Latest / She's On The Money / The Cost Of Care

Transcript

The Cost Of Care · She's On The Money

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whalbury and a waddery woman. And before
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: for millennials who want financial freedom. There is no doubt
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: about it that Australia is the lucky country. The standard
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: of living, access to healthcare, quality of life for most
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: people compared to international standards is kind of high, and
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: perhaps as a reflection of this, Aussies are also some
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: of the most underinsured people on the planet too, isn't
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: that right?
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: Pet I go on and on and on about this.
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: This ain't my first rodeo, my love, but it seems
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: like all this luck has given us a very very
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: false sense of security, and there's a reason that she'll
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: be right is a national saying. But you can never
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: know what is around the corner with your health, which
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: is exactly why Beck. Today we are talking about the
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: cost of care and we have a very special guest
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: who joins us today, my friend Rhiann and Tracy.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the show, My love. I'm blushing that we're friends.
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: We basically became best friends a week ago. Today we
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: met at an event on the Gold Coast for Lareel,
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: which was really fancy. I don't know about you, but
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: I thought it was really cool to be working with
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: Lorel And I've posted all over my socials as have you,
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: so clearly think it's a lit bit fancy.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: We bonded over there, our mutual respect and love for
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: kangaroo sidings, oh.
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and ta kere and take care and beauty and
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: fashion and literally everything else. But Rhiannon, can you tell
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: my community a little bit about yourself?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Hello, she's on the Money community. My name is Rhiannon.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I'm a Scorpio, which I think is vital information for
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: this community. It absolutely is.
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: You're also a community member and have been for a
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: long time.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I have been living my life on wheels for
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the last fourteen years. So after a diving accident happened
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: two months before my twenty first birthday, I was, I
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: want to say gifted, but it wasn't really a gift,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: was it. I was a really really shooty gift, shitty gift.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: But you know what, I doned my hot pink set
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: of wheels, and it's just how I roll through life now.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: It is, And I literally am obsessed with your content.
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: I feel like, after hearing you speak, it was just
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: a no brainer to drag you onto the podcast because
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: I feel like, not only is accessibility something that we
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: need to be talking about, but you're really open and
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: honest and frank about these conversations and breaking down some
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: barriers that a lot of people often find really awkward
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: when having these conversations because you're like, oh, you can't
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: ask that, and you're like, heck, yes you can.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: It's fine. How about we talk about X, Y and Z.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: And I just think this is how we should be
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: having conversations because they are really respectful, but it also
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: ultimately puts everybody in a better position. And I'm genuinely
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: so excited to have you here and share I guess
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: your experience, but also talk about the research, talk about
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: the cost of care, and talk about what it actually means, because,
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: as Beck said before, we kind of have this false
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: sense of security and we think that we live in
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: the lucky country, and we think that the Australian healthcare
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: system is the best thing in the entire world, which
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: is true if you've never had anything significant happen. So
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: Medicare and the Australian health system are great, and like
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: I said before, we are called the lucky country for
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: a reason, so I do think we need to acknowledge that.
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: But as good as our safety nets are, the out
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: of pocket cost and the impact to those of us
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: who are affected by ill health or disability can be
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: absolutely terrifying. And depending on the condition, the direct costs
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: can range from hundreds of dollars too many thousands if
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: not in your case, Rihanna, and millions of dollars, and
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: often these are compounded by indirect costs like loss of
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: income or impacting the sufferers or literally the people that
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: surround you, and the cost of your family members needing
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: to take care of you. So Rihanna and I want
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: to talk about the things that I, as an ex
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: financial advisor, find really sexy, and that's personal insurances. So
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: you had an accident, you dived into a pool and
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: came out of that pool a quadriplegic. But I want
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: to know what was your insurance at the time of
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: that accident and how did it help you.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I love telling this story because my mum and I
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: we would go to Balley every year and we would
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: have the same argument, and that would be she would
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: be telling me to get travel insurance. You didn't need it, exactly.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: I wanted to buy the genuine fake Louis Vuitton bags.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: They're genuine, they're genuine fakes. Yeah, they've got the Gucci
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: logo on the front backly, So it would be the
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: same argument every year. That one hundred dollars, though, saved
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: my life. And I did have travel insurance, and I
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: had it every year, and I drill it into everybody's
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: head who travels. I had all the insurances.
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: And I love hearing that, and I feel like it's
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: one of those things that as young people we just
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: go that will never happen to me. I'm going to
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: Bali and you know what, I get it. Bali is
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: like a budget location, so like, you're not there going
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: this is a multi thousand dollar, you know, Europe trip,
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: where you know, an extra couple of hundred dollars is
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: really not that much. You kind of look at Bali
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: and I go, all right, we've got some sick, cheap
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: jet stuff lights. What is the cheapest best accommodation we
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: can get? And then it just feels like insurance is
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: one of those other burdens that you're like, I can't
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: be bothered, but it is so worth it. And the
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: amount of times I have had to drill into ex
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: clients and my friends and my family, I'm like, insurance,
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: I want it to be the biggest waste of money
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: you've ever made.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I want you to buy it.
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: And not claim on it, Like that's the ideal outcome,
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: because even though Roan and you're in a better financial position,
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: it's kind of shitty that you had to claim on
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: it on the first place. And we really need to
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: understand how government health systems and insurances interact, and I
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: guess have a realistic appreciation of the true cost of
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: poor health, so we can judge the appropriateness of types
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: and levels of support to best suit our circumstances, and
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: even with private health insurance and Medicare, you're often left
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: with a massive gap to pay. Sirianna and I have
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: a few facts and stats, and I know you can
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: back this up because I've literally heard you talking about this,
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: But Hugo, did you know an Australian study investigating the
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: effects of health care costs on individuals found that fourteen
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: percent of adults didn't receive the recommended care due to cost.
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: For those living with chronic health conditions, that proportion was
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: higher at twenty four percent.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Is this a surprise? It actually still blows my mind
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: because you know, I was twenty one when I was
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: discharged from hospital, and not only was I unable to
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: return to work, but my mum actually had to close
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: her business to become my full time career because we
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: couldn't afford caress. There was no ndis. I think we
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: got seven hours of respite a week from the government,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: so you know week.
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: It's not even a full work day for someone.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I mean the amount of komochas I saw my mum
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: throw over the back fence just because she needed some
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: kind of mental and physical release from being my full
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: time care.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: Heck, no, get this out of my life.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: But it's just absurd that these are the costs associated
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: with living with any kind of disability or you know,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: physical trauma.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: And I mean it makes sense, Beck, you grew up
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: in more of a low income family, and I feel
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: like this even stretches to I guess that side of
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: our community where it's like, okay, cool, the cost of
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: health care meant that you didn't receive the recommended care.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Due to cost.
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: Did you ever come across that or experience it personally
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: or see it being experienced in your community, To be honest,
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: not a lot when I was growing up, because I
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: guess like I just took for granted that going to
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: the doctors and getting half priced prescription medication with a
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: healthcare car and things like that just made sense growing up. Actually,
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: now that I'm older and I want to, for example,
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: take care of my teeth, I desperately need to get
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: wisdom teeth out, desperately need to get all these same yeah, like.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Feeling such an expensive bro seriously.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, I can't believe that's not covered by Medicare,
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: And so I guess it's not growing up. I didn't
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: really feel it, but I can imagine that my mum
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: would have knowing what went on behind the scenes.
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, And I guess that experience makes a lot of
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: sense because when you're little, regardless of your circumstances, your
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: parents often or your caregivers often shelter you from that.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: Like your parents weren't going to tell you if they're
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: struggling to take you to the doctor or pay for
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: a prescription. But as you get older, the pinch gets
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: a little bit more real. And I feel like for
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: our community at the moment, it's getting even more real
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: because I'm having these conversations even just about bulk billing
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: clinics becoming like Hen's Teeth, Like people like where bulk bilms,
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: like so many doctor's clinics are now going, oh, we
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: don't do that anymore. And to me, that's wild, and
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: I understand why, Like they're a business. At the end
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: of the day, going and seeing a private GP is
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: not a government run facility. It's actually a private business
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: and they are running it as such, and so it's
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: kind of up to their discretion as to whether they
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: extend you that grace or not. However, to me, it's
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: wild that there aren't kind of like mandates of how
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: many bulk billing clinics are in particular areas and stuff
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: like that. So I feel like more now than ever,
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: we're kind of feeling the healthcare pinch. But moving on,
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: I have another statistic for you that won't come as
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: a surprise to either people sitting at the table because
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: I've shown you it before, but it might to people
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: who were listening. Further research, so from the same study
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: suggested that over forty percent of individuals with depression, anxiety,
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: or other mental health conditions just completely skip treatment and
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: other care because of the cost. It makes sense that's
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: really say forty percent, are you joking? Only sixty percent
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: of people experiencing these things are getting the help that
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: they need.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: And the sad thing about it, and the sad I
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: should say, the sad reality about it is the well,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say the majority, but a lot
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: of these people who need access to these you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: mental health care and things like that are my community
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: and people living with disabilities that require the physical care
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: just as much as they require the mental health care.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: You were talking about it in your presentation that people
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: who already have a pre existing disability are what three
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: times more likely to suffer from a mental health condition,
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: And like that makes sense because your lifestyle is already
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: compromised and that is leading to you not feeling your
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: like your best self, and it just to me, I
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: just want to jump up and down about it because
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: it's just so wildly unfair to me. That obviously takes
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: into consideration absolutely no indirect cost like days off work
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: from not being able to go to work, or the
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: reduced working capacity of becoming a carer. And you mentioned
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: that just before, Like your mum literally sold her business
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: to look after you. And I mean, I'm sure if
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: we spoke to your momum, she'd be like, oh, I
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: wouldn't have done anything else. Like Rihannon is the one
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: true love of my entire life. And I totally get.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: That right because that's one hundred percent.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: That's love and that's family and that makes sense. But like,
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: that doesn't mean that she wasn't impacted. That doesn't mean that.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: The emotional guilt that I lived with because it was
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: something that had happened directly to me, but indirectly to her.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: So she was giving up her entire life to make
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: sure that I had some kind of quality of my own.
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, And to be honest, that is so special, Like
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: I just your mom must be the biggest legend in
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: the entire world. We love Shaza, we love Shahaha, shas
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: water legend. So we're going to look at some of
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: the real costs of care now for certain different types
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: of injuries and diseases and re we mentioned before. I
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: would adore your insight on this. So one of my
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: favorite pieces of research that was ever done is by Zurich.
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: It's the Zurich White Paper on the Cost of Care.
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: And you guys have probably heard me talk about this before.
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: If you're one of my financial advice clients or my
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: ex financial advice clients, you've probably had it sent to
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: you about a million times when I ran on and
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: on about getting appropriately insured. But let's talk about spinal
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: cord injury to begin with. It's not going to be
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: a surprise to you, but I think it is going
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: to be a massive surprise to our community that the
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: lifetime direct cost of quadriplegia can exceed eleven million dollars
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: for an individual.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it definitely still to this day makes me
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: want to fall out of my chair. When I hear
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: those numbers, because then I look at that in comparison
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: to the disability support pension that I was on many
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: years ago before I realized, well, I realized then that
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: I had no choice but to build some kind of
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: a career of my own because I just could not
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: afford any kind of life. I couldn't even afford the
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: means that I needed to be able to do personal care,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: go to the toilet, do the things, you know, So
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: it absolutely blows my mind. Can we share that on
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: the podcast?
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: Actually, when I had this conversation after meeting and you
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: were like, oh my gosh, it cost me x to
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: do this, and why can you share that with the community,
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: because it through my mind.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: There's so many hidden costs when it comes to spinal
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: cord injury. And I always speak on the perspective of
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: this injury because it's obviously the one that I live with,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: But people don't understand that it's not just what you
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: see is what you get injury. So, yes, somebody is paralyzed,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: that can be obvious, sometimes not, but we're internally paralyzed
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: as well, which means that the injury itself has affected
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: all of our internal organs and one of the main
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I guess things that is affected is our bound bladder functions,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: so will require not just medication but also continent aids
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: to be able to go to the bathroom and they
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: cost money. So for example, just to paint the picture,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: there's no such thing as TMI when it comes to
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: these injuries. It costs me a dollar sixty five every
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: time I need to go and do a wee. But
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: then you throw on top of that the cost of
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: the medication I need to take to be able to
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: do number twos. I worked it out a few months
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: ago and it was actually more than what I earn
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: on my full time wager year, So it was eighty
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: six thousand dollars roughly, and that is based on a
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: good day of not drinkings of water a day. Not
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: here as a health quick yes, and a health queen.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm not having that extra coffee a day either.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: But there are so many hidden costs associated which adds
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: up to that those millions of dollars. And it still
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: blows my mind to this day that the Disability Support
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Pension is what it is. There's so many conversations around
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: how NDIS really does help the disability community. Well, put
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: it this way, before the NDIS existed, that eighty six
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars was coming out of mine or my family's pocket,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: all my communities because we did a lot of fundraisers.
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, it is wild to me that that
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: would come out of your I'm so glad that the
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: NDIES exists now and you're able to get that support
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: because you bloody deserve it.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: But the idea that that.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: Is coming out of your family's income, like, I don't
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: know where my family would get that from.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: And that's not even including you know, a wheelchair. This
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: chair that I'm sitting in now is about ten thousand
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: dollars and that's not including the cushion.
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: And this is my it's not even including the cushion.
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: They're like, that's just the base model. My god, you know,
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: I mean it is nice.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Look the GT the GT model, but you know, so
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: there are so many things and there's so much conversation
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: around the NDIES. But for me, it really has saved
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: my life and my mental stability.
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah. No, I'm really grateful for it. And it's wild
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: because it's not just you. So according to the Zurich
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: White Paper, they're around twenty thousand, eight hundred Australians who
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: currently live with spinal cord injuries, which you won't be
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: surprised about, but approximately half of those were working prior
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: to having a spinal cord injury, and they're never going
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: to be able to return to a working role, so
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: they're not actually able to generate an income. That's correct,
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: and it's wild, right, And I'm so proud of you
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: for I guess beating those odds, which is an absolute
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: anomaly for this type of injury. But that, honestly, from
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: my perspective, shouldn't be something that we're proud of for you.
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: It's something that should be given, like you should be
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: able to work, you should be able to be catered
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: for and have a role that makes sense with your injury.
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: But nine times out of ten, when you talk to
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: someone with an injury like this, most of the reason
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: they can't return is because they don't have the proper
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: equipment to be able to return to full time work,
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: or they don't have the proper support or the types
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: of resources.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: That they need.
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: And it drives me insane because it's like, wow, so
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: you're saying, if I had set you up properly and
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: given you all of the rehab that you can't afford
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: right now, and the proper chair and everything else, you
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: could do a job that makes sense for you. Yes,
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: the answer resolutely yes, it's.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent, because even to this day, we are
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: still having to prove what our needs are. You know,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I've still got to prove that I need the NDIS
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: funding packages that I require, which minds on the lower
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: spectrum because I am independent. I don't need, you know,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: twenty four hours a day worth of support. Even to
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: get a parking permit. I've got to prove the extent
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: of my injury or my disability. So even though these
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: things exist to support our community, it doesn't mean they
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: come easy. And that's amita bullshit.
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: That's something it really confuses me as well, because obviously
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: there are different I guess there are different levels of disability,
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: and some of them can be overcome over time, right
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: Like someone might have an injury that lasts two years
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: and then they come out the other side of it.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: They don't need their income protection anymore because they can
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: turn to full time work out their full capacity and
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: there's no issue moving forward. Obviously, if they don't require
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: the NDA, Well, they shouldn't be being paid by the
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: NDAs correct. That makes sense. But with an injury like yours,
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: it's permanent. Like what part of permanent does the ndis
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: not understand, Like, surely there should be some kind of
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: criteria that you go through and you're like, hey, cool,
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: look at this, we came this far. Can you just
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: tick a box to say I don't need to be
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: reviewed again?
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Like, I totally understand. There are some places that review
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: makes sense.
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but why in your situation are you in the
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: bucket where you need to be reviewed?
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: And what does that process look like for you? Oh
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: my goodness. It's interesting because I'm on the other side
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: of it, whereas I have the injury, but I also
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: have a not for profit organization that services my community.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: So I have an exercise physiology based facility that helps
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: people with disabilities physically access exercise and private healthcare. And
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: the amount of report writing and documentation that we have
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: to put together for our athletes become them athletes. It's
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: not patients or clients, they are athletes. Big mindset thing
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: does to prove again that exercise is something that improves
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: quality of life. The process is just entirely unbearable. It
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: is mentally taxing, it's physically taxing for somebody like myself.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, when my body was broken, my voice became
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: a thing. So I just get in there and I
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: just say, this is what I want, this is what
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: I need. But you know, I'm now looking at starting
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: a family with my partner, so my needs are going
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: to change. I'm not going to be able to do
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: the things that I do now when I'm pregnant or
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: you know, post pregnancy, So I'm going to require more things,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: modifications to my car and things like that.
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: What are some other hidden costs or things that you know,
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: people like Beck and I might not have even considered.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: So again I'll talk from my own personal perspective. I'll
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: just talk to you about what I require as somebody
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: living with an injury. Now I've got what's considered an
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: incomplete injury. So if you look at me and then
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: you look at five other quadriplegics, we're all going to
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: look entirely different and our needs are going to be
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: into highly different. So I live independently in a very
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: unaccessible household which I'm about to move, and it's out
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: of ten yeah, yah, so excited for that, But that
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: in itself has been a tiring process due to accessibility
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: and funds. But I have car modifications, so I drive
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: a normal car. I don't have what a lot of
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: people have. I don't have steering little utensils or whatever
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: you want to call them on the steering wheel. I
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: actually have a left foot accelerator and that cost money
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: to modify, to modify it over correct the test that
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: I required to get my license back to be able
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: to drive said car. That costs money. And this was
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: pre dis I used to have a hoist in the
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: back of my car that would lift my chair in
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: and out of my car. That costs money. I got
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: rid of it because it kept breaking down. I can't
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: not be bothering me. But again, like when I'm pregnant,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to be able to be lifting my
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: car because I'd be more focused on lifting my child.
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: And even just like the idea of getting a child
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: in and out of a car like that for me
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: really hard. And I don't even have kids, and I'm
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: just puddling nieces and nephews out of I can't understand
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: car seats. I get stuck with them like you have
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: to be up and over the top of them. Like
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: that's another level of complicated that I hadn't even considered.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, but looking at that, looking at starting a family,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: so I can't just roll into a baby bunting and
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: buy any COT. I'm going to need a modified COT,
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: modified car seats, all the things. I can now say
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: it proudly that I am one of the lucky ones
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: who I don't require access to a lot of the
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: modified things. But I'm just one out of four point
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: four million in our country, you know, And there's just
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: not enough funds out there for us, and that's the problem.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: It blows my mind. Earlier you mentioned that you'd actually
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: gone over to the US for some rehab because that
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: type of rehab wasn't available in Australia, and I feel
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: like that's a relatively let's call it, like an experiment
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: into therapy in comparison, what's the cost of that, Like,
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: how much does that cost to go to the US?
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: Because I already know from a base level that the
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: American healthcare system is not very good and is very expensive.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: But then also doing that internationally to me is wild.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: So can you tell me a bit more about that
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: experience and what and why and when and how.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: It's funny because I asked Shazza last night. I was like, Mum,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: I need some digits because I was heavily medicated when
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: all this went on. I I just remember attending the
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: fundraisers and that's the thing, Like we had to fundraise
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: for everything, so absolutely everything down to the Komo chair
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: that Mum would throw around the backyard. But I think
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: their first trip, so we went to an exercise physiology
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: based recovery center, but we also needed to have accessible accommodations,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: so we were raising in excess of like sixty thousand
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: dollars for a one month trip. I think the first
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: time we actually went over to San Diego, we were
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: only meant to be there for two weeks, but my
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: physical recovery was so great that Mum actually rang my
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: step down and said, put my car on the market.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: We need to stay longer. Oh my god. That is
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: so yeah cool, But I mean the guilts I'm therapy
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: that I've had to pay for since. Sure, But you know,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: then when we got back to Australia, there was the
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: whole reason we went over there is because we just
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: didn't have access to it fourteen years ago. Now we
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: have the next step.
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: I was about to say, is this not really like
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: motivated you to open your facility.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Like which again not for profit, had fundraise from the
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: ground up to be able, and.
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: It's told the next step right, so you can follow
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: it on Instagram obviously, But I remember meeting you and
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: then going and looking at that and being like, I
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: literally have never seen anything like this in Australia as wild.
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: I sent it to my mum to be like, look
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: at this, how cool is this?
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Like they still don't know how I did it, but
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: it honestly it was just based off purpose and passion
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: and a need. Like I said when we first met,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: everything I've done, I've done because I needed somebody to
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: do these things or to tell me these things fourteen
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: years ago. So when we came back from America, we
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: actually went over there on three separate occasions. Each time
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: we came back, we had to keep fundraising to go back,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: and we were asking our community to fundraise for one person,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: and every time we'd go over to America, we'd meet
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: more Aussies that were having to do the same thing,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: which again a bit of bullshit. And the last time
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: we went over there. So the third and final time
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: we went over there, I ended up in the hospital
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: over there, incorrectly diagnosed with MS and put it on
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: a prodessolone drips. So, oh my god. I came back
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: to Australia and my doctor was like, you don't have MS.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: You've got a spinal cord injury and your body's exhausted.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: But again we had travel insurance, but we had to
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: prove that what was happening to my body it had
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: happened and it wasn't, you know, because of my injury,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: which it kind of was. But it was just a
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: bizarre experience being I've been in the healthcare system in
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Bali that's a whole story within itself, and then the
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: hospital system in America. I can though, exclaim that the
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: best thing about being in the hospitals in America is
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: the paramedics. They are so good looking. I was about
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: to say, you're going to tell me they're real hot. Yeah,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: that's so good looking, all right. Australian paramedics are just
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: not as there's definitely some hobbies out there, but I
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: mean and like their paramedics are also like firemen as well. Okay,
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: so I see where you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: want to set the hospital on fire.
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: So they all right, but not really but maybe yeah
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: maybe it anyway cost we'll put it out if they're
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: not that hot when they come, right, I feel like I.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Feel like people are going to come for me now. No,
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: they're absolutely not. This is so money.
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: Like I feel like there's no such thing as an
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: off brand.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Like I feel like you're there's a positive in every
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: negative and the positive words of paramedics in the Yeah,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: I'm glad we did so much fundraising and got the
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: money's worth, all right, So I reckon, let's look at
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: some of the other costs of common diseases in Australia.
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree, So I think when it comes to
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: not being the most common, but one of the more
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: commonly talked about diseases in Australia is breast cancer. So,
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: breast cancer is the most common cancer among Australian women
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: and there is a one in eight chance to develop
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: it by the time you are eighty five years old,
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: and seventy percent of breast cancer is detected in women
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: between the ages of forty and sixty nine years and
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: the average lifetime cost of breast cancer, which I'm going
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: to argue because I like arguing basically everything, like it's
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: just who I am as a human being. But the
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: average lifetime cost, according to the Zero Cost of Care Report,
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: which means it is actually legitimate, is thirty six and
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: forty dollars, which is a whole bunch of money just
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: to get breast cancer. Obviously, if you are insured, a
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: lot of this is going to be covered. But having
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: gone through life and known a number of women who
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: have gone through this, again, it's really from my perspective,
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: not about the direct cost, Like that's how much is
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: going to cost for your medical treatment to come out
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: the other side and hopefully be told you don't have
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: any breast cancer in your body at all and you
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: are all good to go home. That doesn't take into
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: consideration the therapy. That doesn't take into consideration the cost
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: of income that you would experience while you know going
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: through treatment, the cost to your partner and your cares
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: and the people that surround you. What about the cost
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: to your children, Like I remember growing up, one of
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: my mum's best friends passed away from breast cancer, and
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: she was like one of the best human beings in
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: the entire world, like it always happens to the good ones, right,
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: and she had two young kids, and you know it
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: was the biggest let's just call it a shit show
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: in the entire world because she was married, and then
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: the well marriage complications obviously, because not all manner as
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: good as they should be when it comes to things
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: like this. But then it just it really stretched out
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: and you just go the cost to her in general.
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: Wasn't just the six thousand dollars. She ended up losing
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: her life from this, which is obviously massive. Two kids
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: lost a parent, But then I guess stretching that out again,
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: like what if she had survived. Two kids have this
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: experience of growing up with a sick mum who wasn't
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: as present and you know, does absolutely everything that they
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: possibly can. But it's just these costs can't, from my perspective,
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: be quantified, Like and I feel like talking about this
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: cost of care document so helpful. It is literally the
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: first document that we have in Australia that tells us
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: the lifetime costs of diseases and illnesses, But I just
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: really don't think it quantifies it. And when you start
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: putting things down on a white paper. You're like, yeah,
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: like that's what we could measure. At the end of
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: the day, that's what we could measure. Melanoma is something
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: that as a community we talk about a lot, and
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: Australia has the second highest prevalence of melanoma in the
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: entire world. The average lifetime cost for cancer sufferers aged
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: over fifteen years can range from twenty thousand, three hundred
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: and sixty dollars for having melanoma. But as we all know,
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: it costs.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: So much money to have body mapping done and a
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: moult shake.
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: Right, and that's just not even having it, that's.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Just checking if you might at risk. Like I've just
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: made an appointment to go and have mole mapping done
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: and to have things checked, and it's going to cost
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: me about five hundred dollars.
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: Yes, I got one down a couple of years ago
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: and I think it was like five hundred and.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: So dollarvent these things if we can't easily access them
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: because of funds exactly, it blows my mind.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: Right. And then mental health is something that is so
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: important to us but also is massive in our community.
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: Almost half of the total population, so forty five point
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: five percent of people experience a mental health condition at
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: some point in their lifetime. Mental health conditions can include
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: effective disorders, so things like depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: like panic attacks and stress disorders, and substance abuse disorders
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: so alcohol and drug dependencies. The cost for depression on
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: average is seventeen on one hundred and ninety dollars per individual.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Well, just doesn't seem high enough. And some people have
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: one or two of these things.
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, Like it's not something that
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: just exists in isolation. Most of the time, individuals will
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: spend an average estimated cost of thirteen thousand and fifty
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: dollars per year out of pocket for mental health conditions,
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: with medications accounting for one third of that cost. I
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: feel like I spend more than that. I absolutely, just
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: on my mental health. Like, I definitely spend more than that,
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: Like I've calculated it. I take an anti anxiety and
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: a depression medication and they equate to maybe, like I
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: think fifty two or so, depending on the keevest. I
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: go to dollars a month, and that's fine. I feel
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: like I can deal with that cost. But that's a
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: lot of money. But then on top of that I
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: take a whole heap of natural supplements to try and like,
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: you know, boost my mood in general, because I just
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: don't like the idea of being medicated. I then also
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: am diagnosed with ADHD I have.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's probably why we get on. I know. It's
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: like we met in OEE each other. It's like, oh
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: my god, you go a million miles an hour? Two
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: do you want to get coffee? Cool?
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: Cool?
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Cool? Like next minute we're setting like double chin selfies
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: to each other. I'm like, look at my ten on
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: my neck. It's done. Nice. You just get me. Sorry.
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: But I feel like that the medication is actually not
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: that expensive. I think the medication, yeah.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: I was about diet. The medication real cheap.
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: It's about I think it's like seventeen dollars a month
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: or something, real good money win. But also for me
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: to get that medication, I have to go to a GP.
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: I have to have a mental health care plan. I
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: then get referred through to a hiatrest because a psychologist
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: is not good enough. They can't prescribe medications. You need
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: to see a psychiatrist. I'm very fortunate that I got
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: diagnosed at about the age I think I was like
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: seventeen or eighteen when I got diagnosed, so it was
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: before the rise of people really understanding it as much. Sure,
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: there wasn't as much prevalence of it, so getting into
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: a psychiatrist wasn't as much of an issue as it
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: is today for most people. But my psychiatrists appointments are
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: probably four hundred and fifty dollars per appointment, and a
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: lot of that is out of pocket. So I think
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: I'm like maybe two hundred and eighty dollars out of
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: pocket for every appointment that I go to.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Wow, prior to that, because.
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: I was young and you know, it took a really
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: long time to diagnose me. They could not work out
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: what was wrong with me because I was a female,
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: so obviously females historically, yeah, they don't get it. So
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: I was seeing a pediatric neurologist before that, which was
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: I think it was like five hundred and fifty dollars
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: a session, and my parents were paying for that. All
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: of that is wild, and that's just to be diagnosed.
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: And guess what, I don't even like taking the medication,
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: so I take a whole heap of supplements to make
• 32:48
  Speaker 5: sure that I can be the best version of me.
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: And those supplements are so wildly expensive, like and obviously
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: they're experimental and they're not going to work for everybody.
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: And I'll talk about it on my Instagram at some
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: point because you know, I'm taking a whole heap of
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: stuff that I genuinely believe works, but I'm probably spending
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: and I'm very privileged to be able to do this
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: three hundred and fifty or four hundred dollars a month
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: on something Wow, yeah, easily easily, And that's after researching
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: you know, what actually works, what helps. Like, so I'm on,
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: like a supplement called tyrazine. I'm on, you know, I
• 33:18
  Speaker 5: take lions Maine.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Which is I just prescribed to my partner this morning.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: Describe for that.
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: To natural supplements, the mushroom. It's got none of the illicit.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Stuff magic one though, I do say it is magic
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: for us. Absolutely.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: I think it's really important to talk about these things
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: because the cost of money, right, and it's so expensive,
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: and that's just my very privileged experience of the healthcare
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: system and being able to afford it.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Like, if you.
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: Are in a lower income household and you are diagnosed
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: with ADHD, you might go Okay, cool, Well, the medications
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: not expensive, but goddamn the process to get there is
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: insane and prohibitive and expensive and time consuming, and it's
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: just to me, it's absolutely life.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: That's why a lot of people put it in the
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: two heart basket. That's why a lot of people walk
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: and roll and running around undiagnosed and just not having
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: that easy access to the things they require for their
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: quality of life.
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: Exactly, which leads into my next stat that says fewer
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: than two in five, so thirty five percent of people
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: with anxiety or depression sake treatment. And I would say
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: that that really leans into accessibility. And while it's quote accessible,
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: it's accessible if you have the money to excess it, right,
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: excess excess whatever. And then individuals with mental health conditions
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: lost an average of thirty eight working days per year.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: That's a lot of days.
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: Given most employment contracts in Australia, if you have a
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: thirty eight hour working week and you're full time employed,
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: you get ten. So you're usually in a situation where
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: you're probably taking twenty eight days of unpaid leave because
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: your employer is not going to just fund your health condition,
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: and God for beard, that's not their responsibility. But that's
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: twenty eight days. Extrapolate that out. That's more than a
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: month of unpaid leave you have to take because of
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: mental health. And I feel like we need to. I
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: always like to contextualize things because you just saying thirty
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: eight working days are moving on just doesn't hits an
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: hour on the head, right, Like thirty eight working days,
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: you don't even do that amount of days in a month.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Like that's more than a month.
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: It's closer to two months worth of work that you're
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: missing out on each and every single year because of
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: mental health and not being able to access the right resources.
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: And like we know, as people sitting at this table,
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: who all have talked about their mental health openly and honestly,
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: we know that that costs money. And we also know
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: that with access to the right resources we can be okay.
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: But not everyone has that privilege, no all.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: That knowledge as well, because I mean a lot of
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: these things, including disability, still remain quite so. You know,
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: I know you've heard me say before, Victoria, but you
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: just don't know what you don't know. And that's why
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: these kind of communities like She's on the Money exist
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: to provide the education that we need to have. If
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: we can't have financial access, at least we have access
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: to the knowledge one hundred percent and the line's mate
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: and the line's made one hundred percent.
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: Do you know what I'm going to do if someone
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: could sponsor me. We're going to talk offline about this, honestly,
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: because I have theories about the different types of lines
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: Maine that you can buy and whether some are good
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: and some are bad.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Like I have a lot of it. Generally the ones
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: that are the most expensive, they're the good ones.
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: It's unfortunately, unfortunately, my last bottle of lines Main cost
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: like one hundred and sixty dollars.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Straight from Byron Bay.
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: It was we were on the same all right, let's
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: go to a really quick break Forrehanna and I are
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: going to talk about lines Main, and when we come back,
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: we are going to talk about the impact of insurance
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: on your attitude, your quality of life, and how to
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: move on from experiencing an injury or an illness. Don't
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: go anywhere, guys.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: Welcome back.
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: We are talking about the cost of care on She's
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: on the money today and we have a motivational speaker,
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: wellness advocate and model Rihanna and Tracy with us, who
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: has navigated life after a spinal injury made her a quadriplegic.
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: All right, Rihanna, And this is the sexy part of
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: the episode. It's where we get to talk about insurance.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: I want to know, from your perspective, how has your
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: experience impacted your attitudes towards insurance.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: Oh do you know what?
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: I You're like, I can't even be bothered.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Don't even think about it, yolo. I don't get off
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: on insurance like you do. But the insurance is the
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: reason why I'm here telling my story, isn't it? Because
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: without insurance I would not be alive. I didn't have
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: a mum who told me that you had to descale
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: a kettle, but I definitely had my mother telling me
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: to scale a kettle. Oh my god, Oh what's that
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: even mean? You put the lemon and the bike up
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: in the vinegar in your kettle to de scale your kettle?
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: Oh no, I haven't done that. Oh my god.
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: Okay, Well, calcium build up, our producer. Just so what
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: calcium build up is. If I'm meant to know that
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: that's a thing, I'm going to buy another kettle.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Don't worry anyway, back to insurance, because it's sexy. It
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: is sexy. I had a mum who instilled insurances. I
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: had insurance for I mean, we hate the words, but
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: credit card. I had a credit card, I had income protection,
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: credit card protection, travel insurance, health insurance. My dog has
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: pet insurance. Like I have all the insurances. But that
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: is because yes, I had it is keep talking to
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: me speaking her language. I had a mum who instilled that. Yes,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: but because of the fact that I know what life
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: would have been like post having my injury and the
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: effect that it would have had on my family if
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: I didn't have those things, I now know how important
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: it is. So again, this is something that it shouldn't be.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: You know, you don't know what you don't know. Let's
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: all know this insurance is pivotal.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, when you say you had all the insurances, did
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: you go and see a financial advisor or were these
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: just like incidental insurances that you collected because you've got
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: a credit card and it kind of came with bonus
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: insurance Like you mentioned one of my favorite types of insurance,
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: which is income protection.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: How did that benefit you? Income protection benefit me because
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: it actually paid the gap between my disability support pension
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: and my wage for how long? Really good? Until I
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: was able to work again?
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: Very cool. Yeah, that's awesome.
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: Do you know how often it is that I talk
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: to somebody who has experienced an injury and they're like, oh, yeah,
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: it was the worst I didn't have.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: But in saying that protection saying that bearing in mind
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: that if I continued to work every year, I may
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: or may not have been entitled to a pay rise,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: My income protection remains the same no matter how old
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: I was. Hence why she works. But you know it
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: was it was there to provide me with the means
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: to an end. I love that. I couldn't love that more.
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: When it comes to income protection, though, I think a
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: lot of people, oh my gosh, that's like a free ride, right,
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: you get your income for the rest of your life.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: You're right.
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: It doesn't increase, it doesn't go up in line with CPI,
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: and it's actually in Australia it could be up to
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: eighty percent, but more commonly it's only seventy five percent
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: of your regular income. If you could prove it so
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: your actual taxable income each and every single year. On
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: top of that, that income protection is taxed. It's not
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: an insurance payout that you don't have to pay tax
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: on because it's actually seen as an income and a
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: couple of weeks ago, I think last week actually, Beck,
• 40:32
  Speaker 5: you and I talked about tax and how it works.
• 40:34
  Speaker 5: You literally pay tax on your income protection. So it's
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: not nearly and I'm sure you can probably attest to this.
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: It's not nearly as sexy as you think it is.
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: But it is literally a means to an end, to
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: mean that you maybe don't have to sell as many things,
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: or you don't have to move back in with your
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: parents should the worst happen. What other insurances kind of
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: propped you up during that time? Or did the fact
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: that your injury happened overseas impact the fact that you
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: could claim on any of these No, so, wow, she
• 41:04
  Speaker 5: was nicely insured.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: I was nicely insured. I mean the travel insurance paid
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: for the two and a half weeks that I was
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: in the hospital in Bali. And let me tell you,
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: the medical team in Bali absolutely milked that because I
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: should have been brought home much another moment was but
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: also by the time I was brought home, I was
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: brought home on an emergency air that's so that was
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of dollars, So I mean, yes, it
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: did have a great impact in that. But then moving forward,
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: I did have private health insurance, so I mean that
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: put me in a private room as opposed to being
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: in a communal room. But I had total permanent disability
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: as well, which was a I mean, we've gone through
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: some of the figures associated with having this injury, so
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: that payout within itself paid for the incidentals that I
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: needed in life, like the catheters, and you know, those
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: little bits and pauses that people just aren't aware of exactly.
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: And I guess until having a deep conversation with someone
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: who's experienced this, you don't know the semantics around their
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: situation because, as you said before, we could talk to
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: five or even ten quadriplegics, and their circumstances are different.
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: And I think, as somebody who's never experienced this, and
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: you know, let's pretend I've never even met anybody who's
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: a quadriplegic before, you might just assume that it's a
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: blanket term. That means that if you have quadriplegia, you're
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: exactly the same as everybody else in that circumstance, and
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: it just couldn't be more wrong.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: And I think it's also just.
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: So interesting you going, all right, well, it cost me
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: a dollars sixty five to p Like, to me, that's
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: really messed up that that's the case. But it's also
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: so insightful to go, Okay, this is why we need
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: better funding, because that stuff adds up eighty six thousand
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: dollars a year to do what I take for granted,
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: like that is from my perspective, wildly unfair, because that's
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: actually even higher than the median income here in Australia.
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: The median person here in Australia owns sixty five thousand
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: dollars a year, and just for you to do a
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: wee and go to the bathroom in a very normal
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: way for you is costing you way more than that.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm open and honest in saying that my tpdpayout
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: was one hundred grand and eighty six thousand was continent products.
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: Well, also, we already discussed earlier in the first half
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: of the episode that the average cost of quadriplegia here
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: in Australia is eleven million dollars, So that's a drop
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: in the ocean. Like, from my perspective, that's not nearly enough.
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: And often when we talk about it as somebody who
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: literally would write insurance policies, right, like my job as
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: a financial advisor was to make sure that you had
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: a wealth creation strategy and that we could you know,
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: do budget and cash loo and put you in the
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: best position that your superannuation was looking really sexy, but
• 43:48
  Speaker 5: then also that your insurances were in place, because if
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: anything ever happened, I would hate for your wealth creation
• 43:55
  Speaker 5: strategy to fall off the bandwagon or you not to
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: be able to retire and have the life that you deserve.
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: And the amount of times I would talk to people
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: and they're like, oh yeah, like a TBD pay it
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: out of one hundred grand, that's more than enough, fe
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: and often it's not enough.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: Would have to sit.
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: Down with clients and be like, well, actually, I don't
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: think that's enough because we're not just talking about the
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: cost of you know, the things that you need, but
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: we're talking about changes to your home, lifestyle, changes, loss
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: of income. Yes, we would be able to claim on
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: income protection, but there are lots of top ups that
• 44:27
  Speaker 5: I don't think you understand. And then even just things
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: like life insurance. You would explain to somebody, Okay, cool,
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: you know I've run the numbers. You're an adult male
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: and you have two young kids and a wife. I
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: think you need a three and a half million dollar
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: life insurance policy. Be true, I don't need that. Like
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: my house is only worth eight hundred grand. You'd be like,
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: I don't think you understand how much your life is
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: worth until your family are going through something really traumaus that.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: We cannot put a price on our own lives, Like
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: we can't comprehend how much our life is worth exactly
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: those works. It's wild, isn't it. So look at what we.
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: Can do to protect ourselves now, and different types of insurances,
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: because you know I love talking about insurances.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: I you do not.
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: You're both looking at me like here comes the boring
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: your heart. But it's so important to understand this. And
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: there are many, many different types of insurance. But when
• 45:17
  Speaker 5: it comes to the financial advice landscape and personal insurance,
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: there are four different types of personal insurance. So you
• 45:24
  Speaker 5: have income protection, which from my perspective is my favorite
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: type of insurance that's going to replace your income should
• 45:30
  Speaker 5: something happen to you. We have total and permanent disability,
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: which is essentially, if you sustain an injury that totally
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: im permanently disables you, that is a lot of some
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: payment that gets paid out. There is an insurance called
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: trauma insurance, so if you experience a traumatic event, that
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: will pay out. It's actually very different to total and
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: permanent disability. So trauma insurance pays out for things like
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: cancers and melanoma. It pays out for genuine traumatic events,
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: not just total and permanent disability. And then we have
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: life insurance, which I think most people would understand. Obviously,
• 46:04
  Speaker 5: it seems relatively easy to claim on life insurance.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: All you have to do is die.
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: However, there are also lots of different circumstances where you
• 46:11
  Speaker 5: might be able to access that early. So as a
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: financial advisor, my most important one would be income protection
• 46:18
  Speaker 5: because at the end of the day, if you crash
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: your car and you have car insurance, we can replace
• 46:23
  Speaker 5: your car. But if we crash your car and you
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: get injured, your car might be replaceable, but your income
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: is not. So from my perspective, that's the most important
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: type of insurance that we have, and so they're the
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: personal types of insurance. Then there's private health insurance, which
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: I think we need to address here because when it
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: comes to disability and experiencing things like this, you don't
• 46:45
  Speaker 5: know what you need until you really need it, Andrehanna,
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: and you're probably a really good advocate for weighing in here.
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: Is private health insurance worth it?
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: I'm going to have an internal and external debate about
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: that one. Yeah, and then it's going to cost me
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: more money.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: Sorry. Look, it's funny because there is the Victorian Spinal Service,
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: which is the hospital that services the community of people
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: with spinal cord Introduce, which is a public hospital, and
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: I had private health insurance, and every time I go in,
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: even for a day appointment, they asked me do I
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: want to go in as a private or a public?
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: And I always say I want to go in as
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: public because I don't want to pay the fight. What
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: am I paying that five dollars? I only just I've
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: always had extras because I love my teeth and I
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: love my access to physios and things like that. But
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: I've only just put hospital cover back on because I
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: am planning a family. But to completely digress in the
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: way of insurance, it's something I am going to throw
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: in there, which I'm sure you probably wouldn't have even
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: thought of, is so pervotal for the disability community is
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: contents insurance. And that is because if anything happens to
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: your home and your mobility aids or the things that
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: you need to live your life in your home, they
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: will be covered. Yeah, that's from wheelchair to showerchair.
• 48:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that is a stunning addition, I think because often
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: people really gloss over content.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: And you have to list them when you are getting
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: your policies. You make sure that they're on there. I mean, yes,
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: our jury and everything and our TVs are important, but
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: I know many people who have had instances where I
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: mean I used to go to the drive through coffee shop.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: I'd leave my house and I'd actually leave my chair
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: in the driveway of my house and I'd just jump
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: in my house. But I drive through coffee shop. That's elite. Yeah,
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: but so I wouldn't have to like pull my chair apart.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: I just like leave it get a coffee. And Mum
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: would always say me, someone's going to pinch your chair
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: one day. And I've actually had a friend whose wheelchair
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: was stolen. He went for a roasted on his back
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: and parked up his chair and his chair was stolen.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: So I mean, have contents insurance so that your mobility
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: aids and the things that you require are taken care
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: of as well.
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: I could not agree with that on that absolute scum
• 49:03
  Speaker 5: if you are stealing aw that is like the war
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: level line. Oh, I just I can't adding to that.
• 49:09
  Speaker 5: Another really important insurance that we touched on, and the
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: start of this episode is travel insurance, and we went
• 49:15
  Speaker 5: on and on about that. I don't think we could be,
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: you know, more in favor of ensuring that you have
• 49:21
  Speaker 5: travel insurance, but I also would take it a step further.
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: And I know this, you know, again really privileged, but
• 49:28
  Speaker 5: if you can't afford to pay for travel insurance, you
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: probably can't afford to go on that holiday.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: Preach, full stop, end of story.
• 49:35
  Speaker 5: If you're not adding that to your travel plans, Like,
• 49:37
  Speaker 5: I'm really sorry, but you shouldn't be going on the
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: holiday in the first place. Like the risk from my
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: perspective is just far too high to the point where
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: you guys won't be surprised about this. I remember talking
• 49:48
  Speaker 5: to a friend about her travel insurance. She was like, Nah,
• 49:51
  Speaker 5: I'm not going to get it I literally bought it
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: for her. I was like, I'm so sorry, Like I
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: bought you this as a little travel present. Like it's
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: just not happening. It's not me trying to be nice.
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: It's me knowing the industry. And I mean, I have
• 50:03
  Speaker 5: a very I guess, cynical view of stuff like this
• 50:06
  Speaker 5: because and I was saying this to you earlier, and
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: I'm in this beautiful position where you get to work
• 50:12
  Speaker 5: with people and wealth creation. You get to work with
• 50:14
  Speaker 5: people to you know, set up their lives and you know,
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: put them in a position that they never dreamed they'd
• 50:18
  Speaker 5: ever be in. One of those things is ensuring that
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: they appropriately insure it. And some of the times your
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: clients come back to you with really significant injuries or illnesses,
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: or sometimes your clients don't come back and their partners do,
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: and it's heartbreaking. It is the worst thing in the
• 50:34
  Speaker 5: world to go through. But one of the things when
• 50:36
  Speaker 5: I was a financial advisor was knowing that I was
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: the right person to help them through that process. I
• 50:41
  Speaker 5: would bend over backwards to make sure that we got
• 50:45
  Speaker 5: that claim in and that claim was paid out asap,
• 50:48
  Speaker 5: to make sure that that family was in the best
• 50:49
  Speaker 5: possible position. But having exposure to things like that really
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: twists and warps your view of what happens in the world.
• 50:58
  Speaker 5: And the amount of people that go, oh, that won't
• 50:59
  Speaker 5: happen to me, I go, will it?
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: Can? It does?
• 51:02
  Speaker 5: Like I have had clients call and say, hey, I'm
• 51:05
  Speaker 5: really sorry. My husband literally got hit by a bus
• 51:07
  Speaker 5: on the way to work. He's going to be okay,
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: but he's in a coma. I have had, you know,
• 51:13
  Speaker 5: situations like yours, Rihanna, and where a freak accident happened
• 51:16
  Speaker 5: while someone was living their best life and they need
• 51:19
  Speaker 5: to be medivacked back to Australia. And even just knowing
• 51:23
  Speaker 5: how to go through that process. I don't think it's
• 51:26
  Speaker 5: a privilege. I think it's you know, really sad that
• 51:28
  Speaker 5: I know that process because it means that I know
• 51:31
  Speaker 5: people who have gone through these circumstances. But that is
• 51:33
  Speaker 5: why I am so wildly passionate about insurance. And when
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: I jump up and down say it's my favorite, it's
• 51:38
  Speaker 5: not me being fluffy, it's me going this is the
• 51:41
  Speaker 5: difference between you having to live or minimum wage and
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: never creating the life that you deserve, and you being
• 51:48
  Speaker 5: able to create the life you deserve and live with
• 51:50
  Speaker 5: a disability, because that's entirely possible, right and Rihanna, and
• 51:54
  Speaker 5: you are literally one of the best advocates of this,
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: like you just embrace.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: Life and figure of flag, get travel insurance or die
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: in my case, and that was and that's the fact, Like, yes,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: I won't sugarcoated. Had I have not had travel insurance,
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: I would not be here. And I say that all
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: the time. You know. My audience when I first started
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: speaking were year twelve students who are about to go
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: on school is And I was like, it reminds me
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: of that episode of Mean Girls, of the episode that
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: Mean Girls we're going to take just like if you
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: have sex, you will die. You will get pregnant, and
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: you you will and you will die. You know, I
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: would say, you know, not in those words, but I'd
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: be like, exactly what you do.
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: Go on a holiday and you don't have travel insurance,
• 52:31
  Speaker 5: you will die.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: You will die or get some kind of weird infection
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: or something's going to happen, you know, Like it's not
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: going to be a good outcome either way, you know.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: And I look forward to the day where we're actually
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: not allowed to travel unless we do have that insurance.
• 52:44
  Speaker 5: I think it should be the rules like they're the
• 52:45
  Speaker 5: She's on the money rules, Like you're going against the
• 52:48
  Speaker 5: She's on the money values if you're traveling without travel insurance.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: I just think it's so important.
• 52:53
  Speaker 5: And I mean, if you don't want to hear that,
• 52:54
  Speaker 5: I think you shouldn't be going on a holiday if
• 52:56
  Speaker 5: you can't afford it. Like I kind of don't care
• 52:59
  Speaker 5: because it's put you in the best possible position. But
• 53:01
  Speaker 5: I guess that leads into we only have time for
• 53:03
  Speaker 5: one more question, and I want to ask you. It's
• 53:06
  Speaker 5: more of a personal question around and it's around your mindset.
• 53:10
  Speaker 5: Like the second I met you, and I know this
• 53:13
  Speaker 5: sounds really fluffy, but we really connected. I was like,
• 53:15
  Speaker 5: far out, this is the type of person that I
• 53:17
  Speaker 5: would want to surround me. Like, your mindset is beautiful.
• 53:19
  Speaker 5: You are such a vibe. How are you such a vibe?
• 53:23
  Speaker 5: After going through fourteen years of things that you know,
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: a lot of people end up really disheartened with a
• 53:30
  Speaker 5: lot of people end up really salty about a lot
• 53:32
  Speaker 5: of people end up with a really negative mindset about
• 53:35
  Speaker 5: and I mean we've all come across an angry person
• 53:38
  Speaker 5: in a wheelchair, right, which would.
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: Be fair enough, because which is like the way of
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: the world shoulders. Yeah, it's so fair.
• 53:44
  Speaker 5: But how are you just like this shining light of
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: positivity and this type of person that attracts everybody.
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's because I have perspective. I mean,
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: for me, it was no matter what happened to me,
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: there was always somebody out there that was worse off.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: And that was in actual fact, like I would have
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: days where Mum would push me into the kitchen of
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: the hospital and I would see people with acquired brain
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: injuries and people who are completely nonverbal and I'd be
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: blowing my eyes at because I was twenty years old
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: and my life was so shit at that point, and
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: Mum would say to me, at least you can make
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: your own decisions. At least you can communicate your needs.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: And I always go back to that moment when I'm
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: feeling really shit from a perspective of somebody living with
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: a disability. Again, still same kind of thing. You know,
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: I have created a life based on, yes, the need,
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: but also the want of life. You know, I was
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: twenty and I think that that's probably a good time.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, nobody wants to be injured, and I don't
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: want to wish that upon anyone, but you know, I
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: had a choice. I could give up all the goals
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: and ambitions that I had, or I could work towards them.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: I also do say that the fact that I didn't
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: have and this is so bizarre to me, the fact
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: that I didn't have easy access to the things I
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: needed made me work harder. So, you know, like because
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: I didn't have funding, and because I could see the
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: toll that this was taking on my family, like I
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: moved out. I've always been the girl who, like I
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: couldn't wait to turn fourteen in nine months so I
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: could work at mackets, you know what I mean. I've
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: always been that person who wanted to be able to
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: take care of myself. So when that couldn't happen, I
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: just worked that bit harder and it wasn't easy. But also,
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: you know, I now get to go and you know,
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: literally roll into a place where I watch people every
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: single day take back control of their lives. And that
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: is my facility, and that gives me a reason to
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: just keep going. And conversations like this, like you know,
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: insurance gets you horny victoria, but disability allies tell horny people,
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: you know, like, I love that we can have these
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: conversations because now the conversation is not going to end here.
• 55:51
  Speaker 5: No, and it shouldn't end here unfortunately, is going to
• 55:55
  Speaker 5: end your.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: Right episode.
• 56:00
  Speaker 5: By but also before we go, actually another little plug.
• 56:04
  Speaker 5: I have had a few people sliding into my DMS
• 56:06
  Speaker 5: on Instagram asking Victoria where can we get our life insurance?
• 56:09
  Speaker 5: And our personal insurance is sorted and our recommendation is
• 56:13
  Speaker 5: a company called sky Wealth. And the reason I recommend
• 56:16
  Speaker 5: sky Wealth is one it's run by one of my
• 56:17
  Speaker 5: good friends, Phil Thompson, who actually took on a lot
• 56:21
  Speaker 5: of my clients when I left the industry, so you know,
• 56:24
  Speaker 5: I trust him. It's legit. But he essentially is an
• 56:27
  Speaker 5: insurance specialist. He doesn't do wealth, he doesn't do superinuation.
• 56:30
  Speaker 5: He just does insurance, which means he's going to be
• 56:33
  Speaker 5: a little bit cheaper because financial advice can be prohibitive.
• 56:36
  Speaker 5: But I promise you this is not. And he does
• 56:38
  Speaker 5: like a fifteen minute free call at the start, so
• 56:40
  Speaker 5: if you want to contact them, no, I feel like
• 56:42
  Speaker 5: it's just really important. I know that sounds like a
• 56:44
  Speaker 5: shameless plug, and he definitely doesn't pay me to say
• 56:47
  Speaker 5: this lack. He would probably be mortified that I'm talking
• 56:49
  Speaker 5: about him so publicly, but I'll pop all of.
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: His information in our show notes.
• 56:53
  Speaker 5: And then also if you want to get matched with
• 56:55
  Speaker 5: any other type of financial advice or mortgage broking professional,
• 56:58
  Speaker 5: there's actually a part on our sh on the Money
• 57:00
  Speaker 5: website where you can get mashed with a mortgage broker
• 57:02
  Speaker 5: or a financial advisor that She's on the Money community
• 57:05
  Speaker 5: knows and loves. So you can also go and check
• 57:07
  Speaker 5: that out. But for people who have really resonated with
• 57:10
  Speaker 5: you and your cause and what you do, where can
• 57:12
  Speaker 5: we learn more about you and more about your facility
• 57:14
  Speaker 5: which is friggin incredible?
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: Shameful?
• 57:17
  Speaker 5: Plug It is not shameful. I literally asked for it.
• 57:20
  Speaker 5: I literally asked you to plug yourself here.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, plug away. But we don't have enough time.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: Something we do quick quick. Rihanna Tracy my will Life,
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: because my Will Life.
• 57:28
  Speaker 5: I love that. That's her Instagram handle? And what is
• 57:31
  Speaker 5: your facility? How can we support that?
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: So? My facility is a not for profit organization. It
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: is the only type in Australia. Amazing. It is called
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: the Next Step Spinal Cord Injury Recovery and Wellness Center.
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: And that is because it literally is the next step.
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: We don't just treat people with spinal cord injuries, we
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: don't just treat people with disabilities. We now treat anybody
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: who really wants to take the next step in their life. Adore,
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: It's so nice to hear your story and hear your perspective.
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: You've really definitely change my view on a lot of things.
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: So thank you for joining us.
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: It won't be the last time.
• 58:06
  Speaker 5: We will see you on Friday, guys, See you, guys.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: Bye.
• 58:16
  Speaker 5: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
• 58:18
  Speaker 5: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
• 58:22
  Speaker 5: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
• 58:26
  Speaker 5: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial product.
• 58:32
  Speaker 5: Read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored
• 58:36
  Speaker 5: towards your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money
• 58:39
  Speaker 5: are authorized representatives of Money sirper Pty Ltd ABN three
• 58:44
  Speaker 5: two one IS six four nine two seven seven zero
• 58:47
  Speaker 5: eight AFSL four five one two eight nine