She's On The Money - Mixing Friendship & Money

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

The gang is back together today and are talking "secure" investments vs superannuation for this week's Money Dilemma! Plus, what would you do if your bestie begged you to come on a trip you could't afford, insisted on loaning you money and then changed the deal afterwards? Who's at fault in this situation? The gals have feels as do you about this week's community D.M. And as ever we celebrate your money wins and talk broke tips! 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. Today, my friends, it is Friday again, which means it is time to get my little team together and celebrate you, our incredible She's on the Money community. Today, Ms. Jessica Ritchie is going to be sharing our favorite money wins from the community. Ms. Bex Syed, she's got a few broke tips up her sleeve that she's going to share. We're going to be helping to answer a juicy money dilemma, which this week is all about why you should invest. And we're going to unpack something that you slid into our DMs about. This week, we're talking about owing money to your friends. So before we get there, I want to know how your weeks

have been. Miss Descarici, we threw you straight under the bus last Friday because you had your wisdom teeth out. I know. I missed you guys. Are you better? How did it go? I'm good. Dr. Chris was very kind, very good to me because I think we've said before on the show, I'm a little baby when it comes to going to the dentist. I'm just a baby. I'm just a baby. Yeah, I was very afraid, but he was so good and so, it went better than I expected, which was lovely. And he gave me lots. I'm not surprised.

Lots and lots and lots of numbing. Lots of numbing. Did you go home just drooling? Pretty much. I had my partner come get me because I was worried, or he like drove me there and took me home because I was worried that I would be like a little bit stressy, a little bit out of it. And so I was sitting there and I just,

they gave me gauze to like staunch the blood or whatever. And so I was just like dropping bloody gauze off the floor of his car. And because I was so like out of it, In the moment, I forgot, and obviously when we got home, I just, like, got out of the car and went to bed. And then he drove his friend, him and his friend went to the gym that night and he drove his friend and he was like, did you maybe leave something in my car?

And I was, like, in bed like, huh? What? What are you talking about? It's like he sat or he nearly sat on a pile of just bloody tissues. Yeah. His friend would have been like, did you kill someone? Literally. So what happened here?

What have you been doing in this car? Ew. But you're recovering well. Feeling really good. Chatty Cathy, back and ready to go, which is nice. Oh, love to see it. Perfect, perfect. Miss Bex Syed, how has your week been?

It's been a rollercoaster, I've got to be honest. Why a rollercoaster? Well, okay, so as everyone knows, I've been made redundant, blah, blah, blah, like seven years ago. Wasn't, it was like not even seven weeks ago, but okay. And also, as everyone knows, I'm not the best with money and I kind of just like had a bad, a really bad day the other day where I was like, oh my God, I have no money. and I was kind of like, you know, I was stuck in South Yarra

because I couldn't afford petrol to get home. It was a whole thing. But anyway, I don't want to like trauma dump on everyone. No, trauma dump because I feel like lots of people are going to go, relatable. Okay, good. I would hope so. That's the only reason I'm kind of saying this.

I'm like, oh, I'm sure there's someone out there that's kind of been in this position. But my mum helped me out and like, you know, it was all good. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm 31 and I'm calling my mum crying and I'm like, I don't know what to do. But it's all been up from there and I've just had a really good week just with friends just doing like really cute wholesome things and just doing things that like don't cost any money and that you know it's it's been it's actually been really nice trying to find

ways to have fun without spending anything did you see the southern lights I feel like that would have been right up your alley over the weekend so up my alley Jess but I didn't realize it was happening until after it happened oh my gosh I know me either no one called me and then all my friends text me oh my god look at this picture I took and I was like I'm so jealous yeah it's but the good thing is I don't think you could have seen it with your human eye yeah it was like James reckons he could see like a little tinge of color but you couldn't see anything like how you could in photos so my we were on the peninsula which I didn't I was there I could have had the opportunity to do so but my parents saw it and said it was beautiful and really really cool

because that's something that my mum had always wanted to see so that was really cool I'm glad she got to see that but then also my best friend lives in Tasmania and she sent me I'll show you after the coolest photo of the sky and I was like that can't be real and she was like yeah over Hobart like they were out near the airport apparently it was elite and very very visible but again there's not a lot of light pollution in Tasmania yeah so like you know you guys live quite close to the city so I'm not surprised we couldn't see it was not as good yeah oh that's so cool we're all just going to have to go to iceland and see the northern lights all right it'll be rude not to absolutely rude not to so let's do that oh thanks um it's been really good i have my very first

mother's day yeah honestly very exciting but also kind of weird because i don't identify with being a mother yet yeah yes like i am but i also feel like a teenage parent yeah like i'm 32 and i've heard my first teenage pregnancy and I'm not equipped for this. So when people were like, happy Mother's Day, I was like, oh, yeah, well, you're still just a baby. I'm just a baby myself. Yeah. So that was really fun. Got to spend it with my mom. We went out for some all you can eat Japanese, which was amazing. Get this, Jess. Bec already knows because Bec and I, we've both been to this place. Thirty nine dollars. All you can eat. Thirty nine. That's Money win.

So good. Money win. I will take you next time. Please. Unlimited tempura vegetables. Oh, really good food. Yeah. Delicious.

Amazing. All right. Let's get into the show because I'm really excited. I have been trolling through the Facebook group this week just like reading all of the comments so I can basically bet that I've already heard all of the money wins this week. But I regret nothing. So Jess, what have you pulled out for us? All right.

This week, firstly, I have one from Tori who said... Great name. Excellent name. I needed a new puffy jacket and I wanted a Patagonia jacket, but it was $300. She found it on sale for 50% off this weekend. Oh, that's a good money win. Brand new for $150. And Patagonia is an awesome, we've spoken about them before, like the morals of that.

Yeah, great quality and like a company with really great ethics, which is awesome. That's great. Next, I've got a money win from Gabby who said, Win, I've saved $600 that I was quoted for a bond clean by just doing it ourselves. Had a huge day of scrubbing, but we got there. I feel like you've got a few chipped nails from that, but that would be worth it. Yeah.

Bond cleans are so bloody expensive. And little pro tip. I got into an argument. I've never done this before. I made a comment on an Instagram post. Oh, I was like, you getting in an argument happens regularly. On an Instagram post? No.

That's usually me. Just like sends me screenshots of my own comments and says, delete this right now. And I'm like, fine, fine. Yeah, I'm not one to have a little argument on the internet, but I commented because someone was talking. it was someone talking about like a similar thing rental clean and I said oh at least in Victoria did you know that they actually can't legally force you to have a professional clean done

oh and some keyboard warrior decided to correct and I was let you know that you were wrong that like Jess is never wrong Beck just know this as a fact Jess never wrong it's really nice I wish I could relate to people who were but I simply can't yeah I don't think I've ever no I don't think I've ever experienced you being wrong no no I definitely have been but um yeah it was I anyway that is neither here nor there that was just a little anecdote but if you're in Victoria did you know they can't force you to pay because they often try to they put it in like your lease agreement that's actually not enforceable it's illegal but I want to know how this conversation like what did the person say so they I replied to them and said oh like it's actually not you can't do that it's

not legal like it's on the tenants vic website if you want to check it don't know about other States, but for Victoria specifically, that's not the case. Yeah, and that's all I'm talking about. Yeah, exactly right. And then they came back and said something. I didn't get to see what they said because when I went to it, the comment was actually gone. So it all remained a mystery.

Nope, that is them recognising that Jess is always right. Yeah, they must have been. As they were embarrassed, they put their tail between their legs and they went home. Well, good. As they should. Hopefully that's a money win for anyone in Victoria. You don't have to. You can do a perfectly good job cleaning it yourself.

Unless you're really bad at cleaning, in which case maybe get a cleaner. Yes, correct. Yeah. Next, moving right along, next money win I've got is from April, who said, long-term money win. I made a $3,000 lump sum repayment on our home loan. She did the math on that. Oh, it must be nice.

It must be very nice. But that $3,000 equals $11,891 that they've saved in interest. Isn't that cool? Great. Very, very cool. Do the maths because you'll feel much better about making those payments. Yeah. And she said it's going to make her really rethink their spending versus saving and stuff,

which I thought was just like a cool thing to like have a play around with. Super motivating. Yeah, exactly right. Next, I've got a money win from Nicole who said, I was going to have to pay $4,500 to get my daughter assessed for autism. I did not know it was that expensive. Yeah, whoa. That is crazy.

So autism, anything neuro-spicy is so expensive. Oh, my God. I was saying this to my mum the other day. I'm like, I'm so glad you guys had to pay for my diagnosis when I was a teenager because I couldn't afford it now. Wouldn't want to do it now, no. Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

But money win for Nicole. She said she found out that the school can actually assist for a much more affordable price because they have a psychologist on their staff, which is very cool. Oh, money win. Great. Good to know and to ask the school to get involved if you're going through that with a kid.

Because I never would have thought of that. Yeah, no, that's perfect. So really lucky for Nicole. Awful that people have to pay that. I'm so sorry. Lastly, I have a money win from Kristen who said, I had to clean out old stuff from my old bedroom at home. In doing so, I found $240 and a winning crossword scratchy

tucked away in an old birthday card. Oh, money wins. Money wins. Must be nice just having $240 accidentally in your room. Again, can't relate. No, I don't think I've ever, I've found $5 or $10. Actually, one time I lucked out and found like $50 in a coat pocket. My own coat pocket, so it was technically my own money.

But it would have been cooler if it was like from the op shop or something. Yeah. I love reading those stories. Like what have you found in something you got at the op shop? like someone bought a box and they opened it and there was a bunch of cash or yeah seriously I've gotten onto the side of TikTok where people are buying things secondhand and realizing they're haunted so maybe different but kind of same no really interesting though people buying stuff and then being like uh yeah so I bought this doll and I'm like looking at the video being like

how did you not know the doll was haunted like it looked haunted but I love those kinds of stories Anyway, moving on. Bec, I want your brokest of broke tips. What have you got? So... Oh, she's ready. Look at her. She's smug.

I'm so ready. I've got it up. I'm ready. This, again, won't be as rogue as some of my previous ones. As wearing your underwear on the plane. Exactly. If Jess doesn't snorty laugh and we have to stop recording, I don't want it.

Okay, well, I can make that happen. You can dig deep. Dig deep. Dig deep. I was speaking to an old friend of mine and realising how wild a lot of the old things I did was. Really? And this is not what I'm doing today.

You still do? I still do. I still do a lot of these. Same Beck, different day. Exactly, exactly. But those will come, I'll drip feed those stories to you. All right, all right. We love them.

Okay, first one comes from Emma who says, honestly, go to Costco for free samples around mealtime. That is such a good idea. Genius. They always do like their sliced pizza or like the dips and stuff. What if you just do lots of laps and just, like, have a whole entire pizza? Yeah, exactly. Do you reckon they'd cut you off?

I don't think so. Put a little hat on, put a fake moustache. They would never know that you're the same person, I think. Yeah, that's true. They would see so many people. Surely they wouldn't even notice. Totally. We love Costco in this team.

In fact, we were literally in New Orleans and Brooke, who's on our team, you've probably met Brooke. You would have met Brooke. She's been on the podcast before. Yes. So she's obsessed with Costco and every country she goes to, she has to go to a Costco there just to check it out. That's such a funny obsession.

It was an actual activity for all of us. We just went to Costco. Like that was an afternoon activity. It was like on the itinerary. It was on the itinerary. We went to Costco. Turns out they're all the same. We learnt nothing and then Brooke got a pizza.

You did too, Jess. It was delicious. Costco pizza is so good. But it was the same as the Costco pizza you could have got here. That's what you want though. And I'm sitting there being like, this, same. Yeah, as someone, as a picky eater, I appreciate knowing that no matter what country I'm in, Costco pizza tastes the same. You're also a very big fan of McDonald's.

Exact for that exact reason. Exact reason, yeah, I get that. I really get that. All right, Bec, what else have you got on the table for us? Okay, also I should say, free samples anywhere. Like, you know, you go to the butchers and sometimes they have the little sausages. The little snacky snack. Which I know won't be very filling, but, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.

Okay, this next one comes from Laura, who says, cultural brook tip if there is a ticketed exhibition say art design film you want to attend wait until the last two weeks they usually sell 50 to 70 ish percent off tickets mainly big galleries like ngv acme i feel like acme might be free or i don't know i think you're telling this story not me that's true i don't know why i should have um sorry what were you gonna say jess i think they occasionally do like special exhibits that you might pay for but like a lot of it is free oh okay and do these the same there are parts i oh actually i'm not sure yeah sometimes ngv is free as well actually but that's just good to know if that if it is an exhibition that you

want to go to but they are actually charging for that so these are you know obviously again in melbourne um i know that some of the community members are not in melbourne um but if you are i'm sure that's like going on in your local area anyway totally that could be like global yeah and there's some great apps and stuff that do last minute tickets for like shows like i use last too because I'm trying to win 45 tickets. They do, like, the lottery. I'm trying to get the $45 Wicked tickets at the moment. But, like, it's, like, the end of the run of a show.

They'll usually, yeah, because they'll, like, I guess a lot of people obviously want the cheap tickets. So, like, every Wednesday they go, you can enter to, like, be able to buy these, like, 70% off tickets or whatever. You're always up to something. She actually is. I started talking.

I was like, I sound ridiculous. You're always up to something. Well, one of our girls at Zella Money, actually, same kind of vibe. She's in New Zealand this week for a holiday with her family and I remember I was in New Zealand a little while ago and they have, you remember how I was obsessed with that First Table app?

Oh, yes. Yeah, so I was like, you can get on First Table because they actually, like lots of the restaurants in New Zealand are on First Table, which is if you haven't heard of it, Bec, you get the app and the first table of the night, like the bookings are like at 5pm. She has kids, so this works really well.

You get 50% off for being first in the door off your bill. money win okay which kind of all comes out in the wash when you're home in bed by nine oh my gosh I did that on the weekend when I did my $39 all you can eat uh Japanese with my family we took my parents and my sister and my husband and Harvey came and it was really good it turns out Harvey he's not that into Japanese yet um but that's all right we'll work on that yeah we had a 5.30 booking. I was so excited. We were back home by like 7.38 and I was like, this guys, this is living. Yeah, no, I agree with that. Peak motherhood. Yeah, peak. No, no, just peak living. Yeah, I do agree with that. What's your broke tip though? Okay, so this one, my best friend Liv

actually told me about this, which is like some people might disagree. Are you stealing Liv's broke tip? Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Yeah, that's a broke way. I do have a few in the bank though, but I thought, you know, I'm going to spread them out. So Liv's one is if you work in an office environment or if you just like have like a trillion housemates you know obviously like loyalty cards are really good to keep on hand this might be a little bit dodgy but what you do is you get everyone's coffee order you get everyone to pay you for the coffee order oh and then you get the and then you get the free one so you've paid nothing at all do you know what i mean like you get the free you put no no you deserve that that's not even dodgy it's like

payment for doing yeah it's payment for doing a coffee run but no one had to pay they just allowed you to have the free one. Exactly. So yeah, exactly. And if they want to tick off their loyalty thing, they can go get their own coffee and tick it off in their own time. Yep. Yes, exactly right. So I feel like that's like, I never thought to do that, but I'm going to start doing that for sure. Like when I get a job. Speaking of stuff that you can do at work, this is probably not legal in any other organisation except for my own. Jess has her shop pack on for work purchases. Oh yeah. So I'm funding the purchase, she's getting the cash back. You know what?

I feel it all's fair in love and war. I know she does it. With permission. Yeah, with permission. But, like, maybe ask your boss. Like, if you're an EA or you're, you know, doing lots of transactions, you could literally be like, hey, can I just add my shop back to this? Why would they say no?

Or your rewards card if you're doing, like, all these purchases. Yeah, for whatever. But don't just do it. Like, ask first. Ask first. Because otherwise I think it could be constituted as fraud. and we don't endorse fraud. No.

Not publicly. Not publicly, exactly. Jess is like, yeah, yeah. Really, really quickly, I'm going to Japan next week and I just want to say that I got really cheap tickets from I Know The Pilot app. Hold on, hold on. Japan, did you know that she was going to Japan?

Did we know that she wasn't going to be on the podcast? Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell everyone. Also, I literally said I had no money, but you've got to do what you've got to do sometimes. All right, we're in. Jess and I will man the desk. Thank you so much. We've got you.

Thank you so much. I just wanted to put that out there. I know the Pilot app is really, really good for very cheap tickets. I know the Pilot. I've never used that before. It's really good. $600 return. Oh, my God.

That's so cheap. How did you learn about that app? Did you get checked luggage? Are you going to be wearing all your... I'm going to be wearing everything. Jess thinks that's the funniest thing that's ever, ever, ever happened. It's so funny to me. Shut up.

Every time I think about it, I'm like, sorry. Sam, if you edit out that snort, you're done. You're done. That stays. The snort stays. Did you get checked baggage? I didn't. Why is no one, no one's concerned?

Oh, my God. All right, guys, you know what? We know what she's going to do. Let's go to a break because on the flip side, We're going to be talking about why you should invest and we're going to be unpacking something you slid into our DMs about this week. We're talking about owing money to your friends.

So, guys, 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 on the money team my question is why should i be investing rather than putting money into my super account. I know that there's lots of chat about micro-investing and other platforms like Sharesies, but I'm a bit confused why that's beneficial over salary sacrificing and putting money in my super with all of the tax benefits. And it seems like a much safer option. What do you guys reckon before I take over? Because that's all I do. I would only say that like with super you can get it after you're 65 or unless like you know special circumstances but so that's like if you're investing you don't have to wait as long

like forgive me if I'm completely incorrect but that's what my my thinking is yeah you're right you're totally right you can't access your super unless you're putting in for like the first time super saver scheme or something like that you generally can't access until you're 65 whereas your investments you can liquidate them at any point right all circumstances allowing like obviously it takes some time to process the tax like you tax benefits you have to take into account like it's something worth thinking but they're not going to be applicable to everyone and I think a lot of the time she mentioned our listener mentioned micro investing specifically I think a lot of the time if people are investing small amounts we want you to be investing those small

amounts because they do grow into large amounts. But the tax benefits that you may see from that may not be quite so significant from my perspective. So you've got to kind of weigh up what the tax benefit is versus what you're doing. I mean, I think it really is up to you personally. Like some people do prefer to invest in a super. You don't have as much control, I think. Like you can't pick your individual shares, generally speaking. Like you can't choose, you know, a platform that's really user-friendly. I think you just have more control when you invest for yourself, which is what I like. But that's not to say that investing in super is a bad option at all. It just is, to use Victoria's favourite phrase, different horses for different

courses. Where did you even get that phrase from? I don't know, but I think it's so funny, so I use it every chance that I can. Different horses for different courses. I also like to say, not my circus, not my monkeys. And I also like to say, play stupid games, get stupid prizes. Peach. Tori, I don't know what I'm talking about. Peach.

Close. Taylor Swift. what's the saying um each to their peach sorry is what I tried to say and I just yelled out peach I like that I like that it definitely sounds like something Jess would say yeah very cutesy it's very cutesy the person who actually knows what they're talking about perhaps all right so first things first should I be investing rather than putting my money in my super account you are investing in both so the one thing I want you to understand about super annuation or the one thing I want you to take from this segment of the podcast today is that

superannuation is not an investment. Superannuation is a tax structure in which you invest under and that tax structure exists to put you in a better position for retirement because the government wants to support us so that they don't have to pay as many pensions. Makes sense, right? But something that our listener said that I really wanted to like stamp out really quickly is she said, I know it's safer inside super. And that is not true at all. Because if you're investing inside of super or outside of super, the risk is exactly the same. The tax structure of super annuation doesn't add any more security or take any away. Because if you're investing inside super and you've got, you know, some ETFs and a managed fund, if you had that outside of super, it's not

more or less secure. It's just a different type of asset, right? So I think it's important to understand that super is a tax structure that exists to put us in a better financial position. You're right, Bec, about being able to access it after 65. And Jess, you are absolutely correct about the control. So I like investing outside of super because I'll be able to access it before I turn 65. And I want to be able to access my money before then because I want to retire before then because old age is a privilege that is denied to many people. And I don't want to wait until I'm like 65 or 67 or even 70 before I get access to my cashola, right? But if we're talking about the tax benefits only, there are a lot of tax benefits to putting your money inside super. And these

numbers that I'm going to spit at you are relevant for the first home super saver scheme, which is a mouthful, but also a really important thing to take into consideration if you're saving for your first home. Because at this current point in time, you can contribute up to $50,000 into the first home super saver scheme, which at a marginal tax rate of 32 and a half percent will mean you are nine and a half thousand dollars better off by using that scheme. So that's nine and a half thousand dollars of what I would say is free money. And we love free money in this house, right? So what we are going to do is a quick example. So let's say we have $10,000 of cash pre-tax. You've just earned it back and you're trying to decide whether it goes into super or

whether it goes into your investment portfolio or your savings or just keeping in your bank account, right? So 10 grand pre-tax, if you put that into your bank account and you're on a marginal tax rate of 32.5%, which is you earn between $45,000 and $120,000-ish, that's, you know, I think what most of the population would fall into, that $10,000 post-tax becomes $6,750. So that's what goes into your bank account and then the rest goes to tax. If that amount of money went into your superannuation instead of your personal bank account, instead of being charged 32.5% in tax, you would get the superannuation tax rate, which is only 15%. And that money would then be worth $8,500. So it's worth more than that $6,750, which is a difference of 21%.

percent. So to be a difference of 21 percent, that's basically like an instant return on your money, right? Just by choosing the superannuation environment. But does that mean that we should be investing all our money in super because obviously you're making more? Absolutely not, because it's locked away. And so we need to kind of make this balance of how much is going to be in super for when I do retire versus how much is going to help me achieve my goals today? How much is going to help me, you know, be in the best possible financial position? Do I want to invest outside of super so that I can achieve financial freedom earlier? It's a fine balance between what you're doing inside and outside of super. If you asked me personally, Victoria, do you add additional

money to your super so that, you know, you can make the most of that? At this point in my life, no, because I really want financial freedom before I retire. Some point when I'm a little little bit more cash liquid and my businesses are able to pay me a bit more, I will put more money into super. But right now, my goal is actually my mortgage and paying for Harvey's future education and all of those things that are important to my husband and I. So just because on paper it's 21% better, that doesn't mean that that works for me. So I think the important thing here is really understanding that no, it doesn't necessarily mean that super safer, super feels safer because we like structure and superannuation is forced upon us. So you have

to have it big. And because it's always been there, you assume it's a safe option, but that doesn't mean that investing outside of super is unsafe. You just have to make a decision that's in line with your risk profile. So for me, the safety thing, I just wanted to stamp that out really quickly, is it better to put it in super? The answer is very unclear because I don't know your personal circumstances. But what I need you to understand is that tax environment can be beneficial, but it's not as accessible. And that's where I go, well, what's going to work for you? Right now, you're able to contribute up to $27,500 each financial year to your superannuation and get that 15% tax rate. Above and beyond that, you go back to your marginal tax rate. So it's completely

up to you what you do. But if you're thinking about the first home super saver scheme. Great scheme. Great scheme. Nine and a half thousand dollars better off if you were to think about using that over a five year period. That's my rant on superannuation. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Solid advice. Yeah, that's great. Oh, thanks. Thanks. That's all I've got though. So let's move on we had a dm this week are you guys ready to unpack it very good all right hi she's on the money i have a money dilemma my bestie really wanted me to come on a holiday with her to bali she was trying to convince me for a full month i told her i would love to but probably couldn't because i didn't have the cash no problem if you back though hey

true little little jabbit bet going to japan yeah no you're so right no no judgment i love you and all of the decisions you make thank you so much she said in response she said she was more than happy to loan me the money if it meant that they could go on the holiday together which is really nice we have been friends for years so i didn't think that this was weird i took her up on it telling her i would need about three months post trip to pay her back and she was really okay with that. She paid $3,000 for me and we had the best time. But we've been home for a couple of weeks and she's told me that she needs the money now as she spontaneously decided to move out of home post getting home. She saw someone post on Instagram with a free room up for rent for a

few months and took them up on it really quickly. I literally can't pay her now or I wouldn't be able to pay my rent and buy food. What do I say to her? We agreed to three months, but it is her money and if she wants it now do i have to cough it up will this help okay so i find myself in this situation a lot actually going to japan my friend actually offered me money to go and that's one of the reasons why i am able to um very kind this is really funny it's very well timed it's really yeah it's not a plant it's just very well timed i just think it's so funny yeah this is so because i didn't say anything to you guys before no no we had no idea so i guess the thing is i have borrowed money from friends before i always pay it back when i say i will i guess like your friend

unfortunately has gone back on what she said you have an agreement it's kind of like the same as like say you're borrowing from a bank or whatever like you have x amount of time to pay it back when you agree to this you didn't have the anxiety and stress and pressure of having to pay immediately as soon as you got back and so that's why you agreed to do it that's why you went had a great time I understand that it is her money and she is like you know she's owed that money and she will get that money back but if I feel like if this person knew that they would have to pay immediately as soon as they got back or like within the first few weeks they would have definitely said no they actually can't afford this if you have all the information available to you and you agree to do

it but then you just can't make it happen that's the story for another time but this is like you had all the information given to you you thought you had x amount of time to pay back and now your friends kind of come back and be like no I need it now which is completely unfair to you I feel like your friend is in the wrong here obviously it is their money they do need their money back eventually but if you had that information you probably wouldn't have gone I think if your friend had said yeah you'll have to pay me back when you get back you would have been like well I just can't go then thanks though and they should be aware of that right like you literally were being convinced for a month to take them up on this offer right like I feel like

it is kind of unfair. Jess, what are your thoughts? I completely agree. Like I think the changing last minute, especially over something that's not necessary, like if the friend had had a medical emergency and I were like, well, I have to pay for a surgery, I could be a bit more understanding, but she's making a choice. It seems to me that perhaps she wasn't in the position to lend the money. And I have a perspective on this that is said with lots of love and care, but I think across the board, perhaps we're not all managing our money in the most responsible way in this scenario. I think that if you're going to lend somebody money, you should be able to function without it for a significant period of time, unless it's a super emergency.

Again, if you've got a friend in trouble and you can help them by all means. But I think like in this case, if she was going to pay for a holiday for someone, which is obviously a luxury, she probably should have ideally been in a bit more of a financially stable position where she wouldn't have to go back on her word and ask for it sooner. On the flip side, I also think that if you can't afford to pay for a holiday, I don't know that it's the best or most responsible choice to go. I'm really sorry. I feel incredibly bad saying this to you after you've just been so excited. Sometimes Beck needs to hear the truth and we love Beck, but like, I don't think it's going to come as a surprise that if she said, V, do you think this is a good idea? Beck,

Like I will outwardly say, Bec, I think it's a terrible idea, but I also know that Bec just does whatever she wants. Like I'm not, no, but I'm not the boss of you and my opinion is worth literally nothing. Like it's my opinion. You could put it in the bin. You could take it. You can do whatever you want with it.

You haven't asked me if it's a good idea and it's not my place to say so. Whereas this money diarist or this, you know, member of our community is like, V, what are you doing? In that case, I'll give you my opinion. but like you're in a position beck where you know you've got all the resources you've already said look i probably know i shouldn't but you're in a position where you feel comfortable to do that you're probably really comfy with the friend who's making this decision with you and like yolo like yeah you know it's kind of like you know jess i don't know the ins and outs of your

relationship and it's not you don't know everything you can't judge someone for the decisions they're making i mean i wouldn't get on the podcast and be like do what beck does but like no but really it's in Beck's best interests because she's probably weighed up the pros and cons as you said I know who it is like and I know you two have a very close relationship and it's not gonna go south yeah so it's fine yeah but it's different for everybody and you can't just give the blanket advice that what Beck's up to is absolutely fine because look what's happened to this member of our community her friends come back and changed the dynamics and that's a really tricky position to be in and that's why I kind of feel like you know hindsight

is 2020 and like obviously it's all well and good for me to say oh like you probably shouldn't have gone on the trip if you couldn't afford it but like the trip is done and she had a great time and that's awesome so I guess from here my advice would be that you you I feel like I say this every time but you really need to tell your friend what you told us like it's I completely agree with what you were saying Beck that it's it's very unreasonable of her friend to shift the goal posts and I think that if there is any wiggle room for you to expedite the repayments try to do that but not obviously at the sacrifice or the cost of being able to feed yourself, being able to pay your rent. Like those things have to come first. Your physical safety and health has to

come first. And I guess the other thing that I would mention is reviewing your discretionary spending because the fact that you went on this holiday when you maybe couldn't quite afford it says to me that maybe we're being a little flexy with our budget, what we're choosing to spend on, which is fine normally that's totally your call but I think that we've kind of had the flip side of this as a question or a dilemma before you know if you've said to your friend hey I really can't pay you back yet we've got this agreed timeline can I do it over the three months and that's reasonable because that's what you agreed to but if she then saw you going on a weekend away or blowing all your money on new shoes or something then I can understand how

the friend would also feel a little bit put out. So I think like just making sure that on both sides, we're doing everything we can to be fair and reasonable. You're prioritizing that debt repayment. It is so annoying that that timeline that she's trying to change it. And I completely empathize with you because that's not what you discussed. You did the right thing and you put a timeframe on it upfront, which was a great call. Very well done from you. That was so smart. but you know doing everything we can to pay her back as quickly as possible where possible i find that so hard because like i mean flipping the tables only because it seems really relevant at the moment i'm assuming beck if you thought that that would happen to you and the second you got

back you'd owe the money you probably would have said no to japan right totally yeah that's true whereas right now you're like oh i feel really comfortable and you trust the person to you know work with the terms that you've set up between the two of you yes so beck's not worried about that you'd feel pretty mucked over if you got back and your friend was like oh Bec you have to pay me this week you'd be like well I can't like that's a stressful position I wouldn't have accepted in the first place so I feel like yeah maybe just going to your friend hey I really like this is why we agreed to the terms because I genuinely couldn't like that's what's doable yeah and maybe try and work with them as well and be like is there anything I can help you with in the short

term like you know maybe I could do two payments instead of one but like that's probably it so I think just negotiating with them. But when it comes to lending money to friends, I do it. At the end of the day, I feel like we're in a cost of living crisis. And I feel very privileged that if my friends are stuck in a hard place, they are comfortable enough to share that with me. And I am in the very privileged position to be able to help. And I love that. I'm that type of person that like, I just feel like, I don't know, I really like that I can be that person for my family and for my friends right but I always lend money with the idea in my head that I will either lose the money or lose a friend and I have to be happy with one of those outcomes yeah I don't want

to lose my friend I'd prefer to lose the money and like it's on me if I lend it and it doesn't come back but if you're not comfortable with either losing the money or losing a friend you shouldn't be lending money out yeah like because it's one or the other that you will lose if you're not happy with that so I'm not saying that you will lose your money and you will lose your friend Yeah, ideally nothing happens. Ideally nothing happens. They're a friend like Beck who pays it back as soon as they can and we don't even talk about it ever again.

But I think that you have to really go, well, if I'm willing to do this, I also have to be willing to lose one of those things because I don't want to lose my friends. I'd much prefer to lose the $500 I'd lent them. But I think you need to kind of put yourself in that position and if you're not willing to lose that cash, you actually can't lend it out. yeah and that would be a okay well maybe we plan a holiday for in 12 months because

a lot of the time these things are yes you can't go right now well why can't we plan it for in the future like you don't necessarily have to miss out completely but yeah I think it's an interesting perspective we did ask the community we said would you ever borrow money off a friend for a holiday and nine percent of you said yes I would trust my friend so it's fine 91 percent of you said no things could get too messy. We also asked you, do you think this person needs to pay back the money right now? And 8% of you said yes, only 8% of you. So I think everybody else is sitting on our side of the table where we're like, oh, that's so unfair to change the goalposts. Because 92% of you said no, they'd agreed on three months time, you need to stick to it. We then asked, do you

think it's okay for the friend to change their agreement and ask for the money back? 93% of you said no shouldn't have offered it if she didn't mean it yeah and then obviously seven percent of you said yes it's her money she can ask for it back whenever she wants which no you can't I feel like it's not such a simple thing where you're going oh like I said you could borrow my sweater but actually I want to wear the sweater like it's to me it's a much bigger thing and you're lending the money knowing that your friend is in a tight spot financially like you're offering to help them out of that spot which is very kind and very well-meaning but the amount of stress that you're then putting on them by going, just kidding, I need it back because I want to move out into this

free room. As much as it sucks, I feel like the responsible thing from them would be to do would be to pass up the opportunity, let your friend pay you back on the agreed timeline and everyone's happy. I agree. We did ask for your two cents as always. And you won't be surprised at some of these responses. So someone said, I would never demand money from my friends if it meant that they were going without their basic survival needs, which I think is fair. Someone said, I really wonder if they would have the same feeling if it was a medical emergency, which you brought up before. Someone else said she can ask her to pay the money back, but if it's not there to be paid back, then tough luck. What are you going to do? Where are you going

to pull it from? Totally. It doesn't grow on trees. Well, someone else said, and I think this is interesting because this is, I guess, in the spirit of open, honest conversations around money. She said she's more than welcome to ask if she can pay it back early. Maybe her friend came into some cash and she wasn't aware but she did agree on the three months which needs to be adhered to if necessary yeah so like I think it's actually fair if her friend turned around and you know now talking this out I suppose you know if I I borrowed some money from you Jess and then Jess you were like oh V do you reckon you could pay it back early and I went oh no sorry Jess you might go oh no worries just thought I'd check just thought I'd check because that would have been

helpful maybe we are just overthinking this and thinking it's a mean thing or like you know her friends putting it back on her have you had that conversation to be like oh look I really would love to be able to give you that cash all of that but I just don't have it to give you right now maybe it's as simple as a conversation yeah and having open ongoing conversation about money someone else said never lend anything you can't do without friends should have considered pre-trip and moving out before giving it away someone said she shouldn't have offered to pay for it if she didn't have an emergency fund oh we love an emergency fund in this house someone said never go into debt for a holiday sorry girl but you do have to pay up asap asap could still mean three

months yeah i feel like like as soon as you can yeah i mean i feel like that one's double-ended right never go into debt for a holiday i would agree with if you can not do it um but then sorry girl got to pay up no i don't agree with that and then there are a whole heap of responses that are very similar to what we've said. So I won't bore you with that. But I think that's all we have time for, guys. Really going on and on, especially when I had that rant about superannuation.

So I just need you to understand that it's tax structure, not an investment. And investing inside and outside of super, it carries the same risk because they're often exactly the same thing. She's really passionate. I'm passionate because I just want you to invest. Yeah, understood.

All right. Well, I hope you have a really good weekend, guys. and we will see you bright and early on Monday for our Money Diary. So can't wait. Be good. Bye, guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature

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