She's On The Money - Home Sweet (Affordable) Home

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

We are celebrating Friday, and yes, it's only November, but we are already getting excited for Christmas! Bec shares some broke tips, V has one of her own, and Jess has the community money wins! We've been INUNDATED with questions about housing and this week cover a question for first home buyers. Then, one of the juiciest DM's we have ever been sent which had the girls pretty unanimous on with their answers. 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's no surprise it is Friday again, which means it is time to get my little team together and celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. Today, Miss Jessica Ricci, you've got a few money wins to share, which you're a bit excited about. Bec has some very good broke tips and I have an addition to the broke tips, which Bec saw me in the hallway earlier

before we started recording and she said, that's a broke tip for the show. And I said, let's do it, no worries. We're going to be helping answer a money dilemma, which this week is all about buying your first home and whether it should be a home for your future or one for your current situation, which I think is really good to discuss right now.

That's a good question. That is a good question. I think it's going to be good. And then we're going to be unpacking something that you slid into our DMs about this week. We're talking about a partner who lies about his finances. I love when they're really juicy. Liar, liar.

She's that bad that I'm literally here for the drama? No, I think we all are to some extent. Do you know what my favourite thing about, like I don't love like gossip, I don't like celebrity gossip, I don't particularly care for it. You know what I love? Anonymous gossip. Did you hear that one person's boyfriend one time lied about his finances?

Tell me. Can we have all the juicy? Yeah, we just want the tea. Like I'm here for the gossip, but like anonymous gossip is fine. Like I feel like that's kosher, you know? Totally. Is that weird? It's not weird, but, you know, and that's good of you.

I like every bit of gossip anywhere, anytime. I just don't want to know stuff about people I know. That's awkward. Oh, that's better. in my books. I just want it to be completely anonymous. Like slide into my DMs. Tell me about your cheating partner that happened five years ago and I can't determine who it was or where it was. Sure. But I want the juicy goss, you know? Yeah, I like that. It's like reading Reddit threads. Like I don't know you, but I live vicariously through you. Yes. Like I don't want

any drama in my life, but I want you to have drama so I can read it. That's terrible of me. Anyway, let's move on. I want to know, how have your weeks been, Miss Jessica Ricci? It's been good. It's been Christmas week in our house. I've been decorating, loving my life. Do we remind you it's November? Somebody replied to one of my TikToks and said, bitch, it's November. And I was like, did I stutter? Halloween's done. That means it's officially Christmas. Exactly. Jess, did I stutter? I love this version of you. I like the sass. I appreciate it. I went pottery barn on the weekend because... Jess, what's at pottery barn? Gingerbread mugs. And also gingerbread men and women shaped cushions.

Cute. And so I bought obviously all of the above. Of course. And I was talking to the girl at checkout and I was like, ha, ha, ha, so early, like I'm buying this in November, I can't believe it. And she was like, oh, this is actually our second drop of Christmas stuff.

Was it? Yes. Okay. And we've nearly sold out. Like I got, I think there were four maybe cushions left and I bought two of them. And she's like, we're not getting any more. So she's like, I think it's fair to say that Christmas

is now officially starting in November. And I said, she didn't know who this was. I was like, oh, Jess is going to love this. And she was like, yeah, cool. So total comes to me. It was really good. How's your week been, Bec? Really, really chill, nice.

The weather's been kind of lovely. Not like every day of the week, but I would say if it's more than 50% lovely, it's a good week. Classic Melbourne, hey? Classic Melbourne. Yeah. My buckets are full. You know, I've been seeing people and going out and sometimes going to the gym and just,

yeah, just overall really, really nice week. Just living your best life. Yeah, living my best. What about you? I like it. Nothing too interesting. Just being pregnant, really. I feel like I've now gotten to that stage where I'm, what, 25-ish weeks pregnant now

and I just feel like everything's a little bit harder. Everything's a little bit more sluggish. I definitely have less lung capacity. I always used to be like, I'm going to be one of those fit pregnant women. You are. I haven't been to Pilates once since getting pregnant. That's okay. I have seen you, Power, walk through the airport,

and as a non-pregnant person, I struggle to keep up. That's all I've got going for me. And do you know what? Like the only flex I have, and this will come up in our Broke Tips, is I'm still wearing the jeans that I was wearing pre-pregnancy. No spoilers. But wait till you learn how. Wait till you learn how.

But also, like, it just makes me feel a little bit better about myself. So this morning I popped on my jeans and I was like, life's not that bad like I might feel a bit roly-poly but if I can fit in these I'm doing all right I'm doing all right it's not too bad not too bad and that is a we'll get to why that's the funniest thing I've personally I've ever heard because I know what it takes for you to fit into those jeans now and so I'm some ninja stuff some ninja stuff anyway but stay tuned let's jump into money wins and confessions this week there has been some really fun money wins in our community. I've, again, been in the messages before Jess could get to them to round up her

favorites. But Jess, I want to know, what have you singled out to share on the pod this week? My first money win this week comes from Holly, who said, I finally faced my demons, aka the incredibly lovely gym staff, and went to cancel my membership. Oh, that's scary. And then I bought a season ticket for the pool. It's so much cheaper than the gym, even when I look at the, you know, with the weekly, monthly, whatever breakdown. And I love swimming so much more, so it's definitely going to be worth it for me. I've already been swimming two days in a row.

Money win, mental health win, and happiness win. That's actually really cute too. Lovely. Really sweet. It made me think of the time that you made me call your gym to cancel because you were too scared. Please don't tell the entire world that I did that, but I bet I did do that. I don't know.

I don't blame you. It is scary. Every time I would call. You like letting them down. Yeah. It's like, hey, I'm never going to go to the gym ever again, so can I please cancel this? It's like a bit of a... I couldn't do it.

and then Jess did it and then it was a bit awkward because then the girl was like, oh, you don't sound like Victoria Devine. And I was like, of course, she's on the money list. No, this is so awkward. Anyway. Hilarious. It all came out in the wash that it was actually just cancelling my membership. Well, she didn't know before.

She will know now. Hi. Sorry, Jim. Bye. What else have you got for us, Jess? Next I've got a win from Mahalia who said, I needed to furnish an entire house and my budget was tiny. I hunted on Marketplace all weekend.

I did some driving and I got two beds, two mattresses, a washing machine and a fridge for $300. What? All in great condition. Love Marketplace. Excuse me, that's genius. That is very impressive. That's very, very cool.

This next one I have comes from Alicia and I feel like it's very timely given I just paid $2.20 for petrol. She said, I used the 7-Eleven app to lock in the cheapest fuel price. For half a tank of fuel, it would have cost me a little over $100, but it ended up being just over $80 instead. Oh, cool. Do you know people have started sending me screenshots of their 7-Eleven lock and save app? And they're like, saved $17 this week because of you, saved $28.

And I'm like, that's actually a lot of money. Well, imagine every time you fill up your car if you save $15 to $20. Like, that's a lot over the course of like a couple of months. Cheers, 7-Eleven. Well, duh. You do really good donuts, you do really good Slurpees, and you also save us money on fuel. Can't be mad. We love to see it.

I have another car win from Carla who says, I'm about to pay off my car loan two years ahead of schedule. Two? Right now. Right now? Right now. Money lost but a money win in terms of interest saved and being able to refinance next year.

Unfortunately, it's a necessity because I don't live anywhere with public transport or accessibility. I'm paying it off after just four months of aggressive saving and working hard. Whoa. That is incredible. That is incredible. Hi, Carla.

If you'd like to come on the show as a money darrist, We actually need to know how you did that. Thank you. But loved it. She took a loan and she was just like, I can do faster. I love that. And she did. Cool.

What a genius. I know. And I have one more that I feel like a lot of people really enjoy it from our friend Shannon, who said, I discovered Spotify includes audiobooks. So I'm going to cancel my Audible subscription and use Spotify instead. There's literally hundreds of thousands of books that you can listen to for free. Like not for free. You have to have the subscription.

But I feel like these days, most people are paying for Spotify. Yeah, I would agree. But through Spotify. They're just included. Oh. And if you are happening to listen on your Spotify app too and you're looking for a recommendation of a book, may I suggest three beautiful pastel-coloured ones?

Oh. She's on the Money. Property with She's on the Money. And Investing with She's on the Money. Oh, I love. They're all available through Spotify. All available through Spotify. All narrated by our very own VD.

I did that. I did that. You sure did. That is really cool. How long did that take you? Oh, honestly, weeks. It's actually crazy narrating a book because they make you read it out and it's nothing like podcasting.

So I went in blindly. I was like, I'm going to be so good at this. I'm fine in front of a microphone these days. Obviously that took training. However, it is nothing like sitting in front of the podcasting mic because if you mess up while you're saying a sentence, they're like, oh, yep, could you just take that from the top? You have to take it from the top.

And if you're reading your book and you like have an intonation that they're like oh you were meant to say a instead of that like okay no worries like does it really matter yeah it really matters they make you go back and do it again and then sometimes when you're reading your own book you're like why did I say that yeah that was stupid I've got a better example like why didn't I put the and it's kind of it's like when you finally read out your work aloud like I cannot tell you how many times I have read my own books just like fact checking and proofreading and my publisher has gone through it and unfortunately poor Jessica Ricci has had to go through them so many times because I'm like can you just check like I just I'm so anxious

about these things right so the entire team has gone through it we love it comes out the other side we're like amazing manuscript done dusted go into recording and I'm like this is the worst book I've ever read so bad but there's a money win for someone who's been winning even the new books on their property shares in the money that's a money win that's free books yeah true That technically is free books. I mean, technically incorrect, but like I have a Spotify membership. If you're already paying. I could get my own book for free.

May as well. What a muddy win. I could learn so much. All right, let's move in because that's a pretty good broke tip actually. Free books. It is a good broke tip. But what have you got to bring to the table this week, Bec? Okay, so as per, I have two community tips and one of my own.

So I'll start off with one from Bronnie who says, Hi Bec, I've got a broke tip for the podcast. So cutting the top off of delivery boxes so you can use them as storage cubes. She's recently moved house and wanted to buy little storage cubes from Ikea, but have found that using boxes of their mail deliveries works just as well to store little knickknacks and bathroom items, et cetera. That's so smart. Isn't it clever?

It makes you feel so much more organized. Yes. Yes. I'm genuinely actually going to do this. This is such a good idea. The flippy bits on boxes annoy me. So if you're telling me, just cut them off. Cut them off, and now the box has another use.

And then when it comes to moving, if you move again, I would go and like go to Bunnings or whatever and try and buy or Officeworks. You can buy those boxes. You don't have to do that because you've got these boxes here. I know they don't have tops anymore. We can live without it. We don't need it. We just need something to transport our stuff.

Yeah. We just need vessels. That's very reduced, reuse, recycle. I love it. Reduce, reuse, recycle. What else have you got? The next one comes from Debbie who says that throughout the year, this is kind of similar to what our producer Indy's family does as well.

So she tries to stock up on like, you know, like let's say you go to Woolworths and the Raffaellos or the Ferrero shares like on special, just like buy like chocolate boxes, boxes of chocolates like throughout the year when they're on special. So end of year when it comes to Christmas time and you're like, you've got to buy like little things for, I don't know, colleagues and bosses and whatever. And then random present you forgot to pick up before going to someone's house. Exactly, exactly. Parents, et cetera.

You have a little gift cupboard with boxes of chocolates, maybe other little knickknacks if you have capacity, if you want to. And then that way when it comes to Christmastime, you're not completely overloaded with the things that seem small, but like $10 boxes of chocolates for everyone you know. That's a lot of money. It adds up a lot. But also I love that idea in theory.

Fantastic money win. You put a box of Raffaellos in my house and tell me they're there. You want them to stay there? Don't tell me they're there. So, like, it just wouldn't work. Do you know what I love as well? You never buy those chocolates for yourself. Like, Ferrero's are my favorite chocolate, but there's this mental block for me.

You get them as a gift. Oh, my God. I can't go to Kohl's and buy myself a box of Ferrero's. Like, someone's going to give them to me for, like, Valentine's Day or my birthday or whatever. Oh, yeah. No, you can't buy that chocolate for yourself. I had never thought about that before. Imagine, like, buying.

You would never buy yourself, I feel like. No, you're, like, going to the movies and, like, you get, like, the little, even though you don't really want them, you get the M&Ms. You'd rather a packet of Ferrero's share as a box of that. just buy yourself. Yeah, but it costs the same, right? Yeah. It costs roughly the same. That's so funny. I've never thought about that before. It's so true though. And so I feel like people go, oh, I feel like it's impersonal. No, I want the box of chocolates. Give me the chocolates. Always want chocolates. I want to do a thread in our Facebook group of stuff you would never buy for yourself. So like, we're not talking about like, obviously I would never buy

myself an Hermes handbag because it's $30,000. Like, no, that's unrelatable. But like, I'm the Same as you, Jess. I would never buy, like, fancy boxed chocolates for myself. It is a gift. Yes. What else exists? We need to know. We do.

Things that you hate spending money on that you would love, like an Uber gift card. No one likes paying for Ubers. But if you have a gift card. Yeah. Uber Eats gift cards. Uber Eats gift card. Like, I know that I think there's a bit of a stigma

or pressure sometimes to be super creative. And, like, as a gift giver, like, it's one of my love languages. Yes, I completely agree. It is really fun and exciting finding the perfect present. But sometimes, you know what? A basket with like some laundry detergent and some dishwasher tablets in this economy? In this economy. Thrilled.

That's true. That's true. One of my go-to housewarming gifts is like a nice basket that can be used as like a pot or something. And then I buy a fancy dried pasta because like you're not going to buy the fancy dried pasta yourself, are you Jess? No, I'm buying the 99 cent pasta. Yeah, like I'm getting Coles or Woolies brand pasta.

End of story. That's how it's going to work. So fancy dried pasta and then, like, a pre-made pasta sauce, the fancy one that you wouldn't buy. I buy the Raguletto brand, $2.50 a jar. Don't think it's ever increased before. It's always on the bottom shelf because no one buys it. It's obviously not, like, the important one, but it works for me, 10 out of 10.

Will not buy anything else. Don't put that in my basket, though. I'm buying you, like, the $9 jar of pasta sauce and then, like, a brick of, like, parmesan or something nice. Great housewarming gift, but I just made you dinner. Yeah. True. Genius.

Yeah, I love that. What's your broke tip? Okay, so my broke tip for this week, and this is something I completely forgot about until the other day because obviously it is end of pay cycle, so you know. You've just got too much month left at the end of your money. Exactly. Exactly.

So the other day I made dinner and I made Deb mashed potato. So what – this is like, you know, that powdered mashed potato. Oh, okay. No, I was like, what is a Deb mashed potato? I don't know why it's called that. It's like a powdered potato. You get it in the canned food section. Anyway, so this is $2.10.

You can feed your whole family with this. You just literally need water. What did you make with it? Did you just make a bowl of mashed potato and go, Bon Appetit? Yeah, because it's filling. No, I did put some baby peas in there, which is like, let's not worry about that because on its own.

You put baby peas in potato and called that a meal? Beck. Yeah. Sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. It's kind of like bubble and squeak. It's bubble and squeak. Exactly. It's just a little bit wonky.

That makes it really cute though. But I have found that with any kind of like, let's say, rice, I used to like really get in there and wash it and like make it all fluffy. But if I just like add heaps of water and the volume of it is just so, it's like sticky rice. It's like really sludgy, whatever, it doesn't matter. But it's so much more filling, same with like dead mashed potato. You're not selling me on the sludgy rice.

No, but it actually is delicious. I am really good at one thing in this life and it is cooking rice well. Totally. In my family, known for being able to pull off really good rice. Don't ask me how I'll do it because apparently on TikTok, it's really political how you cook rice. But I've got it down. It's light.

It's fluffy. If you give me gluggy rice, I'm going home, Bec. But, and this is the thing, that most of the pay cycle, I'm having fluffy rice. At the end of the pay cycle, I'm just trying to fill myself up. I'm making gluggy rice. I'm making dead mashed potato. Anyway, so my bro tip for this week is buy dead mashed potato

instead of regular potato because it tastes just as good. It is powdered potato, $2.10, will feed nearly a whole family, I would say. All you need is hot water. That is literally all you need. And then if you want to be fancy, you could put like some butter or some garlic or something in it. If you have like rosemary bushes, grow like crazy. So if you know a neighbour or if there's one at your local park, I feel like a bit of rosemary in the mashed potatoes would be delish. Yeah, I've already told you guys that you absolutely should be like liberating is what we call it, Jess.

Yes, we do. Like herbs that you see in people's like front gardens. Yeah. If it's reachable from the street, it is free game. Agreed. They're probably happy for the free gardening service. True. I agree.

The other thing I would say to upgrade that, Bec, is while you are, you know, at the start of the month where you have a little bit more cash, add one of those just Coles brand tins of gravy to your mix. I think they're like $2.10-ish for the Coles brand one. I don't think there's a difference between brands. No. Like they're all the same because then you could just have some gravy over the top of your mashed potato and that's elite. That is elite. Potato and gravy. Yeah. And it's so cheap.

It's like $2 a tin. Yeah. But like the tin, you just need a teaspoon of it to make the amount of gravy that you'd need. So that's going to last ages. I love that. That's such a good idea. Thank you, V. It's a good snack. Do you want to get mashed potato after this? Yeah. Did someone say KFC? Oh yeah. So rude not to. So rude not to. She did it. I've never heard anyone use that organically before. That was amazing. Thank you. That was amazing. We have one more good We do have one more good broke tip. So I guess, V, if you don't mind, I think, I mean, I've never been pregnant, but I assume that maybe part of pregnancy is, you know, maybe having to buy like maternity clothes and things like that. Can't stop, won't stop, not happening. You have found

a workaround. I feel like if you've been pregnant before, you're going to be like, V, this is not a tip. This is desperation. Hang on by a thread, literally. Quite literally. So my jeans, I can still get them on. As I said before, I don't think that's going to last that much longer, if we're being honest. But I just, I can't justify all this pregnancy stuff. Like I keep being like, what? Like I have bought some singlets. So I've bought these maternity singlets. They have the like little breastfeeding clips on them. Not that I need them now, but I bought them because they're longer. And so I bought them just like cheapies from H&M. I'm not spending money on this. Like I cannot tell you how annoying pregnancy stuff is to me because I'm like I'm gonna wear it for

less than nine months like you're pregnant for what nearly 10 months and you're telling me that for maybe like you know at 12 weeks pregnant you can probably fit in most of your clothes obviously first pregnancy everyone's different all of that but like I was fitting in my normal clothes at 12 weeks and maybe all the way up to like 20 weeks 18 20 weeks I could still like squeeze into a lot of things. I'm now like 25 weeks. The jeans have almost been sacrificed. I can't do them up at all, but coming in clutch is a hair tie. I have tied it around the belt loop and then flipped it over the like little metal bit. And we're calling that done up jeans with my H&M singlet. I just pull that down a little bit lower, chuck on a jumper I'd usually wear and call it a day. That is my

maternity outfit. It looks very funny. It does look like it's almost about to snap. Can we put a photo? Yeah, we'll take a photo after. We need people to see. Look, it's not good. It's not something I'm, do you know what? Actually, it is something I'm proud of. Yeah, you should be proud of that. I'm not buying new jeans. No. It's just not happening. It's just not happening. One out of 10. Anyway. I love that. Move on from broke tips. Okay. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go to a really quick break. And on the flip side, we're answering a money dilemma, which this week is all about buying your first home and whether it should be a home for your future or a home for your current situation. And then we get to unpack something you slid into our DMs about this week.

We're talking about a partner who lies about their finances. So don't go anywhere. Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a quick listen to this week's money dilemma, shall we? 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. Hey, gals. My partner and I are hopefully going to buy a property for the first time next year to live in but my main dilemma is that he thinks that we should be

buying a three-bedroom place whatever basically that's going to set and forget we're going to live there forever but the problem is we we know we can't afford that we're not in the market to do that we both earn over a hundred thousand dollars a year each but for us to buy basically our dream home we would have to live so far out of the city but also any government incentives we're not eligible for. So I need some help. What should we be doing for the first home? And would we be able to sell after a few years and buy something else? Oh, this is, it's honestly a really good question. You said before, when I told you at the start of the episode, Jess, I was like, oh, this is what our money dilemma is going to be about. You were

like, oh, that's a good question. Why to you is that a good question? I just I think a lot of the time you just go a home is a home right like I think when you're thinking about buying a home sometimes you just get caught up in the idea of it and you don't necessarily think as in-depth about the logistics of what your future in the home looks like because as our listener has outlined you know you could kind of just buy the cheapest home you can get maybe it's not in the best area maybe it's a bit run down maybe there's you know this that or the other because you can afford it and it's well within your means. And, you know, at some point you will move on from that and it's just what you can do that's easily reachable. Or you can go,

oh, well, I want the biggest, the best. I want all of the nice finishes. I want the brand new house. I want to be in the best area with the best street, with the best neighborhood and the best school and all of those things that kind of bump your price up and up and up and up and up. Yeah. And I mean, both of those are very viable options. Like I don't think that there's any right option for anybody, but I just think it's a good question to be thinking about what does my future look like? How long am I going to stay here? Because if you only plan on being there for a year or two, maybe you do just go the kind of more affordable option and you go, oh, I can live

with whatever for a couple of years, save a bit more aggressively and then move to something better later on. Obviously, I'm probably not the best person to speak on this, but I would think that maybe, is there like, if you buy now, even if it's like not your ideal suburb or location or even the house isn't ideal just buying that surely the price will go up in a few years maybe you make some money there like i feel like it's maybe not like this isn't the right term but like quick and easy way to kind of get like equity is that what it's called yeah and then buying somewhere else more ideal in the future but if you have that if you start there then like you're not i think right now if you're like you're paying rent you're paying someone else's mortgage

and then if you have the ability to pay your own mortgage in a place that's not ideal for you you're still kind of it feels like you're still saving money does that make sense yeah yeah it totally makes sense and this is well timed because obviously I released property with she's on the money this year and in that book I talk a lot about how your dream home is the home you can afford because I think that given the property market has changed so dramatically in the last 50 years. So for example, if I take you back to 1975, the average Australian property cost four or five times the annual salary. Today that costs between 13 and 15 times your annual salary. And you might go, oh V, but what about inflation? Everything changes. If your salary

growth had kept up or if salary growth in general had kept up, the average salary for every Australian today would be $162,000. So wage growth has not kept up with property growth because if wage growth was that, it'd be $162,000, but it's not. The average salary here in Australia today is $65,000. So we are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to getting into the property market, irrespective of interest rates, irrespective of what the bank is going to charge you or how easy it is to access a loan. It's just harder today. Often we try to blame, you know, irresponsible millennials or going out for branch or, you know, millennials these days prioritize their lifestyles more. Like to me, that's not the case because life is genuinely

harder. So when we look at property, we can't have this white picket fence dream that we historically had because, you know, if my parents were able to walk into a property like that, that doesn't necessarily mean I can, but I think we always look to history and go, well, they were able to do it. Why can't I do it? Well, actually the world has changed. So to me, your dream home is the property that you can afford, not necessarily the property that you want. And what this listener has written in and said to me is that property, so like we could go further out, that property is actually not in the location that is your dream location. So therefore it's not your dream property because you're having to make significant compromise, I would say,

to get into what would be a three-bedroom house as opposed to a starter property. And I obviously am in the property game always. I own Zella Money, which is a mortgage-broking firm, and we see people getting into their first homes literally every day. It's my favorite thing in the entire world. But often we're talking to clients about, well, what compromises are you making? What is your long-term strategy on this property? And if you're not sure about what that looks like, you need to do more research. So I'd sit you down and I've said this to Jess before, because obviously Jess wants to buy a house. I would say desperately at this point. I mean, it's a bit on ice at the moment because like the world is in a bit of a shamble, but I'm always like, Jess,

can you please look at this property? I know because Jess wants to buy her family home, right? Like it's no secret. She has this ideal of what you want to buy and that's fine because her dream location is going to allow that and that will work. So it's not like Jess actually has rocks in her head, so that's okay. But every time I'm like, you don't know how your circumstances can change before you buy any house. Can you please look at it pragmatically and go, what would it resell for? Yes, it might be your perfect home, but like, what would it mean if everything went south and you needed to sell? Like, could we just sell it for what we bought it for and call it an even break? Great. No worries. What does rental yield in that area actually look like? And you

might go, V, why am I bothering? I don't have any intention of renting it out. Do you know how many people I talk to that are like oh we're renting out this property we never thought we would just understand the numbers understand what you're getting yourself into and understand the compromise you're making because going for a more expensive property you might go well V I now have my dream home fantastic at what compromise so has your lifestyle changed are you now you know significantly further out from your friends and family and that's now getting in the way of your social life? Like what does the rest of your life look like? Because I feel like when we go into the property journey, it's so tunnel visioned. Like you're just like, far out, I finally have the

deposit. You know, I've talked to my Zella Money mortgage broker and I'm so excited. They said I can be serviced up to this amount, but you might not have thought about what life looks like once you have that mortgage repayment coming out of your account. Like once you're in the house, what does life look like? How does that work? Because I guess reflecting even on my own personal journey. You guys know that during COVID, my husband, Steve, or he was my boyfriend at the time, we bought a house together. And I remember buying that and saying to Steve, this will be so good because it has more than three bedrooms. Like it's a four bedroom house. And I remember saying, this will be great because we can be here for 10, 15 years. And that was what, two and a

half, three years ago. And we're already like, great. We want to move. We want to change our situation. Like this was our dream property. And now our financial situation has changed enough to enable us to kind of step up into that next level of property. But I'm looking at it going, at what point would I do that? And obviously I'll share the journey if we decide to do that, but I'm not there yet, but now we're having a baby. We'd like to be closer to parks or we'd like to be in this different location or, you know, closer to family or whatever we're talking about. That was not on our radar when we purchased the first time. And I would say the first time I purchased. I was really smart about it. I did know rental yield. I did know all of those things,

but in my head, we were going to stay in that property for 10 plus years. And now I look at it and go, all right, well, we've actually renovated it. It's looking pretty good. We haven't got a very good looking front yard. Ask Jess. She's seen it. It's heinous. It's about to change. Don't worry, Jess. I signed a contract with a beautiful landscaper. And I go, this could actually sell quite nicely if we decided to dispose of this and change our situation. Whereas if you'd told me when I purchased the property, hey, V, so after three years, you're probably going to want to, you know, change. I'd be like, absolutely not. Are you joking? This is my dream home. Yeah.

So I think that is a good example of I was so set and I feel like we all get like this because buying your property is going to be one of the biggest financial like expenses of your entire life. We'll probably be the number one, but what would it look like to pivot? What if life changes? You know, I'm not going to get dramatic about your relationship ending, but like that's something we need to take into consideration as well. But what if in five years you've built up enough equity back to go into your next property and rent this one out? Is that an opportunity? Because that's a wealth creation strategy that you might not have thought about. You might go, wow, I never thought that I'd own a property that I could rent out,

leverage myself off that one and into my next property. So that's where I think it's important to have a really good conversation with a mortgage broker because you can't do that yourself. Like asked Jess. Yeah. I bullied her for the longest time. I said, sit down with a good mortgage broker. Did you? Eventually. It was good. Now you have, do you feel like you have that clarity? Yeah. Yeah. It's really handy having someone that you can just lean on and be like, Hey, like, what does this look like? If I, my income changes by this or if rates have changed by that, like what impact does that have on my borrowing capacity and what will that mean for the properties that I can or can't afford? Exactly. And a mortgage broker does this day in, day out, like use them as a really

good, I guess, sense check resource. Because go, all right, well, actually, is this a good idea? I promise you a mortgage broker will be like, look, it's your choice. But like, you know, we've had a couple of clients go down this route instead, or we've had a couple of clients do this, or actually that area seems really popular. So I would have a chat with a mortgage broker sooner rather than later to the person who has written in this money dilemma. But if you're thinking about buying and you're not entirely sure, just go sit down with a mortgage broker before you're ready and actually go, well, what does this look like? How does this work? You know, how much more deposit can I save? I know our money dilemma, Ryder Rinnera, Jess actually said, oh, we actually

have a combined income of more than $200,000. Slay, like big flex. But also they said, oh, none of the government grants apply to me. Some of them still would. Have you actually had someone look into that to make sure that you're dotting all your I's and crossing all your T's? Because sometimes different circumstances can change so that you might be able to access different grants that you might not have even heard of. So to me, get a really good mortgage broker on your side. I'm obviously incredibly biased and think you should just work with us because I've got your best interests at heart. So we'll chuck all of the details to get in contact with Zella Money in the show notes today. But honestly, just talk to someone who can help you get through this so

that you and your partner are on the same page because you do not want to be on different pages when making the biggest financial decision of your life. Yeah, I have two different friends for what it's worth, two different friends who purchased properties at the top of what they were able to with their partners and they are both looking at downsizing this year um really yeah just because they felt like their lifestyle compromised like they can't go on holidays they have much less fun money if you want to call it that and so for them they're like oh maybe having the big nice house isn't worth as much to us as being able to live our lives in the way that we want so like her like you both obviously have valid thoughts and feelings but maybe have a

look and talk to your partner about well okay if we do take out the much bigger property that's going to chew up a lot more of our income like what are we going to have to give up to do that because do we want to spend five years without ever going on a holiday or do we want to spend you know a couple of years really scrimping and saving rather than just being able to enjoy this new space it's so true it is so true and i feel like often people go yeah yeah victoria whatever whatever but that's the reality of the circumstances like unfortunately guys money is not endless and rates are going up. Exactly. If money was endless, I wouldn't have a job. So anyway, moving on, we received a DM this week, guys. A little bit spicy, as I said, kind of like the drama. Would

you like to hear it? Absolutely. Girls, I need your help. I've been with my partner for around a year now and we keep our finances separate as we don't live together. Plus there is a big difference in what we earn. He makes more than double what I do. Now here's where things get tricky. Despite him making so much, he always tells me how broke he is and he's stressed out always about money. Of course, I believed him when he told me this in the past, so I often just started paying for dinners or I'd pay for the weekends away or even transfer him funds to cover his daily costs to reduce his stress. I'm really good with savings, so it doesn't bother me too much because I just want us to be able to do these things together and I see us being

together for a long time. However, I just found out he bought himself a really expensive watch and he lied to me and told me it cost way, way less than what it actually cost. If he can afford that, he doesn't need money off me and I feel totally used. I haven't confronted him yet, so I would love to know from you girls how you would handle this. There's a lot going on. Yeah, that is, I mean, I don't want to be that person, but this feels really easy for me. You must leave. You must leave.

And take the watch with you if you can. But I just think this is multi-layered. Like if it was like I want to buy myself this watch, I'm lying about how much it costs because it's like I'm kind of embarrassed about like how much I spent on this. But like that on its own, maybe, sure, maybe. but actively taking money from her in the process because you are crying broke all the time which is very valid if you're in a relationship and you're like like if Jess and I were together

and I was like I really can't afford this like and Jess stepped up and said look I would really like to give you some cash for that like that's a two-way relationship like that's okay and I think we need to make sure that we're not crucifying that circumstance because for some people, that's fine. But the complexity gets added when I earn double what Jess earns, but I'm still borrowing from Jess, but then also what out here living a luxe lifestyle, buying a watch that Jess could never afford. It's the borrowing for me. Cause like I have definitely been guilty. Like I have said to my partner, I'm so broke. And we've said before, I out earn my partner relatively significantly. Oh, she's a big dog back. Well, he's no, no, no, no, no. Just own it. Jess.

Entry level role. Jess the big dog. He's on his way up, but you know what I mean? Like I'm the high income owner. And I have definitely said before, like there's been nights where he's been like, should we do takeout? And I've been like, oh no, like I'm too broke. It's the end of the month, pay week, whatever. But I think that is very different for me. That's about setting a boundary because when I say I'm broke, I mean, I've put 55% of my income's gone to my house deposit. I've paid all my bills, my rent's covered. I've just emptied my fund for takeout for the month. So I also think like the wording in the circumstance can still be used, but I think it's one thing to say oh I've exhausted my allocation for that money I don't want to spend

anything on takeaway or on a weekend away or whatever it's a very different thing to say oh I'll take your money to do it because I've spent all of my extra money poorly or I've allocated all my money to something else that's important to me like to me that's a different situation that feels very wrong that does feel it does feel a little bit like they're taking advantage so if your partner who earns half of what you earn is able to pay for these things where is the money go and I guess priorities come into it like if mate like using the takeout example sometimes my partner's like I just don't want to cook I can't be bothered I want to get takeout and I'll say I don't want to spend the money like it's not my priority this week whatever and I'll go I'll

cook dinner for you perfect compromise yes but like in this situation it doesn't sound like it's a matter of priorities it sounds like he's just saying oh I don't want it babe can you get it like it's taking the mickey it feels a bit it does feel very much like she's being taken advantage of a used 100 if you're crying broken then you can afford an expensive watch oh and then you had to put the watch on top i didn't even get to the watch yeah the watch on top and and like of course like sometimes maybe this is my thing is like maybe he was broke because he was saving up for the watch which is also like but that does not mean that your partner pays for your life exactly exactly you're saving for a discretionary item exactly we're not talking like

oh and he went out and spent money on his red joe yeah like i'm so salty well saving for a house or something no no not even the house savings your partner should not be and like this is me being relatively aggressive your partner should not be funding your lifestyle so that you can save to get yourself ahead financially it is compromise yeah like as jess was saying she's like i save for my house and i said no to take out i mean it's up to her partner james then to go well jess um it wasn't really a question. I really, really, really want takeout. I'll pay for it. Different situation than just being like, oh, I'm so broke. Like, yeah, I really want that. You've got to pay for it. That's guilt tripping. Yeah. That's not okay. Like takeout is a relatively small expense

in the scheme of things, but she's talking about weekends away, which are super. Yeah, weekends away. Do you know what I mean? Like I think with the takeout thing, you can go, oh, like if one partner's feeling it, one partner's not like, okay, someone pays 50 bucks for takeout for the night. Very nice treat. You love your partner. You want to treat them. My husband has done that a number of times to me. He'll be like, do you want to get Uber Eats? And I'll be like, no, no, no. We've got heaps of like Molly spoons in the fridge. Absolutely not. And he was like, it's not really a question. I'll be like, I'm craving pizza. Okay. Yeah. But like that's, you know, to me it's a more nominal expense. A whole weekend away

though, if she's paying for two people, you're looking at upwards of $500 and that's not a small amount. At a minimum. Yeah. And that's if you're doing like a very like affordable cost. It's expensive. Yeah. Everything's expensive right now. Like that is not a small expense for someone to take on. And I know that I would feel very guilty if my partner was doing that for me. Oh, I couldn't. Totally. Yeah. Again, it's not as if one person saying, I really want to prioritize travel and the other partner goes, I don't really care about travel. And you go, oh, well, what if I covered it? Yeah. Because it's important to me.

Because I really want you to be there. And this is an experience that I want us to share and different again. I feel like there are so many avenues that I could be more flexible on. But from what our listener has said I go it really just feels to me like he's taking advantage of you and I don't like that at all the added layer that we've forgotten like we've remembered the watch Jess but he lied about the watch oh my god absolutely he lied about the cost he said it wasn't it was much much much less than what it actually cost which I feel like is not embarrassment in this case it feels like he knows what he's doing he's taking advantage and this is very telling of other things when someone like it's kind of like a symptom of something bigger like

lying about the watch or using your partner's money to, not using, but like if your partner's paying for something, you can probably afford to chip in. Maybe you're not doing that. It's symptomatic of a bigger issue, which is maybe you're a bit manipulative. Maybe all these other things. It could be really blatantly disrespectful. Yeah. And I mean, it could be harmless. It could be like, oh, they actually couldn't afford X, Y, Z for whatever reason. But it doesn't mean you need a Rolex. Might also be something really sinister. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't like it at all what did everybody else have to say we obviously took this to the community as we always do so here are some of the responses this one blew up we got hundreds of replies

first person said demand a payback of at least what the watch cost as you walk out the door catcher yes someone said just stop giving him money and are you willing to deal with this situation forever yeah run for the hills it's a big red flag red flag emoji he is living well above his means hashtag financial manipulation yeah i just i would love to know where his money is going yeah like i just i can't comprehend out earning someone by that much and them having money left over and you not someone said dump his ass he's using you for your money girl someone else said this is my favorite one think of all of that money that you just spent on him as an investment in finding out that he's a red flag. That's so true. Some really simple ones that came up a lot,

you need to talk to him about this. Yeah, you can't leave it. I think it's really good. Like we can give advice, we can talk about it and what we would do, but ultimately good relationships are built on really good communication. And if you can't sit down and be like, hey, mate, what's going on with this? I'm feeling really disrespected. To me, that's another red flag that the relationship you're in is not a good one obviously lots of people were like immediately break up immediately leave him someone suggested ghost him and let him work out why that's so nasty i think we're too far gone for that then someone else has said popcorn emoji eyes emoji popcorn emoji eyes emoji send him a screenshot of the watch while you're sitting on the couch together with a price tag

with no context and just see how he reacts. There are some toxic people in our team. I love it. I love it. You guys are psycho. I love it. It's very funny. But lots of people were saying, genuinely leave him.

I feel like this could turn into quite scary financial abuse quite quickly. Leave him. I was in this situation for multiple years and it doesn't get better. So I think having these conversations again, it just goes back to communication. Like, why are you doing this, mate? Yeah. because it could be a sign of a bigger problem. You don't know, maybe like being really dramatic, maybe he has a gambling addiction. That's why he never has any money because he's, you know,

got this issue, came into a lot of money one time and bought himself a watch. And he just didn't think about the circumstances he's in because he's in the midst of addiction and that needs to be dealt with. So I think approaching it with kindness always, because there is nothing wrong with always being the kinder person in this circumstance. Even if you're being screwed over, like you can walk away with your head held high, like, no, I always did the right thing. I tried to communicate. I was the better person always, I think, to me,

is the best way to approach it. But, yeah, my summary of this is talk to him because this is a little bit corked. I feel like as well, maybe just for your own reference, going back and having a look at how much money you have given him might be helpful because I think as well when you're in a partnership you often kind of go oh it'll all come out in the wash like you've paid for takeout this week I'll pay for takeout next week or you know you don't really keep track of things because it's not a game that you need to

keep scoring yeah and I feel like it sounds like potentially she's spent a lot of money or lent a lot of money to her partner and it might also be just very helpful firstly for your point of reference to see where that money is going but also for him like if there is something bigger going on, maybe he's not keeping up or paying attention to how much you're helping him. And if you say, babe, like over the past six months, I've given you $10,000 or $5,000 or even... Yeah, and you've gone and spent way more than that on a watch. It just feels really disrespectful.

Yeah, I think maybe even just kind of presenting things like that, if he is blissfully unaware and just has no financial literacy and is just living his life without really thinking about you, maybe that will kind of make him go, oh my God, like I didn't realize that you picking up the tab every so often was really putting you out so significantly. Yeah, that's a really nice way to put it as well. All right. Well, unfortunately, guys, I think that is all we have time for today. Thanks for another great Friday, Eb.

I'm really excited about this one. Same time next week? Yeah, same time next week. We'll see you then. Until then, have a beautiful weekend and we'll see you bright and early for our money diary. Love you guys. Bye, guys. Bye.

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