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Transcript

When Your Dream Job Isn’t Enough to Pay the Bills · She's On The Money

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud or
0:04
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
0:14
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
0:18
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
0:22
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
0:27
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
0:30
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
0:33
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
0:34
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
0:57
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the cast
1:00
Speaker 4: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another
1:04
Speaker 4: one of our money Darius, where I get the absolute
1:06
Speaker 4: pleasure of talking to one of our incredible Shees on
1:09
Speaker 4: the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump
1:12
Speaker 4: straight into it, because this week we got a message
1:15
Speaker 4: and it went just like this. Hi, She's on the Money.
1:18
Speaker 4: I'm thirty nine, a full time public servant. And here's
1:21
Speaker 4: the twist. My worst financial habit is also my other job.
1:25
Speaker 4: I'm a comedian and with all the costs involved. Sometimes
1:29
Speaker 4: I'm actually paying to make people laugh. Growing up in
1:32
Speaker 4: a low income area in WA, money management wasn't something
1:36
Speaker 4: we focused on. For fifteen years, I carried debt, but
1:40
Speaker 4: last year, with the help of Victoria's Shared Equity program,
1:43
Speaker 4: I bought my first one Thirderom apartment. Comedy has been
1:47
Speaker 4: my passion, but it's no small expense. Between publicists, show registrations,
1:52
Speaker 4: and venue costs, most gigs leave me in the red. Still,
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Speaker 4: I'm determined to make it work, and despite the financial rollercoaster,
2:00
Speaker 4: I wouldn't trade this journey for anything. Oh my gosh,
2:03
Speaker 4: Money Diarist a literal roller coaster from I'm a full
2:07
Speaker 4: time public servant, but I'm a funny one is really fun.
2:10
Speaker 2: I got a few hats, It's true.
2:12
Speaker 4: I like it all right before we dive into it.
2:15
Speaker 4: What grade would you give your money habits if I
2:17
Speaker 4: asked you to give them a grade from A through
2:19
Speaker 4: to F.
2:20
Speaker 2: Oh, I feel like, you know, I love the podcast,
2:22
Speaker 2: and I feel like people always get to this, Like
2:24
Speaker 2: they start off and they'll be like, oh, I'm a
2:25
Speaker 2: D minus and then get halfway through and they'll be like, oh,
2:28
Speaker 2: I've been investing since I was in the womb.
2:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Mike, excuse me, Like, and I'm going to
2:33
Speaker 4: call you out too, so like, tell me what you
2:36
Speaker 4: feel you are and we won't argue now, but we
2:38
Speaker 4: can do that later.
2:39
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:39
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, look, I'm giving myself a C plus
2:41
Speaker 2: a C plus okay, and I'm probably going to stand
2:43
Speaker 2: by that, but we'll see.
2:44
Speaker 4: All right, Well we can learn more about that. I
2:46
Speaker 4: feel like everyone has a journey and sometimes I don't
2:49
Speaker 4: want to argue with people either, So let's dive into it.
2:52
Speaker 4: Can you tell me a bit more about your money story?
2:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I grew up on a bushblock outside of
2:57
Speaker 2: a small town in southern Wa on the coast. My
3:02
Speaker 2: parents didn't go to UNI, or I think they did,
3:05
Speaker 2: and then sort of got the free Whitlam UNI and
3:07
Speaker 2: then dropped out in their first year. They did mostly
3:09
Speaker 2: blue collar jobs. When I was a kid, we owned
3:12
Speaker 2: our property, but it like it was. I think the
3:15
Speaker 2: reason they moved down there from Perth was because it
3:18
Speaker 2: was all they could afford. I think the place was
3:20
Speaker 2: forty thousand dollars in the eighties, a ten acre block,
3:23
Speaker 2: beautiful block.
3:24
Speaker 4: Wow for forty grand And I mean, obviously money changes,
3:29
Speaker 4: but like that just feels wild, doesn't it.
3:31
Speaker 2: There were a couple of catches, Like the house didn't
3:33
Speaker 2: have a bathroom when we moved in.
3:35
Speaker 4: We don't need a bathroom, It's fine.
3:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.
3:36
Speaker 2: We had a paddock.
3:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, go outside the sheep do We just.
3:39
Speaker 2: Had a bucket and bush situation for a couple of years.
3:42
Speaker 4: You didn't even need the bucket.
3:43
Speaker 2: No, we dug a whole lot of the time. And
3:45
Speaker 2: then they built a bathroom, so we were on the up.
3:48
Speaker 4: Okay, fancy pants.
3:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're both from you know, fairly chaotic backgrounds. But
3:53
Speaker 2: I mean, we had a lovely childhood. I don't think
3:55
Speaker 2: it took me a while to figure out that we
3:56
Speaker 2: were poor, honestly.
3:58
Speaker 4: But that's the best way, right. It's all about mindset,
4:01
Speaker 4: Like you might not have heaps of cash, but it's
4:03
Speaker 4: about the experiences and mindset. And your parents clearly did
4:06
Speaker 4: it well.
4:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we were just living such different lives to
4:08
Speaker 2: the kids I went to school with anyway, you know,
4:11
Speaker 2: living out of town and this sort of feral life
4:13
Speaker 2: with just animals in the house. We raised maybe kangaroos.
4:17
Speaker 2: We had you know, a pet possum, Like it was all.
4:19
Speaker 4: Wash you were living my dream life.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was very cute, and yeah, we didn't have
4:23
Speaker 2: much money but gera and food, so because I think
4:26
Speaker 2: that's how you really feel it is when there's not
4:28
Speaker 2: enough food on the table. But we always had you know,
4:30
Speaker 2: vegetables and meat from the neighbors and stuff. Yeah, so
4:33
Speaker 2: it was a pretty simple life. I didn't really have
4:35
Speaker 2: any new clothes or anything really wholesome.
4:38
Speaker 4: Though it sounds like you had a beautiful child.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was sweet, and you know, my parents have
4:43
Speaker 2: always been pretty make hay while the sun shines with money,
4:46
Speaker 2: I'd say, you know, I think their attitude was always
4:49
Speaker 2: that it's just there to be spent on living a
4:51
Speaker 2: good life. And they're also very generous people who are
4:54
Speaker 2: always helping out friends and family. So yeah, I in
4:59
Speaker 2: my twenties, I moved straight to Perth and went to
5:02
Speaker 2: UNI and then went immediately overseas for a few years
5:06
Speaker 2: and lived and worked as you know, a waitress, bartender,
5:09
Speaker 2: that sort of thing, you know, the usual you know,
5:11
Speaker 2: England working holiday situation, and then ended up in Berlin
5:16
Speaker 2: for a while and then Darwin Front. He was pretty chaotic,
5:19
Speaker 2: to be honest.
5:20
Speaker 4: That's so fun though, you're like, yeah, so I ended
5:23
Speaker 4: up in like England and then also Darwin.
5:25
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, you know, as you do.
5:26
Speaker 4: That's a the natural extension of England.
5:29
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. And I was sort of living hand to
5:31
Speaker 2: mouth for most of it and slowly getting into that,
5:33
Speaker 2: you know, the classic situation of you get given a
5:36
Speaker 2: credit card when you're eighteen when you really probably shouldn't.
5:39
Speaker 2: I don't know if I would now. I'd like to
5:41
Speaker 2: think they've cracked down on lending enough that I probably
5:43
Speaker 2: wouldn't qualify if I like if an eighteen year old
5:46
Speaker 2: in the same situation tried it now.
5:47
Speaker 4: So they used to send them out like happy eighteenth birthday,
5:50
Speaker 4: You now qualify for a credit card, Like I remember
5:52
Speaker 4: the day and I was like, sign me up. They'd
5:54
Speaker 4: sign me up exactly.
5:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, being like a Commonwealth Dolomite kid. Just you know,
5:58
Speaker 2: they were like, here's a credit card. I was like, way, hey,
6:00
Speaker 2: nine thousand dollars, let's go to your money. We Yeah,
6:03
Speaker 2: And you know, it's the same old story. It just
6:06
Speaker 2: sort of creeps up and creeps up until the interest
6:09
Speaker 2: payments are getting to the point where they're making it
6:11
Speaker 2: so you can never really get ahead. You're just sort
6:13
Speaker 2: of paying off your interest. I shudder to think how
6:15
Speaker 2: much I must have paid on credit card interest over
6:17
Speaker 2: the years.
6:17
Speaker 4: We didn't have a joke about it.
6:18
Speaker 2: That's fine, Yeah, you know in your twenties. Yeah, you
6:21
Speaker 2: are very like, well, what am I going to do
6:23
Speaker 2: get into my thirties. I don't see that ever happening.
6:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely not ill.
6:28
Speaker 2: And then you know, by the time I was in
6:29
Speaker 2: my thirties, ended up living in Melbourne, where I still am,
6:33
Speaker 2: and yeah, the debt just really got on top of me.
6:35
Speaker 2: I went back to UNI for a few years, and
6:38
Speaker 2: I think it was so basically when we entered the pandemic,
6:43
Speaker 2: I was I think about ten thousand dollars in debt
6:46
Speaker 2: and I was working for a counsel at that point
6:49
Speaker 2: on an okay salary, so I could kind of see
6:52
Speaker 2: like it was going to be feasible to pay it off.
6:54
Speaker 2: It was just going to be a lot of hard work.
6:56
Speaker 2: And then I feel the most guilty about how much
6:58
Speaker 2: the pandemic it helped me out, because I know for
7:01
Speaker 2: so many people it was financially ruinous. You know, so
7:03
Speaker 2: many businesses didn't make it. For me, it was kind
7:06
Speaker 2: of the best thing that ever happened to my money situation.
7:09
Speaker 2: I got a slightly better government job that was due
7:12
Speaker 2: to start I think six days after the first Melbourne
7:15
Speaker 2: lockdown started, so I'd sort of started from my living room.
7:19
Speaker 2: But all of a sudden, my salary he because I've
7:21
Speaker 2: gone from local government to state government, so my salary
7:23
Speaker 2: jumped up oh like fifteen thousand at least, if not twenty.
7:27
Speaker 2: So all of a sudden, I was earning more money
7:30
Speaker 2: not able to spend it on anything.
7:32
Speaker 4: During I feel like a lot of people benefited from that. Like,
7:35
Speaker 4: don't get me wrong, it was horrific, but I feel
7:37
Speaker 4: like for a lot of people it taught us a
7:40
Speaker 4: lot about what we don't need to spend.
7:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, It really like cleans the slate a bit
7:45
Speaker 2: and makes you think about, yeah, what you spend your
7:47
Speaker 2: money on just sort of reflexively, and what you would
7:49
Speaker 2: have been doing and did you even like it that much?
7:52
Speaker 4: Yeah?
7:52
Speaker 2: Yeah. And also around the same time I had my
7:55
Speaker 2: centlink Robodet paid back, I'd had one of the completely
7:59
Speaker 2: bogue ones years earlier, when I'd basically gone from UNI
8:04
Speaker 2: into quite a high paid job immediately, and so I'd
8:06
Speaker 2: done half of the year on youth allowance and then
8:09
Speaker 2: half of the year on a pretty decent salary. They
8:12
Speaker 2: used income averaging to decide that I wasn't eligible for
8:16
Speaker 2: the student payments based on my income, even though at
8:19
Speaker 2: the time I was getting the student payments, I hadn't
8:22
Speaker 2: had that income yet years of how time works.
8:24
Speaker 4: That's why they had to pay it back, isn't it?
8:26
Speaker 4: Because that was not the right way to go about things.
8:28
Speaker 2: Because apparently I was supposed to be psychic and know
8:30
Speaker 2: what my income was going to be for the rest
8:32
Speaker 2: of the year.
8:33
Speaker 4: Are you not a psychic?
8:34
Speaker 2: It turns out I'm not.
8:35
Speaker 4: Please get off the show.
8:36
Speaker 2: And it was just that classic thing where you know,
8:38
Speaker 2: you go to appeal it and they're like, there's no appeal.
8:40
Speaker 2: This is done. So I think it was about seven
8:42
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, and yeah, I was so cranky about it
8:45
Speaker 2: that when I heard that there were rumblings of it
8:47
Speaker 2: all being overturned, I joined a class action lawsuit and
8:49
Speaker 2: I got paid back the full amount and a payout
8:52
Speaker 2: as well, which I was happy about.
8:53
Speaker 4: A money in.
8:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this lump sum and then I'm putting away
8:58
Speaker 2: money from my job and I paid off the credit
9:01
Speaker 2: card the robodet in the settlement basically paid off my
9:03
Speaker 2: entire credit card, and I was like, oh my god,
9:04
Speaker 2: I'm at zero for the first time. And I just
9:08
Speaker 2: started putting money away and putting money away, and yeah,
9:10
Speaker 2: I realized as we sort of came out of it
9:12
Speaker 2: that I had enough for a five percent deposit on
9:16
Speaker 2: an apartment, which I wouldn't have normally done because it's
9:20
Speaker 2: sort of a bit scary to have such a small deposit.
9:23
Speaker 2: I just assumed I was going to have to pay
9:25
Speaker 2: mortgage lenders insurance. But I was very lucky. I did
9:28
Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of research, which is how
9:30
Speaker 2: I started listening to this podcast in the first place,
9:32
Speaker 2: just listening to every finance podcast I could get my
9:35
Speaker 2: hands on, and you know, teaching myself stuff that wasn't
9:39
Speaker 2: really taught to me growing up, like you know, how
9:41
Speaker 2: homelands work and how property works. And was lucky enough
9:43
Speaker 2: to get onto the Victorian government's Shared Equity Scheme, which
9:47
Speaker 2: is a five percent deposit scheme where you don't have
9:50
Speaker 2: to pay mortgage insurance. It's underwritten by the government, and
9:53
Speaker 2: the government also kicks in twenty five percent of the
9:55
Speaker 2: purchase price as a lump sum payment and just sort
9:58
Speaker 2: of sits on the title as a co owner of
10:00
Speaker 2: the property until you either buy the maul or sell
10:02
Speaker 2: the property, which is amazing. And it's basically meant that
10:05
Speaker 2: I was able to buy a one bedroom apartment that
10:08
Speaker 2: I really loved, just a modest, little seventies old brick place.
10:11
Speaker 4: Oh, the seventy for ones are the best. The rooms
10:13
Speaker 4: are slightly bigger and the ceiling slightly higher.
10:16
Speaker 2: Yes, separate kitchen, there's no on sweet bathroom. It's a
10:19
Speaker 2: normal bathroom. Yeah, I really love it. You know, it's
10:21
Speaker 2: falling apart in places, but we're fixing her up slowly,
10:26
Speaker 2: but she is yours, yes, and she's well insulated. Yeah.
10:30
Speaker 2: So it's just basically meant with the shared equity scheme
10:32
Speaker 2: that I'm paying, I think my mortgage payments come to
10:35
Speaker 2: about twelve or thirteen hundred dollars a month, which I
10:37
Speaker 2: would be lucky.
10:39
Speaker 4: To rent this apartment for That is so good.
10:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's incredible.
10:42
Speaker 4: You would be coughing that up for rent in Melbourne anyway.
10:46
Speaker 2: Exactly, if not more, especially on.
10:47
Speaker 4: A one bedroom apartment. Can you imagine how much that
10:50
Speaker 4: would be each week for you on your own, like
10:52
Speaker 4: you'd be at least two grand two grand a month,
10:55
Speaker 4: at least I reckon like five hundred bucks a week maybe, ish,
10:58
Speaker 4: I love that for you.
10:59
Speaker 2: I had to basically share house up until the age
11:02
Speaker 2: of I think thirty seven to sort of, you know,
11:04
Speaker 2: keep putting that money away and make it work, which
11:06
Speaker 2: was you know, you're reaching the end of your tether.
11:09
Speaker 4: At that point you're like, look, I just didn't see
11:12
Speaker 4: myself here, but now you're in your own property. Yeah.
11:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm really I'm glad I did stick that out.
11:16
Speaker 2: But you know that's I mean, so many people have
11:19
Speaker 2: to rent in their thirties and forties now anyway, So
11:21
Speaker 2: it's you know, I tried not to be ashamed of it.
11:23
Speaker 4: No, we're not ashamed of it. But I feel like
11:24
Speaker 4: we're allowed to have some expectations for ourselves that weren't met.
11:29
Speaker 4: And you can go, oh, I'm a bit disappointed because
11:30
Speaker 4: I'd hoped for myself that the reality would be a
11:33
Speaker 4: little bit different.
11:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's just dignity in living alone, I think.
11:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, like, and I think that it's a freedom of choice, right, Like,
11:42
Speaker 4: I like that you had the choice, but sometimes we go,
11:44
Speaker 4: this is just not what I wanted to choose, but
11:46
Speaker 4: I can't do anything else about it. And I guess
11:49
Speaker 4: that's why I'm so wildly passionate about financial litricy, because
11:53
Speaker 4: without financial literacy, someone in your situation wouldn't have known
11:56
Speaker 4: about the Victorian shared equity program and that you can
12:00
Speaker 4: purchase and it can be a lot more supported, because
12:03
Speaker 4: you might have just had your head in the sand
12:05
Speaker 4: and been like I'm never going to buy, like this
12:07
Speaker 4: is not my journey, Like this sucks, and you would
12:09
Speaker 4: still be in a sharehouse. Not that there's again shame
12:12
Speaker 4: in that, but like that would be the reality without research.
12:15
Speaker 2: And most people don't want that, Yeah, exactly. Most people
12:17
Speaker 2: want to be living in their own place. So yeah,
12:19
Speaker 2: I try, and sort of it's hard because you want
12:21
Speaker 2: to sort of tell people. You want to get the
12:23
Speaker 2: word out, you know, I talk about it sometimes on
12:25
Speaker 2: social media, try and get the word out, you know,
12:27
Speaker 2: like this might be possible. You know, I'm single, I
12:30
Speaker 2: don't have you know, family money going into this, like
12:33
Speaker 2: it was possible for me. But it's also trying to
12:35
Speaker 2: be sensitive of you know, the fact that we're like
12:37
Speaker 2: in a rental crisis and just because it's possible for me,
12:39
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean it's possible for everyone, but I am
12:41
Speaker 2: sort of trying to get the word out to you know,
12:43
Speaker 2: friends in similar situations.
12:45
Speaker 4: Oh, girlfriend, you're preaching to the converted. Like I try
12:49
Speaker 4: so hard to tread that line of going like I
12:52
Speaker 4: don't want to offend people, but also I need to
12:54
Speaker 4: share these facts because.
12:55
Speaker 2: Two friends have been yeah, basically seen it and talked
12:59
Speaker 2: to me about it and had the same realization of like,
13:01
Speaker 2: oh wow, I actually could do this.
13:03
Speaker 4: See that's why we talk about it.
13:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is really nice. And you know, with all
13:07
Speaker 2: the jobs that I've had, I'm pretty good at reading
13:10
Speaker 2: contracts because I've done a lot of sort of government
13:12
Speaker 2: jobs around councils and building and stuff, so I'm pretty
13:14
Speaker 2: good at reading you know, section thirty twos and building
13:16
Speaker 2: inspection reports. So I'm always offering to read those for
13:19
Speaker 2: people to save money on conveyances and then just you know,
13:22
Speaker 2: getting them to get the legalies checked. But you know,
13:24
Speaker 2: i'll read their inspection reports, so I'll read their body
13:26
Speaker 2: corporate AGM.
13:28
Speaker 4: Note soul, you're and I kind of a friend to have.
13:31
Speaker 2: I'll look things up on the work database on the
13:32
Speaker 2: slide to make sure that you know the building permits
13:35
Speaker 2: are in place and stuff.
13:36
Speaker 4: I love that. So tell me, now, what do you
13:39
Speaker 4: do for work? And how much money do you earn?
13:41
Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, I mean obviously keeping this bit a bit.
13:44
Speaker 2: I'm very open about stuff, but I feel like.
13:45
Speaker 4: We can be a little bit sly. We don't have
13:48
Speaker 4: to like, I know you've got a government job.
13:50
Speaker 2: That might be enough exactly. Yeah, let's just say I
13:52
Speaker 2: work for a stake of regulatory agency, just sort of
13:56
Speaker 2: doing complaint management, looking into report lots of stuff and
14:01
Speaker 2: checking out what needs to be regulated. I think my
14:05
Speaker 2: base salary I should know this, it's somewhere around ninety five.
14:08
Speaker 2: I just did my tax return finally yesterday, and I
14:10
Speaker 2: think I think I hit one hundred and one on
14:14
Speaker 2: salary last year, but a lot of that would have
14:15
Speaker 2: been leaveloading because I use some long service leave on
14:18
Speaker 2: top of my annual. So I think base salary is
14:21
Speaker 2: somewhere between you know, ninety five and ninety eight.
14:23
Speaker 4: I guess how good is that?
14:25
Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm happy about that.
14:27
Speaker 4: I mean, on the flip side, what are you earning
14:29
Speaker 4: for comedy?
14:30
Speaker 2: Yeah? So I'm I think of myself as a new comedian.
14:34
Speaker 2: I think I've been doing it for nearly eight years now,
14:36
Speaker 2: but that is in some ways still kind of new.
14:39
Speaker 2: I think until you hit ten years you're sort of
14:41
Speaker 2: still figuring it out. So I gig I guess between
14:45
Speaker 2: like two and three times a week.
14:47
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that's a lot.
14:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, very tired. Just pub gigs around the place mostly,
14:52
Speaker 2: And I do the Melbourne Comedy Festival every year, and
14:55
Speaker 2: next year I'm going to expand and do Perth Fringe
14:58
Speaker 2: first and then Melbourne.
15:00
Speaker 4: That is so fun. And what does comedy pay like
15:03
Speaker 4: if you're doing these side gigs, is it like I
15:06
Speaker 4: don't know. I feel like a lot of the time
15:07
Speaker 4: people will probably say, oh, you have to do these
15:10
Speaker 4: free pub gigs to like cut your teeth and like
15:12
Speaker 4: get your name out there. But at what point do
15:14
Speaker 4: you get paid?
15:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well it's tricky because it's like, you know, obviously
15:16
Speaker 2: you don't want to work for free too much, but
15:18
Speaker 2: also you are kind of rehearsing on stage as well.
15:21
Speaker 2: So I think free gigs and working for free are
15:24
Speaker 2: always going to be a part of the process for comedy,
15:27
Speaker 2: and I think music and other sort of performing arts
15:29
Speaker 2: in a way that they're not for something that you
15:31
Speaker 2: can sit and refine in your bedroom because you know,
15:33
Speaker 2: you're sort of taking first drafts on stage and you're
15:36
Speaker 2: basically just asking the audience is this anything? And you
15:38
Speaker 2: don't want to be doing that on a gig where
15:40
Speaker 2: you're being paid one hundred dollars to be there.
15:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're probably not going to do that for the
15:44
Speaker 4: first time at a really big paid gig, right, Yeah. Yeah,
15:47
Speaker 4: like it sounded funny in my head.
15:49
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. Yeah, you're just going, well, that's nothing that flock. Yeah,
15:54
Speaker 2: but that's part of the process failing in public. And yeah,
15:57
Speaker 2: so it's usually I guess the majority of them are
15:59
Speaker 2: probably unpaid. The sort of bread and butter working material
16:03
Speaker 2: at gigs. Some of them are sort of twenty bucks,
16:05
Speaker 2: some of them are two drink cards, some of them
16:07
Speaker 2: are more like fifty or there's a good comedy club
16:11
Speaker 2: in Melbourne now called Comedy Republic, which is owned by
16:14
Speaker 2: comedians and pays its artists well. And so that's I
16:17
Speaker 2: think one hundred and fifty dollars for a sort of
16:20
Speaker 2: standard ten minute spot, which is about as good as
16:23
Speaker 2: it gets at my level. Yeah, but because I'm still
16:26
Speaker 2: up and coming, I might only do that. You know,
16:27
Speaker 2: twice or three times a year, like just a run
16:29
Speaker 2: of three shows every weekend. So that's a little treat sometimes.
16:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's cool though that these things exist to support you.
16:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, but then the Comedy Festival is an entirely different
16:41
Speaker 2: beast that I you know, I think Melbourne people are
16:43
Speaker 2: so supportive of the Comedy Festival, which is great, and
16:45
Speaker 2: a lot of them take a chance on a you know,
16:48
Speaker 2: on up and coming artists and stuff, but they might
16:50
Speaker 2: not be aware just how little people are either being
16:53
Speaker 2: paid or how much they're effectively paying to be there
16:57
Speaker 2: in the end if they're not you know, a bigger
16:59
Speaker 2: artist in a bigger venue.
17:01
Speaker 4: Really, what does that look like?
17:03
Speaker 2: So registration for a standard show in the Comedy Festival,
17:07
Speaker 2: which is usually going to be either ten shows for
17:09
Speaker 2: half the festival or you know, more like twenty to
17:11
Speaker 2: thirty over the whole festival, your registrations, I think it's
17:15
Speaker 2: I think it's gone over five hundred dollars now or
17:17
Speaker 2: it might be what d I think it's over five
17:19
Speaker 2: hundred now just to register to be involved in the festival.
17:24
Speaker 2: So that's just money that you pay to the festival
17:25
Speaker 2: to participate.
17:26
Speaker 4: Hey, this is your door fee, Yeah.
17:29
Speaker 2: Pretty much. And you know, the comedy festivals are largely
17:32
Speaker 2: not for profits, are usually incorporated as like not for
17:34
Speaker 2: profit arts bodies, so it's not like they're you know,
17:37
Speaker 2: they still run at a loss, I think can rely
17:39
Speaker 2: on funding.
17:40
Speaker 4: But yes, but comedians and artists are usually not for
17:43
Speaker 4: profit exactly.
17:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am also firmly not for profit. So you're
17:48
Speaker 2: paying into the festival for the first place. My venue
17:51
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three was it was a guarantee of
17:54
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred, so if you don't make fifteen hundred in
17:57
Speaker 2: ticket sales, you'll owe the money. Oh, fifte hundred is
18:00
Speaker 2: somewhat achievable. That was a thirty nine seed. But I
18:03
Speaker 2: think they must have had some funding or something that
18:06
Speaker 2: ran out over COVID, because then I had the exact
18:08
Speaker 2: same venue this year, and it was three thousand dollars
18:11
Speaker 2: guarantee of three thousand. What so, even after they took
18:16
Speaker 2: out their guarantee of three thousand and then paid me
18:18
Speaker 2: what was left over. I think my payout for the
18:20
Speaker 2: festival was like one hundred and fifty dollars or something,
18:26
Speaker 2: and then you know, the five hundred dollars on top
18:28
Speaker 2: of that, and then you know, I paid for not
18:30
Speaker 2: many because I think they're mostly useless, but I paid
18:32
Speaker 2: for a few social media ads. My printing was over
18:35
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars for posters and flyers, god what else
18:38
Speaker 2: graphic design. Yeah, it's just it puts you well in
18:42
Speaker 2: the hole unless you need to be either like selling
18:44
Speaker 2: out every night or in a venue sort of probably
18:48
Speaker 2: over about seventy five seeds and selling that well. Yeah,
18:51
Speaker 2: and for that you usually need some sort of profile,
18:54
Speaker 2: which used to just being on the TV, but these
18:57
Speaker 2: days is either being on the TV or big online
18:59
Speaker 2: and I am neither, And.
19:02
Speaker 4: I mean that makes it hard. But that's because you
19:06
Speaker 4: said before you're feeling like you're still at the start
19:08
Speaker 4: of your journey. What does that look like into the future.
19:11
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean I've sort of been thinking
19:13
Speaker 2: about that going into another festival and sort of feeling
19:16
Speaker 2: like I'm plateaued a little bit. But you're always sort
19:20
Speaker 2: of hoping that this will be a year, you know,
19:21
Speaker 2: because the smallest thing can change it, like a really
19:24
Speaker 2: good review in the Age, Like you'll see people go
19:27
Speaker 2: into a festival run with like low ticket sales get
19:31
Speaker 2: a five star review in the Age and then all
19:33
Speaker 2: of a sudden they've sold out the.
19:34
Speaker 4: Rest of their run, or yeah, good as they should.
19:37
Speaker 2: An award nomination, or just just buzz in you know,
19:40
Speaker 2: like that sort of hard to quantify, everyone's talking about
19:44
Speaker 2: the show, sort of buzz that'll sort of bump you
19:47
Speaker 2: up a bit.
19:47
Speaker 4: Well, you let me know when your next show is happening,
19:50
Speaker 4: and we can share it on She's on the Money,
19:52
Speaker 4: and hopefully all of the She's on the Money community
19:55
Speaker 4: will show up for someone in ow She's on the
19:56
Speaker 4: Money community.
19:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm always trying to give away you know, compstant
20:00
Speaker 2: people that I think might sort of talk about the show.
20:02
Speaker 4: We don't want comps. We don't want it for free.
20:04
Speaker 4: We pay for our community.
20:06
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you can strategically comp and then you know,
20:09
Speaker 2: then hope that they'll sort of like post an Instagram
20:11
Speaker 2: story or something, because it really does you know, word
20:13
Speaker 2: of mouth is the strongest seller I find.
20:16
Speaker 4: One hundred percent. One hundred percent. So tell me. We
20:20
Speaker 4: know you just bought your one bedroom apartment, which is
20:22
Speaker 4: very exciting. What are your big money goals? What are
20:24
Speaker 4: you currently working towards.
20:25
Speaker 2: I guess my realistic money goal is that I would
20:28
Speaker 2: just like to upgrade to a property with the second bedroom.
20:32
Speaker 2: Small dreams. I'm just I just like a spare room.
20:36
Speaker 2: Sort of working from home in my living room at
20:37
Speaker 2: the moment because I just don't have a second space
20:40
Speaker 2: to put a desk in and it kind of annoys
20:42
Speaker 2: me that it takes up some of my living space. Yeah,
20:45
Speaker 2: I think just upgrading my property would be a big one.
20:47
Speaker 2: And I mean, my more sort of unrealistic goal would
20:51
Speaker 2: be that I just love to be able to take
20:53
Speaker 2: a chunk of time off work one day and just
20:56
Speaker 2: focus on creative stuff for a while. A friend of
20:59
Speaker 2: mine went megaviral just before we did a split show
21:02
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two and is now you know, quite
21:05
Speaker 2: big online and was able to we used to do
21:07
Speaker 2: really similar government jobs, and she was able to basically
21:10
Speaker 2: take a year of unpaid leave from that job and
21:12
Speaker 2: just tour and you know, make pretty decent money just
21:16
Speaker 2: because she's got enough social media following to sort of
21:18
Speaker 2: pull a crowd wherever she goes.
21:20
Speaker 4: That is so cool.
21:21
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean, you know, I don't think I'm
21:23
Speaker 2: going to go megaviral, but you know, it would just
21:25
Speaker 2: be nice to have never say never, you never know,
21:28
Speaker 2: just be nice to have enough of like a lump
21:29
Speaker 2: of money to just be able to sort of pay
21:32
Speaker 2: those expenses and just yeah, like gig and then I
21:37
Speaker 2: have to get up for work the next day.
21:39
Speaker 3: You know.
21:39
Speaker 2: I had a gig and a dive bar last night
21:42
Speaker 2: in Collingwood that was like going pretty okay, and I
21:45
Speaker 2: did some new material and then I stayed to watch
21:48
Speaker 2: the other acts. And during one of the acts, a
21:50
Speaker 2: guy wandered in off the street. It was clearly in
21:53
Speaker 2: some form of psychosis and wandered onto the stage, tried
21:57
Speaker 2: to fight the comedian bar stuff had to come and
21:59
Speaker 2: get him. I'm downstairs. We got barricaded upstairs for a
22:02
Speaker 2: while while he screamed a bunch of walls downstairs.
22:05
Speaker 4: Oh my god.
22:06
Speaker 2: It's not always a glamorous business.
22:09
Speaker 4: No, that doesn't sound like you're not selling it to me.
22:12
Speaker 4: At the start, I was like, maybe I could be
22:13
Speaker 4: a comedian. I'm not funny, but this might work for me.
22:16
Speaker 4: No chance, not that glam I mean, good on you.
22:19
Speaker 4: But also I feel like this is such an area
22:23
Speaker 4: that needs so much more support. Like we talk about
22:25
Speaker 4: creatives and comedians and like, you know, just artists in general.
22:30
Speaker 4: They're usually people just like you who have full time,
22:33
Speaker 4: very serious jobs, who are doing this after hours because
22:36
Speaker 4: it's their passion. Whereas I think that when you go
22:39
Speaker 4: to like the comedy show, you go, oh, I've never
22:41
Speaker 4: heard of this comedian. She must do this all the time.
22:43
Speaker 4: I've just never seen her before. No, it's because she's
22:46
Speaker 4: at work.
22:46
Speaker 2: And you see those people sitting in the crowd and
22:48
Speaker 2: you think, oh, wow, look they're selling tickets. They must
22:50
Speaker 2: be doing really well. And you're like, oh, actually, and
22:53
Speaker 2: I think, you know, we've come a long way in
22:55
Speaker 2: creative industries in terms of how we talk about like,
22:58
Speaker 2: you know, diversity and representation, which is really good, but
23:01
Speaker 2: I think so much of it is focused on like
23:03
Speaker 2: visible representation, you know, like representation of people from different groups.
23:07
Speaker 2: But one thing that I find is often left out
23:09
Speaker 2: of the conversation is like class representation, and you know,
23:13
Speaker 2: diversity of financial backgrounds, because a lot of the time
23:16
Speaker 2: the people that you see who are from diverse backgrounds
23:19
Speaker 2: are also from area financially secure backgrounds. And you know,
23:23
Speaker 2: it's not like you can sort of buy your way
23:24
Speaker 2: into comedy, though there's plenty of things that you can
23:27
Speaker 2: pay for that will help you, like a good publicist
23:29
Speaker 2: or you know, ads on the side of a tram,
23:31
Speaker 2: all that sort of thing. But there's also just those intangibles,
23:34
Speaker 2: like the fact that you know a lot of because
23:37
Speaker 2: I'm a bit older than a lot of comedians. I
23:38
Speaker 2: started at thirty one, and so a lot of my
23:41
Speaker 2: colleagues are in their twenties. And you know, you're just
23:43
Speaker 2: going to have an easier time of it if your
23:45
Speaker 2: parents have a nice, big house with a spare room
23:47
Speaker 2: and you can live at home so that you only
23:49
Speaker 2: need to work part time or even not work. You know,
23:51
Speaker 2: some of them don't work at all because they're families
23:53
Speaker 2: just bankrolling them. And you can do six gigs a
23:56
Speaker 2: week because you've got the time and the energy, and
23:58
Speaker 2: you don't have to be up first thing, a meeting
24:00
Speaker 2: after the gig where you got barricaded into a pub.
24:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you've got to put your big girl pants
24:06
Speaker 4: on and be like, oh, yes, very serious business discussion.
24:09
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I'm not hungover. Why would you think that?
24:12
Speaker 4: Why would you say that? Don't come here and attack me.
24:15
Speaker 2: I needed a couple of wines after the Spicy Man incident.
24:19
Speaker 4: Oh mate, I would have needed more than a couple
24:21
Speaker 4: of wines. Oh I love this. All right, let's go
24:24
Speaker 4: to a really quick break on the flint side. I
24:26
Speaker 4: want to discuss investing. I want to talk more about
24:29
Speaker 4: your debt journey and then your best and worst money habits.
24:31
Speaker 4: So guys that don't go anywhere, all right, money drest.
24:38
Speaker 4: We are back and you have just purchased your very
24:40
Speaker 4: first one bedroom apartment. You already want to upgrade, which
24:43
Speaker 4: I totally get. I feel like having a second bedroom
24:46
Speaker 4: just gives you more space for activities. But I want
24:49
Speaker 4: to know what are your thoughts on investment. What are
24:51
Speaker 4: you doing in that space? Is it something you've thought about,
24:54
Speaker 4: is it something that you're actively doing? Now? What's your story?
24:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely something I'd like to do more more of.
25:00
Speaker 2: I mean, like so many dedicated She's on the money lists.
25:03
Speaker 2: I got myself the Chasa's app after after learning about it,
25:07
Speaker 2: and you know, cult is culting. Yeah, And I always
25:10
Speaker 2: explain it to people like I think you explained it
25:12
Speaker 2: on the show or the person from Chazy's, which is
25:15
Speaker 2: that like it's not necessarily a way that you're going
25:17
Speaker 2: to make yourself rich, but it's a really good way
25:20
Speaker 2: to just teach yourself, Like how it works, and just
25:23
Speaker 2: sort of develop tolerance to risks. Like I think it
25:25
Speaker 2: was really helpful to sort of start during a time
25:27
Speaker 2: when the market was quite volatile. You know, put like
25:29
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars on and immediately lose half of it
25:32
Speaker 2: and just like realize, oh, that feels bad. But if
25:35
Speaker 2: I just wait, its bounces back and just realize that, like, yeah,
25:39
Speaker 2: just develop that like emotional tolerance to the ups and
25:41
Speaker 2: downs of the market.
25:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you really need that. I think there's this
25:45
Speaker 4: big misconception investing that you need to kind of invest
25:47
Speaker 4: your life savings and see what happens. I just can't
25:50
Speaker 4: agree with that, Like I just go, I wouldn't do
25:53
Speaker 4: it because I am a bit risk averse. But at
25:55
Speaker 4: the same time, now I have an investment portfolio and
25:58
Speaker 4: people will be like, oh my gosh, that's so crazy.
26:00
Speaker 4: But it's like from these little things, my confidence has
26:03
Speaker 4: grown and I understand how to emotionally respond to these things.
26:07
Speaker 4: And I just you need that education. I mean, you
26:10
Speaker 4: can make yourself wealthy on an investing platform too, but
26:14
Speaker 4: like from the get go, I think if you approach
26:16
Speaker 4: it with a I'm going to just give myself the
26:19
Speaker 4: financial literacy and I'm going to play around with you know,
26:21
Speaker 4: ten bucks or something and see where it goes. That's
26:25
Speaker 4: what starts to build wealth.
26:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I sort of built it up from
26:28
Speaker 2: my initial you know, I think one hundred I just
26:30
Speaker 2: sat there with for a while, and then I think
26:32
Speaker 2: I've got about thirty one hundred in there at the moment.
26:35
Speaker 2: Mostly just look at you go. Yeah, it just mostly
26:38
Speaker 2: just on ETFs and then a few just little random
26:40
Speaker 2: ones because I just wanted to see if I could
26:42
Speaker 2: pick a winner.
26:43
Speaker 4: I love that because that's very me coded.
26:45
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I've got my fun ones that are more
26:48
Speaker 2: volatile because I kind of enjoy watching them go all
26:51
Speaker 2: over the place. And then most of it's just in
26:53
Speaker 2: the ETFs. Yeah.
26:54
Speaker 4: We call that a core satellite approach. If you want
26:56
Speaker 4: to sound really fancy, you go, so if people are
26:58
Speaker 4: talking to you, you can be like, yeah, well actually
27:00
Speaker 4: I invest on Chaisa's and I have a call satellite approach,
27:02
Speaker 4: and they'll be like, wow, she knows how shit.
27:04
Speaker 2: I have a strategy exactly.
27:06
Speaker 4: That's a legit strategy though.
27:08
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that's the only real investment that I have
27:11
Speaker 2: because apart from that, I have an offset account on
27:13
Speaker 2: my mortgage, and you know, my very basic version of
27:15
Speaker 2: crunching the numbers, that seems to be one of the
27:17
Speaker 2: best places to have money. At the moment, I've got
27:20
Speaker 2: I think about twenty thousand in my offset. At the
27:23
Speaker 2: moment it was more, but I've just had to pay flights,
27:26
Speaker 2: regio and publicist for birth. So it's twindled a.
27:29
Speaker 4: Little, yes, but at least you had the money there.
27:32
Speaker 4: Otherwise that wouldn't be an option. And I mean, can
27:34
Speaker 4: we just flash back a little bit, because you said
27:36
Speaker 4: for fifteen years you carried debt, but last year you
27:40
Speaker 4: finally purchased your first property. Now you're a property owner.
27:43
Speaker 4: You've got like twenty grand in your offset. You just
27:45
Speaker 4: paid for a tour, like you've got three one thousand
27:48
Speaker 4: ish dollars in investing. Be for real. That is a
27:51
Speaker 4: glow up.
27:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that money is also just there, you know,
27:54
Speaker 2: because I've only got like, I don't really have insurance
27:56
Speaker 2: on my apartment because so much of it's just covered
27:58
Speaker 2: by the building insurance, the strata insurance, so it's just
28:01
Speaker 2: there in case the pipe bursts and floods, the neighbor
28:04
Speaker 2: or you know, we get slept with a building notice
28:07
Speaker 2: and have to put a new roof on or something.
28:09
Speaker 2: It's just nice to know I've got that.
28:10
Speaker 4: Got some cash there. I love this. I love it
28:13
Speaker 4: so much. Absolutely, tell me about your superannuation. What does
28:17
Speaker 4: that look like? Is it something that you focus on.
28:19
Speaker 2: I don't think I have that much. I've just looked
28:22
Speaker 2: it up on Micah. I've got eighty seven thousand, which
28:25
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if you.
28:26
Speaker 4: Don't think I have that much, has eighty seven thousand dollars,
28:29
Speaker 4: that's a good amount.
28:31
Speaker 2: I'm thirty nine, so I'm not sure if that's good
28:32
Speaker 2: or not.
28:33
Speaker 4: Yes, but like you've been working your butt off and
28:36
Speaker 4: you've got a good amount of super over time that's
28:38
Speaker 4: gonna compound. Like this is looking good.
28:41
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think I was behind for quite a while,
28:44
Speaker 2: just because I spent so much of my twenties either
28:46
Speaker 2: overseas or studying or working under the table, and it
28:50
Speaker 2: was like a pitiful amount for a while. But yeah,
28:51
Speaker 2: I guess I've been doing government jobs for a while.
28:53
Speaker 2: But pay a good, good amount of super. Yeah, so
28:56
Speaker 2: it's not too bad.
28:58
Speaker 4: I love that for you. Talk to me about debt.
29:00
Speaker 4: So what type of debt do you currently have on
29:02
Speaker 4: this property? And will you ever go into personal debt again.
29:06
Speaker 2: So I've got one hundred and ninety or two one
29:08
Speaker 2: hundred thousand debt on the property, which isn't too bad
29:11
Speaker 2: thanks for the shared equity of the government. The purchase
29:15
Speaker 2: price was about three hundred and twenty and so yeah,
29:18
Speaker 2: not having that full amount in debt it's nice. I mean,
29:21
Speaker 2: you know, it still has to be paid back eventually,
29:22
Speaker 2: but it can just be paid back when you sell
29:24
Speaker 2: the property. It can just be sort of divvied out,
29:26
Speaker 2: which is great. So yeah, I don't mind that debt.
29:29
Speaker 2: It is manageable. You know, interest rates touch would probably
29:32
Speaker 2: aren't going to get much worse. So if I can
29:34
Speaker 2: manage it now, I can manage in the future. I
29:37
Speaker 2: have a HEX debt of I think it's around thirty
29:41
Speaker 2: thousand still left, which I know in theory is good debt.
29:45
Speaker 2: I actually do kind of regret my hex debt. I
29:48
Speaker 2: particularly regret the initial Bachelor of Arts that I got
29:51
Speaker 2: in my twenties. I went to Union when I was
29:54
Speaker 2: I think eighteen, and yeah, I kind of do actually
29:57
Speaker 2: regret going to UNI. And I would like if I
30:00
Speaker 2: was talking to someone in that position and that age now,
30:02
Speaker 2: I would tell them to you know, think hard about
30:05
Speaker 2: UNI if they're not going for a really specific like
30:07
Speaker 2: vocational course, or they couldn't tell you exactly why they're
30:11
Speaker 2: getting the degree. And you know, my parents have said
30:14
Speaker 2: since that they feel a little guilty that they just
30:16
Speaker 2: kind of didn't push me to go to UNI with
30:18
Speaker 2: something I wanted, but that it didn't occur to them
30:20
Speaker 2: to say, you know, are you sure this is a
30:22
Speaker 2: good idea.
30:23
Speaker 4: Because you don't have to do this.
30:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. They came from like, you know, the free UNI generation,
30:27
Speaker 2: and it really like friends and I've talked about how
30:29
Speaker 2: it was so sold to us as just like, you know,
30:32
Speaker 2: just a debt that sits there in the background you
30:34
Speaker 2: don't even really have to think about. And then you
30:35
Speaker 2: look at how much actually is coming out of your
30:37
Speaker 2: salary on your HEX repayments, and you're like, oh, wow,
30:40
Speaker 2: I could be living a much easier life if I
30:43
Speaker 2: didn't have that.
30:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a lot, and I feel like you really
30:46
Speaker 4: need to think about it. I think there's this assumption
30:48
Speaker 4: that if you go to UNI, you'll automatically do better,
30:51
Speaker 4: and that's just not the reality of the situation.
30:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I'm working you know, administrative clerical jobs, or
30:56
Speaker 2: sort of things that are bachelor's isn't the worst thing
30:58
Speaker 2: for But the way that I got and in my
31:01
Speaker 2: specific field was sort of you know, working up the
31:04
Speaker 2: chain of just like crappy call centers all the way
31:07
Speaker 2: up to government and those first jobs I did, you
31:10
Speaker 2: know that were paying me probably meant less than minimum
31:12
Speaker 2: wage awful call centers I worked in. You didn't need
31:15
Speaker 2: a degree to work that. You barely needed a pulse
31:17
Speaker 2: to work there. You barely.
31:21
Speaker 4: They're like, wow, you show up on time. That is
31:23
Speaker 4: going above and.
31:24
Speaker 2: Beyonright, yeah, so I actually think I could have gotten
31:28
Speaker 2: exactly where I am now without the Bachelor of Arts
31:32
Speaker 2: in philosophy.
31:34
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that was very important.
31:36
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, so you know, it is what it is.
31:38
Speaker 2: You're living your.
31:38
Speaker 4: Learn We had fun along the way.
31:41
Speaker 2: So it's only those two debts, and no, I will
31:43
Speaker 2: not ever go back into personal debt. I keep my
31:46
Speaker 2: credit card just because it's handy, but I'm very, very
31:49
Speaker 2: militant about paying it off every fortnight.
31:51
Speaker 4: So very good. All right, Well tell me what is
31:54
Speaker 4: your best money habit.
31:55
Speaker 2: Well I thought about this because you know, obviously you
31:58
Speaker 2: your mind goes to, oh, I'm pretty thrifty and I
32:01
Speaker 2: love a bug and all that sort of thing, and
32:04
Speaker 2: yet I do have some good money habits. I don't
32:06
Speaker 2: buy many clothes, you know, I try to cook food
32:09
Speaker 2: and not by too much takeaway that sort of thing.
32:12
Speaker 2: But I think realistically, my best money habit has just
32:15
Speaker 2: been being quite strategic about trying to get where I
32:21
Speaker 2: am in my jobs, just to maximize my earning potential
32:24
Speaker 2: because I'm not you know, they call me crazy. I'm
32:26
Speaker 2: not passionate about you know, government regulation. It doesn't you know,
32:31
Speaker 2: fire my soul up or anything. But you know, I
32:34
Speaker 2: did make a conscious decision, you know, around the time
32:36
Speaker 2: that I started performing and doing improv in theater and
32:38
Speaker 2: stuff like that. Yeah, I took what was a little
32:41
Speaker 2: pay cut at the time to go from working a
32:43
Speaker 2: pretty stressful job at an ombudsman to working at a
32:46
Speaker 2: council But because I knew that government would be more
32:49
Speaker 2: stable and it's a bit more sort of you know,
32:52
Speaker 2: once you're in the door with government, it's usually pretty
32:54
Speaker 2: easy to move around.
32:55
Speaker 4: So I like to move people around, which they don't
32:57
Speaker 4: like to really take on new hires if they don't
33:00
Speaker 4: have to.
33:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I kind of consciously took like a technically
33:03
Speaker 2: a step backwards to just do customer service at a council.
33:05
Speaker 2: But I was there for five years, and over that
33:07
Speaker 2: time I was able to do secondments all over the
33:09
Speaker 2: place in the raids department, the building department, and start
33:12
Speaker 2: to gather these sort of concrete skills and learn all
33:16
Speaker 2: this sort of really specific subject matter, which then enabled
33:19
Speaker 2: me to move into state government in related roles because
33:22
Speaker 2: I had the subject matter experience. And yeah, so.
33:26
Speaker 4: That's cool, that's very cool. You've been strategic about it.
33:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think otherwise I don't think i'd be
33:31
Speaker 2: on the salary that I'm on Now.
33:34
Speaker 4: You've got a good salary, and like, that's pretty good.
33:36
Speaker 4: So do you enjoy the work that you do now?
33:38
Speaker 2: Not really?
33:39
Speaker 4: Honestly, sorry, I are, but it's fine.
33:43
Speaker 2: You know, it's a choice you make. You know, I
33:45
Speaker 2: could probably enjoy something more, but i'd take a pay
33:47
Speaker 2: cut of at least twenty thousand, if not more. I've
33:49
Speaker 2: got friends who work in jobs that they love and
33:51
Speaker 2: they're just not being paid enough.
33:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, that really grinds my gear.
33:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, And also, like I'm able to work four days
33:57
Speaker 2: a week from home, which is invaluable. You know, it
33:59
Speaker 2: means when i've got a late gig, I can just
34:01
Speaker 2: sort of sleep in until two minutes before I start.
34:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, which is honestly necessary if you're running that
34:08
Speaker 4: work life balance.
34:09
Speaker 3: Yeah.
34:09
Speaker 2: I was falling apart before the pandemic. And then you know,
34:12
Speaker 2: it was just so nice how it just showed everyone
34:14
Speaker 2: that these jobs that they insisted couldn't be done from
34:17
Speaker 2: home absolutely could be done from home.
34:20
Speaker 4: As it turns out, your employee no longer has an
34:22
Speaker 4: excuse to say no, sorry, people are productive from home. Genuinely.
34:27
Speaker 4: You put me at home, I'm way more productive because
34:29
Speaker 4: I'm not distracted and I'm not.
34:31
Speaker 2: As tired because yeah, I was just burning the candle
34:33
Speaker 2: at both ends before and now I'm just I'm eating better,
34:36
Speaker 2: I'm sleeping better. Yeah, my work life balance is it
34:40
Speaker 2: somewhat existent? So yeah, I don't love my job, but
34:43
Speaker 2: I appreciate what it brings to my life.
34:47
Speaker 4: That's good. And I feel like that's refreshing to hear
34:49
Speaker 4: as well, because I think so many times people are
34:52
Speaker 4: always like, yep, love my job, and that's just not
34:54
Speaker 4: relatable for absolutely everybody.
34:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it can be really hard if
34:58
Speaker 2: you have this message that like doing it right if
35:00
Speaker 2: you don't love your job, it's okay. If anything, I'm
35:03
Speaker 2: a socialist. I think it's a little perverse to you know,
35:05
Speaker 2: love labor, to love love laboring.
35:08
Speaker 4: Uh huh exactly.
35:10
Speaker 2: But yeah, and I also enjoy that it's for the government.
35:12
Speaker 2: You know, I've worked for some pretty iffy private companies before.
35:16
Speaker 4: It's nice to have you done multi level marketing.
35:18
Speaker 2: I haven't done multi level marketing, but you know, I've
35:20
Speaker 2: done cold calling, I've done you know.
35:22
Speaker 4: You know, all of that is fine.
35:24
Speaker 2: Nothing I'm ashamed of, but it's you know, it's nice
35:26
Speaker 2: to work for a government department that has a really
35:29
Speaker 2: clear like function to do good for the community.
35:33
Speaker 4: No, I think it's good. I think it's good. Let's
35:35
Speaker 4: flip it and talk about your worst money habit. What
35:38
Speaker 4: do you think that is?
35:39
Speaker 2: I mean, it's definitely comedy.
35:42
Speaker 4: I mean, not for me, maybe for you.
35:44
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's just I guess you could
35:46
Speaker 2: say it's financially responsible because it's costing me money, but
35:50
Speaker 2: also it makes my life worth living. Honestly, I love it.
35:53
Speaker 2: I find it creatively fulfilling. Like I had good friends
35:57
Speaker 2: before comedy, but just the wonderful freaks I've met doing comedy.
36:01
Speaker 4: You found your people, Yeah, and just people from.
36:03
Speaker 2: Walks of life that I wouldn't necessarily have met otherwise
36:07
Speaker 2: because they're just from all over the place, just united
36:10
Speaker 2: by this insane thing that we like to do. So yeah,
36:15
Speaker 2: it's I mean, my other bad money habit. I think,
36:18
Speaker 2: looking at my bank statement, would have to just be
36:20
Speaker 2: drinks out of the house. Alcohol is so expensive and
36:23
Speaker 2: bad for you, and it's objective and.
36:25
Speaker 4: It's actually just not socially acceptable to take a hip
36:28
Speaker 4: flusk anymore.
36:29
Speaker 2: They frown on it, Yeah, particularly when you're technically working there.
36:33
Speaker 4: So yeah, I've heard that.
36:34
Speaker 2: I think if I stopped, you know, buying a wine
36:36
Speaker 2: at every gig that I was at, I'd probably i'd
36:39
Speaker 2: be a millionaire.
36:40
Speaker 4: I think they should be giving you a wine at
36:42
Speaker 4: every event.
36:43
Speaker 2: A lot of gigs are giving you it will give
36:45
Speaker 2: you a wine.
36:45
Speaker 4: But yeah, I feel like I'd need the wine to
36:48
Speaker 4: get on the stage, like it's an investment from them
36:50
Speaker 4: into you.
36:51
Speaker 2: It does take the edge off, yeah, but also that
36:53
Speaker 2: classic thing of you just end up socializing in pubs
36:57
Speaker 2: and stuff, and boy has that gotten expensive fast. I'm
37:00
Speaker 2: trying it now that the weather's going to be nicer.
37:01
Speaker 2: I'm trying to do a lot more Park Hans.
37:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's fair, that's very fair. Money diarist, I feel
37:07
Speaker 4: like we've had a really good chat. I have loved
37:09
Speaker 4: learning more about you and your story, and you said
37:12
Speaker 4: that your money habits are a C plus at the start.
37:15
Speaker 4: I want to know about that because I feel like
37:16
Speaker 4: we've learned a lot about work life balance. I feel
37:19
Speaker 4: like you've got your head screwed on really well. You're like, no,
37:22
Speaker 4: I took a step back in a job to kind
37:24
Speaker 4: of move forward. I've got a lot of strategy around this, Like,
37:27
Speaker 4: I have loved this, But why do you think you're
37:30
Speaker 4: a C plus? Tell me about that.
37:32
Speaker 2: Well, when it comes to incoming money, I think I'm
37:35
Speaker 2: you know, a mins. But when it comes to outgoings,
37:38
Speaker 2: I consciously don't use a budget. I think I could
37:41
Speaker 2: really tighten things up a lot if I used a budget.
37:45
Speaker 2: I just there's too much to keep track of, and
37:48
Speaker 2: so I really my budgeting system is just vibes based
37:51
Speaker 2: At the moment, it's.
37:52
Speaker 4: Just it's vibes. How do you budget? It's based on
37:55
Speaker 4: the vibe.
37:56
Speaker 2: It's the vibe. I pay off my credit card, I
37:58
Speaker 2: try and because my mortgage comes out of my offset.
38:01
Speaker 2: I try and put, you know, a little bit more
38:03
Speaker 2: than what the mortgageory payments are going to be that
38:07
Speaker 2: fortnite into the offset. It doesn't always make it, depending
38:10
Speaker 2: on what my expenses have been. You know, I don't
38:12
Speaker 2: use a bucket system. I just have one. I have
38:15
Speaker 2: a credit card and then one account for everything. I
38:17
Speaker 2: don't manage my money very well, which is and I
38:21
Speaker 2: know all the ways that I could be managing it better.
38:23
Speaker 2: I have the financial literacy, I have the tools. I
38:26
Speaker 2: just I'm just tired. I don't I'm just.
38:29
Speaker 4: Tired, Victoria. I get it, I get it. I'm going
38:32
Speaker 4: to try and help. I don't know if this is
38:34
Speaker 4: something you even want, but I'm going to gift you
38:36
Speaker 4: my money masterclock. So it's automated. So like I know,
38:40
Speaker 4: we're all tired, we're all over it, right, Like we
38:43
Speaker 4: don't want to do heaps of work. But if you
38:46
Speaker 4: can put in what you get paid, you can put in,
38:49
Speaker 4: you know, some of your expenses, it will do all
38:51
Speaker 4: of the hard work for you. Like it literally will
38:54
Speaker 4: tell you, okay, money, dirist, this is how much you
38:56
Speaker 4: need to put into your offset account. And this is
38:59
Speaker 4: going to help you to do X, Y and Z.
39:01
Speaker 4: It will show you like.
39:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I have a set salary. I've got no excuse.
39:05
Speaker 4: And I feel like budgeting can be overwhelming, and I've
39:08
Speaker 4: tried to make it not And I mean, if you're
39:10
Speaker 4: already in the Shechese on the Money community, you'll probably
39:12
Speaker 4: appreciate the videos and stuff in there. But I'm not
39:14
Speaker 4: gonna lie. The most powerful part is that budgeting cash
39:17
Speaker 4: flow system that's basically automated for you. And I've also
39:21
Speaker 4: built into it which you might find fun or like motivating.
39:24
Speaker 4: It's got a debt repayment calculator, so you can put
39:27
Speaker 4: in your mortgage and then play around with how many
39:30
Speaker 4: years it will take off your mortgage if you like
39:32
Speaker 4: added an extra like thirty bucks or whatever. And I
39:35
Speaker 4: just think that's fun.
39:36
Speaker 2: That is very motivating. Yeah.
39:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you've got to keep you hooked, you know,
39:40
Speaker 4: like budgeting is boring, I've got to give you some
39:43
Speaker 4: pretty shiny things along the way, So I've tried to
39:46
Speaker 4: make it a very esthetic budget as well. I love it,
39:48
Speaker 4: Money Diarist. I have adored this. This has been a
39:51
Speaker 4: really fun chat, I especially, and you probably didn't see
39:54
Speaker 4: this coming, but I especially love you saying that you
39:56
Speaker 4: just don't love your job, but it does the job
39:58
Speaker 4: to get you the lifestyle that you want to live.
40:01
Speaker 4: And I think that's so relatable and just such a
40:04
Speaker 4: good message because I think there's this toxic positivity that
40:08
Speaker 4: floats around about having to love your job and having
40:10
Speaker 4: to be the best in everything, and it's just refreshing. Okay,
40:15
Speaker 4: I just love it. But I know that you think
40:17
Speaker 4: you're a C plus, but I mean a money coming
40:20
Speaker 4: in C plus money going out. I like that methodology
40:23
Speaker 4: as well, like we don't have to nail everything. But
40:27
Speaker 4: I've loved this. I know the community will love this
40:29
Speaker 4: as well. Thank you so much for joining us.
40:32
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
40:39
Speaker 4: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
40:41
Speaker 4: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
40:45
Speaker 4: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
40:49
Speaker 4: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
40:52
Speaker 4: If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
40:55
Speaker 4: the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards
40:59
Speaker 4: your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
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