She's On The Money - Is a Guarantor on a Property Loan a Smart Move? Plus, When Using Your Super Early Makes Sense

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Have you ever been offered financial help that sounds generous… but you're worried if it comes with strings attached. This week’s Friday Drinks dives into one of those emotionally loaded money decisions: whether to let your parents go guarantor so you can get into the property market sooner, when you’re already worried about boundaries and control. We unpack what a guarantor loan really means (and what it doesn’t), why the 20% deposit rule isn’t as rigid as people think, and how to weigh financial opportunity against mental health. Then we answer a dilemma from a community member that needs surgery that needs to be privately funded, so we put all her options on the table from taking the money out of super to upping her private health and even whether it's something you can get a loan for.... with the pros and cons to consider for each of course. Add in money wins, broke tips, and a very honest chat about how we actually manage work life balance, and this ep is the perfect mis clarity, validation, and plenty of Friday chaos. Need the team’s take on your money dilemma? Send us a voicemail here.Or if it's more of a spicy money drama and you want the communities verdict? Slide into our DMs here.NEW HERE?: Take our Money Personality Quiz and we will send you free resources based on how YOU actually manage money here.  Ready for more laughs, lessons, and unhinged money chats? Check out our oh-so-bingeable Friday Drinks playlist. Listen here. Join our 400K+ She's on the Money community in our Facebook Group and on Instagram.  Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gulinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan, mumubangada 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 makes personal finance fun especially on a friday it's our favorite day of the week because we get to get together as a team and then we get to celebrate you our incredible she's on the money community Ms. Jessica Ricci, guess what? She's here to share the money wins and confessions. Ms. Bex Syed is back. Surprisingly, more broke tips.

And we're going to be helping to answer a money dilemma that's all about how to privately fund surgery and something that you slid into our DMs about whether it's worth taking up your parents' offer to be a guarantor on your home loan if you're worried it's going to come with strings attached. At the start, I was like, yeah, of course. No, maybe not. quick quick i really backflipped there to set the tone to get us in a good mood to stroke our egos

would you guys like a five-star review yes please absolutely all right this is from christy and she says obsessed after just reading the book i'm now starting to listen to the podcast from way back at the beginning wow obsessed thank you so much learning oh well done that's so lovely i love hearing i love because we can see on our end like how many downloads an episode gets and it's always really fun to see people listening to old ones oh my gosh that's cool the episode that has the most listens is our first ever episode on money stories oh wow which is so embarrassed like you know when you're just like maybe we should like redo it or like archive old content because like you know it's good but we've learned a lot we've come a long way we've come a long way but

like those episodes they keep me humble anyway now it is time my friends for my favorite part of Friday Drinks where you get to ask us one question that you are dying to know and it can literally be about anything like this week's one from Ruby who wants to know I'd love to hear how you guys manage your work-life balance. Well this is really bad and I hope my boss doesn't listen to this but I get to kind of work from home. Your boss is on this. Sorry that's true my other boss my other boss who is probably not as kind and generous as you are VD um I am allowed to work from home whenever basically but I really do kind of take the piss I love working from home because we had to sit in the sun I feel like I know what I have to do every day but that could be at 8 a.m

for an hour or that could be at 10 p.m for an hour but if you're someone who can't work from home all the time you do have to go into work I would say the best thing I ever did was kind of just like be tired, which really sucks because it's like we are working so much, but I always make plans outside of work. So I have something to look forward to because I cannot believe that for eight hours a day, we are trapped and we can't be whatever we want to be. We can't be doing whatever we want to be doing. So make plans after work, whatever that is, even if it's with yourself, always make plans for the weekend. And I guess in a capitalist society, I'm telling you that there is no best way to balance that other than quitting your job and living out in the sticks and then

you'll be screwed and we need the government to change that we need to do a four day three day work week and that's what i'm saying that's amazing it would be amazing this is going to be awkward because your other boss has like a majority of your work right like you're just on the show because you have a real job outside of that but jess's real job is inside of she's on the money. So Jess, how do you manage your work-life balance? Well, I am in my non-work-life balance era simply because I have signed myself up to a second job to save for my house. That's got nothing to do with me. No, no, no. I'm doing 60 hours a week by choice, obviously. Can we also just caveat, because I know that they're going to come for me and be like, Victoria, do you not pay

Jessica enough? Oh no, I just, I like nice things and I want to save hard. So that's okay. But you know what I feel even with the second job I'm very lucky because I you're a flexible employer so I have a lot of flexibility in structuring my day which does allow me to really build out that work life balance I can go to Pilates on my lunch break during the day if I go oh my god I just need 10 minutes to reset my brain I can get up from my desk and walk around my house or walk around my block or do whatever there's a lot of trust which I think really truly does help so much and I know that not everyone has the privilege of being able to work from home or work flexibly depending on what you have to like show up online all the time and your boss will be like you can work from home

whenever you want jess also i saw that you were offline yeah for two minutes this morning why were you appearing as red yeah so like not having to contend with that i couldn't tell you where jess is at any given time but you know what if i text her she replies that's good yeah i'm around and available we facetime a lot in this team because like we are also remote and like jess will answer from the pilates reformer not during class but she's like oh i'm just about to go into Pilates I'll be like oh slate queen that's nice so it's yeah I think like that is something that I'm very fortunate in and that makes such even just being able to like pop a load of laundry on on my lunch break do you know what I mean like it sounds so small but not having to then finish the

work day and go oh my god I've got to do all of these life admin things takes a huge load off for me personally and that benefits me because Jess is less stressed at work right so like I just I have so many thoughts and feelings on how to manage employees and giving them grace and just treating them like the adults they are I didn't hire kindergartners they don't actually need to be told when nap time is or it's snack time now you guys are gonna sit down around the table and share some fruits like you're adults right like can you not manage your own workload if you can't manage the workload that's been allocated to you why do you have that job so if Jess wants to go to Pilates on her work break. And for some reason that takes two hours, as long as our clients

aren't impacted and she's not like skipping meetings or, you know, not getting, why would I care? She's still going to put in the same time. And if that means that instead of clocking off at 5pm when everybody else does, she's clocking off at six because she's like, well, you know, I had a bit more time during the day. Why does that worry me if she's being productive and feels respected and gets to have a good work-life balance? Like that's on her. I don't want her to work till six but if she chooses to that that's a different story than me overloading her with work that she has to work till six that's a different story again side note sorry because I just get really passionate about it because I see so many people in our community who are like oh my boss

xyz and I'm like that's just control that's got nothing to do with productivity I have lived that life and it like ruins you mentally yeah it really does like I've I've feel so much clearer especially like the day that I do go to parties at lunchtime like I come back and I'm like this is my like focus time because I'm so like locked in yeah and it's just I remember being chained to a desk where I literally couldn't leave the office you know for anything even for lunch we were discouraged from leaving and like the difference that that had on my mental health which then obviously impacts exactly as you said like how I performed it's crazy yeah it actually drives me insane and maybe we need to do a whole episode on how we think that managers should run their business

because if you're newer to She's on the Money and you're like, oh, Victoria's a finance girl. Yes, I am. But I'm also a psychology girl. I did two psych degrees. I worked in organizational psychology and my entire career before finance was about improving employer engagement, increasing culture in organizations. And like to get a little bit stats heavy and like go off the side, we see that engaged employees produce 50% higher shareholder return for their businesses. So it's not just about doing the right thing and being a nice human and going, go to Pilates, have a really good time. Sorry, Jess is going to make me more money if she's happy. You're going to put more time and energy and effort into your job if you feel respected by it. So selfishly,

does it not make sense for everybody to go, maybe, just maybe we should respect our staff. and if you can't is it why are you hiring hiring anyway yeah different story for a different day uh how do I manage work-life balance poorly I think it is a very different situation when you are a business owner than when you are an employee so I want to acknowledge that I don't think everyone can do it the way I do I would say I negotiate my work-life balance like I'm negotiating with a toddler who just got home from daycare and hasn't had their afternoon snack so some days. I am a productivity queen. I'm a weapon. I annoy the shit out of my team. I'm ticking off absolutely everything. I basically run the amazing race. Then there are days where my brain literally

says nah and I'm cleaning my pantry instead of replying to emails. There are other days I'm like, I'm going to set boundaries. And then someone pops into my DMs and says, hey girl, I've got a quick question and I am back where I was before and I have no boundaries. And I'm answering your quick question that I said I wasn't going to do today. I feel like I schedule my life like a relatively responsible adult because I have to, but then I also stay up late scrolling on TikTok because I feel like I need to get some time for me back. And yeah, balance is not really a real thing for me. I don't believe in work-life balance when you are a business owner. I think it's about what actually matters today for me. What does that look like? Am I putting my family first?

That's my priority always. But like some days it's work, some days it's mum life, some days it is rotting on the couch. And some days it's me Googling, what are the symptoms of burnout and then meeting all the criteria and being like, well, Google's not always right. And yeah, that's how I manage my life. I wish I could be like, oh, I go to Pilates and I do this and, you know, I eat healthy and I do like, sorry, yes, we should be all doing those things. But like, I think as a business owner, being able to say, work-life balance doesn't really exist. I'm always going to have competing priorities. I just need to focus on what matters for today. That's going to get me through. That's a great take. I don't know if it was a great take, but like it's the

club I'm in. Enough ranting from me about increasing shareholder value by respecting your staff. Miss Jessica Ricci, community money wins and confessions. What are we putting on the table? I've got a quick whip for you this week. Firstly from Sian. She said she signed up for a free trial and this is actually going to fail because she thought it was a month for free set a reminder in her phone to cancel before the end of the free trial. Turns out the trial was in fact only for a week and she got smacked with a $220 annual subscription. She said it won't ruin her financially but has definitely ruined her mood and she's since gone through all of her subscriptions and cancelled everything she no longer needs or uses. I reckon Sian that you

should just send them a little email and say hey I'm so sorry I thought it was a month-long trial not a week is there any chance that we could refund that and just see just see you never know don't get exactly right and sometimes places will be really nice and honor it knowing that when you do have the money you might come back and choose to spend it with them just give it a try shan next i've got one from siobhan who said i've been working at a country hospital for the past five weeks there's no cafe at the hospital so i've had to make all of my own coffees at home normally i easily spend $12 a day when I'm working in the city. Her pods are 10 for $10. Great. Big money win. I know we all like to get a little treaty, but make your coffee at home. Makes a big difference.

Next, I've got a money win from Marnie who said she's actually got two money wins. Her ADHD brain organized a return label for a pair of shoes, but she did not follow through with the return. Okay. Yeah. Relatable. I've done that before on The Iconic. It's so easy to set, but then you have to do it. Yeah. That old chestnut. She said the purchase was months ago, but she contacted the company and they said she could still return it for a refund, which I thought was incredible. Oh, that's really kind. Marnie wins.

And she's also trying to cut back on her coffee purchases and her lovely colleague bought her a coffee today. Good for you. Also, sorry, is life not better when you're grateful for the small things? Absolutely. Finding the little joys. Tell me the little joys. They're always the big ones.

I do. Well, speaking of a little joy, I've got one from Sophie who said she got a free snack chippy at Grilled because her and the manager were vibing. She's so cute. It pays off to be a nice human being to customer service providers and I could not agree more. Sorry, I believe good things happen to good people.

Be good people and more good things will happen. 100% and then lastly this week, one from Erin who said she's halfway through her pay fortnight and she's still got half of her paycheck left. Who is she? Snaps for you, Erin, well done. Yes, that's actually a massive accomplishment, especially in these times.

Yeah, absolutely, that's something to be proud of. Adore. All right, well, I loved those money wins, but Beck what do you bring into the table for broke tips so actually the same thing happened to me at Mile End Bagels I was really vibing with the guy there and then he gave me some a free almond croissant bagel so if you're listening to this thank you so much you really did make my whole week okay now broke tips this person comes from Chloe who says I used to forget to bring my lunch to work now once a fortnight I bring in a small frozen meal and put it in the

work freezer it's my emergency meal and if I forget lunch I eat it so clever that's actually really has saved the odd need to buy food from the cafe and way less stressful experience plus nicer than a can of tuna and rice in my desk drawer okay so that was always my go-to and then i'd be like i don't want to eat it i don't want to have to be doing this but then i also saw it like as punishment i'm like no you should get your stuff together and this would only happen to you because you didn't take the fridge meal yeah i actually love tuna and rice god tell you okay do you get the flavored tuna at least no i get serena i'll get serena yeah okay so the chili yeah the chili is a flavor yeah it has to be a flavored tuna it can't just be spring water

spring water no this idea was that i don't know my cats enjoy that one though okay so maybe it's cat food but i want to yuck the yum yeah no no and my cat's got good taste yeah of course this next one comes from sunshine what a gorgeous name i keep a present box it's especially good for kids I pick up quality items at op shops or on sale and put them in a box to choose from when giving presents oh my god that is a genius that's actually so smart and then this one comes from me but also also kind of you VD well I used to do this thing when I was when I was more of a makeup girly and I just thought it was you know something that was a bit like weird but um I just it was cheap I used to use sharpie on my eyes to as for eyeliner because it would also stick but then I

I realized that VD, you use Sharpie for your lip liner. Did you see me doing that? I didn't see it, but I want you to know that I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. I just know you dubbed me. That would have been Emma. Emma told you. Emma told you. Sorry, did we while?

Yeah. Well, yes. Yes, our producer Emma told me. You've been yapping about my sneaky habits. I think it's great. It is great. It actually makes me feel seen. So I bought this, and this, again, was a social media thing I saw.

We're in Officeworks. Yeah, I'm not, but I'm also not going to take credit and be like, oh, I just decided to do this thing. I saw this girl on TikTok, go figure. Like you guys are going to be like, are you chronically online? Yes. Yes. Yes, I am chronically online.

Ask Jess. And that's fine. But I saw this girl using Sharpie as a lip liner and I was like, that actually looks lit and it stays. And then we, Jess, were in Officeworks and I saw a coral-coloured Sharpie and I was like, why not try? I mean, it works really well. thanks for coming to my TED talk that is so funny I don't know why permanent marker is scary to me

so it's crazy to me that you guys put it on your face do you know what is the most disappointing part about all of it is that it doesn't last as long as you think like I mean if you probably drew love hearts on your like face or something it would be different than your lips but I feel like it comes off my lips by the end of the day which is fine but sharpie is what surgeons use to mark your body that's a good point so it's actually and I won't say like oh just sniff a sharpie that's probably a bad idea but like the ingredients aren't gonna hurt you um they're not like super toxic or anything and i mean people are gonna slide into my dms this week and be like that is such bad advice don't take it then that's true don't do what i do if you think it's terrible

idea like sorry no i know i use sharpie all the time on my skin for beards for halloween for anything like there you go and look at me now i'm doing just fine she keeps banging her head against the wall. Anyway, that is very good. I'm glad I made it to the broke tips. Let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, we're going to be talking about a dilemma that's about how to privately fund surgery. And maybe your surgeon will use a Sharpie. Maybe. And you slid into our DMs this week about whether it's worth taking up your parents on an offer to be a guarantor for your home loan, but you're really worried that there are going to be strings attached. So don't go anywhere. Welcome 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, she's in the money. I have a money dilemma relating to how I should privately fund bariatric surgery needed for my health related to my PCOS and my arthritis. The two options would be to either take out a gold level of hospital cover for 12 months,

which would be a real struggle to maintain with my other expenses on my income, plus there would still be an out-of-pocket of about five to six thousand dollars at the time of the surgery or the other option would be to take it out of my super which is currently sitting at just under thirty four thousand dollars there would be no cost out of pocket but if I took it out now it would nearly drain my super I'm nearly 30 years old and I won't be looking at having this surgery done for another couple of years but I am very aware that if I am to go down the route of funding it through super that I would lose out on so much interest in the long run. I really don't know what to do and which option would be best for me.

So I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks. Bye. Wow. I think that when it comes to health and ultimately mental health, I obviously put that above everything. I'm saying take you out of super. I absolutely would do that. And then just be where possible and with your new life because it's you know you said PCOS and arthritis as well I think that they said you could potentially be making extra money where you couldn't have before maybe you didn't have the energy maybe you're in pain you know all these things and not to say that you have to do that but I'm I'm saying like your potential to to do that if you needed to I think it's a win-win take it as super and then put extra what's it called contributions in and there

are tax benefits here and there maybe talk to an accountant about that maybe talk to Fidi about that extra stuff but there are tax benefits to doing that yeah just i i think do that now put extra contributions in in the meantime if you're saying that it's going to mostly drain your super my assumption is your surgery is going to cost in between yeah like 25 and i think it's about 25 000 yeah which is just from knowing what our community has spent on i'm i'm sure that there are surgeons that charge like 50 grand and i'm also sure that there are surgeons who do it differently but like i i'm not a medical professional so i'm not passing comment on that Yes. I personally would be inclined to go the private health route simply because you've said,

I know you said that paying for that would be a struggle, which says to me that paying back $25,000 to $30,000 into your super is going to be a bigger struggle. So it's, let's say your private health at an extreme is maybe $150 to $200 a month over that year, call it $1,500 to two thousand dollars maybe like yeah taking a broad sweeping guess right plus your six thousand dollars out of pocket and you said it's doable it would be tight as opposed to trying to repay twenty five thousand dollars plus i think the financial strain that that put on you would be more significant the overlaying caveat i suppose is how urgently do you need the surgery she said it was in a couple of years yeah so if your quality of life is not going to suffer significantly

I would be making that choice because I think in terms of like the long-term financial implications for you it will be less detrimental based on the information that you've given us but V I feel like you're a much better place to talk about this personally I get it like there is I like I have not been in that situation but there is a surgery that you require full stop end of story we need to fund that surgery. I don't care what your surgery is if you need it for your mental health. Like again, same side as you, Bec. We need to find a way to do it. Yeah, you could do it through your super. We'll get to that in a second. I don't think it's the worst thing in the entire world to take on debt for a surgery that is necessary. Like not everybody has the privilege of just

having $25,000, $30,000 sitting in their savings account to spend on these things. And you need to go into this with like an understanding of, well, how much would that cost you? Because it's not just going to cost you $25,000 to $30,000. There would be interest, there would be like loan repayments, whatever. You're right, Jess, in that if you're going to take that out of super and then all of a sudden you can't afford the loan repayments, I would be looking at taking money out of super as a loan. You need to make a repayment schedule. I don't want to be the Debbie Downer here, but you said you were 30 and you said you had about $34,000 in super. You're behind the average at the moment. The average 30 to 34 year old has $44,000 in superannuation. And that

is not to shame you. That is just to say that's a bigger decision than you think it is. That is putting future you who, yes, I know we need this surgery to be healthy, but we can't afford to retire if we're working this way. And that's a really big priority as well. So I would be looking at what other options exist. Yes, the private health for 12 months feels like a lot of money, but like have you done the numbers what does it come out to in the wash like is this surgery if you have private health insurance like that for an individual gold level private health insurance is probably around 250 to 350 a month what does that add up to over the period of time that you would need it before having the surgery plus the six thousand dollars like how does that work

have you done the numbers on that have you done the numbers on your super i'm apprehensive that that money would get repaid if you're saying you don't have the free cash flow. And what debt options do you have? I'm not saying that this is what we should do because I am agreeing with you that we need this surgery. I'm going to approach this as though that surgery is a non-negotiable. You're telling me you have a cost that we have to fund, not, oh, it'd be so nice. I want to get my boobs done. Like this is for your health. This isn't just like a nice tab. Do you know what I mean? So how are we funding this that best suits your lifestyle? And do you know what? For some people going into personal debt is going to make the most sense. Do I love you being in personal

debt? Absolutely not. But I'm also not delusional to the fact that that is a valid option. Yeah. And if we are going down that route, we are not going to a latitude finance and being taken advantage of. We are going to maybe talk to different banks. We might go talk to a broker about, okay, well, what do personal financing options look like? Banks offer finance for surgery. This isn't a new concept, but you probably haven't heard of it because not many people talk about it and you just think, oh yeah, asset finance and personal loans, they're just for cars. But there is going to be a financing option. Just don't go see a bloody loan shark. Don't put it on an afterpay. Don't go to someone who's going to take advantage of you.

let's find a solution that makes sense. The other thing I would say is if you're saying you can afford to have it in a few years, so you said, oh, the surgery is a few years off. Can we make a savings plan so that we can afford it then? So that we can like start putting money aside. Maybe the money that you're putting aside is actually salary sacrificed into your super annuation for a few years so that we get to take advantage of that tax circumstance and then we pull it out for medical reasons. There's lots of things you can do, but I want you to write down each plan and write down the numbers for each plan and what that looks like and what's going to make most sense for you. Not just brainstorming and being like, oh, I'd be most comfortable with

X idea. What's also the most financially viable idea? What actually puts you in the best possible position? And if you're like, oh V, I thought that this surgery was a couple of years off because I definitely couldn't afford it. And now I've found a different option because like I actually need it ASAP. Great. Let's do that. Yeah. So no judgment of how it's funded, just that if we're going to fund this from an alternative method than just saving for it, are you okay with it? Is it in line with your values? How are we creating a plan to not be in that debt forever? Because sometimes we need to take on debt to live life. Yeah. And I don't think there should be judgment around that. No, you need to live life. Like as Bec said, your health is so important and we're sending you lots

of love as well. Absolutely. All right, let's move on. Something you slid into our DMs about, and we're going to make it really snappy so that you guys get your day back. Hey, lovely, she's on the money team. I'm looking to buy a unit on my own and I have a really good deposit. It's not 20% though. And I'm not eligible for first home buyers concessions due to having had a house with a previous partner he bought me out of. My parents have offered to go guarantor for me. I love them, but they are already quite overbearing. And I worry that this will mean I won't have as much autonomy over the house and the decision. It would, however, mean that I can get into the market sooner and potentially pay them back or out in a few years when my property

increases in value. Would love some advice from the community on this or if anyone has any similar experiences. Jeez, I didn't know you need 20% to not have a guarantor or is that just kind of like a general? No, she's saying it's not 20%. Like I own a mortgage broking business for those of you following along at home and we often purchase houses. If you don't have any of the concessions available, first home buyers, let's pretend none of that's on the table. We often buy with only a 10% deposit. So it's not unheard of. Cool. Okay. But a guarantor would give you a lot more flexibility. In fact, a guarantor would mean that she potentially can get a house without having to spend any deposit. And then that deposit could go into her offset account and be a little bit

more financially cushiony. I see. Okay. Well, in that case, God, I did. Okay. Well, I think, and as I always say, and as I just said before, mental health first, I think don't like life is long if you're lucky enough to be able to experience all that. That's a really insensitive thing to say for people who have not had the fortune of having a long life. But I think that if you are right now really urgently rushing to get into the market, and I understand that, you know, housing prices go up and things like that, the best time to invest is today. But I just wouldn't put my mental health at risk for that kind of thing. And I feel like if you're potentially going to have a bad relationship with your parents, where it's like, maybe it's going to get

worse, maybe they're really overbearing already, it seems like. So it's like, yeah, it's just going to be really unhappy or maybe like really anxious or something like that. But you're able to get into the market quicker, then I would just wait. Personally, I would wait. I would try and go to a mortgage broker. I would try and find other ways to not have to get a guarantor. Just try and do it on my own. Jess, what are you doing? I'm in agreement. I don't know if it's the hyper independent oldest daughter in me, but I do not love the idea of anyone having control over me or the things that I'm doing. And if that's a concern for you now, I think that it's very likely that it will come up. Like you've got your lived experience with your family. You've got like

good visibility on what this might turn into. I personally think it is worth waiting. I know on paper, financially, that might not make the most sense in terms of lost opportunity in the market, et cetera. But I just, for me personally, I don't love the idea of someone being able to control you for any reason, whether it be financially or otherwise. And it's not a risk that I personally would be willing to take. Agreed. Agreed. I think those are very valid. What this message told me is that you have not spoken to a mortgage broker. Go and make that your number one priority, whether you buy or not. Talk about your options.

Talk about what your deposit would get you. Talk about how much more deposit you would require. I don't know what you do for work. So I don't know if there are any concessions for the type of work that you do. But talk to a broker about that. And the second thing is talk to your parents about it. So obviously this topic has come up. because if you're questioning whether or not to get them to be a guarantor, you know that they

might be a guarantor and whether you accept that or not completely your decision. But what does that mean? Because you're saying, oh, I could pay them back. There's actually never an exchange of money. So you don't actually owe your parents money at all when they go guarantor. When you get a guarantor, they're putting a caveat over a pre-existing property that they have that says, if for some reason Jessica doesn't pay back her mortgage, we take responsibility for those payments. And there's a lot of hoops that you have to go through before your parents would ever be contacted to pay some of your mortgage, right? You'd probably sell the house before that happens because you don't want to owe anybody anything. You just told us that. So yes, you

could do an early release of a guarantor if your property increases in value, but I would never rely on that as being the thing that triggers a release of a guarantor just because we don't know what the property market's going to do. And I don't want to be like, oh, we can get rid of the guarantor in 12 months because the property market has been increasing. You never know what's going to happen. We can't predict the markets. As I've said a million times, I'd be real rich if we could. But a guarantor is a lot less controlling. It's a lot less confronting than them lending you money. That's true. So that's a different story because it doesn't impact their cash flow. It doesn't impact their day-to-day life. And I think it would be a good conversation between you and

your parents. Well, if you go guarantor on my property, what does that mean? And if they start saying, well, you owe us this and you need to prove this and you need to do that. Great. Maybe I'm not interested in that option, but the reality is it doesn't impact their cashflow. It doesn't impact their like future wealth creation. It doesn't do any of that. The only real caveat is that they can't sell their property while there's a caveat on it, because obviously it's linked to yours. Yeah. But if it's their family home that they're never planning on selling, it's a different story again, because they're like, well, how does that impact them? So I want to know what would your parents expect? What types of strings exist? Because often we have people come

to us at Zella and they say, oh, I just, I don't want to ask my parents to do that because I'll owe them this and that and the other. And then we go, okay, like, can we explore that? Because obviously it's going to, if you've got that privilege, it's going to put you in a better financial position. So let's, let's just brainstorm it. Maybe we're not even talking to parents, but like, let's just brainstorm it between us and talk about what the options are and how that could work. And more often than not, we actually have people going, oh my God, no, this is so silly. I'm going to ask my parents to do that. You're right. It is signing a form. It is this, and it's a responsibility. But I think that a lot of us assume that there's a big cash outlay or

they have to draw down their mortgage or something and give that cash to you for your property. It's not the way it works. So talk to a mortgage broker, discuss those scenarios and go from there. What did everyone else think? So I obviously asked for your two cents. I said, what would you do if you were our community member? 46% of you, you are my queens. You said I'd see a mortgage broker first. Perfect. 27% said I'd accept it short term, no pain, no gain. Then I'd refinance as soon as I could. 17% said, take all the help I can get. And 10% said, no, I'm going to keep control. Yep. Then asked, have you had any help from your parents or another loved one to buy a house? 36% of you said yes and it worked out well 35% said I bought without any help 26% said I haven't

bought a property and 3% of you said yeah it got real messy which is really hard and I want to know more about that so maybe we should deep dive into that like if you're saying you took help from a parent and it got really messy I want to know what that means only because I haven't personally seen a lot of guarantor situations turn messy yeah I have when you owe your parents 100 grand yeah and they're expecting you to have another payment plan and then interest rates have increased and you can't afford your mortgage and paying back your pay. Like there's been a lot of messy situations like that I've helped clean up. But there's never been a like, quote, messy situation with a guarantor because it doesn't again impact their cash flow or yours. I then said, what's your

two cents? First person said, I've seen the effects of overbearing parents. You cannot put a price on your own sanity, lol. That's my take. Next person said, buy and accept LMI. Great point. Another person said, my mum is my guarantor for me. Two loans, so only tied to $50,000. Only matters if I ever default on the mortgage. It has never been an issue. Next person said, I'd have a conversation with my parents about it, not impacting our relationship first. Another person said, and I'm only going to do two more because I could keep going on for ages, but going guarantor is very different from them putting money down so i'm not sure how they have any input exactly what you were saying yep and then someone else said and i am screaming this from rooftops stop letting

your 20 deposit mentality hold you back go get in the market go talk to a broker and work out what is possible yes amen thank you come talk to us because i'm looking at this going i could probably fix that yeah i could probably fix that i could probably get you into a property for 10 yeah i I don't know how much you have right now, but like LMI is an option and going guarantor is an option. And I think that so many people think that guarantor is so much more scary than it is. Like there's this other conversation of like, oh, being a guarantor, having a guarantor is such a privilege and rah, rah, rah. And you know, I didn't have it. So therefore you shouldn't have get in the bin. Like if you are in a position where you can get yourself ahead financially

and someone is willing to give you a leg up, take it. Like I just, I have so many thoughts and feelings about that because yes, the sooner you get into the property market, the better off you would be. Anyway, that's it from us. We'll see you bright and early on Monday morning for a Money Diary. Until then, have the best weekend. Bye guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards

your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289. Thanks for watching!