She's On The Money - Health At What Cost?

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Never a quiet week on SOTM, and this week the gals talk Bec's eviction(!!), whether health insurance is really worth the money, and also what to do when a family member who owes you serious money ghosts you! As usual too we celebrate your money wins and talk broke tips. 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, it is Friday again, which means it is time to get our little team together and celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. Today, Ms Jessica Ricci is going to be sharing our favorite money wins from the community. Ms Bex Syed, she's here to share her favorite broke tips. We'll be helping to answer a juicy money dilemma, which this week is all about private health insurance. And we're going to be unpacking something that you slid into our DMs about, which this week we're talking about being ghosted by a family member who owes you 15 grand. Yeah, wild, right?

But before we get there, my friends, how have your weeks been? Bec, let's start with you. Well, what have I been doing this week? It's actually been really, really lovely. She's an employed girl. I'm employed now. I did, though, unfortunately, get an eviction notice. What?

I know. I forgot to tell you guys up here. Sorry. I just forgot that. Yeah, I've got – I'm actually homeless right now. No, I'm just kidding. You come into the studio. I'm like, how are you, Bec?

And you're like, oh, I'm great, Bea. How are you? Nothing to report. Only got evicted. Yeah, I know. It's so – it sucks. Oh, what happened? Why?

When? Where? How? It's just that our house is apparently inhabitable. How do I say that word? Uninhabitable. Uninhabitable. Is that just because you live there?

Yeah. Also, like, the rent is really cheap. We love this place. The rent's cheap because it's bad. Because it's really bad. And, like, we didn't mind. And, like, we never complained. There was literally, like, the front of the house is detached

from the rest of the house. It's falling down. It's going to fall one day. Oh, my God. And there's holes in my roof. But we don't mind. We love this location. We love this house.

Do you know what? Your optimism is something that I wish more of us shared. Yeah, unfortunately, they did have someone come through and just, like, do their regular checks. And I'm like, what is happening here? They condemned your building. They must have been shocked. They were pretty shocked.

That you were not complaining. Genuinely. We've said on the pod before that Bec's like, don't tell them. It's really cheap. Don't bring that up. Don't bring it up. Like you guys probably have issues and then you just don't tell the real estate agents. And when they did their check, they're like, sorry, I thought we're coming to check a house.

What is this? Yeah, basically. We were found out. Everyone was found out. They need to do renovations and kick us out. But that's okay. It's not okay. We're going to maybe try and reapply after, even though it's going to be way less cheap.

But, you know, you do what you've got to do. You've got to find a house in the interim. Yeah. How stressful. So for anyone listening, I am looking for a roommate. Becky's on the house hunt. I am. I am so very.

You're on the house hunt. I like this. I'm very inoffensive. We should try and sell you. Yeah. Not actually for money, but like we should pitch you as a good housemate to have. So if anyone is based in Melbourne, what's your ideal suburb? Okay.

Ideally Fitzroy North, Carlton North. Okay. We're looking for a room in Fitzroy, Carlton North. Six, five. Four walls. Four walls. Four walls. Yeah, I think that's four.

I actually don't have any. But, like, that's negotiable. Yeah. We're open to detached situations. We are. I'm open to three. I'm open to two. There's no prerequisites on my end.

I feel like you'd be a great housemate too. Yeah, I agree. Thank you. I really am. I feel like you and I would live together and I'd come home and I'd be like, Bec, sorry, I ate all the leftovers you left in the fridge. And you'd be like, no worries, they were really good, weren't they? Absolutely.

You're allowed. If I ate Jess's stuff, she'd come after you with a hunting knife. It said my name! I put a label on it. It would say her name and the date that she opened it, even though she's the only one that's going to go eat that. Yeah. And it would, like, be incursive as well.

It would be like, Jessica. I wrote it on the cricket. All different typefaces just in case. Yeah. Yep, I like it. Jess would be like, but I text you about that. I text you, I labelled it. I also sent an email and there's a memo on the house notice board

to not eat my things. Is that in the actual newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald? It was actually in our house paper. It's in the weekly newsletter. But no, I think everything will be okay. Everything will work out. I'm sorry. Thank you so much.

Oh, that's really terrible. I'm sorry. You guys are so cute. Thank you. No, that's just really trash. Well, you know, you do what you got to do. I guess it's nice. I got a new sofa bed if you need a room in the interim.

Sold. So you just let me know. The house does have three pets and a baby though, so I'm not sure you'll be sold on it. But like, I can try. You get what you get though. You get an extra baby. Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome.

Miss Jessica Ricci, how are you? I'm good. She's the dirtiest liar. It's been a bit of a week. You know, I can't complain. I feel like you're really going through it. She got evicted and she's like, woo. Yeah.

And, yeah. Have you seen the new Inside Out movie yet, you guys? Inside Out 2? Oh, they get a new emotion, don't they? They get anxiety. Yay. Relatable. So when we saw the first one, James was like, have you seen the first one?

The sadness? I think so, yeah. He was like, talks like this and everything's sad. and James is like that's kind of sometimes you and then we saw the new one and anxiety was there and he was like maybe that one's you so anyway I feel like I've just been really feeling the feel this week my poor having some health issues with my cat unfortunately um he'll be okay but it's just challenging when that happens stressful and it's crazy because like obviously you know that you love your pets day to day like you're very conscious of the fact that you love them you

adore them and they're your babies but like when they're sick I'm like oh like you are my child you are my ward and I am solely responsible like because they can't talk to you too it's so hard so I just have been so upset and worried and feeling like a bad parent because he's been unwell and it's gonna be a lot of money to deal with and so like that's stressful but I came into a lovely surprise so like silver lining I came in and she got chocolate for me which is lovely so I can't complain it's been a good week I bought a sewing machine too so that I saw that on TikTok I saw that on TikTok she's in her sewing era I'm gonna channel all of my energy into making a really cute pair of boxer shorts hopefully that's so random I would like

to point out that um she hand sewed her entire Taylor Swift eras to her outfit that's right yes our haberdasherous yes yeah I remember and I would argue that this is a later purchase it should have been an earlier purchase your life would have been much easier with a sewing machine but you get what you get and you don't get upset exactly I feel like we need to take you back to year seven textiles and find one of those like workbooks that we had in grade seven for textiles of you know how to do basic shirring how to do basic stitches and you can start there and then making boxer shorts I'm gonna make a little bow tie I'm gonna be hopefully churning out the projects I'm excited my energy's gonna go there how's your week been my week's been good um it

was my birthday last weekend, which was really fun. I feel like the older you get, the less you do for your birthdays. So I did approximately nothing. I went out for lunch and it was delicious. I think the most exciting thing that happened on my birthday was I met my best friend's new baby and that just made my entire day. So I was sold. I kind of like walked into the cafe, beelined for her baby, took it, ran. Yeah. This is mine now. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, that would be unacceptable if I didn't know her so well. So do ask for consent when wanting to pick up someone else's baby. But it made my day.

And then I had two babies. I had my baby and her baby. And I was like, you guys are going to be friends. Yeah, you guys timed that so well. It was so accidental. The day she told me that she was pregnant, I literally cried. I was like, you can't be because I am. Like, this is so rude.

And so now our baby's like four months apart. And I just think that's the coolest thing ever. Because, like, in the grand scheme of things, four months is nothing. Oh, totally. It's just so cool. It's just so cool. Anyway, besties or married. Oh, so sweet.

I am working towards the long game of one day being related to my best friend. I might imagine. That's so sweet. We would be the best mother-in-laws. How easy would life be if your mums were best friends? Oh, it would be so good, Harvey, if you're listening to this. I've got a girlfriend for you in the future. Easy. Done. Until then, you can just be friends. That's fine. That's fine. Anyway,

let's get on to the community. Jess, you were saying before that there are some good money wins this week. So I want to know, what have you pulled out? Absolutely. A very timely one this week from Casey who said, I sent in all the details for my tax return on July 1st. I've been working on it for the last few weeks. That's a lie. No one does that. So that it was ready to send through as soon as the financial year ticked over. I also managed to save enough to purchase some much needed deductible items in the last week. And I am like, I like to be organized with my tax return. Like I want that money ASAP, but I'm not July 1st kind of material.

So hats off to you, Casey. Well done. July 1st is so impressive. Crazy. Imagine being the first, like I wonder if someone, yeah, I wonder if there's someone out there who's literally like 1201 on July 1st. There has to be a man at the ATO who's like looking at submissions. I know it's all done electronically, so just sit down.

But imagine if there's someone who's like, who was first? How do you know if you're first? There has to be a first. And I wish there was like a little certificate or something. Because like when you signed your books for the new book launch that came out, The Money Diaries, The Shades of the Money, you wrote in the first book you signed, this is the first book signed. So I've done that always with all of my books.

I'm like, this is my first signed book. Even if it, yeah, like I just thought it was really fun. Imagine your tax return coming back and being like, by the way, great job, babe. Yours is number one. Like, I just think that would be so funny. I just like winning, so that would be like, I just need to know. Yeah. Where did I see it?

Crazy. Maybe it was Casey. Who knows? Next, I've got a money win from Mia, who said she ended up getting a dream role at Amazon, which on top of base salary has a two-year sign-on bonus and shares as a part of her package. Great. Money win is that it will allow her and her husband to not worry about cost of living too much right now.

Money loss pushed her into the next tax bracket, which is arguably not a bad problem to have. Totally. I don't feel bad for you. No. Congratulations, Mia. That's very exciting. Congrats. Next, I've got a money win from Claire who said,

My iPhone stopped charging, so I bought a refurbished iPhone online in excellent condition, switched from Telstra to AmazeSim, and she's now only paying $30 a month. And she gets all of her data and it rolls over. Oh, great. Love that. Next, I've got a money win from Courtney who said she ordered herself a top-up of the GoToSkincare Very Useful Face Cream. Yeah, that stuff's delicious.

So good. We love a bit of grocery skincare in this house. They were running a Lucky Dip promotion at the time where you would get two full-size products randomly selected for free and you had another tub of the face cream as well as a body oil. Oh, how good is that? That's like something you already wanted. She's like, this is amazing, $130 a free product,

and I literally use it daily. How good. Imagine if you got a free Face Hero, Jess. Oh, Face Hero. Delicious. We love. I'd bathe in that stuff at night. I'm like, I'm going to bed oily every night.

I wake up and my skin feels like a dolphin. I'm a little seal. Slip right out of bed. I'm just a little baby seal. And then lastly, I've got a money win this week from Summer who said she participated in an online study recently and it covered part of her grocery costs. She also managed to get 10% off and there was an extended lay-by option, which means she's managed to get a bunch of things sorted out ahead of time at a hugely discounted price.

Great. Good work. I feel like that's a very good bunch. That's it. She's tidied it all together. And don't forget, lay by. We love a lay by. We love a lay by.

Christmas is coming. We're in the Christmas half of the year, people. True. It's so exciting. It's officially Christmas season. Okay, okay. Calm down. Calm down.

Christmas is. Jess is sweating. Christmas is Jessica's crack. I'm actually so surprised that when she said, oh, I bought a sewing machine this week, that she wasn't like, I'm decorating the house for Christmas. Yeah. like honestly christmas is jess's time to shine i do have to disclaimer that she is often in charge of all of the she's on the money christmas episodes because who better to do it than mrs

claus we love a christmas moment and you start lay by now pay a little bit of money each week or each month between now and christmas and might be a little easier for you absolutely you look like a christmas star today i should say one of the you pop a top of christmas tree put an angel on top of the tree. Yeah, seriously. I want to know your broke tips. Lay-by is also a good broke tip. Now, that is so true.

Because I feel like someone like you, Bec, who you're like, I'm not going to save, it's just not going to happen. But if I took a little bit away from you each month and then at the end was like, oh, by the way, here's all your Christmas presents, you'd be like, they're basically free. Yeah, I really do like that idea. And I guess, like, if you get to the end of the year

or whenever you've paid it off and you don't want it anymore, Or can you get a refund? Because I feel like that, you know, they don't leave a 24-hour gap, as you say, between you and your purchase. Because you haven't taken the product. Totally. So I feel like it's even... If it's still for sale, potentially.

Yeah. It's a cheeky way to save money. Oh, God. No, we're not using... No. Let's not do that, actually. No, I don't endorse that. But I see your logic.

I admire the logic. I'm picking up the logic and putting it in the bin. Oh, in the bin. Okay. Okay. Well, I'll fish it out later. A la poubelle. Oh, my God.

I love that guy. Have you seen it? I live on TikTok. Can you say that to me? A la poubelle. It means in the bin in French. It's this man and he just describes people doing things. So he's like, if you go to dinner and he doesn't open the door for you,

a la poubelle. We've got to show it. It's so funny. If you go to dinner and he doesn't pull the chair out for you, a la poubelle. It's so beautiful. It's a beautiful way to say it. And he's got a beautiful, smooth French voice.

Oh, it sounds beautiful. He knows what he's doing. Anyway, what's your broke tip? Oh, yeah. Okay. I don't have anything French related. But if you just say your broke tips in a French accent. Oh.

I'm really bad at French accents. Okay, let's not do that. I feel like we'd offend a few people anyway. So I may as well not embarrass myself. Now, as you guys know, if you do have any broke tips, please send them through to me at becsied, B-E-C-S-Y-E-D. I am running low. So all three of these are not from my girlfriend.

One of them is from a community member named Pessica. Pessica says. Did you, hold on, did you go and do your homework by asking your girlfriend to do it for you? She's surprised. She's shockingly good. She's got so many, you know. All right, all right. We won't hold that against her.

Shout out to Bec's girlfriend, Jessica. Not this Jessica. It turns out all Jessicas are legends, though. Turns out. Comes with a name. So this week, Bec, instead of Broke Tips from the community, we have Broke Tips from Jess. What are they? How did you know that?

So the first one is actually kind of smart. So it's foundation membership. So, you know, when you, I think a lot of like a lot of the community members do kind of send in. Also, this is another just like aside. If you send me a broke tip and I haven't mentioned it, I'm really sorry. It's probably because I've said it before in some sort of other way. So just know that I will read yours out unless it's been mentioned before.

So one that we do mention is say, you know, go for trials at different gyms and things like that. Great idea. But if you don't want to kind of like go through the effort of making, I have like 17 emails from people just doing different trials. And if you don't want to do that, just Google gyms that are opening near you, gyms that are maybe having like a renovation sale or like end of financial year, all these different things.

It's always a big sale on, but the foundation memberships are very, very cheap. I currently pay like $13 for Anytime Fitness and I will forever. That's actually such a good deal. Totally. It's so cheap. So just have a look before you commit to anything, trial in the meantime. But if you do know that there's something that's being built or something in the works and they have a foundation membership sale, just give it a go.

Okay, the next one is take stuff to not op shops. I don't know if this is cheeky or not, but go to like, you know, your good buys or your my one of my friends has a shop in Brunswick called Still Good. You basically take your clothes and they'll give you money or like a credit or something like that. A consignment store. What's it called? Consignment.

Consignment store. Thank you. Okay. I like money. So this is a good tip. Money's good. Even if it's a credit for other clothes. I feel like it's a good deal.

I mean, that's a good deal. If you're planning on donating them but you're in that, like, limbo of, like, it's too good to just, like, donate. Like, should I be selling them? Should I be like Jess and put it all on Depop? No, I can't be bought. Like, that's a good interim. Totally. Exactly.

So, yeah, a little bit of extra cash to splash on the side. And then this third one is probably more a me thing. I don't know if you guys personally will use this, but, you know, I love Meredith. You know, I love Golden Plains, all these kind of music festivals. And I feel like obviously a lot of people do know about like volunteer positions. I would recommend ahead of time, if you want to get yourself a free ticket and do minimal work, it's probably just probably actually quite hard work, but I'm looking at it from the outside.

It's very rainbows and butterflies. Try and inquire about volunteer positions, whether that's day one, day two. You don't have to work the whole time. Maybe try and get a job in a food truck there and just get one shift. That's smart. And the whole thing for the rest of the trip, you just enjoy. You know what I mean? So try and get just a small shift, one, two, here and there, volunteer, work in a food

truck, whatever you got to do, work behind the bar. You get full free entry and hopefully some free food and drink. That's so good. question how do I volunteer for Taylor Swift literally I think I feel like a lot of people I saw this thing everyone's trying to pay me I would have worked for free any any job in that stadium within earshot yeah I'll message her actually oh thanks yeah because why don't you just call Taylor I could I could call I'll call her just call her up I can't absolutely do that absolutely the time zone's a bit funny oh okay well that must be the problem yeah yeah but I'll

I'll shoot her a text. I'll shoot her a text. All right, guys, let's go to a quick break. On the flip side, we're talking about private health insurance. But on the juicy side of things, we're going to be talking about getting ghosted by a family member who owes you 15 grand. So don't go anywhere, guys. Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a listen to this week's Money Dilemma.

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, I hope you have a good day. I've got a question to the private hospital covers. We are a family of four and we have a private hospital cover, but we pay $400 a month.

So with all the costs of living coming up, I decided that this is maybe a good way of saving $400 a month. But now I'm second-guessing myself because a lot of my friends say not to cut on private hospital cover as it's so important to have to avoid this apparently long waiting list. But I'm not planning to go to hospital. I have no health issues. What's your advice? We love you, firstly. Thank you for your lovely words.

Yes. This is something I have actually been thinking about recently because my private health is extremely expensive, like painfully expensive. I'm paying $200 plus a month, which is crazy. So I have been having the exact same thoughts as our community member, I have to say. and I'm sure a lot of people probably would be, to share my two cents on the things that I've

considered, Medicare levy surcharge for those of you over the age of, is it 31, BD? The Medicare levy surcharge is payable over certain thresholds. So the Medicare levy surcharge is payable if you earn more than $93,000 a year as a single or $186,000 a year as a family. So, if you're over that, you have to pay the Medicare levy surcharge. And in a lot of circumstances, don't get me wrong, $400 a month is a lot of money, especially in this economy, but you might end up paying basically the same as what your private health could cost. So, we need to look into it. Yeah, that's the thing that I have been trying to figure out running the numbers on. I would say what I've been doing is just shopping around and looking

at different places like you'll find that prices vary you need to then look at what's included what's covered because that also varies a lot fund to fund is what I'm finding but like in terms of the question or the statement that you made about not planning on getting sick I would argue that not many of us do and just like an anecdotal story not many of us do no I don't think anyone chooses to get no and it's it's one of those things it's like it's insurance because we're insuring for a less likely outcome. And I mean, that's how insurance businesses make money, right? Like Jess, Bec and I, we pay insurance into one big pool in the hope of never getting sick. But if something does happen, we know that Bec can rely on that. But hopefully, given the fact

that, you know, Jess and I are relatively healthy, we don't have to rely on that pot of money. And then the profit from that pot of money goes to the health insurer, depending on whether they are members first or not. So, I think it's important to understand the entire purpose of insurance, from my perspective as an ex-financial advisor, is to be a waste of money. I want insurance to be wasted. Don't get me wrong, $400 a month is something you need to consider, but the reason you need to consider it is because the alternative. Like, we aren't betting that you're going to get sick. I never would want that. And that's why whenever we're talking about insurance. I talk about it in terms of yesterday. I'd never go, oh, Bec, imagine if you got sick

tomorrow. I'd never do that because you never want to accidentally ill-wish somebody. But I go, Bec, if I got sick yesterday, something might have happened and this would be the outcome. So I think it's important. And Jess, to your point, no one plans to get sick, but there are lots of things to take into consideration there. I have a story. A friend of mine tore his ACL and he did not have private health insurance. And so he was just waiting. And when you've torn your ACL, you just go on the list and when you can get in, you get in. And he waited for, I want to say 18 months, hadn't had a call, applied for private health, got the private health, waited out his six, nine, 12 month waiting period,

however long it was and qualified for his private health before the public system could even get him no so I think it was like two years or something from point of injury to like him having that surgery and that was done under private health yeah so and that's not always the case and obviously the more severe you know if you have a really bad accident of course you'd be rushed in through the public system we do have a really great public system in place but I feel like that's a good example that I have seen of where sometimes like it can be worth it and I mean you've totally got away at yourself like we can't tell you here nor there but it is just worth considering especially if you're saying you're a family of four I'm assuming you've got kids

and so that can also be tricky because if I think about when I was a kid I was doing all kinds of crazy things breaking bones doing whatever so you know and I mean there are a lot of benefits to private health insurance and I'm not trying to sell you on it because some people don't need it And they go, V, I don't need it. And I like that. But what I want you to have is all the tools and the resources available to you to make the right decision for you and your family. So when we're talking about private health insurance, like if you have it, you can get treatment in public or private hospitals as a private patient with the doctor of your choice. And if you're just in public, you do not get the choice of doctor. You often just get it allocated. and then you can get things covered like your health services that aren't covered under Medicare, so things like physiotherapy, dental, optical, and I think it's important to consider that. But also another option is reviewing it.

$400, a lot a month, but can we drop our private health insurance, if it's a value to you, back down to hospital-only cover or dropping back and getting rid of those things. If you're like, look, we just don't need it, we're very healthy, perhaps you don't need to have optical and physiotherapy and dental covered and pregnancy and stuff like that covered maybe you just drop it down to the very base level and go and do a bit of a review and go well maybe it is a value to me so that if something happens we do have access but maybe it's a cheaper access and that's still going to put you into that private hospital cover

I guess bucket whether you need it or not is completely up to you we have lots of people in the She's On The Money community who have made the decision to not have private health insurance because for whatever reason that works for you. And I'm just glad that they've been able to weigh it up properly. But then obviously with the Medicare levy surcharge, if you have a higher income, then it kind of makes sense. And I know that a couple of people in our community have done the maths and I'm not here to make recommendations on who's the best because that's an answer that only you can answer because it's a personal decision, right? But we have people in our community who have done the maths and worked out what their Medicare

levy surcharge would be, and they're basically paying exactly that on private health insurance. So instead of paying, let's, for example, say $100 a month into a Medicare levy surcharge, they're paying that for private health insurance, and it would have been spent on one or the other, but they're like, well, I may as well get the private health bonuses. And do you know what? That's the government's intention with the Medicare levy surcharge. So the Medicare levy surcharge is charged to people who have higher incomes in the hopes that it gets them to get private health insurance to take the load off the public system so that the public system can be more accessible for those who can't afford private health and for those who can, it segues them away a bit. That's really clever.

Doesn't mean you can't access it. It just means that they're like, oh, well, if we charge them, there's obviously a very big, you know, carrot on a stick over there for them to get private health insurance. And it can actually be a like for a like, but you would have to work out what that looks like. Okay. I don't really have anything to add here, but I just, I do have health insurance, but it's like optical and dental and probably maybe ambulance. And I don't know if that counts, but we'll see one day when I eventually make over $93,000. And you do have to be careful. I know you've mentioned ambulance because some people do have it included in their private health, but in a lot of states and territories, it's separate. So we need to just

be careful of not assuming that because you have private health insurance, it includes ambulance cover because for a lot of people, that's not the case. And those are two separate types of insurance. Right. Okay. If you feel like dipping into the archive, we've done a couple of episodes on health insurance. I'm very passionate about it. Yeah, that we'll link in the show notes. So there's two specifically, one from 2020 and one from 2021, that it might be worth, if you just want a bit more information on what to consider, go back and have a listen to those because it might be helpful. Yeah. And I guess the TLDR of all of this is be educated. It doesn't mean that private health is the best answer for everybody. But what I do want is for you to be able to sit

down, consider it, work it out. And if you go, well, the $400 a month isn't worth it to me, i'm glad you had the tools and resources to make that decision it's here nor there like it's it's none of my business it's a really good like way it's a simple one i think to figure out like mathematically how you like weigh up yeah the value of what you're getting versus what you're spending yeah it's a nice direct one yeah 100 that would actually be for any private health insurance companies listening today that'd be a really great marketing strategy putting out a little table that says if you earn 96 000 here's what private health would cost you and like do the cost benefit analysis. I'm a logical girlie. I just, honestly, I like being spoon fed information.

And if you told me that you're going to have to pay X in the Medicare levy surcharge, but if you just went to this company and got insurance, I'd be like, oh, thanks for doing the work for me. You can have that idea for free. You're welcome. You're welcome. Call me for PR. Should we get into the juicy bit? Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for this one. The topic came through and I was like, I feel like this is really, really juicy. So this week we got a DM. Are you ready for Yes. Hi, She's On The Money. I need advice. A year ago, my sibling was going through a tough time and doing some pretty reckless things. I thought I would try and help, including financially. At the time, she promised to repay me. However, after having to remind her to stop

being rude to me in my own home, she up and left. For four months, I have had to chase her every fortnight for the bare minimum of $50, some weeks less. Fast forward eight months and she hasn't paid me anything since December. She's blocked me on all platforms and is ghosting our entire family. I have a record of all funds lent and all payments made by her. What would you do if a family member had done this and stopped paying you back over $15,000 in money you lent them for your future whoa that is so much money that is so much yeah it's too much to be like oh well it's a loss but you're gonna you know this is a lot of money i don't know if this is a thing here this sounds very american what i'm about to say but sue their claims court is that a thing i feel like that's a

tv show yeah it does it definitely is a thing here it's probably not as dramatic though yeah and i mean like obviously it's we're not going on maury you know no totally it's still weird though to like do that to your sibling or just like a friend or someone it's kind of extreme it feels like you're being like dramatic but in this case i wouldn't think that's that you're being i don't think you're being dramatic that's 15 000 yeah i would i would maybe literally do that i guess it's a really tricky one especially if you're blocked on everything um you know you've seen those like memes of like you know if like people are fighting and they're blocked on everything and so you send, like, one cent deposit to their bank account

so they can write it in the description. Oh, my God, don't do that. That just feels so financially abusive. True. Well, then you'd just be sending them more money. It's like, maybe don't do that. But if there is a way to get in touch. There absolutely would be.

Yes, you're blocked, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't contact them or send them a letter or, you know, write a letter of demand or something like that, letting them know that you're willing to take this further. Totally. And I guess, like, if you've got a way up, like, is there still, I suppose, like, some coming back from this in regards to your relationship with each other? If there's not, screw it. Go full ball, small claims court.

I hope I'm saying that the right way. She's called in Judge Judy. I was going to say, get Judge Judy here. Do whatever you've got to do. Get that money back. But do not rest. Because I know that sometimes we do say, like, do not rest. You're going to get that money back.

Like, if you've got to try, like, be, like, a bit more emotional and be like, hey, I'm really struggling. I really, like, try and, like, do that. Oh, we're getting Desperado on it. And then if that doesn't work, and then you go football. Yeah. I don't know if that's helpful at all. I love that that's an option.

Jess, what would you do? I completely agree. I think you have to assess, like, do you think you can or do you have a desire to salvage the relationship? Because I think you're at the point where if you want to continue to pursue it, it's going to be a bit more of an aggressive approach. And chances are, if that's what you opt for, you may damage that relationship beyond repair. And I know that that's a really tough and unfair choice for you to have to make. But I think it's a consideration that you have to take is that if

you do want to pursue it, you know, you might lose contact. But it sounds like you have kind of lost contact anyway. So, maybe that's, you know, neither here nor there to you. I would probably go with debt collection before small claims court. I don't know if that's good advice or not, just because I think that if you can avoid clogging the court system, let's do that. That might not be the right call though. I'm not an expert, but I think debt collection agencies often work on, they take a percentage of what they collect. So, you may be able to do that without having to invest any money into it. Whereas if you go through small claims court, you may need legal counsel, which can be very expensive. So, I would look into your options

there around what the costs associated might be. Debt collection agencies, from what I understand, are very good at what they do and will find someone and get in touch and will follow them up and follow them up and follow them up. And then if that didn't work, that's when I would probably escalate it to small claims court. Although I'll be honest, I don't know what the rules are around whether or not you can claim something like that back just because the money's lent in good faith. And I know that this is very unhelpful because you know what's done is done, but we have said before, unfortunately, you take on a risk when you lend money to someone. And even if it's family, even if it's your best friend in the whole world, there is a risk that that may

not come back. And so I know that that's not helpful to our listener right now. And I'm sorry, I'm not saying that to kick you while you're down, but just a word of advice, I guess, for anybody who might be looking to lend money to people, you can't guarantee that it will come back. And I don't know that there is a legal system in place to support that pursual either. I'm just honestly not sure there definitely is so if you go to the national debt helpline we talk about these guys all the time so it's ndh.org.au there's a whole section on borrowing money from friends and family but it can get a bit sticky and they do talk about you know the expectations and changing goal posts and like what it looks like to have that relationship change but also they really go

into the legal standing because it's obviously easy to assume that just because there's no written contract, borrowing money from a friend or a family member means that it's safer, but that's not actually the case, you could end up sued. So they really go through that. And so there is a pathway. And even if it's not been well documented at the start, sometimes, and I speak historically from having clients go through similar things, sometimes even the communications that you've had, Like if I text you, Jess, and say, oh, but you still owe me $15,000 and then you agree in that text message, there's like some level of written communication. Now, I'm not a lawyer.

Obviously, I can't give you advice on this, but you are right, Beck and Jess, maybe not as dramatic as Maury or Judge Judy, but you can take them to small claims court. You can sue them. You can take that further. i obviously would be trying to sort it out before then just because i'm the type of person that wants to exhaust all my options first yeah so that you know like if jess owed me money she could say but v i asked you i emailed you i called you i did as much as i could this was my last resort i didn't want to have to do this but i did because obviously we want to give everybody the benefit of

the doubt but i think that yes you you definitely can take it further and it's a really terrible situation to be in. So I'm sorry you're going through that because it wouldn't just be financially hard. It would be emotionally hard. Like your sibling is doing that to you. I know. That's just trash. I do just want to quickly say as well for the other side of the coin, I have been there where I'm being chased by debt collectors and even just like family members or friends who have lent me money. I usually am really on top of these things, but being on that side and you owe so much money and you feel like you're drowning and you're extremely anxious every waking second is anxiety. And I get that part as well. So if you haven't exhausted all of your

emotional energy and you do feel like there's hope for you to reach out and be like, I understand what you're feeling and let's just try and make this as easy as possible. What about 10 bucks a month? I know that's probably, you know, it's not ideal. It'll take a lot longer, but maybe it's just all this built up anxiety that is making them run away, which is not, it's not good. But it's nice to understand that I think empathy in a situation like this is very valuable. Yes. Like being able to go, actually, how do I approach this? Like in saying, hey, Bec, I know this is really trash, but can we work this out?

Or even if you're the person that owes money, just know, we know it's stressful. We know it's hard. And I think it says a lot about your character to turn around and be like, hey, Jess, I'm really sorry. I haven't been talking to you. This has been overwhelming me and making me really anxious. I think you can have a really constructive conversation and try and come back from that. but it is going to take work from your side as well.

Yeah, blocking them on everything isn't the right solution, I think. Because you're right, like there is absolutely room to understand the position that they're in and maybe helping them out with resources, sending them the National Debt Hotline information so they can reach out if that's something that they need. But yeah, I think it's all in how it's handled. I agree. We did ask the community what they thought. We said, would you ever lend money to a family member?

And unsurprisingly, 71% of you said yes, of course, if they needed help. 29% of you said nope wouldn't risk things getting messy I don't know like I get that it's hard I just you want to help someone when you can I get that that you're in that instinct to want to support the people you love 100% we also then asked this situation is really tough what advice or next steps would you give our community member and you guys had an abundance I mean someone was definitely on your side. They said, go to Judge Judy. But we had a number of really good responses. I feel like a lot of these responses though are more for what our community member could have potentially done differently, not what they can do now. So we'll get through the could have done

differently. So someone said, I wouldn't ever lend over a thousand dollars to a family member. If they're stuck, they need to seek different help. Someone said, I've been in a similar situation, but I chose the relationship over the money and let it go, which is really hard because $15,000 is life-changing for some people. Like it's not an amount that a lot of people could just let go and be like, oh, don't worry about it. Like that's too much. Someone said, you shouldn't have lent money to someone in the first place. You could have offered help in a lot of different ways, which is kind of like, yeah, she could have, but she didn't know, did she? yeah so then a lot of people said potentially you could make peace with it and know that you

just helped a family member during a trying time someone else said if there's hope of the relationship improving or moving forward then I wouldn't start legal action but if there's no hope I definitely would go down the legal route someone said cut your losses and move on I feel like that is not helpful like don't get me wrong I love all of your dms but I feel like saying cut your losses like they've taken the time to write into us and say this is a really big issue for me and to say cut your losses to me is quite dismissive of what they're experiencing they're not looking for you to go give it up don't worry about it true I don't know I don't know I just feel like sometimes that's not helpful someone else said get some legal advice and I

think that's a good one because as much as you know jess and beck and i are like yep you could definitely take it further why not talk to someone about taking that further is there a free like yes you can call legal aid legally um so i would work out what you can do and your options and put them all on the table because it could even help you have that conversation with that family member because i know that i would feel a little bit more stable in the conversation but i feel like the other person would take it more seriously if I was like, look, Jess, I've got advice and here are the outcomes. I feel like maybe they'd be more likely to take it very seriously and commit to a payment plan with you instead of having to go down that legal route. Someone said, as much as it

hurts, potentially it's a learning experience, but never lend the money again. And then someone else said, your piece is more valuable than money. You were lucky to have been able to help. So I feel like a lot of the advice was very, very similar, but we then asked, hey guys, have you guys had this experience to yourself? Someone said, yeah, my dad did it to me. Someone said, no, because I'm a savage and I never lend anyone money. I'm like, okay, savage queen. Someone said, I lent money to a girlfriend and it changed our friendship for the worse. Someone said, my parents lent me money and they made me sign a formal contract before they gave me the cash. Honestly, smart. TDAH genius parents. Someone said, I come from a Polynesian background and culturally we give

money and would never expect anything back. And I think that's a really, like that's really wholesome. Also culturally, these things happen in different ways. Like you might be coming from a completely different background and you're listening to this going, I know you gave your sibling money why are you chasing them for it yeah so interesting and kind of cool someone said my best advice is never lend what you can't afford to lose yeah which is good advice as well someone said yes it took years though and we don't have a relationship anymore someone said yes i was deceived to give my dad 27 000 which he then gambled away oh heartbreaking i guess something that we probably could just mention is that them not paying you could be a result of them physically

not having the cash for one reason or another and you know what that money went to if it could be something like gambling or substance abuse or one of those other tough things like it may be that they've fallen down a hole and they physically don't have the money to give you anymore which is where I think again that approach of kindness could really be helpful and maybe I think kindness always. I think it says more about you than the situation at hand. And I also think it gives the other person an opportunity to kind of redeem that relationship and that situation. And I just, yeah, I feel like kindness always. We did have a couple of positive ones. Someone said, hey V, mine was positive. I lent my brother 12 grand. We made a spreadsheet with dates for

payments and he paid the whole thing back in full, much to my surprise. I love that. someone else said, I was able to help my mum get out of a domestic violence relationship and she's just finished paying me back. Amazing. Isn't that cool? That's really good. I wanted to leave those ones for last because I feel like lending money, I know that we asked you, has this happened? And you might've gone down a rabbit hole of only sharing negative stories, but I've lent money to friends and family before and I've had it paid back in full, no questions asked. So I'm not saying that this always happens. I don't want people to get that vibe. And I mean, Bec, you've said on the podcast a number of times that you've lent money from people and I know you've always paid

it back so I feel like definitely this is something that can happen but doesn't always happen so I don't want it to terrify you if you're like oh but I always help my friends like that's it's not a warning it's more this is an awful situation you've been ghosted by a family member who owed you $15,000 and you do definitely have options yeah it's just a terrible thing to go through and I'm really sorry you had to yeah perfect spot to leave it I reckon so well it's been a good episode thanks for hanging out with me once again my friends until next week hope you have a good weekend and we'll see you bright and early on monday for a money diary bye guys bye the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your

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