She's On The Money - How to Budget on an Irregular Income + The $110K First Home Dilemma

Episode Date: October 22, 2026

Haaapppyyyy Friday friends! Imagine spending years saving $110,000 for your first home, only to realise you and your partner have completely different ideas about what that home should look like. One wants a bigger house further out, the other wants a smaller place in a suburb they actually love. And suddenly, saving the deposit feels like the easy part. This week, we're tackling the property dilemma so many first-home buyers face. Do you prioritise location, lifestyle or space? Is rentvesting the answer? And does your first home really need to be your forever home? Plus, one community member is navigating life with a new baby and a partner who's a sole trader, which means money comes in whenever clients decide to pay their invoices. Not exactly ideal when you're trying to budget. We're sharing practical ways to manage an irregular income, build a financial buffer and make your money feel a little more predictable. And because it's Friday Drinks, we're also celebrating some seriously good Money Wins, sharing your best Broke Tips and workshopping our drag queen alter egos. Because apparently that's where we're at. Grab a drink, friends. We've got a lot to discuss. Thank you to our friends at Revolut for helping bring our money wins to life! To learn more about Revolut and get your $40? – click here!  INVESTING CHEAT SHEET, INCOMING: Grab a copy of our investing cheat sheet over on our website shesonthemoney.com/download-resources. WTF IS COMPOUND INTEREST? Learn all about what folks have described as the eighth world wonder by searching for ‘compound interest’ on the blog: shesonthemoney.com/blog New here? Follow us on Instagram (@shesonthemoneyaus) for Q&As, bite-sized advice, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.  Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements (queenacknowledgements.com) 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 - 4451289.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. T. Glyniananganya. Nianakakka, you know binawaka, yambinawaka, Yama'i'iakaram and Amalan. Mimalaan. 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 where we usually share in-depth discussions about the issues concerning your personal wealth goals. But today, my friends, I'll make another exception.

It is indeed Friday drinks time where we shake off the formalities for a more light-hearted yap about money. And I simply could not and would not want to do that alone. So I'm joined by your favourite co-hosts to cover a couple of your community dilemmas, money wins, broke tips and a question of the week. She's an amateur snowboarder. Very wing artisan. And the head of partnerships here at She's on the Money, Miss Jessica Ricci, welcome back to the Friday drinks couch.

Thank you. And do you know what? the Friday drinks couch would feel a lot colder without her. She's our in-house clay whisperer, crafter of tiny bags, and the curator of photo dumps. Miss Beck Syed. Hi. It's pretty accurate.

Fair enough. It's pretty accurate. Now, I know that you two are no strangers to the hustle. Tell me, have you ever struggled with budgeting on an irregular income? Yes. Jeff's on you. I know you both have because I've spoken to both of you about it. So I ask because this week's money dilemma, it's putting the whole sole trader community

on notice and it will cover a DM that asks whether you'd prioritize location or lifestyle when it comes to purchasing your first home, which I think is particularly relevant for Ms. Jessica Ricci right now. All very, very good questions. But all of this talk is making me arguably a little bit thirsty. So before we dive into things, we're going to take a quick break. So don't go anywhere. We'll be back with a five-star review than a very camp question of the week.

Welcome back, my friends, as promised. We've prepared a little praise from you. Now, we've loved it so much that we've dedicated an entire segment to hearing from you here on our podcast because you are our very savvy and very complimentary listeners. This week's five-star review comes from Sab 472, which, by the way, not going to exist for much longer in our Facebook group. because we turned off your little nicknames, didn't we? We got the power and we used it.

Sorry. Sorry, not sorry. Mystery Pineapple, 2007. Catcher, but Sab, 472 writes, Listening to this show, I feel like I'm on the couch too. Laughing at my own financial wins and woes. Victoria, Jess and Beck are so down to earth and wise about finances that set any listener up for success.

Thank you for the wisdom, besties. It's been life-changing. Oh, thanks so much. Isn't that so cute? You are so welcome. And from our couch to yours, it is our pleasure to share our wins and our woes with you. We are obsessed when you write into us. Like all of us have egos that consistently need pumping up. Like if we come across as confident, it's because we've pumped each other up that day. But look, we don't usually wake up that way. We sometimes need a five-star review. And you can share your five-star reviews with us wherever they're going to let you honestly. Preferably where you get your podcasts so that we can find them. But you. You know what? We're not that picky. So true. We are, however, very choosy when it comes to question of the week. Oh, yeah.

So thank you guys for adding all of your unhingedish and unfinancial questions to our Facebook group. This week, we've got one from Erin. If you were a drag performer, what would your drag name be? This is so fun. I needed one of those, you know, like on Facebook, it's like your birth date plus the month, plus the yeah, gives you like a random name. I was like, I need one of those, because the world is just truly always start. So what's your random anonymous generated Facebook name?

I think that's your drag name now. Yes. I've never, I don't honestly comment it, so I don't know. No, neither of I, but now I think we should all go generate them, even though we can't use them in our own Facebook group anymore. That's fine. But like anonymous pineapple comes up a lot. It's always a fruit, I feel.

Yeah. My one is, I had a really good one, but the other one that I can remember, which isn't as good, it's clip bait. Yeah. That's so good. Or, you know, you could do clit and collect. That's good. That's good.

It took me a second. I was like, no, she just like fumbled the word click. And then I was like, oh, no, she meant that. I don't really enunciate my words. And maybe that's for the best. Yeah. But that would be mine. Or just like changing any word that's clip or click into that.

That's nice. And you've got yourself a drag name. I love the puny one. The puny ones are so good. So I used to have a client and I don't think he's going to mind me sharing because like we still sometimes talk and I really love him. So Mark and Julian were two of my favorite clients. Anyway, Mark is incredible and he started like, he's on socials. LF management is his company, just as a little shout out. He started like a cleaning company like LF management and I don't

think everybody knows what it means. I don't even know if he wants me to share this pong on it anyway because he's so fun. His drag name because he actually does drag or did drag, I think he still does it, was LaFonda money bags. Love it. Oh yeah. Hell yeah. Right. And I feel like if that's going to be a good drag name, I need to lean on that.

It has to be some money related. So like LaFonda, I'm not going to steal his whole name, but I think we could be related and I'm someone money bags. Yeah, love that. So true. I think because of the recent passing of my Lord and Xavier Dolly Parton, I'd want Dolly in my drag name. Oh, that's gorgeous.

I love that. Maybe people could help me workshop it. Dr Dolly perhaps as a throwback to the sealed section for Dolly back? I don't know. It's something fun. But, oh, my queen. I think Dolly is really fun too. Yeah, 100% if we could stop recording for a second because I knew to think about this.

I just know. By the end of this episode, I just know, Beck's going to have a really good name for me. Oh, that's so nice. Oh, my God. Okay, well, I'm going to get started. You guys continue. I'm thinking about it. Yes.

Dolly mortgage. Dolly part time. Dolly dollars. Dolly dollars is fine. Dolly dollars. Dolly dollars. I think Dolly dollars. Uh-huh.

That's cute. Dom dollar, but a little country. It's like so cute. Dolly pardon? Dolly, I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon was the price on that. Have you come up with anything else you would like to share with the crowd or are we going to

loop back to this at the end? I think let's loop back because it's. There are too many things and it's going to take too long. Maybe I'm called mismanaged funds or something. Oh my God. Yeah, I like that. Missing managed funds. Anyway, I'm not very good at this.

I think you should leave in the comments section what you think our drag names should be because I feel like drag names are kind of like nicknames. You shouldn't actually get to choose your own. True. Like. True, we should have chosen. Should be be bequeathed. Yeah.

Like, I should choose yours and you should choose mine and Beck should choose both of ours because she's just better at everything. bequeathed. Bequeathed. Oh my God. Sorry. We're done. We're done.

My friends, if you know a queen who has any of the names that we've just put forward, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section, because not only would I love to hear about it, I'd love to know them and meet them and follow them. And alternatively, if you've got a phenomenal question for us, please send it through via our DMs, our comments, our emails, we'll take it. We'll answer it. As you've seen, the more unhinged, the better.

Truly. Also, I love an unhinged money win. So given we also accept money wins, it might be, you know, maybe one of my favorite currencies, Ms Jessica Ricci. What is our community celebrating this week? Lots of great money wins from the community this week. And also a great offer from our friends at Revlute who are bringing these to you this week. Check out the show notes for more information on them.

First of this week, I've got one from Brian. who said last year when I cancelled my car insurance, I reapplied online to get the cheaper price. The company told me to just call them to negotiate. This year, I tried it their way. The original increase they sent me was over $2,000 a year. She called them and they said, we don't price match. And they could only decrease her premium if she increased her excess, which to her, defeated the whole purpose.

So she cancelled it, re-quoted it online and the new price is $1,100 a year. Excess is the same as it's always been. and even though her car is valued it slightly less, she owns it, she doesn't have any loans to pay it out. So she's really happy with that. She saved herself around 900 bucks. That's iconic, but also is that not just like... I'd be so irritated. Yeah, but so backwards.

Not only gave her more admin, which pop off queen you did it, but like it would have given the company more admin to do a whole new application, probably a new check and you all, like everything, when you could have just dropped the premium. Well, and they said, just negotiate with us. And then it didn't work. Like, I would be so mad if I had gone, okay, no worries, I'll do it your way. And then their way was in fact not effective. Would have irritated me. That's how it always works. And Jess, you're a new mortgage holder.

And it seems to work that way with banks too. We threaten them. We threaten them. They say, no, we can't give you a better rate? And then I go, can I please have the discharge paperwork for that client? And they go, that's so crazy. We can actually give them a really good rate. And why don't we just give them a $2,000 bonus to stay?

Yeah. Say less. Why did I have to do all of the work? for you to finally come to that conclusion when I ask it in the first place. 100%. So annoying. I have another car one this week from Jess, great name, who said, my husband's youth insurance was due for renewal.

I noticed it still had my demerit points listed. I rang the insurance company and got them to remove it, and they made a couple of tweaks to her policy, which brought it down by $850. Amazing. Didn't even know that it took your demerit points into account. Yeah, because if you're naughty driver, you need more insurance. Well, there you go.

So maybe the, I'm guessing maybe she had got the demerits in his car and so they needed to trade it to get it off the policy, whatever. But worth looking into, I say. Yeah. Next, I've got a money from Lauren who said, reminded to follow up with refunds and returns. I've seen a few emails about recalls on products I purchased on Amazon, finally followed up using their chat support. And within 10 minutes had received refunds for three different items totaling $70. Wow. She said two of those three things she wasn't really using anyway, so it worked in her favor to be refunded for them.

And then she also returned a Kmart tweet. that was a present that she had bought for her daughter, which broke within two weeks. She said, I know it was only $20, so I nearly didn't bother, but I'm glad I did. As I returned to that, and my daughter chose a different way to replace it with so she was very happy. This is my reminder to everybody. If you have one pass, you have a whole year to return things. I just returned a heater that broke after like maybe eight or nine months. Got a refund, obviously.

Money win. That is an epic money win, but I don't want to talk about One Pass because they're clearly not paying us, but I love you, One Plus. I get three times the frequent flyer points that came out, and they've got no intention of changing that. That's not like a once off like a honeymoon deal. They're just like, oh, by the way, if you have one pass, you get three times the frequent flyer points here. Hell yeah. Good deal.

Good deal. Oh, yeah. Return your things. Keep your receipts, all the good stuff. Next, I've got a money win from Bree, who said she's selling a few old costumes on Marketplace prior to Bookweek. She says she was only selling them for between $2 and $5 each, but it all adds up and it saves it from ending up in Landfill. Your dog was for a costume is a much. Very good.

All of my friends have been trading costumes for bookweek. Someone borrowed my witch hat that we used last for last Halloween. That's actually so cute. I forgot that you have an entire garage of costumes. Whole costume box. You need something? She's got it. That's so true.

And if she doesn't, she feels less than and she goes and gets it. Perfect. She's like, I can't be lacking a costume. Absolutely not. Which is how she'd be a great drag queen. True. I've got all designs. Next, I've got a money minute from Deborah who said I went away for a few days with a friend.

I stayed at a council-run caravan site, which was only $15 per night for power and water. Oh my God, that's a cheap. How good that? We were not a caravanning family growing up, but one of my really good friends was. And I loved hearing all the places that they would drive in a caravan and obviously buying a caravan. We could rent one, maybe, I guess is a little bit of an investment. But if you can stay places so affordably. My parents have just rented a caravan.

They are currently halfway up. the East Coast for a few weeks. And the reason they hired one, by the way, really economical. I'm not saying it's super cheap, but like really reasonable because at the end of the day, it still is a holiday. But they were like, we love the idea of buying a caravan. But like we probably should go away for a few weeks in a caravan before we commit to a really big purchase.

That's true. And so they're doing that. I personally, I think they're coming home to buy a caravan based on the feedback of their trips. So you're right, Jess. I'm quite envious. Yeah. They're like, oh, we're just in Mauritia door for the day.

And I'm like, must be nice. Yeah, same beautiful places. Yeah. It looks lovely. And then last week this week, I have a moneyman from Rachel who said, I have ADHD and autism and I struggle with self-control, especially with money. Instead of spending $500 or more on an online store for a pair of linen pants, I bought the ones from Kmart, which are just as good and has saved me a lot of money.

And anecdotally, I wanted to say, I bought the Kmart Linnat Blend pants maybe two years. years ago and I love them. I wear them more than my linen pants. Maybe that's where I'll go. Really good. Because they are expensive if you just Google them and like look for like the quote nice ones. I was like, oh, this is adding up. I have a white pair from K amount and a white pair from another brand that I really love that was a lot more expensive. The more expensive ones are 100% linen. The Kmart ones are a blend. But I like the shape of my Kmart ones more. I wear them all the time. And this is not going to be like a lot of people will be like, no, you need the 100% linen. I actually don't love 100% linen for clothes because when it creases, it creases quickly, whereas like a blend,

you get the linen look and it doesn't crease as easily. And you put it in the tumble dry. And I love my tumble dry. Check it out, everybody. We can all match. Amazing. I love that. All right, Ms. Beck, Syed. I feel like the community always overdelivers when it comes to the broke tips. Very, very true. So what have you got for us this week? So this week I have one from Ruby who says, I've been Googling a discount code for Coles when I do my shop. Most of the time, one of them works at least, and I get around $20 off. Mavridge. Money.

Yeah, especially this cost of living crisis. The next one comes from Jody, who says, if you have curly hair, using men's beard oils and balms is so much cheaper than curly products. Oh, another example of the pink tax. 100%. Why, though? I know. I don't know. This next one comes from myself.

And so I'm trying to get into reusable deodorants. And there's not... Reusable Deodorants. deodorants. Like refillable? Sorry, refillable deodorants. I was like, what are you doing? Scraping it off and putting it back on you the morning. It off my armpit. Make it make sense. So the refillable one, sorry I should say. And there's usually not a travel size refillable

deodorant. So I found a tip about melting the last little bit of the refill. It's like that white kind of cube. Melting it down into a lip balm and using that. And you can also squish the refills together so you're not wasting any. So I feel like... That's smart. Even just for like general traveling tips, I guess. Like you melting anything down and putting into a lip balm and then just like twist it up. Yeah. And then you just used that and you don't have to worry.

I just bought the brand Wild. Like it's like a, I got influenced. I got influenced by all the influencers who have been posting about it. And so I'll keep you updated. But it smells really nice. And I like that they're like tin feels a little bit more. It's like a stick, but you like put the refill in the top of it. It feels like a little bit more lux because it's like not a place.

Plastic. True. I don't know. I really like it so far. Okay. But it is one of those cream ones as opposed to a spray. And like your girl is not that eco-friendly. I do love a spray deodorant.

Not going to lie. I do like a spray too. I do. I'm like, this is not good for the environment. But I do love how my bathroom smells after I spray my dove deodorant all over everything. Like she smells clean. She smells fresh. I'm interested to hear feedback from you both on them because I'm a sweaty gal.

So it's tough to find her, you know. Yeah, see, I'm suspicious because I do feel like I need the antiperspirant part. Like when people are like, oh, the deodorant is aluminum free or aluminium free because you're Australian. I'm like, yeah, like I actually have no interest in that give me all the aluminium and put it under my arms. Right. Like endocrine system, she won't see me coming because she'll die. They'll be fine. Anyway, Ms. Beck-Said, I feel like every single week I need to add to my to do list, all of the things that,

community are benefiting from and as you can imagine my note sap is already a mess so that's not very helpful in fact we might take a really quick break to tidy it up and when we return it's time for this week's money dilemma come back everybody let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma hi there have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve the she's on the money team is here to help every week we tackle your dilemmas both big and small to answer your most burning money career and life questions. To get involved, simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now let's take a listen to this week's Money Dilemma. Hi ladies, I have a bit of a question about savings and budgeting and all of that, but for

irregular income. Prior to having our baby, I always had a job where I had a set income every week and I would set up automated savings. Everything would sort of disappear from my account before I even saw it, and it worked well. But now we're living up my partner's income, and he is a sole trader, and invoices are here, there, and everywhere, and sometimes people are very overdue, and I don't even know where to start with budgeting or setting up any kind of savings or anything like that. and everything I'm hearing is, you know, based off having a stable income every week and with my postpartum brain, I'm having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around it.

So any tips for that kind of thing would be greatly appreciated. I'm so here for this question. But also, can we just acknowledge that, unfortunately, and some people are going to be like, Victoria, it doesn't exist. Mum brain absolutely exists. Like, I thought that I was going to be different. Like every other mom who's ever gone through postpartum, they're like, it's not going to be the same for me. I'm going to be better at it. I wasn't.

My brain was fried. You guys definitely noticed that my brain was fried and thankfully said nothing about it. Like Jess was so nice when I'd be like, what are you talking about? And Jess would be like, that's fine, Vee. Only talked about it four times this week already. Thanks, V. So thank you for that, just in retrospect. but it is so hard to manage money to begin with, but then also managing money postpartum,

even harder than managing it on an irregular income when you've never run on an irregular income. That feels rude. The tri-a factor. Yeah, like, that feels rude. So, like, I can see while you're like, girls, give me a hand to you. Jessica Ricci. Yes. What would you do?

First thing I'd be doing is going and listening. We have a full episode. I think it's called budgeting for a variable income. We'll link it in the show notes. because obviously we have a lot more time there and we covered a whole bunch of stuff that you can consider. I'm a big fan of sinking funds, I think, for irregular income. So having, essentially building up a fund that is always there that the money can then come out of. But I do acknowledge that on a variable income and being on just one income, it might not be so easy to set syncing funds up immediately.

But it's a good idea to set them up even if they're empty so that you've got the structure for when you do have cash. Yes. I believe the system that we would recommend would just be you do your baseline expenses, do your baseline budget, what's your bare minimum that you've got to pay, divide that by 12, and then put the money aside. When you've got more money, put extra money. And it's that avoiding that trap of overspending. Because I think when you are on a variable income, when you have a big invoice going, you go, oh my God, I'm flush with cash. And I can buy all these things that I've been wanting to buy. But then when you're in the low season, when people maybe aren't paying on time, or your projections are off or whatever that looks like, you go, oh my God, I've got no money to

spend. And so I think it's about working out what your baseline expenses are, making sure that you can cover all of those when you've got extra funds, building up those buffers, building up those sinking funds that you can then dip into when you don't have income coming in. I remember an episode we did and we answered a similar question. And maybe it was a Friday drinks, actually. And it was like, take your average income, like let's say $2,000 one month, $4,000 the next month. You do that over like 12 months, you average it out, and then you say it ends up being $3,000 a month actually on average or something.

If you get more than that, then you put it away. If you get less than that, then you supplement that. Anyway, I don't know if that makes sense. That's my advice. And you budget off of that. You budget off of that average income. That average income. Exactly.

Exactly. And that's really helpful. But I think the one thing we need to do is go back to the basics. Do you understand how much? your life costs on a monthly basis. So like all of those things are really good, but I need you to understand. And like when you have irregular income and it's not consistent, the goal is to stop treating every single payment as though it's money available for you to spend. Like you actually need to work out what the minimum amount your household needs each and

every single month to cover the essentials. So your bills, your groceries, you know, debt repayments. coffee that you definitely need postpartum at the cafe every morning. Like, girl, that needs to be in there. And then maybe a small amount of breathing room because we don't want to be so hamstrung that things become hard. And then when your partner gets paid, ideally that income goes into a separate holding account. And then from that account, you pay yourself a consistent, like, household salary or like household wage into your everyday account each like week or fortnight or like in stronger, you know, months, maybe the excess stays behind to cover like the leaner months so that you're never stuck.

So you're right. It's like taking, well, how much money comes in over 12 months and divided by 12 so that you understand what your average income is. But like, ideally we understand what your base costs are as well so that you can, you know, base your budget on a very conservative figure or the average. So I think that's where I would go. I'd also make sure that I'm not budget. for income that hasn't been received. So often when you issue invoices, you can get really

excited like, oh my goodness, I have another $3,000 invoice sitting over there unpaid. Well, that money is not in your hot little hands. And if someone really wanted to screw you around, that money might never sit in your hot little hands. So as much as that is a separate issue to discuss completely, do not budget for things that are in the future and haven't hit your account yet. So like, we can't play with money. We don't have. then I would also make sure if you're not having consistent invoices paid, you have a system for that. So, Jess, we've talked about this before. What are you using?

The M-Y-O-B solo. Yeah. And I use zero at the moment. And there's lots of different other platforms that exist. Have a good bookkeeping system that has automated follow-ups so that they get sent the invoice. Then they get sent the invoice. And then they get sent the invoice. because maybe they didn't see the invoice.

And can you pay me? Late fees into your contract would be another thing as well. Like can you put on your invoice even, you know, payment post, you know, seven business days or whatever, Obedew incurred an additional 5% fee. The longer it goes, the higher the fee. And maybe that will help put people off paying late as well. And there's just like, again, lots of tips and tricks that are hilariously in my business Bible book that you probably should pick up if you have a small business.

But yes, I think that there are a lot of things that you. you can do that put you in the best possible position, but you also don't know what you don't know. And like if you have a small business, it is very reasonable. If you are a reasonable and kind person to be like, but I gave Victoria the invoice. Yeah. Why hasn't she paid it? Sometimes it's not because they don't want to pay it. It's because they forget.

It's because maybe they don't have the cash flow. Like, I'm not making excuses, but you need to just consistently follow up. And if that means that you automate a system that texts them and emails them at the same time, maybe that would work better for the type of client you have. I don't know the types of client your husband works with, but like some, an email, they don't check their emails, their tradies. Some of them, it actually works way better if you send a payment link to their phone saying, hey, I've just emailed you the invoice, it's outstanding.

But to quickly make this easy for you, if you click this link, you can pay here. That might be the solution to you getting paid more consistently because they go, oh, well, I can Apple pay this, which you can now do through like, MIOB and zero and stuff, which is really cool. Yeah. So, like, how do you make it as easy as possible? Even though we shouldn't have to have conversations about making it easy for people to pay you, but how do you make it as easy as possible for that transaction to go through with the least

amount of friction? Yeah. Make it easy for them makes it easy for you. We love that. Exactly. More money, more better. All right. So, my friends, if this dilemma inspired you, my friend, get on the blog.

Share your money dilemma with us by visiting the podcast page on our website and leaving a message after the tone using the little voicemail app pop-up. We love hearing from you and we play literally each and every single one of them in the office. Now, Jess, Beck, I feel like this weekly DM will resonate with many of our listeners, particularly if you are thinking about buying a property in the next few years. One community member wrote in to say, she's on the money team, please settle this dilemma. Oh, my favorite kind. I know. I was like not, oh, you have a dilemma. You want us to settle it. Okay. Put your law hats on. My partner and I are in our late 20s and have finally saved around $110,000 for a house deposit after years of living with family.

Oh my God, amazing. Now we're actually ready to buy. We cannot agree on what to do. Our budget would get us a small apartment or townhouse in an area we love or a bigger house much further out. My partner wants the bigger forever home, while I'd rather sacrifice space for lifestyle and location we actually want. We've also considered rent vesting. Would you prioritize location, the bigger long-term home, or rent-fest instead? After spending years so focused on the deposit, I cannot believe the hardest part might actually be deciding what on earth to do with it. I remember when my ex-Jess was looking for an apartment, I would always say, like, focus on things you can't change, and one of them is location. You can change, like, the decor, you can change the color of

the walls, all the things that you can change, don't worry about those. The things that you can't, yeah, like location. I think that personally, it would matter more to me. And so if the house is, like, maybe small or maybe even ugly or maybe old, like, it's like these are things that you can slowly eventually maybe work on fixing. You put mirrors on the wall, make it feel like it's bigger or, like, anything. But the location itself, you can't change. And if you're out somewhere, out in the sticks, if I had to move to, like, I don't know,

yars in New South Wales to afford a house and it's a legitimate location but out of all the remote locations you could have picked you were like yas and I love that thank you

and so if I had to live there to Ford a house I'd be like I'd be miserable because I like my community's not close by and like obviously you get used to it we all adapt we're always adapting but like would you be happier in the long run or would you just be like kind of feeling isolated and far away from everything you've ever known

and from the people that you're like It could be true for you as well, even if you moved to the most beautiful beach location and I know you love the beach, but you're still not where your people are and you're still not close to work. Like, I don't know, some people really value convenience. Like, I do. Like, I cannot imagine living further out because I just go, I do not like traffic. I don't want to drive.

Whereas, like, Jess, you've picked somewhere a little bit further out because it works for you. And, I mean, your community is out there. I don't think we could have convinced you to move ever away from your friends and family. which is so fair. But like, location is not, and we were saying this at work the other day, it's not like, oh, that's a good or bad location. It's a good or a bad location for you specifically. Because like, there are going to be people listening to the show that are like,

I live in Yas and I love Yas. Oh, my God, please, if you live in Yas, comment, just one person. And do you call it YARS? Yeah, how do you say it? Like, yes, I'm a drag queen. My name's Dolly Dollar. Or, yes. Yeah.

Oh, yes, I think you have to say. Do you reckon it's yes? Well, I was actually watching Colin from accounts and they said yes, I think, but I could be wrong. Do love Colin from accounts? Great taste. Yeah, I just sounded that. But no, and I drive past y'ass all the time. I want you know, it's just the first thing I thought of, but I just mean to say anywhere.

I drive past yass all the time. I do. On my drive to Sydney, I love it and I always stop in. So it's more just like... They're good at a bakery, don't they? Oh, they got a good at everything. Yeah, okay, sorry. I'm good McDonald's.

But yeah, so I think that like, yeah, just try and I think once you're in and I could be wrong. Once you're in the market, you're in the market. I feel like you'll be fine to sell and then change your situation later. Like, it's so fine. I don't know. It's probably not that easy. But location, location, location, as they say. Yeah, I think location is one of those things where exactly as Victoria was saying is person to person, like you're either someone who really wants to prioritize a central location close to a CBD. You know, I think, like if I was to live in New York, for example. Like, I'd want to be in New York.

Like, that was the experience. But it's, yeah, as someone who grew up in the suburbs, I do feel it's my duty to just say, suburban life can be wonderful. I grew up in the suburbs, though, I guess is the difference. So, as you said, my community is there. Girl, I grew up on the Mornington Peninsula. Some would say, I grew up in the sticks. Yeah.

So it's so dependent on what you value. I will say that you presented just three options, which was city location, you know, more regional location or rent vesting. I would say that rent vesting would enable you to have the best of both worlds in the sense of. Correct. You would probably, generally speaking, for a, oh, you know what, maybe not. But like you would maybe buy the city location, rent that out and live more regionally would be my thought.

Or you could do it the other way around, actually. You do whatever you want. But, I mean, it would fold into your plans on either side. I think you do kind of need to be on the same page. And maybe if you haven't already, can you, before you put it? purchase, rent in a few different locations. Yeah. We ended up building in a place that we already lived because we knew that we loved where we

lived. And so I think that if you've tried living places, it might help give you a sense of what's important to you. For some people it is, like they don't want to ever have to own a car. You know, I have friends who lived right in the heart of Richmond. They didn't own a car. They walked to work. They caught the train anywhere they needed to.

Like, everything was so close to them. Whereas where I live, there's good public transport, but it would be a lot harder to live that way. I look at Jess. I just can't imagine her on the bus every day. No. It's not very Jess. It's not Jess coded.

Not my preference. Your homemaker, Jess. Yes, I do. I love being a home. I love my cozy space. So I think that it's, you've just got to work out what's right for you. The other thing I will say,

as someone who has just bought their first home, won't shut about it. Oh, have you bought a house, Jess? I don't know. No, no. Is it like a whole house? Whole house. Oh my God.

Oh, my God. You should definitely post at least once on social media. Got it. Why are you talking about you one? Have you heard of YouTube? It was a big secret. Because for those of you who haven't heard of YouTube or Ms. Jessica Gritchie, she has an entire YouTube series on how she bought her house,

what she's doing with her house, how she's building her house, what colour her house is, what colour her house is not. And that's actually quite topical. That's gorgeous. Check it out. Thank you so much for the plug. The other thing I was going to say is the space thing I think for a lot of people

is a big issue. And it's, you know, that's the, your price, you're paying, when you're paying for a less space versus more space. I think as well that as someone who has just bought, your first home is never going to be your forever home. This is a conversation we had a lot when I was looking at places and going, oh, it's not quite right. It's not quite this. It's not quite that. If I had an extra $200,000, I could get exactly what I want.

Every time I had this conversation with Jess, I genuinely felt like I was breaking her little heart. Like, she'd be like, I want this. And I'd be like, you know, have. No have. No have, no. No have, no get. And so just remember that as much as this is, so excited. Like you've spent all this time saving, you're finally getting it going, that's amazing and I'm so

proud of you. This is just your stepping stone. You know, you can move into this property and then down the track, you can sell it or you can rent it out or you can do whatever you want with it. But it's very unlikely that the first property you purchase is the property that you will live in for the whole rest of your lives. And so think about it that way a little bit as well. Like it maybe isn't going to tick all the boxes and maybe it is a good time to experiment.

But keep in mind of the capital growth is the other thing, because I think we've spoken about before how sometimes locations or apartments in CBDs specifically don't necessarily increase in value significantly. That is not a bad thing. They might have decent rental yield. But it's something that you want to consider knowing it is your first house and knowing that at some point you might want to either rent it or sell it. Whatever you purchase, I would recommend just looking at what that capital growth looks like. Yeah. Smart girl. That's enough for me. Sorry. I'm just going to share what we did because we were in a similar situation with a similar amount saved when Steve and I bought our first home. And both of us thankfully kind of wanted to live in the inner suburbs,

but we were finding it really hard to find a place that was within our budget and something we actually liked. So we started having these conversations of like, well, if we went out further, we would get something bigger. Let's have a look at that. And we did and ultimately decided to kind of zoom out and be like, okay, actually, what's this house going to do for us? So we want to get into the property market. We want to stop renting. Great. What does our lifestyle look like in the next 10 years? Because like, for me personally, I never wanted to buy a house that I was going to own for less than 10 years. But I was also very happy if after 10 years we needed to dispose of that asset, we would. So my husband and I actually had a really big life conversation. And we bought our house

during COVID and we then were discussing, okay, well, are we going to get married? Yeah, we do want to get married. Okay, well, we want to get engaged, we want to get married, we do want to have kids. What like, and you can never predict these things, but what general timeline does that look like? Okay, well, we would do that. Do we think that this house, so can we wanted a minimum of two kids, do we think that this house is going to be okay if we had two small young children? And both of us agreed, that house would be fine with two young kids, but you probably wouldn't want to have two children. teenagers in it. Like it would just be a little bit too small. And both of us agreed that we were happy to compromise on the smaller house for the shorter period of time, knowing that hopefully in 10 years

capital growth had changed and we could dispose of that asset and step into a bigger family home. Now, that's what we ultimately chased and went for the location further in as opposed to buying the big family house further out. Because I think also, when you had this conversation about, oh, do we buy the big family house further out? That still wasn't our dream home. It was bigger, but like I still would have wanted a bigger house when I had teenagers, if that makes sense. So whilst that isn't the way that the cookie has crumbled, because we were in the very lucky position where my income increased, my husband's income increased, we got pregnant sooner than we thought we might get pregnant with my daughter. And we were like, oh, do we want to

move? Because like, we're in a financial position that we didn't actually think we would be in. by the time we had two kids. And then literally our dream house popped up, but we did have to sell that house to get out of it. So we owned it for about five and a half years. And yes, we made that decision sooner. But like, had we not purchased that house to use as a stepping stone, we could not have afforded the house that we have now.

And so, like, we are, you know, in a different way, role modelling that, like, yes, our first home wasn't our dream home. I was obsessed with it. I loved it. but it wasn't ever going to be our forever home. But it was going to be the next 10 years. And like had we not been in the same financial position to move, you know, at five and a half years in, we would have still been very happy there.

Like it would have served the purpose. But again, it would have got a bit cramped once you have two teenagers with, you know, their bedrooms that are quite tiny and side by side and, you know, one shared bathroom and all of that. So I think that is important to share because it's like you spend so long focused on the deposit. that then when you're deciding what to do, you genuinely feel like this is the decision we make forever. And unfortunately it's not. So we obviously took this to the community and said, guys, what's your two cents?

First question we asked was, you've got 110 grand sitting in your account. Are you? 41% buying ASAP. 30% still saving and 29% said, I don't know, I'm indecisive. Honest queens. Understand. What would you refuse to compromise on when you are by? your first home. So, 65% of you said keeping repayments manageable. That's very clever.

Okay. Yeah. Like, literally, queen. That's what we've been trying to teach you. 23% said living in an area I love and 12% said having enough space for the future. Okay. We then said, what would you choose? 58% said a smaller home in my dream location. 32% said bigger home further out. And 10% said, I would prefer to rent vest. Interesting. Okay. Then we were like, all right, get your comment on.

And lots of people were saying we went with the bigger house a little further out. And to be honest, I miss living in the city and our desired area. We're planning on moving back in. Interesting. Wow. Another person on the flip side said, consider regional, if possible, the places are cheaper and you get more for your money. At suburb or town, an extra 20 minutes away might actually save you thousands. And that extra few minutes of work could be worth the money.

I mean, yeah, like there's this misconception, I think, that like, when you move to the suburbs or to the regions, there's like nothing out there. And that's just not true anymore. At least not for, not for Melbourne. No, you're not moving out into a paddock. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can, if that's your journey. Another person said, honestly, in this property market, just buy sooner.

Okay, fair. I'm seeing a lot of people in our mortgage-broking business really ramping up trying to buy before July the first next year. year because with property and the way that CGT is going to change if you own a property, like if you purchased a property after July next year, you're not going to get access to that 50% CGT discount that they are proposing. And so a lot of people who are, you know, buying their first homes, they're like, oh, I really want to get in before then. Or a lot of people who are investors are like, oh, the entire purpose I would want to invest

is for capital gains and I want access to that. So I can understand that. But then I go back and put my financial advisor hat on and go, no, actually the best time to buy is when you are personally ready, not when the market is ready. Another person is just saying what Jess said. Your first time is never your forever home. It is a stepping stone. Just get into the market. Next person said, it really depends how quickly you want kids or you might need the space.

Another person said, I am a massive advocate for rent testing, been doing it for the last 15 years and it's been incredible. Love that. I love that because I feel like so many of us hear stories about rent vesting, but it's like, oh, I rent vested for like two years and I got my dream property and that's just not that relatable, to be honest. Someone else said, if you don't love the location, it will never be your forever home. Also, babies in an isolated location is hard. I am speaking from experience.

That's very true. What is your next life stage the clock? Yeah. And do you know what? Even like I look at our situation and we have very supportive parents. but like my parents are over an hour away. My partner's mom lives on literally the other side of the city. And so it's like a hustle to be like, oh, if, you know, Steve's mom's taking one of the kids today to look after them, we've got to add in all the logistics to get back and forward.

Like your village isn't as accessible. And that's okay. Like we are so privileged to still have a village. So like I am not complaining. But it is definitely something to take into consideration. If you go, I really want babies like tomorrow and I really want my mom to be present. Maybe a smaller house closer to your mom is actually the lifestyle you've been looking for. 100%.

And then the last one I'll share is, I'm kicking myself for not being more open to buying a house sooner. I had analysis paralysis and I just kept saving. Which is not like the be all and end all. Totally. But also don't let it overwhelm you. No, absolutely not. All right. Well, I think that we could actually all talk about it forever because it's not just about agreeing on a dream, right?

It's also about weighing up how much you want to spend on furnishing your home, how you want to live in it, and what kind of lifestyle you actually want to lead. You might be really into, like me, hosting and entertaining, which might be a game changer for the kinds of properties that you actually consider. You might also want all of the pets, so you have to have a really big backyard. Like, there are so many things you need to factor in. With that, my friends, it is time to wrap the show because unfortunately, That is all we have time for today. If you've enjoyed this episode and felt inspired to come up with your own drag alter ego, please let us know in the comments, share your reviews or maybe slide into our DMs with a new dilemma or a question of the week.

Catch you on Monday, bright and early for a fresh money diary. Until then, take care of yourselves and of each other and have a great weekend. Bye guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally 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 Sherper Pty-LTD, ABN-649-27708.