May 4, 2025 • 45 mins
What happens when you’re smashing savings goals… and your partner is dragging debt behind him? This week’s Money Diarist is the kind of person who plans, budgets, and makes things happen. Her partner? Not so much. But instead of giving up or giving in, she stepped up.... managing the money, making the plan, and slowly pulling them into a better place. It wasn’t easy. But now, they’re out of debt, kicking goals, and building a life with way more control than chaos. It’s honest, relatable, and seriously motivating if you’ve been doing the financial heavy lifting (or just need a lift yourself).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
My name is Satasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr
the Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
(00:23):
As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
that lets you be pervy about other people's money habits
for educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another episode
of our Money Daries, where I get the absolute pleasure
of sitting down and talking to one of our incredible
She's on the Money community members all about their journey.
Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got
(01:17):
a message and it sounded exactly like this, Dear She's
on the Money. I grew up seeing my parents go
through bankruptcy and while I was only about nine at
the time. It had a lasting effect on me, and
so I'm the opposite. But my partner, on the other hand,
has struggled with addiction to smoking and alcohol, which put
him in debt. So I had to get involved and
(01:38):
help him manage his finances and get him back on track.
Now we are debt free and we are seeing a
financial advisor to set us up for our future. But honestly,
I feel like I'm pulling my husband along for the
ride money dorist. I feel like this is going to
be a little bit of a relatable one for all
the people who listen to She's on the Money, but
maybe their partners aren't as brought in as they are.
(01:59):
So I've write in Money direst, could you let me
know what you think your money habits are. If I
asked you to give them a grade from A through to.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
F, I would probably give it an A because I
feel like I'm on top of my money and I
consider myself good at saving and have also helped my
partner get into a similar position. But also I would
love to get a little bit more educated in the
realm of investing, as I've only just kind of started
to dabble my toes into that.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I love that and I adore that. You're like, no,
I'm in a because so many women undervalue how good
they are at money, Like They're all like, oh, I'm
a C. And then I'm like, are you really a C?
Because we just went through how good you are at money?
I love that? So can we dive a bit further in?
You told us in your letter in a little bit
about your money story, but I need to know more money, Darrest.
(02:44):
Can you tell me a bit more about that money
story of yours?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Yeah, So I grew up with my family, so my
brother and my parents, and they went through some struggles,
some hardships early on positive ending to their story, but
they pretty much were the type of people that would
take on any job. They did things from cleaning to
office work. My mum even worked in an avatar at
(03:09):
one point, so they pretty much took on whatever they
could put food on the table, which was fantastic. But unfortunately,
I remember the memory of our car being repossessed, and
that's just something that's kind of just stuck in the
back of my head and it made me certainly be
aware of money and the fact that money was spent
(03:30):
on things, And so when I was growing up, I
consciously thought about the opportunities that were given to me
and whether I should take those opportunities or not, and
if they cost my parents' money, I was more inclined
to not tell them about it. But obviously kids being kids,
I did have some opportunities come my way that I'm like,
I really want to do that, and I knew my
parents would make that happen for me if I wanted
(03:51):
to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, I love that. Can I ask a little bit
more about that experience of getting your car repossessed, because
like you were like nine, you said, so you were
quite young. But was that like a really traumatic experience
or was that something that you know, after it happened
your parents were really upset, or like, what about that
really stuck in your mind?
Speaker 4 (04:11):
I think it was just the image of seeing the
car being towed away and my mom's reaction to that.
So my mom was obviously quite devastated, was upset, and
that's just something that's kind of stuck in my brain.
I couldn't tell you, you know, the circumstances as to
how that happened or anything around that. It's just something
that I remember, and I could be remembering it wrong
(04:32):
for all I know.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
No, but it is like a pivotal moment in your journey,
and it's always something like that that you're like, it
was that moment that I was like, Wow, that's something
I never want to experience as an adult.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So talk to me a little bit more about what
you do now for work and how much money you earn.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
So I'm a teacher, so I suppose giving myself an
a I'm used to grading things.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Now, so she's accurate.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I would like to think I'm on point with grading.
So I'm a teacher. I've been teaching about nine ten years,
and I'm currently earning one hundred and sixteen thousand plus.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Super very cool. And how long did it take you
to get to earning like one hundred and sixteen thousand?
Do you remember like your first salary as a teacher.
What did that look like?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I think the first salary was probably somewhere around the
sixty seventy thousand dollar mark. It's not too bad, not
too bad, like a good starting out, you know. I mean,
I did go to UNI and did two degrees to
get there, so it was nice having that fairly solid
income coming in that I certainly wasn't used to it
at the time.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
No, I love that. And earlier you said, like, hey,
my parents would literally do any job like they did cleaning,
they did, you said, office work, and your mum even
at one point worked in an abatois. Like did your
parents I'm assuming they didn't go to university? What was
that like? Getting to graduate from UNI and your parents
having not had the opportunity to have a career as
(05:55):
much as you did.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
It was a good feeling to feel like I had
accomplished something. And I think I made them really proud
in doing that, because they did. Both of them didn't
graduate high school. So my plan was to graduate high
school to start off with, and then I also wanted
further that and I wanted to graduate UNI and ended
up doing two degrees. So I started off with a
media degree essentially, and then I went and did a
(06:18):
master's of teaching.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I love that. I just know that your mum brags
about you all the time. She tells all her friends,
doesn't she like, she will tell everyone? And what did
your brother go on to do?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
He ended up welding?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Oh, she tells everybody. She tells everybody about her two
kids in their careers, Like, I adore her. So have
you ever had that conversation with your parents? Like, obviously
it's such a different world, right where once you've kind
of fallen into teaching and if you love it, like
it becomes a career in comparison to like your parents,
like finding a job and then like trying to find
another job and like hopping around to different things. Like
(06:53):
I think that's the difference between like work and a career, right,
Like do you talk to your parents about that?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Not? Like in so many words, but I don't know
that particularly. My mum's quite happy that I'm in a
stable position that I'm not having to jump from jobs,
job or find avenues to make money, so that I'm
basically in a position where I don't have to stress
about those things totally.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And I just know that she's like, she's just excited
for you. She's so proud. You mentioned in your letter
in that you have a husband, So tell me a
little bit about his financial side, like how much money
is coming in to the household from his income.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
So he's recently become a teacher as well, very cool,
So he's put in the hard yards to the university
part time so that he can have a better money
story as well. And now that's kind of finally come
into fruition, so it feels like we're actually getting somewhere
in that regard. Unfortunately, his main problem was getting a
store credit card.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yes, okay, slippery slope. Lots of us have fallen down.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
A very slippery slope. So a three two hundred dollars
item turned into five thousand dollars of debt used on
things that weren't from the store, which as we all know,
is huge interest.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Well, nobody gets those credit cards, being like I'd love
to get into debt, Like, no one says that. When
they sign up, they think, oh that's a good idea.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
No no, And so unfortunately that was just something that
was snowballing him, and he eventually asked for help because
at the time I didn't know anything about it, and
so we put some plans in place to try and
help him get rid of that debt. Unfortunately, each time
we thought we were taking more of that debt, but
he kept adding to it. So eventually we just ended
(08:37):
up consolidating his debt into one loan that he couldn't
basically take money out.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Of like I feel like sometimes that's the best outcome.
What was that conversation like, because I'm assuming that you
were wearing the pants in that conversation and you were like, right,
enough is enough? I am taking this off you. We're
consolidating it, you're not touching it. How did that go?
Because you did say, feel like I'm pulling my house?
Been a lot for the right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
I mean, obviously our money habits are completely different. He's
very much a spend what he has kind of person,
and if he's got small things that he's wanting to do,
he tries to save that money for it. Whether he
does or not is kind of up to him. But
I basically make sure that I wanted him to be
involved in that process. I wanted him to understand my
(09:23):
thoughts around it and whether that's what he actually wanted
to do. And obviously he didn't want to be in debt,
but he was just struggling to figure out how to
get out of that. And I felt like I did
more of the research and been like, well, what would
actually work for him? And after those few failed attempts,
I was like, right, I think consolidating is your option
(09:45):
because it means you can't access that money, because that's
obviously something that he struggles with. If he has access
to it, he's going to spend it. So we made
that plan together and we went into the bank together
so that he was on board with the plan and
knew what was happening, and that way he could see
the progress as well. And now that we're finally out
(10:06):
of that debt, I think he's seeing, especially with the
pay increase on his end becoming a teacher, he's now
seeing that he can actually save money and that money
can be used for things positive things that he can do,
so things like going camping, going on trips, spending time
with family because we have a two year old and
(10:26):
you know, that's just something we can enjoy, rather than
being like, oh, we don't have money, or he hasn't
got the money to spend on that, or sometimes it's
very much. I'm more of an experience this person. I
will spend money for experiences, but he'll go, oh, that's
too much. I'm not going to spend it because he's
usus spending small amounts of money rather than big amounts.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
If that makes sense, That totally makes sense. So what
does that mean when it comes to your big money
goals at the moment, what are you guys currently working towards?
Because I feel like you've got that like fresh clean
slate and it sounds like we're a two year old
at home. You've got a lot of motivation to build right. Yes.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yes, so I've always been goal oriented. I'm always saving
for something, and I like to spend big lumps of
money on things because I feel more accomplished that way.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It does feel pretty good, doesn't it. Like I don't
know everybody different sources for different courses, right, but like
when you finally achieve something and you're like, that was
a solid five grand like in it. Yeah, that just
feels good, doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
I like spending more than two thousand dollars at a time,
so whether it's a car, or a laptop or a
new mattress because they're expensive.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Oh my god, why are they so expensive though they
are like illegal?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yes, So at the moment, like we kicked off some
bigger goals, so we saved together to get married. We
then also save for a deposit for our house. So
we've now got a house. But our next goals is
we're looking to upgrade our house because I don't know
about you, but toys just seem to inundate and explode.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
My entire loud droom looks like the toy library. That's
not how I envisioned that loud room to look. And
also the house that I thought was, you know, really spacious.
I mean it's not a big house by any stretch
of the imagination, but pre baby me was like, nah,
heaps of space. It's all of a sudden tiny.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Yes, I one hundred percent feel that, And this was
never going to be our like you know, growing up
with kids house. But unfortunately with the COVID and that
situation because we moved in during COVID and then after that,
houses just went crazy. And now it's like, well, can
we even afford to get a bigger place?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I know, right, Like it changes the goalposts so much.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Yeah, so that's one of our bigger goals. We're also
wanting to get another car because one of our current
cars is now seventeen years old and it's costing us
a fortune whenever we go to get it serviced. So
it's at the end of its life.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, I know, thank you. Time to switch out. You
mentioned that you saved up, and I have to ask,
because I just love love, right, how did you save
up for your wedding? And tell me a little bit
about that.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
I was such a control freak, I thould tell me.
I had my wedding budget on an Excel spreadsheet, just
as my own budget is. I researched how much everything
was going to cost, and how much we would like
to spend and how much we could afford at the time.
We ended up spending about twenty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Hey, that's good.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Yeah. I pretty much looked at our values, what were
the things that we must have, what were the things
that we could kick to save money, and yeah, we
made those decisions together, which was lovely. I wanted him
a part of it, so he went to most of
the meetings and we sorted out what we wanted to
do and yeah, so things like, for example, I'm not
(13:44):
a big flower person, so I pretty much just had
the bouquets and that was about it. That's so fair,
And flowers are so expensive.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Oh don't even I am a flower person, So you
can imagine what that looked like if you were a
flower person and then you also get married. It's ugly.
It's not good.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
No, no, everything's expensive, to be honest. It's like when
I got my first loan for a car, and I
vowed off personal loans since then because when I calculated
the numbers and how much I was actually paying for
that car in the end with the interest, I was like, no,
that's crazy. Vowed to pay it off early. I did.
I paid it off about two years early. Oh good.
(14:23):
And then I got charge fifty dollars for every month
that was left out standing on that loan.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Why are they so shady?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Very shady? But I learned from that experience, and so
when we were planning for a baby, I was like, well,
we need a family car, something that I'm not going
to hurt my back getting baby in and out totally.
And so I got a bigger car and I saved
up forty one thousand dollars in about a year and
a half.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
What do you want to run this podcast? Because like,
I feel like you're just really good at money.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I do like saving I must have been guys.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Guys. Side note, she said she was a nay. The
story is checking out. The story is absolutely checking I
believe her.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
So yeah, forty one thousand dollars. So that's probably one
of my biggest accomplishments. I mean, when I was able
to save essentially one thousand dollars a fortnight.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's crazy, like so cool.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I was making sure that I could get that car
when I needed to, and that was a brand new
car because at the time, that was the time when
you couldn't get a brand new car because they were
like a year out on the boat and all the
secondhand cars were just jacked up in price.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
And I was looking at the new cars and they
weren't that much more expensive. It was like a couple
grand more. And I was like, I wasn't in a rush.
Baby was still like a year off, and so I
just ordered it and it ended up coming in early,
so I had to find that money and make sure
that that was saved in time.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yes, Love, talk to me about this baby planning process,
because if you say, oh, the baby was like a
year off, obviously that's a planned baby because you can't
just have a baby in twelve months. I don't know
if you guys know how pregnancy works, but that's not
how long it takes. So did you guys go all right?
We're going to get our ducks in a row, We're
(16:06):
going to get the car. Then we're going to have
a baby, or like, what did that planning process look like,
because that's another financial nightmare.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, we always wanted to have kids. The planers have kids.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I mean you're both teachers now, so like this story
makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, we both wanted kids. I particularly wanted to be
married before I had kids. It's just my personal preference.
We saved for the wedding, so we figured out based
on the current income and how much we could save,
particularly so that we were both saving the same amount,
because that was just where my head was at at
that time. We both saved four the wedding, and unfortunately
(16:42):
the wedding got postponed because of COVID. So our wedding
got postponed that week because that was when they dropped
it to five people can attend.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I don't want to have a wedding if there's only
five people attending, and I've already planned literally everything with
my spreadsheet, I might just wait.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yes, so that got postponed, which is fine because all
the vendors were able to make that date all what
one So that was fantastic news. We then basically the
wedding had already been paid for at that point, so
we had an extra year. So that extra year, I
was basically just saving, just saving in general. So I
was saving predominantly for baby, because we knew we'd have to,
(17:21):
you know, buy the cot and the bassinet and all
the bits and pieces that cost lots of money, and
they add up very quickly. So I decided to have
that money aside, particularly as well for when I'm a
matt leave or like if I'm going to be part time.
I just wanted a buffer there so that if we
needed it, we could one.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And if you can plan it, like, it's just a
much easier process to go through, like if you've got
more of like a run up. And I mean not
everyone has that grace, but you were obviously like, okay,
I'm planning this to a t. Were you obviously grateful
for that. Once baby did come around, You're like, oh,
my goodness, what will we have done? And if we
didn't plan.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
One hundred percent, I don't know how people do not
plan to like all of a sudden be pregnant and
be like, oh, now there's all this money we need
to find.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
It would be so stressful, Like I'm very lucky that
I also planned my pregnancy and all of that stuff,
but like sometimes it just happens, and like that's fine,
But my goodness, the amount of stress that these mums
and parents would be going through being like, Okay, so
we have nine months and we have nothing.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Yeah, and the first is always the most expensive. So
we're planning for our second now, and so thankfully, I
don't think it's going to be as costly, Like we've
got all the starters, you've got.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
All the paraphernalia. Yeah, you've already got the big car,
You've got the basinet. And I mean, honestly, like to
distill it down because I don't want to scare people.
I think the newborns aren't too expensive, Like at the
end of the day, they really don't need much. But
in twenty twenty five, the Internet would have you think
that you need everything under the sun for them. You
need the fancy carrier, you need the fancy bascinet. If
(18:57):
you don't have this particular item, what are you doing?
And like, from my perspective, say, fore place to sleep,
some type of transport, like do you need a pram?
Or something, because that'll make it a lot easier on
your back, and like how are you feeding and clothing
the baby? And like that's where you should start. So
I don't want people thinking, oh, my goodness, like you know,
it's going to cost so much, but life will be
(19:18):
a lot more comfortable if you're able to create a
buffer and do a like baby budget. So I know
you had a spreadsheet for this money, darist, how much
do you think it cost to set up for a
baby or for you? Not for everybody, but for you.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Weirdly, you'd think I had a spreadsheet, but I really didn't.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I love that I did know. I was like, oh,
this girl is a spreadsheet queen, and I'm sure you'll
agree and say I am, But like, why no baby spreadsheet?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
I think because I had enough money saved that I
was like, this will be enough, and I was just
going to chip into it. Like I had done my research.
I'd looked into the prices of things. But I was
also quite friggle in some regards as well. So for
me looking at a pram or like a pram is,
as you said, a mode of transport. It didn't have
(20:06):
to be fancy dancy for me. Some of the prams,
you know, they're like two thousand dollars, and I'm like,
I'm paying for the leather and a peak few to
be able to see my child. And I ended up
buying a cheap PRAM and buying leather to put onto it.
Oh nice, And then I can just peek out the
front of my PRAM. I don't need a little pick window, certainly,
not one that costs five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's crazy, right, And like, don't get me wrong, because
I'm probably on the other end of that, Like I
love my pram, but like I just I really enjoyed it.
But like it's so funny talking to other moms, They're like, yeah,
I prioritize this or not that. What do you reckon?
Was your bougiest baby purchase that was worth it?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
I honestly couldn't tell you. I don't think I really
have a big bougie purchase. I mean my car is
the big one because my back would have been out,
Like I had a lower car, and my back has
always been bad in general from my previous car accident.
So just the thought of getting a baby in and
out of a low car was certainly not my to
(21:06):
do list.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
That's so fair.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
I love my change table. I know some people never
use their change table. They buy a change table and
never use it.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
See, isn't it crazy having this conversation because I'm like, oh,
I love my PRAM and you're like, oh no, don't
care about the PRAM change table. I'm like, we're not
all changing our babies on the floor.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
I don't. She just wriggles more.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, I feel like I have a child Ninja like
he now the second is nappy's off. He's like, it's
go time. We've got to leave. I've got to leave.
I've got to evacuate the building in point two seconds,
and then like he will do anything to weasel away
from me.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yeah. I feel like at least the change table that
they contained to the table, that's fair, unless they really
have no fear and want to jump off it. But
thankfully mine does have fear. Yeah, I think the change
table like not that it was a expensive purchase. In fact,
I'm one of those people. I don't like white. I'm
a black girl, and so unfortunately all the change tables
(21:58):
were white, so I ended up spray painting mine.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I know, I am also a black Girl. So I
have a black cot. I have black furniture in Halvey's room,
black everything, Like you would have thought that it would
have just come in black and white. Turns out it
does not.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
No, it does not, and so I spray painted it.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Yeah, I don't really have a big bougie purchase on
behalf of my kid, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
No, I love it. But it's so good that we
can talk about these things and it has shown us
very quickly, like everyone's values are so different. So when
you're talking about baby budgets, like your budget would be
significantly different to my budget, and what you're willing to
spend money on is going to be different to what
I would prioritize. And I think that's really fun.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
And weirdly and our finally recently, so I'm recently new
to your podcast. So I started this year this year.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Oh she's new new, welcome, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
And I'm one of those people that I can't read
a book halfway through, so I started from the beginning.
So I'm still listening to Georgia king.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Oh gee king On too, gone on to her. She's
still living in London. For those of you who want
a little bit of a check in. She's live, love,
loving life, and she's thriving. I miss her, like she's good.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Huh, yeah, she's good to listen to. So I recently
listened to the Baby episode about budgeting for a baby.
I think someone said the stats of you know, it
costs between like like there was a huge range and
I completely know why.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Now yeah, And do you know what, I got a
lot of flak for that podcast when that one came
out because people were like, oh, Victoria's wildly inaccurate, like,
this is not what it costs cost me x and
you know she's quoting why. And I remember being like,
my goodness because I wasn't a mum when I posted that.
And I remember being like, oh, I'm feeling really guilty
because I put so much time, energy and effort into
(23:44):
researching that to make sure that it was, you know,
very accurate. And I was asking at the time, I
was an advisor and I was asking my clients like, oh,
is this right? You know how much did it? What's
this snow? Like? What does that cost?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You know?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Do you need one? All of that stuff right? And
now I look back on it that I am a mum,
and I'm like, oh no, I was right, Like I
get that you guys had a different experience, but like,
this is just the average, This is just the statistics.
This is what it costs people. And like, if you're planning,
as you probably know, like, is it not better to
overshoot your shot and then be happy that you have
(24:17):
a little bit of surplus than to have not, you know,
budgeted enough because having a baby is stressful enough one
hundred percent. So money, darrest, I need to know. Tell
me you've done the wedding, you did it well. You've
bought the house, You've done that well, yes, you're planning
on upgrading. Do you have any other big money goals
you're currently working towards.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
No, really, only just replacing our old car and the house. Unfortunately,
I feel like it and the baby obviously, but it
feels like all of those three goals I want to
do like in the next couple of years. And so
it just.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Feels you just want to go bang bang bang. It
feels expensive, it feels like too much.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
It's kind of overwhelming, particularly the house, because just the
way the market is, it's like, I don't even it
gives me anxiety. Just think about how that's going to work.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, totally. All right, let's go to a really quick
break because I want to keep chatting to you. I've
got a lot of questions and we'll get to them
in just a minute or at money Durst. We are
back and I want to talk a bit more about investing.
So talk to me about your investing journey. You mentioned
that you're new to our community, which I love. We've
(25:22):
been getting some new friends in twenty twenty five. Are
you on your investing journey? If not, why not? If so,
what is it I am.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
On my investing journey. I do have about five hundred
dollars in micro investing love money from this podcast. That's
kind of prompted me to do that.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Ah, I love this. I can't tell you how much
genuine enjoy I get when people are like, oh, I
listen to your podcast and now I invest I'm like, yes,
this is the best.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
So I have that five hundred dollars in that and
that's kind of my designated money for my daughter. So
that's my way of being like, that's her kind of
fun for when she's older, her to use however she wishes.
And this podcast has also prompted me to go see
a financial advisor.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Love. Well, I mean, you two are earning really good
money and have like your stuff together. You've got a house,
You've done the wedding. You're like, I just feel like
that's a good idea.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, I just wanted to see if we could make
Now that we've kicked off some of the bigger goals,
it was like, I just wanted to see if we
can make our money work for us a bit harder.
So after seeing a financial advisor, I now have put
about ten thousand dollars into education bonds.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Oh exciting. That's a lot of money. She's really bitten
it and gone, let's go.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Yeah. So once I'm in there because I had that
just sitting in savings at the time, and that this
was only probably a couple of months ago. And now
I've set up to put about twenty three hundred a
month into that advessement account.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I love that. Oh my goodness. I'm not gonna lie
when you said I'm new to the podcast and like
I've had all these other really big financial goals. I'm
thinking like, she's you know, maybe only very very very
early on. Girl, You're like, smashing everybody out of the water.
No wonder you said, I am an a. I can
see that. I love that.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
By dipping the toes, I mean, I've only just done
it in the last couple of months. But when I go,
I go hard. What do you mean dipping the toes?
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Like you've just gone okay, I'm so zero to five thousand,
let's go.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
I have maybe dived in. It is a better analogy.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
And now I really understand the comment where you said
I feel like I'm pulling my husband along for the ride. Yes, queen,
you are, like you get on, we're going.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
I dragged into the financial Advisor's like I don't know
why we were doing this, but you know, sure, I'm
in for the ride, and he's like, yeah, everything makes sense,
let's do it. And I'm like, cool, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
And you know what, It's nice that he understands it
but also gets that, like you're clearly excited about this,
So he's like supportive of you, but also clearly respects you, know,
your advice, because he let you get him out of
debt and go through all of that together. Like I'm
assuming you have a pretty strong relationship because that's what
I'm picking.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Up there, we do. I think he sees the light
at the end of the tunnel now that we are
out of debt and he can finally save his money
for things that he actually is generally passionate about. So
he loves his footy and now he's actually able to
go to footy games quite frequently, partly because of his
change of work as well, because he used to work
night shifts made it hard. So you know, his change
(28:22):
of job as well as his financial side of things,
has meant that he's able to actually have some money
spared to do the things that he actually loves and enjoys,
rather than feeling like he's just making do with the
money he's got.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, I love that, And that's I guess what financial
freedom allows you to have. I think a lot of
people just assume that financial freedom means you're like working
towards having millions and millions, and like, don't get me wrong,
that is true for some people, but just the idea
that your lifestyle involves enjoying the journey, going to some
footy games, enjoying like the life that you have, getting
to spend more time with your two year old, Like
(28:57):
that's exactly what it's about, or that's what it's about
for me, pervy Before I moved back on to money questions,
how did you guys meet.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
We actually went high school together.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Oh, that's so cute.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
We got together after high school though, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
That's okay. Like I wouldn't have dated my husband if
I met him in high school.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
So funnily enough, he was the person in high school,
the cocky guy that would go yeah, and about five
years time, I'm gonna be with you, and yeah, that's
what happened.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Oh the audacity. But also, sir, you were not wrong.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
No, he was not wrong.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Oh my god, he wasn't. Did he actually go, oh,
we're going to get together. I'll end up marrying you?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yeah, in front of my current boyfriend at the time.
It was a bit weird.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I mean, was he rong?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
No?
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Who wasn't wrong? In the end.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
That is so funny. It's like when I talked to
friends and like even on the podcast about Steven my
first day. On my first day, he's like, so, what
do you reckon our wedding song will be? And I
remember being like that should be a red flag, like
that should like for anybody else listening to this conversation.
That should have been a really big red flag, but
(30:00):
I just saw it and thought why not.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
It's amazing how something seem like red flags to some
people but not to others.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah. No, like for anybody else, I would have been like, babe,
that's a lot like are you sure you want to
go on a second date with this guy? And I did,
in fact end up marrying him. So anyway took me
through debt. Let's move back to that. You have a
mortgage and you're out of personal debt. Is that right?
So tell me a bit more about your mortgage.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
So, our mortgage is currently sitting at three hundred and
forty thousand, and our house was originally like four hundred thousand,
and now it's up in value to like seven hundred
and twenty thousand or something ridiculous at the moment, what.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So you purchased for four hundred and it's like worth
seven twenty now.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah, it's like I said, the market's gone crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, but that also makes a lot of sense as
to why you're like, Okay, cool, we have this house
and to move house obviously into a bigger one, you're
probably looking at like a minimum of eight hundred thousand
dollars if not more because of how much. And I'm
assuming there you're in and you're like, wait, hold on,
I didn't want like eight or nine hundred thousand dollars
worth of debt, like we started at four hundred. I
(31:06):
thought that was fair. So what do you think that
process is going to look like for you? Because that
is quite stressful, like to go from one to the other.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
It is. I really don't know what the answer is
because like when I think of, you know, if we build,
then I don't know what the options are in terms
of building, because obviously we would prefer to have this
place and rent it out if we can afford to
do that. But then obviously if we build, then we're
having to pay for both mortgages as it's going, which
(31:34):
is a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, yes and no, So I need you to talk
to a mortgage broker. You can either come and see
my team at Zella Money, or your financial advisor will
probably have a really good recommendation of someone that they recommend.
But when it comes to building, you can actually stage
your mortgage so you can continue to live in your
current house and you might not pay for your mortgage
repayments until like settlement or when keys get handed over.
(31:58):
There's like lots of different options. There's also like you know,
if you were to sell and read buy, like there's
so many different options. What I would do is literally
talk to a financial advisor about what rental yield so
you've got one, but what your rental yield on that
current property would look like. You can even just do
it yourself, honestly, like go on to real estate dot
com dot au and look in your local region. Like
(32:20):
I would just put the map pin down and be like, yeah,
just show me current like location and look at what
options on the table for renting in your current area
to get an idea of what that rental repayment would be,
and then you can go for an EBB. But I
would talk to a mortgage broker sooner rather than later,
because that doesn't mean that you'll have to pay two
outright mortgages at the same time, because the banks actually
(32:43):
know that that's not that feasible.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Yeah. Yeah, I thought there might be options. I just
hadn't looked into them yet.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, haven't explored it, but they exist, I promise you.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
The other option is obviously buying established and then that
has also other fees involved stamp duty, et cetera. That
is it a lot of money when it's an eight
hundred thousand dollar house, or if not more.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
One hundred percent, it starts to like literally consume it.
You're like, hold on, if we get close to a million,
we're talking like at least fifty thousand dollars in stamp Dudy,
that's a lot of money to feel like you're just
flushing down the toilet, and like, don't get me wrong,
it can be like, you know, absorbed into the cost.
But then it makes you really think about it. I
love that. So we're not in any other debt. We
(33:24):
just have three hundred and forty thousand dollars owing on
your mortgage.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
That is it. I've paid off my hex deet. My
partner still has his, but he and they just finished,
so that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Story checks out still, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
So yeah, I've worked pretty hard to get out of debt,
especially after my car loan. I can tell that was
an eye opener for me when I realized how much
interest it actually was because I didn't really know anything
about loans. I'd never had a loan, never really looked
into loans. We were just walking through a car yard
and I'm like, oh, I like this car, let's get it.
And they pull me into the one of those little
(33:56):
offices and go through finance and all that, and I'm
just this little girl going yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Sure, And it made sense at the time. Yeah. They
would have been like, oh, it's just this much per week.
Can you be like, oh, I can totally do that,
no worries, Like so easy. But it wasn't that easy
because they stung you on the interest and then you
felt like you've been screwed over and that's not fun
for anybody. No.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Well, I mean I could afford the repayments that that
wasn't the issue. It was more of that. I was
angry with myself that I could have spent two years
saved up for this car and paid it out right,
but I didn't do that. I got the loan because
it was just the easy way.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
But you've learned now, and I think that was an
important learning piece in your journey, right, because if you
hadn't experienced that, I don't think you'd be as passionate
about staying out of debt, or as aggressive about saving
or whatnot. I think you've done something good for future you.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Yeah, for sure. I think it was the kick up
the butt of you know, loans are bad in saying
that I didn't stay away from them more completely. I
had a credit card, I had a store credit card,
but I just used them really wisely because I am
very good at my money. So when I did the
store credit card and bought furniture for our house, very
much like I'm not paying the minimum, I am working
out exactly how much I need to pay before the
(35:04):
interest free period ends to pay that off. And so
I did that, and I'd done it multiple times, so
that was fine. And then with my credit card, I
made sure it was only a thousand dollars nothing more
than that. And like I said before, I had at
least a thousand dollars in savings per fortnite, So I
just paid off my credit card each time I got paid.
And I never even saw a statement for that card.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Oh how good.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
The only reason I got it was for accommodation overseas,
because they.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Oh isn't that the most annoying thing? Ever? I mean,
it does make you feel more secure because you're like, okay, cool,
they can't get to my life savings and whatnot. But
like for someone like me, like I just know that
me having access to a credit card is not a
good thing. Like I can be really honest about that.
It doesn't work for you. Clearly you made it work,
and I just wish I was a little bit more
like you. But I just I can't be trusted.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Yeah, I know my parents had a credit card and
it did nothing but bad things for them. So I
was always like, oh, I shouldn't get a credit card.
But then I was like, yeah, I'm really good with
my money and I can be strict on myself with
my money, and so I knew that the credit could
would be fine for me, and it was actually a
really good cash flow kind of system for joint spendings
with my partner. We've recently basically I've finally jumped into
(36:15):
now that we're debt free, I'm happy to consolidate our money.
So we are now officially everything is joint.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Oh I love that. But you were like, I am
not doing this while you were in debt, sir, Absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Well no, before it was like, well you're in debt.
I don't like being in debt. And so the fact
that if we joined our money that's my debt, and
that just didn't sit well with me. And then I
also earn quite a bit of money, and so I
liked holding on to that fact that you know, I
worked hard for this money and this is my money.
But I'm also not in denial. We're married. My money's
his money, his money's my money. And so when he
(36:49):
got out of debt, it was like, well, now we
can make that leap and that jump to combine all
our money, especially now that we've got my daughter.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
It does change it.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
It makes it more sense to combine our money. So
did that, and so now we have our own new system.
But I'm finding cash flows a bit harder now that
I got rid of the credit card.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yep, totally.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
So now I'm just looking at tweaking our structure, like
our bank account structure, so that I can.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
I can do that for you. I will give to
you our budget and Cashlow master Class that I've recently
renamed to the Money master Class actually, and it basically
has a couple's like spending spreadsheet and do you have
an offset on your mortgage?
Speaker 4 (37:25):
All of my accounts are offset. I was one of
those people that had, like, I think the bank was like, oh,
you have thirteen accounts and they're all offset accounts because
my bank good.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
I want every single dollar that comes into my bank
account to be working as hard as I do for it,
So that makes sense, sir.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yeah, Well, my bank told me they allow up to
ninety nine, and I'm like, who has ninety nine offset accounts?
Speaker 1 (37:46):
I don't know, but I'd love to meet them. If
you have ninety nine offset accounts, please come on my podcast.
I we'd love to talk to you about what the
hell you're doing with ninety nine accounts.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
Yeah, it was crazy, but I basically had Originally I
had accounts for me, I had accounts for him, and
I had accounts that were joined, and so now we've
kind of combined those. So we have a bill's account
with all our necessary items that we need to spend.
We have our we call them upket buckets, which is
our spendings that we each don't have access to, so
(38:18):
that you know it's completely guilt free. That's your money.
If you want to save it for something special, go ahead.
If you want to spend it, that's your issue. And
then we have an account for investments, so for the
education bond to come out of and then I've got
a few accounts for basically our savings goals.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, love love all right, Well, I'm still going to
give you the money master Class because I think it'll
take that to the next level. But it does make
use of making sure that if you have a mortgage,
you're using your offset accounts to your advantage and like
cash flowing it that way, because like obviously it would
make sense if you don't have like an offset for
like people who are listening, it still works and there's
(38:57):
just a different strategy around it. But it like order
meets it for you. And I think as a self
confessed like spreadsheet girl, you're going to love this because
like you just put everything in and auto meets it
for you. It says, okay, well, in this account, this
amount of money will happen, and in this account, this
amount of money will happen. It honestly, I don't know
if you can tell. I'm just really proud of it.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
I look forward to seeing it.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
It's very pretty as well, she's very peachy. I don't
know if your partner will love the peachiness. But like again,
here's along for the ride. Sit down, sir, let me
show you money diarist. You said, I'm an a. I
need to know what do you think your best money
habit is.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
My best money habit is that I am very good
with my money. I like to budget and nowhere all
my money is going. So you know, my spreadsheet has
everything accounted for, at least everything that I've come across,
and I review that constantly. Every time something goes up,
I go in and I change it and I play
with things and be like, oh, cost of living's gone up,
(39:52):
we might need more money for food, petro all that
kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
So isn't that annoying? Though You're like, I'm not even
tweaking it to save more. I'm tweaking it because like
groscerias are more expense.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Yeah, pretty much. And then it's things like now that
I've got a daughter's like, oh now we've got to
think about Mother's Day gifts and Father's Day gifts that
I didn't even think to put in the budget because
I'm like, yeah, I've got my mum and dad, but
I didn't think about us and the fact that we
buy our own gifts.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
We actually do do that.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Yeah, So yeah, I guess it's just the being able
to know where all my money is going and budget clearly.
But also I'm very good at like setting goals and
planning those goals. So when I planned a trip to
Japan for a month, I knew how much that was
going to cost me. It's going to cost me about
ten grand and I worked hard for that, and I
(40:41):
had a graph that I had printed out and shoved
on my mirror. And if that graft every month, I
love that so much.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
You are my people. I'm so glad you found our podcast.
By the way, you are in the right place.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Yeah, so I just needed that visual enough, so I
had a digital version of it, because I'm that kind
of person.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Of course you did. I love this like you are
my people. Welcome home, by the way.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
Thank you lovely to be here.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
So tell me you're in a but like, what do
you think your worst money habit is.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
I'm a bit of a hoverer.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
A hoverer. I don't think I've had a hoverra on
the podcast before Hora.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
So I guess my partner would say that I'm constantly
watching what he's doing, particularly before we've joined our monies.
So it was very much like he would ask for
money for me to transfer him so that he didn't
have access to all his money because he would spend
all his money. So he asked me to do that,
and we tried a fortnightly allowance, but he'd spend it
(41:39):
all in a day or two, same with a week.
So what worked with us We just he asked me
for money and I send it to him and that
limits how much he spent.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Hey, you've got to find a way to make it work.
And if you guys are happy with that manual process,
then I'm happy for you.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Yep. I mean I could do without the constant transferring money,
so I'm happy now that we've got the combined finances.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
You're like, this is actually really annoying. I'm glad it's
working for you, sir.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Yes, it got a bit much in the end, So
I think combining on money's really helped. And I think
it's also putting more onus on him to learn how
to save his own spending's money, so if he wants
to go away and do stuff or go to the footy,
he can save his own money to do that.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
You've got to tell me more about what a hova is.
So you're watching him, you're tracking all of the expenses.
Obviously that has like worked out for him, But why
is it a negative?
Speaker 4 (42:31):
It's a negative because while it's helped him money wise,
it has put a little bit of a strain on
the relationship because it's obviously he'll be like, oh, I
need sixty dollars, and I'll be like, well, what do
you need that for? And then if it's not something
I particularly like, then I might question that, and so
then it's it becomes this he thinks I'm watching his
every transaction, which in reality I wasn't. Occasionally I would
(42:53):
see it and ask a question.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Yeah, I didn't actually care that much, but if you're
asking me so consistently for cash, like me going what'sapp for?
Kind of makes sense. But I can see how he
would then go, oh, I feel like I'm being tracked. Yeah,
because that's the system you chose.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
Yeah, I didn't want that system initially. It was just
the system that worked for him at the time. And
now that system has changed and it seems to be
working well. So that's you know, off my back, which
is good. I can basically automate all my transfers and
I don't even have to transfer money very often.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Oh, how good. So she's a bit of a hover.
Now talk to me. You said, I'm a A. Why
not a plus? Like, what would it take for you
to go from an A to an A plus? Because
I feel like you're nailing it for me.
Speaker 4 (43:38):
It's just like I want to understand the investment world deeper.
Like you know, I've put money into microinvesting, I've got
money into education bonds, but I feel like I don't
fully understand them, if that makes sense. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
I feel like it's going to take time in the market,
so like over the next few years. Like you can't
just read a full textbook and be like fully get it.
I feel like you have to experience it to think go,
oh yeah, totally, I understand it now.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
Yeah, so I think that's just something that will come
with time.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Oh how good. Like to get an A plus you
don't even have to change anything, you just have to
wait a little while. That's a good deal. Oh my goodness.
I have loved this. I've loved getting to know about you,
about how you planned for your wedding, how you met
your husband, how you had a baby, how you budgeted
for it. Like I feel like I've gone through a
lot in the past while with you, and I'm very
(44:26):
grateful for it. But unfortunately you and I are running
out of time. So I really appreciate the time you
spent with us because I just know that people are
going to be listening going, Oh Kurby, what next? Oh
I get to know how she met her husband? Oh
what about that? Like this was just such a good
money story. So thank you so much for sharing that.
And I'm just going to hook you up with the
Money Masterclass after this, and I feel like everyone's going
(44:48):
to be better for it. Thank you, of course, thank
you so much for coming on the show. I have
adored it.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
Have a good day.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
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
(45:20):
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Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
My name is Satasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr
the Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
(00:23):
As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
that lets you be pervy about other people's money habits
for educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another episode
of our Money Daries, where I get the absolute pleasure
of sitting down and talking to one of our incredible
She's on the Money community members all about their journey.
Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got
(01:17):
a message and it sounded exactly like this, Dear She's
on the Money. I grew up seeing my parents go
through bankruptcy and while I was only about nine at
the time. It had a lasting effect on me, and
so I'm the opposite. But my partner, on the other hand,
has struggled with addiction to smoking and alcohol, which put
him in debt. So I had to get involved and
(01:38):
help him manage his finances and get him back on track.
Now we are debt free and we are seeing a
financial advisor to set us up for our future. But honestly,
I feel like I'm pulling my husband along for the
ride money dorist. I feel like this is going to
be a little bit of a relatable one for all
the people who listen to She's on the Money, but
maybe their partners aren't as brought in as they are.
(01:59):
So I've write in Money direst, could you let me
know what you think your money habits are. If I
asked you to give them a grade from A through to.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
F, I would probably give it an A because I
feel like I'm on top of my money and I
consider myself good at saving and have also helped my
partner get into a similar position. But also I would
love to get a little bit more educated in the
realm of investing, as I've only just kind of started
to dabble my toes into that.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I love that and I adore that. You're like, no,
I'm in a because so many women undervalue how good
they are at money, Like They're all like, oh, I'm
a C. And then I'm like, are you really a C?
Because we just went through how good you are at money?
I love that? So can we dive a bit further in?
You told us in your letter in a little bit
about your money story, but I need to know more money, Darrest.
(02:44):
Can you tell me a bit more about that money
story of yours?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Yeah, So I grew up with my family, so my
brother and my parents, and they went through some struggles,
some hardships early on positive ending to their story, but
they pretty much were the type of people that would
take on any job. They did things from cleaning to
office work. My mum even worked in an avatar at
(03:09):
one point, so they pretty much took on whatever they
could put food on the table, which was fantastic. But unfortunately,
I remember the memory of our car being repossessed, and
that's just something that's kind of just stuck in the
back of my head and it made me certainly be
aware of money and the fact that money was spent
(03:30):
on things, And so when I was growing up, I
consciously thought about the opportunities that were given to me
and whether I should take those opportunities or not, and
if they cost my parents' money, I was more inclined
to not tell them about it. But obviously kids being kids,
I did have some opportunities come my way that I'm like,
I really want to do that, and I knew my
parents would make that happen for me if I wanted
(03:51):
to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, I love that. Can I ask a little bit
more about that experience of getting your car repossessed, because
like you were like nine, you said, so you were
quite young. But was that like a really traumatic experience
or was that something that you know, after it happened
your parents were really upset, or like, what about that
really stuck in your mind?
Speaker 4 (04:11):
I think it was just the image of seeing the
car being towed away and my mom's reaction to that.
So my mom was obviously quite devastated, was upset, and
that's just something that's kind of stuck in my brain.
I couldn't tell you, you know, the circumstances as to
how that happened or anything around that. It's just something
that I remember, and I could be remembering it wrong
(04:32):
for all I know.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
No, but it is like a pivotal moment in your journey,
and it's always something like that that you're like, it
was that moment that I was like, Wow, that's something
I never want to experience as an adult.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So talk to me a little bit more about what
you do now for work and how much money you earn.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
So I'm a teacher, so I suppose giving myself an
a I'm used to grading things.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Now, so she's accurate.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I would like to think I'm on point with grading.
So I'm a teacher. I've been teaching about nine ten years,
and I'm currently earning one hundred and sixteen thousand plus.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Super very cool. And how long did it take you
to get to earning like one hundred and sixteen thousand?
Do you remember like your first salary as a teacher.
What did that look like?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I think the first salary was probably somewhere around the
sixty seventy thousand dollar mark. It's not too bad, not
too bad, like a good starting out, you know. I mean,
I did go to UNI and did two degrees to
get there, so it was nice having that fairly solid
income coming in that I certainly wasn't used to it
at the time.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
No, I love that. And earlier you said, like, hey,
my parents would literally do any job like they did cleaning,
they did, you said, office work, and your mum even
at one point worked in an abatois. Like did your
parents I'm assuming they didn't go to university? What was
that like? Getting to graduate from UNI and your parents
having not had the opportunity to have a career as
(05:55):
much as you did.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
It was a good feeling to feel like I had
accomplished something. And I think I made them really proud
in doing that, because they did. Both of them didn't
graduate high school. So my plan was to graduate high
school to start off with, and then I also wanted
further that and I wanted to graduate UNI and ended
up doing two degrees. So I started off with a
media degree essentially, and then I went and did a
(06:18):
master's of teaching.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I love that. I just know that your mum brags
about you all the time. She tells all her friends,
doesn't she like, she will tell everyone? And what did
your brother go on to do?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
He ended up welding?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Oh, she tells everybody. She tells everybody about her two
kids in their careers, Like, I adore her. So have
you ever had that conversation with your parents? Like, obviously
it's such a different world, right where once you've kind
of fallen into teaching and if you love it, like
it becomes a career in comparison to like your parents,
like finding a job and then like trying to find
another job and like hopping around to different things. Like
(06:53):
I think that's the difference between like work and a career, right,
Like do you talk to your parents about that?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Not? Like in so many words, but I don't know
that particularly. My mum's quite happy that I'm in a
stable position that I'm not having to jump from jobs,
job or find avenues to make money, so that I'm
basically in a position where I don't have to stress
about those things totally.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And I just know that she's like, she's just excited
for you. She's so proud. You mentioned in your letter
in that you have a husband, So tell me a
little bit about his financial side, like how much money
is coming in to the household from his income.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
So he's recently become a teacher as well, very cool,
So he's put in the hard yards to the university
part time so that he can have a better money
story as well. And now that's kind of finally come
into fruition, so it feels like we're actually getting somewhere
in that regard. Unfortunately, his main problem was getting a
store credit card.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yes, okay, slippery slope. Lots of us have fallen down.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
A very slippery slope. So a three two hundred dollars
item turned into five thousand dollars of debt used on
things that weren't from the store, which as we all know,
is huge interest.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Well, nobody gets those credit cards, being like I'd love
to get into debt, Like, no one says that. When
they sign up, they think, oh that's a good idea.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
No no, And so unfortunately that was just something that
was snowballing him, and he eventually asked for help because
at the time I didn't know anything about it, and
so we put some plans in place to try and
help him get rid of that debt. Unfortunately, each time
we thought we were taking more of that debt, but
he kept adding to it. So eventually we just ended
(08:37):
up consolidating his debt into one loan that he couldn't
basically take money out.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Of like I feel like sometimes that's the best outcome.
What was that conversation like, because I'm assuming that you
were wearing the pants in that conversation and you were like, right,
enough is enough? I am taking this off you. We're
consolidating it, you're not touching it. How did that go?
Because you did say, feel like I'm pulling my house?
Been a lot for the right. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
I mean, obviously our money habits are completely different. He's
very much a spend what he has kind of person,
and if he's got small things that he's wanting to do,
he tries to save that money for it. Whether he
does or not is kind of up to him. But
I basically make sure that I wanted him to be
involved in that process. I wanted him to understand my
(09:23):
thoughts around it and whether that's what he actually wanted
to do. And obviously he didn't want to be in debt,
but he was just struggling to figure out how to
get out of that. And I felt like I did
more of the research and been like, well, what would
actually work for him? And after those few failed attempts,
I was like, right, I think consolidating is your option
(09:45):
because it means you can't access that money, because that's
obviously something that he struggles with. If he has access
to it, he's going to spend it. So we made
that plan together and we went into the bank together
so that he was on board with the plan and
knew what was happening, and that way he could see
the progress as well. And now that we're finally out
(10:06):
of that debt, I think he's seeing, especially with the
pay increase on his end becoming a teacher, he's now
seeing that he can actually save money and that money
can be used for things positive things that he can do,
so things like going camping, going on trips, spending time
with family because we have a two year old and
(10:26):
you know, that's just something we can enjoy, rather than
being like, oh, we don't have money, or he hasn't
got the money to spend on that, or sometimes it's
very much. I'm more of an experience this person. I
will spend money for experiences, but he'll go, oh, that's
too much. I'm not going to spend it because he's
usus spending small amounts of money rather than big amounts.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
If that makes sense, That totally makes sense. So what
does that mean when it comes to your big money
goals at the moment, what are you guys currently working towards?
Because I feel like you've got that like fresh clean
slate and it sounds like we're a two year old
at home. You've got a lot of motivation to build right. Yes.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yes, so I've always been goal oriented. I'm always saving
for something, and I like to spend big lumps of
money on things because I feel more accomplished that way.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It does feel pretty good, doesn't it. Like I don't
know everybody different sources for different courses, right, but like
when you finally achieve something and you're like, that was
a solid five grand like in it. Yeah, that just
feels good, doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
I like spending more than two thousand dollars at a time,
so whether it's a car, or a laptop or a
new mattress because they're expensive.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Oh my god, why are they so expensive though they
are like illegal?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yes, So at the moment, like we kicked off some
bigger goals, so we saved together to get married. We
then also save for a deposit for our house. So
we've now got a house. But our next goals is
we're looking to upgrade our house because I don't know
about you, but toys just seem to inundate and explode.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
My entire loud droom looks like the toy library. That's
not how I envisioned that loud room to look. And
also the house that I thought was, you know, really spacious.
I mean it's not a big house by any stretch
of the imagination, but pre baby me was like, nah,
heaps of space. It's all of a sudden tiny.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Yes, I one hundred percent feel that, And this was
never going to be our like you know, growing up
with kids house. But unfortunately with the COVID and that
situation because we moved in during COVID and then after that,
houses just went crazy. And now it's like, well, can
we even afford to get a bigger place?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I know, right, Like it changes the goalposts so much.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Yeah, so that's one of our bigger goals. We're also
wanting to get another car because one of our current
cars is now seventeen years old and it's costing us
a fortune whenever we go to get it serviced. So
it's at the end of its life.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, I know, thank you. Time to switch out. You
mentioned that you saved up, and I have to ask,
because I just love love, right, how did you save
up for your wedding? And tell me a little bit
about that.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
I was such a control freak, I thould tell me.
I had my wedding budget on an Excel spreadsheet, just
as my own budget is. I researched how much everything
was going to cost, and how much we would like
to spend and how much we could afford at the time.
We ended up spending about twenty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Hey, that's good.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Yeah. I pretty much looked at our values, what were
the things that we must have, what were the things
that we could kick to save money, and yeah, we
made those decisions together, which was lovely. I wanted him
a part of it, so he went to most of
the meetings and we sorted out what we wanted to
do and yeah, so things like, for example, I'm not
(13:44):
a big flower person, so I pretty much just had
the bouquets and that was about it. That's so fair,
And flowers are so expensive.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Oh don't even I am a flower person, So you
can imagine what that looked like if you were a
flower person and then you also get married. It's ugly.
It's not good.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
No, no, everything's expensive, to be honest. It's like when
I got my first loan for a car, and I
vowed off personal loans since then because when I calculated
the numbers and how much I was actually paying for
that car in the end with the interest, I was like, no,
that's crazy. Vowed to pay it off early. I did.
I paid it off about two years early. Oh good.
(14:23):
And then I got charge fifty dollars for every month
that was left out standing on that loan.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Why are they so shady?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Very shady? But I learned from that experience, and so
when we were planning for a baby, I was like, well,
we need a family car, something that I'm not going
to hurt my back getting baby in and out totally.
And so I got a bigger car and I saved
up forty one thousand dollars in about a year and
a half.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
What do you want to run this podcast? Because like,
I feel like you're just really good at money.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I do like saving I must have been guys.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Guys. Side note, she said she was a nay. The
story is checking out. The story is absolutely checking I
believe her.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
So yeah, forty one thousand dollars. So that's probably one
of my biggest accomplishments. I mean, when I was able
to save essentially one thousand dollars a fortnight.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
That's crazy, like so cool.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
I was making sure that I could get that car
when I needed to, and that was a brand new
car because at the time, that was the time when
you couldn't get a brand new car because they were
like a year out on the boat and all the
secondhand cars were just jacked up in price.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
And I was looking at the new cars and they
weren't that much more expensive. It was like a couple
grand more. And I was like, I wasn't in a rush.
Baby was still like a year off, and so I
just ordered it and it ended up coming in early,
so I had to find that money and make sure
that that was saved in time.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yes, Love, talk to me about this baby planning process,
because if you say, oh, the baby was like a
year off, obviously that's a planned baby because you can't
just have a baby in twelve months. I don't know
if you guys know how pregnancy works, but that's not
how long it takes. So did you guys go all right?
We're going to get our ducks in a row, We're
(16:06):
going to get the car. Then we're going to have
a baby, or like, what did that planning process look like,
because that's another financial nightmare.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, we always wanted to have kids. The planers have kids.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I mean you're both teachers now, so like this story
makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, we both wanted kids. I particularly wanted to be
married before I had kids. It's just my personal preference.
We saved for the wedding, so we figured out based
on the current income and how much we could save,
particularly so that we were both saving the same amount,
because that was just where my head was at at
that time. We both saved four the wedding, and unfortunately
(16:42):
the wedding got postponed because of COVID. So our wedding
got postponed that week because that was when they dropped
it to five people can attend.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I don't want to have a wedding if there's only
five people attending, and I've already planned literally everything with
my spreadsheet, I might just wait.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yes, so that got postponed, which is fine because all
the vendors were able to make that date all what
one So that was fantastic news. We then basically the
wedding had already been paid for at that point, so
we had an extra year. So that extra year, I
was basically just saving, just saving in general. So I
was saving predominantly for baby, because we knew we'd have to,
(17:21):
you know, buy the cot and the bassinet and all
the bits and pieces that cost lots of money, and
they add up very quickly. So I decided to have
that money aside, particularly as well for when I'm a
matt leave or like if I'm going to be part time.
I just wanted a buffer there so that if we
needed it, we could one.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And if you can plan it, like, it's just a
much easier process to go through, like if you've got
more of like a run up. And I mean not
everyone has that grace, but you were obviously like, okay,
I'm planning this to a t. Were you obviously grateful
for that. Once baby did come around, You're like, oh,
my goodness, what will we have done? And if we
didn't plan.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
One hundred percent, I don't know how people do not
plan to like all of a sudden be pregnant and
be like, oh, now there's all this money we need
to find.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
It would be so stressful, Like I'm very lucky that
I also planned my pregnancy and all of that stuff,
but like sometimes it just happens, and like that's fine,
But my goodness, the amount of stress that these mums
and parents would be going through being like, Okay, so
we have nine months and we have nothing.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Yeah, and the first is always the most expensive. So
we're planning for our second now, and so thankfully, I
don't think it's going to be as costly, Like we've
got all the starters, you've got.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
All the paraphernalia. Yeah, you've already got the big car,
You've got the basinet. And I mean, honestly, like to
distill it down because I don't want to scare people.
I think the newborns aren't too expensive, Like at the
end of the day, they really don't need much. But
in twenty twenty five, the Internet would have you think
that you need everything under the sun for them. You
need the fancy carrier, you need the fancy bascinet. If
(18:57):
you don't have this particular item, what are you doing?
And like, from my perspective, say, fore place to sleep,
some type of transport, like do you need a pram?
Or something, because that'll make it a lot easier on
your back, and like how are you feeding and clothing
the baby? And like that's where you should start. So
I don't want people thinking, oh, my goodness, like you know,
it's going to cost so much, but life will be
(19:18):
a lot more comfortable if you're able to create a
buffer and do a like baby budget. So I know
you had a spreadsheet for this money, darist, how much
do you think it cost to set up for a
baby or for you? Not for everybody, but for you.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Weirdly, you'd think I had a spreadsheet, but I really didn't.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I love that I did know. I was like, oh,
this girl is a spreadsheet queen, and I'm sure you'll
agree and say I am, But like, why no baby spreadsheet?
Speaker 4 (19:45):
I think because I had enough money saved that I
was like, this will be enough, and I was just
going to chip into it. Like I had done my research.
I'd looked into the prices of things. But I was
also quite friggle in some regards as well. So for
me looking at a pram or like a pram is,
as you said, a mode of transport. It didn't have
(20:06):
to be fancy dancy for me. Some of the prams,
you know, they're like two thousand dollars, and I'm like,
I'm paying for the leather and a peak few to
be able to see my child. And I ended up
buying a cheap PRAM and buying leather to put onto it.
Oh nice, And then I can just peek out the
front of my PRAM. I don't need a little pick window, certainly,
not one that costs five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's crazy, right, And like, don't get me wrong, because
I'm probably on the other end of that, Like I
love my pram, but like I just I really enjoyed it.
But like it's so funny talking to other moms, They're like, yeah,
I prioritize this or not that. What do you reckon?
Was your bougiest baby purchase that was worth it?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
I honestly couldn't tell you. I don't think I really
have a big bougie purchase. I mean my car is
the big one because my back would have been out,
Like I had a lower car, and my back has
always been bad in general from my previous car accident.
So just the thought of getting a baby in and
out of a low car was certainly not my to
(21:06):
do list.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
That's so fair.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
I love my change table. I know some people never
use their change table. They buy a change table and
never use it.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
See, isn't it crazy having this conversation because I'm like, oh,
I love my PRAM and you're like, oh no, don't
care about the PRAM change table. I'm like, we're not
all changing our babies on the floor.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
I don't. She just wriggles more.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, I feel like I have a child Ninja like
he now the second is nappy's off. He's like, it's
go time. We've got to leave. I've got to leave.
I've got to evacuate the building in point two seconds,
and then like he will do anything to weasel away
from me.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yeah. I feel like at least the change table that
they contained to the table, that's fair, unless they really
have no fear and want to jump off it. But
thankfully mine does have fear. Yeah, I think the change
table like not that it was a expensive purchase. In fact,
I'm one of those people. I don't like white. I'm
a black girl, and so unfortunately all the change tables
(21:58):
were white, so I ended up spray painting mine.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I know, I am also a black Girl. So I
have a black cot. I have black furniture in Halvey's room,
black everything, Like you would have thought that it would
have just come in black and white. Turns out it
does not.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
No, it does not, and so I spray painted it.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Yeah, I don't really have a big bougie purchase on
behalf of my kid, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
No, I love it. But it's so good that we
can talk about these things and it has shown us
very quickly, like everyone's values are so different. So when
you're talking about baby budgets, like your budget would be
significantly different to my budget, and what you're willing to
spend money on is going to be different to what
I would prioritize. And I think that's really fun.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
And weirdly and our finally recently, so I'm recently new
to your podcast. So I started this year this year.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Oh she's new new, welcome, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
And I'm one of those people that I can't read
a book halfway through, so I started from the beginning.
So I'm still listening to Georgia king.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Oh gee king On too, gone on to her. She's
still living in London. For those of you who want
a little bit of a check in. She's live, love,
loving life, and she's thriving. I miss her, like she's good.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
Huh, yeah, she's good to listen to. So I recently
listened to the Baby episode about budgeting for a baby.
I think someone said the stats of you know, it
costs between like like there was a huge range and
I completely know why.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Now yeah, And do you know what, I got a
lot of flak for that podcast when that one came
out because people were like, oh, Victoria's wildly inaccurate, like,
this is not what it costs cost me x and
you know she's quoting why. And I remember being like,
my goodness because I wasn't a mum when I posted that.
And I remember being like, oh, I'm feeling really guilty
because I put so much time, energy and effort into
(23:44):
researching that to make sure that it was, you know,
very accurate. And I was asking at the time, I
was an advisor and I was asking my clients like, oh,
is this right? You know how much did it? What's
this snow? Like? What does that cost?
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You know?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Do you need one? All of that stuff right? And
now I look back on it that I am a mum,
and I'm like, oh no, I was right, Like I
get that you guys had a different experience, but like,
this is just the average, This is just the statistics.
This is what it costs people. And like, if you're planning,
as you probably know, like, is it not better to
overshoot your shot and then be happy that you have
(24:17):
a little bit of surplus than to have not, you know,
budgeted enough because having a baby is stressful enough one
hundred percent. So money, darrest, I need to know. Tell
me you've done the wedding, you did it well. You've
bought the house, You've done that well, yes, you're planning
on upgrading. Do you have any other big money goals
you're currently working towards.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
No, really, only just replacing our old car and the house. Unfortunately,
I feel like it and the baby obviously, but it
feels like all of those three goals I want to
do like in the next couple of years. And so
it just.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Feels you just want to go bang bang bang. It
feels expensive, it feels like too much.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
It's kind of overwhelming, particularly the house, because just the
way the market is, it's like, I don't even it
gives me anxiety. Just think about how that's going to work.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, totally. All right, let's go to a really quick
break because I want to keep chatting to you. I've
got a lot of questions and we'll get to them
in just a minute or at money Durst. We are
back and I want to talk a bit more about investing.
So talk to me about your investing journey. You mentioned
that you're new to our community, which I love. We've
(25:22):
been getting some new friends in twenty twenty five. Are
you on your investing journey? If not, why not? If so,
what is it I am.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
On my investing journey. I do have about five hundred
dollars in micro investing love money from this podcast. That's
kind of prompted me to do that.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Ah, I love this. I can't tell you how much
genuine enjoy I get when people are like, oh, I
listen to your podcast and now I invest I'm like, yes,
this is the best.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
So I have that five hundred dollars in that and
that's kind of my designated money for my daughter. So
that's my way of being like, that's her kind of
fun for when she's older, her to use however she wishes.
And this podcast has also prompted me to go see
a financial advisor.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Love. Well, I mean, you two are earning really good
money and have like your stuff together. You've got a house,
You've done the wedding. You're like, I just feel like
that's a good idea.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah, I just wanted to see if we could make
Now that we've kicked off some of the bigger goals,
it was like, I just wanted to see if we
can make our money work for us a bit harder.
So after seeing a financial advisor, I now have put
about ten thousand dollars into education bonds.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Oh exciting. That's a lot of money. She's really bitten
it and gone, let's go.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Yeah. So once I'm in there because I had that
just sitting in savings at the time, and that this
was only probably a couple of months ago. And now
I've set up to put about twenty three hundred a
month into that advessement account.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I love that. Oh my goodness. I'm not gonna lie
when you said I'm new to the podcast and like
I've had all these other really big financial goals. I'm
thinking like, she's you know, maybe only very very very
early on. Girl, You're like, smashing everybody out of the water.
No wonder you said, I am an a. I can
see that. I love that.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
By dipping the toes, I mean, I've only just done
it in the last couple of months. But when I go,
I go hard. What do you mean dipping the toes?
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Like you've just gone okay, I'm so zero to five thousand,
let's go.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
I have maybe dived in. It is a better analogy.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
And now I really understand the comment where you said
I feel like I'm pulling my husband along for the ride. Yes, queen,
you are, like you get on, we're going.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
I dragged into the financial Advisor's like I don't know
why we were doing this, but you know, sure, I'm
in for the ride, and he's like, yeah, everything makes sense,
let's do it. And I'm like, cool, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
And you know what, It's nice that he understands it
but also gets that, like you're clearly excited about this,
So he's like supportive of you, but also clearly respects you, know,
your advice, because he let you get him out of
debt and go through all of that together. Like I'm
assuming you have a pretty strong relationship because that's what
I'm picking.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Up there, we do. I think he sees the light
at the end of the tunnel now that we are
out of debt and he can finally save his money
for things that he actually is generally passionate about. So
he loves his footy and now he's actually able to
go to footy games quite frequently, partly because of his
change of work as well, because he used to work
night shifts made it hard. So you know, his change
(28:22):
of job as well as his financial side of things,
has meant that he's able to actually have some money
spared to do the things that he actually loves and enjoys,
rather than feeling like he's just making do with the
money he's got.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, I love that, And that's I guess what financial
freedom allows you to have. I think a lot of
people just assume that financial freedom means you're like working
towards having millions and millions, and like, don't get me wrong,
that is true for some people, but just the idea
that your lifestyle involves enjoying the journey, going to some
footy games, enjoying like the life that you have, getting
to spend more time with your two year old, Like
(28:57):
that's exactly what it's about, or that's what it's about
for me, pervy Before I moved back on to money questions,
how did you guys meet.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
We actually went high school together.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Oh, that's so cute.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
We got together after high school though, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
That's okay. Like I wouldn't have dated my husband if
I met him in high school.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
So funnily enough, he was the person in high school,
the cocky guy that would go yeah, and about five
years time, I'm gonna be with you, and yeah, that's
what happened.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Oh the audacity. But also, sir, you were not wrong.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
No, he was not wrong.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Oh my god, he wasn't. Did he actually go, oh,
we're going to get together. I'll end up marrying you?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yeah, in front of my current boyfriend at the time.
It was a bit weird.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I mean, was he rong?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
No?
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Who wasn't wrong? In the end.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
That is so funny. It's like when I talked to
friends and like even on the podcast about Steven my
first day. On my first day, he's like, so, what
do you reckon our wedding song will be? And I
remember being like that should be a red flag, like
that should like for anybody else listening to this conversation.
That should have been a really big red flag, but
(30:00):
I just saw it and thought why not.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
It's amazing how something seem like red flags to some
people but not to others.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yeah. No, like for anybody else, I would have been like, babe,
that's a lot like are you sure you want to
go on a second date with this guy? And I did,
in fact end up marrying him. So anyway took me
through debt. Let's move back to that. You have a
mortgage and you're out of personal debt. Is that right?
So tell me a bit more about your mortgage.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
So, our mortgage is currently sitting at three hundred and
forty thousand, and our house was originally like four hundred thousand,
and now it's up in value to like seven hundred
and twenty thousand or something ridiculous at the moment, what.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
So you purchased for four hundred and it's like worth
seven twenty now.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah, it's like I said, the market's gone crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, but that also makes a lot of sense as
to why you're like, Okay, cool, we have this house
and to move house obviously into a bigger one, you're
probably looking at like a minimum of eight hundred thousand
dollars if not more because of how much. And I'm
assuming there you're in and you're like, wait, hold on,
I didn't want like eight or nine hundred thousand dollars
worth of debt, like we started at four hundred. I
(31:06):
thought that was fair. So what do you think that
process is going to look like for you? Because that
is quite stressful, like to go from one to the other.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
It is. I really don't know what the answer is
because like when I think of, you know, if we build,
then I don't know what the options are in terms
of building, because obviously we would prefer to have this
place and rent it out if we can afford to
do that. But then obviously if we build, then we're
having to pay for both mortgages as it's going, which
(31:34):
is a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, yes and no, So I need you to talk
to a mortgage broker. You can either come and see
my team at Zella Money, or your financial advisor will
probably have a really good recommendation of someone that they recommend.
But when it comes to building, you can actually stage
your mortgage so you can continue to live in your
current house and you might not pay for your mortgage
repayments until like settlement or when keys get handed over.
(31:58):
There's like lots of different options. There's also like you know,
if you were to sell and read buy, like there's
so many different options. What I would do is literally
talk to a financial advisor about what rental yield so
you've got one, but what your rental yield on that
current property would look like. You can even just do
it yourself, honestly, like go on to real estate dot
com dot au and look in your local region. Like
(32:20):
I would just put the map pin down and be like, yeah,
just show me current like location and look at what
options on the table for renting in your current area
to get an idea of what that rental repayment would be,
and then you can go for an EBB. But I
would talk to a mortgage broker sooner rather than later,
because that doesn't mean that you'll have to pay two
outright mortgages at the same time, because the banks actually
(32:43):
know that that's not that feasible.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Yeah. Yeah, I thought there might be options. I just
hadn't looked into them yet.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, haven't explored it, but they exist, I promise you.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
The other option is obviously buying established and then that
has also other fees involved stamp duty, et cetera. That
is it a lot of money when it's an eight
hundred thousand dollar house, or if not more.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
One hundred percent, it starts to like literally consume it.
You're like, hold on, if we get close to a million,
we're talking like at least fifty thousand dollars in stamp Dudy,
that's a lot of money to feel like you're just
flushing down the toilet, and like, don't get me wrong,
it can be like, you know, absorbed into the cost.
But then it makes you really think about it. I
love that. So we're not in any other debt. We
(33:24):
just have three hundred and forty thousand dollars owing on
your mortgage.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
That is it. I've paid off my hex deet. My
partner still has his, but he and they just finished,
so that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Story checks out still, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
So yeah, I've worked pretty hard to get out of debt,
especially after my car loan. I can tell that was
an eye opener for me when I realized how much
interest it actually was because I didn't really know anything
about loans. I'd never had a loan, never really looked
into loans. We were just walking through a car yard
and I'm like, oh, I like this car, let's get it.
And they pull me into the one of those little
(33:56):
offices and go through finance and all that, and I'm
just this little girl going yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Sure, And it made sense at the time. Yeah. They
would have been like, oh, it's just this much per week.
Can you be like, oh, I can totally do that,
no worries, Like so easy. But it wasn't that easy
because they stung you on the interest and then you
felt like you've been screwed over and that's not fun
for anybody. No.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Well, I mean I could afford the repayments that that
wasn't the issue. It was more of that. I was
angry with myself that I could have spent two years
saved up for this car and paid it out right,
but I didn't do that. I got the loan because
it was just the easy way.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
But you've learned now, and I think that was an
important learning piece in your journey, right, because if you
hadn't experienced that, I don't think you'd be as passionate
about staying out of debt, or as aggressive about saving
or whatnot. I think you've done something good for future you.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Yeah, for sure. I think it was the kick up
the butt of you know, loans are bad in saying
that I didn't stay away from them more completely. I
had a credit card, I had a store credit card,
but I just used them really wisely because I am
very good at my money. So when I did the
store credit card and bought furniture for our house, very
much like I'm not paying the minimum, I am working
out exactly how much I need to pay before the
(35:04):
interest free period ends to pay that off. And so
I did that, and I'd done it multiple times, so
that was fine. And then with my credit card, I
made sure it was only a thousand dollars nothing more
than that. And like I said before, I had at
least a thousand dollars in savings per fortnite, So I
just paid off my credit card each time I got paid.
And I never even saw a statement for that card.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Oh how good.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
The only reason I got it was for accommodation overseas,
because they.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Oh isn't that the most annoying thing? Ever? I mean,
it does make you feel more secure because you're like, okay, cool,
they can't get to my life savings and whatnot. But
like for someone like me, like I just know that
me having access to a credit card is not a
good thing. Like I can be really honest about that.
It doesn't work for you. Clearly you made it work,
and I just wish I was a little bit more
like you. But I just I can't be trusted.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
Yeah, I know my parents had a credit card and
it did nothing but bad things for them. So I
was always like, oh, I shouldn't get a credit card.
But then I was like, yeah, I'm really good with
my money and I can be strict on myself with
my money, and so I knew that the credit could
would be fine for me, and it was actually a
really good cash flow kind of system for joint spendings
with my partner. We've recently basically I've finally jumped into
(36:15):
now that we're debt free, I'm happy to consolidate our money.
So we are now officially everything is joint.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Oh I love that. But you were like, I am
not doing this while you were in debt, sir, Absolutely not.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Well no, before it was like, well you're in debt.
I don't like being in debt. And so the fact
that if we joined our money that's my debt, and
that just didn't sit well with me. And then I
also earn quite a bit of money, and so I
liked holding on to that fact that you know, I
worked hard for this money and this is my money.
But I'm also not in denial. We're married. My money's
his money, his money's my money. And so when he
(36:49):
got out of debt, it was like, well, now we
can make that leap and that jump to combine all
our money, especially now that we've got my daughter.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
It does change it.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
It makes it more sense to combine our money. So
did that, and so now we have our own new system.
But I'm finding cash flows a bit harder now that
I got rid of the credit card.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yep, totally.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
So now I'm just looking at tweaking our structure, like
our bank account structure, so that I can.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
I can do that for you. I will give to
you our budget and Cashlow master Class that I've recently
renamed to the Money master Class actually, and it basically
has a couple's like spending spreadsheet and do you have
an offset on your mortgage?
Speaker 4 (37:25):
All of my accounts are offset. I was one of
those people that had, like, I think the bank was like, oh,
you have thirteen accounts and they're all offset accounts because
my bank good.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
I want every single dollar that comes into my bank
account to be working as hard as I do for it,
So that makes sense, sir.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Yeah, Well, my bank told me they allow up to
ninety nine, and I'm like, who has ninety nine offset accounts?
Speaker 1 (37:46):
I don't know, but I'd love to meet them. If
you have ninety nine offset accounts, please come on my podcast.
I we'd love to talk to you about what the
hell you're doing with ninety nine accounts.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
Yeah, it was crazy, but I basically had Originally I
had accounts for me, I had accounts for him, and
I had accounts that were joined, and so now we've
kind of combined those. So we have a bill's account
with all our necessary items that we need to spend.
We have our we call them upket buckets, which is
our spendings that we each don't have access to, so
(38:18):
that you know it's completely guilt free. That's your money.
If you want to save it for something special, go ahead.
If you want to spend it, that's your issue. And
then we have an account for investments, so for the
education bond to come out of and then I've got
a few accounts for basically our savings goals.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, love love all right, Well, I'm still going to
give you the money master Class because I think it'll
take that to the next level. But it does make
use of making sure that if you have a mortgage,
you're using your offset accounts to your advantage and like
cash flowing it that way, because like obviously it would
make sense if you don't have like an offset for
like people who are listening, it still works and there's
(38:57):
just a different strategy around it. But it like order
meets it for you. And I think as a self
confessed like spreadsheet girl, you're going to love this because
like you just put everything in and auto meets it
for you. It says, okay, well, in this account, this
amount of money will happen, and in this account, this
amount of money will happen. It honestly, I don't know
if you can tell. I'm just really proud of it.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
I look forward to seeing it.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
It's very pretty as well, she's very peachy. I don't
know if your partner will love the peachiness. But like again,
here's along for the ride. Sit down, sir, let me
show you money diarist. You said, I'm an a. I
need to know what do you think your best money
habit is.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
My best money habit is that I am very good
with my money. I like to budget and nowhere all
my money is going. So you know, my spreadsheet has
everything accounted for, at least everything that I've come across,
and I review that constantly. Every time something goes up,
I go in and I change it and I play
with things and be like, oh, cost of living's gone up,
(39:52):
we might need more money for food, petro all that
kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
So isn't that annoying? Though You're like, I'm not even
tweaking it to save more. I'm tweaking it because like
groscerias are more expense.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Yeah, pretty much. And then it's things like now that
I've got a daughter's like, oh now we've got to
think about Mother's Day gifts and Father's Day gifts that
I didn't even think to put in the budget because
I'm like, yeah, I've got my mum and dad, but
I didn't think about us and the fact that we
buy our own gifts.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
We actually do do that.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Yeah, So yeah, I guess it's just the being able
to know where all my money is going and budget clearly.
But also I'm very good at like setting goals and
planning those goals. So when I planned a trip to
Japan for a month, I knew how much that was
going to cost me. It's going to cost me about
ten grand and I worked hard for that, and I
(40:41):
had a graph that I had printed out and shoved
on my mirror. And if that graft every month, I
love that so much.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
You are my people. I'm so glad you found our podcast.
By the way, you are in the right place.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Yeah, so I just needed that visual enough, so I
had a digital version of it, because I'm that kind
of person.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Of course you did. I love this like you are
my people. Welcome home, by the way.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
Thank you lovely to be here.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
So tell me you're in a but like, what do
you think your worst money habit is.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
I'm a bit of a hoverer.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
A hoverer. I don't think I've had a hoverra on
the podcast before Hora.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
So I guess my partner would say that I'm constantly
watching what he's doing, particularly before we've joined our monies.
So it was very much like he would ask for
money for me to transfer him so that he didn't
have access to all his money because he would spend
all his money. So he asked me to do that,
and we tried a fortnightly allowance, but he'd spend it
(41:39):
all in a day or two, same with a week.
So what worked with us We just he asked me
for money and I send it to him and that
limits how much he spent.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Hey, you've got to find a way to make it work.
And if you guys are happy with that manual process,
then I'm happy for you.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
Yep. I mean I could do without the constant transferring money,
so I'm happy now that we've got the combined finances.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
You're like, this is actually really annoying. I'm glad it's
working for you, sir.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Yes, it got a bit much in the end, So
I think combining on money's really helped. And I think
it's also putting more onus on him to learn how
to save his own spending's money, so if he wants
to go away and do stuff or go to the footy,
he can save his own money to do that.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
You've got to tell me more about what a hova is.
So you're watching him, you're tracking all of the expenses.
Obviously that has like worked out for him, But why
is it a negative?
Speaker 4 (42:31):
It's a negative because while it's helped him money wise,
it has put a little bit of a strain on
the relationship because it's obviously he'll be like, oh, I
need sixty dollars, and I'll be like, well, what do
you need that for? And then if it's not something
I particularly like, then I might question that, and so
then it's it becomes this he thinks I'm watching his
every transaction, which in reality I wasn't. Occasionally I would
(42:53):
see it and ask a question.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Yeah, I didn't actually care that much, but if you're
asking me so consistently for cash, like me going what'sapp for?
Kind of makes sense. But I can see how he
would then go, oh, I feel like I'm being tracked. Yeah,
because that's the system you chose.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
Yeah, I didn't want that system initially. It was just
the system that worked for him at the time. And
now that system has changed and it seems to be
working well. So that's you know, off my back, which
is good. I can basically automate all my transfers and
I don't even have to transfer money very often.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Oh, how good. So she's a bit of a hover.
Now talk to me. You said, I'm a A. Why
not a plus? Like, what would it take for you
to go from an A to an A plus? Because
I feel like you're nailing it for me.
Speaker 4 (43:38):
It's just like I want to understand the investment world deeper.
Like you know, I've put money into microinvesting, I've got
money into education bonds, but I feel like I don't
fully understand them, if that makes sense. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
I feel like it's going to take time in the market,
so like over the next few years. Like you can't
just read a full textbook and be like fully get it.
I feel like you have to experience it to think go,
oh yeah, totally, I understand it now.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
Yeah, so I think that's just something that will come
with time.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Oh how good. Like to get an A plus you
don't even have to change anything, you just have to
wait a little while. That's a good deal. Oh my goodness.
I have loved this. I've loved getting to know about you,
about how you planned for your wedding, how you met
your husband, how you had a baby, how you budgeted
for it. Like I feel like I've gone through a
lot in the past while with you, and I'm very
(44:26):
grateful for it. But unfortunately you and I are running
out of time. So I really appreciate the time you
spent with us because I just know that people are
going to be listening going, Oh Kurby, what next? Oh
I get to know how she met her husband? Oh
what about that? Like this was just such a good
money story. So thank you so much for sharing that.
And I'm just going to hook you up with the
Money Masterclass after this, and I feel like everyone's going
(44:48):
to be better for it. Thank you, of course, thank
you so much for coming on the show. I have
adored it.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
Have a good day.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
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
(45:20):
your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
authorized representatives of Money Sheper Pty Ltd ABN three two
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