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MONEY DIARIES: Scammed By Her Own Fam! · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
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Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before
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Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
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Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
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Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
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Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
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Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
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Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
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Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Mune, the podcast
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Speaker 2: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome to another one
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Speaker 2: of our money diaries where we get to talk to
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Speaker 2: one of our incredible Shees on the Money community members
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Speaker 2: all about their money story. Let's jump straight into it
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Speaker 2: today because this week we've got a juicy one. Here's
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Speaker 2: the message I got. Hi, Victoria. I'm a doctor who
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Speaker 2: got scammed two hundred and seventy one thousand dollars by
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Speaker 2: my cousin who lives overseas. I've managed to get out
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Speaker 2: of the financial hellhole with a lot of help and
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Speaker 2: hard labor, and it has catapulted my financial literacy like
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Speaker 2: no other. I wanted to share my experience given the
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Speaker 2: prevalence of cybercrime, and to break down stigma for others
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Speaker 2: who have also been scammed. Money diarist, Hello, what an
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Speaker 2: awful cousin. I know one out of ten cannot recommend.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean didn't see that one coming through.
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Speaker 2: No, you wouldn't have, especially because they're family, right. I
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Speaker 2: want to know so much about this before we get there, though.
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Speaker 2: I want to know if I asked you to grade
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Speaker 2: your money habits from A through F, what would you
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Speaker 2: grade yourself?
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Speaker 4: Probably A B plus B plus.
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Speaker 2: I like it.
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Speaker 4: I like it.
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Speaker 2: Let's get into the money diary, though, because I want
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Speaker 2: to know all about this money dirates, Can you tell
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Speaker 2: us a little bit about your money story?
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Speaker 4: Sure?
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Speaker 5: So, growing up, I didn't have a lot of financial literacy.
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Speaker 5: Money wasn't talked about in the family like adult affairs.
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Speaker 5: Hush hush, you don't talk about it. So I just
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Speaker 5: learned to not ask my parents or anything to do
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Speaker 5: with you know, their jobs or how much they earn
2:35
Speaker 5: or anything like that. I was also made to feel
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Speaker 5: like it was a bad thing to accept gifts or
2:42
Speaker 5: you know, money on you know, birthdays or special events,
2:46
Speaker 5: because you know you're not meant to be taking money
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Speaker 5: from others. You're meant to be saving your own money.
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Speaker 5: So a lot of conflicting types of ideologies growing up
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Speaker 5: where you know, you don't talk about money, but you
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Speaker 5: know you can't sort of accept gifts and things from
3:01
Speaker 5: family and other people as well. And I didn't really
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Speaker 5: work until I was nineteen, so I had no concept
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Speaker 5: of super or taxes until I started work, and even then,
3:14
Speaker 5: working while doing UNI, I didn't realize, you know, what
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Speaker 5: the importance of super was, or you know, how to
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Speaker 5: do your taxes, things like that.
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Speaker 2: That's so common though, so common.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, so I just sort of blindly fumbled my way
3:26
Speaker 5: through working a few part time jobs while studying. Even
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Speaker 5: when I started working as a doctor, it was just all,
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Speaker 5: you know, I earned, I spent, I earned, I spent,
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Speaker 5: I saved, but I didn't know what I was saving
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Speaker 5: for and I didn't know how to save, so it's
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Speaker 5: just whatever I didn't spend ended up being savings. So,
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Speaker 5: you know, I was just sort of going through that
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Speaker 5: sort of endless cycle until I got scammed. Basically, Oh
3:54
Speaker 5: my gosh, that sort of changed my perspective on things.
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Speaker 2: So talk to me a little bit about this circumstance. Obviously,
4:02
Speaker 2: that's the reason you've reached out to us. And I
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Speaker 2: feel like you sound very articulate, very well spoken, and
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Speaker 2: like a very intelligent human being. He dropped before that
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Speaker 2: you're a doctor. I feel like that is the exact
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Speaker 2: opposite of the type of person I would have assumed to.
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Speaker 2: Let's call it full for a scam, even though it's
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Speaker 2: not really falling for a scam, it's being manipulated into
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Speaker 2: parting with money. Right, how did this happen? How do
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Speaker 2: you get scammed out of two hundred and seventy one
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Speaker 2: one thousand dollars?
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Speaker 5: Yeah, well, it didn't happen in just one big lump
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Speaker 5: sum here, can I have two in seventy one k?
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Speaker 5: It was over a period of a year and a half,
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Speaker 5: and it just started off. So I have family overseas
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Speaker 5: and my cousin's overseas, but I grew up with her,
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Speaker 5: so you know, we had a pretty close relationship and
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Speaker 5: it just started off with a initial sort of Her
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Speaker 5: boyfriend was in trouble and she needed to help him out.
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Speaker 5: Could I sort of help her help him out? And
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Speaker 5: you know, as a once off thing, you know, I
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Speaker 5: did in mind, So I transferred her some money, and
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Speaker 5: then I guess it just that was the sort of
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Speaker 5: opening for an ongoing cycle of a web of lives.
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Speaker 5: It's a bit complicated, but essentially it started off with
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Speaker 5: one thing. So say, for example, her boyfriend needed money
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Speaker 5: for X, Y Z reason and she couldn't go to
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Speaker 5: anyone else, and I was the only one she could trust,
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Speaker 5: and I was the only one she had kind of scenario.
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Speaker 4: And then when that.
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Speaker 5: Sort of story had reached its limit, it was some
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Speaker 5: other story about someone we knew, a mutual person that
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Speaker 5: we knew, and that how he was in financial strife
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Speaker 5: and he was hounded by loan sharks and we were
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Speaker 5: all he had, and so it became a just a
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Speaker 5: sort of spiraling web of lies. And at the time,
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Speaker 5: because I knew the person that she was referring to
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Speaker 5: as being in all this financial strife, I believed her
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Speaker 5: and just didn't question it. Even the stories got more
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Speaker 5: and more weird. So for example, he needed, you know,
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Speaker 5: medical expenses covered for being really unwell, and then his
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Speaker 5: mother died, and then.
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Speaker 4: It just spiraled.
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Speaker 5: And I mean, I guess at the back of my mind,
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Speaker 5: I sort of I was like, what am I doing?
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Speaker 5: Why is this happening? Because I never spoke to the
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Speaker 5: person that she was referring to. Ever, I was always
6:23
Speaker 5: through her. I never saw evidence of anything. I just
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Speaker 5: sort of blindly trusted her.
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Speaker 2: Well, she was a family member, right, Yeah.
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Speaker 5: So it just kept going until it reached a point
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Speaker 5: where I guess it was just getting too ridiculous. So
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Speaker 5: I was getting random messages from random phone numbers I
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Speaker 5: didn't recognize, sort of harassing me for money and things
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Speaker 5: like that, and when I've questioned her about it, that'll
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Speaker 5: be more lies.
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Speaker 4: So then I was like, Okay, this is just weird.
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Speaker 5: So then I'd stopped giving her money, and then I
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Speaker 5: guess there are a few clues that I'd picked up
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Speaker 5: along the way that led me to believe that everything
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Speaker 5: was just a sham, but it wasn't. So I realized
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Speaker 5: when I'd stopped giving her money, that she changed her
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Speaker 5: whole story again to a different sort of story to
7:08
Speaker 5: try and get money off me. That I realized that
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Speaker 5: this is all a sham, and that I just needed bail.
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Speaker 5: But I guess by then I'd already been scammed to
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Speaker 5: under in so many.
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Speaker 2: K Oh, my gosh, that's awful. I'm so sorry you
7:20
Speaker 2: went through that.
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Speaker 5: It wasn't a pleasant time and I had to. I
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Speaker 5: took out, you know, four credit cards out of personal loon.
7:27
Speaker 5: I was working day and night to cover this. And
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Speaker 5: the funny thing was I wasn't even the money, wasn't
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Speaker 5: even for me. I was just sort of earning it
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Speaker 5: and then fundling it to her, and so just escalated.
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Speaker 5: But I think once I realized and started getting help,
7:45
Speaker 5: then that was the point of no return. I was
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Speaker 5: never gonna sort of return to that cycle, I guess.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. So this cousin that you had, you
7:55
Speaker 2: mentioned your cousin's overseas. Was this someone that you were
7:58
Speaker 2: relatively close with.
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Speaker 5: Before yep, yep, so used to see her on school holidays,
8:04
Speaker 5: grew up with her when we were younger, So totally
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Speaker 5: did not see this coming.
8:09
Speaker 2: And how did you broach this with family? You said
8:12
Speaker 2: that you reached out for help. Was that through family?
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Speaker 2: Was it through you know, external sources? What were your
8:17
Speaker 2: first few steps there? Because that would be heartbreaking to
8:21
Speaker 2: find that out, but also so difficult because it's a
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Speaker 2: family member.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's really awkward, and it's still to this day.
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Speaker 5: So basically I reached out to her parents to sort
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Speaker 5: of query on her side whether all of this was true,
8:38
Speaker 5: which I don't know whether that was a mistake or not,
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Speaker 5: but basically they ended up taking her side, and which
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Speaker 5: was to say basically that none of this was true
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Speaker 5: and that I was lying. So it became a he said,
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Speaker 5: she said thing. But I had a bit of help
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Speaker 5: from other relatives where she lives to sort of do
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Speaker 5: a bit of background snooping, which which then gave me
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Speaker 5: the evidence that this is all not true. And I
9:01
Speaker 5: guess in terms of financial help, I did receive a
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Speaker 5: lot of help from my parents and my friends to
9:06
Speaker 5: sort of get me out of it, but it took
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Speaker 5: me a long time to confess to them, I guess
9:13
Speaker 5: for one of a better term as to what had happened,
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Speaker 5: because I was just so ashamed of what I did
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Speaker 5: and I felt like I was the one that caused
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Speaker 5: it all, and so it was just a bit difficult
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Speaker 5: to let them know. But once I did, it was fine.
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Speaker 2: So what does this look like today?
9:33
Speaker 4: Then?
9:33
Speaker 2: Obviously family is family kind of forever. You obviously don't
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Speaker 2: have a relationship with her anymore, But what does that
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Speaker 2: look like for the broader family.
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Speaker 5: Well, I still don't know, because I haven't seen her
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Speaker 5: or heard from her since I've confronted her with the
9:49
Speaker 5: you know, I know you're lying thing.
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Speaker 4: She's basically blocked me. Her parents have blocked me.
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Speaker 5: They've sort of cut off all contact from the rest
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Speaker 5: of the family as well, so no one really knows
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Speaker 5: what happened to them and where she is or what
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Speaker 5: she's doing. I have tried sought legal options to try
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Speaker 5: and get the money back, but it ended up being
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Speaker 5: sort of throwing good money at bad and so I
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Speaker 5: thought it wasn't worth it and the emotional hohoha of
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Speaker 5: going down that pathway and sort of all the debts
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Speaker 5: that I'd accumulated in that time period, I've now paid
10:23
Speaker 5: off and completely debt free. So that's good from a
10:27
Speaker 5: debt free from that point of view.
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Speaker 2: Oh, I'm glad. I was about to ask about that.
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Speaker 2: I was like, please tell me you're not still in this.
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Speaker 5: No, but it took me about three years to get
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Speaker 5: completely debt free from that whole saga, so slow process,
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Speaker 5: but conscience, clean slate white now, so oh good.
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Speaker 2: I'm glad that you're in that position. And when I
10:49
Speaker 2: ask a few more perfect questions about your cousin, you said,
10:52
Speaker 2: you know, we'd see each other on school holidays. Obviously
10:54
Speaker 2: you never saw this coming. And I mean, if my
10:56
Speaker 2: cousin reached out to me and said I need help,
10:58
Speaker 2: I'd be there with bells on, absolutely no worries, like
11:01
Speaker 2: I've got your back with family. Right. Were there indicators
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Speaker 2: or little red flags growing up that maybe she wasn't
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Speaker 2: the most honest person or did this just come completely
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Speaker 2: out of the blue.
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Speaker 5: I guess on reflection, there were probably some indicators. So
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Speaker 5: she's a bit older than me, and I used to
11:19
Speaker 5: see her lie sometimes when we went situations, and sometimes
11:23
Speaker 5: I'd get the blame for something I never did, and
11:26
Speaker 5: I just put that down to you know, childhood, immaturity
11:30
Speaker 5: or whatever, like I never took it seriously, but I
11:32
Speaker 5: was looking back, there might be some things that hinted
11:36
Speaker 5: at an unbecoming character to be.
11:40
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. And then as an adult, as things
11:43
Speaker 2: started to become very complex, and obviously there was a
11:46
Speaker 2: string of lies. And then she told you that you
11:49
Speaker 2: know someone you liked was in trouble and then obviously
11:51
Speaker 2: you kind of worked out that maybe this wasn't what
11:55
Speaker 2: she was saying it was. At what point was that
11:59
Speaker 2: and how did you go about going all right? Well,
12:01
Speaker 2: you mentioned before that you had some family or some
12:03
Speaker 2: people in the same country as her do a little
12:06
Speaker 2: bit of digging, which was helpful. How did you reach
12:09
Speaker 2: out about that? And I guess explain that circumstance because
12:13
Speaker 2: when it comes to being scammed, there is often a
12:17
Speaker 2: lot of stigma and shame that exists when they shouldn't be. Like,
12:21
Speaker 2: looking at it from the surface level. From my perspective,
12:24
Speaker 2: you did it because you cared. You did it because
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Speaker 2: you're a kind human being who wanted your cousin to
12:29
Speaker 2: be okay and this other person to be okay, and
12:31
Speaker 2: you were just like okay, no worries, like of course
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Speaker 2: I'm going to help. So I don't think there should
12:36
Speaker 2: be any shame there at all. But I think the
12:38
Speaker 2: shame exists when you realize or you feel as though
12:42
Speaker 2: you got manipulated, And no one likes to think that
12:45
Speaker 2: they got manipulated, right, But how did you break that
12:48
Speaker 2: to your family and start unraveling this web of lies?
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Speaker 5: So I reached out to a different cousin to try
12:54
Speaker 5: and because I guess the number of the person that
12:58
Speaker 5: you're saying was in all sorts of strife, every time
13:00
Speaker 5: I tried contacting that number to get the facts, they
13:04
Speaker 5: never answered the phone, which is obviously a red, massive
13:07
Speaker 5: red flag. So I tried to get the number of
13:11
Speaker 5: the actual person from a different cousin, who then managed
13:16
Speaker 5: to get it, and I called up that actual person,
13:19
Speaker 5: who had no idea that his name was being used
13:23
Speaker 5: in this whole string of things. I mean, he could
13:26
Speaker 5: be lying as well, but I don't think so. I
13:28
Speaker 5: think it was just a scapegoat essentially. So I guess
13:32
Speaker 5: that was sort of a year after a year or
13:35
Speaker 5: so of being sort of manipulated, And then it took
13:38
Speaker 5: me another half a year or so to let my
13:43
Speaker 5: mom know. I had to write a letter explaining everything
13:46
Speaker 5: because it was just one of those things that it
13:49
Speaker 5: was so complex and unbelievable that I couldn't verbalize it,
13:53
Speaker 5: so I had to write it down in auto sequence
13:57
Speaker 5: just so she could get the facts before sort of.
14:01
Speaker 4: Losing losing her mind. Yeah, yeah, so that's what happened
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Speaker 4: that Yeah.
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Speaker 2: And what did your parents say? When they found out,
14:09
Speaker 2: how did they feel about this, because obviously this was
14:12
Speaker 2: their niece.
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Speaker 5: They were really surprised and shocked that this had happened.
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Speaker 5: My mom was particularly very angry at me more than
14:24
Speaker 5: anything else, for being sort of deceived in being so gullible.
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Speaker 4: No, as in that that was her reaction.
14:33
Speaker 5: I know now that that's not the case, so that
14:36
Speaker 5: that's that's how she reacted, And I mean, she was
14:40
Speaker 5: also angry at my cousin, but I guess on her
14:43
Speaker 5: trying to confront my cousin, she just sort of made
14:46
Speaker 5: up more lives and things, and I guess at that
14:49
Speaker 5: point my mom realized that what had happened to me,
14:53
Speaker 5: as In initially she couldn't quite believe it. And it
14:56
Speaker 5: wasn't until she talked to my cousin and realized that
14:59
Speaker 5: she was not making sense to her as well that
15:01
Speaker 5: she realized how much I'd been manipulated.
15:04
Speaker 4: And then she did.
15:05
Speaker 5: Although she wasn't happy that all of this had occurred,
15:08
Speaker 5: she helped me out to get it at some of
15:11
Speaker 5: my debt and things like that, Oh.
15:14
Speaker 2: My gosh, I'm so glad you had your parents, And
15:17
Speaker 2: I feel like that's really common for parents to sometimes
15:19
Speaker 2: learn something that's really shocking, especially about their child that
15:23
Speaker 2: they want to love and protect and you know, don't
15:25
Speaker 2: want you to get into trouble. They don't always respond
15:27
Speaker 2: in the way that you would hope to immediately. Sometimes
15:30
Speaker 2: they need a bit of time to calm down and
15:32
Speaker 2: find to their feet and find their actual response. So
15:35
Speaker 2: that that's very relatable. But money darist, I want to
15:39
Speaker 2: know a bit more about you because obviously this is
15:41
Speaker 2: just something that happened to you along your financial journey.
15:44
Speaker 2: It's not the defining factor of who you are or
15:46
Speaker 2: what you're creating when it comes to financial freedom. I
15:50
Speaker 2: want to know what do you do for work? How
15:51
Speaker 2: much money do you earn.
15:53
Speaker 5: So I'm a doctor, I do both work in a
15:56
Speaker 5: hospital and I do private work as well, so I
15:59
Speaker 5: have about four streams of income.
16:01
Speaker 2: Oh, very sexy, which can be.
16:04
Speaker 5: A bit variable because of the private work, but I
16:07
Speaker 5: guess at the moment. I think last financial year, I
16:10
Speaker 5: think was about two hundred and just under two fifty
16:14
Speaker 5: k pre tax, which works out to be I've worked
16:18
Speaker 5: out on my spreadsheet that I allow myself an income
16:21
Speaker 5: of about thirteen thousand a month after tax, So I
16:25
Speaker 5: allow myself about thirteen thousand dollars a month for income.
16:31
Speaker 2: That is very impressive.
16:33
Speaker 5: I divide that into sort of daily expense, shared expenses
16:37
Speaker 5: with my husband, and savings and splurge.
16:42
Speaker 2: Perfect. Next question I've got for you is what is
16:45
Speaker 2: your big money goal. You said that you'd paid back
16:47
Speaker 2: all of the debt from being scams, So where are
16:50
Speaker 2: we going now? What are we working towards?
16:52
Speaker 5: Yep, so recently hit previous money goal, which was to
16:56
Speaker 5: buy a house, so that's done. Money goal would be
17:01
Speaker 5: saving up for when I'm not able to work, say for.
17:04
Speaker 4: Example, for maternity lead. Yeah, and also saving for investments
17:09
Speaker 4: to grow our wealth.
17:10
Speaker 2: That's exciting. All right, We're going to go to a
17:12
Speaker 2: really quick break, and on the other side of the break,
17:14
Speaker 2: I want to learn a little bit more about your
17:16
Speaker 2: investing habits and what your plans are, so guys, don't
17:19
Speaker 2: go anywhere. All right, we are back money Diarist. I
17:27
Speaker 2: feel like you have been through the absolute wars, but
17:29
Speaker 2: it sounds like you're coming out the other side, and
17:31
Speaker 2: you are a very good example of somebody who has
17:34
Speaker 2: been scammed that you just wouldn't expect. I feel like
17:36
Speaker 2: everybody just assumes that to be scammed. You have to
17:40
Speaker 2: be silly or not intelligent or not be able to
17:43
Speaker 2: see things. But the scam you went through was incredibly
17:46
Speaker 2: manipulative and was also run by a family member, which
17:50
Speaker 2: is honestly, just from my perspective, absolutely cooked. But we're
17:55
Speaker 2: jumping back into it. You are back on track, you're
17:58
Speaker 2: out of debt, you are working towards big money goals.
18:01
Speaker 2: You've purchased your first home, which is so exciting. So
18:04
Speaker 2: I want to know what's your investment plans for the future.
18:07
Speaker 5: So I've already got some investments in terms of an
18:11
Speaker 5: investment property and some shares that the investment plan longer
18:16
Speaker 5: term would be to invest for potential future children's education
18:22
Speaker 5: and also to grow our wealth generally in terms of
18:26
Speaker 5: having a passive income, so I don't have to work
18:28
Speaker 5: as much.
18:29
Speaker 2: Very sexy. I like that when it comes to investing
18:32
Speaker 2: for children's education. How do you think you might go
18:35
Speaker 2: about doing that? Have you given that any thought?
18:37
Speaker 4: Yep.
18:38
Speaker 5: So every month we're putting aside a certain amount of
18:42
Speaker 5: money to invest in shares, and the idea is to
18:46
Speaker 5: invest over the next fifteen years or so and hopefully
18:50
Speaker 5: build a portfolio that's going to be something that we
18:55
Speaker 5: can use to fund future child education and if we
19:00
Speaker 5: need to.
19:01
Speaker 2: How exciting. I feel like that is really far aheads,
19:04
Speaker 2: like that's something that you know, I've just gotten married
19:07
Speaker 2: and we're starting to talk about kids and stuff like that,
19:09
Speaker 2: And it's not a conversation I've even had with my
19:11
Speaker 2: partner yet about education. How have you started having these
19:15
Speaker 2: conversations with your husband? Is this something that you and
19:18
Speaker 2: your husband just openly talk about always? Because I feel
19:20
Speaker 2: like this is so progressive.
19:21
Speaker 5: I love it, Yes, just because he's obsessed with our
19:25
Speaker 5: future kids going to private schools and that being a
19:28
Speaker 5: significant cost. And I don't share the exact same beliefs
19:32
Speaker 5: about needing a private school education to give being exceptionally
19:36
Speaker 5: important in a child's life.
19:39
Speaker 4: But I can see that.
19:42
Speaker 5: I mean, I had a private education and I thought that,
19:46
Speaker 5: you know, my school was fantastic, But I mean, I
19:48
Speaker 5: don't have anything to compare to. I never went to
19:50
Speaker 5: a public school. So I guess that conversation was always
19:55
Speaker 5: open because he's so vocal about it and so keen
19:59
Speaker 5: for that to that we thought we might as well
20:02
Speaker 5: just plan early.
20:03
Speaker 2: I feel like I love that, Like it's just something
20:05
Speaker 2: that a lot of couples aren't thinking about especially before
20:08
Speaker 2: they have kids. Are you guys as communicative or is
20:12
Speaker 2: your husband as vocal about other financial goals or is
20:14
Speaker 2: it just really about the education.
20:16
Speaker 5: Now, I think we're pretty open about everything. We do
20:20
Speaker 5: the whole for date night thing where we talk about
20:24
Speaker 5: money related to dud, you know, and review our goals
20:29
Speaker 5: and our savings and budget and all of that.
20:32
Speaker 4: So we're pretty open about talking about money.
20:35
Speaker 2: How exciting, Oh my gosh. You mentioned before you've recently
20:39
Speaker 2: bought a home and you have an investment property. So
20:42
Speaker 2: the next question I want to know is what debts
20:44
Speaker 2: do you have and how much are you carrying?
20:47
Speaker 5: Yep, so I have zero personal debt or credit card
20:51
Speaker 5: debt or X debt.
20:52
Speaker 2: Yes, Queen.
20:55
Speaker 5: In terms of investment property, I have about I think
20:59
Speaker 5: four under thirty k mortgage and now place where we
21:04
Speaker 5: live we share a one point three million dollar property mortgage,
21:11
Speaker 5: so those would be the main debts at the moment.
21:15
Speaker 2: When it comes to investment property. You're quite young. You're
21:18
Speaker 2: thirty three, so I feel like you are still a
21:21
Speaker 2: baby and you are killing it. And I know you've
21:23
Speaker 2: been through some pretty significant financial hardship, but to have
21:27
Speaker 2: gone through what you've gone through, and to have an
21:28
Speaker 2: investment property in a family home like this is so exciting.
21:32
Speaker 2: I want to know when did you get your investment
21:34
Speaker 2: property and what led you down the path of making
21:37
Speaker 2: the decision to purchase that.
21:38
Speaker 4: Sure. So, actually, my investment property was my principal place
21:42
Speaker 4: of residence at the time that I purchased it in
21:46
Speaker 4: It was an off the planned place that I purchased
21:48
Speaker 4: in twenty eighteen.
21:50
Speaker 5: The funny thing is that while I was getting scammed,
21:53
Speaker 5: I still knew that I had to pay my mortgage
21:57
Speaker 5: repayments first above anything else.
21:59
Speaker 4: I never defaulted on on that.
22:01
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm so glad.
22:03
Speaker 4: I just didn't have money for anything else.
22:05
Speaker 5: Basically, so I was living there and then when I
22:08
Speaker 5: met my husband and we decided to move in together,
22:13
Speaker 5: he had the bums for a deposit already saved, and
22:17
Speaker 5: I had the I.
22:19
Speaker 2: Guess the borrowing capacity yep.
22:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, the borrowing capacity yep.
22:23
Speaker 5: So with our hoous combined, we managed to get a
22:26
Speaker 5: property together. So joined in both our names, and that's
22:30
Speaker 5: when my other place turned into an investment property.
22:33
Speaker 2: Yeah. How exciting. And then with your family home one
22:36
Speaker 2: point three to three million dollars as a mortgage leaves
22:40
Speaker 2: a bit of a lump in my throat. How did
22:42
Speaker 2: you feel going and getting that mortgage? Was that something
22:45
Speaker 2: where we were like, okay, cool, like I know in
22:47
Speaker 2: the area I live, this is just what property costs.
22:49
Speaker 2: But also, how did you feel taking out a mortgage
22:52
Speaker 2: of more than a million dollars?
22:54
Speaker 4: Okay?
22:54
Speaker 5: Only because we had a good mortgage broker who gave
22:58
Speaker 5: us a pre approval, and you know, we bought below
23:02
Speaker 5: our pre approval max, and we saw a lot of
23:05
Speaker 5: properties in the area, so we've done a lot of
23:08
Speaker 5: research beforehand, and so when we did buy what we
23:12
Speaker 5: did by we were comfortable that we could make those repayments.
23:16
Speaker 5: But we bought just before the first lot of interest
23:19
Speaker 5: rates went up, so in April last year. So since then,
23:26
Speaker 5: every time we think, oh, this is the repayment, it
23:29
Speaker 5: just goes up.
23:30
Speaker 2: I can feel that in my soul at the moment.
23:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's still manageable.
23:35
Speaker 5: I think it helped that we didn't sort of stretch
23:37
Speaker 5: out what we could borrow.
23:39
Speaker 4: We just borrowed sort of just under Yeah.
23:42
Speaker 2: Wow, all right, I want to know what do you
23:44
Speaker 2: think is your best money Habit.
23:46
Speaker 5: Probably setting up direct debits for transfers into savings and
23:52
Speaker 5: for bills and things so that I don't have to
23:54
Speaker 5: think about it's all automated. And also just setting up
23:58
Speaker 5: all the bucketing in the first place, because prior to that,
24:01
Speaker 5: I was just like I said whatever, I didn't spend
24:04
Speaker 5: with savings, so there was no structure to anything, so
24:07
Speaker 5: I didn't know what I was doing. Whereas now I
24:09
Speaker 5: feel more in control and I can see when you
24:13
Speaker 5: know savings are built up over time and it's satisfying.
24:16
Speaker 2: I love that. I feel like cashlow is one of
24:18
Speaker 2: my favorite things ever. It's literally why I built the
24:20
Speaker 2: Budget and Cashlow Masterclass, because I was just obsessed with
24:23
Speaker 2: creating a cash flow system very selfishly for me, and
24:26
Speaker 2: then I shared it with everybody else. But it's actually
24:29
Speaker 2: so fun when things start to work and you know
24:31
Speaker 2: where things are going and which bucket it's going to
24:33
Speaker 2: fall into, and you know that your goals are going
24:35
Speaker 2: to be achieved. There's just such a sense of accomplishment
24:38
Speaker 2: with that. Yeah, when people say, oh, my best have
24:40
Speaker 2: it is cashlow, I'm like, yeah, and get it because
24:41
Speaker 2: it's kind of set you up for life, like it's
24:43
Speaker 2: the best thing that you can do for yourself regardless
24:46
Speaker 2: of what you earn to bring the mood down a
24:49
Speaker 2: little bit, because I'm all about knowing about worse things too.
24:52
Speaker 2: What do you think is your worst money habit?
24:55
Speaker 5: Probably I'm a bit stingy with allocating money from self
25:00
Speaker 5: for splurge and discretionary expenses, so then I end up
25:05
Speaker 5: digging into other funds to make something happen if I
25:09
Speaker 5: really wanted to happen, and then having to keep transferring
25:13
Speaker 5: money back and forth to even it out afterwards.
25:16
Speaker 4: So I guess just reviewing my discretionary expense fund.
25:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's totally okay. Now that we've had a good
25:24
Speaker 2: conversation and I have a really good understanding of you,
25:27
Speaker 2: it sounds like you've gone through a lot. Obviously, being
25:29
Speaker 2: scammed by your cousin who lives overseas for two hundred
25:32
Speaker 2: and seventy one thousand dollars is nuts. But you've come
25:36
Speaker 2: out the other side of this. You met your husband,
25:38
Speaker 2: you've moved in together, you have a family home together,
25:40
Speaker 2: you have your own investment property, you're investing your saving,
25:43
Speaker 2: you have a bang in cash flow system. Do you
25:47
Speaker 2: really think that you're only a B plus my friend?
25:49
Speaker 5: Yes, just because I still have a bit more learning
25:54
Speaker 5: to do in terms of like things like acid protection
25:58
Speaker 5: and wealth creation. Like there's a whole lot of terminology
26:01
Speaker 5: that I still don't understand and I would like to
26:03
Speaker 5: learn more about. So, I mean, I think I was
26:06
Speaker 5: an F a few years ago, So I think I've
26:10
Speaker 5: come a long way, and I'm pretty.
26:11
Speaker 2: We've come so far. And I feel like B plus
26:14
Speaker 2: isn't bad. I always just like reflecting on it. And
26:16
Speaker 2: my favorite thing when I ask that question and say, oh,
26:19
Speaker 2: do you really think you're a B plus is not
26:22
Speaker 2: that you question it. It's actually that you can give
26:24
Speaker 2: me some tangible examples of how you would like to
26:27
Speaker 2: better your financial circumstances or the things that you want
26:31
Speaker 2: to learn about. And the things that you've mentioned are
26:33
Speaker 2: really valid, Like talking about asset protection is so important,
26:36
Speaker 2: talking about insurances is so important, especially if you're a doctor,
26:40
Speaker 2: because if you can't work as a doctor, you can't
26:42
Speaker 2: earn an income, and obviously your income is helping you
26:45
Speaker 2: pay your mortgage. So I feel like all of those
26:48
Speaker 2: things make so much sense and they are really really valid.
26:51
Speaker 2: But do you know what the best part about them
26:53
Speaker 2: is they're really easy to learn. About and that's literally
26:56
Speaker 2: why we exist. So I have absolutely every belief that
27:00
Speaker 2: you are going to be an a plus in absolutely
27:01
Speaker 2: no time. Money Diarist, it has been lovely talking to you.
27:06
Speaker 2: I am so glad that you have come on the
27:08
Speaker 2: show and spoken to me because I just genuinely believe
27:11
Speaker 2: that we're breaking down that stigma of who gets scammed
27:14
Speaker 2: and what's going on and maybe if somebody else is
27:17
Speaker 2: in a similar circumstance, they might reach out for help
27:20
Speaker 2: a little bit earlier before they actually get into a
27:23
Speaker 2: really big hole, because so many times it's this idea
27:27
Speaker 2: that you don't want to reach out because it's a
27:29
Speaker 2: bit embarrassing. That really puts us in a deeper hole
27:31
Speaker 2: than we need to be in, right.
27:33
Speaker 5: I mean yeah, it took me a while as well
27:35
Speaker 5: because of those reasons that you mentioned. And I think
27:39
Speaker 5: if it helps to allow other people to realize that
27:42
Speaker 5: it's not they're not alone, then that's that's a good thing.
27:46
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. Do you know what it actually
27:48
Speaker 2: reminds me of. There's a podcast that I was obsessed with.
27:51
Speaker 2: It's actually based in the UK. You might have heard
27:54
Speaker 2: of it. It's called Sweet Bobby by Tortoise Media, and
27:58
Speaker 2: it's about somebody being catfish, which I feel is very
28:01
Speaker 2: similar to your circumstance where they were scammed, and it
28:04
Speaker 2: just went for a really long time, and I'm not
28:07
Speaker 2: going to spoil it if you haven't listened to it,
28:09
Speaker 2: but it's a story that checks out on many levels
28:12
Speaker 2: as being quite similar to yours. So if anybody's interested
28:15
Speaker 2: in that, that's a little podcast recommendation from me before
28:18
Speaker 2: we go, But unfortunately that's all we have time for today.
28:21
Speaker 2: Money Deres, thank you so much for joining me.
28:23
Speaker 4: Thanks so much for having me. Victoria