Latest / She's On The Money / This Is What They Don’t Tell You About Having a Financial Safety Net

Transcript

This Is What They Don’t Tell You About Having a Financial Safety Net · She's On The Money

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud or
0:04
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
0:08
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
0:11
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
0:14
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
0:18
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
0:22
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
0:27
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
0:30
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
0:33
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
0:34
Speaker 3: She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
0:57
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money. The podcast
1:00
Speaker 2: lets you be pervy about other people's money habits for
1:02
Speaker 2: educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another episode of
1:06
Speaker 2: Money Dies, where we get to talk to one of
1:07
Speaker 2: our incredible She's on the Money community members all about
1:11
Speaker 2: their journey. Let's jump straight into it because we got
1:13
Speaker 2: a message this week and it sounded exactly like this, Dear,
1:17
Speaker 2: She's on the Money. I went to UNI to study
1:19
Speaker 2: property economics with the big dreams of working in property
1:22
Speaker 2: development and having my own portfolio despite graduating top of
1:26
Speaker 2: my class, life had other plans for me. An operation
1:29
Speaker 2: on my foot, three babies, COVID and reoccurring cancer meant
1:33
Speaker 2: I've never had the chance to use my degree, and
1:36
Speaker 2: the jobs I've held have never felt secure. Now I'm
1:39
Speaker 2: feeling stuck. I want to start a new career, but
1:41
Speaker 2: I know how hard that can be when you can
1:43
Speaker 2: only work part time. But with everything I've been through,
1:46
Speaker 2: the one thing I've learned is that you never know
1:48
Speaker 2: what's around the corner, and sometimes taking life day by
1:52
Speaker 2: day is more than okay. Money Diarist, Welcome to the show.
1:56
Speaker 2: I am genuinely so excited to learn a little bit
1:59
Speaker 2: more about your money story. As always, I kick off
2:02
Speaker 2: the show asking all of our money dirist, it's the
2:04
Speaker 2: exact same question, So let's start there, money tourist, if
2:07
Speaker 2: I asked you to give yourself a money grade from
2:09
Speaker 2: A three to F, what would you give yourself?
2:11
Speaker 4: Probably currently I reckon somewhere in the middle for like
2:14
Speaker 4: a C. I reckon I've gone up and down on
2:17
Speaker 4: that at times.
2:18
Speaker 2: Though, let's learn a little bit more about that. I'm
2:20
Speaker 2: not going to ask specifically about it yet because we'll
2:23
Speaker 2: go into that can you tell me a little bit
2:24
Speaker 2: more about your money story.
2:26
Speaker 4: So essentially, I probably gosh, ten or so years ago,
2:30
Speaker 4: studied a Bachelor of Business Property I hope to get
2:32
Speaker 4: into property development. At the time, I did quite well
2:35
Speaker 4: at UNIQ, got highest GPI my course, got a medal
2:38
Speaker 4: for that. Ooh, was you all looking pretty awesome? And
2:43
Speaker 4: I ended up starting to work in a credit union,
2:45
Speaker 4: which definitely wasn't for me.
2:46
Speaker 5: It wasn't my vibe.
2:47
Speaker 4: So I went back to the retail job I had
2:49
Speaker 4: during UNI, and then I started interviewing through a few
2:53
Speaker 4: property evaluation jobs and found out I needed a bone
2:56
Speaker 4: removed from my foot what which stopped me working for
3:00
Speaker 4: six months essentially, and then even after that I had
3:02
Speaker 4: to ease back.
3:03
Speaker 5: I couldn't stand full time on my feet.
3:05
Speaker 2: How do you discover? Ah, hey, money, darrist we would
3:09
Speaker 2: like to take a whole bone from your foot. She like,
3:11
Speaker 2: was your foot soul? Like?
3:13
Speaker 5: What was it was an extra one?
3:15
Speaker 1: Like?
3:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just had it? Did you have bonus bone?
3:18
Speaker 5: Yeah? Pretty much?
3:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, I said it was generally feel like a bonus.
3:21
Speaker 4: It would stop me walking properly.
3:22
Speaker 5: So I had that out. So I've been I probably
3:25
Speaker 5: should say as well.
3:26
Speaker 4: I've been with my husband since we were probably like fourteen,
3:29
Speaker 4: So through all of this time, he also went to
3:33
Speaker 4: UNI and also got a job out of UNI, so
3:36
Speaker 4: he was working through all this stuff for me and
3:40
Speaker 4: I also did come into a bit of inheritance, so
3:42
Speaker 4: we were able to once I had gone back a
3:45
Speaker 4: little bit into my retail job. Actually know I'm saying
3:48
Speaker 4: that I reckon. We bought a house before I had
3:51
Speaker 4: that surgery, so yeah, we use some of that inheritance,
3:53
Speaker 4: mostly his job.
3:54
Speaker 5: We always spent.
3:54
Speaker 4: About two hundred and eighty two thousand, so in today's market,
3:57
Speaker 4: quite a quite a cheap house just of entered the market.
4:01
Speaker 4: So that was a big win for us. At that point,
4:04
Speaker 4: we were pretty stoked. We were very good savers, very
4:08
Speaker 4: I don't like to this the word stitchy, but yeah,
4:10
Speaker 4: like we yeah, we're pretty stingy. We just lived within
4:13
Speaker 4: our means and we were pretty good savers back then.
4:15
Speaker 2: We called that frugal. We call that savvy. We can
4:17
Speaker 2: reframe that.
4:18
Speaker 5: Yeah, savvy, that's the right way. Yes, Yeah, yeah, she's savvy.
4:21
Speaker 2: She's smart with her money, she's strategic.
4:24
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, And having studied property like I was all
4:28
Speaker 4: over it and knew exactly what to look for, so
4:30
Speaker 4: that helped us for sure. And then I actually found
4:34
Speaker 4: out while I was still kind of recovering from that
4:36
Speaker 4: foot surgery that I was pregnant, which very exciting.
4:40
Speaker 2: That is very exciting. Not so good with us are
4:42
Speaker 2: foot because like it's already not a comfortable experience.
4:45
Speaker 5: Well, I mean it wasn't too bad.
4:47
Speaker 4: I was starting to get back into it, but it
4:49
Speaker 4: did just mean I couldn't work full time, so I
4:52
Speaker 4: wasn't eligible for paper rental eve, I hadn't been able
4:54
Speaker 4: to get back into working, so in the end, yeah,
4:58
Speaker 4: I just had to work my few hours a week
5:01
Speaker 4: and try and save enough money to have a baby
5:02
Speaker 4: without any pay per rental leave. And then obviously going
5:05
Speaker 4: into that knowing I didn't really have a good job
5:08
Speaker 4: or a career set up with now the challenges of
5:11
Speaker 4: parenting and motherhood and the fact that it would make
5:15
Speaker 4: it quite difficult to get into full time work, especially
5:18
Speaker 4: within the property sector.
5:22
Speaker 5: I'm in South.
5:23
Speaker 4: Australia, not as many options as say the East Coast,
5:26
Speaker 4: for example, so that also limited it, but especially with
5:30
Speaker 4: part time work, so I would either need to kind
5:33
Speaker 4: of be in full time and put my daughter in
5:34
Speaker 4: care full time, which wasn't something I really felt was
5:38
Speaker 4: right for me. So I ended up getting just a
5:40
Speaker 4: sales job when she was about ten months old, and
5:43
Speaker 4: at that point, like I was selling wedding gowns. So
5:45
Speaker 4: it was good, it was fun, it wasn't I kind
5:48
Speaker 4: of liked that there wasn't too much sort of pressure
5:50
Speaker 4: and I could go home and be mum and then
5:52
Speaker 4: bring in a little bit of extra money. But at
5:55
Speaker 4: that point then COVID hit, and I also was pregnant
5:58
Speaker 4: with my second daughter, and she was a much rougher pregnancy,
6:02
Speaker 4: but also the bridal store I ended up closing down
6:05
Speaker 4: just after COVID hit. Oh no, yeah, they were about
6:08
Speaker 4: to sell the business anyway, and then obviously when everything
6:11
Speaker 4: turned they ended up just closing. So luckily it was
6:14
Speaker 4: around the time I was going on maternity leave anyway,
6:16
Speaker 4: but I knew I wasn't going back to a job,
6:18
Speaker 4: but I was able to get paid parentally for that time,
6:20
Speaker 4: so we were in a much better kind of standing
6:22
Speaker 4: that time around good.
6:23
Speaker 2: I was like, did you get the parental leave this time? Like,
6:26
Speaker 2: please tell me that you did.
6:28
Speaker 5: It makes such a difference because I.
6:29
Speaker 2: Know for some people who are like, oh, like it's
6:32
Speaker 2: minimum wage, it doesn't matter, but like, like it's the
6:34
Speaker 2: thing that takes the weight off your shoulders, like you
6:37
Speaker 2: just don't feel like your hamstrongly in higher time, Like
6:41
Speaker 2: it is so powerful.
6:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, And we were able to save half of that
6:47
Speaker 4: so that we could kind of extend it out because
6:49
Speaker 4: we were able to kind of get by on my
6:50
Speaker 4: husband's wage. His wage is pretty decent he as an engineer,
6:54
Speaker 4: but it did just mean we could put a bit
6:56
Speaker 4: aside as well to extend the time I had off.
7:00
Speaker 4: It was sort of after that point that everything kind
7:02
Speaker 4: of as much as it already kind of felt a
7:04
Speaker 4: little bit crazy, it went even more so. So I
7:07
Speaker 4: ended up being diagnosed with cancer.
7:10
Speaker 5: When my daughter was probably just over a year old,
7:13
Speaker 5: I think at that point.
7:14
Speaker 4: So I think I just actually had a big interview
7:16
Speaker 4: at a job i'd really hoped to get. It was
7:18
Speaker 4: full time, but it was really at that point I
7:20
Speaker 4: resided that's the only way I was going to get
7:22
Speaker 4: into property. And I got pretty closely and I had
7:27
Speaker 4: a fair few interviews and I unfortunately did miss out.
7:31
Speaker 4: But blow and behold, I think the next day I
7:33
Speaker 4: got the call to say that we need to take
7:35
Speaker 4: this out.
7:35
Speaker 5: It looks like it probably is cancer.
7:37
Speaker 4: And if I had gotten that job, I wouldn't have
7:39
Speaker 4: been able to do it anyway, So I suppose it
7:41
Speaker 4: kind of.
7:42
Speaker 2: The universe had a way of just like making it
7:44
Speaker 2: not feel like you missed out and had to say
7:47
Speaker 2: no because of that. But like that is just so trash.
7:50
Speaker 2: So you had two kids, one was one and what
7:53
Speaker 2: one was three? Is that right? Yes, that's right, just
7:57
Speaker 2: like doing some mental maths and going, okay, well she
7:59
Speaker 2: said you baby here and then she did this, and
8:01
Speaker 2: then she.
8:01
Speaker 5: Did the Yeah, I know there's a two years between them.
8:04
Speaker 2: Yet, but like one in a three year old and
8:06
Speaker 2: you get diagnosed with cancer, that is shit. I am
8:09
Speaker 2: so sorry. Tell me a bit more about that journey.
8:12
Speaker 4: So it was a relatively kind of simple, like I
8:16
Speaker 4: just had to have surgery.
8:18
Speaker 5: They removed it so it was actually in my neck.
8:20
Speaker 4: It's quite a rare form in my salary gland, so
8:24
Speaker 4: there's not in a like a double edged sword. There
8:26
Speaker 4: was no like keybo doesn't work on it. So there
8:29
Speaker 4: was limited treatment options. So in a way that was good,
8:32
Speaker 4: but also it meant really all they could do was surgery,
8:34
Speaker 4: So I just had surgery healed. My next few scams
8:37
Speaker 4: over the following months came back all fine, so they
8:39
Speaker 4: kind of gave me to go ahead when.
8:41
Speaker 5: I said, oh, would it be okay?
8:42
Speaker 4: Do you think if I had another baby and They're like, yeah, no,
8:44
Speaker 4: everything's looking good.
8:45
Speaker 5: You're set. That's fine.
8:47
Speaker 4: I mean, I always knew there was a possibility it
8:49
Speaker 4: would come back, but I think we all felt pretty positive.
8:52
Speaker 5: It was small. They've got it early, so I did, probably.
8:55
Speaker 4: Before I got pregnant. I did get a new job
8:56
Speaker 4: working at a car dealership and again through COVID. That
8:59
Speaker 4: was a fun time when cars were like eighteen month waits.
9:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like, I'm here to sell cars, but I
9:04
Speaker 2: have no cars to sell. Hello, welcome, Would you like
9:06
Speaker 2: a coffee?
9:08
Speaker 4: It was I got the fun job of like updating
9:10
Speaker 4: everyone and telling everyone that they would have to wait
9:12
Speaker 4: another few months, and they were delayed even more so
9:16
Speaker 4: it was quite stressful. But it was also the time
9:17
Speaker 4: we were wearing masks a lot, right, so I started
9:20
Speaker 4: having some symptoms twitching in my mouth. Luckily no one
9:22
Speaker 4: could see me because I would have looked like a
9:23
Speaker 4: complete lunatic. But we then went to kind of investigate
9:28
Speaker 4: what was causing that. They thought it could have just
9:29
Speaker 4: been a side effect from the surgery, but unfortunately, well,
9:33
Speaker 4: they did just scan actually when I was pregnant with
9:35
Speaker 4: my third child, and it looked okay, but I did
9:40
Speaker 4: request they do it again once he was born, because
9:42
Speaker 4: I couldn't do the contrast and die while pregnant. So
9:45
Speaker 4: I had sort of gone on maternity leave at that point,
9:49
Speaker 4: so I was intending to go back to this job.
9:51
Speaker 4: And then we found out when he was probably two
9:54
Speaker 4: months old and I had that scan done again, that
9:57
Speaker 4: it was back, and so this time I had to
10:00
Speaker 4: have surgery again and then also radiation treatment, but it
10:03
Speaker 4: was quite a substantial one of the biggest thing. I
10:06
Speaker 4: went for seven weeks every day to have radiation and
10:12
Speaker 4: she couldn't really eat.
10:13
Speaker 5: It affects your energy and things, so.
10:14
Speaker 2: That kind of yeah, and you've got three babies, Like,
10:17
Speaker 2: you've got three little kids at home, which is exhausting
10:20
Speaker 2: in itself, Like you're probably stressed out of your brain
10:24
Speaker 2: because you're thinking, what the hell am I going to do?
10:26
Speaker 2: Like that all adds to oh my goodness, Like I
10:30
Speaker 2: just want to scoop you up and be like what
10:32
Speaker 2: can I do? How many Lasagnas. Do you need I know, well, I.
10:35
Speaker 5: Mean it goes on.
10:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, we really got a bit too used to it,
10:39
Speaker 4: like it's so normal to me now and in a
10:42
Speaker 4: terrible way.
10:43
Speaker 5: But I suppose also I'm at peace with it in
10:45
Speaker 5: a way.
10:45
Speaker 4: But yeah, So my boss called me, I think like
10:49
Speaker 4: just around I'd got started treatment and wanted to work
10:52
Speaker 4: out when I might want to come back.
10:54
Speaker 5: And I did say to him, look, we've just found
10:56
Speaker 5: this out. I've got to have treatment.
10:57
Speaker 4: He said, no worries, Like course back when you're all
11:00
Speaker 4: sorted and you're ready kind of to.
11:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, get back to work.
11:04
Speaker 4: So I waited a few months, waited to treatment was
11:06
Speaker 4: over and I'd regained a bit of energy and called
11:08
Speaker 4: them and he decided that there was a downturn in
11:12
Speaker 4: trade and that I would be terminated. And because I
11:16
Speaker 4: was casual it, Yeah, it wasn't a lot I could
11:20
Speaker 4: could do about it. And even if I could, I
11:21
Speaker 4: think it wasn't worth the wasn't worth the energy. I
11:24
Speaker 4: didn't have much energy at that point.
11:26
Speaker 2: I don't want to work for someone who does that.
11:28
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, but like, if this ever happened to
11:30
Speaker 2: someone in my team, like and I'm a small business,
11:33
Speaker 2: I would be bending over backwards. Like and the fact
11:37
Speaker 2: that you called and said, hey, I feel like I'm
11:38
Speaker 2: ready to return to work, Like you just know that
11:41
Speaker 2: people in that situation you would have been going above
11:43
Speaker 2: and beyond because like you're just so excited to get
11:46
Speaker 2: back into work. You're like probably so ready, like it's
11:49
Speaker 2: just something that you need. And for him to do that,
11:52
Speaker 2: no trash human. We don't want to associate with that.
11:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, essentially kind of I was like, Yeah, I really
11:57
Speaker 4: don't want to go back into that kind of vibe anyways,
11:59
Speaker 4: So let.
12:00
Speaker 5: That kind of go.
12:02
Speaker 4: We at that point, I probably need to go backwards
12:05
Speaker 4: a little bit. So while I was working while I
12:07
Speaker 4: was pregnant, we did also buy a second house, so
12:10
Speaker 4: we moved to a bigger house. So we essentially we
12:13
Speaker 4: are amazing broker, A really good friend of ours was
12:16
Speaker 4: able to manage to get everything to work so that
12:19
Speaker 4: we could keep our previous house. We refinanced and turn
12:24
Speaker 4: that into an investment. Rented that out, which was awesome,
12:27
Speaker 4: didn't turn out to be very awesome. We had terrible
12:29
Speaker 4: tenants and a terrible property manager, and it was just
12:31
Speaker 4: a nightmare.
12:32
Speaker 2: That's being kicked while you're down, You're like, I'm going
12:34
Speaker 2: through a lot right now. I do not need this.
12:36
Speaker 4: Yes, we do have a bit of a running joke
12:39
Speaker 4: that there's gonna be some kind of curse because it
12:41
Speaker 4: would always just come all at once, like yeah, that's crazy.
12:45
Speaker 4: But yeah, to the point, like even the property managers
12:48
Speaker 4: admitted they'd done such a terrible job. They did refund
12:50
Speaker 4: us ten weeks of our property management fees, so that
12:54
Speaker 4: was kind of great, but also like they didn't do
12:56
Speaker 4: inspections for like the first six months I think, and
12:59
Speaker 4: it was Yeah, we had the tenants were terrible when
13:01
Speaker 4: we got the house back, so we did go on
13:04
Speaker 4: to sell it one year after when I lost my job.
13:06
Speaker 5: We did.
13:07
Speaker 4: Interest rates had gone up by that point quite significantly.
13:10
Speaker 4: We were just having a third child, and as much
13:13
Speaker 4: as you know, we're pretty grateful from our husband's income,
13:16
Speaker 4: it certainly wasn't enough.
13:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, even with just like the stress, no, thank you,
13:20
Speaker 2: like let's dispose of this and just take a lot of.
13:22
Speaker 4: The pressure exactly, and especially with like added medical expenses
13:26
Speaker 4: and things like that, we were just like, no, it's
13:28
Speaker 4: too much. And because we were having such a nightmare
13:30
Speaker 4: with the tenants and them not paying rent and things
13:33
Speaker 4: like that. We decided we just couldn't. Yeah, even if
13:36
Speaker 4: we could make it work financially, we.
13:37
Speaker 2: Don't want to. We don't want to.
13:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we sold it, which was a journey in
13:43
Speaker 4: its own, but at least eventually we did so.
13:47
Speaker 5: And luckily it was after the market had sent to
13:50
Speaker 5: take off, so we got after we refinanced.
13:54
Speaker 4: As I said, we bought it for two hundred and
13:55
Speaker 4: a two thousand, and I think we sold in the
13:58
Speaker 4: end for.
14:00
Speaker 5: I reckon it was six fifty.
14:03
Speaker 2: Okay, that's pretty okay, but.
14:04
Speaker 4: We had refinanced for about four eighty, so I think
14:07
Speaker 4: after all the fees and stuff, we ended up with
14:08
Speaker 4: like around two hundred thousand dollars back in our pocket.
14:13
Speaker 4: And I thought, oh my gosh, that's amazing. That takes
14:17
Speaker 4: a load off. That will kind of give us a buffer.
14:20
Speaker 4: I then found out I'd be having well essentially it
14:23
Speaker 4: said it's been anotherst of four or five surgeries since then,
14:26
Speaker 4: so we were like, I won't go back to work.
14:28
Speaker 5: We'll just kind of have that as a buffer. And yeah.
14:32
Speaker 4: So unfortunately though, and as cost of living obviously hit,
14:35
Speaker 4: I kind of kept turning a bit of a blind
14:37
Speaker 4: high to it, and that money unfortunately got chewed.
14:40
Speaker 5: Off a lot quicker than I would get to a bit.
14:43
Speaker 4: So I definitely to regret not going back and probably
14:47
Speaker 4: making a few changes earlier on to save us a
14:50
Speaker 4: bit of money, because yeah, we did go out and
14:53
Speaker 4: buying your car without a loan, like that's always been
14:55
Speaker 4: important to us.
14:55
Speaker 5: We never wanted a loan for a car. That was
14:58
Speaker 5: just sort of one of our values. We did that.
15:01
Speaker 4: We renovated a kitchen, which took a chunk of it out,
15:04
Speaker 4: We had to pay off a heck's dead, a few
15:05
Speaker 4: things like that, So it did get chewed up pretty
15:08
Speaker 4: quickly by a few bigger things as well. Like it's
15:10
Speaker 4: amazing how quickly money can diminish.
15:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it feels like it just like falls through fingers.
15:16
Speaker 2: You're like, hold on, hold on, that was two hundred
15:18
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. How on earth did that get lost? And
15:21
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden you're like, hold on, you
15:23
Speaker 2: do the maths and then unfortunately the math checks out
15:26
Speaker 2: and you're like, oh that's how like, oh.
15:28
Speaker 4: Yes, unfortunately I only decided to do the maths on
15:31
Speaker 4: sort of how much like obviously I kind of knew
15:33
Speaker 4: cost of living was growing up in that sort of
15:35
Speaker 4: probably about a year there where I kind of just
15:37
Speaker 4: let our finances go, just ignored it, let the bills
15:40
Speaker 4: go up, like without really you know, checking on whether
15:43
Speaker 4: we could be getting cheaper insurance or whether we were
15:45
Speaker 4: having the best price for all our bills. Really we
15:48
Speaker 4: wanted to get sold, but I put it off for
15:50
Speaker 4: a year and I regret that immensely because we finally
15:53
Speaker 4: got it and we were paying. I think our predicted
15:56
Speaker 4: last quarterly bill was eighteen hundred dollars for the three months,
16:00
Speaker 4: and now it's looking like it'll be about three or
16:03
Speaker 4: four hundred dollars for this quarter. Now we've got solar,
16:05
Speaker 4: so it's massive difference. So they're the sort of things
16:07
Speaker 4: like I do kick myself for not doing earlier.
16:10
Speaker 2: You can't crucify yourself for not knowing.
16:12
Speaker 5: Exactly yes, so.
16:14
Speaker 2: It's wasted energy, and like we don't have time for that.
16:16
Speaker 2: So tell me how are you now? Because that's a
16:19
Speaker 2: lot Like you got to the part where you know
16:21
Speaker 2: the cancer was back, your third baby was two months old.
16:25
Speaker 4: What happened so so far cancer wise, it's been clear.
16:32
Speaker 4: I'll have my next lot of scancer check ups. So
16:34
Speaker 4: they say I'm the most checked patient at the hospital
16:36
Speaker 4: in their department, And I don't know if that's a compliment.
16:39
Speaker 2: Or I don't know how i'd take that either.
16:41
Speaker 4: Neither way, It's good that they wanted to be pretty closely.
16:45
Speaker 4: So so far, so good in that regard. Just stealing
16:48
Speaker 4: with side effects still from treatment. I also am a
16:52
Speaker 4: Bracker one carrier, so the breast cancer bearing cancer gene.
16:56
Speaker 5: Yeah.
16:56
Speaker 4: So the other surgeries I've had were four a bilateral
17:00
Speaker 4: preventative mistiketo me essentially, So there were complications with the
17:04
Speaker 4: first one.
17:05
Speaker 2: No, that is not what you deserve, like to make
17:07
Speaker 2: that decision to be like, all right, well, I'm going
17:09
Speaker 2: to be here for my family. I'm going to be
17:11
Speaker 2: here for my kids. I'm going to have this very
17:13
Speaker 2: life changing surgery that is preventative. And then they messed
17:16
Speaker 2: that up. Are you kidding? That is rude?
17:18
Speaker 5: Right, So I had to go and do it all
17:20
Speaker 5: over again.
17:20
Speaker 4: They had to reput these expanders that were called in
17:24
Speaker 4: and about seven weeks ago I had the actual Finally,
17:29
Speaker 4: almost year later, had the expanders replaced for the implants.
17:33
Speaker 4: So hopefully most of that surgery now out of the way,
17:36
Speaker 4: and then just last week I had the other preventative
17:38
Speaker 4: surgery for the Brakawe gene, which is a radical hysterectomy.
17:42
Speaker 5: So yeah, that one was from with me. It was
17:44
Speaker 5: like a week notice, so that one was a lot
17:46
Speaker 5: more to come to terms with.
17:48
Speaker 2: Why was it sprung on you? Was it just like
17:50
Speaker 2: the public system or like, by the way, we've got
17:51
Speaker 2: a spot or that. Yeah, okay, sort of.
17:54
Speaker 4: So I did sign the paperwork like two years ago
17:57
Speaker 4: to consent to the surgery, but it was all decided
18:00
Speaker 4: hormone wise and everything. It's best to do the other
18:03
Speaker 4: surgeries first, so it was kind of put off. And
18:05
Speaker 4: then it actually changed apartments within the hospital, so it
18:08
Speaker 4: was a bit of a crazy kind of thing and
18:10
Speaker 4: they could get me in sooner. We discussed the end
18:12
Speaker 4: of May, but when they called, they said, no, there's
18:14
Speaker 4: theater closures. Then when it's called in flu season, we
18:17
Speaker 4: put things on hold. So it's either now or probably
18:20
Speaker 4: the end of the year.
18:21
Speaker 2: You're all, well, let's go, they say, my first radio Yeah, because.
18:24
Speaker 4: In a monthst all that I actually taught the end
18:27
Speaker 4: of last year was like right, like, we really need
18:29
Speaker 4: some more income here with chewing through that savings and
18:31
Speaker 4: I applied for a temporary job for the election doing
18:34
Speaker 4: some admin assistant work.
18:36
Speaker 5: And I got that.
18:37
Speaker 4: So I started that earlier this year, which was awesome,
18:40
Speaker 4: and then when I found out i'd be having the
18:42
Speaker 4: first surgery, I thought, well, it'll probably be like in
18:45
Speaker 4: line with the election and I'll probably be finished.
18:48
Speaker 5: But they were really they were amazing.
18:49
Speaker 4: They said, no, just let us know when you're ready
18:51
Speaker 4: to come back, if there's things you can do without
18:53
Speaker 4: heavy lifting, things like that, like, we can get you
18:55
Speaker 4: back when you're ready.
18:56
Speaker 5: But then literally the day before I was meant.
18:59
Speaker 4: To go back is when I I've got the phone
19:00
Speaker 4: call to say we're going to do this next surgery
19:02
Speaker 4: next week. So I ended up pretty well having to
19:05
Speaker 4: quit because by the time that's the surgery recovery period's over,
19:08
Speaker 4: obviously you've had the election now and there was a
19:11
Speaker 4: little bit of work after it. But yes, it's pretty
19:14
Speaker 4: much lined up with that. So unfortunately, it was an
19:16
Speaker 4: incredible job and I was loving it and I had to, yeah,
19:20
Speaker 4: leave that one. So the one positive though, is now
19:23
Speaker 4: it's all out of the way, I can hopefully finally
19:26
Speaker 4: a little bit of time and the ability now to
19:30
Speaker 4: actually get a job and maybe actually start a career.
19:34
Speaker 2: I just feel like that is a lot for one
19:37
Speaker 2: person to carry. How are you, like, because that's a
19:40
Speaker 2: lot to go through, my friend.
19:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, there's been a lot, to be honest, sometimes
19:45
Speaker 4: I think I probably just ignored this blitter.
19:47
Speaker 5: Just ignore it associate. Probably not the best thing to do.
19:50
Speaker 4: But no, I'm pretty good considering like I grew up.
19:55
Speaker 4: My mum had cancer my whole childhood and past when
19:57
Speaker 4: I was quite young as well. So as much as
19:59
Speaker 4: that was rrible, it kind of put a lot of
20:02
Speaker 4: things in perspective for me and to seeing her go
20:04
Speaker 4: through it, and she was so incredibly strong and resilient.
20:08
Speaker 4: I think that set me up to be in much
20:10
Speaker 4: the same mindset. Really, as terrible as it is.
20:13
Speaker 2: No, but that's also just like so nice to have
20:16
Speaker 2: had like a positive role model in that space. And
20:20
Speaker 2: like I'm not saying that that is good, like it
20:22
Speaker 2: is really not. I'm so sorry your mum went through that,
20:25
Speaker 2: but I can see how that must be really, I
20:27
Speaker 2: guess soothing in a way to be like, okay, cool,
20:29
Speaker 2: Like I really resonate with my mum, like she's not
20:32
Speaker 2: around anymore, but I really feel her presence, and I
20:34
Speaker 2: really feel like I'm guided by how she acted, and
20:37
Speaker 2: that's kind of, in a way, morbidly beautiful.
20:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
20:41
Speaker 4: Like, Yeah, a lot of the time people do ask
20:44
Speaker 4: how I do it or how I cope, and it's
20:46
Speaker 4: just you just do. Like it's with any challenge life
20:49
Speaker 4: throws at you, I suppose you kind of you don't
20:52
Speaker 4: have a choice.
20:52
Speaker 5: You just have to find a way through it.
20:54
Speaker 4: But I think the biggest thing has been that I've
20:57
Speaker 4: been able to find that you're I suppose in you know,
21:01
Speaker 4: having three kids and watching them grow as much as
21:04
Speaker 4: it's also been incredibly difficult, especially all my husband as well,
21:07
Speaker 4: because he's been working full.
21:09
Speaker 5: Time, doing a lot of caring for me a.
21:11
Speaker 4: Lot of the kids, like carry the kids and you know,
21:14
Speaker 4: cleaning and things. So I mean through that year last
21:18
Speaker 4: year where we had that extra money in the bank account,
21:20
Speaker 4: we had a weekly cleaner, and they're the sort of
21:22
Speaker 4: things that probably did you have that money, which I
21:24
Speaker 4: don't regret because it did make take a lot of
21:26
Speaker 4: file plates and in that time. But yeah, it's when
21:29
Speaker 4: you go back and you kind of scan the bank
21:31
Speaker 4: accounts and you're like, how did all this money disappear
21:34
Speaker 4: and you go, Okay, there's all these little things that
21:36
Speaker 4: just add up and yeah, so we've had to really
21:39
Speaker 4: reassess that now, So.
21:41
Speaker 2: What does life look like moving forward? Because I'm assuming
21:43
Speaker 2: having a full by ladder all masterectomy and also a
21:46
Speaker 2: full hysterectomy. Stuff doesn't end there. Like there would be
21:49
Speaker 2: a lot of like hormone replacement therapy and things that
21:52
Speaker 2: you need to go through moving forward. And I'm glad
21:55
Speaker 2: on the like mistectomy side of things, like you've gone
21:58
Speaker 2: through the expanders and now you've got your plans, Like
22:01
Speaker 2: what are the next steps when it comes to your
22:03
Speaker 2: health now, I.
22:04
Speaker 4: Mean there's still a few I've got a couple of
22:06
Speaker 4: other underlying conditions. So for me, it'll be I mean,
22:09
Speaker 4: even with my cancer, it's pretty much a lifelong monitoring.
22:13
Speaker 5: For that one.
22:13
Speaker 4: It is one of the few cancers that's actually more
22:17
Speaker 4: likely to come back over time, so the likelihood of
22:20
Speaker 4: it coming back increases each year. So I'll be monitored
22:23
Speaker 4: for life for that. So we kind of know that
22:26
Speaker 4: I'm always going to have a bit of that medical
22:29
Speaker 4: scans and you know that big portion it's just sort
22:32
Speaker 4: of sitting there.
22:34
Speaker 5: Always going to be a part of my life.
22:35
Speaker 4: So I think I've kind of confident with the fact
22:37
Speaker 4: that I will probably struggle to ever work full time,
22:41
Speaker 4: both with the amount of medical appointments I have and
22:43
Speaker 4: also with the level of fatigue and other symptoms are
22:46
Speaker 4: now our experience is that it's probably not going to
22:49
Speaker 4: be practical unless I can can find the right job.
22:53
Speaker 5: I suppose, you know, nothing's impossible.
22:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, But yeah, I.
22:58
Speaker 4: Think I've come to tensify, especially well I've got young
23:00
Speaker 4: kids taking that pressure of wanting to find a full
23:03
Speaker 4: time job and career.
23:04
Speaker 5: Like, I think the hardest thing is that I'd.
23:07
Speaker 4: Really like to start a career, but I just I
23:10
Speaker 4: suppose I don't really know how to do that going
23:13
Speaker 4: into something part time. So I feel like so many
23:16
Speaker 4: jobs are full time and totally understandable as to why,
23:20
Speaker 4: especially when entering them. So I think, especially with anything
23:25
Speaker 4: in my background, I suppose so or anywhere I have
23:28
Speaker 4: transferable skills because I don't necessarily want to go back
23:31
Speaker 4: to sales or anything like that. I'd really like to
23:33
Speaker 4: start something new and kind of Yeah, but if I've
23:36
Speaker 4: learned anything is that you never really know what's around
23:39
Speaker 4: the corner anyway. So I think both with money and
23:43
Speaker 4: me thinking probably a year and a half ago, they oh, yes,
23:45
Speaker 4: we don't have to worry about money anymore.
23:47
Speaker 5: We've got this money enough savores account.
23:49
Speaker 4: We've got that buffer to now kind of having a
23:52
Speaker 4: terrible wake up call like okay, that buffer can disappear
23:55
Speaker 4: quickly if you're not careful, and now having to go
23:57
Speaker 4: back into a bit more like living to paycheck to
24:00
Speaker 4: paycheck kind of levels of you know, scrutinizing how much
24:03
Speaker 4: money we're spending, being savvy those sorts of things, less
24:06
Speaker 4: impulsi wittnesses, which I'm very good at. But yes, I
24:11
Speaker 4: think there's a lot of things I realized, like, yeah,
24:13
Speaker 4: money comes and goes, things will come out of nowhere.
24:16
Speaker 4: We did make one investment in a business that we
24:18
Speaker 4: still have that money sitting there, so we know we've got.
24:20
Speaker 5: That kind of buffer as well.
24:22
Speaker 4: So that's yeah, Like I feel like we've done like
24:25
Speaker 4: a few good decisions and then we've made a few
24:27
Speaker 4: poor decisions, but hopefully in the longer term even out
24:31
Speaker 4: and we can just kind of sit somewhere in the
24:33
Speaker 4: middle and at least be comfortable. And yeah, so I
24:36
Speaker 4: don't really know what the future holds is very much
24:38
Speaker 4: a question mark.
24:39
Speaker 5: But yeah, just take it each day.
24:41
Speaker 2: And I don't like each week really as it comes
24:43
Speaker 2: so totally. So tell me a little bit more about
24:46
Speaker 2: your babies. How old are they? How are they doing?
24:49
Speaker 2: Like there's three of them, you lucky duck.
24:51
Speaker 4: Yes, they're pretty good. My eldest is now seven and
24:56
Speaker 4: she so she's in school. My middle daughter is about
24:59
Speaker 4: to tend five in ten days, I think, so she'll
25:02
Speaker 4: start midyear reception.
25:04
Speaker 5: That's what we call it here.
25:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like kinder here. I think like prep.
25:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's called different everywhere. And
25:12
Speaker 5: then my son, he is two, and he is.
25:17
Speaker 4: Like I reckon, he could put Johnny Knox with a
25:19
Speaker 4: shame like his. There's a reason I've started to go
25:22
Speaker 4: so great since he was born.
25:23
Speaker 5: I think.
25:23
Speaker 4: I don't think it's any of the hell stuff. I
25:25
Speaker 4: think it's the fact that he probably always gives me
25:28
Speaker 4: multiple heart attacks a day.
25:30
Speaker 2: He was born to do pakol.
25:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, he'll be very good at that, one hundred percent.
25:34
Speaker 4: Always jumping off things he should have been On Easter,
25:36
Speaker 4: he fell down like a couple of steps onto the concrete,
25:38
Speaker 4: gone up and kept running. I was like, I think
25:40
Speaker 4: we should probably like it.
25:41
Speaker 5: You checked like not. He was just often going like.
25:45
Speaker 2: He's not faved by anything that cute, Like, yeah, I
25:48
Speaker 2: feel like my son Harvey's probably had a call from
25:51
Speaker 2: your son and been like this is how we do it.
25:53
Speaker 2: Because there's a running joke in my family that there's
25:56
Speaker 2: always something going on with Harvey, like he's always got
25:58
Speaker 2: like a bump on his head or a scratch or something,
26:01
Speaker 2: because he just he doesn't stop. Like the second this
26:04
Speaker 2: kid learned to walk, he was like walking, I'm going
26:07
Speaker 2: to run into things, like just ran full pelt at
26:10
Speaker 2: literally everything, and you're just like, why do you have
26:14
Speaker 2: no level of self preservation? Like none?
26:18
Speaker 5: Right, I know they don't, like no sense of like fear.
26:21
Speaker 2: Really he falls over like your son and I just go,
26:24
Speaker 2: are you all right? And he's like running off in
26:27
Speaker 2: the other direction, and you're like that looks like it
26:29
Speaker 2: could have been a concussion exactly.
26:31
Speaker 4: Yes, I have too many of those moments or my
26:34
Speaker 4: daughters will like to eat him on as well. To
26:35
Speaker 4: be honest, he's less scared of climbing play equipment playgrounds
26:38
Speaker 4: than my middle daughter is, Like no fear at all,
26:41
Speaker 4: but his absolute joy, like it makes us laugh constantly,
26:44
Speaker 4: just also levels that out with a little bit of
26:46
Speaker 4: fear and terror at the same time.
26:48
Speaker 5: Anxiety.
26:49
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, So talk to me, what big money
26:54
Speaker 2: goals do you have at the moment? I feel like
26:55
Speaker 2: we've talked a lot about money, but like what are
26:57
Speaker 2: your goals? What are you currently working towards?
27:00
Speaker 5: So we like to do a.
27:01
Speaker 4: Lot of DIY renovating. That was a big part of
27:04
Speaker 4: the reason. Like I love property, I always have. And
27:07
Speaker 4: while I recovering this time around, I got back into
27:11
Speaker 4: watching a few like Selling Houses Australia and other renovation shows,
27:15
Speaker 4: so I've now got myself back into the mindset.
27:18
Speaker 5: I also watched a movie that really inspired me.
27:20
Speaker 2: What was it.
27:21
Speaker 5: It's called The Life List, I think.
27:23
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, the Life List.
27:24
Speaker 4: Yes, and it inspired me so much to kind of revisit,
27:29
Speaker 4: especially having cancer, like the person I was pre cancer,
27:31
Speaker 4: but also younger me, and like what I really wanted
27:34
Speaker 4: to do and where I've kind of ended up versus that,
27:37
Speaker 4: And I kind of realized my goals were really properly
27:40
Speaker 4: related or I always really wanted to be interior designer.
27:44
Speaker 4: People always said you're so creative why did you end
27:46
Speaker 4: up going into business?
27:47
Speaker 5: Like why did you go for that business side? And
27:49
Speaker 5: I like both, to be honest, so I don't know.
27:51
Speaker 4: I could see maybe a bit of study to try
27:54
Speaker 4: and get me into maybe something bit more creative or
27:56
Speaker 4: residential drafting, like maybe something sort of similar but different,
28:00
Speaker 4: and hopefully get myself a job would probably go number one.
28:03
Speaker 4: But also, yeah, we've been doing a lot of renovating
28:06
Speaker 4: in both our previous house and this house. And we've
28:08
Speaker 4: always said though that we want to own maybe like
28:11
Speaker 4: a bit of landist and me acreage, and my dream's
28:13
Speaker 4: always been to like own a B and B. So
28:16
Speaker 4: that's the kind of probably next goal at some point,
28:19
Speaker 4: And really I think that would be ideal having some
28:21
Speaker 4: sort of passive income if my health does ever turn
28:24
Speaker 4: around again, having something that we kind of can keep
28:26
Speaker 4: running relatively easily, especially because whenever I do need.
28:31
Speaker 5: To be at home a lot, like at least already.
28:33
Speaker 4: Be be there, I suppose. So that's probably our other
28:37
Speaker 4: longer term goal. Definitely not in the short term. Still
28:40
Speaker 4: got a lot of probably saving and pivoting to do.
28:43
Speaker 4: We factored in things like a couple of games tax
28:46
Speaker 4: so we because we lived in our last house, we
28:49
Speaker 4: didn't need to pay I think like the seven year rule.
28:52
Speaker 5: I think it's cool.
28:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you would have got like a seven year exemption.
28:56
Speaker 2: Did you own it for more than seven years? Yeah, yeah,
29:00
Speaker 2: so there would be like a little bit of CGT payable.
29:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then we sold it like within a year,
29:05
Speaker 4: I think, So we didn't really have it as.
29:08
Speaker 5: A rental for very long at all.
29:09
Speaker 4: So but now if we sell this house within seven years,
29:12
Speaker 4: we have to pay capital gains on this house.
29:14
Speaker 5: So I always have that in the back of my mind.
29:17
Speaker 2: We maybe want to hold it for a little bit longer.
29:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. So this is a much bigger house on
29:22
Speaker 5: a much smaller block.
29:23
Speaker 4: So my husband lost his shed and a few things
29:25
Speaker 4: like that, which he would really love to have back
29:27
Speaker 4: as a.
29:27
Speaker 5: Big shared or something.
29:28
Speaker 4: So I suppose and the kids we have enough few
29:30
Speaker 4: but it's not as big as what we had before,
29:32
Speaker 4: so I.
29:33
Speaker 5: Think a lot of us.
29:35
Speaker 4: We only have three bedrooms for the girls share, so
29:37
Speaker 4: I think there's a few things there we would eventually,
29:40
Speaker 4: you know, the next few years, like to probably get
29:42
Speaker 4: a bit more space.
29:43
Speaker 2: But I like that you're thinking about it as well,
29:45
Speaker 2: and you're clearly thinking about it relatively strategically, because I
29:49
Speaker 2: don't think a lot of people think about that CGT rule.
29:52
Speaker 2: They don't go, okay, cool, we got an exemption on
29:54
Speaker 2: the first property, which means we need to wait for
29:56
Speaker 2: seven years for the second property. They're probably listening to
29:58
Speaker 2: this going, oh, I didn't know that was a thing,
30:01
Speaker 2: And that means that I can see your strategy brain
30:03
Speaker 2: working out what's going on and like what your next
30:06
Speaker 2: move might look like.
30:07
Speaker 4: Yes, I've always said, at least if I didn't end
30:09
Speaker 4: up in a property job or career, that that degree
30:12
Speaker 4: has already paid itself off in the knowledge I had
30:15
Speaker 4: around purchasing and selling and capital gaze like all that
30:17
Speaker 4: sort of stuff. Like that knowledge in itself has definitely helped,
30:22
Speaker 4: not to say that you have to study a property
30:23
Speaker 4: degree to kind of be able to do well in property,
30:27
Speaker 4: of course, by any means, but it definitely helped.
30:30
Speaker 2: No, but you don't know what you don't know. Having
30:32
Speaker 2: the benefit of understanding is very helpful. Money dis let's
30:36
Speaker 2: go to a really quick break because on the flip side,
30:38
Speaker 2: I want to talk a little bit more about investing
30:40
Speaker 2: and debt and then like what your best and worst
30:42
Speaker 2: money habits are so don't go anywhere, all right, money Dice.
30:49
Speaker 2: We are back and you I feel like your life
30:52
Speaker 2: has been an absolute roller coaster, like and it's probably
30:56
Speaker 2: felt like that from your perspective, and you are so positive,
30:59
Speaker 2: like you are literally so like oh no, Like I
31:02
Speaker 2: I've just come to terms with it. I asked you
31:04
Speaker 2: how you're doing. She's like, yeah, I'm fine, kind of
31:06
Speaker 2: burying my head in this sad like how you are
31:08
Speaker 2: carrying this, I don't know, And it like reminds me
31:10
Speaker 2: of that quote like just because it's heavy doesn't mean
31:14
Speaker 2: it's easy to carry. And I think a lot of
31:16
Speaker 2: people think that, you know, Oh well, she says, it's fine,
31:19
Speaker 2: like it must be. Like I just I'm in awe
31:22
Speaker 2: of you, Like I'm just like, can we go off
31:24
Speaker 2: coffee or something when I'm in the same state, Like
31:25
Speaker 2: I just want to be friends with you just seem
31:27
Speaker 2: like a hustler, like even to be like, oh cool,
31:30
Speaker 2: Like I went ahead and just had a biladd or
31:32
Speaker 2: a mastectomy, and I also had a full hysterectomy. Like
31:35
Speaker 2: those are giant surgeries, and I know to have made
31:37
Speaker 2: that decision that wasn't a like oh yeah, I would
31:41
Speaker 2: love to do that. It was a oh, I'm going
31:43
Speaker 2: to do that for my kids like you one thousand
31:45
Speaker 2: percent weren't thinking about you in those moments, And I
31:47
Speaker 2: just go, this person is a person I want to
31:49
Speaker 2: know better. Like she's just she's just wholesome. She's the
31:52
Speaker 2: type of people that you want to be surrounded by. Right,
31:55
Speaker 2: But we are getting to talk to you about your
31:58
Speaker 2: journey and about money and it's a privilege. But talk
32:01
Speaker 2: to me about investing, because I feel like you've got
32:04
Speaker 2: a strategy brain do you invest? What does that look like?
32:07
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts?
32:09
Speaker 4: Well, I suppose with my background having studied property, my
32:13
Speaker 4: love of property previously, our investment was really largely based
32:17
Speaker 4: around property.
32:19
Speaker 5: My goal for a long long time was to.
32:22
Speaker 4: Kind of purchase a house, renovate it, keep it as
32:25
Speaker 4: a mental move on, purchase another one, kind of keep
32:27
Speaker 4: working ourselves up, use the equity.
32:29
Speaker 5: But unfortunately life kind of made that tricky.
32:32
Speaker 4: And then obviously with COVID and the housing market and
32:34
Speaker 4: interest rates, that all kind of happened as well and
32:37
Speaker 4: made it very hard. I really wanted to kind of
32:39
Speaker 4: get to the goal of having three property so that
32:41
Speaker 4: we'd have one three kind of each old they could
32:43
Speaker 4: either live in it or so I thought whatever they
32:45
Speaker 4: wanted to do. That was kind of in the back
32:47
Speaker 4: of my mind is like that was my goal.
32:49
Speaker 5: And then that obviously.
32:50
Speaker 4: Became a bit unattainable, and it was a little bit
32:52
Speaker 4: hard to break away from that and realize that that's,
32:56
Speaker 4: at least for this point in our life, it's not achievable.
32:59
Speaker 5: But then we kind of pivoted.
33:01
Speaker 4: So I feel like I'm still relatively even though I
33:05
Speaker 4: did study a fair bit of business and investment, I
33:08
Speaker 4: still feel like I know very very little about shares
33:11
Speaker 4: in the share market, and you know, really any other
33:14
Speaker 4: form of investing. We were lucky enough to stumble across
33:18
Speaker 4: an acquaintance that was starting a business. We were able
33:20
Speaker 4: to invest in that business for her to kind of
33:24
Speaker 4: set up her like premises, and it actually paid off
33:28
Speaker 4: for us as well as we're getting a ten percent
33:33
Speaker 4: return on that money. And then we also got free
33:37
Speaker 4: swimming lessons out of it for three kids, which if
33:39
Speaker 4: anyone has kids, known swimming lessons are not cheap, so
33:42
Speaker 4: that saved us so much money. And yeah, so it's
33:46
Speaker 4: been pretty cool to have kind of done that. We
33:49
Speaker 4: started to get our returns and stuff back that that
33:51
Speaker 4: period's almost almost finished.
33:53
Speaker 5: So we were a bit like, oh my gosh, what
33:55
Speaker 5: do we do, Like is this the right thing to
33:57
Speaker 5: do for us?
33:57
Speaker 4: It paid off, and we were pretty key. I don't
34:00
Speaker 4: know if we'll go down much more business investing, but.
34:03
Speaker 2: I'm glad because you're right, like in some of those situations,
34:06
Speaker 2: it just goes barey up and people were just like,
34:08
Speaker 2: oh my goodness, like I wish I never and we
34:10
Speaker 2: destroyed our relationship and like it becomes dramatic, but I'm
34:13
Speaker 2: just well, luckily we weren't.
34:14
Speaker 4: I suppose, like I don't think I'd ever do it
34:16
Speaker 4: with someone close like family, all close friends, because yeah,
34:18
Speaker 4: I could see that was my fear. But luckily we
34:21
Speaker 4: were far enough apart that we didn't have to worry
34:24
Speaker 4: too much about that. And because it was also going
34:27
Speaker 4: towards property, we also had the added like kind of
34:30
Speaker 4: security that that could be sold off. Like I think
34:33
Speaker 4: most others, I probably wouldn't have gone ahead. I would
34:36
Speaker 4: have been like that would have been too risky for me.
34:38
Speaker 4: But because we knew we had that buffer, it was
34:40
Speaker 4: all in the contract and everything that if for some
34:42
Speaker 4: reason something went wrong, the property be sold off when
34:44
Speaker 4: we get paid back, So.
34:45
Speaker 2: I'm glad that worked out as well.
34:47
Speaker 4: I've got to like really recently started. I actually downloaded
34:51
Speaker 4: shares Is as per your recommendation, and we've only got
34:55
Speaker 4: not very much money in there, but it's starting to
34:58
Speaker 4: kind of grow each week. I just put a little
34:59
Speaker 4: bit in there, like literally only sixty dollars, like I'm
35:02
Speaker 4: talking like, I've only been very very cautious, trying to
35:04
Speaker 4: learn things, like trying to get my head around it all.
35:07
Speaker 2: I feel like you, of all people are going to
35:09
Speaker 2: love Ariits would your real estate investment trusts, like that's
35:14
Speaker 2: where you want to live.
35:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's still very new, but I think especially
35:19
Speaker 4: going forward, because I do like that we can just
35:21
Speaker 4: gradually add to it. It's not something like property where
35:23
Speaker 4: you really need to have a big lot of money
35:25
Speaker 4: and really a lot on the line, a lot at stake,
35:28
Speaker 4: and a lot more stress. Really, I suppose in managing
35:31
Speaker 4: even if you're not managing the property, there's still a
35:33
Speaker 4: lot that kind of goes on that you have to
35:35
Speaker 4: worry about, make decisions if maintenance issues come up.
35:38
Speaker 5: I think we probably.
35:39
Speaker 4: Did have a slightly more difficult experience, probably than many
35:43
Speaker 4: people have. But I think going forward, yeah, property wouldn't
35:46
Speaker 4: be the top of our list personally anymore. I think
35:50
Speaker 4: anything that's easy is kind of my life model at
35:52
Speaker 4: this point, whether it be food preparation or cleaning the
35:55
Speaker 4: house or investing it is, whatever's nice and simple totally.
36:00
Speaker 2: So talk to me about debt. Because you currently own
36:02
Speaker 2: the property that you live in. What does that look like?
36:05
Speaker 4: So we do have a mortgage still on this house,
36:08
Speaker 4: so we put all of the money originally that we
36:10
Speaker 4: had into we've had it in the homelands so we
36:13
Speaker 4: could offset someone of the interest, but we did redraw
36:17
Speaker 4: that back down and so we're still sitting probably with
36:21
Speaker 4: about a four.
36:21
Speaker 5: Hundred thousand dollars loan. I think I've put of my head.
36:24
Speaker 4: The property now would be worth around eight to fifty
36:28
Speaker 4: so I know eventually we'll have a bit of equity
36:30
Speaker 4: sitting in it, which I'm pretty keen for.
36:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so nice because I know that your plan
36:35
Speaker 2: is to go to a bigger property and get a
36:37
Speaker 2: little bit more space, and like, maybe this is part
36:40
Speaker 2: of your investing strategy, and you might get to keep
36:42
Speaker 2: hold of this property and lease it out and then
36:45
Speaker 2: make your way back to planning on having three properties
36:48
Speaker 2: for your kids, Like I don't see that as too
36:50
Speaker 2: far out of reach one.
36:52
Speaker 5: Day, Yes, exactly. That's if I've learned anything.
36:54
Speaker 4: It's just that nothing's impossible, even if it just might
36:58
Speaker 4: be finding a different way of there, or even if
37:01
Speaker 4: you decide to change strategies, like, there's nothing wrong with that.
37:04
Speaker 4: So I had to kind of come to terms with
37:06
Speaker 4: the fact that, yeah, property wasn't going to be our
37:08
Speaker 4: main thing at least for a little while, and that
37:10
Speaker 4: was very hard for me to break out of that
37:12
Speaker 4: very set mindset in my head. But I realized, look,
37:13
Speaker 4: it really doesn't matter. Like we felt like a bit
37:15
Speaker 4: of a failure after selling it after and having it
37:17
Speaker 4: as an investment for a year, and we kind of
37:20
Speaker 4: eventually realized, like I think it was our broker that
37:23
Speaker 4: sort of said, look, you've just got to do what
37:25
Speaker 4: you've got to do at that time, Like, just because
37:28
Speaker 4: you make a decision doesn't mean you have to stick
37:30
Speaker 4: with it if it doesn't work out. There's nothing wrong
37:32
Speaker 4: with that, and that goes for you know, most things
37:34
Speaker 4: in life. So I think that was a bit hard
37:36
Speaker 4: to get my head around, but I've definitely accepted that
37:38
Speaker 4: more now, so I think, yeah. Otherwise, debt wise, We've
37:43
Speaker 4: always tried to not really have too much debt. Every
37:46
Speaker 4: now and then I do get myself into a bit
37:49
Speaker 4: of an after pay trap, which I did do again
37:52
Speaker 4: when we were renovating and then over Christmas, so I'm
37:54
Speaker 4: trying to get that gone. So yeah, I think that's
37:58
Speaker 4: really about it. And hex So we paid out my
38:00
Speaker 4: husband's HEXTT. We had to pay it out to get
38:02
Speaker 4: our loan for this current house. We wouldn't get aproved
38:06
Speaker 4: without paying that out, so we paid his out. But
38:08
Speaker 4: I still have mine, which Viz, I find quite frustrating
38:12
Speaker 4: because I've watched it grow and grow and grow like
38:14
Speaker 4: crazy and not.
38:15
Speaker 5: Being able to work and really paid off.
38:17
Speaker 4: So we literally put like I think it's forout ten
38:20
Speaker 4: dollars a week into it at the moment, just to
38:22
Speaker 4: try and slowly chip out it or to completely keep
38:26
Speaker 4: going up. It's probably really only covering the extra sort
38:30
Speaker 4: of CPI increases.
38:31
Speaker 2: But and I mean, elbows just come back in and
38:34
Speaker 2: he promised to give all of us a very nice
38:37
Speaker 2: hex cut, so I'm sure you're looking forward to that.
38:40
Speaker 5: I very much am. When I saw that I was like, oh, yes, please.
38:42
Speaker 2: Yes, please, that'll take a little bit of pressure off.
38:44
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know, shout out to albow would
38:47
Speaker 2: be okay if you just get rid of all of
38:48
Speaker 2: our hex stets completely, Like we don't want a discount,
38:51
Speaker 2: we just want you to get rid of them.
38:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love you, I love you. I would not complain.
38:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
38:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there are main debts. We don't have any others.
39:02
Speaker 4: We've never had a credit card, so I'm probably kind
39:05
Speaker 4: of glad because I don't think I could trust myself
39:07
Speaker 4: with a credit card.
39:08
Speaker 5: Yeah.
39:08
Speaker 2: No, that's fair, that's fair. I feel like for everything
39:11
Speaker 2: that you have just shared with us, that you've gone through, like, girl,
39:14
Speaker 2: you are in a good position still, Like it's clear
39:17
Speaker 2: that you are very intelligent, like and I think everyone
39:19
Speaker 2: can hear it, Like the way that you're speaking. I'm
39:22
Speaker 2: like this woman, she's smart, smart, like she knows her shit.
39:25
Speaker 2: Like I know that you said, oh yeah, like I
39:27
Speaker 2: can't believe two hundred grand got away from me, and
39:29
Speaker 2: like that could feel a bit silly, but like I'm sorry,
39:32
Speaker 2: two hundred grand didn't get away from you. You already
39:34
Speaker 2: explained was a kitchen. You know, you bought a new
39:37
Speaker 2: car because you didn't want debt. I don't know if
39:39
Speaker 2: you know this, but you went through a very very
39:41
Speaker 2: very significant health event and to come out still owning
39:45
Speaker 2: your house massive win. Like I think that we really
39:49
Speaker 2: undervalue being financially stable when coming out of these situations,
39:55
Speaker 2: like so many times, like I see families financially ruined.
39:58
Speaker 2: And this is why I am so passionate about insurance,
40:02
Speaker 2: Like I just I want to jump up and down
40:04
Speaker 2: about it consistently and be like, these things happen, Like
40:07
Speaker 2: you're listening to this money darist who has three small babies,
40:11
Speaker 2: Like I can almost guarantee that when you found out,
40:12
Speaker 2: oh I'm pregnant for the first time, that wasn't on
40:15
Speaker 2: your Bingo card, Like that wasn't the plan. That wasn't
40:18
Speaker 2: you were like, all right, well take a bit of time,
40:20
Speaker 2: because you know, we can have a baby and then
40:22
Speaker 2: I can be you know, a career girl in property.
40:25
Speaker 2: And it just that's not the way the cookie crumbled.
40:28
Speaker 2: And I think that it does remind you consistently, Yes,
40:31
Speaker 2: insurances are important, but like, yes, a career would be
40:34
Speaker 2: so nice, but like time with your family, like that
40:37
Speaker 2: is the most important thing. And like the decisions that
40:40
Speaker 2: you're making, especially around your health, Like I can tell
40:42
Speaker 2: that you just care so much about your babies and
40:45
Speaker 2: your husband and putting them first. Because of the decisions
40:47
Speaker 2: you're making are not small, Like that's a massive life
40:51
Speaker 2: changing thing, and like that's a lot, and I'm just
40:55
Speaker 2: I'm so glad they have you, like they're so lucky.
41:00
Speaker 4: Sometimes I really don't think that there's moments where I'm
41:02
Speaker 4: probably a little bit too too cranky or too high maintenance.
41:06
Speaker 2: Well wait until they're teenagers. They won't say that. They
41:09
Speaker 2: won't say that, but like, live in the moment for
41:12
Speaker 2: now exactly. I want to know. I feel like you
41:15
Speaker 2: know with your DIY renovating, and like you seem pretty savvy.
41:18
Speaker 2: What do you think your best money habit is?
41:21
Speaker 5: Well, that is a good question.
41:23
Speaker 4: I feel like my best money habit is also sometimes
41:26
Speaker 4: my worst money habit in a way in that I
41:28
Speaker 4: have spent an awful lot of time, probably because I
41:32
Speaker 4: also have had a lot of time perfecting when things
41:37
Speaker 4: go on sale, for example, so like I know exactly
41:40
Speaker 4: per one hundred sheets, what I'm willing to spend on
41:42
Speaker 4: toilet paper, so I won't buy if it's less than
41:45
Speaker 4: you know, whatever it is, one hundred sheets. It's the
41:47
Speaker 4: same with things like Peter Alexander sounds. I've decided we're
41:49
Speaker 4: going to splurge on some pajamas, I know exactly when
41:52
Speaker 4: to wait. So yeah, like I've worked all these little
41:55
Speaker 4: hacks out, and I do not buy like anything full price.
41:58
Speaker 4: I genuinely get this way if I have to buy
42:00
Speaker 4: something full price. But obviously in times in the past,
42:03
Speaker 4: that has led to buying things that I probably didn't need,
42:08
Speaker 4: and therefore, you know, spending money that I didn't need
42:12
Speaker 4: to spend just because I save some money.
42:13
Speaker 5: So I am very aware of that. But at the
42:16
Speaker 5: same time, I now have a.
42:17
Speaker 4: List on my phone of things that I know we
42:20
Speaker 4: will need coming up, and then I keep a bit
42:22
Speaker 4: of an eye out. So that's been able to curb
42:24
Speaker 4: that a little bit in the sense of overspending. So
42:27
Speaker 4: I think I have, yeah, spent a lot of time
42:31
Speaker 4: perfecting it, to be honest, But I know all different stores,
42:34
Speaker 4: you know when their sales are most likely to happen. When, Yeah,
42:37
Speaker 4: a lot of stores go on sale around like the
42:40
Speaker 4: click frenzy times or like after Payday.
42:42
Speaker 5: And even though even if I'm not really using those platforms.
42:46
Speaker 4: I still know that there'll be a lot of good
42:48
Speaker 4: sales and a lot of the time I won't buy
42:49
Speaker 4: anything unless it's even like a further percentage off the
42:52
Speaker 4: sale price. But you do obviously run a lot of
42:54
Speaker 4: risks if you might if there's something you really want
42:56
Speaker 4: and you wait that long, it might not be there.
42:58
Speaker 4: It might not be acide you need those sort of things.
43:00
Speaker 4: But I'm pretty okay with that. And yeah, to be honest,
43:04
Speaker 4: I've probably waste a lot of my time doing that,
43:07
Speaker 4: which sometimes drives me nuts. And I'll shot across like
43:09
Speaker 4: supermarket specials each week, for example, which can just waste time.
43:15
Speaker 4: So sometimes if when I have been working and a
43:17
Speaker 4: bit time for I'm more likely to buy things at
43:20
Speaker 4: higher prices.
43:21
Speaker 5: But I'm okay with.
43:21
Speaker 4: That, because you know, convenience, Yeah, exactly, So I've had
43:25
Speaker 4: to balance that out. But I dare say that the
43:30
Speaker 4: amount of effort and time I put into making sure
43:33
Speaker 4: we don't overpay for anything at all has been yeah,
43:38
Speaker 4: other than maybe at the time there with bills.
43:39
Speaker 5: I don't like bills. I'll ignore bills.
43:41
Speaker 2: No, I feel like that's fair. So what do you
43:43
Speaker 2: think your worst money happened? Is is it that?
43:46
Speaker 4: Probably? I would dare say I've had different worse money home.
43:49
Speaker 4: Its like, for a while there it was I just
43:51
Speaker 4: would eat takeout or coffees for that year we had
43:54
Speaker 4: that money sitting in the bank account without even thinking
43:57
Speaker 4: about it. And I think for a while there I
43:59
Speaker 4: just got way with purchases and that I've rained right in.
44:04
Speaker 4: So let's say, yeah, currently, probably I just always feels
44:08
Speaker 4: like so much if it having to go and change
44:10
Speaker 4: and make phone calls. I hate making phone calls to
44:12
Speaker 4: try and see if we can get things lower or
44:15
Speaker 4: this and that. So I dare say, yeah, that at
44:17
Speaker 4: this point probably is my worst habit because I just
44:20
Speaker 4: really avoid it.
44:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like I hate making phone calls as well.
44:23
Speaker 2: But when you get on a roll and you get one, yes,
44:26
Speaker 2: You're like, I could get the rest of them. I'm
44:28
Speaker 2: going to keep going on this, So I feel like
44:30
Speaker 2: I need to like push you a little bit to go,
44:32
Speaker 2: why don't you just do like the car insurance and
44:34
Speaker 2: then see what happens?
44:36
Speaker 5: Yes, exactly, you know.
44:37
Speaker 4: I do find like if I make one full phone
44:39
Speaker 4: call on like, yeah, okay, I'm in the right energy
44:41
Speaker 4: and rights metal state now and I'll just make the
44:43
Speaker 4: whole ether frind calls.
44:44
Speaker 2: I hate making phone calls. I just don't like it. Like,
44:47
Speaker 2: if there is an option to email someone, I've already
44:50
Speaker 2: emailed you. But that's exactly how we're communicating money diarist.
44:54
Speaker 2: At the start of this episode, I said, what's your
44:57
Speaker 2: money grade? And you said, look, I reckon, I'm like
44:59
Speaker 2: middle ground. I think I'm I don't know. I want
45:02
Speaker 2: to kind of like argue with you on that because
45:04
Speaker 2: I think you're just you're better than a sea. But
45:06
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna argue with you because like that would
45:08
Speaker 2: be bored alone disrespectful. So I want to know as
45:11
Speaker 2: someone who's gone through the journey that you've gone through,
45:14
Speaker 2: and you have three beautiful babies and a loving husband,
45:17
Speaker 2: and you've bought property and sold property, and you've clearly
45:19
Speaker 2: got some good equity in the one that you've got,
45:21
Speaker 2: and like I know that you said, look, we went
45:23
Speaker 2: through that figure really quickly and we lost the buffer
45:26
Speaker 2: that we had. Like I don't think that defines it.
45:28
Speaker 2: I think that you actually used it how you your
45:30
Speaker 2: bloody needed to use it at the time, Like that's
45:33
Speaker 2: exactly what your family needed. Like, yes, you could have
45:37
Speaker 2: done something else with it, But at what cost, Like
45:39
Speaker 2: at the cost of not having the comfort during a
45:42
Speaker 2: really stressful period of time, at the cost of not
45:44
Speaker 2: having somebody that came through and cleaned your house and
45:46
Speaker 2: took away that mental load, and the cost of all
45:48
Speaker 2: of those other things. Right, do you genuinely think after
45:51
Speaker 2: having this conversation you're like, oh, V, I still think
45:54
Speaker 2: I'm as see.
45:55
Speaker 4: No, I must say I do, like after you've pointed
45:57
Speaker 4: out a couple of things, I definitely don't feel as
45:59
Speaker 4: bad about it as I probably did.
46:01
Speaker 2: Again, Look, I'm glad. I'm very glad, but.
46:04
Speaker 4: Like, I don't know if I'd put me in an A,
46:06
Speaker 4: but I'd at least helped me out to a bee.
46:08
Speaker 2: We can be a bee. But what in your eyes
46:10
Speaker 2: is like an A? Like what would that take to
46:13
Speaker 2: get you there? Is that you owning those three properties
46:16
Speaker 2: for your kids and like, you know, having paid off
46:18
Speaker 2: all of your hecks in doing all of those things,
46:20
Speaker 2: or is it like a mindset? What does that look like?
46:22
Speaker 4: I think for me at the moment, I would feel
46:25
Speaker 4: a bit more like the A if we could, like,
46:28
Speaker 4: I feel like I've got a few like another short
46:29
Speaker 4: term goals. At the moment, we are expending still a
46:31
Speaker 4: little bit over my husband's wage, so I'd really like
46:35
Speaker 4: to get that at least to begin with, back to
46:38
Speaker 4: like breaking even that what we're spending is the same
46:41
Speaker 4: as his wage, so we'd not kind of going into
46:43
Speaker 4: that savings. That would be my first kind of I
46:46
Speaker 4: think if we got to there, i'd feel a little
46:48
Speaker 4: bit like we were getting closer to that A. But
46:51
Speaker 4: I think longer term, to do that and be saving,
46:54
Speaker 4: then i'd be happy. Like, I don't think I necessarily
46:57
Speaker 4: need to get to those three properties to feel like
46:58
Speaker 4: I'm at the A. I just think I like to
47:00
Speaker 4: at least know that we are either saving or investing
47:04
Speaker 4: just a little bit to begin with, Like I'd be
47:06
Speaker 4: happy with that. I'd still obviously have the longer term goals.
47:09
Speaker 4: But if we were able to ye just manage us
47:12
Speaker 4: spending enough that we just were at least saving a little,
47:15
Speaker 4: I think I'd be happy and at that paid point
47:17
Speaker 4: for us anyway.
47:18
Speaker 2: I can get behind that, and I feel like you're
47:20
Speaker 2: perfectly on truck for that, Like that is not that
47:23
Speaker 2: far off. I feel like with your brain, like I
47:25
Speaker 2: can just see that you've got lots of places to
47:28
Speaker 2: be and lots of places to go. Money dist It
47:30
Speaker 2: has been an absolute privilege to learn more about you,
47:33
Speaker 2: about your journey, and like the idea that you're happy
47:35
Speaker 2: for me to share your journey with our community so
47:37
Speaker 2: that they can learn and they can you know, be
47:40
Speaker 2: better at money because you were so willing to share.
47:43
Speaker 2: I'm obsessed, like, thank you. It is really really valuable,
47:46
Speaker 2: and I'm just I'm very grateful that we got to
47:49
Speaker 2: cross parts.
47:50
Speaker 5: No, thank you, thanks for having me.
47:52
Speaker 2: Of course, Oh my gosh, I've adored this.
48:01
Speaker 6: The advice sheared on She's on the Money is general
48:03
Speaker 6: in nature and does not.
48:04
Speaker 2: Consider your individual circumstances.
48:07
Speaker 6: She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and
48:10
Speaker 6: should not be relied upon to make an investment or
48:13
Speaker 6: financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product,
48:16
Speaker 6: read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored
48:20
Speaker 6: towards your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money
48:24
Speaker 6: are authorized representatives of Money. Sheper Pty LTD ABN three
48:29
Speaker 6: two one IS six four nine two seven seven zero
48:32
Speaker 6: eight AFSL four five one two eight nine