She's On The Money - How She Rebuilt Her Life After Losing $38k to a Scam

Starting point is 00:00:00 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.

Starting point is 00:00:36 hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that lets you get pervy on other people's money stories for educational purposes, of course. 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. We got a message this week and it went like this. Dear She's on the Money, after a few brutal breakups and falling victim to a scam, I've had to start over from zero, not once, not twice, but three times. It's been a roller coaster of setbacks and grit, but through it all, I've never lost my determination to make it work. As a single mom to my amazing seven-year-old son, I've done whatever it takes,

Starting point is 00:01:43 working multiple jobs, driving Uber Eats, and even moving back in with my mom to share a room with my boy, all to rebuild my savings. And now I'm proud to say I've just bought my first property using the 2% scheme. I'm also completing my real estate license and diving head first into my passion for property investing. My dream is to build a buyer's agency that helps others find stability and security. The kind of foundation I fought so hard to create for myself and my son. Money Diarist, what the heck? Three times and you're buying your own property? Yes. Are you insanely proud of yourself? Because like I'm really proud of you.

Starting point is 00:02:22 it's probably something I would say that's one of my weaknesses giving myself some credit like I just constantly push and don't yeah like I have friends say it to me they're like oh my goodness I'm really proud of you and then I think I need to sort of pat myself on the back yes you do like it's cool for me to be proud great but I actually didn't do any of the stuff like you did all of that. And you're the one that has to be proud of that. So definitely need to. Let's start the diary as we always do. Money Doris, I want to know what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? I would say currently like a B to a C. Okay. All right. I'm not going to argue with you yet, but we'll get there. I want to know a bit

Starting point is 00:03:09 more about your money story. Can we dive head first? Okay. Amazing. So where would I start? So when I was about, my first relationship I had, I was about 21 and my partner left me with like a nice, beautiful loan. And I went to the mines and I paid it all off. It was about like 25 grand. Oh my God. And I paid it all off, walked away with about 20, I think it was about 25 grand when I was about 22, 23, paid it all off and then had that in savings. Then I got with my son's father and I had that money still and then we separated and I walked away I think with about two grand why did he get so much of it well he wasn't very good with money I was the money like in the relationship there's usually one that's better than the other and I was the one that was

Starting point is 00:04:03 yeah I've always ended up being better alone financially for some reason and then I saved up over two three years sacrificed a lot work weekends like hustled hard politely said and saved and invested about 38 grand into oh my god yeah yeah so like lived paid rent everything oh it was during covid i actually invested in shares with comsec and then i also bought into bitcoin and then i had like term investment with some of my savings and then i put an offer on on property and it fell through and then I saw a Facebook link about investing and day trading and I was like oh I understand a bit of day trading not a problem and then I invested a little bit of money and then saw a bit of a return and I was like fantastic then I invested a little bit more

Starting point is 00:04:57 money so return that like if you put more money and I was like okay well the property market I might just wait another few months I'll just put my money into it oh no little did I know it was offshore and the whole platform was fake and they like lulled you into a false sense of security by giving you some small returns when you were doing small things then when you did a big amount they were like catcher gotcha literally like no whole thing was fake lost 38 grand no like yeah so the best thing what do you say the best thing but like got a tax exemption for that with the ATO as a loss and then had to start all over again with my son I think was about, was just about to start school. So third time round, then sacrificed again and got into my current property now on

Starting point is 00:05:50 the 2% scheme and moved in with my mum for six months to save. Smart. I feel like that's such a good like support to have in the background. Tell me about the 2% scheme because I feel like we've heard about it in passing on the podcast, but we haven't ever spoken with somebody who's done it. So how did that work? How did you get involved in the 2% scheme? And like, why did you go, this is for me? So I'm currently based on the Gold Coast and the market is wild. It is. So like the price difference of renting and owning, to be honest here, is not much different as in price depends obviously what you're living in. So I went down the 2% scheme because I was

Starting point is 00:06:27 like looking at the market and going the longer i'm out of it the harder it's going to be for me to get in and what is the quickest way that i can get in so i went to a broker and they went over my my salary they went over just like putting through an application but a lot of lenders can be it narrows down your lenders as a single parent and looking at like your tax a tax b as a source of income as well. But yeah, submit an application and then yeah, got approved for it. And I had about three months to find something. And in a market that's also not much stock and price managed to get in, which a bit more perseverance found something. I love that. That's actually so exciting. And now you want to start your own buyer's agency.

Starting point is 00:07:14 Tell me about that. Yeah. So I've just completed my real estate license. I am an active renovator. So I renovate also while owning. Living in renovations can be a juggle at the same time, but I love it. And at the end of the day, I look at it as everyone needs somewhere to live. To me, it's an essential. You can't compensate a roof over your head for anything. So yeah, no, I agree. I agree. So talk me through what you do now for work and how much money you earn. Cause I feel like you've had a colorful history of like literally doing everything that you could possibly do. What do you do now? What do you earn?

Starting point is 00:07:49 So I'm a marketing manager for two businesses in construction and I earn 65 grand a year and I work part-time. And then I also like occasionally help like my brother or whatnot, if he has a little bit of tiling and whatnot, but that's pretty much my primary income for the two businesses in marketing. And is that $65,000 then pro rata because you're part-time or is that what you earn after like doing just part-time? That's what I would earn just after part-time. Yeah. Cool. Cool. That's pretty good. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:25 Yeah. That's not bad. And so like, what does part-time look like for you? You're doing like a couple of days, four days, like what does it look like in terms of work-life balance? Because you're a single mum, there's lots going on. There is a lot going on. I would say I work five days a week. And then when my son's with his dad, to work longer days, which is fantastic. So it works out well. So what do you mean you work five days, but you're part time? I feel like I'm a little bit confused. Are you doing like half days? Yeah. So I work. Okay. That makes more sense. I was like, what, what do you mean five days part time? So when, when my son's with his dad, I'll work like eight till four. And then when I have

Starting point is 00:09:03 him, I'll work nine till 2.30. Okay, cool. Hey, that's a good flexible workplace. Did you have to negotiate that or like how did that come to be because like that's the dream it's I think like being a parent it's like it is a marathon it's not a race and you've got to look at like your core values I think to sustain somewhat of a balance and one of my big core values is being there for my son because I only have one I'm not going to redo it and I get really sad if I can't be there for him so that was one of my things I went in looking for employment I was like aligning with my core values and I was like I love construction I love building and being there for him and flexible work arrangement it was like a non-negotiable rather take a pay cut than not

Starting point is 00:09:49 have that yeah that's really cool and I like that you are talking about going and finding a job that really aligns with your values like I know that a lot of people will be like well I just need any job and that's really valid too but being able to find one that aligns with that means that you're to get the work-life balance that you want. I feel like so often we're like, yeah, just not putting that cap on first. Talk to me about money goals you've just purchased, which is so exciting, but what are your big money goals now? What are you currently working towards? So my big money goal is, my ultimate goal would be, so I'm 35. By the time I'm 40, I don't want to have a mortgage. Oh, five years. What are you doing? That's crazy.

Starting point is 00:10:28 so there has been a unit in my block that has just sold for 200 grand more than oh it's on the market currently for 200 grand more than what i paid for mine so next step i'm looking at possibly getting another property or what the step forward will be to using that moving forward yeah yeah either renting this out and then getting something so that's sort of where i'm at would be my next stepping stone. That's really fun. And how are you planning on working that out? Are you going to do it yourself? Are you going to get some advice? Is it just like some maths in the background? What's the process? Because I feel like that could be overwhelming. It is overwhelming because yeah, I think it's definitely getting advice, talking to people

Starting point is 00:11:11 that I want to be in their position as well. Because I ultimately would like to probably buy and flip another couple more properties, but I don't think many lenders like that. So that would probably be the route that I'd be looking at would be speaking to the right people and seeing what can be done. Yeah, totally. You mentioned before that you're renovating and oh my gosh, I hate renovating. Like it is the worst thing ever, but you're like, no, I'm living through it. It's so fun. Like it's obviously different horses for different courses. Like I remember the journey, like being real rocky, but because I'm a finance girlie, I had spreadsheets through the kazoo, right? Like I was making sure that I wasn't over

Starting point is 00:11:49 capitalizing on my property and like that everything made sense. How did you approach renovating? Like, did you purchase a place knowing, all right, well, the bathrooms are a bit how you go and I'm going to have to rip those out or like, what was the thought pattern and how did you work out what to renovate first and live through it? Tell me more about this journey because I'm so pervy. So it was pretty funny. So when I bought my place, like the main wall was fluorescent orange, like almost the orange of your background that you have. Stunning. I was just like the contrast with like a baby blue wall it was insane my place needed to be like fully ripped out yeah okay gutted like had the navy blue carpet the kitchen cabinetry was falling

Starting point is 00:12:31 apart the sink was like leaking so coming in I think it was like a little bit like rainbows when I first bought and then the reality of buying it and living in it I was like I can't actually use my sink. Like I'm using the laundry sink. And it's funny how quickly you just get used to doing something that then you realize, Oh, hold on. I probably should fix this. It's so true. Cause even in my head, I was like, if I get a plumber to come out to fix my plumbing, I'm ripping out my sink anyway. So like that's money that I don't need to spend. So then I just made do for a long time, if that made sense. And then it was quite funny. Cause even like one day I was used to going into the laundry to use my sink and then when my friends

Starting point is 00:13:16 was over and they're like what are you doing and I was like going to fill up my kettle I'm like right next to the brand new sink and they're like what are you doing I was like going to fill up my kettle like like it was normal like the pattern of it but yeah like going in I was like okay well I did see the potential with it it's solid bones in the sense it's all brick it's close to everything So, even if I was to rent it out, the rent would cover more than my mortgage. So, like it'd be running at a slight loss if I was to rent it out, which is not a bad position to be in for like a first year, if that makes sense. So, looking at that as a long-term investment, I'm like, and there's potential for development as there's like a commercial block at the end of my street

Starting point is 00:13:59 on the market for like 9 million. So, I think it gives options if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool. I like that. I love asking people pervy questions like, so what's this mean? How's that work? Like this is my favorite job ever. Like getting to ask you like, so what does that mean? Why did you do that? Oh, so good. I actually have heaps more questions. Let's go to a really quick break. And on the flip side, I'm going to ask even more. So don't go anywhere. All right, Money Dice, we are back and you have just purchased your first home using the 2% deposit scheme, which is a very cool scheme accessible to single parents here in Australia. But I want to know, have you ever invested? Do you currently invest? What does

Starting point is 00:14:42 that journey look like for you? I have invested. Yes. I used to use Perla a lot. I use the Perla starter at the moment for my son. It's like the kid's investment one, which is really cool. And he gets really excited over it. But currently, moving forward, majority of my money has been going towards my renovations. But in saying that, I definitely will invest once that chapter's sort of come closer to the end. Yeah. Totally. And I remember at the start of the episode, you said that you'd saved up $38,000 and you had actually invested that and then you took it out to buy property and then you got it all taken away from you in that scam. Originally, how were you investing that like what did that journey look like is that same you were on Perla and like

Starting point is 00:15:29 you've just come and gone from that platform over time or like what did that look like so I used when I'm very first on investing I don't think Perla was around now it's pretty new hey yeah it is and it's great I love the user side of it it's fantastic and I think it simplifies investing like immensely not sponsored or anything no no of course not but I did listen to like a lot of podcasts and read about shares and whatnot. And then I sort of just diversified my money, had it been Bitcoin because I was, and then I still had money. Like, I guess when you invest it, there is a slight risk and I wanted to minimize it. So I sort of spread a couple of my investments out and then had cash there in case. Yeah, cool. I like being pervy about what

Starting point is 00:16:11 people are investing in or what they're not investing in. I want to know, what is your debt looking like? So you've got your first mortgage. I need to know what you purchase your property for, What is your current loan at? What do you think the value of the property is? We need to know. Okay. So, I purchased my property at, it was $350,000 and I think I'm at like $300,000. I haven't paid much down. It would be like $320,000 or $330,000, $320,000. That's pretty good. When you say I haven't paid much down, like it's new. I wouldn't have expected any of that to have been gone yet. Yeah. So, it's gone down slightly, which is fantastic and then interesting enough I've had agents come through going you could

Starting point is 00:16:53 easily sell it at like 500 I could put people through what yeah because I've considered possibly going if I don't renovate the bathroom like the bathroom's a full rip out and I'm like looking at the cost the time slight inconvenience because obviously I'm gonna have to rip a shower out toilet everything so yeah yeah and that takes a while it's a consideration but then if I was to pay for it, I could probably go like an extra 40 grand then. How cool. That is so interesting as well. So talk me through how you landed very recently a property that's what law you paid 350, which money win for a property that is now worth 500. How did you stumble across that one? Funny enough, I've done a bit of research and I have lived on the coast my whole life.

Starting point is 00:17:41 A lot of people have gone, oh, you live in that area. But then I've also looked at the rental yield of what, even if I bought it and didn't do much to it, it would be close to positively geared, not far off. So I was like, okay, long-term, that'd be fantastic regardless. My primary focus was just getting housing stability and just getting into the market. Yeah. Okay. And it was just lucky that it's now worth a bit more, but you were originally, so did you find it on realestate.com or did you have a buyer's agent? Like what was the process? because I feel like when you're going through the 2% scheme, the second you get approved, you basically have like three months to purchase a property. You get a timeframe and that could

Starting point is 00:18:21 be really stressful. So when you got approved, obviously very exciting, but then you have to find the property. How did you do that? So I pretty much went on realestate.com and there was a lot of pressure trying to find something before it expired. So I hounded a lot of agents like weekly i went on every single night and then i'd also contact them to be like hey do you have anything coming up i also did a letterbox drop i went to one area and i did a little slip and put in i actually had a lady did contact me ironically which was great but it was a little bit out of my price range she goes i do have someone potentially looking in a few months and i was like well i can't really be in the gray zone i need like yeah i need stability now yeah

Starting point is 00:19:05 And then I actively also, which I reckon was probably like one of the best tips was during Christmas, a lot of people have their quiet period and they're not actively pursuing property. And I actually looked at this property, it was on the 28th of December last year. So I knew not a lot of people would be looking. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So many people would have hung up their boots for that period of time. It's almost like it reduced the competition of people viewing because I went to one and there was like about 50 to 60 people were in a queue to go view this property and so I was like okay well what else can I do and I was like well I can go when people are on holidays and go look at properties that also in the area than what they've sold at

Starting point is 00:19:52 and see what's a realistic number to put forward and I actually did put an offer on this with site unseen and then the agent said if you came to the property and you're happy with it we'll propose it to the owner straight away. You can be the first person. Oh, good. So it all worked out. So it did work out and I was really glad because there was quite a few people coming through. There was maybe like a handful, but I already put my offer through before these people, which was great. I think which also worked to my advantage. It was a little bit risky, but I was also like, what's the worst case scenario? I don't get it. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I love that. All right. So talk to me about money habits because having had to start over three times not once not twice but three times you probably have

Starting point is 00:20:33 some good money habits to share so I want to know what do you think is your best money habit my best money habit I would say I think tracking like I do have a spreadsheet of my expenses food budget allocation and also I can have a tendency where I'm too strict at times where I will sacrifice fun so also having I guess like somewhat of a healthy balance to sustain to have long-term goals like even planning something small like financially to help you build other cups of your life in order to get to the big goals I think is a big thing yeah and what does the flip side look like have you got any bad money habits that you could share with the fam at times I could be too tight with money. Yeah. That's hard. Yeah. Like I feel bad at times spending money on myself. So I think that's

Starting point is 00:21:28 why I've sort of allocated some money for myself, like small rewards, or if you hit like a little milestone, you're like, okay, I can go get a facial done or I can go out for lunch or yeah, small rewards. And I think that that's important because so many times we don't look after ourselves and then everything kind of goes down the drain, which is not positive at all. Tell me a bit more before, you know, I know that I'm running out of time here, but when you wrote in, you said that you had to like restart three times and it's been a massive rollercoaster of setbacks. And I'm sure that there are people listening going, oh my God, that's so relatable. That has been me. I feel like I am finally on top of it. And then it all

Starting point is 00:22:08 just comes crashing down again. How have you maintained your grit? Like how have you, you know, not lost your determination because do you know what a lot of people would have they would have been like maybe I'm just really bad at this and I quit like I can see how so many people would bury their heads in the sand like especially after two times you're like no no thank you but it happened three like how have you maintained this positive energy to just be like no I can get back up and do it again I'm all good like what I think I look at things as lessons how can you learn from and do different but life is short so you pick your heart like I see constantly single mums going look I'm trying to find a home like my lease is running out I've had three units sell

Starting point is 00:22:56 underneath us so like I've been there and a part of me is just like you're either hungry to fail or hungry to succeed and no one's going to rescue you like you can't hope that someone's going to come along and fix everything because end of the day and especially when you have children like I look at myself as a role model as well not just so I want to do the best I can and my son say that and go oh mum did it like it's pretty funny like what he even thinks of like renovations and owning and him seeing me do that it's somewhat aspiring I think he'll probably realize it as he gets a bit older but just no one's gonna come rescue you like you can sit there and like it's pretty devastating losing it third time and we saw for sale signs my son's like mum maybe we can buy that

Starting point is 00:23:44 and I was like like holding back the tears because as a parent all you want is stability but you can't just hope something's going to happen yeah that's the best way of looking at it it's like pick your heart pick your heart is kind of fun like I won't say fun it's just kind of like it's a smart way of looking at it and just being so like nope like no one's going to come and save you, you actually have to do it yourself and pull your finger out. And like, you don't have an option. You actually have to get back up and do it again. And I guess that's what grit is, right? Like grit is one of my favorite concepts. And that's just the idea that you don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be the richest. You don't have to be the best, but you have to

Starting point is 00:24:23 be the one that just got up again and again. And that is what makes somebody successful. And I just think that's so true because you see it in our community time and time again, people like you who are like nah I'm just gonna get up and try again and then you know at some point you will succeed because you've been so tenacious and I think that that's so beautiful like it's my favorite thing about our community we've just got stuff to do and you're just gonna do it get it done exactly money diarist at the start you said that you were like a b or a c and I want to know like you're obviously working your butt off to be a good role model for your you've got your first home like you're back on the savings train like do you think that b2c is

Starting point is 00:25:05 applicable right now but then also what does it mean to be an a to you like what would it take in your money life to get to being an a being an a i think perhaps like having more of a buffer financially and being able to i understand a lot of people go like you live off like your 50 percent then you save like 20 and like the ratios it's like having that little bit more of a buffer on those ratios would be fantastic I think that would be the best way of looking at it because I look at money as a long game not a short game so yeah that would be the best way I would probably say an increase in my income so I like it and that's something so achievable like you're on track it's not something that you're like yeah I'd have to be a completely different person

Starting point is 00:25:50 like that I have to change myself entirely I feel like you're on track and you're going to do that which is so exciting. Money Diarist, now that we've had a chat, I just, I'm in awe. I think that you've done such a good job. Like you're setting this good example for your son. I love that when you spoke about your job, you're like, no, no, no. I really thought about my values and what I wanted to do and like what type of income I'd have. And you've bought your first property and you've just, you've got so much grit and I adore it. So I just know that people are going to listen to this and be like, she's a queen. Like what an icon. And also like how many single mums in that situation are going to go oh that's so relatable like I love that she shared that

Starting point is 00:26:27 story so thank you for that because I know that there are so many people they're going to be like this was great like I feel like I can do it too and that's what we want to get out of the community right so thank you so much for that I've adored it oh thank you my total pleasure thank you for having me of course thank you so much 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

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She's On The Money - How She Rebuilt Her Life After Losing $38k to a Scam

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