She's On The Money - FRIDAY DRINKS: Rate Rises & Property Plummets!

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

As ever we round out another week in true SOTM style by wrapping the week that was, celebrating your money wins and losses, and answering a Money Dilemma about merging bank accounts with a partner.Plus, rising interest rates, falling house prices, what on EARTH is going on and how do we feel about it? The gals talk through this confusing push and pull in the market!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. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are Authorised Representatives of Infocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL - AFSL 236523.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 with a bevy in hand to unpack our favorite moments of 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 discuss what's making news in the finance world. And we're going to be helping to answer a juicy money question, which this week is all about sharing finances for the very first time with a partner. But first, it is time as always, because if anything, we are predictable. To recap the week that was, Miss Jessica Ricci, talk to us about

Monday's Money Diary episode. Our Money Diarist on Monday was such a boss. She is a paralegal full-time, but she has her own loungewear business on the side. And she was making some good money. And she was telling us all about how she got started by doing these business collaborations with people she really looked up to. And it was super impressive because I was like, oh, how did you do that? Because a lot of people in our community have businesses and side hustles, I bet they want to know. And she's like, oh, I just like someone and I just reached out and was like, hey, what up? Can we do a thing? And I was like, girl, like very impressive and a very good example. I think, you know, not everyone will have the time to do that because I know that we

get messages from people sometimes wanting to intern and, you know, someone has to have the capacity. I'd love to intern. It'd be great. Can you imagine? You know, we, at least right now, don't have the capacity to nurture someone. We don't have the time or energy to give them what they deserve. And I think that there's a really special place in hell, Jess, for people who take on interns as a way to just get them to do like free admin work. Like, hey, George, come and work for she's on the money you can just do our admin no I just I feel like that is taking the absolute mickey and while you get to put it on your resume it doesn't help anybody it's just it's a no from me so until we can have paid interns where we can give them the time and energy and effort because

it'd be so great Jess like I reckon it'd be a great way of hiring like hey do you want a content person let's get an intern train them up see how good they are and then they could convert into like a full-time employee one day like great strategy unfortunately it's just too much time energy and effort yeah but I can see how you know if you were wanting to reach out to someone you can kind of go what are the chances that they'll get back to me you know reaching out someone that you really admire on the internet so I was super impressed that she was just like yeah well I just did it and I gave it a crack and I built a relationship and it worked for me so it was very very cool and very impressive to hear how she you know was really unhappy with her work

environment and she pivoted and you know shifted into something that now she's really in the driver's seat of? I am so in awe of her. I messaged her after our interview and I was like, legit, I'm still not over this conversation. And she was like, really? And I was like, yes, like you are a hustler. She's a baby. She's so young. She's like 22, George. Oh my God, really? 22. She's like paralegal, doing all of this loungewear stuff. And her degree as well at the same time. Yeah. What a queen. I was actually in my DMs talking to the girls from LSKD and they were like, we have just finished this episode in the office. Are you kidding? What a hustler. And I I was like, exactly. So even a big loungewear, activewear business being like, this woman's

a queen. I'm like, yeah, I know. So good. Anyway, moving on from that, Miss Georgia King. Hello, ladies. There's no role of the tongue in your name, but tell us what happened on Wednesday. So on Wednesday, we spoke all about how to value and pick individual shares. So we spoke about price to earnings ratios. We spoke about EBIT ratings. Sounds really boring. No, it wasn't boring. It was insightful. It was very detailed. That's a nice pivot. Nice way to reframe that, George.

Well, I feel like it was kind of us taking the next step because it was really detailed. We got into the nuts and bolts. We spoke about every acronym in finance. You had to stop me. That originally was meant to be one episode, Jess. And then halfway through, George was like, babe, this ain't it. Sit down. We're going to make this one episode and then we'll come back to it later and do a second episode because you're overwhelming me. And I was like, sorry, sorry, I'm just excited. Yeah, there's a lot in there. But I guess it would be a really good episode for anyone who is interested in taking more control of their investing journey, but also for people who are just curious as to how it all works and how day traders do their thing as well.

I think it's one of those topics that I've wanted to talk about for so long, but I would hate for you guys to misconstrue it as advice to go and invest individually in shares. Like it's actually a bigger step than what you think it is to go and individually invest and pick investments for yourself because it's just not as easy as people make it out to be. So here are the things that if you're going to go along that journey, you should consider. That's also why we did that recap a while ago that Jess begged us to do about the different investing platforms that exist, because they would hate for you to think that those are the two options, like investing direct in shares or seeing a financial advisor. It's like, no, there's lots of different options. Like there are ETFs or

there are managed funds, or you could go and get some robo advice, or you could go find a micro-investing platform. So there's a plethora of options out there, but this specifically was, hey Jess, if you want to directly invest in shares, here's how we would review it as a financial advisor and some things you should take into consideration. Because, you know, in the lead up to my investing book coming out, I'm very passionate about investing content at the moment, but I just think these are things you should know if that's the path you're willing to take because how many of us have downloaded a platform and be like, great, I'll just go buy individual shares. But then when I ask you how you made that decision, you're like, I don't know,

I just thought they were a good business. Yeah. This episode tells you how to tell yourself whether you think they're a good business or not. There we go. So yeah, hopefully you guys enjoyed it. All right. Well, now, guys, I think it is time to roll straight on into some of our budget direct money wins. Georgia King, what are you putting on the table this week? Some crackers this week, ladies. There's a bit of variety in there. We've got some general wins. We've got some wedding-related wins and we've also got some petrol-related wins, so brace yourselves. Low-key, off-topic, I have just started getting wedding anxiety because it is less than 100 days before I get married. Oh, there are going to be some money losses from me.

Alrighty, guys, the first win comes from Courtney. Warm, fuzzy win. I signed up for my company's charity program where I donate some of my pre-tax pay to an organisation and they'll match the contribution and pay for the admin fees. I'll now regularly donate to four charities aligned to my values while also giving me a little tax benefit. How good is that? Very nice. I also love that salary matching. Like that's so cute. That's so sweet because it's kind of like, hey, George, hey, Jess, like we see that this is important to you, so we'll double your money. Like I'm way more likely to do that because I feel like I've got even more power and even more impact. 100%. Yeah, exactly. Good cause. Love it. Love it. Well done, Courtney. The next one comes from

Bianca, money win. I recently signed up to Perkle and was offered two complimentary tickets to the Gang of Youths gig. It was a very unexpected perk but a happy one. Have you guys heard of Perkle? I don't know what it is but it sounds really fun. It does, doesn't it? It's a good name.

Perkle. I live under a rock. What's Gang of Youths? You know Gang of Youths. Do I? Let me down easy, you know. That song. I'm dancing.

Yeah, move on. Move on. But the next win comes from... I'm going to look that up later, though, because I feel like I'm under a rock. The next win comes from Alicia. Money win. On Friday night, I lost my ticket in the undercover parking, so I thought I was going to have to pay $80.

Yuck. But the lovely girls at the Boomgate let me out for free, so I didn't have to pay for any parking for the whole night. How good's that? Money win. Our local supermarket had their Boomgate broken the other day, so straight on out. Huge.

Money win. We love. Listen up, V, because this is the wedding-related. I don't know if I want to hear it. My anxiety is through the roof at the moment, guys. First one comes from Rihanna. I found my wedding dress by accident at DFO last weekend while not even looking to buy anything.

What? The original wedding dress I wanted was $7,500, but the one I bought on the weekend was $350, down from $500 at review. It fits me perfectly and is so beautiful on. It was also the only wedding dress in the store, so I felt like it was meant to be. Oh, it totally was.

yes congratulations I have a money loss because I bought a dress you know how I was like oh my gosh guys I'm gonna buy it off steel white like I'm gonna get a secondhand dress well I did and then it came and it doesn't fit me well I mean it's a size maybe like a size and a half smaller Jess you've seen it you lucky duck but it is probably a size and a half smaller than what I am right now okay and so I was like all right I'm gonna do the bride thing I'm gonna lose weight And then I reframed it and was like, I should not be losing weight before my wedding. Like, I am fine. So we have gone back to the drawing board.

That dress will go straight back on steel white. But money loss, I have picked a more expensive dress that is not from steel white because I wanted, you know, not to run into that problem again because it made me feel really trashy. What do you mean trashy? Like, it made me feel awful that I got a dress and I didn't fit into it. And then I was trying to conform to fitting in this dress and thinking about diets. And it just was like a really slippery slope for me. diets and eating can be a really slippery slope and I didn't want to fall into it. Actually,

there's an episode coming out literally today because today's Friday. It would have come out at 6am on a Healthy Shift podcast with our friend Roger, who we spoke about literally last week on the podcast. I'm not obsessed, I promise. He just has good content. But I actually talk about my entire journey around my disordered eating and stuff like that. So that might be a good listen if you guys are keen to absorb some more content that's not finance related. Definitely. Love that Good shout. The next win comes from Abby. I'm a bridesmaid at my friend's wedding at the end of this year. The bridesmaid's dress I'm buying is $380. So I decided to take a little look on Facebook Marketplace for the dress and I found the exact one and it's in my size and the color

shade I need for $160. Money win. That's better than half price. The lady was also just down the road, which made the pickup easy and she'd also only worn the dress for three hours. Yeah, because she would have worn it as a bridesmaid as well, you reckon? Exactly right. That's a really good idea. Abbey, I would say once you've worn it, do the same thing. Yeah, do the same thing. Flip it. Literally wear it and then put it back up on Facebook Marketplace. For what you paid too because someone else would be really happy to do that. 100%. One for six hours. Yep. Also, random side note, I'm going through this at the moment because I am about to get married. We're going to keep talking about this. Should bridesmaids pay for their own dresses, guys,

or is this a spicy conversation? I personally would not ask my bridesmaids to pay for their dresses unless it was like a situation where I've gone, oh, I just want you to wear something that you have. Like, you know, here's a color. You all have a white dress, wear your white dress, wear your black dress that you favor, your favorite one or whatever. But I know that it's very common. Like most bridesmaids I think do, but weddings are expensive. Weddings are so expensive and it adds up. Yeah. Like we've got your hens coming up and we have a few different things and like I'm not in the bridal party and even I can go, oh, I can see how people who are, it adds up really quickly because then you've got shoes and you've got makeup and you've got

whatever else. Well, just a disclaimer, and I'm paying for everything for my bridesmaids and I feel very privileged that that is a position I'm in where I go, no, like guys, I've got three bridesmaids. I've got my sister and my two best friends. And I'm just like, I really don't want you to be financially out for this. I will pay for it all. But it's adding up so quickly. So I can see why people who are bridesmaids are turning around going, oh, I don't want to do it. Because in my head, I was like, oh, why would you say, no, it's just a dress, but then it's the dress, it's the shoes you know we're booking professional hair and makeup I'm talking to the girls about their nails and I'm like okay let's go get our nails done all together I want to make sure that

that's covered and they're not out at all for anything wedding related because I'm like that's my day why would you spend your money on my wedding but it's I think it's different for everybody because then if I wasn't in the financial position to go all right guys I'm gonna pay for your dresses I just feel I don't know you never know I think it's not the expectations about like Abby was saying that the dress that the bride picked was almost $400. Yes. I think that if you're expecting someone to pay for it, because I mean, realistically, a lot of us, if we were going to a wedding would potentially buy a dress anyway. But I think if you're asking someone to buy something, there are so many stores that do beautiful dresses that are around the

$100 mark, which is still a lot of money, but it's, you know, almost a quarter of what she was expected to spend. But again, it's a really hard one because in my mind, your bridesmaids are doing you a favour, right? Like they're the ones that take on all of the organisational responsibilities and stuff. So it's kind of like you're asking them to pay for the privilege of being there with you. But again, like I've never been wearing, I know that's traditionally how it is, but it's just probably not the way that I would do things. But so personal, you know, when it comes to stuff like that. I guess to flip side that, I know this is a very tangent, but I think it's really relevant at the moment. But I was a bridesmaid recently for one of my good friend's weddings

and I was so excited, but the dress was on me to purchase. And I was so fine with that because she had said, look, this is the color I want. Don't mind what you wear. Can it be midi length and this color? That's the brief she gave us. And I was so happy to go with that because I could pick anything. I mean, I could have, I wouldn't, but I could have gone and got a $12 dress off Sheen and it would have fit the brief, or I could have gone and spent, you know, $600. But a $400 dress, like, I don't know if I'd have the audacity to be like, Jess, can you please spend $400 on this dress, it's for me. You're only going to wear it once and it will be at my wedding. I just, I don't know. It makes me uncomfortable because I hate putting unnecessary financial pressure

on other people. 100%. But that's because I'm so aware. I don't know. Move on. Give us another money win, J. King. Maybe we do another podcast on wedding stuff where Victoria rants about how much she's accidentally spent. The last wedding win is from Tess. Money and life mindset win. I went to a hen's party over the weekend and wore something that I already had in my wardrobe instead of buying a new outfit. I got plenty of compliments on the outfit and I knew I would be comfortable because I'd worn it a thousand times before.

I love that. How good's that? Well done, Tess. I'm going to round us out with a couple of wholesome petrol-related wins. Petrol-related wins. Digital was a thing, yep. The first one comes from Nate.

Money win. My friend knows I'm saving up and being really frugal with spending as I want to buy a home before Christmas. I was going to watch the rugby one day and I asked her to drop me off in my car, which had just under half a tank of fuel in it. she goes on to explain why later on that day when i picked my car up she'd filled it up i didn't ask

her to do that and she's like not exactly sure how much she put in but she'd guess around 80 which is just so nice when your friends are generous yeah it's just kind the final one comes from cody it's a money loss but it's wholesome i was lined up at the petrol station and the young man in front of me had his car declined so i paid for his petrol felt so good to do something so selfless. Bless these people. How nice is that? I want to be friends with all,

we are friends with all of them because they're in our community. I love this for us. All right, J King, 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. Now let's go to a really quick break because straight after we're going to be talking about sharing money with a partner for the very first time. Don't go anywhere.

All right, guys, I was browsing the internet this week and I saw a post from our friends at the Daily Oz in bright purple letters that really caught my attention. And it said, Australian house prices are falling at the fastest rate since the GFC. Now, as a hopeful first home buyer, you can bet I would like incredible news. Amazing. Very exciting. Apparently, according to new data from CoreLogic, house prices fell by 1.3% in the month of July. And that's the third month in a row that the prices have fallen. For those of us in Melbourne, it was 1.5 and in Sydney, it was 2.2, but it was kind of dropping right across the board, which sounds really exciting. However, the reason that they're

falling is because of the RBA rates, which we have spoken about the last few weeks. They did, in fact, increase again this week. And, you know, the outlook is pretty bleak in terms of it will probably continue to do so. To very briefly recap, that means that interest rates are going up, the cost of your mortgage is going up, less people can afford houses, less competition in the market, prices are dropping. Am I a financial advisor now? Maybe. That was great. Thank you. All right. I am not needed here. I'm just going to quit my job. Unnecessary addition to this content, which is really, it's just not relatable content, but I did find it funny because that housing price drop is like, wow, that's really big. But in more affluent suburbs at the moment,

housing prices are absolutely plummeting and they're pretty worried about it because they're like, oh my gosh, like obviously when there's a big drop, when your median house price is really high, I mean, unrelatable content, because I would argue that if you're listening to this podcast, you're not buying a $10 million property, but we like to laugh at these things anyway. But the biggest fall over this same period of time, Jess, was actually in Toorak, which if you're from New Melbourne, you know Toorak. Toorak, darling. Or anywhere else. It was very fancy.

There you go. But the median house price fell 16.9% over the first half of the year till June, which now means that the median house price in Turek is $4.57 million. So affordable. So affordable. But I was also like, imagine how salty you'd be if your house price, if you spent that much, dropped by 16.9%. I'd be so salty.

Well, it's kind of that push and pull, isn't it? because if house prices are getting more affordable and you're looking to buy, that's great. But if you're someone who already owns a home and you're looking to maybe upgrade or, you know, get a bit of a sea change, it means that you're more than likely selling at a reduced value. So it kind of has impacts on both ends of the spectrum. But V, I wanted to ask, do you think this is going to continue? And ultimately, is this something that people like me should be excited about? Or, you know, do we have to take it with a little bit of a grain of salt with all of the other things that going on right now. Look, at the end of the day, we should take everything with a grain of salt

because where we're getting our information is the media and the media hosts headlines to make you emotionally respond to that and click on it and read their article, right? Success achieved. Yeah, it worked. So you didn't just click the article, Jess, you literally brought it to the She's on the Money table and you're like, I'm so freaked out right now. At the end of the day, the RBA increases to interest rates means that home buyers who bought the peak are facing rapidly increasing interest rate rises. And a lot of people were really worried that the peak wasn't actually the peak. So this makes me a little bit uncomfortable because let's hypothetically say, Jess, you stretched your budget to get to the top of your budget when you bought. You're like,

it's all right in the market. And you and I were talking about this then. Relatable content. No, but you and I were talking about this and we weren't even, no one knew that it was the peak. Now it's coming off a bit. You're like, I'm actually really glad because your interest rate is going to increase on an arguably bigger mortgage than what you could afford today. So for some people, it's going to mean a little bit of an extra squeeze that's going to mean having to redo your budgets and maybe cut out some of life's luxuries that you were previously able to afford because the RBA increase is reflective of CPI increasing. CPI is Consumer Price Index, which is the rate of inflation here in Australia. And if we look at the rate of

inflation. I was actually working with, you know, Square, like those Square readers. Oh, yes. I'm obsessed with them. So I was working with Square and we have recently had a blog come out about it. And in that, I talked about the consumer price index, but it has increased by 6.1% over the last year. So if you look at it and go, all right, well, not really sure what that means. Well, Jess, that means that your groceries on average are costing 6.1% more than they were last year. And I know for a fact that if I asked you right now, are you feeling that? I know you are, because we're talking about. Yeah. Like, are you finding the same, George? Oh my God, 100%. You have to be so much more organized about purchasing because everything is so expensive.

It just feels like an absolute rort, right? Like I'm looking at it as well going, wow, like everything is so much more expensive than it was this time last year. Like you look at invoices or you look at, you know, my spending, cause like I am a pretty solid tracker on my spreadsheets. I go, oh, this is way more. And I would argue that I feel like it's more than 6.1% on my groceries. Like, I mean, that 6.1% is across the board, but I feel like food and fuel has definitely increased more than that, which are things that we can't, they're not really in our control, right? It's not like, oh, Jess, did you know the cost of movie tickets has increased? And you go, cool. Well, I just won't go. Like you're gonna have to buy food. We're going to have to

buy petrol. Like these are things that, you know, to an extent we can budget. I know that we're talking in our office, like, oh, Jess, just come in one day a week. Cause like, there's no point, you know spending way more on fuel and back and forth parking so expensive as well like let's not do that let's just do one do it like there's negotiation but then there's also like that's your transport from a to b and not everybody has that level of flexibility so look it's a tricky position to be in because it does put a lot more pressure on other people but housing prices in australia are dropping at the fastest pace since the gfc which is i mean exciting for first home buyers. But Jess, I don't know if you're comfortable sharing this, but you're still on

your property journey. You're still looking to purchase, which is so exciting. But there's that pressure now of, hey, interest rates are going to change. If they change again, your buying capacity is going to lower. But at the same time, as property prices in general decreasing, a lot of first home buyers still have the same competition that they had before. Like, Jess, are you seeing the properties that you want to buy decreasing in value? No, not really. Things are maybe sitting on the market a little bit more. But as you said, there's really the pressure because every rate's increased, particularly for someone like me who is purchasing by themselves. It means that my borrowing capacity drops, which essentially means that I have less money to play with. And

I would argue just based on the numbers that I have seen for myself, the rate at which my borrowing capacity is dropping is significantly bigger than the rate at which the house prices are dropping. Like if my borrowing capacity drops by 10 grand, I'm not necessarily seeing house prices drop by that much. And that's the hard thing is like one is not keeping up with the other. So as exciting as that headline was, I was like, oh, I actually don't know what a difference that's going to make. And I know that there would have been a lot of people like me who, you know, have been waiting for the property market to dip and it always does work in ebbs and flows. However, unfortunately, in my opinion, we're not going to find ourselves in the position

where housing prices dropped by $100,000, which is really the point that it was at when it was really affordable to get into the market when like our parents were young and stuff. We're just never going to get back there and wages haven't kept up. And it does feel really a bit like an endless cycle, doesn't it? Look, I'm liking seeing the conversation in our community around it, but I do genuinely feel like it's maybe a little bit, not short-lived, but it's a little bit glossy. It's not the reality of a lot of people in our community. Yes, CPI has increased by 6.1%, But then if I sit down with my friends and have a chat, I'm like, oh, Jess, like, has it been 6.1% on your groceries? You're like, no, I really feel like I'm spending like 50 bucks more.

I feel like it's almost double what I used to spend. And it's the pinch that, you know, you know is here because the media is talking about it. But I think it's a little bit more impactful than the media is actually talking about. And I think that our community is probably feeling that as well because we're feeling it. So why wouldn't they? Just on the percentage of the decrease, guys, so it's 1.6% is what the Daily Oz reported. On an $800,000 house, that's a decrease of $12.8k. That doesn't sound to me like a massive drop despite it being this huge decrease. What does that look like? Is it not that big or is

it just because it's happened so fast? So like, is it as significant as it seems? It is pretty significant. Like a 1.6% drop is like pretty significant in any situation when you have a well diversified portfolio, right? So if we're talking about across the board, say, you know, in Toorak, we talked about the median house price being four and a half million dollars. Unrelatable, but that property and that median is included in our overall average. Included in our average as well is like regional properties that take 18 months to two years to sell because they're always on the market and you know they've had no growth in the last 30 years so to across the board have a drop of 1.6 percent of an average like that's big yeah it's not like

oh hey gee in you know your local community this has happened it's actually across the entirety of Australia it's not like oh this is Melbourne's house price it's Australian house prices which means every single property in Australia is included and the larger your sample size so the more houses we're looking at, the less fluctuation you'll see over time because it should stay relatively stagnant. Because even if one property, you know, goes for $100 million because it's the first on the market and it was like a tightly held family property and, you know, that's an outlier and that's crazy, that wouldn't even bump the house price up or down 1% because it's not that impactful. It's actually the fact that 1.6% is the biggest drop we've seen since

the global financial crisis in 2008, 2009. So that's pretty significant. We need to take that really seriously and go, well, what does that mean? And as disheartening as it is, we really need to re-evaluate whether we want to be in the property market at the moment or not. Not because the property is going down, but because of the financial stress it might put you on, because it really changes that lifestyle. And I go back to you, Jess, and I'm not saying that you don't do it because I know that we're like a gung-ho, we're trying as hard as we can on this side of the table to get you into a house ASAP. But you look at it and go, all right, well, originally, you know, and these aren't Jess's real stats, but originally it was going to cost me, you know, 40% of my

income to pay that mortgage. And I was really happy with that. An interest rate increase and, you know, the cost of property not really changing for Jess could mean that, you know, it's closer to 50% of her income that needs to go towards them. Is that fair? Is that reasonable? is that going to impact her lifestyle? Is that going to stop Jess doing something she loves? Like Jess loves travel. Is that going to stop that? So is that actually a good idea for the life she wants to lead? And it's not saying Jess in particular, but you're a good example at the moment, Jess, because I feel like we stole you from the community. You speak for the community. You're our voice from the inside. But it's literally that, right? Like, is that going to

change the parameters of your ability to get into property? It doesn't mean you don't want to anymore. It could just mean it's not worth the sacrifice that needs to go along with it. And I think we need to consider that as well and go, what is actually putting me in the best possible position? Not because we don't want to own, but because sometimes we really need to be a little bit harsher on our parameters of what we will and won't accept because I think some people, not you Jess, but some people get so caught up in it that they finally get into it and then they go, oh, I am under a lot of financial pressure. This was not worth it. So I think it's all about having the right team around you, getting the right advice and not getting too caught up in the

headlines and really looking at what that means for you. But we've said it before on the podcast, talk to a good mortgage broker. They'll let you know the parameters and a good mortgage broker will always make sure that you're serviceable above and beyond what the interest rate could rise to anyway. So you'll be safe and secure, but it is really disheartening, guys. Well, on that exciting note, I reckon it's time to take a listen to today's Money Dilemma, ladies. Oh, yeah? Give us a listen. 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 quick voice recording and you may just find yourself on the show. Now, let's take a listen to today's money dilemma. Hello.

My long-time boyfriend and I are finally moving into our first rental together. We're trying to do research into how to merge our financials together also. We want to pay rent from one account. However, we're unsure if one person should just transfer to another or should we open a whole new bank account together that potentially has benefits for us in the future. Any advice is greatly appreciated. All right, guys, I have a lot of thoughts about shared finances, but I want to start on the other side of the table today. Jess, thoughts? I mean, it's very personal. We did also, it's probably worth throwing out there we did a full episode on sharing finances in a couple not too long ago so

I would definitely recommend that to anyone who's thinking about taking good content we're not biased at all I am interested because she said she wants to know if they should put their money in an account that will have benefits to them down the line and if I'm being honest I don't know that there are any benefits to have like outside of you know the convenience obviously or being able to view your finances in one place but like in terms of externally like for applying for a loan or any I don't you know yeah you're correct increased interest I don't know that there are too many really so I don't know how much that would be impacting my choice so really it comes down to personal preference like how closely do you want your finances to be tied together I think you know

we always say that if you are sharing finances make sure you've got a little something on the side for yourself to ensure that should you ever need it, you have your own emergency fund, your own money that you directly and you only have access to. But I think, yeah, it just comes down to what works for you guys. Are you splitting everything directly down the middle? In which case, is it easier for you both just to pour the same amount of money into an account every month and then have things direct debit from there? Or do you pay things manually? So maybe it makes sense for one person or are you paying rent and he's paying bills? Like it is so dependent. Every single relationship is so different. Georgia King, how do you manage it in your relationship?

Tell me your story. Obviously, we're a hot mess. We, I mean. No, you are not. I would say I'm, we actually were speaking about this this morning. I might have sent a little passive aggressive text message to young Harper. Oh, nice, Georgia. Nice. We're adults here at She's On The Money. So I definitely take control of all of our bills, all of them. And he, of course transfers me, we share it together. We actually haven't, I know we've spoken on the podcast before about equity and sorting things out in accordance with your salaries. We haven't actually gotten to that yet, but I think it's because we're lazy. The important thing is,

you know, that that's a concept that you can discuss in your relationship should you decide to have that conversation. Yeah. So we're very much like, I'll get this one, you get the next one. Yeah, great. I take more control of the finances, but yeah, we definitely don't have a shared account. I know, who would have thought? Yeah. Would there be benefits to us opening an account together? Look, at the end of the day, every single relationship is so different. I think if it comes down to you going, I want to pay rent from the same account, actually, that's not necessary if you don't want to. I lived with Steve for a while before we decided to purchase a house together, which we were very lucky to do so. And at that point, we got shared finances. But when we

applied for our rental, we just said we want 50% to come out of this account and 50% to come out of this account. We didn't have to have a shared account for it to be direct debited out of. Our real estate agent, for no extra cost, just took half out of each location. So that could be an option for you as well, which I think was actually really practical for us at the time because I just think that moving in was such a big step. I didn't want to do boots and all and also have shared finances yet. We also used to use Splitwise, which Jess, you and I used while we were in Europe and it worked out really well because instead of being like, oh, what did you do, it's tit for tat, like the app just does it for you and you kind of just put it in and go,

all right, well, gee, I paid a hundred bucks on the electricity and the app automatically knows that Harper should pay the other half. And so it kind of is a running ledger of like, all right, well, now gee's up a hundred dollars, Harper owes 50. And then if Harper went and spent $50 on groceries on your behalf, it would like rebalance the ledger. And maybe at the end of the month, you only owe like six bucks because they're actually evened out. Or it really shows you like, oh, well, how you OG $600 because she really does pull her card out a lot more. So from our perspective, that worked really well. Now, because we have a mortgage together, we wanted offset accounts. And that kind of made sense to have all of our income coming into one

offset account because it's offsetting the interest of our loan. And that was, you know, really in line with our values and what we're trying to achieve when it comes to financial freedom. But for me, I really err away from shared finances unless you've got a really good reason, like to me, rent, not a good enough reason to share finances. But if you said, all right, well, it's actually because we want to tip a certain amount of money in here and share split costs and bills and groceries and kind of have one debit card. So if we go out for dinner, that's the card we tap. So we both feel like we're on the same page, then you do that. But if you think you need a shared bank account because you're going to move in together and have to pay rent,

like no, there's ways around that. In fact, even if your real estate agent doesn't allow that split payment for some reason, you could actually organize a direct debit from one person's account to the other person's account, you know, three or four days before the rent comes out. So you don't have to do the transfer each and every single month. It can be automated. So I think there's a lot of, you know, pros and cons about it. But I know people who are married and have been married for 30, 40 years and they still don't share finances because they're just happy with the way that they're currently working things. But I don't think that there's ever a point where you have to. It's all about, does this work for you? Is this something you're comfortable with? And

had you asked me, Victoria, will you share finances with a partner before I met Steve, I would have vehemently said no. I would have been like, absolutely not, never in a million years will I do that. And now I think I'm in a situation where I really trust him and, you know, we've formed this relationship and I'm a lot more financially secure than I used to be. Like, let's be honest, I pay myself. So my money goes into my account because I am the boss, right? So kind of like, all right, well, if everything goes south, I'll just redirect that because I have access to all of the banking and, you know, he's not just going to get my salary. So from my perspective, I'm in a bit of a different situation where I have a bit more

financial freedom than the average bear, right? Whereas if you are feeling, you know, you said it before, Jess, make sure you have something on the side, make sure you always have an emergency fund just for you so that you can get out of any circumstance, situation, relationship that you want to, no matter how good your relationship is. And that's kind of like my way of doing that, in addition to having my own emergency fund. I want to come back to the passive-aggressive text for a second. Same! Same! Thank you for coming back to that. I just want to posit the question. Yes. You saying you'll carry all of the load with the bills and stuff. You look really scared. I'm not going to put you on the board. Read out the text on the board. Oh no, no chance.

No chance. We're not that rude. But you are going to read that out while we eat lunch. But, you know, you said you guys were speaking about split finances this morning. Yeah. Do you think that if you guys were to set up a shared account, would that alleviate some of the pressure or responsibility that you're feeling? Is that where that conversation was kind of going? You know, it actually probably would. But I think often women bear the brunt of the mental load in so many areas.

And I just got to a point this morning and I was like, I can't, I can't. Everything was due at once. and it was just a lot to stay on top of. And it's not a big issue like growing up, George. No, but it's stressful. It was just like it's not something he sees. It's like this invisible thing because I'll sort it. I'll sort it.

I always sort it. Whereas, yeah, it's not something he notices. So I just shot him off a little passage, a little message and said, doll, just so you know, I'm a legend and you need to pick up your game. Just love you so much. But we have a same conversation in my relationship actually because, again, as you said, I think it is a very female thing to take on those responsibilities. And so I guess that's probably the one additional point that I would make to this listener question is that, you know, that is probably the one other benefit that I could see of having that shared account is if you both become responsible for contributing, whatever you're, you know, whether you're doing it equitably and I'm putting in 70%, you're putting in 30 or whether you're putting in 50, 50 or whatever that looks like.

If you are both responsible for sending money to that account and your bills direct debit from there. Yeah, I like that. I, you know, or if you're someone who really likes to automate your finances, that's where I could maybe see a big benefit. Great point. Great point. I think that that mental load thing is really important. And with mental load comes visibility.

Like we really need things to be visible, right? Like poor Harps, he probably didn't see that text coming because he didn't truly see it. Like he doesn't see those things come in. And to share a load, you need to be really open and have good communication lines. and to me, yeah, it's just so personal because knowing all of my friends and how they manage their money and even just like around this table, you guys would go nuts arguably if you manage money in the same way I do and vice versa. Like I know how many bank accounts Jess has different savings and I'd be like, oh, yeah, it's like 13. Yeah, I couldn't. Like no chance. That's

not going to work for me. But that's a good reflection of it's different for everybody. and the question of, should I do this or not? I can't answer that for you. Nobody can except for you. You need to sit down and go, well, where am I? What do I actually want to do? What does this relationship look like? You know, how serious is your relationship? You're just moving in because you're like, ah, I'm moving with my boyfriend. If it doesn't work out, I'll just move out. Or are you moving in with this guy because you're like, I hope he proposes tomorrow because I want to marry him and have all of his babies. Like literally there are different types of relationships and that's nobody else's business except for yours

and your finances are kind of the same. I mean, I'm open and honest about, you know, everything I do when it comes to money. But at the same time, I'm the only one that can make those decisions because I'm the only one that knows what's right for me and vice versa to you guys. Yeah. Unfortunately, that is all we have time for today.

So, Georgia King, would you please wrap the boring but important stuff? Would be a pleasure as always. Guys, please remember that 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 a financial decision. And we promise Victoria Devine and She's On The Money

are authorised representatives of In Focus Securities Australia, Proprietary Limited, ABN 47097797049, AFSL 236523. See you next week, guys. Bye. See you next week, guys. Thanks for watching!