She's On The Money - FRIDAY DRINKS: Valuing Our Frontline Workers

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

Another week is at its end and that means it's time to kick back with the girls for a wrap of the week, to celebrate and commiserate your Money Wins/Losses and solve a Money Dilemma! This week it's all about the HELP loan and the indexation rate.And with different states announcing a one off cash payment for frontline healthcare workers, the girls wax philosophical on the way society values some of our hardest working and most underpaid workers.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 is Friday, my loves, which means it is time to sit back with the girls and a bev in hand so we can unpack our favorite moments of the week. And of course, we are also going to be celebrating you, our incredible She's on the Money community. As always, we are 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 very juicy money question, which is all about the indexation rate of our help debt this week. But first, it is time to recap the week that was. Miss Jessica Ricci, what happened on Money Diaries? Monday's episode went out to all of our

below deck fans like Victoria Devine over here. I'm the biggest below deck fan. We spoke to a girl who moved to France to be a yachtie for a season. And she was telling us all about what the experience was like living on a super yacht, working for the richest of the rich, giving us a little insight into what that was like. Turns out when you own a super yacht, expectations are high. Yeah. As you would kind of imagine. I mean, you're serving billionaires. Well, yeah. It was wild. We asked her so many pervy questions as well. I'm like, did you get along with the family? You're still friends with the family? Did you try and marry their son? I didn't ask her that, but I should have.

Like she should have. That's juicy. Yeah. A hundred percent. That's brilliant. Marry into it. Marry into it. That is the crux of this podcast. The outcome of how to create financial freedom is actually just marrying rich. Absolutely. Why do we think of that? Why have we done so many? Yeah, exactly. Man is a financial plan. All of that. It's genius. It's genius. All right, let's roll it on, G King. No more marrying rich. What happened on Wednesday? Because we are actually trying to educate you to not rely on that. Exactly right. So on Wednesday, ladies, we spoke about the five finance books that will change

your life. So we took a little- This was one of my favorite things ever to record. Really? Only because I love talking about the books I read and I feel like you gave me the perfect platform. Well, there were a lot of good ones in there, but what kind of, what I got out of it was that all of these books, apart from one, were about 50 to like 70 years old. And that really told us that the finance essentials kind of don't change. Like the rules are the same. I mean, I wish I could pretend that I had coined like compound interest. Can you imagine? It could be called Victoria interest. Perfect. And it's like the best kind. Sadly, it is not true. Or divine interest. Divine interest. That's why I want to do a PhD one day. Like my goal is to one

day study a PhD so I can become a doctor. So my name would be Dr. Divine. And I just think that flows really nicely, but to make it easier, if there's any universities out there that want to give me one of those honorary doctorates that they sometimes hand out to people who do a lot, which I haven't done, I'll take one for the team. I'll take one for the team because I would love to call myself Dr. Divine. Imagine getting to get on a plane. Dr. Devo. Oh, no, don't downplay it like that. Imagine getting to get on a plane and be like, no, I am a doctor on board. And they'll be like, oh, what kind? I'll be like, oh, just honorary. I can't help you if anyone's in trouble. Can help you out with your finances. Yeah, can help you out with your finances. That's all I've

got. Speaking of doctors, you know what doctors have sometimes? Budget direct money wins. Yeah, good one. Yeah, sometimes doctors have money wins. And that is how we are going to segue today into our Money Win segment. Georgia King, what have you got this week? Let's do it, ladies. Okay, so the first win from today comes from Christy. Money Win, I nearly fell over when I saw my gas bill this month. Can relate.

Lucky she's a doctor. No? Well, that will come. Yes, so I know gas prices have increased, but my bill was up 500% on last month. 500%. That's a lot of percent. Surely not.

I called my provider, Globird in brackets, who confirmed that the meter read hadn't been conducted by the gas wholesaler this month and the bill was just based on an estimation. Oh, yeah, I estimated you used 500% more, Jess, because I couldn't read your meter. Naughty. That's not fair.

That's a joke. They immediately cancelled the bill. They got her to supply a photo of the meter and then reissued her bill for the actual read. Super helpful customer service. She said they were great and she got her bill back on budget. I'm with Glowbird and I'm waiting for my gas bill, so if my gas bill is really high, I'm going to do the same thing.

You said it owes me. That's a lot. That's actually a lot. Good reminder, though, that that is very normal at the moment, isn't it? Yeah. I don't like that estimation. That just feels a little bit savage. What is the next money win, G?

The next win comes from Emily Money Win. I asked my boss for a raise to reflect my experience and value to the business approaching my one-year workiversary, and he agreed and is going to discuss it with the executive director, so I should hopefully be earning a little bit more in a few days. Yes. I would never have had the courage or knowledge to know I could even do this without this podcast. So thank you for empowering me to ask for what I deserve. Always ask for what you deserve. You are doing the work. Get it. I love it. I love it so much. It makes my heart so full.

The next win comes from Angie. Biggest money win of my life. I submitted my last assessment for my degree on the weekend. Congratulations, Angie. And I've been offered a new role in line with my new qualification. That means an extra $11 an hour. That's significant. That's a lot. That's going to add up real quick. Quick maths, that's $88 a day. Times that by? Five days a week. I'm done. $400 and something. Did you see her face? Jess? I was on a roll at the start. You were really confident. You were really confident, but then you looked at me. 11 times 8 can do. You looked at me and you were like, save me. And I was like, ah, not today, sir. Not today. You were close. What was it? $400 and? $440. You were close. So let's times that by 52. Is that? $22,880.

dollars before tax. You know what? Nobody asked you to get involved, Ms. H.R. What's the next money win? The milder story is well done, Angie. The next money win comes from Maddie. I guess this could be a win or a loss depending on how you look at it. Little sweaty face. My finance for a home loan got approved. I've busted my butt over the last couple of years to be able to buy my first home at 26 and I'm so proud of myself. That's a money win. That's a big money win. but also not a money loss you're working towards financial freedom my friends yeah that's good debt baby the next win comes from elise i accidentally let 75 of country road rewards vouchers lapse i called them and how annoying nicely if they would reinstate them the lady it was so nice

she put them back on my account and gave me an extra month in case i forgot again if you don't ask you don't get it what a queen that's lovely isn't it i'd never think to do that that's so much money as well. Like you could get like a whole top or like a pair of pants or something for that. Absolutely. It's a lot of money. We love it. The next win comes from Meg. I got my private health cover renewed today. Now instead of $1,300 a year, I'm only paying $381 a year. She just got rid of all the things she didn't need. Genius. Smart. She's doing the work that all of us say we should do that we don't do. Exactly right. Smart. Be more like Meg. 100%. next win it comes from rose money win i booked tickets to go to melbourne for a family holiday

to celebrate my dad's 70th it was a massive moment for me as we booked with our own savings and not with a credit card i can't remember the last time we did that i'm so so happy that's actually so sweet yeah sorry about the weather down here though rose sorry about it it's ultra rocious the final win of today ladies comes from beck i have been working my butt off saving for a house deposit and I hit the $20,000 mark this week. I'm on track to have $30,000 by the end of the year and I'm so very proud of myself. Oh, we're proud of you too. How good. What a good place to leave it, Georgia King. Thank you so much. Unfortunately, that is all we have time for when it comes to money wins. It has been so good celebrating some of your Budget Direct money wins. For

award-winning insurance, search Budget Direct. Budget Direct insurance solved. Now let's go to a break because I want to talk about HEX later. And Jess, you've also found a juicy segment to talk about that really benefits our frontline healthcare workers. It sure does. Don't go anywhere. All right, we are back. And this week we are going to be talking about, what are we talking about, Jess? Because you haven't shared it with anybody here on the pod, just you. You've just been hoarding this. I like to hoard the information. No, just kidding. No gatekeeping here. There's going to be a one-off payment of $3,000 for health workers. I knew that. So what are you gatekeeping? Nothing. We're sharing that information right now. Okay. All right. All right.

I think it's super nice because as we have said on this podcast before, our frontline workers across multiple industries over the course of COVID quite literally put their bodies on the line. Like they are pulling quadruple shifts. They are working long hours. They're dealing with cranky people. They were at high, high, high risk of exposure to COVID. And I think it's really lovely that we're doing something to acknowledge that. So it's a one-off payment of $3,000. And the New South Wales Premier, Dominic Perrottet, said that it's a gesture of appreciation for all of our health workers for the sacrifices and the efforts that they have made since the pandemic began, which is really important. Are there other industries I would like to see this roll out

across? Yes. Yes. Because there are other services industries that had just as hard of a slog, I think. But I wanted to talk to you, V, because I mean, on face value, you go, oh my God, three grand. I know what I could do with three grand. Oh, I definitely know. I absolutely know. It is not productive, so we're not sharing it on the podcast because that would make me look silly. so it'd be three thousand dollars lots of cashola that's amazing but it's a huge amount to receive all at once what would your advice be your non-specific general advice are we giving advice to the state premiers or are we giving advice to uh the to the frontline workers who are getting workers receiving this so they can come back to their first point i'll give the former advice

later or latter that i'm just confusing everybody now but i would just make sure that when it comes in, you are doing something really constructive with it. Whether it is paying off debt, fantastic. It is putting it away for a rainy day. If you don't have an emergency fund, bam, you're now in the position of control. I just think we really need to be making the most of these lump sum payments in saying that. I think this is fantastic and we are so excited about it. But the question that I would raise, is this a band-aid solution to a more long-term solution? We already know that our frontline healthcare workers are, I would argue, underpaid for what they do. Not only are they putting their lives at risk, but they literally put their families at risk

every day. Like think about COVID. The amount of nurses that I knew that were going to work that were sneaking in the back door so that they could strip out of their COVID gear and into a spare bedroom, not seeing their family so they could go and look after the community instead of their own families was insane. And then that's worth three grand. Like, I don't know, it's not not worth it. It's absolutely a step in the right direction, but I think we need to be looking at increasing their pay significantly. Because if we look at it across the board, like anything less than a 5.1% pay increase this year for frontline healthcare workers is not putting them in line with inflation. Right. Interesting you say that because they actually in line with

this grant that they're giving out also announced they had agreed to lift the cap on wages to 3% this year, increasing to a possible 3.5 next year. Yeah, I think it's really important that they're doing that. But if we then look at inflation, they're basically making less money than they were last year based on the costs of goods and services. So I just, I feel really pressed, you could say, when it comes to frontline healthcare workers, because I just don't think you guys are getting the rap that you deserve. Like you are so special. Like imagine waking up every day and going, I'm going to go put other people in a better position. I'm going to put myself at risk to look after you. I'm putting my mental health, my physical health, my everything to

the sidelines so I can look after people who are arguably coming into emergency. Like look at some of my girlfriends who are emergency nurses. They get yelled at. One of them a couple of weeks ago got spat on. One of them has been literally abused. I've got a doctor friend who's been punched in the face. Like what the hell? And you guys are like, oh, here's three grand. How about we actually put your wages in line with inflation to make sure that you guys who are the pillars of our society, arguably, like where were we when COVID happened? Who was carrying the entire country? Oh, healthcare workers. Why aren't they being put in better situations? I get real pressed about this as well. People were talking on TikTok about how policemen get a 50% discount at

McDonald's. Why don't our frontline healthcare workers get 50% off? Nope. I would urge all McDonald's employees to just hit that little like policeman button. Every time they have a nurse or a doctor or somebody who's just wearing scrubs come through the drive-thru because lord knows they need that caffeine absolutely it should be free it's probably also worth noting the percentage of women that are nurses i've just put up a stat and it's almost 90 percent female so are we surprised no we're not surprised i just i really want to rally for the people who in our community are doing good and being good and being those pillars of society because you do so much good work and you work so hard for little to no recognition I think it's heartbreaking seeing

you know even in our community because Jess you're on DMs I slide into DMs a fair bit and we talk to our community so often and so many of you are really questioning your job and questioning whether you want to continue being a nurse or continue being a doctor because it's actually just so taxing like a couple of my girlfriends are thinking about getting out of it because they just can't keep up like they're mentally and physically burnt out because all they do is double shifts and it's like why are we not treating these people so well but then I get on LinkedIn and we look at corporate and they're like oh my gosh so imagine if we went down to a four-day work week and these corporate hoo-hahs are jumping up and down pretending like they're

so hard done by and I feel so entirely privileged and entitled right because I we're not corporate are we Jess what would we call us we we like a podcasting business so we're a little bit yeah we media. It's not essential. No, it's absolutely not essential, but it's also so flexible and we have that flexibility where, you know, I was sick the other week. So you guys carried it for me and made sure it happened and I was not stressed. Whereas a nurse calls in sick and they're like, you better get a sick certificate because we're not sure if we believe you. Like what? That's disgusting. So I just have a lot to say about this topic. And don't forget there is a state election coming. You know what that means? People want your votes. And you know what? Politicians

exploit us, why not exploit them back? Yeah. So if there's something that you do really want to advocate change for, if anything, now is the time to be getting a little bit vocal. And I think if enough people kind of said, hey, let's celebrate those people who really cocked it on the chin during lockdown while the rest of us got to work from home and give them something as a thank you, because I really do think that they deserve it. 100%. The other thing I wanted to say, which is just like based on stats you said what if one in ten people like be the one in ten because if you're the one in ten and you're listening to this podcast and that actually converts that's more than a hundred thousand letters that will go out incredible like what can you imagine I just I

also think that this segment has been really important I hope for frontline workers to I guess hear as well that people who aren't in politics really appreciate what you're doing our community is so in love with you guys and we so appreciate the time energy and effort that you put into your jobs? Because it takes a very special person to always put others first. Yeah. And that sounds, you know, very fluffy, but I can't do it. I mean, I try, but I definitely could not put in as much time, energy and effort as a nurse or a doctor or anyone working in that industry can.

No, and that goes out to everybody who kind of kept plugging along during lockdown. And again, if you do want to see change in that space, and if you do want to see our services industries recognized in the way that they deserve. Get on the phone, get on the emails, do a little typey type. We're all so quick these days. You could fire it off in less than five minutes and potentially make real change. Alrighty, guys. On that note, I think it is time for a little money dilemma. Hit play G. 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 how can we best manage the new help loan 3.9 indexation rate um because it used to be much lower and it was always told sorry about it as it was the safest loan to have and now um having other debts and credits as well. How is it best to be paid? Should we up our payments on it or make a big repayment? What should we do? Okay. This is a really good question because I think so many people are super stressed about what this will mean for their cashflow. And to summarize it, it doesn't actually mean anything for your cashflow. Just because the interest rate or

the indexation rate has increased doesn't mean that your repayment amounts are going to change at all. In fact, the repayment amounts for 2022 to 2023 are exactly the same as what they were stipulated in the last two years, right? So you're not going to be lumped with more cash repayments that need to come out of your pocket or are going to come out of your paycheck. But what it will mean is it might take a little bit longer to pay it off. So obviously, we don't love debt. Absolutely not. It's one of those things that can make us feel really sick. But my stake or what are we going to call it, stake or position or however we want to articulate it on HELP has not changed. I am so excited still that we get to live in a country where we have access to a loan

scheme that puts us in a position where we can pay for our university educations and only have indexation applied. In saying that, indexation this year was sitting at that 3.1%. Indexation is higher, but because of the way HELP actually calculates indexation, the entire indexation amount does not get passed on to us. It gets averaged out over two years. So it's a little bit smaller. In saying that, if you're worried about your cash flow or you are worried about paying this debt off, I would be having a look at it just so that you can get your head straight, just so you can go, does this work for me or not? What are my other financial goals? Because HECS still has the same criteria, right? It's still an interest-free loan, technically. Obviously,

the indexation is applied, there's still no time limit on that debt to be paid off. And if you earn under $47,014, you don't have to pay it back. So there's no other loan like that where, you know, if you've got a mortgage, gee, if you earn under 47 grand, do you still have to pay it? Yes. If you get a personal loan, you're still going to have to pay it regardless of what your income is. There's no concessions on, oh, gee, you just lost your job. Okay. Sorry, Jess, don't worry about paying it back, like it's quite flexible. And I think that the thing I like about that is the only thing it impacts when it comes to buying property is your serviceability. And when you look at serviceability, it's kind of like a grocery bill, right? So they'd sit down and be like,

gee, what are your expenses? Oh, okay, cool. So your expenses are a hundred dollars a week on groceries, a hundred on HECS, no problems. They take that into consideration. They're not looking at how much HECS debt you have. They're actually only looking at the portion that you have to pay back and the impact on your cash flow there. So I don't think it's as overwhelming as people seem to think it is. It's also much lower than probably any type of consumer debt most people have. And at the moment, if you compare it to property, I would argue that having an asset, obviously not advice, but I would argue having an asset is probably going to be a little bit more powerful than prioritizing your debt repayments to help. In saying that, you're

going to have to look at that and go, all right, is this going to work for me? Is this not going to work for me? Do I just really want to get rid of it? Like each to their own in saying that, if I look at the way I have managed it, I haven't paid off any extra help debt and I don't have any intention to because I just want to, at this point in my life, Steve and I are getting married later this year. So that's going to be really expensive and it's already driving me bonkers. We have a renovation that we're currently paying for, which guys is so much more expensive than I anticipated, like oh my gosh and then on top of that we have a mortgage that we're trying to get to a level where we're both really comfortable and at the moment it's kind of like a little bit of a stretch

but it's you know we're getting there we're plodding along we're very lucky it's all working out well but if I added in help repayments to that it actually doesn't get me closer to my long-term financial goals than if I was paying that off whereas if I look at my short-term and my long-term financial goals me putting money into my mortgage putting money into my investments is what's working for me personally at this point in time. And I wouldn't be surprised if you turn around and go, oh, actually V, oh, that makes sense for me. So I think it's about just looking at, well, what's the bigger picture? Because right now what I'm feeling is that everyone's going, oh my God, indexation is so much higher. Like how does this impact me? Am I going to be out more

cash? No, you're not going to be out more cash. Am I going to have to pay it off quicker? No, it's still the same amount of time. It might just take a little bit longer. In that case, is it going to stop you from achieving financial goals? No, but it could stop you from achieving financial goals if you prioritize something that's not in line with your immediate goals, if that makes sense. Like example here, Miss Jessica Ricci, if she had a significant help debt and then decided to use her home savings or the money that you've saved to pay that off instead of buying a house with it, it would just mean that it would take much longer for her to buy a house. The help debt would just be taken into consideration with cash flow. So I think

from my perspective, it's just about working out what's right for you. Because if you're at home and you have free cash flow and free rent and all of this other stuff and you're like, but I want it gone, I'm not going to argue with you. You do you. It's all about your values. But what are your values? Let's think about those, not get overwhelmed about the indexation rate. That was very well answered, my friend. Is that okay? Yeah, I feel like I have no further questions. I feel like the moral of the story was... No further questions, Your Honour? Yeah, no further questions, Your Honour. it's just it's completely up to you but generally speaking that money could probably be put to better use in other places because depending on your values and depending no help debt is still not

bad debt like the idea that we are only experiencing indexation it's not a real interest rate I think is quite helpful I think people just get really overwhelmed looking at it going oh my gosh is this spiraling out of control I don't think so but yeah think about your own values what do you want to achieve what's the timeline that you want to achieve that in and what are those things that you need to allocate cash towards. Like you're going to have to have a plan. And to be quite blunt, you could say a lot of the time when I'm speaking one-on-one with people who are worried about this, they actually haven't set up their budget and cash flow yet. They're actually just worried about the numbers being overwhelming. The second you pull your head out of the sand and set

up a budget and cash flow, you'd be like, oh, that doesn't make sense. This makes sense. And it kind of like feeds itself once you start allocating cash in certain ways. Perfect. I think that's all we've got. Georgia King. Do you want to wrap the boring stuff? Yeah, go on, let's do it. Alrighty, guys, 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 on Monday, guys. See you Monday. Bye.