June 28, 2026 • 32 mins
This week's Money Diary starts with what should have been a straightforward hospital visit.
Her husband was 32, healthy, active, and recovering from glandular fever when doctors spotted something completely unexpected on a scan. A few months later, they received the news nobody expects to hear: it was cancer. What followed was months of waiting, uncertainty and trying to keep life moving while living in limbo.
But there's another part of this story that really stuck with me. Just over a year earlier, after hearing countless conversations about money, they finally decided to sort out their personal insurances. Not because they thought they'd need them. Just because it felt like the responsible thing to do.
Thank goodness they did.
We talk about the diagnosis that changed everything, navigating a trauma insurance claim in your 30s, what financial security really means when life throws you something completely unexpected, and why this experience changed the way they think about money forever. It's a conversation about planning for the things you hope never happen, and why sometimes the most boring financial decisions end up being the most important ones.
SORT YOUR INSURANCE: A big thank you to our partner Skye Wealth for bringing this episode to life. If you're ready to get your insurances sorted, you can learn more about them here.We have a long standing referral partnership with Skye Wealth and only ever partner with people we trust.
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Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.
The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 4451289
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name's Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations woman
and I'm here to acknowledge country. Te Glenn youan Ganya, Niana,
Kaka yah y and Binahaka Nian our guy in Mbini,
yakarum Jar, Dominyamiga Umaga, Ihowaka, Nilewaman damon Immlan Bumba bang
gadabama In and now in Waka Ghana and yakarum Jar Watanadaa. Hello,
(00:22):
beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
We thank acknowledge and respect the Abiginal people's land that
we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land
and respect all that you see. She's on the Money
podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools,
knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
She's on the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on
the Money, the podcast that lets you be pavy about
other people's money stories for educational purposes, of course. Welcome
back to another one one of our money diaries, brought
to you by our friends at Sky Wealth, where I
get the absolute privilege of sitting down with one of
our incredible Shees on the Money community members and talking
(01:09):
to them all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it,
because this week I got a message and it sounded
exactly like this high She's on the Money. After hearing
countless discussions from the She's on the Money team, my
husband and I finally decided to get our insurances assessed
and updated through sky Wealth. Our policies were set up
in late twenty twenty two, and a little over twelve
(01:32):
months after setting it up, it was discovered that my
husband had early stage renal cancer. Approximately eighteen months after
our policies were set up, he was approved for a
full trauma payout. Sky Wealth were phenomenal, not only in
initial setup but throughout the whole claims process. I now
recommend personal insurances to absolutely everyone. Also, my husband is
(01:55):
now cancer free and doing very well. Money Diarist, What
a stressful thing to go through.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a lot of waiting,
a lot of limbo for about six months. But we're
out the other side. We're really lucky how it was caught.
It was very early, very treatable, and he's doing great now.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Oh my goodness. All right, I'm going to dive straight
into the questions because I'm going to come back to that.
I just have a lot of questions. But if I
was to ask you to give yourself a money grade
from A through to F, what would that grade be.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I we put myself at about a B. I love
that and a lot better than I used to be.
There's still a lot of improvement.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Okay, let's dive a little bit further in my favorite question,
but I don't know if it's going to be my
favorite question this time is can you tell me a
little bit more about your money story and about your
husband's diagnosis and everything that went on, because not only
does that feel like it was really stressful, but you
guys are quite young.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah. So we've been together a long time. We got
together when I was seventeen, he was just turned eighteen.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Just babies, Yeah, yeah, So most of our.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Money stories together. We earned money and we spent it.
We never really thought about it. We did what we
wanted to do. We traveled, we had fun, and then
about five years ago COVID hit Couldn't Travel. I found
your podcast and actually started thinking, well, we might need
to do something with our future. So I binged the
heck out of your podcast.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
I love this.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
My millennial Money also got to be a run as well.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Good good, We love Glenn, we love diversity of opinion.
And I cannot say this enough, like, listen to all
of the money podcasts, not just my little Colt. Like
all of them because there might be something that they
say that resonates better. And I don't care as long
as you're in a better position ten out of ten.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Absolutely, But when you're listening to repeat podcasts with Phil,
you're like, I need to do that now. So I did.
We reached out to them. They were amazing. They laid
out all the options. We took them up on everything
they suggested. Mine was abysmal what I had set up,
so we cann't mine when all new vies with.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Them, isn't it's so disappointed. Oh yeah, it was terrible
because you just go, oh, I've been wasting money on Wait,
they've been taking my money for that.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Has literally I think I had fifty thousand dollars coverage
and that.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Was it in this economy. Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
It was nothing. My husband does have a pretty good
work policy, but it only covered much smaller amounts of
what we wanted. So they did a combo with him.
We got it all set up. I think it was
finalized early twenty twenty three, just with some back and
forth medical stuff, and then pretty much bang on, twelve
months after that, he landed himself in hospital with gleandular
(04:29):
fever of all things. And yeah, they did a ct
scam because he had a bleeding spleen and they found
the cancer and his kipping. Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So obviously that's horrific. To go into hospital for glandular
fever like that is awful to begin with. Yeah, but
had that not happened, you probably wouldn't have discovered this cancer.
We never would have known because most of them are
pretty symptom free until it's really bad.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Pretty much. Yeah, they say that. Not only is it
exceptionally slow growing, so it would have been probably a
decad eight before they found it. By the time they
do find it, it's usually you know, blood in the
urine and stuff, but by then it's usually spread. It's
usually really bad by that point.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So, oh my goodness. So what's that like? You obviously
go into hospital for glendula fever, which you know, horrific
to begin with, but also not the worst thing in
the entire world.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Like he was bad.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
You would expect to just go in for a couple
of days, come out, have some rest, and go home.
But you went in and got a cancer diagnosis pretty much.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And because of his age he was only thirty two
at the time, they were really reluctant to confirm that
it was cancer. The most common is men are over
sixty five. He hit no markers, he's not overweight, he's
not a smoker, and he's obviously way too young. So
they were really reluctant to diagnose it without a biopsy.
But because of a glandular fever, they wouldn't do a biopsy.
(05:49):
They couldn't get in there and see he had to
wait like four months for that to all, yeah, go
down so they could actually get in there on biopsy it.
So they didn't actually confirm it until I think it
was May of that year.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So you guys were told, hey, we think we might
say cancer, but we're not going to tell you it's cancer. Also,
can you wait four months and just has this in
the back of your mind for the next four months?
Is that how that happened?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
In a way, I'm like, I'm really upfromd with these things,
we just want to know, so we just kept saying
to them, we know that there's a strong possibility that
this is what it is, and that's okay. Don't worry
about saying the word. We're okay with it. We'd rather know.
Our main concerns initially where he was having problems with
his liver and his spleen, and we thought, oh, my gosh,
has it spread? Is it somewhere else? That was our
(06:34):
main concern. So once we knew it wasn't anywhere else,
we were pretty pretty okay with it. He obviously had
his moments. It was a rough few months for him,
but in the scheme of things, we were okay with it.
We knew that it was confined and even having to wait,
we knew that surgery should sort it out and that
should be enough. So we're pretty pragmatic about it.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
But just the anxiety, I'm very grateful been in that
situation before, right, you know, And everyone says, oh, in
that situation, I would xpize it, and you never know
how you're going to read in that situation. But for me,
I think I would prefer someone to say, Victoria, that's cancer,
and then I deal with it and then then come
back later and be like, oop, sorry we were wrong. Yeah,
(07:16):
then the opposite, Like, can we just deal with it
as the most dramatic outcome first. I know it would
be scary, but I'd prefer that then the opposite and
then have it missed.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
That's probably us as well. But I also understand there's
a lot of people that probably hear the word cancer
and it would really like send panic stations. So I
get why they're cautious, which is why I was just
upfront with it. Even nurses and stuff. I felt so
sorry for them. They're trying to do hand over and
I'm like, we know that it's there, don't stress. You
don't need to point at your clipboards and stuff. It's
okay if you need to talk about it, just mentioned it.
(07:49):
We're not worried. It's like we are worried but not.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
But also thank you nurses for being so empathetic and
not trying to freak us out.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, they were trying to be so so so about
it and so cautious and not make it super obvious
that they were trying to tell them about it. But
I'm like, it's okay, you can say it's fine. We're
comfortable enough knowing that it's there and it's not really
bad if that's what it is.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Oh my goodness, And like thirty two, like that is
just so young to go through something like that. Talk
to me about I guess your wider money story. Like
you guys grew up how.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I'm an only child. I grew up with both my
parents working. My whole life, very comfortable life. I never
really thought about money. It's just if we wanted to
do something, we did it. Yeah, So it just sort
of never really was a consideration for me. My husband
has a few siblings, and he grew up in a
single parent home for most of his latter life, and
(08:46):
so there was a little bit more money issues on
that side because his father was the one that paid
for a lot of their life growing up, and then
later in life they split up, so there's a lot
more on their side. But it was just sort of
something we never really thought about. We just we went
to work, we worked hard, we earned money, and we
spent it, and it was only Yeah, you sort of
(09:08):
hit thirty and you go, oh, we probably shouldn't do
this anymore. We probably should actually be smarter than this
and have some good foundations, good money sitting there and
not be sitting They're going, I'll have to wait till
pay week, next week or whatever it.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Is totally, and I'd be like, when we're younger, we
just think that the adult happens to us, Like we
don't build the adult. We just one day we'll wake
up and we will have probably two point five kids
and a house and you know, two perfect cars in
the driveway. That's what happens, right.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
That's adult, Like it just yeah, you blink and it happened.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, Like in my head, that was just what was
going to happen. Like it was arguably not consensual, Like, yeah,
I was going to become an adult one day. I
don't know when that was going to happen. But then
you kind of hit your thirties and you're like, hold
hold on, why are we doing? How does this?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Hasn't this happened?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
But you mean I'm in control of this? Well that's
not very fair. So obviously before your husband's diagnos, as
you guys were working at hustling and getting stuff together,
you started consuming podcasts, so.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
We had started getting our finances in order first obsessed.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
So what did you do for work? How much money
were you earning or even now.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
At the time, I was earning about sixty thousand and
my husband was earning about eighty. We've both improved a
lot since then. He's eight hundred and twenty now and
I'm on about one hundred plus super for both of us,
So we've proved that quite a lot.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
That's a whole side conversation. How do you go from
sixty to one hundred in that period of time.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
So I worked for a small business for a very
long time, and I had a lot of perks that
went with that. Like it wasn't it wasn't just a
sixty thousand dollar job. I got a lot with that,
But as far as the actual earning capacity, that was
kind of the limit of what the business could afford
and what the job was. They retired a few years ago,
and so I took the opportunity to look for something else,
and yeah, jumped into something a lot higher.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
How cool? And then your husband was on eighty or
is on a.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, he was on eighty at the time that he
was diagnosed, and just with a few career changes internally
at the company he works at, he's now on one
hundred and twenty adore.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Now, what type of work does your husband do? Is
it like office based, is it like field based? What
does that look like?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
He works from home exclusively, which makes me incredibly jealous.
Sometimes they sent them home in COVID and they've just
never gone back. I reckon. He sees the office three
times a year, and it's usually when somebody's retiring and
they're having a lunch.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
So I would go in for lunch.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Absolutely, I totally.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Get whit I doesn't really understand.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So he works exclusively from our office. He is a
software engineer, gorgeous. He's a computer constant.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
How fun. So talk me through obviously going through that diagnosis,
you guys had plans like you'd started consuming content and
getting your finances together, which can be super empowering, but
also then getting a diagnosis like that you might spiral
and reassess everything that's going on. What did that look
(11:58):
like when you got that diagnosis? By financially, because you're
not just going, oh okay, well I've got insurance money, whin,
I'll just get a big payout, like sometimes there's a
bit of animosity. And you said that there was four
months before he got a diagnosis, and can I assume
that he was not well during that four months.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
He was okay. Mentally, he struggled probably more than anything,
just that limbo. He was really lucky. His work was incredible.
They were very flexible. He had a lot of sick leave,
he's been there a long time, but they were also
very flexible with you know, you just take the time
you need, don't worry about it, sort it out. So
he was very flexible in that time. Once the glandular
fever was gone, he was actually really good. So he
(12:36):
was probably pretty well for most of it. It was
just that dealing with the mental side more than anything.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, And that's like such a really important point to
kind of point out, is that your husband had cancer
and he was acting fine like glandular fever aside, Like,
there's no other reasons that you guys would have questioned
or gone and done this full medical And even if
you'd gone done a full medical, why would you have
paid out of pocket for that scan that diagnosed him? Essentially,
(13:07):
So that to me, yeah, is kind of terrifying, but
also a really really good reason as to why, Like
you just never know, like everyone always says this type
of stuff happens to other people. It doesn't happen to us. Like,
was that where you guys were at when the diagnosis happened.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
A little bit? Yeah, like everything just stop stuffing matters.
You're just you're going through the motions. See you're in limbo.
That was how he described it. You just he didn't
know what to do because he didn't know. He thinks
he does, but he can't do anything about it. He
wanted it out of him. He really desperately wanted to
cut out. But it was just yeah, like waiting and yeah,
(13:44):
just nothing. You don't really remember the time because you
don't remember what you did or what you were thinking about,
or because it's just everything stops.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So did your money goals change from pre cancer diagnosis
to post.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I think we've probably become a lot better at going, oh,
you know, we need to be really on top of
this and making sure that we've planned for our future
and stuff. Like I said, we had all of our insurances.
Obviously we're set up. But we've been much better at going, Okay,
we need to reassess now incomes have gone up, family
circumstances have changed. We've been much better at going, yes,
you need to do that now. Don't wait, just do it.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, absolutely, And so what do your money goals look
like today? What are we currently working towards?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, at the moment, I am twenty weeks pregnant, so
I'm working on twelve months off. So at the moment,
we're kind of heavily trying to invest at the moment
because we know that's going to take a back seat
once I'm not working. The goal is for me to
have about twelve months off, which we think should be achievable.
I'll be paid for probably about seventy five percent of
it based on all the different leaves that you can get,
(14:48):
and the remaining twenty five percent we should be okay
on just use income and worst case, I'll just go
back a little bit early if I need to stop it.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
That's so exciting. You didn't drop that earlier. That is
literally so exciting. Let's go to a really quick break
because on the flip side, I want to talk about
these investments that you've just mentioned. I want to talk
about debt. I want to talk about what you did
with your payout, and then we're going to talk about
best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere.
(15:18):
Our one thousandth episode is coming up soon, and to celebrate,
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(15:38):
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Good luck and happy hunting Money, Dirist, We are back
and you are twenty weeks pregnant, which is just so
exciting and also can I be really perfect because it's
(15:59):
obviously not mess But after a cancer diagnosis, was that
something that you were like, We're not sure if that's
going to be a reality for us or not.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
We were sured that there would be no issues with
that side, but we were really worried about the genetic component,
so we did do a lot of pretty testing to
make sure that things were okay. We're also a little
bit older and not old by any means, but we
were a little bit older as well, so we were
concerned that maybe there could be some genetic issues that
might pop up, so we did do a bunch of
(16:27):
that pre testing.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
So what type of genetic testing did you guys do?
Did you just go to like a fertility expert or
did you like google it, like, what did that look like?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So we had a chat with our GP and we
went through it all. Because she's been through it all
with us, she suggested a few different options. So I
went through all of the scams where they go in
and check account and all that sort of stuff. They
also did quite an extensive blood panel on both of
us that was done through a genetic testing land, so
it's relatively expensive. It's not not super extensive, but it's
(16:58):
not cheap either. From our perspective, we really wanted to
confirm it, especially from my husband's side, that there's nothing
that was technically there that was going to be passed on,
or if there was, we were aware of it we
could do about it.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, exactly, And it's obviously a privilege to be able
to do that. But at the same time, like I
think for me because I also did the same thing,
not because we had a similar circumstance. I just had
worked in the space for so long, and I was like,
it's the devil, you know, right, Like having gone through
claims processes with clients and having seen things happen, I'm like,
(17:32):
what can I do to make sure that my babies
are in the best possible position? And for me, spending
the money just made sense. Same for us, But we
did the full blood panels. I remember spitting into a
cup and they did genetic testing on that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
They do that too.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I was why if you've got my blood, do you
also need my saliva? But anyway, that for us was
like a really big peace of mind thing because I
was like, okay, cool, we're okay. Now let's talk about investments,
because you said that you'd started your journey and like
you guys are trying to invest right now? Yeah, have
you invested your trauma payout? Is that what's going on here?
(18:09):
Or like what does that look like?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
No, not entirely. So I started out investing a few
years ago. With your stuff. I used to do like
surveys and stuff like that, and any extra money I'd
get from that would be what I would invest And
even like I love this collecting like bottles and stuff
like that. For your ten cents and I would just
add all that up and once I hit a certain
amount of money, I would just invest it. Same if
I got gifts or anything like that, Like my nan
(18:32):
a few years ago when she passed away, she'd left
me a little bit of money, and I put that
in and stuff like that. Anything I wasn't expecting that
went into investing. And then when he got the payout,
that was when I was transitioning. We knew that I
was going to be finishing at that job that year
and we were planning to go overseas for four months.
So at the time we had been saving and it
(18:55):
was fine, and then we made a few bunch of
changes with that and we ended up spending more on
that trip from that payout. We didn't spend all of it,
of course, we spent probably ten percent. I suppose it
was a fairly small amount of it.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Well, but still that's a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
It was, Yeah, And then there was a small amount
of it that went into maintaining our life when we
got back and before I could get another job, which
was only just over twelve months ago. We still have
a fair chunk of it. But where yeah, we're sitting
on a fair amount of it still in cash.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
But that is a really nice place to be, Like, obviously,
you guys went through so much and it would always
be in the back of your mind as well, like
could it come back? Like obviously there's a lot of
animosity around you know, a relapse and that's okay, But
just to know that you're going to be in a
better position financially to support yourselves going through that. Yeah,
(19:53):
to me, that's the biggest money in.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
And I think part of keeping a fair amount of
the cash is you sort of have this worry of like, oh,
what if something just changes over night again, and yeah,
we just yeah, so we have a fair amount of
it sitting there. Part of that is not knowing what's
going to happen with maternity leave that we figured that
we'll keep some of it there for that, but ultimately
we will invest what's left.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah, that's so exciting. Now, tell me when you started
your investment journey. How did you start? Like did you
download an app? Did you go straight to the Vanguard website?
Like what were you doing to get your journey kicked off?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I went with Concept Pocket and I went with Global
one hundred and Aussie top two hundred because I thought
that's boring and that's stable, and that's me.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
But we love a boring investment portfolio. And have we
changed what does that look like now?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Not really, I still do have those. We also do
have some tech and also we have VDHD as.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Well, So I love that. I feel like we never
recommend it. But like everyone I talked to in the
shoes on the money communities like hey VDHD, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, queen,
I see where we're going. We all have similar tastes.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Just my dad has always into me that boring is great.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Just yeah, yeah, I can't go on after my own heart.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Talk to me about debt. Are you in any debt?
If so, what does that look like? Yep.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
So we have an investment property which has a debt
of about four hundred and eighty thousand at the moment,
and yeah, we just don't really pay too much extra
off it. We do have the cash sitting in the
offset to help with the interest, but we just sort
of let it do its thing. Cool.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Talk to me about investment property as a decision, because
obviously that's another form of investment, but you don't own
the house that you live in, you've rentvested, so.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Sort of, we purchased a property that we lived in.
We lived in it for four years, and then my
mum decided to retire a couple of years ago, and
they wanted to travel a lot, and whenever they traveled,
we always looked after their house. And I said to them,
I said, I have no problem with you doing that,
but if you're going to be away nine months of
the year, I don't really want our part.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I'm moving it in here.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah really, because I knew they were going away for
four months, like straight off the bat. And so yeah,
we moved home. We moved in with my family.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Fick, sorry, we moved in with my parents. But also
my parents don't go here money win.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah. Yeah, so they're here maybe four months of the
year sporadically. Sometimes it's four months at a time. Sometimes
it's a few weeks here and there. So they're back
and forth all the time.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I love that for them.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, so they can work for everybody when they're here.
It's completely fine. We get on really well. The house
is laid out in a way that's really easy for
duel living. But yeah, so they can get up and
go whenever they want, and they can go for however
they long and want, and they don't have to worry
about it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
That is actually incredible to be pervy on their money story.
Was that always something that they had planned. Were they like,
when we retire, we're going to travel the world?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Or was it they've always been huge travelers, Like my
whole life, we've always traveled. As they've gotten older and
had more money, they've obviously traveled more and more and more.
But I don't think it was necessarily in their plans
that they'd never be here. They do have a whole
their home that they do go too quite regularly as well,
But it just means they have a lot of freedom
that they can step up and go whenever they want.
(23:07):
If they decided they wanted to go to their holiday
home next week, it's not a big deal. They don't
have to worry about it.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
That's actually the dream, Like you're just selling me on
the perfect retirement. They can travel whenever they want. They're
going to do whatever they want. They've got a little
holiday house that they go to, Like when I grow up,
I want to be your parents, Yeah me too, Yeah,
like iconic from them. Now The next question I was
going to ask, but we know the answer to that
is do you have personal insurances? Yeah, but obviously I'm
(23:37):
actually going to ask how has that changed? So obviously
you've probably got your full suite of personal insurances set
up and still ticking along. But your husband has claimed
on his trauma, So what does that look like now
for him?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
He had the payout two years ago I think it was,
and then so there is then a period where he
didn't have that trauma insurance. I think it was twelve
months memory, yes, but he reinstated it as soon as
Sky let him know that it was ready to go.
He just has a caveat on it now, the kidney.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, so essentially, if he gets the same cancer again,
he won't get a trauma pay up, But if it
hypothetically moved anywhere else, he will, right.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I believe so, Yeah, unless they can directly link them
in some way. Yeah, but yeah, if something completely unrelated
happens to him again, then it's back up and running.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
That's such peace of mind, especially now that you're like
we're also planning a family, like we're having a baby.
I want to make sure that you are absolutely covered
in this circumstance, talk to me about sky Wealth. Let's
be pervy on them for a hot second, because I
think that a lot of people just assume that you go,
you get your insurances set up, wham maam, thank you, ma'am,
(24:48):
you leave their ecosystem. But that's not how it works,
is it. So what happened with you guys once you've
got a diagnosis? Did you call phill up? Did you
send them an email?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Like?
Speaker 3 (25:01):
What did that look like?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
So I emailed to them to sort of explain, Hey,
we think this is what's going on. We don't really
know what to do here. Is this something that's claimable
because at the time, I mean, even though you think
that these things are what they're for, you don't really
know exactly the ins and outs of what you've got
to do. But I emailed. Our advisor at the time
was Trent. We emailed him and he immediately got it
(25:23):
straight to the claims team. They sent everything through. They said,
obviously we need to wait for confirmed diagnosis. They needed
some doctors things and whatnot, but essentially it was like,
you email us the details and we'll take care of it,
and they did. They dealt with everything. I think there
might have been the odd bit of paperwork here and
there that had Craig had to sign and that was it.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
How good? And I feel like that takes a weight
off you because you're not dealing with the insurance companies
yourself either. You're just forwarding all of the information onto them.
They're like, hey, can we get a quick signature here
and there, but like they're the ones hounding the insurance
company and following up and being like, where's payment, what's
going on? What else do you need?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Because that's yeah, it just takes the admin totally off.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
You, exactly. And I feel like during that period of time,
that is the last thing that you need. Now talk
to me about your best and worst money habits, because
I feel like you said you're a bee, but you've
got stuff pretty sortaed like, talk to me, what do
you think your best money habit is.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I'm very good at having a baseline. So I work
in shift work, so I have a base pay that
I earn, and then anything over that, I'm very good
at going no, that's what we invest, we don't need to.
That's our extra money. Let's budget based on our base
pace to anything extra. I'm very good at differentiating and
just putting it straight aside, and if I invest it
(26:43):
straight away then I won't spend it.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Fair fair And was that something that took a bit
of like mindset shift to get to or is that
something that you were like, No, it just made sense
because I feel like so many of us that do
shift work in our community are like, no, that's extra money,
and I blow it like that's my fund money. No,
I just that because I work too late.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I was really worried that would do that, and I
think that's why I did it that way. I was like,
if I'm getting double time for working on a Sunday,
just save it or do something with it, and investing
it means I won't spend it. If I just put
it in an account, I would find something I could
spend it on. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
And I am also like that, not that I do
shift work, but like I have to allocate it or
I will spend it. I will find something for that.
I'm very good at that. I'm a resourceful queen on
asalt dot com at the moment.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Literally any website, Instagram ads, they just they kill you.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Oh TikTok ads get me. They're so bad. Money dares
to tell me what is your worst money habit.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
If I want it, I'll do it. If I say, oh,
let's go on a holiday somewhere, it will happen some
way or another, it will happen. And that's not always
most financially smart decisions. And I don't tend to skimp
or yeah, I won't necessarily cut back. If I want
to do something a certain way, it will get done
that way, come hell or high water.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah, okay, I kind of love that because it looks
like you've like supported yourself well and I mean you've
got an investment property, like you're structuring yourself really well.
But also you're saying that's going to happen regardless.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, And there's certain things that I
will skim and save on, like I don't want to
pay for parking at work, and I don't want to
buy that extra cup of coffee, but I want to
go to Europe. Oh yeah, that'll happen. We'll find a way.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Fair And now that we've spoken at the start of
the episode, you were like, I'm a bee, what would
it take to get you to be an a Like
what would that actually look like for you?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I need to be much better with my budgeting. I
think that as good as I can be with saving
and putting money into investments and things like that. As
I said, I'm very good at just going, oh no,
let's just do that and we'll just spend the money anyway.
I think if I budgeted better, that probably wouldn't be
such a hit as often as it is.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
And what does your budgeting system look like right now?
Like what would make it better? Like is it a spreadsheet?
Is it a back of a napkin?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Like?
Speaker 3 (29:01):
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Spreadsheets? Yeah, I like spreadsheets. I probably just need to
be a little bit better at not trying to overextend
and going or you know, leave a little bit of
room for movement, or maybe actually assessing what things cost
a little bit better than what I sometimes do, and
just actually allocating money a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
But that's confronting, like having to look at it and go, oh,
groceries don't actually cost that they cost fifty dollars more
than that. I don't want to know like I do,
And obviously I'm I would say that I'm a budget queen,
Like I'm in my spreadsheet every second day. I actually
have mine saved on my desktop of my computer, and
whenever I see it, I click it, I'm like, oh, yeah,
(29:41):
where are we at? Has anything changed? Because I love
updating it. But I'm going to gift you my money
master Class, which has the budgeting spreadsheet that I've built
in it, which is going to force you, apologies in advance,
to actually go through what everything costs, because then it
spits out, Okay, if all of this costs this, this
is the account that those need to go into. This
(30:01):
is how much you're spending here like tells you everything.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
No, that's amazing. Yeah, I probably need to.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
So I'll set you up with that as a little
thank you for doing such a good money diary. But
I also think that it will really help you if
you're like, oh, I just need to like do it,
I'll give you a new, shiny one to.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Do it with. Yeah, and sometimes all you need is
new and shiny and that makes you do it right.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And it's pink like I'm here for it. Your husband
might not love it as much as you do, but
it sounds like you're in control of that anyway. So
sit down, could not care less? Yes, sit down?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
So it goes, Oh, okay, why are they like this. Yeah,
he just looks at it and goes, yeah, you do whatever.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Thanks King, I love that for us anyway, Money Dirist,
it has been a pleasure sharing this time with you
and just getting to know your money story. But also
thank you for sharing so much about arguably a very
vulnerable journey, Like that's a lot and to come on
a podcast and be like, hey, I'd like to talk
about my husband's cancer diagnosis and what the insurance process
looked like, like that's not litto. So I really do
(31:01):
appreciate it because I just my hope for this episode
is that people go, I've been thinking about it, I
know I need to do it, and then they actually
do it, because we all think it's going to be
someone else, Like we all think, oh, that'll never happen
to me, and then it is you.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Absolutely and it's even just the quick fifteen minute chat
with them. Have a chat, they'll hook.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
You in exactly exactly all right, Well, have a good
rest of the day. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally
nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on
the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not
be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Advice tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
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of Money SHPA Pty Ltd. A b N three two
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(00:22):
beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people.
We thank acknowledge and respect the Abiginal people's land that
we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land
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Speaker 2 (00:45):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
She's on the Money. Hello, and welcome to She's on
the Money, the podcast that lets you be pavy about
other people's money stories for educational purposes, of course. Welcome
back to another one one of our money diaries, brought
to you by our friends at Sky Wealth, where I
get the absolute privilege of sitting down with one of
our incredible Shees on the Money community members and talking
(01:09):
to them all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it,
because this week I got a message and it sounded
exactly like this high She's on the Money. After hearing
countless discussions from the She's on the Money team, my
husband and I finally decided to get our insurances assessed
and updated through sky Wealth. Our policies were set up
in late twenty twenty two, and a little over twelve
(01:32):
months after setting it up, it was discovered that my
husband had early stage renal cancer. Approximately eighteen months after
our policies were set up, he was approved for a
full trauma payout. Sky Wealth were phenomenal, not only in
initial setup but throughout the whole claims process. I now
recommend personal insurances to absolutely everyone. Also, my husband is
(01:55):
now cancer free and doing very well. Money Diarist, What
a stressful thing to go through.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a lot of waiting,
a lot of limbo for about six months. But we're
out the other side. We're really lucky how it was caught.
It was very early, very treatable, and he's doing great now.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Oh my goodness. All right, I'm going to dive straight
into the questions because I'm going to come back to that.
I just have a lot of questions. But if I
was to ask you to give yourself a money grade
from A through to F, what would that grade be.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I we put myself at about a B. I love
that and a lot better than I used to be.
There's still a lot of improvement.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Okay, let's dive a little bit further in my favorite question,
but I don't know if it's going to be my
favorite question this time is can you tell me a
little bit more about your money story and about your
husband's diagnosis and everything that went on, because not only
does that feel like it was really stressful, but you
guys are quite young.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah. So we've been together a long time. We got
together when I was seventeen, he was just turned eighteen.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Just babies, Yeah, yeah, So most of our.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Money stories together. We earned money and we spent it.
We never really thought about it. We did what we
wanted to do. We traveled, we had fun, and then
about five years ago COVID hit Couldn't Travel. I found
your podcast and actually started thinking, well, we might need
to do something with our future. So I binged the
heck out of your podcast.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
I love this.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
My millennial Money also got to be a run as well.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Good good, We love Glenn, we love diversity of opinion.
And I cannot say this enough, like, listen to all
of the money podcasts, not just my little Colt. Like
all of them because there might be something that they
say that resonates better. And I don't care as long
as you're in a better position ten out of ten.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Absolutely, But when you're listening to repeat podcasts with Phil,
you're like, I need to do that now. So I did.
We reached out to them. They were amazing. They laid
out all the options. We took them up on everything
they suggested. Mine was abysmal what I had set up,
so we cann't mine when all new vies with.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Them, isn't it's so disappointed. Oh yeah, it was terrible
because you just go, oh, I've been wasting money on Wait,
they've been taking my money for that.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Has literally I think I had fifty thousand dollars coverage
and that.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Was it in this economy. Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
It was nothing. My husband does have a pretty good
work policy, but it only covered much smaller amounts of
what we wanted. So they did a combo with him.
We got it all set up. I think it was
finalized early twenty twenty three, just with some back and
forth medical stuff, and then pretty much bang on, twelve
months after that, he landed himself in hospital with gleandular
(04:29):
fever of all things. And yeah, they did a ct
scam because he had a bleeding spleen and they found
the cancer and his kipping. Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So obviously that's horrific. To go into hospital for glandular
fever like that is awful to begin with. Yeah, but
had that not happened, you probably wouldn't have discovered this cancer.
We never would have known because most of them are
pretty symptom free until it's really bad.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Pretty much. Yeah, they say that. Not only is it
exceptionally slow growing, so it would have been probably a
decad eight before they found it. By the time they
do find it, it's usually you know, blood in the
urine and stuff, but by then it's usually spread. It's
usually really bad by that point.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
So, oh my goodness. So what's that like? You obviously
go into hospital for glendula fever, which you know, horrific
to begin with, but also not the worst thing in
the entire world.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Like he was bad.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
You would expect to just go in for a couple
of days, come out, have some rest, and go home.
But you went in and got a cancer diagnosis pretty much.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And because of his age he was only thirty two
at the time, they were really reluctant to confirm that
it was cancer. The most common is men are over
sixty five. He hit no markers, he's not overweight, he's
not a smoker, and he's obviously way too young. So
they were really reluctant to diagnose it without a biopsy.
But because of a glandular fever, they wouldn't do a biopsy.
(05:49):
They couldn't get in there and see he had to
wait like four months for that to all, yeah, go
down so they could actually get in there on biopsy it.
So they didn't actually confirm it until I think it
was May of that year.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
So you guys were told, hey, we think we might
say cancer, but we're not going to tell you it's cancer. Also,
can you wait four months and just has this in
the back of your mind for the next four months?
Is that how that happened?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
In a way, I'm like, I'm really upfromd with these things,
we just want to know, so we just kept saying
to them, we know that there's a strong possibility that
this is what it is, and that's okay. Don't worry
about saying the word. We're okay with it. We'd rather know.
Our main concerns initially where he was having problems with
his liver and his spleen, and we thought, oh, my gosh,
has it spread? Is it somewhere else? That was our
(06:34):
main concern. So once we knew it wasn't anywhere else,
we were pretty pretty okay with it. He obviously had
his moments. It was a rough few months for him,
but in the scheme of things, we were okay with it.
We knew that it was confined and even having to wait,
we knew that surgery should sort it out and that
should be enough. So we're pretty pragmatic about it.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
But just the anxiety, I'm very grateful been in that
situation before, right, you know, And everyone says, oh, in
that situation, I would xpize it, and you never know
how you're going to read in that situation. But for me,
I think I would prefer someone to say, Victoria, that's cancer,
and then I deal with it and then then come
back later and be like, oop, sorry we were wrong. Yeah,
(07:16):
then the opposite, Like, can we just deal with it
as the most dramatic outcome first. I know it would
be scary, but I'd prefer that then the opposite and
then have it missed.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
That's probably us as well. But I also understand there's
a lot of people that probably hear the word cancer
and it would really like send panic stations. So I
get why they're cautious, which is why I was just
upfront with it. Even nurses and stuff. I felt so
sorry for them. They're trying to do hand over and
I'm like, we know that it's there, don't stress. You
don't need to point at your clipboards and stuff. It's
okay if you need to talk about it, just mentioned it.
(07:49):
We're not worried. It's like we are worried but not.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
But also thank you nurses for being so empathetic and
not trying to freak us out.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, they were trying to be so so so about
it and so cautious and not make it super obvious
that they were trying to tell them about it. But
I'm like, it's okay, you can say it's fine. We're
comfortable enough knowing that it's there and it's not really
bad if that's what it is.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Oh my goodness, And like thirty two, like that is
just so young to go through something like that. Talk
to me about I guess your wider money story. Like
you guys grew up how.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I'm an only child. I grew up with both my
parents working. My whole life, very comfortable life. I never
really thought about money. It's just if we wanted to
do something, we did it. Yeah, So it just sort
of never really was a consideration for me. My husband
has a few siblings, and he grew up in a
single parent home for most of his latter life, and
(08:46):
so there was a little bit more money issues on
that side because his father was the one that paid
for a lot of their life growing up, and then
later in life they split up, so there's a lot
more on their side. But it was just sort of
something we never really thought about. We just we went
to work, we worked hard, we earned money, and we
spent it, and it was only Yeah, you sort of
(09:08):
hit thirty and you go, oh, we probably shouldn't do
this anymore. We probably should actually be smarter than this
and have some good foundations, good money sitting there and
not be sitting They're going, I'll have to wait till
pay week, next week or whatever it.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Is totally, and I'd be like, when we're younger, we
just think that the adult happens to us, Like we
don't build the adult. We just one day we'll wake
up and we will have probably two point five kids
and a house and you know, two perfect cars in
the driveway. That's what happens, right.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
That's adult, Like it just yeah, you blink and it happened.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, Like in my head, that was just what was
going to happen. Like it was arguably not consensual, Like, yeah,
I was going to become an adult one day. I
don't know when that was going to happen. But then
you kind of hit your thirties and you're like, hold
hold on, why are we doing? How does this?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Hasn't this happened?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
But you mean I'm in control of this? Well that's
not very fair. So obviously before your husband's diagnos, as
you guys were working at hustling and getting stuff together,
you started consuming podcasts, so.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
We had started getting our finances in order first obsessed.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
So what did you do for work? How much money
were you earning or even now.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
At the time, I was earning about sixty thousand and
my husband was earning about eighty. We've both improved a
lot since then. He's eight hundred and twenty now and
I'm on about one hundred plus super for both of us,
So we've proved that quite a lot.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
That's a whole side conversation. How do you go from
sixty to one hundred in that period of time.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
So I worked for a small business for a very
long time, and I had a lot of perks that
went with that. Like it wasn't it wasn't just a
sixty thousand dollar job. I got a lot with that,
But as far as the actual earning capacity, that was
kind of the limit of what the business could afford
and what the job was. They retired a few years ago,
and so I took the opportunity to look for something else,
and yeah, jumped into something a lot higher.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
How cool? And then your husband was on eighty or
is on a.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, he was on eighty at the time that he
was diagnosed, and just with a few career changes internally
at the company he works at, he's now on one
hundred and twenty adore.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Now, what type of work does your husband do? Is
it like office based, is it like field based? What
does that look like?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
He works from home exclusively, which makes me incredibly jealous.
Sometimes they sent them home in COVID and they've just
never gone back. I reckon. He sees the office three
times a year, and it's usually when somebody's retiring and
they're having a lunch.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
So I would go in for lunch.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Absolutely, I totally.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Get whit I doesn't really understand.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So he works exclusively from our office. He is a
software engineer, gorgeous. He's a computer constant.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
How fun. So talk me through obviously going through that diagnosis,
you guys had plans like you'd started consuming content and
getting your finances together, which can be super empowering, but
also then getting a diagnosis like that you might spiral
and reassess everything that's going on. What did that look
(11:58):
like when you got that diagnosis? By financially, because you're
not just going, oh okay, well I've got insurance money, whin,
I'll just get a big payout, like sometimes there's a
bit of animosity. And you said that there was four
months before he got a diagnosis, and can I assume
that he was not well during that four months.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
He was okay. Mentally, he struggled probably more than anything,
just that limbo. He was really lucky. His work was incredible.
They were very flexible. He had a lot of sick leave,
he's been there a long time, but they were also
very flexible with you know, you just take the time
you need, don't worry about it, sort it out. So
he was very flexible in that time. Once the glandular
fever was gone, he was actually really good. So he
(12:36):
was probably pretty well for most of it. It was
just that dealing with the mental side more than anything.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, And that's like such a really important point to
kind of point out, is that your husband had cancer
and he was acting fine like glandular fever aside, Like,
there's no other reasons that you guys would have questioned
or gone and done this full medical And even if
you'd gone done a full medical, why would you have
paid out of pocket for that scan that diagnosed him? Essentially,
(13:07):
So that to me, yeah, is kind of terrifying, but
also a really really good reason as to why, Like
you just never know, like everyone always says this type
of stuff happens to other people. It doesn't happen to us. Like,
was that where you guys were at when the diagnosis happened.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
A little bit? Yeah, like everything just stop stuffing matters.
You're just you're going through the motions. See you're in limbo.
That was how he described it. You just he didn't
know what to do because he didn't know. He thinks
he does, but he can't do anything about it. He
wanted it out of him. He really desperately wanted to
cut out. But it was just yeah, like waiting and yeah,
(13:44):
just nothing. You don't really remember the time because you
don't remember what you did or what you were thinking about,
or because it's just everything stops.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So did your money goals change from pre cancer diagnosis
to post.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I think we've probably become a lot better at going, oh,
you know, we need to be really on top of
this and making sure that we've planned for our future
and stuff. Like I said, we had all of our insurances.
Obviously we're set up. But we've been much better at going, Okay,
we need to reassess now incomes have gone up, family
circumstances have changed. We've been much better at going, yes,
you need to do that now. Don't wait, just do it.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, absolutely, And so what do your money goals look
like today? What are we currently working towards?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, at the moment, I am twenty weeks pregnant, so
I'm working on twelve months off. So at the moment,
we're kind of heavily trying to invest at the moment
because we know that's going to take a back seat
once I'm not working. The goal is for me to
have about twelve months off, which we think should be achievable.
I'll be paid for probably about seventy five percent of
it based on all the different leaves that you can get,
(14:48):
and the remaining twenty five percent we should be okay
on just use income and worst case, I'll just go
back a little bit early if I need to stop it.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
That's so exciting. You didn't drop that earlier. That is
literally so exciting. Let's go to a really quick break
because on the flip side, I want to talk about
these investments that you've just mentioned. I want to talk
about debt. I want to talk about what you did
with your payout, and then we're going to talk about
best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere.
(15:18):
Our one thousandth episode is coming up soon, and to celebrate,
we're giving one clever listener a chance to win She's
Stashed the Cash. Today's mystery word is minutes. Tune into
episodes of She's on the Money between the seventeenth of
June and the third of July and listen out for
the hidden code words. They're a five in total. The
(15:38):
first person to arrange the code words in the correct
order will win one thousand dollars. Entries open on Friday,
the third of July, with details shared live on the pod.
Good luck and happy hunting Money, Dirist, We are back
and you are twenty weeks pregnant, which is just so
exciting and also can I be really perfect because it's
(15:59):
obviously not mess But after a cancer diagnosis, was that
something that you were like, We're not sure if that's
going to be a reality for us or not.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
We were sured that there would be no issues with
that side, but we were really worried about the genetic component,
so we did do a lot of pretty testing to
make sure that things were okay. We're also a little
bit older and not old by any means, but we
were a little bit older as well, so we were
concerned that maybe there could be some genetic issues that
might pop up, so we did do a bunch of
(16:27):
that pre testing.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
So what type of genetic testing did you guys do?
Did you just go to like a fertility expert or
did you like google it, like, what did that look like?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So we had a chat with our GP and we
went through it all. Because she's been through it all
with us, she suggested a few different options. So I
went through all of the scams where they go in
and check account and all that sort of stuff. They
also did quite an extensive blood panel on both of
us that was done through a genetic testing land, so
it's relatively expensive. It's not not super extensive, but it's
(16:58):
not cheap either. From our perspective, we really wanted to
confirm it, especially from my husband's side, that there's nothing
that was technically there that was going to be passed on,
or if there was, we were aware of it we
could do about it.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, exactly, And it's obviously a privilege to be able
to do that. But at the same time, like I
think for me because I also did the same thing,
not because we had a similar circumstance. I just had
worked in the space for so long, and I was like,
it's the devil, you know, right, Like having gone through
claims processes with clients and having seen things happen, I'm like,
(17:32):
what can I do to make sure that my babies
are in the best possible position? And for me, spending
the money just made sense. Same for us, But we
did the full blood panels. I remember spitting into a
cup and they did genetic testing on that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
They do that too.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I was why if you've got my blood, do you
also need my saliva? But anyway, that for us was
like a really big peace of mind thing because I
was like, okay, cool, we're okay. Now let's talk about investments,
because you said that you'd started your journey and like
you guys are trying to invest right now? Yeah, have
you invested your trauma payout? Is that what's going on here?
(18:09):
Or like what does that look like?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
No, not entirely. So I started out investing a few
years ago. With your stuff. I used to do like
surveys and stuff like that, and any extra money I'd
get from that would be what I would invest And
even like I love this collecting like bottles and stuff
like that. For your ten cents and I would just
add all that up and once I hit a certain
amount of money, I would just invest it. Same if
I got gifts or anything like that, Like my nan
(18:32):
a few years ago when she passed away, she'd left
me a little bit of money, and I put that
in and stuff like that. Anything I wasn't expecting that
went into investing. And then when he got the payout,
that was when I was transitioning. We knew that I
was going to be finishing at that job that year
and we were planning to go overseas for four months.
So at the time we had been saving and it
(18:55):
was fine, and then we made a few bunch of
changes with that and we ended up spending more on
that trip from that payout. We didn't spend all of it,
of course, we spent probably ten percent. I suppose it
was a fairly small amount of it.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Well, but still that's a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
It was, Yeah, And then there was a small amount
of it that went into maintaining our life when we
got back and before I could get another job, which
was only just over twelve months ago. We still have
a fair chunk of it. But where yeah, we're sitting
on a fair amount of it still in cash.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
But that is a really nice place to be, Like, obviously,
you guys went through so much and it would always
be in the back of your mind as well, like
could it come back? Like obviously there's a lot of
animosity around you know, a relapse and that's okay, But
just to know that you're going to be in a
better position financially to support yourselves going through that. Yeah,
(19:53):
to me, that's the biggest money in.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
And I think part of keeping a fair amount of
the cash is you sort of have this worry of like, oh,
what if something just changes over night again, and yeah,
we just yeah, so we have a fair amount of
it sitting there. Part of that is not knowing what's
going to happen with maternity leave that we figured that
we'll keep some of it there for that, but ultimately
we will invest what's left.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah, that's so exciting. Now, tell me when you started
your investment journey. How did you start? Like did you
download an app? Did you go straight to the Vanguard website?
Like what were you doing to get your journey kicked off?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I went with Concept Pocket and I went with Global
one hundred and Aussie top two hundred because I thought
that's boring and that's stable, and that's me.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
But we love a boring investment portfolio. And have we
changed what does that look like now?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Not really, I still do have those. We also do
have some tech and also we have VDHD as.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Well, So I love that. I feel like we never
recommend it. But like everyone I talked to in the
shoes on the money communities like hey VDHD, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, queen,
I see where we're going. We all have similar tastes.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Just my dad has always into me that boring is great.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Just yeah, yeah, I can't go on after my own heart.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Talk to me about debt. Are you in any debt?
If so, what does that look like? Yep.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
So we have an investment property which has a debt
of about four hundred and eighty thousand at the moment,
and yeah, we just don't really pay too much extra
off it. We do have the cash sitting in the
offset to help with the interest, but we just sort
of let it do its thing. Cool.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Talk to me about investment property as a decision, because
obviously that's another form of investment, but you don't own
the house that you live in, you've rentvested, so.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Sort of, we purchased a property that we lived in.
We lived in it for four years, and then my
mum decided to retire a couple of years ago, and
they wanted to travel a lot, and whenever they traveled,
we always looked after their house. And I said to them,
I said, I have no problem with you doing that,
but if you're going to be away nine months of
the year, I don't really want our part.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I'm moving it in here.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah really, because I knew they were going away for
four months, like straight off the bat. And so yeah,
we moved home. We moved in with my family.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Fick, sorry, we moved in with my parents. But also
my parents don't go here money win.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah. Yeah, so they're here maybe four months of the
year sporadically. Sometimes it's four months at a time. Sometimes
it's a few weeks here and there. So they're back
and forth all the time.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I love that for them.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah, so they can work for everybody when they're here.
It's completely fine. We get on really well. The house
is laid out in a way that's really easy for
duel living. But yeah, so they can get up and
go whenever they want, and they can go for however
they long and want, and they don't have to worry
about it.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
That is actually incredible to be pervy on their money story.
Was that always something that they had planned. Were they like,
when we retire, we're going to travel the world?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Or was it they've always been huge travelers, Like my
whole life, we've always traveled. As they've gotten older and
had more money, they've obviously traveled more and more and more.
But I don't think it was necessarily in their plans
that they'd never be here. They do have a whole
their home that they do go too quite regularly as well,
But it just means they have a lot of freedom
that they can step up and go whenever they want.
(23:07):
If they decided they wanted to go to their holiday
home next week, it's not a big deal. They don't
have to worry about it.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
That's actually the dream, Like you're just selling me on
the perfect retirement. They can travel whenever they want. They're
going to do whatever they want. They've got a little
holiday house that they go to, Like when I grow up,
I want to be your parents, Yeah me too, Yeah,
like iconic from them. Now The next question I was
going to ask, but we know the answer to that
is do you have personal insurances? Yeah, but obviously I'm
(23:37):
actually going to ask how has that changed? So obviously
you've probably got your full suite of personal insurances set
up and still ticking along. But your husband has claimed
on his trauma, So what does that look like now
for him?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
He had the payout two years ago I think it was,
and then so there is then a period where he
didn't have that trauma insurance. I think it was twelve
months memory, yes, but he reinstated it as soon as
Sky let him know that it was ready to go.
He just has a caveat on it now, the kidney.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, so essentially, if he gets the same cancer again,
he won't get a trauma pay up, But if it
hypothetically moved anywhere else, he will, right.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I believe so, Yeah, unless they can directly link them
in some way. Yeah, but yeah, if something completely unrelated
happens to him again, then it's back up and running.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
That's such peace of mind, especially now that you're like
we're also planning a family, like we're having a baby.
I want to make sure that you are absolutely covered
in this circumstance, talk to me about sky Wealth. Let's
be pervy on them for a hot second, because I
think that a lot of people just assume that you go,
you get your insurances set up, wham maam, thank you, ma'am,
(24:48):
you leave their ecosystem. But that's not how it works,
is it. So what happened with you guys once you've
got a diagnosis? Did you call phill up? Did you
send them an email?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Like?
Speaker 3 (25:01):
What did that look like?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
So I emailed to them to sort of explain, Hey,
we think this is what's going on. We don't really
know what to do here. Is this something that's claimable
because at the time, I mean, even though you think
that these things are what they're for, you don't really
know exactly the ins and outs of what you've got
to do. But I emailed. Our advisor at the time
was Trent. We emailed him and he immediately got it
(25:23):
straight to the claims team. They sent everything through. They said,
obviously we need to wait for confirmed diagnosis. They needed
some doctors things and whatnot, but essentially it was like,
you email us the details and we'll take care of it,
and they did. They dealt with everything. I think there
might have been the odd bit of paperwork here and
there that had Craig had to sign and that was it.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
How good? And I feel like that takes a weight
off you because you're not dealing with the insurance companies
yourself either. You're just forwarding all of the information onto them.
They're like, hey, can we get a quick signature here
and there, but like they're the ones hounding the insurance
company and following up and being like, where's payment, what's
going on? What else do you need?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Because that's yeah, it just takes the admin totally off.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
You, exactly. And I feel like during that period of time,
that is the last thing that you need. Now talk
to me about your best and worst money habits, because
I feel like you said you're a bee, but you've
got stuff pretty sortaed like, talk to me, what do
you think your best money habit is.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I'm very good at having a baseline. So I work
in shift work, so I have a base pay that
I earn, and then anything over that, I'm very good
at going no, that's what we invest, we don't need to.
That's our extra money. Let's budget based on our base
pace to anything extra. I'm very good at differentiating and
just putting it straight aside, and if I invest it
(26:43):
straight away then I won't spend it.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Fair fair And was that something that took a bit
of like mindset shift to get to or is that
something that you were like, No, it just made sense
because I feel like so many of us that do
shift work in our community are like, no, that's extra money,
and I blow it like that's my fund money. No,
I just that because I work too late.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I was really worried that would do that, and I
think that's why I did it that way. I was like,
if I'm getting double time for working on a Sunday,
just save it or do something with it, and investing
it means I won't spend it. If I just put
it in an account, I would find something I could
spend it on. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
And I am also like that, not that I do
shift work, but like I have to allocate it or
I will spend it. I will find something for that.
I'm very good at that. I'm a resourceful queen on
asalt dot com at the moment.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Literally any website, Instagram ads, they just they kill you.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Oh TikTok ads get me. They're so bad. Money dares
to tell me what is your worst money habit.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
If I want it, I'll do it. If I say, oh,
let's go on a holiday somewhere, it will happen some
way or another, it will happen. And that's not always
most financially smart decisions. And I don't tend to skimp
or yeah, I won't necessarily cut back. If I want
to do something a certain way, it will get done
that way, come hell or high water.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah, okay, I kind of love that because it looks
like you've like supported yourself well and I mean you've
got an investment property, like you're structuring yourself really well.
But also you're saying that's going to happen regardless.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, And there's certain things that I
will skim and save on, like I don't want to
pay for parking at work, and I don't want to
buy that extra cup of coffee, but I want to
go to Europe. Oh yeah, that'll happen. We'll find a way.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Fair And now that we've spoken at the start of
the episode, you were like, I'm a bee, what would
it take to get you to be an a Like
what would that actually look like for you?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I need to be much better with my budgeting. I
think that as good as I can be with saving
and putting money into investments and things like that. As
I said, I'm very good at just going, oh no,
let's just do that and we'll just spend the money anyway.
I think if I budgeted better, that probably wouldn't be
such a hit as often as it is.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
And what does your budgeting system look like right now?
Like what would make it better? Like is it a spreadsheet?
Is it a back of a napkin?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Like?
Speaker 3 (29:01):
What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Spreadsheets? Yeah, I like spreadsheets. I probably just need to
be a little bit better at not trying to overextend
and going or you know, leave a little bit of
room for movement, or maybe actually assessing what things cost
a little bit better than what I sometimes do, and
just actually allocating money a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
But that's confronting, like having to look at it and go, oh,
groceries don't actually cost that they cost fifty dollars more
than that. I don't want to know like I do,
And obviously I'm I would say that I'm a budget queen,
Like I'm in my spreadsheet every second day. I actually
have mine saved on my desktop of my computer, and
whenever I see it, I click it, I'm like, oh, yeah,
(29:41):
where are we at? Has anything changed? Because I love
updating it. But I'm going to gift you my money
master Class, which has the budgeting spreadsheet that I've built
in it, which is going to force you, apologies in advance,
to actually go through what everything costs, because then it
spits out, Okay, if all of this costs this, this
is the account that those need to go into. This
(30:01):
is how much you're spending here like tells you everything.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
No, that's amazing. Yeah, I probably need to.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
So I'll set you up with that as a little
thank you for doing such a good money diary. But
I also think that it will really help you if
you're like, oh, I just need to like do it,
I'll give you a new, shiny one to.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Do it with. Yeah, and sometimes all you need is
new and shiny and that makes you do it right.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And it's pink like I'm here for it. Your husband
might not love it as much as you do, but
it sounds like you're in control of that anyway. So
sit down, could not care less? Yes, sit down?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
So it goes, Oh, okay, why are they like this. Yeah,
he just looks at it and goes, yeah, you do whatever.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Thanks King, I love that for us anyway, Money Dirist,
it has been a pleasure sharing this time with you
and just getting to know your money story. But also
thank you for sharing so much about arguably a very
vulnerable journey, Like that's a lot and to come on
a podcast and be like, hey, I'd like to talk
about my husband's cancer diagnosis and what the insurance process
looked like, like that's not litto. So I really do
(31:01):
appreciate it because I just my hope for this episode
is that people go, I've been thinking about it, I
know I need to do it, and then they actually
do it, because we all think it's going to be
someone else, Like we all think, oh, that'll never happen
to me, and then it is you.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Absolutely and it's even just the quick fifteen minute chat
with them. Have a chat, they'll hook.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
You in exactly exactly all right, Well, have a good
rest of the day. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally
nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on
the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not
be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
If you do choose to buy a financial product, read
the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Advice tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized representatives
of Money SHPA Pty Ltd. A b N three two
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F s L four five one two eight nine
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