She's On The Money - Conquering Buy Now, Pay Later Debt

Episode Date: August 25, 2024

Today's Money Diarist was drowning in Afterpay and Zip Money debt. When she found herself in a bedroom full of clothes with the tags still on that were already out of fashion, she knew things had to change. Now she's buy now pay later debt-free, and sharing her journey to inspire others to break free from the cycle of debt and be more intentional with their purchases.  And as promised, here’s your exclusive code to kickstart your journey to financial freedom! Our Money Masterclass is packed with everything you need to master budgeting, cash flow, and take control of your finances.... Use code Pod50 at checkout to snag $50 off and start your path to financial freedom today https://www.shesonthemoney.com.au/the-money-masterclass 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.

hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down with one of our She's On The Money community members and talking to them all about their money story. Let's jump straight into it because this week we got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's On The Money team. I wanted to share my money story to inspire those struggling with consumer debt. From a young age, I was exposed to bad debts my family had. This led me to believe that as long as I made the minimum repayments, it didn't matter how much I borrowed. At 18, I applied for multiple buy-now-pay-later accounts without considering

the consequences, even though I had no job and relied on Centrelink payments. I became irresponsible with money, maxed out my zip pay and zip money, and couldn't pay off my afterpay account, leading to debt collectors chasing me. I was a victim of lifestyle creep and never had more than $500 in savings, which I often spent on shopping or bills. In 2023, I decided to take control. I got a job earning $65,000 a year. I started paying down my debts one at a time and now at 24, I'm consumer debt free and I've deleted all my buy now, pay later accounts. Money Diarist, that is so exciting. Thank you. I'm so, so excited. I'm sure you can understand the weight lifted off my shoulders every time I think about you know my debts yeah not having to

pay for it and actually having money left over from paying all my bills obviously no one goes into debt on purpose right like you don't get buy now pay later accounts so that you've got debt collectors chasing you like not one person would say that's exactly what I wanted V but then you end up there and I think that once you are there it feels overwhelming and all-consuming and you just don't feel like you can get ahead. But the anxiety that you feel around your phone ringing or you checking your emails or your mailbox, like you just know that you're not in the right position. Now that that's been lifted, can you imagine yourself going back there? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I think now that I'm on the other side, I often, you know,

look back and look at my 18 year old self and be like, why did you even do that? What was the reason. But I think now it's given me, I guess, so much lesson to just look back to whenever I think about wanting to get back on that. Yeah, it's such a great feeling and I want to stay here forever. I love that. And I feel that because that's exactly what I went through. Let's jump in a little bit deeper because I want to ask so many questions about your money story. But before we get there, Money Diarist, if I asked you to give your money habits a grade from A through to What would you say they are today? I would say that I'm a C minus. Okay. Tell me a bit more about that. Let's dive a little bit deeper.

Can you tell me a bit more about your money story? Absolutely. So growing up, when it comes to debts, my family always said, as long as it's being paid, it doesn't really matter. So obviously I took that to heart. And when I turned 18, all I wanted was a credit card and, or buy now, pay later apps so that I could start shopping because my belief was that it was free money as long as I was making the minimum repayments. And because of this mindset, like I said, I quickly found myself drowning in so much debt and racked up $10,000 worth of consumer debts. And for years, I didn't know how I'd get out of it. I was constantly stressed about money and I became super insecure about money and pretty

much attached my worth to those debts. And then I met my partner who showed me a whole different way of thinking about finances. I remember his mom telling me, you know, don't get a credit card unless you know how to use it responsibly. And at the time I had just maxed out a new credit card and felt so embarrassed. And you're like, yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. I agree with you. I would never. Do you know what? It's funny you say that because that's exactly what I was saying. Like, oh that's exactly what I would have done and then in my head I'm like oh my god yeah I'm like there's absolutely no way it's such a funny position to be in now that you look back on it right because I was exactly the same like I remember my friends being like oh I would never

get a credit card and I'm sitting there being like yep no neither of course of course and I literally just signed up to a personal loan yeah I don't know where we were but yeah she she said that. And that stuck to me because obviously I had a credit card and I was applying for a higher credit limit because I'm like, oh, I've already maxed it out. Like I want to use more. And in my head, I'm like, yeah, no, honestly, nobody should have a credit card if they're not using it responsibly. And then there I am applying for a higher credit limit. But the rules don't apply to us, right? Like it's a do as I say, not as I do kind of vibe. Exactly. Exactly. And I think That's what's so funny about it, right? Like, obviously being in debt sucks. There's nothing

funny about it, but now you're on the flip side. You can kind of reflect on your own actions. And I can almost guarantee if you and I were having that chat while you were applying and I said, should people have a credit card? You'd be like, V, of course not. That's really irresponsible. And then you're like, give me two minutes. I'm just going to fill in this application. Yeah, exactly. And I'll be right back with you. Exactly. I come home and yeah, applied. It's until you can kind of break that cycle and something happens because I think that that's

why I don't regret being in that debt. I feel like a lot of the time people are like, I wish I never went through that. And yeah, I wish I had that money back too. I really wish that I didn't do that. But that's maybe why now I see how important it is. I see how deeply it impacts people. It's why I get to do what I do every day. And I think it's why I value what we have now even more, because I know what it's like to not be in that situation. Do you think that that's now part of your narrative? 100%. And like you said, you know, some people, when they get out of debt and, you know, be financially responsible, they look back and say, I wish I had never gone down that route. But

for me, I was actually so, so grateful that that was my situation because I was able to really, I guess, break down that generational trauma in my family regarding debts and be the first person in my family to say, you know, we don't need to have debts to be able to have whatever we want. We can save towards it and we can really have, you know, those smart goals to be able to get whatever we want. So, you know, I'm really, really grateful, even though I was so stressed and I didn't know how I was going to get out of it. You know, you can still prove that you can get out of bit. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of hard work. But if you really want to, you can definitely do it. Looking back on it, do you feel like that was a really, really hard step? Because

obviously, when you grow up with a certain lifestyle, stepping beyond that and doing something that you've got no experience with is really overwhelming and really daunting. Like, what did you experience growing up? So, I know in your money story, you said that, you know, growing up you know you were exposed to bad debts that your family had what was their take how did they act around money? So growing up I guess there was already some sort of like a buy now pay later situation but because I grew up in the Philippines we would have people come to our house with like magazines and then you would pick out whatever products you want and then they'd bring it over to the house and then you'll pay it in installments and so that's what

I was exposed to most of the time with, you know, my, my mom or my aunties would be going through, like do shopping on that magazine and just check whatever they want. And I guess, you know, money was never really an issue for them because again, like I said, you know, as long as we can pay it off, that's fine. And so you just keep on going and keep on going. And growing up, we never really spoke about money. All I knew at the time was that my, my mom and my dad went to work to provide for us. And I never felt the struggle because obviously there's always food on the table. There's always, you know, there's roof over our heads. And so we were never taught anything about managing money. We were never taught about not having any debts, especially in my country.

If you owe someone and that someone asks you the money that you owed, they'd actually get angry because I know that I owe you money but like you don't stop asking me I'll give it to you when I want to type thing so it's a really really really toxic environment a really toxic mindset when it comes to debts back home I wouldn't say it's you know part of the culture but I'm just saying for my family it's that's what I was exposed to so when I was being chased by debt collectors from after pay. I actually, in my head at the time, I'm like, just ignore them. They'll go away. But being in a different country, it's actually really, really different because they won't go away. They'll just keep chasing you.

No, absolutely not. So yeah, it's so different. It's different cultures, different mindsets that I've been exposed to. And I think when I finally, you know, I guess it was like a switch last year when I turned 23, when my partner and I decided to move out of our family homes and rent a place together, suddenly I had real responsibilities you know bills I never had to pay for when I lived with my parents and that's when I found myself really really struggling and the transition for me was tough so I had to obviously do something about it and yeah I just told myself be consumer debt free by before you turn 25 I love this and you've definitely achieved that yeah how good I also

while you were talking, I was thinking about how times have changed because you were talking about the magazine coming around. And while we didn't have that for a lot of products, we definitely had things when I was growing up, like Avon, like, so they had like the book and it was kind of like cosmetics and you did exactly the same thing. And I feel like over time, being able to spend money and get into debt has just got more and more accessible. So even if your parents were in debt and they were making the minimum repayments and they were, let's just say, financially irresponsible and you were experiencing that, I feel like potentially historically it was not as bad.

And I won't say it was not crippling, like it must have been really hard and money was stressful, but the world is so much bigger now. Like I can do that with literally any product at any time of the day. Like I don't need to wait for a magazine to come to my house. I can just jump online. Like at the moment, money diarist, I'm breastfeeding. So like at 3am, if I am on my phone while breastfeeding, cause I don't want to fall asleep. I'm like, Oh, that looks nice. I'll have that. Like it's a slippery slope. I can literally do it 24 seven. So I feel like now

we can get ourselves in even more trouble. And I just feel like that isn't spoken about enough because we talk about these generational cycles and you're correct. It was, you know, a toxic mindset and you've moved past that but like the slope is really slippery for us if we are in this position where debt's not that bad no worries we fall down so many more stairs than our parents were ever able to because once you maxed out zip pay don't worry you can go get after pay don't worry about after pay you can get a credit card oh don't worry about a credit card you can get a personal loan oh there's so many options don't worry about it and I feel like that compounding is something that our parents never had to go through. And now that, you know, people like you

and I in our generation, we're doing it. And then we get so crippled by it that we just draw a line in the sand and go, absolutely not, never again. Because our parents never got to that point where it was as crippling as it is for us. Do you feel like that's a part of the narrative as well? Yeah, absolutely. And I think the most important thing as well too, that I realized and I learned as well is that once you get out of debt, it doesn't mean that you're fully, fully out of debt because if your mindset is still the same as before when you were in debt, you continue to go back to that cycle and it'll be like a rotating door of getting out of debt, going back into debt, getting out of debt and going back into debt. And I think the most important thing to also

keep yourself motivated to get out of debt is to really think about your goal and your why as to why you want to be out of debt and why you're working so hard to, you know, be out of debt is because I finally paid off my zip pay. There was a time where I was sitting down on the couch and I was so bored. It's just so easy, right? Yeah, I was so bored. And I, you know, I'm like, oh, I want to, I want to buy this pair of shoes, but I only had like, what, $20 in my account after paying off all of my bills. And I was like, do you know what? I'll just apply on zip pay. I'll just spend a hundred dollars on zip pay and then pay it off and then close it again. And, you know, I had to catch myself really quickly, like, no, because that's not who we are. Yeah. That's not

who we are anymore. So it takes a lot of discipline to not go back to that after just coming out of that situation. A hundred percent. And because we are humans, humans inherently do not like change. So going back to a cycle that, you know, even though you don't love it, you know it, You go, that's predictable. I know exactly what will happen. I can, you know, work with that outcome. It's hard to go from there to a completely different mindset of going, well, what do you mean? And this layer of instant gratification versus delayed gratification comes to it. You've been an instant gratification girlie for your whole life. You were always used to just getting it and now you've got to wait. Like, what do you mean? Like, I'm not used to that. Like,

that doesn't feel good. I don't know why we're here. So it can be so hard to slip back into the cycle. I want to know, you mentioned that having clear goals and having a clean mindset makes, you know, the whole thing work, right? So tell me, what are your big money goals? What are you working towards? So I have a few big money goals. So my big money goal is to have a fully funded emergency fund. Like I said, in my entry, I never ever had an emergency fund or never even had a savings account over $500. So I really, really want to have a fully funded emergency fund and also pay off my remaining car loan. And then my partner and I would like to start traveling. So I'd like to start building a travel fund bucket as well and put money towards that too. And then

lastly is to save and fund my side hustle and hopefully hopefully grow that to the point where that can be my full-time job in the future oh how exciting I'll ask you a little bit more about that but I feel like emergency fund fully funded perfect goal I love that tell me where are we at with that to be completely honest we're at $50 so you do have an emergency fund slay slay yeah yeah we'll say yeah it's not zero at least it's not zero yeah we're at $50 but now because we we have quite a bit of traveling to do this year I had to spend quite a bit on necessities for that but that's epic because you're not in debt and you have an emergency fund like the structure exists and for most of us that's the hardest part to set up yeah yeah adore that all right let's go to a

really quick break on the flip side I want to ask you a bit more about this side hustle you mentioned and how you're planning to take it to full time. And I also want to know a little bit more of the pervy details around that car loan. So don't go anywhere, guys. All right, Money Diarist, we are back and we are having, honestly, the best chat. I feel like Money Diaries are my favourite

because I get to make friends with all of the diarists that come on the show. And today is literally no different. But let's dive right back in. I want to know, what do you do for work and how much money do you earn? So, I work in talent acquisition. Oh, fancy.

Yeah, specifically in the early childhood industry where I hire early childhood professionals on all levels from trainees to teachers. And currently, I earn $75,000 after tax. Oh, I love this. I love in your money story, you said, I got a job earning $65,000 a year in 2023. Is that a $10,000 pay rise in literally 12 months, girl? What? How good is that?

Did you negotiate that? Did you just take on a different role? Did they come to you and say, I need a rest. We're just going to pay you more. Like what happened? So really, really interesting story, actually. When I, I think it was started this year, I decided to leave for personal reasons and it was to find my side hustles, but something's happened and I ended up finding myself going back to that job. And I pretty much just spoke to my old manager and because we have a really really good relationship and I left on on really great terms I go back to her and I said hey look I'd love to come back and I said you know if there's

any room for some sort of you know a raise I would be happy to discuss and I didn't tell her any figures I didn't tell her how much I wanted I just said you know if there's any room for you to I guess give me a raise that would be amazing no matter how much and she came back to me with a raise and a promotion, which is... I'm sorry, what? You were like, hey, I quit, bye. And then you turned around and said, hey, I want to come back, but I'm more expensive now. And they were like, yeah, sure. Come this way. Do you want a promotion while we're here? We'll give you a better job. Hopefully you'll stay this time. Yeah. So I realized that my side hustles wasn't going to be my goal at this stage. Full time yet?

Yeah. So I went back to them and I was really embarrassed at the time, but then, you know, in this economy, girl, there's no need to be embarrassed. Just go back to them. There's nothing embarrassing about taking a chance and then going back and being like, hey, it didn't work out the way I thought it would. I really still like to be here. We don't have to burn bridges. Like how good is that? Yeah. And they were very, very amazing about it. So yeah, I got from, so I was a talent acquisition coordinator and then they promoted me to talent advisor with a 10K raise. Oh, I love this.

This is very, very sexy. Tell me a bit more about these side hustles. Obviously it didn't go full time just yet, but at the start of the episode, you said maybe one day, what do you do? How does it work? I make candles. Yeah, cool. So I had actually started it during COVID, but I had to stop because I guess I just lost

passion for it at the time and I want to get back into my career which was an early childhood educator and now I guess you know the passion is still there and I really would like to do it but I wanted to do it correctly and I didn't want to get into any loans or any debts just to fund it and so I really want to save up for it and when I'm ready which we're actually going to be launching soon but I'm still going to keep my full-time job I will be going into it and just work on my side hustle while focusing on my nine to five at this stage. I love that. Well, send me a link because while we'll keep it anonymous on here, if you hypothetically see a candle business, it may or may not be someone that's been a money diarist. How good. Yeah. Money diarist, I want to

know, what do you think about investment? Are you investing? Are you not investing? What's the plan? Have you thought about it? How does that work? I love it. I absolutely do. I actually learned about investment through you and through listening to different podcasts. And so I have a Sharesies account. Unfortunately, last year, I had to pull out all of my money out of that Sharesies account, but I've just started again this year. So currently I have $70 in shares. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm hearing some negative mind frame stuff going on here. What do you mean, unfortunately? Are you saying, V, I actually had a Sharesies account, there was some cash in there and I got to pull it out to achieve a goal, or I got to pull it out to

get me out of debt. Now I'm debt free. Like, sorry. What was unfortunate about this? Actually, now that you rephrase that, it's not unfortunate. I got to take money out of my account because it actually grew quite a bit. And I use that to pay off some of my debts. And now we're starting again. Very sexy. That sounds elite. Like that's, I think, what a lot of people want to hear. We don't want to be like, oh, unfortunately, I had to get rid of something. No, sorry. You're saying that you made money from investing and then that money that you made helped you get out of debt? Yes, that's what I'm saying. That's hot. I like hearing that. But you still have a

sharesies account. Yes. Is there a bigger investing plan at play? Like what does the future look like? Yes. So I wouldn't say that I'm an expert just yet, but I'm definitely learning and learning and learning. I think it's a constant learning experience when it comes to investing, but I do listen to a lot of podcasts. You know, I read about different ETFs and at this stage, I want to hopefully put $250 a month into my Sharesies account and spread that out to, currently I have S&P 500. So I want to put more money into that. And then the rest, I'm sort of leaning more towards like clean energy ETFs or anything, I guess, natural and eco-friendly. so I like that how good she knows what she wants and she's gonna chase it absolutely when you

downloaded the Sharesies app I get lots of people messaging me going Vy oh my gosh I downloaded Sharesies now what and obviously I can't give you advice on to what to purchase but when you downloaded the app did you know what you were going to purchase or did you download the app and then have to do some research after like how did you come to purchase the S&P 500 I know it's a really popular one in our community. For those of you playing along at home, it's basically the top 500 companies in an ETF. So it's well diversified. You don't have to buy 500 different shares to get access to 500 different companies, which, okay, that's really easy and really sexy. But how did you choose that? Why did you choose that? To be honest, it was from just watching

videos, from watching TikToks, and also just, I guess, getting to know the return over the years in S&P 500 has always been I would say positive so it's not like I'm gonna obviously like you know put money in it in one year and then pull it out the next I think now that I'm completely debt-free I can be more you know committed to it and and I guess you know more long-term for me is would be S&P 500 so yeah I think I learned from YouTube learned from TikTok and I thought yeah might as well I love this um can I be real pervy and it's just because like I love following money content creators. Who are you following on TikTok that we should be following that gives advice on this? Like who? I listen to girls that invest. Oh, I love her. Yeah. Sim is the best. She is

amazing. Yeah. She's amazing. We love Sim. I also listen to Tash invest. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great. And also she's on the money as of course. Okay. But like we don't post nearly enough content talking about this and I need to get back on TikTok, but I kind of feel old there because I just can't keep up with the trends. I really can't. But then also I'm always like, has it been too long? Like, should I just quit and run away? Like, you know, when you just can't get back in the groove of something, like I just, I pick up my phone and I'm like, not today, Satan, not today. Yeah. And I've been doing that for more than a year. That's so annoying of me. Completely understand that. But yeah, no, I actually, I listen a lot to, to obviously the

She's on the Money Podcast, especially when it comes to learning about investing 101. Never hurts to refresh my knowledge about that. I love it. All right. I want to know a little bit more about debt. Before you said, I am consumer debt free. I have no buy now, pay later accounts anymore. Shut all of those.

But you did mention you have a car loan. So is that your only debt? And can you tell me a bit more about that? I want to know the perfect details. Like, do we have a cute car? How much is it? Like, what color is she? I'm glad you asked that because I actually have a really, some people find it funny when I tell

them about my car story, but I think it's a manifestation queen. Oh, I love this. My dream car before was a Range Rover. So I wanted a Range Rover with red interior. With red interior. That is so niche. Yeah. So I, for some reason, I just liked the white exterior and then red interior. I get it. She's a queen who knows what she likes. but I obviously didn't have Range Rover money. So I got the next best thing, which was a Toyota Corolla. So similar. I get it. I get it. I love it. It's very reliable. I love her. She's really cute. But I went to the dealer, it was during COVID and I went to the dealer and I said,

I don't know how we're going to make this happen, but I want a white exterior and a red interior. so oh my gosh they would have been like in a corolla bang and so i got the top of the range corolla zr i think it was 2021 and it was red and black interior which is you know close enough close how good and also like i feel like a red interior is so niche that there wouldn't be many of those at all is she white yes yes so you've got the white car with the red interior like manifestation queen. Not the same brand, but... Miss Jessica Ricci would be very proud of you. Thank you. Yeah. So not the same brand, but in my head, the more I drive this car,

the more I think I'm driving a Range Rover. So, you know, maybe it's going to come soon. I know that this is going to sound incredibly entitled, but I used to drive a Range Rover and I can tell you that they are not the best cars to drive. Very iconic. And I felt like when I bought this car, oh my gosh, all of my Tumblr dreams came true. Like ever since I was like 16, I used to save and pin all the images of the hot girl with the Range Rover and all I wanted, like I wanted the Range Rover Evoque black on black. And when I finally had what I call big girl money and was relatively irresponsible, I went and got one. She brought me nothing but problems we do not have her anymore but I feel like you dodged a bullet babe like I don't think

I've met anyone who's owned a Range Rover and been like yeah very great car doesn't cost me anything to service like no one says that so I got it I realized the errors of my way and then we've moved on yeah and and now now that I've got my Corolla my my little Corolla I love her don't want to let ago. So, you know, I think I struck gold with that one. See, a good stable car. Exactly. Someone that's going to be there, be consistent. Tell me more about how much she cost. What's your car loan at? How did that work? So my car loan is sitting at $17,000 at the moment with an interest rate of 2.71%. So I locked that in during COVID. Sorry, what? For a car loan? Yes. Yep. That's very attractive, especially in this economy. Absolutely. I'm so grateful.

Oh my gosh. I mean, if you're going to get a car loan, that's the one I would want. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's funny because I didn't know anything about interest rates before. To me, it was... So you didn't even know how good you had it? No. No, I didn't until my partner told me about his interest rate and I thought, oh my God, what why would you do that exactly criminal but yeah no i i asked my financial dealer and i asked you know how much is my interest rate on this car which is no psychology 2.71 i'm like oh cool okay cool cool cool we are good yeah we're not gonna be changing that and how much did you lend to begin with yeah i think it's around the 30th yeah 35 how good's that you've really been knocking it

on the head. Yeah, it was during COVID. So it was the best time to negotiate. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Before I even learned how to negotiate properly, I think I got that car from 40 down to 35. Oh, very nice. And I didn't put down any down payment. How good is that? I love that for us. Yeah. So what's the plan to getting rid of this rest of the $17,000 owing on your car? So next year, we're planning to move back into my partner's parents' house and that'll actually drastically put all our responsibilities down to just paying rent or board. Yeah, I'm hoping to aggressively pay for that $17,000 next year and hopefully not have that on my record anymore by the time I turn 26 and have a fully paid off car.

Oh my gosh, I love that. So tell me a bit more about this move because moving into your partner's parents' house. Big move if you've moved out by yourselves, but also an epic financial decision because you can kind of like cut down all your costs, save a whole heap. Like it is a massive privilege to be able to do that. But do you have like a game plan? Are you like, all right, on this day we're moving in and then we're going to budget and save. Like what's the ultimate outcome and the decision around, or I guess the reason why you're moving back in with them? Obviously money, I would you? Yeah, absolutely. Because like I said, my partner and I are planning to travel. I would love to travel the world and have a, obviously a fully funded emergency fund and all kinds of

savings. So we've decided to move back in with his parents and they were very, very kind enough to obviously offer that as well. And very fortunate that I get along with, with both his mom and his dad. So very, very grateful for that. And we wanted to move back in with them because we wanted to save up so that we're able to travel without having to worry about the financial side of things. A hundred percent. And like, if you're going to be away, how good? I mean, I think that's the ultimate dream, right? Like I think anyone who's listening that's moved back in with their parents, they'd be like, look, it's really good, but sometimes you need a bit of a break. I feel like that's true for housemates as well. Like, let's be honest, anyone living in the

same space. You just need a bit of a break from them sometimes. Yeah, of course. So how good to move back in and then be able to do the travel along the way. You've cracked the code, babe. You've done it. I love this. Yeah. And we're very fortunate to have two sets of very supportive parents. My parents are very supportive. So are his. So we're in a really, really lucky situation as well. So yeah, really good. Love. I know that you've changed your money story over the last few years gotten out of debt, but what do you reckon your best money habit is? I would say that my best money habit is I've mastered the art of delayed gratification, unless I absolutely need something. Wow. Can you please teach me? Because I have not. Did you just

see me? For those of you playing along, I had to have a brief intermission because someone offered me a donut. That's different because that's free. Yeah, it's true. It's true. It was a money win. I'm not buying money. Yeah, money win. There you go. How good. Thank you for reframing that for me, but tell me more about how to work into this delayed gratification. I actually learned that from my partner. Unless I absolutely need something, then I give, you know, myself a few days, if not a week to really think about if I want something or not. And more often than not, I actually forget about it. So I like to think that, you know, I'm saving myself so much money from not going crazy berserk on shopping spree if I don't really need it. I love that. But what

was the first step in, I guess, actually practicing delayed gratification? Because I think that so many of us would be like, oh my gosh, this money diarist is so right. I need to, you know, think about what I'm spending. I'm going to put 24 hours between me and my spending. I'm going to listen to V. Like V is very do as I say, not as I do, just for the record. But I think we need to know what was the first time that that was really pressed? Because I feel like we can make all the biggest plans in the entire world. And I think we all do, but then you have to actually implement them. I think for me, I guess when I realized that I didn't really need a lot of things was when I was decluttering my bedroom and my bathroom. I had so many unopened skincare products. I had

so many clothes that still had tags on them. And I thought, I actually don't need any of these. Why did I even buy them? And so I think that made me realize that like, I better start practicing delayed gratification. Otherwise I'm going to be stuck with all these, you know, products, clothes, everything that I actually never needed in the first place. And I could have had some cash in my bank. Exactly. I could have had cash in my bank and now I can't even sell them because they're out of trend, but I'm still keeping them. Never know. Cause trends always come back around. That's true. That's true. Give it 10 years, babe. This is an investment.

Give it 10 years. They're assets. I love this for us. I love that. What do you think is your worst money habit? Easily my budgeting. I would budget for something and then still go over budget. It's definitely a learning experience, but I think it's just having to allocate money

or enough money into a bucket. You know, I guess mastering how much money I put in that bucket and not going over budget. What does that look like? So have you sat down and gone, all right, I'm going to create a spreadsheet, I'm going to outline these buckets that you're talking about, and I think that I need, you know, $100 in that bucket each month, but then you blow it. Like, how are you allocating your budget such that it's either working or not working at the moment?

I think for me, it's, I still sort of, I'm still very, very strict with my money to the point where it can be unhealthy. like for example I would give myself $50 for shopping and then I'd go to Target and I'd find nothing's $50 yeah nothing's $50 if like one t-shirt is $50 so it's insane right yeah we used to go to Kmart before and you know that's where we would go shopping and $50 was sometimes enough but now it's, you know, you only get one shirt and go home. So yeah, I would, you know, be super restrictive. I think for me is the word when it comes to my budgeting, like, cause my partner and I like to go out, you know, to, to eat at different restaurants or like just, just eat really. And

then I'd give myself $60 to eat, but really would end up spending like a hundred dollars. I mean, brunch these days is a minimum of $70 in my head. Like it's become insane. Like something's got to give. I just, I cannot conceptualize how this happens. Like, and if you've got 60 bucks for dinner, like let's break this down. Most main courses nowadays, and this is probably very entitled from my perspective and a reflection of the places that I go. So it doesn't mean it's true to everybody. It's just my experience. Right. But mains are like $30. Like you walk in and that's a main meal each. That's no drinks. That's no entree. And like my husband and I, I would say we're pretty good at eating out I don't know about you and your partner but like

if we want to eat out we like to make the most of the time so often we'll share an entree have a main each and then share a dessert so then it was kind of like two courses we didn't have three courses each which to be honest I usually can't get through but then we also want to have a wine and maybe that's like two wines because I don't want to you know just go out for dinner have a drink and then like go straight home like this now that I'm a mum as well I'm like make the most of this time it's maybe like two drinks each that's easy a hundred dollars plus like it's wild isn't it yeah yeah absolutely even like the drinks alone like cocktails they would cost like twenty four dollars twenty dollars and isn't that insane yeah it's insane and because I'm a I'm a cocktail

girly I would have you know pina colada with my my dinner and so that already is over sixty dollars for myself alone. Exactly. So it's, yeah, I still have trouble budgeting, especially with, you know, with shopping and dinner, dining out and all that stuff. All right. I can fix that for you in literally 10 minutes. I mean, it'll take you more than 10 minutes, but I'm going to gift you our money masterclass because that's going to like nail all of that. Like I'm listening to like your issue and obviously I could be like, hey, I can gift you it for the budget, but we have a video series inside of that that'll help you reflect on what you're spending and how to actually budget because it's so different for everybody like you and your partner might like a specific

restaurant so you're able to really go well actually I like this restaurant we want to go every single month and we know it costs this because we're creatures of habit and I'm never not going to order a pina colada and the parma like it's just going to happen every time I know exactly what this means. And it can also help you be a bit flexible while still looking at the bigger picture. Because like every year you on your Corolla are going to pay rego. You're going to have to pay insurance. Like we need to zoom out and capture those costs in addition, because I feel like, I don't know about you, but even though I've budgeted for it, my rego and insurance still surprises me. Like it pops up and I'm like, oh, what? Like, why is that here again? Like, I feel

like it happens every month even though I pay on an annual basis it just rolls around like time flies so I feel like we need to budget for those things so that the cash is sitting there even though I've got the cash right now it still surprises me but also we want to make sure that we've got the right amounts in our fun buckets and the right amounts in our I call it in the course a food fuel and fun account because that's the account that I like have a debit card and I tap my debit card for things. And every single week I know what my food, fuel and fun is going to cost me. And if I run out of that money, that's it. We're not going out for dinner. But the reason that works for me is that those bigger goals aren't compromised. So like your travel and your

emergency fund and those things aren't going to be compromised if you go out for dinner with your partner and then go, oh, it blew over. Like we've made a buffer for that. And I think that that works really well, especially from my position as someone who has been in debt and is a little bit of an instant gratification girly, even though I shouldn't be. So I'm going to gift you that. We'll work that out after. Oh, thank you. I really appreciate it. Oh, of course. But for those of you following along, I'm going to put a little cheeky discount code in the show notes because it would be rude to just gift it to one person. So we will do a little discount but I feel like that's going to really work for you and put you back on track

like you're already killing it but I think that'll turbocharge it and so I'm excited thank you same same I'm really excited I'm gonna work on that tonight as soon as I get it I love that I'm really excited you have to tell me how you go we're running out of time very quickly money diarist at the start of this episode you said V I reckon I'm a c- and I said okay that makes sense let's learn a little bit more about you, but you've changed your whole money story. Like you've just gone on to tell me how good you are at money. And like you have some of the clearest goals I've heard. Like when I said, oh, what are your goals? You off the bat were like, okay, cool. So I want a fully funded emergency fund. I want to pay off my car loan. My partner and I, we're prioritizing

travel. So I want to find time to, you know, bump that a little bit up. We talked about investing and you said, oh, look, V, unfortunately, I had to get rid of my investments. But then when we reframed it, it was because you were getting yourself out of debt and you'd made money that could go towards paying off your debts. And like, is that not the coolest thing ever? Like, is that not really epic and putting you in the best possible position? So you're saying that investing got you out of debt in a way. Like Slay, love that for you. You talked about how accidentally, I mean, I'm going to give you credit for this, but like it was an accident, how you have a really great interest rate on your car loan, like 2.1% girl in this economy, that is definitely worth

writing home about, but you also have reframed what is reasonable for you. We talked about Range Rovers and how ridiculous they are as a car. They always break. We don't want a Range Rover with a red interior, but you picked something that, you know, still aligned to your style, still gave you the vibes you were after, but was actually within your budget. I love that. Your best money habit is still something that I can't master. You are good at delayed gratification. So we need to talk more because I'm still a little bit spendy, a little bit of a short term kind of girl. So I'm looking at you going, holy moly, like this girl, she's got a great job. She's killing it. Are we really a C minus? I thought about that last night when I was,

you know, writing down my money story. And I would still say strictly I'm a C minus because I have quite a few goals I need to achieve to justify a promotion. But I would say that I'm definitely, I guess, going towards the B, the B area. I love that. You're working towards it. You're like, no, no, no. I think I've been reasonable with myself. We've still got space to grow. I love that. Absolutely. I love that. I'm not going to argue with you. Money Diaries, It has been a pleasure getting to know you, getting to share your story and learning literally so much. So I really appreciate it and know that the community will.

So thank you for that. It's been amazing. Thanks, Victoria. It's been lovely. Thank you so much. 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 MoneySherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289. Thank you.