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MONEY DIARIES: Following Your Heart · She's On The Money

0:00
Speaker 1: She's on the Money.
0:02
Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
0:13
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
0:16
Speaker 3: for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome to your Monday morning.
0:21
Speaker 3: I hope you've had a great weekend. I've got Miss
0:24
Speaker 3: Victoria Devine right here with me as always.
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Speaker 2: Hello. You are so lucky, Tony Lodge. I am really lucky.
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Speaker 3: I just love waking up on a Monday morning seeing
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Speaker 3: your beautiful face.
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Speaker 2: Oh, you are too kind. Do you want to share
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Speaker 2: with everybody what you're wearing right now? Because we're recording remotely,
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Speaker 2: I'm wearing my dressing gown. It's very cute. And what
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Speaker 2: if I got I've got like a big fluffy, blankety
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Speaker 2: blank back.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, both of us are looking a little bit tragic,
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Speaker 3: but it's the perfect, perfect, perfect way to sit and
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Speaker 3: listen to this money diary that we've got today.
0:58
Speaker 2: I love a love story and this is that?
1:00
Speaker 1: Is it?
1:00
Speaker 2: Actually? I'm so excited. Can you please save me the
1:03
Speaker 2: email and let's get into it all right.
1:06
Speaker 3: When I was twenty four, I quit my office job
1:08
Speaker 3: and went to France to volunteer in a monastery in
1:11
Speaker 3: France for a year. While I was there, I met
1:14
Speaker 3: a boy who was also volunteering and was not a monk,
1:16
Speaker 3: and we fell in love. When he left the monastery,
1:19
Speaker 3: I had three months left on my visa. I left
1:22
Speaker 3: the monastery too and went to live with him and
1:24
Speaker 3: his family in the Netherlands for three months so I
1:27
Speaker 3: could work out if this relationship was worth negotiating such
1:30
Speaker 3: a geographically complicated situation for. Very quickly, we knew the
1:35
Speaker 3: relationship was the real deal, and we both realized that
1:38
Speaker 3: parting was not an option. So I phoned my mum,
1:42
Speaker 3: which is what everyone needs to do in this situation.
1:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, good, everyone would do that absolutely.
1:48
Speaker 3: She was so scared I would stay in Europe and
1:50
Speaker 3: never come home that she, who had no savings or
1:53
Speaker 3: any money behind her, went and got a ten thousand
1:56
Speaker 3: dollar personal loan and transferred it all to me so
2:00
Speaker 3: that we could have the money we needed to purchase
2:02
Speaker 3: for him a working holiday visa, our return flight for Australia,
2:07
Speaker 3: the travel insurance for the year, as well as having
2:09
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars in his bank account required for him
2:12
Speaker 3: to enter the country on the working holiday visa.
2:15
Speaker 2: Oh my God made it. When we say mums really
2:18
Speaker 2: got my back, Like you mean, mum, we got my back.
2:22
Speaker 2: This is what mums are for.
2:24
Speaker 3: We made it to Australia and we needed to repay
2:26
Speaker 3: my mum and start working on our application for the
2:29
Speaker 3: partnership visa, and the cost had gone from three thousand
2:32
Speaker 3: dollars to five thousand dollars just to apply with no guarantee.
2:36
Speaker 3: We got a personal loan for the partnership visa as
2:38
Speaker 3: well as consolidating that leftover credit card debt. While we
2:42
Speaker 3: waited for the partnership visa, he couldn't do much in
2:44
Speaker 3: the way of work, so we lived just off my income.
2:47
Speaker 3: He volunteered and in return had his studies paid for.
2:50
Speaker 3: But we now have both moved and a working part time.
2:53
Speaker 1: That's so exciting.
2:55
Speaker 3: But he still isn't a citizen yet, so he can't
2:58
Speaker 3: access fee help, so we're paying upfront for him to study. Luckily,
3:02
Speaker 3: the citizenship application is only two hundred and eighty five dollars,
3:05
Speaker 3: but it's still a big job paperwork wise. Pretty sure
3:08
Speaker 3: I have the most expensive husband ever. Good thing he's
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Speaker 3: one hundred percent worth it.
3:12
Speaker 2: Oh that's so sweet. Who can say, Oh, yeah, I
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Speaker 2: met my partner at a monastery like I met mine
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Speaker 2: on Tinder?
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Speaker 3: What well, we need to ask these questions, and luckily
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Speaker 3: we've got our money diarist on the line with us.
3:26
Speaker 2: Hi.
3:27
Speaker 3: Hello, thank you for being here and sharing your story.
3:30
Speaker 3: What a romance whirlwind it was.
3:33
Speaker 1: Rather, that is so sweet.
3:35
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, from a monastery. Did you expect to
3:39
Speaker 2: meet someone in a monastery? Really? Not?
3:42
Speaker 1: No, No, it's not what I got to pick up.
3:46
Speaker 2: No, I just didn't think you were like, oh, I'm single.
3:49
Speaker 2: I'm going to go out to the monastery this weekend.
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Speaker 3: And obviously we've got our our questions. We always ask
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Speaker 3: our money diarists, but I really need to know. So
3:59
Speaker 3: you're married, now you're together us?
4:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you've been married for six years?
4:04
Speaker 2: Six years?
4:05
Speaker 1: Hmm, oh my gosh.
4:06
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we've got so many questions because at
4:09
Speaker 2: the end of the day, I love love, and I
4:10
Speaker 2: also love talking about money. So let's talk about money.
4:13
Speaker 2: Then let's talk about him, because that's really fun.
4:15
Speaker 1: My favorite things.
4:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's jump straight into the structured questions though. First
4:21
Speaker 2: things first, what is your attitude towards money?
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Speaker 1: Well, I grew up with my mom, just the two
4:27
Speaker 1: of us, and she was on Centralink the whole time,
4:30
Speaker 1: so I've definitely learned the value of budgeting. I often
4:35
Speaker 1: actually feel guilty when I make money because I feel
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Speaker 1: like the person I'm making money from could be my mom.
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Speaker 1: They might really actually need that money. So I've had
4:45
Speaker 1: to deal with those like guilt feelings about having money,
4:49
Speaker 1: which I do now that I've grown up and I
4:51
Speaker 1: have a job, and I've actually learned to really enjoy
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Speaker 1: what money can give me, especially in so far as
4:58
Speaker 1: feeling free to help other people, especially my mom, give
5:03
Speaker 1: back to her a bit after all she's done for me.
5:06
Speaker 2: That's so sweet. And I feel like so many people
5:09
Speaker 2: in this situation really feel guilt about them going out
5:12
Speaker 2: and earning your own money, when in reality, you should
5:15
Speaker 2: absolutely not feel guilty because one, you're breaking a bit
5:18
Speaker 2: of a cycle because you're not reliant on that. But
5:20
Speaker 2: by earning money, you're paying tags, which then goes towards
5:24
Speaker 2: making sure other people are actually supported when they need it.
5:27
Speaker 2: And I think that it's you know, if what goes
5:29
Speaker 2: around comes around, and there's absolutely no shame in being
5:33
Speaker 2: nocentlingk or relying on it. But there is this really
5:36
Speaker 2: big guilt piece for people who have family members or
5:39
Speaker 2: friends who maybe aren't able to generate an income in
5:42
Speaker 2: the same way that you do, and it's just it's
5:44
Speaker 2: not fair, Like making money is not something that we
5:48
Speaker 2: should be ashamed of in any way, shape or form.
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Speaker 2: All Right, you said you make money. Next question is
5:54
Speaker 2: what do you do for work and how much do
5:56
Speaker 2: you earn?
5:58
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I said that, I'm my husband at a monastery.
6:02
Speaker 1: So the next piece is I'm a deacon in the
6:06
Speaker 1: Anglican Church and probably at the end of this year
6:09
Speaker 1: or early next year, I will become a priest in
6:11
Speaker 1: the Anglican Church. Oh my gosh, that is so cool.
6:14
Speaker 2: Wow. How did you get into that?
6:18
Speaker 1: I think it started at the monastery, just feeling how
6:21
Speaker 1: life giving it was to be in that world and
6:25
Speaker 1: how significant that sort of community life and dealing with
6:29
Speaker 1: like the really real things in life. How significant that
6:32
Speaker 1: was to me compared to what my office job had
6:35
Speaker 1: been like, which had felt really pointless, just relentless getting
6:40
Speaker 1: up every day to go to work, to come home,
6:42
Speaker 1: to sleep, to go to work, and just thinking what
6:44
Speaker 1: am I doing this for? Whereas spending time in the
6:47
Speaker 1: monastery with people and with the real things of life
6:50
Speaker 1: made me think I want to do this for the
6:51
Speaker 1: rest of my life and so in the church I
6:54
Speaker 1: can do that. I'm actually dealing with what actually is
6:58
Speaker 1: important to people and what is touching emotionally with life
7:02
Speaker 1: and birth and death and everything. The big question is special.
7:06
Speaker 2: Do you know what really gets me about that? Is
7:08
Speaker 2: that such a special job and yet you still feel
7:12
Speaker 2: guilty for earning money from having such a big impact,
7:15
Speaker 2: Like what, Like, you give so much you should absolutely
7:19
Speaker 2: not feel any level of guilt.
7:21
Speaker 1: Churches aren't known for having loads of money, at least
7:23
Speaker 1: not where I'm working at a.
7:26
Speaker 2: Right, so TLDR to get really rich become a priest?
7:30
Speaker 2: Is that where we're going with this? No, damn, I
7:34
Speaker 2: thought I had a career change in me. That turns
7:35
Speaker 2: out I don't. All right, next question.
7:38
Speaker 1: I haven't told you how much I earn yet, and
7:40
Speaker 1: I'm happy to share that. Yeah, No, I want to know,
7:42
Speaker 1: so I'll make sure to make it a really full picture.
7:45
Speaker 2: My gosh, I'm a terrible person. I'm just so pervy.
7:49
Speaker 1: Well, I'm only working part time because there's actually not
7:52
Speaker 1: a lot of churches that can support full time people
7:55
Speaker 1: out in the country where I live. So I'm earning
7:58
Speaker 1: about twenty eight thousand a year and my husband is
8:02
Speaker 1: doing the exact same thing as me. So he had
8:04
Speaker 1: the same kind of revelations in the monastery. So he's
8:06
Speaker 1: also currently a deacon, also planning to be priested next year,
8:09
Speaker 1: also working part time, also on the same income. Yes,
8:14
Speaker 1: so our household income is fifty six thousand a year,
8:17
Speaker 1: but we also in our work get accommodation provided and
8:20
Speaker 1: our electricity paid, so that helps a lot.
8:23
Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, that would help a lot. But how special
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Speaker 2: to have somebody who's on literally the same page with
8:29
Speaker 2: you emotionally, spiritually, like career wise, Like.
8:33
Speaker 1: Whoa, I feel I have hit the jackpot.
8:36
Speaker 2: You literally found your soulmate. How cool is that? All right?
8:40
Speaker 2: What is currently your big money goal?
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Speaker 1: My big money goal is actually just to make sure
8:46
Speaker 1: that we are financially secure for the future. So I
8:49
Speaker 1: don't have the goal of buying a house because we
8:51
Speaker 1: have accommodation provided for how long we're working. But I
8:55
Speaker 1: do want to have enough behind us to buy a
8:57
Speaker 1: house when we retire. So at the moment, I'm just
9:00
Speaker 1: focusing on investing as much as I can.
9:02
Speaker 2: Wow, I've got so many questions, because that's the next question.
9:06
Speaker 2: Do you currently have investments? If so, what are they?
9:10
Speaker 1: I have some I opened an investment account with nab
9:14
Speaker 1: Trade in the height of COVID so March twenty twenty,
9:17
Speaker 1: which was a really good idea.
9:19
Speaker 2: I was about to say, oh, good idea.
9:22
Speaker 1: I only managed to buy two stocks, one actual stock
9:26
Speaker 1: and one ETF and then I didn't have a lot
9:29
Speaker 1: of money because we were changing jobs and moving, so
9:32
Speaker 1: we needed all the money for the moving. But since
9:37
Speaker 1: settling in here and starting to have a proper income
9:41
Speaker 1: coming in again, I decided I wanted to get into
9:44
Speaker 1: investing more seriously. So I looked up investing podcasts, and
9:48
Speaker 1: She's on the Money came up, and that is how
9:49
Speaker 1: I found you guys. So I've been binge listening to
9:54
Speaker 1: She's on the Money since probably November last year. Just
9:57
Speaker 1: it's been driving my husband crazy because you're just playing
10:00
Speaker 1: in our house all the time. I have I have
10:04
Speaker 1: caught up, and so thanks to all the education I've
10:08
Speaker 1: been getting from Shoes on the Money, I have really
10:11
Speaker 1: resorted out my budget and prioritized and we are now
10:14
Speaker 1: investing six hundred dollars a fortnite, which is thirty percent.
10:19
Speaker 2: Yesh, that is epic, especially you said fifty six thousand
10:22
Speaker 2: dollars a year combined income and you're investing twelve hundred
10:26
Speaker 2: dollars a month. Who are you? This is epic.
10:30
Speaker 1: We are motivated.
10:31
Speaker 2: Oh, I love it. That is so special and actually
10:35
Speaker 2: takes a lot of motivation and you know, self restriction
10:38
Speaker 2: and you know that's actually really really impressive. I love that.
10:41
Speaker 2: Let's talk about this in more depth in a moment.
10:45
Speaker 2: Next question, do you currently have any debts?
10:48
Speaker 1: I have good debt and I have bad debt. I
10:51
Speaker 1: have fifty thousand dollars of hex debt and I have
10:55
Speaker 1: one more subject at union. Then I won't be making
10:57
Speaker 1: any more hex debt. I actually almost had to pay
11:00
Speaker 1: off the hex stet because until the end of last
11:02
Speaker 1: year I was working full time similar income, but with
11:06
Speaker 1: them just lowering the threshold, I would have had to
11:08
Speaker 1: start paying it back. But I have also just moved
11:10
Speaker 1: a part time, so our financial situation hasn't really changed
11:14
Speaker 1: between us. But now I no longer have to pay
11:16
Speaker 1: that back at this time, so that's just going to
11:20
Speaker 1: sit there for now, and I have a little bit
11:23
Speaker 1: of bad debt. About three years ago, we took out
11:27
Speaker 1: a twelve thousand dollars unsecured personal loan to buy a car.
11:31
Speaker 1: Because our car was really letting us down far too often.
11:35
Speaker 1: I didn't understand much about percentage, interest rates and things,
11:41
Speaker 1: so I think it is about fifteen point sixty nine
11:44
Speaker 1: percent interest, and I have been paying off twice as
11:49
Speaker 1: much as I have to, So at the moment, I
11:52
Speaker 1: have three hundred and forty five dollars left. Whoa, and
11:57
Speaker 1: I've been paying two hundred dollars off a fortnight. So
11:59
Speaker 1: with the this month it'll be gone. I'm so happy.
12:03
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that is so exciting.
12:05
Speaker 1: So I think I've paid about ten thousand dollars in interest.
12:08
Speaker 1: My twelve thousand dollars car has cost me twenty two
12:11
Speaker 1: thousand dollars.
12:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's actually really important to point out because
12:15
Speaker 2: sometimes when we feel desperate, we're like, oh my gosh,
12:17
Speaker 2: the car isn't working. We really need to just go
12:19
Speaker 2: get some finance and get it sorted. We're really not
12:22
Speaker 2: thinking about the interest rate in the back of our
12:24
Speaker 2: heads in the way that we should be. We're just
12:26
Speaker 2: trying to get the car so we can keep on
12:28
Speaker 2: keeping on with life. And then we realize that fifteen
12:31
Speaker 2: percent is actually ridiculous and quite crippling when it comes
12:35
Speaker 2: to creating financial freedom, and nowadays fifteen percent is just
12:39
Speaker 2: completely unreasonable. For a car loan like you probably could
12:42
Speaker 2: have saved up for it, and I know that you
12:45
Speaker 2: have a low income it it probably would have been
12:46
Speaker 2: a better outcome financially to get ubers everywhere and save
12:50
Speaker 2: up for it and then pay for it, which sounds wild,
12:54
Speaker 2: but when it comes down to doing the maths on it,
12:56
Speaker 2: you wouldn't have thought that that would be a good
12:58
Speaker 2: option because you'd be like, oh, yeah, but can be
13:00
Speaker 2: really expensive. It's like, yeah, but you paid ten thousand
13:04
Speaker 2: dollars in additional interest, which didn't just impact you financially.
13:08
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that would have weighed on you mentally and
13:11
Speaker 2: spiritually and physically and just made you feel not great.
13:15
Speaker 2: So for me, it's about what is actually the best
13:18
Speaker 2: option here in how do we get to the desired
13:20
Speaker 2: outcome without putting future us in the worst position.
13:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't even I didn't even understand it enough
13:27
Speaker 1: for it to weigh on me to begin with. It
13:28
Speaker 1: was only when I started working out when it should
13:31
Speaker 1: be paid off by and getting excited about that, and
13:33
Speaker 1: then the time coming closer and closer, and I was
13:36
Speaker 1: nowhere near it being paid off, and I was thinking
13:38
Speaker 1: what's happening here that I started to get really frustrated
13:41
Speaker 1: with it.
13:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's not fair.
13:44
Speaker 3: And you get caught up in the excitement of buying
13:46
Speaker 3: a new car as well, so you think, oh, we're
13:49
Speaker 3: going to buy this new car or secondhand car, but
13:51
Speaker 3: it's new to you, so it's really exciting. So you're
13:54
Speaker 3: willing to be like, Oh, I don't care how much
13:56
Speaker 3: exture it's going to cost. It's not going to end
13:57
Speaker 3: up being that much more, but I really want this car.
14:00
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden, yeah, five years down
14:02
Speaker 3: the line, when your loan should be paid off, you're like,
14:04
Speaker 3: hang on, why did that cost me so much more
14:07
Speaker 3: money than it should have.
14:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's frustrating al right. Diving straight into the next question,
14:14
Speaker 2: what is your best money habit?
14:16
Speaker 1: My best money habit at the moment, I would say
14:19
Speaker 1: is the investing every fortnight, which definitely I think is
14:24
Speaker 1: an on flow kind of effect from budgeting, which I
14:28
Speaker 1: think I'm pretty good at.
14:30
Speaker 2: I would assume so, given you have mastered paying down
14:33
Speaker 2: this bad debt that you had, as well as investing
14:36
Speaker 2: six hundred dollars a fortnite like that is wild, and
14:40
Speaker 2: I think that that is so cool. In contrast, what
14:43
Speaker 2: is your worst money? Have it?
14:45
Speaker 1: My worst money haveit? I think probably buying gifts for
14:50
Speaker 1: other people. I don't bother to budget for that. I
14:53
Speaker 1: don't bother to say I only think I should spend
14:56
Speaker 1: this much on that person. I just if I see
14:58
Speaker 1: something I want to get for them, just want to
15:00
Speaker 1: get it. And it drives my husband a little bit crazy.
15:05
Speaker 1: It's probably the thing about our bank account and me
15:08
Speaker 1: that annoys him most. So I've been trying really to
15:12
Speaker 1: pull my head in a little bit, but it is challenging.
15:15
Speaker 2: It's so nice to give, though.
15:17
Speaker 1: I'm just so exciting to feel that you can make
15:20
Speaker 1: someone else smile.
15:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially if you are in a position where you
15:24
Speaker 2: see something and you're like, that is so perfect, that
15:26
Speaker 2: would make their day or they would absolutely adore this.
15:30
Speaker 2: I'm a bit the same, but I have learned to
15:33
Speaker 2: put it in my budget. So maybe you need to
15:34
Speaker 2: do a little bit of shuffling. Yeah.
15:36
Speaker 1: Well, I'm hoping that when I finished paying off this
15:38
Speaker 1: car loan, that money that has been paying off the
15:41
Speaker 1: car can be a wiggle room where I can use
15:43
Speaker 1: it for that. If I don't, then maybe I can
15:46
Speaker 1: just tuck it into investing at the last time. Yeah.
15:50
Speaker 2: Absolutely, a little bit more flexibility never goes astray. And
15:54
Speaker 2: last thing before we go to a little break is
15:57
Speaker 2: what grade would you give yourself if I forced you
15:59
Speaker 2: to give your self a grade?
16:01
Speaker 1: As of right now, I actually think I would dare
16:04
Speaker 1: to give myself an A. I wouldn't queen, I wouldn't have.
16:09
Speaker 1: Before I started the investing, though, I still felt like
16:12
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to make sure I didn't get
16:15
Speaker 1: myself in the same position that my mum has been in,
16:19
Speaker 1: where you have to depend on central link payments to
16:22
Speaker 1: get by if you can't find work. But now that
16:24
Speaker 1: I'm investing every fortnight, I feel a lot more secure
16:27
Speaker 1: and a lot more like I've got everything in hand
16:29
Speaker 1: for the future. So now I'm very happy to say, yeah,
16:33
Speaker 1: I feel like it's an A.
16:34
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that is so cool. It is not
16:37
Speaker 2: very common for people on our money diaries to feel
16:39
Speaker 2: confident enough to give themselves an A. And I want
16:42
Speaker 2: to ask you so many questions about this right after
16:44
Speaker 2: this quick break, all right, I want to dive straight in.
16:55
Speaker 2: This is obviously an area that I don't know nearly
16:58
Speaker 2: enough about in all on it. I don't know what
17:01
Speaker 2: it means to start becoming a priest. You said you
17:03
Speaker 2: were still studying. What are you studying? How does that work?
17:06
Speaker 2: How does one fall into wanting to chase a monastery
17:10
Speaker 2: and become a priest? And like, how did you get there?
17:13
Speaker 2: What's your journey?
17:15
Speaker 1: Okay, my journey? After I studied a Bachelor of Arts
17:18
Speaker 1: in French and English at UNI, I got a job
17:22
Speaker 1: full time as a crossword compiler, which was an amazing job.
17:26
Speaker 1: I loved it. But after six.
17:29
Speaker 2: Months on a crossword compiler, like you make the crosswords, yes,
17:34
Speaker 2: like for the paper and stuff. That's a job that
17:38
Speaker 2: is not cool. What I know? Which how much does
17:44
Speaker 2: a crossword compiler make?
17:46
Speaker 1: Well, it's you kind of You go in and it's
17:48
Speaker 1: that typical situation where you negotiate what you want to
17:51
Speaker 1: be paid. And I was fresh out of UNI, so
17:52
Speaker 1: I wasn't particularly good at it. But I got thirty
17:56
Speaker 1: eight thousand for a starting level newbie and I know
18:00
Speaker 1: that that would have gone up, but that seemed like
18:04
Speaker 1: loaths to me. I was happy with that.
18:06
Speaker 2: Yeah that's a lot when you're year Yeah, that's great.
18:09
Speaker 1: A lot better than six thousand a year, which as
18:11
Speaker 1: a student i'd been living on. So that job was great,
18:15
Speaker 1: and I'm really grateful that it was such a good
18:17
Speaker 1: job because it meant that after six months, when I
18:19
Speaker 1: was really hating it, that I knew that it wasn't
18:22
Speaker 1: just the wrong job, it was the whole office situation
18:26
Speaker 1: was not the job for me. So that's why I
18:29
Speaker 1: saved up money. So after six months, I knew that
18:33
Speaker 1: I didn't want to stay in the job, and I
18:34
Speaker 1: spent the following two years still working there and saving
18:38
Speaker 1: all the money I could so that then I could
18:41
Speaker 1: quit and run off to this monastery where I knew
18:44
Speaker 1: there would be people and it would not be an
18:45
Speaker 1: office job. It would be a very different place. So
18:47
Speaker 1: I was there as a volunteer. So this monastery has
18:50
Speaker 1: a lot of people come for retreats, and so I
18:53
Speaker 1: was helping with the cooking and cleaning the rooms and
18:55
Speaker 1: all those sorts of things. Yes, so that's how I
19:00
Speaker 1: ended up at the monastery.
19:01
Speaker 2: Did you grow up in quite a religious family.
19:03
Speaker 3: Is that kind of what led you to going to
19:07
Speaker 3: a monastery or was it just the first thing that
19:08
Speaker 3: came up online?
19:10
Speaker 1: Like, well, okay, there's a lot of elements to this.
19:14
Speaker 1: My dad is a priest, so yes, but I.
19:18
Speaker 2: Don't runs in the family.
19:19
Speaker 1: It does, but I don't really feel like that's why
19:21
Speaker 1: I went to the monastery. So I did go to church,
19:25
Speaker 1: and I had the priest who was working at the church.
19:28
Speaker 1: When he found out I was actually going during UNI
19:31
Speaker 1: on a six months exchange to France. He said, you
19:34
Speaker 1: need to go to this monastery on a retreat. It's amazing,
19:36
Speaker 1: And so I said, why not? So I'd been there
19:39
Speaker 1: already once during UNI and it had been an amazing experience.
19:42
Speaker 1: So when I was working at this office job, feeling like,
19:45
Speaker 1: what's the meaning of life? Why am I bothering to
19:47
Speaker 1: get out of bed in the morning. It's so much
19:49
Speaker 1: effort that I thought I'll go back to the last
19:52
Speaker 1: place where I found meaning. So I decided to go
19:54
Speaker 1: back and spend a long time there.
19:57
Speaker 2: It's interesting knowing I guess where it comes from, and
20:00
Speaker 2: you're right, it probably isn't because your dad did it.
20:03
Speaker 2: It's just more how do you get exposure to things
20:06
Speaker 2: that allow you to experiment there? Right? Like, I wouldn't
20:09
Speaker 2: have even considered that as an option for me, not
20:12
Speaker 2: because of religion. Or you know, the opportunities, But I
20:15
Speaker 2: don't know any priests. I've never grown up in that
20:18
Speaker 2: situation where I even knew that monasteries existed to go
20:22
Speaker 2: and have a retreat, right, So it's like, well, where
20:24
Speaker 2: did that pop up for you? How did that happen?
20:27
Speaker 2: And it's you know, there's always a way in life, right,
20:29
Speaker 2: we always end up where we need to be. And
20:32
Speaker 2: for me, it's just so interesting understanding other people's journeys,
20:35
Speaker 2: not just financially, but what is your story? How did
20:38
Speaker 2: that happen? So in the monastery you realize that you
20:41
Speaker 2: wanted to go ahead and you know follow that as
20:44
Speaker 2: your actual career path. What were the next steps involved
20:47
Speaker 2: in that? Like how do you financially support yourself through
20:50
Speaker 2: a role that really relies on volunteer work and living
20:55
Speaker 2: on low incomes and maybe not being able to support
20:58
Speaker 2: yourself financially in the way that many of us who
21:00
Speaker 2: do work nine to five Monday to Friday can.
21:03
Speaker 1: Well, when I got back to Australia, I lived with
21:05
Speaker 1: my mom for three months and planned what I would
21:08
Speaker 1: do next. So I actually ended up moving down to
21:11
Speaker 1: Tasmania to Hobart to move in with my dad, he
21:14
Speaker 1: had a granny flat and I got a job working
21:17
Speaker 1: as a youth minister for a church and ad me
21:21
Speaker 1: in as well, so I was full time, which was excellent.
21:24
Speaker 1: It meant that we could work towards paying off some
21:26
Speaker 1: of that loan that my mum had got for me.
21:28
Speaker 1: And my husband started coming as well and volunteering because
21:33
Speaker 1: he had nothing else to do, and it was also
21:35
Speaker 1: a world that he was interested in, So we both
21:37
Speaker 1: were working full time hours, but he was volunteering, and
21:42
Speaker 1: so to thank him for that, the church paid for
21:44
Speaker 1: his studies at the time, which was helpful. I had
21:49
Speaker 1: to study as part of my work in order to
21:51
Speaker 1: be trained for that, so I did a diploma in theology,
21:55
Speaker 1: actually a graduate diploma in theology, and then when we
21:59
Speaker 1: finished those, we both wanted to keep studying, so he
22:02
Speaker 1: articulated into a Bachelor of Theology and I articulated into
22:05
Speaker 1: our Masters of Divinity. The only difference between theology and
22:09
Speaker 1: divinity really is that I'm doing Biblical languages and he isn't.
22:12
Speaker 2: A Masters of Divinity.
22:14
Speaker 1: Sounds so fancy, I know, and I'm actually low key
22:18
Speaker 1: excited that my hood is going to be pink. Oh yes,
22:22
Speaker 1: oh my gosh.
22:24
Speaker 2: That is really cool. And I guess what are the
22:27
Speaker 2: next steps, Like, once you become a priest, what are
22:30
Speaker 2: you going to earn? How does that work? And yeah,
22:34
Speaker 2: I think it's I think it's interesting because the she's
22:36
Speaker 2: on the money family, Like, we're not aligned to any religion.
22:39
Speaker 2: We except absolutely everybody heat the way that they come.
22:42
Speaker 2: But I don't know enough about this and to know
22:44
Speaker 2: a female priest like that's bad us, that's cool.
22:50
Speaker 1: I do find a lot of people like smile at
22:52
Speaker 1: me on the street, and that's normal, Like it's nice
22:54
Speaker 1: for people to smile at you on the street, but
22:56
Speaker 1: then they don't look away. Again, I'm like, what is it?
22:58
Speaker 1: And then I realize I'm wearing my collar.
23:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I guess people look at you and they're like,
23:04
Speaker 3: she's a really good person.
23:07
Speaker 2: I must be angry.
23:10
Speaker 1: I think they're just thinking she's female.
23:12
Speaker 2: Is she playing dress ups? No? Yeah? Wow?
23:16
Speaker 1: But yeah, what does it?
23:18
Speaker 2: What can it lead to you? How much canuine?
23:20
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think looads. It does depend on where
23:23
Speaker 1: in Australia or the world you are. But I am
23:25
Speaker 1: out in the country, so it's not big money out here.
23:30
Speaker 1: So at the moment, I'm a deacon. I'm in training
23:33
Speaker 1: really so that I'm on the lowest rung. When I
23:37
Speaker 1: get ordained a priest, I'll still be an assistant priest
23:41
Speaker 1: in another church. I won't be in charge, so that
23:44
Speaker 1: income will go up a bit. I don't know exactly
23:47
Speaker 1: how much. And then once we get sent off and
23:49
Speaker 1: given our own parishes to be in charge of, income
23:52
Speaker 1: will increase again. But I don't know that a full
23:57
Speaker 1: time income would be too much more than sixty might
24:01
Speaker 1: be a bit. But also it's likely that my husband
24:04
Speaker 1: and I will just keep working part time because a
24:07
Speaker 1: lot of the parishes like rely on the money that
24:10
Speaker 1: the prishioners put in the plate, and obviously religion and
24:15
Speaker 1: parishes are shrinking and the congregations getting older, so they
24:19
Speaker 1: a lot of parishes don't have the money to support
24:21
Speaker 1: a priest full time, but very very happy working part time.
24:25
Speaker 1: Each We're obviously managing on the income at the moment,
24:28
Speaker 1: and it'll only go up a bit. And to be honest,
24:32
Speaker 1: what do I want money for. I'd love tons of
24:35
Speaker 1: money in my investment account so that i could retire,
24:37
Speaker 1: but I'm already working part time. That's like four days
24:40
Speaker 1: off a week, I feel semi retired already. It's great. Yeah,
24:43
Speaker 1: that's so special.
24:44
Speaker 2: And something that's, you know, sitting in the back of
24:46
Speaker 2: my mind at the moment, is that so many times
24:49
Speaker 2: people think that to be happy, they need to chase
24:52
Speaker 2: a higher income because that's going to award them with
24:54
Speaker 2: a better lifestyle. And you're here saying, hey, my combined
24:58
Speaker 2: household income is fifty six thousand dollars and we are
25:01
Speaker 2: so happy and so fulfilled and doing things that we love.
25:05
Speaker 2: And it's not actually money that awards us these luxuries.
25:08
Speaker 2: It's knowing who you are and what you want to
25:11
Speaker 2: do with your life and feeling like you've had an impact.
25:13
Speaker 2: And I think that that's, you know, such a special
25:16
Speaker 2: narrative to come out of this money diary. And yeah,
25:19
Speaker 2: I'm really grateful that you wanted to share that story
25:21
Speaker 2: with us and that we got to have a chat
25:23
Speaker 2: with you. Thank you, Thank you. So what happens when
25:27
Speaker 2: you and your partner both become priests and you know,
25:30
Speaker 2: you have your own parishes? Will that mean that you
25:32
Speaker 2: are separated or like will you get parishes close by?
25:35
Speaker 2: Like how does all of that get worked and allocated?
25:38
Speaker 1: That is the hope that we will get parishes close
25:41
Speaker 1: to each other, close enough that we will at least
25:43
Speaker 1: be able to live together. But we have a very
25:45
Speaker 1: good bishop out here and he is going to make
25:47
Speaker 1: sure that we don't get separated. So we feel pretty confident.
25:53
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of waiting until parishes are available.
25:56
Speaker 1: But lots of priests are retiring right now, so chances
26:00
Speaker 1: that's a week an opportunity.
26:03
Speaker 2: And how does that work? So you're a priest, but
26:06
Speaker 2: you're allowed to be married, which I grew up and
26:08
Speaker 2: I had a Catholic education, and that was absolutely not
26:11
Speaker 2: the case for the priests. So can you give us
26:14
Speaker 2: a little bit of an insight about how that works
26:16
Speaker 2: for your space.
26:18
Speaker 1: So in the Anglican Church, it's a bit different from
26:20
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church. The Anglican Church has it's kind of
26:24
Speaker 1: walks down the middle as much as it can. So
26:28
Speaker 1: there is parts of the Anglican Church that are more
26:33
Speaker 1: Catholic in style and parts that are more Protestant in style.
26:36
Speaker 1: So you get quite a diverse range. And some people
26:41
Speaker 1: who are ordained or call themselves ministers or pastors, and
26:43
Speaker 1: other people call themselves priests. It kind of just depends
26:46
Speaker 1: on where you sit on the spectrum between Protestant and
26:49
Speaker 1: all Catholic, and they are allowed to have married priests.
26:54
Speaker 1: That's quite acceptable, and a lot of Australia is allowed
26:59
Speaker 1: to have female priests, although there are certain places where
27:02
Speaker 1: I would not be allowed to work, like Sydney. Oh wow,
27:06
Speaker 1: really hmm, why is that they're just a bit more conservative.
27:12
Speaker 1: There are different ways of interpreting parts of the Bible,
27:15
Speaker 1: and they interpret them one way and other parts interpret
27:17
Speaker 1: them differently. So yeah, good thing. I don't want to
27:21
Speaker 1: work in sp.
27:22
Speaker 2: It's so interesting. And to be honest, I'm just not
27:25
Speaker 2: educated enough in this space to have any level of opinion,
27:28
Speaker 2: but I love learning about it and I'm just really
27:31
Speaker 2: grateful that you wanted to share that story with us
27:33
Speaker 2: and what goes on, and I think it's really special.
27:36
Speaker 2: And to be honest, I love that we've been able
27:38
Speaker 2: to share a story that is, you know, not the norm, right,
27:42
Speaker 2: Like it's not like I didn't know that during like
27:45
Speaker 2: throughout She's on the money, I have someone who's you know,
27:48
Speaker 2: going to become a priest listening to our podcast and
27:50
Speaker 2: that resonates and to me, that's really special.
27:53
Speaker 1: It's been really fun because you've had some really interesting
27:55
Speaker 1: money diarists which are from a very different world from me,
27:57
Speaker 1: and I've really enjoyed listening to them, and I love
28:00
Speaker 1: how open and support if you are of everyone. And
28:04
Speaker 1: I never felt like, oh no, but that's not my world.
28:06
Speaker 1: They're in a different world. I always felt like, oh,
28:09
Speaker 1: it's so open. So it's really nice that I can
28:11
Speaker 1: be on as well, especially after the money diary I
28:14
Speaker 1: listened to last week. Yeah, it's just really really nice
28:18
Speaker 1: to have.
28:18
Speaker 2: It's crazy we having people who were sex workers to
28:22
Speaker 2: literally appriest, Like if you say that we aren't inclusive
28:27
Speaker 2: that checks on the money, you're wrong, You're wrong. We
28:32
Speaker 2: don't care what you do, and that's just it, right,
28:34
Speaker 2: Like we actually do not care what you do as
28:37
Speaker 2: long as you are a kind person and you are
28:39
Speaker 2: being nice and you are having an impact on the
28:42
Speaker 2: world in a good way. Like I don't care what
28:44
Speaker 2: you do, how you generatingcome as long as your relationship
28:47
Speaker 2: with yourself is positive, and that is what's I guess
28:49
Speaker 2: the most important thing to me, Like I literally couldn't
28:52
Speaker 2: care what you do and how you do it as
28:54
Speaker 2: long as you are happy.
28:55
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much, thank you, and guys That
28:59
Speaker 3: is all we have time for today.
29:01
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30:13
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