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MONEY DIARIES: A Decade in Debt to Dream Job · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
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Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
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Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
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Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
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Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
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Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
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Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
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Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
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Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
0:34
Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
0:36
Speaker 2: She's on the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on
0:59
Speaker 2: the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom.
1:04
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another one of our money daries where
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Speaker 2: we get to talk with one of our incredible She's
1:09
Speaker 2: on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's
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Speaker 2: jump straight into it because this week I got a
1:15
Speaker 2: message and it read like this, Hi, She's on the
1:18
Speaker 2: Money team. I wanted to share my money story as
1:21
Speaker 2: listening to She's on the Money and my millennial money
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Speaker 2: has pivoted my mindset and set me up on the
1:25
Speaker 2: path to take control of my finances. Growing up with
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Speaker 2: a single mum who had nine credit cards, I thought
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Speaker 2: it was normal to have debt. After leaving home at
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Speaker 2: sixteen with nothing but the clothes on my back. I
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Speaker 2: used centraling to survive between the ages of sixteen and eighteen,
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Speaker 2: and then found myself in a world of credit cards
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Speaker 2: and personal loans after spending the last decade in debt.
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Speaker 2: In two years of listening to your pod, I've been
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Speaker 2: able to double my income, become free of debt with
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Speaker 2: an emergency fund, and I'm on my way to saving
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Speaker 2: for my first home and creating natural freedom for myself.
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Speaker 2: I want the community members who are struggling to know
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Speaker 2: that it doesn't matter what your upbringing looked like. You
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Speaker 2: can change your mindset and your habits to achieve the
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Speaker 2: life you want. Money Diarist, This is going to be
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Speaker 2: one of my favorite diaries ever. I can already feel it.
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Speaker 3: Welcome to the show, Thank you for having me.
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Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, no, what a story. I love that
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Speaker 2: it's really mindset based and that you've gone through all
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Speaker 2: this stuff but you're like, Nope, you can do whatever
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Speaker 2: you want. I feel like that's going to be so
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Speaker 2: motivating for so many people. Before we jump into the
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Speaker 2: thick of it, which is my favorite part, I want
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Speaker 2: to know if you were to give your money habits
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Speaker 2: a grade, what would that grade be?
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Speaker 3: At the moment, I think I'd probably be about a
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Speaker 3: B plus A B plus.
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Speaker 2: All right, let's learn a little bit more about it,
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Speaker 2: money direst. You showed us in your letter a little
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Speaker 2: bit about your money story, but I want to know more.
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Speaker 2: So can you tell us a little bit more about
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Speaker 2: your money story?
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Speaker 3: Yeah? Sure. So it was quite a troubled upbringing. Yeah.
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Speaker 3: As I said, raised by a single mother, and although
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Speaker 3: she provided well for us financially, emotionally and support wise,
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Speaker 3: we struggled. We didn't necessarily have a great connection, and
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Speaker 3: unfortunately sometimes it was quite abusive, so we didn't have
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Speaker 3: a lot of mentorship around how to handle finances. I
3:24
Speaker 3: just knew that that's how she funded our lifestyle, so
3:29
Speaker 3: we never went without. We had passes to theme parks,
3:31
Speaker 3: we went on holidays quite frequently, but that was all
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Speaker 3: funded through debt. At the time, I thought it was normal,
3:37
Speaker 3: just because obviously she was working and raising two children
3:41
Speaker 3: on her own. But that obviously did have quite a
3:44
Speaker 3: large impact on my financial story. I wanted to start
3:49
Speaker 3: working as soon as possible because I understood them. You know,
3:51
Speaker 3: to get the things that you want in life, you
3:53
Speaker 3: need to have your own income. So as soon as
3:55
Speaker 3: I turned fourteen and was able to work, I started working. Unfortunately,
3:59
Speaker 3: I wasn't able to have access to the money that
4:01
Speaker 3: I was working for, so I didn't have an appreciation
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Speaker 3: for how to save. My Mum held my key card
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Speaker 3: so I could spend when she advised me, and I
4:12
Speaker 3: think that that was to my detriment, Whereas if I
4:15
Speaker 3: was able to earn and spend at a young age,
4:18
Speaker 3: I would have more of an understanding of how to
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Speaker 3: budget for certain things that I would want and avoid
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Speaker 3: having that instant gratification rather than budgeting more correctly.
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Speaker 2: Do you think that that came from her just trying
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Speaker 2: to protect you in a way, from like, you know,
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Speaker 2: running out of money or was that more a control
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Speaker 2: feature of your relationship?
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Speaker 1: Yeah?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so everything was under control. I was quite independent
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Speaker 3: and was from quite a young age, and that was
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Speaker 3: quite a sore spot for our relationship. It wasn't not
4:47
Speaker 3: long after that I started working that our relationship really
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Speaker 3: went downhill and led to me being kicked out at home.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, wow, And what did that look like? Obviously
4:58
Speaker 2: you got your first job, where are you working? What
5:00
Speaker 2: type of role were you doing?
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Speaker 3: Hj's as a retail.
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Speaker 2: Like that, and how often were you working? Was it
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Speaker 2: like a couple of days or a couple of just
5:10
Speaker 2: hours on one day or what did that journey look like?
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Speaker 3: Yes, I'd work both days on the weekend and working
5:16
Speaker 3: nighttime when I could after school. But obviously school played
5:19
Speaker 3: a massive factor in how many hours you could work.
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Speaker 3: But working for a whole eight dollars back in the day.
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Speaker 2: Oh, check that out. Do you know what at the time,
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Speaker 2: eight dollars would have sounded really good?
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Speaker 3: Felt rich?
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Speaker 2: Yeah? One percent eight dollars at that time is really good.
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Speaker 2: Really frustrating though that you couldn't access it. Did that
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Speaker 2: lead to lots of like arguments or did that lead
5:39
Speaker 2: to a lot of resentment or what did that look like?
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Speaker 3: Not necessarily so, I've always I wouldn't say be materialistic,
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Speaker 3: but I like nice things. I like living related. I'm
5:49
Speaker 3: very proud of my home. And even back then, like
5:51
Speaker 3: when I was fifteen, I wanted to buy a rug.
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Speaker 3: So I was able to buy myself a six hundred
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Speaker 3: dollars rug at fifteen, like.
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Speaker 2: My gosh, eight dollars an hour. That ra was worth
6:00
Speaker 2: a lot of hours of work.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and was able to fund a snow trip through school.
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Speaker 3: So I was able to buy things with that money,
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Speaker 3: But it would have been more beneficial to my future
6:11
Speaker 3: self if I had been able to trial an error.
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Speaker 3: Obviously I would have spent more if I had had
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Speaker 3: access to that, and may not have been able to
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Speaker 3: buy the nice things, but I would have built a
6:22
Speaker 3: better foundation.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, I feel like it's really interesting talking to
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Speaker 2: people about their money stories, especially first up, because obviously
6:30
Speaker 2: I'm going to be like, Okay, what do you am,
6:32
Speaker 2: what do you spend? All of those questions, But just
6:35
Speaker 2: learning a little bit about the mindset side of things
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Speaker 2: is to me so interesting because having gone through the
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Speaker 2: mindset of having things taken off you and you're spending
6:44
Speaker 2: controlled all the way through to you know, creating financial
6:48
Speaker 2: freedom to yourself. Can we talk about the pivot point
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Speaker 2: of that, because I feel like that's a massive mindset
6:53
Speaker 2: shift from someone controlling you to your going I can
6:56
Speaker 2: control my entire life and create the life I deserve
6:59
Speaker 2: and the life I How do we do that?
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Speaker 3: Podcasts apparently in some books. Unfortunately, but also fortunately it's
7:08
Speaker 3: only happened in the past couple of years. So between
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Speaker 3: eighteen and twenty eight, I was in a revolving door
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Speaker 3: of getting myself in debt and then out of debt.
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Speaker 3: You know, when I first turned eighteen, I was like, Okay,
7:19
Speaker 3: I have no family, I'm living out on my own.
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Speaker 3: I was earning a decent income for my age, but
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Speaker 3: I just I've always lived beyond my means to that point.
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Speaker 3: So I would earn enough to cover groceries, live a
7:31
Speaker 3: decent lifestyle, but then you know, I would want to
7:34
Speaker 3: shout my friend's drinks or go shopping and wanted to
7:37
Speaker 3: get a TV, these nice things for myself, and I
7:41
Speaker 3: was like, oh, I just need a safety net. I'll
7:43
Speaker 3: get a five hundred dollars credit card, and that was
7:47
Speaker 3: the spiral. Then I went and got a TV on
7:50
Speaker 3: Go MasterCard and it just went downhill from there. So
7:54
Speaker 3: constantly refinancing, getting rebalanced credit cards just to try I
8:00
Speaker 3: avoid that interest. I don't know how I was smart
8:03
Speaker 3: enough to know that interest was bad, but debt was good,
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Speaker 3: Like it was okay to be in debt as long
8:10
Speaker 3: as I kept paying it. Down so I could always
8:12
Speaker 3: reford the repayments. I've never default on it on anything,
8:15
Speaker 3: but I've had numerous personal loans. I wish that I
8:18
Speaker 3: quantified it, but at least five personal loans, probably about
8:21
Speaker 3: ten credit cards just in that eight year period, paying
8:24
Speaker 3: them down, getting a balanced transfer, trying to avoid any
8:27
Speaker 3: additional fees, but just constantly living beyond my means.
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Speaker 2: I feel like that's really relatable though, Like it's part
8:35
Speaker 2: of my money story that when I first went to
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Speaker 2: UNI and got out of UNI, I ended up in
8:42
Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars worth of personal debt and that all
8:45
Speaker 2: started in exactly the same position as you, with a
8:47
Speaker 2: five hundred dollars credit card that I got because I
8:49
Speaker 2: was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to go get this,
8:52
Speaker 2: and it was my Virgin Money credit card because I
8:54
Speaker 2: felt like Virgin was better because you were getting some points.
8:57
Speaker 2: Like that's a good idea, right, that's money saving in
8:59
Speaker 2: my savvy. So I got this five hundred dollars Virgin
9:03
Speaker 2: credit card once I got out of UNI, and I
9:06
Speaker 2: thought that's going to be my buffer, and then yeah,
9:08
Speaker 2: it kind of just spirals out of control because this
9:12
Speaker 2: piece of plastic enables you to live a lifestyle that
9:14
Speaker 2: you didn't have access to before. You're like, well, this
9:17
Speaker 2: is fine, Like carrying debts fine as long as I'm not,
9:19
Speaker 2: you know, racking up a whole heap of interest. That's smart.
9:23
Speaker 2: And I just think that financial literacy, especially in schools,
9:27
Speaker 2: especially during our journey as a young teen, especially with
9:31
Speaker 2: our first jobs, does us a bit of a dirty
9:34
Speaker 2: because you just don't know what you don't know. I
9:36
Speaker 2: too knew the interest was bad. I don't want to
9:38
Speaker 2: pay money for owing money, but I'll pay you back
9:40
Speaker 2: the money that I owe you. That didn't feel too bad.
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Speaker 2: And I think it's one of those things that once
9:45
Speaker 2: you start learning about the flip side, you go, oh,
9:47
Speaker 2: my gosh, this is not how I should be doing it.
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Speaker 2: This is not how the smart people are doing it,
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Speaker 2: this is not how the wealthy are doing it, and
9:54
Speaker 2: you just go oh, and I feel like there's then
9:56
Speaker 2: a really bad layer of guilt, feel awful, and you
10:01
Speaker 2: feel a little bit ashamed of the way that you've
10:03
Speaker 2: been managing money, especially when you start to realize other
10:06
Speaker 2: people weren't doing the same thing.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, most definitely, I think a hard thing for me
10:10
Speaker 3: is that everyone around. All of my close friends have
10:14
Speaker 3: had a lot of financial support from their parents, so
10:18
Speaker 3: I never felt like I was going without because I
10:21
Speaker 3: was able to finance it myself. But I did feel
10:23
Speaker 3: bad that I wasn't doing and even to this day,
10:25
Speaker 3: like I still don't have the things that they necessarily have,
10:28
Speaker 3: but I have to constantly remind myself that I'm doing
10:31
Speaker 3: it on my own and that's okay. But it took
10:33
Speaker 3: me a long time to come to terms with the
10:36
Speaker 3: fact that you're never going to be at the same
10:38
Speaker 3: pace as everyone else. Yeah, you just got to stick
10:41
Speaker 3: in your own lane and educate yourself. I'm a massive
10:43
Speaker 3: advocate now for educating yourself on financial literacy, and it's
10:47
Speaker 3: such a shame that it's not taught in schools, even
10:50
Speaker 3: the basic fundamentals of tax and super and these are
10:55
Speaker 3: life altering decisions. People really need to be educated about
10:58
Speaker 3: that in the final years of school, and it's such
11:00
Speaker 3: a shame that it's not the case.
11:02
Speaker 2: Oh well, it keeps the world revolving, keeps the world
11:04
Speaker 2: in debt. I feel like that's maybe what they want
11:07
Speaker 2: in a way. Yeah, I feel like it's so interesting
11:11
Speaker 2: having this conversation because I immediately feel like I resonate
11:14
Speaker 2: with you, and I guess your story. I want to
11:16
Speaker 2: know now though, because obviously you've changed gears and you've
11:19
Speaker 2: been like, okay, I'm going to go from maybe not
11:22
Speaker 2: being in control to being in complete control. And our
11:26
Speaker 2: producer told me that you have your dream job, so
11:28
Speaker 2: I want to know about that. So what do you
11:30
Speaker 2: do for work and how much money do you earn?
11:32
Speaker 3: So I'm an analyst in the energy industry and I
11:36
Speaker 3: recently started my dream role late last year and with
11:40
Speaker 3: bonuses and the base salary on one hundred and just
11:44
Speaker 3: over one hundred and thirty. Oh my god, plus super Yeah,
11:48
Speaker 3: I'm still pinching myself.
11:49
Speaker 2: Are you kiddy?
11:51
Speaker 3: That's incredible?
11:52
Speaker 2: Good is that? I feel like, I don't know. You
11:55
Speaker 2: set this up. You set me up. You were like, oh,
11:58
Speaker 2: I can't afford the same things that my friend's skin afford.
12:01
Speaker 2: I'm not in the same position as them. Like I
12:03
Speaker 2: worked until twenty eight and only just really what you're
12:06
Speaker 2: a month thirty, You're going to be like running rings
12:08
Speaker 2: around people? Give it ten years?
12:10
Speaker 3: Oh not even Yeah, So I guess the benefit of
12:15
Speaker 3: Everything's happened in such a perfect way in the sense
12:18
Speaker 3: of when I was twenty seven, I was earning sixty
12:20
Speaker 3: K and I'd outgrown that workplace. I just finished UNI,
12:25
Speaker 3: and the boss was like, oh, you know, I understand
12:27
Speaker 3: you've just finished UNI, but I don't think that it's
12:29
Speaker 3: suitable to give you a raise at this point in
12:31
Speaker 3: the bin, essentially saying that he didn't think that I
12:34
Speaker 3: was worth that money at that time.
12:35
Speaker 2: Good luck replacing me.
12:37
Speaker 3: But I was managing his business and a team of
12:41
Speaker 3: six people, so that felt otherwise, and I knew it
12:45
Speaker 3: was time to move on. So I'd always had a
12:47
Speaker 3: dream company in mind, just really appreciative of the customer
12:51
Speaker 3: service and the way that their staff were. So somehow
12:55
Speaker 3: managed to reach out to a recruiter and land a
12:57
Speaker 3: job there.
12:58
Speaker 2: What you just like said, oh, this is my dream company,
13:01
Speaker 2: And the recruiter was like, yes, Queen, I will make
13:03
Speaker 2: that happen. And it happens.
13:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know how I do again, still pinch myself.
13:08
Speaker 2: Now, I know how you worked hard, you knew your worth,
13:11
Speaker 2: you knew what you wanted, and you manifested it. So
13:13
Speaker 2: it came true, Like it makes sense to me.
13:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so great. I love it. So within two
13:20
Speaker 3: years I've been working at that company. I've had two promotions.
13:24
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you don't get a promotion if you're
13:27
Speaker 2: not good at your job, Babe. I don't know how
13:29
Speaker 2: to tell you this.
13:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.
13:30
Speaker 3: No, I think it's my attitude, like because I've wanted
13:35
Speaker 3: it and I'm passionate about it, and I guess that
13:38
Speaker 3: just sort of flows through. I've always had amazing work ethic.
13:40
Speaker 3: That's probably one of the best things that I'm proud
13:42
Speaker 3: of myself. I always find it difficult to find good
13:46
Speaker 3: qualities in myself, but my work ethic is something that's
13:50
Speaker 3: never faulted. So yeah, So I had two promotions and
13:54
Speaker 3: I felt bad late last year because i'd only been
13:56
Speaker 3: in the role for a few months, leaving the role
13:59
Speaker 3: that I was in but it wasn't really serving me.
14:02
Speaker 3: And when the opportunity came up to become an analyst,
14:05
Speaker 3: I knew that I had to do it and now
14:07
Speaker 3: otherwise i'd regret it. And everything's just fallen into place.
14:11
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so proud, and I can see how proud
14:13
Speaker 2: you are of you. I wish everyone could see your
14:15
Speaker 2: face right now, because you're glowing. You're like beaming, You're
14:17
Speaker 2: so happy, You're smiling like I can tell that that
14:20
Speaker 2: means a lot to you, even more than just I
14:23
Speaker 2: guess the remuneration of the role as well.
14:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, most definitely. I think last year when I chose
14:29
Speaker 3: the role I originally took, I actually regretted it. So
14:33
Speaker 3: I chose the role for financial purposes. It was providing
14:37
Speaker 3: me a twenty five K increase, and I was like,
14:40
Speaker 3: how can I pass this up?
14:42
Speaker 2: How can I not?
14:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I just thought I have to do it,
14:46
Speaker 3: and I knew I was going to do well in
14:47
Speaker 3: the role. It wasn't necessarily where I wanted to go,
14:50
Speaker 3: but I knew I was going to do well because
14:52
Speaker 3: that's where my career has led me to. So I
14:55
Speaker 3: took it. But after a few months, I just it
14:57
Speaker 3: wasn't the right fit and I did regret choosing it
15:00
Speaker 3: because of the financial reasons. It really deviated from my values.
15:04
Speaker 3: So I've let my lesson there.
15:06
Speaker 2: Oh I'm glad you kind of went through that, especially
15:09
Speaker 2: before finding this role, because in this role, it's kind
15:14
Speaker 2: of like you know you're worth, you know what you're getting.
15:17
Speaker 2: Obviously it's an epic paycheck, but at the crux of it,
15:20
Speaker 2: you also know that that's not the only reason you're there.
15:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, most definitely, And now this role is challenging me.
15:27
Speaker 3: The team are incredible and I'm getting an awesome paycheck.
15:31
Speaker 2: My gosh, financial freedom come at you. Let's talk about
15:35
Speaker 2: your money goals. What are you working towards? What is
15:38
Speaker 2: your big money goal at the moment.
15:40
Speaker 3: I'm currently saving for a house, my first time.
15:42
Speaker 2: How are we doing on that front?
15:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're getting there. I've only got eleven K saved.
15:47
Speaker 2: Only into the bin. My friend, I have eleven grand saved.
15:52
Speaker 2: What a journey.
15:54
Speaker 3: Yes, When I first started this company, I started I'd
15:56
Speaker 3: listen to Barefoot Investor. Yeah, and then I started looking
15:59
Speaker 3: at otherwise to help myself get more financially literate. So
16:04
Speaker 3: I literally binge listened to every single episode of She's
16:07
Speaker 3: on the Money.
16:07
Speaker 2: So you're really sick of my voice by now? I
16:10
Speaker 2: like it.
16:10
Speaker 3: No, it's a routine, it's a ritual. Like even though
16:13
Speaker 3: sometimes this stuff doesn't necessarily resonate with me or I've
16:16
Speaker 3: outgrown it, I think it helps keep me on track
16:18
Speaker 3: and accountable if I am ever second guessing myself. Oh,
16:21
Speaker 3: I love that I had money in savings and then
16:24
Speaker 3: I still had a credit card debt, and I was like,
16:26
Speaker 3: you know what, Like I had a chunk of interest
16:28
Speaker 3: come through, and I was like, I've got more money
16:30
Speaker 3: in my savings than I have that I could pay
16:32
Speaker 3: this credit card off and not get interests, Like what
16:34
Speaker 3: am I doing? And so I paid that off and
16:37
Speaker 3: it was honestly the best feeling in the world. So
16:40
Speaker 3: it's been eighteen months now being debt free, Queen behavior,
16:44
Speaker 3: I'm so excited for you and saving about thirty five percent,
16:50
Speaker 3: trying to get to forty percent of my salary towards saving.
16:54
Speaker 2: How cool.
16:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, so been able to save for a trip for
16:58
Speaker 3: my thirtieth to go to Europe for a few weeks.
17:01
Speaker 3: So I'm excited for that. And yeah, now just purely
17:03
Speaker 3: focusing on the house. But I just think that everything
17:07
Speaker 3: happened really well in the sense of getting a job
17:09
Speaker 3: and getting these large increases in income. I'm glad that
17:12
Speaker 3: my mindset had shifted.
17:14
Speaker 2: Before that happened.
17:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, I can only imagine how I would have
17:19
Speaker 3: been spending my money beforehand with this sort of money
17:21
Speaker 3: now and going, oh, well, I'm owning all of this money,
17:23
Speaker 3: I can I can spend more, you know, Whereas now
17:26
Speaker 3: I'm so conscious of wanting to achieve so many goals.
17:29
Speaker 2: How exciting. What would happen if we went back to
17:33
Speaker 2: twenty five year old you and said, hey, by the way,
17:36
Speaker 2: this is what life looks like at twenty eight, twenty nine.
17:39
Speaker 2: What would twenty five year old you think already?
17:44
Speaker 3: She achieved it already. I feel like I definitely would
17:49
Speaker 3: have gotten there eventually. From a young age. I always
17:52
Speaker 3: wanted to have my own home. I definitely just feel
17:55
Speaker 3: as though it's security for me. Yeah, one hundred percent,
17:58
Speaker 3: something that's mine that no one can take away from me.
18:00
Speaker 3: So I always knew by the time I was thirty
18:02
Speaker 3: that I wanted to achieve that. It might not be
18:04
Speaker 3: right on thirty, but I'm definitely going to get there.
18:07
Speaker 2: No, you've got that security, you've got that job, like
18:10
Speaker 2: one hundred percent. It's crazy the pressure that we put
18:13
Speaker 2: on ourselves to achieve things before thirty. I found a
18:17
Speaker 2: diary entry from twenty one year old me, and I
18:21
Speaker 2: look at it and I just go, Victoria, there's so
18:24
Speaker 2: much more to life than what you thought you'd have
18:26
Speaker 2: at thirty. Like, there's this diary entry, and it's in
18:29
Speaker 2: this dumb diary, and it was right before I broke
18:32
Speaker 2: up with a long term partner, and I was kind
18:34
Speaker 2: of like, you know, journaling because I was stressed and
18:36
Speaker 2: kind of knew what was coming and didn't know what
18:38
Speaker 2: was there. And it's like this letter to myself and
18:40
Speaker 2: it's kind of like, at thirty, you'll have a job
18:43
Speaker 2: and you'll be earning at least six figures. Like that
18:46
Speaker 2: was to me a really big For some reason in
18:49
Speaker 2: my head, I was like, you have to do that
18:50
Speaker 2: by thirty, Victoria. And now it just like makes no sense,
18:53
Speaker 2: Like that's such a naff way of looking at life.
18:57
Speaker 2: I also was apparently going to already have two children,
19:00
Speaker 2: I would have already been married, I already would have
19:03
Speaker 2: owned a house, and just all this stuff that I
19:06
Speaker 2: was like, those are milestones, yes, but that doesn't mean
19:09
Speaker 2: I would have been happy with the life that I
19:12
Speaker 2: thought I was going to create for myself. And I
19:14
Speaker 2: just think that we put so much pressure on ourselves.
19:17
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it's so gratifying to go, oh,
19:20
Speaker 2: my gosh, past me would actually be really proud of
19:22
Speaker 2: where we are, Like past me would be like, Wow,
19:25
Speaker 2: there's a lot more to life than just earning six figures,
19:28
Speaker 2: or there's a lot more to life than you know,
19:30
Speaker 2: just getting a house and just doing these things. Because
19:32
Speaker 2: now if you ask me what my values are in life,
19:35
Speaker 2: I'm like, have you met my pets? Have you met
19:37
Speaker 2: my friends? Like they're the coolest things ever. So I
19:40
Speaker 2: just think it's such an exciting period of life, especially
19:43
Speaker 2: when you start coming into this like world of creating
19:46
Speaker 2: financial freedom. It opens up so much more than what
19:51
Speaker 2: twenty one year old Victoria thought, which was designer bags
19:54
Speaker 2: and shoes and you know, all of the markers of success,
19:57
Speaker 2: but not really the excitement around it. Yeah, all right,
20:00
Speaker 2: I want to ask you a whole heap more questions,
20:01
Speaker 2: but I'm going to go to a really quick break
20:03
Speaker 2: and on the flip side, we're going to talk about debts, investments.
20:06
Speaker 2: I want to know about your best and your worst
20:08
Speaker 2: money habits and how you've managed to avoid lifestyle greep. Alright, guys,
20:12
Speaker 2: don't go anywhere. All right, money direst we are back.
20:20
Speaker 2: You have now saved eleven grand, which is epic towards
20:23
Speaker 2: your first home. You're out of debt and have been
20:26
Speaker 2: debt free for eighteen months now, which is so cool.
20:30
Speaker 2: But I want to know are you investing If so, what.
20:33
Speaker 3: In yes, I am I started in cheersas say she's
20:38
Speaker 3: on the money. I have recently just transferred over to Comsex.
20:43
Speaker 3: I have about five thousand invested now.
20:46
Speaker 2: Oh big Dog Energy.
20:48
Speaker 3: So yeah, just focusing on building that up slowly.
20:52
Speaker 2: What's the plan there, like, what made you change platforms?
20:55
Speaker 2: And how have you chosen the investments that you've got.
20:57
Speaker 3: I'm really focusing on diversification. I've got a couple of
21:01
Speaker 3: high risk lithium stocks in cheesy is that I'll just
21:04
Speaker 3: keep there just for growth. But the main thing that
21:06
Speaker 3: I wanted to focus on was ETFs that were going
21:10
Speaker 3: to provide me with diversification and a little bit of
21:14
Speaker 3: lower risk that pay a dividend. So I can just
21:16
Speaker 3: reinvest that and just let it grow and not touch it,
21:19
Speaker 3: not overthink it.
21:20
Speaker 2: I love it, and we already know you don't have
21:23
Speaker 2: any debts, so I feel like that's a pretty redundant question.
21:27
Speaker 3: I do have hex stet.
21:29
Speaker 2: Oh okay, what hextet have you got?
21:31
Speaker 3: So sitting at about thirty three k at the moment,
21:35
Speaker 3: So looking forward to indexation in June.
21:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say, they're talking about indexation
21:40
Speaker 2: being at about seven percent this year which makes me
21:43
Speaker 2: feel physically ill. And guys, don't worry. There's an entire
21:46
Speaker 2: episode coming on how to manage that and what that
21:49
Speaker 2: means and how that's going to work. But money, dicet,
21:52
Speaker 2: I want to know what are your thoughts on that
21:54
Speaker 2: as somebody who is all over it. Are you going
21:58
Speaker 2: to be paying more off? Of you not going to
21:59
Speaker 2: be paying more off? Where is your head.
22:01
Speaker 3: At for the two grand I'm going to get whacked
22:03
Speaker 3: with if it's seven percent, I'm not gonna worry about
22:06
Speaker 3: paying it off. I'd rather have that money sit there
22:08
Speaker 3: in my bank account ready for my home loan. Unfortunately,
22:13
Speaker 3: having hextut does wipe off about one hundred k off
22:16
Speaker 3: my borrowing capacity, so I did think about taking care
22:19
Speaker 3: of it. But yeah, look, it's just going to sit
22:21
Speaker 3: there in the background, and it's better than having, you know,
22:23
Speaker 3: an interest loan paying off that. Like the education has
22:28
Speaker 3: allowed me to get the income that I have, so
22:31
Speaker 3: I'm happy to just write it out.
22:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, that's fair, and I think that that's where
22:35
Speaker 2: a lot of us are at. Yes, it wipes off
22:37
Speaker 2: some borrowing capacity, but also you know what wipes borrowing
22:41
Speaker 2: capacity is not having enough of a deposit, and it's
22:44
Speaker 2: kind of like weighing up what the difference between those
22:46
Speaker 2: two things is actually going to look like and how
22:49
Speaker 2: that works. And to be honest, the best thing you
22:51
Speaker 2: can do is actually talk to a mortgage broker sooner
22:54
Speaker 2: rather than later, because they're going to be able to
22:55
Speaker 2: tell you, especially if your goal is to buy a property. Okay, well,
22:59
Speaker 2: this is what your HEX set personally looks like. I've
23:03
Speaker 2: thought for ages. I was like, oh my gosh. You
23:05
Speaker 2: know what it would be really cool is a table
23:06
Speaker 2: where I could tell you how much your borrowing capacity
23:09
Speaker 2: is impacted by HEX. So like, if it's thirty thousand dollars, okay,
23:13
Speaker 2: well it will be impacted by about one hundred grand,
23:15
Speaker 2: or if it's more or less. But the problem is
23:18
Speaker 2: the variable of income, and then the variable of whether
23:20
Speaker 2: you're going to be buying with a partner or not,
23:22
Speaker 2: and what their income is, and whether you have any
23:24
Speaker 2: other debts or any other liabilities. And it's just it's
23:27
Speaker 2: not a table I can create, sadly, because it's just
23:30
Speaker 2: not going to work. But it's one of those things
23:33
Speaker 2: that I think a lot of people stress about. And
23:35
Speaker 2: if you're stressing about it, go talk to a mortgage
23:37
Speaker 2: broker and they'll be able to tell you exactly what
23:40
Speaker 2: your personal situation looks like, because googling isn't going to
23:43
Speaker 2: do that. Unfortunately.
23:45
Speaker 3: If it was sitting at five, I probably would on
23:47
Speaker 3: the basis that it would give me just under one
23:49
Speaker 3: thousand dollars a month extra in my pocket, and also
23:52
Speaker 3: it would help me with my borrowing capacity. But given
23:55
Speaker 3: the amount that it is, I'm just going to write
23:57
Speaker 3: it out and not to mention it over COVID it
24:00
Speaker 3: was so low, like twenty twenty one it was only
24:03
Speaker 3: nine hundred dollars.
24:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
24:04
Speaker 3: So we've just got to keep in mind that, yes, okay,
24:07
Speaker 3: this is going to be pretty high this year, and
24:09
Speaker 3: it does suck, but in relation to the past couple
24:12
Speaker 3: of years, like if we average it all out, we're
24:14
Speaker 3: all good.
24:14
Speaker 2: Exactly. To people who currently are in debt and looking
24:18
Speaker 2: at your story, going wow, how did you go from
24:21
Speaker 2: growing up with a mum who had nine credit cards,
24:23
Speaker 2: so then you having ten credit cards and personal loans
24:26
Speaker 2: and cycling through that to being in the financially responsible
24:29
Speaker 2: position you're in now? What would you say to people
24:32
Speaker 2: who currently have debt who maybe just don't want debt anymore,
24:36
Speaker 2: but don't even know where to start.
24:37
Speaker 3: Baby steps a sessious situation, and there's so many different
24:41
Speaker 3: ways to knock down your debt, but do things that
24:45
Speaker 3: are going to help you hit milestone sooner so you
24:47
Speaker 3: can get that feeling, because nothing beats it when you
24:50
Speaker 3: pay off a credit card and you get to shut
24:52
Speaker 3: it down. It is the best feeling.
24:54
Speaker 2: It actually is. I feel like someone should jump out
24:57
Speaker 2: of like a cupboard or something with like party poppers
24:59
Speaker 2: and pay and celebrate, because that's exactly what I expected
25:02
Speaker 2: to happen when I paid mine.
25:03
Speaker 3: Not for yourself, do it for yourself. No one else
25:06
Speaker 3: is going to. But I tell you what, it's a
25:08
Speaker 3: bloody good feeling, especially after you've been in it for
25:10
Speaker 3: so long and it is such a hard slog to
25:13
Speaker 3: see light at the end of the tunnel. Start with
25:15
Speaker 3: your after pay. I think that was definitely the first
25:18
Speaker 3: thing I got rid of, and then yeah, just paid
25:20
Speaker 3: down that credit card. Obviously, the increases in my income
25:24
Speaker 3: were a massive help to myself, and I'm not going
25:27
Speaker 3: to discount that, you know, Like I made sure that
25:29
Speaker 3: when I got paid extra, I wasn't spending that, I
25:33
Speaker 3: was saving it. Prior to saving it, I was paying
25:35
Speaker 3: off my debt, so that does help, so find additional
25:38
Speaker 3: ways to make income to get rid of that debt.
25:41
Speaker 3: It makes such a big difference.
25:42
Speaker 2: Once it's gone, you just feel so light, you do,
25:46
Speaker 2: there's just not.
25:46
Speaker 3: A care in the world. And then having an emergency
25:49
Speaker 3: fund finally and understanding that no matter what, I'm going
25:52
Speaker 3: to be all good, Like if anything happens to my
25:54
Speaker 3: dog or a medical expense, like, I'm all good, and
25:57
Speaker 3: it's such an amazing feeling.
25:59
Speaker 2: The bear. I feel like you have some good money habits.
26:02
Speaker 2: So now I want to know what do you think
26:04
Speaker 2: your best money habit is?
26:05
Speaker 3: Budgeting down Yeah, I'm.
26:08
Speaker 2: Not surprised by this at all.
26:10
Speaker 3: I've always been good at budgeting, you know, even when
26:12
Speaker 3: I was in debt, I always, you know, figured out
26:14
Speaker 3: what my monthly expenses would be and put a set
26:16
Speaker 3: amount away each week into my bill hub. So I
26:19
Speaker 3: don't know again where I got that information from, because
26:22
Speaker 3: I was doing that from the age is you know, eighteen,
26:24
Speaker 3: But that budgeting is definitely my best money habit.
26:27
Speaker 2: What kind of budgeting are you doing? Are you doing
26:29
Speaker 2: the type of budgeting where you sit down and go okay,
26:32
Speaker 2: cool money dice. You only get fifty dollars a week
26:34
Speaker 2: for groceries, and you only get this, this, this, and this.
26:36
Speaker 2: Is it like a restrictive type of budget or is
26:39
Speaker 2: it the type of budget where you just tracking income
26:41
Speaker 2: or what does that actually look like?
26:43
Speaker 3: It is definitely more strict. But I tend to be
26:48
Speaker 3: a bit guilty with the way I spend, Like if
26:50
Speaker 3: I take money out of my savings, I feel very
26:52
Speaker 3: guilty now, so if I'm buying something, you know, I
26:55
Speaker 3: value lunches out, which is probably my worst money habit,
27:00
Speaker 3: and dinners out. But yeah, so it's very strict, like
27:02
Speaker 3: I will understand what my monthly or annual costs are
27:06
Speaker 3: and then I put that into my bill hub and
27:08
Speaker 3: then I've got my savings goals so everything's accounted for.
27:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, awesome. I love that. I also find it so
27:15
Speaker 2: interesting because when one person says, oh, I'm really good
27:18
Speaker 2: at budgeting, that actually could mean something really different to
27:21
Speaker 2: somebody else, because the way I budget is more around
27:25
Speaker 2: tracking my spending and making sure that I'm okay with
27:28
Speaker 2: that spend rather than setting a goal of okay, well, Victoria,
27:31
Speaker 2: your groceries are going to be X like I don't
27:33
Speaker 2: do that. I flip it around and go, okay, cool,
27:36
Speaker 2: you're on average spending this on groceries. Are you okay
27:39
Speaker 2: with it?
27:40
Speaker 3: All?
27:40
Speaker 2: Right? Well, if you don't want to change that, you're
27:42
Speaker 2: going to have to change something else. And it's less
27:45
Speaker 2: about restriction for me because I just know I'm not
27:47
Speaker 2: going to stick to it, like it's just not going
27:49
Speaker 2: to happen in my life. And I think that it's
27:52
Speaker 2: interesting to learn the way that other people manage that,
27:55
Speaker 2: because there's different forms of budgeting, and there's different flows,
27:59
Speaker 2: and there's different diferent ways that we're all motivated. And
28:02
Speaker 2: I just find it so pervy to be like, how
28:04
Speaker 2: do you do that? What does that actually mean? Because
28:06
Speaker 2: like one of our team members, Jess, you've probably heard
28:08
Speaker 2: her on the podcast before if you've listening to every
28:10
Speaker 2: single one, she has so many accounts for everything like clothes,
28:16
Speaker 2: for shoes, she has an account for makeup, hair and beauty.
28:19
Speaker 2: She has an account for literally everything. I could not
28:22
Speaker 2: think of anything worse. Like my ADHD would not allow
28:26
Speaker 2: me to have that many accounts and keep track of them,
28:29
Speaker 2: so I have to have like three and we call
28:31
Speaker 2: it a day there for you know, my average spend.
28:34
Speaker 2: But different people do different things, and it's so interesting
28:37
Speaker 2: to learn because you might look at somebody else's and go, oh,
28:39
Speaker 2: my gosh, that system would work so well for me.
28:42
Speaker 2: And that's why learning from other people is so important.
28:45
Speaker 3: Most definitely, well, I think I'm still struggling. I get
28:49
Speaker 3: paid monthly, and then it kills me. No matter how
28:52
Speaker 3: much I try and budget, I always taking money out
28:55
Speaker 3: of my savings and then having to replenish it the
28:59
Speaker 3: next month if I take too much out. You know,
29:00
Speaker 3: there's always like that little bit of a buffer. But
29:02
Speaker 3: I always make sure that I keep myself accountable. So yeah,
29:05
Speaker 3: strict budget and just constantly reviewing, Like you said, making
29:09
Speaker 3: sure you're okay with it, groceries has killed me. I'm
29:13
Speaker 3: constantly exceeding it every month.
29:15
Speaker 2: The rising cost of living is insane, Like I actually
29:18
Speaker 2: cannot believe how people are dealing with this because it's
29:22
Speaker 2: it's insane. Like my grocery budget has absolutely blown up,
29:26
Speaker 2: but the stuff I'm buying is exactly the same. Like
29:28
Speaker 2: why is it fifty dollars more perfect?
29:30
Speaker 1: Shop?
29:30
Speaker 2: Like I genuinely feel like the idea of even fifty bucks,
29:33
Speaker 2: Like historically, to me, fifty dollars was heaps of money,
29:37
Speaker 2: and it still is. Like I'm not gonna you know,
29:39
Speaker 2: absolutely pooh proo that. But I feel like you don't
29:41
Speaker 2: get that much change from fifty bucks for anything anymore. No,
29:45
Speaker 2: like go out for lunch fifty bucks, like I just
29:48
Speaker 2: I swear.
29:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely doesn't go the same distance unfortunately. So
29:52
Speaker 3: it's also just a matter of acknowledging that sometimes things
29:55
Speaker 3: aren't in your control. Like you can over analyze it
29:58
Speaker 3: a little bit, and then I think it makes you
29:59
Speaker 3: feel guilty because you feel like you're not doing enough.
30:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent.
30:02
Speaker 3: Well, speaking from experience, like that's definitely me. Like if
30:05
Speaker 3: I look at I've overspent for the month, I sort
30:08
Speaker 3: of try not to punish myself, but I am feeling
30:10
Speaker 3: guilty that I've not met the budget that I set
30:12
Speaker 3: for myself. So perhaps I need to review my strategy.
30:16
Speaker 2: And then that's unreasonable because then you look at your
30:18
Speaker 2: budget and you go, well, that wasn't actually going to
30:20
Speaker 2: work given the things I did this month, So it's crazy, right,
30:24
Speaker 2: Like I used to do exactly the same thing, and
30:26
Speaker 2: then you would crucify yourself over you know, spending over
30:29
Speaker 2: but you're like, yeah, but what you didn't take into
30:31
Speaker 2: consideration was that You've got friend's birthdates, my mum's birthday,
30:35
Speaker 2: I've got all these other things that needed to be
30:37
Speaker 2: taken into consideration in the budget. I didn't go over
30:40
Speaker 2: I just didn't plan efficiently the first time. Yeah, yeah, definitely,
30:44
Speaker 2: it's crazy. All right. Well, you mentioned maybe what your
30:47
Speaker 2: worst money habit is, but I want to know what
30:49
Speaker 2: do you think officially your worst money habit is.
30:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely over spending on eating out. Yeah, I just
30:55
Speaker 3: I really valuing nice dinners with friends, and then yeah,
30:58
Speaker 3: just the cheeky lunch on the weekends and things like that.
31:01
Speaker 3: So that sort of stuff can really blow the budget
31:03
Speaker 3: out quite quickly.
31:04
Speaker 2: I feel like we'd get along really well because that's
31:06
Speaker 2: exactly where I'm spending my money too. Don't worry. All right,
31:09
Speaker 2: we have covered a lot, and I am very conscious
31:11
Speaker 2: of time. But now that we've talked, I feel like
31:15
Speaker 2: I've got a good idea of who you are, and
31:17
Speaker 2: I'm genuinely so impressed. Not only do I think that
31:19
Speaker 2: we could probably be best friends, because everything that you're saying,
31:21
Speaker 2: I'm like, yep, I think we're on the same page.
31:23
Speaker 1: Yep.
31:23
Speaker 2: Oh you're like going out. Yep, me too, great one
31:25
Speaker 2: hundred percent. Your dog barked before, and I was like, great,
31:27
Speaker 2: she's a dog person. Ten out of ten love this.
31:30
Speaker 2: But I feel like you've come so far, Like you
31:32
Speaker 2: have this epic salary, you're already well onto the way
31:36
Speaker 2: of saving for your first home. You're saving thirty five
31:39
Speaker 2: percent of your salary, which is like mind blowing to me.
31:42
Speaker 2: You're planning for forty you have a five thousand dollars
31:45
Speaker 2: investment portfolio, You've got your emergency fund. You said really
31:49
Speaker 2: interesting things before when we're talking about your investment portfolio,
31:53
Speaker 2: like it was very well thought out. You were talking
31:56
Speaker 2: about the importance of diversification. Then you said I've got
31:58
Speaker 2: some high growth lithium stuff in there as well. I'm like,
32:01
Speaker 2: this woman's clearly switched on, like she knows what she's
32:03
Speaker 2: talking about. You've got a strategy for your hex, you've
32:06
Speaker 2: already thought about it. But you seem to think that
32:08
Speaker 2: you're just a B plus. Is that fair? Now we
32:12
Speaker 2: reflect on things.
32:14
Speaker 3: Or our own worst critic, I guess one hundred percent
32:17
Speaker 3: we are maybe as I think that there's always room
32:20
Speaker 3: for improvement, there's always.
32:22
Speaker 2: Room for improvement. But I was just when someone says
32:25
Speaker 2: B plus and then they come at me with the
32:27
Speaker 2: story that you've just told me, I'm like, nah, babe,
32:30
Speaker 2: you're not a B plus like and I think everyone
32:32
Speaker 2: listening to this is like, no, Victoria's right on this one.
32:35
Speaker 2: It's not often that I'm right, but my friend, I'm
32:37
Speaker 2: right today. But oh my gosh, I feel like this
32:39
Speaker 2: is such a motivating story. Your mindset is so beautiful,
32:43
Speaker 2: and I feel like having been able to share this
32:46
Speaker 2: time with you and understand how you pivoted your mindset
32:49
Speaker 2: and like, I guess what you grew up with and
32:51
Speaker 2: what has changed. It's really a story of exactly knowing
32:55
Speaker 2: that it doesn't matter what your upbringing looked like, you
32:57
Speaker 2: can actually create the life that you want and and
33:00
Speaker 2: actually being your control. Like it's wild to think that
33:04
Speaker 2: a little girl who grew up with a mum who
33:06
Speaker 2: controlled her finances and lived everything on credit now in
33:09
Speaker 2: s one hundred and thirty grand is saving for a
33:11
Speaker 2: first home and is absolutely killing it. Like how cool?
33:15
Speaker 3: Thank you?
33:15
Speaker 2: Isn't that like the best thing ever? Anyway, I'm so
33:17
Speaker 2: proud of you, and I know that the community is true,
33:19
Speaker 2: so thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
33:23
Speaker 2: I'm obsessed.
33:24
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for having me, and thank you
33:26
Speaker 3: for everything that you do for the community. Yeah, a
33:28
Speaker 3: massive advocate for you guys.
33:36
Speaker 2: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
33:38
Speaker 2: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
33:42
Speaker 2: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
33:46
Speaker 2: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
33:49
Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
33:52
Speaker 2: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
33:56
Speaker 2: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
33:59
Speaker 2: authorized representatives of money sirper P T Y L t
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Speaker 2: D A b N three two one six four nine
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Speaker 2: two seven seven zero eight a F s L four
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Speaker 2: five one two eight nine