My Mum Spent My Savings. It Changed the Way I Think About Money Forever.

Growing up, her mum believed in spending now and worrying later. Her dad was the complete opposite. He planned ahead, saved where he could, and quietly showed her what financial security could look like.

After her parents separated, everything changed.

By 14, she'd landed her first job and was handing over every pay cheque, believing it was going straight into savings. It wasn't. When she finally asked for the money back, there was barely anything left.

That moment shaped everything that came next.

She worked three jobs while studying full-time, bought her first home on her own, met her now husband, and together they've built the life they'd always dreamed of. Today they're raising two little girls in their forever home on acreage, growing their investments and already thinking about the money lessons they'll pass on to the next generation.

We chat about growing up between two completely different money mindsets, buying a home solo in your twenties, building wealth as a family, finding a partner who champions your financial goals, and why sometimes the biggest gift a parent gives you isn't money. It's showing you the kind of person you want to become.

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Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.

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 advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 4451289

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t Glenn Young
Ganya Niana, Kaka yah Ya bin Ahaka nian Ar gay
In Mbina, yakarum jar Dominyamga Domaga Ithawakaman damon imlan Bumba
bang Gadabomba in and now in wakah ghana on yakram
jar Watnadaa. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather on the lands

(00:24):
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 (00:45):
She's on the Money. She's on the Money. Hello, and

(01:08):
welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast that LEDs
you me pervy about other people's money habits for educational purposes,
of course. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries,
brought to you by our friends at Sky Wealth, where
I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with one
of our beautiful community members and talking to them all
about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this
week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi,

(01:32):
She's on the Money. My mum has always been very
spend now lived for today, while my dad is the
complete opposite, a planner and a saver. Growing up between
those two very different approaches to money shaped me, especially
after my parents separated and I was raised by my dad.
In twenty twenty one, I bought my first home on
my own after working three jobs to make it happen.

(01:54):
I later met my now husband, who was admittedly terrible
with money at the time. We started working together on
our finances, learning from each other, and becoming much more
intentional about our goals. Since then, we've bought our dream home,
built up our savings and our investments, and welcomed to children.
We now want to keep improving our own financial future,

(02:15):
whilst also teaching our kids to have a healthy and
confident relationship with money. I'm also friends with another money
diarist and was the one who introduced her to She's
on the Money, which has been a huge part of
my own financial journey too. Money Diarist, thanks for having
my back. And being a solid referral partner. I appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
That is okay, It's been our financial bible. It's heavy
in the mum Chat and the girl chat.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
I love this. I feel like mum group Chat is
where I want to thrive, Like that's where I want
to be.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
It is. It's branched off into selected mum group Chat.
But they're a great bunch.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Honestly, if it was all about me, I'd be quite disappointed. Yeah,
honestly that's I don't know about you, but my mum
group chap pops off at three am at the moment,
and I'm just I don't want to talk finance at
that point. I want to talk shop Fair Fair.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
There are a lot of three am purchases in that babyas.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
What happens at three am, it's honestly none of my business.
It doesn't count when everybody else is sleeping. So it's
an investment into my mental health. Exactly, exactly, exactly, all right, money, Daris,
Before we get further into it, what grade would you
give your money habits from A three to F if
I asked you to give them a grade, I.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Think currently I would rate myself probably a C plus
I've got some learning to do, but I've come a
long way, Queen.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
After that intro, you're going to go That intro gets
a C plus.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Maybe okay, maybe we'll bump it to a B. There's
definitely rim for improvement.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
We're already bumping. All right, we're already bumping. I don't
even get people to bump at the start usually. But
let's learn a little bit more about your money diary,
because I have a sneaky suspicion you're doing better than
you think you are. Let's start from the top. Can
you tell me a bit more about your money story
and the things that have impacted it.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
So I grew up quite well off and my parents
were together. It wasn't until later.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
In life where I started to realize those habits and
what they meant.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
But we grew up in quite a lush house. You know.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
It was a double story back in the early days.
That was living, and we had three rumpers rooms. That
actually is living. And also the word lush, can we
make that a comeback word? Yeah, if you're like calling
things lush, you just got Yeah, that was lush. Oh
you had a rumpus room as well off, Yes, we
had a rumpus room.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
The on suite had a spa built into it. My
dad had his own pool room, like it was we
were living a pool room.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah. Can I ask some more niche questions? Was there
a fridge in the rumpest room? They're sure? Was there
was a bar?

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (05:03):
See seat live in? Live in? Did you have a
double door fridge? By chance? We did? And we also
had the double doors to the room retreat like the
room the doors on the room till they had glass
in them, didn't they? Yes, yes, Oh she's rich. Yes,
it was very nineties rich.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yes, probably not twenty twenties rich, but nineties absolutely no.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
But also isn't it funny how things have changed and
what that looks like like in wealth, Like there was
such significant markers of wealth or what we thought it
looked like back then, like if you had a rumpus room, like, oh, girl,
I can't wait to come to your house.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, two downstairs, one upstairs.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
It was the house to be at with all the kids.
All right, Well, tell me more, tell me more. So
it wasn't until my parents decided to split. Definitely for
the better, for the better, but also like lok rude, sure, yeah,
I had three rumpus rooms.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Exactly exactly, and Dad, being dad, gave Mum the house.
She had the three kids, so you can have the house.
What a nice guy legend. But soon discovered Mum couldn't
afford the house on her own, little earned the car
or anything like that, so it all started to crumble

(06:27):
and things started to change. We went from Sam to
bring us thirty plus presents every Christmas to like three
or four, which as a mom, now I think that's
quite modest. But back in the day, I wondered, what
have we done wrong?

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, it's the expectation you set, right, Like, don't get
me wrong, there's no way my kids are getting thirty
plus presents each at Christmas time. But if that's the
expectation you've set with your children and then something changes,
they don't oh mom and Dad might be in a
different financial position, or they don't even see like, oh,

(07:04):
I got thirty presents and those presents were two dollars each.
They don't see that, they see volume, So like, I
don't know. I feel like I even had to change
my mindset as I got a little bit older, like
Santa used to bring us, like you know, ten quite
cheap presents in santa sacks, and then all of a sudden,
I was asking for something bigger, and my mom had
to be like, did you know if you ask Santa

(07:26):
for that, he was only going to get like one
or two presents as opposed to thirty. Like not that
we got that, but you know what I mean, Like
you have to reset the expectation, and you would be like,
was I naughty?

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Like did I?

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Usually literally you think you've done something wrong. But aside
from Santa getting stingy, we moved from like rental house
to rental house. We were constantly moving once if not
twice a year. Mum had obviously sold that family home,
and just things looked very, very different for us. I

(07:58):
didn't get to see Dad as much. He'd moved back
in with his mum, going through a divorce and trying
to pick himself back up.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
So that's what it kind of looked like early on.
Can I be a little bit pervy and ask what
led to that? Because obviously you said before Dad's a legend,
Mom could have the house, but mom couldn't afford the house.
Now what leads you to then moving so regularly? Because
I feel like that's you know, getting a cheap rental property. Sure,

(08:26):
but like, why were you moving so consistently?

Speaker 3 (08:29):
I just think mum is a very much like appearance person,
keeping up with the joneses. If the house was old,
or it didn't look great, or you know, it didn't suit,
we needed to move. If if her friends had something,
we needed to move closer to them, or if we
didn't have that many friends. My sister and I we'd

(08:50):
share a room, but then as soon as we'd start
to make friends, people would see our house and then
it wasn't acceptable anymore to you know, have her kids
sharing a bedroom, so we need to move to something different.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Well, okay, I'm glad, I asked.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, it was all about the appearances and what made
us look like we were doing fine, when in hindsight
it really didn't matter. Roof over your head I think
is pretty bloody good.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
One hundred percent. But I guess what did that look
like for your mom? Obviously that's coming from maybe being
a little bit insecure or you know, wanting more than
what you can currently afford. But was that, you know,
because she grew up with that? Was that because she
was just like wanting the best for her children or
was it just you know, do you know where that
came from. I think it's just the kind of person

(09:40):
she is.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Since I've gotten older and done a lot of diving
within myself and you know, I have a really strong
relationship with my dad and talking to him about that
and the breakup between him and mum, and you know,
doing outside work, I think, like I see it now,
my mum is very narcissistic and very opinionated, her way

(10:02):
or the high way, very like a simple minded, very
money money money, but doesn't seem to want to really
do the work to have that higher income. She'll find
a way, okay, to cheat a system kind of thing.
It's yes, it's not the greatest.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
No, So it would be safe for me to assume
you don't have a great relationship with your mum, not.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Necessarily certainly not the same as my dad's. But she's
definitely in the picture, but at an arm's length now
that I have children.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, I was like, oh, I like immediately,
And it's funny because like I have the privilege of
being able to see you, and our community can't see
you because you're obviously anonymous, but I love when I
ask about people and their faces light up because I said, like, oh,
so your dad, like you know, let your mom have
the house, and like you were like yeah, legend, and
your whole face lit up, and I was like, okay,

(10:56):
cool that she has a fantastic relationship with her dad,
like I can already tell. And then when your mom
came up, I was like, oh, I'm reading between some
lines already.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, I think I might ask and be a little
bit of hervy because I think I'll get here, so
I do apologize, but it's also important, right, Like and
do you think that that's just her personality or it's
money driving that kind of personality.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
I think she is very money driven, very very money driven.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Like as like my story goes on, like when I
needed like center Link and things with like studying in
youth support and youth allowance and mental systems, she was
always the first person to be like, oh, you need
to do this, or I'll do that for you, or
like you're entitled to this, You're entitled to that, and

(11:45):
it's just it's not something that sits great with me
at all.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, Okay, you were like, oh, I just need a
bit of support but it was like the mindset behind it, right, yeah, yeah,
very much, so, very much so so yeah, and so
what did that look like as you got a bit older,
Like I feel like as a kid stepping back, like, yeah,
you think you've done something wrong at Christmas time. But
then you start to get older and I think, you know,

(12:10):
once you hit your early teens, you start putting two
and two together. And that's that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
All this I don't know if I'm allowed to say,
but all this bullshit that my mum fed me, I
started to realize that's so not what the case is.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
It was a very one sided story.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
And being older, and you know, growing up, you start
to become curious and learn things.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
And I think the relationship, I don't.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
Know if it's genetics or what it is with my dad,
it's just it's so solid that I don't think mum
realized how much of a bond like her kids had
with their dad. But when I turned fourteen and I
could get a job, I went got a job straight away.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
I was a macas fry girl. Oh good, John Queen.
It was shoveling fries. It was so good.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
I remember my first shift was like three hours and
I probably got paid like, oh, probably like fifteen dollars
an hour if that. And I was so tied after
my first shift, and I like slept like twelve hours
and it was literally a three hour shift on the
fry station.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, but also it's not the fry station, like it
was the mental load of like now having to learn
a new task and like trying to appease everybody and
probably trying to absorb everything all at one time. Like
I remember, way back in the day when I was
learning to drive, Whenever I did, like, you know, Mum
would be like, all right, well, Victoria, you're trying to
get your l's and you know, you need to do

(13:38):
your hours. And so I'd like get in the car
and drive to school and then I'd have a headache
because I'd concentrated so hard. Like, yeah, I was exhausted.
I feel like, it's just it's new. Everything that is
new is genuinely hard at the start. But you were
like VI, it was shoveling fries. I don't know what
happened in my queen. You were genuinely di is I was.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
I was, But with that first job came an income.
I was so excited I was earning money. I was like, yes,
I'm earning money, like this is awesome. And then my
mom turned around and said, no worries, just transfer me
your pay and I'll put it in your savings. So
I just started transferring my money to my mom and

(14:22):
just didn't think anything of it.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
She just looked after it.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
I didn't pay bills, I didn't pay my phone bill
like anything.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Mum just covered it. She was like, it's the best
thing I could you can do. So started doing that.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
And then a year or so went by and I
remember asking I needed to get some money out, and
there was significantly less than what I thought there would be.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
And she turned around and she goes.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Oh, well, you have to pay for like petrol to
get to work, so I took that out.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
And you know your phone, like you had to pay
for that, So I took that out.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
And oh we went for dinner this night, so I
took some out there, and before I knew it, like
turns out, I'd been paying my way without even knowing
I was paying my way.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
You said something interesting before, you said, I don't know
what contributed to the strong bond we had with my
dad it was genetics, or like, maybe it could have
been genetics, babe, it wasn't it was respect, Like yeah, true,
that's actually that's probably very very true. Like yes, it
probably is genetics to an extent, sure, like blood is
thicker than water all of that stuff, But like, I'm

(15:26):
assuming this man actually respected you. And then it's crazy
how quickly a bond can grow when you have a
really stark contrast, Like because you had that contrast between
your mum and your dad immediately, even if you couldn't
comprehend it, you were probably like dad can trust, Mom
cannot trust. And that obviously is going to mean that

(15:48):
even if you're like fourteen years and nine months and
have your first job and you don't actually have your
frontal lobe developed yet, you can still lean into being
like I actually feel safe telling him things, and therefore
your relationship grows and blossoms. But you probably held back
a lot once you learned that about your mum. Right, absolutely,
I started.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
To almost resent my mom. I felt like I was
the like the black sheep in the family. My older
sister and her had this inseparable relationship and I just.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Didn't have that.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
I didn't like materialistic things. I didn't like shopping and
doing all the things that mom did. She'd go out
and just spread like money was no object. And I
remember talking to Dad about it and was like, I'm
just I'm not sure what to do here. I'm stuck
at my mom's and I'm not, like, this is not
what I want. And Dad actually said to me, I'll

(16:41):
open up a savings account for you, and it's in
your name. And it was one of those little Bendigo
bank passbook money ones. You go in and you take
the book and you know, it's like an old school
like printer and it scans it in and stuff. And
I started giving a portion of my pay to my
dad so that my mum didn't know that I was

(17:03):
putting money on the side, and she just assumed she
was getting it all and no questions us, Oh my.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
God, that's so sad though it is, it really is.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
And then I think I must have we must have
had an argument or something over I wanted to buy
something or do something, and she told me I didn't
have the money for it, and I couldn't understand why
as I was working, and I just I wrote a
letter and I put it on my bed, and I
texted my dad and I said, I live with you now,
and my dad picked me up. Oh icon dad, Yeah,

(17:34):
he was on his way to work and he just
came picked me up. And he'd had three daughters, none
of any who have lived with him since he'd been separated,
and now all of a sudden he's got a teenager
to look after.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Oh goodness, and how did that go? Because like, putting
a letter on a bed like that sounds like movie
kind of what it does, doesn't it. I'm a bit dramatic,
not no same queen, Like if I was going to
do something would be like that. Thankfully I wasn't in
that situation, but I'm like, yeah, that sounds like something
I would try to pull. Tell me what happens after
you leave a letter on your bed and you go

(18:09):
to your dad's house.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
So I didn't hear from my mum for about five years.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
After then she just comes solously.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Abandoned me, cut me off. My dad would try and
communicate with her, even just to get my bed back.
And the response was, I paid for that bed, it's
my bed. So I didn't get my bed, I didn't
get any of my stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
I got to a little child, like literally, your child,
what are you doing?

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Yeah, so I got I got like a black trash
bag with like my work uniforms, some essential like clothes
like pants and stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
And then and that was it.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
And then I told Dad about the money that I
should have in this so called savings and all of
a sudden, Mom didn't remember any of that, and it
just it didn't matter.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
It all went. I just had nothing. So that was hard.
I'm so sorry, my heart. Oh, I want to give
baby you a hug be for real, like no kid
deserves that.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
No, it was awful, but I genuinely think it made
me the person I am today and I know the
mom that I want to be to my children.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, and that's a gift in a way, that's such
a gift, Like and every day you just know, and
you know what, I hope your kids don't take you
for granted, but at the times that they do, they're
taking you for granted because they trust you. And that's
also really beautiful, like it is because they know they're
not walking on eggshells with you, Like that's crazy cool exactly. So, yeah,

(19:44):
I lived with Dad and.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Then I started saving again, and I didn't really know
what I wanted to do. I've gone through this big change.
I was like fifteen at the time at this point,
and I said to Dad, I was doing really poorly
in school. I said, I think I want to go
overseas and become an exchange student and do that. And
Dad was like absolutely, like you're working, go for it.

(20:09):
If that's what you want to do, I'll support you
on it. And I applied and then I saw how
much it would cost me and I didn't have ten
grand at fifteen like to go over and you know,
I just lost this money from my mum. So I
actually got offered a scholarship because I rejected it, and
I can't go, like I don't have the financial means.

(20:31):
I'm supporting this trip on my own, like it's something
I want to do, so I'm going to do it.
So I got offered a scholarship for half and then
Dad said to me, whatever you can say between now
and January when your flight leaves, I will match.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
So matched go, Dad, Oh what an I can't yees?
So I went.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
I jetted off to Denmark and I spent a year
over there. When I was fifteen and a half and.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
So I loved it.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
Yeah, I absolutely loved it. Dad gave me a monthly
budget and was like, this is your monthly allowance for
while you're over there.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
You can do what you want with it, but don't
ask me for any more. Like you need to learn
how to how to budget. So I did.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
And then I came back and I finished high school.
Dud was like perfect, and I studied hard. And then
I got to UNI and I thought that was what
I was meant to do. I thought I got into
law and I thought my parents would be stoked with me,
and I hated it. Ah. I did half a semester

(21:37):
of law and just it wasn't for me, and I
dropped out. And at that point I didn't understand hex
or oh off dates or any of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
Or census dates or like hoping that you got out
before that. Census dates got me good. That was not
a choice. That was a poor choice, for sure. Oh
but I feel like you learned a lot from that,
even though it was not anything to do with law
right exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
And I went home and I said to Dad, I
hate Unie. It's not for me, and he said, that's fine,
I'll support you. But you need to get a job.
You need to work.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
You can't do studying exactly.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
He's like, you're going to need to pay for your
phone bill. You can contribute to the house. You don't
have to pay for groceries, but contribute at least.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
So I did.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
I loved travel, and I went out and got a
job as a travel agent.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Oh cool.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
So I got to travel for about five years at
a much cheaper rate, if not.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
A lot of the times.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, I thought I'd be smart and combine my interest
with my job. And there's got to be perks somewhere.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
So one hundred percent, and there were.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
So I spent the next five years absolutely going to
town traveling. I was like on four or five trips
a year. I would go on a trip, come back
book my next one. Like I was probably overseas more
than I was in Australia at this point as well.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
I'd moved out of home.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
I was covering my rent. I was living love and life,
zero responsibilities, just travel, travel, travel.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
I was single. I loved it, and then.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
I did meet someone, and then I went through an
awful breakup and it derailed me. I'd put so much
into it and it derailed me, and I ended up
moving back home. I stopped caring about my job. I
eventually got fired from my job because I just didn't
care anymore.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
And I thought, what am I doing. I've been traveling
for the last five years.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yes, it was my priority and where I valued, but
it was starting to change. And then I went back
and studied.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
You were ready, you were ready to lock and load
into study? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (23:45):
I was. And at this point my mum had started
to float back in and she was very much like, well,
your sisters have gone to UNI.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
What are you doing with your life? Like, I'm really sorry,
but I don't think i'd get along with this woman.
I don't get along with her best. She's just not
my people. That's not that's not gone. Yeah, So then
I started to feel guilty.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
My older sister had gone to UTI. She's now a paramedic.
My younger sister had done a double degree and had
interned with one direction in the.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
UK, and I was like, okay, well that's pretty cool too. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Well she didn't use her degree, now, did she. She's
a police officer.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
But that's also cool. And it's funny because it's like
you have siblings and you know you shouldn't ever compare yourself,
but because they're so close, you would be like, oh,
they're like, quote, legit, what am I doing? And that's
what I thought. They had grown up jobs. I didn't.
I was jest sitting and not being serio. They're probably
looking at you being like, oh, money dorist is so cool.

(24:45):
She has a better lifestyle. Like you always want what
you can't have, right, the grass is always greener, exactly exactly,
So I yeah, I went back to studying.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
And at this point my dad had had a new
partner and and they were living together. So my dad
had an investment property and he said, you can live
in my investment property and you'll pay rent. And my
little sister moved in with me, and the two of
us just lived there.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
That's so wholesome. And also Dad sounds like a legend.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
He is the absolute og. Even my friends love him.
He's an OgH.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I love this people. I'm just so glad that your
experience with a narcissistic parent wasn't matched with another narcissistic parent,
because a lot of people in our community could tell
you that, like they seem to attract each other.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Yes, yes, I still to this day, I'm what thirty two,
and I say to my dad, how did you ever
marry mom?

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Like what did you see in her?

Speaker 3 (25:48):
He's like, I don't know, daughter, I got you three
girls out of it. So I'm like, okay, cool.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, Like Dad, I don't mean to be rude, but
like that was a pretty bad mistake. It was a
terrible Joe come on, sir, exactly.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
But yeah, my little sister and I we moved in
and I studied and I worked three jobs, and I
said to Dad, I think I want to buy a house.
I need to buckle down. I'm going to buy a house.
I'm going to do it. And I was in my
boss bitch era like women supporting women, like strong independent women,
we can do this, Like I'm going to show the

(26:22):
world that I'm a single woman and I can do this.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
You can. And I did.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
I worked three jolly and I studied full time. And
every cent that I earned from those jobs that was
either a tile or some tap wear, or that was
a fitting in the house or that was upgraded carpet,
and I didn't want to spend it. So I was like,
that's that's my house right there, Like I can't watch

(26:47):
that go away.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
No, but tell me about these three jobs? What three
jobs kind of clicked together with UNI because like it's
a bit chaotic. I did the same thing, and I
often get people being like, well, how did you do that?
Like how did you do it all? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (27:01):
So I got a part time job as a medical receptionist.
I just when I got fired from my travel job.
I was like, what's going at the moment, what's out there?

Speaker 2 (27:10):
And also that's a good job. Yeah, really good, really good.
So I worked that part time.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
I think it was like two to three days a week,
and then I casually worked in the disability sector doing
like day programs are very cool.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, I loved it. It was good.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
It brought the income in. I paid my rent and
I had savings. I was doing really good. And then
the time came and I said to Dad, let's go
land looking, let's go find some land.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
I can do this and he said okay.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
And that day I said to the land office is
this block available? And they said yep. I said I
want to deposit on that right now. And I paid
a deposit straight away.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
Stop it.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
What about that block of land made you go I
need that one?

Speaker 3 (27:54):
It was just a good size. It wasn't on like
a tea intersection. My dad always says, don't buy a
tea intersection block. People's headlights come in your front window.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
So I was like, it's not a corner block, it's
not a tea intersection block. It's big enough.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Like done, I'm happy it's it's a good price. Back
when land was like two hundred and sixty k, it
was a four hundred and fifty square block. It was
in our local town. I was still close to everything.
I was like, let's do it like it was a
new development.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
And I did it.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
And Dad were driving home from the land office and
Dad said, I've been saving for all three of you
girls for when you buy your first home or your
house and land, and I'm going to contribute ten grand dad,
and he gave me ten grand, and he gave my
younger sister ten grand and she did it. And unfortunately
my older sister is not in the picture, so her

(28:48):
just sits there. But yeah, so my dad gifted me that.
He said, you've worked really hard, and you know, you
set your mind to it and you're doing it.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Isn't that so beautiful? But also just the idea that
he did that and didn't tell you until after you'd
done it. That really gets even better. Stop it go.
I'm loving this story like I'm I'm buckled in bags.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah, he's honestly, he's a legend. So a few years
went by, COVID hit still paying rent and Dad said,
all the rent that you and my sister paid. He's like,
I just paid the net on the mortgage and the
rest is in the count. And he gave us our
little Bendigo Bank little paper books, and he showed us

(29:35):
like what our savings were because of the on top
of the rent. Essentially, he's like, I saved the difference.
He's like, I am needed to cover my mortgage. I
don't want to make money off you girls. It's gone
back into a savings account for you both. And my
sister had hers and I had mine, and before I
knew it, I had like twenty five K just sitting

(29:56):
there without even realizing for when I decided on the
house when it was a Dad.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Oh, I love him. I love him so much. Like
Dad's a girl's girl.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
He is.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
He's very much a girl's gal.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
So that kind of happened, and then I met my
now husband during COVID who kind of lived with me.
You know when that little bubble rule came in where
you could have an intimate partner, and I was like,
we've been dating a week, but sure you could be
my intimate partner because I don't want to be lonely.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
And also, like I feel like COVID just like threw
you in. You either had to go boots and all
in on your relationship or I felt like everybody was
getting divorced exactly. There was no medium there. I don't
feel no, you're in or.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
You're out, and you just need to tell me and
then we're going to go down that route. So yeah,
him and I remember thinking he worked one job. He
was on over one hundred k, Like how do you
earn a hundred k with one job? Like I'm working
three here? And then he didn't have a house. He
was living in a sharehouse, and I was just so,
what's what's going on here?

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Like how are we so different? But how am I
so like invested in you?

Speaker 3 (31:09):
Like how are you the person that I really like
and now is my husband?

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah? Yeah, you're like, what the hell? I want someone
more financially stable, but I'm in love with someone who's
not what the heck exactly your classics stitch up?

Speaker 3 (31:24):
Yeah, I know, right, I know.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Luckily he's not a leech. But okay, no, that's good.
That's good. Like a lack of financial literacy is fine.
Where you can teach that being a leech, that's a
personality traite exactly.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
So then, yeah, he kind of lived with me and
my sister still paid rent at his place, and then
he was a real big motivator in like saving like
he was. He was almost like a girls girl. Like
he'd be like, oh, you're saving, like you gotta gotta
like look at this. We're not going to go out
for dinner because you know, I don't want you to
spend that money because we're saving.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Like you've got this house.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
You're doing so good, Like you're so out of me,
even though it didn't have anything to do with him,
and like he'd helped me make selection you.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Do achieve your goal and that's surely sweet. Yeah, it
was really nice.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
He was like my biggest fan aside from my dad,
Like he was.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
I was about to say, does he and your dad
get along really well?

Speaker 3 (32:18):
They do? They do?

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah? Yeah, like a house on fire. Huh, Yes, he's
that my dad ever got Oh lucky lucky. I feel
like that's my husband and my dad. Like I'll lean
over and my my husband's cackling on the couch and
what are you laughing at? And you'd be like, oh,
I'm just texting Eric and I'll be like, yeah, okay,
like no worries.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Yeah, or they they hang out with your husband more
than they hang out with you sometimes and you're like.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, I'm the child. I'm your child, not him. Sometimes
I get invited as a plus one to do things. Yes, yeah, yeah.
Sometimes Steve will be like, oh, we're doing X with
your parents this weekend, and I'll be like, that's news
to me. Love that. I mean, it's so sweet. But
I understand at the start being like, ah am I

(33:05):
marrying my father, It is a worry sometimes it definitely is,
you know what, not mad not mad?

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Dad set the bar he has he has And yes,
they get on very very well. I love that.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
And so then fast forward.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Then we moved into that house and he came along
with me, and six weeks later we were pregnant with
our first child.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Stop it that's hold on is that obviously we love
having kids, but was that a purposeful pregnancy or like,
were you like right, six weeks we're moving in, we
are making a baby. It was more around like.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
My job, like i'd finished UNI at this time, I
was in my job. I knew that I'd qualified from
maternity leave. But then I knew that I was going
for like a promotion at a certain time. So then
I needed to like either have a baby pre promotion
and pre wedding because I didn't want to be pregnant
at my wedding, even though there's nothing wrong with that,

(34:03):
it's just my choice.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
No, it's funny because we all get in our head
just how we want our story to go.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah, and then I was like, well, I don't really
want to delay it because you know, I kind of
wanted to have kids before thirty. And then wham bam,
thank you, ma'am one hit wonder pregnant.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Okay, nice for some envious, I know, I'm terribly sorry. No,
don't be sorry, never be sorry, but like a happy
I'm allowed to be a little bit envious of your success.
Thank you, Thank you. How good? So have a baby? Yes,
we had our baby. We had our baby.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
And then it wasn't until I was on maternity leave,
and I really started to struggle. I was so finance
focused before having a baby, and then you go on
maternity leave and all of a sudden, you're not like
a huge bread winner. You're not, you know, financially like
controlling the situation or having to really budget. And I

(35:02):
just I struggled because I'd been so headstrong, and then
I couldn't really do much about it, and I almost
felt like a little bit trapped, like I wasn't contributing
as much anymore.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Like I had the house.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
It was in my name, but on paper, like my
paycheck was less and it didn't match my husband's or
my fiance at the time. But then also we thought,
what do we want to do with our kids, Like
is this really want to raise them? Like, We've got
a great house. It's four bedroom, two living spaces, like
a nice backyard.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
It was enough to we could have three kids there.
But I just wanted space. I wanted my kids to
grow up with.

Speaker 3 (35:44):
Land to run around. I didn't like that the area
was getting so busy, and we started looking at regional
properties and regional land and seeing if that was an
option for us. We eventually nailed it down to one
town that we liked. It was close enough to the
city where we were both working, but it was far

(36:04):
enough out that it wasn't traffic and noise and chaos.
And we spoke to our broker. We just said, is
this possible. This is what we're looking at.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
We found this land.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
It was for five hundred thousand. I said, we can't
pay that, we can't afford that. And it sat there
for ages and I kept watching her listing every few
weeks and it started at five hundred K, then it
went down to four hundred and fifty K, and then
it went down to vendor wants to sell before Christmas?

Speaker 2 (36:34):
I see, would you like to chat?

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yes, But I was like a bombshell, is not ready
to enter the village just yet?

Speaker 2 (36:41):
No, No, we're not ready. No.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
I let Christmas pass and it was still there, and
then it changed to open to offers stop.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
It and we jumped on it. That was a thousand
percent made for you.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
That's what I think it's just meant to be. And
we offered three hundred and thirty K and they said
it's not quite there, and we offered three point fifty
with a sixty day settlement, and it was done.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
They took it and we'd instantly wiped off one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars off the land price and we
just wore.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
That two acres. It was amazing. Two a that is gorgeous.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
So we were stoked, and our mortgage broker was like,
you can keep your house and you can buy this lound.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
So we didn't have to get rid of it on
the condition that I.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Went back to work.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah, okay, and then you were like, I'll go back
to work, no worries because I'm going to own two properties.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
So our daughter was eight months old, and between my
dad having set days off and childcare, we made it work.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Stop.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Your dad helped, Yes, of course he did. I should
have known, so, yes, he chipped in. He was like
the third parent. It was amazing. I'm obsessed with your dad.
I just I'm so glad you had him. It was good.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
And then came the decision of putting a house on
our land. We wanted this country ranch style house. I
had this huge one hundred meters frontage block that I
was like, I can't put this tiny, little fifteen meter
frontage house on.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
So we went looking and it just didn't seem.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
Like it was an option, unfortunately, and I sat down
with my husband and I said, look, I don't know
what to do, but this is our dream. I really
want our kids to grow up running around living their
best life, having a means to whatever they want, neighbors
down the road that we don't have to worry about
with cars passing by. And he turned around and said,

(38:40):
whatever you want to do, it's your choice.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
And we sold my first house stop her. See your
husband's a girl's girl as well.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
And it was a bittersweet, you know, it was my
first home. I would have loved to have held onto it.
But fortunate enough that COVID made where we live. We
were that first town just on the outside of Metro Melbourne,
so we were classed as regional. So during COVID it
absolutely boomed. So I made about two hundred and eighty

(39:10):
thousand dollars from the sale of my house.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Oh my god, I'm so happy. I'm so happy for you.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
So it was worth it, and we put that money
straight back into building our dream home.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Stop and then you'd you get your dream home. What happened?
What happened? My hex step came back to haunt me. Ah, rude,
I know.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
So I cleared it with the sale of the house,
and then we put about two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars into our forever home, and we put all the
bells and whistles in it that we wanted. It's our
dream home. We got our cathedral ceilings, we got our
red bricks, We've got our you know, rail and post
front fence. We've got twenty chickens roaming around the backyard

(39:52):
because it's.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Oh my heart, so so much space. And you know,
seeing that come to life was great.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
But as soon as we we moved into our new
house three months later, we were pregnant with our second.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
I love this journey of like pregnancy ease for you,
but also sometimes it's just nice when things don't happen
immediately exactly.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
It just seems every time I buy a house or
make a big financial decision, we get pregnant.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Oh well, now you know, if there's a third on
the way, you're like, oh my god, we bought an
investment property. I'm going to call you up and be
like watch out.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
Yeah, true, true, true, But yeah, now we have our
dream home.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
We have everything we want in it.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
We budget accordingly with our mortgage, we have savings that
we contribute to, we have financial goals and financial planning
that was just never a thing. Like our first big
achievement was getting the stream home, and we just really
made it work by crunching numbers, figuring out what we

(40:58):
could do, what we couldn't do, what was within our means.
And now we have this beautiful home with our two
daughters that we can't wait to see them grow up
and hopefully one day they bring their kids home to
this home and it stays with us forever.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
So yeah, that's the coolest thing ever. And the coolest
thing about this is that you did that on your own,
Like you hustled, and I know that your dad helped
out a little bit with some cash here and there,
Like that was a surprise, but like that's not what
makes this story. Like the fact that you did that
on your own as a single girl. In her what
you said before Girl Boss era, You're like, how hard

(41:39):
could it be? Boys? Do it? Like I'm obsessed. I'm
just I'm such a girls girl.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
I love empowering women and seeing women succeed, Like it
makes me proud, even though it's not my story half
the time.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
And oh my goodness, don't that's me. That's me, And
like I have to backtrack a little bit because I'll
say somebody like you, I'll be like, oh my god,
money dost, I'm so proud of you. And then I
have to step back and go like, I'm proud of you,
but I didn't have anything to do with this, but like,
I just thanks for letting me in on the journey.
I suppose, yeah, like you're just emotionally invested in something that's.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Not to do with you.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
And then you're like, why am I so emotional about this?

Speaker 3 (42:18):
But you're just so it's so exciting seeing women succeed
and having this now, like my younger sisters didn't think
she could have it, and the amount of times I
was like I did it, you can do it, like
like we can do this, let's do it. Like I'll
help you, Like I'll sit down and she'll call me
and be like I need to work out my budget,

(42:38):
and I'm like, let's do it. Come on over, I'll
get a spreadsheet going, we'll get this going. We'll see
where you're going wrong, what we can do, what can
be done better, where things are going wrong, and it's
so much fun. And finances are fun to talk about now,
I think.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, if you can reframe them as empowerment, I think
that it opens and entire world up for you to
thrive in, and like it's just so fun helping other
people thrive. Like it's as though, like people will say
sometimes and obviously I do this a lot, it happens
to be in my career, but people will say, oh
my god, Victoria, like I can't believe, like you you

(43:17):
did that for me. That's so nice. And I'll be like,
I don't know how to tell you this, but I
almost can guarantee that I got more out of this
than you did, Like yeah, like I do my girlfriend's budgets. Still.
In fact, right after this money diary, I've got one
of my girlfriends coming over because she was like, oh,
v hey, could you like send me a budget template?
And I was like, no, queen, you're one of my

(43:38):
best friends. Come over and I'll just do it for you.
But like, I know she's gonna be grateful and that's
really nice, but I just get so much more out
of it than I think even she will, because I'm
just like, oh, like being able to put you in
a better position and help like, oh, I love it.
Numbers are so attractive, like exactly, exactly, so money diars's

(44:00):
talk more numbers. What do you do for work? How
much do you earn nowadays?

Speaker 3 (44:04):
So I am a registered nurse, love, So that's what
you did at UNI.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Again, that is what I did at UNI.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
And I'm incredibly fortunate with the position that I'm in
that I earn about two and a half grand.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Gross before tax a week. Very cool. But also I
don't know, would you say that someone's fortunate if they
hustled and worked their way there is that fortune or
is that hard work? I think I've landed in.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
I used to be hospital nursing, and I have a
girl's girl of a neighbor who was like, hey, girl,
come work at the prison with me. Wear short nurses,
So I earn quite a lot more than other nurses.
So my gross is probably around one hundred and thirty
one hundred and forty.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Okay, But you also you also take more risk than
a lot of other nurses. I do. I do, but
it is enjoyable.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
It's hard to bite your tongue sometimes, but we're there
for healthcare and I just have to remind myself that
I get to go home to.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
My family that night. Oh yeah, I don't know how.
I think I would really struggle with that, Like sometimes
I would really struggle with that. Money. Dis tell me
we need to be perfect because, like you feel your
dream life basically what is your husband now? Husband earn
so he takes home.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
Around three grand fortnite. He's on just over one hundred,
So between the two of us we bring in about
six and a half thousand a fortnight.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I'm obsessed. I love this. I love this so much.
Tell me what's your big money goal? What are you
guys currently working towards. We would absolutely love to get
our landscaping done. It's quite quite a big job, Isn't
it crazy how much more expensive landscaping is than you
think it's going to be. It's insane, absolutely insane.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
But we also when we bought this land, we wanted
space because I know that my dad doesn't want to
go to a nursing home when he's older, So we
will be putting a runny flat on our land. You
and he can live there, and I want my kids
to grow up with their grandparents as much as they

(46:18):
possibly can.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
That's so sweet. You are literally so sweet. But also
I'm pretty sure that means you might get a built
in gardener. Like that's pretty cool, I would say, so.
I would say so, like we don't want to put
the cart before the horse, but like I feel like
I know your dad well enough.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Now you know, yes, he built our chicken coop with
my husband, so we definitely will have a gardener in
the middle.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
There you go. All right, money Diarist, let's go to
a really quick break and on the flip side, we're
going to be talking about investments, debt, personal insurance, and
your best and worst money habits. So guys don't go anywhere.
All right, money Diarist, we are back, and I want
to talk investments. In your letter in you meant that
you have some investments. What are they? How did you start,

(47:04):
Why did you start? What does it look like?

Speaker 3 (47:06):
So? I have my super like most other people, and
that is sitting at one hundred and twenty four thousand
dollars currently. I also have a Raise investing account, which
I got onto because of She's on the money when
I started deep diving into all the podcasts, and that
has about eight hundred dollars in it. Oh, okay, Yeah,

(47:30):
just from contributing like twenty dollars here and there and
top ups, so yeah, that's kind of starting to add up.
And then we also have savings accounts for our two children,
which our first daughter has about four thousand dollars in it,
and that is invested as well. And then unfortunately our

(47:52):
second we got onto that a little bit late to
the game second child things, so her savings and investing
has only been up for about two months.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
But that's okay because like she's going to have heaps
of time to grow that over time, Like that's not
the end of the world.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
She will and if all ours fails, my dad also
has savings accounts for the girls, so she's probably got
more in dad's savings than now.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Oh my goodness. See I told you your dad's a
girl's girl. He's got their back. He is, he definitely is.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
But they're our main investments at the moment.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
My husband used to have investments, but in.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Our early days when we didn't quite understand investing very much,
he sold them. But we have just entered into that
game again in like the most recent weeks.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
I feel like that's a really common story, Like, you know,
if you don't understand something when you dive in. It's
one of the first things to go when, like you know,
you go, oh, maybe I could do something better with
that money because you don't fully comprehend the bigger picture
at that point. Like that's fine, these things happened, but
like a good lesson to have learned that now you're
back on the train, that you probably won't pull it

(49:05):
out again. Absolutely not, absolutely not. Yeah, listen to you.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
You're like, no, he will not be touching that exactly
over my dead body.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Where you take your investments out, Okay, I love that
because I can't give you advice, but it sounds like
you don't even need it. Money direst talk to me
about debt. We know that you sold your first house
to fund this next house, but what type of situation
you in when it comes to mortgages.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
So we only have our mortgage as our debt. It
is eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, so it is
probably on the higher end. But we also have our
dream home and we pay fortnightly and pay off extra
each fortnite as well. So we're hoping to just knock
that down in about twenty years. I'd love to have

(49:50):
our mortgage paid off in about twenty years.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Oh, I don't know why you, of all people wouldn't
be able to achieve that. I've seen what you've done before, Like,
why wouldn't it be possible in the few Tell me
about your personal insurance situation. Is that something that you've
got your finger on the pulse with?

Speaker 3 (50:05):
So it's probably my downfall. We do have health insurance.
Having our two daughters through the private system was a
value for us, so we value our private health insurance.
I also have pet insurance because we have a sausage
dog and a broken back.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Once, so.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
We do not need to worry about him anymore. And then,
unfortunately it's I hate to say it, but it's whatever's
in my super I really need to look into income
protection and things like that, because our income is probably
one of the most valuable things, Like that's where our
money comes from. So like I remember listening to a

(50:48):
podcast and you are like, it's your income. Why wouldn't
you protect that asset? And I'm like, that is so true.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Well, I know, and I feel sometimes like a bit
of a broken record, or maybe I feel a bit preachy.
I'm not sure. But I look at it and I go,
we ensure our cars, like all of my friends and
like everyone that I know in my community, like they
wouldn't let their car insurance laps because they all understand
like that would be silly. Like what if you got

(51:15):
in an accident and your car got written off, Like, oh,
that's crazy, Like you wouldn't even comprehend it. But you
don't ensure your income, which if that tomorrow, you couldn't
earn the dream home. I'm really sorry, it's not going
to last. Like, as I've said a million times before,
and I used to say a lot when I was
a financial advisor, Like if you told me, Victoria, you

(51:36):
can only have one type of insurance out of all
the insurances. Like I'd give up my car insurance, I
give up my house insurance. I'd give up everything button
my income protection, because if I can't earn an income,
my entire life is going to crumble. Like I'm I
can buy a new car with my money that my
income protection pays me, but I can't buy an income

(51:56):
with the car that's been protected, Like it makes no
sense to me.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
Exactly, Yes, I do need to get onto my income protection.
It's that little thing that just sits in the back
of your mind that you know you need to do,
but you're just like, Oh I forgot today, Oh I
need to get onto it.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
I'll give you a little prod after the show. Don't
you worry money, diarist? I want to know when it
comes to best and worst money habits. I feel like
you've probably got some really good ones, Like we've already
heard how good you are at putting all your money
away and saving and hustling and delayed gratification, like you
let that house stay on the market or that block
of land stay on the market for so long. I

(52:34):
don't know if I have that in me. What do
you think your best money habit is?

Speaker 3 (52:38):
So my best money habit would have to be I
never pay for anything full price. I refuse to pay
for things full price when I know that there are
sales there. If I'm online shopping or needing something online,
if there's like a code box where you can put
in a discount code or a promo code, can bet

(53:00):
I will find a promo code. But then, also, after
having two kids, I realized they grow so quickly, and
I had all these like really nice clothes to my
girls that I started selling their clothes secondhand, and there's
a huge mark of people that don't want to pay
full price for clothes or they're happy to buy secondhand things.

(53:22):
And then I started buying things off you know, like Facebook,
Marketplace or i'd share with my friends. We had like
a revolving wardrobe, and like you'd like let something out
to a friend and then it would come back after
their child had used it because they might have been
a bigger size, or like they needed the use for it,
or they had a baby, and I didn't have a
baby at the time, so I refused to play full

(53:43):
price for things. I'm happy for my kids to wear
secondhand things. But then also, yeah, I managed to start
a little side hustle out of it by essentially like
flipping clothes and kids wear things.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
That's so good and it's also so true, like I
don't mind putting my kids in secondhand stuff insect I
would prefer it. Don't get me wrong, I do love
a shopping moment sometimes, but I feel like kids grow
so quickly that my kids literally one week fit in
something the next week, don't. I'm like, oh my goodness,
if someone could just sell me a bundle of like

(54:20):
kid's clothes in my kid's size, or if my friend
had it, like it'd just be so much easier.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
It is, And that's kind of how I guess I
got onto it because first time mum, I was buying
new things for my little one, Like their amount of
Gorman in her wardrobe is ridiculous, like absolutely ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
I love that for her, though I do it. Three
and a half year old needs to be in Gorman.
But you're apparently apparently mine.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
But I found some things on Marketplace, but they're in
a bundle, and I only wanted the one jumper, so
I bought the bundle for one hundred dollars and I
ended up sending like a video message to my best
friend and was like, I could resell all this. Parents
don't want to buy new things. I just want this
one jumper, and I resold it and I went to

(55:05):
the baby market, the local baby market, and made like
eighteen hundred.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Dollars stop it.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Yeah that's iconic, And I kept the Gorman jumper for
my little one.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Yeah, like I mean, you've got to take the cream
off the top exactly.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
So yeah, I started secondhand buying and it was game changer.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
I love that, And also I love that you made
like a kind of a game like something that you
were already like. Oh, I love a little secondhand moment.
Found this jumper I liked. Sorry, you found a way
to make money off that. That's genius. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
It also keeps my husband a little bit happy when
the kids have so much clothes because I just remind
him that mums love secondhand things.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
We can resell it at a fraction of the price exactly,
like you're just doing him a service, honestly, Like, and
also remind him we thought you were a girl's girl,
Like come on, yeah, come on exactly.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
We just need to remind him that's the Gorman Jumper
cannot go to daycare. We've had to have a few
talks about that.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Oh, don't, don't, don't. I don't want to have that
conversation right now. I have a bone to pick with
my husband about that and the fact that a Ralph
Lauren Puffer vest ended up at daycare and it now
has paint on it. It's not a daycare item, yes,
but like, why don't they just see it the same
way we do exactly exactly. They just never liked it.

(56:25):
And I know it's slightly out of touch that my
two year old has a Ralph Lauren puffer vest. I'd
just like to disclaimer that I bought it on Super
Sale more money off was very happy with it. I
also made sure I bought it in a size three
because I was like, we're going to get the most
wear out of this, Like a size four would have
looked like he was swamped in it and wouldn't have
kept him warm. So I was like, I'm going to

(56:46):
push it, get a size three. We're going to get
so much wear out of this. He's going to look
so cute every weekend, not at daycare, and it made
it to daycare. I was like, is this a joke?
Is my life a joke?

Speaker 3 (56:56):
To you?

Speaker 2 (56:56):
Steven?

Speaker 3 (56:58):
They just don't get it because we girl math as well.
How many wears they're going to get out of it?

Speaker 2 (57:02):
They're going to get an extra year out of it.
Is it a neutral color? Can the next baby wear it? Perfect?

Speaker 3 (57:08):
The next baby can wear it? So you're getting two
for the price of one. Really two kids one puffa
jacket exactly?

Speaker 2 (57:15):
And then you know what, he hits me with logic.
He goes, well, why would we have bought him a
puffer vest that he can't just wear always. Sorry, sit down,
because we have nice outings, exactly. And he's like, when
I don't want to hear that, I don't want to
question me.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
I will resell it. And when I make money on it,
you won't be mad at me then, will you.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
I'm calling money direst up. She's gonna have my back exactly, exactly.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
And that's a good resell brand as well, exactly.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
It holds its value well, it doesn't now money DRIs
does it because it's got green paint, parrot on the
front of it, it's got character, it's vintage. No, now
he looks like he's very well dressed at daycare with
paint on him a lot of the time, because like,
you're gonna be wearing that to daycare now, absolutely, you're
getting the extra wear out of it now. So tell
me what's your worst money habit.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
My worst money habit is if you catch me on
like a down day or in just one of those
moods and you say let's go for coffee, I'm your girl.
I'm at coffee, or I'm at dinner, or I'm at lunch,
like even last week, at work.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
They were like, we're going to go get coffee. Who
wants one?

Speaker 3 (58:22):
Did I account for coffee that day?

Speaker 2 (58:25):
I absolutely did not. Did I get coffee that day?
I sure did. But you know what, sometimes it's about
enjoying the journey it is.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
And we had great chats walking to the cafe and
we just talked all things. Girls.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
We actually talked about she's on the money, to be
completely honest, Oh pays for itself in like I probably
owe you were coffee exactly.

Speaker 3 (58:45):
We're talking about coffee, and we're actually talking about the Monday,
like the money diaries on Mondays.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
And yeah, we're all talking about it.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
And then before I knew it, I had my coffee
in my hand.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
And I was like four bucks out of pocket? But whatever,
hold on? Where are you getting a coffee that's only
four dollars?

Speaker 3 (59:01):
Well, it's prison coffee, so one day it might be
a dollar, the next it's like four dollars.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Like it's the cafe in the prison. What what hold on?
Hold on? Why has it got a floating price point?
It's just whatever they charge on the day. Wait, the
prisoners come up with that. No, there's officers that work there.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
But like the prisoners will be like learning how to
like like make a coffee with like the coffee machine,
and like they'll do their brewster course. So then we
just order and then whatever comes up on that FPOs
machine is how much it is for the day. So okay,
some days, yeah, four dollars, some days is two dollars,
some days it's a dollar, and it's like a cafe coffee, okay.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
I mean, I'm not mad about who's made it, where
it's come from. I just I don't know if I
like the price tag shock, like is it going to
be double? Is it going to be single? Who's making
these rules? I don't know.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
I don't think it's ever been over five dollars. But
if I if I know, I've.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Got ten dollars on like the splurge card. We're good,
You're good, Okay, all right. I feel like I could
ask you a million questions, but unfortunately I'm running out
of time. Money, Diarist. Now that we've had a good
chat today, and I feel like you've probably verbalized a
lot of things that either you haven't before you haven't
spoken about in succession. Do you think that the grade

(01:00:19):
you gave yourself at the start of this episode was fair.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
I think maybe I could edge it to a B
B plus, but I'm definitely not in a territory like
it's different when you put it all out there and
you think, actually, yeah, I've done it right when you
put it all together. So yeah, I think I'll upgrade
from a B minus to a B plus. We've really
upgraded quickly today.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
I love that. And what would it take to get
you to say, oh, Victoria, I think I'm an A.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
I think I really do need to sort out my
personal insurances. Oh that's easy, yeah, because I know that
we have the means. My husband and I we do
fortnightly date night where we do our budgeting spa sheet
and go over the numbers. We track every transaction, so
I know that there's a surplus there to be able
to account for personal insurance. It's just sitting down and

(01:01:11):
actually doing it is the issue at the moment. I think,
like getting in that headspace.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Do you know what's really interesting about what you've just
said is you're like, oh, I know I've got, like,
you know, some budget set aside. We could absolutely do that.
But I was talking to Phil the other day, in fact,
I had him on the show a couple of weeks ago,
and he was saying that a lot of people come
to him and expect the exact same thing that you
just said, Like they're like, okay, like you know, I

(01:01:37):
know I need to pay for this, but he rejigs
their insurance inside their supranuation, and a lot of the
time they actually end up saving money. Like, yes, you
could pick to have some stuff outside of superanuation, but
a lot of the time you probably just have default
insurances inside your superanuation fund that can be great sometimes

(01:01:57):
but sometimes are not enough. But you can get a
different policy with a different insurance company and still have
it paid for through your super and therefore save money.
So even if you don't have the budget for it,
and you're like, oh, I don't know if I could
pay for income protection outside of SUPER, well you don't
have to, Like it could stay inside your super and

(01:02:19):
not impact your cash flow. I love that. Yeah, there's
like a whole conversation around what that could look like,
because you know, I feel like in this economy, we
need more insurance, but we're also all a little bit
apprehensive of setting it up because you're like, my budget
is already hamstrung Victoria, Like now is not the time,
Like I can afford the initial like you know, for

(01:02:40):
five hundred dollars fee to see the advisor, but like
what if it's thousands a year and I go, well,
it doesn't have to be like that could all be
structured inside your super. The only thing that you're not
allowed inside your super to go on like a little
insurance rant is trauma insurance, and that I would say
is the nice to have insurance. But you're income protection,

(01:03:01):
your TPD, and your life insurance can all sit inside
your super. Lots of people already have them inside of super,
and if you already have it inside of super, it
might not even be working that hard for you, and
you could get a better policy for cheaper somewhere else,
still inside that environment, so your cash flow is not impacted.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
I definitely need to look into that and sort it
out one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
You need to go talk to Phil help me out.
Then I'll let him know. But do you know what,
you guys are so lucky that I'm not religious because
I'm preachy about insurance. Imagine if I had religion behind
me as well, like no one would listen to me,
which is probably a benefit for all of us.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
I think people would listen to you money is sexy
talking about money and finances and empowering women. It's sexy,
it's controlling, and it's empowering women to take control of
their own life because unfortunately, we live in a society
where you know, there is a gender pay gap and
things like that. So I think we've always got to
look out for each other, so our listen For sure.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
I appreciate you, and I feel like we've got each
other's back money direst I wish we had more time
to chat, but we have recorded for so long today
and I'm just so grateful for every minute of it,
for you sharing your story, what you've been through, and
like everything in between. It has been an absolute pleasure,
and I really hope that you and I get to
cross paths in person at some point. Thank you so much.

(01:04:22):
Thanks for having me. It was amazing.

Speaker 5 (01:04:30):
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 advice tailored towards

(01:04:50):
your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
authorized representatives of Money showper Pty Ltd ABN three.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Two one is six four nine and two seven seven
zero eight a f s L four five one two
eight nine