She's On The Money - 280926 money diary

Episode Date: September 27, 2026

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblit. I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. T. Glynianganya. Neenakakakya. Neenakana, you've been aikarumja, Duma, Duma'a, Duma'a, Ithawakken, Nitaamun, Amalan. Mimala. Hello, beautiful friends.

We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge, and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today. take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's On the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast that lets you be purvy about other people's money stories for educational purposes, of course.

Welcome back to another one of our money diaries brought to you by our friends from SkyWalth, where I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with one of our incredible She's on the Money community members and talking to them all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's on the Money. My husband and I bought our first home at 19 and our family home 15 years ago. Through hard work, disciplined saving and avoiding debt like car loans and credit cards, we became mortgage-free by 41. without any family help or any windfalls. We've always played it safe financially, but now we're at a crossroads. With retirement on the horizon, we know it's time to make our money work harder, yet we're really unsure about where to start. We've just opened to shares his account for myself and our 12-year-old

son, and we'd love to learn how cautious savers can confidently become smart investors. We also travel a lot instead of buying fancy things, we go on trips. Money direct, What the heck in this economy, you became mortgage free at 41? Yes, we did. Yes. That is crazy cool work. Yeah. So if I asked you to give your money habits a grade from A through to F, what grade

would you give them? I thought probably a B minus. All right. Happy to, I mean, I don't know, you don't have a mortgage. Yeah. But tell me a little bit more about your money story. Where does it start? Probably.

I'll see you about this yesterday. So growing up, my parents, we always owned businesses. My dad got right into investing in the property market probably when I was like an early teenager. So I sort of was always watching what he was doing. We also, we did, my dad bought and sold a lot of houses all the time. So we're always moving house every couple of years. And he was always taking risks financially to try and he basically, he wanted to be rich and he kept just doing stuff for us to become rich, which meant usually it was selling houses. We also owned, he owned businesses. So my brother and I, we were always told to work hard for stuff. So if we wanted something we would work, I was thinking one of my first things I did, I remember school holidays when I was

about 12, I wanted a Roxy bikini from the local surf shop. So, really. So, really. relatable. I worked all school holidays to get my Roxy bikini, which was about... And you got it? I did. Yes. Do you remember what it looked like? Because like, I'm pretty sure you could describe it to a T, right? Tell me about it. It was black. It was just a black triangle bikini. And I had like the Roxy love part of a... Oh, it was very important to have the logo. Yeah. Yeah. I had a Roxy bikini as well. And that was my very first bikini because my mom didn't let me wear one until I turned 16. I had to wear one pieces until then. And my Roxy Bikini was red,

polka dots, and it had white frills all around the edge. And I just remember thinking that was the coolest thing in the entire world. Yes. Like you triggered such a memory for me. I was like, oh, I remember my Roxy Bikini for sure. It was such a big deal for us back then. Absolutely. So tell me more.

What happened next? So I met my. now husband when I was 18, so we just finished school. And my husband actually worked for my parents in one of their businesses. So we used to manufacture souvenirs. Yeah. And then they were like, okay, he passes the recruitment process. Yeah. My mom actually was the one who pushed me to go on a date with him. So she was, yeah. Which is so funny because you don't expect that 22 years later or 23 years later, would still actually be together. Well, mum wasn't wrong, was she?

She was not wrong at all, no. No. I love that. And I just, I love love so much. So whenever people are like, oh, I met my partner and I'm like, no, no, no, tell me more. I want to know the gosh. Like, it's always so cute, especially when you've been together for so long. Like, it's just so sweet.

Yeah. Yeah. And he was, because he worked for my parents and his best friend worked for my parents too. So we all became friends. He's now, his best friends still married to his wife. and that as well. So it's very cute. It's very wholesome, isn't it? Yes. Oh my goodness. All right. So I need to backtrack slightly. You said my dad was always trying to get rich. Yeah. Spoiler, did he ever get rich? Oh, he's done all right. Oh, good, good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because like the hustle is real. Yeah. Yeah. And so we kind of never knew anything

different. We just like, we were always working hard to get rich. And I think from that really, young age. That's what made my then boyfriend and I interested in buying property because we saw my dad do it. Yeah, it was role-modeled, which makes it so much easier because you're like, oh, that's all you do, is it? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So my husband worked for my dad, obviously, and he saw it as well. So my dad kind of mentored us on how we could buy our first property together when we were 19. Oh, my goodness, 19. And so we've gone from saving for a Roxy Bikini. Yeah. And we had to work all. summer and like then jump you're still a teenager but you bought a house yes yes so did you have to

change your values from being like oh i want stuff to i want a house or like was it a situation where you just hustled and i don't know finally got a deposit together what did that look like yeah so i was thinking about i'm very fortunate because at the time it was much easier to get into property so i'm not going to discount that now because i know it's definitely harder for people But I suppose when we were at that age or our friends were trying to buy new cars or do other stuff and we thought, no, we want to buy a house. And finally, we saw my dad would buy a house and then use the equity to buy whatever else he wanted next. So probably our values were different than we were like, I wanted to go live overseas. That was my biggest dream and I knew I needed to save up about 20 grand to do that.

So instead, we saved up and bought a house or a unit and we bought the crappiest unit in the world. It looked like we lived in a retirement village. It was full of old people. It was super, yeah, old run down kind of place, but it had a low body corporate and it was in a good area on the Gold Coast. So we bought that for $135,000. Oh my goodness. I am so envious. If you'd like to sell it for 135. I'm buying. I'm getting in it recently. We looked at it recently. We're like, yeah, no, that's like around 700 now. That's crazy work. But also, I think it's such a good mindset, right? Because I buy properties with my clients literally every day. And it's such a mindset to get people out of sometimes that they need the biggest and the best to begin with, especially if you're young.

Yeah. But clearly buying the worst house on a good street in a good area actually does pay off. But sometimes you're just like, oh, I don't really want to live. Like, that's not my dream house. Yeah, exactly. But it's a stepping stone to the next level. Yeah, yeah. And for me, it was that I wanted to go and travel. And my dad was like, you need to get into property first and then go do it.

And that's exactly what we did. Yeah, we were quite fortunate as well because you only needed a 5% deposit. We had the $7,000 home owners grant or first home buyers grant. We saved for about two years and then got. into that, or probably not even that long, probably a year and a half and bought that property when we moved in the day before my husband turned 20. Oh my goodness. And then no longer a teenager. No, no, straight into the real world. Started adulthood with a property. I love this for him. So what happens next? You move into the retirement village, let's call it. Yep. And then we live there

for a couple of years and then we did the travelling. So then we were able to rent our house out. and that I suppose that set us up so that we could go do the young backpacker thing. We lived in Canada and then we lived in the UK and traveled a lot while our house was being rented out back at home. So you got to do all of this while owning a property? Yes. Oh my goodness. Yeah.

It's pretty cool when you put it like that. Yeah. Like, sorry, when I put it, I haven't changed the story. My friend, I just told you what you did. You're like, actually, yeah, we did. That was cool. Yeah. Yeah, and then while we were traveling, like, we still had this, you know, we had a mortgage over our heads, but at the same time, it gave us that freedom to know that the property was rented out. The rent was covering the mortgage. We had to save money before we went to make sure that we did have enough money to always cover it. But it kind of helped us and also fund our travels. So we knew that we could come home and have a home to go back to. But we were able to do the traveling young person thing at the.

same time as well. Which is absolutely incredible and I know that some people are going to be listening and being like, oh my God, well, we couldn't do that now. But you still can. I'm not saying it's perfect and I'm definitely not saying it's easy. But I have literal clients who live overseas and they are, you know, much younger than me and they are purchasing property and then getting out of the country to go and work in London because they're like, I really want to do that. And you would look at them in London and be like, oh, like they're wasting, you know, so much money. But because they're living in, one of my clients calls their scummy sharehouse. Yeah.

But they own two apartments back here. And like it's just they're making their lives work. And I know that it feels a little bit out of reach for a lot of people right now. But with the right advice, with the right, you know, structure. And I guess, I know people don't like hearing this. But also lowering your expectations of what your dream property looks like to maybe a unit on the outskirts where your neighbors are definitely retirees. Yeah.

And that's okay because that's the stepping home. And I know I know the story is coming because I read it. Like your dream home is coming up. But tell me what happens next. Okay. So we, yeah, we did the overseas thing. We lived in the sharehouses and did all of that kind of stuff, all the fun things. And then we came home, probably was still rented out.

So when we got back home, we lived with my parents for a little while. saved more money. We've actually never had a rental property in our lives. We've always lived in places we've owned. That's so cool. Yeah. So if we ever had to rent a place, we have no rental industry. I wouldn't rent to you. No, no. Red flag. Yeah. And then so we basically, when we got home, we knuckled down again, saved up. We wanted to buy a bigger home. We sold our first little unit to buy our house. And I think it's coming up to 16 years that we've lived in this house. But we had quite a small mortgage because we'd done all right out of the first property. So we moved into our house with about a $375,000 mortgage, I think.

I mean, back then the house was about $500,000 to buy. And we've lived there ever since. So cool. And it just makes me so happy because like now at your schedule of 42, Like, you're actually just like, we're a bit confused, but like in a really good position. Yeah. Like, we don't know what's next. So now you've lived there 16 years. What's happened in that 16 years? Did you get married?

You had some babies. Yeah. So we got married. I think we've been together for 10 years when we got married. And we, what do we do? I've changed careers. I originally used to work in an accounts department, like working in hours and accounts payable officer for years.

But I always wanted to do a creative career. career. So I changed careers. My husband works for Enerjects. He's an electrician. So he's done a few courses and stuff and brought himself up there as well. We did have some hard stuff happen in our lives. We went through IVF for quite a while to have our son. So that financially put us back a fair bit. We thought I'd hate to know how much we spent on IVF. It's just one of those moments where you're like, you know what, let's just like bury our heads in the sand about that. Let's not talk about it. We never ever added that up. But also, I'm so glad that that process ended successfully for you because it's just, it's so hard to think you were throwing so much money at it and then what if it didn't

work? My goodness. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So we have one little boy who's now 12. And then actually, funnily enough, the day before I found out I was pregnant after going through IVF for all this time, my husband got made redundant. Oh my goodness. I was like, The universe really said, hey, take this. You're doing too well. We need to pair you back a little bit. Rood. Yeah. But he ended up getting a job. He worked out in the mines for about two or three years. So that helped us a lot financially. It was really hard work. I basically was a single mom for that time. He'd come home one week every month. Oh my goodness. But we made the most of it and did what we needed to do to get back on. top after going through IVF and spending all that money on IVF. Yeah, it's crazy. But like in the

best of ways, like, I know that that would have been a really trying and hard period of your life, but at the same time, like, congrats to you guys for actually making that compromise, because it could have been so easy for you to be like, no, I'm not going to be basically a single mom. That's ridiculous. You need to be here. But like, you both, you know, and like, he clearly compromised by not being with his kid and with his wife for that period. of time. But do you think that that's what had a really significant impact on being able to get back on the horse and get back, you know, really stable financially? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I just remember in that time because like a lot of the guys that work out of the minds, they go and get like

fancy boats and jet skis and cars. We spend all their money. And we were just still living at our little three-bedroom house and in the suburbs and just, you know, not doing anything too extravagant. Just like living below our means is what I've always sort of talked about with us, you know, like how we live is living below our means, not going too high and spending too much money and getting ourselves in more debt. How did you have that mindset though? Because it's so easy, especially when you get into that mind situation.

And I've got lots of clients who work in the mine. and sometimes you see them and they've gotten into like a keeping up with the Joneses. And it's kind of like a, well, Brad bought a boat and so I wanted a boat. And then Jerry bought a motorbike and I just fell into that hobby as well. And like it kind of compounds. How did you guys keep a lid on going? No, we don't need those things that clearly your friendship circle would probably have had. It's funny because I think I did the opposite to what my parents did.

because my dad would have been the one who would have gone and bought all the things, and we always had everything. But then I knew that he always had debt. I remember seeing times where he'd be so stressed out because he wouldn't know how he was going to pay the mortgage that month. And then something would come through the last minute and he'd have the money to do it because he was just tied up in debt. And then my husband came from a more humble background with like working class parents.

And we both would talk to work hard, but I think just together, growing up together as adults since we were like 18 and going through it all together. Our values just weren't there. We just didn't want those things. We were just happy not having that stress hanging over our heads. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's a really good like lesson to learn. But also it's a really hard thing to do in the moment.

Because if you grew up and your parents had certain things, you kind of go, well, when I'm an adult, I'm also going to have X and Y and Z. And like, I fell into that too. I was like, when I grow up, my kids will obviously have this because I had this growing up. And like you always want, I don't know, I think it's inherent for us to always want more for our babies. So like, I want my kids to have exactly what I had. But also I want them to have the stuff I didn't get. Yeah, exactly.

How have you kept a lid on that? Because you have a child who's now 12. And I feel like at 12, they're asking for stuff. Well, yeah, he wants all the things. And I've got a two-year-old who asks for stuff. but it's so easy to like pander to that too because what does he want? Like Harvey asked the other day, Lollipop because he saw someone else with one. And I was like, that's not a big ask.

Like maybe I should do it. And then I'm like, where's the end? Because like next it's going to be Pokemon cards. I can see it coming in my future. Yeah, I was funny because I was telling him, I don't think we don't really talk much about our financials. Like we haven't even told friends or that that we don't have a mortgage. We are quite humble about it.

And I think my son, sometimes he asks for things like he loves this stupid roadblocks and all the devices and games and all that stuff. And sometimes I feel mean because I don't let him have it because I think it's the biggest waste of money ever. But I'm like, that's not what our family's about. We don't do that. We always talk about we do things. Like he's been overseas or every year since past COVID.

We've been on overseas trips. And when he was a baby, I think when my husband was working away, we actually bought a camper trailer. So on his way home, we would always go camping somewhere for a week. So we just, I think it's just the way we are and our values and what we enjoy doing together. We used to have the worst car. And when I turned 40, I was like, I want a new car. I deserve a good car. I have done my time.

Not even a good car, but not a ship car. And we used to have this old Kia Rio and it was rusty. The whole roof was rusty. Oh, well, did she do what she said she was going to do? Yeah, exactly. I used to hang it driving. I used to feel so embarrassed. And my son was obsessed with Batman.

And so I used to call it the Boganmobile. And he used to rum down the street like, to the Bougmarbile, pretending he was Batman. He had no idea that it was a shit car. Well, he doesn't need to know. And I think it's all about mindset too. Like how lucky we had a car, how lucky it always went, how lucky we can go places in our car. Like I think it's really hard, especially when comparison creeps in.

And like, you know, you're dropping your kid at school and you've got your Kia Rio and she's a good steady steed. But then the mum in front of you has a brand new like, I don't know, Kia Carnival. Like it would be so easy to be like, oh, having a bigger car would be cool. like I could definitely take, you know, all my kids' friends. Like, I feel like we can find a way to justify things so easily. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So now you're 42, completely mortgage free. And what are the conversations you're having with your partner at the moment?

Are they like, oh, we should invest, we should save, we should speak to a financial advisor. Like, where are we at? Yeah, we go around in circles and we're always like, especially my husband, we're always scared. we don't know what to do next. And we know that we're at the age where we could really get ourselves set up for our future. And we, at the moment, we're just saving money. Like we save our money every week. And it's like, I keep saying, we need to do more and we need to set that up.

But we just don't even know where to begin. I listen to your podcast. I read the books. I do all this stuff. But then it just feels scary to actually make that move into investing and how to, yeah, make some smart decisions that can set us up. Totally. All right.

Let's learn a little bit more about you because I think that we could pull some information out along the way. What do you now do for work and how much money do you earn? Two years ago, I bought into a business that I've worked for. So I have a marketing comms PR agency. Okay, Queen. Yeah. So my colleague and I actually, it's a long story,

but my colleague and I bought into the business, it was about to be closed down. So we swooped in and picked it up and we've been building it back up ever since. That is so cool. What's it like building a business that's kind of like headed downwards but you see potential? Like is there a lot of like treading water and scrambling or was it like easier? Like what did that look like? We'd always worked for the business so we knew what was from and it had been taken over by some investment company who basically bought companies and wrote us off as a tax right off. So we got to the point where we had no direction and they were going to close us down and we actually just think can we buy it back off a view. So the base was there

and we had our steady clients that we'd always been working with. So they all stayed. Oh, how cool. You saw the opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. It's been a really good opportunity. Lots of changes and we're now trying to like elevate it back up a bit more so that we, you know, can employ people and build a up to what it used to be. Love, you have to tell me, how do you fund something like that? Like, when you are going, oh, we work in this business, we know this business. Like, I think a lot of people go, I could do a better job than my boss. And like, I'm pretty sure that's my entire team, because respectfully, they could. But how do you then go, all right, well, we're going to buy a business? Like, did you just have a whole heap of cash savings? Did you have to approach a bank? Like,

we bought in at a pretty low cost, but there was three of us that bought in together and did it up the cost and we had savings to do so. So we're in a pretty lucky position to be able to do it. Sorry. Are we saying lucky on this show? Are we saying lucky? Because like last time I checked, like you just told me all this stuff about how you worked so hard. Yeah. Yeah. And isn't it funny that people will often say to you like, and I'm sure you've got this before, money, Darius, you work so hard. You really need to like, you know, give yourself a break. Like, oh, you're hustling. Like, you're going to burn out. And then all of a sudden, the narrative changes.

And they go, Mani Daris, you're so lucky. Aren't you the same person that was telling me that I was working too hard? Are we not putting the maths together? Yeah. And I look back because I worked for the company for about 10 years. I studied graphic designers when my boy was a baby. So I was in my early 30s. But I had always helped with accounts and stuff for my parents' business.

So I had that background as well. So I think my business partners saw that as a strength going into business ownership with them having like the marketing but also like the business background and business mind. Yeah, 100%. Like I'm looking at this being like you'd be a great business partner. Sorry. Like what can't she do? I am good.

Yeah, you are good. Like we were really lucky. Okay, Queen. You keep telling yourself that. So tell me a bit more. I want to know like as somebody who does. have to pay off their mortgage, what are your big money goals? What are you currently working towards? At the moment, I feel like, because it was when I was 41, so it was like a year ago, my husband

looked at me one day and he's like, hey, do you know what? He's like, have you checked our bank account? And I'm like, no, he's like, we don't owe any money on our mortgage. Oh my goodness. So it wasn't even a goal. You were just like, bam. Wait, done. So, because we had the money in an offset account. And then, so I feel like the last 12 months, we're like, let's have some fun. So we've traveled. We're going to Europe in September and then that's where I feel like the future is like, what is the future? Like we would like a bigger house, we would, but we're in a really good area. So it's close to my son's school and it makes sense to stay here. My husband works a lot, like he works like 60, 70 hours a week. He works on Powerline. So he works, does a lot of light shifts in a lot of

overtime. So for me, personally, I would love to earn enough through the business that eventually it has a passive income so that we don't have to work as hard and as much. And, you know, just set ourselves up. We have like our lifestyle is wanting to travel. We do lots of fun things. We're not restricted financially. So just to keep that up, I suppose, into retirement and not have to stress about money, I suppose, and always thinking about what's next. Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell me what your total household income would look like then? Yeah. So I'm on, I take 85 K salary and my husband's around 180.

Yeah, I was about to say, I am assuming your husband has a pretty good income because that's a very risky job. It is, yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah, he works in cyclones and all sorts of stuff. Oh my goodness. Like, sorry, only 180 for a cyclone? Run.

Run. Oh, my goodness. All right, money, Darius, let's go to a really quick break. And on the flip side, I want to know a little. little bit more about your investments and the debt that you may or may not still have in the background. And we're going to talk about personal insurances and your best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere. Money, Darius, let's start straight in. You said on your application that you had just started investing in shares as well yourself, but also for your 12 year old.

How is that going? It's actually been really fun. So I've got $700 in there. But what I wanted to was I've been researching and we've got some savings and we would like to invest in shares, but we've always been too scared. So I thought, stop it. I'm just going to do it. I'm going to set up an account and I used the code, got my $10. Oh, money win. Instant returns. Yeah. And now I just put $30 a week from my salary straight into there. Very cool. And then my son, I started him on it as well and I give him $10 a week. So I think he's up to it's only about, oh, two months ago, so it must be up to about $80 now. And so every Friday, we sit down, the money goes into our account and we sit down and we look at our shares and

what we could buy. Obsessed. Yeah, it's really cute. It's really fun. That is so sweet. Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love it so much. It makes me so excited. It makes me excited too, because I'm like, that's the stuff that I was never taught when I was young. Like, I was always interested in property, but we're starting to think that maybe investing and putting money in shares is a good way for us to go without having that burden of having a big mortgage and stuff like that over our heads. And also at this age, like it's such, even if he gets into property because you guys are, it's clearly in your bloodline you could say, even if that's the case, at least he's setting himself up to have the funds to have those conversations and make

those decisions because without it, like he'd be starting from scratch. Exactly. And it compounds so quickly. Like I met somebody at an event yesterday and she came up to me and said, Victoria, I just need to say hi, which is the sweetest interaction. She's like, this is my 14 year old daughter. And I have been listening to your podcast for the last five years. And my 14 year old has been investing this whole time like under my name, but it's all good.

And she's got six grand. Are you joking? Yeah. What the heck? 14. And like her daughter was like, yeah, it's really cool. And I was like, oh my God, I'm talking to a 14 year old who thinks investing is cool. Like the future my friends is bright.

Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. My son, he's been obsessed with GTA, I think. It's like a game. And so he found out who owns that because they're doing a new release at the end of the year. So he was like, I need shares in that. So that's what he's put his money into.

See, isn't that so cool to be able to marry their interests with what they're investing in because it's going to keep them more engaged for a longer period of time? Like, who cares if the returns aren't as sexy as, you know, a really good ETF. Like, at least they're engaged in the process. And when they go, I'd like my returns to be more, maybe we add an ETF that like, you know, as a strong, steady workhorse. But we can still invest in the things that we're interested in.

Yeah. Yeah. Obsessed. Oh, that makes me so excited. All right. Money Dores, I want to know next. Do you have any debt whatsoever? I feel like the answer is no because, like, you said, I hate car loans.

I don't do this. Like, I drove my Kia Rio. But, like, I've got to ask. Like, is there anything else we're unaware of? No. We've got a credit card, which we use for points and booking stuff and whatnot. But no, we have no debt. That's the sexiest thing I've ever heard.

I love this for you. Now, tell me your husband works in a pretty risky job and you have your own business. Have you set up your personal insurances? Not really. Girl friend, we need to talk. I've got so much stuff I need to do with you. I know. This is where we're, yeah.

Even this morning I was at a thing and then I'm talking about wills and I was like, yeah, don't have that either. That's okay. That's all right. I do have advice for you and that is I think you need to go and see a financial advisor. Yeah, absolutely. Tell me you're in this situation and there's been a lot of like back and forth around should we, shouldn't we?

Should we be investing? Like, should we be saving? And you're in a great position. Like you have such a strong ability for wealth creation. Have you had the conversation about speaking? to a financial advisor and if so, what are your reservations? Like, why haven't you done something like that before? I feel like we've been to a couple, oh, one financial advisor and we just didn't feel my, my husband's also very risk adverse. As am I, we get anxious and like, you can probably

tell that we don't feel worthy enough for some reason. Which is so wrong, so wrong. Like, oh my goodness, I also think it's about meeting the right financial advisor that makes you feel at ease and hold your hand properly through this process. Yeah, because I feel like the one that we saw was all just about take all your money out of your super and buy a self-managed superfunds. Oh no, that was the wrong advisor because that's terrible advice just so you know. Like if anyone ever tells you, take all your money out of super and buy one particular asset class, run for the hills. And I know a lot of people aren't going to love hearing this from me because we all want the opportunity to buy property, right? And there are a lot of people in my community that work in the space of setting up self-managed

super funds. But as of next year, you will not be able to buy residential property inside superannuation, like if you get a mortgage. So you'll still be able to hold it. Don't worry if anyone's listening. But there's a reason they're stripping that back. And it's because it's not in the best interests of the client. Yeah. Oh, I know why you're scared now, my queen. Yeah. And my husband, I always say to my husband, listen to She's on the Money. I remember listening to one of your podcast episodes where you were talking about exactly. that and we were like, no, no way, we're not doing that. Oh, I'm so glad because like someone who was sweet talking could talk to you into it and then don't get me wrong. I'm not saying property is a bad

investment, but it does not make sense to take a very well diversified investment portfolio that has you know, direct exposure to like hundreds of different assets and buy one particular asset and bet your retirement on it. Like it just makes no sense to me and it makes me so deeply uncomfortable. Like if you're in a situation and you had, you know, a million dollars in super and you're like, V, we really think a property in here would be good. I'd be like, well, great. It's not going to be 100% of your, you know, assets, is it? Like, we can have a chat about that. In fact, I could have a field day as a financial advisor if you told me that. Like, I could structure something super sexy, but that's not the reality for most people. No, no. And I also wonder,

because my husband's in like an industry super fund where it's very highly regulated, is it better to keep our super there and look at other things that we can do with our savings? Well, it could be, but the question is, is it? And I think it's doing yourselves a disservice by not finding out. And I think that there's a really big opportunity to look at, well, what are your insurances? Your husband has a pretty risky job. So there's actually, and I don't want to make it sound worse, because I'm just all about telling you the truth.

There's actually in a world where, depending on his job category, he might not actually qualify for insurance, which makes it really important to look at what he has as a default through his current super and maybe topping that up and making sure that you do keep that super account. But then you, what if you aren't able to work and all of a sudden something happens? And as we get a bit older, the risk of something happen in us needing help,

it increases. So I think it's important to touch on like the personal insurance side, but then also on the wealth creation side, finding someone who can hold your hand through this because you're in a very unique situation where it's not, oh, hey friend, like start your investing journey, but there's so many different things that, you know, are going to pull you in different ways. Like your mortgage and, you know, school fees and everything kind of compounds, you're kind of through most of that. And so you're just here going, we need. need to overcharge our wealth, but also we're really scared that we'll make the wrong decision.

And unfortunately, not making a decision is also a decision and it puts you even further behind. So I'm very happy to help you find the right financial advisor who will not do that to you. And I think that that's like an important call out for our community as well. I don't think I talk about it enough. But people can go to my shoes on the money website and hit the button, get advice. And then they can fill in a form. I know it's not the sexiest process because it's actually quite manual, fill in a form and then my team and I review that form and send you a recommendation of a financial advisor

I have literally worked with a no personally to actually hold your hand through that process because I'm the same. And do you know what? I'm probably more cynical than you are of the financial advice industry because I've seen what bad advice can do. Like I have pulled so many people out of different funds and this is just like a complete side rant. So thank you for bearing with me. I got a message from an ex-financial advice client of mine maybe three weeks ago now with a screenshot of her investing portfolio.

And she was like, Victoria, look how well this is doing. And like she has since moved on with another financial advisor. One, that's on my books, by the way, for recommending to my, you know, community. But she's being managed by somebody else. And she's like, thank God you restructured me out of this old financial advisor's account and she sent me an article of them being sued. Oh, wow. I was like, Queen, you're doing really well with your investing and two, what the heck I told you they were dodgy. Like I said, watch this space. Something will happen there and it did. And do you know what I love more than financial advice? Being right. Yeah. But it's one of those things where I get it. I am cynical. And that's why I have like this very niche panel of what I know are good financial advisors. And people come to us all the

time and they say, hey, how do we get on that list? You can't. You can't because I'm so cynical that it would take years for me to add you to that list. Yeah. Sorry, not sorry. Bye. Yeah. So anyway, I'll definitely help you with that after we finish recording a money diary. But for anyone listening, that's what you could do. Tell me about your best money habit, because I feel like you've got a few and not playing into lifestyle creep, I think is your number one that I've picked up. But what do you think is your best money habit. Ever since we moved out of home, we're probably not as consistent these days, but we sit down regularly. We've always had an Excel spreadsheet where we list out all of our expenses for a year. We categorize it into each month so we know exactly how much money needs

to go into our home and bill, we call it our home and bills account. So we've never ever been stuck, not being able to pay a bill. I love that. Does that feel really good? Yeah. I can imagine that feels really sexy. Yeah. And it's actually not that hard because we just know that every week this is how much needs to go into that account. We've never got caught out because we've always regularly look at it as well. I think that's one of my favorite things ever as well because I think a lot of people think, oh my goodness, like I've never budgeted or I've never done this. Like it's actually more about the system. It's not about restricting yourself. It's about setting up a system where things get automatically allocated and then bam over time you just have what you need and that's really sexy.

Yeah. And then we can look at it and be like, okay, well, if we want to go on a holiday or we want to buy a new car, we can do that and we can look at it and know where we stand and always, yeah, have the funds available or plan for what's next. 100%. And it puts you in this position where you're never going to bite off more than you can chew because you're like, well, that money is actually allocated over here and like we need that for other stuff. Here's what we're working with. And I think that always keeps a lid on lifestyle creep because like how does your lifestyle creep if you don't have access to the funds? Yeah, exactly. Which again, very sexy. Yeah. Now, money does, just someone who paid off their mortgage by 41 actually have any bad money habits? Yeah, I do love a good

shopping spree. Queen, same, same. I spend way too much money yet came up. Oh, yeah, but I feel like it's set up for earlier, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And especially when you have kids, because you can justify that you're buying it for your kid. And it's also like really cute and really cheap. So like it's smart to buy it. It came out, right?

Yeah, definitely. I also love the good Amazon purchase as well. What are we buying on Amazon? Oh, just everything. Stuff that you just get and like gets delivered the next day. You can't complain, can you? Like, it's just such a good. I'm always like, oh, don't worry.

Like to my husband, don't worry, honey. I'll just order that on Amazon. and then next day it arrives. And like sometimes I order it that night. And then it's got like the 4 a.m. delivery. And then it's at my front door the next morning before I even go to work. Like I cannot complain about that service. I know.

Yeah. It's way too easy. Oh, it's a slippery slope as well because I look at it and go, would I have put that purchase off for long enough for me to not want that anymore or need that anymore? Yeah. And it happens instantly too. Exactly.

All right. Now that we've spoken, do you think that you would review what you gave yourself as a money grade? Like if we just take ourselves out of this situation for a hot minute. Yeah. Let's not talk about you personally and your feelings. Let's talk about the story we've just gone through. You purchased your first home when you were still a baby.

You then worked and lived overseas. You've paid for so much like IVF and going through that literally financially set you back. Then instead of like being. defeated, you guys made a massive compromise and your partner worked like fly in, fly out where you were basically a single mom. You've found your way into buying your own business and setting that up from the inside out. You have a really good income. But like most importantly, you've paid off your whole mortgage so you have so much wealth creation ability in the future. If you were looking at that person, would you go, oh, you're not doing very well. I think maybe a B. No. No. No.

No, I didn't think so either. I was like, okay, I'd like to see her try and justify this one. Yeah. No, I'd probably give myself maybe an A. I think so too. I get feeling like you're not an A plus because like a lot of the stuff that you've expressed today has been around like, oh, we just don't know what to do next. And like, there's so much opportunity, but we don't know what to do. And like, we just don't trust financial advice just yet. And like, I get it. I get it. I really do. And so I get being an A, not an A plus, but I think if you got the advice section and like plugged that into your life, you'd be running rings around everybody.

Like that is so crazy cool. Like I'm just so excited for you and your future and like what you're able to achieve because you're not like, oh, we're mortgage free. Now we can spend even more. You're like, we mortgage free. Like now's our time to set ourselves up for the sexiest retirement ever. Yeah. Yeah.

Money, Dyerast, what a privilege. Thank you so much for jumping on the show, for having a chat for being really open and honest and sharing so much. I just know that the rest of the community is like, yes, thank you so much for sharing because like we all are so pervy. Like, don't get me wrong. Like if someone says, oh, she's 42 and she paid her for a mortgage last year, I want to know how. I want to know when. And like, that's not a story that you can, you know, ask your friend over brunch. I can't be like, hey, babe, let's go out for brunch. And then, you know, we let it slip that maybe you're a mortgage free. I can't be like, all right, sit down. Tell me how.

What steps did you take? Tell me about your money story. Like, that's not how these conversations go. I wish it was. Yeah. And I know a lot of people just assume that maybe your parents helped you or something like that. Yeah, exactly. And they didn't. They didn't. You did it yourselves. Remember, it's all luck. Money, Dara, did it's been a pleasure. Thank you so, so much. Thank you. The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. On the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain

appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's on the Money are authorised representatives of MoneyShurper P-T-Y-L-T-D, ABN, 321649-27708, AFSL-FSI 151-289.