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We Left Australia for a Startup Dream in San Fransico · She's On The Money

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: My name's Sanatasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yor the
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before we
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: and lasting impactful tomorrow.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Let's get into it.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money the podcast
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: let's you be pervy about other people's money habits for
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: educational purposes of course. Welcome back to another one of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: our money daries where I get the absolute privilege of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: sitting down and talking to one of our incredible She's
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: on the Money community members all about their journey. I
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: got an email this week and it sounded exactly like this, Hi,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: She's on the Money. At thirty six, things were pretty settled,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: married toddler at home, another baby on the way and
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: a mortgage in Melbourne. But in January we made a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: huge call. We packed up our life and moved to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the US for my husband's job at a startup. I
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: left behind my career and income to become a full
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: time mum and we now get the fun part of
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: paying tax in two countries. It's a big gamble. If
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the startup takes off, we could be looking at paying
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: off our house and setting ourselves up for life right now,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: though we're in that messy middle part, hoping that the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: risk really does pay off. Money Doris, this is so
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: exciting to talk to you. I have so many questions.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. Thank you, thank you, and thanks
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: for doing this across the world. I mean it is
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: what it's one pm for me and I think eight pm.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: For you, eight pm last night, eightpm.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Like she's living in the past. She's living in the past.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we are a little bit in the past here.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I love that. All right, let's get into it. As always,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I ask every single money diarist the same question to
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: start the show, Money Dorist. If I asked you to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: give your money habits a grade from A three to F,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: what grade would you give them?
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Probably a B or B minus. Okay, we went too
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: bad and then yeah, we've made this big gamble, which
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know could be a good money habit could not.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that you're bad at money. That doesn't
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: mean that at all. But I need to know more.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Can you tell me a little bit more about your
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: money story.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So my husband and I have very different money stories,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: which has been interesting at times. So I grew up
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: in what I consider like quite a well off family.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: We didn't really want for anything. When I was kind
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: of in grade five, though, we made this big call
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: and the whole family moved to ironically enough, America for
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: three years while my dad did his masters. Yeah, it's
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: a little bit of history repeating itself. And so we
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: went from being in a very good position to having
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: really no money. He didn't earn anything, my mom didn't
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: earn anything, and that was a really big shock for
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: all of us, but I think a really good lesson.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: And then when we came back, things are a little
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: bit tough at the start, and my parents were very
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: good at age appropriate information about you know, we can't
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: just go and get this because we're a little tight
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: at the moment, because we've had to put some money here,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: but he's that paid off for them as well. And
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: then things got much better again and we went back
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: to that kind of more well off lifestyle, which has
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: been good that we got that little bit in the
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: middle where I was like, oh, money doesn't just come
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: really easily. It can be there and then it can go,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: and sometimes you've got to make a sacrifice to get
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: a head in life.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: It's actually such a good lesson, especially at that age.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Like it might not have felt super comfortable, but like
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: in retrospect, I'm assuming you're like, hold on, that was
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: actually a really valuable lesson.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it was not comfortable at all, but no,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: it was a really good lesson because I think otherwise
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: I could have definitely gone down a path of like privileged,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: where I didn't really realize how hard do you have
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: to work with things. Whereas my husband's from the exact
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: other side, where he grew up with not quite as
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: well off a family and he's had to work very
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: hard for what he's got. So I think we kind
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: of mesh quite well because I've had that experience, So.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Tell me a bit more, like I'm just so pervy,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: and thankfully this is anonymous, So I get to be's start, right,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So your husband not growing up in such a well
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: off family. It does, I won't say surprise me, but
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it just doesn't seem as on brand to then be
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: making really big, risky decisions like moving to the US,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: because usually if you've had a little bit of, like,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: you know, a financially tumultuous upbringing, you're usually a bit
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: more about the stability. Do you think his money story
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: has changed? Are you like kind of pushing him to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: get out of his comfort zone? Like how does someone
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: who grew up in that situation then be comfortable to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: go Let's go to another country, babe?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, I think. I mean I don't want to.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Take full credit, but you're the ringleader.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. When he was like, oh, I've been asked to
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: move to the States, I was like, let's do it.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's lots of considerations, but my immediate thought
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: was like, we have to do this, Like it's something
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: he's always wanted to do. We have to do it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: He's also very close with my parents, and so he
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: knows that story about us also packing up and going
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: away for a few years and coming back in the
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: payoff that that had so even though it didn't come
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: from his family, he has seen that in family. That
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: makes sense.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very cool. Tell me a little bit more
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: about this move, Like that happened at the start of
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the year for you guys, how quick was the turnaround?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Because you said in January we made the call. But
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: it's now like midyear and you already live there, You're
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: set up, you have kids overseas. Like that just feels
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: like a massive change. Talk me through how you moved
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: to a different country on I would say relatively short notice.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so actually we made the call in so he's
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: worked for his company for a few years and he
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: came back from a work trip in August and was like,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: I've been to move. We took about a month to
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: really well convince him that it was going to happen
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: and work through all of the financials and his salary
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: and all of that, because it was all going to
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: change moving here. And then by the time we could
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: have moved within a month of us making the decision,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: but then it got close to Christmas, so we thought,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: let's let's do Christmas at home. Yeah, let's do Christmas
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: at home. And also just found out I was pregnant
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: because moving overseas was not enough craziness and I didn't
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: really want to move first trimester anyway. And so yeah,
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: we made the call to wait until late January so
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: we could have that time with family, get over the
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: first trimester, and then yeah, start the year fresh.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: So does that mean you're about to have another baby?
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah in July. So I'm one of my thirty three weeks.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Oh. I was like trying to do the maths in
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: my head, and I was like first trimesteric. No one
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: wants to do anything in their first trimester like that
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: is that's a ride off.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: So we moved out of our house six weeks before
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: we left and moved in with my parents. The same
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: week we moved, I was seven weeks pregnant and got gastro.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: No, no, that should be illegal.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: It was just the worst. Like we've moved a few times,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: and that was the worst experience of my life. It
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: was horrendous.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: No thank you, no thing I'd like I remember that
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: for me, and I just really wish I could cut out,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: you know what, not the whole thing. That's fine, but
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: maybe from week five to eleven, like they don't have
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: to exist.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: That's fine, it wasn't great, and gastro on top of
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: it was just the icing on the cake.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: That's rude, because do you know if it's morning sickness
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: or gastro or like a mix of both, or like
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: how do you decipher?
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Well, I rang my obsttrician marks, like I think I've
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: got really bad morning sickness, and she's like, oh, you
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: didn't last time, and also going from nothing to not
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: being able to keep any liquid down in like two hours,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: not morning sickness.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay, So tell me, does that mean that
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: you're going to have a baby in the American healthcare system?
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: It does, and it also means i'll be an American citizen.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Oh that's kind of cool, isn't it? Dual citizenship baby.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: Well, actually we have to apply for the Australian one,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: which is a bit of a process as well as
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: I'm learning, but they'll be automatically yeah Americans.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: When we come back to visit again at Christmas, she
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: probably won't be Australian yet, which is really weird.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, that's actually kind of Oh I find
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: that kind of crazy.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: No, I find that very very strange. Yeah, navigating the
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: US healthcare system. That's been a steep learning curve as well.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: So can I ask you a little bit about that
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: because I'm so per like, it's obviously astronomically more expensive.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Did you go through the private or the public system
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: with your first baby?
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: Private?
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you went through private, which in Australia, you know,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: not absolutely necessary. I did it as well, and I
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: felt like all of the reasons that most people picked
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: private were the reasons I picked it. But did you
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: go private in America? Like, how does their health insurance
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: work over there? Because I'm assuming when your husband moves
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: you got insurance as a part of his job.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we were really lucky. His work paid for our
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: Australian health insurance to start with, which they thought was
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: a great bargain because our health insurance here now for
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: three of us is forty thousand US dollars. Yeah.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Wild, No, that's crazy and there's like different hold on,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: hold on, backtrack. I just had to swallow that information.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: It's costing your husband's company forty thousand dollars a year
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: for three people for health insurance in America? Yes, oh yeah,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: you didn't stut o, Okay, sorry.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, that's correct, and there's different tiers, but
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: we just kind of went with the best one because
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: we don't know anything else, which is expensive for them,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: but it's actually cheaper for us to have her here
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: because of the level of cover that we've got. So
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: it's the way we're doing It is basically the same
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: as the private system in Australia. So I've got my
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: own obstetrician. We're going to what is a very bougie
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: American hospital. We walked in and I was like, oh,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: this is what you see in the movies, Like, oh,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: is it really a gallery or a hospital. Yeah, it's very,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: very different to anywhere I've been before. But it's actually
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: going to be cheaper to have our baby here.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: I love that for you because that could have been
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a significant financial burden, which is why I was asking.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I was like, I have all of these questions, but
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: just the idea, which is.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Why there was a lot of stress when we moved,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: and I kept asking these questions, and so my husband
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: told his boss very early in the piece that I
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: was pregnant because his boss is like, why are you
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: so hung up on health insurance.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Because she's pregnant, babe? Yeah, why do you know what,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Like sometimes you don't want to tell people early, but
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: like that would have taken a weight off everyone's shoulders
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: because they're probably thinking, is he just trying to come
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: up with every excuse under the sun to not move,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Like is this man just like clutching its straws? But
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the reality was that's actually really important for us right now.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because if you don't have good health insurance, like
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: it is very expensive. My husband ended up in an
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: emergency here. He had a skiing accident, and his part
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: of the bill was three hundred and fifty dollars. That's
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: pretty good, but the hospital charged insurance sixty thousand.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: What those numbers for me are just astronomical, Like there's
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: no way that that's what it costs, Like, there's just no.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Way, absolutely not. We've seen just for like little visits,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: like a physio I think charged insurance fifteen hundred dollars
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: to insurance. We pay ten percent of that, So that's.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, but that's also crazy. It's crazy. So you've
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: already made money on the health insurance side of things.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I love that for you. Guys talk to me about
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the cost of moving though, so often when we hear
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: that people are moving overseas for roles, especially to the US,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: they'll often like pay for your flights and accommodation. They'll
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: like pay for your removal US cost. Like what was
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: covered for you guys.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so a lot of that was covered. So our
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: lawyer vis a lawyer was covered for all three of us.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Our flights were covered. We didn't ship that much stuff,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: but shipping was covered. A hotel for I think we're
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: in a hotel for a week that was covered, and
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: a little bit of furniture came out of that allowance
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: as well as well as a very expensive tax consult
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: to figure out the tax situation in both countries.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so talk to me a little bit about that
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: tax situation because you mentioned that you're paying tax in
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: both countries, which from my perspective is a little bit
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: more complex and probably tells me that your husband might
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: be a little bit more intertwined in this startup than
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: just a salary and payg employee. Is that a correct assumption.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Yes and no. So his package is salary plus options,
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: which also gets complicated because it's a startup, so he
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: actually can't sell the options at the moment.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: It's nice to have, but you can mainly just talk
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: about them.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but it also means we don't have to pay
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: tax on them, so that is good. They sit there,
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: We ignore them except for when we get home sick
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: and we fantasize about what happens when they best.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, perfect.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Don't want to get two technical, but there's a treaty
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: between Australia and America, and basically, you.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Pay the top tax rate in either country and you're
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: not going to get double taxed.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: You're not going to get double tax. But the tax
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: rate in America is lower. So we'll pay tax here
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: and then we'll submit our Australian tax return and then
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: we do the top up tax because we're still considered
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Australian tax residents because we own a house in Australia
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: and our visa shows an intent to return to Australia.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: He also pays for private health insurance in Australia that
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: he obviously can't use because we live in a different country.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: But because of the Medicare levy.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Searcharge I was about to say, the Medicare levy did
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: not leave you out, No.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: It did not. So he pays for the cheapest health
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: insurance that he could find one.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Hundred percent, because otherwise it doesn't financially make sense.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: No, for me it was less important, but on his
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: salary it was.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Oh no, it just does not make sense. Because for
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: those of you following along at home, if you earn
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: more than ninety thousand dollars Australian and you don't have
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: private health insurance after the age of thirty, you have
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: to pay the Medicare levy searcharge. And for some people
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: they just go, well, it doesn't matter either way because
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, bang on ninety thousand dollars. But once
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: you start earning more than that, the surcharge is more
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: than private health insurance costs, at which point you'd prefer
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: to just pay private health insurance and essentially save some money,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: which makes sense as to why he's paying it. But
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: that must just be like a little bit annoying.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: A little bit yeah, annoying.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, when you do finally come back home to Australia,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: it means that there won't be any loading for having
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: not had private health insurance for that period of time,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: So like, not the end of the world. I'm trying
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: to reframe it so it looks really nice for you,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: because I'd be annoyed.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: No, it's just one of those, like so many annoying, frustrating,
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: little extra expenses that popped up that we didn't realize,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: even like, you know, coming here, you know we've got
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: a bit of a furniture allowance, but we had to
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: buy more stuff, which we totally expected. But even the
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: first month we were here, there was it takes a
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: while to get an American bank account, so he didn't
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: actually get paid for the first month. So we were
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: paying everything for this first month in Aussie dollars, which
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: is not a good exchange rate. At the moment it
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: was nearly double.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that would have got you. Is it hard
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: the exchange rate? Are you finding that, yes, the exchange
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: rate is challenging, or are you finding it relatively easy?
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Talk to me about that.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Not so much anymore, because we are in USD now
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: and we're paying for everything in USD like we just
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: work in US dollars, but we do still have an
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: austream mortgage. Sometimes we have to send money back there.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: So when it was really low a few weeks ago,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: we transferred a little bit extra, yes, we did, and
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: made a little bit of that we never picked things right,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: but we managed to get it right at the bottom
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: of the exchange rate, so that was really really good
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: for us. But yeah, that's been a bit of a
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: learning curve, not as bad now that. Yeah, we work
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: mostly in US dollars.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was in the US now a couple of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: years ago and I just I found myself even though
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I had transferred money over to my wives card soil
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: was operating you in USD and I was paying things
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: in USD, I was still doing the mental like loopy
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: loop of mats to work out how much my Starbucks
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: coffee was costing. And I was like, oh, this is
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: making me sick. Do you still go this is astronomical?
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Because I do feel like when you look at the
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: cost of living in America, it is much higher than
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in Australia. Are you seeing that or feeling that or
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: what does that look like on a day to day basis?
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: It is, so I don't do that as much as
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: my husband does. I kind of I don't know. A
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: dollar is a dollar for me in my head, which
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: is probably a terrible way to go into it. But
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: there's definitely been things in a more expensive like I
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: mean groceries on a whole are probably more expensive. If
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: something costs five dollars in Australia, it costs five usd here,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: so that would be more expensive. I'm in California. Electricity
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: is outrageously expensive here, so that was a shock.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: We moved in winter. Our apartment hadn't been lived in
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: for a bit. It was cold. We pumped the heaters
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: up and two weeks of electricity costs US six hundred
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: US dollars.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: No, it didn't, Yes it did. Oh I would have cried.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: I was like, we're going to have to go home.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: We can't afford this.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: We can't live this.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: This is We have now rained that into about two
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: hundred and eighty dollars a month, which is huge.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: That's a pretty good difference.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been working hard on it. It's also getting
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: into summer here, so that helps.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. I'm obsessed. I love like knowing the
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: ins and outs of travel and moving and just the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: idea that you were like, oh at thirty six, I
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: did that because I don't know. I feel like I'm
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: thirty nearly thirty four, and I look at it and
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: I go, oh, like I've had a kid. I want
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: to have another kid. Like my husband and I have
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: careers here. I can never imagine moving. And then you're like, oh, no,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: we did that at thirty six. I'm like, oh, so
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: there's still like opportunity to like do these big moves.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the money side of it though. You
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: said that you went from having a job in a
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: career here and you left that behind and now your
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: full time mum. Can I know what were you earning?
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: What if you like kind of hung up so that
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: you can make this big career move for your husband.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: And then we're going to ask about his income.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I was earning one hundred and twenty five
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: thousand Australion dollars.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, pro routed to four days a week yep.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And what kind of career did you have?
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: So? I worked in fundraising and philanthropy.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, very cool. That's a very nice place to be
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and how lovely.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: It was fantastic. I really liked it.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Oh well, I'm sure you'll get back into that because like,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: people who do that are few and far between, Like
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I feel like there's not that many people who are
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: good at that.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: No, but in America is a good country for that,
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: But there is so many things to weigh up with
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: me going back after this baby, including I don't want
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: to work full time, and America does not have a
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: good part time work culture, or really any part time
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: work culture, and childcare here is outrageously expensive.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: And I've heard it's not how do I say this nicely,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: not to the quality that you would expect either, So
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: like then finding a good place might be challenging.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: It depends. Yeah, so some places are not so great,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: some places are really good. And where I am, a
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: lot of people just have nanny's.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, that would be expensive.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so a nanny costs. A nanny for a single
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: child costs sixty thousand US dollars a year. And if
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: you do a nanny share so they look after two children,
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: I think it's about thirty five forty per person, which
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's insane, but it's also like it's their income,
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: like you were paying someone's whole rage but yeah.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent. But like there's no government subsidies there.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: No, So we've but a financially probably irresponsible decision. Our
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: daughter goes to daycare one day a week, even though
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: I'm a stay at home, mum, and it's one hundred
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: and seventy five US dollars a.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Day, Oh my goodness, And like, well, we could compare
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: it to Australia too. And I'm about to ask about
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: your husband's income because obviously I'm expecting it to be
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: good enough that you left the country, right, But the daycare,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: if your husband earned that in Australia, I'm assuming you
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have got subsidies anyway. And like at the moment,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I think my daycare is now two hundred and fourteen
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Australian a day, and like I'm not complaining about that
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: because you know, there's a lot that goes into that,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: and I mean, you know, lots of people will be like, oh,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: that's ridiculous, I pay like one hundred and ten or whatever.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: But like, my day care fees are very reflective of
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the area that we live in. Again privileged to live there.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: But then it also includes things like all of his meals,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: all of his nappies, all of his like formula, which
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: lots of places don't include and you have to. So
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: there's like good and bad. But like once you reach
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: a certain income level, even in Australia, you get no subsidies,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: but I believe there's nothing at a bear minimum in
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: America at all?
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: Is there?
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: So? I mean I sharing where I am. I'm in
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: San Francisco, so it's a very kind of liberal city,
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: and if you are a very low income earner, then
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: there are some subsidies from the city, which is I
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: bely rare and not that common in other places in
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: the States. But we absolutely do not qualify for that.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: I did try the little calculator just in case, Like
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: it cost me nothing to open a website.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: No, I can have a little look.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: You were looking at the answer I expected.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: It's called wishful think you exactly talk to me. Now,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: what does your husband earn and what does he do
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: for work?
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: And we're in San Francisco. He works in tech. He's
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: head of AI for his company.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, that sounds spoogey.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very cool and a little creepy. And he
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: earns two hundred and fifty five USD which I believe
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: is I checked earlier on the conversion it was about
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: three hundred and ninety six thousand Australian dollars, which is
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: not what he was earning in Australia. But you got
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: to pay rise to move here. His boss saw our
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: budget spreadsheet.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I love that and was like, you're going to need
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: a little bit more money.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well my husband was like, we're going to need
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: a little bit more money. Here's why.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And also like, I mean you've stepped back from earning
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars so that he
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: can take this step up. You mentioned before that his
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: job is like salary plus options. What does options mean?
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so he has a share component to his compensation.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: He was a very very early employee with this company,
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: so he's got a very good option package. But it's
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: a startup so at the moment, we can't actually access
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: those options or sell them.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Of course not, but it's nice to know that's why
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: it's going on.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: That's what we're working towards. That we're working towards some
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: kind of event where we will then be able to.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Cash that in. Yeah, absolutely, one hundred percent. Like we're
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: thinking early Apple employee, Like I'm manifesting the same journey
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: for you guys.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think he was employee number like nine or ten.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Oh that's cool.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So all the early kind of no one who
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: joins the company gets quie as good package anymore, because
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: that was kind of the extra compensation for he joined
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: it before they were even earning any money, so you know,
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: you could lose your job tomorrow. He's some like added
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: bonus if we actually do well.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: That's crazy And can I be real pervy? What did
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: your husband do in Australia Because to go from you know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: working in Australia to working for a US startup as
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the head of AI, like, I feel like that's just
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: not that much of a traditional pathway. Like what did
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: he study to get this opportunity?
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: So way back when it is bachelor, he did finance.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Very sexy, nice guy.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's very sexy, and then worked for government and
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: then decided that he didn't love that and he went
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: and did a master's in business analytics. It's not an MBA,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: but like an MBUSA, and then he got some jobs
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: working in Australian startups and kind of data science, and
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: then literally came on a trip to the States and
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: he was like San Francisco's where it's at. I need
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: to work for a US company And he found this
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: job and he worked remote, started in data and then
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: it's kind of worked his way as the company has
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: grown into AI and as AI has grown.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: That is very cool. I'm so like, I've just got
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's because my husband has a very similar role
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: in Australia, Like he's head of in a particular company
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: like data and analytics, and his background is econometrics, so
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: like he's also super nerdy.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: They would get on very well.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Yes they would. And I'm vibing that you and I
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: would get on very well. And I'm like, well, we
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: probably have very similar tasting men. I'm like, oh, so
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: maybe we could move to San France, Steven.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: It's so funny. So I found a mum's group here
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: and everyone not that many people who live in San
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Francisco are from San Francisco. Everyone's moved here, and it
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: was like one of our first meetings. We all kind
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: of went around and said, like who we are and
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: what we do, and like why we moved here, And
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: if they weren't in tech, their partner was in tech,
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: except for one couple who were both lawyers, but one
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: works for Google. Talk to me about.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Big money goals. You've obviously made some pretty big I
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: guess money moves and literal moves. What is your big
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: financial plan. What are we currently working towards?
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Paying off for Australian mortgage would be amazing. So we
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: own a house in Australia. We currently rent that out.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: The rent doesn't cover the mortgage, but it wasn't like
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: we really liked the house and it financially didn't make
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: sense to sell it. So paying that off and we
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: would love for an exit event so that we can
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: sell our options. That would be amazing. And I say
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: our options because in the States, your partner has to
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: sign the Contracts and Options Form two.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: So ha ha, my name's on it.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: I moved to the other side of the world. They
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: also my options.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I feel like your name deserves to be
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: on it. At this point. You gave up one hundred
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: and twenty five thousand dollars a year to move for
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: somebody else's career. And while we would do it for
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: our partner right now, you never know what the future holds.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. We need to also secure our own back.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Like sorry, that's the rules. Like we are in this together.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: We are very much in this together.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: I love that.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: So we want an exit event. We want to pay
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: off our mortgage. What else do we want to do.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: I mean really, we want to get to the point
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: where he can then start up his own thing, which
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: is what he really wants to do. So we're all
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: working towards him being able to. You know, he's hooked
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: on the startup thing now, he's a typical startup San
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Francisco junkie. I mean, he'd love to do it in Melbourne,
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: back with family and friends. Our goal is to get
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: back there.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: It just doesn't have the legs. It just doesn't have
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the same ability to scale or scope.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: He would because like now he's here making the connections
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: that he needs to make, it will be easier back there.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: I won't need the funds.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: To do it ote hundred percent, like and that stuff
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: is expensive.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: It is. It is even just enough for him to
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: like pay even if I, like we move back and
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: I get a job that pays the same that again
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: doesn't cover our mortgage, so enough for him to have
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: there that we can just pay off our mortgage and
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: living expenses while he can do his own thing. That's
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: kind of what we're working towards.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Well, fingers crossed, let's go to a really quick break
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: because on the flip side, I've got a lot more
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: questions like, I just have more perviey questions, So guys
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: stick around, all right, money dice, So we are back.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: You mentioned that you've got options, which are essentially shares
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: in the organization or the business that your husband works for,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: which is very cool. Are you investing in any other way?
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Like what does that look like?
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: Yes? Not as much as we were. So we've got
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: a Nabtude account with I think it's about nine thousand
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: dollars in it, and that's on a dividend reinvestment plan,
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: so that just keeps ticking over every quarter, and that
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: is specifically set aside for our kids so when they
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: the youngest one turns eighteen, they can split it and
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: they can whatever is in there is their's to help them.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: And I've got I think it's four thousand dollars in
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: a superhero account that we used to put about two
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: hundred dollars a month in, but we're not at the moment. Oh,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: and I've got some Telstra shares I've had since I
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: was like ten.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, how do you end up with Telstra shares at ten?
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: I think it was ten maybe whenever they first came out.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: My parents got me some. Oh that's cool, and I've
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: just again, I set them up as like a given
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: any reinvestment thing a few years ago, and they just
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: sit there ticking away. I could not tell you what
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: they're worth, but yeah, I've had them for a long
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: long time.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Literally since you were ten. That's actually very cool. I
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: mean that means that you beat Warren Buffett in terms
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: of early investing. He started at eleven and you started
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: at ten, so he can really just sit down and retire.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's probably doing a bit better at it than
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: I am.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: But yes, yeah, I mean true, but he's ninety four.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: You've got heaps of time, baby, you got heaps of
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: time exactly.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And I was probably not as smart at him
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: as the start. Like I think it was like a
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: seventy dollars diven and I got every so often. I
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: just you know, thirteen year old me thought that was
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: so cool and I was so rich.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: That is so cool.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: In hindsight, I'm like, I wish i'd invested all of.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: That back, But you know what hindsight is twenty twenty,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: talk to me about what you're doing about your superannuations.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Well, you're away nothing.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: Why because we can't afford to.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so fair. I mean, you've got a baby
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: on the way, and while you do have a high income,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: it sounds like you have a high living cost at
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the moment as well, and a mortgage and all of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: that other stuff. Have you at least set it to
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the right profile and like checked in with them to
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: make sure that it's ticking along the way that it
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: needs to.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, we still check it quite regularly. Mine is
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: I think I'm at like ninety thousand dollars, which is
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: pretty good, and my husband's at oh, I think two.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Hundred, very cool.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we can afford to sit back for a
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: few years with.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: That, which is yeah easy. But you did think about
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: it like we might not be contributing, But we just
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: dotted all our eyes and crossed all our teas before
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that happened.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no, that was one of the many things
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: that we had to cross off our list before we left.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Now, talk to me about debt. You
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: mentioned that you have a mortgage here in Australia. When
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: did you purchase your first home?
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: So it's actually our second, So we purchased our first.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, big dog.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, little humble brag there.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: No.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: We purchased our first in March twenty twenty in Sydney.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: It was an apartment. Our mortgage closed the day I
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: lost my job from COVID and my husband lost all
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: week later.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I would have just cried the whole week.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I still drank the sham.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I would have too, Honestly, you've got to take whatever
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: win you can.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: I was like, we just got to drown this. Yes,
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: so that was not ideal, but that was our first home.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: And then that whole building sold to a developer for
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: quite a good profit, which helped us get into the
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: home we're in now. I will be completely transparent that
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: my parents paid the twenty percent deposit for that as
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: well and then helped us out very much great as well.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: So talk to me like that's brilliant, But I actually
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: care more about the developer story. How does that happen?
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: So you closed on your first home, that's really exciting.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: You bought an apartment and then what a developer knocks
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: on the door and says, we want to buy this
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: whole building and we're going to give you over market
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: for your apartment or like, how does that work?
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: That's exactly what happened. They said, we want to buy
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: this building, we want to develop it. It goes through strata.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: I think they needed a seventy five percent approval like
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: resident approval to do it. It was something like ninety percent.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: I think two apartments said they didn't want to do it,
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: but they got forced too. Oh yeah, and then they
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: paid us above market rate for it.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a good money win.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: It was an amazing, amazing money when that was unexpected.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: And then you're coming to purchase your second property and
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming some of the profits from that, and then
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: obviously your parents helped out, which is really cool. But
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: was that a family home? Was that another apartment?
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Well, what did we buy a second time around?
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Now? So that was a family home? So it's a
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: three bedroom townhouse in like inner Melbourne.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, very cool? And what did you purchase that four ish?
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: That was in twenty twenty two and that was for
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: one point three two five million?
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Very cool? And what do you reckon that's worth now?
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Because I feel like the Melbourne market has slightly increased,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: So one point three are we looking at like one
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: point six?
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: Maybe it's probably about the same to be honest, you reckon,
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: I reckon. It's probably about that because it dropped a bit,
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: and then it's now the interest rates are going down,
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: it might go up. I feel like it's yeah, I
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: don't know.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Well, I've got my fingers crossed for you.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, maur is always better.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, I feel like the things. And this is coming
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: from a relatively educated perspective for those of you playing
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: along at home who might not know. I own a
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: mortgage broken company, so I talk about mortgages literally every
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: single day. I feel like a three bedroom townhouse in
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Melbourne has been quite popular. Like the three bedrooms not two,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: it's three would push you up a little bit more.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: And as you probably know, when you purchased that for
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: what one point three to two, you were probably paying
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: more than you wanted to. But it was because it
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: had three bedrooms.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: Right, yes, but also less because we were living in
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Sydney at the time and property in Melbourne was way
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: cheaper than property in Sydney.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so you've like reframed it to be very sexy.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: We thought we're getting a great bargain. Meanwhile, all my
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: friends in Melbourne are like, you did what?
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: They what?
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: No?
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: That's a good deal.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: I like it, but compared to Sydney way cheaper.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: I love that for you. She's positive. So what's the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: long term plan? Like we obviously you said before, I'd
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: love to pay off, you know, our entire Melbourne mortgage.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: We want to have an exit. We'd love to essentially
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: get rich. But is the plan like the dream plan
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: to come home your husband gets to start off his
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: own startup in Melbourne, Like what does life hopefully look
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: like in the future.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: That is a dream plan. Currently it's just survive because, yeah,
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: his income sounds high. But we also haven't touched on
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: the rent that we pay in San Francisco.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Oh could you tell us more about that please.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: The third most expensive city in the world to live in. Gross, Yeah,
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: it is. Our rent is about four eight hundred USD
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: a month, which is about seven and a half thousand
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: Australian dollars for a two bedroom apartment.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: I was about to say what does that get you?
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: And you said a two bedroom apartment. I was like,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: wish I didn't ask yep, so is that normal? Have
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: you got like a really boogie apartment? Like, have you
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: got like a butler?
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: What's going on? With like that amount of money that is.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: Normal, that is actually probably on the lower end. Right,
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: it's a nice apartment. It's not a super boogie apartment,
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: but it is also not a really crappy apartment.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so talk to me about general living costs because
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: I think I'm a little bit shook about four and
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: a half thousand USDA for rent per month. Like, what's
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: groceries costing? What's like your average bills? Like, what does
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: all of that look like?
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: Groceries are about two hundred dollars a week. We eat
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: out Friday nights and maybe a couple of lunches on
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: the weekend, but that's probably another one hundred and fifty
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: dollars a week. Yeah. I mentioned electricity that's gotten cheaper.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: We don't own a car here, so that is helpful.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: Public transport here is also cheaper, which is really nice
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: and free for under nineteen.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Oh that's kind of cool. Yeah, yeah, very cool. Daycare
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: was one hundred and seventy five dollars a day.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: Don't think of other expenses. I told it does a
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: couple of classes as well, so they're I think twenty
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: something dollars a class. But the city also does lots
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: of free kids activities here, which is fantastic. So we've
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: got some kind of regular freebies that we do as well.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is very cool. I feel like it all
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: adds up. Talk to me about when eating out, what's
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: tipping culture like, because I feel like that just gives
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: me anxiety.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Oh I hate tipping culture. I am the worst. I
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: am giving all the Australians a bad reputation. I am
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: so sorry. But no, I don't tip my hairdresser, even
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: though you apparently tip your hair dresser here. Tipping culture
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: is huge and I am terrible at it.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: See, I just I get it for restaurants and stuff
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: like that because we know that they get really bad
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: minimum wages or whatever. But then it's like a hairdresser,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: what do you mean, like are you on a bad
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I just don't comprehend it.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: I'm still paying you three hundred dollars to do my hair, like.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: And that's three hundred USD like that's yes, yes, it
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: is five hundred and fifty Australian.
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: Oh let's add that expensive. Yeah there's the hair every
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: like eight weeks that I pay And no, so I
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: think some of the chipping I get, like the uberik drivers. Absolutely,
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: that is mostly how they earn their money tip them.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: But I feel like it's gotten even since, like I
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: lived here when I was younger, it's gotten way more
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: excit and higher amounts. Now you buy a coffee and
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: it's like, would you like to tip twenty five percent
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: of your seven dollar coffee? Well? No, not really?
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Actually yeah, I feel like I don't know. I just
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I would say that I'm good at money, and that
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: just still makes me uncomfortable. I feel like, if anything,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: when I was in the US a while ago, I
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: was over tipping because I didn't know exactly what to do,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: and I just I'm such a people pleaser. I didn't
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: want to offend anybody. And then I'm like, oh what
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: am I doing? But if I lived there, that's not sustainable.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: You can't do that.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: No, I undertip because otherwise everything is like twenty five
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: percent more expensive and it's already more expensive.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Wild Oh my goodness, I have loved this. Talk to me,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: what do you think your best money habit is?
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: We work quite good at saving, and I know if
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: we're so good at saving at the moment.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's a bit challenging at the moment
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: it's a little.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: Bit challenging at the moment, but we are very good,
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: I would say, at kind of choosing where we want
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: to buy things that are a bit more expensive and
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: where we find ways to save money or buy things
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: that are maybe on the cheaper end.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, smart, smart, What do you think your worst money
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: habit is? And I'm super interested in this because at
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the start you said, oh, I think I'm a B
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: or a B minus and that's gone down. Like, I
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: just feel like you've got a reason for thinking your
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: money grade has gone down, and I need to know.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: Oh Amazon, it's so easy here. You just like think
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: of something and then like suddenly it appears in your Amazon.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Order because it's like same day, isn't it.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like, oh, that pair of shoes is cute.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: Oh it's arrived at two o'clock in the afternoon. And
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: I'm getting better at it. My husband is terrible, Like
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: we go over our budget every month and and he
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: gets to it and he's like, oh, we spent how
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: much on Amazon? And I'm like, yeah, because you were like, oh,
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: just do it, just at it. He's even got the
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: Amazon like credit card. He's like, oh, we got five
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: percent back on everything and points.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: And oh my goodness, he's got got by the Amazon bug.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I order stuff on Amazon in Australia and I think
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: that's bad, but like in the UAY, i'd be unstoppable.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: We did an Australia too, and it is just the
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: whole like next level here. Also, there's not a lot
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: of like shops. All of the shops are closing. In
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: San Francisco itself is doing a big push to like
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: bring retail back to the city because we got decimated
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: in COVID. But all across in America, like you know,
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: I'm pregnant, I'm having another baby. There are no baby stores.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: You can't go look at baby things. There's a couple
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: of like small, super bougie ones and they're really expensive
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: areas where I was like, I just need to look
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: at cots. We're going to go, But.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Then you're like, I wish we never came.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's nothing. You know, my daughter grew out of
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: her pants all of a sudden, almost like overnight, and
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: there's a H and M in the city I could
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: get to, but that's the only place to really buy
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: kids clothes really, other than like online or if you
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: track like way out to the suburbs, which we have
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: a car. Are we not going to go an hour
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: on a bus to get to Walmart?
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Crazy?
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: I miss clothes shopping in person?
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I would miss that as well.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: So you reckon, that's your worst one habit and that's
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: why your money score has gone down. I feel like
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: you guys are killing it though, Like do you have
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: picked up your entire life at like thirty six and
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: been like, Nah, we're going to give it a crack.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: We're going to go international, especially with kids, Like, girl,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: you're giving me anxiety, Like I don't even want to
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: leave the house with my toddler sometimes, Like that's not me.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: It sounds very attractive.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: The flight was the easy part, I think because I'd
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: done it before. Like we were older, Like I was
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: ten when I moved. My youngest sibling was six, So
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: we were older when we moved. But like we've done it,
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: we've seen that it was it was feasible. Yeah, yeah,
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: it was feasible. And like she's young, she misses like
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: my parents terribly, but she sees every day on FaceTime
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: and she's living her best little life.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: I love that for her. She's just a little San
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Francisco baby, and she's going to have a San Francisco
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: sibling soon, an American sibling at that she will.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: We took her on a cable car for the first
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: time on the weekend because she loves like trains and trams.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: I think it was the best day of her entire life.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: I love that for her.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: Like she's a tray kid. She was waving at everyone
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: passing by like she was just the queen. She was
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: the queen she was, and every time it stopped, she'd
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: like clap like yay. It was just the best.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I love kids so much, it's ridiculous. I'm so excited
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: for you. Has she started to adopt an American accent yet?
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: No, not yet. She still has a very Australian accent.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: Especially there's this thing over here about the way we
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: say the word no, no, yeah exactly, that's exactly how
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: she says it. So no, she hasn't yet, but we
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: play a lot of wiggles to keep that accent going.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah good, I like that.
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure she'll get one.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Oh no, and little America that's coming soon. I definitely
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: think like they're just going to copy the American accent.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: To begin with, she.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: Will, Yeah, she'll just come out with it straight away.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So now that we've had a chat,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I feel like you said to your BEE or a
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: B minus. I don't know. I feel like you're doing
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: really well, especially for like the risk that you're taking
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: in the hope that it will pay off. And I
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: have no doubt that even if it's like not the
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: options that you thought it would be, like, it's a
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: I guess life changing experience that is arguably going to
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: pay off for the rest of your careers. Do you
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: really think like you're a B or a B minus
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: or like what would it take to get you guys
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: to an A? At this point.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: I think it's just because it's so I feel like
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: we're in such a precarious position with like we are
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: kind of just covering expenses. You know, we have a
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: huge mortgage, we have a huge rent. There is a
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: tax bill coming at some point. I feel like, yeah,
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: if we knew that was all going to be fully okay,
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: then yeah, probably like an A. But it's just that
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: unknown is really.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the unknown is very challenging.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it just eats away at you a little bit
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: and you're like, oh, have we made the right choice.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I feel like even if financially you haven't made the
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: right choice, Like, what an experience for you guys, what
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: an experience for your kids? Like this is so cool,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: but also like dual citizenship.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: This is how I sold my husband. My biggest thing
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: was because he's like, oh, this could be a really
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: bad financial decision, and I was like, yeah, but I
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: don't want you to look back when you're sixty and
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: retiring and being like, oh, I wish i'd done that,
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: like I always I think you'd always.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Regret not having made the move. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: excited for you guys. I hope you stay in touch
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: because I think that's really fun. And then when you're
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: in Melbourne, we can get our husbands together and they
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: can talk about data and analytics, and I think that
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: that would be very wholesome for them.
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: Oh he needs someone because he tries to talk to
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: me about like all the new models that are coming out,
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: and I'm just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I have no idea.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: It's so nice that you wrote algorithms all day. I
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: don't know what that means.
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: Thank you, exactly. I'm so glad you're so passionate about this,
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: but this is not my passion.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I love that money direst it. It has been a pleasure
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: getting to know you. Thank you for staying up late
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: and doing a money diary with me. I know the
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: community is going to love hearing this as much as
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: I loved interviewing you. It has been a pleasure.
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
• 42:26
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• 42:28
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