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Transcript

It’s Never Too Late For a Financial Glow-Up · She's On The Money

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Speaker 1: My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
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Speaker 1: woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t Glenn Young Ganya, Niana,
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Speaker 1: Kaka yah y and beIN ah Waka nian Ar gay In, Nimbina,
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Speaker 1: yakarum Jar, Dominyama, Domagahawakaman, damon Imlan Bomber bang gadaboma In
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Speaker 1: and now in Wakah ghana on yak rum jar Watnadaa. Hello,
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Speaker 1: beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
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Speaker 1: We thank acknowledge and respect the Abiginal people's land that
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Speaker 1: we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land
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Speaker 1: and respect all that you see. She's on the Money
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Speaker 1: podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools,
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Speaker 1: knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
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Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 3: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
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Speaker 2: that let you be pervy about other people's money habits
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Speaker 2: for educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another one
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Speaker 2: of our money drays where I get the absolute pleasure
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Speaker 2: of sitting down and having a chat with one of
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Speaker 2: our beautiful She's on the Money. Community members all about
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Speaker 2: their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this week
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Speaker 2: I got a message and it sounded exactly like this, Dear,
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Speaker 2: She's on the money. I'm nearly forty five, and for
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Speaker 2: most of my life I thought I was fine with money.
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Speaker 2: I earned well, paid the bills, even traveled, but I
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Speaker 2: never built any real wealth. Growing up in East Germany
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Speaker 2: under socialism, I believed money came to people on the
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Speaker 2: right side of the wall. After a messy divorce and
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Speaker 2: a draining custody battle, I hit financial rock bottom. It
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Speaker 2: still took years and stumbling across She's on the Money
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Speaker 2: before I realized the problem wasn't my income, it was
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Speaker 2: how I used it. I'm finally changing my habits, and
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Speaker 2: for the first time, I feel like I am in
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Speaker 2: control money. Darrist, Welcome to the show. This whole story
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Speaker 2: has so many facets. I don't know if we're going
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Speaker 2: to have enough time to get into all of this today.
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Speaker 2: Like that's a lot. Yeah, Hi, welcome to the show.
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Speaker 2: I'm so excited to talk to you before we dive
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Speaker 2: completely in. Can you tell me what grade would you
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Speaker 2: give your money habits if I asked you to give
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Speaker 2: them a grade from a through to f.
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Speaker 4: Oh my god, I really thought long and hard about it,
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Speaker 4: but I would say maybe a C minus.
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Speaker 2: A C minus. All right, well, I think we can
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Speaker 2: learn a little bit more about that in the next
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Speaker 2: few minutes. Talk to me. I want to know, tell
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Speaker 2: me a bit about your money's story.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, so, like I alluded, originally, I am originally from
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Speaker 4: East Germany, and yeah, it was always I don't know.
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Speaker 4: As a kid, I always thought everything at the other
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Speaker 4: side of the wall, everything is bigger, shinier. You just
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Speaker 4: got to get over there and life will be great.
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Speaker 4: And my mum, she was a mom. I'm an only child.
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Speaker 4: She worked really, really hard, so my perception of money
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Speaker 4: was the harder you work, the more you're going to earn,
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Speaker 4: and that's how you make it in life.
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Speaker 2: Really, it sounds like your mom was an icon.
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Speaker 4: Yeah. She unfortunately passed away when I was twelve.
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Speaker 2: So, my goodness, that's another layer to the complex money story.
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Speaker 2: That would have been terrible, especially if you only had
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Speaker 2: a single mom.
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Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, we had just moved over to West Germany.
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Speaker 4: So she married a West German who was rich, So
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Speaker 4: that influenced my What was so I thought that he
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Speaker 4: was rich, just you know, he had money all the time,
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Speaker 4: and we went on holidays all of a sudden. So
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Speaker 4: but yeah, it was, yeah, very strange time of my life.
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Speaker 4: I was, like I said, only twelve years old, and
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Speaker 4: I met my biological father at my mom's funeral and
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Speaker 4: ended up moving in with him and his wife back
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Speaker 4: to East Germany, deep deep East. And yeah, it's just
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Speaker 4: definitely interesting.
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Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, meeting your biological dad at your mum's funeral, Like, girl,
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Speaker 2: that is fifty layers of trauma like that would have
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Speaker 2: been just like an absolute whirlwind. And at twelve you're
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Speaker 2: about to go through puberty like that would have been
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Speaker 2: such challenging time for you. And to come through all
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Speaker 2: of that and be the icon that you are today,
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Speaker 2: You're incredible. I am already obsessed with you.
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Speaker 4: Thank you.
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Speaker 2: So tell me a little bit more about what happened
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Speaker 2: once you became an adult. So you said went through
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Speaker 2: a messy divorce, Like what was that? Like, how did
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Speaker 2: that eventuate?
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Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, So I always say my thirties are kind
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Speaker 4: of like down the drain. So I got married when
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Speaker 4: I was thirty and then had my first child, and
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Speaker 4: then shortly there after my second. But it was an
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Speaker 4: abuse of relationship. So eventually, towards the end of my thirties,
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Speaker 4: I finally like, yes, something happened, and I just, yeah,
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Speaker 4: decided to leave. And because it was such a toxic relationship,
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Speaker 4: I basically left everything behind. We were owning two properties
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Speaker 4: at the time, because originally we were living in Alo
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Speaker 4: Springs for six years and we had a house there,
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Speaker 4: and then we moved over to the West Coast and
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Speaker 4: we bought our second house when I was pregnant with
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Speaker 4: my daughter, my second child. So eventually I was like
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Speaker 4: I had enough, I left and I kind of just
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Speaker 4: gave everything up. We sold the property in Alo Springs
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Speaker 4: at a loss, and the property in Wi he held on,
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Speaker 4: so he's still owning that. But yeah, like I said,
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Speaker 4: I walked away with nothing. And then he took me
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Speaker 4: to court to fight for the children. So that cost
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Speaker 4: me a lot of money. Obviously, the lawyer, I was
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Speaker 4: fifteen thousand dollars, And like I said, I always thought
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Speaker 4: I was good with money, and I was able to
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Speaker 4: sustain the lawyer for fair bit. But then eventually I
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Speaker 4: had to go home to Germany and walk around and
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Speaker 4: kind of like beg for a bit of money and
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Speaker 4: a bit support, but yeah, eventually came to an agreement
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Speaker 4: and the kids are now fifty to fifty, so that's good.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, oh my goodness. I feel like it couldn't
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Speaker 2: get worse. And then you're like, yep, and it was
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Speaker 2: actually terrible and it walked away with nothing but like
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Speaker 2: good girl walking away from that. So many people don't
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Speaker 2: and that's such a hard thing to do. I'm genuinely
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Speaker 2: so ex Like, I know you said your thirties are
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Speaker 2: down the drain. I think we actually just learned a
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Speaker 2: lot during that period, and now you're going to thrive
6:24
Speaker 2: in your forties. Like forties are the new thirties anyway, right,
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Speaker 2: Like that's the plan and we're just starting from scratch.
6:31
Speaker 2: Tell me, how did you end up in Australia? How
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Speaker 2: were we so lucky to get you?
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Speaker 4: Yeah? So I actually came to Australia in two thousand
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Speaker 4: and seven, so I only came on a work on
6:40
Speaker 4: holiday visa. So my ideal life was always to travel
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Speaker 4: as much as possible, So wherever I went, I also
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Speaker 4: worked because that's the cheapest way of travel, am my eyes.
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Speaker 4: So I also went to America for two years. If
6:53
Speaker 4: they're actually I was just listening to the other monaydayya.
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Speaker 2: Oh the San Francisco one. Yes, yes, that was a goodie.
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Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, So I lived in San Francisco for two years,
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Speaker 4: which was great, and then came back to Germany. But
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Speaker 4: then Germany is really really small after having lived in
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Speaker 4: San Francisco for two years, so then, yeah, I went
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Speaker 4: to Australia on a work on holiday visa. I worked
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Speaker 4: as a tour guide, but then I just fell in
7:17
Speaker 4: love with the country and worked really hard. I got
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Speaker 4: a working visa luckily, so that's how I came to
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Speaker 4: stay and then met my husband and yeah, rest is history.
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Speaker 2: And ended up in Alice Springs. Alice Springs is a
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Speaker 2: very rogue choice when you said just before, oh, Germany
7:35
Speaker 2: was really small, like girl, I don't know how to
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Speaker 2: tell you, but Alice Springs is a little bit smaller.
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Speaker 4: Actually, it was not the plan. So the plan. I
7:44
Speaker 4: always had the job. I was looking for a job
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Speaker 4: before I left Germany, so I did have the tour
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Speaker 4: guiding job and Alice Springs before I left, so I
7:51
Speaker 4: needed their security, but that was only meant to be
7:53
Speaker 4: a six months stay and then I was going to
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Speaker 4: travel for you know, another two to four months and
8:00
Speaker 4: then go back to my job that I had. I
8:02
Speaker 4: just basically took a spatical in Germany. But yeah, Ellie Springs,
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Speaker 4: it's so beautiful. I mean, unfortunately not anymore as much
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Speaker 4: as it was back then. So I ended up living
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Speaker 4: there for six years, and I also lived a year
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Speaker 4: at the Rock. It's just that will always be Traue
8:18
Speaker 4: Australia for me.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's so beautiful.
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Speaker 4: Don't get me wrong. Now that I live at the
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Speaker 4: West Coast close to the beach, I mean I'm like
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Speaker 4: five minutes down from the beach. That's obviously lifestyle like right.
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Speaker 2: There, that's a good deal. And growing up in East Germany,
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Speaker 2: I bet you never thought that you would live five
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Speaker 2: minutes from a beach.
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Speaker 4: Oh definitely not, No, definitely not.
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Speaker 2: That's crazy even though you've been through so much, Like
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Speaker 2: I feel like you've got this like dreamy little lifestyle now,
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Speaker 2: like that's beautiful.
8:47
Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: No, I'm definitely very fortunate. I've got two beautiful kids,
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Speaker 4: that's and yeah where I live and yeah, I definitely
8:53
Speaker 4: can't complain.
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Speaker 2: But do so tell me you mentioned before like I
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Speaker 2: was a travel guide. What do you do for work
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Speaker 2: now and how much money.
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Speaker 4: Do you. So I'm an operations manager at the airport. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Cool.
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Speaker 4: So I've got a base wage of one hundred and
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Speaker 4: thirty nine one hundred.
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Speaker 2: That's so good.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's a great Actually, my base pay plus
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Speaker 4: invalances is like at one hundred and fifty three thousand,
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Speaker 4: so it's yeah, it's it's fantastic. And then once a
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Speaker 4: year I get a bonus as well, a twelve percent bonus.
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Speaker 2: Excuse me, that is so good. So one fifty three
9:27
Speaker 2: plus some bonuses here and there, like that means that
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Speaker 2: we can build some serious like financial freedom. I mean,
9:34
Speaker 2: so you think, but oh absolutely absolutely. You are still
9:37
Speaker 2: a baby. You are still young. You said you're forty four, right,
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Speaker 2: We've got so much time on our side. Talk to
9:43
Speaker 2: me about how you got into that, because like, I
9:46
Speaker 2: don't know, I just I love this idea of a journey,
9:49
Speaker 2: you being so young and having been through so much
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Speaker 2: to then being an ops manager at an airport in Australia,
9:57
Speaker 2: Like that's kind of crazy to think that twelve year
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Speaker 2: old you would move back to East Germany, didn't know
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Speaker 2: what was going on, like very tumultuous period of your life.
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Speaker 2: Now you live here like, did you always want to
10:10
Speaker 2: leave Germany? Was that part of the plan? Like how
10:13
Speaker 2: did this eventuate?
10:14
Speaker 5: Yeah?
10:14
Speaker 4: I think it's all because my mom always she always
10:17
Speaker 4: wanted to leave East Germany. That's how I grew up.
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Speaker 4: So it was always Obviously the regime was pretty tough,
10:23
Speaker 4: so I only heard vispers here and there. They weren't
10:25
Speaker 4: obviously openly talking about, but traveling was always something that
10:29
Speaker 4: my mom wanted, and she always like she was considering
10:32
Speaker 4: a fleeing across the border, but she was too worried
10:35
Speaker 4: about me because obviously people were killed doing that. So
10:40
Speaker 4: I kind of always felt like I was holding her back.
10:42
Speaker 4: And then when she passed, and obviously I kind of
10:45
Speaker 4: took that on and then I've been yeah, living the dream.
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Speaker 2: Let's go. Mom. I'm sure she's somewhere so proud of you,
10:52
Speaker 2: Like she's just like, look at my baby go. She
10:56
Speaker 2: is so proud. I love that. Tell me a bit more, like,
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Speaker 2: what are your money goals. You've been through a lot.
11:01
Speaker 2: You went through a messy divorce and a draining custody battle.
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Speaker 2: You now have fifty to fifty custody with your kids,
11:07
Speaker 2: which is a brilliant outcome. Talk to me about what
11:10
Speaker 2: your big money goals are now.
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Speaker 4: The biggest goal is obviously paying do under mortgage as
11:14
Speaker 4: fast as I can, because I last year just I
11:17
Speaker 4: beg bored and stealed and stole and got my foot
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Speaker 4: in the door with a little apartment, which I'm so happy.
11:24
Speaker 4: I was like just at the right spot at the
11:26
Speaker 4: right time, which very really happens. So I want to
11:29
Speaker 4: pay that down a bit faster because obviously thirty years
11:32
Speaker 4: is quite daunting in my age. And then my daughter
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Speaker 4: really really wants to go to Japan, so trying to
11:40
Speaker 4: see if I can make that happen somehow.
11:43
Speaker 2: I love that. How old is your daughter?
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Speaker 4: Ten?
11:45
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, So she's standing, She's like, mom, that's
11:48
Speaker 2: my dream.
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Speaker 4: Yeah. She's a huge Harry Potter fan. So she wants
11:51
Speaker 4: to go to Harry Potter World.
11:53
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. I love this for her. So we're
11:56
Speaker 2: hopefully going on a holidays Japan, and we are going
11:59
Speaker 2: to pay down our more gage. Let's go to a
12:01
Speaker 2: really quick break because on the flip side, I have
12:03
Speaker 2: a lot of questions and I feel like you have
12:05
Speaker 2: a lot of insights. So guys don't go anywhere, all right,
12:12
Speaker 2: money dirist, We are back. I want to talk a
12:14
Speaker 2: little bit more about this mortgage. You said you begged,
12:17
Speaker 2: your borrowed, your stole so that you could get into
12:20
Speaker 2: your first like apartment on your own. I know this
12:23
Speaker 2: isn't your first property purchase, but it's like you've done
12:25
Speaker 2: this on your own, so that feels a little bit different.
12:28
Speaker 2: How did you manage that? Like you said, money was
12:31
Speaker 2: really hard. Obviously you realized quite quickly it wasn't really
12:35
Speaker 2: about how much you earned, but how you were using it.
12:38
Speaker 2: How did you kind of come to that? I guess
12:40
Speaker 2: conclusion that you were like, I've got to do something
12:42
Speaker 2: about this because I need to buy an apartment. How
12:44
Speaker 2: does that happen? Because, like, I think lots of us
12:46
Speaker 2: want that.
12:46
Speaker 4: What to be honest, covid an interest rate rises, right.
12:49
Speaker 4: I never really wanted to own Kuzbeck and Germany. You
12:53
Speaker 4: grow up as a renter. It's a common thing. People
12:56
Speaker 4: you know, only really buy when they're ridge. So when
12:58
Speaker 4: we bought our house with my ex husband, I was
13:01
Speaker 4: quite opposed to it. So when I got rid of
13:03
Speaker 4: the properties, I was also quite happy about it. But
13:06
Speaker 4: then renting just became a drama. I mean I moved
13:11
Speaker 4: like almost every year with my children, so every year
13:13
Speaker 4: we had to pack up and move into another house.
13:16
Speaker 4: And then we finally had a house where we could
13:18
Speaker 4: stay in for two years in a row, and then
13:20
Speaker 4: they janked up the rent from four fifty to six fifty,
13:24
Speaker 4: like from one year to the other, and there was
13:26
Speaker 4: just there's no budget for that, like it's just impossible.
13:30
Speaker 4: So six fifty a week is just yeah, I just
13:34
Speaker 4: can't do it. So I kind of was faced with, yeah,
13:37
Speaker 4: having to make a decision, and then obviously realizing that
13:40
Speaker 4: in Australia, you know, you were talking about that one
13:44
Speaker 4: of your other podcasts, retirement is all laid out like
13:47
Speaker 4: it's based on you owning a property. So I thought
13:50
Speaker 4: it's now or never, and I reached out to a broker.
13:54
Speaker 4: Listening to You Love Get It, Yeah, so reached out
13:57
Speaker 4: to a broker and then yeah, we went with Keystar.
14:00
Speaker 4: So I had very very little deposit, but yeah.
14:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the key Start program means that single parents
14:07
Speaker 2: can actually get in for as little as a two
14:09
Speaker 2: percent deposit, which is actually so cool. But the process is,
14:14
Speaker 2: I won't say it's super complex, but you usually need
14:16
Speaker 2: a broker to be able to help you through the
14:18
Speaker 2: process and apply for it because there are only a
14:20
Speaker 2: certain amount of slots every six months that are available.
14:24
Speaker 2: That is so cool that you got in on that, Like,
14:26
Speaker 2: that makes me so happy that you're in the best
14:29
Speaker 2: possible position. So talk to me about investing. Have you
14:32
Speaker 2: got superannuation? If so, what's the plan there?
14:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I do have SUPER. My company pays twelve percent,
14:39
Speaker 4: so they've always been on a bit of a higher rate.
14:41
Speaker 4: But obviously I've only started in two thousand and seven,
14:45
Speaker 4: so I'm a bit behind the eight bore once again,
14:48
Speaker 4: listening to your podcast. I've seen a financial advisor at
14:52
Speaker 4: the start of the year, so he's just working all
14:54
Speaker 4: of this out. He's already told me that I need
14:56
Speaker 4: to swap supers, so I have a meeting with him
14:58
Speaker 4: next week and he's got a bit of an action
15:01
Speaker 4: plan for me swapping supers and building the wealth a
15:04
Speaker 4: bit more.
15:04
Speaker 2: You are absolutely on top of this. I feel like
15:07
Speaker 2: these are all the things that I would have said. Look,
15:09
Speaker 2: if you're feeling under convent, go and see a financial advisor.
15:12
Speaker 2: You know, if you want to get in your first home,
15:13
Speaker 2: we could maybe get a deposit for like two percent.
15:16
Speaker 2: You've done it all. You don't even need cheese on
15:18
Speaker 2: the money anymore. You're just flying. I'm obsessed. So talk
15:22
Speaker 2: to me about this homeland that you've got. How much
15:24
Speaker 2: debt are you in? Like? What did you purchase your
15:26
Speaker 2: home for?
15:27
Speaker 4: Yeah? So I was once again super super lucky.
15:29
Speaker 2: So no, you weren't lucky. You were not lucky. Luck
15:32
Speaker 2: doesn't come into this. You worked hard for this.
15:36
Speaker 4: I bought it for four hundred and fifty one thousand.
15:39
Speaker 2: Dollars, yes, very specific.
15:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it was advertised for four hundred and fifty
15:44
Speaker 4: and then we agreed on four fifty, and then the
15:47
Speaker 4: real estate lady ring, wee, can we make it five
15:49
Speaker 4: for one? I was like, yeah, no worth and then
15:52
Speaker 4: my broker actually reached out. So I purchased it in
15:55
Speaker 4: July through keystat and then in November, totally unexpected, my
16:00
Speaker 4: broker called me and he goes, did you know you
16:02
Speaker 4: can refinance? And I said what already? Like are you serious? Yeah?
16:07
Speaker 4: So the property went up in value so fast that
16:10
Speaker 4: I actually had equity enough in it that I could refinance.
16:13
Speaker 4: So in November, just before Christmas, I refinanced. So now
16:18
Speaker 4: my mortgage is at four hundred and thirty four for
16:21
Speaker 4: thirty years.
16:22
Speaker 2: Oh look at you go. I adore that for you,
16:25
Speaker 2: and I love that you've got a proactive broker because
16:28
Speaker 2: so many people they'll go see your mortgage broker and
16:30
Speaker 2: then they'll never hear from him again because the loans
16:32
Speaker 2: sat and forget. I love that he called you up
16:34
Speaker 2: and was like, okay, cool. So this is going to
16:35
Speaker 2: put you in an even better position. Like he sounds great,
16:38
Speaker 2: You keep him. You make sure that you look after
16:41
Speaker 2: him so that he keeps broking for you for the
16:43
Speaker 2: rest of ever. Talk to me about what the plan
16:46
Speaker 2: there is. You're trying to smash down that mortgage. What
16:49
Speaker 2: does that look like?
16:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, so according to the financial advisor, I've got to
16:53
Speaker 4: obviously op my payments, so I'm just waiting to catch
16:58
Speaker 4: up with them. My plan was always to pay more
17:00
Speaker 4: than what I need interest rate vise, but I also
17:04
Speaker 4: have an offset account, so to be honest, I'm a
17:07
Speaker 4: little bit lost since I got the offset accounts because
17:09
Speaker 4: now I've got all my money going into the offset account.
17:12
Speaker 4: I no longer have all the different accounts like I
17:15
Speaker 4: used to. So probably once I've spoken to my financial
17:20
Speaker 4: advisor next week, I'm probably going to have to restructure
17:24
Speaker 4: how I'm doing everything.
17:25
Speaker 2: You can call your mortgage broker and ask about how
17:27
Speaker 2: many offset accounts you can have. Some mortgages will only
17:30
Speaker 2: allow you to have one. But I've got my fingers
17:32
Speaker 2: crossed so that if you call your mortgage broker, he
17:35
Speaker 2: might say, look, you can have as many offset accounts
17:37
Speaker 2: as you want, and then you could have lots of
17:39
Speaker 2: different accounts to separate it out, because that might actually
17:43
Speaker 2: and you could do that before you see your financial
17:45
Speaker 2: advisor and just inquire and say, well, could I have
17:48
Speaker 2: more offset accounts for the same mortgage, because then you've
17:51
Speaker 2: just got a lot of them. You can have that clarity,
17:54
Speaker 2: you can do that planning, but at least all of
17:56
Speaker 2: those dollars are offsetting your mortgage, which is what we
17:59
Speaker 2: want right want to make sure that our money is
18:01
Speaker 2: working really hard for us. But often you can actually
18:03
Speaker 2: have more than one, which might actually work for you.
18:06
Speaker 4: Oh yes, Oh that sounds great. I definitely enquire about that.
18:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely give him a buzz and say, excuse me.
18:11
Speaker 2: I was talking to a friend and she said that
18:13
Speaker 2: maybe I could have more than one and that might
18:16
Speaker 2: actually help. But it's frustrating when you start to feel
18:18
Speaker 2: a little bit out of control of your money because
18:20
Speaker 2: it sounds like you're trying to do the right thing
18:22
Speaker 2: by like loading up your offset, but then you're like
18:24
Speaker 2: everything's all together and there's no clarity. So tell me,
18:27
Speaker 2: how do you usually manage your finances?
18:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I always thought I was good with money
18:32
Speaker 4: because I attract everything. I have this spreadsheet and I
18:35
Speaker 4: still have it, and every time I spend something, I
18:37
Speaker 4: put it in the spreadsheet. But I just really haven't
18:40
Speaker 4: gotten the hang of what budgeting actually means. So I
18:44
Speaker 4: never overspent, but I never stick to a budget either.
18:49
Speaker 4: So I just basically I'm just tracking. So that's what
18:52
Speaker 4: I'm trying to learn by listening to your podcast and
18:54
Speaker 4: reading your books is just trying to rethink, trying to
18:59
Speaker 4: retrain myself on how I managed that.
19:01
Speaker 2: So how did you come to that conclusion? Because you
19:04
Speaker 2: said I realized the problem wasn't my income, it was
19:06
Speaker 2: how I used it. And obviously if you hadn't been
19:09
Speaker 2: introduced to Shees on the Money or anything like that before,
19:12
Speaker 2: were you just like this is a problem, Like I've
19:14
Speaker 2: got good money, but like it's not working, or like,
19:16
Speaker 2: how did you come to the conclusion that you were like,
19:18
Speaker 2: something's not right.
19:20
Speaker 4: Yeah. So it was basically whenever I wanted to go
19:22
Speaker 4: on a holiday or whenever, you know, something a big
19:25
Speaker 4: purchase came up. I was able to get that money
19:28
Speaker 4: together by saving and being you know, stingy, and so
19:32
Speaker 4: I never really had issues with overspending. But I never
19:35
Speaker 4: ever had anything left over. So actually it was when
19:40
Speaker 4: my next bonus payment came up. So every March I
19:42
Speaker 4: get bonus payments. And then I realized, listen, I've been
19:45
Speaker 4: earning all this money, but I at the end, I
19:48
Speaker 4: don't actually have anything to show for. I'm nearly forty five,
19:51
Speaker 4: and I'm living paycheck to paycheck. I mean, I don't
19:54
Speaker 4: live bad, but I also don't live exorbitant like I.
19:58
Speaker 4: You know, it's kind of obviously lifestyle creep and whatnot.
20:01
Speaker 4: But I had to dial that back now with the
20:03
Speaker 4: mortgage and everything. But somehow when we went out with friends,
20:07
Speaker 4: you know, and the extra coffee here and the extra
20:09
Speaker 4: take out there, kind of go like, oh, it's actually
20:12
Speaker 4: a lot of money. So I didn't really have anything
20:16
Speaker 4: to fall back on. And I kind of realized now
20:18
Speaker 4: with my age and having two children, I kind of
20:21
Speaker 4: have to start looking at what is there when I
20:23
Speaker 4: don't have an income?
20:24
Speaker 2: Did you find that quite confronting when you're like, oh, oh, yes, yeah,
20:28
Speaker 2: because that can be really hard, right you think, oh,
20:30
Speaker 2: I'm you know, nearly forty five, what am I doing?
20:32
Speaker 2: Like that can feel terrible. It's not terrible, but it
20:35
Speaker 2: feels that way.
20:36
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. Or when I went to Germany to ask
20:38
Speaker 4: for money for the lawyer I my stepdad. He was saying,
20:41
Speaker 4: you're really bad at money, and I was like, what
20:43
Speaker 4: do you mean? I'm really bad at money? You know,
20:45
Speaker 4: I can afford everything I want. I earn a lot.
20:48
Speaker 4: I work hard. Sometimes I have two or three jobs
20:51
Speaker 4: at the same time, so I can afford everything I
20:53
Speaker 4: want to afford. So I kind of like shuckled and
20:56
Speaker 4: I'm like, yeah, whatever. You know, I obviously didn't plan
20:59
Speaker 4: on going to court fight for my children, you know,
21:01
Speaker 4: so I kind of really didn't understand. But you know,
21:04
Speaker 4: he's been investing and he's been looking after his money,
21:08
Speaker 4: which I haven't been. So now I've walked actually past
21:12
Speaker 4: your book at the bookstore and it was on special,
21:14
Speaker 4: so I grabbed it a money when exactly, and then
21:17
Speaker 4: I started reading it and you talk about the money
21:20
Speaker 4: story and it was so confronting for me. I couldn't
21:22
Speaker 4: actually keep reading. I had to like put it away
21:24
Speaker 4: because it triggered me.
21:26
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but it's so important for you not understand.
21:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's kind of where, you know, I'm just slowly,
21:32
Speaker 4: step by step, I'm just realizing the way I looked
21:35
Speaker 4: at money and the way I looked at what it
21:38
Speaker 4: actually means was completely wrong. So I'm just trying to
21:41
Speaker 4: retrain that.
21:42
Speaker 2: It wasn't wrong, it just wasn't what you wanted to be.
21:45
Speaker 2: And I think that you need to give yourself a
21:47
Speaker 2: lot of grace because with what you've gone through in life,
21:52
Speaker 2: to have now moved yourself to Australia and be earning
21:56
Speaker 2: what you're earning, like that's incredible. Like that is so incredible,
22:00
Speaker 2: Like that is for a lot of people. I'm assuming
22:03
Speaker 2: they're still in East Germany, still living the same type
22:06
Speaker 2: of lifestyle still, you know, scrimping and trying to save it,
22:09
Speaker 2: and you're here going no, no, no, I want better
22:11
Speaker 2: for me, I want better for my kids. Like that
22:13
Speaker 2: is iconic behavior Like that is exactly what we want
22:16
Speaker 2: to see. And yes, we weren't doing what we wanted
22:19
Speaker 2: to before but you didn't have the tools and resources
22:21
Speaker 2: that you had right now. You didn't have that before.
22:24
Speaker 2: You weren't doing the wrong thing. You just didn't know
22:26
Speaker 2: what the thing was that you wanted to do. And
22:28
Speaker 2: I think that's sometimes we need to start using language
22:32
Speaker 2: that's not crucifying past you, because like if I go
22:34
Speaker 2: back any point in time, right, like I go back
22:36
Speaker 2: to Money direst and you're thirty, I go back to
22:38
Speaker 2: you when you're twenty five and I spoke to you,
22:41
Speaker 2: I think that you would have been doing the best
22:43
Speaker 2: that you could, right Like, you would have been doing
22:45
Speaker 2: the best that you could with the tools and the
22:46
Speaker 2: resources that you had, but you just didn't know any different.
22:49
Speaker 2: So like, we're not being mean to her. She did
22:51
Speaker 2: the best that she could and now she's doing even better.
22:54
Speaker 2: She's thriving now, and that's good. But I don't think
22:57
Speaker 2: we want to be harsh on ourselves in the like,
23:00
Speaker 2: oh I was doing the wrong thing. You weren't doing
23:02
Speaker 2: the wrong thing. We'll just trying our hardest. We just
23:04
Speaker 2: didn't have direction, and now we do, and that is
23:06
Speaker 2: very cool. So I'm actually going to set you up,
23:09
Speaker 2: and I know that you've got a financial Advisor and
23:10
Speaker 2: you can show them this. But I'm going to set
23:12
Speaker 2: you up with my Money Masterclass, which is my like
23:15
Speaker 2: it might be a little bit confronting, so I do
23:17
Speaker 2: apologize because I do have a lot of videos in
23:19
Speaker 2: it about money stories and about you coming to terms
23:23
Speaker 2: with what that means and the difference between your money
23:25
Speaker 2: values and your money beliefs and stuff like that. So
23:28
Speaker 2: I'm going to give that to you. But there's a
23:30
Speaker 2: really beautiful spreadsheet in there that's actually a bit more
23:32
Speaker 2: like a software program. I've coded the whole thing, and
23:35
Speaker 2: you just put in what you're spending and it will
23:37
Speaker 2: spit out what bank accounts, especially based on your offset,
23:41
Speaker 2: where they need to go, and how much money you're
23:43
Speaker 2: spending on a weekly basis, and what percentage that looks like,
23:46
Speaker 2: so that you have complete clarity. And I think that
23:48
Speaker 2: that's going to really work for you because I can
23:50
Speaker 2: see you're trying so hard, but like, we just need
23:54
Speaker 2: another tool, We just need to throw something into the
23:56
Speaker 2: mix to make it a little bit easier. So once
23:57
Speaker 2: we've done recording today, I'm going to set you up
23:59
Speaker 2: with that, But tell me a bit more. I'm so
24:02
Speaker 2: enamored by your story talk to me. What do you
24:05
Speaker 2: think your best money habit is? Like growing up in
24:08
Speaker 2: East Germany, you're going to have to have some good
24:09
Speaker 2: money habits. Like you said before, I can scrimp, I
24:13
Speaker 2: can save. I can pull together money. Like I feel
24:15
Speaker 2: like you're a bit of a wizard.
24:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I definitely if I have the plant next
24:19
Speaker 4: year Christmas, I want to go to Germany or whatever
24:22
Speaker 4: it is, I can save tetal cows come home. You know,
24:25
Speaker 4: I skip you know, my coffees or whatever it is.
24:29
Speaker 4: And yeah, definitely, really really good at saving if I
24:33
Speaker 4: have an immediate goal.
24:34
Speaker 2: I love that. And have you got any naughty money habits?
24:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's sticking to a budget. Really. It's like like
24:41
Speaker 4: I said, I never really overspend, but I do, Yeah,
24:44
Speaker 4: live to the max, like I always spend it off.
24:47
Speaker 2: I feel like that's a really common thing though, Like
24:49
Speaker 2: we all feel like, oh, we're not like overspending, But
24:53
Speaker 2: it's just the consistency of our small purchases that over
24:56
Speaker 2: time end up adding up. And while you could reduce
24:59
Speaker 2: your budget and you could be like vee, I love
25:01
Speaker 2: my coffee and like that's me right, Like, and I've
25:03
Speaker 2: openly said you can pry my coffee from my cold
25:07
Speaker 2: dead hands. I will have one every single day, like
25:09
Speaker 2: I'm not compromising, but there are other things in my
25:12
Speaker 2: budget that maybe I'm pulling out so that I can
25:15
Speaker 2: have that, But you might not go ah V coffee. Yes,
25:18
Speaker 2: it's nice, but like I could just make one at
25:20
Speaker 2: home and that's absolutely going to work for me, because
25:22
Speaker 2: different things work for different people. So I think being
25:25
Speaker 2: aware of it the most important thing. Like I think
25:28
Speaker 2: all of us and you showed me this before you said, Victoria,
25:31
Speaker 2: I earn one hundred and fifty three thousand dollars and
25:35
Speaker 2: that's fantastic. You know exactly what's coming in. But if
25:38
Speaker 2: I said, well, money, dost how many dollars do you spend?
25:42
Speaker 2: You couldn't tell me that. And that's okay because like
25:44
Speaker 2: my money masterclass is going to sort you out, like
25:47
Speaker 2: I'm gumming for you.
25:48
Speaker 4: But it's this.
25:49
Speaker 2: Idea that we know exactly what's coming in, but we
25:51
Speaker 2: can't go, oh, well, on average, I'm spending X per
25:54
Speaker 2: week on food and beverage and I'm really happy with that.
25:57
Speaker 2: It might be like, oh, I don't really know. Sometimes
25:59
Speaker 2: I get a takeaway, sometimes I don't, like I just
26:01
Speaker 2: want you to be aware so that we can make
26:03
Speaker 2: sure that that's in line with our values. Because for
26:06
Speaker 2: some of us that's a non negotiable. We need our
26:08
Speaker 2: little arm and croissant, and I'm not going to ever
26:11
Speaker 2: argue with you. But for some people, they're like, oh,
26:14
Speaker 2: I'm wasting my money. That's not a value to me.
26:17
Speaker 2: I want to plan a holiday, or I want to
26:19
Speaker 2: go to Germany, or I want to go to Japan
26:20
Speaker 2: with my daughter, and this is more important. And I
26:23
Speaker 2: think that sometimes we just need our goals to be
26:25
Speaker 2: put really clearly in front of us and what sacrifices
26:28
Speaker 2: need to be made to get there. I just know
26:30
Speaker 2: that you're on the path. Like you said, You've got
26:32
Speaker 2: this appointment with your financial advisor next week, You've bought
26:35
Speaker 2: your house recently. I just think that you're on the
26:37
Speaker 2: trajectory of going up. And it would be a privilege
26:39
Speaker 2: if in like twelve months, I can get you back
26:41
Speaker 2: on the show and be like, wait, where are you
26:42
Speaker 2: at what's going on? Because I just know that you're
26:44
Speaker 2: going to thrive. Like your forties, they're going to be
26:47
Speaker 2: the best years of your life. I just know it.
26:49
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you so much.
26:50
Speaker 2: I appreciate that I know it, so talk to me.
26:53
Speaker 2: I just feel like a C minus girl. What are
26:56
Speaker 2: you talking about? Like that's so unnecessarily harsh. You're not
27:00
Speaker 2: a C minus. You've got two kids. You fought tooth
27:04
Speaker 2: and nail to make sure that you get fifty to
27:05
Speaker 2: fifty custody with them. You know what you want to
27:08
Speaker 2: achieve for them. You've just gone above and beyond to
27:11
Speaker 2: purchase your first home to give them that financial security.
27:15
Speaker 2: You're talking about making sure that you know you're broker,
27:18
Speaker 2: Like your broker is really good. You're talking to a
27:20
Speaker 2: financial advisor. You're like, oh, I know, I've got super
27:23
Speaker 2: probably a little bit behind because I only started contributing
27:25
Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven, but I'm going to be
27:27
Speaker 2: on top of this. Like you are so far ahead
27:29
Speaker 2: of literally everybody else your age, Like so many people
27:33
Speaker 2: in their mid forties still have their head in the sand.
27:36
Speaker 2: They're literally like, I don't want to think about it.
27:38
Speaker 2: It's too overwhelming. This is not for me, and that's okay,
27:41
Speaker 2: But like, your way ahead of the game. Do you
27:44
Speaker 2: think after we've had a chat and I've just talked
27:46
Speaker 2: to you about, you know, all these habits and things
27:48
Speaker 2: that you're doing. Do you think that you would grade
27:50
Speaker 2: that person a C minus.
27:51
Speaker 4: I don't know. I'm generally very hard. Maybe a C plus.
27:54
Speaker 2: That's the Germany in you. I feel like, quite like
27:57
Speaker 2: this is how it's going to be.
27:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm definitely working towards it. I mean, once I
28:01
Speaker 4: set my mind to something, I definitely I've one letter go,
28:05
Speaker 4: that's for sure.
28:06
Speaker 2: I love that. What do you think it would take
28:08
Speaker 2: for you in your financial life for you to say, oh,
28:11
Speaker 2: I'm a B or Victoria, I'm headed towards an A
28:14
Speaker 2: like what would that look like?
28:15
Speaker 4: I think once I feel a little bit more in
28:17
Speaker 4: control of what's going out, rather than just recording it,
28:21
Speaker 4: actually mindfully spending it and keeping track of it in
28:24
Speaker 4: a way that I can see I'm building wealth. So
28:29
Speaker 4: I'm quite hopeful that you know within the next yeah,
28:32
Speaker 4: six to twelve months, that things will change.
28:35
Speaker 2: I just know they will. And I think that that's
28:37
Speaker 2: one of the most common misconceptions about budgeting that people go, well,
28:42
Speaker 2: I do budget because I track everything that I spend,
28:45
Speaker 2: and it's not so much about tracking but more about
28:48
Speaker 2: the flow of money and more about Okay, well, this
28:51
Speaker 2: amount is allocated for this, and I'm reaching my goals
28:54
Speaker 2: and feeling like I'm moving forward. Just by tracking doesn't
28:58
Speaker 2: mean you feel like you're making progress. So it's about
29:00
Speaker 2: putting that progress first and then working towards it, as
29:03
Speaker 2: opposed to just like looking at what was It's like
29:06
Speaker 2: the difference between accounting and financial advice. And I was
29:10
Speaker 2: having this conversation the other day and I promise it
29:12
Speaker 2: will make sense in a second, but it's like comparing
29:15
Speaker 2: those two professions. So an accountant, they look at everything
29:18
Speaker 2: that happened in the past, but a financial advisor is
29:22
Speaker 2: looking at everything that's going to happen in the future.
29:24
Speaker 2: So they're making predictions. They're like, oh, if you put
29:27
Speaker 2: here and here in place in the future, it'll look
29:30
Speaker 2: like this, whereas an accountant, it's going to go, oh,
29:32
Speaker 2: I can do your tax return and look at what
29:33
Speaker 2: you've spent. That's not what's going to create wealth. And
29:36
Speaker 2: I think so often when we're budgeting and when we're
29:38
Speaker 2: trying to get our finances together, we default to an
29:41
Speaker 2: accountant's mindset and we just go, well, one plus one
29:44
Speaker 2: equals too, and we need to see what happened in
29:46
Speaker 2: the past. But I'm very much of the opinion that
29:49
Speaker 2: we need to forget what happened. Then, like we're not
29:51
Speaker 2: going to crucify ourselves. You are wasting your energy if
29:53
Speaker 2: you're saying, oh, I wasn't good at money or I
29:55
Speaker 2: didn't know what we don't care. I don't care. I
29:57
Speaker 2: don't want to know how bad you were at things.
29:59
Speaker 2: That does and help us. I want to know about
30:01
Speaker 2: your grand plans. I want to know about the future.
30:03
Speaker 2: So we need to go from this accountant mindset to
30:06
Speaker 2: a financial advisor mindset. And that's very hard because and
30:09
Speaker 2: I'm not saying their job is easier. Do not come
30:11
Speaker 2: for me, guys, but their job is a little bit
30:14
Speaker 2: clearer because they have really set numbers. I can see
30:17
Speaker 2: exactly what you spent on coffee, I can see exactly
30:19
Speaker 2: what you spent on your travel. I can see exactly
30:21
Speaker 2: what you spent, whereas the financial advisor, they're predicting, and
30:25
Speaker 2: that's a little bit more hard for us to comprehend.
30:29
Speaker 2: So we need to step into that mindset, and that's
30:32
Speaker 2: what's going to create growth. That's what's going to give
30:34
Speaker 2: us the clarity that we deserve to create the life
30:37
Speaker 2: that we want. And I feel like you're in the
30:38
Speaker 2: middle of that like you've been doing the accountant thing
30:40
Speaker 2: of track track tracking, and now you're about to literally
30:43
Speaker 2: next week go see your financial advisor, and now it's
30:45
Speaker 2: going to be about growth. I'm just so excited for you.
30:48
Speaker 2: I think you've got the brightest future and you are
30:50
Speaker 2: so delightful, and I'm just so excited that we get
30:53
Speaker 2: to keep you here in Australia. Like what a privilege.
30:55
Speaker 2: Thank you so much money, Dirist. It has been absolutely
30:58
Speaker 2: gorgeous getting to know you. I feel like you've gone
31:01
Speaker 2: through a lot, from growing up in East Germany, your
31:04
Speaker 2: mom passing away when you were twelve, Like even you're
31:07
Speaker 2: just saying, oh, yes, I met my biological dad at
31:09
Speaker 2: my mom's funeral. My goodness. Now you've got two beautiful
31:13
Speaker 2: kids of your own and you're living on the other
31:14
Speaker 2: side of the world, Like life is crazy, and I
31:18
Speaker 2: just I feel like you are definitely embracing it in
31:21
Speaker 2: the right way.
31:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, you never know what's around a corner. That's
31:25
Speaker 4: definitely that life has shown me.
31:27
Speaker 2: You have proven that, my love. Thank you so much
31:29
Speaker 2: for joining us. I know the community is absolutely going
31:32
Speaker 2: to be obsessed with this episode because I am.
31:34
Speaker 4: Thank you so so much for having me.
31:42
Speaker 2: If I shared or She's on the Money is general
31:45
Speaker 2: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
31:49
Speaker 2: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
31:52
Speaker 2: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
31:56
Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial product.
31:58
Speaker 5: Read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice.
32:01
Speaker 2: Tailored towards your needs.
32:03
Speaker 5: Victoria Divine and Sheese on the Money are authorized representatives
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Speaker 5: of money sherper P T y L t D A
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Speaker 5: b N three two one six four nine two seven
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Speaker 5: seven zero eight afs L four five one two eight
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Speaker 5: nine