She's On The Money - Life After Two Financial Separations

Episode Date: September 29, 2024

Today’s Money Diarist has been on a rollercoaster of a financial journey. She started her working life at just 6 years old, spent 18 years in hospitality, and went through two financial separations that could have set her back for good. But now, with three investment properties, a thriving side business, and a well-earned promotion, she’s on track to create the future she’s always envisioned. Tune in to hear how she transformed her setbacks into stepping stones and is now preparing for the retirement of her dreams. 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 welcome back to another one of our money diaries where i get the absolute pleasure of sitting down and talking to one of our She's On The Money community members all about the nitty-gritty of their money story. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got an email and it sounded exactly like this. Dear She's On The Money, my money journey definitely has had its ups and downs. I started working for my parents at just six years old and eventually spent 18 years in hospitality. Along the way, I inherited some bad money habits from my parents and went through two financial separations that really set me back. Despite all of this,

I've managed to turn things around. I now work in a government job and have just landed a promotion. I own three investment properties and a small cafe in a regional town. At 44 years old, I'm finally focused on setting up for retirement. I wish I'd had the financial guidance she's on the money offers when I was younger. It would have made a really big difference. But I've learned that no matter where you are in your journey, it's never too late to start fresh and you can do it all on your own. Money Diarist, this sounds like such an exciting and inspiring story. Why'd you write in? Like, did someone push you or are you like, I've been part of She's On The Money and I just know that this is a good story. Like, how did you end up in our DMs?

Just because I've been listening to She's On The Money and I wished the advice and everything was around when I was younger and to just give people perspective that, you know, it can turn it around even if you have a little rollercoaster rides and a few speed humps. I love it. You're a business owner. You own investment properties. You've been through two financial separations. After that, some people would have been like, you know what, it's never going to happen for me and bury their heads in the sand and never think about finance and basically bury themselves. But you didn't do that. You have turned it around. Before we jump into it, can you tell me what would you grade your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade

from A through to F? I'd probably give myself about a B plus just purely because of where I've come from but I always see that there's room for improvement in anything. All right well can you tell me a little bit more about your money story let's dive into it together. So as I said started working for my parents at six when I was in a cleaning business didn't get paid obviously at six years old. Literal child slave labor I like it smart parents. That's why you have children I don't but. Okay I like I don't know how Harvey's going to get involved in the podcast but when there is a will, there is a way. Yeah. And then got my first job at 14 and nine months and then started in hospitality and spent the next 18 years in hospitality, having my own

businesses, did a business degree. And then midlife came and thought I'd try my hand at another job and dived into a government job. And that was when I went through my first financial separation. So at that point in time, had two properties. And so got one each, took on the dead each and went our separate ways. Got my government-based job and then was city-based. And then I got the chance to go regional and it was a money financial move because I got my house included in my package. And it was a lot of on-call as well, so I get the overtime. So it gave me the opportunity to get saving again. And a year into my regional post, I'm back to buying another property nearby in regional iconic yeah so i got a little property and that's rented

out and then started another relationship silly enough and went into the property game i've always been property minded in terms of you got to have the physical asset that's what i was taught when i was a kid bricks and mortar put your money into the bricks and mortar kind of thing everything tangible that you can see so then got into and bought another house with that partner that's now dissolved and we're just going through financial separation now so we bought an investment property there and was renting that out still renting it out now but settlement should happen in the next couple of weeks and then so have you sold it to somebody else or is this like one of you've bought yeah okay perfect yeah so they're buying me out i'll get half the value of

that back and funnily enough today my offer got accepted on a property here where i am really congratulations how exciting is that yeah so that's my next next move because I'll move into that because with my promotion I'll lose my house yeah okay all right I mean promoted house loss you win some you lose some don't you yeah you got to take it when you can I love it so tell me a little bit more what made you go all right I want to get out of hospo 18 years in hospo is an innings like what made you go I want to absolutely do a 180 and have a completely different career was it finance was it value was it you know where were we at mentally it was kind of the everyone's always right you've always got to have on the happy face and be there and the shift work

constantly even though I've gone back into shift work again it's a little bit different in this job that I don't have to be there at the beck and call of everyone and you know split shifts and not making the money for myself in the end because I didn't own the last businesses that I worked in so hospitality can be quite a low-paying job unless you own the premises and you manage it and run it yourself like that. Especially for a career. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, yeah. So I started in hotels. Yeah, cool. Yeah, got out and did the jump and thought if it works in this new job then great. If it doesn't, I can always go back to hospitality. I love that. I feel like that's always been my mentality as well. I spent years in hospitality, like 10 years and then did like

three different hospo jobs while I was at uni. And do you know what? I adored it, but it's so physically demanding as well because you're on your feet 24-7, whether you're like waiting tables or doing coffee or doing something, you're always running around. And I always think if it doesn't work out, like I was really good at that. I can go back to hospo. Like I feel like hospo is a bit of a family as well. You can always get a job. Yep. It's 10 out of 10. So let's dive a little bit further into it. Right now, I know you work a government job. Tell me, what do you do for work? how much money do you earn? So, I'm a police officer, currently senior constable and getting promoted to sergeant. Oh, that's so fancy. So, last year I took home $130,000 plus super.

Oh, very nice. How did you get into being a police officer? Like, how do you go, all right, hospo, I hate the customer is always right. I want to now be a cop. Like, what does that career progression look like? It was something I always wanted to do when I was younger but I didn't think I had the life experience to be able to do that job like to go into someone's house in their 40s and tell them how to run their life and you've got a 20 year old coming in to do that or to you know console you when someone's passed away it's just I didn't have the life experience really hard yeah when I was running a cafe where I was I met a couple of boys that were police officers and we started training together doing crossfit and they were

like, Nat, you'll be fine. Boost your confidence a little bit and give it a go. You'll be fine at it. I'm like, you know what? What have I got to lose? Exactly. What did you have to lose? Literally nothing because now you're a sergeant. Yes. Isn't that cool? You've worked your way up, I'm assuming, relatively quickly given it was a complete career change. What does that average day in the life look like when you're a cop? Well, a lot of them now are in their early 20s that are coming through now there is a big division there's a lot of guys that are that are my vintage but they've been doing it for 20 odd years whereas I've only been doing it for coming up on nine years yeah so most cops kind of dissipate at nine or ten years and leave the job

at the moment because it is mentally taxing doing that job like that that's a very big mental load what does an average day for you look like so yeah car accidents domestics mental health is a huge portion of it, your neighbor disputes, your car park pranks, and then just community policing because I'm in a regional area and a small town of 600 people. It's just making yourself available to them and making sure that they can see you visibly and they know you're around and you're approachable and you get involved with the things they do around town. Yeah. How cool. And do you get a lot of fulfillment out of the job while you're talking about it? I can see that you like look quite proud of what you're doing. Is that right? Am I reading this room correctly?

Yeah, 100%. I love my job now. Yeah, it's really good. So, I mean, the small town that I'm in is great. I love when people love their jobs. Just makes it easy to go to work every day. Oh, totally. So, tell me a little bit more. You still own a cafe. So, you're a cop during the day and then at night or in the morning, you're running a cafe. How does all of that fit together? Because you're not just a cop, you're a business owner as well. Yeah. So prior to this, I just opened the cafe. We close at one o'clock. So it's in the town

that I'm in. So it's a small regional town and they just didn't have anything here. There was nothing during the week to get a coffee or get a toasted sandwich or anything. So a girlfriend and I, another police officer around the area decided, let's give this a go. And we started just in a little mobile van in a park. And now we're in a little permanent premises. We're open seven days a week and we hire three girls from town. So we try not to work in it much. I make all the pies and sausage rolls and things. Oh, so you're giving back to the local community in more ways than one here. Yeah. It's kind of become the mental health hub of the community because they don't have to go to the pub and have their chats. They come off their properties into town because we have to come

into town to get our mail. So most people come into town and we're opposite the post office. So they come in and grab their coffee, grab their mail, have a chat with everyone. And we opened in the middle of COVID. So it became everyone's hour of social interaction. Oh, that's so sweet. I love this. And I love that you are kind of driving this. You're like protecting the local community, but then also fostering literal community within the community. You must be one popular lady around town. I'm like, I just know for sure you are. Tell me a bit more. You've got some big money goals. What are they? So obviously because of this promotional to lose my house, I'd like to have my own one that I actually live in this time instead of an

investment property. I haven't had one that I've lived in for over 10 years now that I've been paying my own mortgage. So I'd like to smash that down and get it paid relatively quickly and then keep adding to my super to get that topped up, ready to hopefully retire in my 50s. Retiring in your 50s is the dream. So you mentioned that you've been through two financial separations. When those happened, did superannuation come into the conversation or was it just like the property stuff or what did that look like? Yeah, it was the property stuff and the cars and the fun toys, the boats and the caravan kind of thing. Both occasions said no to touching super and no to touching each other's businesses, which were the big part of our lives.

Yeah, smart. That's relatively respectful. It doesn't often happen that way. No, no, not at all. And because there was no children involved, so it wasn't like there was a separation of the custody issue and everything like that and who's got to look after them. It was the dog and that was it. Yeah, there would have been a big fight from me over the dog, let's be honest. Well, there was. It would have been absolutely, that dog is mine. I've got my own baby now, so I'm quite content. I love that. All right, let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, I want to know more about these investment properties that you've built up. We're going

to talk debt and I want to know the best and worst money habits that a cop has. So, don't go anywhere. Money Dressed, we are back and you have three investment properties. You own your own cafe and you have a full-time job. Tell me more about these investment properties and whether you invest in other areas. I'm assuming no, because you said that you like earlier investing in physical things like you really like the bricks and mortar. Yeah. So I bought first block of land when I was 22 and build a house on that with my first partner. And I've still got that house. I kept that in a separation. So that is valued at, I had it valued the other day, 1.1. Oh, okay. The debt on that's 498 and it's rented for 920 a week. Okay. So in my head, the quick maths tells

me that that rent actually covers the mortgage. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Oh, very nice. I like that. Tell me about the second property. Second one I bought for $250, but it's now valued at $440. The mortgage on it's $275 because I did some renos and that's rented at $350 a week. Okay. All right. That's pretty good. So, you're tipping a bit of cash into that one, but it probably evens out with the first property? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Number three?

And number three is the one that I'm about to, we're about to split and separate. That one is valued at $325,000. There's no mortgage on that. And the rent that we get is $450,000 a week. Oh, okay. That's really nice, but you're being bought out. So, you're going to get half of that. So, you'll get what? $150,000, $160,000? Yeah, $160,000, two and a half. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then you just said earlier that you've just been accepted on another property. what does that look like? So, that's $430,000. So, I'm just working with my broker at the moment as to what we do in terms of the loan situation. And are you sitting on any cash for that or are you expecting to use the sale of the $325,000 property to kind of fund that? A bit of both.

I've got $35,000 in savings sitting there. Okay. Very nice. Might use that, but we'll see how we go. Yeah. Very cool. And you have this business. What kind of, I guess, debt exists in a business? Like what type of investment was necessary? What does that look like? So we both put in $500 each to start. Only $500 each? Yep.

Like a week, a month in total? No, no, that was in total to start it up. My gosh. There's no debt for the business. Last year it took $175,000 in turnover. Yeah, very cool. And $20,000 in profit. Yeah, very cool.

Do you know what? In the first year, even having any profit is very impressive. Yeah, it's done pretty well. I'm very surprised at how it went, to be honest. I love that. But also, I know you're saying you're surprised, but are you? Your community didn't have that hub and now it does and people come around that. I just think that that makes so much sense. It's been great support from the community. So we're just expanding now to, we've bought a van like a trailer to go on the back of my ute to expand into the mobile area again oh how good so with that will you do events and stuff like that or are you going to i don't know what's the plan well there's a lot of um paddock weddings out here so we do a lot of the

morning after yes so smart you know the sporting tournaments and things like that around each little regional area and festivals that they have so we just pick and choose the days that we're going to do it. And we request those days to have off police work to be able to take that out. I love that you've found a way to make it work all together. Like that is not what I expected in my head. And I know that being in the police force is a super demanding job. I just assumed that having another job as a police person would be really challenging. And I'm sure that you make it work, but was that something that you had to put forward to them and be like, this is the type of business I want to run. Is that okay with you guys? Because I'm assuming there'd be some

rules around that. Yeah, absolutely. I had to go through secondary employment applications and put down everything that I was going to do and make sure there was no conflict of interests in relation to it. And I think it bridged the gap between the police and the community out here anyway, to be able to see that we're normal human beings. But most police officers have a little side hustle. Really? Yeah. Because you do 12-hour shifts and you have four 12-hour shifts and then you get three or four days off, you've got time to do stuff. So out here, it's a lot of people have farms. So they do their farm work and sell the cattle and sheep. But a lot of other guys are tradies. So they have their little handyman job or their landscaping job on the weekends

and just work it around that. That's so cool. So you're telling me that police people are literally the ultimate hustlers. I love this. So earlier you mentioned that you really like buying bricks and mortar. And I mean, you've proven that. You have literally three investment properties at this point in time. And I'm sure that there are more to come. What about other types of investment? Is that something that you're interested in or you're like, no, the property is for me and clearly it's working? No, I've started because of She's On The Money, looking at shares and investing that way. So, I've downloaded shares. Got my $10. Congrats. Put $100 in. How good. Wait. So, you downloaded it, got free $10 and then you're like, I'm going to put $100

into this. So, you are a share investor. I love this. Now, I've set up just an automatic transfer every payday to put $100 to start off with every fortnight and see how it goes from there. I love that. And is there like a bigger plan with that? Like, is you want an investment portfolio or are you just playing with it at the moment? Playing with it and learning, I'd say, because I don't really have much education in that space. So, I'm kind of just playing and tinkering and seeing what I can do and how it works. kind of get my head around it. Yeah, that is so exciting. Tell me a bit more about debt. So, you obviously have some mortgages. Your first mortgage is covering itself. The second

is you're tipping a bit of cash into that each month, which is fine. The third one, you're currently working out with your broker. Do you have any other debts outside of the property? No, nothing. Oh, very fancy. I love to see it. I feel like you've probably had some really good money habits. The fact that you have been through two financial separations and managed to along the way have your own businesses and now you currently have a cafe with your friend. You are currently owning three properties. That's not usually what you see from people who have been through two financial separations. Tell me about your best money habit. What do you reckon that is? Probably budgeting, knowing what's coming in and out of my bank account.

so you know every fortnight you get your pay and you know where it's going and then putting the money into the mortgages when i can when i know there's a bit left over and knowing that you know you've got your rego coming up so throw that money aside and make sure that it's there i love that and i'm not surprised i was like you have to be good at budgeting to have one stayed so on track but to have achieved what you've achieved on the flip side is there something when it comes to money that you're not so good at? What do you think is your worst money habit? Splurging on things like massages and nails too often because I work very hard and I go to the city or whatever or a bigger town and I'm like, oh, I've earned this. I'll just have a sneaky

hour massage. You absolutely have though. You work hard and you earn good money and I'm always talking about enjoying the journey. Who doesn't love a massage? Yeah. So just little things like that, just probably not so often. And the set and forget situation with luck insurances and stuff, once it's set, like I should be researching it every year. That's one of my goals for the year is to, you know, when they come up time for the policy to be renewed, actually sit down and take the time to have a bit of research and see if there's a better product out there instead of just letting it roll over. I just did that with my car insurance. and honestly the year before I just assumed okay it's going to be exactly the same like I'm not

going to worry about it even though on the podcast I'm always telling people like check it's kind of like how the plumber always has a leaky tap and I actually this year when it came through I checked it and I changed it and I saved myself like 600 bucks on car insurance and now I'm kicking myself that I didn't do it last year yeah but you did it anyway yeah so silly but yes I'm glad I did it but I'm also like, do as I say, not as I do kind of vibes. Money Diarist, at the start, you said, I'm a B plus, but then you went on to tell me so many cool things about you. And I just, I don't know, is a B plus genuinely reflective? What would it take for you to get to an A plus? What would that look like? I just think there's always room for

improvement. You can always do things a little bit better. So, I guess getting this house and actually living in it and smashing down that mortgage would be good and not going through of financial separation and another one would be great. Yeah. But I feel like you can't avoid that and like, I don't know, what are you going to do? Never love again? No. Like that's not a good plan. No. That sucks. No, that's it. That absolutely sucks. Just maybe not buy property again with that person for a while. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like maybe we could just be a bit more cautious before we do that. But in saying that, like you don't buy a house with someone because you go, do you know what? I'm going to buy a house with you because we're probably going to

separate in 12 months. That's not how it works. You think it's the be all end all and you're like, we are creating wealth together. I get it. We just have to be smart about it and it sounds like you have been. Yeah, there was a plan and it just didn't work out. So we move on. Back to ground zero. I like it. I love it. I have loved this money diary. Thank you so much for spending so much time with me and getting everything up and running. I know you mentioned earlier that you really want to be better at investing. So I'm going to add you to my investing masterclass. So that can be like a little thank you. And I feel like that could push you closer to the A plus so that we can start investing together. I know that you've

got the property side sorted, but you did say that you felt a little bit overwhelmed and you're not really sure what to do with sharesies, but I can teach you, which is super fun. But I have loved this and sadly we are out of time, but Money Diaries, it has been a pleasure. I'm so grateful. And I just, I think you're doing so many good things for your community, both literally protecting them, but also creating that sense of community inside your community is so underrated and you're probably already seeing how important that is. Oh, absolutely. I love them and the fact that I've told them that I've got this promotion, which means I may have to leave town. They're a little bit upset, but I'm not going too far. So I'll still keep the business and keep it running,

but I'm not going too far away. I love it. I'm so excited and I hope that you're so proud of yourself because it sounds like you're killing it like you're just so impressive I love it thank you I appreciate it thanks so much the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money

Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.