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MONEY DIARIES: From Partying to Proud Chihuahua Mumma · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: Hello.
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Speaker 2: My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr the
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Speaker 2: Order Kerney Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
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Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
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Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
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Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
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Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
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Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
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Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
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Speaker 2: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
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Speaker 1: Let's get into it. She's on the Money, She's on
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Speaker 1: the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money,
1:00
Speaker 1: the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back
1:04
Speaker 1: to another one of our money diaries where we get
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Speaker 1: to talk with one of our incredible She's on the
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Speaker 1: Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight
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Speaker 1: into it. This week we got a message and before
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Speaker 1: I read it out, I just want to give you
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Speaker 1: a little bit of a content warning because today we're
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Speaker 1: going to be talking about substance abuse, mental health struggles,
1:22
Speaker 1: and suicidal ideation. And if that's not an episode that
1:25
Speaker 1: you're ready to hear, or you're not in the right
1:27
Speaker 1: mind frame, pop on over to one of our other episodes.
1:30
Speaker 1: We have so many of them for you, But for
1:32
Speaker 1: those of you who are still here and still listening,
1:35
Speaker 1: the message sounded a little like this. Hi, Victoria, I
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Speaker 1: have a few mental health diagnoses and have gone from
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Speaker 1: living off Scentlink, being addicted to drugs and partying, to
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Speaker 1: studying psychology and earning close to ninety thousand dollars a year.
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Speaker 1: After a really tough period in my life, it is
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Speaker 1: finally changing for the better in every way. I now
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Speaker 1: work in foster care and am the proud mama to which
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Speaker 1: you're and I hope my story can open up conversations
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Speaker 1: and destigmatize mental health struggles for others in the community.
2:08
Speaker 1: Money Diarist, what a good story to be sharing with us,
2:11
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, Thanks for coming.
2:14
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. I'm super excited.
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Speaker 1: To be here. I'm super excited that you're here. But
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Speaker 1: I'm also super excited to talk to you about your journey.
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Speaker 1: I feel like that is a literal one to eighty.
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Speaker 1: You have absolutely flipped the trajectory of your life. Is
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Speaker 1: that exciting for you? I know that's not the question
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Speaker 1: I'm meant to be asking, but like, it just must
2:33
Speaker 1: be so exciting hearing that read out, like hearing where
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Speaker 1: you've come from and where you're going.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, when I look at where I was a few
2:40
Speaker 3: years ago to where I am now, it's a little
2:42
Speaker 3: bit unbelievable, to be honest. Yeah, I'm very proud of
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Speaker 3: myself and it's a pretty good feeling to be able
2:48
Speaker 3: to make my family proud of me and hear them
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Speaker 3: say that they're proud of me, and yeah, life's completely
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Speaker 3: changed for the better. And I just hope that sharing
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Speaker 3: my story can inspire other people to know that they
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Speaker 3: can do it too.
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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I already know it is. You gave
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Speaker 1: me grease bumps when you said, here's hearing my family
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Speaker 1: say that they're proud of me, Like, I'm proud of
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Speaker 1: you too. I want to jump on that train. That
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Speaker 1: is such an epic progression. Let's get into the questions, though,
3:13
Speaker 1: because I have a million and one things that I
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Speaker 1: want to ask. But first things first, let's ask if
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Speaker 1: we asked you to give yourself a grade for your
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Speaker 1: money habits from A through F, what would that grade be?
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Speaker 3: I would say currently about a C a few years ago,
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Speaker 3: probably an F.
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Speaker 1: I feel like that's fair progression, and I'm going to
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Speaker 1: learn a little bit why you think it a C.
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Speaker 1: But let's start with my favorite question. Can you tell
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Speaker 1: me a little bit more about your money story?
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Speaker 3: God, this is a really good question. So growing up,
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Speaker 3: I grew up with my mom, was a single parent
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Speaker 3: for most of my childhood. My mom and my dad
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Speaker 3: split up when I was quite young. I think I
3:50
Speaker 3: was about four years old. Mum worked for a bit,
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Speaker 3: but she has always worked on and off and has
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Speaker 3: been on Sundlink and has been on a stability support
4:00
Speaker 3: pension for probably over ten years now. I started work
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Speaker 3: when I was about fourteen years of age. I work
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Speaker 3: in part time. I'm out of school, and I mainly
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Speaker 3: just spent all the money that I owned, so I
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Speaker 3: didn't really save a cent, and that probably continued up
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Speaker 3: until really last year. I would say. When I finished
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Speaker 3: school and moved out of school, I went and studied
4:25
Speaker 3: for a bit, and that journey looks very up and
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Speaker 3: down over quite a few years. Because of my own
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Speaker 3: mental health, I went through a lot of change. I
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Speaker 3: moved to different towns and cities, I changed careers many times,
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Speaker 3: dropped out of UNI and different things like that, and
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Speaker 3: then I've come to where I am now, where I
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Speaker 3: would say that I work hard for my money. I
4:49
Speaker 3: do spend a bit of money, and I try to
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Speaker 3: save a little bit of money, and I also give
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Speaker 3: some away when possible to charity or my family.
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Speaker 1: And you think you're a c I've got so much
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Speaker 1: any questions. It sounds like you are absolutely smashing it.
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Speaker 1: Even just you being like, oh, I give some of
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Speaker 1: it away, I'm like, okay, cool. So many people don't
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Speaker 1: do that, and for me, giving is such an important
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Speaker 1: part of our budget because it just makes us feel
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Speaker 1: so good. I'm not surprised, though, knowing the line of
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Speaker 1: work you were in that you give probably more than
5:20
Speaker 1: you should. So talk to us about work. What do
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Speaker 1: you do for work and how much money do you earn?
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Speaker 3: So I work in foster care currently. I have been
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Speaker 3: in the throw for about six months, and I manage
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Speaker 3: the incoming referrals from child protection and make placements. I'm
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Speaker 3: also studying forth your psychology part time. I earn around
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Speaker 3: ninety thousand dollars per year, that's before super I previously
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Speaker 3: worked in mental health for about twenty months in the
5:50
Speaker 3: past three years, I've changed jobs three times and significantly
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Speaker 3: increased my income. So about three years ago i was
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Speaker 3: on Santlelink and work in a pizza shop, and now
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Speaker 3: I'm no longer on Settlink and earning close to ninety
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Speaker 3: thousand a year.
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Speaker 1: I am so excited when you say that, like, close
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Speaker 1: to ninety thousand dollars a year gives you so much
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Speaker 1: opportunity to build the life you deserve and create the
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Speaker 1: life that you want to leave. I want to ask
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Speaker 1: a little bit more about your job, though, because that's
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Speaker 1: a really special area to be in. And I'm sure
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Speaker 1: as somebody and we'll get onto this, but I'm sure
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Speaker 1: as somebody who already struggles with mental health, that might
6:28
Speaker 1: be a little bit more of a struggle. Like I know,
6:31
Speaker 1: as somebody who does have mental health issues myself, I
6:34
Speaker 1: often find dealing in areas that are a little bit heavier,
6:38
Speaker 1: maybe a bit harder for me because I resonate so
6:41
Speaker 1: deeply with those things. Talk to me about the journey
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Speaker 1: of getting into foster care in your experience of it,
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Speaker 1: because as I said, it's such a special area but
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Speaker 1: can be challenging, right.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely presents its challenges, but it's been really rewarding
6:56
Speaker 3: so fast. So I was previously working in mental health,
7:00
Speaker 3: and yeah, needed a change of scenery. So I applied
7:02
Speaker 3: for a job with the agency I'm currently working for,
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Speaker 3: and I've never heard back from them. And then I
7:09
Speaker 3: started work as a disability support worker and then they
7:12
Speaker 3: reached out to me via email and asked if I
7:15
Speaker 3: was still interested in the position, and I said yes,
7:18
Speaker 3: and they interviewed me and then offered me a job,
7:21
Speaker 3: and of course I said yes. I knew it was
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Speaker 3: going to be a life changing job and I've loved
7:28
Speaker 3: every step of the journey so far. It has been
7:32
Speaker 3: really challenging. I do get quite invested in the kids
7:35
Speaker 3: that we work with, but engaging in self care is
7:38
Speaker 3: really important and that's something that I've had to learn
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Speaker 3: over the past few years in my own mental health recovery.
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Speaker 3: You know, I go for walks every day. I talk
7:47
Speaker 3: to my family and friends and talking to my colleagues.
7:50
Speaker 3: And I've been lucky enough in most of my recent
7:53
Speaker 3: workplaces we've had EAP and employee assistance program that we
7:58
Speaker 3: can access. I think it's between three and six sessions
8:01
Speaker 3: three a year. So yeah, when I'm really struggling. I
8:04
Speaker 3: reach out to a psychologist through EAP and have some counseling.
8:09
Speaker 3: But yeah, self care is just really important, you know,
8:12
Speaker 3: working and having those boundaries between your own time and
8:16
Speaker 3: work time. It still does get to me a little bit,
8:18
Speaker 3: but I probably wouldn't have it any other way. I
8:21
Speaker 3: think if it doesn't this sort of work doesn't get
8:24
Speaker 3: to you, you're probably not the right person for it.
8:28
Speaker 3: You need to have a hut.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was about to say I could not agree.
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Speaker 1: More Like, if it was somebody who was quite clinical
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Speaker 1: about it, I don't know if I trust them to
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Speaker 1: be honest, Like, if it doesn't affect you, what is
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Speaker 1: going on? You mentioned self care being really important, and
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Speaker 1: I guess looking at the story that you have, it's
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Speaker 1: a bit of a pivot from where you were in
8:49
Speaker 1: the lifestyle that you used to lead. At what point
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Speaker 1: did self care become important to you? And I mean
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Speaker 1: I feel like we talk about it on the pod
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Speaker 1: all the time, right, Like self care is so important
9:00
Speaker 1: for someone who maybe didn't indulge in enough self care historically.
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Speaker 1: What were the things that kind of were the gateway
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Speaker 1: into really caring about self care and being able to
9:10
Speaker 1: take those positive steps and put you first.
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Speaker 3: I think it was had a real turning point a
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Speaker 3: few years ago. I'd been chronically suicidal for probably twelve
9:22
Speaker 3: months or so, every couple of weeks thinking about ending
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Speaker 3: my life and talking about it. And there was one
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Speaker 3: day I always remember this moment. I was on the
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Speaker 3: phone for my mum and she said, I want my
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Speaker 3: daughter back before I die, and that really stuck with me.
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Speaker 3: And yeah, I reached out to the local community mental
9:39
Speaker 3: health and saw a psychiatrist and went back on some antidepressants,
9:44
Speaker 3: which I've had a history of being on and off medication,
9:47
Speaker 3: and I refused to take medication for a few years.
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Speaker 3: And when I went on these particular antidepressants, they were
9:53
Speaker 3: just life changing. Within you know, a few days to
9:56
Speaker 3: a week, we could see the change in myself and
9:59
Speaker 3: I was really positive. And I think that was my
10:02
Speaker 3: real first step towards taking better care of myself is, yeah,
10:07
Speaker 3: going back on medication. Being lucky enough to go straight
10:12
Speaker 3: on the right medication this time and not have to
10:15
Speaker 3: go through the joys of it being the wrong medication
10:18
Speaker 3: and changing medication, because that is so frustrating and hard
10:21
Speaker 3: to deal with. And I think that was one of
10:23
Speaker 3: my biggest probably struggles was knowing that I would probably
10:27
Speaker 3: go through a cycle of taking medication and it not working,
10:31
Speaker 3: and then yeah, getting into the mental health field. I
10:34
Speaker 3: cried when I got offered the job that I did
10:37
Speaker 3: because it was my first job in the industry and
10:41
Speaker 3: that meant I was going to come off set a
10:42
Speaker 3: link and knowing that to be able to maintain full
10:45
Speaker 3: time employment and earn good money and look after other people,
10:49
Speaker 3: I really needed to be taking good care of myself.
10:53
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think that was really crucial in my
10:55
Speaker 3: own journey to looking after myself better.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that's so important as well. And
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Speaker 1: what you touched on about going on the wrong medication,
11:04
Speaker 1: that can be terrifying because it's not a good experience
11:08
Speaker 1: at all. Anythink that that's something that stops people from
11:11
Speaker 1: actually taking the steps they need to take because they're like,
11:14
Speaker 1: surely my current state is better than being on the
11:17
Speaker 1: wrong medication, But we actually have to go through the
11:20
Speaker 1: absolute shit storm that that is sometimes to get out
11:23
Speaker 1: the other end and see the light at the end
11:25
Speaker 1: of the tunnel. And I've been through that. It is
11:27
Speaker 1: horrendous if it is the wrong medication, but with good
11:32
Speaker 1: doctors and good support like you come off it immediately
11:35
Speaker 1: the second it starts not working for you. You mentioned
11:39
Speaker 1: obviously suicidal ideation. That's a terrible position to be in
11:43
Speaker 1: and something that it just makes me want to wrap
11:46
Speaker 1: you up and be like no, like you're so special
11:48
Speaker 1: and listen to your story. Like past you would be
11:51
Speaker 1: shocked about where you are now. Where does mental health
11:55
Speaker 1: stem from for you? So obviously it's not been something
11:59
Speaker 1: that just popped up randomly. Is that something you've struggled
12:02
Speaker 1: with your whole life? Well, where does this come from?
12:05
Speaker 3: Yeah? So when I was a teenager, I'm pretty sure
12:07
Speaker 3: I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. When I look
12:11
Speaker 3: back now, I can sort of see underlying traits of
12:14
Speaker 3: borderline personality disorder from when I was a teenager. My
12:18
Speaker 3: mom has struggled with mental health problems throughout her life
12:21
Speaker 3: as well, and my dad did as well, so it
12:25
Speaker 3: sort of runs in the family. But I do think
12:28
Speaker 3: there's a fair bit of trauma that I probably went
12:30
Speaker 3: through in my teenage years and early life that resulted
12:35
Speaker 3: in my mental health becoming the way it did as
12:38
Speaker 3: I grew older and during my years of substance abuse
12:42
Speaker 3: and partying. The roles for traumas that added to that
12:46
Speaker 3: trauma that already existed. So I think a lot of it.
12:49
Speaker 3: You know, there's genetic components to it, and then the
12:52
Speaker 3: trauma that I've experienced in life as well.
12:54
Speaker 2: Yeah.
12:55
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So now you've pivoted. You've gone from being addicted
12:59
Speaker 1: to rugs and partying, you're now studying psych and earning
13:03
Speaker 1: ninety grand, which is wild. So I want to know
13:06
Speaker 1: what is your big money goal. What are we working
13:08
Speaker 1: towards at the moment.
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Speaker 3: Apparrently, I'm working towards building up a decent emergency fund
13:13
Speaker 3: and savings account, a bit of both in the one account.
13:17
Speaker 3: So I currently have a few thousand dollars and I've
13:19
Speaker 3: been able to maintain that for a little while now,
13:21
Speaker 3: which is quite nice. But yeah, I do need it
13:24
Speaker 3: to be bigger than what it is. I probably need
13:27
Speaker 3: it to be that six month emergency fund that often
13:30
Speaker 3: hear people talk about. And I also want to pay
13:33
Speaker 3: off my car loan and possibly work towards buying a home.
13:37
Speaker 3: I'm still really undecided on that, So that's something that's
13:40
Speaker 3: in the back of my mind.
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Speaker 1: That's not something you have to decide on right here
13:44
Speaker 1: and now. In fact, just saving puts you ahead to
13:47
Speaker 1: achieving a goal once you decide the goal is there.
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Speaker 1: Have there been any I guess, pivotal moments when you
13:53
Speaker 1: know you said before I have a few thousand dollars
13:56
Speaker 1: in a savings account and stayed there. Obviously I want
13:58
Speaker 1: to get up to that six month mark. Have you
14:00
Speaker 1: ever just looked at it and been like, Wow, this
14:03
Speaker 1: is not where I thought I would be, even though
14:05
Speaker 1: its few thousand dollars, even though they're quote to you
14:08
Speaker 1: not enough like, have you ever been like, Wow, this
14:10
Speaker 1: is not a position I thought I would be in.
14:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, I certainly have many times. I'm back in December
14:16
Speaker 3: of last year. I think I had close to four
14:19
Speaker 3: or five thousand in savings and I decided to buy
14:22
Speaker 3: myself at Chiuahua. And she's been an absolute bundle of joy.
14:26
Speaker 1: That's a good investment, That is an amazing.
14:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's beautiful and she gives me lots of joy
14:32
Speaker 3: and love. But that's a position I never thought I
14:35
Speaker 3: would be in. And I never thought I would be
14:38
Speaker 3: in the position where I could even consider buying a house.
14:41
Speaker 3: A few years ago, I always said to my family,
14:43
Speaker 3: I'm never going to buy a property, and now I
14:45
Speaker 3: talk about it on and off and I listened to
14:47
Speaker 3: the podcast all the time, and I think, you know,
14:50
Speaker 3: maybe I should see a financial advisor or a mortgage
14:53
Speaker 3: broker one day. And yeah, whereas a few years ago,
14:56
Speaker 3: that's something I couldn't see for myself living on settling
15:00
Speaker 3: and I was realistically considering the disability pension at one
15:03
Speaker 3: point in my life. So to go from that, yeah,
15:08
Speaker 3: not being on settlink and sustaining full time employment and
15:12
Speaker 3: having money in my savings account, it's absolutely wild.
15:16
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it makes me so happy for you.
15:19
Speaker 1: Like literally, I can see that you're glowy and heavy
15:21
Speaker 1: and smiley, and when you talk about it, I can
15:23
Speaker 1: tell that you're so proud of yourself, and that is
15:25
Speaker 1: the part that makes me so excited. I have a
15:28
Speaker 1: million questions. Let's go to a really quick break and
15:31
Speaker 1: on the other side, I'm going to deep dive straight
15:33
Speaker 1: into them. All right, money diarist, we are back, and
15:41
Speaker 1: I am so excited to talk to you. My next question,
15:44
Speaker 1: I want to know you've got some savings. Do you
15:46
Speaker 1: have an emergency fund? Do you have any investments though,
15:49
Speaker 1: If so, what are they?
15:50
Speaker 3: So I only have my superannuation, which is currently around
15:54
Speaker 3: sixteen and a half thousand dollars. I did access my
15:58
Speaker 3: SUPER when I was younger through financial hardship, so I'm
16:02
Speaker 3: sort of just working on building that up and I'm
16:05
Speaker 3: making the occasional voluntary contribution of an extra fifty dollars
16:10
Speaker 3: here or twenty five dollars there. I would like to
16:13
Speaker 3: probably end up investing in shares or something like that,
16:16
Speaker 3: but I feel like being that I have a car
16:19
Speaker 3: debt at the moment, and yeah, focusing on building my
16:23
Speaker 3: super backup, it's not a high priority.
16:25
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a good position to be in,
16:28
Speaker 1: and I think it's actually really well balanced. Like sometimes
16:31
Speaker 1: we talk to people and they're like, no, but it's
16:32
Speaker 1: like my biggest priority, and I'm like, no, it's not.
16:35
Speaker 1: If you have a car debt, let's, you know, sort
16:38
Speaker 1: out your financial house first. You mentioned that you claimed
16:42
Speaker 1: historically on a financial hardship payment through superannuation, and I
16:47
Speaker 1: think a lot of us have heard of that only
16:50
Speaker 1: recently when it came to people claiming money out of
16:52
Speaker 1: their super during COVID. How did that come about? Was
16:56
Speaker 1: that something that was suggested to you or you decided
16:59
Speaker 1: to go through what was the process there.
17:02
Speaker 3: Like, Yeah, so that's something I decided to go through,
17:05
Speaker 3: and I sort of knew about it because my mum
17:07
Speaker 3: has done it. Well. Looking back, you know, it probably
17:10
Speaker 3: wasn't the best decision to make. I probably did spend
17:13
Speaker 3: a bit of that money in an unwise manner. I
17:16
Speaker 3: honestly don't remember how I spent it all because all
17:19
Speaker 3: the trauma has sort of distorted my memory, but I
17:22
Speaker 3: know that I printed out the forms from my supercompany,
17:26
Speaker 3: and I went to my doctor and got supporting documentation
17:30
Speaker 3: from my doctor saying, you know that I've been struggling
17:33
Speaker 3: with my mental health, and they sort of did a
17:36
Speaker 3: bit of a spiel and I had to prove that
17:38
Speaker 3: I was on Senlink for so long, which I had been,
17:42
Speaker 3: and I was just on Senlink at that point in
17:45
Speaker 3: time and not working. So I submitted that documentation and
17:49
Speaker 3: showed that I had no savings. And yeah, it was
17:52
Speaker 3: a pretty straightforward process. It was probably, yeah, five or
17:56
Speaker 3: six years ago that I applied for my super So
17:58
Speaker 3: the memory is a bit hazy, but yeah, so that
18:00
Speaker 3: eight off a fair chunk of my super I think
18:02
Speaker 3: I withdrew about would have been up to maybe ten thousand,
18:06
Speaker 3: and I think they taxed me two and a half,
18:08
Speaker 3: so I think I got about seven thousand out when
18:11
Speaker 3: I did withdraw it. But now that I'm working again,
18:14
Speaker 3: I've been able to contribute and build that back up,
18:17
Speaker 3: so hopefully I can get it up to where it
18:18
Speaker 3: should be in the next few years.
18:20
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. And as much as you're saying, oh
18:22
Speaker 1: my gosh, I probably fretted away some of that, I
18:25
Speaker 1: do think it's really important that we have access to that.
18:28
Speaker 1: And I know that it's not something that you would
18:31
Speaker 1: lean on immediately, but if you're going through a financial hardship,
18:35
Speaker 1: I do think it's important that you understand that that's
18:37
Speaker 1: an option, because as much as it is taking away
18:40
Speaker 1: from your retirement savings and like that's not the best
18:43
Speaker 1: thing in the world, it's actually better than you're going
18:46
Speaker 1: into personal debt. It's actually better to be able to
18:49
Speaker 1: do that and set yourself up. And I know that
18:51
Speaker 1: money direst You're like, oh, I don't even know what
18:53
Speaker 1: was going on. It was a traumatic period of my life.
18:55
Speaker 1: I totally get that, but I don't think we should
18:58
Speaker 1: look back on it and go, oh my gosh, that
18:59
Speaker 1: was you know, a really bad decision. I think in
19:02
Speaker 1: the moment, we do what's best for current self, and
19:06
Speaker 1: you know today obviously you've mentioned historically that you listen
19:10
Speaker 1: to the pod and that's really great, and I'm assuming
19:12
Speaker 1: that that just means you're far more educated than you
19:15
Speaker 1: were historically, and past you wouldn't make the same decisions
19:18
Speaker 1: the current you does. But we shouldn't crucify past you
19:21
Speaker 1: for the decisions that you made, because I think she
19:24
Speaker 1: was just doing the best thing that she could for
19:25
Speaker 1: you at that time, right, she was just getting by
19:28
Speaker 1: and getting stuff done.
19:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, doing what I needed to do to survive at
19:32
Speaker 3: that point.
19:32
Speaker 1: In time exactly. And I think that we really need
19:35
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that a bit more too, because I think
19:37
Speaker 1: that sometimes when we say, oh, I access my super,
19:40
Speaker 1: there seems to be this like idea of shame that
19:43
Speaker 1: surrounds it, or this idea that that's really naughty or
19:46
Speaker 1: that's really bad, or that's not the best decision. But
19:49
Speaker 1: sometimes you just do what you've got to do and
19:51
Speaker 1: we've got to get by. And I love that you've
19:54
Speaker 1: got a plan in place at the moment. You're like,
19:55
Speaker 1: I'm trying to work out my super and you build
19:57
Speaker 1: it back up, like what goes around comes around. You
20:00
Speaker 1: mentioned before you have car debt, So talk to me
20:02
Speaker 1: about debts. What debts do you have and how much
20:05
Speaker 1: have you got left on them?
20:06
Speaker 3: So that's a good question. So I currently have a
20:08
Speaker 3: car loan. I currently owe about thirty two and a
20:12
Speaker 3: half thousand. I financed that for just sun to forty
20:15
Speaker 3: five thousand. About two years ago. I sort of decided
20:19
Speaker 3: I needed to treat myself to a brand new car,
20:21
Speaker 3: and I wanted the best looking car, the top model
20:24
Speaker 3: one that I could get. So I did that. Probably
20:27
Speaker 3: not the smartest decision, but I've been able to maintain
20:30
Speaker 3: my repayments on that, so I'm happy with that. I
20:34
Speaker 3: do have a quite a hefty heck set, which is
20:36
Speaker 3: sitting around eighty to ninety thousand dollars at the moment.
20:40
Speaker 1: Oh she's big.
20:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, that'll happen when you study psychology, you drop out
20:45
Speaker 3: of UNI a few times.
20:47
Speaker 1: I can absolutely resonate with that. My psych degree is
20:50
Speaker 1: added up. And then I was dumb enough to think
20:51
Speaker 1: a master's degree would be a really good idea without
20:55
Speaker 1: considering how expensive they are, And they're like three or
20:57
Speaker 1: four times the cost of a normal bachelor's degree, so
21:00
Speaker 1: that was really good for me financially. So when you
21:03
Speaker 1: say eighteen and eighty k, I'm like, cool, she hasn't
21:05
Speaker 1: even cracked the one hundred grand yet. I'm way past that.
21:10
Speaker 3: That's probably going to happen in the next twelve months.
21:12
Speaker 3: So I'm a little scared. But at least it's a debt,
21:15
Speaker 3: you know, you don't really ever have to pay back.
21:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, it's one of those debts that isn't going
21:21
Speaker 1: to laud over you.
21:22
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I also have a trade support loan just
21:25
Speaker 3: under two thy three hundred. That's from when I was
21:28
Speaker 3: trying to be an apprentic chef at one point in
21:30
Speaker 3: my life. So those debts will sit under I think
21:34
Speaker 3: the ATO, so they're not something that I have to
21:36
Speaker 3: pay back right now.
21:38
Speaker 1: And they're taken out of tax and planned. I actually
21:41
Speaker 1: kind of like that structure in a way because it's forced,
21:43
Speaker 1: like it's not a payment that you make every single
21:46
Speaker 1: week and gets dressed over. It actually comes out pre tax,
21:49
Speaker 1: which I don't know. That's kind of kind of smash.
21:52
Speaker 1: And I don't think that the decisions that you've made
21:54
Speaker 1: have been the worst ones. I do want to know, though, like,
21:56
Speaker 1: if you're telling me you got the top of range car,
21:58
Speaker 1: like what kind of car do you drive? Because at
22:00
Speaker 1: the moment, I'm looking for a new car, and I
22:02
Speaker 1: didn't realize how expensive they were.
22:06
Speaker 3: So I have a Forward Puma, the top model, so
22:09
Speaker 3: it's got leather seats and a sunroof and a good
22:12
Speaker 3: sound system. And I bought that. I think it was
22:15
Speaker 3: at the start of COVID it was really hard to
22:17
Speaker 3: get cars, and yeah, I was looking around at a
22:20
Speaker 3: few different cars and my old car was pretty much
22:23
Speaker 3: ready to break down, and I was like, no, I
22:25
Speaker 3: need a car now, and I didn't want to wait
22:26
Speaker 3: six or twelve months for it. So I test rove
22:29
Speaker 3: the Ford Puma and fell in love with it, and yeah,
22:33
Speaker 3: it's been my baby ever since.
22:35
Speaker 1: And it's got a cute name. Ten out of ten,
22:38
Speaker 1: all right, I want to know, when it comes to
22:40
Speaker 1: money habits, what do you think your best money habit is?
22:43
Speaker 3: So my best money habit is having a savings account
22:46
Speaker 3: that I don't have online banking for, I have no
22:49
Speaker 3: debit card for, and that I can only access if
22:52
Speaker 3: I physically go into the banks. So I transfer money
22:55
Speaker 3: into that account, but I can never check the balance
22:58
Speaker 3: or withdrawal from it unless I go physically into the bank.
23:01
Speaker 3: And that's the only way I've been able to save money,
23:03
Speaker 3: and it's been life changing.
23:05
Speaker 1: All Right, You're going to have to share that with us,
23:07
Speaker 1: because I feel like I've been asked that question before,
23:09
Speaker 1: and every single bank these days is online. Which bank
23:14
Speaker 1: is that with? And how did you set that up?
23:16
Speaker 3: So it's with the Bendigo Bank. I set it up,
23:19
Speaker 3: oh god, maybe six or seven years ago with my mom,
23:23
Speaker 3: and I actually got her to co sign the account
23:25
Speaker 3: so that I couldn't withdraw without her signature because we
23:29
Speaker 3: both knew that I was terrible with money. But then
23:32
Speaker 3: me and my mom had a disagreement, so I went
23:34
Speaker 3: into the bank and asked to take a signature of it.
23:37
Speaker 3: So it's just my signature on it now. But that
23:41
Speaker 3: was pretty easy to do, so that was really pointless.
23:45
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was. It was really straightforward. Just went
23:47
Speaker 3: into the bank, opened up an account. I think I
23:49
Speaker 3: have the option to do online banking. I just never
23:52
Speaker 3: set it up, and I said I didn't want a
23:54
Speaker 3: bank card, so they just gave me, you know, a
23:56
Speaker 3: little fold over thing that's got my account number on it,
23:59
Speaker 3: and that just sits in my purse and it's great.
24:02
Speaker 1: Oh how good. I feel like it's interesting learning how
24:05
Speaker 1: other people manage money because we all have different things
24:07
Speaker 1: that work for us. And that's why I asked what
24:09
Speaker 1: bank is that, because someone's going to hear that and think, wow,
24:12
Speaker 1: that is exactly what I need. How do I do it?
24:15
Speaker 1: So thank you for sharing. On the flip side, though,
24:17
Speaker 1: I need to know what is your worst money habit?
24:20
Speaker 1: Please don't say chiu hours.
24:23
Speaker 3: Well, she's been a bit of a bad money habit,
24:25
Speaker 3: but she's certainly not my worst one. My worst money
24:28
Speaker 3: habit is actually also bad for my health, and that's
24:30
Speaker 3: probably smoking cigarettes, something I'm not ready to quit right now,
24:34
Speaker 3: but I'll work towards it in the future. And then
24:38
Speaker 3: impulsive spending and fixating on something and then deciding I'm
24:42
Speaker 3: going to get it like a chiuaha.
24:44
Speaker 1: That's fair. That's fair. As I said, I think a
24:46
Speaker 1: chuaha is a good investment, like to be honest, for
24:49
Speaker 1: me and my mental health. My pets do the most,
24:52
Speaker 1: like they are the best things in the entire world.
24:56
Speaker 1: But you mentioned smoking cigarettes, and I actually want to
24:58
Speaker 1: ask because I I am not a smoker and never
25:01
Speaker 1: have been a smoker, so I don't understand how much
25:03
Speaker 1: they cost today. What are you spending on smoking? How
25:07
Speaker 1: much does that actually cost you?
25:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I smoke rollies because Taylors are super expensive.
25:14
Speaker 3: I bought a packet of Taylor's the other week. Yeah,
25:16
Speaker 3: I don't know why I did, but anyway, and I
25:19
Speaker 3: was gobsmacked by the price. I bought a pack of
25:21
Speaker 3: twenties and it was about thirty five dollars. So I
25:24
Speaker 3: spend probably about two hundred and twenty dollars a fortnight
25:28
Speaker 3: on tobacco. If I was smoking Tailor's that would be
25:31
Speaker 3: a lot more than that.
25:32
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, even that makes me feel a little
25:35
Speaker 1: bit ill thinking about how much that is. In saying that,
25:39
Speaker 1: I also think it's worth recognizing that sometimes we've just
25:41
Speaker 1: got habits that, as much as they're not quote really
25:43
Speaker 1: good for us. Like obviously it's terrible, and you would
25:46
Speaker 1: already know that. I'm not here to change your mind.
25:48
Speaker 1: I think, going through what you've gone through, sometimes we
25:51
Speaker 1: need to just keep something stable and we need to
25:53
Speaker 1: actually just go you know, what it is, what it is.
25:56
Speaker 1: At some point we'll deal with that, but until then,
25:59
Speaker 1: this is exactly how I'm going to live my life,
26:02
Speaker 1: and I think that that's where we should all. I
26:04
Speaker 1: guess step back a little bit and go there is
26:06
Speaker 1: no judgment here, because I think so many times we
26:09
Speaker 1: walk past you, know as you are a stunning female smoking,
26:13
Speaker 1: and you go, what is she doing? And it's like, ah,
26:16
Speaker 1: sit down, sir, sit down. You don't know half of it.
26:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you don't want to make too many changes
26:21
Speaker 3: at once either, when you're trying to turn your life around.
26:25
Speaker 3: That can, yeah, be pretty pointless and lead to your
26:27
Speaker 3: going back for square one.
26:29
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, I feel like your story is honestly so beautiful.
26:33
Speaker 1: It makes me so proud to know that you're in
26:35
Speaker 1: our community. And not only are you in our community,
26:38
Speaker 1: you're sharing this story with us so that we can
26:41
Speaker 1: learn and grow and you know, take on other people's
26:44
Speaker 1: mindsets to you know, just be better with money ourselves.
26:47
Speaker 1: But you've come so far. I can't believe you have
26:50
Speaker 1: a savings account, you're working in foster care, you have
26:53
Speaker 1: a beautiful chihuahua. I mean, you've got a car loan,
26:55
Speaker 1: but you're on top of it and the payments are
26:57
Speaker 1: manageable and everything is going there. I just I feel
27:00
Speaker 1: like you are so on track. Do you really think
27:04
Speaker 1: that you're still a C.
27:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm definitely still a CE. I've got a lot
27:08
Speaker 3: of work to do, but I'm better than where I was.
27:10
Speaker 3: And yeah, if I look at the fact that I
27:12
Speaker 3: was probably in air for a few years ago, I
27:14
Speaker 3: think the seat's pretty good right now.
27:16
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to like upgrade it to like
27:18
Speaker 1: a B B minus. Let's call it a B minus
27:20
Speaker 1: because I feel like you have all of the structures
27:23
Speaker 1: existing to support you. Like I just feel like you
27:26
Speaker 1: are on the right track and doing the right thing.
27:29
Speaker 1: Money Diarist, it has been an absolute pleasure sharing your
27:32
Speaker 1: story today. Thank you so much.
27:35
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.
27:43
Speaker 1: The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally
27:46
Speaker 1: nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on
27:50
Speaker 1: the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not
27:53
Speaker 1: be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
27:56
Speaker 1: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
27:59
Speaker 1: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
28:03
Speaker 1: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
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