May 18, 2025 • 58 mins
Aussie paramedic-turned-life-coach Tasch Rogers joins us to unpack the head-on crash that shattered her body, her finances—and ultimately her limiting beliefs. After a 30-year career as a first responder, she had to leave it all behind and start over. She became intimately familiar with the effects of trauma and PTSD, having personally navigated through her own healing journey. Now as a life coach with expertise in holistic modalities and various other disciplines, she helps others using a warm, compassionate, and non-judgmental approach.
***Trigger Warning: This episode includes discussions of mental health issues such as PTSD and suicide. These topics may be difficult for some listeners. If you need support, please consider reaching out to a trusted friend, professional, or crisis resource. Take care of yourself and listen at your own pace.
🌐 Visit Catching Up to FI website
☕ Like what you hear on Catching Up to FI? Support the show at "Buy Me a Coffee"
🎙️We love hearing from you! Record a Voice Message with your feedback or question Record a Voice Message with your feedback or question
===DEALS & DISCOUNTS FROM OUR TRUSTED PARTNERS===
🎓 Student Loan Planner: Get a custom student loan plan from our CFP®, CFA and CSLP® professionals. They charge a one-time fee for their thorough review. Our listeners receive $100 off a 1:1 consult using the link below. Flat fee is normally $595, but after your $100 off ‘Catching Up to FI’ discount, it's $495. 👉🏼 Be sure to use this link: studentloanplanner.com/catchingup
📈 Boldin (formerly NewRetirement): Retirement planning software that's like having a financial advisor at your fingertips. You can get started with the free version or choose the premium option (PlannerPlus) and get a 14-day free trial. 👉🏼 Be sure to use this link to get started: Go.boldin.com/catchingup
Personal Finance Club: Use code CUTOFI to get $30 OFF any course or PFC investing course only
Nectarine: Advice-Only and Flat-Fee Hourly Fiduciary Financial Advisors (Catching Up to FI will be compensated by Nectarine if you use our affiliate link, which creates an incentive and conflict of interest. We are not current clients or employees of Nectarine.)
For a full list of current deals and discounts from our partners, sponsors and affiliates, click here: catchinguptofi.com/our-part
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
what happened to me seven yearsago, I was involved in a very nasty.
Head on collision whilstdriving the ambulance.
And this wasn't just an accident, thiswas a deliberate attempt on my partner
in my workplace at the Times Lives.
This gentleman who was a mentalhealth patient hit us at 100
kilometers an hour, which I'mnot sure what that is in America.
(00:23):
It hit us with his lightsoff and hit his head on.
And from that day on,my entire life changed.
I was trapped.
I was busted up in so many areas.
What it actually did was it put me intoa state of severe PTSD and depression,
at the time I was, full of hatred.
(00:44):
I was full of revenge.
I was so angry.
But then as I healed, whatactually happened was.
I shed off all those masks, allthose layers, all that armor that
I've been carrying for 50 years,because that's what we do as humans.
We just keep putting on masks tokeep functioning in a world that
we're not really functioning in.
(01:04):
There's a thing called the core needs,and the top four core needs are certain
safety and comfort, variety and changesignificance and love and connection.
That job gave me all of those,and when I lost that job.
I lost my identity and I lost who I was.
(01:25):
Well, I wanna assureeverybody I'm 57 now and.
I actually am probably the best I've everbeen financially because I changed the
way I looked at money, budgets, finance,superannuation, and where I've prioritize.
And I still have fun and I still dothings for my children and myself.
(01:47):
But the one thing I don't do is I neverbudgeted before and Amy got me onto a
budget, God lover, and it's amazing.
It actually scares you how much.
Silly money you spend thatyou don't need to be spending.
But it's the mindset and it's thelack mentality that keep people stuck
in that I can't move forward mode.
(02:38):
Hello and welcome backto Catching Up to FI.
I am Bill Yount with my beautifuland intelligent and wonderful
co-host Jackie Cumminsky.
We just got back fromthe economy conference.
We had a blast.
I know this is coming out later, butJackie, what were your impressions?
Yeah.
Well, you know, I always love economy.
(03:00):
Part of it's that I'm so close.
I'm only about 45 minutesnorth so I don't have to get a
flight or anything like that.
But it is exactly whatthey say on the website.
It is a party about money and we getto see so many of our friends that
we've gotten to know over the years.
That's how we met.
Right, bill?
The first time we met.
Yeah, we met, five years ago at Economy.
(03:21):
You were one of the first speakers,and I've been going every year since.
It sells out every year now, andit's 500 of your best friends
partying about money and life.
Yeah, so we've talkedabout it often on the show.
So if you haven't gone yet last yearor 2025 sold out very, very quickly,
2026, it'll probably be the same thing.
So if you've thought about going and youwere on the fence make sure you get your
(03:44):
tickets very early, as early as possible.
Book your hotel as early as possible,and a lot of FI . I guess information and
there's breakouts, there's speakers, buthonestly I think you agree with this Bill.
It's a lot of it isabout the social stuff.
Social stuff that you can't get online.
Seeing people in person, hanging outwith them, having breakfast with them,
(04:08):
the social events, drinking a beer.
Those are things that you cannotget online, and I think that
is what's so unique about.
This event and, other PHI eventsthat are in person as well.
So we would love to see more people there.
Yeah, I mean, Diana Miriam putson the show she's done a great
production Every year you can findyour tickets at Econome Conference.
(04:29):
Dot com.
That's economy.
E-C-O-N-O-M-E conference.com.
we have a special surprise for you.
Today we are talking withTash Rogers in Australia.
She's on the Gold Coast, and before we getstarted with her introduction, I want to
highlight a charity that is near and dearto her hearts and she'll tell us about it.
(04:51):
It's called Kids with Cancer,but that's an Australia, so
it's kids with cancer.org.au.
Tash, welcome to the show,but tell us about this charity
and what it means to you.
Hi everyone.
Thank you for having me.
This Kids for Cancer, our Kids withCancer Foundation means a lot to me.
I've had several friendsand some family members.
Unfortunately, either lose theirchildren or have that battle
(05:13):
with cancer at such a young age.
But it has such an impact on notjust the child that's unwell, has
an impact on the entire family.
And this foundation supports RonaldMcDonald House and some other side
hustles, I guess, on the side forthem to be able to help the children,
help the families with financial.
Pressures, Clothing, food, peoplethat are coming from interstate in the
(05:38):
country, regions that have no family.
So these organizations help the wholefamily, not just the child that's unwell.
That's awesome.
We'd like to headlight a charityevery show, and we would encourage
you to donate internationally.
Your giving plan should includenot only United States, but other
folks that need our help as well.
Let me introduce Tash.
(05:59):
Tash Rogers comes to us today from theGold Coast down under in Australia.
I heard Tash speak to a groupof women in one of Amy Caro's
Real Talk Finance's meetups.
Amy is a past guest on the showin episode 18, avocado Toast
and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Tuned back in to that show, one ofthe originals back from two years ago,
she famously said, and I paraphrase.
(06:21):
The emphasis on late starting shouldnot be on late, but on starting.
the proud and only male memberof her women's only platform.
You can find her atwww.realtalkfinance.com.
So as a life coach with expertisein holistic modalities and various
other disciplines, Tash brings awealth of experience to our clients.
(06:42):
career spanning 30 years as a paramedic,she has witnessed firsthand the
challenges and complexities of life.
I can certainly relate to thisas an emergency physician.
She is also intimately familiarwith the effects of trauma.
I. PTSD, having personally navigatedthrough her own healing journey from
childhood trauma and work-related PTSD.
(07:03):
Through this process, she has developeda deep appreciation for the power of
self-discovery, self-compassion, andthe importance of holistic healing.
Drawing on her vast life experience, sheprovides personalized coaching now to help
individuals overcome obstacles, clarifytheir values and achieve their goals.
Whether it's improving relationships,managing stress and anxiety, or finding
(07:24):
greater purpose and fulfillment,she is committed to helping bring
her clients, transform their lives,and realize their full potential.
Her approach is warm,compassionate, and non-judgmental.
I think you'll see that today.
She believes that everyone has thecapacity for growth and positive change.
She is passionate about helping othersdiscover and unleash actually unshackle
(07:45):
their inner strength and resilience.
Tash, welcome to Catch the Up toFI, all the way from down under.
Thank you, bill, and thank you Jackie.
I feel so honored to havebeen invited onto here today.
What an awesome, awesome entering for me.
That was beautiful.
Thank you.
You've made me sound amazing.
Yeah.
Well, it's fascinating.
(08:07):
It's fascinating.
We can't wait to get into.
I
listened to
your webinar and I knew right away thatwe needed to have you on the show because
your perspective, even though it's fromAustralia, resonates with men, women,
and maybe especially women around theworld, and our audience is international.
We need to give a shout out to Canada, New
Zealand, England, and Australia.
(08:28):
We are
very fortunate to havefans all around the world.
I want to give a shout out also to Ruth,the Happy Saver down in New Zealand.
And if you listen to episode fourof our show, you'll find our first
Australian guest late starter fire.
She goes by her first name, Priscilla.
Okay.
I. So we wanna wind this back.
take you back.
(08:49):
We don't know how old you are yet, butmaybe we don't need to because we need
to go back to childhood and there'spotentially sort of a personal and a money
story there that in order for our audienceto understand you, we need to hear about.
So take us through sort of
your early, personal and money journeys.
Okay, so my background, I camefrom Germany, so we came to
(09:11):
Australia when I was two years old.
We were a very, very poor family.
We came over with nothing.
My dad was a bricklayer and mymom was a stay at home mom with,
at that stage three children.
And then a fourth cameabout four years later.
We rented our whole life.
We didn't own anything, so we moved fromplace to place, and we were always at
(09:34):
risk of having to be moved along or out ofthe town that we were wanting to live in.
We lived from week to week andsometimes that didn't even last.
We were sometimes for weeks withoutfood, without, the necessities.
I was always known as the poor kid,which as you can imagine, that set me
up for low self-worth, low self-esteem,and all those years of going through
(09:57):
that really didn't make sense to meuntil the last seven or eight years.
So let's fast forward a bit.
I've spent my whole life.
Lack mentality and not having enough.
And always, when I getenough money, I'll do this.
When I do this, when I do that,rather than look forward and, and
work ways to make it happen, I wouldsit in that pit of not having enough.
(10:21):
So then I pass that on to my children.
So they live in that lack mentality, whichwe're all adjusting now, which is great.
But what happened to me seven yearsago, I was involved in a very nasty.
Head on collision whilstdriving the ambulance.
And this wasn't just an accident, thiswas a deliberate attempt on my partner
in my workplace at the Times Lives.
(10:43):
This gentleman who was a mentalhealth patient hit us at 100
kilometers an hour, which I'mnot sure what that is in America.
It hit us with his lightsoff and hit his head on.
And from that day on,my entire life changed.
I was trapped.
I was busted up in so many areas.
What it actually did was it putme into a state of severe PTSD and
(11:05):
depression, and this is a very condensedstory, shortened, but basically I
ended up in a facility for six monthsand I had deep, deep, deep therapy.
I didn't wanna be here anymore.
I was checking out.
There was nothing left asfar as I was concerned.
I was no longer a paramedic.
I couldn't be who I wantedto be, and I spiraled.
(11:27):
After six months of treatment and mysister, who is a holistic healer and
has Shar and Abilities was helpingme through those healing processes.
And at times they were tough.
They were really tough because wewere having to break some really deep
and dark generational patterns andprogramming and conditioning, which
is where our lack of money comes from.
(11:48):
We are not born with a lack mentality.
It's handed to us.
So after that.
Initial 12 months, I started todo some really, really deep work.
And over the last four years, I've beenrunning my own business now as a trauma
coach, a life coach, a mindset coach.
(12:08):
I work in all areas because Ifeel that other than a few things
in life, I've experienced a lot.
I've experienced poor relationships,abuse, neglect, abandonment, alcoholic
father dysfunction in a family.
Which I teach people now that thoseconditions, those patterns, those
programs are given to you withinthe first seven years of your life.
(12:31):
From nought to seven, weare given a blueprint.
We don't have a choice.
That's what's handed to us.
And like I say to everybody, thisis not a, a parent bashing story.
This is not where we blame anyone.
Our parents did the best that theycould with what they had, and.
As now a mom of three beautifulchildren and two granddaughters, I am
(12:52):
doing everything in my powers to breakthose generational patterns within
my family, and it's working well.
Nothing's perfect.
We're all getting there on differentlevels and different speeds,
but we're all getting there.
The, the thing that I learned the mostabout myself through all the trauma
and breaking down the programs was howlittle I knew about budgeting, finances.
(13:17):
Looking after yourself.
Financial future.
I just used to think, ah, it'll be right.
We'll work it out.
But then when the time comesthat you have nothing and it
hits the fan, you've got nothing.
You've got no reserves, you'vegot nothing there to say.
I've got a buffer.
I've got nothing there to say.
If this happens, I nearly after myaccident, lost my home because being on
(13:40):
workers' comp in Australia isn't great.
They don't support the ambulanceservice like they support the
police and the fire brigade.
We don't get a pension.
We are basically left to suffer,which is why there are so many
broken paramedics out there.
The ambulance do not have anysort of a system in place for
(14:00):
paramedics that fall down, whereasthe police and the fire brigade do.
So they're
responsible
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Wow.
So I'm, I'm hearing you tellyour story, Tash, and it's.
It's just so interesting that yes,you're in another country, but
these life issues and financialissues, they transcend borders.
(14:24):
It doesn't matter.
You
Hmm.
be someone easily that's righthere in the US and you know,
when you were talking about.
That traumatic I guess we'll callit an accident, but you said it, it
was may have been done on purpose.
So after that experience whereyou had the collision, so how long
(14:45):
were you in the hospital before yourecovered enough to come home to
try to put your life back together?
So after the accident, it took aboutsix, well, maybe actually, let's see.
It was about eight monthsbefore I really spiraled.
So for eight months Iwas living this life of.
I was trying to go back to work.
(15:05):
I couldn't put the uniform on.
I couldn't go near a truck.
I had no idea what was going on.
It was horrendous.
And I would just cryand cry, and I was that.
Social queen of the ambulance service.
I was involved in everythingfrom an opening of an envelope
to an opening of a station.
I was there.
That was my world.
So to not be able to functionin that capacity or in that
environment anymore, it spiraled me.
(15:27):
What happened was later in myjourney I figured out why I
spoiled, which I can go to soon.
But after the six months in hospital,I then had a lot of recovery at home.
So then my children, my daughter, whois now 29, she had to care for me.
My sister came and livedwith me for a while.
(15:47):
I lost my relationship because itwas too much stress on the person.
And I look back at that nowand it was just chaos and.
Drama was horrible and wejust couldn't survive in it.
And so that, I lost that.
So I lost my job.
I lost my partner.
I lost my son, my youngest son, he wasoff the rails because mum was broken.
(16:09):
Yeah, so this was a, yeah.
So there was a lot of fallout from anaccident that was not like, we didn't
even have any opportunity to rectifybecause he turned his lights off.
We didn't see him coming and.
It was all just takenaway from me that night.
But having said that, it wasthe best thing that ever,
(16:30):
ever, ever happened to me.
And I can honestly say thatseven years down the track,
Well, you see the, in listening toyour story, there's sort of challenges.
She serial traumas throughout yourlife that started as a young child with
poverty, food, scarcity and
maybe some financial scarcity.
You didn't
have the backstops that a lot of
(16:51):
people have.
And then this pivotal event.
Of a crash, literally a crash
was the fulcrum to majorchanges in your life.
Tell us about those.
How was it
the best thing in your life if it was
Hmm.
Now, at the time I was, full of hatred.
I was full of revenge.
(17:12):
I was so angry.
But then as I healed, whatactually happened was.
I shed off all those masks, allthose layers, all that armor that
I've been carrying for 50 years,because that's what we do as humans.
We just keep putting on masks tokeep functioning in a world that
we're not really functioning in.
There's a thing called the core needs,and the top four core needs are certain
(17:36):
safety and comfort, variety and changesignificance and love and connection.
That job gave me all of those,
and when I lost that job.
I lost my identity and I lost who I was.
So you never went back to beinga paramedic after that accident?
(17:58):
no.
And there was many attempts and I couldnot go, I could not put the uniform on.
Part of my exposure therapy was I had tocarry my uniform around for three weeks.
It was the most distressing thing,which was so bizarre because anybody
that knew me, I had such admiration andI felt so proud to wear that uniform.
So to not be able to step backinto it, it was devastating for me.
(18:22):
But what it did was the best thingthat I've ever, I, I found myself in
all of that healing and all of thattrauma, and in all of the chaos,
I actually found who Tash was.
Tash is no longer a paramedic.
Tash isn't a life coach.
Tash isn't a mum.
Tash is an individual.
Tash is a person who came to this earthand is having a journey, and what it also
(18:46):
gave me was it allowed me to be present.
It allowed me to heal froma lot of childhood trauma.
It allowed me to recognize thepatterns in my financial, my
relationships, my work, my friendshipsof people pleasing, procrastinating.
All those things that we do because weput it down to that's just who he is.
And that is the one thing I say topeople just because that's how that
(19:09):
person is or that's how you are,doesn't mean you have to stay like that.
I have never been somebody whohas been financially abundant
until this all happened for mebecause I changed my mindset.
I changed how I look at money.
I changed how I look at at the way life,you know, things that come into us.
I don't just.
(19:29):
Ignore signs.
I look at things that are going on andI think, okay, what can I control here?
What can't I, what do I focus on?
Where do I put my time,energy, and effort?
And this is where a lotof people get themselves.
So worked up and stressed overfinancial stuff, especially later in
life when we haven't set ourselves up.
(19:50):
They think that's it.
That's over.
Well, I wanna assureeverybody I'm 57 now and.
I actually am probably the best I've everbeen financially because I changed the
way I looked at money, budgets, finance,superannuation, and where I've prioritize.
And I still have fun and I still dothings for my children and myself.
(20:14):
But the one thing I don't do is I neverbudgeted before and Amy got me onto a
budget, God lover, and it's amazing.
It actually scares you how much.
Silly money you spend thatyou don't need to be spending.
But it's the mindset and it's thelack mentality that keep people stuck
in that I can't move forward mode.
(20:34):
And that's what, that's oneof the biggest things I found.
Well, I struggle even stillprobably with mindset.
I mean, I've had my own traumas in life.
I think everybody has whetherit be medical, financial
political, emotional educational.
I mean, both what you and Jackiehave in common is that you came
out of poverty into abundance.
(20:55):
It's, and I find that so inspirational.
I
was a middle class person.
I'm a high income professional.
I didn't have the same strugglesand challenges you had.
I, I don't know whatfood scarcity feels like.
Heck, I'm overweight.
I have a food abundance problem.
Well, we all got alittle bit of that bill.
(21:17):
But it shows me how resilientthe human spirit is.
You know, you may have had more thanyour fair share, but you're such an
optimistic forward-thinking personthat's now giving back to other people,
helping them overcome their traumas.
Tell us a little bitabout that transition.
We
know that you had the crash.
We know that you had a long recovery.
We know that you were in despair.
(21:39):
Heck, maybe you were even suicidal.
We don't
know.
It can
yeah.
can get that
Yeah, a
hundred percent I was, yeah.
So.
What was the, and we talkabout the wake up moment.
What was
the
wake up and how did you start in adifferent trajectory, a different
yeah,
so the wake up moment for me, Iremember this so vividly, I met a
person, so I'd been through the trauma.
(22:01):
I've lost my relationship andI thought I was in quite a well
space, head space to meet someone.
And I had met this man, and that wasin the October 19, and by March April
20, I was nearly back in a hospital.
He was a very, very nasty, no one likesthis word, but narcissistic person.
(22:24):
And that broke me.
That actually nearly did asmuch damage as the trauma did.
And what it did was it, it woke me up.
It put me through this reallydeep trauma and, depression again,
'cause there was abuse again.
And I was like, hang on,I've just gotten out of this.
And what it did was Ibasically call it a rebirth.
It pushed me through a membrane of what Icall, that was the day I had my awakening.
(22:49):
And from there on, I just went on thisspiritual journey and grew and grew and
grew and learned, and learned and learnedmore and more as I was like a sponge.
I was taking in as muchas I could to understand.
The psychology of why I keptattracting these people, what it was
that what, kept me in those places.
So what then happened was within that 12months to 18 months, I then started to get
(23:12):
myself educated in coaching, trauma work,intergenerational trauma, childhood trauma
child work, all the modalities that gowith healing people from early childhood.
'cause most of my clients are.
Probably late thirties, early fortiesthrough to sixties and seventies.
'cause it's our generation thatwas pretty, pretty damaged.
(23:34):
And again, it's not a bashingsession on our parents, it's
just what they were given.
So these patterns and programsare handed to you each generation.
And the best analogy I can give is, Idunno, you if you guys have heard of
Kerwin Ray, did you know Kerwin Ray?
No, explain that to us.
He's a motivation.
(23:54):
Well, he rest in peace.
He actually passed away probably six,12 months ago, but he was one of the
most sought after mo motivationalspeakers here in Australia.
He was amazing.
He came from a lot of darkbackground as well, but he said
that you know, the analogy he usedto give was back in the, you know.
Fifties.
They used to cook a leg of lamband they chop off the ends of
(24:17):
the leg of lamb because theovens at those stages were small.
So what happened?
Each generation, they wouldcut off the ends of the lamb.
But now we have these, nine feetovens and or nine meter or whatever,
however big that is, big ovens.
And they're still cuttingoff the ends of the lamb.
And people are like, why do you do that?
Well, 'cause Grandma did it.
(24:37):
And why did grandma do it?
'cause grandma did it.
So each generation took onwhat grandma did, didn't
matter that things had changed.
They still stayed with what theyknew because people fear the unknown
and people don't like change, andpeople don't like uncertainty.
So what I was so afraid of was becomingthis different version of Tash.
(25:01):
Actually, it's the best versionof Tash that I've ever, ever been.
It's the most authentic I've been.
And don't get me wrong, I still have upsand down days, but I am the person that
knows how to get myself back up again.
And my, decision then was to helpand educate as many people as I
could to reconnect with themselves.
(25:24):
Because we lose ourselves,we disconnect from ourselves.
So we make poor choices.
We end up in toxic relationships.
We stay in workplaces that don't serve us.
So what I do in my unshackled programnow is I help educate people on
their psychology, their boundaries,their self-awareness, their emotional
intimacy, their epigenetics,their internal family systems.
(25:47):
There's so many mod somany pillars that I cover.
Because there's so many areasthat affect how we heal.
That's amazing because I'm in thehealthcare field and it's not a
very healthy place to work sometimes
because you're dealing with.
So much that's overwhelming.
As a paramedic, I respect the workyou've done because you deal with
(26:11):
uncontrolled situations and uncontrolledhealthcare issues and you bring them
to the hospital, which to me is a muchmore controlled environment, is still
uncontrolled in the emergency department.
Absolutely.
dealt with is taking an absolute messand getting it to a hospital where we
take it to the next level.
And I can only imagine, I. The traumayou experienced in what you saw
(26:34):
in the real world that most peopledon't see, and it just accumulates.
It really accumulates and it it doesn'tsound like it led to burnout in you
though, which I find fascinating.
Why,
well, it did.
So the icing on the cake was the accident.
So prior to the accident, I hadthree major assaults whilst on duty,
and I just kept saying, I'm right.
(26:56):
I'm not letting them stop me.
I'm not letting them stop me.
I'm not letting these mentalhealth patients stop me.
I'm still going.
I'm Tash, I'm strong.
Tash was breaking.
Tash was at breaking point.
And I remember on the day of theaccident, I remember saying to my
partner who I was working with.
I can't do this anymore.
I'm exhausted.
I actually can't do this anymore.
(27:16):
And I'm a big believer in theuniverse gives us signs and if
you don't listen, they'll get you.
And sure enough, that night,that was the biggest slap for me.
And I do remember a girlfriendrang me after the third assault
and said, Tash, you gotta stop.
You've gotta get off the road.
Like the next one's gonna be a big hit.
And I said, don't be ridiculous.
Nothing's gonna happen.
(27:37):
And.
10 weeks later it was, and it was the slapthat I needed and it was what stopped me.
And my burnout was the depression,the suicidal, that's what
put me into the hospital.
I just did not, did notwanna be here anymore.
And I was the most judgmentalperson when it came to that thought
process at work, because I waslike, how could you leave people?
(27:59):
How could you not think aboutyour children and your family
and all the loved ones?
But when you're in thatdeep state of depression.
You don't think of anyone else.
You just want the pain to stop.
You want every, and I now have awhole new appreciation for mental
health, which is why I wanna helpas many people and educate them.
And Bill, what you were just sayingbefore, if you don't mind me sharing
(28:21):
this about that, the chaos and thedrama and everything we used to see
at work that was familiar to me.
What was familiar to me was chaos,unpredictable abuse, trauma.
Ups and downs, emotions.
Not sure what you'rewalking into eggshells.
Like that was normal.
That was my familiar, eventhough it's wrong and it's
(28:43):
terrible, that was my familiar.
So I felt comfortable in that And peopleused to say, Tash, how do you do this?
You're such a kind, soft person.
You are an empath.
That's why it worked.
'cause it filled all those thingsthat I didn't get as a child.
Significance, love varietyand change security.
I knew what I was walking into every day.
(29:05):
So the day it stopped waswhen I crashed and burned.
'cause I didn't have my familiar.
That's interesting becauseI feel the same way.
Mm-hmm.
I was the emergency.
Oldest child in my family, there werea lot of emergencies and I tended to be
the one to have to take care of them.
I'm a child of divorce andit was not necessarily the
(29:27):
easiest family to grow up in.
And I migrated from being the oldestson that was parentified too early
to an emergency physician thatdealt pretty much with the same
thing at a dif at a different level.
So I really resonatewith what you just said.
Yeah, it makes sense whenyou understand the psychology
Yeah.
I,
toss.
(29:47):
So I wanna talk a little bit about yourfinancial life during this transition.
So after the accident,
yeah.
said that you did not have apension like law enforcement
does.
So how does a pension work in Australia?
So in Australia, after a certain age,you, and if you don't have enough
(30:09):
assets or you haven't got a, a home orthings like you are entitled to have a
pension within the emergency services.
The new South Wales Police andFire Brigade are both looked
after by the government.
The New South Wales ambulanceisn't, 'cause it's privately
owned, we don't get a pension.
So what happens?
(30:30):
So most police and fire brigadethat or get medically discharged,
they have, I think it's like75% of their wage paid to them.
We get nothing.
And what happened with me wasyou get a work cover, which
is like, it's ridiculously lowfor what you are used to be.
Being paid, and that's supposed tocover mortgages and, daily expenses, all
(30:52):
your utilities, car, food, everything.
And you get to the stage where if youdid have any savings, it would dwindle.
Then what would happen is you'deither go back to work too
soon and you weren't ready.
And it's just a snowball.
So for me, I was fortunateenough to, again.
Good lesson.
(31:13):
I didn't take any sick leave.
I didn't take annual leave very often.
I had so much up my sleeve to use.
So although I didn't get the sickleave back because we don't get
that reimbursed once you are off.
But I had a lot of longservice and annual leave.
That's probably what saved me till mycourt case was over, and that's the only
(31:33):
thing that saved me from losing my home.
So was any of this moneythrough your So was
no, no, this was just work cover.
This was just through the the companythat ensures the ambulance service.
They pay you a small amount of money.
were you saving on your own at this time?
(31:53):
I
mean, we have, a direct contributionplan called a 401k, which is
the, you know, the umbrella.
Under which hopefully as manypeople as possible in the United
States save for their retirement.
But honestly, 40% of peoplewould be in poverty without
social security in our country.
So
that is the true safety net.
You know, you said you didn't budget.
(32:14):
Were you saving for this futureself through these 30 years?
Had you been planningfor your future self?
Had you been doing anything to organizeyour own money or manage your money?
My, my ex-husband was, and he didit well until we broke up, which
was a few years before the accident,and I didn't do it as well as him.
So that
Okay,
lesson.
(32:34):
He, he still,
a big lesson at the timeof my divorce as well.
yeah.
I feel you there.
So, so I guess I, it sounds like to me,this benefit that you were getting, you
know, when you were off it, it soundslike it was similar to our version
bill of like disability insurance.
Yeah,
were paying you, they were paying you,
(32:55):
not, not as much as you were making, but a
portion since you were out of work andyou couldn't work for medical reasons.
Yep.
So it was a very small amount.
It was a basic what you startedas when you were a level one
paramedic, and that was like
$400 a week.
So $800
a fortnight does not coverpeople's mortgages food
(33:17):
bills, daily living children.
So when you are used to gettingsomewhere between two and $3,000
a fortnight, dropping it down toeight hundred's, a big difference.
And so what did you do to bridge the gap?
I had to put in all like what's the word?
Claim, all my annual leave.
Claim everything that wassitting there in case.
(33:38):
'cause I didn't know at that stagewhether I was gonna be leaving or not.
I had to use that because Iwould've, I would've lost my home.
And I just, the, the court case took,even though this man was charged and he
was at fault and all of those things,I still had to wait five years for a
very horrendous court case to finish
Oh wow.
I was gonna ask you how longthat took, 'cause I know it
five years.
(33:59):
So it sounds like you did have somemoney built into an employer plan
that you were able to pull out of, to
It's, it's just what we call our annualleave and our long service leave.
So long
you had not saved,anything for retirement.
You were just getting thefinancial equivalent of this
leave that you had sitting there.
Okay.
(34:19):
yeah.
I was still living, I, I wentafter the divorce 'cause I wasn't
very good at the budgeting.
I went back to a, a program I knewand that was living from week to week,
Okay.
was terrible.
earlier a, a, a superannuation
Mm-hmm.
we don't understand thatterm in the United States.
Can you explain whatsuperannuation is in Australia?
Yeah, so superannuation is where apercentage of your money is taken
(34:43):
out of each wage and put intoanother superannuation department,
and that gets put away each week oreach pay till, I think it's over 60
now here, or 65 in Australia, andyou can't touch it until that age.
So it's, it's a littlenest egg for when you're.
And if you're smart with superannuation,it's a good little nest egg when
(35:04):
you're, when you're finished.
But it's, it's not all I dunno if itis now, but it wasn't compulsory when
I started working back in the eighties.
But I always had super, so I do have superand part of my payout with the accident,
I put a big lump sum into the super sothat I, as I get older, it's there for me.
Is that managed by the government then?
(35:26):
There's different ones.
There's government and there's private,
so,
you weren't working for anemployer at the time, you were
able to put money into your No.
no, no.
Once, once you're not working.
That stopped unless I had a,another amount of money coming
in to put into the soup.
So as soon as the ambulanceservice cut me off my
(35:48):
super stops.
Yeah.
it was through the ambulance company.
It's who they chose.
Yeah.
But you can, opt to go outtathat and do a private one.
okay?
depends what you want.
You do get choices.
But once I was outta the ambulance, youhad to then find your own money to put
in, whereas they would, you could actuallyput your own in and they would contribute.
(36:09):
I think it was 3%
they would
give you a match.
'cause that's very similar in the us
Most of the time there is anemployer match, you put in a certain
amount and then they'll match you.
But once you were no
longer an employee of theirs,we have something that's.
coupled with an employer that you couldalways do even when you're employed.
So you started doing it on yoursaving on your own at that point.
(36:31):
so this was obviouslyafter the settlement.
Once you got
I had a little bit left from the annualleave and that, 'cause there was a
lot of long service and annual leave.
So I then.
Was smart enough to put that aside.
So what I needed to do was I paidparts of the mortgage and or not, not
off, but enough to keep me going, andthen I would have that buffer there
(36:51):
because I never wanted to be in thatsituation again, where I was at risk of
losing the only thing I had left thatfelt normal to me, which was my home.
That begs the question actuallyabout financial education.
Jackie is a, a financial educator.
We now have 26 states that requirefinancial education in our high schools.
What is the status of financialeducation in the schools in Australia?
(37:13):
There is none.
None.
No.
And this is, yeah.
This is stuff people need to know.
we, we should be
Yeah.
I mean, they do e economics and theydo things like that, but when it
comes down to everyday basic, it'sthe same as me saying children need
to learn what I teach at a young age.
(37:34):
Because this is where peoplebecome stuck in the wrong type of
relationships, friendships, workplaces.
They, you know, are forced todo something they don't wanna do
because they don't know that theyhave a right to say, actually, I'd
like to do something different.
These are the things that people needto be taught at school, like finances.
what I am passionate about, generallife stuff that gets them through.
(37:57):
I understand all the other stuff.
These are things that help childrenand, you are now saying that you, how
many schools do you need to speak in?
37? Did you just say youspeak in 37 different schools
26 different schools.
2026 and, and breaking news Bill.
There is now a 27thstate as of March, 2025.
(38:19):
Kentucky is the newest state thatnow requires personal finance.
I. In
Wow.
from high school.
So high schoolers are gettingthis and keep adding on state so
it's going in the right direction.
But yeah, it's always interesting to hearhow other countries are doing it, so they
don't require that in high schools in
(38:40):
Australia.
No, and when.
a wake up personally, professionally,and financially because without the
settlement, hadn't had the accident,you could have been financially
devastated in your retirement, correct?
Hundred percent.
A hundred percent and I'd still be workingin a job that was breaking me down.
This happens a lot in ourlate starter population.
(39:01):
yeah.
sort of the golden handcuffs youknow, where you get stuck in a job
you don't wanna do and you're burnedout because you haven't planned.
And the wake up.
Is always a trauma.
There's always some trauma, whether itbe divorce an accident like in your case.
And then the light, in thedarkest day, the light shines.
Right?
(39:22):
And that sounds like what happened to you.
Absolutely.
you're at a very different place.
How many years after this happened?
This is it was 2017, soit'll be eight years in May.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
you know, it's interesting thatyou should say that Bill because.
The thing I'm trying to teachpeople is don't wait for a trauma.
(39:44):
Don't wait for a life changing event.
You have the ability tochange all of this now.
And, amy's was a speaker on myprogram and the women in my group
got so much from the financial advicebecause we don't get that here.
Wow.
She was amazing.
She and she got, you know,clients out of it because people
loved what she had to share.
(40:05):
And that's what this is all about,helping people at these stages in life.
And I've got women in the programthat's just finished, that have changed
careers in the age of, you know, midfifties selling homes because they're
finally doing things that they wanna do.
Moving out to different areas, buyingtravel mobile homes so that they can,
you know, go and look around, travel andinvestigate and see the, see the world.
(40:29):
Because they finally have a new mindset.
They finally see that they're not stuckin this box that is called, society.
So it's not too old to change anything.
Well, our life is a bitabout habits and the habits.
As you say, epigenetics areformed early in our life.
And whether it be financial,
personal, relational as you mentionedtoo, with regards to attracting
(40:52):
the wrong people, attractingthe wrong habits with money.
And I agree with you, you can changehopefully the wake up call isn't as
painful as to what you went through.
But generally there is an instigation.
I, I didn't have anything traumaticother than the fact that I turned 50
and realized nobody's gonna save me.
I've gotta save myself.
I finally met my future selfand said, I'm not ready for you.
(41:15):
I gotta show up.
I gotta catch up.
And that's why we call thisprogram Catching Up to Fi.
Do you feel like you were behind and
Ah.
you caught up?
Absolutely.
I, I was behind in, in nearlyevery aspect of my life.
That's what I mean when yousaid, why is this the best thing?
It's changed every aspect of my life.
There's not one thing that is theold, and it's all been worth it.
(41:39):
It's all been, you know,it's been a domino effect.
It's affected all the peoplein my life and don't, don't get
me wrong, growth isn't easy.
Growth is very hard, butit's so rewarding, So.
rewarding.
I need to ask a question aboutforgiveness I think forgiveness is
a very empowering personal trait.
(42:00):
Did you forgive the personthat crashed into you
yeah.
you forgive yourself for not beingready for the next phase of your life?
I forgave myself a lot of times,but the day I knew Bill, that
I was well was the day I couldsit there and thanked this man.
I actually sat there andthanked him not to his face.
(42:20):
I thanked him.
He gave me my life back.
He actually gave me my life back,
well, and Taj, I think it's beautifulthe way that you are now manifesting
all of your trauma and pain in a waythat you're wanting to help others.
Because when you go through somethinglike that you can either repeat
(42:40):
it, you know, when you go throughtrauma, you can e either repeat it
or you can do just the opposite.
Hmm.
You're doing just the oppositeand you're trying to help many
other women to do the same thing.
So I think that's extraordinarythat like Bill said, that was, quite
you know, a wild ride you had togo through to get to that point.
But, but you're here and you're helpingso many other people, so you've a lot
(43:03):
of years to do a lot of good and I'm
That's my intention.
Do you know, I, I, work with men as well.
It's not just women I
Oh, you work with, okay.
I,
Yeah,
I assumed women.
Well, you
yeah.
Probably 'cause of Amy.
know, I'm, I'm thinkingof Amy's where she,
okay.
Amy has women.
Okay.
So, so yeah, you do
Yeah.
(43:23):
and, and, and I guess tell us alittle bit more about your life
coaching and the work that you
Yeah.
now.
So now my life coaching consistsof, I still do one-on-one, but
I tend to be doing more programwork and that's facilitating
it's usually a one night a week.
And the last program Idid was a 12 week program.
(43:43):
The next one I'll do will probablybe eight weeks because I've
rec recognized I can fit somemodality some pillars in together.
I would love to be doing morepodcasts and like I said, I'm
gonna start my own podcast and.
I think Jackie, I'vedone this my whole life.
I've always been the person peoplecome and talk to and, and you know,
(44:05):
that's probably what got me to dothis because people will say, why
don't you do something with it?
Like, you do it anyway.
You might as well go get paid for it.
You might go and, and when I startedto really, you know, research and
do the work and do the training,and I've spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars on retrainingmyself, has been worth every cent.
This is the thing people don't understand.
(44:26):
The money that you putinto yourself pays off
Yeah,
I was gonna say, how
do you even, What training and whattype of of education and stuff that
you, what do you have to do to prepareyourself to be a life coach for others?
Because that sounds like sucha big, heavy thing to do.
How do you get the knowledge and the
(44:49):
training
that
you need
in
order to do
that
type
of work?
So.
Firstly lived and life experience,actually going through the healing
process, doing the modalities, doingthe hard work, embodying what you teach.
That's the first thing.
The second thing is I went to a training,like a an institute for coaching.
I went there for a couple of years.
(45:10):
I had a really good mentor and coachmyself, and he took me through so many
different processes and the rest is.
I sign up to anythingthat's gonna help me.
I sign up anything that's gonna give mea certificate to help with healing, help
with childhood trauma, inner a childwork, even the stuff with Amy, I really
(45:31):
started to look into that, like how Ican help people down the finance track.
I know I can direct them to Amy, but Iwanted to have a bit of an understanding.
It's basically.
Just whatever your passion is, getas much information as you can.
I listen to podcasts all day.
I listen to you know YouTubevideos of different speakers or
(45:52):
different modalities or differentlike tapping and things like that.
I will research anything that'sgonna help me to help my clients.
But it's, it's the programs and look,the coaching you, you've got it.
You've gotta, you've gotta warpsome of that fire to understand
what some people go through.
'cause there is no point insitting there saying to someone,
(46:15):
yeah, I understand that.
I understand that, but you have no idea.
But you actually have no, like tosit there and say, I can understand.
And like Bill just said before,he didn't grow up like you
and I. He can't understand.
No money, no food, no love, no.
All these things we can, you can,yeah, certainly you can empathize
with someone, but we actually feel it.
(46:36):
That's,
yeah.
Well, it's kind of like beingthe alcoholic that helps
other alcoholics, right?
They've gone to the bottom of their pit.
They've climbed back out of itand they recognize how much work
is required in getting there.
And so they are some of the times, some ofthe best ones that can help their fellow
man or woman you know, dig out of that pitthat they've dug for themselves as well.
(46:57):
That that's what you're doing.
That's what Jackie's doing.
Heck,
yeah.
you know,
she didn't necessarily have a trauma.
She retired and then she,that lit her fire literally
as she fired or and retired.
And now she's changing theworld with financial education.
And I'm honored.
I. To be sitting here in thispodcast with both of you.
These are the kinds of peoplewe get to talk to in this show.
(47:19):
How lucky am I?
How
of a difference does it make inmy life to have dug out of my
pit and found the inner DJ in me?
That was
like Bill used to be a
If you didn't know
the,
the answer
to
your
problems
is
almost
always
staring
you
in
the
face.
Always.
(47:39):
Yeah.
Yep.
Always.
And I think what people don'trealize, and that is the one thing
we teach in coaching, everyone hasa different filter, a different
lens, a different map of the world.
So what happened to you andwhat happened to you may be
similar, but it's not the same.
And we have to not project what we thinkand feel and our bias onto someone else.
We have to allow them to speak andlet them get out what they need.
(48:02):
And then what we do with coaching iswe just, we direct them to go forward.
One thing I do not like, and Ilived this with my own trauma,
was talk therapy does not work.
You talk and talk and talk, itkeeps you stuck in the situation.
And what we do with coachingor my type of coaching is.
(48:23):
I help you break down whatthe, the issue is, then we
work out a way to move forward.
We get to the root cause of the problem.
We don't just sit down andkeep talking about the event.
'cause the event just keeps you stuckin that emotional, psychological,
physiological space and that is unhealthy.
So my coaching, I've been known topeople say, I am tough but with love.
(48:46):
And I do it because I know ifyou sit there, you get stuck, you
become a victim, and then you have.
Just, you don't get theresults and the benefits.
So I don't ask anyone to do anything.
I haven't done myself.
You you absolutely have.
And I, and I love that you're a lifelonglearner and, you know, formal education
is, great, but you know, I can, speakingfor myself as well, So much of what
(49:12):
you learn is from you experiencingit and you've got a ton of that.
And then it's also how in our minds dowe take a moment to even process that?
Because until we do it, it's hardfor us to say, okay, now I can kind
of figure out how this happened.
In order to help other people.
(49:32):
And then you go, digging and,bill, I see this a lot in you too.
Bill doesn't have a CFP, butsome days when we're talking to
our guests, I feel like you do.
So you, bill, you've learned a turnon your own based on your experience.
I have done the same thing,even though I might have my
CFP and I went back and get my,
I, I
tell everyone, I retired myselfbefore I did any of that.
(49:55):
And I
knew 80% of what I needed toknow by just doing it on my own.
And it was the other stuff thatkind of got me over the hill.
But
I, I love that, you know, you have somuch experience and you have deeply
about that In a way that you're able to.
Share with your clients and others.
(50:18):
And that is just so valuable.
Like you cannot underestimate the valuethat that brings when you're doing
the type of work that you're doing.
Well toss,
I believe you when you say talk therapydoesn't work because I was lecture
daddy and my kids didn't learn anything.
about finance.
Yeah.
He was
lecture
daddy
And, and I'd, I'd rather be known aslistening daddy, because listening
(50:39):
is a skill that's hard learned andhard to do, and it helps you get
to the root cause of things wherepeople help solve their own problems.
Here I am sounding like a therapist, but
Yeah, yeah.
Well, we all have a story and we justmet a gentleman named Azu, who will
hopefully be on the show at Economy whois a teacher of eighth graders and every
eighth grader that was in his classleft the class, an author, a published
(51:03):
author, because they had a story to tell.
You have a story to tell.
I have a story to tell.
I think you have a book in the making.
Do you not?
Because
I do.
your story
is
so
inspirational.
Tell
us
about
your
book.
Well you'll laugh at this and itwon't make, it will not surprise you.
After what I just lost on the bio Ihad written, I think it was 90,000
(51:26):
words or something and I couldn'tfind it and I was devastated.
'cause it was a new laptop.
I found it the other night because I waslooking for something to send to you.
That's how I found it.
So now I can get back into itand it is basically going to
be a book on my story, my bio.
That's incredible.
Guess what?
(51:47):
Meeting us in the states getting
getting prepared
for this podcast, a lost90,000 word book was found
Yeah.
Hidden
Treasure,
and
now
your
journey
continues.
Isn't
that
interesting?
And that's the one thing you justmentioned before, the stories and I.
The thing that people get stuck onthere is this thing called gatekeepers,
which is our stories, our beliefs,our values, and our our identity.
(52:10):
Our stories form our beliefs.
So what happens when you believesomething, you will look for as much
evidence to support your belief system,even if it's not serving you right?
And that's where people getstuck in the money situation.
Their belief is thatmoney's too hard to come by.
Money doesn't grow on trees.
I haven't got enough for this.
I can't do that.
That's not gonna happen.
I. That belief system was given tothem, and it might not have been by the
(52:34):
parents, it might been by someone atschool, a coach, a teacher, or whatever.
As in sporting coach, the beliefsthen form their values and then their
value then gives them their identity.
And this is a major thing that wedo in the coaching world, is break
those stories to help them retell astory, make a new story, which forms
(52:55):
new beliefs, which forms new values,and gives you a whole new identity.
So that was the otheranswer to my coaching.
Well,
think that is actually a greatplace to close this show.
Those are great thoughts to end on.
on.
I wanna thank you for joiningus all the way from down under.
It is a pleasure to meet you.
(53:16):
I really hope to meet you in person whenI make my trek my, what is it called?
My
walkabout
down to that Australia.
Well, I'm actually on the Sunshine Coast,which is two hours up from the Gold Coast.
You are welcome here anytimeyou do come this way.
So I have a quick
about your location.
How close are you to Bali?
(53:37):
Isn't that pretty
close
to
Bali?
So we are a six hour flight to Bali.
Okay.
Okay.
I knew that it was semi six hours.
Yep.
Yep.
Oh, wow.
That's a lot farther than I
Well, she may not know.
She may not know what you'retalking about, Jackie.
Maybe you should tell her.
I'm going, I'm going
Bali.
I will be speaking in Bali.
There is something calledPhi Freedom Retreat,
(54:00):
and
it will be in Bali,Indonesia in September.
And I just remember Amy saying
that.
Australia's close.
'cause I think her partnerher fiance is Australian.
Now, obviously Australia is a big country.
So where you live, it sounds like
it's
further away from Bali than
other parts.
(54:21):
No, it's it's about a six hour flight.
So up the coast you've got NewSouth Wales than Queensland.
I've actually just moved from NewSouth Wales up here to Queensland.
So it's a six, six and a half hourmaximum flight from any of these airports.
And my son actually was living inBali, so I used to go over them a lot.
Oh,
look
at them.
Well, maybe we, we encourage You to go
(54:42):
visit
them in Bali.
Yeah,
Yeah.
he's back here now.
He's down on the Gold Coast.
But it's funny that you should say youyou're gonna Bali for a tour because I've
just been invited to Miami, Florida forthe International Women's Conference.
Ooh, I think you'll enjoy that.
So I tell you what this world is.
it,
it's much smaller than what I saw it whenI was a kid, and pretty much anywhere
(55:08):
you wanna go, you can get on a flight
and
be there within a day.
You know, even clear across the world,So, and we have so much in common,
probably more in common than we havedifferent, there's cultural and, you know,
environmental things and, experienceswithin different countries, but wow.
People's feelings, who they are,finances, , trauma, all these life
(55:32):
experiences.
Doesn't matter where you're from.
So that's why we were soexcited to talk about you today.
'cause you've got a slightlydifferent lens, but, you know,
your story sounds very familiar.
I res it.
A lot of it resonates with me.
A lot of it resonates withBill as a physician and a lot
of our, our late starters,
you
we hear those things all the time.
(55:52):
So we appreciate you being so
and so transparent and sharing your story
with
us, and we're lookingforward to the book now.
What was the name of the book again?
I haven't got one yet.
Okay.
We haven't gotten one yet.
But we know it's gonna be about your
and any idea when it might
be released?
Any target dates?
Well, now that I, now that I'vefound it, I think get back into it
(56:13):
and look, my, my goal would, I'dlove to have it out by next year.
So, so look at you today.
We have time traveledwith technology today.
I feel like I've beennext to you in Australia.
I feel like we've been having a cupof coffee or a glass of wine together.
Our show is not just about the technicalnature of catching up to FI, it's about
(56:33):
about
the stories of people that have caughtup, have found their true selves,
have found the freedom to explore.
Their next chapter.
You've done that.
Jackie's done that.
I've been doing it a little bit.
I've got a ways to go.
I'm an unfinished product.
But
Tash,
thank you for joining us today,
Thank
Jackie.
This has been awesome.
(56:54):
We will see you next weekon Catching Up to FI.
what happened to me seven yearsago, I was involved in a very nasty.
Head on collision whilstdriving the ambulance.
And this wasn't just an accident, thiswas a deliberate attempt on my partner
in my workplace at the Times Lives.
This gentleman who was a mentalhealth patient hit us at 100
kilometers an hour, which I'mnot sure what that is in America.
(00:23):
It hit us with his lightsoff and hit his head on.
And from that day on,my entire life changed.
I was trapped.
I was busted up in so many areas.
What it actually did was it put me intoa state of severe PTSD and depression,
at the time I was, full of hatred.
(00:44):
I was full of revenge.
I was so angry.
But then as I healed, whatactually happened was.
I shed off all those masks, allthose layers, all that armor that
I've been carrying for 50 years,because that's what we do as humans.
We just keep putting on masks tokeep functioning in a world that
we're not really functioning in.
(01:04):
There's a thing called the core needs,and the top four core needs are certain
safety and comfort, variety and changesignificance and love and connection.
That job gave me all of those,and when I lost that job.
I lost my identity and I lost who I was.
(01:25):
Well, I wanna assureeverybody I'm 57 now and.
I actually am probably the best I've everbeen financially because I changed the
way I looked at money, budgets, finance,superannuation, and where I've prioritize.
And I still have fun and I still dothings for my children and myself.
(01:47):
But the one thing I don't do is I neverbudgeted before and Amy got me onto a
budget, God lover, and it's amazing.
It actually scares you how much.
Silly money you spend thatyou don't need to be spending.
But it's the mindset and it's thelack mentality that keep people stuck
in that I can't move forward mode.
(02:38):
Hello and welcome backto Catching Up to FI.
I am Bill Yount with my beautifuland intelligent and wonderful
co-host Jackie Cumminsky.
We just got back fromthe economy conference.
We had a blast.
I know this is coming out later, butJackie, what were your impressions?
Yeah.
Well, you know, I always love economy.
(03:00):
Part of it's that I'm so close.
I'm only about 45 minutesnorth so I don't have to get a
flight or anything like that.
But it is exactly whatthey say on the website.
It is a party about money and we getto see so many of our friends that
we've gotten to know over the years.
That's how we met.
Right, bill?
The first time we met.
Yeah, we met, five years ago at Economy.
(03:21):
You were one of the first speakers,and I've been going every year since.
It sells out every year now, andit's 500 of your best friends
partying about money and life.
Yeah, so we've talkedabout it often on the show.
So if you haven't gone yet last yearor 2025 sold out very, very quickly,
2026, it'll probably be the same thing.
So if you've thought about going and youwere on the fence make sure you get your
(03:44):
tickets very early, as early as possible.
Book your hotel as early as possible,and a lot of FI . I guess information and
there's breakouts, there's speakers, buthonestly I think you agree with this Bill.
It's a lot of it isabout the social stuff.
Social stuff that you can't get online.
Seeing people in person, hanging outwith them, having breakfast with them,
(04:08):
the social events, drinking a beer.
Those are things that you cannotget online, and I think that
is what's so unique about.
This event and, other PHI eventsthat are in person as well.
So we would love to see more people there.
Yeah, I mean, Diana Miriam putson the show she's done a great
production Every year you can findyour tickets at Econome Conference.
(04:29):
Dot com.
That's economy.
E-C-O-N-O-M-E conference.com.
we have a special surprise for you.
Today we are talking withTash Rogers in Australia.
She's on the Gold Coast, and before we getstarted with her introduction, I want to
highlight a charity that is near and dearto her hearts and she'll tell us about it.
(04:51):
It's called Kids with Cancer,but that's an Australia, so
it's kids with cancer.org.au.
Tash, welcome to the show,but tell us about this charity
and what it means to you.
Hi everyone.
Thank you for having me.
This Kids for Cancer, our Kids withCancer Foundation means a lot to me.
I've had several friendsand some family members.
Unfortunately, either lose theirchildren or have that battle
(05:13):
with cancer at such a young age.
But it has such an impact on notjust the child that's unwell, has
an impact on the entire family.
And this foundation supports RonaldMcDonald House and some other side
hustles, I guess, on the side forthem to be able to help the children,
help the families with financial.
Pressures, Clothing, food, peoplethat are coming from interstate in the
(05:38):
country, regions that have no family.
So these organizations help the wholefamily, not just the child that's unwell.
That's awesome.
We'd like to headlight a charityevery show, and we would encourage
you to donate internationally.
Your giving plan should includenot only United States, but other
folks that need our help as well.
Let me introduce Tash.
(05:59):
Tash Rogers comes to us today from theGold Coast down under in Australia.
I heard Tash speak to a groupof women in one of Amy Caro's
Real Talk Finance's meetups.
Amy is a past guest on the showin episode 18, avocado Toast
and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Tuned back in to that show, one ofthe originals back from two years ago,
she famously said, and I paraphrase.
(06:21):
The emphasis on late starting shouldnot be on late, but on starting.
the proud and only male memberof her women's only platform.
You can find her atwww.realtalkfinance.com.
So as a life coach with expertisein holistic modalities and various
other disciplines, Tash brings awealth of experience to our clients.
(06:42):
career spanning 30 years as a paramedic,she has witnessed firsthand the
challenges and complexities of life.
I can certainly relate to thisas an emergency physician.
She is also intimately familiarwith the effects of trauma.
I. PTSD, having personally navigatedthrough her own healing journey from
childhood trauma and work-related PTSD.
(07:03):
Through this process, she has developeda deep appreciation for the power of
self-discovery, self-compassion, andthe importance of holistic healing.
Drawing on her vast life experience, sheprovides personalized coaching now to help
individuals overcome obstacles, clarifytheir values and achieve their goals.
Whether it's improving relationships,managing stress and anxiety, or finding
(07:24):
greater purpose and fulfillment,she is committed to helping bring
her clients, transform their lives,and realize their full potential.
Her approach is warm,compassionate, and non-judgmental.
I think you'll see that today.
She believes that everyone has thecapacity for growth and positive change.
She is passionate about helping othersdiscover and unleash actually unshackle
(07:45):
their inner strength and resilience.
Tash, welcome to Catch the Up toFI, all the way from down under.
Thank you, bill, and thank you Jackie.
I feel so honored to havebeen invited onto here today.
What an awesome, awesome entering for me.
That was beautiful.
Thank you.
You've made me sound amazing.
Yeah.
Well, it's fascinating.
(08:07):
It's fascinating.
We can't wait to get into.
I
listened to
your webinar and I knew right away thatwe needed to have you on the show because
your perspective, even though it's fromAustralia, resonates with men, women,
and maybe especially women around theworld, and our audience is international.
We need to give a shout out to Canada, New
Zealand, England, and Australia.
(08:28):
We are
very fortunate to havefans all around the world.
I want to give a shout out also to Ruth,the Happy Saver down in New Zealand.
And if you listen to episode fourof our show, you'll find our first
Australian guest late starter fire.
She goes by her first name, Priscilla.
Okay.
I. So we wanna wind this back.
take you back.
(08:49):
We don't know how old you are yet, butmaybe we don't need to because we need
to go back to childhood and there'spotentially sort of a personal and a money
story there that in order for our audienceto understand you, we need to hear about.
So take us through sort of
your early, personal and money journeys.
Okay, so my background, I camefrom Germany, so we came to
(09:11):
Australia when I was two years old.
We were a very, very poor family.
We came over with nothing.
My dad was a bricklayer and mymom was a stay at home mom with,
at that stage three children.
And then a fourth cameabout four years later.
We rented our whole life.
We didn't own anything, so we moved fromplace to place, and we were always at
(09:34):
risk of having to be moved along or out ofthe town that we were wanting to live in.
We lived from week to week andsometimes that didn't even last.
We were sometimes for weeks withoutfood, without, the necessities.
I was always known as the poor kid,which as you can imagine, that set me
up for low self-worth, low self-esteem,and all those years of going through
(09:57):
that really didn't make sense to meuntil the last seven or eight years.
So let's fast forward a bit.
I've spent my whole life.
Lack mentality and not having enough.
And always, when I getenough money, I'll do this.
When I do this, when I do that,rather than look forward and, and
work ways to make it happen, I wouldsit in that pit of not having enough.
(10:21):
So then I pass that on to my children.
So they live in that lack mentality, whichwe're all adjusting now, which is great.
But what happened to me seven yearsago, I was involved in a very nasty.
Head on collision whilstdriving the ambulance.
And this wasn't just an accident, thiswas a deliberate attempt on my partner
in my workplace at the Times Lives.
(10:43):
This gentleman who was a mentalhealth patient hit us at 100
kilometers an hour, which I'mnot sure what that is in America.
It hit us with his lightsoff and hit his head on.
And from that day on,my entire life changed.
I was trapped.
I was busted up in so many areas.
What it actually did was it putme into a state of severe PTSD and
(11:05):
depression, and this is a very condensedstory, shortened, but basically I
ended up in a facility for six monthsand I had deep, deep, deep therapy.
I didn't wanna be here anymore.
I was checking out.
There was nothing left asfar as I was concerned.
I was no longer a paramedic.
I couldn't be who I wantedto be, and I spiraled.
(11:27):
After six months of treatment and mysister, who is a holistic healer and
has Shar and Abilities was helpingme through those healing processes.
And at times they were tough.
They were really tough because wewere having to break some really deep
and dark generational patterns andprogramming and conditioning, which
is where our lack of money comes from.
(11:48):
We are not born with a lack mentality.
It's handed to us.
So after that.
Initial 12 months, I started todo some really, really deep work.
And over the last four years, I've beenrunning my own business now as a trauma
coach, a life coach, a mindset coach.
(12:08):
I work in all areas because Ifeel that other than a few things
in life, I've experienced a lot.
I've experienced poor relationships,abuse, neglect, abandonment, alcoholic
father dysfunction in a family.
Which I teach people now that thoseconditions, those patterns, those
programs are given to you withinthe first seven years of your life.
(12:31):
From nought to seven, weare given a blueprint.
We don't have a choice.
That's what's handed to us.
And like I say to everybody, thisis not a, a parent bashing story.
This is not where we blame anyone.
Our parents did the best that theycould with what they had, and.
As now a mom of three beautifulchildren and two granddaughters, I am
(12:52):
doing everything in my powers to breakthose generational patterns within
my family, and it's working well.
Nothing's perfect.
We're all getting there on differentlevels and different speeds,
but we're all getting there.
The, the thing that I learned the mostabout myself through all the trauma
and breaking down the programs was howlittle I knew about budgeting, finances.
(13:17):
Looking after yourself.
Financial future.
I just used to think, ah, it'll be right.
We'll work it out.
But then when the time comesthat you have nothing and it
hits the fan, you've got nothing.
You've got no reserves, you'vegot nothing there to say.
I've got a buffer.
I've got nothing there to say.
If this happens, I nearly after myaccident, lost my home because being on
(13:40):
workers' comp in Australia isn't great.
They don't support the ambulanceservice like they support the
police and the fire brigade.
We don't get a pension.
We are basically left to suffer,which is why there are so many
broken paramedics out there.
The ambulance do not have anysort of a system in place for
(14:00):
paramedics that fall down, whereasthe police and the fire brigade do.
So they're
responsible
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Wow.
So I'm, I'm hearing you tellyour story, Tash, and it's.
It's just so interesting that yes,you're in another country, but
these life issues and financialissues, they transcend borders.
(14:24):
It doesn't matter.
You
Hmm.
be someone easily that's righthere in the US and you know,
when you were talking about.
That traumatic I guess we'll callit an accident, but you said it, it
was may have been done on purpose.
So after that experience whereyou had the collision, so how long
(14:45):
were you in the hospital before yourecovered enough to come home to
try to put your life back together?
So after the accident, it took aboutsix, well, maybe actually, let's see.
It was about eight monthsbefore I really spiraled.
So for eight months Iwas living this life of.
I was trying to go back to work.
(15:05):
I couldn't put the uniform on.
I couldn't go near a truck.
I had no idea what was going on.
It was horrendous.
And I would just cryand cry, and I was that.
Social queen of the ambulance service.
I was involved in everythingfrom an opening of an envelope
to an opening of a station.
I was there.
That was my world.
So to not be able to functionin that capacity or in that
environment anymore, it spiraled me.
(15:27):
What happened was later in myjourney I figured out why I
spoiled, which I can go to soon.
But after the six months in hospital,I then had a lot of recovery at home.
So then my children, my daughter, whois now 29, she had to care for me.
My sister came and livedwith me for a while.
(15:47):
I lost my relationship because itwas too much stress on the person.
And I look back at that nowand it was just chaos and.
Drama was horrible and wejust couldn't survive in it.
And so that, I lost that.
So I lost my job.
I lost my partner.
I lost my son, my youngest son, he wasoff the rails because mum was broken.
(16:09):
Yeah, so this was a, yeah.
So there was a lot of fallout from anaccident that was not like, we didn't
even have any opportunity to rectifybecause he turned his lights off.
We didn't see him coming and.
It was all just takenaway from me that night.
But having said that, it wasthe best thing that ever,
(16:30):
ever, ever happened to me.
And I can honestly say thatseven years down the track,
Well, you see the, in listening toyour story, there's sort of challenges.
She serial traumas throughout yourlife that started as a young child with
poverty, food, scarcity and
maybe some financial scarcity.
You didn't
have the backstops that a lot of
(16:51):
people have.
And then this pivotal event.
Of a crash, literally a crash
was the fulcrum to majorchanges in your life.
Tell us about those.
How was it
the best thing in your life if it was
Hmm.
Now, at the time I was, full of hatred.
I was full of revenge.
(17:12):
I was so angry.
But then as I healed, whatactually happened was.
I shed off all those masks, allthose layers, all that armor that
I've been carrying for 50 years,because that's what we do as humans.
We just keep putting on masks tokeep functioning in a world that
we're not really functioning in.
There's a thing called the core needs,and the top four core needs are certain
(17:36):
safety and comfort, variety and changesignificance and love and connection.
That job gave me all of those,
and when I lost that job.
I lost my identity and I lost who I was.
So you never went back to beinga paramedic after that accident?
(17:58):
no.
And there was many attempts and I couldnot go, I could not put the uniform on.
Part of my exposure therapy was I had tocarry my uniform around for three weeks.
It was the most distressing thing,which was so bizarre because anybody
that knew me, I had such admiration andI felt so proud to wear that uniform.
So to not be able to step backinto it, it was devastating for me.
(18:22):
But what it did was the best thingthat I've ever, I, I found myself in
all of that healing and all of thattrauma, and in all of the chaos,
I actually found who Tash was.
Tash is no longer a paramedic.
Tash isn't a life coach.
Tash isn't a mum.
Tash is an individual.
Tash is a person who came to this earthand is having a journey, and what it also
(18:46):
gave me was it allowed me to be present.
It allowed me to heal froma lot of childhood trauma.
It allowed me to recognize thepatterns in my financial, my
relationships, my work, my friendshipsof people pleasing, procrastinating.
All those things that we do because weput it down to that's just who he is.
And that is the one thing I say topeople just because that's how that
(19:09):
person is or that's how you are,doesn't mean you have to stay like that.
I have never been somebody whohas been financially abundant
until this all happened for mebecause I changed my mindset.
I changed how I look at money.
I changed how I look at at the way life,you know, things that come into us.
I don't just.
(19:29):
Ignore signs.
I look at things that are going on andI think, okay, what can I control here?
What can't I, what do I focus on?
Where do I put my time,energy, and effort?
And this is where a lotof people get themselves.
So worked up and stressed overfinancial stuff, especially later in
life when we haven't set ourselves up.
(19:50):
They think that's it.
That's over.
Well, I wanna assureeverybody I'm 57 now and.
I actually am probably the best I've everbeen financially because I changed the
way I looked at money, budgets, finance,superannuation, and where I've prioritize.
And I still have fun and I still dothings for my children and myself.
(20:14):
But the one thing I don't do is I neverbudgeted before and Amy got me onto a
budget, God lover, and it's amazing.
It actually scares you how much.
Silly money you spend thatyou don't need to be spending.
But it's the mindset and it's thelack mentality that keep people stuck
in that I can't move forward mode.
(20:34):
And that's what, that's oneof the biggest things I found.
Well, I struggle even stillprobably with mindset.
I mean, I've had my own traumas in life.
I think everybody has whetherit be medical, financial
political, emotional educational.
I mean, both what you and Jackiehave in common is that you came
out of poverty into abundance.
(20:55):
It's, and I find that so inspirational.
I
was a middle class person.
I'm a high income professional.
I didn't have the same strugglesand challenges you had.
I, I don't know whatfood scarcity feels like.
Heck, I'm overweight.
I have a food abundance problem.
Well, we all got alittle bit of that bill.
(21:17):
But it shows me how resilientthe human spirit is.
You know, you may have had more thanyour fair share, but you're such an
optimistic forward-thinking personthat's now giving back to other people,
helping them overcome their traumas.
Tell us a little bitabout that transition.
We
know that you had the crash.
We know that you had a long recovery.
We know that you were in despair.
(21:39):
Heck, maybe you were even suicidal.
We don't
know.
It can
yeah.
can get that
Yeah, a
hundred percent I was, yeah.
So.
What was the, and we talkabout the wake up moment.
What was
the
wake up and how did you start in adifferent trajectory, a different
yeah,
so the wake up moment for me, Iremember this so vividly, I met a
person, so I'd been through the trauma.
(22:01):
I've lost my relationship andI thought I was in quite a well
space, head space to meet someone.
And I had met this man, and that wasin the October 19, and by March April
20, I was nearly back in a hospital.
He was a very, very nasty, no one likesthis word, but narcissistic person.
(22:24):
And that broke me.
That actually nearly did asmuch damage as the trauma did.
And what it did was it, it woke me up.
It put me through this reallydeep trauma and, depression again,
'cause there was abuse again.
And I was like, hang on,I've just gotten out of this.
And what it did was Ibasically call it a rebirth.
It pushed me through a membrane of what Icall, that was the day I had my awakening.
(22:49):
And from there on, I just went on thisspiritual journey and grew and grew and
grew and learned, and learned and learnedmore and more as I was like a sponge.
I was taking in as muchas I could to understand.
The psychology of why I keptattracting these people, what it was
that what, kept me in those places.
So what then happened was within that 12months to 18 months, I then started to get
(23:12):
myself educated in coaching, trauma work,intergenerational trauma, childhood trauma
child work, all the modalities that gowith healing people from early childhood.
'cause most of my clients are.
Probably late thirties, early fortiesthrough to sixties and seventies.
'cause it's our generation thatwas pretty, pretty damaged.
(23:34):
And again, it's not a bashingsession on our parents, it's
just what they were given.
So these patterns and programsare handed to you each generation.
And the best analogy I can give is, Idunno, you if you guys have heard of
Kerwin Ray, did you know Kerwin Ray?
No, explain that to us.
He's a motivation.
(23:54):
Well, he rest in peace.
He actually passed away probably six,12 months ago, but he was one of the
most sought after mo motivationalspeakers here in Australia.
He was amazing.
He came from a lot of darkbackground as well, but he said
that you know, the analogy he usedto give was back in the, you know.
Fifties.
They used to cook a leg of lamband they chop off the ends of
(24:17):
the leg of lamb because theovens at those stages were small.
So what happened?
Each generation, they wouldcut off the ends of the lamb.
But now we have these, nine feetovens and or nine meter or whatever,
however big that is, big ovens.
And they're still cuttingoff the ends of the lamb.
And people are like, why do you do that?
Well, 'cause Grandma did it.
(24:37):
And why did grandma do it?
'cause grandma did it.
So each generation took onwhat grandma did, didn't
matter that things had changed.
They still stayed with what theyknew because people fear the unknown
and people don't like change, andpeople don't like uncertainty.
So what I was so afraid of was becomingthis different version of Tash.
(25:01):
Actually, it's the best versionof Tash that I've ever, ever been.
It's the most authentic I've been.
And don't get me wrong, I still have upsand down days, but I am the person that
knows how to get myself back up again.
And my, decision then was to helpand educate as many people as I
could to reconnect with themselves.
(25:24):
Because we lose ourselves,we disconnect from ourselves.
So we make poor choices.
We end up in toxic relationships.
We stay in workplaces that don't serve us.
So what I do in my unshackled programnow is I help educate people on
their psychology, their boundaries,their self-awareness, their emotional
intimacy, their epigenetics,their internal family systems.
(25:47):
There's so many mod somany pillars that I cover.
Because there's so many areasthat affect how we heal.
That's amazing because I'm in thehealthcare field and it's not a
very healthy place to work sometimes
because you're dealing with.
So much that's overwhelming.
As a paramedic, I respect the workyou've done because you deal with
(26:11):
uncontrolled situations and uncontrolledhealthcare issues and you bring them
to the hospital, which to me is a muchmore controlled environment, is still
uncontrolled in the emergency department.
Absolutely.
dealt with is taking an absolute messand getting it to a hospital where we
take it to the next level.
And I can only imagine, I. The traumayou experienced in what you saw
(26:34):
in the real world that most peopledon't see, and it just accumulates.
It really accumulates and it it doesn'tsound like it led to burnout in you
though, which I find fascinating.
Why,
well, it did.
So the icing on the cake was the accident.
So prior to the accident, I hadthree major assaults whilst on duty,
and I just kept saying, I'm right.
(26:56):
I'm not letting them stop me.
I'm not letting them stop me.
I'm not letting these mentalhealth patients stop me.
I'm still going.
I'm Tash, I'm strong.
Tash was breaking.
Tash was at breaking point.
And I remember on the day of theaccident, I remember saying to my
partner who I was working with.
I can't do this anymore.
I'm exhausted.
I actually can't do this anymore.
(27:16):
And I'm a big believer in theuniverse gives us signs and if
you don't listen, they'll get you.
And sure enough, that night,that was the biggest slap for me.
And I do remember a girlfriendrang me after the third assault
and said, Tash, you gotta stop.
You've gotta get off the road.
Like the next one's gonna be a big hit.
And I said, don't be ridiculous.
Nothing's gonna happen.
(27:37):
And.
10 weeks later it was, and it was the slapthat I needed and it was what stopped me.
And my burnout was the depression,the suicidal, that's what
put me into the hospital.
I just did not, did notwanna be here anymore.
And I was the most judgmentalperson when it came to that thought
process at work, because I waslike, how could you leave people?
(27:59):
How could you not think aboutyour children and your family
and all the loved ones?
But when you're in thatdeep state of depression.
You don't think of anyone else.
You just want the pain to stop.
You want every, and I now have awhole new appreciation for mental
health, which is why I wanna helpas many people and educate them.
And Bill, what you were just sayingbefore, if you don't mind me sharing
(28:21):
this about that, the chaos and thedrama and everything we used to see
at work that was familiar to me.
What was familiar to me was chaos,unpredictable abuse, trauma.
Ups and downs, emotions.
Not sure what you'rewalking into eggshells.
Like that was normal.
That was my familiar, eventhough it's wrong and it's
(28:43):
terrible, that was my familiar.
So I felt comfortable in that And peopleused to say, Tash, how do you do this?
You're such a kind, soft person.
You are an empath.
That's why it worked.
'cause it filled all those thingsthat I didn't get as a child.
Significance, love varietyand change security.
I knew what I was walking into every day.
(29:05):
So the day it stopped waswhen I crashed and burned.
'cause I didn't have my familiar.
That's interesting becauseI feel the same way.
Mm-hmm.
I was the emergency.
Oldest child in my family, there werea lot of emergencies and I tended to be
the one to have to take care of them.
I'm a child of divorce andit was not necessarily the
(29:27):
easiest family to grow up in.
And I migrated from being the oldestson that was parentified too early
to an emergency physician thatdealt pretty much with the same
thing at a dif at a different level.
So I really resonatewith what you just said.
Yeah, it makes sense whenyou understand the psychology
Yeah.
I,
toss.
(29:47):
So I wanna talk a little bit about yourfinancial life during this transition.
So after the accident,
yeah.
said that you did not have apension like law enforcement
does.
So how does a pension work in Australia?
So in Australia, after a certain age,you, and if you don't have enough
(30:09):
assets or you haven't got a, a home orthings like you are entitled to have a
pension within the emergency services.
The new South Wales Police andFire Brigade are both looked
after by the government.
The New South Wales ambulanceisn't, 'cause it's privately
owned, we don't get a pension.
So what happens?
(30:30):
So most police and fire brigadethat or get medically discharged,
they have, I think it's like75% of their wage paid to them.
We get nothing.
And what happened with me wasyou get a work cover, which
is like, it's ridiculously lowfor what you are used to be.
Being paid, and that's supposed tocover mortgages and, daily expenses, all
(30:52):
your utilities, car, food, everything.
And you get to the stage where if youdid have any savings, it would dwindle.
Then what would happen is you'deither go back to work too
soon and you weren't ready.
And it's just a snowball.
So for me, I was fortunateenough to, again.
Good lesson.
(31:13):
I didn't take any sick leave.
I didn't take annual leave very often.
I had so much up my sleeve to use.
So although I didn't get the sickleave back because we don't get
that reimbursed once you are off.
But I had a lot of longservice and annual leave.
That's probably what saved me till mycourt case was over, and that's the only
(31:33):
thing that saved me from losing my home.
So was any of this moneythrough your So was
no, no, this was just work cover.
This was just through the the companythat ensures the ambulance service.
They pay you a small amount of money.
were you saving on your own at this time?
(31:53):
I
mean, we have, a direct contributionplan called a 401k, which is
the, you know, the umbrella.
Under which hopefully as manypeople as possible in the United
States save for their retirement.
But honestly, 40% of peoplewould be in poverty without
social security in our country.
So
that is the true safety net.
You know, you said you didn't budget.
(32:14):
Were you saving for this futureself through these 30 years?
Had you been planningfor your future self?
Had you been doing anything to organizeyour own money or manage your money?
My, my ex-husband was, and he didit well until we broke up, which
was a few years before the accident,and I didn't do it as well as him.
So that
Okay,
lesson.
(32:34):
He, he still,
a big lesson at the timeof my divorce as well.
yeah.
I feel you there.
So, so I guess I, it sounds like to me,this benefit that you were getting, you
know, when you were off it, it soundslike it was similar to our version
bill of like disability insurance.
Yeah,
were paying you, they were paying you,
(32:55):
not, not as much as you were making, but a
portion since you were out of work andyou couldn't work for medical reasons.
Yep.
So it was a very small amount.
It was a basic what you startedas when you were a level one
paramedic, and that was like
$400 a week.
So $800
a fortnight does not coverpeople's mortgages food
(33:17):
bills, daily living children.
So when you are used to gettingsomewhere between two and $3,000
a fortnight, dropping it down toeight hundred's, a big difference.
And so what did you do to bridge the gap?
I had to put in all like what's the word?
Claim, all my annual leave.
Claim everything that wassitting there in case.
(33:38):
'cause I didn't know at that stagewhether I was gonna be leaving or not.
I had to use that because Iwould've, I would've lost my home.
And I just, the, the court case took,even though this man was charged and he
was at fault and all of those things,I still had to wait five years for a
very horrendous court case to finish
Oh wow.
I was gonna ask you how longthat took, 'cause I know it
five years.
(33:59):
So it sounds like you did have somemoney built into an employer plan
that you were able to pull out of, to
It's, it's just what we call our annualleave and our long service leave.
So long
you had not saved,anything for retirement.
You were just getting thefinancial equivalent of this
leave that you had sitting there.
Okay.
(34:19):
yeah.
I was still living, I, I wentafter the divorce 'cause I wasn't
very good at the budgeting.
I went back to a, a program I knewand that was living from week to week,
Okay.
was terrible.
earlier a, a, a superannuation
Mm-hmm.
we don't understand thatterm in the United States.
Can you explain whatsuperannuation is in Australia?
Yeah, so superannuation is where apercentage of your money is taken
(34:43):
out of each wage and put intoanother superannuation department,
and that gets put away each week oreach pay till, I think it's over 60
now here, or 65 in Australia, andyou can't touch it until that age.
So it's, it's a littlenest egg for when you're.
And if you're smart with superannuation,it's a good little nest egg when
(35:04):
you're, when you're finished.
But it's, it's not all I dunno if itis now, but it wasn't compulsory when
I started working back in the eighties.
But I always had super, so I do have superand part of my payout with the accident,
I put a big lump sum into the super sothat I, as I get older, it's there for me.
Is that managed by the government then?
(35:26):
There's different ones.
There's government and there's private,
so,
you weren't working for anemployer at the time, you were
able to put money into your No.
no, no.
Once, once you're not working.
That stopped unless I had a,another amount of money coming
in to put into the soup.
So as soon as the ambulanceservice cut me off my
(35:48):
super stops.
Yeah.
it was through the ambulance company.
It's who they chose.
Yeah.
But you can, opt to go outtathat and do a private one.
okay?
depends what you want.
You do get choices.
But once I was outta the ambulance, youhad to then find your own money to put
in, whereas they would, you could actuallyput your own in and they would contribute.
(36:09):
I think it was 3%
they would
give you a match.
'cause that's very similar in the us
Most of the time there is anemployer match, you put in a certain
amount and then they'll match you.
But once you were no
longer an employee of theirs,we have something that's.
coupled with an employer that you couldalways do even when you're employed.
So you started doing it on yoursaving on your own at that point.
(36:31):
so this was obviouslyafter the settlement.
Once you got
I had a little bit left from the annualleave and that, 'cause there was a
lot of long service and annual leave.
So I then.
Was smart enough to put that aside.
So what I needed to do was I paidparts of the mortgage and or not, not
off, but enough to keep me going, andthen I would have that buffer there
(36:51):
because I never wanted to be in thatsituation again, where I was at risk of
losing the only thing I had left thatfelt normal to me, which was my home.
That begs the question actuallyabout financial education.
Jackie is a, a financial educator.
We now have 26 states that requirefinancial education in our high schools.
What is the status of financialeducation in the schools in Australia?
(37:13):
There is none.
None.
No.
And this is, yeah.
This is stuff people need to know.
we, we should be
Yeah.
I mean, they do e economics and theydo things like that, but when it
comes down to everyday basic, it'sthe same as me saying children need
to learn what I teach at a young age.
(37:34):
Because this is where peoplebecome stuck in the wrong type of
relationships, friendships, workplaces.
They, you know, are forced todo something they don't wanna do
because they don't know that theyhave a right to say, actually, I'd
like to do something different.
These are the things that people needto be taught at school, like finances.
what I am passionate about, generallife stuff that gets them through.
(37:57):
I understand all the other stuff.
These are things that help childrenand, you are now saying that you, how
many schools do you need to speak in?
37? Did you just say youspeak in 37 different schools
26 different schools.
2026 and, and breaking news Bill.
There is now a 27thstate as of March, 2025.
(38:19):
Kentucky is the newest state thatnow requires personal finance.
I. In
Wow.
from high school.
So high schoolers are gettingthis and keep adding on state so
it's going in the right direction.
But yeah, it's always interesting to hearhow other countries are doing it, so they
don't require that in high schools in
(38:40):
Australia.
No, and when.
a wake up personally, professionally,and financially because without the
settlement, hadn't had the accident,you could have been financially
devastated in your retirement, correct?
Hundred percent.
A hundred percent and I'd still be workingin a job that was breaking me down.
This happens a lot in ourlate starter population.
(39:01):
yeah.
sort of the golden handcuffs youknow, where you get stuck in a job
you don't wanna do and you're burnedout because you haven't planned.
And the wake up.
Is always a trauma.
There's always some trauma, whether itbe divorce an accident like in your case.
And then the light, in thedarkest day, the light shines.
Right?
(39:22):
And that sounds like what happened to you.
Absolutely.
you're at a very different place.
How many years after this happened?
This is it was 2017, soit'll be eight years in May.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Thank you.
you know, it's interesting thatyou should say that Bill because.
The thing I'm trying to teachpeople is don't wait for a trauma.
(39:44):
Don't wait for a life changing event.
You have the ability tochange all of this now.
And, amy's was a speaker on myprogram and the women in my group
got so much from the financial advicebecause we don't get that here.
Wow.
She was amazing.
She and she got, you know,clients out of it because people
loved what she had to share.
(40:05):
And that's what this is all about,helping people at these stages in life.
And I've got women in the programthat's just finished, that have changed
careers in the age of, you know, midfifties selling homes because they're
finally doing things that they wanna do.
Moving out to different areas, buyingtravel mobile homes so that they can,
you know, go and look around, travel andinvestigate and see the, see the world.
(40:29):
Because they finally have a new mindset.
They finally see that they're not stuckin this box that is called, society.
So it's not too old to change anything.
Well, our life is a bitabout habits and the habits.
As you say, epigenetics areformed early in our life.
And whether it be financial,
personal, relational as you mentionedtoo, with regards to attracting
(40:52):
the wrong people, attractingthe wrong habits with money.
And I agree with you, you can changehopefully the wake up call isn't as
painful as to what you went through.
But generally there is an instigation.
I, I didn't have anything traumaticother than the fact that I turned 50
and realized nobody's gonna save me.
I've gotta save myself.
I finally met my future selfand said, I'm not ready for you.
(41:15):
I gotta show up.
I gotta catch up.
And that's why we call thisprogram Catching Up to Fi.
Do you feel like you were behind and
Ah.
you caught up?
Absolutely.
I, I was behind in, in nearlyevery aspect of my life.
That's what I mean when yousaid, why is this the best thing?
It's changed every aspect of my life.
There's not one thing that is theold, and it's all been worth it.
(41:39):
It's all been, you know,it's been a domino effect.
It's affected all the peoplein my life and don't, don't get
me wrong, growth isn't easy.
Growth is very hard, butit's so rewarding, So.
rewarding.
I need to ask a question aboutforgiveness I think forgiveness is
a very empowering personal trait.
(42:00):
Did you forgive the personthat crashed into you
yeah.
you forgive yourself for not beingready for the next phase of your life?
I forgave myself a lot of times,but the day I knew Bill, that
I was well was the day I couldsit there and thanked this man.
I actually sat there andthanked him not to his face.
(42:20):
I thanked him.
He gave me my life back.
He actually gave me my life back,
well, and Taj, I think it's beautifulthe way that you are now manifesting
all of your trauma and pain in a waythat you're wanting to help others.
Because when you go through somethinglike that you can either repeat
(42:40):
it, you know, when you go throughtrauma, you can e either repeat it
or you can do just the opposite.
Hmm.
You're doing just the oppositeand you're trying to help many
other women to do the same thing.
So I think that's extraordinarythat like Bill said, that was, quite
you know, a wild ride you had togo through to get to that point.
But, but you're here and you're helpingso many other people, so you've a lot
(43:03):
of years to do a lot of good and I'm
That's my intention.
Do you know, I, I, work with men as well.
It's not just women I
Oh, you work with, okay.
I,
Yeah,
I assumed women.
Well, you
yeah.
Probably 'cause of Amy.
know, I'm, I'm thinkingof Amy's where she,
okay.
Amy has women.
Okay.
So, so yeah, you do
Yeah.
(43:23):
and, and, and I guess tell us alittle bit more about your life
coaching and the work that you
Yeah.
now.
So now my life coaching consistsof, I still do one-on-one, but
I tend to be doing more programwork and that's facilitating
it's usually a one night a week.
And the last program Idid was a 12 week program.
(43:43):
The next one I'll do will probablybe eight weeks because I've
rec recognized I can fit somemodality some pillars in together.
I would love to be doing morepodcasts and like I said, I'm
gonna start my own podcast and.
I think Jackie, I'vedone this my whole life.
I've always been the person peoplecome and talk to and, and you know,
(44:05):
that's probably what got me to dothis because people will say, why
don't you do something with it?
Like, you do it anyway.
You might as well go get paid for it.
You might go and, and when I startedto really, you know, research and
do the work and do the training,and I've spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars on retrainingmyself, has been worth every cent.
This is the thing people don't understand.
(44:26):
The money that you putinto yourself pays off
Yeah,
I was gonna say, how
do you even, What training and whattype of of education and stuff that
you, what do you have to do to prepareyourself to be a life coach for others?
Because that sounds like sucha big, heavy thing to do.
How do you get the knowledge and the
(44:49):
training
that
you need
in
order to do
that
type
of work?
So.
Firstly lived and life experience,actually going through the healing
process, doing the modalities, doingthe hard work, embodying what you teach.
That's the first thing.
The second thing is I went to a training,like a an institute for coaching.
I went there for a couple of years.
(45:10):
I had a really good mentor and coachmyself, and he took me through so many
different processes and the rest is.
I sign up to anythingthat's gonna help me.
I sign up anything that's gonna give mea certificate to help with healing, help
with childhood trauma, inner a childwork, even the stuff with Amy, I really
(45:31):
started to look into that, like how Ican help people down the finance track.
I know I can direct them to Amy, but Iwanted to have a bit of an understanding.
It's basically.
Just whatever your passion is, getas much information as you can.
I listen to podcasts all day.
I listen to you know YouTubevideos of different speakers or
(45:52):
different modalities or differentlike tapping and things like that.
I will research anything that'sgonna help me to help my clients.
But it's, it's the programs and look,the coaching you, you've got it.
You've gotta, you've gotta warpsome of that fire to understand
what some people go through.
'cause there is no point insitting there saying to someone,
(46:15):
yeah, I understand that.
I understand that, but you have no idea.
But you actually have no, like tosit there and say, I can understand.
And like Bill just said before,he didn't grow up like you
and I. He can't understand.
No money, no food, no love, no.
All these things we can, you can,yeah, certainly you can empathize
with someone, but we actually feel it.
(46:36):
That's,
yeah.
Well, it's kind of like beingthe alcoholic that helps
other alcoholics, right?
They've gone to the bottom of their pit.
They've climbed back out of itand they recognize how much work
is required in getting there.
And so they are some of the times, some ofthe best ones that can help their fellow
man or woman you know, dig out of that pitthat they've dug for themselves as well.
(46:57):
That that's what you're doing.
That's what Jackie's doing.
Heck,
yeah.
you know,
she didn't necessarily have a trauma.
She retired and then she,that lit her fire literally
as she fired or and retired.
And now she's changing theworld with financial education.
And I'm honored.
I. To be sitting here in thispodcast with both of you.
These are the kinds of peoplewe get to talk to in this show.
(47:19):
How lucky am I?
How
of a difference does it make inmy life to have dug out of my
pit and found the inner DJ in me?
That was
like Bill used to be a
If you didn't know
the,
the answer
to
your
problems
is
almost
always
staring
you
in
the
face.
Always.
(47:39):
Yeah.
Yep.
Always.
And I think what people don'trealize, and that is the one thing
we teach in coaching, everyone hasa different filter, a different
lens, a different map of the world.
So what happened to you andwhat happened to you may be
similar, but it's not the same.
And we have to not project what we thinkand feel and our bias onto someone else.
We have to allow them to speak andlet them get out what they need.
(48:02):
And then what we do with coaching iswe just, we direct them to go forward.
One thing I do not like, and Ilived this with my own trauma,
was talk therapy does not work.
You talk and talk and talk, itkeeps you stuck in the situation.
And what we do with coachingor my type of coaching is.
(48:23):
I help you break down whatthe, the issue is, then we
work out a way to move forward.
We get to the root cause of the problem.
We don't just sit down andkeep talking about the event.
'cause the event just keeps you stuckin that emotional, psychological,
physiological space and that is unhealthy.
So my coaching, I've been known topeople say, I am tough but with love.
(48:46):
And I do it because I know ifyou sit there, you get stuck, you
become a victim, and then you have.
Just, you don't get theresults and the benefits.
So I don't ask anyone to do anything.
I haven't done myself.
You you absolutely have.
And I, and I love that you're a lifelonglearner and, you know, formal education
is, great, but you know, I can, speakingfor myself as well, So much of what
(49:12):
you learn is from you experiencingit and you've got a ton of that.
And then it's also how in our minds dowe take a moment to even process that?
Because until we do it, it's hardfor us to say, okay, now I can kind
of figure out how this happened.
In order to help other people.
(49:32):
And then you go, digging and,bill, I see this a lot in you too.
Bill doesn't have a CFP, butsome days when we're talking to
our guests, I feel like you do.
So you, bill, you've learned a turnon your own based on your experience.
I have done the same thing,even though I might have my
CFP and I went back and get my,
I, I
tell everyone, I retired myselfbefore I did any of that.
(49:55):
And I
knew 80% of what I needed toknow by just doing it on my own.
And it was the other stuff thatkind of got me over the hill.
But
I, I love that, you know, you have somuch experience and you have deeply
about that In a way that you're able to.
Share with your clients and others.
(50:18):
And that is just so valuable.
Like you cannot underestimate the valuethat that brings when you're doing
the type of work that you're doing.
Well toss,
I believe you when you say talk therapydoesn't work because I was lecture
daddy and my kids didn't learn anything.
about finance.
Yeah.
He was
lecture
daddy
And, and I'd, I'd rather be known aslistening daddy, because listening
(50:39):
is a skill that's hard learned andhard to do, and it helps you get
to the root cause of things wherepeople help solve their own problems.
Here I am sounding like a therapist, but
Yeah, yeah.
Well, we all have a story and we justmet a gentleman named Azu, who will
hopefully be on the show at Economy whois a teacher of eighth graders and every
eighth grader that was in his classleft the class, an author, a published
(51:03):
author, because they had a story to tell.
You have a story to tell.
I have a story to tell.
I think you have a book in the making.
Do you not?
Because
I do.
your story
is
so
inspirational.
Tell
us
about
your
book.
Well you'll laugh at this and itwon't make, it will not surprise you.
After what I just lost on the bio Ihad written, I think it was 90,000
(51:26):
words or something and I couldn'tfind it and I was devastated.
'cause it was a new laptop.
I found it the other night because I waslooking for something to send to you.
That's how I found it.
So now I can get back into itand it is basically going to
be a book on my story, my bio.
That's incredible.
Guess what?
(51:47):
Meeting us in the states getting
getting prepared
for this podcast, a lost90,000 word book was found
Yeah.
Hidden
Treasure,
and
now
your
journey
continues.
Isn't
that
interesting?
And that's the one thing you justmentioned before, the stories and I.
The thing that people get stuck onthere is this thing called gatekeepers,
which is our stories, our beliefs,our values, and our our identity.
(52:10):
Our stories form our beliefs.
So what happens when you believesomething, you will look for as much
evidence to support your belief system,even if it's not serving you right?
And that's where people getstuck in the money situation.
Their belief is thatmoney's too hard to come by.
Money doesn't grow on trees.
I haven't got enough for this.
I can't do that.
That's not gonna happen.
I. That belief system was given tothem, and it might not have been by the
(52:34):
parents, it might been by someone atschool, a coach, a teacher, or whatever.
As in sporting coach, the beliefsthen form their values and then their
value then gives them their identity.
And this is a major thing that wedo in the coaching world, is break
those stories to help them retell astory, make a new story, which forms
(52:55):
new beliefs, which forms new values,and gives you a whole new identity.
So that was the otheranswer to my coaching.
Well,
think that is actually a greatplace to close this show.
Those are great thoughts to end on.
on.
I wanna thank you for joiningus all the way from down under.
It is a pleasure to meet you.
(53:16):
I really hope to meet you in person whenI make my trek my, what is it called?
My
walkabout
down to that Australia.
Well, I'm actually on the Sunshine Coast,which is two hours up from the Gold Coast.
You are welcome here anytimeyou do come this way.
So I have a quick
about your location.
How close are you to Bali?
(53:37):
Isn't that pretty
close
to
Bali?
So we are a six hour flight to Bali.
Okay.
Okay.
I knew that it was semi six hours.
Yep.
Yep.
Oh, wow.
That's a lot farther than I
Well, she may not know.
She may not know what you'retalking about, Jackie.
Maybe you should tell her.
I'm going, I'm going
Bali.
I will be speaking in Bali.
There is something calledPhi Freedom Retreat,
(54:00):
and
it will be in Bali,Indonesia in September.
And I just remember Amy saying
that.
Australia's close.
'cause I think her partnerher fiance is Australian.
Now, obviously Australia is a big country.
So where you live, it sounds like
it's
further away from Bali than
other parts.
(54:21):
No, it's it's about a six hour flight.
So up the coast you've got NewSouth Wales than Queensland.
I've actually just moved from NewSouth Wales up here to Queensland.
So it's a six, six and a half hourmaximum flight from any of these airports.
And my son actually was living inBali, so I used to go over them a lot.
Oh,
look
at them.
Well, maybe we, we encourage You to go
(54:42):
visit
them in Bali.
Yeah,
Yeah.
he's back here now.
He's down on the Gold Coast.
But it's funny that you should say youyou're gonna Bali for a tour because I've
just been invited to Miami, Florida forthe International Women's Conference.
Ooh, I think you'll enjoy that.
So I tell you what this world is.
it,
it's much smaller than what I saw it whenI was a kid, and pretty much anywhere
(55:08):
you wanna go, you can get on a flight
and
be there within a day.
You know, even clear across the world,So, and we have so much in common,
probably more in common than we havedifferent, there's cultural and, you know,
environmental things and, experienceswithin different countries, but wow.
People's feelings, who they are,finances, , trauma, all these life
(55:32):
experiences.
Doesn't matter where you're from.
So that's why we were soexcited to talk about you today.
'cause you've got a slightlydifferent lens, but, you know,
your story sounds very familiar.
I res it.
A lot of it resonates with me.
A lot of it resonates withBill as a physician and a lot
of our, our late starters,
you
we hear those things all the time.
(55:52):
So we appreciate you being so
and so transparent and sharing your story
with
us, and we're lookingforward to the book now.
What was the name of the book again?
I haven't got one yet.
Okay.
We haven't gotten one yet.
But we know it's gonna be about your
and any idea when it might
be released?
Any target dates?
Well, now that I, now that I'vefound it, I think get back into it
(56:13):
and look, my, my goal would, I'dlove to have it out by next year.
So, so look at you today.
We have time traveledwith technology today.
I feel like I've beennext to you in Australia.
I feel like we've been having a cupof coffee or a glass of wine together.
Our show is not just about the technicalnature of catching up to FI, it's about
(56:33):
about
the stories of people that have caughtup, have found their true selves,
have found the freedom to explore.
Their next chapter.
You've done that.
Jackie's done that.
I've been doing it a little bit.
I've got a ways to go.
I'm an unfinished product.
But
Tash,
thank you for joining us today,
Thank
Jackie.
This has been awesome.
(56:54):
We will see you next weekon Catching Up to FI.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.