She Maxed Out Her $10K Credit Card Partying... Now She Owns Two Properties

You know that feeling when you start earning your own money and suddenly everything feels possible... the festivals, the flights, the “let’s just go out”? This week’s Money Diarist lived that era hard. Working double shifts, saying yes to everything, and promising herself she’d deal with the debt later. Then later came… with a $10K maxed-out credit card, a $20K car loan, and a reality check that hit harder than the Monday shift after a Sunday sesh. But here’s the plot twist: she turned it all around. These days she’s running a six-figure career, owns her own home, and has an investment property quietly doing its thing in the background. If you’ve been in your “fun now, finances later” era, this diary is full of inspo!

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Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name's Anatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations woman
and I'm here to acknowledge country t Glenn Young Ganya Niana,
kaka ya Ya bin Ahaka Nian our gay In Mbina,
yakarum jar Dominyama, Domaga Itawakaman, damon Imlan Bomber bang Gadabomba
in and now in wakah ghana On yakarram jar Watnadaa. Hello,

(00:22):
beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
We thank acknowledge and respect the Abiginal 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 (00:44):
She's on the Money. She's on the Money.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
that lets you be pervy about other people's money stories
for educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another episode
of our Beautiful Money Diaries show where we get a
talk with one of our incredible She's on the Money
community members all about their personal money story. So let's
jump straight into it, because this week I got a

(01:29):
message and it sounded exactly like this, dear, she's on
the money. Five years ago, I was twenty nine, earning
sixty thousand dollars a year with one thousand dollars in savings.
I had twenty thousand dollars in hex and a maxed
out credit card and barely fifty thousand dollars in super
I loved my job in hospitality, but money felt like

(01:49):
something I would never get ahead with. Then I was
headhunted for a new role. I finally got a big
pay rise, and it hit me that if I wanted
my future to look different, I to change how I
managed my money. Fast forward to now, and my life
is unrecognizable. We've borderhouse invested, cleared our debts completely, and
started building for our kids' future. More than that, I've

(02:12):
gone from avoiding money conversations completely to actually loving them.
Money diarist, I'm really excited because you're like, you've been
in the position that so many people in our community
are in right now, but then you've come out the
other side and changed stuff, And I just I'm excited
because I think that we're going to learn so much
from you.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm very
excited to talk about it now. If you'd ask me
five years ago, no oh no, no no.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
It's funny how things changed, because when I got into debt,
I was literally lying to people about not having debt
because I was like, hmm, no, I don't know what
you're talking about. How stupid? Why would you be in debt?
And that was literally me. And now I'm literally like
the post child for getting out of debt. So times
can change, and you know what, I'm better for it.

(02:59):
But before we get into a little bit more about
your money story, I need to ask if I asked
you to give your money habits a grade from A
through to F, what do you reckon you would grade them?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
I am going to go with a B and we
can obviously. I know you're going to ask me at
the end of it if I change that, But for now,
I'm going to go with a B. I like that.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
I feel like a B is a good place to start.
I always get like super red flaggy when I get
a really good submission and then they say like D
or something, and I'm like, I don't know if I
believe you already, Like I read your submission, I just
read it to my community, and nobody's believing you tell
me more. But b I can get around that. I
can get around that. So let's learn more about it.
Can you tell me a little bit more about your

(03:37):
money story?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Absolutely so, I think always. And what I love about
this is where the money diarists share kind of like
their upbringing, especially our age group, because it also is
kind of fairly similar. So. I grew up on a
farm in New South Wales and with two older sisters,
and I got an incredible amount of work ethic from
my parents and I still thank them both. So I
had a full time working mum as a teacher and
a full time working dad who had a job plus

(04:00):
a farm.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, your mum was working full time as well as
doing farm stuff. Crazy.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, So my parents had a full time working farm
and they both worked like payg jobs at the same time.
What the heck?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Mom and dad? Where was your time? How did you
manage to have three kids? A crazy cats?

Speaker 2 (04:17):
They definitely managed a lot, and to their credit, I
guess you don't realize that as a child like that
was just kind of normal. But yeah, no, my mom
would take time off to have the three of us,
but she would just take like one term off school
and go back to work. And I didn't. I thought
it's because she loved her job, which she did, but
it was also financially necessary. They couldn't afford three kids
and to not work both full time.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, three kids in general is expensive then expensive, but
even today I look at it and go, oh, my god, like,
is that the new sign of wealth, like that people
can have at least three kids? Like I just look
at it and go, if you can have three kids,
you must be financially pretty okay.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, yeah, so my parents did very well in the
sense that we were definitely middle class, had a farm.
But I guess the biggest that I learned at an
early ages I learned about the tax system, which is
funny because I still had like zero financial literacy. I
used to work for my dad on the farm. He
desperately wanted a son. He didn't get it. He got
three daughters, so as the youngest, I then worked on
the farm, mustering sheep, driving the tractor, doing fencing, and

(05:15):
he paid me two dollars an hour from the age
of ten, and he told me that if I don't
have a tax file number, He'll deduct forty eight cents
of every dollar I earn. So I got a tax
file number.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
I love your dad. Not only was he making you
work for less than minimum wage, he was making you
pay tax on that. No cashi's in this house. No,
there was no cashes.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
And he's like, no, I'm going to put you on
the books. I'm like, firstly, I'm not legal, so sure.
But anyway, so I worked for him for two years
and then actually got myself a real job.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
You were like, hold on two dollars an hours, actually
not cutting it.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
So I actually went and got my first job at
a local kind of hardware store and they actually took
me on at twelve. Again illegal, but you know, country
towns idnots into mind. Anyways, they still put me through
the books and they're like, you'll need a tax file number.
I was like, pro to go one ready, which they
were shocked about. I just started working and then I
just I understood the idea that you get a job
and you earn money, and the more hours you work,
the more money you make. And that was just what

(06:09):
was ingrained. You work hard for your money. It wasn't
about the hourly rate. It was about smart. It was
just the volume sheer hours was kind of what was
ingrained into me. So going through school, I worked two
jobs as well as doing Year twelve, and I kind
of got into hospitality. So I got a job in
a cafe. As soon as I turned eighteen, I started
working a bar. You know, I was getting twenty seven
dollars an hour. It was incredible on a Sunday. And

(06:31):
I then went to UNI. So my mum, in her
loving way, had three daughters and told us that we
were never allowed to stay. She met this with all love.
We lived in a very small town. The closest UNI
was three hours away. The idea was as she doesn't
mind what we did with our life, but you cannot
do it here.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
I love your mum.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
It was never an option to stay at home and work,
you know, in town, or go to tay for whatever.
She's like, you don't have to go to UNI. Her
preference was that, but it was just if you want
a gap year, that's fine, but you don't do it here.
All three of us left and went to major cities
and went to universities. I worked about thirty hours a
week while studying full time. I rarely went to class.

(07:09):
I failed multiple subjects because they were on a Thursday
night and I was like, no, I'm going out. So
it actually took me five years to do my three
year business degree because I'd failed a few subjects. More so,
I'd work two jobs and this is where I would
work at night. So I would go and work in
a restaurant till Saturday night. I would then catch the
bus from the restaurant to go out into the valley
in Brisbane from midnight till four am. Oh, classy lady,

(07:31):
catch the bus home, and then start my second job
at seven am, probably still drunk. I'm going to be honest,
this was I just heard behind a coffee machine. At
least I had coffee. The worst part was when you
were hungover and going back to work in a bar
and like someone's like an Izam Booker and you're like, ooh,
I don't know if I can stomach smelling Zambooker Again.
I did I drunk that last night. No matter how
hungover or how drunk I might have still been, we

(07:52):
turned up because we needed that money, oh one hundred percent.
So I have definitely I think that's the series I
had a lot of work ethic. I just had a
real inability to save. But I think where my biggest
thing was is then I got essentially full time hours
working hospitality. So I worked out that I could apply
for a credit card because I had pay slips to
prove it perfect. So I got a credit card. You know,

(08:13):
I had no idea what the interest was. I didn't
know what miniroom or payments were. I just got given
a bank account with a card attached to two thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, but we don't do this, Like nobody goes into
these situations with the intention to get into crippling debt.
Like we go into these situations with not as much
knowledge as we deserve, with the best of intentions. And
I think that that's what we need to remember when
people get into debt, because like then, yeah, there's all
the shame and we're so embarrassed and we don't want

(08:42):
to share it. And I've been there, and I'm sure
you've been there as well, But like, sorry, I went
into this with good intentions and now I've been screwed
over by our system.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
And that's exactly I just went in with absolutely no understanding,
Like my only knowledge of credit cards was my mum
had one and she would put the groceries on it,
but I never learned that she then paid that off
with her say things like I never asked. We very
much did not talk about money in our house. My
parents used to fight about money, but we never talked
about money. So our family did not have a good
financial literacy, I would say, And that's not a fault

(09:12):
of my parents. They did their absolute best with the
knowledge and resources they had. But looking back now, I'm like, oh, like,
we learned nothing other than just work hard. So I
did that. So I got a credit card and essentially
that next year I spent two thousand dollars maxed out
my credit card on going to ten music festivals because
I had FOMO. There was no way I was missing
out on them ten.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Get it, queen, I mean, I was really in a.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Good and I didn't I wanted to go with my
best friend who lived in Sydney. So I'm paying for
flights from Brisbane to Sydney ten times a year, I'm
going to music festivals, so and I didn't want to
miss out, and so I was then also going out.
I'm going to say four to five times a week.
So while mine wasn't on clothes, mine was on going out,
going to the next music festival, the next concert, whatever
it was. I was so scared to miss out and not,

(09:58):
I guess be the life of the part, which was
certainly my personality.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
I'm honestly impressed. Like, don't get me wrong. I would
go out on a Saturday night, maybe even back it
up and do a Friday and a Saturday night, but
like I could not back it up the way that
you did, Like you deserve an award.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, I know, I was. Tuesday night was UNI night,
Thursday night was City night with UNI discounts. Friday night
was like going out on fancy night out with like
the law students going out on a Friday, and then
Saturday was going to the valley. Sunday is Hospo night.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, okay, okay, I can't keep up.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
I know the fact that I still remember this is
also alarming that I had a great time.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
I didn't think it's alarming as making for great chat.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
I remember it like it was yesterday, and honestly I
would I trade it. No. I loved it, and I
loved going out, and it was it was my favorite activity,
for sure. It's just it came with expenses of going out, alcohol,
cover charge, TAXI rides home.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Oh yeah, the cover charge. But back in those days,
I'm sorry, vodka red Bull was five dollars. So it was,
but those added up really quickly.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
And I was actually really lucky as well, because then
I ended up finding a job that also fueled this habit.
So in Uni, I actually was really fortunate to work
for Red Bull. No, I was not a wings girl.
I'm going to put that out there. I was not
pretty enough to be a wings girl. You look like
you could be wings girl.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I think you're being
a bit self deprecating, because like that's not true.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
We had So it was a really cool job with
Red Bull where they paid you if you lived at college,
to be a student brand manager. And I was part
of their marketing employ And so you essentially get paid
to go to college events or organize a college event
and take red Bull. Now that was both alcohol related
and not so like swatvack or study week.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
I was about to say, you would thinking deal steel steals.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
So I had a red Bull fridge in my room.
I had an unlimited supply of free red Bull. So
everyone wanted to be my friend.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
You were willing and dealing. I was.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
I loved it, and I got paid to go out.
So a really fun part of the job was if
you would one of the managers, like the on premise managers,
would call you and say, Hey, the Victory Hotel is
only stocking v and not red Bull. Can you go in?
What that meant is you got paid to go out
that night, Go to the order a vodka red Bull,
wait till they pour the vodgrin V and then you
would say to them, no, I asked for red Bull.

(12:06):
Oh you don't stop red Bull? No, thank you, and
you would do it all night, and so eventually their
tactic is is that then the next day the bar
managers like, oh, why are we're not stocking red Bull?
People keep asking for red Bull, like we need to
get it, And then coincidentally, the on premise manager would
call them the next day and'd be like, hey, are
you ready to stock us yet?

Speaker 3 (12:24):
That's crazy, that's actually crazy manipulative. I love it and
I hate it.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, I mean this was yet two thousand and seven.
This was an amazing thing, and I didn't know what
I was learning at this point in time. But like
incredible sales and marketing technique from red Bull to pay
nineteen year olds to go out and.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Do this low key genius, also terrifying, Like.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, this was pre social media. This was pre everyone
being able to go out and kind of see what
you were drinking. This was just you went out and
you asked for things, and I guess it's the same
as asking for vodka coca and they give you pepsi
and you're like, no, thank you.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
So you were making all this money, You're working two jobs,
you are a Red Bull fan girl. How much debt
did you end up racking up when you were a teenager?

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Basically, I at this point was about in ten thousand
dollars worth of credit card debt. I still owed twenty
thousand dollars on my car because I'd actually had a
cheaper car loan and then unfortunately had a car accident,
as you do when you're nineteen and you run at
the back of someone, So I had to sell that
one obviously went to the wreckers, and I had to
get a new car because I needed to get around.

(13:24):
So yeah, at the end of UNI, I graduated at
twenty three and I was about ten thousand dollars in
credit card debt, twenty grand's worth of car debt. And
because it took me five years to do a three
year degree and I did accounting three times, I had
forty thousand dollars in hex and.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Your insurance must have been more expensive too, because you
run up the back of somebody. It was yep, yeah, cool,
that's so sexy.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
I love this for uning great place. Oh do you
know what?

Speaker 3 (13:50):
And it's crazy because you just think that's normal, and
it is for so many of us. Like I graduated
Nied with no debt, money win. But it was in
the first two years of me working professionally and corporately
that I got into forty thousand dollars of like personal
debt with a really high interest rate. Like you look
at it and go, how.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Did you do that?

Speaker 1 (14:11):
For?

Speaker 3 (14:11):
It was easy? Let me show you.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Take me to Veronica, Maine. But honestly, when I listened
to this story about you, that's what I was like,
this is actually relatable because I was like, I get it.
I remember getting my first job and being like I'm
going to go to Sarba, I'm going to go to
Veronica Main and this.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Was the thing.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I think you convinced it because obviously in your job,
the same as I convinced myself like, yes, I was
going out and I was spending a lot of my
only on music festivals. In my mind because I was
studying business and events and hotels, this was the world
I wanted to work in. So to me, I was like,
this is networking, this is a business expense. I need
to do this to get my name out there. And
that's actually how I got my Red Bull job. They

(14:44):
literally found me on Facebook on a laptop pre mobile
phones and were like, you go out and party a lot.
We're going to pay you to do that.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Okay, say less, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Again that field, and I'm not trying to make excuses,
but again, when you say it out loud to someone
and say, why on earth would you go to ten
music festivals, that's ridiculous. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
We don't judge past us. We also don't judge other
people for the money decisions they've made. I think it's
just it's so validating when you have these conversations and
go okay, cool, like obviously those are not great situations.
We didn't want to be in like, how good we
could get out of them, How good we can have
these open, honest conversations, because I can always guarantee if
I went back to baby you you just graduated and

(15:22):
had thirty grand worth of debt, Hey talk to me
about debt, You'd be like, oh, can you not be
so invasive? Like we would not want to have that conversation.
All right, let's go to a really quick break. Don't
go anywhere, all right, money drives. We are back. So
you graduate? What did you do for work?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
So? I got my first job then graduating UNI as
a wedding coordinator in a beautiful building in Brisbane. This
paid forty eight thousand dollars a year, So I at
that point graduated and did not earn over the threshold
currently to pay off my hecks.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Perfect. That's actually a good position to be in. But
I'm pretty sure you're about to tell me that you
also weren't making extra debt repayments, so tell me more.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
No, so I'm paying off the minimum. So at this
point I'm kind of going twenty two to twenty three,
twenty four having a great time, and it was really
I guess the window for me was then I got
a new job and actually moved in with my boyfriend
who's now my husband, but moved in with my boyfriend
at the time at twenty five, and we got a
shared house account, which was really great so we could
work out, you know, who pays for groceries and things

(16:24):
like that. And I kept putting things on my credit
card and he was like, why do you have a
credit card? And I was like, I don't know, because
that's just what you do. And he's like, well, what's
the interest?

Speaker 3 (16:32):
And I was like, why are you asking go away,
go away, We don't talk about money, il David dah Yeah,
And he was like, well that's you.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Do know that you pay like twenty percent interest on that,
like and what the mineral repayment. So it wasn't actually
until he'd sat me down and explained this to me,
and it felt like a personal attack. But then actually
a couple of days later, I was like, oh, actually
this could be quite helpful. I don't know this much.
And it was really funny because he said to me,
He's like, oh, I just assumed you'd be good with money.
You did a business degree, you talk about your dad
got you a tax file, number at ten, and I

(16:59):
was like, oh, no, don't be illusioned. I did a
business degree, but I have zero financial literature.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, actually the plumbert always has a leaky tap, so
don't judge me.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Correct. And so there was just a lot of assumptions,
and maybe I made the same assumptions that I should
be better with money, But that kind of was the
window for me of like, actually I had to be
transparent with my finances with him, and that kind of
really showed me that. I was like, oh, now that
you can see where the spending is going, not on
my credit card, but that actually, like our shared account
made me really accountable, which actually was good and was

(17:29):
the best thing for me. Not that he cured my spendings.
It wasn't like, oh, you can't spend this. It was
just I was like, oh, he can see on the
app what we're spending, so I'm going to be more
mindful of it. So I closed my credit card and
just started paying as much as I could off it
as well, because our shared living expenses then made it
cheaper obviously when you're sharing with someone else, So I
paid that off. So I was really lucky. By twenty seven,

(17:50):
I paid off my credit card. I paid off my
car loan at this point in time.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Oh, very cool.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, And that was just because it was kind of
ending on the contract and my first thought was I'm
going to go get a new car because my Carloon
is finished. And he was like absolutely not, No, you're
not doing that. And I was like, oh, He's like,
just drive the same one. It's fine. I was like,
you're right, I actually don't care about new cars, and
I don't. So again, it was good to have someone
kind of point that out and not in a bad way,

(18:16):
but yeah, it was just like, do you actually need
a new car? Oh? I don't you ride? Actually, So
that was a really good window for me. But I
guess at this point then we hit a point in
our life together where we really wanted to do some
traveling together, to work a lot and travel. So we
spent the next few years going on some wonderful holidays,
which was wonderful. We did Africa, Asia, Europe, the States,

(18:38):
the Maldives, Tahiti.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh you went, ham, Yeah, I know, but you know
when you justify like.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
I'm turning thirty, I'm going to the mal Dives And
then he's like, well, I'm turning thirty. I'm like, okay,
well let's go to Bora Bora.

Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yes, okay, carry on. So this is I was about
to come back and be like, hold on. So you
were completely depth three at twenty seven, and then at
twenty nine you had a maxed out credit card, like,
tell me what happened? Travel had travel happened?

Speaker 2 (19:02):
So that's where I was really really good. And then
at this window in our relationship, he actually earned about
thirty thousand dollars a year more than me, which is
not that significant. But again, I was trying to keep
up with paying everything fifty to fifty because I'm a
staunchly independent woman who will move furniture on my own.
I will carry the groceries on my own.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Your mum did not raise people who stayed at home.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yes, So we would go on these beautiful holidays, and
we'd spend ten thousand dollars in a week of holidays.
So he paid five thousand, I paid five thousands. I
didn't have five thousand to be doing this, so I
would put it on my credit card. He would give
me the five grand for his away. We went so inevitably,
I just the lifestyle creep of holidays and I wanted
to go and I didn't want to miss out on

(19:44):
doing those things. So inevitably I was just getting further
behind again with debt to go on holidays. I guess
the next turning point for us was I was really
fortunate and offered a role not my current one, but
I took a different role within the same company and
was actually appointed as a GM and moved to a
home hotel that had onsite accommodation. My husband could actually
get a transfer and he actually got paid a higher

(20:06):
incentive because it was rule. So we went to a
remote area in Queensland to work at a hotel. We
had zero expenses other than our own food, oh money,
win yees. So that was really really good and we
actually did it for my career. We didn't really think
about the cost saving at this point in time. We
just did it of like, this will be great for
my career. You go and kind of do a couple
of years out here and then.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
You can pick where you want to go go anywhere
from there, especially because you have always I'm picking up
that you've always just wanted to be in that industry,
so you're kind of like I'm committed to this.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
I'm committed. I you know, at this point, I'm like, no,
I want to be a young female GM. I want
to prove that I can. I can do this. So
we did so really gratefully. I guess my husband at
this point was on one hundred thousand dollars a year
with zero outgoings other than one hundred dollars a week
in food.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Oh my god, that's literally the savings dream. So did
you guys make the most of that? What happened?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
He made the most of it?

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yes, iconic from him. But also if you could have
just taken me on that journey, so that would have
been appreciated.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
So again, I didn't earn as much as he did.
Hospitality is not fantastic with their wages. It's wonderful and
you get so much more out of it. You get
lovely holidays because you can kind of contra. But it
still is not a high paying job. So I'm on
about seventy thousand dollars a year, which was still not bad,
and he's on one hundred thousand dollars with no outgoings.
So we're still doing really well. But again, because we

(21:22):
chose to live remotely, we treated ourselves to again more holidays.
Yeah okay, yeah, and that kind of offset the hours
and what I was working. So at this point, I'm
working sixty hours a week, living on site, giving everything
I could to this role. Unfortunately, in twenty nineteen, I
was thirty one, and not that the age matters, but
I got sat down and had a conversation about how

(21:43):
a thirty one year old female will probably want children
one day and that this role is not suitable excuse me,
and it crushed my soul. Like I worked for this
company for six years, and my entire identity was this
business and this company, Oh my god, the tea.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
After this, I'm getting the name of this company, I
am snooping.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
And it was really hard because, like I like I
understood because they thought from an operational point of view,
like living on site, potentially having children. But you know,
I told myself, okay.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Sorry you no, no, no, no no no. Do you
know what I would have in that instance? Do you
know what we're doing? We're lying? Oh, thanks so much
for bringing that up. So awkward. I'm actually infertile and
I don't want to have children.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
And look, I've thought about this so many times, like
it's I've repeated in my head this entire conversation of
what I should have done.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Oh yeah, and like everything's better in retrospect, right, Like, oh,
the things I would say to the amount of people
who have been rude to me. I've got great clapbacks,
I just don't have them when I need them.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
That's exactly right. I was just I was shocked. I
honestly thought I was going in to have a meeting
with them to talk to me about career progression and
essentially that they had found a new replacement for my role,
which they legally could do. Look, there was a lot
of questions about whether I could have fought them for this.
I didn't have the resources to fight this company this size.
You know, they had hired other people before as like

(23:07):
roving roles, so it was legal, just very questionable anyway,
So I was told that I needed to find myself
a new role somewhere within the company if I wanted to,
but just not at that level. So I kind of
bided my time. I took a project's role at this point,
and the irony of all of this when they actually
told me this in a meeting, which obviously they would

(23:28):
never say outlie that they said I was actually eight
weeks pregnant, but I didn't know yet.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Oh my god, I have thoughts and feelings, but this
is your story. So to what happened next, I'm.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Sure similar to every other female, I ended up having
a non viable pregnancy.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
No, no, no, no, that don't justify. That's shit.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yep. So I centally've been moved out of my role
that I feel like I'd given everything to It was
my identity. I just had a miscarriage. I needed to
travel because I was remote. I had to go two
hours to the closest hospital to have a DNC, you know,
trying to explain where I was like, it was just
it was a lot, and my husband and I were
not in a great place because he's like, you need
to fight this. They can't do that, and I just couldn't.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
I just sorry, Like going through a miscarriage is one thing.
I do not have the energy to fight. You, Like,
I'm not fighting anybody. We're not like, we're not, we're not.
I'm busy. I'm out of office.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, So it was this horrendous time at this point
in time. So but I, like I said, then randomly
got a call. I was actually on my way back
from the hospital in the car and I kept getting
this random phone number. I was like, oh, wait, go away.
Two days later, I finally answered this phone call and
it's a lovely gentleman who called me to say I
own a venue on the Sunshine Coast and I really
want you as my GM. And I just just I

(24:41):
almost cried. I laughed. I didn't. I didn't know what
had happened. And I said, how did you find me?
And he goes, oh, I've asked around and they've said that,
you know, you work in this industry. You're very good
at weddings. It's your niche to Are you open to
a conversation.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yes, I'm so open to the conversation. Let's talk, I.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Know, but actually you'll be I don't know if I'm
still proud of this because it worked out or it
was probably the dumbest thing I've ever done. I had
a conversation with him and I was so blunt and
I actually said, what is your stance on female general
managers who wish to have a family, What does your
maternity leave options? What are you paying and what do
you expect from me? And what is the worst day

(25:18):
I can have in this role, and he like it
took him a minute, and you know his middle aged
has no children, never been married. So I was like,
I don't know you, and I'm not going to come
work for you if I don't know your value. Straight
off to that hope fair Now they're probably obviously could
have ended well because he was like, maybe I don't
want to give you the job. You seem a little crazy,
which was fair, but he answered all of it, and

(25:40):
I negotiated a forty thousand dollars pay increase to what
I was earning. Get a queen.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
See what is meant for you? Is not going to
miss you.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Literally sad belittled me, who had crushed her soul, was
just then mad.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
I was all mad, and yes, yes, we work on Spie.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Yes, so I actually and then he's like, well you're
relocating because I said, well, look I'm living in regional Queensland.
I'm going to take me a while to get there.
He's like, how much will it cost me to get
you here in two weeks? So I picked a number
out of the sky. So I ended up being off
at a salary at one hundred and twenty thousand dollars
plus a forty thousand dollars relocation.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Forty thousand dollars to relocate.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, I don't think offts about five hundred dollars.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
But that's not the point. That is not the point.
Oh my god, you're an icon.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Because I've actually worked out that what I didn't need
for relocation is I guess I knew I was going
to try and have a family, and I knew that
he wouldn't pay maternity leave. That's fine, it's so small business.
I respect that. But I was like, well, if I
can get a good signing bonus, I can put that
aside and that can kind of cover if and when
I have children. But he didn't know that it wasn't
costing you that much money.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
It's not his business. Sorry, that was my rate. You
actually don't have to pay it, Like, you don't have
to hire me. That's fine. These are just my rates
if you want me, And he did and he did so.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Two weeks later, we packed up our life and we moved,
and we were really lucky because we did come back
to the Sunshine Coast, which we actually have family.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
Stop it that I was like, this is getting worse.
This is getting worse. This is not good. And then
like you pulled the rabbit out of the hat and
I was like, oh my god, get an icon and
nothing feels a woman like spiked. No it doesn't, but
I think the kicker for funny of going. And then
we moved to the coast and I've literally taken on
a brand new role. I've committed myself. You know, I've
said I'm worth this much money. You got pregnant, didn't you?

Speaker 2 (27:22):
No, six weeks later COVID happened.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
Oh, pregnant. I would have been like good, Like in
my head, I'm just like good, the more babies the better, Like, yeah, no,
pregnant probably would have been easier than COVID. Actually, no,
you know what, I would take pregnant over COVID. And
do you know what, I hate being pregnant.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
I know. Actually that's a tough call. I also hated
being pregnant. So COVID hit. What happened. The venue that
I worked for specifically is weddings and events, does have
onsie accommodation and kind of things, but for the most part,
we essentially then had six months we were closed. Now
very grateful we were in Queensland obviously compared to Victoria.
But it was actually a really good test because I
didn't know this person that I was working for. I

(28:01):
didn't know his values, what was going to happen. And
he was like, absolutely not, we need our team, this
will lift I don't know how long he probably was
a little preemptive of he thought this would only be
a few weeks, and he still paid us all in full,
irrespective of job keeper, and I think for that, I
was just like, oh, you're actually a really good person.

(28:23):
And the previous company that I'd worked for, they would
never know they made about one hundred redundancies. They literally
cleaned fifty percent of their team.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
So you know, when you just go I dodged a bullet.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yes, absolutely, And I mean you always say that you
just never know it at the time.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
No, no, no, you never know it at the time.
And that's like it's the worst part about it, right,
And that's why I'm always like saying things like, look,
what is meant for you is never going to miss you,
because those are the things that you need to remember
when you're having a trashy time, because you're going to
look back on the trashy time and be like, Okay,
there was such a good reason that this happened, and
at the time there's no clarity, like you go, this

(28:58):
is a joke. I hate this. I don't know why
it's happening to me while with me, and then you
look back and you go, that was so pivotal in
helping me develop my personality and my self confidence and
getting me to this part of life that I am
now so grateful to be in and I never would
have taken the leap without it. But you can't see
that at the time. Absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
You never can. And do you know what it did
shape me? Because like I am a better leader to
my team now because of that, And I'm actually really
glad because then when I had a family, I was like,
do you know what, I can set the standard of
a flexible working arrangement and not just saying that, like, actually,
do you know what if you're half an hour late
because you've had a really crappy jacare drop off for
no reason, that's fine, I get it. But I think

(29:36):
had I stayed and tried to force having a family
with someone inherently knowing that they were not supportive of that,
it would have just hurt me longer in the long run,
so and it would have hurt my family. So it
sucked at the time, but actually has now made my
life and my family and my actual happiness so much
better because the grass is green. Are like, actually, for

(29:57):
me getting out it was the best thing, but I
didn't realize that until I was out.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah yeah, but like you can't write, and that's why
we say hindsight is twenty twenty. So then what COVID
comes lifts You've kept your job. Money win, money wins.
So but also in moving back.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
To the coast at start of twenty twenty, we also
put an offer on a house, our first house, because
my husband had just saved a fair amount of money.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
I love this husband of yours. He sounds like he's
got like his head screwed on.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
He does, thank goodness. So like I'm the outgoing, vivacious
one that has a wonderful time, and I bring him
along for that, Like he couldn't book a flight to
save his life, so if he had met me, he
would have never left the country. But so I bring
the fun, he brings the bank balance. So we like
work together.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
Well do you know what partnership?

Speaker 2 (30:41):
So he had saved one hundred and twenty thousand dollars
by little okay king when you earn one hundred grand
every year for three years and you have zero our goings.
So I like to say that I helped save for
our house deposit by the job that I had that
gave us a house and like internet, water utilities, so
where it's his income obviously provided us the cash to

(31:02):
be able to save. So he was really lovely where
he saw that as a joint savings because he saw
I guess what, I probably mentally and physically sacrificed in
that role to get it.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
At the end of the day's partnership. And it doesn't
matter how other people see it. It's just how you
guys see it, And as long as you're on the
same page, I don't care exactly.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
So I'm like, I'm very grateful because I physically would
never have had a house without him. But I also
know that, yeah, he may not have ever saved that
volume of money without me and the role that I had.
So we very much respect each other in the way
that we benefit our family in different things that we do.
So we were very fortunate though. Yeah. February twenty twenty,

(31:38):
we purchased our first house. We didn't know COVID was coming,
so everyone that says, oh, my goodness, you're so lucky. Yes,
but I guess at the time all of our friends
had two years prior bought a house in Queensland for
four hundred five hundred thousand. We were now looking at
six to seven hundred because the market had gone up,
so we didn't feel lucky at the time. We were like, oh,
we're behind, you've stooged yees. So we capped our budget

(32:02):
out at six fifty. We're very fortunate to buy a
house six hundred and fifty thousand, and he works in healthcare,
so our broker told us at the time we actually
needed ten percent deposits, so that was really great. I
guess I want to say this that we also didn't
know how to buy a house. We googled how to
buy a house? Do you know what?

Speaker 3 (32:21):
I'm currently working on an online course for literally that
I own a mortgage breaking business and you probably already
know that. So like, I talk to people about doing
this every day, but like, how do you know how
to buy a house? Like it's even like that first
conversation with a real estate agent, like you pick up
the phone you've seen them on real estate to COMMU
You're like, can I come for an inspection? And then
you like it, and it's like what do I ask next?
Like do you go, oh, hey, real estate agent, can

(32:43):
I have this one?

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Or no?

Speaker 3 (32:45):
Like exactly what do I ask for? And then I'm like, okay, cool,
So need you ask for this, this, this, and this
and a section thirty two? And everyone's like wait, what
like you just don't know, you just don't know.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
And so I understood going like we'd rented a lot,
so I'm like, I know how to go and look
at a house and what I want to practically look for.
It was just like, how do we know how much
we can spend and how much is the bank going
to give us? And how does that work?

Speaker 3 (33:05):
Did your broker help?

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yes? The broker did help. So prior to this, pretty
much all of our friends who are young professionals, had
bought a house. So we text them and was like,
how do we do this? And they were like, here's
the broker. Call them and they guided us through it. Thankfully,
they answered all of our ridiculous questions because I remember
saying when you put in the offer, they're like, what deposit?
And I'm like, oh, is this where we give the
ten percent? And they're like, no, no, no, you just
need to give us some cash deposit to hold it.

(33:28):
And I was like, okay, so do I give you
like two hundred dollars? Like how much do we give?

Speaker 3 (33:33):
It's crazy, right, like you just don't know these things.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
And I think that's what's really funny is there's this
idea that everybody knows how to do it, but actually
no one knows how to do it. And it's those
really simple questions.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
But it's not silly. It's not silly. You didn't learn
about this in school, like your parents didn't teach you.
Who was going to teach you?

Speaker 2 (33:50):
What?

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Do you just get this information by osmosis because you
walked past a real estate agent once like no, no,
we've got to ask them and they're not silly.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
So we were really lucky that yes, we did buy
before COVID. We actual settled in COVID, so we actually
had to get permission to move at this point in time,
and we actually questioned should we just forgo it? Like
is the asking to fall out of the market, which
everyone kind of thought. And then our real estate agent
was actually really good and she was like, well, if
you need somewhere to live, it's not a bad investment.
If you were looking at flipping houses, then maybe not,

(34:18):
but you know. And then obviously it went boom, which
no one again knew. But we were then very fortunate
that we had a house. We kept our jobs again,
my husband working in healthcare, were more hours than less,
so we were okay, but we didn't loan more. We
were oftened quite a high pre approval, but we went
for six fifty because we knew we could pay for

(34:38):
that on one income. We wanted to have a family.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Yeah, great, and that probably proved to be a very
good purchase. I'm going to ask you a little bit
more about that later in the show. So you've bought
the house in February twenty twenty, get me up to speed.
Then you had babies, babies.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
I've had one first baby twenty twenty one, so I
did actually have another miscarriage before that, so I met Sorry,
oh that's okay, another non viable Absolutely fine, But.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
Again I just like to say it because I think
it's not absolutely fine. But we need to talk about
this stuff, like if we're talking about pregnancy, I'm just
so glad that we are now more open with talking
about it because when I had my first miscarriage, I
thought there was something wrong with me.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
And that's the thing I think it's so important to
also highlight, like female should talk about finance and they
should talk about their ovaries. Good bad are indifferent, and
I'm a staunch believer in both of that. So when
I say it's fine, as in I was really lucky
where I didn't take a huge emotional impact. I was
quite like, great, my body decided this is not the
time for me. Sure, no worries. And that's where I
think I always like to call them a non.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Vible No, that's perfect.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
I've noticed that you were saying that. I was like, oh,
I really like that, because it's true.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
It's true. I never made it to twelve weeks. We
just never had a heartbeat. It was essentially tried swinging
a miss and it was so Yes, I was pregnant,
but I guess I never want to devalue from someone
who has then a miscarriage at twelve weeks, twenty six weeks,
thirty weeks, and there's no better or worse.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
We all have different experiences and you're not devaluing anybodies
by sharing yours. It's different.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah, And that's the thing is like I speak about
mind the way that I do because that's my personal response,
and I was okay, but again it's not someone else's
and you should never devote. But I'm all like to
highlight it because it's just like, again, as a thirty
year old female, you were just going through the joys
of pregnant. You spent your whole life trying to not
get pregnant, and then you finally want to be pregnant
and it doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
It's a circus.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
It's a circus. But yes, twenty twenty one I had
my first beautiful daughter as so she's now four, and
then twenty twenty three I had my second child, my son.
They're actually twenty months apart.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
That's so exciting.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Wild is the only way I can describe it. But
so I guess from us. We went twenty twenty to
buying a house twenty twenty one, had a baby twenty
twenty two. We then someone floated the idea to us
and said, hey, you should use the equity in your house. Okay,
what does that word mean? So I literally emailed our brokeup,
what does equity mean? And what can I do with it?

(37:00):
I'm pretty sure I love this? No, no, no, I
love this.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
Queen knew who'd ask that's all we need to do?
Get your team and create your village.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
What do I do with this? Because we'd thought about
buying another investment, but again we'd also grown up with
the idea that you buy one house because that's all
you need. But we actually emailed him and again due
to COVID, thank you for the wonders of COVID, but
also it did provide us in Southeas Queensvent a huge boost.
So our six fifty house in two years went to
a nine hundred and fifty thousand dollar house. Money whim

(37:28):
So he says, you've got three hundred grand. Obviously you
can loan up to ninety percent of that, so you
can pull all of that out. And so we actually
then opted to buy an investment property. Now we actually
chose to buy in regional Queensland where we used to
sort of live before, because we knew the area, we
knew the local real estate, we knew the local handyman.
Would anyone else buy there? No, but it actually has

(37:51):
a huge vacancy rate because there's not a lot of stock.
I guess because it's a small town. We purchased a
price for two hundred and twenty thousand dollars, which I
think is wild because I'm sure people are thinking, where
on earth can you buy a house for two hundred
and twenty thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
It's possible, it is, so tell me is it worth
two hundred and twenty thousand dollars today?

Speaker 2 (38:10):
No, it is worth three hundred and eighty thousand.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
Stop it.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
Stop it.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
You're an investing queen, and you were like, what equity high?

Speaker 2 (38:18):
I can't wait for you to ask me what the
rental yield on that one is. It's currently tenanted for
three eighty a week.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Okay, great.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
I was like, she's going to be so proud of me.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
That is a very good rental yield.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
We just wanted to buy our first investment property at
a very low risk. We're very risk adverse at this
point in time, you know, post COVID, we've got children,
and so let's test the waters of how does this
investment idea work in a property hence why we just
bought a very cheap in terms of low risks. So
we were like, if it's not tenative for six months,
that's okay. We can still afford the mortgage repayments on this. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Yeah, And that's a really nice position to be in
and definitely something that I would want to be taking
into consideration. But like, sorry, I'm just watching your like
money story unfolding. Usually we have like a shorter part
at the part where we took about your money story
and then I ask all these questions. But like, I
have been watching your money story unfold from like being
on a farm in New South Wales and your mom

(39:12):
being like you can't stay here and she wanting better
for you, and like you being a red bull girl,
to buying your first property, getting some insane equity, getting
your first investment property. What happens now?

Speaker 2 (39:24):
So now we have gone back to work full time.
We have two children. Both my husband and I work
full time. He is an incredible husband that does pick ups,
drop offs, he cooks, he cleans, so it makes all
of this possible, as so do I. Well for us
financially being working full time. We have just recently settled
on a second investment property. We decided about six months

(39:46):
ago that we're in our prime working and we can
see now the benefits that property is in Australia. Now,
there's part of me that has a moral and ethical
issue with stockpiling property.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
It's a different story though it is.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
But then I also look at it. We are purely
buying for rentals.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Well, you're buying, and you're buying for mental yield. But
then also there's a very big argument that you mentioned before.
And I don't know the property address, I haven't been
able to look at it, but you just told me
that you're buying in a lower socioeconomic area. And the
reality is we need a lot of rentals in that
space with landlords who are not idiots. We need a
lot of landlords who have empathy and kindness and are

(40:22):
happy to lease their properties out. Not because we want
to stockpile property, but the reality of those lower socioeconomic
areas is that those people are very unlikely to be
approved for a loan, they're unlikely to be able to
save a deposit, and they might not even have any
interest in getting into the property market in that way.
So our country literally needs rental properties on the market

(40:46):
owned by not idiots, and that's a good thing. But
you're right, stop piling as a different story. And it
all comes down to your ethics, Like if you're going
to be a landlord, just be a good one. Okay.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah. And I'm actually funny now because I actually preference
people with children because I'm like, no, you need housings.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
See see, I like that. Let's more of that.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Both of that tenants in both of our properties have
young kids. So we are now very fortunate as we
who go that we own our second investment property. But
we actually opted to buy in our local area because
I guess the capital growth in our area is quite
good and just to diversify. We didn't want to buy
again in another regional area, and it just to kind
of diversify the properties. So that was definitely a bigger purchase.

(41:27):
We actually purchased for nine hundred thousand dollars, which like
five years ago was alarming to me. But now I
guess our strategy is leveraging as much debt for investments as.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
Possible, and that is just so exciting. Like I want
to go back and tell baby you who got her
first credit card and like her husband contributed most of
their deposit for your first home. That your first home
that you purchased for six fifty which was like a stretch. Yes,
you could have been improved for more, but was a stretch.
By the way, You're going to buy an investment property
in literally less than five years for nine hundred thousand dollars.

(42:02):
So don't stress bad, don't stress like, isn't that crazy?

Speaker 2 (42:04):
It is so crazy. And I know that you think
about it, well, that's just what the housing prices have
done now. But I'm like, again, I was of the
generation that like nine hundred million dollar houses were mansions.
You know, we've just bought a three bedroom townhouse for
nine hundred thousand. But still, I guess the idea now
is that I said to my husband, I was like,
I hope we're really committed together because we've got one
point eight million dollars worth of debt together.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Yeah, we in deep. We're in really deep. So tell
me you're both full time? Now, how much are you
earning and how much is he earning?

Speaker 2 (42:30):
So I in one hundred and thirty five thousand a
year plus super and in hospit and in hospit, yes,
because I which is very exciting, and I actually work
a thirty eight hour week.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
You're crazy, but like I love it.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
I know it's wild. And so that's the thing. There
is definitely hospo jobs that like in my area that
you can get and push, you know, two hundred, two
hundred and fifty if you're a GM of a big hotel,
like a soft hotel, that kind of thing. But you
work and you report to a big board internationally, and
like I said, you kind of work sixty hours a week.
So for me, that's not worth it for my salary,

(43:05):
and the fact that I work a thirty eight hour
week is valuable to me at this point in my life.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
And what does your husband do and how much does
he earn?

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, so he works in healthcare and he works for
Queensland Health so he earns one hundred and fifty thousand.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Oh, how good. So you've got an epic duel income
now and you're completely out of your maxed credit card.
Tell me a bit more about what the future looks like.
You've just purchased a nine hundred thousand dollar investment property.
You already have another investment property, Like, what are your
big money goals? Like, you're already married, you already have kids, Like,
are their big ticket things that you're like, we're really

(43:37):
working towards XVE.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
I actually had a thought about this, So I think
my personal big money goal, which is it is a
short term one. So I'm currently thirty seven, and about
two years ago I went on a friend's long lunch
and one of my friends is an accountant and she
was like, I don't care what you do with your money,
but focus on your super com and I was like, oh,
I don't even know what my superbalance is and she
looked at me mortified. So I think I then I

(44:00):
went home from this lunch and looked at it, asked
my husband about it. I knew very little about kind
of super so at the time he was like, well, look,
actually let's work backwards. So I actually use the money
smart calculator of how much super do I want to
have when I retire and go backwards. So my short
term goal is actually big money goal is to get
to two hundred thousand dollars of super by the age
of forty.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
And you're like, obviously you're working backwards. You've got a
plan and that's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah, So based on my employee contributions plus I salary
sacrifice and extra hundred dollars a week.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
Oh gog.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Yeah. So the goal is is I will just get
to two hundred thousand in the next three years, which
I then essentially did the calculator projections will get me
a million dollars worth of super by the time I'm
sixty five.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yeah, that is very cool. So, in addition to your
two investment properties, do you guys have any other additional investments?

Speaker 2 (44:47):
So we do, but not jointly. So my husband is
actually a very good avid investor, and he actually wishes
he started earlier.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
I love this man. I like that he's just bopping along.
He's like, oh you do you have your fun with
your debt. I'll just save your house to posit. Also,
I've got shares.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
You're good. I know. I literally married my mest egg
is what I call him.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
I love this.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
I love this.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
So do you know what he holds in shares or
like what he invests in.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
He has done direct shares previously. So he started investing
when we were living remotely, probably because he was bored
because I was working all the time, and he started
kind of doing direct shares. He didn't know about ETFs
at this point in time, or index funds, which he
regrets now, but he was doing direct shares, blue chip
direct shares, Origin, Macquarie Bank, NAB. He then during COVID,

(45:34):
because there was obviously a downturn in the market and
we had not needed to use all of the money
for our house deposit, he essentially put fifty thousand dollars
into the shares, So his portfolio was sitting about a
month ago around the two hundred thousand dollar mark.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Cheese, Louise, you are right, you are sitting on your
nest egg.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
But he actually sold some of them out a because
some of the companies were actually selling Origin was questioning
a merger. But we actually needed a little bit of
shortfall to buy our most recent property because of our
the bank wouldn't give us the service ability to get
the mortgage plus stamp duty. So he's currently sitting on
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of shares. He
did have to pull some out to pay for our

(46:16):
investment property. Really nice of him. I personally do have
a very mini portfolio. I have three thousand dollars in
that's not mini. That's great in quoal is my ticket code?
Why because that's what my husband told me to do.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Okay, icon love that, love that. So any other investments
in addition to those.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
I had just started recently after listening to you guys
open to shares his account.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
We're becoming a cult, aren't we?

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah? I got the Shares's account. Want to work out
the best way to start investing for my kids, and
I wanted it. Obviously, you can't set it up for
tax purposes to be in their names, and Raised has
a kids section. But I actually worked out a really
cool way with Shares. So you can do auto invest
and you can call it something.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Yeah you can. Yeah, that's what a lot of our
community do.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Yeah, I just call it my kids name. So I
invest thirty dollars a week into a separate ETF each
for my children, and I just do auto invest. And
I've just let that as set and forget adore.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
So tell me, I feel like, over this period of
time you've probably garnered up a few good money habits
and if you like, not so good money habits, So
tell me what do you think your best money habit is?

Speaker 2 (47:24):
So, I would say, as a day to day. We
as a collective but also myself, we spend very little
on going out and coffees and doing things. I think
not because we can't be bothered by actually because we
work full time. We try not to leave the house
on our days off. We also live near the beach.
We have a house with a pool, so I don't
spend too much on activities. My short term best money

(47:45):
habit is that we don't buy coffee. We have a
great coffee machine at home. I work in hospitality, I
actually prefer my own coffee. We don't go out that much.
We were so used to living remotely where takeaway wasn't
an option, so we're so used to cooking and meal planning.
So short like, I guess the best many wins, we
definitely don't spend too much. My other win is I
am a little bit frugal when it comes to insurances.

(48:07):
I hate insurance companies, so I every year change insurance
providers and I guess to give a bit of example,
this year I changed our home and contents insurance for
both our investment and our owner occupier. Our current owner
occupier house was about three thy eight hundred. The renewal
came for seven thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Hi, so probably not.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Though, yeah, it decided that our house has gone up,
therefore the building cost has gone up. And also we
had a cyclone warning in Queensland, so that's jacked it
up again. And I was like, absolutely not. I went
shopping and I actually got it for cheaper than I
even had it before, and got it for thirty six
hundred money win.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
See, we're making money. We're making money. And I did
the same for our investment property.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
So I guess, do not be loyal to insurance companies.
It costs you like four or five hours of the day,
a lot of phone calls, a lot of annoying phone calls,
but you will never get a good renewal price. They
only give good price seing to new customers.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Sorry what you actually said? Yeah, okay, it took you
a few hours, but I'm pretty sure you've never made
three thousand or four thousand dollars in the space of
three or four hours. So like, I'm actually happy with that.
ROI that's a good deal.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
It is. And like this is where we differ where
my husband would never do it. He's like, it's fine,
just pay it, it doesn't matter and I'm like, no,
I'm the same with our mortgage. Every two years we refinance.
Now sometimes we might stay with the same bank if
they're going to match it, but I will happily do
the paperwork.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
Yeah, we're reviewing our rate.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
I will move. I don't mind the paperwork. I think
they just assume that the if they kill you in paperwork,
you'll choose to stay.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Oh no, we review. So in my business, I like
make sure that every single client has a proper mortgage
review every twelve months, because I'm literally like to my brokers, no, no, no,
to put our clients in the best possible position, Like
I'm on the show preaching that we should do this.
We do this for our clients every twelve months. And
you know, it might come up that they're fixed and
so they can't. But I've looked at their file and
be like, okay, cool, can't help them right now, All right,

(49:56):
there's another date in the calendar for when I can.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
So that would be definitely my money habit that I
think contributes obviously to our household, in addition to obviously
just our budget and looking at that and just knowing
where the money is going out.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
One hundred percent, and what's your worst money habit.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
I actually had this and one of your other money
direst said it, and I was like, I can resonate
cam ut came up for the kids.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
Honestly, Oh yeah, it's a slippery slope. They know what
they're doing. They know what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
It's probably my worst thing. And then I also said
that we don't go out, so yes, we don't want
to take away, we don't get subway, we don't get
tied once a week, but when my husband and I
do go out, we'll spend six hundred dollars on dinner.
So my worst money habit is when we do go
out for dinner or we do go out for lunch.
It's like, well we don't do this very often. Here's

(50:42):
one thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
Ah yeah, okay, okay, And like they came out thing
I think a lot of us can resonate with, Like
you just.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Accidentally buy one hundred and eighty dollars in your cart
and you're like, well, that's a couple of T shirts,
a new pair of shoes. I needed that new rug
for the playroom.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Why have they got good stuff? Like stop?

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Yeah, came out and dining out.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Yeah, and they know what they're doing on the back end.
They're like looking at all their data and all their
analytics and being like, Okay, we're going to place this
product near this product because if she goes in she
might be interested. Like they're smart, promise they know what
they're doing. So now that we've had this chat, which
has been absolutely brilliant, Like from my perspective, I've really
really enjoyed it. You said at the start, my money

(51:22):
habits are a bee. What would it take to get
you from a bee to an a plus? Like? What
work do we have to do?

Speaker 2 (51:29):
I think the biggest thing for me is two different points.
Is one is having a better understanding of SUPER. I
definitely value it, and I'm so grateful now that I'm
focusing on it because I sometimes look at other people
who are like working their own businesses and like, I
just haven't paid my SUPER for a few years, Like
that now gives me an anxiety of you're going to
be reliant on someone else and that thing. I love

(51:50):
my husband, but I also don't want to be reliant
on him. I don't want to stay in a marriage
because I financially have to, So learning more about Super
in terms of its growth, how to balance it out,
what the profile is. I have very little understanding of that.
And I think the other thing is is that we've
been very fortunate to get through by googling things, chat
epting things. But we're probably at a stage in our

(52:12):
life now actually getting paid good professional advice. And I
think for us, in a few years, we're going to
come out of the daycare costs and window and then
I think, great, what are we going to do with
that twenty two thousand dollars a year that we currently
pay in super? Like should we invest it? Should we
pay off our own or occupy a Where where should
we put that money? And I think that's where we're
kind of capped now at our knowledge. We need help

(52:36):
And I think that's the limitations of my financial literacy now,
is needing more help with those things.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
But you've got clarity on it. And that's why I
was like, oh, what's going to take And you were like, okay, cool,
So my Super, my, this my that. Like, girl, you're
on the right trajectory. Like it took you five years
to get to hear up. I mean, obviously it took
you longer than that, but like, over the last five years,
you've come in leaps and bounds. Give me even two
years and I think you'll be like, I'm actually I'm
a wizard and I've retired now by I yeah, no.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
There would. I mean the best hack is when we
actually chat GBT a few things. When it came to finances,
I ask it everything. I am shocked at the quality
of advice.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think I
would want someone who doesn't understand what quality advice looks
like generating that and then completely relying on it. But like,
if you know how to fact check it and look
at it, I'm like, oh, you're smart. Do you know
what you're doing?

Speaker 2 (53:20):
Go. Yeah. So we actually have twenty thousand dollars worth
of car loan debt, and normally we wouldn't want to
go into debt for that reason, but we actually spit
into chat GPT. We're going to buy a forty thousand
dollar car. Should we novated least put my husband's work,
Should we take the money out of our offset, or
should we get a car loan genius?

Speaker 3 (53:40):
And that helped you make the decision in the best
possible way.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
With the finances exactly, and it actually said, well, if
and we put in the car loan rate that we
were getting, which was quite good, and it said, actually,
over the course of five years, you would make more
money in savings in your offset. Keep that in there
and get the car loan.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Okay, it's a genius. I love that. I'm going to
put a thread in my face book group soon and
going to be like, what is the best money question
you've ever asked chat gpt? Can you imagine being able
to scroll through that and being like, oh, actually, I'm
going to do this and this and this. Because I
can't give you the advice. I cannot legally tell you
to go and ask chat gpt and do that, but
you could read a conversation and maybe like take inspiration

(54:16):
from somebody.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
You absolutely can't. We honestly did it. I worked out
an entire spreadsheet of our potential tax appreciation over the
course of the years with our new investment property, and
my husband goes, oh, just put it into chat GPT
and I was like, that took me two days to
make that spreadsheet and it took chat GPT three minutes
just give the same answer. At least I knew My
mass was right, Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
So you are a money girl.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
I am now now I get it. I failed accounting
three times and yet now give me a spreadsheet and
a profit and loss any day of the week.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
That's fine. I love that, but I feel like sometimes
you have to get to a point where you understand
the benefit of it. It's not interesting when you're working
it out for someone else's business and you're like, I
don't care about a P and L, and then all
of a sudden, it's for your own wealth creation journey
and you're like, oh, actually, I've rauched my head around
this pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Yeah, and definitely, Yet the compound interest is definitely what
got us on the investment vandwagon of capital growth, not
necessarily dividends money.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
Jarist, I have loved this conversation, but sadly we have
run out of time. Thank you so much for being
so open and so honestly conversational. I feel like this
conversation has been absolutely fantastic. Our community is going to
be obsessed. I'm just really grateful that you were willing
to come on the show and also give us all
the nitty gritty. This is how we learn.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Thank you so much for having me. I've loved chatting
to and love chatting all things finance.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
Did buy shared on. She's on the Money is generally
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

(55:57):
your needs. Victoria Divine and Sheese on the Money are
authorized representatives of Money sherper P T y L t
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