dibenends.
7:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. So you've changed your investment strategy so
7:41
Speaker 2: you're a bit more stable, am I? Right?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I just don't have time to like check it
7:45
Speaker 4: all the time.
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Speaker 2: It is a full time job.
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Speaker 4: Yeah. On a side note, one of my friends actually
7:51
Speaker 4: she tried to leave pharmacy. She was from UNI, but
7:55
Speaker 4: she went into selling stocks full time for a while
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Speaker 4: and I was just so the rest of that that
8:00
Speaker 4: tried to do it, but I couldn't.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, wild. I feel like, although pharmacists are smart,
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Speaker 2: that's a completely different ballgame.
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Speaker 4: It is really different.
8:11
Speaker 2: All right. I want to know you mentioned before a mortgage.
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Speaker 2: Do you have any debts? If so, what are they
8:16
Speaker 2: and how much? Yeah?
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Speaker 4: So I only just bought the house in August, so
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Speaker 4: it was it was four and forty K. And as
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Speaker 4: a pharmacist, you get I think some banks offer loan
8:29
Speaker 4: mortgage insurance.
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Speaker 2: If you pay, you get your LMI waved.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, you get your LMI waves. So I only paid
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Speaker 4: ten percent for the house deposit money win.
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Speaker 2: That's not the only industry that gets that. Like doctors,
8:43
Speaker 2: some different healthcare professionals and like lawyers and stuff all
8:46
Speaker 2: have access to that. So if you haven't spoken to
8:48
Speaker 2: a broker about it, I definitely would because it's a
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Speaker 2: great opportunity to one save l am I, but two
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Speaker 2: only have to come up with ten percent of the
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Speaker 2: deposit instead of a twenty percent, which is a money
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Speaker 2: win for everyone.
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Speaker 4: It is they accidentally put the LMI on my account at.
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Speaker 2: The end on your loan.
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Speaker 4: No, I was like, no, I agreed to this bank
9:09
Speaker 4: because there was no LMI, So cheeky.
9:12
Speaker 2: How did you rectify that?
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Speaker 4: Oh? I just had to call the mortgage broker, and
9:16
Speaker 4: the mortgage broker like fixed it. And I was like,
9:18
Speaker 4: thank goodness, that would be an extra twenty thousand to
9:21
Speaker 4: pay if I had to pay l AM.
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Speaker 2: I yeah, no, thank you. So you've got a mortgage,
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Speaker 2: it's four hundred and forty thousand dollars. You came up
9:30
Speaker 2: with a ten percent deposit you bought in August. Do
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Speaker 2: you have any other debt?
9:34
Speaker 1: Yeah?
9:34
Speaker 4: I do still have a really big heck step. Unfortunately,
9:37
Speaker 4: pharmacists actually don't earn a lot at the start. When
9:41
Speaker 4: I graduated, I think my starting salary as an intern
9:45
Speaker 4: was move about twenty one dollars an hour, which is
9:48
Speaker 4: probably gonna surprise a lot of people. So I didn't
9:51
Speaker 4: actually start paying off my hex.
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Speaker 2: I am surprised. I thought it would be heaps more
9:55
Speaker 2: than that.
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Speaker 4: This was back in maybe two thousand and sixteen or fifteen,
10:00
Speaker 4: so I think they've might have changed it since then,
10:03
Speaker 4: but it was pretty bad pay for a pharmacist in
10:06
Speaker 4: the community, so it's quite low.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, wow, So tell me about the career trajectory
10:13
Speaker 2: of a pharmacist. So you started as an intern and
10:15
Speaker 2: you were earning twenty one dollars an hour, and now
10:18
Speaker 2: we know that you earn about ninety one thousand dollars
10:20
Speaker 2: plus overtime and weekends and stuff like that. But what
10:23
Speaker 2: are you expecting to earn in the future. What does
10:25
Speaker 2: that look like?
10:26
Speaker 4: So I think it like when you go to hospital.
10:29
Speaker 4: I think it is like a big pay rise for
10:32
Speaker 4: me anyway from the community. So you have different grade levels.
10:36
Speaker 4: So depending on which hospital you go to, if you're
10:39
Speaker 4: an intern, you'll start off with the lowest wage and
10:42
Speaker 4: then each year you do go up and pay about
10:45
Speaker 4: a dollar or two, so it'll be like grade one,
10:48
Speaker 4: year two or three. So at the moment, I'm a
10:51
Speaker 4: grade two, year three, and it does go up I
10:55
Speaker 4: think until year six, and then to try to go
10:58
Speaker 4: to grade three where you get another pay rise, you
11:02
Speaker 4: maybe have to like apply for a more senior role
11:05
Speaker 4: or do like masters or some sort of research to
11:08
Speaker 4: sort of earn your way up, so yeah, it can
11:13
Speaker 4: be hard to go up though, unless you do do
11:15
Speaker 4: extra studies and stuff like that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, it's something I had never thought about for
11:20
Speaker 2: good reason, I've never worked in pharmacy, but it's so
11:23
Speaker 2: interesting to learn about. All Right, next question I have
11:26
Speaker 2: for you. I feel like this one is something that
11:28
Speaker 2: we all know about which is a bit of a win,
11:30
Speaker 2: and that is shot back. Do you use it? If so?
11:33
Speaker 2: How Yeah?
11:34
Speaker 4: I definitely use it, and I think I just checked
11:36
Speaker 4: it says I've saved like one hundred and seventy seven dollars,
11:38
Speaker 4: So I was like, wow, I love using shot back.
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Speaker 2: One hundred and seventy seven dollars. That is good. What
11:44
Speaker 2: have you been buying?
11:45
Speaker 4: I buy a lot of things, and I think that's yeah.
11:48
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, like, for the next.
11:50
Speaker 2: Question, let's do it or I don't want to know.
11:51
Speaker 2: What is your best money?
11:52
Speaker 1: Have it?
11:53
Speaker 4: I feel like, in a way, the way that I
11:56
Speaker 4: was brought up by my parents was that you have
11:59
Speaker 4: to save life every single dollar every way that you can,
12:02
Speaker 4: so like always buying things on sale, like in the supermarket,
12:07
Speaker 4: and like using coupons and vouches. But now it's like
12:11
Speaker 4: a lot of that song on like apps and stuff.
12:13
Speaker 4: So I have like so many apps on my phone
12:15
Speaker 4: just to try to save money, like all the petrol apps.
12:20
Speaker 4: And there's something called Live and Pay. Live and Pay.
12:22
Speaker 4: It's sort of like having cash back but on like restaurants,
12:25
Speaker 4: like oh wow, yes, I use that all the time.
12:27
Speaker 4: And I refer friends to that app and you get
12:30
Speaker 4: referral bonuses. So I've had like I think one hundred
12:33
Speaker 4: and forty dollars from referrals from too friends.
12:36
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, money ween.
12:38
Speaker 4: It is because it's like free money and you're gonna
12:40
Speaker 4: buy that food anyway, might as well get money back
12:43
Speaker 4: from it, like you get like ten percent back.
12:45
Speaker 2: Yeah.
12:46
Speaker 1: Love.
12:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have a lot of different things like that
12:49
Speaker 4: should try and save money. And also the credit card.
12:52
Speaker 4: I know credit cards might seem bad. I always buy
12:55
Speaker 4: the ones that have you know, bonus points and you
12:58
Speaker 4: know sometimes like they give you vouchers as well if
13:01
Speaker 4: you sign up for a year. So I use that
13:04
Speaker 4: to like get flights back to go back home to
13:06
Speaker 4: visit my family. And yeah, I'll always pay it off
13:09
Speaker 4: as soon as I can. I don't wait till the
13:11
Speaker 4: end of the month. Whenever I have money, I just
13:13
Speaker 4: pay off the credit cards.
13:14
Speaker 2: So you just transfer it straight away. I feel like
13:16
Speaker 2: there are a number of ways to use credit cards
13:19
Speaker 2: really responsibly. Feel like there's this idea in the community
13:23
Speaker 2: that I am a thousand percent against them, and I
13:25
Speaker 2: am if you are irresponsible with money, but it sounds
13:28
Speaker 2: like you're not and you're just using it to get
13:31
Speaker 2: all of the rewards in the bonuses, which I mean,
13:33
Speaker 2: I can't blame you if you're smart with it in
13:35
Speaker 2: saying that I'm not smart with it, so I don't
13:38
Speaker 2: trust myself with it, and I won't be doing it,
13:40
Speaker 2: but I'm impressed that you do. I don't know.
13:43
Speaker 4: I have spent a lot of money this month trying
13:45
Speaker 4: to say, like buy things for the renovations next month
13:48
Speaker 4: in my unit, and I just feel like I've been
13:50
Speaker 4: spending a lot so not good.
13:55
Speaker 2: All right, let's flip the narrative, then, what is your
13:57
Speaker 2: worst money have it?
13:58
Speaker 4: I have this thing where like sometimes I have trouble
14:01
Speaker 4: sleeping at night, and I always play with my phone
14:04
Speaker 4: and I start buying things online, which is really bad.
14:08
Speaker 4: So I have been known to like buy like a
14:11
Speaker 4: soda stream once when I was feeling really like unwell,
14:14
Speaker 4: So I don't know why. I don't even drink soda,
14:16
Speaker 4: but I bought a soda stream online. And the other
14:19
Speaker 4: day I bought a massage, like something to put on
14:22
Speaker 4: your chair for a massage.
14:24
Speaker 2: Oh, like a chair massage.
14:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just bought it because I couldn't sleep, so
14:28
Speaker 4: I just have my phone and I just bought it online.
14:32
Speaker 2: Like this is a really good idea. So you're good
14:34
Speaker 2: at impulse purchasing.
14:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not good.
14:37
Speaker 2: Let's ask the last question before we get to a
14:39
Speaker 2: really quick break. I want to know what grade would
14:41
Speaker 2: you give your money habits if I forced you to
14:43
Speaker 2: give yourself a grade. I feel like it would be
14:46
Speaker 2: a C minus, a C minus.
14:48
Speaker 4: Just because I don't feel like I budget. Like I
14:51
Speaker 4: used to be really good, Like I used to have
14:54
Speaker 4: this app called Pocket Expenses, and I was really diligent,
14:57
Speaker 4: like keeping all my receipts and like putting an on
15:00
Speaker 4: through that app and then working out how much money
15:02
Speaker 4: I spend. But these days, because I have the credit card,
15:05
Speaker 4: I feel like I just spend and spend and I
15:08
Speaker 4: don't even know what comes out. And I feel like
15:11
Speaker 4: that's why I need to start bludgeting, so that I
15:13
Speaker 4: know where my money goes. Yeah, that's why I feel
15:17
Speaker 4: like it's C minus smart.
15:19
Speaker 2: I feel like maybe that credit card isn't as financially
15:22
Speaker 2: savvy as you might have originally thought it was. But
15:25
Speaker 2: let's talk about that after this quick break. All right,
15:32
Speaker 2: money diarist, we are back and you have a super
15:36
Speaker 2: interesting money story. I want to hear a little bit
15:38
Speaker 2: more about it from your perspective. When you wrote into
15:41
Speaker 2: us and you were talking, you said that you grew
15:44
Speaker 2: up in a poor migrant family and you always struggled
15:47
Speaker 2: to make ends meet. What does that mean and how
15:50
Speaker 2: has that, I guess impacted you growing up having parents
15:53
Speaker 2: that are both from China and Malaysia. Like you said
15:56
Speaker 2: before that you travel back to see your family a lot.
15:59
Speaker 2: Like what type of financial pressures are on you now
16:02
Speaker 2: as an adult as well? I just have so many questions.
16:05
Speaker 4: So my parents live interstate, so they're not overseas. Still expensive,
16:10
Speaker 4: yes it is, but yeah, I moved over to where
16:12
Speaker 4: I'm now for work. When we were growing up. I
16:15
Speaker 4: have actually two siblings for older sister and a younger brother.
16:19
Speaker 4: So when they first moved to Australia, we didn't actually
16:22
Speaker 4: have our own house. So my parents and my sister.
16:27
Speaker 4: We were living with my grandparents and also my uncle,
16:31
Speaker 4: so it was like a shared house, I guess, and
16:34
Speaker 4: unfortunately my mom had to cook for everyone, so I
16:36
Speaker 4: think she got really sick as well because she was
16:38
Speaker 4: just really stressed. So she was working looking after two
16:41
Speaker 4: kids and then cooking for like my grandparents and my uncle.
16:46
Speaker 4: I can't really remember a lot of that, but my
16:48
Speaker 4: mom always tells me how hard it was. She had
16:51
Speaker 4: I think a lot of health conditions because of all
16:54
Speaker 4: the stress. And it was only later when my grandparents
16:57
Speaker 4: helped them to buy their first house, like they had
17:00
Speaker 4: half of the house so it wasn't even our house.
17:03
Speaker 4: So yeah, I just kind of like grew up in
17:05
Speaker 4: an environment where don't really expect pocket money. It was
17:10
Speaker 4: more so like if family members gave us money, we
17:13
Speaker 4: were to have money. And it was a lot of
17:15
Speaker 4: you know, we couldn't afford new school clothes. It was
17:18
Speaker 4: always like we had cousins and older cousins and they
17:21
Speaker 4: would always give us their clothes and even though it
17:24
Speaker 4: didn't fit. They were a lot bigger and taller than us.
17:27
Speaker 4: We couldn't afford like, you know, proper new clothes. So
17:31
Speaker 4: my mom would try to buy us clothes that looked
17:33
Speaker 4: like the school uniform, but it wasn't really. She'd just
17:36
Speaker 4: do the same color and we'll just try to like
17:39
Speaker 4: pretend it is the school uniform. One thing that really
17:43
Speaker 4: stood out to me, I think was in high school,
17:45
Speaker 4: both my sister and I we hosted exchange students from Japan,
17:49
Speaker 4: so we had this sort of sister program between Japan
17:52
Speaker 4: and my high school. So there's also a chance for
17:56
Speaker 4: us to go to Japan, and I really wanted to go.
17:58
Speaker 4: I was really keen to learn Japanese and I was
18:01
Speaker 4: studying Japanese in high school too, but unfortunately my parents said, oh,
18:05
Speaker 4: we don't have enough money. We can't afford to send
18:07
Speaker 4: you there. And then I just remember being really angry.
18:11
Speaker 4: I was really angry with my parents, and my sister
18:13
Speaker 4: sat me down and was like, you can't be angry, Like,
18:15
Speaker 4: this is the money that our parents earned. They're allowed
18:19
Speaker 4: to spend it, you know, however they want. And yeah,
18:22
Speaker 4: I remember like they bought a new TV not long after,
18:25
Speaker 4: and I was just really angry about that. I was like, oh,
18:28
Speaker 4: so you rather like have a TV? And then yeah,
18:31
Speaker 4: I just felt like it affected me because I felt
18:34
Speaker 4: like there's a lot of things I felt I was
18:35
Speaker 4: missing out on. I felt like that was maybe one
18:38
Speaker 4: of them.
18:39
Speaker 2: Do you think that that anger came from maybe not
18:43
Speaker 2: fully comprehending their circumstances, Like was money discussed growing up
18:48
Speaker 2: or was it just something that you knew you didn't
18:50
Speaker 2: have enough of but it wasn't really a popular topic
18:53
Speaker 2: of conversation in your home.
18:55
Speaker 4: Well, my mom and dad, like I guess they always
18:59
Speaker 4: complain if they felt like we were wasting money. They
19:02
Speaker 4: didn't really know much. I think their education in terms
19:05
Speaker 4: of like stocks and stuff wasn't that good, so like
19:09
Speaker 4: they didn't have knowledge about how to invest or anything.
19:12
Speaker 4: And I only my dad was actually working. My mom's
19:15
Speaker 4: ever really had a proper job where she gets any
19:18
Speaker 4: like super or any thing. It was always you know,
19:20
Speaker 4: cash only sort of work that she did. Like it
19:23
Speaker 4: was a lot of like helping out with like family
19:26
Speaker 4: at like making dumplings or cleaning the hotels, so none
19:30
Speaker 4: of that. She didn't know how to you know, invest
19:32
Speaker 4: the money or anything. It was always about trying to
19:35
Speaker 4: save money, so like trying to cut back on cost,
19:38
Speaker 4: like turning off the lights when you walk out the room,
19:40
Speaker 4: not taking long showers. You know, like everything was sort
19:44
Speaker 4: of about like, you know, you know how to reduce money,
19:47
Speaker 4: but you don't know how to Like we didn't have
19:49
Speaker 4: much knowledge about how to save money or things like that.
19:52
Speaker 4: So I just felt like, yeah, financially, I've never been
19:57
Speaker 4: really good at like money until I was older, and
20:00
Speaker 4: then you know, I started learning about what super is
20:03
Speaker 4: and like stocks and stuff. It was all from friends
20:06
Speaker 4: and like podcasts like this.
20:08
Speaker 2: So oh, I love that I've been a part of it.
20:10
Speaker 2: But I want to know at what part in your
20:13
Speaker 2: I guess journey or what part in your life did
20:17
Speaker 2: you realize wow, like I can actually earn a fair
20:20
Speaker 2: bit of money, because at the end of the day,
20:22
Speaker 2: ninety one thousand dollars is a lot of money to
20:25
Speaker 2: be earning, especially when you contrast it with the family
20:29
Speaker 2: that you have overseas and then money that your parents
20:31
Speaker 2: were able to earn. Like, at what point were you like,
20:34
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, like I have a very comfortable wage.
20:37
Speaker 2: How do you feel about that? What does that look
20:39
Speaker 2: like for you?
20:40
Speaker 4: To be honest, I still feel like really anxious about money,
20:45
Speaker 4: Like I still feel like I don't earn en off
20:47
Speaker 4: or maybe I'm just not good at money because I
20:49
Speaker 4: even though it is a lot of money. I don't
20:53
Speaker 4: know if other people feel this way when you first
20:55
Speaker 4: start working. Like when I started working as soon as
20:58
Speaker 4: I graduated high school and went to start UNI, I
21:02
Speaker 4: felt like I was earning a lot at the start,
21:04
Speaker 4: just doing like a part time job in a cafe.
21:06
Speaker 4: But as I sort of like went into full time
21:10
Speaker 4: work and I was slowly growing up, I always feel
21:12
Speaker 4: like I don't earn enough. And I don't know if
21:14
Speaker 4: this is just the way that I've been brought up.
21:17
Speaker 4: I just still feel like it's never enough, and I
21:21
Speaker 4: don't know if other people feel this way. I just
21:22
Speaker 4: feel like, even though the money might be going up,
21:25
Speaker 4: I just feel like I'm never have enough money or
21:29
Speaker 4: I'm not saving enough.
21:30
Speaker 2: I always feel like that that is usually a very
21:33
Speaker 2: good indicator that you need a better cash flow system.
21:35
Speaker 2: My love so that you feel super in control of
21:38
Speaker 2: it and you know you're working towards your goals and
21:40
Speaker 2: you know that what you're doing at the moment is
21:43
Speaker 2: good enough. Because I feel like that really ends up
21:45
Speaker 2: impacting your confidence. Do you feel like that that is
21:48
Speaker 2: a part of your story as well? Like hearing you
21:50
Speaker 2: talk about it like, oh, I just don't feel like
21:52
Speaker 2: it's good enough. And before you raided yourself as CNUS,
21:55
Speaker 2: but in August you bought a house and you've got
21:57
Speaker 2: like sixteen thousand dollars invested. I feel like you are
22:00
Speaker 2: definitely on the right path and having no personal debt,
22:03
Speaker 2: Like you are not in a bad situation. But you
22:05
Speaker 2: seem to be quite self critical, if I do say
22:09
Speaker 2: so without knowing you too deeply.
22:11
Speaker 4: At this point, I was, yeah, thinking about that. Like
22:15
Speaker 4: a few years ago, I did actually want to get
22:17
Speaker 4: into medicine because I felt like maybe that would be
22:20
Speaker 4: something that would earn me more money. So I did
22:24
Speaker 4: try doing like the medical exams a few times, like
22:26
Speaker 4: it's called gamsat, but unfortunately I just didn't get in.
22:30
Speaker 4: And you know, sometimes I do feel like if I
22:33
Speaker 4: was brought up in you know, like a more wealthy family, like,
22:38
Speaker 4: would that have meant that I could increase my chance
22:41
Speaker 4: of getting to medicine. I felt like I would. Maybe
22:43
Speaker 4: I wasn't smart enough, or because I went to a
22:45
Speaker 4: public school, maybe that's why I couldn't get into medicine
22:48
Speaker 4: and I had to do pharmacy instead. Because yeah, I
22:51
Speaker 4: know it's bad, but I do sometimes compare myself to
22:54
Speaker 4: one of my cousins who comes from a wealthy family.
22:57
Speaker 4: Both parents are lawyers, and they she just got into
23:00
Speaker 4: medicine straight out of high school. And I just felt
23:03
Speaker 4: like the way that we were both cousins, but we
23:06
Speaker 4: grew up in such different worlds, And I just don't
23:09
Speaker 4: know if that actually affects how, you know, how confident
23:13
Speaker 4: I am and like, you know what I achieve in life?
23:15
Speaker 2: A bit of a like a bit of a deep question.
23:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know.
23:20
Speaker 2: No, It's interesting to have that conversation because I think,
23:23
Speaker 2: looking at you, I'm so impressed. I'm just like, oh
23:26
Speaker 2: my gosh, she's a pharmacist in a hospital. She has
23:28
Speaker 2: this really great income, like ninety one grand. She's bought
23:31
Speaker 2: a house, like you must be really good at saving
23:34
Speaker 2: to be able to, you know, as you said before,
23:36
Speaker 2: on a whim by a house because your rent was
23:37
Speaker 2: going up like that is epic. To have given yourself
23:40
Speaker 2: the financial freedom to be able to not only afford that,
23:43
Speaker 2: but be able to seize that opportunity. And then to say, oh, yeah,
23:47
Speaker 2: I invest in stocks like I might have made a
23:49
Speaker 2: few mistakes, but also I've got a really good amount
23:52
Speaker 2: of savings and your saving or investing, sorry, about one
23:55
Speaker 2: thousand dollars a month. To me, all of this sounds
23:58
Speaker 2: so impressive, but I guess I guess the thing I'm
24:00
Speaker 2: really getting out of this Money Diary is that from
24:03
Speaker 2: the outside looking in, that might be the case, but
24:05
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that on the inside that's how it feels.
24:08
Speaker 2: And I think that there are probably a lot of
24:10
Speaker 2: people in our community that would compare themselves to you
24:13
Speaker 2: and be like, oh my gosh, money Diarist is doing
24:15
Speaker 2: so well. I wish I could X y Z because
24:18
Speaker 2: often the grass is always greener in a way, and
24:22
Speaker 2: I think that we forget to water our own sometimes.
24:26
Speaker 2: I want to know a little bit about your mum
24:28
Speaker 2: and dad's family. They're still overseas, They're still you know,
24:32
Speaker 2: living in a very different world to you. How does
24:36
Speaker 2: that impact you now? Do you see the family often?
24:39
Speaker 2: Do you talk to them like? Is there a bridge
24:41
Speaker 2: between those two worlds?
24:43
Speaker 4: So I should explain that my dad's family is mostly
24:46
Speaker 4: in Australia, so they moved here first, and then it's
24:49
Speaker 4: my mom's family that's still in China, so all of
24:51
Speaker 4: the family's in China. To be honest, I haven't actually
24:55
Speaker 4: seen my mom's side of the family for so long,
24:58
Speaker 4: so it's probably been a good eight years. I reckon
25:01
Speaker 4: when my sister got married. I think we went to
25:03
Speaker 4: China then, But yeah, every time I went when I
25:06
Speaker 4: was a younger kid, I always felt like we had
25:10
Speaker 4: it so good in Australia. So even though I felt
25:13
Speaker 4: like in Australia we were not doing very well, we're
25:17
Speaker 4: really poor, but when we went to China, I actually
25:20
Speaker 4: felt like I was really privileged, to be honest, Like
25:22
Speaker 4: they don't even have flushing toilets in China. Everything's like
25:26
Speaker 4: a hole in the ground well in my grandparents' house.
25:29
Speaker 4: And yeah, back then, they didn't even have a shower,
25:31
Speaker 4: so you had to boil water and then just shower
25:35
Speaker 4: in a bucket. And yeah, it was just really different,
25:38
Speaker 4: like the lifestyle there. I felt it was very rural.
25:42
Speaker 4: But I feel like my mom grew up very happy though,
25:44
Speaker 4: so she's very good with like not having much and
25:49
Speaker 4: you know, like cooking everything from scratch and stuff like that.
25:52
Speaker 4: I guess she's very used to it. For me, it
25:54
Speaker 4: was very different. I can kind of see why she's
25:57
Speaker 4: always saving money and she's you know, like eating food
26:01
Speaker 4: that might be off and I would like refuse to
26:03
Speaker 4: eat it because I just feel like it's past his
26:06
Speaker 4: due date, like it's not safe. But she would be
26:08
Speaker 4: just like, oh no, it's fine, just cut it off.
26:11
Speaker 4: And I guess that just comes from a someone who's
26:14
Speaker 4: you know, experienced even worse, Like she came from a
26:17
Speaker 4: place that was even worse than how it was when
26:20
Speaker 4: she moved to Australia. So for her, like Australia was
26:22
Speaker 4: really really good, even though they started with like, you know,
26:25
Speaker 4: minimal income, like just doing odd jobs. Yeah, I think
26:29
Speaker 4: I might have mentioned before, like she's taken us to
26:32
Speaker 4: a few jobs when we were younger, so we used
26:34
Speaker 4: to follow her to like the hotel for cleaning and
26:37
Speaker 4: sometimes she's so's clothes for people, and yeah, just doing
26:41
Speaker 4: dumplings and cleaning houses. So she worked really hard, which
26:45
Speaker 4: is yeah, very admirable.
26:46
Speaker 2: So I love that. And how are your parents today,
26:49
Speaker 2: Obviously it's been a while since you were young and
26:53
Speaker 2: it's schooled and a bit grumpy at them for not
26:55
Speaker 2: being able to go on exchange. How are they doing now?
26:58
Speaker 4: Well, I think my dad's actually semi retired, so I
27:01
Speaker 4: don't think if I talked much about my dad, but
27:03
Speaker 4: he Yeah, he did a lot of odd jobs and
27:05
Speaker 4: when he came to Australia as well. I think he
27:08
Speaker 4: worked in my uncle's restaurant for a bit, and then
27:11
Speaker 4: he was picking apples for a bit, and then finally
27:14
Speaker 4: he did a tape course and it went into gardening.
27:17
Speaker 4: I think he got a job as a gardener and
27:19
Speaker 4: a disability hospital, and then they didn't need that many gardeners,
27:23
Speaker 4: so they ended up putting him inside the hospital as
27:25
Speaker 4: a sort of like a I don't know, a nursing assistant.
27:29
Speaker 4: So yeah, he was there for thirty years, which is
27:31
Speaker 4: a really long time.
27:32
Speaker 2: It's a government job, so yeah, we love government jobs
27:35
Speaker 2: and the benefits they attract.
27:37
Speaker 4: I think back then it was really good. Now I'm
27:40
Speaker 4: working in government, but it's not as good. I feel
27:42
Speaker 4: like they don't offer full time contracts. Everything is like
27:46
Speaker 4: one year contract or so, yeah, unfortunately it's not as
27:50
Speaker 4: stable as before, but it used to be really good.
27:52
Speaker 4: So he got offered a package a couple of years ago,
27:55
Speaker 4: so he took the package and now he's not working,
27:58
Speaker 4: so he's at the time of retirement yet either. So
28:02
Speaker 4: they're kind of like in a limbo, which is kind
28:04
Speaker 4: of makes me worried because I'm like, what if they
28:06
Speaker 4: run out of money? They do do your like a
28:08
Speaker 4: little bit of letterboxing, like you know, advertising, like junk
28:12
Speaker 4: vowels into boxes. Yeah, we used to do that. We
28:15
Speaker 4: used to help them, and I used to hate it
28:17
Speaker 4: because they made us go and like walk around and
28:20
Speaker 4: deliver junk fowl at nighttime. I used to hate it,
28:23
Speaker 4: but they still do it to this day.
28:24
Speaker 2: So it's a good way to get cash in the door.
28:27
Speaker 2: And I think the thing I admire especially about my
28:30
Speaker 2: grant families is just their work ethic. Like I feel
28:34
Speaker 2: like there's no such thing as being too good for
28:37
Speaker 2: a job or you know, putting in the time, energy
28:39
Speaker 2: and effort, Like it's just honestly so admirable. And I
28:43
Speaker 2: know that as a young kid, you're probably like this sucks,
28:46
Speaker 2: but I'm sure that it has instilled in you a
28:48
Speaker 2: beautiful work ethic as well, which obviously makes sense given
28:52
Speaker 2: you are a pharmacist today, Like that is epic. But
28:55
Speaker 2: I'm sure, absolutely certain that they would be so proud
28:58
Speaker 2: of you and who you've become to I hope, so, oh,
29:02
Speaker 2: I know, so I feel like.
29:03
Speaker 4: I have it a lot better. But yeah, I do
29:06
Speaker 4: feel like I should be more grateful for like having
29:09
Speaker 4: you know, education in Australia and you know, because they
29:12
Speaker 4: never got the opportunity to do any like, not even
29:15
Speaker 4: to finish high school.
29:16
Speaker 2: Yeah wow.
29:16
Speaker 1: Yeah.
29:17
Speaker 4: Unfortunately they're not working. Both of them aren't working full time.
29:20
Speaker 4: They just do the letter boxing at the moment and
29:23
Speaker 4: just they're hanging out for retirement. So I think it's
29:27
Speaker 4: a couple of years away until my dad can get
29:29
Speaker 4: access to a super. Unfortunately, my mom didn't actually have
29:33
Speaker 4: a super because she's never had like a proper job,
29:37
Speaker 4: so I hope that I can support her in the future. Unfortunately,
29:41
Speaker 4: I live into States, so I don't know if she
29:43
Speaker 4: wants to move over with me, but they do have
29:45
Speaker 4: their house down.
29:46
Speaker 2: So it's sweet that you want to though. I love that.
29:49
Speaker 2: It is honestly so sweet that you're like, I hope
29:51
Speaker 2: I can help her. I don't even know if she
29:52
Speaker 2: wants to live with me, but I would love that.
29:54
Speaker 2: It's literally the best. Oh my gosh, money direst Unfortunately,
29:58
Speaker 2: that is all we have time today, so thank you
30:01
Speaker 2: so much for joining us. I feel like this chat
30:03
Speaker 2: has been really wholesome and really eye opening, and I
30:06
Speaker 2: just want you to be more proud of yourself and
30:08
Speaker 2: what you've achieved, and stop comparing yourself because they think
30:10
Speaker 2: that you're doing an epic job.
30:13
Speaker 4: Thank you, thanks for having me.
30:21
Speaker 2: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
30:24
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30:28
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30:31
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