She's On The Money - How a $70k Pay Cut Led to True Happiness

Episode Date: October 6, 2024

In this episode, we meet a Money Diarist who made a life-changing decision that most people would think twice about. She walked away from a nearly $100k job in Melbourne, took a $70k pay cut, and moved to the country to work in education support—a job she’s truly passionate about. While it might sound like a risky move, she’s never been happier. Not only does she love going to work every day, but living in the country has brought unexpected financial perks, proving that sometimes passion really does pay off. Tune in to hear how chasing fulfillment over paychecks transformed her life in more ways than one! We'd LOVE you to vote for us for the listeners' choice awards at the Australian Podcast Awards.  Vote here (Voting closes on Oct 10.) 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. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where we get to talk with one of our incredible She's On The Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week we got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Dear She's On The Money, I made a huge life change that on paper might sound crazy. I left my $100,000 job in the city to move to the country where I took a $70,000 pay cut. I was in a job I hated and now I work in education support, a job I'm genuinely passionate about. It was a bold move, but I couldn't be happier. For the first time, I actually look forward to getting to work every

day. Plus, living in the country has brought unexpected financial benefits. We're saving so much more than we ever could in the city. It's proof that chasing passion over paychecks can be incredibly rewarding, both for your happiness and your wallet. Money Diarist, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. First things first, that was so well written. I just know this is going to be a good diary, but also a $70,000 pay cut. Be for real. Like, let's be honest, where'd you get the balls for that? Well, yeah, it was a bit of a tricky one, but at the end of the day, money doesn't buy happiness. And that was the one thing that was the biggest change for me. Yeah. Wow. What was the point? Like if I was crying, like walking out of

the office being so stressed out what was the point it's so true it's so true but like so many of us feel so trapped in the cycle that we just can't change it so let's learn more first things first what grade would you give your money habits if i asked you to give them a grade from a through to f so currently i'd probably give it a c minus i'm not the best at the moment but we are definitely not in the worst situation we have been better with money in the past but right now so just getting there with the big obviously the pay decrease yeah of course now tell me more I need to know a lot more about your money story take me back and give us a bit more info so going back I would say with my parents growing up both my parents are very work-driven my mum was in the

defense force they worked really really hard for their money we were quite well off compared to my friends and stuff which I always just thought money was just there all the time because it wasn't spoken about because you know we were quite when then I had friends that were not as well off they're living in house commission and all that which was you know it's great and it was great that they had that option but I found it a bit odd at the time I was like what do you mean you don't have a beach house down the road like near Sorrento what do you mean like I thought everyone did the entitlement you just don't get it right you just lived in your bubble like yeah I was Like, what do you mean, like, you buy home brand food and you don't get, like, McDonald's every Friday night?

What do you mean? Like, I never understood. Oh, my God. And do you know what is so funny? What do you mean you don't have a beach house down near Sorrento? That is, like, I mean, and that's probably why you said it. It's, like, hilariously entitled. Like, what do you mean?

Like, oh, obviously, like, Sorrento, million-dollar beach houses, sure. Why not? What do you mean you don't have a chalet up in Mount Hoth? Like, what do you mean, guys? Oh, okay. Not really. Can I be adopted? Is that an option?

like no I mean right now I'm thinking let's be honest no wonder you could take a seventy thousand dollar pay cut but we're going to learn more about that we didn't actually have a chalet in Mount Hoppin that was just me making a joke sorry dad where is it and so that was like the growing up but then I had my first child and I was a single mum and then I learned how money does not grow on trees and it's not just endless there yeah wow that would have been a bit confronting coming from a well-off family to being a single mom you're like hold up like my spending habits are not in line with the lifestyle I currently have that exactly right I'm like what do you mean fortnightly payments here I am waiting for my fortnightly paycheck my friend even said to

me he's like well you've changed so much because you're just like I'm gonna wait till next fortnight to get paid and I because I wasn't trying to borrow off my parents all the time I was trying to be this strong independent woman yep which is definitely admirable but it's stressful oh it was so stressful there was times I went to them and be like can you help me like and they were like yeah of course yeah which is so nice to have to fall back on but also like it's so nice to also be independent it's hard yeah the bank of dad I called it and he's like bank of dad will never forget he has a list an excel spreadsheet of money that I owe him yeah that's fair that's a debt we'll talk about that later yeah and then I got in a relationship with

my partner that I've been with now for six years nearly which took a big like relief off my shoulders of having that other person there to help make ends meet and stuff like that and yeah so we everything improved from there and there was some things along the way that kind of hit obviously we'll go into later the debt questions that kind of made our money story have a little bit of an issue but then we had more kids and when I had my third child that's when I made the career change choice when I went on maternity leave I was like I don't want to go back to work to that job I want to move forward and which I did yeah I love that I want to know like there are so many pervy details I need to know so if you'd gone back to that hundred thousand dollar

job what would have child care looked like like I know you've got like two young kids and then you've got a kid that's at school age so like what would have that looked like because that would have weighed significantly on the financial decision as well hey oh would have like the fees are ridiculous a lot of people don't realize how expensive child care is and you only get I think 100 subsidized hours or something so I was having to drop them off at a certain time every day would be say 7 30 they'd have to be there only after 7 30 and trying to get to the city job would have been a nightmare yeah wow and so tell me a bit more about like this pay cut so you've gone from working I'm assuming full-time a hundred thousand dollars a year to obviously less than

that but are you working part-time now or like what does your work-life balance look like in comparison so I work part-time I work three days a week which has been a great thing for me mentally and for my kids because I have the amount of childcare two days a week and we have fun if we go to play group my toddler does dance and things like I missed out on with my eldest daughter because I had to work full-time yeah but you're also a single mom like let's just remember the part where you were doing all of that on your own and like I feel like you were doing the best that you could with everything that you had at that time right yeah yeah definitely I don't look back and say oh my god I should have done this or done that I know that I did what I could with what I

had. And I'm, yeah, it's hard when I look back on it sometimes like, oh, I could have done this with her. I'm so sad. But look where we are now. Yeah. A hundred percent. I feel like we do that with everything, right? Like I look back and I go, oh, I wish I'd done X, Y, Z earlier. It's like, well, V, you didn't have the knowledge then. You didn't have the understanding. You didn't even want that then. Like, it makes sense. But like, we are all just out here doing the best that we can, right? Especially when it comes to kids. There's so many like shoulda, woulda, coulders and I just think we are all just in the moment doing the best that we absolutely can and you know what that is good enough exactly right there's no manual for being a parent 100% they

didn't teach us this in school like I know I'm still in shock that they let me walk out of a hospital with a newborn and no license for it like I I couldn't even go and get a car without a license and you're letting me have an entire human being like that that feels illegal but okay I agree to that so much like where's the instruction manual to get them to sleep like where is it? I don't know but at 3am last night I really really would have appreciated having some sort of manual but that is okay I want to know tell me a bit more about you exactly so what do you earn what is your job title and tell me a bit about what you used to earn and what your job title was then. So my current job I'm an education support worker at a primary school by the days

that I work and the step that I'm on for the salary I earn about 30k per year for the three days and is that pro rata from a $50,000 package or is that just like the role is only part-time that is pro rata for the hours that I work so the yes so it's not too bad for what I do I love it but previously i was a an accountant in working five days a week nine to five life literally dolly parton was that song that was made for you yeah it was made for me and i spent my days at a desk chained to my desk answering emails to people being quite angry and stuff like that like yeah no thank you no thanks not for you not for you and now you get to work in a primary school with kids being an education support worker how cool is that I love it so much I actually just finished

my first term I cried on the way home because I was going to miss the kids for two weeks oh my gosh you're so awesome because like one of the boys that I will students I look after he actually gifted me some Pokemon cards because we bonded over Pokemon so he went through his old cards with his mum the night before oh and he gave you some that's so wholesome like I hope that when my kids get to school they have people that care about them as much as you do like I want you everywhere like I just want my kids to go to school and have that type of relationship like that is so special it is it makes my day every day there is hard days I'm not going to say it's an easy job there's days where I come home and like oh what have I done why am I doing this this

it's so stressful. But then they go on the next day and it's a brand new day. Totally. Totally. Well, it sounds like life has changed significantly for you recently. Tell me a bit about money goals. What are currently your big money goals? What are you working towards? So, I have a two-step money goal plan. So, first step is paying off our wedding. So, we're getting married in November next year. Oh, I had a November wedding. Good time for one. Oh, I know. Because it's not too hot, not too cold in Melbourne. So... Yeah, perfect.

and then it's to buy a house obviously after the honeymoon and everything like that we're just going like let's get there we've got to improve our credit ratings because young me made some inquiries that she shouldn't have made on her credit file and they just sit there they don't forget Equifax doesn't move on Equifax holds on forever yeah yeah or at least seven years tell me I need to know wedding details when you say pay off your wedding can we have some juicy dates on What's your wedding costing you? How did you do the planning? Like weddings can be like 10 grand or they could be like 200 grand. What are we talking? We're talking about, I think it, when I've done my lovely spreadsheet, it was about

25 to $30,000. Oh, that's pretty good in this economy. Oh, and for the venue I got, like obviously I don't want to say. No, no, don't tell me. Like, and it doesn't matter because most people won't know it anyway. So you've got a good venue, got a good deal. Yeah. It's in the city. It's a special place where we spend a lot of time as a family. Oh, how good. You're going to have to tell me off air so that I can have a little bit of a look, see. So, you've got like the venue that you wanted. You're really excited about it.

What was the biggest surprise when it came to wedding budgeting? How much a celebrant costs. Oh, really? I was shocked on how much some of them would charge you. I was like, I get what they do and all that. And they do a lot into it. Once they sent me the contract, I was like, okay, this is why you cost this X amount of money. I was kind of like, oh, wow, that's really expensive and a photo booth. I didn't realize how expensive they are as well. Yeah, that's so true. I feel like I wasn't shocked by my celebrant cost, but I'm not surprised. And I think it's just because

I've had clients who were celebrants historically, but it can be anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to like thousands of dollars. And like, obviously the more experienced one is, or the more we've seen them on social media, the more expensive they're probably going to be. And I really doubled down on the celebrant cost when I got married, Monday to Aris, because I got her to be the MC for our wedding as well. Because I remember being like, I just want everyone at our wedding to have a good time. I don't want to put the pressure on my husband's best mate to MC our wedding and not drink the entire night, not have a fun time the entire night and be like time tracking. That was just something that was important to me because I knew

that like in my head, no one really wanted to do that. Like if you've got somebody who wants to do it, fantastic. But like I doubled down and so basically paid her twice so that she could be the celebrant, then be the MC. So I remember being like, oh, that's a bit spanner, but okay. I've done the same thing actually. And what I love about my celebrant is if there's any celebrants listening, best thing that this guy did was he sent me a video of him talking because you're gonna have to hear you celebrate talking through the wedding and I was like not sold on you you've taken this extra step let's go how good is that all right I have more questions tell me a bit about this goal for buying a house so you said that you want to save for a house deposit what

does that look like are we buying regionally now you live out further yeah so we are looking to actually move further out regional we are quite in a regional built-up area I love the country vibe I love how there is so much nature out here and there's so much space and the houses are so much cheaper out here compared to where we were living like it's ridiculously so much cheaper you get more for your money as well yeah a hundred percent you do it's crazy and like such a good idea I love this and what type of time frame do you think that is is that like save for a home and buy straight after the wedding or save for a home and buy a couple of years after. I mean, you've got three kids. I feel like that's going to take a little bit of effort in comparison to

straight after the wedding. Our goal is in five years, we're trying to clear up some debt and obviously improve our credit file as well. So, we're not inquiring for any loans or anything like that. We're like, no, everything is getting closed off. Don't touch it. Yeah. And we're just going to smash down debt. All right. Well, let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, I'm going to ask you about the debt that you have, how you got it, what it looks like. We're going to be chatting about investment. And I want to know your best and worst money habits, because I feel like someone who has significantly decreased their income is going to have some good money habits that we can learn from. So don't go anywhere.

Money Diarist, we are back. And I want to know, have you invested? Will you invest? What's the plan around that? So I use Sharesies at the moment. I stopped buying lunch because obviously I changed my job and I put the money that I would have spent getting DoorDash delivered to work into Sharesies. Oh my gosh, you actually did. Do you know their podcast is called Lunch Money? Is it? Yeah, their podcast is literally called Lunch Money and I love the fact that you then are investing on their platform using your actual lunch money. Yeah, and I use their roundup feature two where like it rounds up what you spend and then it's invested into an ETF and then I don't have to think about it and they do everything for me. Oh, I love that. How did you start? Were you

like, oh, I really need to start investing or is this like a plan when you left corporate, you were like, all right, I'm going to take this money and redirect it because that's like genius. I believe I got the advice from the podcast about the coffee. Like if you don't buy the coffee, a coffee a day away, how much could you invest? It's wild, isn't it? It's crazy. I've Got so much in there, I think, because like $400 in there last time I checked. Oh my gosh, I love that. And how much were you spending each week? I have to know, like on door dashing lunch, like don't get me wrong, like lunch at work

is already expensive, but like having it delivered every day, girl, you would have been bleeding money. I think it was like at least $100 a week I was spending. Oh, that's so painful. I know, it was so bad, but I was just like, I just want comfort food. I want my Nando's delivered please yeah look I get it and if you weren't enjoying your work either like that would have been like the one thing that you were looking forward to during the day or the one thing that kind of like lifted your spirits on the days that you were like oh this is not

working for me so like I can see how you do it but and this is going to bring the mood down but it is a really slippery slope do you know $27.50 a day in spending is $10,000 a year oh gosh yeah isn't that terrifying no but you're not doing it anymore you're investing like that's really exciting but like I feel like for me it's really easy to spend $27 tutti like a couple of coffees and then a sandwich I've already blown it like I spent yesterday a sandwich I got subway for lunch yesterday and it was like $17 because obviously I got the cookie as well obviously like you're not going to subway and not getting the cookie that's why I went there in the first place. And two coffees, like I definitely would have blown $27 yesterday. Easy. Oh, I hate that

for us. Money Diarist, so you're investing, you're using Sharesies. Do you have a bigger plan for that? Like is the plan to increase that over time or is it, what is it for? Is that for your home deposit? Is it for like your retirement? It is for our retirement for, and I do want to increase it eventually. After the debts that we are paying off slowly have gone, I was going to put that money into Sharesies and just increase it more and more. So, when we retire, we've got this big, nice portfolio and we can relax. Yeah, very cute. She's a genius. I love that. Let's flip the narrative because I know you have debt and I want to know about it. Tell me about your debts. How did you get in them? What do they look like and what's your plan to get out of them?

So I have one good debt, which is obviously my HECS debt. I love that you always say, that's a good debt, goes towards education, might not be in that field anymore, but you learned something. But with my other debt, we have one really bad debt. This one, if I could go back in time, I would grab my partner and myself and sit on the couch and say, you need car insurance. My partner got in a car accident and rode his car

and the other person's car off. Yeah, okay. And currently left on it, we looked the other day, there's about $15,000 left. Okay, that's not the end of the world. And you know what? That was a very expensive mistake, but also a very expensive learning. Are you going to do it again? No, I make sure that insurance is paid every month. I'm like, I make sure. Oh, that would have been so stressful at the time as well. Was your husband okay? Yeah, he was. And we kind of like, I shouldn't laugh about it, but he was getting my daughter some cookies for a teacher. And he always jokes now

they were the world's most expensive cookies. Oh my gosh. They absolutely were. I don't think I've heard of more expensive cookies. What were they made of? Gold? Yeah, pretty much. Yep. Oh, how stressful. And then the realization that you didn't have insurance. What was that like? When he called me, I was like, oh my God, you don't have insurance. He's like, I know. And I was like, okay, so what are we going to do? And we kind of panicked. But then I remembered that most companies will give you a financial hardship agreement. so we just called up and said look hey we can't afford to pay this all this money now can we set up a payment plan and they said yeah sure what can you pay oh that's so smart that you just tackled

it head on like you called up so many people wouldn't do that and they'd just be evasive of it and like ignore it and just wait until people were chasing them like I'm glad that you called and that you knew that there was like some type of support available 15 grand stressful but you're to get out of it. How good? What's the plan? Are we throwing all of our available cash at that or are we chipping away? What does that look like? So, we're chipping away. We have got set up a minimum repayment option with them and then every time we get a tax return or my partner gets a bonus or something like that, it goes straight into that straight away. We just put it straight in. Smart. Get rid of it. And you mentioned that you had really bad credit. Why?

Made a few mistakes when I was younger, not paying, you know, bills and stuff like, haha, you can't get me. What are you going to do? Oh, we're going to put a default on your credit file. That's what we're going to do. You're like, oh, about that. Yeah. Oh, whoops. Oh no, that's so stressful. And how long have they been on your credit file? And like, have you been working towards or doing anything in particular to help get it up or are we just waiting until it increases? I did end up getting a credit card, like a $1,000 credit card. And I pay that every month and I make sure that thing is paid every month. And that has improved it slowly. And the defaults

when I checked, I think they've got three more years until they've lifted and then they're gone. Yeah. Then they're completely off. And I mean, do you know what? Like as much as that sucks, you told me before that your plan is to buy in five years. So, that's not even going to impact it. We're just going to save and invest along the way. And then when it comes time to buy, and your broker looks at your credit score, you're going to be like, what defaults? I don't know what you're talking about. Who are you? No, they've never been there. They can't see further back than that. They won't be part of the credit score. They drop off, which is a money win. Exactly.

I love that for you. So, I feel like somebody who has had to move regionally and drop their income significantly is probably going to have a few good money habits. What are they? One of them, this is the mum one. Anything my babies need, Facebook Marketplace, 100% is my favourite place. Oh my gosh, me too recently. Like, baby stuff is so expensive retail. Be for real. It's actually insane how expensive stuff is and how long they do not use it for. Exactly right. So for example, this is my biggest one I did. Obviously I had two under two, so I needed a double pram and bugaboo donkey retails for what 2k not even it's more than that because you then got to buy the

seats and stuff yeah i got one for 300 second hand on marketplace 300 yeah what you're going to be able to sell it for that at least like if you clean that and then put it on marketplace when you're done with it like girl you are gonna get at least 300 for that you just know yeah i said it to my partner he goes i still think it's ridiculous he's like you go get this pram and And I'm like, look at what it does. And now he loves it. He's like, this pram's the best. And it's a good quality one as well.

Like, don't get me wrong. You can definitely get something, you know, at Kmart much cheaper. But, like, the quality of pushing a terrible pram up a hill, like, not for me. Oh, gosh. We actually upgraded the wheels as well to foam ones and got brand new hoods for an extra $100. So, I've spent, like, $400 on this pram. And it's a double. Yeah.

And it can go down to single and you can use it as a bassinet. It's got so many features. Did you then sell the pram that was a single? Because I'm assuming when you had your second baby, sorry, your first baby was completely out of prams because she's a bit older. But then your second baby, you would have got a single pram, right? Because you don't often think you're going to have another baby so close. Did you then sell that on Marketplace and put that towards the second one? Yeah, I did actually. I sold it, I think, for like $50. So, technically, I spent $350 on the pram if we take that out. See, there you go. There you go. I'm helping you make this

make sense. Yeah. The other really good habit I have is when I go to Coles and stuff and things are on special, I don't look at the main price. I look at the unit price or per litre. And I'm a big Costco shopper as well. But again, I look at the unit price and do comparison. I don't just go in there and go, oh, this is cheaper in bulk because sometimes it's not. Yeah. I've got myself into trouble before at Costco when I go in with no plan. This is years ago. I don't currently have a membership but go in with no plan and you're like oh that looks fun oh that looks fun and then you walk out and you're like why why I didn't need that and it adds up because often you're buying volume of something that you might not need which makes it really expensive exactly right

it's so bad it's a deep hole when you walk into Costco because then when you leave you have to get the giant pizza slice for three dollars or you have to get the drinks like you have to so you're like, oh, I just spent all my money on food as we left. Rude not to, rude not to, like you've got to plan it around lunchtime though or dinnertime and be like, all right, if we go after work, that $3 pizza can be dinner instead of having a little sneaky snack that we then go home and cook too. Exactly right. Or you go on free sample day. The kids can sit in the trolley and get the free samples as you wheel around trying all the foods. She's a genius. I love this. Are there any other good money habits before I ask you for your worst? Also very good at point

hacking with flybys and Qantas points and Woolies rewards. Oh, tell me more because our community has been asking a lot about like, you know, how do you get the most bang for your buck out of points? What are you doing? How do you do it? So for Qantas points, I actually, me and my best friend, we do a step challenge each week and the winner will get 50 points. Oh, how cool. Yeah. It's something I found on TikTok. Some lady was like, this is how I pay for my business class, doing nothing and so I do that and I get daily step counts weekly steps there's so many things even checking your car lights can get you 10 Qantas points what yeah how good is that you're like staying safe but also like getting your steps up I feel like I've been obsessed

recently with getting my steps up I feel like as a mom you're just like I'm on the couch all the time. I posted on my Instagram story that I've just completely lost my butt. My butt is the shape of the couch that I have been sitting on. So like getting my steps up is good, but now you're going to motivate me that I get points. I love this. Yeah. And another one that I didn't know was the best way to do it. You know how flybys, when you go to the Coles Express, you can get like four cents off per litre. Or you can actually get eight points per litre for flybys. Oh, I didn't know that. You have done a lot of research, my friend. And it's the better option. The lady that served me at Coles Express was like,

you are a genius because you actually get more for your money this way. No one knows that. How good. I love that. Well, now everyone who shares all the money knows that. And we are very grateful to you for that. Money Diarist, let's flip the narrative. What do you think your worst money have it is. Even though I'm not getting it for lunch, being a mum, Uber Eats and DoorDash, when I'm so tired, and I know it sounds so bad. I get it. I get it. Just to make you feel better, I ordered pizza last night for dinner with my husband. It was Monday. That's not even like a Friday night treat. That was me being like, I can't be bothered cooking. And I looked at my husband and he's like, don't look at me. I don't want to cook. And he's usually great at cooking.

so we did pizza on a Monday night it happens it happens to the best of us it happens and like and sometimes like on the way home from work I go I just don't want to cook and I'm breastfeeding still as well so I get hungry so of course I want to get on the Maccas app and oh breastfeeding like there needs to be an entire podcast episode of budgeting for my breastfeeding spending and eating. Like I eat so much. I spend so much. Like I'm on my phone at 3am because I'm breastfeeding. I don't make the rules. I do deserve that new dress. I do. Yeah. And people say breastfeeding is free. It is not. It's not free. How much was your breast pump? I got that actually secondhand, but if retail. Facebook marketplace, honestly, I don't know why people aren't buying breast

pump secondhand. You use them for such a short period of time and you probably did the same thing. You can just replace all the valves. Yeah. I got a Spectra S1 for $60 secondhand. $60? That's a couple of hundred bucks. Yeah, I know. And she only used it for 30 hours. So, it was basically brand new. That's so perfect. And I mean, how many mums buy a breast pump going, this is what I'm going to do and then go, do you know what? This isn't for me. And then get rid of their breast pump on Marketplace. Like genius. I feel like everyone should for babies just be looking more on Marketplace. Don't go get a brand new, don't like get a new bassinet, just go on Marketplace. I love it so much. I adore it. I want to do more deep dives into like how we can

budget have kids, but like still get the bougie things that we want. Because I feel like, you know, when you see the Spectra breast pump, you're like, well, that's really expensive, but also I could get it for 60 bucks and that's actually cheaper than the one it came up. Exactly. And then just buy the parts online. You can get like Amazon knockoffs for the Spectra brand for so much cheaper. Yeah. I did. Don't tell Spectra, but I went and bought all the Amazon parts because I needed like a different millimeter size and all of that fun stuff. But anyway, there's a lot of conversation to be had about saving money while being a mom. at the start of this episode you told me you think you're a c-minus tell me what it's going

to take to get to an a plus and what's the plan i think the plan would be obviously be debt free get rid of that big debt which is going to slowly disappear probably slow down not completely stop because i know a hundred percent there's still going to be that one occasional uber eats and do it ash and i'm not going to hold that against myself we've got to be reasonable you can't cut things out especially if you're enjoying them yeah pretty much um i think to get there obviously be debt free and have a decent emergency fund because at the moment we only have like a little one and things do happen and you need to have that there for that one moment because what if something this happened and not panic but it sounds like you're well on the way like you are

getting rid of this debt. You're channeling all of your free cash flow to it. You've got this plan. You're paying off your wedding. It sounds like you've been really savvy with your wedding. You've got an epic venue and you're only spending between $25,000 and $30,000, which at the moment, the average Australian wedding is about $65,000. So you're already winning there. I just feel like you're on the path to being really financially secure. Not today. You feel obviously a little bit like we've got places to be, you know, people to see, things to do. But like, it sounds like you're well set up. And the thing I love most about this is you're really happy. Like you're enjoying your life. Like I am pretty sure so many of us would swap to your situation where you're

like, no girl, I love going to work. Like I cried on the way home because I was going to miss going to work for two weeks. Like you're living literally the dream. And then on the flip side, yeah, you've got some debt and you're working through it and you've got a plan but like I think so many people would swap to that situation instead of being completely debt-free and miserable like I feel like that's really really positive yeah it definitely is and like obviously like I said I love my job and everything but it isn't easy and like yeah I don't know I'm like lost for words I'm thinking about my job now I'm just like oh gosh school holidays needs to hurry up and be over so I can go back. But that's so nice. And I think that it's nice to see a different perspective,

someone who's been willing to slash it. Like at the start, I was like, oh my gosh, where did you get the balls to cut your income? Like, I feel like for so many of us and you're my age or I'm a bit older than you, you're 31. But I feel like by the time you're 30, if you're earning six figures, you're like, I've finally made it. Like, it feels like in my head, six figures for me was always a goal. I remember writing down my goals when I was like 22, 23. And I was like, by the time I'm 30, I want to be earning six figures. And for me, that was such a pivotal moment when I hit that number. I remember thinking, oh, I earned six figures and I'm very grateful for it, but this is not how I thought it would feel. This is not how I thought it would happen. I thought

this was going to mean that I was like really, really doing well financially. I thought that I'd have all my stuff together you know and to be in a position where you earn that it's very hard to step back and go well actually I'm really happy to take less for my mental health for my happiness of my family for you know a better work-life balance and you've done it and you're like might not on paper look great but I'm so happy and I'm thriving and I think that lots of us can learn a bit from that like even if it's just stepping back a little bit and going well actually I could step back and maybe take a 10k pay cut or a 20k pay cut for my health for my happiness for my lifestyle like that's not the end of the world I feel like you've got it sorted

I feel like you might be smarter than most of us so thank you I appreciate that I think like one of the things is have you seen that video on Instagram it's like you only have small children for three years and then it's done yeah it got me in the feels yeah that one was my breaking point And I was like, he's so right. It's done. And then another one came. I was like, you only got one life. Why not be happy? And I was like, okay, Instagram, you're coming at me from all the directions. Yeah. I do feel like my algorithm personally victimizes me quite consistently and that's okay. I'm dealing with that, but I do see all of those at the same time as feeling personally victimized by them. I also feel like it's helping me be present and it's also reminding

me to be grateful for the period of time I'm in like it's so easy to get to a 3am feed where you're like oh my gosh I can't think of anything worse and like then I look at Javi and I'm like I'm not going to be able to do this forever and there's going to come a time in my life where all I wish for is one more time like this so I hope that I'm enjoying this and yeah I think that enjoying the journey is very very important definitely it definitely is all right money diarist it has been an absolute pleasure but unfortunately we've been talking for 40 minutes and that is all we have time for today it has been an absolute pleasure and I know that our community has loved all of your pervy details but also understanding that it's proof that chasing

passion over paychecks can be incredibly rewarding so thank you for your time I have had an absolute blast getting to know you thank you so much for having me 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 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.