She's On The Money - How She Went From Centrelink to $100k Investment Portfolio and Multiple Properties

Episode Date: July 27, 2025

She grew up on Centrelink. Now she’s got $240K in super, six figures in shares, and two properties... all before 35. This week’s Money Diary isn’t just inspiring. It’s a masterclass in breaking the cycle, building serious wealth, no matter where you are starting from. She’s a teacher, a mum of two, and someone who’s turned smart, consistent money moves into real financial freedom. This episode is packed with practical tips, investing inspo, and clever hacks you’ll actually want to try. If you’ve ever felt behind, stuck in a scarcity mindset, or unsure how to even start building wealth, this one’s full of lessons for you. Because spoiler: you don’t need to come from money to make money. Ready to binge more relatable, inspiring, and downright juicy money stories? Check out our ultimate Money Diaries playlist. Listen now Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+. And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.  Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha 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.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawaman daman imalan, mumibangaraboma ininyalan waka, gaunan yakarumja, wutunarana. Hello beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people, we thank acknowledge and respect the aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see she's on the money podcast acknowledges culture country community and connections bringing you the tools

knowledge and resources for you to thrive she's on the money she's on the money hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that lets you be pervy about other people's money habits for educational purposes of course welcome back to another one of our money diaries episodes where i get the absolute pleasure of sitting down with one of our community members and talking all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Dear She's on the Money, I grew up with parents on Centrelink in a household constantly on a budget where credit cards and their debt were the norm. I worked three jobs to put myself through university as I had to move three hours

away to a major capital city. By doing this, I am proud to say I broke the cycle of welfare with education. I now earn $140,000 a year as a teacher. I have $240,000 in superannuation, $110,000 in shares and two properties with my husband, and I am currently on maternity leave with my second daughter. Despite what we've achieved, my husband and I still have a scarcity mindset with money, but we're working together to ensure that our daughters have the best life possible. If I can get to this place, anyone can. Marnie Darris, I'm so excited about this. Thank you. I'm excited too. Hearing it back, like, wow, that's pretty impressive. And you're 34. Like, look what you've done. What do your parents think of this?

Well, that's actually interesting because my mom, I can't talk to her about money. She gets really, she feels like we're judging her if we ever bring up money or that we live differently to how she lived so I can't share a lot of my money wins with her which is really sad actually yeah I'm sorry that's the case but that's one of the reasons I ask because like I think your parents are probably insanely proud of you like insanely so but the reality is it can be quite confronting when your child kind of overtakes you yes yeah and you see this a lot where and like that's not how you see it I know you don't see it that way but like parents I think inherently and this is probably because she cares so much about you inherently want to give their kids better than

they had and then when they realize that you've had to create that on your own they kind of don't like hearing about it because it feels confrontational yeah you've totally hit the nail on the head it does feel confrontational for her and she is still struggling no it's not like you're not going oh look what we've done it's like I'm so proud of myself exactly exactly so before we get any further I want to know what grade would you give your money habits from a through to f if I asked you to give them a grade? I'm going to say an A minus. I think we're doing very well, but we're not a plus. You know what? We'll get to that. But like hearing your letter in, I'm like, oh, this is going to be so good and so motivating because, you know, we share money diaries all

across the board from people who are living on Centrelink to people who are millionaires. And I feel so grateful to be able to share those stories. But sometimes you just want one that you go, that could easily be me. Like I could do that because like, you know, not all of us are willing to move to San Francisco for a tech job. Like that's probably too much, but you know what we could do? Go back to university in our own country. So I want to know before we get any further, talk to me, what's your money story look like? Well, I suppose it definitely starts with my parents, which is they were on Centrelink when I was growing up and money was very, very tight. It was a constant budget. My mom had envelopes with all of our like weekly spendings on the

envelopes. See, that's good. That's a good system. It was a great system, but it was like, you know, if there's no money in this envelope, we don't have money to be able to buy new clothes, buy new books, buy the food that I maybe wanted. So it definitely taught me the value of a dollar and the ability to budget, but money was definitely really tight. I did actually go to a private school, but I went on scholarship and that really turned it around. So I guess I kind of had like two, I could see how life could be if my parents had money because I was around affluent students, like my peers were very affluent. They came from very well backgrounds and I felt a little bit isolated and alienated that I didn't have that. Yeah. I went to a Catholic school, which is kind

of like, I guess the middle ground of like a public and a private school, like growing up, we definitely didn't have the cash for me to be going to a private school. So like Catholic school was perfect. It did the job, but because of the location I was in, there was lots of affluent people at my school and it was, I found it really confronting. Like there's me who, you know, I'm saving up and hopefully one day I would be able to buy my very first car and like they're being gifted BMWs for their 16th birthday and I remember just like obviously not wanting the same but just being mind blown that that would even be a thing. I agree and that people had that extra cash that they could buy their child a car or they could go on a European holiday it just blew my

mind that that's how some people lived. Yeah I remember and this is me diving into mine and I'm sorry for taking your money, Daria, but I feel like this maybe will pull more of yours out. I remember like, you know, being early teenage years, you know, at this school going to friends' houses and being like, oh, wow, you basically live in like a two-story mansion. And like when you're the younger teen, the wealth disparity isn't that obvious because you're like 12, 13, 14, you're kind of into Hilary Duff together. Yep. We're all singing into our microphone, headphones. A hundred percent. And then like you start to talk about cars and stuff like that because you're 16 and you're getting your learners. And like, that's where things start

to like go differently. I don't know if you did the debutante ball, but we had that. And I remember that was like chaotic financially. I remember being like, I made my dress. That was what we could afford and what made sense. But I remember all the girls talking about the local bridal boutique that did it. And I was like, that would never be me. Anyway, is that similar? That is so, you like, you've hit the nail on the head with that. And even like people that had double doors, like fridges with double doors. Oh my God. I was saying this to the team the other day, we should do a thread in our Facebook group of like, what are signs that you're rich? But I was like, I don't know how to word it. So people take me for what it is not for like, what are

signs you're rich? Well, you've got money. No, no, no. You had to me, if you had the French doors on your fridge if your fridge wasn't white yes you know those people that had the water machine on the front of the fridge or the ice rich oh my gosh I'm just so envious so envious of that rich yeah what do you mean you have not home brand tomato sauce rich yep literally or like you don't have to go to the local bakery when they've like thrown out their pies and like get it through charity we're not all going down at 6 30 oh that's so weird weird so weird yeah And I was grateful. Don't get me wrong. My parents weren't on Centrelink. I feel like I might've had that slight step up. We're definitely middle class, but I feel like there's just so many

wealth indicators that kids see. You're like, oh, you've got electric windows in your car. Rich. Yeah. Look at me winding it down with my big arm. Yeah, right. So tell me more about that. Growing up, going to a private school, it's obviously a very stark contrast, but what happened at the end of high school? At the end of high school, I got into ANU and I was like, yay, I get to move to Canberra. I get to go and meet some new friends and I, you know, hopefully get to change the trajectory of my life and get out of this, this welfare cycle. And so I did, but that came with hardship financially because I was obviously moving three hours away from home. I was living in a rental accommodation

on campus. I had two jobs when I was doing my HSC. So I was able to save quite a bit of savings and squirrel that away. So I didn't have to work for the first six months of uni. How did you know? Sorry, if we go back, like, yes, you got to go to a private school, but at what point were you like, okay, I can see both of my parents are on Centrelink and I can finally see that that's not what I want for me. How old were you at that point? Because I feel like some of us just go, well, that's the way life is. Yeah. And being a teacher now, I see some students that have that mentality that they're like, oh, well, my parents are on Centrelink. I'll just get that. But I think I was probably about maybe 13 or 14 when I started at my first

job, which was at a cafe. I saw that I could buy things that I wanted or I could save up for things that my parents wouldn't be able to afford on their Centrelink payments. So I just was like, well, you know, life's expensive and I want more for my life. I want to be comfortable. I want to be able to buy a house. And I don't want this for my children. That was really big for me. Like I want to be providing a good role model to my future children. And you've done that. How cool is that? A baby you would be so proud. She would be. She'd be over the moon. Oh, she'd be stoked. So, you know, you moved to Canberra, you didn't have to work for the first six months. What happens next?

Then I was like, oh my gosh, I have no money. I've been partying too hard. I've had too many vodka raspberries. I need to rein it back in and I need to be able to pay my rent and still have a lifestyle. So I got a really fabulous job at like a Tattersall's. I was selling lotto tickets and I actually sold a $10 million winning Powerball ticket. Oh my God. $10 million. It was $10 million. Yeah, it was crazy. And did you go, that was that guy? And then he came back in or like, what happens there?

He wrote a letter. It was obviously an older person because I wanted to remain anonymous, but you could tell with the writing that it was an older person. And they thanked us for selling them the ticket. They described who the person was that sold the ticket and they gave us, I think it was a thousand dollars and we just shared it amongst everyone who worked there. that was really, really kind of them. That's so wild, but I'm always, girl, I'm she's on the money. I need to know who won. I know. What did they do with their winning? You know, I just need to know. $10 million is not just a lot of money. That's like a life trajectory, like amount of money. That's insane to me. I agree. But in saying that, I think that that job really taught me a bit

about money too, because some people who actually won or got like second division, or there was a first division winner, he actually kept gambling and he used all of his earnings because he was chasing that high he wanted to win again. And it was really sad to see the same people coming in every week, spending hundreds of dollars on money that they were just kind of throwing down the drain. So that was interesting. Research actually tells us that you significantly increase your probability of going broke if you win. Yeah. It's crazy, isn't it? Because you think it would be the opposite. Yeah. It's actually crazy. You would think that it would change the trajectory of your life. But I think that goes back to that quote, which I've said a million times and is

not my quote. I stole this from the internet, but like, if you can't manage a hundred dollars, you can't manage $10,000. And like, that's just it. It's these people who arguably, you saw it, they can't actually manage money. They're not very good at it. They're spending a lot of money on the pokies basically. And then they win $10 million. They don't know what to do with that responsibly and they go, well, I could win more. It's still fun. Yeah. And so then they just squander it all, which is crazy. My goodness. So that taught you a lot about money. Yeah. So I got that job, but then I ended up getting two other jobs. So I had three jobs while doing uni, which was wild and full-time uni, I should say. Oh, I did the same thing. And now that I

look back, I'm also 34. I look back at it and I just go, how did you have the time? Like last night I had to be in bed by 8.30, not because I had a time limit on me, but because that's the time that I was crashing out. And I said to my husband, you finish this TV series. I'll meet in bed. I'm so tight. Sorry. I didn't leave the house until 10 PM back then. I wasn't coming home from work until like 11, 12. Like, what do you mean I could function like that? It's wild. Youth is just wasted on the youth is all I can say. I'm with you on the 8.30, especially having two children. And I'm like, they're in bed. I need to go to sleep.

I'm exhausted. Yeah. If my kid is up late, it's not, oh, no, like Harvey's not getting sleep. I'm thinking, dude, I'm meant to be in bed. What are you doing? Yeah, literally. It's rude if you're up past nine. No, that's, sorry, that's really late.

Yeah. I'm like, what is this, midnight? On a weeknight? No, that's school night. Literally. So long story short, I worked my ass off and I put myself through uni, including placements. and you don't get paid for teaching placements which one rude but two like you would have had to work your butt off to then be able to afford the time for those yeah and I had to save up

enough to be able to still cover my rent and my food and I worked on the weekends as well so I was teaching like doing my placement all through the week and then on the weekends I'd be working at my normal jobs as well an icon and then you finish all your placements and you get to become a teacher tell me what was your first job where went not like not actually where but like what kind of teaching role, did you land? I am qualified in English and Hysi teaching. So I started my teaching in a small country town in New South Wales, and I was there for a year and a little bit. And then I ended up moving back to Canberra and I got a permanent job there. And I've just been teaching for, I think this is my 12th year now. And I'm now a coordinator. I look after

a lot of kids and their wellbeing, which is pretty cool. Of course you do. You're just a good human doing good things. I love this so much. Tell me a little bit more. You've met your husband. I did. When, where, like how do we meet a husband in, I don't know when? Well, we actually met on Tinder. Oh my God. I met my husband on Tinder. Biggest fan. Were you really embarrassed of that too at the start so you'd be like oh no I don't know now I'll just tell everyone but like and it came out at our wedding like at our wedding speech oh my god me too and it wasn't even Steve or I it was our wedding celebrant oh she made this comment about like they both swiped right and it was love or something and both Steve and I like we're standing at the end of the aisle kind

of looking at each other because we'd told family that we'd met through friends you know just through friends. We met through friends. And so later mum's like, what do you mean? Cause like later she made a comment as well. Cause we had the same wedding celebrant be our MC. And she made a comment about me looking like the perfect Tinderella. Were you like just simmering down girlfriend? Like stop with the jokes. I was like, I don't lie that much, but it turns out what I have lied about is coming out at my own wedding. I feel like it's a lot of people our age that was very embarrassed about meeting people online. Yeah. Well, when we met through friends, it was you who introduced Steve and I, and I introduced you and your partner. Yeah.

Yep. That's exactly what happened. The MC, she got it wrong. Yeah, exactly wrong. So you met your partner on Tinder. How long have you been together? We have been together for almost 10 years, actually. Oh my goodness. Same as Steve and I. So cute. Oh my gosh, this is weird. And we've been married for like, I think four, yeah, four years. Oh, very cute. So tell me a bit more about like the money side of things. Cause now you're an adult, you've got an adult salary. You now have a husband, you're married. How are we managing money as a couple? Like what does that actually look like? So we somewhat combine our finances,

but somewhat keep them separate because we're both parents of divorce as well, which adds kind of a layer of complexity with our money stories, I feel, because I have seen my mom go through a horrible divorce and she lost so much money. So she lost her super as well. So I've said to my husband, like, obviously I'm not planning to divorce you at any point in time, but I want to make sure that there's a safety net for me. If I want to, like if for some reason you go to a Coldplay concert, I need to be able to kick you out of the house. Totally. Like I want to have financial options and financial security. So we have some joint accounts, but we still have our own personal accounts as well. But having two children, two mortgages, like obviously we can't

keep things super duper separate, but there is a real delineation as well. So I know what is my savings and what is his savings. And if anything were to happen, we would know how to part ways amicably with that. That sounds honestly, ex-financial advisor, music to my ears. Like it just sounds so sexy. Like just the idea that you're like, oh, like we do it all together. Life is together, but like I'm financially secure in my own right. And if I wanted to, like, you know what? And it sounds morbid, right? But if you wanted to walk out, you could. Yeah, totally. It's not the finances that are going to stop you. It's the fact that you're bloody still in love with him. Damn it. One thing that I feel that you'll be very proud of me was when I went on

my first maternity leave, I said to my husband, I'm not paying for anything like that's, that's on you. And all of my maternity pay is going to go into my super and my shares because I'm taking a back burner with my career for, you know, this period of time. And I don't want to be negatively impacted. So that was a big thing for me. I love you so much. This makes me so happy. Tell me you're a coordinator and a teacher. How much money do you earn? I earn roughly 140,000 pre-tax, but they've actually just put through a new enterprise agreement. So I think it will be going up slightly, but because I'm on maternity leave, I'm not exactly sure what that looks like. Yeah, I know. Cause you wouldn't have been

a part of all the meetings and stuff. Do you get super on top of that or is that included in your 140? That is on top of it. Oh, very nice. And like, is that how you've earned so much in super? because you have $240,000 in Supergirlfriend. Have you been doing like lots of additional contributions or? Yes. So I guess this is kind of going down the line a little bit, but I know that you're going to ask me what my best money habit is. Oh, don't spoil it. I've got a structure. I know, but this is my best spending habit. My best money habit was after I paid off my hex debt, I didn't cancel the payments coming out from my employer, pulling out the payments for my HECS. And so the next financial year, I got a massive lump sum. I think

it was like $16,000 or something. And I actually put that to the side and then I started doing voluntary super contributions. And both my husband and I have maxed out our super contributions for the last, I want to say five years. So we don't have anything for next year except for the next financial year because we've done everything that we can. Where did you learn this? You and my husband. He's very financially literate. I'm very lucky. Yeah. You said, look, I grew up in a Centrelink family and like, yes, I think we all want better for ourselves, but to not only get better, to not only go to university, but to have this level of financial literacy, like girl, what? You are changing the world.

Oh, thank you. I am very passionate about, especially super contributions for females that are taking mat leave. And when I was going through my little notes for preparing for this, I worked out how much my super jumped. In 2022, I had $100,000 in super. And so in 2025, I have $243,000. Stop it. And maxing it out. So when she says she's maxing it out, superannuation has a contribution cap right now of $30,000 a year. Is that just your contributions of 30 grand a year plus compound interest. Yeah. And it's roughly about $50,000 in compound interest. So I just wanted to like share that with people because I think you go, oh my God, it's so hard to get to that first $100,000, but it really does snowball. Yeah. And like, this is going to sound to a lot

of people who are just not at that spot yet. Your first $100,000 when we're creating wealth is the hardest. Like whether that is the first $100,000 for your home deposit or your investments, like, and it sounds because like people are like, but V, I don't even have a thousand. I get it. We're in the middle of a cost of living crisis. So like, don't think I'm being insensitive. But the second you hit that, it's kind of like genuinely the snowball effect starts to really compound. It's not because you have more money to contribute. It's because that $100,000, 10% return is 10 grand. Like that starts to become really powerful. It does. It really, really does. So yeah, that's why I wanted to really share those numbers because for me, I was like, oh my God, I'm never going to

get to this a hundred grand. Like it took so long and now I'm really seeing the benefits. She's going to be worth millions when she retires, guys. It's lucky she's anonymous. Like it's lucky. So what are your big money goals? You said in passing that you have two mortgages. You've obviously got a really good salary. You've got super, you've got shares. Like what are your big money goals? What are you currently working towards? Well, we are a little bit unsure about our long-term primary property because we've got two little girls and we're hoping to have a third one day. So it's a bit exciting, but we're like, oh my gosh, our house is too small because we bought the worst house in a

best location to have a lower mortgage while I was on maternity leave. So now we're tossing up whether we're going to potentially save up and get some acreage and get a bigger house that way, or whether we're going to do a renovation on our investment property, because it's a beautiful old house, like it's a 1910s house, and we can put a big renovation out the back and have this beautiful family home. So that's kind of what we're thinking about. Yeah. And it's a hard decision to make as well, because at that point, and at this point in the market, renovating is really expensive. Acreage is also really expensive, but we're also talking about your family home, not an investment. So it's then seen as a different thing again. And it's kind of like,

you know, I'm not going to be flippant with money, but like if you spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars more and you get exactly what you want, but it's for your life. It's worth it. It's worth it. Yeah. It's a hard thing. It's a very hard thing to do. And I guess personally as well, I'm hoping to hit that $200,000 share portfolio, probably in like three years time. I'm hoping maybe. I have no doubt. I have no doubt. I can't wait. All right. Let's go to a really quick break because girl, I have a lot of questions about your superannuation. I need to know so much

more about your share portfolio. And I mean, I would say we're getting to your best and worst money habits, but we're only going to get to your worst because you've already shared your best. So guys, don't go anywhere. Money Darist, we are back. And this chat, I feel like you and I are two peas in a pod. Like we are quite similar in terms of like our upbringing, our values, what we're doing, and the fact that we both love the share market. You have $240,000 in your superannuation and you have $110,000 in a share portfolio. I want to know, how did you start investing? When, where, why? just all of the dirty details. I started investing after listening to your podcast series on

investing. Stop it. Yeah, literally. I thought you were going to say, oh, my husband like set me up. No, he was trying to get me for years, years. And he's like, you listen to Victoria like once and then you're setting up a ComSec account. Like I've been trying to get you to invest for years. And I was like, well, she just knows what she's talking about. Well, it's not even that I know what I'm talking about. I'm just a girl. Like, and if I can do it, can't be that hard right and when your husband says do it it's probably complex yeah you gave me the kick up the butt and I was like okay like I've got some money sitting aside like let's do this like let's see how it goes and then it got kind of addictive I suppose and I was going through

because when I was listening to your podcast series about investing and about like short-term long-term goals. I had a quick look back through them and my long-term goal at the time, this was in 2021. Stop it. This is so cute. You've got like a diary in front of you with your goals. Oh, I love it. So 2021, what was the goal? So short-term was to renovate the bathroom. That hasn't happened, which is quite hilarious because mid-term buying an investment property, we've done that. And to have enough money for a year off to have a baby, we've done that. And our long-term goal was to have a hundred K invested in 10 years time in shares. And I did that in three. Slightly. How have you invested a hundred grand in, I think, you know, for a lot of people

earning $140,000 is a very, very good salary. But also I know a lot of people earning $140,000 who are still struggling to make ends meet. I need to be perfect. What does your husband do? And what does he earn so that you were, you know, able to invest your money into the share market and into your super while you're on mat leave and stuff like that. He is an engineer and he earns about $190,000 a year. So that's how I can is because we are. No, but like that's good transparency because I'm like, oh, some people are going to ask questions. I'm even starting to go, how were you able to do that? Because like, you know, it's not like life's not cheap, but very sexy. I love that. And also like you matched with an engineer on Tinder, money win.

I know. I was like so lucky. I didn't match with an engineer. I matched with an econometrician. Oh, I don't even know what that is. I still don't know what that means. Yeah. Yeah. Let's move on. I just know he has like a number of maths degrees. Same as my husband. He's very good at maths. I'm like good because I am not. You actually don't have to be good at maths to be good at investing. so we win yeah totally so tell me a little bit more about this investment you went and you got a CommSec account so you've got your account what are you picking like what ETFs have we got why did we pick them I began with picking individual shares because I was just testing out the water to see I guess how they worked so I do probably have about five individual shares like Telstra

Woolworths, but a lot of my portfolio is Vanguard. And then Vanguard for ETFs? Yes. Yeah. So most of my portfolio are ETFs, but the one that I have loved the most is my Moat, my Morningstar wide Moat ETF. I am obsessed with that. Why do we like that one? Fabulous dividends. Yeah. Like we love a good dividend payout, don't we? Yes. And I've definitely noticed a difference since having quite a lot of that in my portfolio as well. I think when we start to invest in it can be so overwhelming and like

this just sounds like literally in the nicest way possible the most stereotypical entry you kind of buy a couple of like individual shares and you're like okay like Telstra, Woolies, Westpac I feel comfortable with those you like track them for a bit you get comfortable with the idea of investing and then you're like oh I've heard of the ETF thing I'm going to start looking at ETFs and then you probably get into like analysis paralysis mode because you're like all right, there's Morningstar, there's BetaShares. Oh my God, there's Vanguard. What do I do? And like, then you probably, I reckon it took you a while between individuals and ETFs. And then you do your first ETF and you do a little bit. Yes, I did like a thousand dollars. And now it's like

the biggest chunk of my portfolio. But at the time I was like, oh my God, this is so much money. Oh, like a thousand dollars. Yeah. And then you might buy a different ETF to test that one out. And then you start to get favorites and that's where we start to get our power you're like you actually it's like you went to university but I can almost promise you've learned more about teaching on the job haven't you oh a hundred percent yeah yeah so it's like investing you need to kind of like yes you can learn everything from my podcast and read my books and do my master class and you're still gonna have that analysis paralysis you need to pull the pin you need to start investing because the second you get that confidence you're like oh this is what it is okay

it's not that bad. And now you've got $110,000 in shares. So Moat is your favorite, which is through Morningstar. What Vanguard ETFs have you picked? I have multiple. I have VAP, so property. I have VAS, so Australian shares. I have VDHG, which is the diversified high growth. I love those ones. And they've definitely, as you would know, like their dividends are pretty consistent as well. Yeah, no. And we love to see it. And I think that that's a really good conversation opener on let's not just look at the share price and how much it goes up. Let's look at what they pay you to own that asset long term. And are they franked or are they not franked? And yeah, I've definitely noticed the dividends coming in because I haven't actually put anything into my portfolio for

probably about a year and it's still going up. They're plodding along. And that's where long term, most of your compound growth is going to come from is the dividends being reinvested. And that's what I mean when I say the money that your money makes starts making money. It's your dividends being paid out that then get reinvested and then that pays out and it becomes a cycle, a cycle of becoming rich. And that's what we want. As opposed to a cycle of poverty. Exactly. So now to flip the narrative, you own two properties. Talk to me about debt. What do have, how does it work? So we have obviously our two mortgages. We got really lucky that our first house was very, very reasonable. It was only $300,000 and we bought that with only a 10%

deposit. And that's one thing that I really wanted to stress, I guess, while on here is that LMI is not like the worst thing in the world to have to have. Oh my God. I just recorded an episode about getting into your first property and it's basically me ranting about how LMI is fantastic. Yeah. And like, we just kind of tacked it onto the end of our mortgage and we didn't notice it at all. And we managed, we were getting into the property market so much quicker by doing that. So I'm a massive advocate for that. And we decided after I had my first baby, while I was on mat leave, we had our mortgage fully offset. So we weren't paying any interest. Oh, very nice. So hold on, hold on, hold on, backtrack. That is a big deal. You had a $300,000

in savings between you and your husband to be able to fully offset your mortgage. How? We're very frugal. We're very, very frugal. I love this. I think I love this because, wow, that's so unrelatable, but coming from somebody so relatable, you've just built this yourself. Like what an icon. That's what I want to stress too. Like my husband doesn't come from marriage, from marriage, sorry, from money. Like both of us. Yeah. He came from your marriage. Like you made that man take credit for that. Yeah, he did. He did come from my marriage, but not from money. So like we both worked for this. It's not like we've been given anything on a platter. We've literally just been slogging and we don't go on holidays. We don't spend our

money on things that we don't need. We were both driving 10-year-old cars until recently we've just bought a new car, but we are just saving every single penny. I'm obsessed with that. That makes me so happy. So two properties, your first one was $300,000. What do you currently owe on that property? We currently owe $211,000, but most of that's offset. Okay. So you've got a nice amount in savings. And before you said, you know, I know personally, you've got that share portfolio in your name and then you've got your $240,000 in super. This savings that is offset, is this like shared funds with your husband? Yeah. So that's just like the shared account side of things as opposed to the money diarist side of things. Yes. Yeah. So this is our shared and we've only got

$36,000. That's not offset. I'm pretty proud of that. Of like both of your mortgages? Oh no, sorry. That's just our property, but we are using our investment property for, I guess, taxable purposes. So we're not offsetting that because we're using the interest as a tax deduction. Genius. So tell me, what is that property now worth if you purchased it for $300,000? It's probably just under $700,000. Stop it. You're like full rich guys. We got in at the market at a really good time. It was 2018 that we bought and we bought regional, but yeah, it's been a fabulous house. And is that the house that you're currently living in? Is that the primary residence you're

talking about? Yes. Yeah. We're still in our little three bedroom and it's working perfectly fine at the moment. perfect and so then you know you're plodding along you buy in 2018 when did you buy your first investment property we bought that last year so that was 2024 and we used a lot of our cash that was sitting in our offset to purchase that we didn't want to refinance our actual loan we wanted to use i guess our own equity and so we purchased our investment property for 545 $25,000 with a 20% deposit. And tell me buying that property, why that one? Because it is in the best location in the town that we live in. It's a beautiful street that we would one day

potentially want to live in. And it was literally the worst house on the best street. It was dilapidated, the roof, like we had to do a lot of renovations to get it up to a livable standard. I can't believe that they had a tenant in it like before like the roof literally had to get fixed there was just so many issues with the property that's because some people are horrid like honestly I just if you're going to be a landlord just don't be a bad one and so we did everything ourselves that we could and that's really big for us as well that we aren't spending money when we can do it ourselves so we painted the entire exterior of the house for example painting is the worst I'm not gonna lie you think it's gonna be easy and it is the hardest slog in the entire

world it's horrible and weatherboards like grooves having to cut in all of your weatherboards absolutely not we did all of that in our house too because I was like to my husband we got a painting quote and it came back and I was like nah we're not paying that I look like a painter I can paint I actually remember I had a meltdown because I'd been painting for like 12 hours and we were doing our ceilings. Oh, your neck. Yeah, my neck, my back hurt like we hadn't eaten. And I ended up just like still paint rolling, crying. And my husband was like, do you want to stop and get a pizza? And I was like, yes, I really do. I'm just so hungry and emotional. Yeah, no, painting is the worst. That was the best chicken pizza I had in my life, just to be clear.

I love that for you. But I don't love that you had to paint. It's horrible. You know what? Didn't cost me 10 grand, did it? And you only had one emotional breakdown. So that's pretty good. And that's basically free. It is. Yeah. So tell me, this house, has it got good rental yield? It does. We did want it to be negatively geared for tax purposes. So we are currently getting $460 per week from our investment property. Yeah. Very cool. I love this. And what's the property plan in the future? Are we planning

on getting in more mortgage debt? Are we planning on other investment properties? Or like, is that a wealth creation strategy for you guys? It definitely could be, but I think we need to figure out where we want to live first and whether we need to have equity for that next property or whether we are going to buy another investment property. Yeah. No, smart, smart. So tell me no other debt, just to be sure. We do have one credit card, but we use that in a very specific way and it's just to get points. So as I've kind of alluded to, we live in a regional town that it's quite expensive to fly out of and we have family interstate. So we use points to be able to go and visit them without

having to pay an arm and a leg. Yeah, absolutely. So we know that your best money habit is that after your HECS was completely paid off, you didn't tell your employer. And so therefore, your employer was still paying money to the government for your HECS. So at tax time, the government was like, hey, money diarist, we actually have 16 grand for you for your HECS that was already paid off, but you took that money and then you put it into your super. Are you still doing that? No. So I only did that for the first year to get that lump sum. And then I'm getting lump sums back through doing my tax. And then I kind of put that in my offset, leave it there until the next May and then kind of do it again. Yeah. And do you have any other good money habits

you want to share? Because I just feel like you've probably got a lot of them. Like I feel like your entire money diary was just a good money habit. I guess it's just to like live beneath your means. I think that that's really important and you don't have to keep up with the Joneses. Like actually this is a good money habit. My best friend and I always laugh that I cosplay being poor. Like I just pretend that I'm poor all the time, like mentally. And then I just don't spend things. I'm like, oh, well I can make that at home and it tastes 15 times better. I feel like this is such a, people already know this. I'm in a very lucky, and I hate the word lucky, but like I'm in a very good financial position now because I have worked really hard. If we're being really

honest, this isn't luck. It wasn't gifted to me. I've never had a leg up, none of that, but I still have it. I think it's like a product of the way that I grew up. I still have it in my head. Like we've got food at home. Like I'm still that mom. I'm going on holidays soon. And I said to my husband, okay, so what time do we land? And he was like, oh, it's quite late. And I'm thinking, we're not going to have time to get to the supermarket after we get there. And my husband's like, that's fine. And I was like, yeah, but I need like, cause I hate buying water when we're traveling. I'm like, but we need to buy the big thing of water. And like, there's a whole heap of stuff. And he's just like, Victoria. But it's just part of my mental process. And like, you

know, I'll look at something and don't get me wrong. I've bought a lot of nice things, but I'll still look at it and go, oh, I can't afford that. That's ridiculous. And then all of a sudden I'm like, I can afford that. Oh, okay. Like I need to check myself a little bit, but like living beneath your means, do you feel like you're missing out? Like, do you feel like that is, you know, putting you behind? Cause like not keeping up with the Joneses, don't get me wrong. Like in theory, it makes sense, but sometimes that feels a bit trashy. Like sometimes you're like, oh, I don't feel so good about this. I really wanted that. Or do you know what I mean? Sometimes I think I definitely compare myself to people who are at the same life stage. I'm like,

oh, you know, they have a nice car or they, I don't know, have a Prada handbag or whatever. But I guess I have our family long-term goals in mind that we want to be able to give our daughters the best future. And I don't need a Prada handbag if I can hopefully help my daughter, I don't know, buy a house or something later on down the track. Yeah, a hundred percent. Like it comes back to zooming out and looking at your values as a whole. And it can be so easy to be taken away with those things so quickly. Like it makes me frustrated because I get taken by that so often. Like comparison is the thief of joy. And I will tell you that day in, day out. And then there's me in the background at 11 PM on some bloggers

TikTok being like, oh, that is a really nice outfit. Maybe I do. And then I'm like, who are you stop this. Yeah. Just stop. Put the phone down. Walk away. Exactly. So what do you reckon your worst money habit is? I was thinking long and hard about this and it is that we don't have a budget. And I know that that sounds really wanky. Oh, must be nice. Richie Rich over here. Yeah. But it's because, and I've kind of been doing some deep diving about it because I lived on such a tight budget for my entire life until, I don't know, probably 25, I feel like I have a bit of PTSD about it because every dollar had to be doing something and I had to move everything around and it was just so stressful. So we don't necessarily know what's coming in and going out,

but because we have that buffer, we're able to have that luxury, if that makes sense. But I still think that it's potentially detrimental because we've got children now, we have food budgets and the cost of living is definitely affecting us as well. Yeah. I was talking to Jess actually from the show about this earlier today. And we were talking about the concept of like date nights, like money date nights and how, you know, I did an episode a couple of years ago about the date nights that my husband and I were having. And, you know, we always used to have them every single month. And that was pre-wedding. That was pre-babies, pre our second mortgage. and I said to Jess because like it was a listener question actually and we're answering it on the

show she said oh you guys would still do them really well and I was like well actually no like I feel like now we've achieved some really big things we are really really on the same page so I actually don't need to check in monthly because in our heads we both know kind of what's going on but then you know I spoke about this holiday that we were about to go on and I was like you know we checked in when we were booking a holiday because that's a really big financial expense and we wanted to like go okay well what's our budget each night for a hotel and then I'll go find one and you know how many points do we have for flights and okay we've got that and like luckily we spent all of our points on flights and they had some points left over so that we spent

that on some accommodation as well but like it's kind of like a strategy meeting before we make a big financial decision again but we don't need those monthly ones did you used to do the monthly date and now you feel like you've fallen off the bandwagon as well oh definitely and like who has time to date right now. I'm like barely sleeping. No, no, no. If the kids are in bed early, sorry, I'm also going to bed. Literally. Our date is holding hands on the couch for two seconds and then rolling off and going to sleep. Catcher, your hand's sweaty. Bye. Yeah. Don't even touch me. I've been touched out. I've had a four month old crawling on me all day. Oh yes. So cute. She is very cute and she's very, very sweet. But yeah, we definitely don't need to have those little

check-ins because we've got the game plan. We've been together so long. We've had our money merged for so long as well that we know where each other's going. It's kind of like when you've been playing on the same team for so long, you don't have to look because you know that they're going to be there. Yeah. No, I think that that's an important thing to talk about as well, because I think there's this assumption when you implement date nights, they have to be forever. And if you want them to be, I guess they can be, but I feel like it would be a genuine waste of our time at this point because I'd be like so Amani's doing this and Steve would be like yep I know I'd be like what about this and he'd be like it's exactly where we thought it was going to be. Yeah that's

the same as us. And that's good. It's nice it's very calming. It feels like an accomplishment like I was saying to Jess it genuinely feels so good being like oh hold on I feel like we've graduated like we've gone from needing this and like implementing structure and making change which can feel really hard to being at the easier part where you know I feel like I'm gloating when I say that, but like, it does get easier when things start compounding, when your choices start to become ingrained, you're kind of like, oh, this just works. Yeah. And you just kind of stick to the same thing as well. And yeah, it definitely doesn't happen overnight, but it does eventually happen. Oh no, it takes a long time, but then all of a sudden you're there and you can't believe

you're 34 years old and have two children. I know it's wild. So at the start of this episode, you said, I'm an A minus. Girl, what's it going to take for you to say that you're an A plus? What do we have to do? Because that's crazy talk to me after hearing your story. I guess it just feels a bit like up myself. I'm like, I'm an A plus. It's totally not because I think it's just logic. You've worked your ass off to be an A plus. Like I'm not an A plus and I'm not an A plus because I'm very good at comparison and I'm very good at impulse purchasing. And I'm very good at, you know, falling a little bit off the track when I wanted to stay out. You didn't say any of that. Sorry, A plus for you. I'll tell you

you're an A plus. I think that makes it less wanky. Thank you. I appreciate that. Money Dourist, I wish we had so much more time to chat, but this has been fun. I feel like I've found like my little pea in a pod and we are so similar. So thank you so much for sharing your journey with the community. I just know they're going to love this. Like the fact and just reminding everybody all of this was achieved by somebody whose parents were on Centrelink and she had to put herself through university like girl you did this all yourself that's crazy that's so cool thank you so much I really appreciate having the opportunity to talk to you and I hope that it inspires someone to be able to see that they can change their story they absolutely can and I feel

like you gave so many like helpful tips and tricks through this that I'm now worried you're coming for my job. So it'd be good. Watch out for your ding. I'm watching my back. It's all good. Thanks 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 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.