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MONEY DIARIES: a self-described average money story · She's On The Money

0:00
Speaker 1: She's on the Money.
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Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
0:23
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
0:26
Speaker 3: mililes who want Financial Freedom. You're joining us for another
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Speaker 3: one of our shop Back Money Diary mondays, where we
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Speaker 3: get to chat to one of our beautiful community members,
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Speaker 3: learn about them, learn about their story, and ask all
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Speaker 3: of the juicy questions that you guys at home absolutely
0:41
Speaker 3: want to know about Victoria, I've got a really good
0:44
Speaker 3: one for you this week.
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Speaker 4: Are you ready? I am so ready?
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Speaker 3: What have you got so our diret said, I am
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Speaker 3: approaching thirty and starting out. I have what might be
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Speaker 3: considered an average money story, but I am working on it.
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Speaker 3: I've experienced severe soul crushing consumer debt after making horrible
0:59
Speaker 3: financial decisions in my early twenties that left me with
1:02
Speaker 3: a terrible credit rating. But I am on the up
1:05
Speaker 3: and up, improving my financial position one step at a time.
1:08
Speaker 3: Although my story might not be super inspiring, I think
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Speaker 3: it's relatable to the Shoes on the Money community to
1:13
Speaker 3: show people there is a light at the end of
1:15
Speaker 3: the tunnel once you accept that you deserve the light.
1:17
Speaker 3: And my heart, can I just tell you I'm so
1:20
Speaker 3: excited for this chat.
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Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, me too, money diarist, you are hanging
1:25
Speaker 4: out in the wings. Welcome to the show.
1:28
Speaker 1: Thank you, Hello everyone.
1:30
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I am so excited to have you here.
1:32
Speaker 4: And I guess the first thing off the vat there's
1:35
Speaker 4: no such thing as an average money story. Like, come on,
1:39
Speaker 4: my friend, you've been in the ses on the money
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Speaker 4: community long enough to know that, no, there's no such
1:44
Speaker 4: thing as average. Story is so special. Yeah, absolutely, but
1:50
Speaker 4: let's get straight into it. Can you tell us a
1:52
Speaker 4: little bit about your money story? Yeah?
1:54
Speaker 1: Sure. So I grew up in a relatively middle class,
1:59
Speaker 1: sort of working family, and I was quite privileged to
2:02
Speaker 1: be able to travel really extensively when I was younger.
2:06
Speaker 1: I was never really left out with anything that I
2:10
Speaker 1: really wanted, and I think that kind of set me
2:13
Speaker 1: up for the misconception that money's easy. Money is you know,
2:19
Speaker 1: essentially it did grow on trees because I didn't see
2:22
Speaker 1: how hard my parents worked in the background to give
2:25
Speaker 1: me the things I wanted. Yeah, which sort of led
2:28
Speaker 1: me into this false sense of you know, oh, everything
2:33
Speaker 1: will be fine. I can have whatever I wanted when
2:36
Speaker 1: I started working. So I started working when I was
2:38
Speaker 1: fourteen through high school, just part time jobs just to
2:41
Speaker 1: sort of have a bit of extra pocket money on
2:43
Speaker 1: the side. But once I started a full time role
2:46
Speaker 1: when I was nineteen, that led me into living way
2:50
Speaker 1: beyond my means and you know, thinking that that was
2:55
Speaker 1: an acceptable way of living and really really really did
3:00
Speaker 1: not think a future self at all.
3:02
Speaker 4: So yeah, I feel like that's so relatable though. I
3:06
Speaker 4: feel like so many of us work when we're really young,
3:09
Speaker 4: and we kind of just don't comprehend money because money diarist,
3:13
Speaker 4: what were you doing with your money when you were
3:15
Speaker 4: working at fourteen? I feel like what we don't comprehend
3:19
Speaker 4: once we get to eighteen or we move out is
3:22
Speaker 4: that that money now has to pay for living expenses
3:25
Speaker 4: as opposed to disposables. So I'm interested to know what
3:28
Speaker 4: you were doing with your money. Well, the roof of
3:31
Speaker 4: your head was paid for.
3:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Bolkovt just went to hanging out with friends, shopping.
3:36
Speaker 1: I had, you know, just going to things like parties
3:39
Speaker 1: and going out to dinners on a Friday night after
3:43
Speaker 1: school and you know, gifts for friends, that sort of thing.
3:47
Speaker 1: I really didn't have to pay for, you know, things
3:50
Speaker 1: simple things such as regro when I was you know,
3:52
Speaker 1: the seventeen eighteen year old mark. That was something that
3:56
Speaker 1: was always gifted to me, and I didn't have to
3:58
Speaker 1: really anticipate that the money that I was earning had
4:02
Speaker 1: to go anywhere else other than fun, which then led
4:05
Speaker 1: me into a world of hat.
4:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you just think it'll keep going, right, You're like,
4:10
Speaker 4: that's fine, Like I don't have to change my lifestyle.
4:12
Speaker 4: But I'm going to move out. I'm going to get
4:13
Speaker 4: my own apartment. It's going to be so fun, right,
4:16
Speaker 4: And where's all my money? Yeah?
4:19
Speaker 1: Exactly?
4:20
Speaker 4: So, oh my gosh, I feel like I did that
4:23
Speaker 4: a fair bit, and that's how I ended up in
4:26
Speaker 4: a little bit of a pickle when it came to
4:28
Speaker 4: personal debt when I was younger. But moving on money, darist,
4:32
Speaker 4: what do you do for work? How much money do
4:34
Speaker 4: you earn?
4:35
Speaker 1: So I'm a contract coordinator for a large defense subcontractor,
4:40
Speaker 1: so I work in the defense industry without actually being
4:43
Speaker 1: part of the ADF. So quite interesting. Actually, I started
4:47
Speaker 1: off as the receptionist for this company on quite a
4:51
Speaker 1: lower salary and just have taken the opportunities that as
4:56
Speaker 1: they've come and moved on to a personal assistant execute
5:00
Speaker 1: of assistant and now a contract coordinator, So I'm quite
5:03
Speaker 1: proud of that. I've finished high school, but I don't
5:06
Speaker 1: have any further education after that, so I'm quite proud
5:08
Speaker 1: of where I'm at and where I started.
5:11
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, she hustled her way to the top.
5:13
Speaker 4: I love that. And now, how much money do you earn?
5:18
Speaker 1: So I'm on eighty three thousand plus super.
5:22
Speaker 4: Oof plus super or. We love that. We love that.
5:26
Speaker 4: That is so good.
5:28
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, very proud of where I've started to where
5:31
Speaker 1: I was at because when I started this company five
5:33
Speaker 1: years ago, I was on about the fifty thousand, So yeah,
5:36
Speaker 1: I've just been trying to work my way up the ladder.
5:41
Speaker 4: I love that. And you definitely have worked your way
5:44
Speaker 4: up the ladder by the looks of it, Like that's
5:46
Speaker 4: so pretty good climbing. Yeah.
5:48
Speaker 1: Yeah.
5:48
Speaker 4: Is there a lot of career opportunity to keep progressing
5:51
Speaker 4: that in the same company, like if you stay even longer.
5:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. So it's a huge company and we operate
5:58
Speaker 1: all over the world as well, so there's lots of
6:02
Speaker 1: interconnecting roles and opportunities as well as the defense sector
6:07
Speaker 1: just obviously just will keep going and growing. So even
6:10
Speaker 1: if I step out of the company I'm in now.
6:12
Speaker 1: There is so many different levels within government as well
6:16
Speaker 1: as the private sector. So very fortunate to have landed
6:20
Speaker 1: myself randomly in this field. Was it something that I
6:23
Speaker 1: had wet drove out to really achieve? I was in
6:26
Speaker 1: legal services beforehand, so yeah, very excited.
6:30
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that is so cool. And to be
6:32
Speaker 4: a little bit pervy because you did tell me a
6:34
Speaker 4: little tip bit about your life before we are started
6:38
Speaker 4: recording money darist. You're currently on maternity leave. Is that correct?
6:42
Speaker 4: I am yes. Can you tell me a little bit
6:46
Speaker 4: about how that plays into I guess your role and
6:50
Speaker 4: your pay, Like how much paid leave do you get?
6:53
Speaker 4: How did you apply for it? How did you tell
6:55
Speaker 4: your work that you were going to be taking a
6:57
Speaker 4: period of time off to have a beautiful little baby.
7:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, so obviously very fortunate to live in Australia with
7:04
Speaker 1: such a well, I think a good maternia leave system
7:07
Speaker 1: provided from the government. So I think after tax I'll
7:11
Speaker 1: be getting about eleven and a half grand, which is
7:14
Speaker 1: the eighteen weeks full pay at at the minimum wage,
7:18
Speaker 1: and then on top of that, my supplier provides twelve
7:21
Speaker 1: weeks of full pay. However, They've got a bit of
7:24
Speaker 1: a weird system where you get half of that upfront
7:28
Speaker 1: and then half of that when you return to work,
7:30
Speaker 1: which for me will be in September this year.
7:33
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, So twelve weeks of full play plus
7:36
Speaker 4: the government time off, which means you're taking what like
7:39
Speaker 4: is a about twenty four weeks off.
7:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, so twenty four weeks of pay and then the
7:44
Speaker 1: rest is unpaid, which obviously that's a bit of a
7:47
Speaker 1: juggle between what I've received from the government and my
7:50
Speaker 1: work and then my husband's salary as well. So yeah,
7:54
Speaker 1: the next ten I'm a super budget now, which I
7:57
Speaker 1: wasn't in the past, so I've really like stepped out
8:01
Speaker 1: what we can afford each month. So yeah, lucky to
8:03
Speaker 1: have the whole year off, which was nice.
8:05
Speaker 4: Oh how good. I've got so many questions about that,
8:08
Speaker 4: But we will leave back to the second part of
8:10
Speaker 4: the show money diarist. What is your big money goal
8:14
Speaker 4: at the moment?
8:15
Speaker 1: Would be to buy a larger property. So in our
8:19
Speaker 1: first home at the moment, but it's a two bedroom,
8:21
Speaker 1: one bathroom little house, so just to buy the next house,
8:25
Speaker 1: and for us in the position we're we're going to
8:27
Speaker 1: have to sell this one to afford the next, especially
8:30
Speaker 1: in the current market. So that's the that's the biggest goal.
8:34
Speaker 1: And second it's just building wealth in other areas, so shares,
8:40
Speaker 1: Super and just general savings as well is another huge one.
8:44
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, so many goals. Yes, ah, so exciting.
8:48
Speaker 4: Next question is do you currently have any investments?
8:52
Speaker 1: I do, yes, so Super. I have about one hundred
8:58
Speaker 1: and twenty thousand in Super.
9:00
Speaker 4: Sorry what and you're not even thirty yet. Yes, one
9:03
Speaker 4: hundred and twenty thousand dollars in Super? Yeah, sorry that track?
9:08
Speaker 4: How did that happen?
9:09
Speaker 1: So? I am so guilty of completely ignoring Super. I
9:13
Speaker 1: had about six or seven different funds across, you know,
9:17
Speaker 1: from working since I was fourteen and swapping jobs. And
9:21
Speaker 1: about a year ago we went and saw a financial advisor.
9:25
Speaker 1: I've hurt.
9:25
Speaker 4: They're good people, yeah.
9:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he just moved everything into one fund and
9:32
Speaker 1: just that fund. I guess it's been performing quite well.
9:36
Speaker 1: And yeah, I was very shocked about six months ago
9:39
Speaker 1: when I logged in to find that I had one
9:40
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand there, from completely ignoring it to
9:45
Speaker 1: having such a balance, I was, yeah, very very surprised,
9:50
Speaker 1: And yeah, have.
9:52
Speaker 4: You ever contributed additional to super? No, No, you've just
9:57
Speaker 4: amassed it since you were fourteen, and it's been growing
10:00
Speaker 4: and growing. Because the average amount of money in superannuation
10:04
Speaker 4: for a woman between the age of twenty five to
10:06
Speaker 4: thirty four is actually thirty one six hundred dollars. So like,
10:10
Speaker 4: you are blowing that out of the water, my friend.
10:13
Speaker 4: I don't know if you knew that, but when you
10:15
Speaker 4: said that number, I was like, hold up, you're not
10:17
Speaker 4: even thirty yet and the average is literally like thirty
10:20
Speaker 4: one grand.
10:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I know that government is really notorious for
10:26
Speaker 3: paying a high level of super. What percentage is your super?
10:29
Speaker 1: So it's just a standard at the moment because we're
10:31
Speaker 1: not technically part of the AAF. However, I did work
10:35
Speaker 1: for two years at the ATO, so yeah, but that again,
10:40
Speaker 1: I was earning a very low salary there. It was
10:42
Speaker 1: like an introductory to work sort of program straight out
10:46
Speaker 1: of high school almost, so I think I was on
10:49
Speaker 1: about thirty six thousand dollars a year in that progress.
10:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, you wouldn't have got you wouldn't have got bucket
10:54
Speaker 4: loads a super for that salary. And my friend, No,
10:57
Speaker 4: the other question I have is actually look just being
11:00
Speaker 4: really pervy, because I think a lot of people are
11:02
Speaker 4: going to listen and go, what that's so much super
11:04
Speaker 4: without trying, which is the biggest money whin I've heard
11:07
Speaker 4: to date. But the question I think is more around hours,
11:12
Speaker 4: because a lot of us do start working when we
11:15
Speaker 4: turn fourteen years and nine months old, and we go
11:17
Speaker 4: down in my case, to the local ice cream shop
11:20
Speaker 4: and get a job. And so when we work, they
11:24
Speaker 4: aren't legally obligated to pay us super innuation until we
11:28
Speaker 4: hit a certain amount of hours or a certain amount
11:30
Speaker 4: of income in a certain amount of time frame. So
11:32
Speaker 4: money Diarist, Were you working a lot of hours when
11:36
Speaker 4: you were younger?
11:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was probably working about twenty hours a week,
11:40
Speaker 1: I would say so from the age of fourteen. So
11:45
Speaker 1: I two went down to Muff and Break and started
11:48
Speaker 1: out there and then moved on to.
11:50
Speaker 4: Oh my god, one of my best friends worked at
11:52
Speaker 4: Muff and Break. It was the best. We were in
11:54
Speaker 4: grade ten and she used to bring muff and Break
11:57
Speaker 4: for like morning tea the next day pretty much daily.
12:00
Speaker 4: It was the best thing ever.
12:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great. And then I moved on to
12:04
Speaker 1: Barnacle Bills, which is the seafood shot down in South
12:09
Speaker 1: Australia and also Woolworths were my three that I moved
12:13
Speaker 1: around in during high school. And yeah, probably about twenty
12:16
Speaker 1: hours a week throughout that whole period.
12:19
Speaker 4: Which you definitely would have been getting paid superrom whereas
12:22
Speaker 4: I was only working like maybe a couple of hours
12:24
Speaker 4: after school. Like, I definitely didn't accrue twenty hours a week.
12:27
Speaker 4: But the other thing that is playing to your benefit
12:30
Speaker 4: is you didn't go to UNI. You just went straight
12:32
Speaker 4: into the workforce, which means you've been accruing a full
12:35
Speaker 4: time salary worth of SUPER even though you're saying it
12:38
Speaker 4: was a lower salary, but you've just been consistent, and
12:41
Speaker 4: consistency pays off over time. And I just think that
12:44
Speaker 4: that's so often underplayed that you go, oh my gosh,
12:47
Speaker 4: I'm going to be so far behind because I didn't
12:49
Speaker 4: go to UNI. But you have all these years on
12:51
Speaker 4: other people of superannuation accumulation.
12:54
Speaker 1: Yeah right, I don't know if you want me to
12:56
Speaker 1: talk about.
12:57
Speaker 4: This now and talk about whatever you want. You're the
12:59
Speaker 4: boss of this show.
13:01
Speaker 1: I did go to UNI for a few semesters, which
13:03
Speaker 1: has left me with a heck stet, which is part
13:05
Speaker 1: of my debt that I wanted to talk about because
13:08
Speaker 1: I have seventeen thousand dollars of HEX set with no degree.
13:12
Speaker 4: So well, let's get into that because that's actually the
13:16
Speaker 4: next question, my friend, So money, dis talk to us
13:18
Speaker 4: about your debts.
13:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, So currently I have a two hundred and forty
13:24
Speaker 1: thousand dollars mortgage which we've had for ten years, so
13:28
Speaker 1: just sort of working that down. I also have a
13:31
Speaker 1: sixteen thousand dollar car loan. So I've always been the
13:36
Speaker 1: type of person to just have a five hundred dollar
13:38
Speaker 1: car that's just sort of gotten me through and you know,
13:42
Speaker 1: no pow of steering, no power windows, that sort of scenario.
13:46
Speaker 1: So last year I bought my first big girl car
13:50
Speaker 1: and I was fortunate enough to have ten thousand dollars
13:53
Speaker 1: that I put down as a lump sump payment and
13:55
Speaker 1: then just sixteen thousand for the remainder. So I'm quite
13:58
Speaker 1: happy with that, and that's that because it's given me
14:02
Speaker 1: probably a safer mode of transport than before. And then
14:07
Speaker 1: I have seventeen thousand dollars in hects as well.
14:12
Speaker 4: And you were saying before that that HEX is for
14:16
Speaker 4: a degree that you didn't end up finishing, so talk
14:19
Speaker 4: to me about I guess how you made the decision
14:22
Speaker 4: to maybe not keep studying, but also how does that
14:26
Speaker 4: hex step now make you feel?
14:28
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, to be honest, a lot of people say,
14:31
Speaker 1: you know, hextex is fine, you don't ever worry about
14:34
Speaker 1: it coming out because it's all taken out before you
14:37
Speaker 1: receive your net income, so you won't even notice it.
14:40
Speaker 1: And I found it to be the exact opposite, to
14:43
Speaker 1: be honest, I started out when I left school, or
14:47
Speaker 1: when I finished school. My mum was begin to you
14:50
Speaker 1: go to UNI or you get a job. It was,
14:53
Speaker 1: you know, nothing really in between. So I started a
14:57
Speaker 1: nursing degree. I did two semesters of that and really
15:01
Speaker 1: really really was not for me. So then a couple
15:05
Speaker 1: of years later, once I'd had a couple of years
15:08
Speaker 1: in the working force, I thought that I needed higher
15:12
Speaker 1: education to get me anywhere in the corporate sort of world.
15:17
Speaker 1: So because of that, I started a business degree online.
15:21
Speaker 1: And this is during the period where I wasn't that
15:24
Speaker 1: great with my finances so kind of just buried my
15:26
Speaker 1: head in the sand, miscut off dates for subjects I
15:30
Speaker 1: didn't even start, so that added onto my hex Yeah,
15:34
Speaker 1: so now I have yeah, the seventeen thousand dollars hex
15:37
Speaker 1: step for something that I didn't even invest myself in,
15:41
Speaker 1: nor did I really care about. And now I'm definitely
15:44
Speaker 1: seeing the negative of that.
15:47
Speaker 4: So you're seeing it come out. But I'm going to
15:49
Speaker 4: make some assumptions that you learnt a fair bit even
15:52
Speaker 4: if it wasn't for your future career during UNI. Would
15:56
Speaker 4: that be a correct assumption? And I mean a lot
15:58
Speaker 4: of people say, like, oh my god, I can't believe
16:00
Speaker 4: I'm paying for a degree I'm not even using, which
16:02
Speaker 4: in your case, you said you did nursing. You're not
16:05
Speaker 4: even working in a space close to nursing. So I
16:07
Speaker 4: can see how that would feel like a bit of
16:09
Speaker 4: a waste. But I feel like we get a lot
16:12
Speaker 4: of life experience and learn a lot about ourselves during
16:15
Speaker 4: that period. So as much as you're paying for it now,
16:18
Speaker 4: is it as big a waste, I don't know. Yeah.
16:22
Speaker 1: Look, during the nursing time, it wasn't you know. I
16:25
Speaker 1: got to live a bit of the UNI life, which
16:27
Speaker 1: was obviously really fun and met a lot of really
16:30
Speaker 1: nice people through it. But during the business side of it,
16:33
Speaker 1: I was working full time. I kind of signed up thinking,
16:37
Speaker 1: you know, I was going to give myself all these
16:39
Speaker 1: incredible opportunities to earn more money down the track, but
16:43
Speaker 1: it was it was a case of me signing up.
16:46
Speaker 1: I did a few subjects. I failed my accounting subjects,
16:49
Speaker 1: so that will give you a bit of an insight
16:51
Speaker 1: as to where my money was at at that time
16:55
Speaker 1: and just my mindset around it all. So you know,
16:58
Speaker 1: the business side of HEADS was just a complete mistake.
17:02
Speaker 4: And yeah, yeah, I feel like I totally get the regret.
17:06
Speaker 4: I don't want you to feel bad about it. I
17:07
Speaker 4: feel like you've learned a lot from it and it's
17:09
Speaker 4: helped you become who you are today. But I also
17:12
Speaker 4: look at it and I go look at how much
17:14
Speaker 4: pressure you were putting on yourself, and how much pressure
17:17
Speaker 4: other people in our community are putting on themselves to
17:19
Speaker 4: go to UNI for degrees that they might not even
17:22
Speaker 4: want to work in spaces that they don't even fully
17:25
Speaker 4: comprehend the career opportunities. And like, obviously, if you go
17:29
Speaker 4: do nursing, there's a really brilliant career of nursing ahead
17:33
Speaker 4: of that. So please don't get me wrong. It's not
17:35
Speaker 4: saying it's a waste by any stretch of the imagination.
17:38
Speaker 4: But for you in particular, like you have a really
17:41
Speaker 4: great salary. You haven't had to go to UNI for that.
17:45
Speaker 4: Like I know, Jess, you're the same. You haven't gone
17:47
Speaker 4: to university for the career that you are doing at
17:51
Speaker 4: the moment, and both of you are I would say,
17:53
Speaker 4: wildly successful. So I think if you're in that position
17:57
Speaker 4: and you're like, I really hate UNI and I really
17:59
Speaker 4: don't like it, like, don't follow something you don't love,
18:03
Speaker 4: because it's not going to give you, I guess the
18:05
Speaker 4: outcome that you think it might, Like, it's not just
18:08
Speaker 4: going to miraculously turn into a high paying job. Because
18:12
Speaker 4: the one thing that I do see that you two
18:15
Speaker 4: probably have in common, my friends, is that you have
18:18
Speaker 4: really great work ethics, and you work hard, and you
18:21
Speaker 4: have direction and you put your head down a money
18:23
Speaker 4: rris that has been obvious from the fact that you
18:26
Speaker 4: have progressed so quickly in your career to different roles
18:30
Speaker 4: and kind of like climbed that ladder on your own.
18:32
Speaker 4: You don't need to a degree, you don't have your
18:34
Speaker 4: own ladder.
18:35
Speaker 1: Right, And I'm very big on that as well. So
18:38
Speaker 1: you know, when I talk to my younger cousins who
18:40
Speaker 1: are just about to finish high school. I hate asking
18:42
Speaker 1: the term of what are you going to do next year?
18:44
Speaker 1: Because I just think that if that takes two pressure. Yeah,
18:48
Speaker 1: And I think if that takes two to three years
18:49
Speaker 1: to figure out what you want to do, I think
18:51
Speaker 1: that's better than just jumping straight into a career. I
18:54
Speaker 1: know people that have gone and done, you know, a
18:56
Speaker 1: six year engineering degree and wound up as police officer.
19:00
Speaker 1: So you know, I just think the pressure to know
19:03
Speaker 1: what you want to do straight out of high school
19:05
Speaker 1: is just immense, and I think it can probably lead
19:08
Speaker 1: people down the wrong path for maybe not such a
19:11
Speaker 1: happy career. Yeah.
19:12
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more. And I mean I've got that
19:16
Speaker 4: from understanding that she's on the money community and talking
19:19
Speaker 4: to so many people. But even looking back on my
19:21
Speaker 4: own career when I was eighteen, how did I know
19:24
Speaker 4: that I wanted to do what I wanted to do?
19:26
Speaker 4: Like I had no idea, Like I was drinking vodka
19:29
Speaker 4: cruz is Like if that's that's like a summary of
19:32
Speaker 4: the life choices I was making at the time. How
19:34
Speaker 4: was she little vodka Cruzer Victoria. How was she picking
19:39
Speaker 4: future Victoria's career? Because even if she'd tried to predict
19:42
Speaker 4: what I was doing today, it wouldn't have come to fruition.
19:46
Speaker 4: I feel like year eleven and twelve is also a
19:48
Speaker 4: massive amount of pressure as well, that people like, if
19:51
Speaker 4: you don't perform well and you're eleven and twelve, like
19:53
Speaker 4: you won't get into UNI and then basically you'll die.
19:57
Speaker 4: And that's just not the case at all. Like so
20:00
Speaker 4: many people on the show as well have been like, oh,
20:03
Speaker 4: I was a mature age student, got a really really
20:05
Speaker 4: terrible atar, but like, you know, just entered later and
20:08
Speaker 4: got my dream career once I found that focus. Like,
20:11
Speaker 4: I think we need to give ourselves a little bit
20:13
Speaker 4: more space. But moving on, because I feel like we
20:16
Speaker 4: could all talk about this forever. Money Diarist to one
20:21
Speaker 4: of our favorite questions, do you use shop back?
20:25
Speaker 1: Look? I do have the app downloaded and I have
20:27
Speaker 1: an account going, but I'm not an active user, which
20:31
Speaker 1: I should be because I online shopped like an absolute fiend.
20:34
Speaker 1: So I need to be bad. It needs to be
20:37
Speaker 1: better in that space.
20:38
Speaker 4: I feel like I was really bad at using shop
20:41
Speaker 4: back until I installed it on my Chrome browser, and
20:45
Speaker 4: now it just automatically pops up. It's like, oh, you
20:47
Speaker 4: look like you're buying something. Turn on shop back and
20:50
Speaker 4: you're like, yes, yes, turn it on, turn it on.
20:52
Speaker 4: So I feel like until that point, I didn't really
20:55
Speaker 4: shop through the app, but I definitely shop on my desktop.
20:58
Speaker 4: And I probably shouldn't go on about that because if
21:01
Speaker 4: you look at Jess, you'll probably be like, well, I
21:03
Speaker 4: know you do. You probably should be doing your work.
21:05
Speaker 4: Victoria money Darist. Next question, what do you think is
21:12
Speaker 4: your best money habit?
21:14
Speaker 1: My absolute best money habit, which I'm very proud of
21:16
Speaker 1: now because old me would have again buried my hand
21:19
Speaker 1: in the sand. Is my budgeting skills? So I budget,
21:24
Speaker 1: you know, every single month, and I don't know exactly where
21:26
Speaker 1: every single one of my dollars is now going. Old
21:30
Speaker 1: me literally just use my card intil it was declined
21:33
Speaker 1: and I had no idea what was coming in and out.
21:37
Speaker 1: But now I'm totally across it. Got a beautiful spreadsheet
21:40
Speaker 1: that I'm extremely proud of running, and yeah, that's probably
21:45
Speaker 1: my best money habit.
21:48
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, I love spreadsheets. I would love to
21:51
Speaker 4: see yours. Where did you start, like when it comes
21:55
Speaker 4: to budgeting and spreadsheets? You said before you had your
21:58
Speaker 4: head in the sand. Were in personal debt, Like, how
22:02
Speaker 4: do we change our mindset to being a spreadsheet queen?
22:05
Speaker 4: How do we do it?
22:06
Speaker 3: Like?
22:06
Speaker 4: Where did you start? Because it feels so overwhelming for
22:08
Speaker 4: so many people? Yeah?
22:10
Speaker 1: Absolutely, so I just did the old print out the statement,
22:14
Speaker 1: found out what was going in, what was going out,
22:17
Speaker 1: what was a monthly sort of trend of mine, so
22:20
Speaker 1: online shopping gifts as well, so I like, I like
22:24
Speaker 1: giving gifts, so really budgeting now I have one hundred
22:28
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars a month for any upcoming birthdays or
22:31
Speaker 1: baby shower gifts, things like that. But it was a
22:34
Speaker 1: case of opening my account and really just going through
22:38
Speaker 1: old school about what was in and out and just
22:41
Speaker 1: the monthly trends. So once you start, and then it
22:44
Speaker 1: just snowed balled into there, into my epic spreadsheet.
22:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, from little things, big things do really grow. But
22:51
Speaker 4: it's kind of like a snowball effect. But first you
22:54
Speaker 4: have to put your head out of stand.
22:55
Speaker 2: Right, Is that right?
22:56
Speaker 1: Absolutely all right?
22:58
Speaker 4: To bring the tone of this converse all the way down, money, Dirice,
23:02
Speaker 4: what is your worst money Habit would.
23:04
Speaker 1: Have to be just my it is much better than
23:07
Speaker 1: previous years, but just my lack of self control when
23:10
Speaker 1: it comes to online shopping. I was an absolute sucker
23:14
Speaker 1: for Instagram ads and you know, the junk mail that
23:18
Speaker 1: would come into the inbox, and you know, whatever brand
23:21
Speaker 1: was having a sale, and I thought that it meant
23:23
Speaker 1: if I didn't buy what I wanted in that sale,
23:26
Speaker 1: I was never going to be able to get it again,
23:28
Speaker 1: which is just not the case.
23:30
Speaker 4: So hid it's not. But it's so easy to be like,
23:33
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, but like it's on sale, I really
23:35
Speaker 4: wanted it, and now it's like discounted. If I don't
23:38
Speaker 4: get it now, I'll never be able to afford it
23:39
Speaker 4: or get it or I totally get that.
23:41
Speaker 1: Sense of urgency. Yeah, so just and my I just
23:44
Speaker 1: had no self control around that at all, which is
23:48
Speaker 1: it has gotten better, but it's it's still there. And
23:50
Speaker 1: I do have quite high taste when it comes to fashion,
23:54
Speaker 1: so you know, the twenty dollar cotton on dress just
23:57
Speaker 1: doesn't do it for me anymore. So I have to
23:59
Speaker 1: I feel like I have to anyway, go you know,
24:02
Speaker 1: go to the larger, more expensive brands.
24:05
Speaker 4: Feels it's called lifestyle creep, my friend, we all experience it.
24:11
Speaker 4: It is depressing when you start working it out and
24:14
Speaker 4: do you know what's more frustrating is that I totally
24:17
Speaker 4: get that the twenty dollars came out dress would have
24:20
Speaker 4: probably done the same thing. Am I comfortable with it? Though?
24:23
Speaker 4: Do I want that? No? Does that set my heart
24:26
Speaker 4: on fire the same way that the steel dress I
24:28
Speaker 4: have saved on my browser right now does? No. No,
24:31
Speaker 4: I'm going to get the steel dress right.
24:34
Speaker 1: And the worst part is that I hardly ever wear them.
24:37
Speaker 1: So I've probably got ten to twelve dresses in my
24:40
Speaker 1: wardrobe right now that I've never worn, but they're just
24:42
Speaker 1: so pretty.
24:43
Speaker 4: Oops. All right, before we go to the break money diarist,
24:49
Speaker 4: if we forced you to give yourself a money grade,
24:52
Speaker 4: what would your grade your money have its?
24:54
Speaker 1: I thought about this and honestly, old me wouldn't even
24:57
Speaker 1: sat down for the test. I would have completely skipped test,
25:00
Speaker 1: wouldn't and just sort of accepted an F. Whereas now
25:04
Speaker 1: I think I'm sitting in the C minus to be
25:06
Speaker 1: plus kind of range because I've still got a long
25:09
Speaker 1: way to go, but I've improved so so much. So yeah,
25:15
Speaker 1: C plus to B minus range.
25:17
Speaker 4: I feel like that's fair. I do have a few
25:19
Speaker 4: questions for you, though, So let's go to a quick
25:21
Speaker 4: break and we'll jump straight into them after that. All right,
25:24
Speaker 4: money Diarist, We are back and I feel like our
25:28
Speaker 4: office is a little bit baby crazy at the moment,
25:30
Speaker 4: So I want to start by talking about your gorgeous
25:33
Speaker 4: three month old. Can you talk us through that process
25:37
Speaker 4: of planning for maternity leave? Before you mentioned that you're
25:40
Speaker 4: taking some unpaid leave in addition to the paid maternity
25:43
Speaker 4: leave that you're going to get. How did you budget
25:46
Speaker 4: for that? How do we start thinking about topics like that.
25:49
Speaker 4: I feel like it's so overwhelming when you're in this
25:53
Speaker 4: phase of like, this is what I really want to do,
25:56
Speaker 4: But then it's like the balance of one, do we
25:58
Speaker 4: have the budget? But two how do you drop to
26:00
Speaker 4: one income? So can you talk us through your mindset
26:03
Speaker 4: and how that works? And yeah tell us all yeah, sure.
26:07
Speaker 1: So we were fortunate that we didn't have to save
26:10
Speaker 1: for any of the IVF processes or anything like that,
26:13
Speaker 1: which I know can be a really big expense. So
26:16
Speaker 1: for us, the biggest thing, you know, was buying everything
26:20
Speaker 1: that you needed for a baby. And I know a
26:21
Speaker 1: lot of people say that babies don't need much, but
26:24
Speaker 1: it is a huge snowball and you think that you
26:27
Speaker 1: do need everything that's out there. So I was fortunate
26:30
Speaker 1: enough to be on a salary that I could save
26:33
Speaker 1: quite a bit, so I've I managed to save and
26:36
Speaker 1: pay outright for everything that we needed for the baby.
26:40
Speaker 1: We also have a husband and I have quite a
26:42
Speaker 1: big savings account to fall back on, so we once
26:47
Speaker 1: I factored in what I was going to be getting
26:51
Speaker 1: as the lump some sort of payment from the government
26:53
Speaker 1: as well as my work, I just split that into
26:55
Speaker 1: the twelve months and made that my new salary for
26:59
Speaker 1: the month. So that salary combined with my husband's salary,
27:04
Speaker 1: just sort of breaks even on all of our bills.
27:06
Speaker 1: So I was fortunate for that. But then we also
27:09
Speaker 1: did have the savings that we could fall back into,
27:12
Speaker 1: but it was just more the preparation that was needed
27:14
Speaker 1: to buy everything the car seat. It really does add up,
27:18
Speaker 1: and I would say that we probably spent about five
27:22
Speaker 1: grand leading into leading into the him being here.
27:26
Speaker 4: Oh wow, can I ask you just said?
27:29
Speaker 3: Obviously, it's really hard and I would totally be this
27:32
Speaker 3: person who is like, I must have everything to be
27:35
Speaker 3: as prepared as I can be. Was there anything that
27:39
Speaker 3: you purchased pre baby that now that you have your
27:42
Speaker 3: little one. You're like, that was so unnecessary.
27:45
Speaker 4: Oh, such a good question.
27:46
Speaker 1: Yes, and I have a very good example because I
27:49
Speaker 1: just sold it on marketplace the money we need. Yeah,
27:52
Speaker 1: so there is a particular brand of and I call
27:56
Speaker 1: it a baby coffee machine. So because we're formula feeding,
28:00
Speaker 1: it basically makes a bottle in thirty seconds. You press
28:03
Speaker 1: one button and it's done. So no, thirds Yeah, it's
28:06
Speaker 1: it's amazing that exists. Yes, So I bought it about
28:12
Speaker 1: three months before the baby was here and had it
28:15
Speaker 1: all set up on my kitchen bench ready to go.
28:18
Speaker 1: And once he was here and we started the process,
28:21
Speaker 1: it was just much easier. I found anyway to use
28:25
Speaker 1: the old thermo and scooping the formula out of the
28:28
Speaker 1: tin yourself. It took about a minute to make a bottle,
28:31
Speaker 1: whereas this four hundred and fifty dollars machine did it
28:34
Speaker 1: in thirty seconds and I didn't even turn it on.
28:38
Speaker 1: So I sold it on marketplace only last week.
28:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh my gosh, that's so expensive as well. It
28:45
Speaker 4: was like, yeah, I didn't even know that was a thing,
28:47
Speaker 4: a little baby coffee machine, but it does formula, not
28:50
Speaker 4: the coffee, Like what yeah, they think of everything, Like
28:54
Speaker 4: I only recently learned of that snoo thing that like
28:57
Speaker 4: rocks your baby, and I'm mind blown that there's like
29:00
Speaker 4: a device in a bed that rocks you. Anyway, Yeah,
29:03
Speaker 4: probably sound very naive in comparison to a lot of
29:07
Speaker 4: people who are listening to this podcast who are seasoned mothers,
29:10
Speaker 4: and they're going to be like, Victoria, you don't know
29:11
Speaker 4: what you're in for one day.
29:13
Speaker 1: Yeah.
29:14
Speaker 4: When it came to buying stuff for baby as well,
29:17
Speaker 4: did you find that you had to make up a
29:19
Speaker 4: budget at the start or did you collect things as
29:22
Speaker 4: you go, Like how many things do you think, on
29:25
Speaker 4: average a new mum would have to buy? Like was
29:28
Speaker 4: that five grand an average baby shop? Or was it
29:32
Speaker 4: a oh well, actually we got the cot and the
29:34
Speaker 4: prem for free, like it was a handy down or
29:36
Speaker 4: like what I guess scope did that five grand include?
29:41
Speaker 1: Yeah? So again I had a queen of a spreadsheet
29:43
Speaker 1: going and I had everything listened to what I wanted
29:46
Speaker 1: and how much it was, where I could buy it,
29:48
Speaker 1: where was the best deal. So I was very prepared
29:50
Speaker 1: in that sense, but I probably just took it to
29:52
Speaker 1: the next level in terms of as just said, I
29:55
Speaker 1: felt like I needed absolutely anything just in case I
29:59
Speaker 1: needed it, So I probably spent one thousand dollars over
30:03
Speaker 1: what I probably needed to in a lot of the
30:06
Speaker 1: gadgets that are on the market at the moment, and
30:08
Speaker 1: they really know how to target mothers in particular. I
30:12
Speaker 1: think that you need this to make sure your baby
30:14
Speaker 1: is sleeping well overnight and is happy. And it was
30:19
Speaker 1: just all all of those products I have actually used,
30:24
Speaker 1: I really really did not need. So in terms of
30:27
Speaker 1: the five grand I probably only needed to really spend
30:30
Speaker 1: about four on the essentials. So the biggest one was
30:35
Speaker 1: the prem. So my husband six foot four, so we
30:38
Speaker 1: needed a prem that sat up quite high, and unfortunately
30:41
Speaker 1: that meant for us that it was the most expensive one,
30:45
Speaker 1: but it was just it was just worth it first
30:48
Speaker 1: saving his back in my back on it, I'm five
30:50
Speaker 1: foot tens as well, so I'm quite tall, so you know,
30:53
Speaker 1: just that for us was a necessity item. And then
30:58
Speaker 1: we unfortunately didn't have a lot of friends that I
31:01
Speaker 1: had babies before us, so we didn't have things right
31:03
Speaker 1: hand me downs or secondhand. And I know you can
31:06
Speaker 1: buy a lot of things on marketplace, but they sometimes
31:10
Speaker 1: advise just to buy a new for the safety side.
31:13
Speaker 1: Of things. Ye.
31:14
Speaker 4: Well, of course, of course, I feel like I wouldn't
31:17
Speaker 4: even know where to start, So asking questions like this
31:19
Speaker 4: is just personally very helpful, so I appreciate it. But
31:23
Speaker 4: let's pivot away from baby stuff. I want to know
31:25
Speaker 4: about savings while you are on maternity leave. So you
31:29
Speaker 4: mentioned before that you've worked out your budget and like
31:32
Speaker 4: your husband's income can help you cover bills and stuff
31:35
Speaker 4: like that. Are you saving while you're on leave or
31:39
Speaker 4: is that something that you like? Nope, we've just put
31:41
Speaker 4: that to the side. That's not happening while we are
31:43
Speaker 4: doing this. Yeah.
31:45
Speaker 1: So, and I think this sort of touch back to
31:47
Speaker 1: my old self and what I feel like I need
31:50
Speaker 1: to do to make myself happy really is the method
31:54
Speaker 1: of paying yourself first. So I actually give my husband
31:58
Speaker 1: and I both give each other a three hundred fifty
32:00
Speaker 1: dollars a week for our play money, which I know
32:02
Speaker 1: sounds excessive, but that's just what we figure out we
32:05
Speaker 1: need because they're both quite social people, so we do
32:08
Speaker 1: have quite a large play money bucket that we dip
32:11
Speaker 1: into every week, so there is an opportunity for us
32:15
Speaker 1: to save, but that hasn't been our goal. Well on
32:18
Speaker 1: attornity leave, so we have quite a big amount of
32:22
Speaker 1: money that we can use every week just for you know,
32:25
Speaker 1: going out to dinners and things like that. But if
32:28
Speaker 1: we can save money after that point, then that's great.
32:31
Speaker 1: If we don't, we haven't put the pressure on ourselves
32:33
Speaker 1: to as well.
32:34
Speaker 3: I think it's a new mum that you can't undervalue
32:38
Speaker 3: as well giving yourself the opportunity to do something for you.
32:43
Speaker 3: And this is applicable to any I guess a new
32:45
Speaker 3: parent who is you know, primarily caregiving. You're the one
32:49
Speaker 3: on attorney leave, so I'm assuming this situation you're the
32:51
Speaker 3: one who's with love the most. I think that as
32:55
Speaker 3: much as you say it seems really excessive, you're not
32:58
Speaker 3: getting to go to work every day like you would
33:01
Speaker 3: normally and have those adult interactions. You're not getting time
33:05
Speaker 3: away from your little one, who of course you would
33:08
Speaker 3: love immensely. I have no doubt, but I think that
33:11
Speaker 3: you need to remember that there is so much value
33:15
Speaker 3: in giving your self space because you deserve that as
33:18
Speaker 3: just a human being. And yes, it might be costing
33:21
Speaker 3: you money, but I think maybe for your mental health,
33:24
Speaker 3: particularly because you said you're a super social person, I
33:28
Speaker 3: do think that it's really important that you're recognizing that,
33:31
Speaker 3: and it's really admirable you've gone, Okay, well right now,
33:34
Speaker 3: this is what I need.
33:36
Speaker 4: Yeah.
33:36
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And we said before that before we started trying
33:39
Speaker 1: for a baby, that we wanted the baby to fit
33:42
Speaker 1: into our lifestyle rather than change our life to suit baby,
33:45
Speaker 1: and we were just watuningate that we had a salary
33:47
Speaker 1: that we could maintain our lifestyle while me being on
33:51
Speaker 1: the tonity leave just to we didn't want to miss
33:54
Speaker 1: out on things and feel like that we had to
33:56
Speaker 1: give up that aspect of our life just because they
34:00
Speaker 1: was here. So again, quite a fortunate position to be in,
34:03
Speaker 1: and I definitely don't take that for granted, but that's
34:07
Speaker 1: just the concession that my husband and I had that
34:10
Speaker 1: we wanted to still maintain what we wanted to do
34:13
Speaker 1: and not feel guilty about that money.
34:15
Speaker 4: Ros we've talked about budgeting for baby and planning what
34:19
Speaker 4: was going on, and earlier in this episode, you actually
34:24
Speaker 4: said that you saw a financial advisor about twelve months ago.
34:28
Speaker 4: What was that trigger point of seeing a financial advisor
34:32
Speaker 4: potentially having a baby? Is that where we were at
34:36
Speaker 4: mind frame wise? Like, what was a trigger point for
34:39
Speaker 4: saying an advisor, I guess, is what I'm trying to
34:41
Speaker 4: get around to asking. Yeah.
34:44
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So there was two. One was definitely planning for
34:48
Speaker 1: our family. The other one was just learning more about
34:50
Speaker 1: the shares an investment market. So we had a con
34:55
Speaker 1: sec account going and we just weren't sure if that
34:58
Speaker 1: was where we needed to be for the the best
35:00
Speaker 1: financial outcome or if we needed to move that into
35:04
Speaker 1: you know, the other areas of investing. So we just
35:07
Speaker 1: wanted to get advice on that really, and then that
35:11
Speaker 1: sort of rolled into combining you know, consolidating soupers and
35:16
Speaker 1: what we need to do for a wheels, what we
35:18
Speaker 1: need to do for you know, setting our child up
35:21
Speaker 1: for the best future that he can have as well.
35:24
Speaker 1: I'm really concerned should say concerned, I'm not sure, but
35:28
Speaker 1: concerned about the housing market, you know, when he's twenty
35:32
Speaker 1: five years old. So I'd love to have the opportunity
35:34
Speaker 1: to give him a bit of a house deposit already
35:38
Speaker 1: sitting there. So I just wanted to get the ball
35:41
Speaker 1: rolling really on how that all works.
35:44
Speaker 4: I love that, and I feel like financial advice is
35:47
Speaker 4: something that people often have triggers for, so you'll go
35:52
Speaker 4: ages not even considering it and then there's some kind
35:55
Speaker 4: of life change and you go, we should talk to
35:57
Speaker 4: an advice now, like we probably should edit together and
36:00
Speaker 4: have that chat. But the next question I want to
36:03
Speaker 4: ask you is actually about Super. So you talked about
36:05
Speaker 4: rolling Super together and while you're on maternity leave, you
36:10
Speaker 4: wouldn't be contributing to Super through your salary because that's
36:14
Speaker 4: not a part of it. But have you and your partner,
36:17
Speaker 4: and I mean maybe not, because you do have a
36:20
Speaker 4: pretty healthy looking Superannuation account, but if you and your
36:24
Speaker 4: partner talked about what that would mean for you to
36:27
Speaker 4: miss contributions to Superannuation during that time that you're off
36:30
Speaker 4: for you.
36:31
Speaker 1: Look, we haven't had the discussion, but I've been very
36:33
Speaker 1: aware of it because it's quite a hot topic in
36:36
Speaker 1: the mother's online mother's group that I'm in that has,
36:38
Speaker 1: you know, three thousand members and a lot of people
36:40
Speaker 1: do talk about this. We again didn't have the conversation,
36:45
Speaker 1: and I'm currently not contributing to Super again. I think
36:48
Speaker 1: it's also because I did have the larger balance sitting there,
36:51
Speaker 1: so I felt like I maybe wasn't really missing it
36:55
Speaker 1: over the next twelve months, and I knew that when
36:57
Speaker 1: I go back to work, I'm going back to all
36:59
Speaker 1: my full time salary as well, so I could not
37:03
Speaker 1: make up for the time. But I you know, it's
37:05
Speaker 1: not like I'm only going back part time, where again
37:07
Speaker 1: I would miss the next fifteen years of contributing the
37:11
Speaker 1: same sort of amount.
37:13
Speaker 4: Yeah. So yeah, you've thought about it, but it wasn't
37:17
Speaker 4: the biggest priority. I feel like potentially that would have
37:20
Speaker 4: changed if you'd looked at it and had like twenty
37:22
Speaker 4: thousand dollars in Super, You'd be like, oh, actually, maybe
37:26
Speaker 4: we need to plan around this. But yeah, financially, I
37:29
Speaker 4: think you're doing fine because it sounds like you've turbocharged
37:32
Speaker 4: your career.
37:33
Speaker 1: Yeah.
37:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of career, just before we head off, I
37:37
Speaker 3: wanted to swing it back around. I know we've been
37:39
Speaker 3: chatting out baby Beau but all maybe crazy, but just
37:41
Speaker 3: to change that, Super Jess and Super as well, I
37:44
Speaker 3: wanted to just chat about you a little bit and ask,
37:47
Speaker 3: as a fellow degreeless person who has worked their way
37:50
Speaker 3: up in this industry, how did that look for You've
37:53
Speaker 3: obviously sat at one company for many years now, and
37:57
Speaker 3: you came in on kind of a more entry level role.
38:00
Speaker 3: How did that career progression go. Did you put your
38:02
Speaker 3: hand up, were you talking to managers asking for promotions?
38:05
Speaker 3: Did you just wait for the right opportunity? How did
38:08
Speaker 3: you take those steps? Because I think there'd be a
38:09
Speaker 3: lot of people in a similar boat who maybe don't
38:13
Speaker 3: have the degree to back stepping right into a big role,
38:15
Speaker 3: but have big inspirations to do what you've done.
38:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, so definitely it was seeking out other opportunities as
38:21
Speaker 1: they came up. I didn't really wait around for someone
38:24
Speaker 1: to tap me on the shoulder and say, hey, do
38:25
Speaker 1: you want to do this? That has happened once in
38:28
Speaker 1: that career stepping stone, and I was very lucky for
38:32
Speaker 1: that because that landed me what I'm in, the role
38:34
Speaker 1: i'm in now. However, I just, yeah, again, just took
38:41
Speaker 1: the opportunities as they came up. I consulted with the
38:44
Speaker 1: HR team at my current employer as well. Obviously, the
38:47
Speaker 1: industry i'm in as well is a largely male dominated industry,
38:51
Speaker 1: So for instance, in my team of twenty five, I'm
38:55
Speaker 1: the only female. There was a lot of opportunity sort
38:59
Speaker 1: of given away those lower level sort of roles to
39:02
Speaker 1: really just take little baby steps to sort of get
39:05
Speaker 1: where I'm at today. Incredible.
39:07
Speaker 3: How do you find being the only female in a
39:09
Speaker 3: team of twenty five, because that's not an easy position
39:12
Speaker 3: I wouldn't imagine to find yourself in.
39:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.
39:14
Speaker 1: So before going into this industria that she worked in
39:18
Speaker 1: legal services where there was a major lee female team
39:22
Speaker 1: as a legal secretary. So I really enjoy the different
39:27
Speaker 1: side of things, and obviously heading into Materney leave as well,
39:30
Speaker 1: they were very supportive and it's just it's a very
39:33
Speaker 1: different environment about an enjoyable one as well.
39:36
Speaker 4: Incredible, Jess. I know that you thought that was going
39:39
Speaker 4: to be your last question, and it was maybe your
39:41
Speaker 4: last question. But when we were introducing our money Diarist,
39:45
Speaker 4: she had explained that she was in debt and offline
39:49
Speaker 4: we had been talking about credit scores, and I feel
39:51
Speaker 4: like I want to finish their money Diarist. When it
39:55
Speaker 4: came to debt and credit scores and being in a
39:58
Speaker 4: little bit of a pickle, you, I'm saying you were
40:00
Speaker 4: pretty severely impacted by, you know, not having a very
40:04
Speaker 4: shiny credit score. Can you tell us a little bit
40:06
Speaker 4: about that? And I guess how you got out of
40:09
Speaker 4: that situation?
40:11
Speaker 1: Yeah? Sure, So growing up I really didn't even know
40:14
Speaker 1: what a credit score was, and by the time I
40:15
Speaker 1: knew what it was, it was too late. So in
40:19
Speaker 1: my early twenties I had gotten myself into about twelve
40:22
Speaker 1: gram with a credit card debt and really just buried
40:25
Speaker 1: my head in the sand. So I was the type
40:26
Speaker 1: of person that was ignoring the calls, ignoring the mail.
40:30
Speaker 1: I knew I would be getting a letter from my
40:31
Speaker 1: bank and I would just rip it up and put
40:33
Speaker 1: it in the bin. Yeah, which is horrible.
40:36
Speaker 4: No, it just feels like I can feel that stress,
40:39
Speaker 4: like when you say I'd rip it up and put
40:41
Speaker 4: it in the bins, Like I didn't even want to
40:42
Speaker 4: look at it, like just get it out of sight,
40:44
Speaker 4: out of mind. If it's all ripped up, it doesn't exist.
40:47
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And I was the type of person, which I
40:50
Speaker 1: know has been spoken about heaps in the community as well,
40:53
Speaker 1: is the just living for that moment and not really
40:56
Speaker 1: caring about future self. And I was the person that
40:59
Speaker 1: you would always see going out traveling and eating at
41:02
Speaker 1: fancy dinners and having all of the fancy clothes. But
41:06
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, I was in really a really bad
41:10
Speaker 1: place financially where I didn't eat, I didn't look at
41:13
Speaker 1: my makeup, I did not log into my makeout, I
41:16
Speaker 1: did not log into any of my debt portals, nothing
41:19
Speaker 1: like that, because I was just ignoring it, which just
41:21
Speaker 1: impacted my credit score massively. And by the time that
41:24
Speaker 1: I realized what impact that had on just day to
41:27
Speaker 1: day lives, so phone plans, things like that, it was
41:31
Speaker 1: too late for me. I couldn't I couldn't get it
41:34
Speaker 1: back up. So once I accepted the debt, and I
41:37
Speaker 1: just accepted that first phone call from the debt company
41:40
Speaker 1: saying hey, you know, and they weren't as scary as
41:42
Speaker 1: what I thought they would be. I thought they were
41:44
Speaker 1: going to get on the line and just completely almost
41:47
Speaker 1: destroy me. But they were, Oh my.
41:48
Speaker 4: Gosh, no, they're usually super kind.
41:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they were very All they wanted to do
41:55
Speaker 1: was just to make sure that I was aware of
41:58
Speaker 1: what I had and how can they help me get
42:01
Speaker 1: to where I needed to be, which was really positive
42:04
Speaker 1: in the end. So that all sort of started spiring
42:07
Speaker 1: when I was twenty two, twenty three, and now twenty nine,
42:10
Speaker 1: and only I was of about two months ago. I
42:13
Speaker 1: have my credit ratings back up to where it should
42:15
Speaker 1: be and I don't have any defaults as to that anymore.
42:18
Speaker 1: And I just I think I just wanted to say
42:21
Speaker 1: that it's a long process, but you know, the years
42:25
Speaker 1: toick by so quickly, and so I'm not even thirty yet,
42:28
Speaker 1: and I have the opportunity now to go out and
42:32
Speaker 1: get you know, the house that I'm I'm in now
42:35
Speaker 1: is I'm in my husband's naying because I couldn't. Yeah,
42:38
Speaker 1: I couldn't do that. I didn't have a pand squat.
42:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, I really couldn't even do the home loan thing
42:45
Speaker 4: with your partner because your credit score was just not
42:48
Speaker 4: having a good time.
42:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, but by the time I realized what
42:53
Speaker 1: it was and what impact it had, it was too late.
42:56
Speaker 1: So oh my.
42:57
Speaker 4: Gosh, I feel like that's really powerful though. And what
43:00
Speaker 4: you just said before about how the years go really quickly,
43:03
Speaker 4: it's both ways, Like they go really quickly if you're
43:06
Speaker 4: not acting on a debt either, like they go really
43:10
Speaker 4: quickly and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe
43:11
Speaker 4: it's been like three or four years and this is
43:14
Speaker 4: still sitting there. But like we could have used that
43:16
Speaker 4: time to get out of debt. So I feel like
43:19
Speaker 4: the sooner you just pick up the phone, the sooner
43:21
Speaker 4: you put a plan in place. The sooner you pull
43:23
Speaker 4: your head out of the sand, the better for you,
43:25
Speaker 4: because now you're twenty nine and you've got all of
43:28
Speaker 4: these wealth creating opportunities ahead of you, and it's not
43:31
Speaker 4: the worst thing in the entire world. Whereas if you'd
43:34
Speaker 4: left this for another ten years or another fifteen years,
43:37
Speaker 4: which lots of people do, you would have been in
43:39
Speaker 4: a pretty big pickle.
43:41
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I didn't want to have the conversation with anyone,
43:44
Speaker 1: didn't want to have the conversation with myself, with my partner,
43:47
Speaker 1: with anyone about it. So I just ignored it, and
43:50
Speaker 1: I probably ignored it two to three years longer than
43:52
Speaker 1: what I should have.
43:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like, my friend, that is a really
43:57
Speaker 4: good place to leave it. We have covered so much
44:01
Speaker 4: in these money stories, so thank you so much for
44:04
Speaker 4: your time. But unfortunately I do think that is all
44:06
Speaker 4: we have time for today. So just before we head off,
44:09
Speaker 4: we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal
44:13
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44:16
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44:20
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44:23
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44:25
Speaker 4: respects to elders past and present, and we share our
44:28
Speaker 4: friendship and our kindness.
44:30
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44:33
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44:39
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44:55
Speaker 4: See you next week, guys.
44:57
Speaker 3: Bye,