She's On The Money - I Tried to Time the Market… But the Market Timed Me

Episode Date: April 12, 2026

What actually happens when you start investing… and just figure it out as you go? In this week’s Investing Diary, we’re chatting to a Money Bee who has been on a full journey over the last four years. Blue chip stocks, trying to time the market, accidentally buying multiple ETFs that all hold the same companies… nothing has been off limits. It’s the kind of story that will make you feel a lot better about your own investing decisions. We talk about what it looked like starting out with a $10,000 head start, how confidence can quickly turn into “I can outsmart the market” energy, and the moment you realise your strategy might not be as solid as you thought. There’s also a really real conversation about ETFs and diversification, especially when you think you’re spreading your investments… but you’re actually doubling up without realising. Plus, we get into the emotional side of investing, like watching your portfolio move up and down, and how to stay consistent when everything feels a bit chaotic. We also cover the practical side of things, including choosing an investing platform, the differences between CMC and Sharesies, and why automating your investments can be the thing that keeps you on track long term. This episode is relatable, a little bit chaotic, and genuinely helpful. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re “doing investing right” or felt unsure about your strategy, you’re going to see yourself in this one. SORT YOUR INSURANCE: A big thank you to our partner Skye Wealth for bringing this episode to life. If you're ready to get your insurances sorted, you can learn more about them here.We have a long standing referral partnership with Skye Wealth and only ever partner with people we trust. CHECK OUT THE SOTM INVESTING HUB: Full of our best investing freebies, resources, courses and podcast episodes here. INVESTING FOR BEGINNERS: All our best beginner's investing podcast episodes in one place here.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 - 4451289See 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 nirawamundamun imalan. Mumu bangada boma 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's here to show you that investing isn't just for the rich, my friends, it is for you too. I'm your host, Victoria Devine, and today we are going to do something a little bit different. You are incredible, She's On The Money community. You are always sliding into my DMs asking to get even pervier on money diaries. And today, my friend, I have one lined up for you. Instead of the usual money tea,

we are going to dive into something even juicier. So welcome back to another one of our investing Diaries that is brought to you by our friends at Sky Wealth, where I'm going to get to talk to one of our incredible She's On The Money community members all about her investing journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's On The Money. I am super keen on investing and have been through the ringer with my investing strategy for the last four years. I've done the following. I've bought and held blue chip stocks. I've learned from other people's mindsets of greed and scarcity and started trying to time the market unsuccessfully. I've moved into buying and holding ETFs and bought

the top five best performing Australian ETFs. And then I realized that they all have the same companies in them. And then I also have a current strategy of consistently investing in the ASX 200 and the NASDAQ. There's lots of lessons that I've learned along the way. I've also just started contributing to the first home super saver scheme. I would also love to chat about your investing masterclass as I'm currently deciding whether to move from CMC where I have no fees to Shazzy's based on all the info that I have available to me. Let's talk. Money Diarist, welcome or Investing Diarist, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Very excited to be here. When I read your four dot points, the way I cackled, the way I laughed, I promise I was

just like sitting there being like, oh, she's a girl's girl. Like you're just trying your best and then you've bought ETFs and then realize they're all the same how annoying is that yeah I was like thinking no I read into them and I was like oh they all sound really good something about tech something was like top 100 US stocks I'm like oh awesome they're all different how good I'll actually listen to one of your podcasts that was about like making sure you're not paying fees of the same things and I was like oh I need to look into that next minute I've got four of the same ones. So amazing. You know what? That's part of the journey. And you know what? You haven't tapped out. So I'm super proud of you. Thanks. Let's get into it. But the first

question I ask on Money and Investing Diaries, I want to know, if I asked you to give yourself a money grade from A through to F, what grade would you give yourself? A B or B plus. Oh yeah. Yeah. Lots to learn still, but have definitely come a long way over the last five years. All right. So tell me a bit more about your money slash investing journey. Where did it start? What did it look like? And what does it look like now? Probably investing journey for that is probably more exciting to talk about. Essentially at 21, my parents gave me and my siblings 10K to help start the investing journey. Oh, very cool. Thanks, mum and dad. Yeah, it was a nice 21st present. Not money that I ever really have seen. Like it's gone straight into the share market, which is exciting. So you have seen it. We know where it is and she's

growing. She's plodding along. She's doing her work. Yes, absolutely. So I guess that started the journey of investing and I didn't even know much about it prior to that. When your parents gave you 10 grand, obviously money win. Thank you. But is this because your parents are big investors themselves is it because they have done that for all of your siblings or is it because you know you had shown an interest and be like really want to invest and they're like we're going to get behind you like what did that look like? Yeah it's something that they had planned to help me and my sisters do once we hit 21 so that was their sort of gift to help us I guess try to get ahead at a younger age and that sort of stemmed from mainly my dad learning about

investing probably at the age of like 45 or 50 so he's still pretty new to the whole space yeah from a farming family so sometimes shares are a great way to still have cash available but wasn't the biggest goal for my parents initially they wanted to grow the property rather than I guess put it into the share market yeah and that's so fair and farming's rough just because the income is so inconsistent and you can have a really good season and the next season might not be the same so you do actually have to hoard a fair bit of cash because you might have to like literally carry over for a whole year or even more if there's a drought. Like I don't know what your family farms in, but it can be really chaotic. Yeah, absolutely. So they sort of started

in the investing world a bit later in life, but saw the benefit and thought, let's get the daughters involved a lot earlier. So money diarist, tell me a little bit more before we dive into the nitty gritty of investing. What do you currently do for work and how much money do you earn? I am currently in my first big girl job after uni. First big girl job. I love how we are genuinely smart women and we still call it like, I've got my big girl job, but we are genuinely smart human beings, but we all still just are girls.

Yeah, like I'm really proud of myself to have landed that. I work in financial services, helping farmers. Very cool. Yeah, I'm from Kangaroo Island actually. So I'm from the bottom of South Australia. So a great network of farmers over here. I earn 100k with super. So that was a big goal of mine and really happy to tick that off initially.

Oh, nice. And I just started a couple of months ago. She got her six figures. Yeah. Congrats. That's so cool. And you didn't need me to tell you how farming works and how it can be cyclical. You already know that.

Yeah. I love that. And so you help farmers with their finances and stuff. Does that, you said you're in financial services. Is the plan to become an advisor or just stay in your role? Or like, what does that look like? Yeah, I've just landed in this one. So it's a new role within the business that I'm working with.

So I would love to do a really good job in this role first. That has been a big goal initially, and it's just sort of ticked it off. So I haven't fully looked at what's next. That's cool. I love that. And there are so many options. so talk me through how you invest I feel like you've landed and just been like yeah give me a bit of everything show me what that looks like I'm gonna invest in blue chip actually no I'm not

I'm gonna invest in ETFs actually I'm gonna invest in all the ETFs wait that's probably not a great idea so tell me a little bit about how you personally invest and how that journey has gone how's it felt yeah it has felt chaotic that was a good way to describe it but still there doing it and I still have enjoyed the process of learning but yeah initially got 10k from my parents and I they encouraged me to buy blue chip stocks and just individual shares and that was ANZ Westpac sort of woodside BHP sort of scenario yeah that's very boomer I like it yeah it was on brand for them not I didn't really know what I was doing just went yeah yeah I mean at least they're predictable we love to see it yeah and after that initial investment I was dollar cost

averaging with my paycheck at the time so that was a win I didn't know that that was a good strategy at the time because I went away from it later you were like I actually only have this cash so I'll just invest it when I get it pretty much but I actually did really well for the first couple years and I think it was probably the timing of the market it was doing really well in like what was it 2022 2023 in those sort of shares yeah like if I could invest in BDHG today yeah I would so average 7.25 percent for those years which was great very nice yeah I'll take that and then I went back into my final year of uni and I had an economics lecturer sort of explained to me you know fear and greed and how that impacts you know the market and when people

you know if it hits the top of the market people often want to hold on to their cash and hold on to their investments but it might actually be a good time to sell and the opposite when it's you know market might be crashing and everyone wants to jump out it actually might be a good time to buy yeah absolutely i thought i was all smart and started to try to time the market within these blue chips and how did that go yeah i think i got 1.5 percent return for that year so probably learned my lesson pretty quick you know what that's better than a kick in the pants yeah I mean she's not keeping up with inflation but at least she's not going absolutely backwards yeah and I think the best part was like knowing when to stop that strategy as well like not sitting

there for so long that I just committed to it I was like oh no this is not working let's do something different yeah and I'm actually really glad that if that's the type of personality you've got to be like oh no I could definitely give this a crack which girl I've done it too like what we want to do with that is do it early and get it out of our system so that then we go actually this is a terrible idea moving forward I'm just going to go into what suits me a little bit better because well I want to time the market too queen turns out I can't no but I'd prefer to be humbled early you know when I'm playing with less money yep absolutely I was happy to learn my lesson early on and I can say I've gone away from that strategy so yeah that's good yes good and then

2025. I actually, I think I signed up to your She's In The Money email distribution list and you guys sent out the top 10 ETFs. Great idea. Great idea. That's the best idea ever. I would absolutely recommend people join my newsletter. I yap, but I also give you good information about investing. Yeah. So I'd already had a bit of interest in ETFs through the podcast as well. Like that's probably where I do most of my learning. But yeah, this email come out and I was like top 10 ETFs oh that would be awesome I'll just you know pick a few from there and off I go no you didn't listen at all well I did and I didn't so I picked four out of that and that was NDQ I think it's the I100

IVV and Qual and do you know what they all have in common they're all top 10 holdings yeah US stocks US businesses so yeah yeah nice so they all had the same risk profile yeah that's just a learning and I feel like we've got to go through that and I mean it's not the end of the world yes you've probably wasted some money in fees but that market has done pretty well over the last little bit so you're probably not behind you're probably just paying a little bit more in fees and brokerage because you've like spread it out across different options right yeah and I feel like it got to a point i was like oh i'm all over this like this is a great strategy feeling really confident and comfortable and i was like oh i listened to one of your podcasts and it was like

you know check what you actually invested in like and i hadn't really been checking the top 10 businesses yeah within the etf at all wasn't really doing that and then i went and did it and i was like oh there's like ticks everywhere for all of these four they're all crossing it's okay maybe just one will do the trick totally and like I totally get that but at the same time I'm like you know what I'm just glad you're in the market and I'm glad that we're you know working towards financial freedom and you're excited about it we can adjust the strategy yeah absolutely the strategy has been a continuous adjustment totally so tell me a little bit more about these direct shares because you said hey I started with direct shares you know really blue chip my parents guided

me here what happened to those shares like do you still hold them no I did sell them all off I think start I'm sorry 25 ish when I went into these ETFs instead and like it was a really mixed bag of results my ANZ was up 13.8% the other good performers was BHP 22% up Westpac 5.2% up so that might sound good, but then Telstra down 15%, Woodside down 18%. So it's like all averaged out really. Yeah. And it all comes out in the wash. Like that's what I want people to really understand is that when we are investing, you might go, oh, BHP, that was a sick result, but that's going to come out in the wash if something else isn't performing. And that's actually why we have a diversified portfolio to make sure that if something's up significantly and something's

down, we actually get the average of the market, which is why a lot of our community prefer to invest in things like ETFs, because you get a really nice basket that exists in the market already. So that if something's up and something's down, you just go, this is much easier to manage my return consistently. Yep. Absolutely. Did that feel yucky trying to sell them all down, especially if things were down and up and, or were you just excited to clear it all out? Oh, it was probably a mixed bag, like feeling like I didn't quite nail it, which I'm someone who likes to do things well if I'm doing them. So a bit of that, but then a few of them were like, you know, ANZ and BHP were really good.

Yeah. It was sort of like a mixed bag of emotions, but probably excited to go and try a different strategy. Yeah. Fair. And so tell me about your ETFs now, when you started picking them, did you have a specific strategy in mind or did you just go I just want some ETFs or are you like oh because I think a few times we've mentioned international like you've mentioned the US market yeah did you really want exposure to the US and that's why you picked those or like what were your thought patterns yeah my main thought patterns was initially ETFs because they are already diversified like we've discussed and then pretty much to go after return so I've got two ETFs I've got about 15k in each and the a200 is one of them which is averaging a five-year average of 10.1 return which

i feel like for me that's a safer etf on my behalf so i can just feel comfortable with all those companies it's the top you know australian companies pretty much so i felt really comfortable with that yeah and i did keep one of those us etfs which was ndq and i picked it based on it just having a higher five-year average return of 18% compared to the others. So that is my two ETFs. Very cool. And what share or ETF, we said before, you know, you had some that did really well, what share or ETF have you seen the biggest return on? Yeah, if I just look back, it was BHP, but I think definitely around the timing of that, because my current investments I think I'm at the moment down like A200's down I think three percent

and then I just did my calcs on the weekend and NDQ is currently what negative one percent and that's just obviously the market situation as of today there's a bit going on yeah totally obviously I've only recently invested really in those so that's all part of it yeah I was about to say so tell me a little bit about the dates of that because I feel like yes the market is down right now but I don't know are you seeing that as an opportunity or is that stressing you out? I wish I had cash available to see it as an opportunity but I don't really have spare cash I've just been dollar cost averaging at the moment every paycheck. Okay that makes sense. Yeah but I guess I probably still have the perception that like well what if I just save that cash and waited

for an opportunity like now like is that better off than dollar cost averaging like that definitely plays on my mind a little bit well that would be going back to your strategy of timing the market right and how did that work out for us yeah I really need to learn I've learned but it's yeah it lives bread free yeah look I don't learn either and I say that because I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not but like I see the market going down and I'm like oh an opportunity maybe I should invest a little bit more but the reality is like Victoria just keep dollar cost averaging into the market and we can definitely like make the most of this and of the rest of it because like we don't know if it's going to go further down like if we put a hundred bucks in

today is it going to be worth 10 tomorrow we don't know is it going to be worth 200 tomorrow also don't know so I think it's just really important to not get caught up in it in saying that, I also need to admit that when the market has gone down and I know like I use Sharesies as you mentioned before, I have some cash sitting in my Sharesies account because every single month I just have my automatic like payment that goes into the ETFs that I've picked, right? But I have some extra cash sitting there that's kind of like built up and I keep being like, do I invest it? So yesterday I definitely invested a little bit more because I was like, oh, I mean, it's down from the average and what's the worst thing over the long term if it even goes down more like it doesn't

really matter at least I'm getting it into the market and I think we've all got to put our our big girl pants on when it comes to that because we can't time the market but we can try to seize an opportunity and then if that opportunity doesn't feel like it's been seized within that year at least it's in the market you know for the long haul so I'm actually going to be better off it just wasn't as cool as it could have been you know yeah absolutely so tell me about your dividends with the dividends that get paid out what's the plan are you reinvesting them are you pulling them out as income do they just go into your bank account you haven't done anything with them yet what does that look like yeah i just have them to auto reinvest into the platform

at the moment and then i just choose where i'd like to put it from there but i haven't really gone like a200 does pay dividends i haven't really picked them based off dividend yield Like I don't think NDQ actually has very good yield on that. No, it doesn't. So it's not something that's a big deal for me personally because I'm not looking to see that cash at all anyway. Yeah, so are you going for more of a growth strategy over the long term then?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. That's why NDQ is in the mix because it's probably a higher risk, hopefully higher reward. It absolutely is. I don't know, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. All right, let's get to my thoughts. We'll go to a really quick break though and then we can get to my thoughts and a few of the spicier things after that. I want to know if you've made any tactical moves,

how you actually feel after market dips and something that I get questions about all the time that you also raised, what platform do we pick and how do we stick to it? So don't go anywhere, guys. All right, we are back and I want to dive into platform conversations because in your diary in, you were like, V, I'm with CMC Markets, get some free trades, money win. But I kind of like what Sharesies looks like. The insight's pretty sexy. Tell me about your decision making process around platform and why you might want to move. It has been a massive deal. Like I am still probably coming to terms with getting to the end of that decision. And I'm still currently in between the two. All of my current dollar cost averaging is within Sharesies at the moment,

but I've still got pretty much my bulk. Oh, you say you're already there. Yeah, I'm halfway there. I'm just in the middle of transitioning over. I spent like three years at CMC though not knowing that if you went under $1,000 for your trade, you'd get free brokerage. I was just doing like $1,400, $1,100 and like getting the $10 brokerage. So I learned my lesson there.

Oh, that's so annoying. but the biggest reason to move across is that I just find it really hard initially to know how much like there's no tracking on how much I've put in and I did some digging to try to find that and it's just absolutely painful to work that out yeah in terms of like on the what they have available to find that and then you also I don't know I'm trying I would love to know how to like get your year-on-year performance yeah like nothing no one seems to be able to have that available yeah so in sharesies you absolutely can have your year-on-year performance but you have to have been on the platform for more than a year to do that yeah does that make sense so like i think you've

only just moved to sharesies so it probably isn't a stat that when you click on it it will come up is that right yeah that would make sense but on cmc markets i genuinely can't tell you but what i can tell you about that platform is it's not a bad platform there's like actually in australia we are very lucky because there is such a level of like compliance that people need to meet to be able to offer a platform in our country right so you know it's gonna hold up but it's more about the data and the insights that you're looking for and they are a little bit more lean that doesn't mean i don't recommend them i have a cmc markets account because we all know that like i mean guys i'm she's on the money i got every platform my tax return and my accountant hate me like they're

always like how many platforms have you got and what's invested on this and like every platform like if my community is talking about a platform girl I'm gonna go get it like not because I want to invest my life savings on there but I want to make sure that I'm checking it out if there's any big red flags I know what it is so I'll chuck a hundred bucks in I'll buy you know a VDHG share on there and just see how it tracks and what type of performance and insights I get but the cheaper your platform, the less bells and whistles you get. Now that's not to say that cheap platforms are bad, but you are clearly looking for a bit more data and a bit more insight in maybe more of a user-friendly way. And that's where personally, I really enjoy what I can get out

of Sharesies. I like that I can click through my portfolio and see what I've put in over time. I like that I can see how much money I've put in versus how much money I totally have. And then like do little charts and stuff. I would say that the Sharesies app, and I feel like a walking sales person so please like that's not the intention right now but I feel like the app is really fantastic but when you log into the desktop it's even better and I know that they really want to promote the app like that's the coolest thing right but being able to access things on my computer maybe I just feel like a gamer I don't know when the chart's bigger it means better right yeah I haven't even looked at the desktop so I'll have to do that one but yeah you can log in on

your desktop. And that seems to be a way that I like to absorb my information. I feel like on the go, I just look at it on my phone. And like, if I'm investing a little bit more, I'm just checking something. But when I want to look at my portfolio as a whole or download a tax report, I'm always logging in. Do you have to do that? No, but I personally enjoy doing it that way. But your platform is your personal opinion, right? Like some people couldn't care less for an app. Whereas me, I want the app. I want to be able to just see it on the go. I really like their search engine. I really like all of that. Whereas some people are going to go, oh, V, I'm just with like, you know, the most simple one ever. I just buy stuff and I don't need any insights. And that's

cool. But there's no one size fits all answer. Yeah. If that makes sense. I wish I could be like, babe, here's the answer. Yeah. I think I just got to a point where I'm ready to understand my performance more and CMC wasn't quite doing that for me anymore and also life is all of a sudden really busy it's just where I'm at with things so automatic investing is a really great function that I can just automatically after every paycheck so money straightens shares these and then that automatically invests every fortnight and I don't even have to look at it that's such Yeah, I like that it just automates it. And as you said, when life gets busy, stuff like this, you go, oh yeah, yeah, I'll get to it. And then you forget. And then it's a month later and you've

actually missed a month and that's okay. But those things add up over time. And like the entire point is to create financial freedom. And right now I don't have freedom. I'm really busy with two kids and I promise I would have missed the last three investing cycles had it not just been a notification on my phone. Like my shares, this notification pops up and it's like, your trade's been done. I'm like, oh yeah. Well, I find it really helpful. And like, I'm just the type of person that out of sight, out of mind, like if it's not front of mind and it's not right in front of me, sometimes I just forget to do it. Yeah, absolutely. I just like that it's admin free. Like, you know, you can set it up once and that is it. Don't have to worry about it. And you can up it, you can down

it, whatever, you can adjust it. Yeah, exactly. And that's why I have money sitting in my account because like I invest the amount that I, you know, want to invest every month and then I transfer some more over. I don't know if everybody knows my budget and cashflow system, but every week I give myself a certain amount of money. And then if I don't spend it, I can either transfer it to my savings for something bigger, or I just transfer it to my investment account and it just builds up and then I can, you know, do an extra investment or something. That money just builds up and then, you know, I can dive in and invest a little bit more or have a bit of a play or pick have a new satellite. So the market's been pretty crazy recently. I feel like every day I log in

and it's red or it's green and I'm confused or I see that Trump has said something different on Twitter again. How are you reacting to that as an investor who hasn't been in the market for a long time? Like what does that look like? Because it feels like initiation by fire. Yeah, particularly having just moved to these two ETFs recently definitely noticing it in my portfolio yeah I know enough to not panic and worry about it know enough that I wish I had more cash to put in and that's fine I think I just I probably at a point where I want to really make sure that my strategy is okay and that's probably where I probably need to get some more support and not just go off what I think is right sometimes which you know I love the challenge of learning about

the investing world but probably at a point where I need some support and yeah I'm fine with where the current world how that is impacting the market and my investments I have no means to pull that money out anytime soon like I'm planning to leave that in there yeah for I don't know retirement I don't have any plans to bring it out so yeah I'm not too stressed so tell me about this like apprehension that you have around your investing strategy is it because you're like oh I'm just really not sure if I'm doing it right or you really want to tweak something specific or you're just like super excited about the whole market like what does that look like because I feel like when we start talking about strategy often different people mean different things sometimes

they're like oh well my strategy is I just want to add another ETF and I go oh well that's different than you know a growth versus a dividend strategy for example yeah I was more meaning the strategy of where I'm at with the two ETFs and like you know I've sort of like I think I said you said at the start I've been through the ringer which is probably not the best piece of words that I could have described it but hey I didn't say that you said that I read your own words it feels right in how to describe it and I just feel like I want to make sure I'm not in another point where in another year's time I'm like oh that was just another part of that journey like I'd like to get to a point where I'm really really really confident in how I'm going about things so that

I can get the returns yeah and just make them consistent and you just know that you've got good exposure to a number of different markets and you're good to go like I feel like that confidence is often underestimated like it's so important to have that confidence because that's what's going to mean that you do stick to it over the long term and feel confident during that period because like the market's going to go up but the market's going to go down and like you just want to make sure that you're secure like it's a smart thing to do yeah now my friend I want to ask you mentioned that you sold down your shares and some were up and some were down can you tell me about the tax implications what happened there did you have to talk to your accountant did

you have to pay a whole heap of tax what did that look like I'm just a little girl and I literally had no idea about like the implications of tax I actually don't really know probably another reason that I've moved from CMC is like the statements and tax time and I've only this year got a personalized account like I've always done my own tax return like I've always been in a position where I could have only been at uni and whatnot so I don't really know you can do it yourself but also that's, again, I feel like a walking advertisement for Sharesies today and that's not the meaning of it. But after tax time, Sharesies literally just send you a whole statement that you hand the PDF over to your accountant and they go, thank you. And that's all they need.

And I just think that's fantastic. Less mental load. We're just girls. I don't want to have to calculate it. And do you know what? I'm someone who can calculate it. Do I want to though? Still no. No, I'll leave the accountant to do that work for me. But yeah, I don't actually know how that impacted me previously. Probably should, but I don't. You know what? It clearly hasn't impacted you that bad. No, no. So talk to me about how much you have invested. We know that you started with 10 grand and that your parents gifted you 10 grand to kick it off. And that's kind of what started it snowballing. But where have you gotten to? Because I feel like you mentioned I had a year where i got 1.5 percent returns and that was kind of dismal but now i'm back on track

what's your total portfolio worth now yeah the total portfolio is at 30k oh who is she yeah 15 in 1815 in ndq that is very cool and for context guys our money diarist is only 24 yeah you're just a baby in the nicest possible way i hope people know that when i say that it's not a, oh, I'm condescending. You're so young. I mean it in a, oh my goodness, you have so much time ahead of you. This is so exciting. You're 24 and have 30 grand invested, like money win. Yeah. No, it's really exciting. And I think if I did a similar thing for my kids, I probably wouldn't give them the cash till they were like 25 and had their head screwed up. I feel like I'm only just growing up at 24. But you're learning.

Yeah. You're learning. And do you know what? You put it into the share market. Do you know how many people I've met who have been in similar situations and they're like oh yep I actually spent all that money on a holiday no it was forced we weren't allowed to touch it you know what your parents have got their heads screwed on I like them Picasso now tell me what your financial freedom number looks like have you thought about this you're investing where do you want to get to what's the long-term plan yeah I literally haven't given it too much like I've got this idea I'd love to have 100k in shares I don't know that feels like a nice number to have in there and like the idea is to retire off that cash not really see it or look at it I'd love to buy a house one

day or build a house I haven't really gone down the strategy of that I've only just started using the first time super save it scheme so that is definitely a little way off I think I'm putting in 250 a fortnight so if i want to hit the 50k it's like it's like eight years to hit the max 50k so at some point i might bump that up but that's still you're on the way my love you are on the way yeah in the making i guess but that's so exciting or i think that's exciting yeah absolutely it's exciting to go about actually making that a somewhat of a priority and yeah it was interesting thing to go down and learn about the super saver scheme route like initially I thought I'll put that money for my house deposit in the share market but I have this thing where I like and I

never want to pull that money out of the share market I just don't want to I don't know I've been in a few situations where I probably should have and I just I don't like it it doesn't appeal to me at all I'm probably a bit obsessed with seeing that number grow and not come back and then the few other options were have my house deposit in a cash account and I didn't really like the idea of that like I'd prefer to have it growing at a bigger rate and my super's averaging like 9.6 percent very nice I thought let's let's throw it in there so it's growing I can't actually touch it until I really need to like until I'm ready to buy or build or I haven't really looked at what that actually looks like at the end but it's sort of like salary sacrifice so you don't

even see that cash either you don't have to touch it look at it whatever yeah so that's a big goal as well at some point oh I love that and I think that that's a situation that lots of us are in like if you're 24 it's like well I actually don't have a financial freedom number yet but I know that I'm well on the way and over time with your lifestyle you work that out I just I'm excited for you and I'm just glad that you're starting to use things like the first home super savers game they're literally set up to benefit us like you are going to get tax discounts for using that just think about whether it works for your situation. Tell me now at the start of this episode you were like I'm a B like I reckon I'm a solid B when it comes to money not just investing. What would it

take to get you from a B to an A? There's a few things that go into that we haven't quite touched on it but my net worth is like zero. I have a 73k help debt from uni so. Oh that's okay I was like babe is that a credit card? I was like I'm gonna talk to you about it but that's not the worst so that's equal to my asset so that's fine like I feel fine about it I'm not making any extra contributions to it it's very different when it's a hex debt versus a personal debt my love and you're also so young like that is to be expected yep and another one you're probably going to tell me off but like I have some when have I ever told anybody off sit down It's about emergency funds, so it might.

I do have half of it. I just haven't got my full amount and I am putting money into every paycheck, but at the same time, I'm not fully putting all my cash there to get it up to scratch. I'm putting money in my share portfolio at the same time. So hopefully you're not going to tell me off. I'm not mad at you. I would never be mad at you, but I do think it's a really good example, right?

So if we just rewind a little bit, so you're saying I need an emergency fund, but I'm also prioritizing my investing and I get it and lots of people in our community are, but would you say that you're in a financial position where if something happened, you're going to be okay and you're all right with the decision that you're making to put it into the share market? Like we all know that putting it in the share market is not the best idea because you might have to pull it out and make a loss, but I just feel like you're a bit more risky than most.

Am I picking that up right? Yeah, I definitely like controlled risk. I'm happy to be risk adverse, but ideally it might not seem like it with my history of investing, but I do like to feel like I'm comfortable with the decisions that I'm making. I'm not just making willy nilly. I feel like when I make them, they're not willy nilly decisions. Looking back, maybe they were quick decisions and a bit too fast paced, but like it's just the excitement to get involved and definitely probably a bit of risk in there. But I don't think that's a bad thing. I think that's a calculated decision. And, you know, one, just to be very clear, I've never told anybody off about their financial

decisions because that would make me a terrible person. Two, pot, kettle, black. I've made some of the worst financial decisions. That's how I've ended up on this side of the microphone, my friend. But then I also just think you're a smart woman doing smart things and you are choosing this actively and as long as it was an active decision I'm cool with it because it was your decision and that's the best one that could be made for you whereas if you were like oh I didn't realize I should be putting more in my emergency fund I wish I had that's a different story than the oh my god I'm not doing that because I've prioritized something else sorry this is your life go live it babe yeah I'm on track to like max it out where I want it to be in June so I'm not too stressed

yeah it's fine money diarist i wish we had more time thank you so much for being so open our community is going to be obsessed with this because you're you know what i think that we'd get on like a house on fire because you are so chaotic that i love it like you're just like i just did it and i'll be like great no worries like you're you know what you've got beck syed energy you're just like i just did it and i'll work it out later yeah i wish i was more like you well I probably wish I was less like me but yep we're here no you know what you're the best type of person I bet all your friends are like she's the fun one she is the fun one she is chaos but she's headed in the right direction and I'm just I'm so excited that you've joined financial

services and we get to call you like a colleague in this industry and I just I love to yap about investing and I just I think that our community is going to have loved this episode so thank you so much for sharing. No worries. Thank you so much for having me. Now, we're definitely going to be doing more investing diaries because this is the nitty gritty stuff that I love. If you loved this episode, share it with a friend who also wants to yap about investing. But also, I would love it if you could leave us a review. It genuinely helps us to bring you the content that helps you and it lets us know what you want more of behind the scenes. So, I know you're probably feeling a little bit inspired right now and ready to channel your inner money diarist and

start building your own wealth journey. I've made that really easy and I've actually pulled together all of our best investing resources in one spot on the She's On The Money website. I'm going to link it in the show notes for you so that you can soak it all up and put yourself in the best possible position. My loves, I will see you back here on Wednesday for a deep dive, but till then, have the best day. 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

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