She's On The Money - FRIDAY DRINKS: (Pay) Secrets Be Gone!

Episode Date: December 8, 2022

Happy Friday! Join Victoria and Jess as they share your money wins and losses, recap the week that was and answer a Money Dilemma about the complexity of prenups. You can submit your Money Dilemma here.Also the girls are THRILLED about the new industrial relations reforms banning pay secrecy, supporting more flexibility for employees and targeting discrimination and they talk all about it!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. Today, my friends, is Friday, which means it is time to sit back with the girls, i.e. Jess and I, with a bev in hand to unpack our favorite moments from the week and, of course, to celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. As always, we're going to be sharing our favorite money wins, we're going to be discussing what's making news in the finance world, and we'll be helping to answer a juicy money question, which this week is all about prenups. But first, it is time to recap the week that was. I'm going to start with Monday's Money Diary episode, which this week was all about someone who'd moved out of home and interstate

at the age of 17 and was now 25, a registered nurse. But the spicy part was she worked in a jail. And I thought that that was so interesting. And we had some conversations. I obviously took it down my own route of questioning because Jess, you're not there to keep me on track anymore. so I just go rogue and I was like what about the ethics of it like what about providing care to people that you know might have killed someone else like how does that work so I found it really interesting and to be honest I found her really compassionate and kind because she was like well I'm not there to judge their circumstances I'm there to make sure that they're healthy and I was just like you are a very very kind human she was actually really really interesting as well

she lived with her partner and she had two dogs which obviously I was really interested in but She also decided to get on board the first home super saver scheme, which is an absolute mouthful. And she's contributing an extra $600 each and every single fortnight to super because they want to buy their first time in three years. And I just thought it was really cool to see a 25 year old at that stage where she's like, I'm just saving. I'm trying to get there. This is my plan. This is my strategy. And it's really nice to talk to people who have strategies that are a little bit longer. Cause I think so many times we talk to people and they're like, yeah, I'm going to buy property. And it's always, I'm going to buy property this year or next year, or I already have

$50,000 savings. And for some people that's just not relatable. But this money diarist was like, all right, this is a three-year game plan. I'm sticking to it. And I was like, yes, Queen, get it. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. Having a plan and sticking to it takes the pressure off a bit and setting up that habit. She's basically paying a mortgage. Do you know what I mean? Like she's getting herself in that habit now, which is only going to make her life a whole lot easier when she finally does get to buy a home. Literally. And I just think the two many times we only see the shiny side of property purchasing and I mean you're on that journey at the moment which is not shiny not shiny but it did take you a while to save your deposit and

you were really diligent at it but I don't think people understand the compromise that comes along with making a big long-term financial decision because it's going into your savings account it's not going somewhere else I can every single day you're challenged as to whether ah do you want to go on another holiday with friends or do you want to go out for brunch or do you want to make these decisions, it's not something that you just go, yeah, we've been planning this for ages and it was no biggie. It's a biggie. It's a massive. So it was really nice to have a chat with her. She was full of bubbles and I really loved her. Oh my gosh, she sounds incredible. What did we talk about on Wednesday though, Jessica?

So on Wednesday, we recapped the top five performing ETFs of 2022, which was a really fun episode to do for a couple of reasons. Firstly, did you know that this year, our very best performing episode was recapping the best ETFs of 2021? 2021, yes. We did our Spotify wrapped, wrapped, not re-wrapped, Spotify wrapped. And it came out that that was our most popular episode by like heaps. It wasn't like, you know, a thousand listens. It was like, what was it? It was like 56% or something ridiculous. And I was like, ah, you guys want more investing content. I see you. I hear you. So watch out 2023. Yeah. Lots more investing content coming your way. But the reason I really enjoyed this episode was

because it's obviously the second year now that we've done it. It was really cool to be able to compare and look back at the industries that performed really well last year because we spoke a lot in that episode about how it was a real anomaly in the industries that performed well and more specifically the percentage of growth that they saw because last year there were companies that had growth of you know 60, 70, 80 percent. Yeah it was crazy. And you at the time as an advisor said this is not normal and as someone who was new to investing I was like oh yeah like I get what you mean. Shut up Victoria there's always going to be companies that perform that way. Yeah. I mean, when we looked at this year's top five, the growth was so much lower

than that. And I don't want to give it away. You're going to have to go listen to the episode if you want to know. No, they've got to go listen to the episode if they want to know all the juicy deets. But it was completely different industries, completely different ETFs and also completely different percentages, which is just cool to look at as someone who's kind of interested in the data and also as a newer investor to see just how much of a difference 12 months can make. Yeah. And I mean I'm boring so I love this content but turns out you guys do too I think it would be interesting as well if you hadn't listened to that episode or you're newer to the podcast because we learned also from our Spotify wrapped that our community has grown by what 37% so 37% of our listeners

are new this year which is very very cool so if you're one of them I would actually go back and listen to that 2021 wrap and then the 2022 just so you can understand what we're talking about when it comes to changes in the economy and changes in the market and the different industries that were showcased, because both of those episodes are not going to be able to guide you on what to invest in in the future, because past performance is not a reliable predictor of future performance. We know that it's just reflecting on the year that was. But I think you guys will actually find it really interesting now that there's two episodes that kind of have the same format to go, wow, in 2021 it did this and in 2022 it did this. We can't predict what

2023 is going to do. And that's why we have to always be switched on, making sure that we have really well diversified portfolios and that we're not jumping the gun on things and not trying to just follow trends. Because Jess, if you had listened to that 2021 episode we did and you're like, oh my gosh, Zoom and stuff like this is really performing because of COVID. I'm going to jump on that bandwagon. You weren't even going to be in the top 20 this year. So that would have put you behind. So I think that we need to talk about how important it is to not take these episodes as advice, but rather education. You know, we harp on about it all the time, but that's a really solid example of, hey, our 2021 wrap, if you had decided to take that as

advice, you weren't even going to make it the next year. We really need to be more diversified than that. Yeah, absolutely. And for 2021, we also did an episode reviewing the top five performing individual shares as well. Oh, we'll do that again. Should we do that again? Yeah. If you want to see that, let us know. Slide into our DMs because we can always look into it. We're just Changing the name of the podcast. It's not She's on the Money, it's She's on the Investing. I think that's a great idea. Victoria's so stoked. I'm like, yes, these queens have caught up. All right. Enough talking investing, V, because I know you could do that literally all day. But instead, let's get into today's Budget Direct Money Wins and Confessions.

Let's do it. All righty. So my first win this week comes from Shan, who said, a colleague told me I could claim my master's degree on tax as work-related self-education, amended my tax return, and got another $10,000 back. How cool is that? Money win. That's a lot of money. I always want to know what people are going to do with it when they say I got an extra 10 grand. Where did it go? I know. I'll comment back to Shannon and be like, where's it going? What are you doing? Victoria wants to know. Yeah, I'm pervy. Please tell me your financial circumstances. Our next win comes from Kira who said, money win. I made 18 little gifts for my daycare and school teachers from my kids using things I already had

at home. I only spent $12 on seedlings. And she put in a photo of nine that are going to school tomorrow. And they're these really cute little pots with flowers that she's grown from the seedlings. And I feel like that's so sweet because she can say, oh, like me and my child grew these for you. Yeah, that's really cute. I feel like my mom used to put so much energy and effort into the teacher gifts for my teachers growing up. And I look at it now and I'm like, what? Is that an expectation of parenting because I don't know. It's also a big expense because kids that are in primary school particularly have a host of what like five or six different teachers that they would see across the week. Like they would have their homeroom or their core teacher and their

art teacher and their sport teacher. Oh yeah. Like where do you draw the line because that's going to get expensive. Yeah but also if you're a teacher at Christmas time do you just end up with 60 million seedlings on your desk? Chocolates. My sister-in-law's a teacher. I would be all right with chocolates. I feel like chocolates is a good compromise. I always feel like presents for people that you're not that close to should be somewhat disposable. Is that a bad thing? I don't know. Like it feels less thoughtful, but like if I didn't know you well, Jess, like I'm not going to go buy you some kind of decor for your home that you then put in the corner of your house and you're like, oh, that's it. Like wine, food, chocolates, biscuits, something that

can be consumed, appreciated, and then not have an impact on your decor at home. Well, yeah, my sister-in-law always says there's only so many world's best teacher mugs that you can have because that's a really thoughtful, kind, sweet gift. But it's also, I think, one that a lot of people go for. When you go to a house, is it just like those are the only mugs that you can drink from? Turns out we're all the world's best teacher. My next win comes from Evelyn who said, Money win!

I won a Vinnies gift card this week. I love op shopping I'm patiently waiting for it to come in the mail which I didn't even know that you could get gift cards for the op shop yeah exactly I thought that was really fun because obviously we're all kind of thinking about Christmas and gifting and if you know someone who loves op shopping I feel like that's a really nice it's thoughtful it's really thoughtful gift because if you give them even like a 10 or 20 gift card it's gonna go quite far at somewhere like an op shop compared to if you just bought them one for glasses or something like that Which I thought was really, really sweet.

My next win comes from Jess, who says, I'm engaged. Congrats. I knew you'd like that. It's the most fun time ever. Well, she said she found a gorgeous modern wedding dress in my size at an op shop for $20. What? $20. Is she missing a zero?

Because that is a money win. If it's $20. That's what I thought. I'm impressed. We'd love to see a photo, Jess. Add a photo to the thread so we can all have a little bit of a sticky bit. Oh, please. Now I've had my wedding.

I absolutely am going to be using and abusing wedding content. Like I want to see all your dresses. I want to see all your styling. I want to see everything. And it's really self-serving, but I'm not sorry. Oh my gosh. We're all for it. It is wedding season and I am loving it. And then my second to last win I have comes from Caroline. She says, I saved $19 a month by switching my mobile phone account to another provider. Plus I get more data and my unused data rolls over each month. It might not be much, but I'm on my own now and have bought She's On The Money and set up my budget, got a planner and I'm ready to move forward in the new year. Who are you queen? Yes, Caroline, you are getting on top of it. You are taking control. And you've also reminded me that

I actually need to call my insurance provider to see if they will do me a better deal because I got my insurance renewal and it is expensive. Yeah, always ask for a better deal. But also it's coming up to the festive season and a lot of us have some time off. Now's the time to review your phone plan because there are so many cheap ones out there. Like I basically have, I think it's like 150 gig of data for 45 bucks a month. And I think that's a money win. But I also know I could get it cheaper. Do I need to? I don't know. 45 bucks a month is pretty good. But like if yours is more than that, I absolutely would be reviewing it because I feel like especially at Christmas time, there are heaps of deals flying around to save some money on your phone plan.

I fully agree. And if you've got the extra time off, what better way to spend it than by saving yourself some money? You're going to feel good and future you is a thousand percent going to Thank you. The very last money win that I have today is from Rihanna and she said, money win, I caught up with a friend last week and he shouted me a coffee. It's the little things that make your day. Money win. I got a free coffee this week too. Oh, did you? Absolutely money win. Yeah. I found one of those ticket, you know, like the coffee cards down the side of the car. It was full. Yeah. Next one free. Money win.

Oh my gosh. Makes your day. All right, Jess, it is time to wrap it. As always, it has been great celebrating some of your Budget Direct Money Wins. Budget Direct winner of CanStar's Insurer of the Year Award 2022. Budget Direct insurance solved. All right, everybody, today I have a kind of really exciting update. No, it's really exciting. What do you mean kind of? It's super exciting. I cannot wait. I feel like I have been jumping up and down about this for years. I had a video go viral on TikTok about this. And by viral, I mean like not as viral as everybody else's videos, but like I mean a million views that was pretty good but what is it Jess what are we talking about

today? So some new industrial relation laws have passed through parliament this week which there's a whole bunch of different things that are kind of covered off in these reforms but the big two that I want to talk about today are pay secrecy and flexibility. Pay secrecy is banned in Australia spoiler alert it's so exciting this is something we've spoken about heaps on this show if you're familiar, pay secrecy is essentially just a clause that is included in some people's contracts that expressly prohibits people from discussing their salary with other employees or people external to the company. And if you're going, gee, Jess, why would they put that in there? To protect themselves, to stop people from saying, hey, I'm earning $55,000. And this

other person being like, oh my God, I'm doing the exact same job as you and I'm earning $80,000. That is a joke if that happens. Because in that scenario, the person on the $55,000 is going to be like, well, that's not fair. I'm doing the same job. And it happens all the time. It is so ick. It is really exploitative. And, you know, that law, I think when we've spoken out in the past, we've said it really only exists to protect companies. It doesn't do anything to protect employees. All it does is gag you essentially and stop you from being able to figure out what you're worth, but also what other people are worth as well. And it stops things from

people unionizing and banding together and kind of, you know, working as a team to increase everybody's position. Because we all want to be in a better position. Exactly. It's insane to me that this hasn't happened earlier, but I'm really excited about it because I was reading something last weekend about how, do you remember ages ago, Jess, we talked on the podcast. I don't know if it was pre-you or it was with you because I live in a bubble, but we were talking about how it's going to take 150 years to close the gender pay gap. So we're talking about that and it has now been increased to 200 years because during COVID we went significantly backwards and that really sucks. But something that plays into that genuinely is pay secrecy. And if you're

listening to this thinking, oh, that's not a thing, like I've always been open about it. Lucky you, because so many people are in that position. If you're a nurse or you are a teacher, often your salary is really transparent because you're on an award. And that's great. And you can talk about that and you know how to predict, well, if I go up this level or I'm in this band, this is what this will mean. But there are so many things in so many industries that stop people talking about their incomes or talking about their remuneration. And I just think that is wildly unfair because today the gender pay gap in Australia is still 22.8%, which is way too many percent for me. But the exciting thing about banning pay secrecy is hopefully we can follow

suit with Canada, who found that once they banned pay secrecy, they found that the gender pay gap between men and women was reduced by 20 to 40%. Wow. How easy is that? Like just talking about your salary puts us in a 20 to 40% better off position. That's crazy. And the gender pay gap is really central to this updated bill, which is the secure jobs better pay bill, if you would like to look up the reforms. And another really significant factor, I guess, that we talk about in terms of that gender pay gap is caring and how a lot of the time women have to take time out of the workplace because statistically we know that more often than not, they're the primary carers. You have to take time off at a minimum if you're giving birth, let alone if you're the person who's

going to be staying at home with the kids. And so another element of this reform that I'm really excited about personally is they've now made it so that it is illegal for an employer to unreasonably refuse flexible working options. So for our working parents who can't afford to put their kids in daycare every day, I think is a common example we see in the group because daycare is so expensive or after school care if you've got a kid of school age. I couldn't believe how expensive it is and you know not to throw my business partner Kate under the bus but I was having a chat with her the other day and she has two beautiful little boys who both go to daycare full-time because they have working parents. I could not believe how expensive it was. It's

basically a mortgage repayment for them and I'm so grateful and very happy that they're in a position where you know that's affordable and it makes sense and she can go to work and you know earn an income. But for so many people, the finances just don't stack up. Having your kid in daycare is just redundant because you're like, well, at the end of the day, I might be taking home less than I was before just to have them in care. And to me, that seems honestly insane. You know, there's so many questions I have around that as well, because we know already, Jess, that daycare employees do not get paid well enough. Any type of child carer doesn't get paid enough. But then where's all this money going? The childcare centre? Well, yeah. Do you

know what I mean? Like, you just look at it and you're like, how many kids would you have at, you know, $130, $140 a day? Like, what the heck? Yeah, it's huge amounts of money. And for a lot of people, that's why it is really hard for women or primary carers to get back into the workforce. And so by making it unlawful for employers to unreasonably refuse flexibility, I think it's going to make a huge difference because not every industry, unfortunately, is going to be able to work flexibly. It's one of those hard catch-22s, I guess, when you talk about things like this. But for a lot of parents who work corporately or a lot of people who work in maybe industries that aren't directly service-based, it's going to make a world of

difference by allowing them to hopefully work from home or leave to pick up the kids and then work the remainder of the day from home. There are so many options and we've spoken a lot on the podcast about the fact that flexibility really should be a standard. If you trust your employees and if they're doing well, it shouldn't be an issue for them to be able to go pick their kids up or to be able to go to a doctor's appointment if they're pregnant or to be able to go and see somebody if they're like really stressed about their mental health, like making time for those things in their day-to-day life is important. And I'm really excited to see laws and reforms being brought in to support those people in a way that previously they weren't. It's interesting because

obviously conversations like these weren't happening pre-COVID. And I remember having conversations with people and I'd say, oh, we should let people work from home one or two days a week. And I was shut down so quickly. I was like, absolutely not. People are not productive at home. Absolutely not. They'll take an inch and run a mile. It's insane. And I just remember being like, oh, I really don't think so. I remember when I would work from home back then, And they were my most productive days because no one was pestering me or, you know, asking questions and I could just smash through a whole day's worth of work and I'd feel super caught up.

And now post-COVID, I'm having conversations with friends and just, I had a conversation with someone last weekend and they were like, yeah, like an email went out in our team this week that said all managers, and this person was a manager, have to be in at work five days a week next week. you know, they've finally renovated the offices and they want to make use of them. And I'm just like, oh, this is going to go so backwards for them. If they are demanding that people who were performing their jobs perfectly well from home, you know, I'm not expecting that every single company says, oh, we don't need to have an office at all. Like, yeah, cool. Expect people to come

in one or two days a week or three or four or whatever it is. But to remove all flexibility once people have crafted their lives around having some level of flexibility just seems a bit cruel to me. Like it just doesn't make sense unless there's an issue where I have to sit someone down and say, oh my gosh, you are being not productive at home. You actually need an office. Like why is there an issue? I agree. And so I'm really stoked about these changes and to see how they kind of roll out and how they impact people, because I think we're going to see some really positive outcomes and steps in the right direction, which is so exciting. All right, Jess, we could go on and on about this literally forever. And I feel like we still will because we're still 200 years

away from our gender equality when it comes to pay. So we've got a little bit of time, but we don't have much time left on the show. So let's jump into our listener question. Hi there. Have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve? The She's On The Money team is here to help. Every week we tackle your dilemmas, both big and small, to answer your most burning money, career and life questions. To get involved, simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now, let's take a listen to this week's Money Dilemma. Hi, ladies. I'm hoping for some practical advice on prenups. I'm 30 years old and I've been in a relationship for four years with my amazing fiance. I was lucky enough to

receive inheritance from my grandparents of $1 million, which I bought a house with six years ago. My partner now lives with me and we currently earn the same amount. We both agreed that a prenup would be a good idea to protect the inheritance, particularly as our next step is to sell the house I own and use that money to buy one together. We recently went through the process of trying to get a prenup and found it impossible. We both had lawyers, however, we had to specify every possible situation in our future relationship from divorce to custody of children to what happens if one of us passes away. We weren't able to write up a simple agreement to carve out the $1 million and split everything else equally.

How are we able to make a prenup practically work for us? Thanks. I'm interested to hear that it was a hard process, even though you both had lawyers. Yeah. That feels overwhelming and maybe makes me feel like you didn't have the right team. Potentially, because you kind of think you'd bring in those kind of people to take it off of your plate, really, wouldn't you? Yeah. So I can understand where they're coming from, because historically I've worked with a lot of estate planning lawyers who maybe aren't the right fit for people, but have been really

technically gifted. So really good at writing prenups, really good at doing the estate planning process, but actually need to be spoon fed. And there's times when I was working as a financial advisor, I would actually sit down with my clients and do a lot of the prep so that it could then go to an estate planning lawyer to write up the prenup. However, I do think it's really important. The areas you said, oh, we had to think about every possible outcome. Yeah, that's what a prenup is. It's thinking about every possible outcome and being on the same page about that. So you come to a reasonable conclusion when you're both in the same headspace as to what an outcome will look like. Because God forbid something happened to you yesterday and you did

pass away and your partner's making decisions about you and your future children. How good is it that your wishes and your thoughts are now documented in this document of what you would have wanted to happen? So I do think it's really important to take that into consideration. And I do have a sneaky little feeling that maybe you went along and just hoped for a prenup that said, if we get divorced or if our relationship doesn't work out, I get my $1 million back. which is just not how estate planning works because there are so many factors to be taken into consideration. So for example, if you broke up a year from now and your relationship hadn't changed yet, it could be quite cut and dry and you probably would get your money back

if you had signed a prenup. However, if down the track you have dependents, that's not going to be split equally and you get it all back because there are people who are dependent on your care and your future husband's care. So it's really interesting. And I think that the best way to organize a prenup is actually to sit down with your partner and go through all of those segments. Well, what happens if one of us cheats on one another? Does that change the outcome of this prenup? What happens if we have an amicable divorce? What happens if one of us passes away prematurely? Because in estate planning, it's not just what you currently have, but now we also need to be thinking about life insurance. And well, what happens if you're totally and permanently

disabled. Like who's going to look after you? How do your decisions and your wishes play into this? So it is actually quite a comprehensive process to go through. So I'm not surprised it can be a little bit overwhelming. But one thing I would say is your professionals that are helping you should be on your team. So we've spoken to, and if you haven't heard from Lucy from Head & Hearts Estate Planning before, obviously we recommend her. I used to work with her when I was a professional financial advisor and she would do my client's wills. She's done mine. So like I do trust her, but she does work in a bit of a different way. So maybe you're looking for someone with a different personality. Maybe you don't actually need two separate lawyers to pull

together a prenup when you are actually on the same page. You just need a prenup to sit down and go, okay, one lawyer can put this together. These are our wishes. Let's sign it and put it on file. So from my perspective, it really just depends on what outcome you're looking for. And if your partner's really agreeable on having the prenup, you're 99% of the way there because most people have an issue where they're trying to sit down and go, Jess, I want a prenup. And Jess is like, that's offensive. I can't believe you'd want that. So it can be a fickle process. But if your partner's already on the same page, to be honest, I don't mean to be rude, but I'd be looking for some new planners. Yeah, no, 100%. You want to be comfy because you're talking about

really hard things. But I actually feel like that was very well said. I don't have anything to add to that at all. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, I mean, estate planning can be quite... Not anymore. Not anymore. She's not registered, but she still has opinions. Oh, there you go. I feel like it's just about time that we skedaddle out of here. But before we go, I know that it's Christmas time. I know a lot of us are feeling stressed because I'm seeing the posts and the comments in the Facebook group. So I just wanted to give you a little heads up. Next week, we're going to be tackling all of the social and financial anxieties that you might be feeling about Christmas and kind of give you a little helping hand to get through it.

Genius. I love it. All right. Have a good weekend, my angels, and we'll see you next week. See you then. 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 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.

Thanks for watching!