August 3, 2025 • 41 mins
What happens when life changes in an instant, and the world expects you to carry on? This week’s Money Diarist had everything in motion: a new home with a pool, $40k in savings, a baby on the way, and a backyard wedding just around the corner. But days before she was meant to walk down the aisle, she faced the unimaginable: her daughter was stillborn. In this deeply personal and courageous conversation, she opens up about what came next; grappling with grief, navigating systems that weren’t built for moments like this, and trying to stay afloat when everything felt like it was sinking. From Centrelink confusion and being forced back to work too soon, to finding moments of light in Taylor Swift concerts, this is a story of love, loss, and learning how to begin again.
Content warning: This episode contains discussion of stillbirth, grief, and pregnancy loss. If this topic is sensitive for you, please take care when listening or skip this one altogether. For support, you can contact Red Nose Grief and Loss on 1300 308 307, which offers 24/7 bereavement care and specialised support for anyone affected by miscarriage or stillbirth.
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Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha 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 - 451289.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Aatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations
woman and I'm here to acknowledge country t Glenn Young
Ganya Nianar kaka ya Ya bin Ahaka nian Ar gay
In Nimbina, yakarum jar Dominyamka Domaga Ithawakaman damon Imlan bomber
bang Gadabomba in and now in wakah ghana on yak
rum jar Watnadaa. Hello, beautiful friends, we gather on the
(00:24):
lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank acknowledge and respect
the Aberiginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take
pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see.
She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections,
bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
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 one
of our money Darius, where I get the absolute pleasure
of sitting down and talking to one of our beautiful
She's on the Money community members, all about their journey.
Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got
(01:28):
a message and it sounded exactly like this dear, she's
on the money after going through one of the hardest
things you can go through. I wanted to share my
story in the hope it helps other mums navigating similar challenges.
I always thought I was doing okay with money. My
husband and I saved forty grand in six months and
moved five hours out of the city to buy our
(01:48):
first home. I thought we were on track, but after
the still birth of our daughter, everything changed. The banks
want to help, and my workplace didn't know how to
support me. I had no idea how many financial hurdles
I'd face while also grieving. Now, I want to raise
awareness of what financial systems look like in moments like this.
(02:10):
Money Diarist, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Oh my god, I feel so privileged that you want
to share your child's story with us and you want
to talk to me. Oh, I just I know that
that's probably not how but like, thank you for wanting
to chat to us.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, that's okay. I'm very happy to share my story
and my journey now that I've been through what I've
been through and hopefully educate a bit more to everybody.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Well, before I jump into the deeper questions, what great
would you give you? Money? Habits from A three to F.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
If I asked right now, I'm a C.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
You're a C. All right, let's see what that's about.
I need to be canceled, honestly. But money diarist, can
you tell me a little bit more about your journey?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So I grew up feeling, you know, not ever worried
about money. Both parents. It's worked in local government, so
it was always a safe money environment. There was never
any issues. I grew up always watching my mom do
a budget on a spreadsheet, and to this day she
still does it. She still calls me once a month
says I'm doing my budget today. So I grew up,
(03:16):
you know, watching mom did that, and I have a
memory of we won five thousand dollars once in the
early two thousands, and that was a huge deal.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Well in the early twent thousands, that's like twenty grand oh.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So my parents like paid a heap off the mortgage,
but we got one hundred dollars each meet my brother
and I.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
That would have felt like a thousand at that point, I.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Went and bought a Pokemon Gold Gain for my game
Boy Color and I thought it was the best thing ever.
So yeah, good journey of money growing up, always felt safe.
Left school, took a little while to get to my
career and finally settled in that in about twenty seventeen,
and slowly worked my way up and just kept working,
(03:53):
taking a few holidays here and there, and then when
the pandemic kit, I was very lucky kept my job,
worked from home, actually got promoted during that time. In
between some lockdowns is when I met my now husband.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
For you'd how did you guys meet?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
We met in real life?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Oh? What the hell? Yeah, so through a lockdown you
met in real life. That just feels like almost fake,
my love.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It was in between some lockdowns, but it was still
in the rules where you couldn't stand. You had to
be sitting at bars and clubs and all that kind
of stuff. So we met like we weren't both planning
to go to that establishment that night, but things went
that way, and he came and sat at my table
because I looked bored.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
So whoever you were with wasn't entertainment as much as good.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So we got chatting, swapped Instagrams, and then had our
first date a week later.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Kids, these days, you don't swap numbers.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
No, we swapped Instagram so he felt a number was
too forward and the snapchat was too seedy. So Instagram
is where we went.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I like that there's a middle ground for us now.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
We very quickly met and spoke about how we didn't
really want to live in the big city anymore. And
after knowing each other for six months, my lease was
running up where I was living in a sharehouse, and
he said, well, let's do this. So I moved in
with his parents and we knuckled down and saved forty grand.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
That's how you saved the forty grand. That's a lot
of money to save in a short period of time. Like, yeah, okay,
moving in with the brand new in laws. Was that
challenging because I feel like I would have been so anxious,
like girl, I don't know. I feel like it took
literal years for me to go, Oh, I don't have
to be so highly strung around my husband's sperience.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It was definitely experience. It's also like moving from a
sharehouse to like a bedroom and all that kind of stuff.
So putting stuff in storage and downsizing a little bit,
but we knew it was going to be worth it
to get out and move. So in early twenty twenty two,
we bought our house remotely. We didn't actually see it
in person. We had to just do a FaceTime because
(05:59):
things were moving so quickly that when we saw it
pop up online, we called them that afternoon. They said,
come look at it tomorrow, and we said we live
five hours away, so we got a FaceTime the next day.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Oh my goodness. Property can be so hard, and that
just puts even more pressure on you, Like you just go,
oh goodness, Like we're gonna have to do this FaceTime,
make a decision really quickly. And I'm sure that they
were like there are lots of interested parties, weren't they.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, there was someone else at the house when they
were walking us through virtually. Oh so we very quickly
put in an offer twenty grand over asking, but we
still bought our first house for four hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Hey that's good.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah. So it was a four bedroom, reasonably like rashly painted,
had a pool, had a little shed, had a big yard.
So we were like, yeah, compared to you know Sydney
to out here. We were like dawn, you.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Like six seven months from a sharehouse to buying a
house with a pool. I love this for you.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
We were pretty proud of ourselves. A lot of people
were still like, what are you doing? But that's what
we wanted to do. We didn't want to be in
the big city anymore. We want a different lifestyle, and
we up and moved up here.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
So early twenty twenty two, you bought how long was
your settlement was at like normal standard three months?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It was standard, but we had early access so we
could every weekend we literally on the Friday night, we'd
pack up cars. We'd leave at like four am Saturday mornings,
come up, do stuff in the house, see our friends,
and then drive back to Sydney on the Sunday.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Hey, not bad, but also you do what you've got
to do right or you don't miss those days though.
Exciting but also a long slog.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah. So well, I moved up in July twenty twenty two,
but my partner was a truck driver at the time,
so he kept working in Sydney, so I was by
myself at home in a new job too. I got
a new job at that time, and I lived up
here by myself during the week for the first six
months of us moved up here.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
So you've been together six months, you buy a house,
you live together for another six months. At what point
does this man that asked for your Instagram come your husband?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So he then proposed in September of twenty twenty three,
and at this point we were pregnant with our first child.
So we fell pregnant in the May of twenty twenty three,
and he proposed over breakfast, and he organized the whole
thing from his truck while he was driving. He got
his mum to go by get the ring. He asked
(08:23):
for permission with a ten pack of Jack Daniels to
my dad's place, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
That's so sweet.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Organized it all remotely, and.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Is that like a proposal that you were like, this
is so me Yes, oh I love that.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And it was such a random restaurant. He's like, where
do you want to go for breakfast? And I chose
when he went are you sure? And I was like, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Just breakfast to do. It's not like we're getting engaged.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But it actually ended up being nice because I was
like overlooking a park and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
So it's so cute.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So yeah, so that's September of twenty twenty three, and
he said, let's get married quickly. I want us to
have the same last name, all that stuff before the
baby come. So the baby was due.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Because you got you were pregnant in May, right, and
then you go.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, so the baby was due on Valentine's Day of
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
How was your pregnancy because I feel like sometimes.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I was really crook, so and then you know, when
you look back and find out why I was really crook.
And we got to mid November, so we were getting
married mid November, organized it all. We did full DIY
on a friend's farm.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Oh my god, girl, you were pregnant and planning a wedding,
and you would have been like heavily pregnant.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I was. We got married, I was twenty seven weeks.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
That's a lot of weeks, especially if you're feeling a
bit trashy.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Like, yeah, so we're in November, I'm feeling a bit crook.
Getting follow ups and all that kind of stuff. Went
to have a scan on a different part of my stomach,
and that part was near where the baby lives, and unfortunately,
that's when we found out the baby had passed away. No,
I was twenty six weeks.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Twenty six No, Oh my goodness, Like, I don't know
how that feels. And you know what, I'm not even
going to try and say that I do, because it
is so different to anything I've ever been through. But
just the idea that you weren't prepared for that like,
it's not as though I can't explain it. But having
been through unfortunately now me four miscarriages that were quite
(10:18):
late term for two of them, there were things that
I was like, oh, I'm just feeling as though this
maybe isn't right, but you were there for something else.
And then they were like, by the way, oh the
fact that you didn't even go there is reduced movements
or I just I really feel like something's up. You
just got completely blindsided a girl. That is not fair.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I was told I had an interior placenter, so I
was told you won't feel much, So me not feeling
much was normal. So on the Saturday afternoon, I went, oh,
I felt a kick, And then the Sunday I went,
I haven't felt much. And you know, if you were
told not to don't worry, go in Monday afternoon for
a scan on my kidneys and my bladder because I
was crooked and that's when they found out. So this
(10:57):
is Monday afternoon.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Oh far, I'm so.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So we get up to the hospital this Monday afternoon.
My husband's just gotten back from thankfully driving back home
not to Sydney. Tell him, jump in the car up
to the hospital, get up to the hospital, and they
say you have to give birth. No, and I just
went okay. That's because I was not educated at all
about what happens when this happens.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
But you don't know what you don't know, and in
the nice way, ever, it's kind of nice that you've
not had any experience of this.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Before, reflecting. All I got was a pamphlet sometime in
my pregnancy saying still birth might happen to you, and
that was it. So I get up to the hospital
and we're chatting through when I'm going to give birth,
and that's when I dropped that we get married that Saturday, yeap,
So we very quickly had to put a plan into place.
(11:50):
So that was the Monday night. I went back to
hospital the Wednesday and I gave birth to my beautiful
little girl.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Did you get to spend much time with her?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yes? Yeah, and she was the most beautiful little thing.
She's got a cutes little nose. So I spent some
time with her, and then I had to stay in
hospital until Friday. Of course, so my husband went, I
need to be busy, so he left and did all
the wedding stuff, so the marquee, portoloo, the food, the alcohol,
all that kind of stuff. So he went kept himself
(12:20):
busy with.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
That, honestly, fair Like, I get wanting to be busy,
but at the same time, I'm assuming every single person
going to your wedding knew that you were having a baby.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yes, we had kept the pregnancy quiet until twenty weeks. Yeah,
and then but everyone so that that's when all our
family on what the Tuesday, said are we coming up now?
And we said, no, leave us. We'll do this by ourselves.
And so we did all the giving birth by ourselves.
But friends popped around to the house to check on
the dogs, for example, because you just we just dropped
(12:49):
everything and ran and I just was told to rock
up to the wedding really in my dress, which is
what I did.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Stop and what is that like? Because like, you're marrying
the love of your life, right, you are the man,
I'm assuming of your dreams and that was like something
that you look forward to and I'm sure since you
were little, you're like, one day, I'm gonna have the
big light dress. I'm gonna have a wedding, and like
you guys were so excited to get married. It was
like September to November.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
It was an eight weeks that I planned a wedding.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, hustling to get married, and like there was probably
I don't know, I feel like it's a little bit
romantic if you're pregnant and then getting married, because it's
just it's a love bubble. Like you're in this bubble
of like we're having a baby, we're getting married, We're
doing literally everything all at once. What's that like? Like
I'm going to cry like I did.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Oh, it was a rollercoaster. I think I had not
really been alone until I had an hour before I
had to get ready for the wedding, and I just
sat there and I just went what has happened over
the last week? And one of my cats had come
up to me and crawled up and noticed that the
like she used to crawl up on my tummy and
now she noticed there was nothing there, and that like
(13:58):
her look on her face and she's.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
A cat, it's creepy.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Hey. Yeah, So yeah, I just kind of I drove
myself to hair and makeup and drove myself up to
the wedding, got changed at a friend's house around the corner,
and then walked down the aisle and we spoke to
our celebrant the day I was giving birth and told
her what was going on, and she was amazing. She's like, Okay,
what are we doing here? What do you want mentioned?
(14:22):
What do you don't want mentioned? So we kind of
started the day like, you know, we reflect on what's happened,
and because of what's happened, it shows how strong these
two love each other. And we associate my daughter with butterflies,
so you know, we talked about the butterflies that were
circling all that day stop.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
And of course they were, and I bet they just
hung out the.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Whole day for no reall one hit me in the
face as I was getting photos done. Yeah. So then
we got married, and then then after that you then
sit down and go, Okay, what do you do. Now
we're married, and my husband had to go back into work.
You took a few more days off, it went straight
back into work. Was actually starting a new job as well,
which meant you would be home all the time, which
(15:03):
was great. But I remember also having to call my
work and explaining. I said, my daughter's been born sleeping
and my workplace said, what does that mean?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
How do you guys not know what that means?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
So that was really that was something to navigate, and
they didn't know what the options were. So thankfully now
we've been through all the options, they have all the
detail because I'm very strong about educating that this is
going to happen and for people to be prepared in
all shapes of life.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
One hundred percent. So that happens, you obviously take some
time off work. Then what does life look like after that?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So in Australia, after twenty weeks or if a baby
is born over four hundred grands, it's classified as is
stillborn and therefore they get a birth certificate and you're
entitled to the government benefits. So I had two options,
which was the normal paid print or leave that every
parent can take, or a still born payout, which is
around four thousand dollars last time I checked, which is recently,
(16:09):
which for me was about a month's salary. And I
looked at it and I went, I don't think I
can just go back to work after Christmas. So I
decided to do the paid print or leave option, but
that just wasn't enough, So I ended up going back
to work two months earlier then I had hoped.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
But you also probably had a bit more freedom and
flexibility than the fore grand payout. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, I had the option. Like, my husband has made
me a very strong person, and he said, if you're
going to take time off, what are you going to do?
So I did put in effort to like going to
the gym and doing little bit for me, made sure
I did everything every day. I'm a very big tailor
Swift fan, so I spent a lot of time making
friendship bracelets because I wasn't going to get to go
(16:52):
to the ears too, because I was due exactly when
she was here. So when everything happened, my friends all
came to and I got to go thankfully six times.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Actually yes, oh my goodness, your friend came in clutch.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So I got to come down to Melbourne for three
shows and I went to Sydney for three shows, and
it's just the most it was the most healing thing
because I'm very big, swifty, seen her multiple times and
all my friends made me a bracelet with my daughter's name,
you stop. So this arm was full of bracelets with
her name, which was beautiful. So just it was a
(17:32):
very healing time. And then yeah, I actually fell pregnant
again just before I left for the ears to us stop, that's.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
So special as well? What's that like? Like, what is
it like having gone through that and then finding out
you're pregnant again because you know again And I'm not
trying to make this about me. I think this is
definitely a completely different story. But like I am the
most anxious pregnant person ever because I I'm just not
(18:00):
good at staying pregnant, Like I've now lost four pregnancies,
and so being pregnant means that I'm quite anxious the
whole time. I'm like, this isn't going to work out,
This isn't going to work. But your situation mine mine
is nothing in comparison to yours, So like, how's that feel?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
With my first daughter's pregnancy, I was very much like
testing every single day and had to see the line
get darker, and it got darker and I got darker,
and I paid for extra blood tests to make sure
the numbers were rising. But with my second daughter's pregnancy,
I don't know why, but I didn't. I kind of
got the positive blood test, I went, Okay, we're just
gonna sit. Obviously my experience is going to be different.
(18:41):
I had to start blood thinners immediately. I also was
up at the hospital at ten weeks, and where I
am usually don't go till twelve and then twenty weeks,
so I had continuity of care this pregnancy, which I
didn't have last pregnancy.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
You're like, you just need that extra hand holding process.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I literally saw my and I'm in the public system.
We don't have a private option really where I live.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
But the public system when you're a high risk pregnancy
is honestly like, I won't say flawless, but pretty flipping good.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Well. I was high risked with my first pregnancy too,
so it was just very different experiences. So when I
got to sixteen weeks and we did another skin they said,
it's now your choice. What do you want to do?
I decided to come fortnightly. Yeah. So because my first
daughters was growth restricted pretty much. Is what she's passed
away from is mount nourishment. Well, she was too small. Yeah,
(19:35):
my placenta was the issue. It was full of blood
clots and therefore stopped.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
So you would have had to start aspirin really early off.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yes, that too. So my biggest thing was seeing her grow.
So every two weeks I wanted to see.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
I want to see gain. I want to see her longer. Yeah,
I see her tracking on the graph.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
And the irony is that she was a weak ahead.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Every single mum, mom stops stressing.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I got this. I had kicks all the time, but
it was still it was a very anxious time and
therefore we didn't announce my pregnancy at all. We kept
it to ourselves and close family and friends only. We
just dropped on Facebook after she was born an surprised guys, Hey,
we've had a child. So yeah, So I got induced
(20:21):
it thirty eight weeks, which is I really pushed for
because I just had physically had enough.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Honestly, fair like, I'm not gonna lie. I envy those
women who were like, pregnancy is so magical, it's the
best time, I really worshiped my body. Girl, I've never
felt worse in my life, like I trying to roll
over in bed, like I did not enjoy it. I
couldn't breathe, like I just felt like trash all the time.
I vomited on literally everything, like one out of ten
(20:47):
ye experience. I envy people, you know what. I say
this all the time to my girlfriends. I'm like, parenthood
absolutely for me, like I was born to be a mum.
Pregnancy though, that's not my journey.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I enjoyed it, but I was just as last ten weeks,
especially once I got past twenty seven weeks, it was
still just every week was like, is everything okay?
Speaker 4 (21:09):
And even after that point, was her weight tracking well?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yes, she came out at four point two kilos at
thirty eight weeks. She was well and truly.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Did not need those extra a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Nope, No, So.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
I love that. I love that so much. So tell
me a little bit more. I guess you said you
didn't go back to work. What do you do for
work and how much money do you earn?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
So I'm now back in my job, which is an
executive assistant in local government. Oh, very cool and I'm
on eighty eight thousand plus Sooper.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Oh, hey, that's good. And does that like because it's
local government, does it increase every year? Is there like
a plan?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, you have like steps, so I'm I think I'm
at that last step now in my grade and we
get the like the CPI increase and stuff as well.
But at the moment, I'm just doing three days a
week with a transition to be back full time in
a few months. So tell me about your second daughter.
When was she born? How old is she now? So
she's seven months old.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
It's not fit delicious, she is delicious.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
She's got arms like a croissant.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I love that, my baby. So when Harvey was born,
he was like three and a half killers, which is
like bang on, like standard baby size. And then I
swear he ate a different baby and left the hospital
and he has been the chunkiest boy ever since. And
it is my favorite thing ever, the little chubby wrists.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Oh yeah, she's got those.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
She's so cute. I love this. So talk to me
about money goals, Like you've bought the house, you've got
the pool, You've moved like I guess into state. What
is your big money goal? What are you guys working towards.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
So in the midst of everything that happened, we also
sold our house. We went on this everyone, you guys okay,
because we sold a lot of stuff. We sold our
house and we moved another thirty minutes north and so
now we're on a property that's like half an acre
a lot quite at town. But this still isn't the forever.
So we're definitely starting to work towards getting some acreage
(23:04):
something like five to ten just to have some cows.
And my husband communities right on moer.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Oh my god, So tell me about that, because if
you're you've sold your house, you moved into this one,
and you're like on a little bit of land, are
you expecting that to increase in value and then move
or like, have you got like little plan?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
We spoke at the beginning of the year and like,
do you want to do anything in twenty twenty five?
We said, no, let's just kind of settle into being
parents and all that kind of stuff, and let's just
keep smashing out our mortgage, which we are. So we've
paid nineteen thousand off the principal already in fourteen months.
The way we do it as well, is I've switched
(23:43):
to weekly repayments, but we also do forty dollars a
day we send over to our mortgage. Great, so that
we're doing something every single day because of the daily
interest rushing.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Downe that interest And for those of you who maybe
haven't deep dove into like what that actually means interest
calculated daily on your mortgage. So the end of the month,
they kind of go, oh, you have a thousand dollars
interest due. But if every single day you are cutting
that down, that at the end of the day means
at the end of the month, less interest is owed
(24:13):
and therefore more of the money that you've paid off
over that period of time actually goes to the real
loan instead of the interest that is payable. So that's
a really smart idea. Some of them do it that way,
some of them don't. So if someone's listening and they're like, oh,
I'm a good nurse, like money dires a genius, I'm
going to do it, don't just implement it, like have
a chat to your bank about what that actually means.
All you're broker about how to implement that. But money
(24:36):
dires that's quite smart.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
We looked at it actually last night and we were
doing the math, and if we didn't put anything extra,
we'd only pay five hundred off the principle a month,
and that feels like nothing, but us doing it this
way is paying an extra fifteen hundred.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Dollars off stop. That's so significant. Have you calculated how
much time that will save you?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I think so far, we've already cut three years off
the loan.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Stop it, and you haven't even lived there that long.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
We've only been here fourteen months in this house.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Yeah, and you've cut three years off. So by the
time you guys move again, you'll probably be like twenty
year mortgage or something.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Hopefully.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Yeah, Oh my goodness. I love this for you. Do
you have any other big money goals that you're currently
working towards.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
That's the main one, is really just finding the forever
home as nice and as quiet as it is here.
It's a I don't like the layout very much, and
it's obviously very cold, and we've got just fireplaces and
gas heating, and I'm like, I just want some doctor
their con and I'd love to go on a proper holiday.
We went on a honeymoon when I was eight weeks pregnant,
with my second daughter, and that was not a vibe.
(25:39):
And we're on a cruise, which was probably not the best.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
To you, like, how can I make this pregnancy worse exactly?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
And it was one day I went, am I sea
sick and my morning sick. I don't know, I'm just sick.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Oh No, Like, I'm not gonna lie the idea of
being pregnant on a cruise. Girl, you just really wanted
to watch it well burned.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I really I don't know what I was thinking. But anyway,
because we booked it before we felt pregnant, like I
think it was like in December, after everything happened. Really,
let's book our honeymoon.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
What a great trip. And then you get pregnant. You're like,
I'm actually perpetually seasick, and now I'm going to get seasick.
This is perfect?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Is great?
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Oh I love that pet, Money, Doris, So let's go
to a really quick break because I have a lot
more questions and we'll get to them in a hot minute.
All right, money Dorist, we are back, and I feel
like your priority is clearly smashing down your mortgage and
you are really good at it. But do you have
any investments? If so what are they? What do you
think about investing?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I am in the middle of a bulk listen of
the backlog of shares on the money, so I feel
like investing is definitely front of mine at the moment.
I have just started a SHARE's ease yeah great in
the last week. But outside of that, I have just
my SUPER at the moment and.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Working in local government, do you get more super than
the average, Beth?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I think it's twelve percent.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Yeah. And how's your super tracking? Are you happy with it?
Have you been looking at it?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, I've been checking it and I did notice a
little dip. Obviously, I haven't had super paid pretty much
all of this year yet because I've been on Central
Link since the beginning of the year.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
How annoying because Sendlink has just updated to paying it
super as off July, so you just missed out on that.
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
And I'm not planning on any more babies, so it
won't be any pregnancy is not for me anymore.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
We are done.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I'm too and done. So I'm at sixty five thousand.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Oh my god. Okay, you're doing really well for your age.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
When I looked back, is I've only been doing Super
for ten years, just because when I started, I was
late to the game. I didn't start working till I
was about eighteen because I had some big surgeries when
I was younger and I couldn't do much, So I
didn't start working until I was eighteen, and it really
with all the fees and stuff, I didn't really start
getting Super until twenty fifteen.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
So, hey, look.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Sixty five over ten years, I'm pretty.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Happy, pretty well, even though it's tiny, that additional percentage
that gets paid, like it does pay off over time,
like it doesn't like a lot. You're okay, I guess
it's better than a kick in the pants. But then
you look at it after ten years and you're like, oh,
actually that did significantly contribute to my returns, which is
very very nice. Now talk to me. I need to
know more. You bought another house, but we have no
information on the debt that you carry. How much did
(28:15):
the house cost, how much is your mortgage? What does
all of that look like?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
So the house we're in now we bought for five
hundred and sixty five thousand, and that's on half an acre,
four bedroom house. I'm so envs And we had a
ninety k deposit from the sale of our first house.
So we bought the house for four hundred thousand dollars
and eighteen months later we sold it for four hundred
and eighty two thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Very nice. And you guys had that forty thousand deposits,
so you basically flipped that in eighteen months to be
from forty to ninety.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
And we added like an air con to it and
all that kind of stuff. And then we now owe
four hundred and seventy five thousand on this house.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
And how does that make you feel?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I think we're doing really well.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
I think you're doing really well as well.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I'm pretty happy with it.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
I'd prefer not though.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
No, I'm still waiting for the day we win the
lotto because my husband wrote in his wedding vows that
we would.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Well call me when that happens, because I have a
few good financial advisors that are literally with stuff like that.
It's coming, so you'll need their details.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Right exactly exactly it's next week.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Do you have any other debts?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
So at the moment, I have a credit card debt
of about eleven thousand dollars and it's not pretty, but
it just shows that you kind of need that little
bit of support, especially when on paid Printally, I was.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Going to ask, like, what's that made up of? Is
that going on paid parental leave? In your diary that
you wrote in you were like, I really want to
talk about, you know, the awareness of financial systems. Did
you win to debt after having your first daughter?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
I think so. I think we did. I had to
cut back on a lot of things. I kind of
went I had about one thousand dollars a fortnight drop
going on to Centerlink. I got a couple of leave
options from work and I used those around orygment even
things like that, and then I went into Centerlink. So
we're at the point that we were selling our house
(30:06):
and the broker said, we're really sorry, we understand what
you've been through, but the banks don't count center Link
as an income, so right now you don't have an income,
so therefore we wouldn't have been allowed to borrow for
the house.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
For in now, which actually makes me. I own a
mortgage broken company. So I see that stuff all the time,
and it makes me so angry because you could have
worked with the same company for ten years and then
taken parental leave and had a legit central ink income.
You could have been the most financially savvy person. You
could have saved for the last ten years to take
this period of time, so financially you're not behind, but
the banks like you have no money by It's not true,
(30:41):
but it's so frustrating. So what did you do to
get around that?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I went back to work early.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Oh, that's the last thing you needed. Was that really
painful to go back to work.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
I wasn't ready to go back to work. I was
due to go back after six months, and I went
back after four and I feel like I probably needed
a little bit more time. But it's just the way
everything fell. And I believe everything happens for a reason.
So it's okay, but it was really disappointing that the
banks were just like, sorry that you've had a loss
(31:11):
and sorry that you're on Centerlink. They wanted proof of
savings that we couldn't. You know, it was tens of
thousands of dollars. It's just not there.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
I'm so sorry. That part of it makes me so
angry because it's like, where's the leniency? Like anyway, I
won't go on and on about that, because I absolutely
could so I want to dive a little bit further
into this eleven thousand dollar credit card debt. Talk to
me about that. Is that something that gives you the eck?
Is that something that you're like, Nope, we did it
on purpose because you know, I have a seven month
old and we knew that we're going to be behind,
(31:41):
and this is a tool and we're just going to
smash it out later. Like what's the plan.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
That's the plan is to start smashing it out as
my income increases going back to work. I've redone my
budget that I've been doing for years that haven't really followed.
It's been there on and off, but I've pulled it
back up and gone, no, no, I need to help
smash this out as well. So I'm changing. Like, it's
not really a percentage, it's just kind of working out. Okay,
(32:06):
there's going to be left over here that goes straight
onto the credit card. But it does kind of show
you that at the moment, sixteen hundred dollars a fortnight,
it is really hard to live on when you are
trying to do a mortgage.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Food.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I mean, thankfully she wasn't eating for a while, but
she's just started eating so adding in food, fuel, all
that kind of stuff, plus just enjoying your life.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
So babies are just expensive, like nappy is expensive, and
they add up wipes and like, who knows you might
be using formula. I couldn't believe how expensive formula.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
He's forty dollars a ten at the moment a week
for her.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
That's the same as what Harvey was on. And it's
kind of like even if you look at the cheaper ones,
Harvey refused them. I tried to be like, oh, I
did all my research. I was literally on chat GPT
being like the national value of this versus this, because like,
you know, you don't want to do wrong by your kid.
I get that deeper one and he's like, what is this?
Absolutely not? And he also would not take anything less
(33:02):
than the bloody thirty dollars bottles, Like he refused.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Oh yeah, I had to switch bottles. She didn't like
the bottles bottle.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
He wasn't drinking out of it.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
There was just ruda. I bought you this beautiful new bottle.
Not interested.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
I tried to buy the Audi nappies because all of
the mum's on my Facebook group were like, oh the
Audi nappies are great, go and buy them, and I'm like, slay,
like ten out of ten for us. They leaked everywhere.
I was like, what is this? Why do I keep
trying my hardest and being picked?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
It was just building up slowly. But it's just things
like you know, she grows so quickly, and next to it,
you're having to go buy the next size up and.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
You want him to look through as well.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Like yeah, well, yes, she's a bow girl.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Yes. Honestly, it was a money win for me when
I gave birth to my son and they said it's
a boy. I remember on the first day, I thought
this is going to be great for our bank account
as opposed to me them like is that a dress?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Can I I'm just gonna go. Let me just have
a look at that.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
I'm a boy mum. And still if I wire past
country Road and see the little girl outfits, I'm like.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Oh what is that?
Speaker 4 (34:04):
That is the cutest thing ever. I can't look away.
If I had a little girl, I'd be done for.
I'd be canceled.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm starting to find a dress for a wedding we've
got to go to in a couple of months, and
it's just like, oh my gosh, she's only ever going
to wear it once. Oh, but it's so cute.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
I'm on your team. Please any pictures because I live
vicariously through girl Mums money direst Talk to me. I
feel like, yes, you're in credit card debt, but I
feel like it was inevitable given the situation. Talk to me, though,
what do you think your best money habit.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Is definitely become a points queen.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Oh okay, I love your skip.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So that was the reason to get the credit card
in the first place. For things like I've switched to
shopping at Wally's to get the everyday rewards. We're flying
for this wedding interstate, so we've been like saving up
the points for that kind of stuff. But everything we
go to buy, we go can we get points somewhere
from this one year for flight? We just did all
(34:58):
fly bys one year and then that at Christmas with
eight hundred dollars in flybys points. So that was how
we went Christmas shopping.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Oh, your genius.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
So we're very much into points.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
People like, it's a dollar here, a dollar there. Yeah,
and over a year it becomes eight hundred bucks. It's
eight hundred dollars you didn't have before, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
So very much into points and just any way that
we can get some more points.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
My team and I really like doing the like double stack.
We're doing the points, but then we're also making sure
that when we accumulating points, we're also using cash back,
so we're like shot back, cash rewards, literally any of it.
Who's giving the best discount or the best cash back,
we'll use that. And I would like some Flybys points
to boot thank you. I think I've been on shop
back for I want to say three or four years
(35:41):
now smart and it's sitting at four hundred and seventy dollars.
That's Christmas.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
But like even I did a shop the other day
and I got twenty dollars back and it was like
a Bond's order or something for one hundred bucks. And
with I think it was only a few days ago,
so with their sales and everything and end of financial year,
I got twenty dollars cash.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Backe and that money just like stockpiles over in the side.
Then you'll have a couple of hundred bucks to make
a decision with money wien. That is a good deal
on the flip side though, tell me what do you
think your worst money? Howit is?
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Food?
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Yeah? Same girl? Are we eating out? Are we cooking
expensively at home? What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Now? We're going through a drive through?
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Because do you follow me on Instagram? By chance?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Have you seen how many times I go through the
McDonald's drive through? You can't stop, won't stop.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I think as soon as I also was not pregnant,
it was like, give me the soft serves and the milkshakes.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
That's fair.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
And also, I mean you'd think living thirty minutes out
of town means that you don't have the temptation of
the drive through. Now every time I go to town, it's
on the way out of town.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
So how do you say, notice some GPAs For.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Me, it's like a vanilla milkshakeh.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
A vanilla milkshake?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Do you know what?
Speaker 4 (36:50):
I don't think I've ever had a vanilla milkshake? Does
it just taste like soft serve?
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Pretty much?
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Okay, maybe I need one of those on the way home.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Just we're going to see that on the store tonight,
you will.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
I'll be like the money dist today, not naming names.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
So definitely, yeah, food and sometimes with concerts and stuff.
It's like I've got to be there. Not that I
go to many, especially even regionally. It's a whole thing
to go to a concert and.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
Then back to Australia. I just know that credit card
would absolutely be slammed. I'm onto you.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Well, going back a little bit, I did that whole
tailor thing, six shows. I did all of that funder
two grand, which I'm pretty impressed, with a lot of
nose bleed seats. Yeah, so you're still there, which didn't matter.
I feel like it didn't matter how far back you where.
It was still the same vibe. I didn't sit on
the floor all but I sat probably every angle of
stadiums and didn't matter I was you were in the room.
(37:42):
It really didn't matter.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
I love that for you so much. Is there any
other worse money habits to share? I feel like that's
probably sufficient.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
I think so.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
I feel like you're killing it though, Like you are
an EA in local government, which is really secure job
eighty eight grandy year plus super and it's good super.
You've been through a shitload and to only have eleven
grand of like credit card dead and also you're like
within the process of like upgrading your home at some point,
I feel like you're fine. Yes, that would probably be
(38:13):
stressful when you look at it at three am, because
we've all got blinkers on and that gives us anxiety. Right,
But I feel like in the big picture, like sometimes
when you have kids, we do financially have to take
a step back because it is hard, Like it is
not easy to go through that process and go you've
done it twice in the last few years, like two babies,
(38:33):
two periods of time where you've had time off, two
periods of time out of the workforce, Like that's stressful
and expensive. Then you said, look, I'm a SEA. But
then you're like, also, I'm a points queen, Like, girl,
get it together. Are you a points queen or are
you a C?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Maybe we'll bump up to a B.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
I feel like a B is far more reasonable. Like, also,
it sounds like you and your husband are really savvy
when it comes to finances, Like you planned a wedding
in eight weeks with deer. Do you remember what you
spent on your wedding? Because I have a sneaky suspicion
it wasn't one hundred grand I.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Think we spent eight c She's sadly my dress cost
My husband's outfit costs more than me because he needed
new boots, new jeans, new shirt, new hat. I wore
the same boots I always have, and my dress was
I want to say, one hundred and sixty.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Dollars on my what that is money?
Speaker 2 (39:23):
We and I'd bought it for my pregnant body because
I still and I still had a bump on my
wedding day because I hadn't gone. I think the most
of that eight grand was probably the celebrant and the alcohol,
and even that we had so much leftover.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
And so did you guys cater I'm just so pervy.
Did you guys cater that like yourselves? Because you said
that it was at a friend's farm, right.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, so my father in law, Owen's a butcher shop.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Okay, nice.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
So we had literally the ovens, did all the meat everything.
So one of our friends did all the catering. We
just ran it on generators.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
I'm a cea, but you're a genius. I love it.
I love it. I hope that in the future, when
you're back down for a future Taylor's with concept, we
get to run into each other in person, because I
just feel like you and I are going to get along,
Like I think that you are a queen, and I'm
just so excited to share your story at the same
time as just feeling like we need to be talking
about these topics so much more, like we shouldn't just
(40:16):
be sweeping them under the rug. Like I want to
know about your daughters, I want to know about what's
going on, but I also want to know how hard
it is financially when you go through those things, Like
I hate the idea that you had to go back
to work when you weren't ready, and I feel like
that's not like, oh, I had to go back to
work too, because my daughter had to go into day care,
Like it's a completely different story. Like mentally, physically, all
(40:39):
of those things, you were just not ready, And I
think that financially there should be so much more support
in that area.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Yeah, completely agree.
Speaker 4 (40:46):
Thank you for sharing your story.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Thank you for being an avenue to be able to
share my story. I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Of course, of course, you guys are always safety at
Money Darst. It has been a pleasure. Thank you so much.
I know that the community is going to love hearing
from you as much as I've loved hanging out with
you today.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
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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
(41:28):
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(00:24):
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Speaker 2 (00:44):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
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 one
of our money Darius, where I get the absolute pleasure
of sitting down and talking to one of our beautiful
She's on the Money community members, all about their journey.
Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got
(01:28):
a message and it sounded exactly like this dear, she's
on the money after going through one of the hardest
things you can go through. I wanted to share my
story in the hope it helps other mums navigating similar challenges.
I always thought I was doing okay with money. My
husband and I saved forty grand in six months and
moved five hours out of the city to buy our
(01:48):
first home. I thought we were on track, but after
the still birth of our daughter, everything changed. The banks
want to help, and my workplace didn't know how to
support me. I had no idea how many financial hurdles
I'd face while also grieving. Now, I want to raise
awareness of what financial systems look like in moments like this.
(02:10):
Money Diarist, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Oh my god, I feel so privileged that you want
to share your child's story with us and you want
to talk to me. Oh, I just I know that
that's probably not how but like, thank you for wanting
to chat to us.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
No, that's okay. I'm very happy to share my story
and my journey now that I've been through what I've
been through and hopefully educate a bit more to everybody.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Well, before I jump into the deeper questions, what great
would you give you? Money? Habits from A three to F.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
If I asked right now, I'm a C.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
You're a C. All right, let's see what that's about.
I need to be canceled, honestly. But money diarist, can
you tell me a little bit more about your journey?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So I grew up feeling, you know, not ever worried
about money. Both parents. It's worked in local government, so
it was always a safe money environment. There was never
any issues. I grew up always watching my mom do
a budget on a spreadsheet, and to this day she
still does it. She still calls me once a month
says I'm doing my budget today. So I grew up,
(03:16):
you know, watching mom did that, and I have a
memory of we won five thousand dollars once in the
early two thousands, and that was a huge deal.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Well in the early twent thousands, that's like twenty grand oh.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
So my parents like paid a heap off the mortgage,
but we got one hundred dollars each meet my brother
and I.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
That would have felt like a thousand at that point, I.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Went and bought a Pokemon Gold Gain for my game
Boy Color and I thought it was the best thing ever.
So yeah, good journey of money growing up, always felt safe.
Left school, took a little while to get to my
career and finally settled in that in about twenty seventeen,
and slowly worked my way up and just kept working,
(03:53):
taking a few holidays here and there, and then when
the pandemic kit, I was very lucky kept my job,
worked from home, actually got promoted during that time. In
between some lockdowns is when I met my now husband.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
For you'd how did you guys meet?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
We met in real life?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Oh? What the hell? Yeah, so through a lockdown you
met in real life. That just feels like almost fake,
my love.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It was in between some lockdowns, but it was still
in the rules where you couldn't stand. You had to
be sitting at bars and clubs and all that kind
of stuff. So we met like we weren't both planning
to go to that establishment that night, but things went
that way, and he came and sat at my table
because I looked bored.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
So whoever you were with wasn't entertainment as much as good.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So we got chatting, swapped Instagrams, and then had our
first date a week later.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Kids, these days, you don't swap numbers.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
No, we swapped Instagram so he felt a number was
too forward and the snapchat was too seedy. So Instagram
is where we went.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I like that there's a middle ground for us now.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
We very quickly met and spoke about how we didn't
really want to live in the big city anymore. And
after knowing each other for six months, my lease was
running up where I was living in a sharehouse, and
he said, well, let's do this. So I moved in
with his parents and we knuckled down and saved forty grand.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
That's how you saved the forty grand. That's a lot
of money to save in a short period of time. Like, yeah, okay,
moving in with the brand new in laws. Was that
challenging because I feel like I would have been so anxious,
like girl, I don't know. I feel like it took
literal years for me to go, Oh, I don't have
to be so highly strung around my husband's sperience.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It was definitely experience. It's also like moving from a
sharehouse to like a bedroom and all that kind of stuff.
So putting stuff in storage and downsizing a little bit,
but we knew it was going to be worth it
to get out and move. So in early twenty twenty two,
we bought our house remotely. We didn't actually see it
in person. We had to just do a FaceTime because
(05:59):
things were moving so quickly that when we saw it
pop up online, we called them that afternoon. They said,
come look at it tomorrow, and we said we live
five hours away, so we got a FaceTime the next day.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Oh my goodness. Property can be so hard, and that
just puts even more pressure on you, Like you just go,
oh goodness, Like we're gonna have to do this FaceTime,
make a decision really quickly. And I'm sure that they
were like there are lots of interested parties, weren't they.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, there was someone else at the house when they
were walking us through virtually. Oh so we very quickly
put in an offer twenty grand over asking, but we
still bought our first house for four hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Hey that's good.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah. So it was a four bedroom, reasonably like rashly painted,
had a pool, had a little shed, had a big yard.
So we were like, yeah, compared to you know Sydney
to out here. We were like dawn, you.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Like six seven months from a sharehouse to buying a
house with a pool. I love this for you.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
We were pretty proud of ourselves. A lot of people
were still like, what are you doing? But that's what
we wanted to do. We didn't want to be in
the big city anymore. We want a different lifestyle, and
we up and moved up here.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
So early twenty twenty two, you bought how long was
your settlement was at like normal standard three months?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
It was standard, but we had early access so we
could every weekend we literally on the Friday night, we'd
pack up cars. We'd leave at like four am Saturday mornings,
come up, do stuff in the house, see our friends,
and then drive back to Sydney on the Sunday.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Hey, not bad, but also you do what you've got
to do right or you don't miss those days though.
Exciting but also a long slog.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah. So well, I moved up in July twenty twenty two,
but my partner was a truck driver at the time,
so he kept working in Sydney, so I was by
myself at home in a new job too. I got
a new job at that time, and I lived up
here by myself during the week for the first six
months of us moved up here.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
So you've been together six months, you buy a house,
you live together for another six months. At what point
does this man that asked for your Instagram come your husband?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So he then proposed in September of twenty twenty three,
and at this point we were pregnant with our first child.
So we fell pregnant in the May of twenty twenty three,
and he proposed over breakfast, and he organized the whole
thing from his truck while he was driving. He got
his mum to go by get the ring. He asked
(08:23):
for permission with a ten pack of Jack Daniels to
my dad's place, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
That's so sweet.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Organized it all remotely, and.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Is that like a proposal that you were like, this
is so me Yes, oh I love that.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And it was such a random restaurant. He's like, where
do you want to go for breakfast? And I chose
when he went are you sure? And I was like, yeah, it's.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Just breakfast to do. It's not like we're getting engaged.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But it actually ended up being nice because I was
like overlooking a park and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
So it's so cute.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So yeah, so that's September of twenty twenty three, and
he said, let's get married quickly. I want us to
have the same last name, all that stuff before the
baby come. So the baby was due.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Because you got you were pregnant in May, right, and
then you go.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, so the baby was due on Valentine's Day of
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
How was your pregnancy because I feel like sometimes.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I was really crook, so and then you know, when
you look back and find out why I was really crook.
And we got to mid November, so we were getting
married mid November, organized it all. We did full DIY
on a friend's farm.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Oh my god, girl, you were pregnant and planning a wedding,
and you would have been like heavily pregnant.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I was. We got married, I was twenty seven weeks.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
That's a lot of weeks, especially if you're feeling a
bit trashy.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Like, yeah, so we're in November, I'm feeling a bit crook.
Getting follow ups and all that kind of stuff. Went
to have a scan on a different part of my stomach,
and that part was near where the baby lives, and unfortunately,
that's when we found out the baby had passed away. No,
I was twenty six weeks.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Twenty six No, Oh my goodness, Like, I don't know
how that feels. And you know what, I'm not even
going to try and say that I do, because it
is so different to anything I've ever been through. But
just the idea that you weren't prepared for that like,
it's not as though I can't explain it. But having
been through unfortunately now me four miscarriages that were quite
(10:18):
late term for two of them, there were things that
I was like, oh, I'm just feeling as though this
maybe isn't right, but you were there for something else.
And then they were like, by the way, oh the
fact that you didn't even go there is reduced movements
or I just I really feel like something's up. You
just got completely blindsided a girl. That is not fair.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I was told I had an interior placenter, so I
was told you won't feel much, So me not feeling
much was normal. So on the Saturday afternoon, I went, oh,
I felt a kick, And then the Sunday I went,
I haven't felt much. And you know, if you were
told not to don't worry, go in Monday afternoon for
a scan on my kidneys and my bladder because I
was crooked and that's when they found out. So this
(10:57):
is Monday afternoon.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Oh far, I'm so.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
So we get up to the hospital this Monday afternoon.
My husband's just gotten back from thankfully driving back home
not to Sydney. Tell him, jump in the car up
to the hospital, get up to the hospital, and they
say you have to give birth. No, and I just
went okay. That's because I was not educated at all
about what happens when this happens.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
But you don't know what you don't know, and in
the nice way, ever, it's kind of nice that you've
not had any experience of this.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Before, reflecting. All I got was a pamphlet sometime in
my pregnancy saying still birth might happen to you, and
that was it. So I get up to the hospital
and we're chatting through when I'm going to give birth,
and that's when I dropped that we get married that Saturday, yeap,
So we very quickly had to put a plan into place.
(11:50):
So that was the Monday night. I went back to
hospital the Wednesday and I gave birth to my beautiful
little girl.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Did you get to spend much time with her?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yes? Yeah, and she was the most beautiful little thing.
She's got a cutes little nose. So I spent some
time with her, and then I had to stay in
hospital until Friday. Of course, so my husband went, I
need to be busy, so he left and did all
the wedding stuff, so the marquee, portoloo, the food, the alcohol,
all that kind of stuff. So he went kept himself
(12:20):
busy with.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
That, honestly, fair Like, I get wanting to be busy,
but at the same time, I'm assuming every single person
going to your wedding knew that you were having a baby.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yes, we had kept the pregnancy quiet until twenty weeks. Yeah,
and then but everyone so that that's when all our
family on what the Tuesday, said are we coming up now?
And we said, no, leave us. We'll do this by ourselves.
And so we did all the giving birth by ourselves.
But friends popped around to the house to check on
the dogs, for example, because you just we just dropped
(12:49):
everything and ran and I just was told to rock
up to the wedding really in my dress, which is
what I did.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Stop and what is that like? Because like, you're marrying
the love of your life, right, you are the man,
I'm assuming of your dreams and that was like something
that you look forward to and I'm sure since you
were little, you're like, one day, I'm gonna have the
big light dress. I'm gonna have a wedding, and like
you guys were so excited to get married. It was
like September to November.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
It was an eight weeks that I planned a wedding.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, hustling to get married, and like there was probably
I don't know, I feel like it's a little bit
romantic if you're pregnant and then getting married, because it's
just it's a love bubble. Like you're in this bubble
of like we're having a baby, we're getting married, We're
doing literally everything all at once. What's that like? Like
I'm going to cry like I did.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Oh, it was a rollercoaster. I think I had not
really been alone until I had an hour before I
had to get ready for the wedding, and I just
sat there and I just went what has happened over
the last week? And one of my cats had come
up to me and crawled up and noticed that the
like she used to crawl up on my tummy and
now she noticed there was nothing there, and that like
(13:58):
her look on her face and she's.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
A cat, it's creepy.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Hey. Yeah, So yeah, I just kind of I drove
myself to hair and makeup and drove myself up to
the wedding, got changed at a friend's house around the corner,
and then walked down the aisle and we spoke to
our celebrant the day I was giving birth and told
her what was going on, and she was amazing. She's like, Okay,
what are we doing here? What do you want mentioned?
(14:22):
What do you don't want mentioned? So we kind of
started the day like, you know, we reflect on what's happened,
and because of what's happened, it shows how strong these
two love each other. And we associate my daughter with butterflies,
so you know, we talked about the butterflies that were
circling all that day stop.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
And of course they were, and I bet they just
hung out the.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Whole day for no reall one hit me in the
face as I was getting photos done. Yeah. So then
we got married, and then then after that you then
sit down and go, Okay, what do you do. Now
we're married, and my husband had to go back into work.
You took a few more days off, it went straight
back into work. Was actually starting a new job as well,
which meant you would be home all the time, which
(15:03):
was great. But I remember also having to call my
work and explaining. I said, my daughter's been born sleeping
and my workplace said, what does that mean?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
How do you guys not know what that means?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
So that was really that was something to navigate, and
they didn't know what the options were. So thankfully now
we've been through all the options, they have all the
detail because I'm very strong about educating that this is
going to happen and for people to be prepared in
all shapes of life.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
One hundred percent. So that happens, you obviously take some
time off work. Then what does life look like after that?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So in Australia, after twenty weeks or if a baby
is born over four hundred grands, it's classified as is
stillborn and therefore they get a birth certificate and you're
entitled to the government benefits. So I had two options,
which was the normal paid print or leave that every
parent can take, or a still born payout, which is
around four thousand dollars last time I checked, which is recently,
(16:09):
which for me was about a month's salary. And I
looked at it and I went, I don't think I
can just go back to work after Christmas. So I
decided to do the paid print or leave option, but
that just wasn't enough, So I ended up going back
to work two months earlier then I had hoped.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
But you also probably had a bit more freedom and
flexibility than the fore grand payout. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, I had the option. Like, my husband has made
me a very strong person, and he said, if you're
going to take time off, what are you going to do?
So I did put in effort to like going to
the gym and doing little bit for me, made sure
I did everything every day. I'm a very big tailor
Swift fan, so I spent a lot of time making
friendship bracelets because I wasn't going to get to go
(16:52):
to the ears too, because I was due exactly when
she was here. So when everything happened, my friends all
came to and I got to go thankfully six times.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Actually yes, oh my goodness, your friend came in clutch.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So I got to come down to Melbourne for three
shows and I went to Sydney for three shows, and
it's just the most it was the most healing thing
because I'm very big, swifty, seen her multiple times and
all my friends made me a bracelet with my daughter's name,
you stop. So this arm was full of bracelets with
her name, which was beautiful. So just it was a
(17:32):
very healing time. And then yeah, I actually fell pregnant
again just before I left for the ears to us stop, that's.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
So special as well? What's that like? Like, what is
it like having gone through that and then finding out
you're pregnant again because you know again And I'm not
trying to make this about me. I think this is
definitely a completely different story. But like I am the
most anxious pregnant person ever because I I'm just not
(18:00):
good at staying pregnant, Like I've now lost four pregnancies,
and so being pregnant means that I'm quite anxious the
whole time. I'm like, this isn't going to work out,
This isn't going to work. But your situation mine mine
is nothing in comparison to yours, So like, how's that feel?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
With my first daughter's pregnancy, I was very much like
testing every single day and had to see the line
get darker, and it got darker and I got darker,
and I paid for extra blood tests to make sure
the numbers were rising. But with my second daughter's pregnancy,
I don't know why, but I didn't. I kind of
got the positive blood test, I went, Okay, we're just
gonna sit. Obviously my experience is going to be different.
(18:41):
I had to start blood thinners immediately. I also was
up at the hospital at ten weeks, and where I
am usually don't go till twelve and then twenty weeks,
so I had continuity of care this pregnancy, which I
didn't have last pregnancy.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
You're like, you just need that extra hand holding process.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I literally saw my and I'm in the public system.
We don't have a private option really where I live.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
But the public system when you're a high risk pregnancy
is honestly like, I won't say flawless, but pretty flipping good.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Well. I was high risked with my first pregnancy too,
so it was just very different experiences. So when I
got to sixteen weeks and we did another skin they said,
it's now your choice. What do you want to do?
I decided to come fortnightly. Yeah. So because my first
daughters was growth restricted pretty much. Is what she's passed
away from is mount nourishment. Well, she was too small. Yeah,
(19:35):
my placenta was the issue. It was full of blood
clots and therefore stopped.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
So you would have had to start aspirin really early off.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yes, that too. So my biggest thing was seeing her grow.
So every two weeks I wanted to see.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
I want to see gain. I want to see her longer. Yeah,
I see her tracking on the graph.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
And the irony is that she was a weak ahead.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Every single mum, mom stops stressing.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I got this. I had kicks all the time, but
it was still it was a very anxious time and
therefore we didn't announce my pregnancy at all. We kept
it to ourselves and close family and friends only. We
just dropped on Facebook after she was born an surprised guys, Hey,
we've had a child. So yeah, So I got induced
(20:21):
it thirty eight weeks, which is I really pushed for
because I just had physically had enough.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Honestly, fair like, I'm not gonna lie. I envy those
women who were like, pregnancy is so magical, it's the
best time, I really worshiped my body. Girl, I've never
felt worse in my life, like I trying to roll
over in bed, like I did not enjoy it. I
couldn't breathe, like I just felt like trash all the time.
I vomited on literally everything, like one out of ten
(20:47):
ye experience. I envy people, you know what. I say
this all the time to my girlfriends. I'm like, parenthood
absolutely for me, like I was born to be a mum.
Pregnancy though, that's not my journey.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I enjoyed it, but I was just as last ten weeks,
especially once I got past twenty seven weeks, it was
still just every week was like, is everything okay?
Speaker 4 (21:09):
And even after that point, was her weight tracking well?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yes, she came out at four point two kilos at
thirty eight weeks. She was well and truly.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Did not need those extra a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Nope, No, So.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
I love that. I love that so much. So tell
me a little bit more. I guess you said you
didn't go back to work. What do you do for
work and how much money do you earn?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
So I'm now back in my job, which is an
executive assistant in local government. Oh, very cool and I'm
on eighty eight thousand plus Sooper.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Oh, hey, that's good. And does that like because it's
local government, does it increase every year? Is there like
a plan?
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, you have like steps, so I'm I think I'm
at that last step now in my grade and we
get the like the CPI increase and stuff as well.
But at the moment, I'm just doing three days a
week with a transition to be back full time in
a few months. So tell me about your second daughter.
When was she born? How old is she now? So
she's seven months old.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
It's not fit delicious, she is delicious.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
She's got arms like a croissant.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I love that, my baby. So when Harvey was born,
he was like three and a half killers, which is
like bang on, like standard baby size. And then I
swear he ate a different baby and left the hospital
and he has been the chunkiest boy ever since. And
it is my favorite thing ever, the little chubby wrists.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Oh yeah, she's got those.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
She's so cute. I love this. So talk to me
about money goals, Like you've bought the house, you've got
the pool, You've moved like I guess into state. What
is your big money goal? What are you guys working towards.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
So in the midst of everything that happened, we also
sold our house. We went on this everyone, you guys okay,
because we sold a lot of stuff. We sold our
house and we moved another thirty minutes north and so
now we're on a property that's like half an acre
a lot quite at town. But this still isn't the forever.
So we're definitely starting to work towards getting some acreage
(23:04):
something like five to ten just to have some cows.
And my husband communities right on moer.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Oh my god, So tell me about that, because if
you're you've sold your house, you moved into this one,
and you're like on a little bit of land, are
you expecting that to increase in value and then move
or like, have you got like little plan?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
We spoke at the beginning of the year and like,
do you want to do anything in twenty twenty five?
We said, no, let's just kind of settle into being
parents and all that kind of stuff, and let's just
keep smashing out our mortgage, which we are. So we've
paid nineteen thousand off the principal already in fourteen months.
The way we do it as well, is I've switched
(23:43):
to weekly repayments, but we also do forty dollars a
day we send over to our mortgage. Great, so that
we're doing something every single day because of the daily
interest rushing.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Downe that interest And for those of you who maybe
haven't deep dove into like what that actually means interest
calculated daily on your mortgage. So the end of the month,
they kind of go, oh, you have a thousand dollars
interest due. But if every single day you are cutting
that down, that at the end of the day means
at the end of the month, less interest is owed
(24:13):
and therefore more of the money that you've paid off
over that period of time actually goes to the real
loan instead of the interest that is payable. So that's
a really smart idea. Some of them do it that way,
some of them don't. So if someone's listening and they're like, oh,
I'm a good nurse, like money dires a genius, I'm
going to do it, don't just implement it, like have
a chat to your bank about what that actually means.
All you're broker about how to implement that. But money
(24:36):
dires that's quite smart.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
We looked at it actually last night and we were
doing the math, and if we didn't put anything extra,
we'd only pay five hundred off the principle a month,
and that feels like nothing, but us doing it this
way is paying an extra fifteen hundred.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Dollars off stop. That's so significant. Have you calculated how
much time that will save you?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I think so far, we've already cut three years off
the loan.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Stop it, and you haven't even lived there that long.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
We've only been here fourteen months in this house.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Yeah, and you've cut three years off. So by the
time you guys move again, you'll probably be like twenty
year mortgage or something.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Hopefully.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Yeah, Oh my goodness. I love this for you. Do
you have any other big money goals that you're currently
working towards.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
That's the main one, is really just finding the forever
home as nice and as quiet as it is here.
It's a I don't like the layout very much, and
it's obviously very cold, and we've got just fireplaces and
gas heating, and I'm like, I just want some doctor
their con and I'd love to go on a proper holiday.
We went on a honeymoon when I was eight weeks pregnant,
with my second daughter, and that was not a vibe.
(25:39):
And we're on a cruise, which was probably not the best.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
To you, like, how can I make this pregnancy worse exactly?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
And it was one day I went, am I sea
sick and my morning sick. I don't know, I'm just sick.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Oh No, Like, I'm not gonna lie the idea of
being pregnant on a cruise. Girl, you just really wanted
to watch it well burned.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I really I don't know what I was thinking. But anyway,
because we booked it before we felt pregnant, like I
think it was like in December, after everything happened. Really,
let's book our honeymoon.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
What a great trip. And then you get pregnant. You're like,
I'm actually perpetually seasick, and now I'm going to get seasick.
This is perfect?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Is great?
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Oh I love that pet, Money, Doris, So let's go
to a really quick break because I have a lot
more questions and we'll get to them in a hot minute.
All right, money Dorist, we are back, and I feel
like your priority is clearly smashing down your mortgage and
you are really good at it. But do you have
any investments? If so what are they? What do you
think about investing?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I am in the middle of a bulk listen of
the backlog of shares on the money, so I feel
like investing is definitely front of mine at the moment.
I have just started a SHARE's ease yeah great in
the last week. But outside of that, I have just
my SUPER at the moment and.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Working in local government, do you get more super than
the average, Beth?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I think it's twelve percent.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Yeah. And how's your super tracking? Are you happy with it?
Have you been looking at it?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, I've been checking it and I did notice a
little dip. Obviously, I haven't had super paid pretty much
all of this year yet because I've been on Central
Link since the beginning of the year.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
How annoying because Sendlink has just updated to paying it
super as off July, so you just missed out on that.
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
And I'm not planning on any more babies, so it
won't be any pregnancy is not for me anymore.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
We are done.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I'm too and done. So I'm at sixty five thousand.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Oh my god. Okay, you're doing really well for your age.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
When I looked back, is I've only been doing Super
for ten years, just because when I started, I was
late to the game. I didn't start working till I
was about eighteen because I had some big surgeries when
I was younger and I couldn't do much, So I
didn't start working until I was eighteen, and it really
with all the fees and stuff, I didn't really start
getting Super until twenty fifteen.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
So, hey, look.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Sixty five over ten years, I'm pretty.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Happy, pretty well, even though it's tiny, that additional percentage
that gets paid, like it does pay off over time,
like it doesn't like a lot. You're okay, I guess
it's better than a kick in the pants. But then
you look at it after ten years and you're like, oh,
actually that did significantly contribute to my returns, which is
very very nice. Now talk to me. I need to
know more. You bought another house, but we have no
information on the debt that you carry. How much did
(28:15):
the house cost, how much is your mortgage? What does
all of that look like?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
So the house we're in now we bought for five
hundred and sixty five thousand, and that's on half an acre,
four bedroom house. I'm so envs And we had a
ninety k deposit from the sale of our first house.
So we bought the house for four hundred thousand dollars
and eighteen months later we sold it for four hundred
and eighty two thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Very nice. And you guys had that forty thousand deposits,
so you basically flipped that in eighteen months to be
from forty to ninety.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
And we added like an air con to it and
all that kind of stuff. And then we now owe
four hundred and seventy five thousand on this house.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
And how does that make you feel?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
I think we're doing really well.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
I think you're doing really well as well.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I'm pretty happy with it.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
I'd prefer not though.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
No, I'm still waiting for the day we win the
lotto because my husband wrote in his wedding vows that
we would.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Well call me when that happens, because I have a
few good financial advisors that are literally with stuff like that.
It's coming, so you'll need their details.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Right exactly exactly it's next week.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
Do you have any other debts?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
So at the moment, I have a credit card debt
of about eleven thousand dollars and it's not pretty, but
it just shows that you kind of need that little
bit of support, especially when on paid Printally, I was.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Going to ask, like, what's that made up of? Is
that going on paid parental leave? In your diary that
you wrote in you were like, I really want to
talk about, you know, the awareness of financial systems. Did
you win to debt after having your first daughter?
Speaker 2 (29:46):
I think so. I think we did. I had to
cut back on a lot of things. I kind of
went I had about one thousand dollars a fortnight drop
going on to Centerlink. I got a couple of leave
options from work and I used those around orygment even
things like that, and then I went into Centerlink. So
we're at the point that we were selling our house
(30:06):
and the broker said, we're really sorry, we understand what
you've been through, but the banks don't count center Link
as an income, so right now you don't have an income,
so therefore we wouldn't have been allowed to borrow for
the house.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
For in now, which actually makes me. I own a
mortgage broken company. So I see that stuff all the time,
and it makes me so angry because you could have
worked with the same company for ten years and then
taken parental leave and had a legit central ink income.
You could have been the most financially savvy person. You
could have saved for the last ten years to take
this period of time, so financially you're not behind, but
the banks like you have no money by It's not true,
(30:41):
but it's so frustrating. So what did you do to
get around that?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I went back to work early.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Oh, that's the last thing you needed. Was that really
painful to go back to work.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
I wasn't ready to go back to work. I was
due to go back after six months, and I went
back after four and I feel like I probably needed
a little bit more time. But it's just the way
everything fell. And I believe everything happens for a reason.
So it's okay, but it was really disappointing that the
banks were just like, sorry that you've had a loss
(31:11):
and sorry that you're on Centerlink. They wanted proof of
savings that we couldn't. You know, it was tens of
thousands of dollars. It's just not there.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
I'm so sorry. That part of it makes me so
angry because it's like, where's the leniency? Like anyway, I
won't go on and on about that, because I absolutely
could so I want to dive a little bit further
into this eleven thousand dollar credit card debt. Talk to
me about that. Is that something that gives you the eck?
Is that something that you're like, Nope, we did it
on purpose because you know, I have a seven month
old and we knew that we're going to be behind,
(31:41):
and this is a tool and we're just going to
smash it out later. Like what's the plan.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
That's the plan is to start smashing it out as
my income increases going back to work. I've redone my
budget that I've been doing for years that haven't really followed.
It's been there on and off, but I've pulled it
back up and gone, no, no, I need to help
smash this out as well. So I'm changing. Like, it's
not really a percentage, it's just kind of working out. Okay,
(32:06):
there's going to be left over here that goes straight
onto the credit card. But it does kind of show
you that at the moment, sixteen hundred dollars a fortnight,
it is really hard to live on when you are
trying to do a mortgage.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Food.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I mean, thankfully she wasn't eating for a while, but
she's just started eating so adding in food, fuel, all
that kind of stuff, plus just enjoying your life.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
So babies are just expensive, like nappy is expensive, and
they add up wipes and like, who knows you might
be using formula. I couldn't believe how expensive formula.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
He's forty dollars a ten at the moment a week
for her.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
That's the same as what Harvey was on. And it's
kind of like even if you look at the cheaper ones,
Harvey refused them. I tried to be like, oh, I
did all my research. I was literally on chat GPT
being like the national value of this versus this, because like,
you know, you don't want to do wrong by your kid.
I get that deeper one and he's like, what is this?
Absolutely not? And he also would not take anything less
(33:02):
than the bloody thirty dollars bottles, Like he refused.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Oh yeah, I had to switch bottles. She didn't like
the bottles bottle.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
He wasn't drinking out of it.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
There was just ruda. I bought you this beautiful new bottle.
Not interested.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
I tried to buy the Audi nappies because all of
the mum's on my Facebook group were like, oh the
Audi nappies are great, go and buy them, and I'm like, slay,
like ten out of ten for us. They leaked everywhere.
I was like, what is this? Why do I keep
trying my hardest and being picked?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
It was just building up slowly. But it's just things
like you know, she grows so quickly, and next to it,
you're having to go buy the next size up and.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
You want him to look through as well.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Like yeah, well, yes, she's a bow girl.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Yes. Honestly, it was a money win for me when
I gave birth to my son and they said it's
a boy. I remember on the first day, I thought
this is going to be great for our bank account
as opposed to me them like is that a dress?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Can I I'm just gonna go. Let me just have
a look at that.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
I'm a boy mum. And still if I wire past
country Road and see the little girl outfits, I'm like.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Oh what is that?
Speaker 4 (34:04):
That is the cutest thing ever. I can't look away.
If I had a little girl, I'd be done for.
I'd be canceled.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm starting to find a dress for a wedding we've
got to go to in a couple of months, and
it's just like, oh my gosh, she's only ever going
to wear it once. Oh, but it's so cute.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
I'm on your team. Please any pictures because I live
vicariously through girl Mums money direst Talk to me. I
feel like, yes, you're in credit card debt, but I
feel like it was inevitable given the situation. Talk to me, though,
what do you think your best money habit.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Is definitely become a points queen.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Oh okay, I love your skip.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So that was the reason to get the credit card
in the first place. For things like I've switched to
shopping at Wally's to get the everyday rewards. We're flying
for this wedding interstate, so we've been like saving up
the points for that kind of stuff. But everything we
go to buy, we go can we get points somewhere
from this one year for flight? We just did all
(34:58):
fly bys one year and then that at Christmas with
eight hundred dollars in flybys points. So that was how
we went Christmas shopping.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Oh, your genius.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
So we're very much into points.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
People like, it's a dollar here, a dollar there. Yeah,
and over a year it becomes eight hundred bucks. It's
eight hundred dollars you didn't have before, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
So very much into points and just any way that
we can get some more points.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
My team and I really like doing the like double stack.
We're doing the points, but then we're also making sure
that when we accumulating points, we're also using cash back,
so we're like shot back, cash rewards, literally any of it.
Who's giving the best discount or the best cash back,
we'll use that. And I would like some Flybys points
to boot thank you. I think I've been on shop
back for I want to say three or four years
(35:41):
now smart and it's sitting at four hundred and seventy dollars.
That's Christmas.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
But like even I did a shop the other day
and I got twenty dollars back and it was like
a Bond's order or something for one hundred bucks. And
with I think it was only a few days ago,
so with their sales and everything and end of financial year,
I got twenty dollars cash.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Backe and that money just like stockpiles over in the side.
Then you'll have a couple of hundred bucks to make
a decision with money wien. That is a good deal
on the flip side though, tell me what do you
think your worst money? Howit is?
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Food?
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Yeah? Same girl? Are we eating out? Are we cooking
expensively at home? What does that look like?
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Now? We're going through a drive through?
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Because do you follow me on Instagram? By chance?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Have you seen how many times I go through the
McDonald's drive through? You can't stop, won't stop.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I think as soon as I also was not pregnant,
it was like, give me the soft serves and the milkshakes.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
That's fair.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
And also, I mean you'd think living thirty minutes out
of town means that you don't have the temptation of
the drive through. Now every time I go to town, it's
on the way out of town.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
So how do you say, notice some GPAs For.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Me, it's like a vanilla milkshakeh.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
A vanilla milkshake?
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Do you know what?
Speaker 4 (36:50):
I don't think I've ever had a vanilla milkshake? Does
it just taste like soft serve?
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Pretty much?
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Okay, maybe I need one of those on the way home.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Just we're going to see that on the store tonight,
you will.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
I'll be like the money dist today, not naming names.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
So definitely, yeah, food and sometimes with concerts and stuff.
It's like I've got to be there. Not that I
go to many, especially even regionally. It's a whole thing
to go to a concert and.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
Then back to Australia. I just know that credit card
would absolutely be slammed. I'm onto you.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Well, going back a little bit, I did that whole
tailor thing, six shows. I did all of that funder
two grand, which I'm pretty impressed, with a lot of
nose bleed seats. Yeah, so you're still there, which didn't matter.
I feel like it didn't matter how far back you where.
It was still the same vibe. I didn't sit on
the floor all but I sat probably every angle of
stadiums and didn't matter I was you were in the room.
(37:42):
It really didn't matter.
Speaker 4 (37:44):
I love that for you so much. Is there any
other worse money habits to share? I feel like that's
probably sufficient.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
I think so.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
I feel like you're killing it though, Like you are
an EA in local government, which is really secure job
eighty eight grandy year plus super and it's good super.
You've been through a shitload and to only have eleven
grand of like credit card dead and also you're like
within the process of like upgrading your home at some point,
I feel like you're fine. Yes, that would probably be
(38:13):
stressful when you look at it at three am, because
we've all got blinkers on and that gives us anxiety. Right,
But I feel like in the big picture, like sometimes
when you have kids, we do financially have to take
a step back because it is hard, Like it is
not easy to go through that process and go you've
done it twice in the last few years, like two babies,
(38:33):
two periods of time where you've had time off, two
periods of time out of the workforce, Like that's stressful
and expensive. Then you said, look, I'm a SEA. But
then you're like, also, I'm a points queen, Like, girl,
get it together. Are you a points queen or are
you a C?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Maybe we'll bump up to a B.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
I feel like a B is far more reasonable. Like, also,
it sounds like you and your husband are really savvy
when it comes to finances, Like you planned a wedding
in eight weeks with deer. Do you remember what you
spent on your wedding? Because I have a sneaky suspicion
it wasn't one hundred grand I.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Think we spent eight c She's sadly my dress cost
My husband's outfit costs more than me because he needed
new boots, new jeans, new shirt, new hat. I wore
the same boots I always have, and my dress was
I want to say, one hundred and sixty.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Dollars on my what that is money?
Speaker 2 (39:23):
We and I'd bought it for my pregnant body because
I still and I still had a bump on my
wedding day because I hadn't gone. I think the most
of that eight grand was probably the celebrant and the alcohol,
and even that we had so much leftover.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
And so did you guys cater I'm just so pervy.
Did you guys cater that like yourselves? Because you said
that it was at a friend's farm, right.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, so my father in law, Owen's a butcher shop.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Okay, nice.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
So we had literally the ovens, did all the meat everything.
So one of our friends did all the catering. We
just ran it on generators.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
I'm a cea, but you're a genius. I love it.
I love it. I hope that in the future, when
you're back down for a future Taylor's with concept, we
get to run into each other in person, because I
just feel like you and I are going to get along,
Like I think that you are a queen, and I'm
just so excited to share your story at the same
time as just feeling like we need to be talking
about these topics so much more, like we shouldn't just
(40:16):
be sweeping them under the rug. Like I want to
know about your daughters, I want to know about what's
going on, but I also want to know how hard
it is financially when you go through those things, Like
I hate the idea that you had to go back
to work when you weren't ready, and I feel like
that's not like, oh, I had to go back to
work too, because my daughter had to go into day care,
Like it's a completely different story. Like mentally, physically, all
(40:39):
of those things, you were just not ready, And I
think that financially there should be so much more support
in that area.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Yeah, completely agree.
Speaker 4 (40:46):
Thank you for sharing your story.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Thank you for being an avenue to be able to
share my story. I appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Of course, of course, you guys are always safety at
Money Darst. It has been a pleasure. Thank you so much.
I know that the community is going to love hearing
from you as much as I've loved hanging out with
you today.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
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
(41:28):
your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are
authorized representatives of money sirper Pty Ltd A b N
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