Latest / She's On The Money / The $60k Debt Wake-Up Call That Changed Everything
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
- 0:03Speaker 1: woman and I'm here to acknowledge country. T Glenn youan
- 0:07Speaker 1: Ganya Niana, kaka ya ya bin ahaka nian ar gay
- 0:11Speaker 1: In Nimbina, yakarum jar dominyamiga Umagahawakaman damon imlan Wima bang
- 0:17Speaker 1: gadabomba in and now in wakah ghana on yakraum jar Watnadaa. Hello,
- 0:22Speaker 1: beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
- 0:26Speaker 1: We thank acknowledge and respect the Aberiginal people's land that
- 0:29Speaker 1: we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land
- 0:32Speaker 1: and respect all that you see. She's on the Money
- 0:35Speaker 1: podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools,
- 0:42Speaker 1: knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
- 0:45Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
- 0:47Speaker 3: She's on the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on
- 1:09Speaker 3: the Money, the podcast of les you be pervy about
- 1:12Speaker 3: other people's money habits for educational purposes, of course, welcome
- 1:16Speaker 3: back to another one of our money diaries, brought to
- 1:18Speaker 3: you by sky Wealth, where we get to talk with
- 1:20Speaker 3: one of our incredible She's on the Money community members
- 1:23Speaker 3: all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because
- 1:26Speaker 3: this week I got an email and it sounded exactly
- 1:29Speaker 3: like this, dear, she's on the money. I went from
- 1:33Speaker 3: zero financial literacy and around sixty thousand dollars of personal
- 1:37Speaker 3: debt to a complete money makeover and getting my life together.
- 1:41Speaker 3: I paid off all of my debt, built a healthy
- 1:44Speaker 3: emergency fund, and started investing. I even moved to a
- 1:48Speaker 3: rural location to meet my money goals. I thought I
- 1:51Speaker 3: had everything sorted and was excited for a long and
- 1:55Speaker 3: financially comfortable maternity leave until my baby's unexpected metas costs
- 2:00Speaker 3: completely decimated my savings and emergency funds. I had to pivot,
- 2:06Speaker 3: but I am currently clawing my way back to getting
- 2:08Speaker 3: our finances under control again. Money Diarist, Hello, that sounds
- 2:13Speaker 3: elite but also just so stressful. Are you okay? Is
- 2:18Speaker 3: baby okay?
- 2:19Speaker 2: She is now. She's doing amazing now. But it was
- 2:21Speaker 2: a scary twelve months, that's for sure. But yeah, it's
- 2:25Speaker 2: been a whirlwind. But yeah, hearing it back, it sounds
- 2:28Speaker 2: like a lot.
- 2:29Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds iconic. Sorry, and I know that you're like, oh, like,
- 2:33Speaker 3: I've had to pivot, currently clawing my way back and
- 2:35Speaker 3: that's exactly how it feels. But like you had the
- 2:38Speaker 3: emergency fund and the savings to get you through that,
- 2:40Speaker 3: and that's what they're for. As much as we don't
- 2:43Speaker 3: like having to rebuild because we feel like, oh my goodness,
- 2:45Speaker 3: I'm starting from scratch, but like that's that's the point,
- 2:49Speaker 3: Like that's what they're for. You didn't go into debt,
- 2:51Speaker 3: and that's so exciting.
- 2:53Speaker 2: I know, it is such a privilege to have had
- 2:56Speaker 2: that there so that I could look after her in
- 2:58Speaker 2: the best way possible and give her the best up life.
- 3:00Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm just very very thankful that I had
- 3:04Speaker 2: an emergency fund.
- 3:05Speaker 3: All right, So let's dive into it a little bit
- 3:07Speaker 3: more Before I get to ask you about your money story.
- 3:10Speaker 3: I want to know what grade would you give your
- 3:12Speaker 3: money habits from A through to AIRF if I asked
- 3:14Speaker 3: you to give them a grade.
- 3:15Speaker 2: I'm going to go with a B, which feels very safe.
- 3:18Speaker 2: But I'm starting from an absolute f. Okay.
- 3:21Speaker 3: I mean I could see that when you said I'm
- 3:25Speaker 3: from zero financial literacy and had sixty thousand dollars worth
- 3:28Speaker 3: of personal debt, which I can't wait to get into.
- 3:29Speaker 3: Like I love the nitty gritty of where people have
- 3:31Speaker 3: come but like, I can see why you feel that.
- 3:34Speaker 3: I can see why you feel that, and I do
- 3:35Speaker 3: feel like b is safe. But we're going to learn
- 3:37Speaker 3: a little bit more about it. So my favorite question
- 3:39Speaker 3: in the entire world, money diarist, Can you tell me
- 3:41Speaker 3: a little bit more about your money story?
- 3:43Speaker 2: Sure? So, I guess we'll start with my childhood. My
- 3:46Speaker 2: parents didn't come from money. They would have come from
- 3:49Speaker 2: very firmly working class families, but they worked really hard
- 3:53Speaker 2: and ensured that when I was growing up we were
- 3:56Speaker 2: in a very comfortable, middle class family. I had somewhat
- 4:00Speaker 2: of a sense that money might be tight, but we
- 4:03Speaker 2: were never stressed about money. My parents made us feel comfortable.
- 4:08Speaker 2: They sent us to good schools, and you know, we
- 4:10Speaker 2: didn't have a fancy house or anything. But if there
- 4:12Speaker 2: was ever anything we wanted in terms of hobbies or interests,
- 4:16Speaker 2: they would make that work. Like, for example, I was
- 4:20Speaker 2: an elite athlete growing up, and I know now as
- 4:22Speaker 2: an adult that would have been a huge cost to
- 4:24Speaker 2: go through training and travel around Australia to compete. But
- 4:27Speaker 2: they never once made that feel like a financial burden.
- 4:30Speaker 2: So they were amazing in that aspect.
- 4:32Speaker 3: And you literally never know, like when you're a kid,
- 4:35Speaker 3: you're like, oh, I'll go to training or do x YZ.
- 4:38Speaker 3: You just you've got no idea. And also, sorry, your
- 4:41Speaker 3: parents must love you so much because that's such a
- 4:43Speaker 3: sacrifice in terms of time, not just money, like you
- 4:46Speaker 3: can throw money at stuff like that, but like, sorry,
- 4:49Speaker 3: you're a teenager. I'm assuming at this point the fact
- 4:52Speaker 3: that they probably had to go to every training. You're
- 4:54Speaker 3: not driving yourself there.
- 4:56Speaker 2: They did, though, five o'clock starts at the pool were
- 4:59Speaker 2: a lot, but yet they were amazing. And my childhood
- 5:03Speaker 2: was a bit different in the fact as well that
- 5:04Speaker 2: my mum took on the breadwinner role in my family
- 5:07Speaker 2: and my dad took on those more traditional caregiving roles.
- 5:10Speaker 2: So I was always modeled really strong female leadership and yeah,
- 5:16Speaker 2: my mum's pretty amazing. So that was really cool growing
- 5:19Speaker 2: up that way, which was very different from my friends
- 5:20Speaker 2: who all had just a very different family set up.
- 5:24Speaker 2: But yeah, so we never went without. But my parents
- 5:27Speaker 2: were also very traditional in the fact we didn't talk
- 5:29Speaker 2: about money. They didn't teach us anything about finances. So
- 5:34Speaker 2: when I became an adult and went to UNI and
- 5:38Speaker 2: started working casually as UNI students do. I had no
- 5:41Speaker 2: idea what to do with money, and I spent every
- 5:46Speaker 2: single cent I earned and lived paycheck to paycheck, which
- 5:48Speaker 2: was same quitely fun like I had a great time.
- 5:52Speaker 3: Yeah, same, but it I guess.
- 5:56Speaker 2: I always had the sense that I wasn't earning enough
- 5:58Speaker 2: to save, so what was the point. I think I
- 6:00Speaker 2: was very all or nothing, Like if I can't put
- 6:02Speaker 2: five hundred dollars away this week, why would I bother? Yeah?
- 6:06Speaker 2: So I didn't learn anything. And I always thought when
- 6:10Speaker 2: I started my career and earned more, I would save more.
- 6:12Speaker 2: But as I learned that saving doesn't just magically happen
- 6:17Speaker 2: suddenly because you grow up something you actually have to learn,
- 6:21Speaker 2: which I didn't know at the time. So when I
- 6:24Speaker 2: started working full time, I just spent all that money too.
- 6:28Speaker 2: And I think I was a very typical post a
- 6:31Speaker 2: child of lifestyle creep. I just bought more things, I
- 6:35Speaker 2: went out more. I very much fell into that statistic
- 6:38Speaker 2: that you talk about that most Australians don't have access
- 6:41Speaker 2: to five hundred dollars, And despite having an okay wage,
- 6:47Speaker 2: there was no way I would ever have access to
- 6:49Speaker 2: five hundred dollars just at the job of a hat.
- 6:51Speaker 2: So that's just how I lived paycheck to paycheck with
- 6:53Speaker 2: no savings.
- 6:54Speaker 3: I feel like that's so relatable, literally just to me,
- 6:56Speaker 3: because that's what I did. I feel like I had
- 6:58Speaker 3: this idea that when you become an adult, your shit
- 7:01Speaker 3: gets together, right, I just know, yeah, well yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 7:04Speaker 3: Like I won't have any day. It would be fine.
- 7:05Speaker 3: I'm probably gonna like find Prince Charmie, we're getting married. Well,
- 7:09Speaker 3: just buy a house somehow. It's all going to work
- 7:11Speaker 3: out because a big girl's salary, like your full time salary,
- 7:13Speaker 3: it's going to be heaps of money. That'll be fine.
- 7:16Speaker 2: And it was for my impulse spending and shopping and
- 7:20Speaker 2: convenient time. It was great. It's fantastic. But my husband
- 7:25Speaker 2: is much the same. Unfortunately, he's pretty textbook ADHD and
- 7:30Speaker 2: he's very spendy. So we had a great time together.
- 7:34Speaker 3: Oh good, Well, at least you had someone to enjoy
- 7:36Speaker 3: it with, you know, yeah yeah, shared hobbies and all that.
- 7:40Speaker 2: So it got to the point in twenty eighteen my
- 7:44Speaker 2: husband was still at UNI and I was working full time,
- 7:46Speaker 2: and we bought our first home together, which was great.
- 7:49Speaker 2: Despite having tried to save up a house deposit. We
- 7:53Speaker 2: really had very minimal savings. We were just lucky that
- 7:55Speaker 2: we came across this amazing mortgage broker who really knew
- 8:00Speaker 2: her stuff and was able to do all the things
- 8:03Speaker 2: to get us into our first home as quickly as possible,
- 8:06Speaker 2: which was amazing. But again I didn't really learn a
- 8:08Speaker 2: lesson from that, did I. And I think in hindsight,
- 8:13Speaker 2: we did make a good choice in the fact that
- 8:15Speaker 2: back then the interest rates were really low and the
- 8:17Speaker 2: bank was willing to offer us quite a bit more
- 8:20Speaker 2: than what we took, so we were very cautious and
- 8:23Speaker 2: took well under what they offered us.
- 8:24Speaker 3: Okay, so she had some level of financial literacy, yeah,
- 8:29Speaker 3: but more like a gut feeling, more like I feel
- 8:32Speaker 3: like that might be biting off more than we can choot.
- 8:34Speaker 3: Were you in personal debt at that point? Like, at
- 8:37Speaker 3: what point did the sixty thousand dollars kicking? Because I
- 8:40Speaker 3: not yet. I was about to say, you can't have
- 8:42Speaker 3: been in personal debt to the amount of sixty grand
- 8:45Speaker 3: and get a mortgage.
- 8:46Speaker 2: No, no, no, this is where we head downhill a bit.
- 8:49Speaker 2: So I was just lucky that I earned enough to
- 8:52Speaker 2: get by. So No, in hindsight, I'm glad we borrowed
- 8:55Speaker 2: a lot less because when the interest rates rose, we
- 8:59Speaker 2: would have been in a fair bit of trouble because
- 9:01Speaker 2: it's at this point that my financial decisions got much worse.
- 9:07Speaker 2: So we had the house, and then I decided that
- 9:11Speaker 2: I absolutely needed a new car.
- 9:13Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well, I mean new house, new car. It
- 9:15Speaker 3: just makes sense, makes sense. You're an adult now, you've
- 9:18Speaker 3: got a mortgage. Yeah, I'll help you justify any bad
- 9:21Speaker 3: money decision, honestly, Like, I'm very much adoer as I say,
- 9:25Speaker 3: not as I do. You're not asking me for advice
- 9:27Speaker 3: right now, so I'll just help you validate that, because
- 9:30Speaker 3: that's exactly what I used to be.
- 9:31Speaker 1: Like.
- 9:32Speaker 3: Is it a good idea? Absolutely not, but you know
- 9:35Speaker 3: what in our brains, like, I get it, Queen, I
- 9:38Speaker 3: did the same thing.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Absolute girls girl, Thank you, Victoria.
- 9:42Speaker 3: Yes, so got the new car.
- 9:44Speaker 2: So twenty four thousand dollars on a car that I
- 9:47Speaker 2: didn't need. And then me and my husband, well fiance
- 9:51Speaker 2: at the time, decided to plan our wedding and that
- 9:53Speaker 2: seemed like a really big financial goal. Again, I didn't
- 9:58Speaker 2: know how to save, so I thought I would do
- 10:00Speaker 2: what everyone else seems to do. And I applied for
- 10:03Speaker 2: a credit card.
- 10:03Speaker 3: Perfect.
- 10:05Speaker 2: Perfect. I didn't know anything about credit cards. I knew
- 10:07Speaker 2: they were vaguely bad. My parents never had them growing up,
- 10:10Speaker 2: but all my friends had them. They didn't really talk
- 10:13Speaker 2: about what their limits were or how they used them.
- 10:16Speaker 2: I just knew that they had them, so I thought
- 10:18Speaker 2: it couldn't be that bad. So I applied for a
- 10:21Speaker 2: credit card, again not knowing anything. When you apply, there
- 10:24Speaker 2: were two boxes that you could have checked. One was
- 10:26Speaker 2: to set a limit for your credit card, and the
- 10:29Speaker 2: other was to let the bank assess and decide on
- 10:32Speaker 2: the limit. And so I just ticked that one, not
- 10:34Speaker 2: thinking much about it. And I think I very naively
- 10:39Speaker 2: thought the bank would have my best interests at heart
- 10:42Speaker 2: and they would never lend me money that I couldn't handle.
- 10:45Speaker 3: No, why would they do that. That would be irresponsible lending.
- 10:48Speaker 2: Yeah. Never. And this just before all the Royal Commission stuff.
- 10:51Speaker 2: So the whole process of getting that credit card was
- 10:53Speaker 2: alarmingly easy. And it came in the mail a few
- 10:58Speaker 2: weeks later with a thirty thousand dollar limit on it.
- 11:02Speaker 3: Oh money, whim like, look how good that is? You
- 11:05Speaker 3: probably went, Wow, that's so nice that's so helpful. This
- 11:07Speaker 3: is going to be perfect for our wedding.
- 11:09Speaker 2: I literally did that. I like, it's so terrifying to
- 11:13Speaker 2: me how little I understood when I saw that. I
- 11:16Speaker 2: actually thought it was so awesome. I was like, look,
- 11:17Speaker 2: how good the bank thinks I am at money. That's incredible.
- 11:21Speaker 2: And I just went a bit mad with my credit card.
- 11:26Speaker 2: So I ended up putting an entire wedding on a
- 11:29Speaker 2: credit card. And our wedding was overseas, so we did
- 11:32Speaker 2: six weeks of travel, so that went on there too,
- 11:35Speaker 2: did some stuff for the house, and very very easily
- 11:39Speaker 2: and quickly maxed out that limit.
- 11:42Speaker 3: Oh good, So where were we shopping? Like I need
- 11:44Speaker 3: to know, like, if you're going to tell me that
- 11:45Speaker 3: we've got thirty thousand dollars worth of personal credit, wheen
- 11:50Speaker 3: didn't we go?
- 11:50Speaker 2: Like?
- 11:50Speaker 3: Were we shopping at Ikea? Were we? Because I feel
- 11:53Speaker 3: like the second you have a thirty thousand dollars limit,
- 11:55Speaker 3: you're like, Juna, what we should actually get quality items
- 11:58Speaker 3: because this is our first home. You did that, didn't
- 12:00Speaker 3: you a little bit?
- 12:02Speaker 2: I definitely had a very luxury holiday for six weeks
- 12:07Speaker 2: all my wedding, so that was good. But yeah, I
- 12:11Speaker 2: did buy things I wouldn't have bought normally because I
- 12:14Speaker 2: was just happy to tap that and didn't feel like
- 12:16Speaker 2: my money. And the scary thing was I knew so
- 12:19Speaker 2: little about money it didn't even stress me out. Like
- 12:21Speaker 2: if someone handed me that credit card now with that
- 12:23Speaker 2: limit on it, I would be sweating, like absolutely not.
- 12:27Speaker 2: But at the time, I just I just went for
- 12:30Speaker 2: it because I thought that was normal because all my
- 12:31Speaker 2: friends had credit cards and I assumed that's probably what
- 12:34Speaker 2: they were working with too. For then after that, I
- 12:39Speaker 2: did some house reno stuff and we got solar panels
- 12:43Speaker 2: which they let me put on like an after pay
- 12:45Speaker 2: platform for ten thousand dollars.
- 12:47Speaker 3: How good. You didn't even need to use a credit
- 12:49Speaker 3: card for that one. So great. Yeah, so we can
- 12:52Speaker 3: just add that on the side. Now at forty.
- 12:54Speaker 2: Thirty thousand plus twenty four thousand plus a ten thousand,
- 12:57Speaker 2: so up to sixty four thousand.
- 13:00Speaker 3: You know what, why stop there? Why did you stop there? Crazy?
- 13:03Speaker 2: Crazy? Yeah, So at this point my debt repayments were
- 13:06Speaker 2: pretty hefty.
- 13:08Speaker 3: Was this a conversation that you were having with your husband?
- 13:10Speaker 3: So you've got this credit card and like we're setting
- 13:13Speaker 3: up the house, how involved. Was your at the time
- 13:16Speaker 3: fiance slash husband in these conversations. Was he aware of
- 13:20Speaker 3: the debt, how did he feel about it? Or were
- 13:21Speaker 3: you just both two pieces in a pod and you
- 13:23Speaker 3: were like, let's just set up our lives.
- 13:25Speaker 2: This is great, just two pieces in a pod.
- 13:27Speaker 3: Really. Yeah, it happens that way, doesn't it. Yeah.
- 13:31Speaker 2: Again, I'm looking back, I am so alarmed and stressed
- 13:34Speaker 2: out by at how little we were bothered by it.
- 13:37Speaker 2: It just seemed very normal and okay, but.
- 13:40Speaker 3: You don't know what you don't know like, and you
- 13:41Speaker 3: don't know what's coming either. And I'm about to probably
- 13:44Speaker 3: hear that there was a chaos moment or a come
- 13:47Speaker 3: to Jesus moment, or like a moment where you're like, actually,
- 13:50Speaker 3: what the hell have we done? Oh?
- 13:52Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it came in a big way. So I
- 13:56Speaker 2: had my first child, my son, in twenty twenty one,
- 13:59Speaker 2: and a really big value of mine is that I
- 14:02Speaker 2: wanted to be home with him for at least the
- 14:04Speaker 2: first twelve months, and I had these visions of, you know,
- 14:11Speaker 2: just being at home with him and having great time
- 14:13Speaker 2: and not spending any money because we'll just hang out
- 14:14Speaker 2: at home. Again. So naive, I think you think matt
- 14:19Speaker 2: leave is going to be one thing, and then actually
- 14:22Speaker 2: it turns out that maternity leave just really magnifies any
- 14:25Speaker 2: tendencies or habits that you already have just so much
- 14:29Speaker 2: more Like, I love my son so much, but he
- 14:31Speaker 2: looking back, I understand he was not an easy baby.
- 14:34Speaker 2: He cried a lot, He needed to be held by
- 14:37Speaker 2: only me twenty four to seven. He didn't sleep. I
- 14:41Speaker 2: wanted to be out of the house all the time.
- 14:42Speaker 2: I went shopping all the time. I needed coffee dates
- 14:46Speaker 2: for my mental health.
- 14:47Speaker 3: You know, oh, I know, I at thousand percent agree
- 14:50Speaker 3: with those coffee dates. I think that those are a
- 14:52Speaker 3: mental health investment.
- 14:54Speaker 2: You just need to So I can't even be mad
- 14:56Speaker 2: at myself because there's no way I could have stayed
- 14:58Speaker 2: at home with this child who only stopped screaming when
- 15:01Speaker 2: we were walking around a shopping center. And it's really
- 15:03Speaker 2: easy to justify buying things for your children.
- 15:06Speaker 3: Oh, don't even I thought I was the Do you
- 15:08Speaker 3: know who I was before I had a baby. I
- 15:11Speaker 3: was the perfect parent. I was the perfect parent before
- 15:14Speaker 3: I became a parent. And I was like, no, I'm
- 15:16Speaker 3: not going to spoil my child with too many things.
- 15:19Speaker 3: I'm not going to like spend more than necessary. And
- 15:22Speaker 3: then Harvey points at one thing and I'm like, oh,
- 15:24Speaker 3: it's all yours, bab, you can have it. Yep, worries,
- 15:27Speaker 3: Well am I becoming I'm teaching him nothing.
- 15:29Speaker 2: I'm the exact same and again, perfect parent beforehand. And
- 15:33Speaker 2: then oh yeah, I just I blew through our money
- 15:37Speaker 2: so fast, so fast, so I had to return to
- 15:40Speaker 2: work much earlier than I ever wanted to, which was
- 15:44Speaker 2: devastating for me. And I sort of looked at my
- 15:49Speaker 2: son and I thought, I have no money, and I
- 15:53Speaker 2: can't give you the childhood that my parents gave me,
- 15:55Speaker 2: where they could let me do anything I wanted to
- 15:59Speaker 2: do or be I wanted to be. Because I just
- 16:01Speaker 2: don't have the money, then I don't have the freedom
- 16:03Speaker 2: to do that. And that was really shocking to me.
- 16:06Speaker 2: And that's not the life that I wanted for him.
- 16:08Speaker 2: And I also looked around at all my friends who
- 16:10Speaker 2: were achieving these big life goals and that seems so
- 16:14Speaker 2: unachievable to me too. And I'm very lucky I've managed
- 16:17Speaker 2: to surround myself with amazing women, Like they're so smart,
- 16:21Speaker 2: they're so empowered, and they're so driven and they're doing
- 16:24Speaker 2: all these really cool things. So I sort of asked them.
- 16:27Speaker 2: I was like, how are you doing this? And my
- 16:29Speaker 2: friend's really good at money, so she put me onto
- 16:32Speaker 2: She's on the money.
- 16:33Speaker 3: Oh really, is that where it started? Yes, it is.
- 16:37Speaker 2: I'm not your typical barefoot investor into other things. I
- 16:40Speaker 2: went straight to you, guys.
- 16:41Speaker 3: I feel like lots of people went barefoot and then
- 16:45Speaker 3: straight into this, or they were introduced by a friend.
- 16:49Speaker 3: Like complete side note, but I often so in our
- 16:52Speaker 3: Facebook group when people join, I can see how they've joined,
- 16:56Speaker 3: and I'll see their application and it will say like
- 16:59Speaker 3: their email or whatever, and like I still go through
- 17:02Speaker 3: it and often says referred by, and it'll say like
- 17:06Speaker 3: someone else has been int like your friend invited you
- 17:08Speaker 3: to the group and then you like popp your email
- 17:10Speaker 3: in and you're waiting for access. And I'm like, it's
- 17:12Speaker 3: literally the cutest part of it, because I'm like, it's
- 17:14Speaker 3: not just you've looked it up and you've come to
- 17:16Speaker 3: find sheese on the money. It's like one of your
- 17:18Speaker 3: mates has been join this here. I'll just send it
- 17:20Speaker 3: to you and then that it tells me, which is
- 17:22Speaker 3: so cute. But I would say most people join our
- 17:25Speaker 3: group because a friend has been like, have you seen
- 17:27Speaker 3: this group? Do you want to do money with me?
- 17:29Speaker 2: That is so cool. That must be so exciting for
- 17:31Speaker 2: you to see this little like empire that you've built.
- 17:33Speaker 3: It's the coolest thing ever.
- 17:35Speaker 2: I'm like such a convert as well. I know I've
- 17:37Speaker 2: done the same to friends. I'm like, you need to
- 17:39Speaker 2: get on this. So yeah, I'm like Sad spreading the
- 17:42Speaker 2: word of Victoria.
- 17:43Speaker 3: Spreading the good word. I love this And one day,
- 17:46Speaker 3: when I work out how to make it a proper cult,
- 17:49Speaker 3: I'll let you know. But till then, we'll just work
- 17:51Speaker 3: on our financial literacy. Yeah, but yeah, no.
- 17:54Speaker 2: So I just obsessively consumed all of the podcasts from
- 17:58Speaker 2: the very beginning. The books did all that, and I
- 18:01Speaker 2: started just putting all your tips into practice, and it
- 18:06Speaker 2: was so like liberating, so eye opening. I always had
- 18:10Speaker 2: thought I was bad at money, but I'm not bad
- 18:13Speaker 2: at money. I just didn't know. It's like I don't
- 18:15Speaker 2: know how to fly a plane. I would never tell
- 18:18Speaker 2: someone I'm bad at flying a plane. I would say
- 18:20Speaker 2: I actually don't know how to do that. So I
- 18:21Speaker 2: don't know why I'm so hard on myself about money,
- 18:24Speaker 2: because I'm not bad at money, I just didn't know exactly.
- 18:28Speaker 3: And for those of you listening along, please skip back
- 18:31Speaker 3: fifteen seconds and then listen to that again, because that
- 18:34Speaker 3: is exactly what I'm trying to teach you. And it's
- 18:37Speaker 3: kind of like, why are we crucifying our past selves?
- 18:40Speaker 3: Like you're in sixty four thousand dollars worth of debt.
- 18:42Speaker 3: I didn't get close to that. I got forty, So like,
- 18:45Speaker 3: you've blown me out of the water, queen, but by cheap. Yeah,
- 18:48Speaker 3: I can tell. I really respect that about you. But
- 18:52Speaker 3: when you look at it, it's like, well, why would
- 18:53Speaker 3: I crucify her? Like she was trying to do the
- 18:56Speaker 3: best thing at the time, and yes it wasn't the
- 18:59Speaker 3: right thing, but she didn't have the tools and resources
- 19:02Speaker 3: that I have now. And anytime spent feeling guilty or
- 19:06Speaker 3: feeling like crap about these things that we do is
- 19:08Speaker 3: literally wasted. So that why bother ruminating on something like
- 19:12Speaker 3: that when we can go, wow, I know better, and
- 19:15Speaker 3: when you know better, you can do better and that's
- 19:17Speaker 3: pretty cool.
- 19:18Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah, So it was life changing, honestly, So thank you,
- 19:22Speaker 2: welcome to the family. But yeah, so at that point
- 19:25Speaker 2: I hustled, and I hustled hard. I did anything I
- 19:29Speaker 2: could to increase my income. So I returned to work
- 19:33Speaker 2: and I got a promotion at work to earn more money.
- 19:36Speaker 2: I got another role sort of adjacent to my current
- 19:40Speaker 2: role that I'm bringing more money and also increase my
- 19:44Speaker 2: career progression pathway. I picked up other casual work, so
- 19:48Speaker 2: casual like academic work at the university. I opened my
- 19:52Speaker 2: own private practice so I could earn more money on
- 19:54Speaker 2: the day off and on my weekend. Winded up working
- 19:57Speaker 2: six days a week, which was lot with a young
- 20:01Speaker 2: child at home.
- 20:02Speaker 3: That's chaos. And so did you take that twelve months
- 20:04Speaker 3: of leave or was your maternity leave cut short because
- 20:07Speaker 3: of the dimas.
- 20:08Speaker 2: Cut short because I needed to earn some money.
- 20:11Speaker 3: To get stuff done. You're like, hold on, hold on,
- 20:14Speaker 3: hold on to give my child the best possible life,
- 20:17Speaker 3: it doesn't necessarily mean I have to be home for
- 20:19Speaker 3: twelve months exactly.
- 20:20Speaker 2: And like with all those debt repayments, I just had to,
- 20:24Speaker 2: like there was no other way forward. Really, I couldn't
- 20:27Speaker 2: budget my way out of that. And then in my
- 20:30Speaker 2: spare time, I started doing things like any spad minute
- 20:32Speaker 2: I had, I was doing online surveys.
- 20:35Speaker 3: My she's a real convert. I love this.
- 20:39Speaker 2: I was doing transcriptions and things that you could listen
- 20:42Speaker 2: to and type away what that was, and like everything
- 20:45Speaker 2: through shot back, so any dollars I could squeeze, and
- 20:47Speaker 2: everything was just going straight into debt repayments, and I
- 20:51Speaker 2: was able to smash down that debt probably within twelve
- 20:55Speaker 2: months or so.
- 20:57Speaker 3: I'm so proud of you. I am so excited. That
- 21:01Speaker 3: is so cool.
- 21:02Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was really cool to see that,
- 21:05Speaker 2: like the power of small things. In the past, I
- 21:08Speaker 2: thought I could there's no point saving a dollar or
- 21:10Speaker 2: two here and there, And look what it did. It
- 21:12Speaker 2: all sort of snowballed and cleared my death that she
- 21:16Speaker 2: was amazing. And then through that it's almost like I
- 21:18Speaker 2: was forced to learn how to save. So I was
- 21:21Speaker 2: really careful that once the debt was cleared, I was
- 21:23Speaker 2: putting all of that into savings to grow. And it grew,
- 21:27Speaker 2: and I got to the point where I had my
- 21:30Speaker 2: own personal emergency fund. I had set one up for
- 21:32Speaker 2: our family. We had a decent amount of savings, and
- 21:37Speaker 2: it got to the point where we could start investing too,
- 21:39Speaker 2: So we started investing in shares. We leveraged some equity
- 21:45Speaker 2: in our house and got an investment property.
- 21:47Speaker 3: Who are you? I know? Past? You was like, I
- 21:50Speaker 3: don't know her, I've never met her.
- 21:53Speaker 2: I just never thought that would be possible. And that's
- 21:56Speaker 2: all just been since twenty twenty one, you know, after two?
- 22:01Speaker 3: Can I be really pervy and ask how was your
- 22:04Speaker 3: relationship with your husband during this journey? Because you mentioned
- 22:08Speaker 3: before he's like as impulsive as you were, Like you
- 22:11Speaker 3: both had the same spending habits, and he's a bit
- 22:13Speaker 3: adhd from what you've said. That can be a really
- 22:16Speaker 3: confronting conversation to have when one of you has kind
- 22:19Speaker 3: of like gone down the money rabbit hole, but maybe
- 22:22Speaker 3: the other's not ready to join or like, this is
- 22:24Speaker 3: a confronting conversation because it can be really challenging to
- 22:27Speaker 3: be like, hey, husband, so we're actually not doing as
- 22:30Speaker 3: well as we thought we were. It can feel like
- 22:32Speaker 3: a personal attack. How did that go?
- 22:35Speaker 2: I actually laughed because when I told him I was
- 22:37Speaker 2: doing this, he groaned and was like, oh, no, you're
- 22:39Speaker 2: gonna say I'm your worst money habit.
- 22:41Speaker 3: But he's not no king, no king, we know we
- 22:45Speaker 3: won't say that though.
- 22:45Speaker 2: It's all rude, No he's so open to talk about
- 22:49Speaker 2: these things. And I think we've never shied away from
- 22:52Speaker 2: money talk or how any stress about it. Like I said,
- 22:55Speaker 2: I've sort of inherited that from my parents, that abundance mindset,
- 22:58Speaker 2: And even though we were in this tricky place, it
- 23:00Speaker 2: wasn't that stressful because I could see possibility in it too,
- 23:06Speaker 2: And so me and my husband are really opened to
- 23:08Speaker 2: talking about these things, and we set up our money
- 23:10Speaker 2: dates and we did all that, and we still do
- 23:12Speaker 2: that just to realign because sometimes, like I said, he
- 23:15Speaker 2: is a bit spendye and he line if he don't
- 23:18Speaker 2: ever think to check the bank account, which is tap
- 23:20Speaker 2: away and have fun. And he's very open for us
- 23:24Speaker 2: to sort of readjust and realign and recalibrate what we're
- 23:27Speaker 2: doing with our money, just as a little check in.
- 23:30Speaker 2: So yeah, it was never a strain on a relationship,
- 23:32Speaker 2: which I think. I'm just so lucky to have him
- 23:34Speaker 2: be as supportive as he is. And he saw that
- 23:38Speaker 2: I was on my way with this thing and he
- 23:40Speaker 2: sort of just handed over the reins and he's like,
- 23:43Speaker 2: you get it, get it clean, do it.
- 23:44Speaker 3: I love that because sometimes you hear, oh, yeah, I
- 23:47Speaker 3: was hustling really hard, and my partner really wasn't on board,
- 23:50Speaker 3: so he was still spending. Well, I'm like trying to
- 23:52Speaker 3: get ahead, and that can create massive amounts of friction.
- 23:55Speaker 3: Like the number one reason people get divorced is because
- 23:57Speaker 3: of money, and that doesn't mean that was your reality.
- 24:01Speaker 3: But I was like, let's just bring this up because
- 24:03Speaker 3: it is so refreshing to hear. No, my husband was
- 24:06Speaker 3: so about it doesn't mean he has to change who
- 24:08Speaker 3: he is. He just has to be open to the
- 24:10Speaker 3: conversations and well, what are we going to do to
- 24:13Speaker 3: put ourselves in a better position. And I'm assuming he
- 24:15Speaker 3: wants the best for your kids as well, so like,
- 24:17Speaker 3: good deal, Yeah he does.
- 24:20Speaker 2: Now I'm very lucky to have him. I think he's
- 24:23Speaker 2: pretty a pretty rare breed in terms of how supportive
- 24:26Speaker 2: he is of me and our family. So very lucky.
- 24:30Speaker 2: So I knew our next goal was we wanted to
- 24:32Speaker 2: grow our family, and we were in a really good
- 24:34Speaker 2: financial position to do that. And I knew this time around,
- 24:37Speaker 2: I was going to reach my goal. I wasn't just
- 24:39Speaker 2: going to have twelve months off of my next mat leave.
- 24:41Speaker 2: I was going to take the full two years I
- 24:43Speaker 2: can't which was very exciting. But so my daughter arrived
- 24:49Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four. Yeah, and at that same time, actually,
- 24:53Speaker 2: my husband was offered this new role and I sat
- 24:57Speaker 2: down and did the numbers, and I realized if he
- 25:00Speaker 2: took this role, the increase in his salary would actually
- 25:03Speaker 2: offset my reduction in salary over my map.
- 25:06Speaker 3: How good, yep, yep.
- 25:08Speaker 2: So I could use half pay to get us through
- 25:11Speaker 2: most of the way in our savings and it would
- 25:13Speaker 2: be covered and we wouldn't have any change to our lifestyle.
- 25:16Speaker 2: The catch was that his new job was in a
- 25:19Speaker 2: rural town. We live in a major city, so it
- 25:21Speaker 2: was a big lifestyle change. And I realized that that
- 25:26Speaker 2: meant we could also rent our house out in the
- 25:28Speaker 2: city for an additional income stream you could, which seemed
- 25:32Speaker 2: very clever to me, and so we decided to go
- 25:35Speaker 2: for it. And the great thing is we hadn't even
- 25:38Speaker 2: accounted for our cost of living in a rural town
- 25:43Speaker 2: is so much lower.
- 25:44Speaker 3: Yep.
- 25:44Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're living teacher housing, so our rent is one
- 25:48Speaker 2: hundred and forty dollars a week. Stop it. We don't
- 25:52Speaker 2: pay for some of our bills, and there's no shopping
- 25:54Speaker 2: center here, there's no Uber eats. There's nothing. You know,
- 25:58Speaker 2: our days consist of playing at the path, going for
- 26:00Speaker 2: walks and splashing in the river. And that is so.
- 26:05Speaker 3: And at that point in time, I'm just assuming some
- 26:08Speaker 3: of these things, so please correct me. But like you've
- 26:11Speaker 3: got a three year old at that point and a newborn,
- 26:13Speaker 3: you're kind of like, well, it's about quality time anyway,
- 26:17Speaker 3: Like we can spend all of this time together and
- 26:20Speaker 3: my husband's going to be making way more money and
- 26:22Speaker 3: we'll be more financially secure. Like that's a win for everybody.
- 26:25Speaker 2: It was amazing. It came at the best time, and
- 26:27Speaker 2: we realized if we did this yet, it's such a magical,
- 26:30Speaker 2: idyllic season with the children in slow paced life, that
- 26:33Speaker 2: we would actually come back to the city and be
- 26:37Speaker 2: in a better financial situation and we could actually make
- 26:40Speaker 2: it into our forever home. Like I said, we bought
- 26:43Speaker 2: our first home. My husband was still a student. We're
- 26:45Speaker 2: out growing it pretty fast, so we took the leap,
- 26:49Speaker 2: and when my daughter was eight weeks old, we moved
- 26:51Speaker 2: to a rural town.
- 26:53Speaker 3: Perfect no, no, I know what's coming now, and tell me.
- 26:58Speaker 2: So she was ten weeks old when we start to
- 27:00Speaker 2: have some issues and we just moved six hours away
- 27:03Speaker 2: from health service, and she had these episodes which looked
- 27:08Speaker 2: like seizures. And she had some developmental issues, so she
- 27:14Speaker 2: had low muscle tone, she was very floppy and very sleepy.
- 27:17Speaker 2: She had problems with her eyes, she wasn't interactive, she
- 27:21Speaker 2: didn't smile, and it turns out she was actually classed
- 27:26Speaker 2: as a high risk for cerebral palsy. So she's got
- 27:29Speaker 2: muscle tone issues, she has vision difficulties, and a few
- 27:34Speaker 2: months later, when we started solids, it turns out she
- 27:36Speaker 2: also had several severe food allergies.
- 27:38Speaker 3: Oh no, that's same.
- 27:40Speaker 2: Do you do what?
- 27:40Speaker 3: You didn't deserve that? On top of all of these.
- 27:42Speaker 2: It was a lot. So we spent a lot of
- 27:45Speaker 2: time having to travel between our small town and our
- 27:48Speaker 2: major city six hours away for all of her appointments pediatrician, allogist, ophthalmologist,
- 27:54Speaker 2: physioot dietitian, and we had applied for NDAs, but there
- 27:59Speaker 2: was a so it took over twelve months to receive
- 28:02Speaker 2: a package for her. So everything we had to do
- 28:05Speaker 2: for her, all her therapies, all her you know, any
- 28:08Speaker 2: equipment she needed, paid for out of pocket.
- 28:11Speaker 3: Yeah, and at that point they're always saying the earlier
- 28:14Speaker 3: the intervention, the better, Like you need to get on this,
- 28:17Speaker 3: like we cannot wait. And so you, as a parent,
- 28:20Speaker 3: you're like, great, well, I'm just going to have to
- 28:22Speaker 3: fund this. I can't wait until funding comes in or
- 28:25Speaker 3: when the NDIS is ready for this, like because the
- 28:27Speaker 3: earlier the intervention, the better the outcomes. So what else
- 28:30Speaker 3: are you meant to do?
- 28:32Speaker 2: Absolutely, And like I said, it was just such a
- 28:34Speaker 2: privilege to have that money sitting there, and so I
- 28:36Speaker 2: could give that to her and give her those crucial
- 28:39Speaker 2: first twelve months of early intervention. I just feel so
- 28:43Speaker 2: sad for parents that were at the mercy of NDIS
- 28:46Speaker 2: and had to wait, because I honestly don't know what
- 28:49Speaker 2: her life would be like now had we missed those
- 28:51Speaker 2: crucial months of early intervention. And she she's amazing. Now,
- 28:55Speaker 2: she's doing so great, to the point where she responded
- 28:58Speaker 2: so well to her therapies they took her off the
- 29:00Speaker 2: at risk category and now she's just being monitored.
- 29:04Speaker 3: But for now she's so she doesn't have CP. Like
- 29:07Speaker 3: we're just hanging out. She was just joking, she was
- 29:11Speaker 3: just having a little bit of a drama time.
- 29:13Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So I just feel so lucky because my
- 29:16Speaker 2: therapist had explained to me that those children who don't
- 29:19Speaker 2: get the early intervention can get much worse over time,
- 29:22Speaker 2: whereas if you get in early sort of rewire the
- 29:25Speaker 2: pathways to the brain, it sort of overcomes that difficulty.
- 29:29Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm just so grateful.
- 29:31Speaker 3: Oh a little icon. I'm so happy. I was like,
- 29:34Speaker 3: where's this gonna go? Like, you know so hard?
- 29:38Speaker 2: She's incredible.
- 29:39Speaker 3: Oh I love that for you guys. That makes me
- 29:42Speaker 3: so so happy. And so now you guys are back
- 29:46Speaker 3: to not square one because like we have a heap
- 29:48Speaker 3: more financial literacy. But tell me about where that emergency
- 29:52Speaker 3: fund is and how you're getting your finances under control again.
- 29:56Speaker 2: So yeah, I had to think of how to get
- 29:58Speaker 2: an income. We weren't finished with living in our rural town.
- 30:01Speaker 2: We do love it here, and I can't do my
- 30:03Speaker 2: job here. I need to be in a major city
- 30:06Speaker 2: to do my job. So I got a bit creative
- 30:09Speaker 2: with what to do because I didn't want to have
- 30:11Speaker 2: to put my children in care and spend money on
- 30:13Speaker 2: childcare and then work. So I wanted to do something
- 30:16Speaker 2: I could do from home, and that's when I joined
- 30:18Speaker 2: in mlam I don't think.
- 30:21Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I was like, this is going to
- 30:24Speaker 3: be so good. Sorry, how dare you like tempt me
- 30:30Speaker 3: with a good time? I know.
- 30:32Speaker 2: Sorry. I've always wanted to be a teacher actually growing
- 30:36Speaker 2: up and in my career I sort of gravitate towards
- 30:40Speaker 2: teaching and training. And at the minute, there's a teacher shortage,
- 30:43Speaker 2: so the government is pouring a lot of money into
- 30:45Speaker 2: getting people through a teaching qualification into the classroom. So
- 30:50Speaker 2: I started my Masters of Teaching and I applied for
- 30:53Speaker 2: all the scholarships, all the grants, all of that. So
- 30:56Speaker 2: I'm essentially getting paid to study now and I get
- 31:00Speaker 2: to stay home with my kids. I'm going to make
- 31:02Speaker 2: it through my two years of that leave and I
- 31:04Speaker 2: get a qualification at the end, and I just study
- 31:06Speaker 2: at night. And it's working really well. I'm enjoying it
- 31:10Speaker 2: so much.
- 31:10Speaker 3: Stop it, stop it, stop it. That is so strategic. Like, sorry,
- 31:16Speaker 3: and you said you were a bee. Sit down. I
- 31:19Speaker 3: haven't even finished asking you a questions.
- 31:21Speaker 2: I even thought about because of the hex and stuff
- 31:24Speaker 2: and the considerations. But the courses are heavily subsidized at
- 31:27Speaker 2: the minute, and like ticket to masters is really cheap. Yeah,
- 31:31Speaker 2: what a master's for what it is, which is my
- 31:33Speaker 2: previous master's course. And I knew my HEX reduction would
- 31:37Speaker 2: likely come in in the future, so it's going to
- 31:39Speaker 2: drop down any way. May as well just top it
- 31:41Speaker 2: up a little bit. I'll still be in a better
- 31:42Speaker 2: off HEX position, but with this additional qualification, and then
- 31:46Speaker 2: I end up in a career that has a lot
- 31:48Speaker 2: of career progression opportunity, and in future I get to
- 31:52Speaker 2: have school holidays with my children, which I'm obsessed with.
- 31:54Speaker 2: Stop it.
- 31:56Speaker 3: This is so exciting, and I just wish I could
- 31:59Speaker 3: go back to pre and like the day that you
- 32:02Speaker 3: got your thirty thousand dollar credit card and just be like, Hey,
- 32:04Speaker 3: did you know the one day you're going to be
- 32:06Speaker 3: like investing, you're going to move rurally, like you'll be
- 32:08Speaker 3: getting a second master's degree, and you're going to be
- 32:11Speaker 3: slaying at life. You'd be like, No, that's not my journey?
- 32:13Speaker 2: Who is she?
- 32:15Speaker 1: I love it.
- 32:15Speaker 2: Like you said, we are sort of starting from scratch,
- 32:18Speaker 2: but this time I know what I'm doing, so I
- 32:20Speaker 2: can see the pathway forward and it's not as overwhelming
- 32:23Speaker 2: as it was, and I know we'll get there. We've
- 32:25Speaker 2: just got to adjust some timelines.
- 32:27Speaker 3: I this is so iconic.
- 32:28Speaker 2: I love it.
- 32:29Speaker 3: So at the moment, you're not earning an income because
- 32:31Speaker 3: you're on your two years of maternity leave. What does
- 32:34Speaker 3: your husband do for work and how much does he earn?
- 32:37Speaker 2: So he is an assistant principle and he's on one
- 32:40Speaker 2: hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
- 32:42Speaker 3: Perfect, And then tell me a little bit more about
- 32:46Speaker 3: like your big money goals. Obviously it's to increase your
- 32:48Speaker 3: education and get back into the workforce at some point.
- 32:51Speaker 3: But I feel like we've already ticked off a number
- 32:53Speaker 3: of goals. We've got our first home, it's currently being
- 32:56Speaker 3: rented out. You also have an investment property you started investing,
- 32:59Speaker 3: like what the plan financially, So we've got a few
- 33:03Speaker 3: I guess in the short term.
- 33:04Speaker 2: Next year we want to take our first big overseas
- 33:08Speaker 2: holiday as a family. My husband's from overseas, so we
- 33:11Speaker 2: would love for our children to meet their great grandma
- 33:14Speaker 2: before she's too old and just sort of reconnect with
- 33:18Speaker 2: their heritage a little bit. I would love to grow
- 33:21Speaker 2: at our share portfolio, and our big one is to
- 33:24Speaker 2: get into our forever home, so that's sort of a
- 33:26Speaker 2: longer term goal.
- 33:27Speaker 3: Totally. And is that something that you're prioritizing right now?
- 33:30Speaker 3: You're like, Okay, we're going to get our emergency fund
- 33:32Speaker 3: and all of these like short term things sorted, but
- 33:35Speaker 3: one day we will step up into a bigger property.
- 33:38Speaker 2: Yeah exactly right. Yeah, we just focus on getting back
- 33:40Speaker 2: to where we were, and then there are goals moving forward.
- 33:43Speaker 3: Yeah, and when I'm just like so pervy about all
- 33:45Speaker 3: of this stuff, so I do apologize. But when it
- 33:49Speaker 3: comes to that next home, is that something where you'll
- 33:51Speaker 3: probably sit down and start saving another deposit or do
- 33:54Speaker 3: you think that there might be enough equity in your
- 33:57Speaker 3: first home and your investment property to hopefully leverage you
- 34:00Speaker 3: into a situation where you don't have to like start
- 34:02Speaker 3: start from scratch when it comes to the property ladder.
- 34:05Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely think we could leverage some equity, but
- 34:08Speaker 2: I would like.
- 34:08Speaker 3: To save a bit as well. Yeah, safety, I feel
- 34:12Speaker 3: like it's a good idea. All right, you have worked
- 34:14Speaker 3: so hard to achieve everything that you guys have achieved,
- 34:17Speaker 3: but I need to know how are you protecting it?
- 34:19Speaker 3: Do you have personal insurances set up?
- 34:22Speaker 2: I do, Actually I only got them sorted a couple
- 34:25Speaker 2: of weeks ago. But yeah, given that I had to
- 34:27Speaker 2: put all my other financial goals on the back burner
- 34:30Speaker 2: while I built up my emergency fund, I thought, I
- 34:33Speaker 2: may as well get my insurances sorted, and that way,
- 34:36Speaker 2: I'm putting myself in a better financial position through that way.
- 34:40Speaker 3: Why did you decide, all right, well, I need to
- 34:42Speaker 3: set up my personal insurances.
- 34:43Speaker 2: I just felt like it would give me more stability
- 34:47Speaker 2: and more comfort, and the fact that I have children
- 34:49Speaker 2: and more assets now compared to when I was younger
- 34:52Speaker 2: just felt like the right time to sort of square
- 34:55Speaker 2: that away and make sure that everything's protected and everyone.
- 34:58Speaker 3: Is safe totally. But also so I'm like always talking
- 35:01Speaker 3: to people who are like Victoria, I have assets and
- 35:03Speaker 3: children now, life is so expensive. Where did you start?
- 35:07Speaker 3: Did you just do your insurances yourself? Did you just
- 35:10Speaker 3: like go online and set them up? Or did you
- 35:11Speaker 3: see someone? What was the process?
- 35:14Speaker 2: I went through Skywealth?
- 35:15Speaker 3: Oh okay, Queen, just like a little plug for Phil's team.
- 35:19Speaker 2: Absolutely, they were incredible. They made everything so easy. I'm
- 35:23Speaker 2: not very good at like paperwork and returning forms and
- 35:26Speaker 2: things I get a bit needy atable, but they were
- 35:28Speaker 2: super helpful and they made the whole process really easy.
- 35:31Speaker 3: I'm obsessed. All right. Well, I mean that's really great
- 35:33Speaker 3: because this episode was brought to you by sky Wealth,
- 35:35Speaker 3: which is kind of hilarious. And I'm with sky Wealth,
- 35:39Speaker 3: as is I feel like most of our community because
- 35:41Speaker 3: we talk about them and love them. But I was
- 35:43Speaker 3: not expecting you to say I'm with sky Wealth. I
- 35:46Speaker 3: didn't know that at all. So what a perfect outcome.
- 35:49Speaker 3: I know it wasn't planned at all. No, it actually wasn't.
- 35:53Speaker 3: But moving on, I want to know, all right, let's
- 35:57Speaker 3: go to a really quick break because I want to
- 35:58Speaker 3: ask you more about your share port folio, more about
- 36:01Speaker 3: like maybe existing debts and what those mortgages actually look like,
- 36:05Speaker 3: and then best and worst money habits that are not yours, buch.
- 36:08Speaker 3: So let's go to a break and we'll see you
- 36:10Speaker 3: on the flip side. All right, guys, we are back,
- 36:17Speaker 3: and I want to talk about your share portfolio. So
- 36:20Speaker 3: you said I've started investing, and that is so flipping exciting.
- 36:24Speaker 3: How how did you jump into your first investment? Because
- 36:28Speaker 3: I feel like investing is overwhelming, but the hardest part
- 36:32Speaker 3: is doing your first trade. How did you do it?
- 36:35Speaker 2: Well? Being a shoes on the money, a convert I
- 36:38Speaker 2: signed up for Chasy's got my free ten dollars, popped
- 36:41Speaker 2: that in and just sat with that for a couple
- 36:43Speaker 2: of weeks, and then slowly added a little bit more
- 36:47Speaker 2: and just sort of built up wherever I could find
- 36:50Speaker 2: a bit of money until now it's not scary, it's exciting.
- 36:53Speaker 3: That is so fun. And what type of level of
- 36:56Speaker 3: investment have we got in our portfolio at this point
- 36:58Speaker 3: in time.
- 36:58Speaker 2: It's not very biger than in it, so to met
- 37:01Speaker 2: We've got five one hundred and ninety nine dollars.
- 37:04Speaker 3: Do you mean not big? At the moment?
- 37:07Speaker 2: I'd like, you know, you hear money stories where they've
- 37:09Speaker 2: got these amazing portfolios.
- 37:10Speaker 3: So that's my goal one totally, Like you could have
- 37:13Speaker 3: one hundred grand dinner share portfolio, but like sis, sit down,
- 37:15Speaker 3: you've got your first home, you've got an investment property,
- 37:18Speaker 3: you've got two children, your husband's and assistant principal. I
- 37:21Speaker 3: think you're doing fine to have five grand in shares.
- 37:24Speaker 3: That queen step back because like, yeah, I will enable
- 37:27Speaker 3: your purchases, but I won't let you bring yourself down
- 37:30Speaker 3: and that's not going to happen. That's not going to happen,
- 37:32Speaker 3: thank you. That is very exciting. So did you once
- 37:35Speaker 3: you had your first ten dollars and you're making your
- 37:37Speaker 3: first trade, did you pick an ETF? Did you pick
- 37:39Speaker 3: a direct share? If so, how did you make that decision?
- 37:43Speaker 2: I picked an ETF Again, I just sort of went
- 37:46Speaker 2: with things that had been discussed on the podcast in
- 37:49Speaker 2: terms of having a core satellite approach.
- 37:51Speaker 3: Do you want to be on the podcast because it
- 37:53Speaker 3: sounds like you could like literally run.
- 37:54Speaker 2: It for me.
- 37:55Speaker 3: At this point, I just be quoting you all day.
- 37:57Speaker 3: It's good. That's what I do all day. I just
- 37:59Speaker 3: repeat myself. So why not?
- 38:01Speaker 2: So? Yeah, I picked an Australian ETF, like an ASX
- 38:05Speaker 2: two hundred, and then an American ETF as well.
- 38:10Speaker 3: In tech fun. So we've got a little bit of
- 38:12Speaker 3: diversification there, which is really exciting. Now, tell me about debts.
- 38:17Speaker 3: We know of two debts that you currently have, but
- 38:19Speaker 3: they are good debts, not bad debts. The first one
- 38:22Speaker 3: you took on was your first home with your husband.
- 38:25Speaker 3: How much did you purchase that property for? Tell me
- 38:27Speaker 3: all of the nitty gritty.
- 38:28Speaker 2: Yes, so our house we bought for five hundred thousand
- 38:33Speaker 2: dollars in twenty eighteen. That mortgage is currently sitting at
- 38:37Speaker 2: five hundred and forty eight thousand, nine hundred and twelve,
- 38:40Speaker 2: just because we pulled some of that equity out. But
- 38:43Speaker 2: it's currently worth seven hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars.
- 38:47Speaker 2: Very nice, And it's been rented at the minute for
- 38:51Speaker 2: five hundred dollars a week.
- 38:52Speaker 3: Oh good rental yield on a five hundred and forty
- 38:55Speaker 3: eight thousand dollars mortgage. That's nice. Yeah, it is nice.
- 38:58Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the yield is four point seventy five percent.
- 39:01Speaker 3: Yeah on that. In my head, I was like, that's
- 39:03Speaker 3: about five percent. That's a good deal. Yeah.
- 39:05Speaker 2: And then so our other house, our investment property, we
- 39:08Speaker 2: bought that in twenty twenty three for four hundred and
- 39:11Speaker 2: fifty six thousand, five hundred and fifteen dollars.
- 39:14Speaker 3: Five hundred and fifteen dollars. That's very specific.
- 39:17Speaker 2: I love that we have only been paying the interest
- 39:20Speaker 2: on that mortgage at the minute, so that's still sitting
- 39:21Speaker 2: as it is, but that is now worth seven hundred
- 39:24Speaker 2: and forty thousand dollars. What and yeah, I know it's
- 39:28Speaker 2: it's been amazing. And then the it's rented for six
- 39:32Speaker 2: fifty a week.
- 39:33Speaker 3: That's even better. Rented yield. Yeah, seven point four to
- 39:36Speaker 3: two percent on that sorry, and you're like, oh, yeah,
- 39:39Speaker 3: I think I'm a bee. And you're sitting on like
- 39:41Speaker 3: basically half a million dollars worth of equity and have
- 39:45Speaker 3: really great rental yields on both of these properties, and
- 39:48Speaker 3: you're like, oh, no, I wish I had a bigger
- 39:50Speaker 3: investment portfolio.
- 39:51Speaker 2: You do, I know, but it feels like because there's
- 39:54Speaker 2: a lot of debt sitting on those two which.
- 39:56Speaker 3: Feels okay, yeah, Like and I mean you're probably in
- 39:58Speaker 3: nearly a million dollars worth debt. Fantastic, But if we
- 40:02Speaker 3: sold both of those properties, you got five hundred cash.
- 40:05Speaker 3: That's a lot, And like, we don't want to do
- 40:07Speaker 3: that because we like the rental yield. But with five
- 40:09Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars worth of equity, we could absolutely get
- 40:12Speaker 3: you into your forever home. I mean, it's probably not
- 40:14Speaker 3: an ideal timing right now. So I'd be like, look,
- 40:17Speaker 3: just put that off as long as you possibly can,
- 40:19Speaker 3: because the equity is going to grow and your rental
- 40:22Speaker 3: yield will start paying off more of those mortgages, be
- 40:26Speaker 3: more financially stable. But go, yes, you can save, but
- 40:30Speaker 3: I don't think you'll need to for your next property.
- 40:33Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exciting to you.
- 40:34Speaker 3: That is so cool. Yeah, oh my god, how did
- 40:39Speaker 3: you make a decision about that investment property? Because I'm
- 40:43Speaker 3: telling you right now, if someone could guarantee me that
- 40:45Speaker 3: rental yield, I'd like take my money. That's fine. I'd
- 40:47Speaker 3: love that mortgage. So how did you decide, oh, that's
- 40:51Speaker 3: a good location to buy. Did you use a bias
- 40:53Speaker 3: agent or did you guys make the decision.
- 40:56Speaker 2: Actually, we came across a financial advisor that's sort of
- 41:00Speaker 2: specializes in property. We actually were going to go ahead
- 41:04Speaker 2: with doing it a long time ago and COVID hit
- 41:08Speaker 2: and we panicked and pulled out of the deal, and
- 41:10Speaker 2: then looking back at the house that we were going
- 41:12Speaker 2: to buy, we were like, whoa, that went up a
- 41:15Speaker 2: lot as stressful as out. So this time we absolutely
- 41:18Speaker 2: just have to pull a trigger on it, even if
- 41:19Speaker 2: we feel uncomfortable. And I'm so glad we did, because yeah,
- 41:23Speaker 2: the scariest thing is doing it. Now that we'reing it,
- 41:25Speaker 2: it feels fine.
- 41:26Speaker 3: So yeah, I love that. And how did you know
- 41:30Speaker 3: to trust this financial advisor slash buyer's agent? Like where
- 41:33Speaker 3: does that coming? Because I feel like this space can
- 41:36Speaker 3: be really overwhelming and daunting, especially if you've not come
- 41:38Speaker 3: from a position of like high levels of financial literacy.
- 41:42Speaker 3: So we sort of found them while I still wasn't
- 41:45Speaker 3: very financially literate, which is not great because I probably
- 41:48Speaker 3: didn't do my due diligence and check on much at all.
- 41:53Speaker 3: So really it's just come down to luck that they
- 41:55Speaker 3: were actually legitimate and they worked really well. But in future,
- 42:00Speaker 3: would strongly recommend to anyone not to do that approach
- 42:03Speaker 3: that I just sort of, you know, let's just do
- 42:05Speaker 3: it and it'll all work out fine. I mean, it's
- 42:07Speaker 3: not the worst thing in the world, but yes, I
- 42:10Speaker 3: get a little bit stressed when people say they've used
- 42:12Speaker 3: a buy this agent to buy an investment property, because
- 42:14Speaker 3: there's just so many people in the industry who don't
- 42:16Speaker 3: know what they're talking about, and like, you don't know
- 42:18Speaker 3: what you don't know because these people, especially people in
- 42:21Speaker 3: real estate, and like, if you're listening to this and
- 42:23Speaker 3: you're in real estate, I'm sure you're a delightful human.
- 42:25Speaker 3: But we all know there are many snakes in real estate,
- 42:28Speaker 3: and they're so good at talking, and they are so
- 42:31Speaker 3: good at selling the dream, and it drives me nuts
- 42:34Speaker 3: because they'll promise a brilliant rental yield and then they
- 42:38Speaker 3: sell you something in a housing estate that never increases
- 42:41Speaker 3: in value. You don't end up with any equity, and
- 42:43Speaker 3: your rental yield is dismal, and they go, well, that's
- 42:45Speaker 3: the market being off. So sorry, like because there's no
- 42:48Speaker 3: real ramifications because like you know, past performance is not
- 42:52Speaker 3: a reliable predict or a fusion performance. They can promise
- 42:54Speaker 3: you anything exactly.
- 42:56Speaker 2: You know, like I said, we've just been incredibly lucky.
- 42:59Speaker 3: And I love this. So talk to me.
- 43:02Speaker 2: What do you think your best money habit is. I
- 43:05Speaker 2: think my best money habits It wasn't a specific habit.
- 43:10Speaker 2: I think it's more my attitude and my mindset towards money,
- 43:13Speaker 2: so that abundance mindset, because I feel like it's laid
- 43:16Speaker 2: a strong foundation to build everything else on top of. Like,
- 43:20Speaker 2: my money habits changed depending on where I am with
- 43:23Speaker 2: my finances, but at the base of that is always
- 43:25Speaker 2: that I view money as this tool that can get
- 43:29Speaker 2: me places, or do things for us, or give us freedom.
- 43:32Speaker 2: And that's allowed, like I said, me and my husband
- 43:34Speaker 2: to speak comfortably about it, or for me to start
- 43:36Speaker 2: discussing money with my friends, which has you know, been
- 43:40Speaker 2: able to set some of them in the right pathway too.
- 43:43Speaker 2: So yeah, I think that's probably my best habit.
- 43:45Speaker 3: I couldn't agree more your entire attitude throughout this. I'm like,
- 43:49Speaker 3: I wish everybody in the community embraced it in the
- 43:51Speaker 3: same way. I also wish everybody in the community had
- 43:54Speaker 3: a husband that was as supportive. We're not going to
- 43:57Speaker 3: make him our worst money habit, so shout out to him.
- 44:00Speaker 3: What is your worst money habit?
- 44:01Speaker 2: Though?
- 44:01Speaker 3: Oh it's so basic.
- 44:03Speaker 2: I still really struggle with my budgeting and cash flow,
- 44:06Speaker 2: and I have tried so many different iterations of how
- 44:11Speaker 2: to budget or track the money in different ways and
- 44:14Speaker 2: like you know, written or in an app, and like,
- 44:18Speaker 2: I am not a freak in the sheets. My Excel
- 44:20Speaker 2: spreadsheets are very basic and they just don't seem to work.
- 44:24Speaker 2: It always gets to the point where I'm shuffling money
- 44:26Speaker 2: back and forwards between my savings and my spending, which
- 44:30Speaker 2: is really frustrating because then we can't reach our financial
- 44:32Speaker 2: goals as well, because we're not consistently putting things away
- 44:36Speaker 2: because I just need to shuffle it back and forward
- 44:37Speaker 2: a bit too much. But I keep working on that.
- 44:40Speaker 3: No, no, no, I can fix that easy. I'll just
- 44:42Speaker 3: give you access to my money masterclass. I've literally done
- 44:44Speaker 3: it all. I'm a psycho. So like when you said
- 44:47Speaker 3: you're not a freaking the sheets, I was like, where
- 44:48Speaker 3: are we going with this? And then you're talking about
- 44:50Speaker 3: spreadshets and I was like, well, girl, I am, I'm
- 44:52Speaker 3: a psycho. I have not just built a spreadsheet that works.
- 44:55Speaker 3: I have automated the entire thing. So all you do
- 44:58Speaker 3: is put your budget in and then it will tell
- 44:59Speaker 3: you what needs to go into which bank account at
- 45:02Speaker 3: which time. And if you're like, well, actually, Victoria, our
- 45:05Speaker 3: income comes in on a fortnightly basis, don't worry, queen.
- 45:08Speaker 3: Just change your setting and it'll be weekly, fortnightly, monthly,
- 45:11Speaker 3: like it could even be annually if you want it
- 45:13Speaker 3: to be. And I am so proud of that thing
- 45:16Speaker 3: and the fact that I coded it for basically nine months,
- 45:19Speaker 3: Like let's not talk about how long it took me.
- 45:21Speaker 3: Let's just talk about how good the outcome is. But
- 45:24Speaker 3: that has literally changed the money story of thousands of people.
- 45:27Speaker 3: And it's my favorite thing ever because like it literally
- 45:31Speaker 3: automates it for you. So I'm going to send you
- 45:33Speaker 3: that and that I can fix that. You don't have
- 45:35Speaker 3: that bad money happen anymore. Bam, done, We're done, Thank.
- 45:38Speaker 2: You, Thank you so much. That would be incredible, because yeah,
- 45:41Speaker 2: I just can't seem to get it together.
- 45:43Speaker 3: Now you've got it, I'm so excited. And to be honest,
- 45:45Speaker 3: the way it's structured would work really well for you
- 45:48Speaker 3: guys as well, because you'd pick the duel version. So
- 45:51Speaker 3: I've got two versions of it if you're a single
- 45:53Speaker 3: income household and then you've got your duel, but I
- 45:56Speaker 3: would use the duel one and just mark yours down
- 45:58Speaker 3: as zero just because you're on Matt Lee. But then
- 46:00Speaker 3: you don't have to fix it up at another time.
- 46:02Speaker 3: But then joint costs like kids and savings goals and
- 46:06Speaker 3: infesting goals and budgets for your first home. I even
- 46:09Speaker 3: built in And this is like not me trying to
- 46:11Speaker 3: blow my own horn. I just think it's a really
- 46:14Speaker 3: cool thing to build in a mortgage repayment calculator on
- 46:17Speaker 3: one of the tabs. So like if you put your
- 46:19Speaker 3: loans in and your interest rate and then like have
- 46:22Speaker 3: a bit of a fiddle with it and go, well,
- 46:23Speaker 3: what does fifty dollars a week, look like. In addition,
- 46:26Speaker 3: it will tell you how many years it cuts off
- 46:28Speaker 3: your loan.
- 46:29Speaker 2: That's amazing.
- 46:29Speaker 3: I'm just excited about that. I'm just a maths girl
- 46:32Speaker 3: at heart, and we're going to stop talking about it
- 46:34Speaker 3: because you guys might start thinking I'm a nerd and
- 46:36Speaker 3: couldn't have that. But that is so exciting money direst
- 46:40Speaker 3: And I'm really sad that we're running out of time.
- 46:43Speaker 3: If there was one thing that you could say to
- 46:46Speaker 3: somebody who's in the position you were in. So they
- 46:48Speaker 3: feel like they're drowning in debt. They've just started listening
- 46:51Speaker 3: to money story. It's all completely overwhelming. What would you
- 46:54Speaker 3: tell them to do?
- 46:55Speaker 2: I don't know. I guess starts small, like you say,
- 46:58Speaker 2: from little things big things, and that's truly how it started.
- 47:03Speaker 2: Being able to put a couple of dollars here and
- 47:04Speaker 2: there into things was the way to start, and then
- 47:08Speaker 2: and then it just grows from there. So I think
- 47:11Speaker 2: everyone can do what I've done. I'm not special.
- 47:13Speaker 3: I just I got the.
- 47:14Speaker 2: Information I never had and I applied it and anyone
- 47:18Speaker 2: can do that. So it's very exciting.
- 47:20Speaker 3: I love it. And before we go, I need to
- 47:22Speaker 3: revisit your grade. You said you were a B. Queen,
- 47:25Speaker 3: Tell me what does it take to get to an A,
- 47:27Speaker 3: because I'm just looking at this going I don't know
- 47:30Speaker 3: what more she can do. All she said was that
- 47:33Speaker 3: she was bad at spreadsheets, and that doesn't make you
- 47:35Speaker 3: bad at money. So where's this bee come from? How
- 47:38Speaker 3: do we get to an A? Well?
- 47:40Speaker 2: Like I said, I would like to fix my budgeting
- 47:42Speaker 2: and cash flow, and I think given that we're starting
- 47:45Speaker 2: over again, I would feel better about my grade once
- 47:48Speaker 2: I've sort of gotten back to a position where I
- 47:51Speaker 2: feel more comfortable in and then can grow our finances
- 47:54Speaker 2: and grow our goals from there.
- 47:56Speaker 3: I won't argue with that. I think that is very
- 47:58Speaker 3: fair money, Dirist, It has been an absolute pleasure getting
- 48:01Speaker 3: to know you, getting to know more about your family,
- 48:03Speaker 3: your money habits, what you've done well and maybe what
- 48:06Speaker 3: you haven't done so well. It's been really ie opening.
- 48:08Speaker 3: But I know the community is going to love listening
- 48:11Speaker 3: to this episode, So thank you so much. Thank you
- 48:14Speaker 3: for having me, and also a very huge thank you
- 48:16Speaker 3: to skuy Wealth for making this episode possible. I'll chuck
- 48:19Speaker 3: a whole heap of information about them how to get
- 48:21Speaker 3: in contact, what they do, how they do it in
- 48:23Speaker 3: the show notes for you to check out did buy
- 48:31Speaker 3: shared on?
- 48:31Speaker 4: She's on the Money is general in nature and does
- 48:34Speaker 4: not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists
- 48:38Speaker 4: purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon
- 48:41Speaker 4: to make an investment or financial decision. If you do
- 48:44Speaker 4: choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS TMD
- 48:48Speaker 4: and obtain appropriate financial.
- 48:49Speaker 3: Advice tailored towards your needs.
- 48:51Speaker 4: Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized representatives
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