She's On The Money - Know Your Worth & Then Add Tax

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Happy first Friday of the year angels, we have SUCH an exciting year planned for you with She's On The Money! Join Victoria, Jess and Bec as they celebrate your money wins, talk broke tips and answer a Money Dilemma about sorting out your credit history. Plus, what do you and your partner do when it comes to birthday presents? You slid into our DMs this week about a boyfriend who gives zilch! You'll be unsurprised to hear that the gals have LOTS of feelings about this one. LinksThe National Debt Helpline Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha 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.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom this new year. Are you excited about that part? Today, my friends, it is Friday, Bec is still broken, and it is time to get our team together to celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. Today, Mr. Grigi is going to be sharing our best money wins and confessions from 2024. Miss Bec Syed, have you got some heartbreak tips to lead us into a very successful 2024. I do. You better, no pressure. And we're going to be helping to answer a juicy money dilemma, which this week is all about sorting out your credit history. Good time to do it at the start of the year, I reckon. It's almost like I picked that one out specifically.

And we're going to unpack something that you slid into our DMs about this week. We're talking about birthday gifts in relationships. And I feel like now's the time to talk about presents, given we've just come out of what I would argue is the silliest season of gift giving of all. But before we get there, happy new year. Happy new year. Happy new year, guys. It's fresh. It's fun. It's funky. Jess, how are you? I'm good. I love a new year, new me vibe. Like I am a big goal person. So I think it's always so good for me. I like every year in January, I redo my budget. I like have a list that I keep in my notes up on my phone of all my goals that I had for the year. So I review what I did in 2023. What am I aiming for in 2024?

So I'm just like, I'm feeling very like organized and refreshed and rejuvenated. And I know that you don't need to wait for a new year to do any of that stuff, but I always get a little extra motivation, you know? So I try and grab onto it and like use it to do something productive. Yes. Good for you. Yeah. How about you guys? Well, I'll go first. I am still broken. I almost got my voice back, but partied a little bit too hard New Year's Eve. Who is surprised?

So here we are. But no, I feel really good. I also feel so motivated to change things up. What are we changing up, Bec? Obviously, I talk about this a lot, but I am going to go to the gym more, now more than ever. And I'm going to go harder and I'm going to go faster. Are we going to go faster?

Harder, better, faster, stronger? Stronger. What does it kill you? I didn't know the song I was referencing, but okay. Oh, you're thinking of Kanye West. It's all good. No one's ever thinking of Kanye West. Not this year, not now, not ever.

He's my Roman Empire. Oh, yuck. Get a new Roman Empire. I'll try. 2024 is my year. But no, it's been really good. And happy New Year, guys. How about you, Bea?

How's your week been? The best week ever. I have been polishing off all of our Your Best Year Yet content because today it is Friday the 5th of January, which means the course dropped. It means enrollments are now officially open. We did a whole lead up to pre-enrollment. And I feel like last year for me, not for Jess, I do apologize. She like flooded her house like three times. Just, it was not Jess's year, but this year is Jess's year. But I had a really productive year last year. And I do think it all comes down to how I

set my goals and how I followed that up. And like, I had arguably a pretty awful 2023 or like start of 2023. Went through a whole heap of stuff. We won't recap it now. However, I still managed to tick off, I would say 99% of the goals on my goal list. And I was so proud of it and obviously wanted to do that again this year, but decided to share it with the community. So I'm running the Your Best Year Yet kind of workshop sessions, which I think will be really exciting because it's not necessarily like finance based. You definitely can apply it to finance, but more about general goal setting and smashing it out of the park and actually setting realistic goals that are for you, not necessarily something that you're not going to be able to upkeep and keep changed. It's also

about like actually facilitating that change. Cause like it's one thing, Jess, as you know, to set a goal, but it's another thing to actually facilitate it. And it's kind of like all my favorite tools and resources and how to use them and what that actually looks like. Because as a little ADHD girly, it's not just for people with ADHD. Honestly, I feel like if you had all the tools an ADHD person uses, you'd thrive, but it's all the tools to make sure that happens as well, which I'm just honestly super stoked about because it's another opportunity for me to interact with our community which is my favorite so it's not too late we will put all of the information that you need in the show notes it's a subtle plug but it's honestly what I'm excited

about this week guys like I'm just yeah and the branding's so cute the team did a killer job so yeah I'm just really excited about that and yeah just new year new us there's gonna be a new baby. Amazing. That's very exciting. So exciting. So fun. So how about we get into the episode? Miss Jesgrici, what money wins and confessions you bring into the table this fresh, fresh year? First one I've got this week is from Maddie who said money win. Thanks to the 7-Eleven fuel lock, I filled up today and saved almost $15. I did that the other day and saved like 19. So one, I win, but two, you're a genius. Love it. Next, I've got one from Murphy who said each week in term four my daughter gets one dollar to buy an icy pole at school eventually she told me that

she doesn't actually get an icy pole because she can have one at home and she saves her money instead no she doesn't how wholesome she used a portion of her savings to buy herself and her friends flashing santa hats for her school disco i'm so proud very cute are you joking so iconic she's like a little she's on the money bubby i know i am obsessed with her then we've got a win from kirsten who said we did our garden a few months ago and i'm finally starting to see the results we've saved around 15 in cucumbers and have so many more and considering i eat them like apples this is a huge win when they cost three dollars each oh my gosh a cucumber like an apple yeah crazy right i get that is it a photo for beautiful is it bad that i would want to like

dip it in salt yeah like a little hummus or something hummus no salt okay it's just salt Oh, my apologies. Me. I would like to dip it in salt. I feel like that's weird. Jess is like, I'm going to use it as an actual, like, crudite. I get that. A vehicle for hummus.

A vehicle. She's smarter than everybody at this table. Next, I got a win from Sophie who said, I ummed and ahed about getting this bag in store from Kmart that was marked at $12 and came in my favourite colour. I got to the checkout and it scanned at six. No, it didn't. It was the only colour that was on sale.

Money win. That's so good. I love when you, like, finally commit to a financial decision. You're like, yeah, like, I'll do it. I deserve it. And you've, like, justified that $12. Then you come up and it's $6. And you're like, it was meant to be.

I do deserve this. The universe has your back. Angie said she just paid off her personal loan. Oh, congrats. What a time to do it. New year. 100%. No personal loan.

Amazing. She's now focusing on paying off and deleting her zip pay and then she'll officially be consumer debt free. This year is your year, my love. Go, Angie. go. And then lastly, Montana said, I'm self-employed and I had a whopping $1,400 in overdue payments that I chased up today. All the clients paid as I survived without money for the last three weeks. I've decided to pay all of my January bills and pop the rest into savings. A nice little top up

there for the savings account. Cool. That is very cool. Self-employed struggle. Chase up your invoices. Don't leave it too long. Yep. That's everything that I've got this week. You know what? I feel like that's a very good start to the year, Miss Jessica Ricci. Good job. Me too. Well down, everyone. Love that. Miss Bex Syed, we're back with Broke Tips. What have you got? Okay. So as usual, I have two from the community, one from myself. First one comes from Sam, who says, cut or tear things into smaller pieces. Sponges, magic erasers. Oh, the magic erasers go so quick. I love a magic eraser. I love a magic eraser. And this will elongate usage. So it does end up saving your money in the long run might be a little bit inconvenient, but honestly,

I think it's a great idea. And you don't often need such big pieces. No, it's so true. Genius. For a sponge, especially. I love it. What else have you got, Bec? Next one is from Priya. Hi, Priya. Who says, hi, Priya. Priya's such a pretty name.

I love the name Priya. She says, save veggie scraps and invest time and energy into growing your own fruits and vegetables, just like your money win from before. it ends up saving you so much money. I've gotten eggplants, chilies, all these things from a communal garden before. I'd kill it. You save so much. It's good for you. Mine will become compost really quickly,

which is also really good for the environment, so you're welcome. Absolutely. My broke tip is something that I've tried to do. I wasn't smart enough. Not smart enough. I shouldn't say that. You didn't know yet. I didn't know yet.

There you go. Good one. One of my friends does transcribing and surveys, which is also something you mentioned last week, Jess, makes a couple hundred dollars a week. That's so smart. That's awesome. So if you have the time, if you have the energy, if you just want to stay at home. And have like a job to do on a laptop while you're on the couch enjoying the air conditioning at this time of year. Totally.

That's so smart. But another, like, I guess, tip to add to that, I do apologize, Bec, to get into transcribing is like sign up for Airtask or like Fiverr. Yes. Because that's where people advertise those jobs. And if you get good at them and you get quick at them, you can actually make a fair bit of bank. Like I've got a girlfriend who does like transcribing and I didn't know it was a thing because last

year Jess and I sat down and we said it would be really great to have a bank of all of our episode transcriptions which we've obviously never done before but want to make a priority of but it's really hard because there are like 500 plus episodes of she's on the money and we're like all right what we'll do is find some AI tool where you plug in the audio and spit out you know the transcription it doesn't work that well it's not that accurate and when it comes to finance it needs to be accurate back like there's no option so we've been slowly tracking through manually getting it done and I won't call it expensive because people are getting paid what they're worth but when it's 500 episodes that has really added up for us no complaints really

important to us but at the same time you could be the person making bank in that circumstance you know like transcribing podcasts transcribing people's voice notes transcribing literally anything yeah meeting notes or something meeting notes and at the same time genius I could be transcribing while we talk today to save me some time. Does that make sense? Because you're saying I could be transcribing. Yeah, you could, but you doodle too much on your papers. So I really don't think that I would trust your transcription spec. As much as I love you, like there are too many flowers and love hearts and like squiggles and stuff on your page for me to think, wow, Bec's really been paying a lot of attention to the comments that Jess and I make.

Bec's really been paying attention to, I've been writing all of that down. All right, well, no worries. We're going to save so much money, Jess, on transcribing this episode. Adore. Good work, Bec. Let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, we're going to be talking about sorting out your credit card history, which I think is genius at this point in the year. Get it done early. Let's start a plan. And then we're going to be talking about something you slid into our DMs about, and it's birthday gifts in relationships. And I have always struggled with this one. So guys, don't go anywhere. Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a listen to the very first Money Dilemma of 2024.

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. Ladies, I need your help. I have completely ruined my credit history. I got sick earlier in the year and I didn't stay on top of my loan payments for a personal loan. The personal loan is now six months in arrears and my car loan is currently $2,000 in arrears. The personal loan is the more serious one, but my credit score has dropped from 750 to 200 from doing this.

We're currently paying over $800 per week in arrears fees alone. What would your recommendation be as we're trying to buy our first home again? We're trying to get ourselves out of this rut. My partner has fantastic credit history. I don't. Oh, this is a sticky one, but it also just goes to show how quickly things can change. She went from being absolutely fine, having a good credit history, probably having very good health and completely backwards from getting sick. And I just really empathize with that situation because no one goes into personal debt to go, you know what, I'm just going to get this debt, Jess, and then I'm not going to pay it off. That's such a good idea. Like no one does that. No one goes and gets a loan that they think is just more than they

can swallow. Like we all justify it and say, oh no, that's fine. Like I'm going to get that loan for that and I'll pay it off or I'll get that car and it'll only be X per month. And this is where it's just so important to avoid personal debt. Honestly, it all costs because we never know when the world is going to change. The first thing I would do, honestly, in your circumstance is call up our friends at the National Debt Helpline. They are amazing. We'll put all of the information into the show notes. They are open weekdays from 9.30 to 4.30 PM. It is free. You can also jump on their website to talk to them. So if you don't want to like pick up the phone, it's a lot less confrontational to do a little bit of a live chat, but fixing your credit score is going to be one

essential to get you into that house you want to purchase. And that's really exciting. However, I would actually put the goal of purchasing a home completely on hold until you've sorted out your personal debt, because I don't know a bank and I'm trying to be as kind as possible with delivering this. I own a mortgage-broking company. I don't know a bank who would lend a mortgage amount of money to someone with a credit score of 200. It doesn't matter too much if your partner's involved. They're going to, I guess, view you individually, but you being part of that is going to significantly increase the risk on their behalf, but also it's going to decrease your borrowing capacity significantly as well. So obviously the best way to improve

your credit score is to just adopt healthy financial habits. Chat to the guys at the National Debt Helpline. That's not me trying to do a get out of jail free card of answering this question. Don't worry. It's more, they are incredibly helpful and have so many tools and resources for you to lean on. The next thing I think about is negotiating. So like you are obviously paying so many fees in arrears. Pick up the phone, call your banking institution or whoever your loan is from and say, hey guys, I'm really struggling. You're just piling on the arrears like fees. What can we do about this so that we can both get ahead? I want to get out of debt. I want to pay you back. But right now you're making it incredibly hard. Have a good logical

conversation about what they can do. And they might default and I've seen it before and go, you know what? If you're in debt and you're so passionate about paying it off, let's just wipe the arrears fees. We're going to go back to what it was before. We're going to get you to pay back your original amount each and every single month, but we will be reinstating the fees if you mess up again. And it would just be worth having those conversations. So don't forget that even when it's a personal loan, you can negotiate, you can pick up the phone, you can have a conversation with them. But I would really be putting, I guess, your foot out there and going, all right, I do need to get on top of this, but I'd also be putting that home buying goal, you know, maybe at the back of

the mind until all of this personal debt stuff is sorted out because there's no way I want you to take on a mortgage if right now your financial habits aren't in tip top shape. What do you guys reckon? I obviously don't have advice on how to get out of this situation, but I just wanted to say I've been here before and it's so anxiety inducing. It is. It's really awful. Hey, my only bit of advice is to try not to mentally give up because it can be so consuming and you might just be anxious every single day, every waking second, but just know you can get out of it and everything will be okay on the other side. Yeah. I also think it's adding to that, Bec, we need to remember that being in debt does not make you a bad person. Your financial decisions and your financial

circumstances do not define what makes a good or a bad human being. Your kindness, your empathy, your thoughtfulness, how you treat others, that's what defines you as a human being, not your personal finances. I have never in my life met someone who's like, oh, I wouldn't want to be friends with them because they're in debt or I wouldn't want to be friends with them because they don't earn enough money. If anyone ever says that, that's the best red flag to be like, you don't want to be friends with them anyway. Like, ew, no, get away from me. Absolutely not. So I think just remembering that this does not define you. It's something you're going through as well, not something being done to you is a really

good way of redefining going far out. I've got to get through this. This isn't happening to you because you're a bad person. This isn't happening to you. It's happening as a part of your journey. And that's OK. It's really dire and it feels bloody terrible, doesn't it, Bec? I guess someone who's been in significant personal financial debt.

I think we all have. Like Jess, you had a credit card you've mentioned on the show before. Bec, you've literally gone bankrupt. I had a massive personal loan. You don't sleep. You don't eat properly. You get stressed. You take it out on everybody around you. Like, I think you need to give yourself a little bit more grace. And that's also one of the reasons why I'm like, let's just take the foot off the pedal when it comes to that property goal. Because you're going to be really disappointed really quickly if you don't get on top of the personal stuff. For sure. All right. Let's now unpack something you slid

into our DMs about. This week, we're talking about birthday gifts in a relationship. Here's the DM I got. Hi, she's on the money. So I've been with my partner for two years now. Both of our birthdays are in June, but this year my partner didn't give me a present. I kept thinking he'll surprise me with a gift, but the day came and went with nothing. Before our birthdays this year, I mentioned money was pretty tight and maybe we should lower how much we spend on each other. He was upset by this and made a comment along the lines of, you won't be able to get me anything I want with such little money, so don't bother. It turned into an argument and I ended up dropping it. Maybe that was his way of saying we aren't doing presents, but it certainly was not clear.

He didn't even get me a card or flowers. Is he doing this out of spite for me not being able to get him something expensive? He made me feel so sad by saying I couldn't afford to buy him something he wanted. Am I wrong for feeling so upset at this? How would you guys address this conversation oh i hate it god that's crazy i'm assuming your birthday's before his birthday as well yeah yeah by the way that's going it sounds like your birthday's first and then his birthday's after you're waiting for a gift and now you don't know what to do i would not be getting him anything i would actually you know what i would actually i'd give him his freedom back i'd be like, oh, you have shown me that what you need to be is single. Here you go, babe. You are

welcome. Gifting is such a personal thing. I feel like this is similar to the Christmas one we had a few weeks ago in that the concept is not inherently bad, but the delivery is atrocious because not giving each other gifts. I mean, I can't imagine a single person who didn't have something that they would enjoy for under $100, like your favorite chocolate bar or your favorite coffee. There are plenty of things I'm sure that he would like that are under 100. Bring me tea and toast in bed. Yeah. We already have the toast in the fridge and it's UHT milk from the pantry. You're going to give me a massage every week for the next month. I don't even care what it is. It's the thought that counts. It's being thought of on your birthday if that's something you

celebrate. Correct. Like if you don't want to do gifts, that is fine. But that is something that One, needs to be clearly articulated and two, needs to be articulated kindly, not in the way that he has spoken to her, which is quite frankly just so disrespectful. It's disrespectful, but also imagine saying to someone, you won't be able to get me anything I want with such little money, so don't bother. Yeah, I hate that. Yeah, that's really demeaning. I am so sad that I can't talk much because I have so much to say about this.

But all I'm going to say, leave him. I love it. I will advocate for that too, Bec. as I said I'll give you the gift of your freedom back yeah have it you can be single you are welcome yeah oh absolutely not like no you know what I can't afford I can't afford you mate I can't afford to be wasting any more time with you yeah this is awful is it bad that I'm so cut and dry no it's not no keep your standards high there's no gray here I don't think like it's all, it's terrible delivery. I think it's audacity. I also think it is so fine to say,

hey, this year's been pretty tough. Like let's cut back our present budget to each other. At which point as a supportive partner, you'd go, yeah, absolutely. That's fine. You don't even need to have shared finances to be having these conversations. It's more like, why would you want to put that pressure on your partner anyway? Like, why would you want your partner to be stressing about your birthday that would make me feel like if my husband bought me a present I mean we share finances but let's pretend we're still dating if my husband had bought me a present while we were dating that I assumed put him significantly out I would feel worse than having not got anything yeah yeah like I don't want a present like I really don't want a present if you

can't afford it like to me it's the thought that counts and yes could you just like maybe make me a cup of tea and tell me that you'll give me a foot massage without any complaints for at least 10 minutes yeah like that would be good him going out of his way to make her feel guilty shows that he doesn't really care about her feelings and it also feels this is me just getting a little bit deeper into it I suppose but like that's such a savage comment to make that I'm assuming it's not the only types of these comments that he's making yes that's an awful one and it's worth discussing but I feel like either it's a complete twist of personality and out of the blue he's said this random thing and this is very strange

and we need to talk about it or like this is just how your partner is and maybe you haven't seen it yet because we always put some blinkers on and see the best in everybody, especially our partner, especially when you've only been together for two years, like you're still in that little love bubble. I just don't think anybody should be treated like trash and expected to put up with it. No, not at all.

What did everybody else say? So we asked the community. First thing we said, would you be upset if your partner didn't buy you a birthday present? This one surprised me. 83% of you said yes. Yeah, I get that. I get it.

I totally get it. I would be upset if my partner didn't buy me a birthday present if we hadn't discussed it beforehand because we've already for the last eight plus years set the expectation that we gift each other things. Yeah. If it was discussed, no problem. The next question we asked was if this was you, would you take the comment of don't bother to mean let's not do presents?

16% of you said, yeah, that feels clear, but that's only 16% of you. 84% of you said, no, it was just a passing comment he said in a fight. Agree. The next question we asked was, do you think it sounds like the partner did this out of spite? 77% of you said, sadly, yes. 23% of you said, no, communication here was just bad. We then asked, how do you think that this person should address this conversation with their partner? So, I love the comment section because Jess, people are as savage as I am.

People get real spicy. This is a note for our producer. This bit can stay on the show. Can you just beep out what I say here because it's a bit rude? Oh, my gosh. They shouldn't. Sounds like he's a d***. Break it off.

Fair. 1,000% break up with this guy. Is he for real? Don't waste your breath. He's a walking red flag. Someone said, explain how you feel and listen and then both apologise. what? That's not how I would deal with that at all. That's one way to do it. Someone said, drop him. Someone else said, break up with him. He didn't even get you a card. Girl,

the bar is on the floor. Yeah. It's just the complete lack of any, like I wrote you a song or like, you know, something like some kind of, my husband would divorce me before writing me a song. I think he'd be like, absolutely not a poem. I drew you a picture. Is this what James does for you. No. He writes you songs, he draws you pictures. There are so many things that he could do that don't require him to spend any money is the point that I'm making. Someone said, I'm a psychologist. Here's my best professional advice. Take the whole man and put him in the rubbish. Yes. I love the take the whole man. Someone else said, why don't you just leave their petty ass? Someone says, make it clear and say you love receiving surprises because not

everybody has the same love language. I mean, I could keep going, but I would say 90% of the comments in our DMs were like, he ain't it. He acting like a child. You don't have a son, boy, bye. And break up with him, which look, very aggressive. Obviously you're writing into us because you want advice and you want to talk about it. I think you do need to sit down and be like, hey, I feel very hurt. And I think that that's one thing that when you're communicating with people about the circumstance that has happened. You shouldn't say, you did this, Bec. You didn't get me a present. And that's rude because you're trying to tell them they've done something wrong. If you reverse engineer that circumstance and be like, hey, Bec, I just felt really disappointed

that I didn't get a present for my birthday. That puts the emotion back on you and you're not calling them out for something. You're just communicating your feelings. And at the end of the day, people can argue with you saying black and white statements, but it's much harder to come back and go, no, no, I didn't. It's like, well, actually I did feel disappointed and I'd really like to talk about why. Like, you know, after our conversation, I thought we were still doing presents and I just, I didn't see it coming. And one of my love languages is gift giving. So it just, I felt incredibly disappointed. That's your partner's opportunity to go, oh, I didn't realize you'd be disappointed. I thought we had that conversation. You'd be like, oh, that was a

heated argument where I felt disrespected. We can have this conversation. I think something that I have learned much to my husband's dismay is you can't argue with people's emotions. If I'm sharing that with you, often the response is going to be much easier for them to deal with because they go, oh, I'm so sorry, Jess, I didn't realize I made you feel that way. And we can have a chat about it instead of me being like, well, Jess, you didn't get me a present. Yeah. Like that's a very black and white statement because they'll be like, yeah, I didn't. Yeah, that seems fair. So I think that's probably where we'll leave it because I could go on and on.

But I think the last thing I'll say is know your worth and then add tax. Know your worth. Do with that what you will. Yeah, do with that what you will. But it has been great joining you guys for another Friday Drinks, first one of 2024, many more to come. Bec, go home, get better. I swear you've been sick for six million years.

Can't blame me because you haven't seen me any other week except for recording. but have the best week my loves and we will see you bright and early on monday for another money diary 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.

Thank you.