Latest / She's On The Money / MONEY DIARIES: Open heart surgery, unpaid leave and smashing uni
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
- 0:23Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
- 0:26Speaker 2: for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Tony Lodge,
- 0:30Speaker 2: and joining me for another shot back Money Diary is
- 0:32Speaker 2: Miss Victoria Devine. Hello, Hello, Miss Tony Lodge. Great to
- 0:37Speaker 2: have you here again, and of course another great money
- 0:41Speaker 2: tarry for you.
- 0:42Speaker 3: That I've pulled out of the vault, ready to go.
- 0:44Speaker 2: I've never said pulled out of the vault in my life.
- 0:47Speaker 2: I thought i'd start now.
- 0:48Speaker 3: I mean, we're just trying to mix it up at
- 0:50Speaker 3: the start.
- 0:50Speaker 4: But I think you'll find Tony, you didn't pull this
- 0:53Speaker 4: one out of the vault. A little bird told me
- 0:55Speaker 4: Jess pulled this one out of the vault, handbulled it
- 0:58Speaker 4: straight over to you and you will like, yes, let
- 1:01Speaker 4: me on that. And didn't share any of the information
- 1:04Speaker 4: with me because I never do no, and it's kind
- 1:07Speaker 4: of rude, like you guys were excited about this one,
- 1:09Speaker 4: so jumping straight into it, Tony, can you read out
- 1:12Speaker 4: this week's Money direst email?
- 1:14Speaker 2: All right, here we go. Hi, She's on the Money team.
- 1:17Speaker 2: I have battled with health issues my whole life and
- 1:20Speaker 2: missed plenty of work because of appointments and hospital stays.
- 1:24Speaker 2: I was born with a heart condition and spent the
- 1:26Speaker 2: first three years of my life in and out of hospital,
- 1:29Speaker 2: with my parents not being able to work and receiving
- 1:31Speaker 2: no financial assistance during this time. I had my second
- 1:35Speaker 2: open heart surgery last year and had six weeks off
- 1:40Speaker 2: work without pay. As I'm a casual, I've recently been
- 1:44Speaker 2: diagnosed with a large tumor on my spine, and myself
- 1:47Speaker 2: and my family have spent thousands on medical bills to
- 1:49Speaker 2: get a diagnosis and preparing to pay for surgery, and
- 1:53Speaker 2: also preparing to take time off work without pay. Again,
- 1:56Speaker 2: I'm in UNI full time and on placement full time
- 2:00Speaker 2: and work casually when I can. I hope to share
- 2:02Speaker 2: my story with others like myself so people know they
- 2:05Speaker 2: aren't alone.
- 2:06Speaker 3: That's a lot, Wow, money Diarist.
- 2:10Speaker 4: As always, you're just hiding in the background while we
- 2:13Speaker 4: read out your email.
- 2:15Speaker 5: What a story, I know, yeah, very it's a lot,
- 2:19Speaker 5: but you know it's my life and it's as how
- 2:22Speaker 5: I've lived it, all full of twists and turns.
- 2:25Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
- 2:26Speaker 4: Well, without further ado, let's jump straight into our structured
- 2:30Speaker 4: questions because I don't want to get sidetracked. I have
- 2:33Speaker 4: a lot of questions ready, so I won't let myself
- 2:36Speaker 4: get railroaded this time. So let's jump straight in money, diarist,
- 2:41Speaker 4: what is your attitude towards money?
- 2:43Speaker 5: It's quite a long one, but I'll try and summon
- 2:45Speaker 5: up as much as I can. So, my mum has
- 2:49Speaker 5: always been very humble with money. She left home at fourteen,
- 2:52Speaker 5: became financially independent at sixteen.
- 2:55Speaker 3: Wow.
- 2:55Speaker 5: Yeah, she put herself through school, through UNI and work.
- 2:59Speaker 5: And then my dad was more. He came from more
- 3:02Speaker 5: of a wealthy family and he always had everything. And
- 3:05Speaker 5: then yeah, like I said, my mum was twenty three,
- 3:08Speaker 5: So the age I am when she had me, I
- 3:10Speaker 5: can't even imagine having a baby this age, you know,
- 3:13Speaker 5: let alone a sick baby.
- 3:14Speaker 2: I'm twenty seven, and I can't imagine having a baby
- 3:16Speaker 2: right now. Like I get it.
- 3:18Speaker 4: So I'm thirty and I'm still like what people are
- 3:21Speaker 4: having children like or a child yourself, Like I say,
- 3:25Speaker 4: a real adult as someone who has a child, and
- 3:28Speaker 4: I am still a child.
- 3:29Speaker 5: Yeah, same, but yeah no, yeah, So I was born
- 3:34Speaker 5: with a heart condition. I spent probably the first two
- 3:37Speaker 5: years of my life traveling because I lived in Canberra,
- 3:40Speaker 5: traveling to Sydney for my surgeries. I had my major
- 3:43Speaker 5: open heart surgery at sixteen months old. I had to
- 3:45Speaker 5: learn how to walk and sit up again, and it
- 3:47Speaker 5: was pretty full on. I had a lot of family
- 3:50Speaker 5: support though my parents had a lot of family support.
- 3:53Speaker 5: I don't know. About a year after my surgery, I
- 3:55Speaker 5: got really sick again and I almost died. And then, yeah,
- 3:58Speaker 5: it was really hard for my family, but they were
- 4:01Speaker 5: so supportive. And about two my mom and my dad
- 4:04Speaker 5: split up. But you know, I lived full time with
- 4:08Speaker 5: my mom and she was, you know, everything. She worked
- 4:11Speaker 5: so hard for me and provided me with much. We
- 4:13Speaker 5: didn't have a lot, but you know, it was something.
- 4:15Speaker 5: And then when I was five, she married my stepdad
- 4:18Speaker 5: and he was in the army, so he was quite
- 4:20Speaker 5: wealthy and my mom was working as well, and we
- 4:24Speaker 5: were quite well off then. And then we moved to
- 4:27Speaker 5: Brisbane when I was eight, and you know, I always
- 4:31Speaker 5: had everything. We were quite a wealthy family. We went
- 4:33Speaker 5: on holidays. Unfortunately, my stepdad was quite abusive and especially
- 4:39Speaker 5: financially abusive to my mom. Yeah, so even though we
- 4:42Speaker 5: had quite a lot of money, my mom would put
- 4:44Speaker 5: everything into the bills and the mortgage, and he'd only
- 4:48Speaker 5: put about thirty percent, and he'd just spent money on
- 4:51Speaker 5: cars and motorbikes and whatever he wanted. And my mom
- 4:54Speaker 5: had not much for herself. But she was really good
- 4:57Speaker 5: in finding a way to say, and she was really
- 5:02Speaker 5: good in that way. And she always humbled me that way,
- 5:04Speaker 5: even though I had so much growing up, you know,
- 5:06Speaker 5: she always humbled me. I started working at fourteen, and
- 5:10Speaker 5: I was actually quite a good saver. I think I
- 5:11Speaker 5: saved about five grand in about four years, just went, gosh,
- 5:15Speaker 5: so good, go through school. Yeah, and when I was eighteen,
- 5:19Speaker 5: my mom actually give to me ten thousand dollars, which
- 5:22Speaker 5: was the best gift I could have asked all that
- 5:24Speaker 5: she had saved me when I was a baby, since
- 5:26Speaker 5: I was a baby.
- 5:27Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that's so special, especially having gone through
- 5:31Speaker 4: everything that you've just explained to us.
- 5:34Speaker 3: That's messy.
- 5:35Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 5:36Speaker 5: Yeah, So that was one of the best things I've
- 5:38Speaker 5: ever received, which was really lucky for me because six
- 5:40Speaker 5: months later, I was kicked out at home by my
- 5:42Speaker 5: stepdad and I had to learn, you know, my whole
- 5:46Speaker 5: world turned upside down. I'd never been on my own
- 5:48Speaker 5: before their only family support I had was my mom.
- 5:51Speaker 5: Everyone else was in Canberra. But my family was so supportive,
- 5:54Speaker 5: you know, my grandma sometimes, my mom, my dad would
- 5:57Speaker 5: give me a little bit of money when they could.
- 5:59Speaker 5: I was working full time UNI. I was very lucky.
- 6:02Speaker 5: I was able to receive a little bit of center link,
- 6:04Speaker 5: which was so hard to get as well, because it
- 6:07Speaker 5: was just my financial situation was just not great.
- 6:11Speaker 2: They and quite complicated as well. I guess if you
- 6:14Speaker 2: had like different things going on with different family members,
- 6:17Speaker 2: that would have been really hard to kind of get
- 6:20Speaker 2: under control.
- 6:21Speaker 5: Yeah, because they recommended that I live with my dad
- 6:24Speaker 5: who was in Camper and I was in UNI in Brisbane.
- 6:26Speaker 5: And then they suggested I drop out of UNI and
- 6:28Speaker 5: to work full time. And I wasn't going to do that,
- 6:30Speaker 5: you know, that was that was my future, and it
- 6:33Speaker 5: was I was so passionate about finishing UNI. That was
- 6:35Speaker 5: the one thing I wanted to do. And then I
- 6:38Speaker 5: was living at a home for about a year, and
- 6:41Speaker 5: then my mom was actually saving money without my stepdad's knowledge,
- 6:45Speaker 5: and then she said Sayonara, get out.
- 6:48Speaker 4: Yeah, and then you get it sounds like your mom
- 6:51Speaker 4: has got her head screwed on.
- 6:53Speaker 5: She she is the strongest woman I know, my biggest
- 6:56Speaker 5: influence in life, and she couldn't stay the house. We
- 7:00Speaker 5: were in this beautiful, big house, and we moved to
- 7:03Speaker 5: a house probably a tenth the size, but we moved
- 7:07Speaker 5: with my brothers. And even though we've got next to nothing,
- 7:12Speaker 5: now we've got each other and it's the most rich
- 7:15Speaker 5: thing that we could ever have. And my mom's so
- 7:18Speaker 5: strong and she's so financially independent, and I think that
- 7:21Speaker 5: I've learnt a lot from her that way.
- 7:24Speaker 2: So yeah, this might be a first, but it sounds
- 7:26Speaker 2: like we might need to do like a mother daughter
- 7:28Speaker 2: money diary, don't you think.
- 7:30Speaker 4: Oh my god, can you imagine.
- 7:35Speaker 5: I was going to suggest you should probably have her
- 7:37Speaker 5: on here.
- 7:38Speaker 2: Maybe we should get in touch with your mama and
- 7:40Speaker 2: see if she liked to share her story too. I'm
- 7:46Speaker 2: actually emotional thinking about it. Not that money diarist. We
- 7:49Speaker 2: don't love your story, but imagine hearing the other side
- 7:52Speaker 2: of the story in that way, Wow.
- 7:55Speaker 5: What I've learned from Definitely.
- 7:57Speaker 4: Let's get on with your money diary. We will be
- 8:00Speaker 4: hitting you up later to talk to your mom. Not
- 8:03Speaker 4: in a weird way, not in a Stacy's mum way.
- 8:08Speaker 3: Mom's way.
- 8:09Speaker 5: She's quite an attractive woman.
- 8:12Speaker 3: She is look at you like, oh my gosh, of
- 8:15Speaker 3: course she is.
- 8:16Speaker 2: Okay, now we're trying to chat up both of them.
- 8:18Speaker 4: Yeah, Appler clearly doesn't fall far from the tree.
- 8:22Speaker 3: All right, next question before we get in trouble. What
- 8:26Speaker 3: do you do for work money, Darist and how much
- 8:29Speaker 3: money do you earn?
- 8:30Speaker 5: So? I work as a support worker for people with disabilities.
- 8:34Speaker 4: Of course she does, Tony, She's one of those special people.
- 8:39Speaker 5: So I work for a company, and I also work
- 8:42Speaker 5: as a sole trader for just the one family, and
- 8:45Speaker 5: that earns me about I think last financial year is
- 8:48Speaker 5: about forty thousand dollars. Oh yeah, so I was working
- 8:52Speaker 5: quite a lot last year. But I, like I said
- 8:55Speaker 5: in my email, I started placement this semester in uniful time,
- 8:58Speaker 5: so I've had to cut it back a bit, but
- 9:00Speaker 5: it's good money. I also do a cashy job in
- 9:02Speaker 5: a food truck.
- 9:03Speaker 3: Oh cool.
- 9:04Speaker 5: Yeah, it's only like twenty bucks an hour, but you
- 9:06Speaker 5: know it's paying a lot for my medical bills and
- 9:09Speaker 5: for my car to get fixed as well, which is great.
- 9:11Speaker 4: So well money diarist Io can't come after you because
- 9:15Speaker 4: you're anonymous, so.
- 9:16Speaker 3: Exactly, that's very helpful.
- 9:19Speaker 4: But does that help a lot to just like have
- 9:21Speaker 4: something additional on the side.
- 9:23Speaker 5: Absolutely, And you know I'm not worrying about not being
- 9:26Speaker 5: able to put anything in my savings and just does
- 9:29Speaker 5: it helps out so much?
- 9:30Speaker 3: Which just relate bit of pressure.
- 9:33Speaker 5: Yeah, Like I don't work for it all the time,
- 9:34Speaker 5: just every other weekend or something. Yeah.
- 9:37Speaker 3: Cool.
- 9:38Speaker 2: And you said you're studying full time and on placement.
- 9:41Speaker 2: Is that doing what you're doing like at the moment
- 9:43Speaker 2: as a soul trader as well like disability support.
- 9:46Speaker 5: No, so I did my undergraduate degree in psychology actually victorians,
- 9:53Speaker 5: but I am actually doing my masters in social work.
- 9:56Speaker 5: I actually want to work in the children's hospital with
- 10:00Speaker 5: cardiac babies and children and their families and sort of
- 10:04Speaker 5: give back to who I was once upon a time.
- 10:07Speaker 3: Oh, you are so special. That's so incredible. So money direst.
- 10:12Speaker 4: We were talking about you putting money into savings just before.
- 10:15Speaker 3: What is your big money goal?
- 10:18Speaker 5: So I have two at the moment, so I too.
- 10:22Speaker 2: If you don't have enough going on money time.
- 10:26Speaker 5: So I guess, oh, maybe three, actually.
- 10:29Speaker 3: I agree, just another one.
- 10:31Speaker 5: Probably my medical bills and surgery and my family's helping
- 10:34Speaker 5: a lot with that though, I've got such good family
- 10:38Speaker 5: support with that, but personally for me, so traveling is
- 10:42Speaker 5: something I would love to do. I graduate middle of
- 10:45Speaker 5: next year, so I'm really hoping the world's opened up
- 10:47Speaker 5: and everything's safe and I can do a bit of
- 10:49Speaker 5: traveling before I start working full time. And my probably
- 10:54Speaker 5: my bigger money goal is buying a house.
- 10:55Speaker 3: Oh exciting.
- 10:57Speaker 5: Yeah, so I'd love to buy, you know, something with
- 10:59Speaker 5: like a little bit of land on it, you know,
- 11:02Speaker 5: that stereotypical white picket fence, have some kids get married.
- 11:06Speaker 5: Of course, that's always been a dream of mine. And
- 11:09Speaker 5: it's actually funny. The day I got the email from
- 11:12Speaker 5: Jess to do this, I actually hit a little milestone.
- 11:15Speaker 5: I hit twenty k in my house savings to posit.
- 11:20Speaker 4: All of that, and you're still saving aggressively and you've
- 11:24Speaker 4: got to twenty k.
- 11:26Speaker 3: You're so special. I love that. Congrats, Money diarys you,
- 11:30Speaker 3: thank you.
- 11:31Speaker 5: But yeah, I couldn't have done it without my family,
- 11:34Speaker 5: especially my mom too.
- 11:35Speaker 3: She sounds so special.
- 11:38Speaker 5: She is, all right.
- 11:39Speaker 4: Next question, Money Diarist, do you currently have any investments?
- 11:44Speaker 5: I don't have any. I guess I did use Rais
- 11:47Speaker 5: for a little bit but I didn't really put enough
- 11:49Speaker 5: in there, so I'm I think maybe later on in life.
- 11:52Speaker 5: But I do have my SUPER, and as a soul trader,
- 11:55Speaker 5: I have to do my own tax and supers. So
- 11:59Speaker 5: when I get each week, I automatically, before tax, put
- 12:03Speaker 5: ten percent in my SUPER off my pay.
- 12:05Speaker 3: Oh cool.
- 12:05Speaker 5: Yeah, and then I leave my tax in my business
- 12:07Speaker 5: account and then transfer my pay into my general account
- 12:11Speaker 5: and then just yeah, deposit all the savings and bills
- 12:14Speaker 5: and everything that needs to be paid.
- 12:16Speaker 2: There's so many soule traders that don't put their own
- 12:19Speaker 2: super in, so we're very happy to hear that you
- 12:22Speaker 2: do as a priority as soon as you get paid.
- 12:24Speaker 3: Very good news.
- 12:25Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, if it wasn't for you guys, I probably
- 12:28Speaker 5: wouldn't put SUPER up there as much. I probably only
- 12:31Speaker 5: put a little bit. But you know, this pod, this
- 12:33Speaker 5: podcast has changed.
- 12:34Speaker 4: Really and you're just putting the full whack. You're like, no,
- 12:37Speaker 4: I deserve this. I'm going to do the right thing
- 12:39Speaker 4: for future me.
- 12:41Speaker 5: Yeah. Absolutely, Like it's changed my life honestly, financially, it's
- 12:45Speaker 5: just you know the best.
- 12:47Speaker 3: You are too kind. All right, money diarist, do you
- 12:52Speaker 3: currently have any debts?
- 12:54Speaker 5: The only debt I have is my hextet, and that's
- 12:57Speaker 5: at thirty six thousand, I think, so there that's my
- 13:01Speaker 5: undergraduate degree and the start of my master's. So I
- 13:05Speaker 5: actually started putting in about ten dollars a week. It's
- 13:08Speaker 5: not a lot, but it's just something just to start
- 13:10Speaker 5: paying it off because I haven't worked full time yet
- 13:13Speaker 5: for it to that staf going down. But hopefully once
- 13:17Speaker 5: I start working it all go down a bit.
- 13:19Speaker 4: It will and you won't even notice it. But the
- 13:22Speaker 4: cool thing about a help debt is when you said before,
- 13:25Speaker 4: I think I earn about forty thousand dollars a year.
- 13:28Speaker 4: I love that You're like, no, I'm putting some money
- 13:30Speaker 4: towards it, because the compulsory repayment threshold for twenty twenty
- 13:34Speaker 4: one to twenty twenty two is actually forty seven thousand
- 13:38Speaker 4: and fourteen dollars, So if you earn anything under that,
- 13:41Speaker 4: you don't actually have to pay any of it back
- 13:44Speaker 4: until you go over that threshold, and once you do
- 13:48Speaker 4: go over that threshold, you only have to start paying
- 13:51Speaker 4: it back in incremental amounts. So I think it's between
- 13:54Speaker 4: forty seven thousand and fourteen dollars and fifty four thousand,
- 13:58Speaker 4: two hundred and eighty two dollars. You actually only have
- 14:01Speaker 4: to pay it back at one percent of your income,
- 14:03Speaker 4: which is much easier to deal with than having to
- 14:07Speaker 4: pay a really big lump sum back. But I love
- 14:10Speaker 4: that you're prioritizing it and paying it off when technically
- 14:12Speaker 4: you don't even need to fall under that radar.
- 14:16Speaker 5: I'm just yeah, I just want to be really financially independent.
- 14:19Speaker 5: I guess it is the best.
- 14:21Speaker 4: My friend, it is very obvious. Next question, do you
- 14:26Speaker 4: currently use shot back?
- 14:28Speaker 5: I do. I love shot back. If I find something
- 14:32Speaker 5: on my phone, I will purposely buy it on my
- 14:34Speaker 5: laptop because I will use the extension, and I use
- 14:36Speaker 5: the thing called honey as well, which finds discounts. And
- 14:40Speaker 5: I checked my shot back.
- 14:40Speaker 2: To the day you can switch between the.
- 14:42Speaker 5: Tech's a genius, Tony, and I checked my shot back
- 14:47Speaker 5: the other day, and I think I thought about eighty
- 14:49Speaker 5: dollars back eighty bucks. Yeah, it's pretty good. Like a
- 14:53Speaker 5: few of them are Dan Murphy's purchases online with you know, lockdown.
- 14:57Speaker 4: Fair fair, But like I don't get damn fees money
- 15:00Speaker 4: back when I go in store, maybe I should be online.
- 15:03Speaker 4: I didn't even think of stuff like that.
- 15:05Speaker 5: Just click and collect it. Do it for your Friday drinks.
- 15:07Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, you can actually click and collect as well.
- 15:10Speaker 3: She's a genius. Tony.
- 15:12Speaker 2: That is very smart.
- 15:13Speaker 4: I like you Moneys, to be honest, I wish I
- 15:16Speaker 4: was that anyway, Moving on, because it turns out I
- 15:19Speaker 4: didn't even know that was an option.
- 15:22Speaker 3: Money diarist, what is your best money have it?
- 15:25Speaker 5: I think probably? I prioritize my savings. I always put
- 15:31Speaker 5: a certain amount in each pay I take a certain
- 15:35Speaker 5: amount for my bills, and I make sure because I
- 15:37Speaker 5: calculate my monthly spending, so I'll divide that by four
- 15:40Speaker 5: and put it in each week how much I need
- 15:42Speaker 5: to pay for my bills, and then I'll put away
- 15:45Speaker 5: a little bit each for my savings accounts. I think
- 15:47Speaker 5: I've got about four savings accounts, and then a little
- 15:50Speaker 5: bit for my food, fuel and fun.
- 15:52Speaker 4: Oh have you potentially read my book?
- 15:56Speaker 5: Maybe it's showing, but I love that.
- 16:01Speaker 4: In comparison to that, What is your worst money habit?
- 16:05Speaker 5: Probably? And this was the time before covid spending money
- 16:08Speaker 5: on concert tickets.
- 16:09Speaker 3: I guess, yeah, that hasn't been an option.
- 16:13Speaker 5: So COVID's been good in that way because I've been
- 16:16Speaker 5: saving a lot of money that way. Yeah, But pre COVID,
- 16:20Speaker 5: I was, you know, everyone I listened to like a
- 16:22Speaker 5: lot of bands and a lot of singers, and I
- 16:24Speaker 5: love music. Music's a huge part of my life and
- 16:27Speaker 5: i'd love to go to every concert and also if
- 16:30Speaker 5: I bring a friend and all my mom, I've got
- 16:32Speaker 5: a lot of concerts my mum. I'm a bit of
- 16:34Speaker 5: a nerd that way. Yeah, just spending money on that
- 16:38Speaker 5: and sometimes that might be a bit more and I
- 16:40Speaker 5: can't put any in savings, but COVID's been good in
- 16:43Speaker 5: that way that I've been saving.
- 16:45Speaker 4: But that's one of the things that I think is
- 16:47Speaker 4: in line with your values. From what I can understand,
- 16:50Speaker 4: it sounds like you're a pretty good little savor. You've
- 16:52Speaker 4: got your full savings accounts and you're dividing that up.
- 16:55Speaker 4: You shot back, you're obviously putting money towards your hex.
- 16:58Speaker 4: You sound really savvy. So I wouldn't say it's a
- 17:01Speaker 4: waste or anything like that. I would just say that's
- 17:04Speaker 4: what you value, those experiences and being able to take
- 17:06Speaker 4: your mum.
- 17:07Speaker 3: Like that's really cool.
- 17:09Speaker 4: And I really like that you know what you like
- 17:11Speaker 4: and where a big chunk of your money is allocated.
- 17:14Speaker 4: Because sometimes when we talk to people and be like, oh,
- 17:17Speaker 4: what is your quote worst money habit?
- 17:19Speaker 3: But with oh, I don't know.
- 17:20Speaker 4: Sometimes it's like uber eats but you've said, or I
- 17:23Speaker 4: actually it's this bigger thing, but I actually prioritize it.
- 17:27Speaker 4: I would like to argue with you and say, I
- 17:29Speaker 4: don't think that's a bad money habit. I think you've
- 17:32Speaker 4: just got good values, my friend. Hopefully, I mean you
- 17:35Speaker 4: didn't tell us what concerts you go to. Hopefully you've
- 17:37Speaker 4: also got good taste in music. But that's up for
- 17:40Speaker 4: debate and we can talk about that later. Oh so,
- 17:45Speaker 4: money diarist, if we asked you to give yourself a
- 17:48Speaker 4: money grade, what would you give yourself?
- 17:50Speaker 5: Maybe a B plus?
- 17:52Speaker 4: Why would you give yourself a BT plus?
- 17:54Speaker 5: I think I've still got a long way to go,
- 17:58Speaker 5: and I sometimes i'm I spend a little too much
- 18:02Speaker 5: in during the week, and I might have to take
- 18:03Speaker 5: a little bit out of my just in case account,
- 18:06Speaker 5: which is my spare money. But I think I once
- 18:10Speaker 5: I start working full time and earning a bit more
- 18:12Speaker 5: and investing, I think that's when it might go up
- 18:14Speaker 5: to an A. But I don't know. It's just I
- 18:18Speaker 5: feel like I'm not completely there yet, but I'm trying. Well.
- 18:21Speaker 4: It sounds like you're setting yourself up for future success
- 18:24Speaker 4: from everything I've just learned about you. But at the
- 18:27Speaker 4: start of this episode, we learned some pretty special information
- 18:31Speaker 4: about you, and I want to ask you a lot
- 18:33Speaker 4: of questions right after this quick break diving straight back
- 18:37Speaker 4: in money Dives. Do you have not had a smooth
- 18:39Speaker 4: sailing past when it comes to medical history? How have
- 18:43Speaker 4: you gone through two open heart surgeries? And how does
- 18:48Speaker 4: that impact you financially? Like what does that actually look like?
- 18:52Speaker 4: Because from my perspective, I'm like, I wouldn't have a
- 18:55Speaker 4: clue how much that costs or what's covered on Medicare
- 18:57Speaker 4: or private health or if in if you have, I don't.
- 18:59Speaker 3: Know what that it looks like. Could you share with
- 19:01Speaker 3: us how that works?
- 19:03Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely. So I had my surgery as a baby
- 19:08Speaker 5: through the public system, and growing up I've always been
- 19:12Speaker 5: seeing my cardiologist through the public system. With my second
- 19:16Speaker 5: heart surgery, though I did do that through the private system,
- 19:19Speaker 5: I am on my mum's private health and I am
- 19:23Speaker 5: so very lucky for that because it was when COVID
- 19:27Speaker 5: first started happening, and lockdown was happening, and they were
- 19:30Speaker 5: stopping elective surgery. So I was very lucky to get
- 19:34Speaker 5: in when I did.
- 19:35Speaker 4: Are you telling me that a heart surgery is seen
- 19:38Speaker 4: as an elective surgery.
- 19:40Speaker 5: Well, in my case, I wasn't going into heart failure.
- 19:44Speaker 5: I just needed my follow up surgery. But if I
- 19:48Speaker 5: was in the public system, I would probably still be
- 19:49Speaker 5: waiting to have it done.
- 19:51Speaker 4: So there are other people currently in Australia who have
- 19:54Speaker 4: had surgeries like that canceled. I didn't know that's what
- 19:57Speaker 4: that meant, and that might be showing my naivity here,
- 20:00Speaker 4: but I assumed elective surgery would be.
- 20:02Speaker 3: Like a boob job or one of those.
- 20:05Speaker 4: BBL butt lifts that every second influencer sounds like they're getting.
- 20:08Speaker 4: At the moment, I didn't realize that elective could go
- 20:11Speaker 4: into things like cart surgery that are literally life imping.
- 20:15Speaker 5: So unless you're actually really, really sick and really dying,
- 20:19Speaker 5: then yeah, they probably you're probably further down on the list.
- 20:23Speaker 5: But I was very lucky. I went through the private
- 20:25Speaker 5: system and my heart surgery was about fifty thousand dollars,
- 20:29Speaker 5: but private health covered that, which was amazing and I'm
- 20:33Speaker 5: so grateful for it. Except for the pain killers.
- 20:36Speaker 3: Yeah, well, except for some painkillers.
- 20:39Speaker 5: Poll send you some.
- 20:42Speaker 4: I'm sure we could find somebody to hook you up
- 20:44Speaker 4: with a paracetamol.
- 20:46Speaker 5: Yeah, that's all it was, really and just some blood
- 20:50Speaker 5: thinners and that's all it was really. So it was
- 20:52Speaker 5: just over the counter stuff.
- 20:54Speaker 2: And I can't believe that the whole thing was covered.
- 20:57Speaker 3: That's so incredible. Wow, that's so.
- 21:01Speaker 4: I am always so impressed at our health system and
- 21:04Speaker 4: how supportive it is and that so that makes me
- 21:07Speaker 4: so happy that I just pay tags. Like technically, Tony,
- 21:11Speaker 4: we kind of helped money direst get heart surgery.
- 21:14Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds like I'll take that. I'm basically a doctor.
- 21:17Speaker 3: I mean, I probably.
- 21:18Speaker 4: Wouldn't go that far, but if anybody wants a referral
- 21:21Speaker 4: into doctor Tony, you just see me.
- 21:24Speaker 3: You don't even need to go to your GP.
- 21:27Speaker 5: But I guess in contrast to that, So, like I
- 21:30Speaker 5: said in the email, I have been recently diagnosed with
- 21:33Speaker 5: the tumor or a schwarnoma as it's called. So I
- 21:37Speaker 5: had some weird symptoms, got it checked out. I've had
- 21:40Speaker 5: about six scans and a biopsy done in the last
- 21:42Speaker 5: six weeks, which has cost about just over one thousands
- 21:46Speaker 5: of dollars so much through privately. I'm very lucky that
- 21:51Speaker 5: my'm still again, my mum, my family have helped me
- 21:54Speaker 5: out a lot. I've paid for a little bit as well,
- 21:56Speaker 5: but you know, being still in UNI and not being
- 21:58Speaker 5: able to work as much, it's just yeah, I couldn't
- 22:01Speaker 5: do it on my own. I'd still be waiting and
- 22:03Speaker 5: again I'm going to need to have surgery for that
- 22:05Speaker 5: as well to remove that tumor, and that again an
- 22:09Speaker 5: elective surgery. So it was either watch and wait for
- 22:12Speaker 5: it to grow, maybe cause more damage, or just get
- 22:15Speaker 5: it removed.
- 22:16Speaker 4: Wow.
- 22:17Speaker 3: So what does that mean for you?
- 22:19Speaker 4: I'm sorry again showing my native but you said that
- 22:23Speaker 4: it's not a tumor, it's called something different which I can't.
- 22:27Speaker 5: Oh, it's a shurenoma, which it is a tumor. Yeah.
- 22:30Speaker 4: Does that mean that you're going to have to go
- 22:32Speaker 4: through just having it removed or is there some kind
- 22:34Speaker 4: of like radiation or like chemo or something that is
- 22:38Speaker 4: related to this or is this benign?
- 22:40Speaker 5: Well, it is benign, which I'm very lucky about because
- 22:43Speaker 5: I was after I had my first skin I was
- 22:46Speaker 5: at prack and I got a call from the doctor.
- 22:48Speaker 5: I missed it because I didn't answer it, and then
- 22:50Speaker 5: I left a voice fail. I said, oh, can you
- 22:51Speaker 5: come in just to talk about your results? And I
- 22:53Speaker 5: went in and the doctor said, all it could be lymphoma,
- 22:57Speaker 5: which is cancer, which was very scary. And then I
- 23:01Speaker 5: got you know, I had those six weeks of tests basically,
- 23:04Speaker 5: and then they found out it wasn't cancer, which was
- 23:07Speaker 5: a relief, but it was still and I was actually
- 23:11Speaker 5: preparing for the worst. You know, the cost of chemo.
- 23:15Speaker 5: You know, who's going to look after me, who held
- 23:17Speaker 5: my Mom's going to be able to look after me
- 23:19Speaker 5: and pay the bills, and you know, I was ready
- 23:22Speaker 5: to get a will, ready.
- 23:23Speaker 4: So stressful to even have to go through.
- 23:26Speaker 5: Yeah, so it was. It was full on for a while.
- 23:29Speaker 5: But I know now that it's still there and it's
- 23:32Speaker 5: still not good. But I'm so lucky that it wasn't
- 23:35Speaker 5: anything nasty.
- 23:37Speaker 4: So oh, I'm so grateful that it isn't anything too nasty.
- 23:41Speaker 4: But after too open heart surgeries, you would have really
- 23:43Speaker 4: thought that you had been done with stuff like that.
- 23:47Speaker 5: Oh, I know. And then I was talking to the
- 23:50Speaker 5: neurosurgeon and it's I laugh about it and people ask
- 23:54Speaker 5: me why I laugh about it, and I said, well,
- 23:56Speaker 5: if you can't laugh about it, then what can you
- 23:58Speaker 5: do that. The neuros said, he's going to have to
- 24:01Speaker 5: remove it from my back and go through my spine,
- 24:05Speaker 5: but he's going to have to remove a rib as well,
- 24:08Speaker 5: So it's going to be a bit of a full
- 24:10Speaker 5: on surgery. And I'm preparing not to work again for
- 24:12Speaker 5: about six weeks and just preparing my finances that way.
- 24:16Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, well you're going to have to remove
- 24:19Speaker 4: a rib to help fix your back. I wouldn't have
- 24:21Speaker 4: even thought that that was something that was necessary, but
- 24:24Speaker 4: it obviously makes sense and that's the safest and best
- 24:27Speaker 4: way to do it, so.
- 24:28Speaker 3: Get it done.
- 24:29Speaker 4: But my gosh, you have been through the wars, so
- 24:33Speaker 4: when it comes to not being able to work, I
- 24:37Speaker 4: am in a position where I've I know a lot
- 24:39Speaker 4: of people who have chronic illnesses like I would say
- 24:43Speaker 4: you do, which is something that is ongoing and consistent
- 24:46Speaker 4: within your life. It's not just that six weeks it
- 24:49Speaker 4: impacts though, is it like you're taking that off fully?
- 24:52Speaker 4: How else does this impact your work and your ability
- 24:55Speaker 4: to generate an income?
- 24:56Speaker 3: For yourself.
- 24:57Speaker 5: Yeah, so, like I said, six weeks, but it could
- 25:00Speaker 5: be more. It just depends on how well I heal,
- 25:03Speaker 5: if there's any complications, which probably won't happen, but you know,
- 25:07Speaker 5: it does happen, and if I do return back to work,
- 25:09Speaker 5: it's very stressful work, I guess. You know, you might
- 25:13Speaker 5: get a client that isn't very capable looking after themselves,
- 25:17Speaker 5: so you have to lift them or you have to
- 25:19Speaker 5: help them, so that I've got to think about that
- 25:21Speaker 5: as well, and who I'm going to work with what clients,
- 25:24Speaker 5: And then I'm also starting placement again next year, so
- 25:28Speaker 5: missing work from that as well. But I've got such
- 25:31Speaker 5: good family support, which is the best thing, and a
- 25:34Speaker 5: lot of people don't have that and they go through
- 25:36Speaker 5: similar stuff as well. So I'm very lucky and I'm
- 25:39Speaker 5: very privileged to have the family support that I do.
- 25:41Speaker 4: But it's still a pretty big load to carry at
- 25:44Speaker 4: the end of the day, because money.
- 25:46Speaker 3: Don is how old are you?
- 25:47Speaker 4: I'm twenty three, You're twenty three, and you've still got
- 25:50Speaker 4: to go through all of that, and that's obviously significantly
- 25:53Speaker 4: impacting your ability to work and study and do all
- 25:55Speaker 4: of those things. What do you think that looks like
- 25:59Speaker 4: long term. So obviously this is your second heart surgery,
- 26:02Speaker 4: and that was planned. It's not something that just popped
- 26:05Speaker 4: out of nowhere. Is that going to be your final one?
- 26:08Speaker 4: Are there others that you're going to have to go
- 26:10Speaker 4: through or even ongoing medications you need to be paying for.
- 26:14Speaker 5: So I'm very lucky. So I had my open heart,
- 26:16Speaker 5: and then for my next heart surgery it will be
- 26:19Speaker 5: by a catheter.
- 26:20Speaker 3: Oh wow.
- 26:21Speaker 5: Yeah. So the big actually healing process with heart surgery
- 26:24Speaker 5: is your sternum because they saw that in half and
- 26:27Speaker 5: that's got a fuse together and yes, sorry gets a big,
- 26:30Speaker 5: big but it's not actually well, your heart has to
- 26:32Speaker 5: be careful, but it's your sternham that you know, you
- 26:34Speaker 5: can't drive six weeks in cases, if you get into
- 26:37Speaker 5: a car accident, you can break it again. So that's
- 26:40Speaker 5: your big recovery. So but yeah, so that won't be
- 26:44Speaker 5: for another ten years, for fifteen years, and then after
- 26:47Speaker 5: that another ten to fifteen years, and then I probably
- 26:49Speaker 5: won't have another open heart till about fifty or so,
- 26:52Speaker 5: which is amazing. Like the back when I was a
- 26:55Speaker 5: baby was very complicated. I was very very sick. I
- 26:58Speaker 5: was in ICU for nine days and whereas this time
- 27:01Speaker 5: it was only two days. So my mom was I
- 27:03Speaker 5: think she was very stress leading up to it, but
- 27:05Speaker 5: this time it would just smooth.
- 27:06Speaker 4: Sailing, would be easier for everybody to deal with.
- 27:10Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, And I have actually have a cow valve,
- 27:13Speaker 5: so that's the interesting things. I don't have to have
- 27:16Speaker 5: medication for that, which is very lucky, whereas some people
- 27:20Speaker 5: need to go on war friend if they have to
- 27:21Speaker 5: have an artificial valve.
- 27:23Speaker 3: Yeah. Wow.
- 27:23Speaker 4: And so they were able to make one out of
- 27:26Speaker 4: a cow's heart for you.
- 27:28Speaker 3: Yeah, how cool is that?
- 27:31Speaker 5: I know, I know it actually got a cow tattoo
- 27:33Speaker 5: in honor of my little cows save my life.
- 27:37Speaker 4: That is such a cute cow as well. Oh my gosh, money, Doris,
- 27:41Speaker 4: I feel like you've been through a lot, and it's
- 27:43Speaker 4: genuinely so interesting to know what that looks like. Because
- 27:47Speaker 4: from my perspective, wouldn't they just fix your heart and.
- 27:50Speaker 3: You were fixed?
- 27:52Speaker 4: What does it mean to have one every you said
- 27:54Speaker 4: ten to fifteen years? Why do they need to do them?
- 27:57Speaker 4: Is it maintaining it? Is it switching it?
- 27:59Speaker 5: Like?
- 28:00Speaker 3: What does that mean?
- 28:01Speaker 5: Yeah? So my diagnosis is congenital heart defect, and that
- 28:05Speaker 5: is the broad spectrum that every baby or kid is
- 28:08Speaker 5: diagnosed with if they have a heart condition and it
- 28:11Speaker 5: can never be fixed. Ever, it's just maintained. Some people
- 28:15Speaker 5: don't even need to have surgery. Some need routine surgery
- 28:19Speaker 5: every five years. There's some severe cases where some kids
- 28:22Speaker 5: might need a heart transplant, which is when their heart
- 28:25Speaker 5: just is not capable of getting fixed at all. Yeah,
- 28:29Speaker 5: I'll never be fixed, and I'll always have to go
- 28:31Speaker 5: to hospital every year to get scans and everything to
- 28:34Speaker 5: see my heart's okay. But that's my whole life. But
- 28:38Speaker 5: I've been very lucky. My Mum's always raised me like
- 28:40Speaker 5: any other kid. She's never treated me any different because
- 28:43Speaker 5: of my condition. She's always you know, she said, you know,
- 28:46Speaker 5: you play sport if you want to. I wasn't the
- 28:48Speaker 5: fastest kid. I was always slow point. But it was
- 28:53Speaker 5: I think that really humbled me a lot too, and
- 28:55Speaker 5: it made me realize that even though I am gone
- 28:57Speaker 5: through a lot, I'm very lucky. I may to walk, talk,
- 29:01Speaker 5: breathe on my own. I'm able to live my life
- 29:04Speaker 5: how I want to. I can travel, i can live
- 29:06Speaker 5: my own life, have a family, And unfortunately some people
- 29:09Speaker 5: can't have that, And I think that really resonates with me,
- 29:13Speaker 5: that I am one of the lucky ones in that way.
- 29:16Speaker 2: And because obviously aside from all the parts of your
- 29:19Speaker 2: life that are a bit different, you know, you have
- 29:22Speaker 2: to go and have surgery every however often, and like
- 29:25Speaker 2: unfortunately you do have to pay for those things. But like,
- 29:28Speaker 2: it's really cool that you've had such a normal, normal life,
- 29:32Speaker 2: I guess is no normal, but that you were able
- 29:35Speaker 2: to be like a regular kid and run around and
- 29:38Speaker 2: yell and scream and get dirty and stuff, because imagine
- 29:40Speaker 2: if you hadn't been able to have that, And it's
- 29:42Speaker 2: just it's so lovely that you have such an amazing
- 29:45Speaker 2: outlook on everything.
- 29:47Speaker 3: Yeah, you're so positive.
- 29:48Speaker 4: I find it really interesting that everybody that we have
- 29:52Speaker 4: spoken to Tony that has been through something as significant
- 29:55Speaker 4: and as this is usually one of the most positive
- 29:59Speaker 4: people that we come across. They're always so grateful for
- 30:03Speaker 4: everything that they have and they've just got this outlook
- 30:05Speaker 4: on life that you go, why can't I be more
- 30:08Speaker 4: like that? Like sometimes I just know that I need
- 30:12Speaker 4: to take a leaf out of our money direst books
- 30:14Speaker 4: because I'm like, how are they so positive? And laughing
- 30:17Speaker 4: about something like, you know, open heart.
- 30:20Speaker 3: Surgery, waging a rib. Yeah, and You're like, yep, it's cool.
- 30:25Speaker 4: Just take six weeks off work, get it done. And
- 30:27Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, okay, it's just how I heal.
- 30:30Speaker 3: You know, we'll see. I'm like, I would be losing
- 30:33Speaker 3: my mind.
- 30:34Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I definitely take so much for granted. And
- 30:36Speaker 2: it's such an eye opening chat to be able to
- 30:39Speaker 2: talk to you and hear you go no, But it's
- 30:41Speaker 2: just it is the way that it is, and I'm
- 30:43Speaker 2: so lucky in so many other ways, like wow, what
- 30:46Speaker 2: a like, Oh, just such a pleasure to chat to you,
- 30:49Speaker 2: because what an amazing insight into your life and your outlook.
- 30:54Speaker 3: Agreed, So agreed.
- 30:56Speaker 4: I'm so grateful that you wanted to share your money
- 30:58Speaker 4: diary with us.
- 30:59Speaker 3: And I'm sure or that.
- 31:00Speaker 4: There are people listening to this that are like, oh
- 31:02Speaker 4: my gosh, that stories me, Like that's happened to me.
- 31:05Speaker 4: And I'm a casual and I'm at UNI and I'm
- 31:07Speaker 4: not the only one. And yeah, it's a lot, but
- 31:10Speaker 4: I'm so grateful that you genuinely want to share your
- 31:12Speaker 4: money diary with us.
- 31:14Speaker 5: Oh thank you. Yeah, it's just you know, if you
- 31:18Speaker 5: can't laugh about it, then you know, what can you
- 31:21Speaker 5: do with.
- 31:21Speaker 3: You can cry?
- 31:22Speaker 4: That's the like, and I think, yeah, of course, and
- 31:26Speaker 4: I wouldn't expect anything less, but it's one thing to
- 31:30Speaker 4: cry about it and then you know, continue to be
- 31:32Speaker 4: down in a flat about it, because we all know
- 31:34Speaker 4: that happens. Some people are just that way inclined.
- 31:37Speaker 3: But you've gotten up, dusted yourself off. You're like, it
- 31:39Speaker 3: is what it is. Let's get on with life. I've
- 31:41Speaker 3: got stuff to do.
- 31:42Speaker 4: I'm going to union, I'm going to do a master's.
- 31:44Speaker 4: I've got, you know, a life to live. And if
- 31:46Speaker 4: that means I have a surgery every fifteen years, technology
- 31:49Speaker 4: is advancing.
- 31:49Speaker 3: That's fine.
- 31:50Speaker 4: It's getting easier every time. Like, what a legend, Tony.
- 31:55Speaker 4: It's very cool.
- 31:56Speaker 5: I think, Yeah, My mum's always been my biggest supporter,
- 31:59Speaker 5: and I think, you know I've come this far. You
- 32:02Speaker 5: know she's thought this hard for me. You know she
- 32:06Speaker 5: could have left me as a kid, but you know
- 32:07Speaker 5: she's stuck through and you know she stayed and she
- 32:11Speaker 5: was my biggest support of my whole life and she
- 32:12Speaker 5: still is. So I do everything for her.
- 32:14Speaker 3: Bought a legend.
- 32:15Speaker 4: She didn't come as far to only come this far,
- 32:18Speaker 4: my friend, But unfortunately I do think that is all
- 32:22Speaker 4: we have time for today. So as always, just before
- 32:25Speaker 4: we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect
- 32:28Speaker 4: to Australia's Aboriginal and torrest Ray Islander people's. They're the
- 32:32Speaker 4: traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and the sky's
- 32:36Speaker 4: all across Australia.
- 32:38Speaker 3: We thank you for sharing and the caring for the
- 32:40Speaker 3: land on which we are able to learn.
- 32:42Speaker 4: We poyer respects to elders past and present, and we
- 32:45Speaker 4: share our friendship and our kindness.
- 32:48Speaker 2: The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally
- 32:50Speaker 2: nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on
- 32:54Speaker 2: the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not
- 32:57Speaker 2: be relied upon to make an investment or any financial decision.
- 33:01Speaker 2: And we promise that Victoria Divine is an authorized representative
- 33:05Speaker 2: of Australia Pacific Funds Management Propriety Limited ABM three four
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- 33:15Speaker 3: See you next week, guys, ZB