August 30, 2026 • 44 mins
At 27, this week’s Money Diarist has two STEM degrees, earns $140,000 a year, has $90,000 in super and owns a townhouse two kilometres from the beach. And no, there wasn’t a giant cheque from Mum and Dad hiding somewhere in the background. After becoming financially independent young and spending her uni years juggling study and work, she and her partner made buying a home one of their first big goals after graduating. They used the First Home Super Saver Scheme and First Home Guarantee to buy a $650,000 townhouse with a $40,000 deposit in 2024. Two years later, it’s estimated to be worth around $810,000, their mortgage is down to $575,000 and their extra repayments have already shaved four years off the life of their loan. We talk about exactly how she used the First Home Super Saver Scheme, why they still have a housemate despite earning good money, her $30,000 HECS debt, salary sacrificing into super and the very cute joint account that basically tells her and her partner when they’re overdue for a date night. Because earning more is great. But building systems that mean the money actually goes somewhere? Even better.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Satasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
woman and I'm here to acknowledge country te glennyan Ganya
nian ar Kaka yah y and Binahwaka nian our gay
In Mbini, yakarum Jar Doumayagumika Umaga Ihowaka Nile Waman damon
Immalan Bumba bang gad obama In and now in Waka
Ghana and yakarum jar Watanadana. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather
(00:24):
on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank acknowledge
and respect the Aberiginal people's land that we're gathering on today.
Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that
you see. She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country,
community and connections, bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources
for you to thrive.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
that lets you reperb about other people's money stories for
educational purposes of course. Welcome back to another one of
our moneyes, brought to you by our friends at my Wealth,
where I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with
one of our incredible Shees on the Money community members
and talking to them all about their journey. Let's jump
(01:11):
straight into it, because this week I got a message
and it sounds exactly like this high shees on the money.
I'm twenty seven, work in STEM and became financially independent
at eighteen after moving out of home and very glamorously
into a garage. While juggling two STEM degrees, work and
some attempt at a social life, I taught myself how
(01:32):
to manage money through sheer persistence rather than any natural
passion for it. Two years after graduating, I bought a
home just two kilometers from the beach without financial help
from my parents, using the first Home super Savior scheme.
I've recently landed a major promotion, earning one hundred and
forty thousand dollars a year, and I'm now focused on
building my investment portfolio without sacrificing the life I have
(01:55):
worked so hard to create money.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Diarist to the show, Hello, thank you, it's exciting to
be here.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You sound so fun. Also, I love that, I don't know,
I feel like I can pick up a vibe from
someone when they say, oh, I'm just two kys from
the beach, like you're cool, your fun, you love going
to the beach regularly, like you are on my team.
Are you ready to do a money diary?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I am very excited. All right, First, cab off the
rank as always money diarist, What grade would you give
your money habits from A through to F if I
asked you to give them a grade?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Look, I think I'm going to break up all the
bees recently and give myself an A. But definitely like
for my age and circumstances.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Love, All right, tell me a little bit more. Let's
dive in. Tell me more about your money story.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Sure. So, I actually grew up in a pretty small
country town in New South Wales, and our family actually
got to move around a lot around Australia for my
dad's work. Apart from moving like, our lifestyle overall was
pre average, Like my sister and I went to a
bit of a mix of public and private schools, and
(03:06):
then any holidays we did have were either local, like
back to visit our family in New South Wales usually
for Christmas?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Was that because I'm just on the school thing? Was
the mix of public and like private just because you
were moving around or was it because you like had
different financial circumstances at the time or like, what was
the reason for the jumping.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think it was just whatever was close to home,
Like I think my parents liked to send us to
private schools. But yeah, honestly, it was just whatever was
easiest for our family. So one of my earliest money
memories as well is I remember my dad sitting down
at our family computer every month and tracking our family
budget on a spreadsheet and like having to run around
(03:50):
the house collector receipts from my mum's handbag and all
those places. So money was never really a huge conversation
as a family, but it did always feel like we
had an but it all was like on the other hand,
it also felt like something that was important to keep
track of. And then thankfully we settled in a bigger
city in Queensland for high school, which felt a bit
(04:13):
more stable rather than having to move around every couple
of years.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So tell me a little bit more about high school.
I touched on it before and was like, oh, why
did you jump around, and like that makes a lot
of sense, but like, tell me a bit more about
your experiences there.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah, sure, So early high school, a really good thing
my parents started was allowances, So it was similar to
pocket money in the fact that we had to do
chores to earn it, but like the money was deposited
into our own bank account, so I literally had like
a debit card since I was thirteen, And funnily enough,
that kind of stemmed from my sister and I arguing
(04:49):
over like she got twenty dollars for the movies last week.
Like it essentially covered like social things with friends and
like friend's birthday presents as well, And it was also
easier having family into state because they could just transfer
for birthdays and thing. But yeah, it was something that
just kind of happened. Again, there wasn't really huge conversation
around budgeting or anything. And also because both my parents
(05:13):
work full time from a young age, we also had
to do things like pack our own lunch, get ready
for school, do are washing things like that, so it
wasn't our only financial independence. It was also time management.
And yeah, I feel like kids can be really good
at being independent if you give them the responsibilities. Which yet,
(05:34):
looking back, definitely we felt a bit hard done by
at the time, like our biggest problem was having to
iron our school uniform. But yeah, looking back to I
was definitely grateful for that I feel like it set
me up at a young age with really good habits.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Oh totally, And it's so funny now as an adult,
Like I remember my parents were exactly the same, Like
mum was like, oh, everything's in the cupboard, Like you
can make your own lunch. You're in high school now,
and I remember being like, what everybody else's mum makes
their lunch. And now I just have more skills, I
would say, in terms of like being resourceful and like
pulling things together and even like ironing a shirt. I
(06:08):
didn't realize until university that not everyone knows how to
do that and I can just whip it out do
a shirt. My stuff's always pressed. I feel like I'm
always put together, but I didn't realize that's what I
was being taught at the time.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Definitely, and I feel like it's just all those adult
jobs that you don't realize you have to make time
for until you do. So yeah, definitely that time management
was a really good skill to learn. And then as
I got older, I wanted like the same things as
other kids my age, so like my own phone, start
saving for my first car. So at fourteen, I got
(06:42):
a part time job in retail as soon as I could.
My first job was actually it came out, so shout
out to anyone who also had that as their first job.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I love that as a first job though, like I
love the consistency. I love that they have processes and
platform I feel like it does teach you a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, definitely good skills and having to balance that on
top of school as well. Yeah, it was good. And
I also remember mom and dad saying like, once you
start working, you never stop. So I definitely got a
taste back then for if you work hard enough, you
can get what you want.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yees so fair. So then what happened as you got older.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So towards the end of grade twelve, formal and schoolies
and those things came around, which were really expensive, and
because some of my friends came from wealthier families, there
was a lot of comparison and pressure to have lack
a nice dress, have the whole Gold Coast schoolies experience.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Oh my gosh, yes, but.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I didn't have enough money for the super nice hotel
that my friends picked, even though, like I sold my
formal dress, so they told me don't come. Basically what yeah,
it's yeah, girls can be mean, but yeah, it was
pretty much like if I didn't have enough money to
afford to come too bad, Like they didn't really want
to downgrade their experience for a cheaper hotel, so I
(08:02):
wasn't able to go celebrate the Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Please tell me you're not still friends with those people
or those people have really grown.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
No, definitely not still friends with them. But yeah, it
was the first time I really felt shame around, like
not having enough money even though I worked really hard,
like it still wasn't enough to keep up with them.
So that really taught me that I never want to
make anyone feel that way, Like you should never have
to afford someone's friendship.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
No, no, exactly, I really like that you never have
to afford someone's friendship. But also why a girl so mean, Like,
isn't it about compromise? Isn't it about being like, oh
my god, I'm so excited to go with my group
of friends. It's about the company you have, not necessarily
the hotel you stay in.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah, I think I guess they just got you get
caught up at that age in like comparison culture, and
like you see other people doing it, so you want
the same thing. But yeah, it was an important lesson
to even if it was just me who like learned
that lesson.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Oh my goodness. All right, so you do schoolies or
you don't do schoolies, and then you're kind of an
adult and you move out relatively quickly after that.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, so I kind of went straight off to UNI
after high school because I was one of those lucky
people who knew exactly what I wanted to do from
a really early age, and weirdly enough for me, that
was engineering.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Very cool. We love a woman in stam.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I probably should have mentioned before, but I actually started
a scholarship in grade twelve to start UNI. So I
was this random grade twelve girl showing up to this
huge first year engineering lecture and like the lecturer did
his sort of first year speech and pretty much said like,
look around like this many of you will drop out
(09:49):
and this many will graduate. So what are you going
to do with your time here that will make you
stand out? And I thought, oh, I know, I'll do
a double degree because one degree wasn't enough. But yeah,
I kind of just thought that would give me more
flexibility and give me more job options when I graduated.
So I enrolled in not one but two stem degrees.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Oh, just go hard or go home, But how do
you manage that? And also being financially independent, because that's
a lot like, you know, you said that you've got
a scholarship in year twelve, but you're still finishing year twelve,
you're doing some uni stuff, Like that's a lot of
pressure on someone who arguably isn't eighteen year.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, so at eighteen years old, another sort of thing
that my parents expected me to be was one hundred
percent financially independent. So yeah, I had always kind of
paid for my phone and like the running costs for
my car and everything before then, but on top of that,
they also wanted like one hundred dollars a week rent
(10:49):
to cover food and bills, which so fair, but yeah,
I was a pretty typical stubborn teenager back then, and
I thought, well, if I have to pay my parents,
I might as well move out. So I started looking
on flatmates and found like the literal cheapest room that
I could, which turned out to be a refurbished garage,
(11:09):
which I'm not sure if that is legal.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Honestly, perfect, perfect, Like we're not asking about legalities, we're
asking how we can be financially savvy.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Exactly, and it definitely was savvy, like it was a
good location if at my budget. The only downside was
it had like this one tiny little window, like the
inside had been plastered and like had walls and stuff
like it looked like a bedroom. But yeah, it was
just really cheap. Yeah. So by that time I was
(11:38):
full time doing double engineering and a science degree as well,
and then I had two jobs and then also trying
to balance a social life as well. So my budget
was pretty tight because if I worked too much, I
couldn't keep up with my studies, but then if I
studied too much, I couldn't make enough money to pay
(11:58):
my bills. Definitely a fine balance. And I didn't qualify
for seenlink either because that went off your parents' income,
even though they weren't really supporting me at that stage.
So it was definitely character building. I felt like a
stereotypical UNI student eating like two minute noodles and those things,
(12:19):
and my budget was such a mess. It was definitely
figuring it out as I went along.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Love.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I also find that really interesting because you came from
a small town, and from my understanding, sometimes that would
negate your parents' income, but how annoying. I'm sure you
went through all of that, but it's so frustrating when
you're like, hey, here's this really smart young woman who's
going out on her own to try and better her situation.
She's doing two STEM degrees. Like, I don't know about you,
(12:45):
but that's where I would love to see more of
my tax dollars going.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, definitely, and like, yes, we're very lucky with the
hex system, but it's all the other costs on top
of that that you don't realize, like young people are
having to budget for. And yeah, definitely in this economy,
it's a little bit different because yeah, back then, my
rent was a lot more affordable.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Oh totally.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I also remember back then randomly reading The Barefoot Investor
to try and learn how to budget better, and that
was the first time I heard about investing. But yeah,
it wasn't really relatable because I was lucky to have
any money in savings by the end of the year.
Like it always kind of just felt like I was
getting by, and and like I was young, so any
(13:27):
extra money was going to things like music festivals and clothes.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I love that, But I also think it's so relatable
too because I remember way back when I was trying
to get my money story together, I looked at the
Barefoot Investor, but the percentages just never worked for me
because there was no way I could save my you know,
ten percent for a splurge. I was like, what ten percent?
What are you talking about? And now, obviously I'm a
financial educator, I work in this space. I look at
(13:53):
it and I go, that suits a very specific family
and a very specific household, because if you earn less,
you feel less than, and if you earn more, I
would argue you need to be saving and investing even
more than that. So like, it just doesn't work for everybody,
and that's okay, but I feel like you can become
really disheartened when you find a system. You go, Wow,
(14:14):
this system's changing everybody's lives, and then it doesn't work
for you and you immediately go, well, maybe I'm bad
with money. So what did you think after finding a
system that you were like, Oh, I'm not really able
to stick to this.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, it definitely isn't a one size fits all thing.
But I think by that time I had learnt to
set up my own sort of buckets for money, so
I did have a bill's account, and then everything else
was kind of just slumped in together, and it was
a big mess. And I was always like drawing money
out of one account and transferring into another, and you know,
(14:47):
getting sucked into like buy now, pay later schemes as well.
Like I just, yeah, I didn't know how to set
up a system for myself that works. Yeah, when you
don't have enough at the end of the week.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, and I feel sometimes there's a little bit too
much month left at the end of my money. So
tell me a little bit more about what happens once
you graduate. So you go through UNI, you have a
relatively stereotypical noodle's experience, which I can absolutely relate to.
How did you get through that? Because two STEM degrees?
Did you finish them both?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Yeah? So then COVID happened, so our little garage sharehouse
had to go our separate ways because unfortunately my housemates
lost their jobs.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
No. Yeah, that's the last thing you need, like, especially
if you're like, oh my god, this sucks, but at
least we're all in this together and not lonely. And
then they're like, so money diarist, we're going to have
to move out. I would have been like, what am
I going to do.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, it was definitely like, Okay, I didn't expect this
to happen. But thankfully, because I was classified as low income,
I ended up qualifying for rental assistance under like the
National Rental Affordability Scheme, so I was able to get
my own apart apartment in the city closer to UNI.
And yeah, even though that was subsidized, my rent pretty
(16:06):
much still doubled. So I had to unfortunately make the
tough decision to drop down to part time study because yeah,
it just felt like I was doing way too much
at that stage, so I think it was a responsible
decision to make. So I was then working two jobs,
but I actually managed to get an engineering placement job
(16:28):
and then I was still doing my original camp job
at nighttime.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Oh my goodness, were you burning out because that sounds
like a lot.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I think back in COVID as well, like because there
were so many restrictions, Like doing my night job was
actually fun because it was actually like the only legal
way I could socialize with friends. But yeah, definitely dropping
back to part time, I think it was just something
that was get inevitable, like something was going to give
at that stage, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Wow, Okay, so what happens we're coming let's like jump forward,
we're coming out of COVID. Did you get to finish
your degrees at some point during that process or is
that post COVID?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, So in the second last year of UNI, I
actually met my current partner cy you. So he moved
into my apartment in our final year, which really helped
take the stress of my budget to be able to
quit my second job and go back to full time
study to finish my degrees. And then he was also
(17:32):
a double degree student, actually studying finance. Funnily enough, so
with the little savings I put aside, I also managed
to start my own investment journey, which we can talk
about a bit later.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm excited to get into that because I just know
you're a hustler, Like I have picked up that you're
not only like fun live by the beach, but also
like really switched on. So I just I know everything
is going to be so fun. So you met your partner?
Do we live together?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Like?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
What's the stitch there?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yes, we still live together. We have a house together now.
But yeah, he's definitely a hard worker like I am.
He's an engineer as well. So it really feels like
we're on the same wavelength with our life goals and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Love and so, tell me a little bit about today.
What do you do for work and how much money
do you earn?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
So my job titles have been a bit all over
the place, but I generally refer to myself as a
civil and environmental engineer. And I'm currently on one hundred
and forty thousand dollars base salary plus bonuses.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And plus super yes, plus super Oh my goodness. So
she's on like one sixty ish depending on the year.
That is not crazy, That is just crazy cool money
dist with that income, what are your big money goals?
What are you currently working towards? Because you said you
have a house, like and I feel like that's the
great Australian dream. So once you kind of tick that box,
(18:54):
where do we go from there?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah, So my smaller goals at the moment is tidying
up our shared and then some of my larger goals
is we're currently in a townhouse at the moment, so
we would love to get a house with a backyard
one day and hopefully keep our current place as an
investment and also things I think a little bit further
(19:15):
down the track, like I would love to be able
to semi retire by fifty, so I need to figure
out how to like optimize my investment goals to get there.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Oh I love that, So tell me a little bit
more about that process, because I feel like sometimes when
we're planning to purchase property, like we really get set
on just that property and not like the longer term strategy.
And you mentioned that you were like, oh, well, you know,
we live there, but like we want it to be
an investment. Was that always the plan or were you
(19:45):
kind of like, good to buy this house, like that's
you know, my ride or die plan. I haven't thought
about strategy, or were you like, look, this will be
our first home and we'll go into our next after that.
Like what were your thought patterns there?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I don't think we really thought too much of it.
I think, being in like the economy sort of that
we are at the moment, our plan was just to
get into the market as soon as possible, because unfortunately,
like if me living in a garage wasn't enough of
an indication. But I had some bad experiences with the
rental market, and like our rent just kept going up
(20:20):
and up and up after COVID, so we just wanted
to get out of that system. But definitely selecting the
property that we were going to buy, like I think,
we did want to see a bit of potential in
it that we could potentially use it as an investment
one day.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, very cool. All right, let's go to a really
quick break because I have a lot of questions and
it's all about the juicy stuff. So guys don't go anywhere,
all right, money, dirist, We are back, and I really
want to talk about your investments now. So you mentioned
that you have a portfolio because you want to retire earlier.
(20:58):
Tell me a little bit more about the first time
you invest it.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Sure, So my portfolio is a little bit all over
the place. But I first started investing maybe in my
second last year of UNI. As I mentioned, my partner
studies finance, so I think it was a little bit
of jealousy that he had investments and I didn't. So
with the little savings that I had back then, I
(21:22):
put a little bit into crypto, which I'm not proud of.
I feel like it's such a gateway for a lot
of people.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
You're allowed to be like obviously not proud of I
get that, but also like I don't think we should
be embarrassed of it either, because it just means that
you wanted to be on the investing journey and you're like, wow,
this sounds like something for me, and like we all
get a bit caught up with peer pressure and what
everyone else is doing. But like, how cool that you
had that experience you could reframe what it looked like
(21:49):
and now be on a different journey, Like you're the
type of person who wants more for themselves and like
that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, And as I learned a little bit more about
the sort of risk profiles and things like that, once
the initial money that i'd invested in that kind of
like the profits work their way up, I took the
original amount out, so at the moment it's just fluctuating
between like around two grand ish and then around At
(22:16):
the same time, I also started micro investing, so I
have a little portfolio in spaceship as well, which I
do regular transfers into Love and that's sitting at about
five thousand dollars currently.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah. Love, Oh that's not so micro anymore, my friend.
I love that you're like I have a little micro
investing platform and then bam, it's five grand.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, it's definitely been going along for a long time though,
so it's good to see it finally reaching a like
larger number. And then within spaceship as well, I also
have some ETFs, so that's sitting at about two and
a half thousand as well. Love and then on top
of my micro investing as well, I also have a
Comsec account which I've been contributing to a lot more
(22:59):
regular so I've been trying to bring that up, and
that's sitting at five thousand dollars as well. And then
all together my portfolio is sitting at about fifteen thousand dollars.
But yeah, as you heard, it's quite spread out all
over the shop, so I'd probably like to consolidate that
a bit in the future.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Totally. I think that a lot of people in your
situation have started on micro investing platforms, so they're kind
of like, I don't know when the right time is
to like transition to like the bigger platform or like,
you know, go into a more quite serious investment strategy,
And sometimes the best strategy is to kind of start fresh.
I'm not giving advice here, I promise, But sometimes if
(23:36):
you've been invested for so long in a micro investing
platform and it's doing well, there's actually no need to consolidate. Like, yes,
you're paying double fees, but you're paying fees on that
amount of money and then you're paying fees on this
other amount of money, and I think that sometimes it's
not worth triggering the capital gains. But at the same time,
for some people, they're like, well, Victoria, I just want
(23:58):
it to be clean, and like, I'm the same. I
love cleaning house and feeling like everything's in the same wheelhouse.
Sometimes buying and selling in the same market is what
they do, so they like sell down their portfolio on
one platform and then buy within the same few days
to make sure that, like if you're buying a share
and it's worth X, it's worth while basically during the
same period so that they can clean it up. Have
(24:20):
you thought about your transition period or whether it's even
worth it not.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
At this stage, I don't mind having a few different
accounts because it kind of also shows my journey. So
as long as things keep making profit, I'll probably leave
them as is. But yeah, maybe when it gets to
a higher amount I'd probably like to seek some more
financial advice on kind of what I should do with
everything and like the best strategy to have moving forward
(24:45):
to get my goals totally.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
All right, tell me a little bit about your superannuation.
You've been working since you were really young, so I
have a sneaky suspicion it probably looks okay.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Yeah, my super is actually sitting at the moment at
ninety thousand.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Stop it, ninety grand You are only twenty seven years old,
my friend.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, it's crazy. And that's after the first Home Super
Saver withdrawal as well, So yeah, I'm pretty happy.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Stop it all right? So you have ninety thousand dollars
in Super. I'll ask you in a hot minute about
your first Home Super Savior scheme because we'll get to
talking about your property. But how do you have ninety
thousand dollars?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I think it's just a combination of I've been working
in like a government job for a long time, so
they do like a deal where if you put in
extra then they'll kind of match it. So I was
doing that for a little while, and then with my
recent pay rise, I've also bumped up my salary sacrifice
contributions to about two hundred dollars a fortnight, So I've
(25:47):
always been like putting a little bit extra in there
as well.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
So tell me about what the plan is for that.
You said that you wanted to maybe retire early. Is
that something that you're going to keep aggressively contributing to
because girl, you're doing well or is it like a
split between your actual investments and then your super like
what does that look like in your head?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah, I think I'm going to keep doing both at
this stage, just because it is nice to see the
number keep going up. But I think I'll probably reassess
things once my Hex debt is paid off as well,
because that'll give me a little bit extra to play with.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Love. So I want to kind of pivot to debt
and your home buying journey, and I'll ask you about
the first time super savory in a second. But do
you have any debt? If so, how much?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
So?
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I have my Hex debt, which two STEM degrees are
pretty expensive, So that started at sixty thousand dollars. So
I was very grateful for the twenty percent cut last year. Yeah, yes, yeah,
and I've just been letting that pay itself in the background,
and it's currently at about thirty thousand dollars, so hopefully
that'll be gone by the time I'm thirty.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Hey, that's not too bad. Honestly, with the tracking, I
feel like for a lot of people they were like,
oh yeah, I'm getting a little bit off my head.
But for people who had double degrees, I think where
you were all like, oh my god, this is like
a wizardry. Like I was so secretly excited for it,
because just like you, I haven't been contributing extra and
I've just been letting it like tick away in the background.
(27:13):
But seeing that come off, I was like, oh, that
feels nice, like thank you. And it's not often that
a government scheme benefits me, and that's obviously incredibly privileged
and I don't need them too, but I was like, oh,
this is cool. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
I was so grateful actually start to see it go
down for once, especially with all the indexation the last
few years.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Totally. So tell me more about this first home super
saviort scheme. How much you put in, how much you
pulled out, and what all of that looks like.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, So, as I said before, we had a few
bad experiences renting, so my partner and I one of
our biggest goals once we graduated was to start to
save for a home and I think back then, like
I just I didn't really know where to get started.
(28:01):
So I've kind of written down all the numbers because
I think they were the numbers that would have sort
of helped me get my head around it.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Love, So what did those numbers look like?
Speaker 3 (28:10):
So when we first started researching all of the government schemes,
we came across the first home super savers scheme and
we didn't really know what it was or if we
had any money that was eligible. So we learned that
you can do a check through the ATO and it'll
like you check your numbers and see if you've got
anything eligible. And I actually found out that I had
(28:32):
ten thousand dollars eligible. So I thought I was starting
my home deposit saving journey from zero, but thankfully I wasn't,
which was really motivating.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
That's actually so fun, and I think that's something a
lot of people don't know. So if they have been
contributing extra to their super over time, that actually can
be pulled out if you wanted to. I'm not saying
it's always a good idea but how good if it's
an additional contribution you made that it can actually like
kick start your home savings scheme. Like that's cool.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
And the other thing was like the tax savings as well,
because I think when you take it out, you pay
less tax on it as well. So I started playing
around with my salary sacrifice just through like my company's
payroll team, and I think I had that up at
about five hundred dollars a fortnight towards the end. But
because of the tax exemptions or I don't know how
(29:25):
to explain it, but it didn't reduce my take home
as much as what I was putting in, if that
makes sense.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, totally totally. It would have been because you're not
like close enough to the band. So like I think
a lot of the time people hope that they drop
down a tax or like a marginal tax, right, but
unfortunately that's not the case for everybody. How much did
you end up putting into the first Home super Saviors
scheme and how much did you end up pulling out?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
I think by the end of it, I had about
twenty five thousand dollars sitting in there that was eligible.
But like I said, with my tax bracket. It kind
of felt like I was getting a bit of free
money from that system because like, you put money in,
but it's not affecting your take home pay. So I
was really trying to like put as much of it
in there as I can to make the most out
(30:10):
of that scheme totally.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
And I feel like people just don't hear me when
I go, it's really sexy. You should absolutely look into
whether it suits you, because like, I just feel like
it doesn't sound sexy, like the first time Super Saviors
game is a mouthful and not something that like when
we talk about it, people go, Yay, that's exciting, But
you're right, it can be like free money, which is
really really fun. How much did you end up purchasing
(30:34):
your first home for?
Speaker 3 (30:35):
So I wasn't really sure what our budget should be
at the start, so we actually went and sat down
with a mortgage broker, which helped us sort of run
different versions of like, if we've bought a house for
this much, how much the repayments would be. So through
doing that, we kind of settled on that our budget
was around the seven hundred thousand dollar mark, so we
(30:59):
also eligible for the five percent I think it's the
first home guarantee scheme, so we only had to save
four or five percent deposit. So we ended up finding
our townhouse for six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which
we purchased in October twenty twenty four. It was an
older townhouse that was two kilometers from the beach and
(31:23):
it's been rented out its whole life as well, so
it's pretty low maintenance. And our original loan amount was
for six hundred and ten thousand, so of that we
had a forty thousand dollars deposit, and then we were
also able to keep ten thousand dollars in living expenses
in our offset account, which I didn't realize at the
(31:46):
time how strict some of the schemes could be. So
the five percent deposit scheme, they don't let you keep
a lot of money in savings. You kind of have
to put everything that you have into the loan. So yeah,
it interesting having to calculate all that, but thankfully we
had really good mortgage brokers to help us through all
of the terms and conditions totally.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And it can be really frustrating because sometimes you see
a scheme like that and go, wow, it's only five percent,
so we'll have so much cash left over. But it's
kind of like, yes, it's five percent if you only
have five percent, but if you have more, they kind
of want you to tip that towards it as well
to bring down your LVR. And it can be frustrating
because you see it as a kind of not a
get out of jail free card. But you go, well,
(32:29):
I've got the twenty percent, I only want to use five,
but they'll go, oh, no, no, no, this is probably
not for you. So has that restricted you in it
any way? Or are you kind of like, yeah, it
kind of sits in our offset. But at the same time,
like we still got into property at a sooner point.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, I think the benefit of just getting into property
early was worth it because although we only had to
save a forty thousand dollars deposit, which like even though
I say, although like the split between two people, it's manageable,
but it was really the repayments that we're kind of
making us a little bit more nervous about our budget
(33:04):
because I think our payments at the moment are sitting
around thirty six hundred dollars a month, so split between
two people, it's the equivalent of about I think four
hundred dollars a week in rent, So it's a little
bit more than what we were paying before. But yeah,
it's just the numbers that you kind of have to
(33:24):
get your head around at the start. I think before yeah,
jumping into such a huge property purchase.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Totally, and I think it can be as you mentioned
or like similarly mentioned, it can be much easier saving
for the deposit because you're so happy to like scrimp
and save and be like, oh my goodness, if we,
you know, cut the budget this month, we can get
an extra thousand dollars or whatever it might look like
for you. But the reality is, once you get the mortgage,
that's actually for the next thirty years, So that thirty
(33:51):
six hundred dollars commitment every single month you have to
think about it and you go, well, that is equivalent
to paying four hundred dollars a week rent. Am I
comfortable with committing to that financial outlay? Even though yes
we are creating wealth and yes we own the roof
over our head and all of that fun stuff, Like girl,
that's still a lot of money, like the lifestyle that
surrounds that, Like, would you arguably go and rent something
(34:14):
for four hundred dollars a week and then leave that lifestyle.
Are you comfortable with that? Because that's the question we
have to ask ourselves. Obviously there's like overlays of like
wealth building and like but I own it and whatnot,
And I totally get that, But I also just look
at it and go, well, if you wouldn't do that
because you don't want that lifestyle, that's what that mortgage
is going to push you into.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Yeah, and I feel like there's schemes they are and
they sound like a really good thing to get people
into the market, but yeah, when you're faced with the
reality of what you have to pay, it's that's where
the house pricing sort of craziness comes into it. But yeah,
because we were lucky enough to get a three bedroom townhouse,
we were able to get a roommate as well, so
(34:55):
she also contributes a little bit of money every week
and we're put that straight into our home loaners extra
repayments to try and get our loan to value ratio
a little bit higher because it does start so low.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, I love that. So tell me you purchased pull
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in twenty twenty four,
what's the property worth today? And how much have you
paid off?
Speaker 3 (35:18):
So our property is currently worth eight hundred and ten
thousand dollars, which stop it in two years, Like, I
can't believe that it's gone up that much. And our
current loan amount is five hundred and seventy five thousand
dollars and we've kept black a similar sort of amount
maintained in our offset account. But yeah, our bank gives
(35:40):
us these statements, and because of the extra repayments we've
been making, we've already cut four years off the life
of our loan within those two years. So I'm really
proud of us. First, so exciting, Yeah, putting some extra
money in there, and it really.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Does d up. Like at the time, you're kind of like,
does this make sense? Like is it actually like you know,
cheapy away at what the mortgage looks like. But then
over the two years, four years off your mortgage is huge, Like,
and I know that life is going to look a
little bit different, and you've probably got plans to purchase
a different home and this can be an investment, but like,
how good your investment has increased in value and you're
(36:16):
also chipping away at the time it will take to
pay off that loan. What's your next property step, Like
you're already talking about different properties or you like, Victoria, no, no, no,
we're just gonna sit here for a while. Like it's
already a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
We're happy just to sit for a little while and
sort of see how our life circumstances go. Because we're
still quite young, so we're not really sure what the
future holds in terms of like family and things like that.
So yeah, we're just happy to knuckle down and keep
paying our mortgage. At the moment.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
I love this. And how's having a housemate going? Like
is that something that you're like, yeah, it's really good,
Like it's great, or you're like, look, it's good for
the mortgage, but like I would love to have my
own space.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
I think because we've got right from being like poor
unique students living in share houses to then like young
graduates also living in share houses. Like it's just we've
always been used to living with other people. But in
saying that, we have gotten really lucky and found a
really good roommate that's easy to live with. So yeah,
(37:18):
that'll definitely help us out longer term love.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
So tell me I'm really interested here. Now you have
a mortgage. Do you have your personal insurances set up?
If so, how did you work that out? If not,
why not?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
My friend so, I do have personal insurance with him,
my super which I just bumped the amounts up again
with like my promotion and like a house purchase as well.
So I feel like it's all good and well to say,
like yes to having insurance, but if you don't, like
bump it up as your life changes and like check
your beneficiaries and things like that, Yeah, it's important to do.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
You are not wrong. It's something that whenever my friends
are like, oh we bought a house, I'm that really down.
A friend that's like, oh my god, congrats, I can't
I to come over and see it. So did you
log into your insurances and check what coverage you have?
Or someone says, oh my goodness, Victoria, were so excited
we're having a baby. I go, oh my goodness, that's
so good. Check your life insurance like it's crazy, but
(38:13):
like I just from my position as an ex financial advisor,
I'm just so on top of stuff like that because
I just want the best for you. But I also
just go there's so much risk in not having enough, Like,
just make sure you're protecting yourselves. Now you seem really
financially savvy. What do you think is your best money habit.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I think I just say consistency, Like, although I'm only
twenty seven, I've had some level of financial independence literally
from when I was thirteen and got my first bank account.
So I think it's just experienced building systems that work
for me and then changing them as my life changes.
So I have all my auto chancewers for everything, and
(38:55):
of course, like not everyone's perfect, like you do have
little splurges you have on expected payments coming up, But
I feel like it all kind of balances out in the.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
End, love, and I feel like that's a really good
mindset to have as well, like being like, look, it
all balances out in the end because I have a
system in place, and yes, I sometimes splurge, Like to me,
that's really healthy.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, And I think also it is easy big able
to be honest with your friends, Like people in their
twenties are at such different stages. So if one of
my friends is saving for a euro trip, will go
to a picnic instead of a bar, like there's no
shame around having different savings goals.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Or budgets exactly, And I think that it is so
much more. I don't know. I feel like your twenties
and thirties is a period of really high contrast, Like
we shouldn't be comparing, but we inherently do.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
We look at our friends and be like, Wow, they're
going on a europe trip, or Wow, they're buying their
first home. But like, you're twenty seven, You've got your
first home, you're paying off a mortgage, like you're a hustle,
you're earning one hundred and forty grand a year. It's
very likely that you still have friends that are still
at UNI. Like I feel like at that point in time,
you're like, Wow, everyone so different. And it isn't until
you start to get to your late thirties that things
(40:03):
start to get a little bit similar. But we're all
so different, and I think that that's genuinely so nice
because it's like everyone's having different life experiences and everyone's
you know, doing their own thing. Like we should continue that.
Like I personally, I am not planning my Michanos euro
trip because I have two small kids, but I'm so
excited for my friends that are tell me on the
(40:26):
flip side, what do you think your worst money habit is.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
So, although I have really good budgets set up, I've
never really tracked my actual spending. So I feel like
we have so much going on now that we have
a mortgage and we have shared bills, firsuts, personal bills,
and then like savings on top of that. So I
want to be really mindful of lifestyle creep. So I
need to get a bit of a better system in
(40:50):
place for I guess tracking actual spending to see how
that's going.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And what does it look like when you have conversations
about money with your partner, Like obviously, you know, being
really open and honest is really helpful, but like if
you're not super on top of budgeting, is it something
that comes up often in your household or is it
something we're like, nah, we're kind of just on the
same page. Or does your partner like have a super
strict budget or something like that.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
No, it's pretty good because we both still bank separately,
but then we have a shared account together for all
our shared spendings. Because I think it's good, Like I
don't want him to feel guilty for going and playing
golf or going out with his friends and vice versa, Like,
I don't want to feel guilty if I'm prioritizing like
a Pilates membership or yeah, going to out with my friends. Like,
(41:38):
we both sort of keep things separately and then we
sort of discuss how we want to combine that together.
And another good thing we do is we have like
a date night account together as well.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
So yeah, stop, that's really cute. That's really cute. So
what you both contribute on like a weekly or a
monthly basis to your date night?
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Does that?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
I don't know that sounds really but like in a
way do you guys both look at it and be like, oh,
there's x amount in there, we can go out to
a bougie dinner or are you like just banking it up?
How does that work?
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yeah? It definitely reminds us when it starts to get
a little bit more money in it, that we need
to use it. So yeah, if we do find that
it's saved up a little bit too high, we'll go
camping or we'll go on a little we can get away.
So it's yeah, it's a really good way to save together.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Oh, it's like a little like and this is probably
not how you're seeing it. I'm like, look, it's like
an investment into your relationship fund. So if you haven't
gone out in a while, like it kind of tells you, Hey,
you haven't gone out in a while. Because there's more
money in here than there usually is, you can have
a weekend away.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I love that money diarist. Now we've had a chat.
Do you feel like the grade you gave yourself at
the start was accurate? If not?
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (42:47):
If so, how are you doubling down? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
I think so. Like I'm pretty happy with my A.
I think it's good to keep a little bit of
room for improvement.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So yeah, I feel like you are absolutely smashing it.
Like you are twenty seven, you work in STEM, you
have two degrees, Like I feel like your head is
screwed on so well. Like I just I'm so proud
of you, so proud that you're in my community. And
I wish we had so much more time to keep
yapping because I feel like we absolutely could. So thank
you so much for sharing your journey with that She's
(43:17):
on the Money community, because I just know we don't
get enough women in stem on the show who are
also quite young and trying to carve their way out.
So thank you. I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
No, thank you for having me. It's been really fun.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Advice tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized represented
gives of money sirper P T Y L t D
A b N three two one six four nine two
seven seven.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Zero eight a F s L four five one two
eight nine
My name is Satasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
woman and I'm here to acknowledge country te glennyan Ganya
nian ar Kaka yah y and Binahwaka nian our gay
In Mbini, yakarum Jar Doumayagumika Umaga Ihowaka Nile Waman damon
Immalan Bumba bang gad obama In and now in Waka
Ghana and yakarum jar Watanadana. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather
(00:24):
on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank acknowledge
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Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that
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Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
that lets you reperb about other people's money stories for
educational purposes of course. Welcome back to another one of
our moneyes, brought to you by our friends at my Wealth,
where I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with
one of our incredible Shees on the Money community members
and talking to them all about their journey. Let's jump
(01:11):
straight into it, because this week I got a message
and it sounds exactly like this high shees on the money.
I'm twenty seven, work in STEM and became financially independent
at eighteen after moving out of home and very glamorously
into a garage. While juggling two STEM degrees, work and
some attempt at a social life, I taught myself how
(01:32):
to manage money through sheer persistence rather than any natural
passion for it. Two years after graduating, I bought a
home just two kilometers from the beach without financial help
from my parents, using the first Home super Savior scheme.
I've recently landed a major promotion, earning one hundred and
forty thousand dollars a year, and I'm now focused on
building my investment portfolio without sacrificing the life I have
(01:55):
worked so hard to create money.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Diarist to the show, Hello, thank you, it's exciting to
be here.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
You sound so fun. Also, I love that, I don't know,
I feel like I can pick up a vibe from
someone when they say, oh, I'm just two kys from
the beach, like you're cool, your fun, you love going
to the beach regularly, like you are on my team.
Are you ready to do a money diary?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I am very excited. All right, First, cab off the
rank as always money diarist, What grade would you give
your money habits from A through to F if I
asked you to give them a grade?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Look, I think I'm going to break up all the
bees recently and give myself an A. But definitely like
for my age and circumstances.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Love, All right, tell me a little bit more. Let's
dive in. Tell me more about your money story.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Sure. So, I actually grew up in a pretty small
country town in New South Wales, and our family actually
got to move around a lot around Australia for my
dad's work. Apart from moving like, our lifestyle overall was
pre average, Like my sister and I went to a
bit of a mix of public and private schools, and
(03:06):
then any holidays we did have were either local, like
back to visit our family in New South Wales usually
for Christmas?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Was that because I'm just on the school thing? Was
the mix of public and like private just because you
were moving around or was it because you like had
different financial circumstances at the time or like, what was
the reason for the jumping.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think it was just whatever was close to home,
Like I think my parents liked to send us to
private schools. But yeah, honestly, it was just whatever was
easiest for our family. So one of my earliest money
memories as well is I remember my dad sitting down
at our family computer every month and tracking our family
budget on a spreadsheet and like having to run around
(03:50):
the house collector receipts from my mum's handbag and all
those places. So money was never really a huge conversation
as a family, but it did always feel like we
had an but it all was like on the other hand,
it also felt like something that was important to keep
track of. And then thankfully we settled in a bigger
city in Queensland for high school, which felt a bit
(04:13):
more stable rather than having to move around every couple
of years.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So tell me a little bit more about high school.
I touched on it before and was like, oh, why
did you jump around, and like that makes a lot
of sense, but like, tell me a bit more about
your experiences there.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah, sure, So early high school, a really good thing
my parents started was allowances, So it was similar to
pocket money in the fact that we had to do
chores to earn it, but like the money was deposited
into our own bank account, so I literally had like
a debit card since I was thirteen, And funnily enough,
that kind of stemmed from my sister and I arguing
(04:49):
over like she got twenty dollars for the movies last week.
Like it essentially covered like social things with friends and
like friend's birthday presents as well, And it was also
easier having family into state because they could just transfer
for birthdays and thing. But yeah, it was something that
just kind of happened. Again, there wasn't really huge conversation
around budgeting or anything. And also because both my parents
(05:13):
work full time from a young age, we also had
to do things like pack our own lunch, get ready
for school, do are washing things like that, so it
wasn't our only financial independence. It was also time management.
And yeah, I feel like kids can be really good
at being independent if you give them the responsibilities. Which yet,
(05:34):
looking back, definitely we felt a bit hard done by
at the time, like our biggest problem was having to
iron our school uniform. But yeah, looking back to I
was definitely grateful for that I feel like it set
me up at a young age with really good habits.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Oh totally, And it's so funny now as an adult,
Like I remember my parents were exactly the same, Like
mum was like, oh, everything's in the cupboard, Like you
can make your own lunch. You're in high school now,
and I remember being like, what everybody else's mum makes
their lunch. And now I just have more skills, I
would say, in terms of like being resourceful and like
pulling things together and even like ironing a shirt. I
(06:08):
didn't realize until university that not everyone knows how to
do that and I can just whip it out do
a shirt. My stuff's always pressed. I feel like I'm
always put together, but I didn't realize that's what I
was being taught at the time.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Definitely, and I feel like it's just all those adult
jobs that you don't realize you have to make time
for until you do. So yeah, definitely that time management
was a really good skill to learn. And then as
I got older, I wanted like the same things as
other kids my age, so like my own phone, start
saving for my first car. So at fourteen, I got
(06:42):
a part time job in retail as soon as I could.
My first job was actually it came out, so shout
out to anyone who also had that as their first job.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I love that as a first job though, like I
love the consistency. I love that they have processes and
platform I feel like it does teach you a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, definitely good skills and having to balance that on
top of school as well. Yeah, it was good. And
I also remember mom and dad saying like, once you
start working, you never stop. So I definitely got a
taste back then for if you work hard enough, you
can get what you want.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yees so fair. So then what happened as you got older.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So towards the end of grade twelve, formal and schoolies
and those things came around, which were really expensive, and
because some of my friends came from wealthier families, there
was a lot of comparison and pressure to have lack
a nice dress, have the whole Gold Coast schoolies experience.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Oh my gosh, yes, but.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I didn't have enough money for the super nice hotel
that my friends picked, even though, like I sold my
formal dress, so they told me don't come. Basically what yeah,
it's yeah, girls can be mean, but yeah, it was
pretty much like if I didn't have enough money to
afford to come too bad, Like they didn't really want
to downgrade their experience for a cheaper hotel, so I
(08:02):
wasn't able to go celebrate the Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Please tell me you're not still friends with those people
or those people have really grown.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
No, definitely not still friends with them. But yeah, it
was the first time I really felt shame around, like
not having enough money even though I worked really hard,
like it still wasn't enough to keep up with them.
So that really taught me that I never want to
make anyone feel that way, Like you should never have
to afford someone's friendship.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
No, no, exactly, I really like that you never have
to afford someone's friendship. But also why a girl so mean, Like,
isn't it about compromise? Isn't it about being like, oh
my god, I'm so excited to go with my group
of friends. It's about the company you have, not necessarily
the hotel you stay in.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah, I think I guess they just got you get
caught up at that age in like comparison culture, and
like you see other people doing it, so you want
the same thing. But yeah, it was an important lesson
to even if it was just me who like learned
that lesson.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Oh my goodness. All right, so you do schoolies or
you don't do schoolies, and then you're kind of an
adult and you move out relatively quickly after that.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, so I kind of went straight off to UNI
after high school because I was one of those lucky
people who knew exactly what I wanted to do from
a really early age, and weirdly enough for me, that
was engineering.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Very cool. We love a woman in stam.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I probably should have mentioned before, but I actually started
a scholarship in grade twelve to start UNI. So I
was this random grade twelve girl showing up to this
huge first year engineering lecture and like the lecturer did
his sort of first year speech and pretty much said like,
look around like this many of you will drop out
(09:49):
and this many will graduate. So what are you going
to do with your time here that will make you
stand out? And I thought, oh, I know, I'll do
a double degree because one degree wasn't enough. But yeah,
I kind of just thought that would give me more
flexibility and give me more job options when I graduated.
So I enrolled in not one but two stem degrees.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Oh, just go hard or go home, But how do
you manage that? And also being financially independent, because that's
a lot like, you know, you said that you've got
a scholarship in year twelve, but you're still finishing year twelve,
you're doing some uni stuff, Like that's a lot of
pressure on someone who arguably isn't eighteen year.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, so at eighteen years old, another sort of thing
that my parents expected me to be was one hundred
percent financially independent. So yeah, I had always kind of
paid for my phone and like the running costs for
my car and everything before then, but on top of that,
they also wanted like one hundred dollars a week rent
(10:49):
to cover food and bills, which so fair, but yeah,
I was a pretty typical stubborn teenager back then, and
I thought, well, if I have to pay my parents,
I might as well move out. So I started looking
on flatmates and found like the literal cheapest room that
I could, which turned out to be a refurbished garage,
(11:09):
which I'm not sure if that is legal.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Honestly, perfect, perfect, Like we're not asking about legalities, we're
asking how we can be financially savvy.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Exactly, and it definitely was savvy, like it was a
good location if at my budget. The only downside was
it had like this one tiny little window, like the
inside had been plastered and like had walls and stuff
like it looked like a bedroom. But yeah, it was
just really cheap. Yeah. So by that time I was
(11:38):
full time doing double engineering and a science degree as well,
and then I had two jobs and then also trying
to balance a social life as well. So my budget
was pretty tight because if I worked too much, I
couldn't keep up with my studies, but then if I
studied too much, I couldn't make enough money to pay
(11:58):
my bills. Definitely a fine balance. And I didn't qualify
for seenlink either because that went off your parents' income,
even though they weren't really supporting me at that stage.
So it was definitely character building. I felt like a
stereotypical UNI student eating like two minute noodles and those things,
(12:19):
and my budget was such a mess. It was definitely
figuring it out as I went along.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Love.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I also find that really interesting because you came from
a small town, and from my understanding, sometimes that would
negate your parents' income, but how annoying. I'm sure you
went through all of that, but it's so frustrating when
you're like, hey, here's this really smart young woman who's
going out on her own to try and better her situation.
She's doing two STEM degrees. Like, I don't know about you,
(12:45):
but that's where I would love to see more of
my tax dollars going.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yeah, definitely, and like, yes, we're very lucky with the
hex system, but it's all the other costs on top
of that that you don't realize, like young people are
having to budget for. And yeah, definitely in this economy,
it's a little bit different because yeah, back then, my
rent was a lot more affordable.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Oh totally.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I also remember back then randomly reading The Barefoot Investor
to try and learn how to budget better, and that
was the first time I heard about investing. But yeah,
it wasn't really relatable because I was lucky to have
any money in savings by the end of the year.
Like it always kind of just felt like I was
getting by, and and like I was young, so any
(13:27):
extra money was going to things like music festivals and clothes.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I love that, But I also think it's so relatable
too because I remember way back when I was trying
to get my money story together, I looked at the
Barefoot Investor, but the percentages just never worked for me
because there was no way I could save my you know,
ten percent for a splurge. I was like, what ten percent?
What are you talking about? And now, obviously I'm a
financial educator, I work in this space. I look at
(13:53):
it and I go, that suits a very specific family
and a very specific household, because if you earn less,
you feel less than, and if you earn more, I
would argue you need to be saving and investing even
more than that. So like, it just doesn't work for everybody,
and that's okay, but I feel like you can become
really disheartened when you find a system. You go, Wow,
(14:14):
this system's changing everybody's lives, and then it doesn't work
for you and you immediately go, well, maybe I'm bad
with money. So what did you think after finding a
system that you were like, Oh, I'm not really able
to stick to this.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, it definitely isn't a one size fits all thing.
But I think by that time I had learnt to
set up my own sort of buckets for money, so
I did have a bill's account, and then everything else
was kind of just slumped in together, and it was
a big mess. And I was always like drawing money
out of one account and transferring into another, and you know,
(14:47):
getting sucked into like buy now, pay later schemes as well.
Like I just, yeah, I didn't know how to set
up a system for myself that works. Yeah, when you
don't have enough at the end of the week.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, and I feel sometimes there's a little bit too
much month left at the end of my money. So
tell me a little bit more about what happens once
you graduate. So you go through UNI, you have a
relatively stereotypical noodle's experience, which I can absolutely relate to.
How did you get through that? Because two STEM degrees?
Did you finish them both?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Yeah? So then COVID happened, so our little garage sharehouse
had to go our separate ways because unfortunately my housemates
lost their jobs.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
No. Yeah, that's the last thing you need, like, especially
if you're like, oh my god, this sucks, but at
least we're all in this together and not lonely. And
then they're like, so money diarist, we're going to have
to move out. I would have been like, what am
I going to do.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, it was definitely like, Okay, I didn't expect this
to happen. But thankfully, because I was classified as low income,
I ended up qualifying for rental assistance under like the
National Rental Affordability Scheme, so I was able to get
my own apart apartment in the city closer to UNI.
And yeah, even though that was subsidized, my rent pretty
(16:06):
much still doubled. So I had to unfortunately make the
tough decision to drop down to part time study because yeah,
it just felt like I was doing way too much
at that stage, so I think it was a responsible
decision to make. So I was then working two jobs,
but I actually managed to get an engineering placement job
(16:28):
and then I was still doing my original camp job
at nighttime.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Oh my goodness, were you burning out because that sounds
like a lot.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I think back in COVID as well, like because there
were so many restrictions, Like doing my night job was
actually fun because it was actually like the only legal
way I could socialize with friends. But yeah, definitely dropping
back to part time, I think it was just something
that was get inevitable, like something was going to give
at that stage, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Wow, Okay, so what happens we're coming let's like jump forward,
we're coming out of COVID. Did you get to finish
your degrees at some point during that process or is
that post COVID?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah, So in the second last year of UNI, I
actually met my current partner cy you. So he moved
into my apartment in our final year, which really helped
take the stress of my budget to be able to
quit my second job and go back to full time
study to finish my degrees. And then he was also
(17:32):
a double degree student, actually studying finance. Funnily enough, so
with the little savings I put aside, I also managed
to start my own investment journey, which we can talk
about a bit later.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm excited to get into that because I just know
you're a hustler, Like I have picked up that you're
not only like fun live by the beach, but also
like really switched on. So I just I know everything
is going to be so fun. So you met your partner?
Do we live together?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Like?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
What's the stitch there?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yes, we still live together. We have a house together now.
But yeah, he's definitely a hard worker like I am.
He's an engineer as well. So it really feels like
we're on the same wavelength with our life goals and
things like that.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Love and so, tell me a little bit about today.
What do you do for work and how much money
do you earn?
Speaker 3 (18:19):
So my job titles have been a bit all over
the place, but I generally refer to myself as a
civil and environmental engineer. And I'm currently on one hundred
and forty thousand dollars base salary plus bonuses.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And plus super yes, plus super Oh my goodness. So
she's on like one sixty ish depending on the year.
That is not crazy, That is just crazy cool money
dist with that income, what are your big money goals?
What are you currently working towards? Because you said you
have a house, like and I feel like that's the
great Australian dream. So once you kind of tick that box,
(18:54):
where do we go from there?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah, So my smaller goals at the moment is tidying
up our shared and then some of my larger goals
is we're currently in a townhouse at the moment, so
we would love to get a house with a backyard
one day and hopefully keep our current place as an
investment and also things I think a little bit further
(19:15):
down the track, like I would love to be able
to semi retire by fifty, so I need to figure
out how to like optimize my investment goals to get there.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Oh I love that, So tell me a little bit
more about that process, because I feel like sometimes when
we're planning to purchase property, like we really get set
on just that property and not like the longer term strategy.
And you mentioned that you were like, oh, well, you know,
we live there, but like we want it to be
an investment. Was that always the plan or were you
(19:45):
kind of like, good to buy this house, like that's
you know, my ride or die plan. I haven't thought
about strategy, or were you like, look, this will be
our first home and we'll go into our next after that.
Like what were your thought patterns there?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I don't think we really thought too much of it.
I think, being in like the economy sort of that
we are at the moment, our plan was just to
get into the market as soon as possible, because unfortunately,
like if me living in a garage wasn't enough of
an indication. But I had some bad experiences with the
rental market, and like our rent just kept going up
(20:20):
and up and up after COVID, so we just wanted
to get out of that system. But definitely selecting the
property that we were going to buy, like I think,
we did want to see a bit of potential in
it that we could potentially use it as an investment
one day.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah, very cool. All right, let's go to a really
quick break because I have a lot of questions and
it's all about the juicy stuff. So guys don't go anywhere,
all right, money, dirist, We are back, and I really
want to talk about your investments now. So you mentioned
that you have a portfolio because you want to retire earlier.
(20:58):
Tell me a little bit more about the first time
you invest it.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Sure, So my portfolio is a little bit all over
the place. But I first started investing maybe in my
second last year of UNI. As I mentioned, my partner
studies finance, so I think it was a little bit
of jealousy that he had investments and I didn't. So
with the little savings that I had back then, I
(21:22):
put a little bit into crypto, which I'm not proud of.
I feel like it's such a gateway for a lot
of people.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
You're allowed to be like obviously not proud of I
get that, but also like I don't think we should
be embarrassed of it either, because it just means that
you wanted to be on the investing journey and you're like, wow,
this sounds like something for me, and like we all
get a bit caught up with peer pressure and what
everyone else is doing. But like, how cool that you
had that experience you could reframe what it looked like
(21:49):
and now be on a different journey, Like you're the
type of person who wants more for themselves and like
that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, And as I learned a little bit more about
the sort of risk profiles and things like that, once
the initial money that i'd invested in that kind of
like the profits work their way up, I took the
original amount out, so at the moment it's just fluctuating
between like around two grand ish and then around At
(22:16):
the same time, I also started micro investing, so I
have a little portfolio in spaceship as well, which I
do regular transfers into Love and that's sitting at about
five thousand dollars currently.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah. Love, Oh that's not so micro anymore, my friend.
I love that you're like I have a little micro
investing platform and then bam, it's five grand.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, it's definitely been going along for a long time though,
so it's good to see it finally reaching a like
larger number. And then within spaceship as well, I also
have some ETFs, so that's sitting at about two and
a half thousand as well. Love and then on top
of my micro investing as well, I also have a
Comsec account which I've been contributing to a lot more
(22:59):
regular so I've been trying to bring that up, and
that's sitting at five thousand dollars as well. And then
all together my portfolio is sitting at about fifteen thousand dollars.
But yeah, as you heard, it's quite spread out all
over the shop, so I'd probably like to consolidate that
a bit in the future.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Totally. I think that a lot of people in your
situation have started on micro investing platforms, so they're kind
of like, I don't know when the right time is
to like transition to like the bigger platform or like,
you know, go into a more quite serious investment strategy,
And sometimes the best strategy is to kind of start fresh.
I'm not giving advice here, I promise, But sometimes if
(23:36):
you've been invested for so long in a micro investing
platform and it's doing well, there's actually no need to consolidate. Like, yes,
you're paying double fees, but you're paying fees on that
amount of money and then you're paying fees on this
other amount of money, and I think that sometimes it's
not worth triggering the capital gains. But at the same time,
for some people, they're like, well, Victoria, I just want
(23:58):
it to be clean, and like, I'm the same. I
love cleaning house and feeling like everything's in the same wheelhouse.
Sometimes buying and selling in the same market is what
they do, so they like sell down their portfolio on
one platform and then buy within the same few days
to make sure that, like if you're buying a share
and it's worth X, it's worth while basically during the
same period so that they can clean it up. Have
(24:20):
you thought about your transition period or whether it's even
worth it not.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
At this stage, I don't mind having a few different
accounts because it kind of also shows my journey. So
as long as things keep making profit, I'll probably leave
them as is. But yeah, maybe when it gets to
a higher amount I'd probably like to seek some more
financial advice on kind of what I should do with
everything and like the best strategy to have moving forward
(24:45):
to get my goals totally.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
All right, tell me a little bit about your superannuation.
You've been working since you were really young, so I
have a sneaky suspicion it probably looks okay.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Yeah, my super is actually sitting at the moment at
ninety thousand.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Stop it, ninety grand You are only twenty seven years old,
my friend.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, it's crazy. And that's after the first Home Super
Saver withdrawal as well, So yeah, I'm pretty happy.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Stop it all right? So you have ninety thousand dollars
in Super. I'll ask you in a hot minute about
your first Home Super Savior scheme because we'll get to
talking about your property. But how do you have ninety
thousand dollars?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I think it's just a combination of I've been working
in like a government job for a long time, so
they do like a deal where if you put in
extra then they'll kind of match it. So I was
doing that for a little while, and then with my
recent pay rise, I've also bumped up my salary sacrifice
contributions to about two hundred dollars a fortnight, So I've
(25:47):
always been like putting a little bit extra in there
as well.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
So tell me about what the plan is for that.
You said that you wanted to maybe retire early. Is
that something that you're going to keep aggressively contributing to
because girl, you're doing well or is it like a
split between your actual investments and then your super like
what does that look like in your head?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah, I think I'm going to keep doing both at
this stage, just because it is nice to see the
number keep going up. But I think I'll probably reassess
things once my Hex debt is paid off as well,
because that'll give me a little bit extra to play with.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Love. So I want to kind of pivot to debt
and your home buying journey, and I'll ask you about
the first time super savory in a second. But do
you have any debt? If so, how much?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
So?
Speaker 3 (26:31):
I have my Hex debt, which two STEM degrees are
pretty expensive, So that started at sixty thousand dollars. So
I was very grateful for the twenty percent cut last year. Yeah, yes, yeah,
and I've just been letting that pay itself in the background,
and it's currently at about thirty thousand dollars, so hopefully
that'll be gone by the time I'm thirty.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Hey, that's not too bad. Honestly, with the tracking, I
feel like for a lot of people they were like,
oh yeah, I'm getting a little bit off my head.
But for people who had double degrees, I think where
you were all like, oh my god, this is like
a wizardry. Like I was so secretly excited for it,
because just like you, I haven't been contributing extra and
I've just been letting it like tick away in the background.
(27:13):
But seeing that come off, I was like, oh, that
feels nice, like thank you. And it's not often that
a government scheme benefits me, and that's obviously incredibly privileged
and I don't need them too, but I was like, oh,
this is cool. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
I was so grateful actually start to see it go
down for once, especially with all the indexation the last
few years.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Totally. So tell me more about this first home super
saviort scheme. How much you put in, how much you
pulled out, and what all of that looks like.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, So, as I said before, we had a few
bad experiences renting, so my partner and I one of
our biggest goals once we graduated was to start to
save for a home and I think back then, like
I just I didn't really know where to get started.
(28:01):
So I've kind of written down all the numbers because
I think they were the numbers that would have sort
of helped me get my head around it.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Love, So what did those numbers look like?
Speaker 3 (28:10):
So when we first started researching all of the government schemes,
we came across the first home super savers scheme and
we didn't really know what it was or if we
had any money that was eligible. So we learned that
you can do a check through the ATO and it'll
like you check your numbers and see if you've got
anything eligible. And I actually found out that I had
(28:32):
ten thousand dollars eligible. So I thought I was starting
my home deposit saving journey from zero, but thankfully I wasn't,
which was really motivating.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
That's actually so fun, and I think that's something a
lot of people don't know. So if they have been
contributing extra to their super over time, that actually can
be pulled out if you wanted to. I'm not saying
it's always a good idea but how good if it's
an additional contribution you made that it can actually like
kick start your home savings scheme. Like that's cool.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
And the other thing was like the tax savings as well,
because I think when you take it out, you pay
less tax on it as well. So I started playing
around with my salary sacrifice just through like my company's
payroll team, and I think I had that up at
about five hundred dollars a fortnight towards the end. But
because of the tax exemptions or I don't know how
(29:25):
to explain it, but it didn't reduce my take home
as much as what I was putting in, if that
makes sense.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, totally totally. It would have been because you're not
like close enough to the band. So like I think
a lot of the time people hope that they drop
down a tax or like a marginal tax, right, but
unfortunately that's not the case for everybody. How much did
you end up putting into the first Home super Saviors
scheme and how much did you end up pulling out?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
I think by the end of it, I had about
twenty five thousand dollars sitting in there that was eligible.
But like I said, with my tax bracket. It kind
of felt like I was getting a bit of free
money from that system because like, you put money in,
but it's not affecting your take home pay. So I
was really trying to like put as much of it
in there as I can to make the most out
(30:10):
of that scheme totally.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
And I feel like people just don't hear me when
I go, it's really sexy. You should absolutely look into
whether it suits you, because like, I just feel like
it doesn't sound sexy, like the first time Super Saviors
game is a mouthful and not something that like when
we talk about it, people go, Yay, that's exciting, But
you're right, it can be like free money, which is
really really fun. How much did you end up purchasing
(30:34):
your first home for?
Speaker 3 (30:35):
So I wasn't really sure what our budget should be
at the start, so we actually went and sat down
with a mortgage broker, which helped us sort of run
different versions of like, if we've bought a house for
this much, how much the repayments would be. So through
doing that, we kind of settled on that our budget
was around the seven hundred thousand dollar mark, so we
(30:59):
also eligible for the five percent I think it's the
first home guarantee scheme, so we only had to save
four or five percent deposit. So we ended up finding
our townhouse for six hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which
we purchased in October twenty twenty four. It was an
older townhouse that was two kilometers from the beach and
(31:23):
it's been rented out its whole life as well, so
it's pretty low maintenance. And our original loan amount was
for six hundred and ten thousand, so of that we
had a forty thousand dollars deposit, and then we were
also able to keep ten thousand dollars in living expenses
in our offset account, which I didn't realize at the
(31:46):
time how strict some of the schemes could be. So
the five percent deposit scheme, they don't let you keep
a lot of money in savings. You kind of have
to put everything that you have into the loan. So yeah,
it interesting having to calculate all that, but thankfully we
had really good mortgage brokers to help us through all
of the terms and conditions totally.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And it can be really frustrating because sometimes you see
a scheme like that and go, wow, it's only five percent,
so we'll have so much cash left over. But it's
kind of like, yes, it's five percent if you only
have five percent, but if you have more, they kind
of want you to tip that towards it as well
to bring down your LVR. And it can be frustrating
because you see it as a kind of not a
get out of jail free card. But you go, well,
(32:29):
I've got the twenty percent, I only want to use five,
but they'll go, oh, no, no, no, this is probably
not for you. So has that restricted you in it
any way? Or are you kind of like, yeah, it
kind of sits in our offset. But at the same time,
like we still got into property at a sooner point.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, I think the benefit of just getting into property
early was worth it because although we only had to
save a forty thousand dollars deposit, which like even though
I say, although like the split between two people, it's manageable,
but it was really the repayments that we're kind of
making us a little bit more nervous about our budget
(33:04):
because I think our payments at the moment are sitting
around thirty six hundred dollars a month, so split between
two people, it's the equivalent of about I think four
hundred dollars a week in rent, So it's a little
bit more than what we were paying before. But yeah,
it's just the numbers that you kind of have to
(33:24):
get your head around at the start. I think before yeah,
jumping into such a huge property purchase.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Totally, and I think it can be as you mentioned
or like similarly mentioned, it can be much easier saving
for the deposit because you're so happy to like scrimp
and save and be like, oh my goodness, if we,
you know, cut the budget this month, we can get
an extra thousand dollars or whatever it might look like
for you. But the reality is, once you get the mortgage,
that's actually for the next thirty years, So that thirty
(33:51):
six hundred dollars commitment every single month you have to
think about it and you go, well, that is equivalent
to paying four hundred dollars a week rent. Am I
comfortable with committing to that financial outlay? Even though yes
we are creating wealth and yes we own the roof
over our head and all of that fun stuff, Like girl,
that's still a lot of money, like the lifestyle that
surrounds that, Like, would you arguably go and rent something
(34:14):
for four hundred dollars a week and then leave that lifestyle.
Are you comfortable with that? Because that's the question we
have to ask ourselves. Obviously there's like overlays of like
wealth building and like but I own it and whatnot,
And I totally get that, But I also just look
at it and go, well, if you wouldn't do that
because you don't want that lifestyle, that's what that mortgage
is going to push you into.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Yeah, and I feel like there's schemes they are and
they sound like a really good thing to get people
into the market, but yeah, when you're faced with the
reality of what you have to pay, it's that's where
the house pricing sort of craziness comes into it. But yeah,
because we were lucky enough to get a three bedroom townhouse,
we were able to get a roommate as well, so
(34:55):
she also contributes a little bit of money every week
and we're put that straight into our home loaners extra
repayments to try and get our loan to value ratio
a little bit higher because it does start so low.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, I love that. So tell me you purchased pull
six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in twenty twenty four,
what's the property worth today? And how much have you
paid off?
Speaker 3 (35:18):
So our property is currently worth eight hundred and ten
thousand dollars, which stop it in two years, Like, I
can't believe that it's gone up that much. And our
current loan amount is five hundred and seventy five thousand
dollars and we've kept black a similar sort of amount
maintained in our offset account. But yeah, our bank gives
(35:40):
us these statements, and because of the extra repayments we've
been making, we've already cut four years off the life
of our loan within those two years. So I'm really
proud of us. First, so exciting, Yeah, putting some extra
money in there, and it really.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Does d up. Like at the time, you're kind of like,
does this make sense? Like is it actually like you know,
cheapy away at what the mortgage looks like. But then
over the two years, four years off your mortgage is huge, Like,
and I know that life is going to look a
little bit different, and you've probably got plans to purchase
a different home and this can be an investment, but like,
how good your investment has increased in value and you're
(36:16):
also chipping away at the time it will take to
pay off that loan. What's your next property step, Like
you're already talking about different properties or you like, Victoria, no, no, no,
we're just gonna sit here for a while. Like it's
already a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
We're happy just to sit for a little while and
sort of see how our life circumstances go. Because we're
still quite young, so we're not really sure what the
future holds in terms of like family and things like that.
So yeah, we're just happy to knuckle down and keep
paying our mortgage. At the moment.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
I love this. And how's having a housemate going? Like
is that something that you're like, yeah, it's really good,
Like it's great, or you're like, look, it's good for
the mortgage, but like I would love to have my
own space.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
I think because we've got right from being like poor
unique students living in share houses to then like young
graduates also living in share houses. Like it's just we've
always been used to living with other people. But in
saying that, we have gotten really lucky and found a
really good roommate that's easy to live with. So yeah,
(37:18):
that'll definitely help us out longer term love.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
So tell me I'm really interested here. Now you have
a mortgage. Do you have your personal insurances set up?
If so, how did you work that out? If not,
why not?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
My friend so, I do have personal insurance with him,
my super which I just bumped the amounts up again
with like my promotion and like a house purchase as well.
So I feel like it's all good and well to say,
like yes to having insurance, but if you don't, like
bump it up as your life changes and like check
your beneficiaries and things like that, Yeah, it's important to do.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
You are not wrong. It's something that whenever my friends
are like, oh we bought a house, I'm that really down.
A friend that's like, oh my god, congrats, I can't
I to come over and see it. So did you
log into your insurances and check what coverage you have?
Or someone says, oh my goodness, Victoria, were so excited
we're having a baby. I go, oh my goodness, that's
so good. Check your life insurance like it's crazy, but
(38:13):
like I just from my position as an ex financial advisor,
I'm just so on top of stuff like that because
I just want the best for you. But I also
just go there's so much risk in not having enough, Like,
just make sure you're protecting yourselves. Now you seem really
financially savvy. What do you think is your best money habit.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I think I just say consistency, Like, although I'm only
twenty seven, I've had some level of financial independence literally
from when I was thirteen and got my first bank account.
So I think it's just experienced building systems that work
for me and then changing them as my life changes.
So I have all my auto chancewers for everything, and
(38:55):
of course, like not everyone's perfect, like you do have
little splurges you have on expected payments coming up, But
I feel like it all kind of balances out in the.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
End, love, and I feel like that's a really good
mindset to have as well, like being like, look, it
all balances out in the end because I have a
system in place, and yes, I sometimes splurge, Like to me,
that's really healthy.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Yeah, And I think also it is easy big able
to be honest with your friends, Like people in their
twenties are at such different stages. So if one of
my friends is saving for a euro trip, will go
to a picnic instead of a bar, like there's no
shame around having different savings goals.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Or budgets exactly, And I think that it is so
much more. I don't know. I feel like your twenties
and thirties is a period of really high contrast, Like
we shouldn't be comparing, but we inherently do.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
We look at our friends and be like, Wow, they're
going on a europe trip, or Wow, they're buying their
first home. But like, you're twenty seven, You've got your
first home, you're paying off a mortgage, like you're a hustle,
you're earning one hundred and forty grand a year. It's
very likely that you still have friends that are still
at UNI. Like I feel like at that point in time,
you're like, Wow, everyone so different. And it isn't until
you start to get to your late thirties that things
(40:03):
start to get a little bit similar. But we're all
so different, and I think that that's genuinely so nice
because it's like everyone's having different life experiences and everyone's
you know, doing their own thing. Like we should continue that.
Like I personally, I am not planning my Michanos euro
trip because I have two small kids, but I'm so
excited for my friends that are tell me on the
(40:26):
flip side, what do you think your worst money habit is.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
So, although I have really good budgets set up, I've
never really tracked my actual spending. So I feel like
we have so much going on now that we have
a mortgage and we have shared bills, firsuts, personal bills,
and then like savings on top of that. So I
want to be really mindful of lifestyle creep. So I
need to get a bit of a better system in
(40:50):
place for I guess tracking actual spending to see how
that's going.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And what does it look like when you have conversations
about money with your partner, Like obviously, you know, being
really open and honest is really helpful, but like if
you're not super on top of budgeting, is it something
that comes up often in your household or is it
something we're like, nah, we're kind of just on the
same page. Or does your partner like have a super
strict budget or something like that.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
No, it's pretty good because we both still bank separately,
but then we have a shared account together for all
our shared spendings. Because I think it's good, Like I
don't want him to feel guilty for going and playing
golf or going out with his friends and vice versa, Like,
I don't want to feel guilty if I'm prioritizing like
a Pilates membership or yeah, going to out with my friends. Like,
(41:38):
we both sort of keep things separately and then we
sort of discuss how we want to combine that together.
And another good thing we do is we have like
a date night account together as well.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
So yeah, stop, that's really cute. That's really cute. So
what you both contribute on like a weekly or a
monthly basis to your date night?
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Does that?
Speaker 2 (41:58):
I don't know that sounds really but like in a
way do you guys both look at it and be like, oh,
there's x amount in there, we can go out to
a bougie dinner or are you like just banking it up?
How does that work?
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yeah? It definitely reminds us when it starts to get
a little bit more money in it, that we need
to use it. So yeah, if we do find that
it's saved up a little bit too high, we'll go
camping or we'll go on a little we can get away.
So it's yeah, it's a really good way to save together.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Oh, it's like a little like and this is probably
not how you're seeing it. I'm like, look, it's like
an investment into your relationship fund. So if you haven't
gone out in a while, like it kind of tells you, Hey,
you haven't gone out in a while. Because there's more
money in here than there usually is, you can have
a weekend away.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
I love that money diarist. Now we've had a chat.
Do you feel like the grade you gave yourself at
the start was accurate? If not?
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (42:47):
If so, how are you doubling down? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (42:51):
I think so. Like I'm pretty happy with my A.
I think it's good to keep a little bit of
room for improvement.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So yeah, I feel like you are absolutely smashing it.
Like you are twenty seven, you work in STEM, you
have two degrees, Like I feel like your head is
screwed on so well. Like I just I'm so proud
of you, so proud that you're in my community. And
I wish we had so much more time to keep
yapping because I feel like we absolutely could. So thank
you so much for sharing your journey with that She's
(43:17):
on the Money community, because I just know we don't
get enough women in stem on the show who are
also quite young and trying to carve their way out.
So thank you. I really really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
No, thank you for having me. It's been really fun.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Advice tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized represented
gives of money sirper P T Y L t D
A b N three two one six four nine two
seven seven.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Zero eight a F s L four five one two
eight nine
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