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When Cancer Changed Everything... · She's On The Money

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yor
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the Order KERNI Whoaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
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  Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money Podcast Millennials
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: our Money Diaries episodes where we get to talk to
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  Speaker 2: one of our incredible She's on the Money community members
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  Speaker 2: all about their money story. Let's jump straight into it
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: because this week I got an email and it sounded
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: exactly like this. Hi, Victoria, love the pod and that
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: She's on the Money team. Our story is very different
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and represents how we have overcome obstacles. We are a
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: family of six who have primarily lived off one income
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: for twelve years. We've lived and worked in rural and
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: remote communities as teachers and principles. Our plan was to
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: save and get back to the city. By the time
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  Speaker 2: our kids were in high school. We were getting ahead
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: while our expenses were low until our baby girl got
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  Speaker 2: cancer at the age of three. This meant we had
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  Speaker 2: to shift to a major city center at a second's
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  Speaker 2: notice and never return to our then home. Now, after
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  Speaker 2: not one but two cancer diagnoses, our daughter is cancer free,
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  Speaker 2: smiling and thriving. Not only that, but we have just
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  Speaker 2: bought our second house. I'm working, and we are teaching
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  Speaker 2: our kids the value of investing and goal setting. Our
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: story is a complex one, but we believe that there
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: is a valuable message in never giving up and being
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: able to pivot the goalposts. We can't wait to share
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: it with the Shees on the Money Community Money Doris,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: that is a roller coaster.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: How are you? Oh goodness, I'm a big teary now
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: and that doesn't happen very often.
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  Speaker 2: Oh we got you?
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Good. Yeah, I'm not an emotional person. You are? You
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: are deep down? I got you. I got you.
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  Speaker 2: But isn't it strange hearing back your money story and
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: being like, holy moly, like we are actually so impressive,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Like that's crazy.
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  Speaker 3: Honestly, I said to my husband, I don't even remember
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: what I wrote in because there's so much to talk about. So, yeah,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: that was really surreal.
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  Speaker 2: Oh well, I'm glad it gives you a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of a point of reflection. I cannot wait to hear
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: about your daughter. But before we get there, I want
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: to know what grade would you give your money how, Betsy,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: If I asked you to give them a grade from
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  Speaker 2: A through to.
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  Speaker 3: F, my first instinct was a C plus.
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  Speaker 2: You know me better than that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like we're going to have to rejuggle
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  Speaker 3: that a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: That's okay, let's go with a C plus and we're
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: going to learn a bit about you and we can
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  Speaker 2: talk about it at the end. Money, darrist, I need
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  Speaker 2: to know a bit more. Can you tell me in
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  Speaker 2: a bit more detail about your money story?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? Okay, So childhood, I don't have a whole lot
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  Speaker 3: to say. We didn't talk a lot about money in
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: my household, and I knew little bit so I knew
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: my dad earned more, I knew we weren't well off.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: I was constantly comparing myself to other families and what
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: they were doing. But we got by. We did all
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: the things. We had family holidays, so local beaches and things,
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  Speaker 3: and then kind of in my teenage years, my parents
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  Speaker 3: had breaking up on and off, so that was really tough,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: and I guess things were juggled around a little bit more.
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  Speaker 3: Things were never super dier either. They could put food
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  Speaker 3: on the table. We were educated, so there's nothing drastic
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: there other than the couple of you know, family breakdowns.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: But then when we got into our teenage years, I
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  Speaker 3: started to realize that I needed to have a job
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: to kind of do the things that I wanted to do.
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  Speaker 3: So by fourteen and nine months, I got my first
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  Speaker 3: job and that's where I met my husband. Oh really
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: that young? Yes, very so special. Yeah. So I had
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  Speaker 3: been working at Coals. He worked at Coals as well,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: and then I was also working as an assistant at
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: my local dance studio which I danced at and got
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: all my lessons for free. So that was a burden.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that's a money win.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. So that happened actually earlier, from about twelve, and
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: my parents didn't have to pay for my lessons anymore.
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  Speaker 3: So that was a huge help because dancing is expensive.
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  Speaker 2: Ah. Yes, as a dance child, it was a lot
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: and there were three of us. Oh my gosh, yes,
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  Speaker 2: it was a lot. Mum and dad were probably like,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: oh my gosh, thank you money diarist for taking one
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: for the team.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly. So I did that and that actually got me
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: a job as well from eighteen. So I did start
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: teaching my own studios from that point. But even before
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: that happened, I actually got proposed to when I was seventeen,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: so I was still in high school.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you just a baby.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: Yes, so we were babies. My husband was three years older,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: so he was nine. Oh he was twenty at the time. Actually,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: oh big dog.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: At that time. I feel like the age difference, it
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: feels a lot more different. Now you've probably two peas
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: in a pod. But at the time you were like, ooh,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: this older boy is proposing to me.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty wild that that happened.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Now, No, but seriously, I need to know what possesses
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  Speaker 2: a twenty year old man to propose to someone in
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: high school.
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  Speaker 3: What's he doing? In hindsight, I have no idea.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I mean, he wasn't wrong like it
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: worked out, like when you know, you know, like, sir,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: where's your brain at?
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was exactly where my dad's brain at.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Was that when he got sat down with this young
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: twenty year old for a coffee and was being asked
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: if he could marry his daughter.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I mean he did it properly. That's kind of cute.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: My dad said, No, your dad's a smart man. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not against it, but like, I just think, at seventeen,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: you're still a baby, Like, there's so much life to
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  Speaker 2: be had.
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  Speaker 3: So what happened?
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: You didn't get married at seventeen.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: We got engaged before graduation and we got married. I
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: was nineteen oh, so you had.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: A bit of time between getting engaged and then getting married.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: A little bit but still a baby. So yeah. Then
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: after I finished Grade twelve, my parents and my sisters
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  Speaker 3: moved to Sydney. So at that point I was not
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  Speaker 3: going with them because I was engaged and you know,
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  Speaker 3: had my whole life planned out supposedly.
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  Speaker 2: What did that look?
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  Speaker 3: Like?
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I have to ask, I really have to ask. So
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  Speaker 2: when you're like I remember me at nineteen, I don't
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  Speaker 2: trust nineteen year old Victoria like I do not like
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  Speaker 2: I look at it and I just go other people
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  Speaker 2: maybe much better than me. Me though, can't be trusted.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: So you look back when you were planning things, was
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: it very I guess tunnel visioned, were you're like, no,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: this is the life I want, this is how it's
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: going to be, and is that how has become or
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: has it completely shifted?
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  Speaker 3: I think it then it was very tunnel vision. I
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: don't remember even considering going to Sydney. It was just
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: always I'm going to stay here, I'm going to go
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: to UNI, I'm going to keep working my jobs, and
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: I'm going to stay with my partner. And I don't
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  Speaker 3: remember there being a lot of pushback on that, so
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  Speaker 3: I guess my parents just went, yeah, Okay, that's the
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: way it's going to be. You can come visit. So yeah,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: that's the way we went. I moved in with my
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: husband's parents and his family for a little while before
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: we got our own rental. He pretty much managed the
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: money from there. He's always had an Excel spreadsheet, and
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: from that point on our finances were joined, which I
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  Speaker 3: feel then wasn't uncommon as partnerships. We just combined our
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: money and that was the normal as now we look
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: back and go, oh, I don't know if that was
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  Speaker 3: kind of the best thing to do for our own
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: financial freedom. Separately, but in saying that we're still making
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: it work.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I was gonna say it's worked out. I mean in hinds,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: hindsight's a beautiful thing, right, Like, I look back, I
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: wouldn't have gotten into forty thousand dollars worth of personal
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: debt by twenty two. That's nice. But at the same time,
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  Speaker 2: I think we're just doing the best that we can
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: with the tools and resources that we have, and it
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: wasn't the worst decision. But at the same time, you're
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: kind of like, well, actually, if I was to give
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: someone else advice, I'd say, maybe have your own emergency fund,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: maybe have your own debit cards. But like, I don't know,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: you're young and in love. I totally get it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's what we did. We went for it,
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  Speaker 3: and it has worked out, so that's good. My husband
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: finished UNI and he worked as a teacher, and we
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: made it. When things work, we got a rental, we
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: moved out, We spent a lot of savings on you know,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: furniture and all of those things, and just lived paycheck
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: to paycheck working out life as a young couple. That
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: was until we got married and we were pregnant with
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: our first child. So I was nineteen, he was twenty two.
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  Speaker 3: We weren't quite ready for that adventure, but that's the
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: adventure that we were put on.
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  Speaker 2: Did you say you got pregnant and then married or
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: you got married and then pregnant straight away.
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  Speaker 3: I was eleven weeks pregnant when I got married, so
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: we had found out just before the wedding.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, but that's kind of cute. I mean, in hindsight,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: terrifying because you were so young, but at the same time, like,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I'm such a baby person, so I would have just
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: been like whoo.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Then because of money difficulties and just you know,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: preparing for a child and not really knowing what we
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: were doing, my mom and my sisters had actually moved
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: back to our town at that point, and we decided
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: to move back into them because they had a downstairs
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: space that we could utilize.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: And that is so good, especially because like babies are
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: so expensive, especially if you're not planning one, and then
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: suddenly you're like, okay, You're you're going to be a
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: family of three, Like that would have taken so much
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: pressure off, even just having extra sets of hands around.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: And that was it. The night we brought our first
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: child home, he was crying, he wasn't feeding well, and
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: kind of Mum was just there to be like, he's fine,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: he's had some milk, it's okay. So yeah, it was
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: good to have the reassurance in all of those things
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: as a first time mum too, because.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: You just don't know what.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: You don't know, no, and whether you're nineteen or forty
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: two having your first child, you just don't know.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Or thirty three and me, I had literally no clue.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: And like, don't get me wrong, I adore babies. I've
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: always been somebody that looks at babies and go, that's
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: so nice, like one day, but the second you bring
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: them home and they're yours, I'm like, how did you
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: let me out of the hospital without a license?
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Exactly? Yeah, what do you mean?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I'm just expected to care for this child and know
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: what it needs?
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Like, oh, I know, definitely need a license. You need
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: a license for a lot of things in this world,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: but being a parent is not one of them.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So moved in with my and then what happened.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: You've got a newborn.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: We have a newborn. I keep working as a dance teacher.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: So within two weeks I was back teaching.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Sorry what you were teaching dance? Two weeks Postpardem.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't have a lot of choice in that regard.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: We just got back to it and I was very
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: calm and collected and took the baby with me and
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: my husband would pick him up from class and that worked.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: And I've actually done that with two of my four children.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: But you also loved it, So like two weeks postpardem,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: as long as you're not doing anything too strenuous, like
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: I'm sure I won't say it's okay, it's okay for you,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: and I mean, don't get me wrong, pot calling the
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: kettle black. I went back to work so quickly, but
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: it's yeah, individual.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: That's right. So yeah, we did that for a while.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: Life was pretty good. My husband was working as a teacher,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: finances were stable. Then he gets offered a permanent position,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: but not in our local town. We had to move
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: to a regional town in quinn Land for that opportunity,
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: and we had to enter the rental market again and
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: just you know, there were extra expenses with doing all
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: of that. I was jobless because I had to leave
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: my jobs. So we knew we were going to do
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: it. It was just how we were going to make it work.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: And what drove that? So like, obviously that sounds like
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: a really good opportunity for him, but going from having
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: him working and you working and all of that support
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: was the driver furthering his career or was it, you know,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: an income that was much higher than both of your
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: incomes were combined, Like what made you go, this is
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: actually the best thing for our family.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: It was the permanency with the department that was the
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: driving factor in teaching. And I feel like it's changed
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: a little bit now, But back then it was always
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: that you should do your country service as a teacher,
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: and he hadn't had permanency in our city yet, so
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: he was going from con to contract, doing a year here,
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: six months there. So it was the permanency. He knew
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: he would do his three years country service and then
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: get back to our main city. However, when we got there,
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: his school that he was placed at was very challenging.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: No, and you've just taken all of these risks and
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: then it's not good.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and he could handle the classroom. It was more
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: that there was no support from the admin staff or
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: the community as such either, so he was in a
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: hard place, not enjoying his job. I had two children
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: by that point, so I was at home, but also
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: starting off in a new dance studio that opened up
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: up there, So I didn't really feel like I noticed
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: how his mental health was because I was so busy
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: with the household stuff.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, and you're just trying to keep
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: it all together. But then also you've probably got in general,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: a stressed husband, coming home, working late, doing all of that.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: It's very hard to keep everything in check.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and coming home and wanting to spend time with
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: the boys and his family and you know, trying to
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: fit as much in as possible. So he decided that
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: he was going to try to become a principal instead
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: of a teacher. So he did a couple of courses
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: to make that happen and ended up getting posted very
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: quickly out to very remote Queensland. So we were kind
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: of between long Reach and the Northern Territory border, so
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: it was two hours to get to long Reach, and
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: I did that weekly just to go to playgroup.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Two hours for playgroup.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: For a playgroup. Yes. However, expenses were low, so we
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: paid thirty six dollars a fortnight for a small two
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: bedroom Donna type accommodation.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Thirty six dollars a fortnight. All right, I'm sorry, Sorry,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: it's sounding much better now.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Yes. It was a town of twenty people when we
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: moved in, so it was very very tiny. The school
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: had five children total from prep to grade six.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, that's not even one kid per class.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: No, so it was very small, but it was eye opening.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: It was something that not a lot of people in
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Australia get to do, so we're very grateful to have
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: had that opportunity when we did, so it was amazing.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: And then from there we moved to a small town
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: between Rocky and Mackay. So we spent three years there
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: and our rent was still very cheap, which was lovely.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: We had a nice house, but it was still an
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: hour and a half drive to get my son to
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: KINDI that year, so we did that five days a
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: fortnite and people go, oh, my goodness, you were crazy.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Why would you do that drive. But at the time
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: my son had speech delays and we felt that it
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: was important to get him socialized.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent. And also, like your values are overlaying
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: with everything else. Like I feel like for some people
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: they say, oh, an hour and a half, that's unhinged.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: But then on the.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Flip side, there are people that I know that drive
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: an hour and a half every morning to go to
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: their nine to five job. And they do that every
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: morning and every night, so they're in the car at
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: least three out like because not because they have to,
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: because they want to live in a certain location and
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: then drive to work. Like, we all just make a
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: decision that's right for us, Like, it doesn't mean it's wrong.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: It just means that some people might not want to
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: do that, And that's cool if it's not for you,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: But I'm glad it worked out for you guys.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: So yeah, they were financial benefits of doing that as well.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: So there was a race payment for living in a
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: remote area, and that meant that twice a year we
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: got like a couple of thousand dollars kind of like
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: a bonus, I guess, and it was per person, so
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: my husband and I would get let's say a thousand dollars,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: and then for each child you might get five hundred
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: and yeah. It was just a really nice community as well,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: so we really enjoyed our time there. But coming up
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: to three years, my husband felt like he was ready
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: for a chain, so we did move to a larger
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: school where he was a teaching principal as well, and
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: then eventually got to it open up a new high school,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: which was very cool. He got on really well with
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: the staff at that school and they opened up. They
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: had two grades to start with, and really felt like
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: we were going to stay there for a long time
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: until our kids started high school, which was really lovely.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Our kids. We had three children by that point, fourth
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: on the way.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Four babies.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Four babies, yes, yeah, so it's a pretty crazy life.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: No, I love it. I love it.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: We love it.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: I've only got one, but I'm already like, so can
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: we have more?
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, more babies. We love babies.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: I think it's so crazy because so many people are like,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: are you.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: One and done?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh no, I'm one and more. Like this
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: has just told me that I need more of these
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: so bad.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: So special.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: So you had three babies and you're pregnant.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Yes, my last one came in a bit of a hurry.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: We did go into the hospital. I went by myself
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: with my two children who weren't yet at school. Then
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: they said, no, you're not going anywhere.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: You have to stay, but I have two toddlers following
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: me around.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I think after school, my husband came to
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: pick up the two toddlers and then we had a
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: baby like the next day, which was wild. We had
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: to get people who I didn't know very well to
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: look after the other children at our house.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that would have been a bit stressful, you
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: would have been. I just want to go home. I
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: just want all my babies under one roof, and I
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: want to look after them, thank you.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And we were just trying to figure out our
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: finances and how that was all going to look. I
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: actually got back to work that year, and I came
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: back as a relief teacher.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Sorry, four babies and she's back at work.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So I put my littlest one in daycare and
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: my third child was in like a pre Kindy class
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: at that point, so she was going to do two
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: years at Kindy. So life was getting back on track,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: was becoming more normal. I was getting some adult time
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: at my job.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: I need you've gotten to the point where you're like,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: four kids, I think we're done. So we're through that
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: like baby phase or was this like you're just not sure?
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Like I feel like there's a mental shift with people
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: when they're like, no, we're now done having babies, so
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: you kind of like can go a little bit mentally,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: you get a bit more space.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, and we were definitely at that point.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: My husband was definitely done. And yeah, we knew we
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: wanted four from the very beginning, so we're like, nope, four,
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: that's it. And we didn't have an easy journey either.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: We did have a few miscarriages amongst the four, so
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: it was in no way, you know, an easy journey,
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: and people you know, often said why, like you've got
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: two beautiful babies or three beautiful babies.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Literally get in the bin. Like I hate when people
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: just don't justify it. It's a it's a really shitty
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: thing that happens. I don't want to hear be grateful
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: for what you've already got. Like, I totally get that,
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: and I totally understand the flip side that there are
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: people out there who have it worse. I get that,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: but that does not take away from the fact that
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: the thing I'm experiencing is challenging for me.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Like, oh yeah, and it's more talked about now, which
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: is amazing. So yeah, I'm really grateful that people are
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: able to talk about I'm grateful that I'm able to
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: open up to other people and say, oh, that actually
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: happened to me. But I just didn't talk about it
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: at that stage because it wasn't as spoken about even
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: five years ago.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent. And it's like this shitty club that
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: no one wants to be a part of. But then
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: when it happens to you, you say, oh my gosh, Like,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: maybe you didn't talk about it personally, but you've probably
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: noticed that if somebody else mentions it to you, you go, oh, yeah,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: that happened to me. They go, wait, what, Like you
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: just don't realize how many people in your community are
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: going through the same things. It's why we have to
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: talk about it more often, because when I was going
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: through that, I felt so alone, had no idea that
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: it was so common. But when I started talking about it,
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: people are like, yeah, me too. I was like, sorry,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: what people in my literal family that I had no
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: idea had been through exactly the same thing.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: Because it's so common too, and yeah, it's just not
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: spoken about enough. But we're starting to shift, which is
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: very good. So yeah, things were getting back on track
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: and we felt like we were able to well, we
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: had been saving. I'm not going to say we weren't saving.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: We were always The plan was always to save while
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: we were living more cheaply in rural Queensland, and then
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: by twenty twenty four we were planning to move back
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: to our major city to put our kids through high
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: school and give them the most opportunities with sport and
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: recreation activities and friendship groups and being back home to
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: where our family were as well was really important. Yeah.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and kids once they get to teenage years, like
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: being rural would be so challenging.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, and we really wanted to be back where
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: we knew, maybe even send our kids to the same
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: school that we went to because we did have good experiences.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: They were so cute. Yeah, So that was always the plan.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: So we could see our savings increase and we could
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: see what was going on. Until my daughter was diagnosed
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: with cancer and it was a soft tissued cancer that
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: grew behind her right eye. It was very aggressive and
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: fast growing, so they had to get on top of
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: it really quickly, and she started chemo by the Saturday
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: that week, oh my god. Yeah, and had a couple
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: of other general anesthetics between the Wednesday and the Saturday,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: so that was really stressful. We lived in a hospital
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: for that week. I actually thought we were going to
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: stay in the hospital for the full kind of nine
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: to twelve months that they told us we would be
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: stuck there because I didn't know. I didn't know what,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: you know, a cancer diagnosis looked like. So that's when
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: our world really turned upside down. My husband immediately went
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: into logistics because he was still in Regional Queensland working
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: sending our older boys to school. So it was a
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: really really terrifying time health wise, but so logistically yeah,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: of course we ended up having to stay in Brisbane
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: for the duration of that cancer treatment. She was given
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: six months of chemo and radiation and in that time
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: our savings took a big hit.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Of course they did. Even just like all the small
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: things like parking and buying food at the hospital that's
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: overpriced because hospital food is trash and few and far between,
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Like all of those things just add up so quickly
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: that you would feel buried almost.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So it was very much felt like that, and
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: we were very lucky in the way that people would
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: help out. They would help out by having my youngest child,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: which was huge help, and they would send uber eats
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: vouchers or you know, things like that, and we actually
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: did stay in a charity house.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: That's actually such a good present on the side, like
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: if anyone's going through that, they're in the hospital, like
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: you send them er eats vouchers, Like, don't bring them food,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: give them an umer eats voucher so they can order
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: what they want, when they want, and how they want
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: to do it. Iconic recommendation.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: That's till we tell people now, Yeah, one.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Hundred percent, So tell me you stayed in a charity house.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: We did, Yes, So we lived in a charity called
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: Childhood Cancer Support and they offered housing free of charge
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: to any family who have a child going through a
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: cancer diagnosis. So we were very very lucky that we
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: were in a small apartment, but got moved to a
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: house very very quickly in our stay because we are
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: a larger family.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. Even just finding accommodation that's appropriate
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: would have been challenging.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: And there was the option of us splitting up so
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: that my husband would stay in our home up north
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: and my daughter and I would stayed Dowt in Brisbane,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: but it just wasn't an option. We were told by
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: medical staff that you want to all be together because
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: it is going to be a challenging road. So we
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: did decide to do that. We stayed in the charity house.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: We live very cheaply on the side of the hospital life,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: even though things were very expensive, but it did mean
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: that my husband could continue working and hopefully be able
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: to save a little bit on the side as well,
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: just to keep our goals kind of ticking along, even
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: just a little bit, so that will happen. That was
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: six months. My daughter did really well through treatment. I
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: say that and I'm like, oh, did she do well?
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: But she did. She was as healthy as what a
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: cancer patient could be.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: But did you do well?
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: How were you?
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Because like, she's going through this and like not to
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: minimize it at all, but kids don't know what's going on.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: They just look to their parent and go if you're
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: okay with this, I guess I'm okay with this, Like
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: what's going on? And so you're trying to be like
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: the rock of this family for this child and three
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: other children and your husband. How did you deal with that?
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: I think she was the rock really. I think because
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: she was so smiley, she was so happy. She just
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: did not really stop. It really made it hard for
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: us to kind of be completely broken.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: She's just like, what's up, guys, It's all good, Like
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: it's all good. Are we just going to do this?
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: And then do you think that we could play?
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah? And for a three year old, she didn't know
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: any different. Like even now, she still thinks that her
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: hospital life is normal. That everybody does that. Everybody does that.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: That's three. They just spend six months of their life
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: in the hospital getting all my honey chemo pumped into
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: you and vomiting and you know, doing all the awful things.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: That's a whole other podcast. There's lots of things. But overall,
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: she did okay, and she finished up six months later
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: and we had a beautiful Christmas together. We were able
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: to leave the bubble. So the bubble you have to
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: stay within half an hour of the hospital that you're
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: at while you're on cancer treatment because if things go wrong,
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: they need to be able to get antibiotics into you
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: very very quickly. So we actually did do a trip
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: up to where we moved from.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: That would have been so nice.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So it was really really nice to see everybody
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: and for her to see her Kindey friend and things
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: like that. And she started KINDI in the new year
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: and made some new friends and everything was going really
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: well until again about May, things started changing again and
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: everyone told me, you're seeing things I don't. I'm not
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: seeing what you're seeing. I think it's okay? Was this
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: medical professionals? I did go she got hands, foot in mouth,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: and I presented to the ed with her and I said,
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: look at her. I right eye doesn't always match up
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: to her left. It kind of looks off to another
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: direction a little bit. It was a major I understand that.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: And he said, nope, it's aalk good. I've checked her eyes.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: It's talk good. Then the next week she had a
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: doctor's appointment with her ophthalmologist, her normal ophthomologist, who we love,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: and she said, oh, no, we can fix that. We'll
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: fix that with surgery later. All good. The scams came back, okay.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, but I still feel like something's off.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I rang out oncologist and she was already
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: due for her three monthly scams, so he said, let's
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: bring the scans forward. It ended up being about a
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: week early, and he gave me every reason under the
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: sun why it would not be the cancer. It was
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: fluid sitting behind the eye. It had been caused by
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: the radiation that she'd received, because she had received twenty
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: eight rounds of radiation, which is quite a lot for
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: a little body. She could have a virus, she could
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: have any number of things, not cancer though, But no,
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: it was again a Monday night and it was back.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: It was the same size that it was no a
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: year before, and yeah, we were thrown back into it,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: and I could tell people were panicked. The oncologist is
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: usually very calm, very.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Collected, so ye, it's their job, right, like as much
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: as it's stressful, Like they know how to deal with this.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: And he was a bit more scattered. He was throwing
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: words out there. He was like chemo, radiation, surgery, he
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: was throwing out all the options, and I was like,
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: I don't know what you're talking about. So she ended
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: up having more scans done that week. We saw the
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: surgical team later on and they told us that we
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: would have to remove her right eye to remove the cancer.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: So we were thrown very quickly back into the whirlwind
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: of me not being able to work, not having somewhere
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: to live because now the charity wasn't an option because
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: we decided to stay in Brisbane, so we had to
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: try to come up with the rent while only being
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: on one income again. And we could just see that,
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: you know, again, our goals were going backwards and backwards
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: and backwards, which was really hard. We kept doing what
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: we were doing. I tried to work in between cycles
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: of chemotherapy, which did work. I was very very grateful.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: We have a beautiful family who will have my youngest
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: son regularly so that I could go to work. They
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: were so helpful, not just because they're beautiful people, just financially.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: It has put us ahead.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent because child care, you wouldn't have been
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: able to go to work, like, especially if you were
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: working casually in between chemo, like, the amount of money
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: it would have cost you to put him into daycare
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: to then go to it, it would have just set you
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: back even further. Yeah, that's right.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, it was really really hard, and my daughter
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: we're going to get back onto finances.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I know. No, it's okay, like it's such an important story.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So she had nine months of chemo again. So
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: the first time she had six months. This time it
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: was nine months on a high risk protocol, so things
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: were a lot worse this time. Her side effects were awful, awful.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: She wouldn't wake up for days, she wouldn't eat, she
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: wouldn't drink, and every single cycle was delayed because she
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: was too unwell to start the next cycle. So things
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: just got super duper delayed in all of her treatment,
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: and she was really unwell, which was really challenging. It
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: wasn't until she had a break from chemo that she
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: was able to kind of come back to life reset.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: They pumped some blood into her to kind of keep
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: her going all the time. But then they had to
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: do surgery, so we had to remove her right eye
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: to get to the tumor. So she's now a little
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: girl who wears an eye patch because underneath that eye
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: patch is a hole.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Basically is that going to heal over time and we can,
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: you know, get a process or something organized.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So she does have a prosthetic at the moment,
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: and she's getting a second one made. It's not as simple.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: No, you can't just whack one in and call it
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: a day.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: No. So if you lose your eyeball, for example, they
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: making you an eyeball and you can slot that into
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: the eye socket with the eyelid keeping it in and whatnot.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: But for my daughter, she doesn't have an eyelid, so
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: it's her whole eye socket that has been removed, so
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: it's kind of like a ping pong ball size hole
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: where her eye should be. And they did take a
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: flap of skin from her leg as a skin graft,
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: so it's all the skin in there. It's kept clean.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: We have to clean it. But yeah, prosthetic is just
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: a bit harder because the eye will never move. Yeah
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: wow Yeah, And she's just not convinced. She's now seven.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: People know her to wear an eyepatch and she's used
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: to that routine. So I'm not sure that having a
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: prosthetic is going to be something that she regularly utilizes
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: at this point of course, But we want to give
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: her the.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Options I was going to say, and like times will
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: change and things that she's going through will change, and
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, it would be challenging being a seven year
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: old going through that, but even you know, knowing the
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: challenges that face her as she grows up, like just
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: knowing their options is so nice.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So that's where we're at now. She
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: has been eighteen months out of cancer treatment. She has
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: just actually done her last step in the process. She
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: had her port removed, so all the chemo was pumped
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: through a port in her chest and that has now
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: been removed as of last week. So that is very exciting.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: We feel like we can move on at this time
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: because now everyone is back at school, I'm working pretty
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: consistently as a relief teacher, and we're back on track.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: We've just bought a new house. We had to save
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: like crazy and make some sacrifices in that regard, but
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: we also have some pretty solidified goals that we're working
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: towards and just trying to encourage our kids to just
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: be financially aware of what's going on in the world,
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: but also what's going on under our roof and what
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: we're saving for and why we can't buy this, but
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: maybe we can do that. So yeah, we feel like
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: the next couple of years, hopefully going forward, will be
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: our time to kind of get on top of what
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: we want to do.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: And it sounds like you guys are really clear about
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: that too. All I hate to cut you off there,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: but let's go to a really quick break and on
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the flip side, I want to talk about your best
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: and worst money habits. I want to talk all about investing,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: so guys, don't go anywhere. All right, we're back. So
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: moving to finance for a bit more. I want to
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: know about your goals. But first, what's your current income
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: as a family, What is your husband earning, what are
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: you earning, what's coming in the door.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I am primarily a relief teacher who takes
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: on short contracts as well at two schools. Last year,
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: I earned sixty thousand dollars excluding super and my husband
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: for the last financial year earned one hundred and fifty
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars as a deputy principal.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: That's pretty cool that you, like, not your husband's income,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: but your income though going through all of that, is
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: still bringing in sixty grand like that's queen behave.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so that was actually the most This is
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: the first financial year that I've paid some hex off.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, how good is that?
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: To've gone through all of that and you're like, okay, well,
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: finance is good. Have been stupidly stressful, but at least
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: we're coasting.
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Like, oh, we're doing okay, I think.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: So tell me more about these goals he said before, Like,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: we've got some pretty clear and big money goals. What
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: are they? What are we working towards.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: At the moment, It is to build up an emergency fund,
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: because that got eaten up by with the house process,
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: and it wasn't really a priority, to be honest, to
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: have an emergency fund at this point. But it is
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: a priority now because my husband is taking a step
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: back next year and going back to the classroom as
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: a teacher.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Oh is he excited about that?
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: He is very excited. He needed to break He worked
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: all through COVID, all through my daughter's diagnosis and treatment
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: and all of that, and he needs to get back
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: to what he really really loves, and that is education
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: and being with the children and teaching.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it would be hard, because it sounds like I'm
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: just making some guesses here, educated guesses. But given he
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: was so happy to move regionally to teach, like it
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: sounds like he is very much a teacher. Not a
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: principal like he's I'm sure he's a fantastic principle, but
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: principle is a lot more hands off, whereas it sounds
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: like he's like a hands on kind of guy wants
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: to get in there and help the kids as opposed
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: to sit in an office and tell all the other
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: teachers what to do.
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And it got to the point where he was
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: kind of the events planner but also the complaints manager
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: as well. That was kind of what his role involved.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: He's like, this is not why I became a teacher,
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: This is not why I got into the position that
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: I'm in.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this isn't working the way I thought it would.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to go back to what I'm passionate about.
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: So that's exciting. So we'd like to have ten thousand
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: dollars saved by the end of the year, so that
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: next year, if things become a bit tight with him
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: taking a decrease in pay, we have some money there
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: just in case.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that you don't have to stress.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just be nice. In twenty twenty nine, we would
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: like to go overseas for the first time with all
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: four of our children. Yes, So the goal is to
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: have eighty thousand dollars there, but with a family of six,
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: we think it will probably be closer to one hundred
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Where are you going though, Like, what's this holiday look like?
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Have we got any idea or are you just like,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: let's just get the money and work it out later.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: Like for this one, we would like to go to
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: the UK and do bitter UK, bitter Europe. And then
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: the plan was to do it three years later when
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: my second child graduates high school. However, financially we're not
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: sure what that looks like. At this point we were
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: saving for both. But at the moment, yeah, the twenty
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: thirty two to one has no money in.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: It totally, and they'll all be old enough to appreciate
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: it too, So that's so nice.
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that is another one. And then building up
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: the investment portfolio again.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: I was about to say, do you have any investments?
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, investments. So we have our super yes, and
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: mine is a lot less because I didn't work as
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: much while I was having the children. My husband does
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: have a good balance though, so he makes contributions to
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: my super now.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Oh thank you sir.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: Yes, So that's every fortnight and my SUPER sitting at
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: twenty seven thousand, and his super is three hundred and
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: thirty five thousand.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: Oh sorry, what that is not where I thought that
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: would come from. Like, that is a nice amount of super.
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: He is very chuffed with that amount of SUPER.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: I would be too, thank you for my financial freedom
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: in the future.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: Yes, I just listened to your episode about Super this morning.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: Good. Yeah, just hearing that amount of you know, just
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: under six hundred thousand dollars by the time you retire,
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: I was like, okay, we are sitting okay.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent and like on average, money doubles every
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: ten years, so that's going to be like six hundred
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: and sixty eighth thousand dollars in another ten years as
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: it compounds. But he's also going to be contributing to it.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: So like we need to get yours up and that
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: is okay. I feel like you're already across that. I
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: don't need to tell you. But at the end of
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: the day, like that would help me breathe a sigh
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: of relief to be like we're going through all of this,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: like you know, even when talking about emergency funds, knowing
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: that that's emergency funds for now and that the future
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: me is looked after.
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it is pretty cool. Super is amazing. And
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: to be honest, my super was at about ten thousand
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: dollars I'm going to say eighteen months ago.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: Would that make sense if you weren't working and things were,
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: you know, plodding along like I really like that. That
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: makes me feel very secure for you.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: Yes, And then other investments. We do have shares through Superhero,
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: so that for us is about thirteen thousand dollars. Oh,
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: how good's that. Yeah, we did have to make a
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: sacrifice when we bought the house and we sold about
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: thirty three thousand dollars worth of shares. We did hold
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: them for seven years and they had increased quite a lot,
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: So it was a sacrifice and one that I wasn't
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: one hundred percent on. But in saying that, we got
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: into the property market. So we're very happy.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: I know you're saying it's a sacrifice, but a lot
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: of us do invest to then be able to take
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: it out as a home deposit and be a little
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: bit ahead. It's not the worst thing in the entire world.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: I think in our heads, you know, in an ideal world,
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: we would have had enough of the deposit to make
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: it work.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: So it was just getting across like the mindset of
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: that's okay, we need to change the goalposts and make
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: that sacrifice to make things work for our family one
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: hundred percent.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that was okay.
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: And we do invest for our children. Do you actually
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: how good's that? How do you do that? Yes, well,
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: we do not do it in the most accurate way. However,
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: at the age of seven, we put away ten thousand
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: dollars for each of our children.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: So my daughter has just turned seven. So we have
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: three children now who we have separate investments for. So
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: for my husband, he invests for my oldest and he
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: puts them in one share. For example, he's twelve and
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: he has twenty four thousand dollars invested.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, in I managed portfolio, and also a bit
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: in a couple of other indidividual shares as well, and
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: he gets six monthly dividends. Our second child has fifteen
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars and he's nine.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, these kids have more investments than most
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: people in our community. What is going on?
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't know how this is going to work
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: as they become of age to utilize them.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: You know what, that is a problem that we can
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: look into in the future because if the cash is there,
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: I promise the answers will come.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: We will figure it out. Yeah, it's not the best way,
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: but at the time we didn't have the resources to
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: know what was the best way. So this was the
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: least confusing way for us to do things.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I love it.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: And then our third she has just turned seven, so
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: hers is sticking away nicely and she gets monthly dividends.
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: How good. And then my husband also adds one thousand
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: dollars each birthday as well. Yeah, that will tick away
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: nicely for them to have a little cash fund when
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: they want to do something amazing with it. And they're
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: so privileged, these children, so lucky.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Like, I am actually in shock because this is
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: not how I thought that you were going to answer
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: the investing question, because obviously you guys have had a
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: rollercoaster of a journey having gone through so much, had
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: so many financial burdens to deal with. To then hear
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: that you're also still prioritizing investing for your kids, I'm
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: just like, how are you managing this? Like especially because
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: you were on one income, Like you guys must be
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: budgeting wizards to go, all right, well, this is how
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: this is going to work. And at the start you said, yeah,
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: my husband manages it through a spreadsheet.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: What is it?
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: A spaceship spreadsheet? Like you get on there and it's
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: a full dashboard where he's taking over the world. Like,
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: I am impressed, because I genuinely like people in similar
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: situations that I have spoken to before are like no savings,
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: no investments, maybe another ten years before we're able to
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: purchase property. And that is just impressive.
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: I give a lot of credit to my husband in
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: that because I would be lost without him. I am
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: up to date on all of your podcasts, I listen
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: to other things, and I'm very educated myself. I just
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: don't have the time and the energy to physically put
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: it into action.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: That is so fine, because all I care about is
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: that you know. Doesn't mean you have to do it.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: I just need you to know so that if anything
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: ever happens, you're like, no, I know where our money is,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: I know what's going on, I know where our mortgage is,
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: I know how to pay off things. Like I just
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: don't want people to be without the help that they deserve.
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: That's right, Yeah, amazing. We also have an investment property.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: What So we have an investment property where my husband
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: got his first permanent job, which we bought while we
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: lived there for nine months, and that is rented for
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: four hundred and fifty dollars a week and it is
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: negatively geared at the moment, and he uses the tax
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: benefits to offset his taxable income. So at the moment,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: that works for us. If finances get super tough with
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: this new property and just our financial process throughout next year,
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: we might have to rethink the investment property. But that's
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: a later problem. We don't have to do that right now.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: But that's okay, because like it's sticking along and isn't
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: it cool to have options?
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: I am so proud of you. Like this is actually insane.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: I know I haven't finished all of my questions, but
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: I can already foresee a little argument between you and
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: I at the end about that C plus that you
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: gave yourself at the state House.
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: We'll get there, though. There are some negatives, I promise.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, So tell me about debt. So you've got an
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: investment property, you've just purchased a family home. What type
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: of debt are we carrying?
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: So our investment property has two hundred and forty five
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars owing, and we bought this house in twenty
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: fifteen for three hundred and twenty two thousand under only
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: my husband's name, so I wasn't on any of that
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: for us. And it's now worth five hundred and fifteen
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars. Okay, So that's okay.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: What do you mean that's okay? That's great.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's amazing because the house actually went down
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: almost one hundred grand just after we bought it.
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, regional is scary when you buy. It can be
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: a great investment, it can be a good investment, but
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: like it's really dependent on the market that's quite low coal.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think you know, COVID did not help
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: a lot of things, but maybe it did help a
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: bit in the regional property market. So we're very grateful
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: for that. And we used equity from this house to
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: purchase the new house. So we have one hundred and
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: seven thousand dollars owing on a trunch loan and we
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: bought this house just recently for nine hundred and thirty
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars and it has seven hundred and eighty two
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: thousand dollars.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: Owing, hey, that's pretty good.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: So I think the combined is over one point one meal,
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: but that's okay. We're paying it off thirty year loans.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: I feel like in this day and age, like in Melbourne,
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: the average property price is a million dollars, so like
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: you're not doing too badly. But it does get kind
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: of scary, doesn't it, Like when you look at it
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: and you're like, that's a seven figure number that I
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: owe somebody like that can be really scary. But in
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: the grand scheme of things, it sound like you have
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: a really good budget system. It sounds like you understand
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: cash flow and what that looks like and how it
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: all works. Like I think you're going to be just fine, my.
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: Friend, hopefully, hopefully. And then our only other debt is
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: my hex stet. So as I said, I hadn't paid
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: a lot off of it because I haven't earned much
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: over the last a long time.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: But that's my favorite thing about HEX, Right, you only
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: paid off your your owning enough.
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, So that is a beautiful thing. So
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: my hex state is thirty thousand dollars, So that's okay,
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: that'll stick along. That will, you know, come down slowly,
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: and we're okay with that. I guess we did have
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: the option to pay that off before the indexation hit
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: last year and before we bought our property.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can also see from your financials because as
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: you probably know, I own a mortgage breaking company. Looking
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: at it, I don't think paying off that thirty thousand
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: dollars worth of hex stet would have impacted your borrowing
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: capacity enough to make it worth it.
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: That's right, and that's what we went through. So yeah,
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: that is all our debt. You haven't had a credit
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: card in a very long time. We did to go
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: on to overseas holiday in twenty sixteen, and it was
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: not a good idea.
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: No, because you come back from this beautiful holiday, now
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: you've got to pay for it and you've got nothing
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: to show.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, we thought it was a great idea at
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: the time, and then no, it did just backfire. And
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: you know, we were smart about it and we got
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: out of it pretty quickly. But it was a bit
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: scary too. Like I can see how people get into
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: a bad spot with credit card debt.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. No one gets a credit card
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: with the intention of going into debt they can't handle, right,
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: And that would have been your experience. You got the
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: credit card, sounded sunshine and roses, and then all of
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: a sudden it wasn't working as well, and you're like, oh,
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: what have we done?
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Exactly exactly.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: So it sounds like you've got probably some very good
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: money habits. What do you reckon is your best money habit?
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: I think my best money habit is having a husband
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: who is very hands on with things. But for both
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: of us, for our family, we are very good at
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: paying ourselves first. So we always pay into our twenty
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: twenty nine holiday account, and we always put two hundred
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: and twenty five dollars into our investment portfolio every fortnight,
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: and one hundred and fifty dollars into my super.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: I love that because otherwise it just disappears.
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I know myself, I would prioritize other things
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: because I'm a bit more impulsive and I have maybe
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: different material priorities, especially now that we've put a house
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: and we want to make it out home.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Yeah, furnishing all of that stuff totally
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: get it.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: So yeah, we always do that, which is really really
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: important to us and our financial future with the kids.
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: And we also have a camper trailer, so we go
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: on lots of camping holidays throughout the year, and whenever
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: we are on one camping holiday, we always book for
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: the next one. Oh, I love that.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: So you've always got something to look forward to.
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, And we kind of know that this family
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: time is really really precious on a we don't know
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: what the health future looks for our daughter, so we're
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: trying to cram as much family tim in as possible
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: while also paying the bills and making a life for ourselves.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: So I feel like you're killing it. I feel like
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: you are doing such a good job. But I need
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: to know worst money habit? Have you even got one
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: at this stage?
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: Our worst money habit is definitely the It's not the
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: budgeting side of things. We are good at budgeting. It's
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: the leaking money. Even though the budget is there, we
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: are always overspending. It's mostly like incidental things like we
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: go to swim club on a Friday night, we have
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: to purchase dinner, and while that's not super expensive, it
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: might be thirty dollars.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: But it wasn't in the plan. You had a meal
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: plan organized.
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, or school supplies at the end of the year
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: for the next year. We have to buy four of
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: them as of next year, and that adds up so much.
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: So it's that stuff that's not in the budget, and
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: it's not in the budget because our income doesn't cover it.
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: So we try to make up for it. So we'll
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: pull when those expenses come up. We will pull money
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: from our bills to pay for those things, but then
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: we'll have to pay ourselves back somewhere along the lines,
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: and we're not necessarily sure where that's coming from and
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: when it's coming So that is definitely our worst leaking
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: money for the incidentals and just not knowing where that
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: extra money is coming from. So I definitely think we
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: can improve on our cash flow and knowing exactly what
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: we spend, when we spend it, and how much those
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: things are going to be.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: And that's hard, right because you're like, well, I don't
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: know what school books are going to be, but I
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: don't know what this looks like. And that's I guess
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: why budgeting can be so fickle and you have to
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: revisit it a number of times.
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, and just things creep up, like even gifts
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: and Christmas. We know Christmas is expensive, but somehow we
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: just don't budget for it. So yeah, that is definitely
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: a money flaw for us, even though things look pretty peachy.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: But it is still stress And I think that that's
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: a really good lesson for everybody, Like, if you just
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: don't budget for something, it can be stressful, irrespective of
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: how good you are at investing or saving or buying property. Like,
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: money has to come from somewhere, and it is stressful
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: shuffling it around. Oh, money, direst I have a bone
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: to pick with you. I do apologize, but you did say, oh,
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: I think we're a c plus you have been through
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: the ringer like you have had. I mean, I'm so
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: grateful that you have a beautiful family and that your
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: daughter is happy and healthy and cancer free and smiling
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: and thriving, but you have been through a shit storm
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: that would have financially ruined so many people. But then
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: when we started to learn more about you, you're like, yeah,
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: we actually have an investment property. Yet we've purchased our
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: own property. My husband's super always prioritized it. We're actually
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: paying off you know, some more to my super Yeah,
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: we actually do invest, yeah, consistently. We actually invest for
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: our kids too, Like we're across this like the I
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: have my stuff together and you think you're a C plus,
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: please straight in the bin like money direst.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think our budget and cash flow is where
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: we really sink down, and we want to be able
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: to contribute more to investing in things. The other problem
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: with us is that we don't have the potential to
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: increase our income as such doing the things that we're
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: doing because they are government jobs. So we're trying to
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: figure out how we can get there. So, yes, I
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: agree that we will probably be a bit more than
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: a C plus, but I wouldn't be willing to go
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: any further than a B.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: And I think that's fine because we all feel like
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: we've got stuff to improve on, and you can absolutely
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: improve what you think is fair. But I think we're
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: also harsh on ourselves, especially as women. We're like, no,
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: we're not doing enough, we're not doing well. You are
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: killing it, Like you're a good mum, you're a good
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: money maker. Like the fact that you earned sixty grand
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: last year be for real?
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It really does mean a
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: lot to hear other people say that, because we're not
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: huge talkers about money outside of our family network. We
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: talk about it a lot here, but yeah, it is
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: really really humbling, I guess to hear somebody else say that,
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: so thank you.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, I love it. I'm so proud that you're part
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: of our community. I'm just I'm so glad, irrespective of
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: all the financial things, to hear that your daughter is
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: happy at the moment and that things are going well.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: And I know it's shitty, but even that new found
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: appreciation of family time and you guys embracing that, Like
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: I think that's just so special, Like it's crap, but
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, like I'm just glad
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: that they have a mum and dad who are absolutely
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: obsessed with them and that is literally all any kid
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: can ask for. So moneyed arrest, it has been an
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: absolute pleasure. I am very sad that we don't have
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: any more time, but I have loved this story and
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: I know our community is going to be obsessed with
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: this story as much as I am. So thank you
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: so much for being so open and generous with it,
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: because I'm sure it wasn't easy to share.
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: No, thank you. Yeah, it was really tough in the
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: beginning here and you hear read back the money story
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: that I sent in. Oh, but now talking through it, yeah,
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: I think we will be okay. And your words mean
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: a lot.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: You're doing so well. I'm just I'm so in awe, like,
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: I'm just so impressed. And I hope that at some
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: point we get to cross paths in person. That'll be
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: really special.
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: That would be amazing.
• 54:24
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• 54:27
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• 54:31
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• 54:34
  Speaker 2: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
• 54:38
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