She's On The Money - A Journey to Safety and Security

Episode Date: December 3, 2023

This Money Diarist grew up with domestic abuser as a father, and lived in a refuge with her mum and brothers for 8 months. Not only was she the first in her family to ever go to university, but now she has a bachelors and a masters degree and works her dream job as a teacher! She completed her masters while having a baby and we cannot wait to share her with you! Today's episode contains discussion of domestic abuse, if you or anyone you know needs support, here are some resources... 1800 RESPECT - online or call 1800 737 732 White Ribbon Australia Links SOTM Budget & Cashflow Masterclass - Get $50 off - CODE: POD50 Skye Wealth Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money.

She's on the money. before i read out this money diary i just want to give you guys a bit of a content warning this week's episode does discuss in a bit more detail than usual domestic abuse and I think it's really important to have that conversation. In saying that, if you aren't ready for that conversation, you're not in the mood, or it's not a topic that you would like to broach today, we have so many episodes backlogged for you that you can go back and listen to. I promise there's literally hundreds. So just stop the recording here and jump on to another episode. But if you're staying, one, thank you. I think that this is a beautiful conversation that I've

had with our money diarist today, but it's also really worth noting that on average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner. And last year, 5,606 women, which averages to 15 women per day, were hospitalized due to family and domestic violence. One in four women, 27%, have experienced violence, emotional abuse, or economic abuse by cohabitating partners since the age of 15. So this isn't just a conversation for today, it's a broader conversation that we really need to be having. So here's the message that I got this week. Hi, Victoria. I grew up with a domestic abuser as a father and lived in a refuge with my mum and brothers for eight months. Not only was I the first in my family to ever go to university,

I now have a bachelor's and a master's degree and work my absolute dream job as a teacher. I completed my master's while having a baby and would love to tell my story. Money, Doris, what the heck? It sounds really surreal to hear that back, actually. it sounds like it's not even my story like I listen to that and think wow that sounds amazing and then I'm like oh my gosh that's me that's you that's actually one of my favorite parts of money diaries is that moment where I get to read that and nobody else can see it because obviously we don't video record money diaries because that would ruin the anonymity of it right I can see you and it's very wholesome watching people have their stories read back to them

because of how they're like, oh wait, that's kind of cool, isn't it? Yeah. I love that moment of reflection where they're like, I'm kind of cool, aren't I? Like I've done some stuff. I've done some things. Like I actually killed it. Hey. Yeah. I think for me, like I'm always really hard on myself and I think like, you know, what do I have to show for all these years that I've been working? But hearing that back, I think, wow, like I've accomplished a lot. Yes, you have, my friend. Let's jump into a diary. I have so many questions for you, but the first one is, what would you grade your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? Okay, this was a bit tricky because at the moment, as a teacher, I am doing reports for my students

and the criteria is very set out. What does a C look like? What does a B look like? So I have given myself a B, but I was leaning towards a C, but I've decided on a B. All right, we'll learn more about that as the episode progresses. But I want to know now, my friend, can you tell me a little bit more about your money story? I grew up mostly with a single mum after we escaped from domestic violence. It was just myself, my mum and my two brothers. We lived in a women and children's refuge for about eight months when I was about seven years old. And then after that, we moved into kind of government housing where we lived for most of my life. So we spent a long time, I guess, rebuilding our lives.

When we escaped that situation, we had absolutely nothing. We had no furniture. We had no clothing. we really only had each other. I really saw money as a privilege and I guess never really wanted to take advantage of it because I saw how hard my mum worked for it. I've also got some really vivid memories where we would have say rented or put an item like a washing machine on finance and then those payments couldn't be made so those things were I guess taken away so I've always seen money as a privilege and something that once you have it you need to really look after it and be careful with it I guess on the flip side of that though my mum she really did give us everything that she could a queen absolutely I never felt like I missed

out she took advantage of things like lay-by to make sure that we always had what she thought we deserved you know at Christmas and birthdays we even sometimes got things from like charities but even talking to my mum now as an adult she always says to me you know she always felt really guilty for taking that because she felt like there was other families who needed it so much more than we did but those things really saved us at that time because without those things you know we wouldn't have had school uniforms we wouldn't have had school supplies and my mum did everything she could but as I got older I really wanted to start earning my own money mainly so I could help out and I guess take some of that financial burden off my mom. But I didn't really think about

the future. There was no forward planning. It was just, I would work, I would save, I would spend, and then I would repeat that cycle. So I was really lucky in the sense that I got to do a lot of travel in that time. I was able to fund my lifestyle while I was at uni as well, without having to rely on anyone else, obviously with a Hex debt to go along with it. But I was also told that like credit cards are really bad. And I think that was, I guess, a savior for me because I always wanted to stay really clear of it. So I worked all the way through uni. And then after uni, I was like, well, I just want to keep working. So that's what I did. And then when I got to my mid twenties, it's just about to turn 25. I kind of looked at it and thought I've been

working since I was, you know, 13 years old and what do I have? So that's when I decided to make a change. And I said to my now husband that I want to go back to uni. I want to do something that I'm really passionate about and that's going to set me up financially. And then I found that I was pregnant. Congrats. Thank you. So I said to my husband, you know, obviously this is going to be challenging. Yes. Challenging is a word for it. But, you know, I said to him, are you still happy for me to go back to uni? It means going part-time even when I returned from maternity leave. And he said absolutely a supportive king I love this absolutely yes so basically I went back to uni and then I had my son and then when I did go back to work it was just a couple of days a week while

still doing uni which was technically full-time and having my son as well because you didn't have enough on with a newborn no I know I look back now and I'm like how did I do that I would literally have him asleep on me with my laptop like over him completing my assignments and I think about it now and I'm like how did I even get through that time but do you look back and go holy heck I'm so proud of myself yeah I think my graduation day was that day where I was like wow you know I made it you did it yeah because there was times you know especially financially where it was hard And I said to my husband, like, I can defer, you know, I can put a pause on it and I can go back and work more hours if we need to. But he was really amazing. And I'm saying, no, you know,

get through it, get it done. And then when we're on the other side of it is when we'll see the benefits. I love it. That's what we want to hear. That's the type of relationship we want to champion, right? Yeah. So tell me a little bit more. I want to be asking pervy details. How old are you now so I'm just about to turn 29 29 and you've achieved all this already you look very young but I was like oh she has to be in her 30s like now obviously no she has to be where I'm at like no way and how old were you when you had your bambini so he came just before I turned 26 oh my gosh so he's three now three is such a special age I feel like they think they're so funny at three oh he thinks he's like 14 yeah it's like three going on 13 he's a genius yeah

literally oh my gosh all right is it okay if I pivot back to the conversation before we go further in the money diary to talk a bit more about domestic violence absolutely I feel like this is a topic that we don't talk about enough and recently one of my good friends Moana Hope opened up on social media about her upbringing and how she went through a very dramatic domestic violence situation and it's one of those things that you know you mentioned before you were like we left I had a domestic abuser as a father my mum you know took us to a refuge and I lived there for eight months and I know immediately that that's not where the story just ended right like obviously that might have been the final straw the final time she left the final time it

worked. But growing up, you said you were about seven. Was that something that you were super aware of? Was that a shock to you? Like how long was that process before your mom was like, I can't do this. We are absolutely going to move out. We're going to have nothing, but we will have each other. And that's the best thing for my family. Like how did she make that decision that you're aware of? Good question. So obviously I was quite young. I don't remember a whole lot of it. But as an adult, my mum and I have had a lot more open conversations about it. They were together for 10 years and my mum fell pregnant with my brother when she was only 17. So she had the kind of mentality that was like, I made my bed, I need to lie in it. So she kind

of was like, well, this is what I guess the consequences of my actions is now that I'm stuck in a relationship with this man because he's the father of my children so it went on for quite a while I remember leaving more than just the one time I remember one night in particular very vividly which I won't get into the details but you know I remember there being police involved I remember there being other people I remember us having to just get up and just leave and then And within a matter of days, we were doing the same thing again because we had been found. And that happened multiple times before the point that we then went into police protection and moved into the refuge where we were able to stay for eight months.

And luckily, we were able to stay in our same state. My mom, that's where she drew the line. She said, you know, I'm not going to leave my family. But we did have to move around a lot before we were able to find that home base. afterwards we had to go through a lot of court proceedings my father actually ended up going to prison which I guess is a bit of a win because he had some consequences massive win yeah because it doesn't often happen no exactly it doesn't often happen and that's one of the worst parts like people get away with this and they need to be held accountable for their actions yeah and you know

it's sad to think that it took 10 years of her going through that for it to get to that point but luckily she had some people championing for her she had some of our local police who really put the work in for that to support her and to support us as well so we were able to get that and then once he was in prison we were able to start I guess rebuilding our lives and get back to a sense of security but I still very very vividly remember the day that I found out that he got out of prison and I guess the fear that came over me even as such a small child because I remembered the amount of times that we had to completely leave our lives behind in hopes of finding something better and it not working out. Yeah, wow. What does that look like now? I'm going

to draw a grand assumption that you're probably not in contact with your dad? No, absolutely not. So he has reached out to me on Facebook before and I've just ignored the messages. Usually it's a guilt trip. No, you don't get that privilege, sir. No, absolutely not. I've never even responded or given him the time of day. My brothers, on the other hand, have reached out to him and have spoken to him on occasion, but I've always been really blunt with my brothers and said,

my life is not for him to know unless I decide that. So they've been really good at honoring that. So he doesn't know that I have a son. He doesn't know that I'm married. And when I did get married on Facebook, I made sure that I blocked him and all of his family so they didn't see my change of name so that I wasn't dragging anyone else into that as well. I love that you protect your family so fiercely.

Yes. But it also breaks my heart that you have to do that. Like, it makes me really sad that that's a necessary step that now as a 29-year-old adult, having went through that situation at the age of seven you're now still having to protect your family from these situations are your brothers younger than you one is older and one is younger and tell me now about your mum how's mum is she doing well like what does she get up to yeah she's amazing she's not married but she's been with her partner for gosh like 15 years probably more oh I love this yes and she's since had another child so when I was 16 she had another

baby so I've got an even younger brother and he's amazing as well but she is just I honestly don't know how to describe it like she's thriving she really is like everything that she went through honestly if you met her she's the nicest sweetest happiest person that you'll ever meet because she just sees that she went through all this but she came out on the other side and from that you know she has these three beautiful children that she loves more than anything in the whole world. And every single time I see her, I feel that love. Every single time I speak to her, I feel that love. And now I'm able to see that love that she gives to my son as well, her grandson. Oh, I'm obsessed. I love this. It's so nice to have a conversation with somebody about a

circumstance that arguably happened so long ago, because there are going to be people in our community who are kind of in the midst of this. They might've tried to leave. They might've left a number of times. They might be, you know, in the refuge right now going, does this get any better? I cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. And now you're telling me about how your mom is thriving and she has a gorgeous partner and she's had more babies and she's just living her best life. Like look at the daughter she has now. She has a grandson, like all of this stuff that I think a lot of people don't get to see. Like they don't get to see it in the moment because as you said before, you leave with literally nothing but each other and now you've

rebuilt your lives. Like, ah, it just makes me so happy for you. I know. And she has honestly three kids, even though I'm the only one who went to university, she's got three kids who are successful, who are independent. You know, she can look back and think that she did a really good job with them. Adore. And she did. She did the best she could with everything that she had. She did, absolutely. Oh, all right. I want to know a little bit more about your money story. So let's jump back into the questions. Thank you for sharing that though. I think it's really, really powerful. Tell me more. In your letter, you said, I have my absolute dream job as a teacher.

So tell me, what do you do for work specifically and how much money do you earn? So I'm a teacher in Western Australia. So at the moment, I earn $85,020. And as of January next year, that goes up to $92,080. Oh, very nice. Does that include or exclude super? That excludes super. So super's on top.

Yes. Oh, that's very nice. And the holidays are very nice as well. Yeah, I feel like obviously teachers do so much more work than people give them credit for. So like the holidays would be nice, but I'm assuming you're doing a lot of planning during that time, but at least you don't have to be at work. Yes, exactly. I can do it when I feel like it.

That's an absolute win. Now tell me a bit more about your big money goals. What are you currently working towards? This was a bit of a tricky question because there's nothing in particular at the moment that I'm saving for, but I guess my really big money goal is to create a bit of financial stability for my son and to set him up and get him started so that once he reaches an age where he can have access to some money to get him started into adulthood, he's got that there, but that also he has the financial literacy to understand how he can spend or

save or invest that money. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. I bet seven-year-old you never thought that this would be a possibility. like that's crazy to think that you're now talking about creating financial stability for a three year old like ah I'm obsessed I love it let's go to a really quick break because I have so many questions for you but I think we need to grab a cuppa and come back after this short break all right money diaries let's jump straight back into it before you mentioned that you're working

towards creating some financial stability for your son you kind of want to get him to understand investments and savings and how all that works. Do you currently have any investments? If so, what are they? If not, what's the plan? So for myself, I've got my super. So at the moment I have two super accounts, which is a total of $41,504. And then I have started doubling in raise as well. So at the moment I've got $600 in raise. Tell me why you have two super accounts? When I became a teacher, I started doing casual. And so I signed up with the government super fund, but I didn't have any insurances on that because I was casual. So I kept my original super fund until I became full time. And then my insurance has kicked in,

but I haven't sat down and compared them. Just briefly looking at them, there are some differences. so I just want to make sure that I'm choosing the one that is the best for me. I just haven't had the time to sit through and go through and compare them at this stage. I'm obsessed. I was like, I wonder why she has two. Is it because she hasn't done it or is it because one has insurance and the other doesn't? And you said that that's the reason and that's a very good reason to have two super accounts. I talk a lot on the podcast, obviously, about the importance of insurance, especially when you have bambinis. It's something that I'm currently going through the process of revisiting because my needs are changing, right? Like historically, I just had a boyfriend and we

rented a house when I established all of my insurances. Now we have a mortgage and yes, I have updated my insurances since then, but my needs have changed dramatically now. I'm like, ah, I'm having a baby next year. What the heck? Like I'm going to need a lot more life insurance. What happens if something happens to me? What happens if something happens to my husband? And I'm currently working, I'll tell you who it is because I feel like I'm going to get a lot of DMs about this. I'm currently working with Phil from Sky Wealth, and I'll put all of the info for him in the show notes. But Money Diast, I'm going to introduce you to him too, so he can have a look at everything for you and go, this is what you should be doing. Because if you're going to get

insurance, especially personal insurances like life insurance, TPD, income protection, you're looking at, you know, death insurance. I think it's so important to get it right the first time because retail policies are very different to the policies that you can get with a financial advisor. And I feel like financial advice for the longest time has been exorbitantly prohibitive. It's one of the reasons I left the industry as an advisor, because I was like, I can't justifiably have to charge what I have to charge. Like I was having to charge between three and a half thousand and $8,000 for the advice I was giving, not because I was taking the mickey, but because it was too expensive and feel he just does insurance. So like your fees are about $3.95. That's a money

win. It's a money win. Anyway, we'll work it out so that you don't have to pay fees, but don't tell anybody else. So moving on, Money Diarist, do you have any debts? If so, what are they? Tell me about them. Yes, I do. Unfortunately, I have a Centrelink debt, which is $387. Other than that, no, I have no other debts besides my HECS, which is about $33,900. Tell me how you ended up with the Centrelink debt. What does that mean? How does that work? I feel like every time someone says I have a Centrelink debt, it's always this really frustrating tale of it being Centrelink's fault. So tell me. So we get childcare subsidy because my son goes to daycare three days a week and apparently they overpaid us. So now we owed them $780, which I wasn't aware of until my

childcare subsidy came out at a lower rate. I logged into Centrelink and then they told me that I owed them $780. Ew. And were you mad about that? Because I would have been really mad about that. I was more mad that I didn't get any notification. The notification was just inside Centrelink, which I never log into Centrelink to just check my notifications. Yeah. Why would you? I'm just doing what I was meant to do. Right. And then I would have just paid it, but they had already started taking it out of my upcoming childcare subsidy payments. So I'm just leaving it until it's done and it's about halfway through now. So it should be gone soon. Oh, easy. So you don't have to like cough up the extra 300 ish bucks right now. Like they're just going to

even it out for you. Yeah. They just take out 20% of what you would normally get for your childcare subsidy until that amount is paid off. Okay. I'm not too mad about that. I thought that they were going to slam you with a bill that you hadn't expected. And I would have been like, guys, it's cost of living crisis. Cut that out. Absolutely not. I know. But it's frustrating because your childcare subsidy is based off your estimate of how much you earn in the year. I was about to ask about this. And then obviously, once you submit your tax return, then they even it out. Yeah. Okay. So essentially, they had paid us more than what we were entitled to.

So then we have to pay them back. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. while we hear talking about childcare as somebody who is looking into childcare at the moment and has been horrified at how much it costs. Tell me about your childcare experience. You're in WA. So what do you pay? Like you said that your bambini is in care three days a week. What does that look like? And what do you get? I need the pervy dates. So his daycare is a bit more expensive than others in our area. So I think it's about $130 a day. We get back 74% of that through the childcare subsidy. And like I said, he goes three days a week. We're really lucky that we've got our parents on either side have him one day a week as well. Oh, very nice. So we don't

have to pay for those two extra days, but basically it's $130 a day. We get back 74. So we end up paying about $230 a fortnight, which covers him for six days. That includes his food while he's there, his nappies when he was in them, his milk for his bottles. And we pretty much just drop him with a spare change of clothes and pick him up at the end of the day. Oh, that's a money win because some childcare centers don't provide food and you have to send them with a lunchbox or don't provide formula or nappies. I feel like I started this conversation on social media recently because in the area that I live in, childcare is an elite sport. It is a competition. You have to have your name down on the childcare list before the child's born. And I found that really jarring. I was like

going to these childcare like centre like tour things and looking at these childcare centres going well I don't know what I'm looking for like I don't have any kids am I even allowed in here don't have a working with children check I do actually have a working with children's check but you know what I mean I'm like how are you just letting some random walk through your centre because they said they were pregnant anyway it was interesting seeing the difference between one centre which we have gone with because I kind of like the comprehensiveness of it and I'm assuming this is why you might have chosen yours takes a lot of mental load off like they do the nappies, they do the formula, they do the food, like everything just made a

lot of sense to me, but they're more expensive. Whereas another place was like, oh, well you supply nappies and a lunchbox every day. And I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm literally going to be a working mom. That sounds like a commitment that I'm not ready for. So essentially, like if I've just done some quick maths, if you're paying $1.30 a day and you get back 74%, that means childcare daily is costing you about $33.80, $34. So that's not too bad when you, I guess, think about it. How has your budget changed because of childcare? I guess before he started going three days a week, when I had uni pracs, my mum and my mother-in-law would actually split and have him three days and two days. So we didn't have to worry about childcare when I was only

working part-time it was only when I started working full-time that we then put him in for three days so it was quite I guess easy in the sense that my income increased dramatically and then we had this additional expense on there as well yeah and because he goes the same amount of days every week it's the same amount that comes out every fortnight and I have it set up so that it comes out the day that I get paid. Yeah, great. The money comes in and then the money's just gone. I want to ask more about the childcare stuff because one, I'm pervy, but two, the amount of times I've spoken to people that are like, I have no idea how this works. So if your baby is going three days a week, that means that total without any rebates,

it's about $390 a week. Is that what's leaving your account and then you get some back through Centrelink or do you only have to have the $3,380 a day leave your account? Like what does that actually, I guess, look like cash flow wise. So the childcare subsidy comes out before you receive the bill. Right. So your bill is going to be that $33 or $34-ish a day and then you pay for that. So there's no overheads except for when Centrelink goes and does their maths and says, sorry, we let you have too much money. You owe us money. Yes, exactly. So that was really the only reason I found out that I owed them any money was because the amount came out and it was different than what it normally was like excuse me but it's quite good in the sense that

once you submit your child care subsidy claim unless things change for whatever reason it's just kind of stays there yeah and the child care deal with that and then they just send you what you owe remaining after the child care subsidy yeah okay so have you found that challenging or a relatively easy process in comparison because I feel completely overwhelmed when it comes to childcare. I go, wait, what? Like this is a lot of money. Is this good? Is it bad? Like there's so many conflicting opinions. Are you comfy with that now that you're in the, I guess, in the process of it? Yeah, absolutely. At first it was a little bit, I guess, scary because when we went in and decided on a daycare, they did pre-warn us that submitting a childcare subsidy

claim can take a really long time. And yeah, if you start daycare before your claim has been accepted you have to pay the full amounts and then get that money back later that's so expensive that's why I mentioned cash flow because I was like cash flow is so important like imagine if you had to pay the full amount and then you just got a refund later I'd be like that is so unfair no yeah it works quite well now that we're set up and I guess in the groove of it the only time we ever pay more is if he needs to go for a casual day but again that 75% from the child care subsidy still comes out of casual days as well oh cool hey that's a bit of a money win also random question one thing I learned recently when I put my like non-existent baby down for daycare it was very

strange because they're like you know is it a boy or a girl and I'm like I don't know just call it baby divine yeah and they're like do you have a name to put down I was like no like it's not even born yet what are you talking about they said that when we pick days if you're going to do less than a full-time schedule, so less than five days, one of the days has to be a Monday or has to be a Friday. Have you found this to be a thing? Because I originally was like, great, I'm going to be relaxed on Mondays, I'm going to be relaxed on Fridays, and I will pop my baby into care Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays. And when I put those dates down, they were like, oh, no, no, no, one day has to be a Monday or a Friday. And I was like, sorry, what? Oh, no, I never had that. So it's just an

elite sport in my suburb right yes yes just in your suburb maybe but we have had daycare price increases since we've been there oh yes so i find usually as the government says hey we're going to increase the child care subsidy payments the daycare goes hey we're going to increase our prices which is totally fair in my opinion but usually we still end up paying either just a little bit extra or the same as what we were paying before oh my gosh i feel like i'm going on and on about this childcare conversation, but it is pervy money content. However, the thing that really frustrates me about that, because as I said, I've been having a lot of conversation online, mainly on Instagram with mums, when I post about what childcare questions I have,

is a lot of the educators that are messaging me go, hey, did you know that every time there is a childcare increase, we don't actually increase our income. So the educators are still paid honestly like trash and the child care centers are just making more profit because they're just passing it along to you anyway that's a conversation for another time I was just going to say as a teacher I earn quite a lot more than what the daycare workers do but I walk in there to drop my son off and I'm like oh my gosh how do you even do this like I can't stay longer than five minutes because I'm so overwhelmed by how much work they have to do exactly and they're not just doing like work. They're not just looking after your baby. They're not babysitters. They're

also educating a tiny human who doesn't have a very good attention span. That's exhausting. Absolutely. Anyway, I could go on and on. But the overwhelming question I have in my head right now, my friend, I want to know, what's your best money habit? So I have everything in my bank accounts automated. So as soon as I get paid, my rent comes out most of my bills come out and then the day after I'm paid is essentially what I'm left to spend for the fortnight so that's been working really well for me it includes my savings and all my bills so I don't have to worry about you know am I going to have enough money

a week after I'm paid because I get paid and then all my bills are essentially paid as well genius I love it that's why I created my money masterclass actually because I think that absolutely everything should be automated. Like if you can automate it, it's like set and forget and things are happening in the background and your money is actually working as hard for you as you do for it. Yes. How did you work out how to create that structure? And is that structure, I guess, working perfectly for you? Like how have you kind of built it over time? So a lot of it is advice from listening to the podcast. Oh, thank you. My ego is very happy. It honestly has really changed my perspective though.

because there's so many things that I wasn't aware of. And having even just separate bank accounts for separate goals or separate intents has really helped me as well. It's working relatively well in the sense that the money that I want to not spend is put into an account, which is hidden from my online banking. So I cannot touch it. The only way that I can get that money is if I phone the bank and say, hey, can you transfer this money over into my other account. Who do you bank with? I need to know because I'm going to get questions. People are going to be like, how do I set that up? What does that actually look like? What bank is that? Not a recommendation. No, I am with PNN. Okay. I'm sure other banks can absolutely do that for you,

but it's just helpful to know because people will be like, oh my gosh, I want that system. What bank does she bank with? So thank you for sharing. Well, I just called them one day and said, hey, is there a way of like making this so that I can't access the money? And they said, yeah, sure, we'll just block it for you. But I still have the account details so I can still manually transfer money into that account as well. The thing that I guess I'd like to improve is I do have a separate account, which I have called other bills. So that's intended for bills that come out like quarterly or even annually, you know, at my car registration. And what I try to do is transfer $50 every fortnight into that so that it builds up. The only thing is I have access

to that account right if I'm running low on funds for the fortnight I can go oh hey there's money there and I also did have my emergency fund as an account accessible on my online banking because I figured if there's an emergency I need to be able to access it 100 but same thing I would see that money sitting there and go oh just quickly borrow some of that and I'll put it back later so I actually ended up transferring all of that money into my hidden account knowing that it's just a phone call away? Yes. So at the moment, my savings and emergency account are actually in one account, but I would like to separate them again. Yeah. Great. I love this. I feel like you're across it. I'm going to cheekily gift you my budget and cashflow system. So the money masterclass

actually, because I feel like if it's not working perfectly for you, I think I can make it work perfectly because I'm like, oh, I totally get that. But the visibility thing can be really hard, but it sounds like with your other bills account, just being cheeky, you maybe haven't done a comprehensive enough budget to know exactly how much needs to go into each account, which will then lead to you having to dip in and out of different accounts. Because I'm assuming it's not you going, oh, just borrow that money from here because I really want a new jumper. It's probably you going, oh, that bill's popped up. I'll just borrow a bit of money from here to go to here. And we actually want to track absolutely every single dollar that comes in. And my like

money masterclass system does that. It's so comprehensive. I think you'll love it. But I'll give that to you later. We'll sort that out after we're not on the podcast. But for those listening who are going, oh, I really want to do that as well, V, I will get Jessica Ricci to turn back on the pod discount code for this week. And the pod discount code is POD50 to give you 50 bucks off. We'll obviously put all the information in the show notes, so don't worry. But that's a little bit of a money win for the community. You're welcome. Money Diarist, moving on from that, what do you think your worst money habit is is it that dipping in and out of each account or is there another cheeky one to share i think it's sometimes i get caught up in impulse spending

usually if it's for my son so if it's something for me i'm more than happily put 24 hours between me and buying it and usually by 24 hours it's completely left my mind and if it hasn't then then i'll consider whether or not i can actually buy it but if it's something for my son i'll just buy it no matter what it is. It might be shoes, it might be clothes, it might be a toy. I feel like that's going to be me. I need advice on curbing this. When I get some that's helpful, I'll share it. I promise. Yes, please. You know, I want to give him everything that he wants. And sometimes it's really hard because I think, well, what if it's not there in 24 hours or especially on Facebook marketplace when I see a really good deal. If it's on Facebook marketplace, it's

probably a money win, my friend. Yes, but it's also probably not something that he needs. But yeah, when it comes to my son, I would buy anything. Oh my gosh. I feel like that's going to be me. And one of the best things that I've ever done while pregnant is not find out the gender of my baby. So I can't go shopping. Like I can obviously buy white onesies, but I'm out of buying white onesies. And now it's kind of like, well, I can't get cute girl things or I can't get cute boy things. Like we're just going to have to wait. And that's been a really good money win, to be honest. We did the exact same thing because we didn't really have like a nursery decor because you know we didn't know is it going to be a girl it's going to be a boy my husband

actually ended up painting some little animal pictures for the nursery as well that were like very mixed colors very gender neutral so we ended up saving money in some senses as well yeah great so don't find out the gender it will save you money great money tip from she's on the money and it's such an amazing experience to go through that labor and that birth and then to find out the gender. It's a really overwhelmingly happy. See, that's the magic I'm waiting for. Yes, it is magic. Oh my gosh. I love it. All right, Money Diarist. Unfortunately, that is almost all we have time for today. Now that we've had a chat, I feel like at the start you were like, look, I think I'm a B. I was considering a C,

but I really do think I'm a B after going through all of my teacher criteria, which is a very teacher thing to do, my friend. But we've just gone through this epic story. Like we've talked about domestic abuse. We've talked about your upbringing, how that has happened, how that has impacted you. You're the first person in your family to go to university. You're killing it. You have this son. You've got your budget and cash flow system sorted out. You've obviously got your two super accounts for good reason. Like, you know that you're meant to have a super account with good insurances and one that has good performance. And then you've also started doubling in raise. So you're already investing and you're a young mom. You're not even 30 yet.

What the heck? So looking at all of this, do you still think that B is reflective of where you are? And if so, why? If not, what would you change it to? Yes, I still think a B is just above satisfactory. So a B is what we consider high, but not quite excellent. I would like to consolidate my supers instead of paying two sets of fees. So I'd like to sit down and go through that. I have a bank account for my son, which I transfer money into every fortnight, but I would like to, I guess, set a goal for what amount of money am I hoping for that to turn into when he reaches a certain age and then have a better idea of how much I could be putting into that.

I would also like to think about what am I going to do when my pay increases as of next year because there's a $7,000 increase that's coming and I don't want to just have that $7,000 disappear. I really want to think about what am I going to be doing with that? And my husband is also going to be getting a pay increase around the same time as well. Money win. Yeah. Thinking about what can we do and is there any goals that we want to work towards? I love this. I'm actually so glad that during this episode, we mentioned Sky Wealth because I'm going to set you up with them and you're going to get your super consolidated and all of that sorted out. And then I already told you I'm gifting you the money masterclass and that goes through goal setting and making

sure that you don't fall into the trap of lifestyle creep and how to allocate when your pay increases. So I feel like I've got this sorted. Like you and I are going to have a call in like a couple of months and you're going to be like, oh babe, I'm an A, it's sweet. Like I've got all this stuff sorted. So I will be checking in with you, but unfortunately that is all we have time for today this has been one of my fave chats I feel like money diaries are always my favorite but you have been an absolute star I genuinely feel like we're best friends now and like that's the best outcome you can get from a money diary let's be honest but my friend it has been an absolute pleasure so thank you so much for joining us and thank you for being so open about your

story with our community because I just know they're going to love it but they're also going to get so much out of it thank you for listening to my story and giving me an opportunity to share it means a lot the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy a financial product read the pds tmd and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.