She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: 3 jobs, 3 kids and she is GLOWING!

Episode Date: May 1, 2022

Welcome back to another Shopback Money Diary Monday with one of our inspirational community members! On this episode we meet a woman who is on the serious hustle juggling 3 jobs, with 3 kids and is working SO hard to build her assets and maintain her financial security. We can't wait for you to meet her!This year our Money Diaries are being brought to you by the legends at Shopback! Check them out at https://app.shopback.com/aus/partner/SOTM and you'll get a cashback bonus when you sign up!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. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are Authorised Representatives of Infocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL - AFSL 236523.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just before we get started, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness. 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 Shop Back Money Diary Monday, where we get to chat to a community member and learn about them and their story and their money and all of the

juicy details in between. Victoria, how are you going? Oh, thanks for having me on your show, Jess. Oh, you're welcome. Thrilled to have you here. But this week, I have a really good story for you. So let me read it. Surprise! Jess says the story's good again. So our diarist wrote, hi, she's on the money. I have three jobs, including my own small business, teaching, and have just started an assistant property valuer job. I do this for three days a week and then relief teaching two days while running my business at night. What? Crazy. I have three kids and I'm divorced from a relationship that turned toxic. There was no debt in the breakup as we both had a lot of savings. I also have a mortgage and 10K in shares. Now that I'm 18

months into a new relationship, I want to know how to best protect my assets. Girl, why are you asking us? We need advice from you around finances. Welcome to the show. Thank you for wanting to share your story with us. Thanks for having me. Oh my God. Three jobs, including your own business, three bambinis, you've booted the toxic relationship and you are glowing up. I love this. I want to know so much more. So let's start from the beginning. Money Diaries, can you tell us a little bit about your money story? So I suppose I started working my first job when I was 14, went to uni straight out of high school, have been a teacher for the last 12 years, realized I didn't want to teach forever. So I studied uni at the same time. I'm a bachelor

of property had a handful of investment properties over the years just to like in my marriage and then sold all them off recently I took leave from teaching last year and while my kids were little babies I started my own business I like to be busy and I think I just needed that mental stimulation so I started hand sewing things from my house when they're asleep and now I have a little factory in India that I sent my designs and things to, and they shipped me a nice ship out of my house. Oh my God. What? How cool. Yeah. It's nice. It's only me. So I don't have, I've never had anyone else working for me. It's really nice knowing that you get out exactly what you put in and no one else benefits other than you. But then being a single mom, I needed that stability

of a job. So I had to go back to permanent teaching to get my mortgage. And so now I just do it at nighttime. How cool. Oh my gosh. And you're doing property valuing three days a week now. Yeah. So that's just as of this year, I am took leave from teaching. I'm doing that three days a week, but given it's a graduate position, the pay isn't fantastic. So I've done that part time so I can then pick up relief teaching on the other days just to increase my pay. Oh my gosh, a hustler. I love this. I suppose if I don't get money, it's the roof over my kid's head, isn't it? So you don't have a choice when you're the only name on the mortgage.

Look, totally. But I don't think that there are all that many single mums out there that are like, okay, cool. I'm going to maintain my small business. I'm going to, you know, start this career for me, even though it's a lesser pay. I'm going to supplement that by doing teaching. I just feel like you aren't giving yourself enough credit, my friend, like so many people would have just been like, teaching is a really stable job. Like that's a great career. That's got great income if you work full time, but you've put yourself first. I think that's really impressive. Like credit to you. You're right. It's a roof over your kids' heads, but it's not, it's not just that though, is it? Yeah. Well, I suppose I'm only, I'm mid thirties. So I do

want to be teaching for the next 30 years. Yeah. I love that for you. So let's get into the nitty gritty of it, what officially do you do for a work and how much do you earn for each of those jobs? So a property, like an assistant property valuer, because I've not yet finished my degree. I've got two more courses, somewhere around 50 grand a year. That's full-time, sorry. A senior teacher is on maybe around 95 a year full-time. So it was literally half the pay cut and then relief works about the same as a senior teacher so are you doing that fifty thousand dollar a year job pro rata so you're only doing three days a week of that so you're getting yeah so you're getting less than the 50 grand and you're supplementing that with like a teacher

salary for the other two days and then what are you earning out of your small business like how much does that end up supporting you well I don't rely on that at all to support me I never kind of have, I've always just pumped the money back into the business in the sense that my first order from the factory, obviously you need like that decent amount of money to do a bulk order. So it was only ever my time that went into the business and I just kept putting the money back into the business to enable it to grow. So I still don't rely on it at all to support me really. It just kind of sits there. And bops along on its own and does its own thing. And one day you're hoping it to be profitable? Or is that one of those things that you're like, no, it's kind of like a hobby. I

don't intend to have an income from it. Or like, what's the point in the long term? I would love it to be profitable. Like initially the goal was that I could stay when I was married so that I could stay home and do, you know, work from home and work the hours that I choose. But being a small business owner, trying to get home loans and things. So I suppose I don't have the time these days to put into it what it needs to be super profitable. So at the moment, it's just running along in the background because it was my little passion project that I could never sell or give up. And maybe one day I'll have enough time to put some more time and effort into it, I suppose. I love that. That's so sweet. I want to know now about your goals. Tell me,

what are your big money goals? I'd love to pay off my mortgage. Eventually, I would probably like to either move some time over the next maybe five or ten years or buy a little investment property or something and then just keep building up my shares so I have a little passive income there and in the long run I only want to work three days a week especially while the kids are still at school like the working five days a week is rough. And how old are your kids? To be pervy what are we looking at? They're eight, seven and five. So they're small friends. Yes so my baby just started school this year. Oh my gosh, so sweet. So before you said you have some shares and that's one of your big money goals, talk to me about the investments you have made and what

that looks like. So for my 18th birthday, my dad was like, what do you want for your birthday? And I was like, just a thousand dollars to buy some shares. So being 18, I just bought some bank shares because they were safe. So they've kind of obviously grown well over the last 15 years or something. And now I have some like exchange traded funds, like they're my safety little shares and I've just, and then random other little ones that I think will be fine. And I've just started in my super fund. I've put some money in my like self-managed, not just super fund, but the investor. Oh yeah. You can choose your own shares. Yeah. So the segment of your super fund where you can control it. Yes. Yes. Awesome. But you can only do 25% of it or something. You

can't do that with your whole super fund. No, you can't, but it's cool that nowadays you have the ability to kind of control it and watch it. I feel like it engages you a lot more and you feel a little bit more in control, which is very cool. Yeah. And I think given my age too, and I was lucky, I suppose, in my job that like my super has always been good, like as a teacher. Yeah. Epic. Sick. So take me back to when you were 18 for a hot minute. I'm sorry. I just want to know how at 18 were you like, you know what, I want $1,000 for some shares and I'm going to buy some bank shares because they're pretty safe. Like, how did you know that? Where did that information come from? I don't know, to be fair. You were like, I was just listening to ABC radio one morning.

Yeah. I may have Googled all the time, like the safest shares to buy and I just picked one from the top five or something and like because all the bank shares were in the top five I remember at the time commonwealth bank shares were thirty dollars oh my god and I was like no yeah and I was like they're too expensive I'm not buying them and they've now hit over a hundred dollars or something yeah you're like oh I wish I'd bought them yeah do your family invest is that how you kind of knew were they conversations you'd had before no my family my dad owns his own little small business so maybe it's seeing the other end of that that at his age he doesn't have super yeah yeah he doesn't have that kind of backing behind him and my mum just worked for the small

business which I suppose makes me want that lifestyle of she was always there for all our school stuff because she could just leave work whenever she wanted yeah yeah cool I love finding out I guess the nitty-gritty of people's lives like oh how did you get to that and what was your thought process and like then you find out that your mum worked in a small business you're like that makes so much sense as to why you would have seen that lifestyle and then had an aspiration to have something similar. So it just makes sense. But I'm so impressed that young you was like, I want shares. I don't know anything about them. I also have never had anybody role model that to me, but we're going to do it. I love that for you. How do it? Past money diarist was looking

after future money diarist with that one. Yeah. And the thing is, I don't think I could ever retire and people are like, do you want to retire early? I'm like, no, I'd probably like go crazy. It's not, I suppose I want the option to work. Not that I want to chill out from the time I'm 50. I feel like that's the difference these days about mentality though. So we look at retirement as an age where you give up your job and you go, all right, well, I'm going to go on gardening leave now. I garden, I go to the cafe and I walk my dog. And from my perspective, retirement's not so much you know an age or like a outcome it's more a financial position where you're in a position of financial freedom where you could stop work tomorrow if you wanted

to but if you don't want to stop work you can keep working because that's going to be me like I can't imagine someone saying Victoria you're not going to have a job like you you won't have to go to work anymore and I go yeah that's the dream I don't want that I want the ability to choose that if I choose that, but I don't want to stop working because I love working. I love being a part of a team. I love building stuff. I feel like my brain just wouldn't deal well. So I totally get where you're coming from with that. Next question is, Money Dyrus, do you have any debt? My mortgage. And what does that look like? So I have about a $400,000 mortgage. So a $400,000 mortgage, when did you get it? And is that how much the property that you own

is worth? No, it's probably, I'm not sure, maybe around $600,000. We're in a small town, so the market didn't go crazy like where you guys are, I'm sure. And that was maybe a year ago I got that. How exciting. Yes, it was very exciting. It's very exciting knowing something is only yours. Yeah, it's yours and it's nobody else's. I love that. All right, Money Dice, next question on our hit list is, do you use Shopback? I really do. Oh my gosh, do you actually? I like that that was out. I love that you're like, I really do. Last week's money diner. Because you ask this to everyone and I've heard you say before, we just love to know. And I was telling my girlfriend about it yesterday and she was like, oh, it just sounds like an excuse to

online shop. And I'm like, yeah, I think I've got like $40 in my account at the moment, only in two or $3 little bits. Yeah, but it adds up. Doesn't it? It's genius. I have been, and I've said this on the show before, so sorry if you listen to all the shows and you've heard this, but I've been adding mine up so that I can use it at Christmas time on all the groceries because I feel like that's the area that I always end up blowing out on because I end up going,

oh, well, groceries, that's fine. I have a grocery budget. I never allocate it. So I'm going to pull it out at Christmas time and then use that towards a Christmas budget because I feel like that's going to be, I don't know, I feel like it's just the most useful there. Yeah, nice extra fund.

Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, so helpful. Yeah. Next question, Money Diarist. What's your best money habit? I feel like you probably have a couple of these for us. Any extra money, unaccounted for money, as in random little bits that I come across,

I put straight onto my mortgage. Epic. I also pay at, so the interest rates came down over the last year, whatever, I'm still paying the maximum interest rate that I had initially. So I think it's an extra $80 a week or something. And just so I know now that if interest rates rise. rise. You're comfy. I'm comfy and I have, it's for savings effectively, but that's my goal at

the moment is my mortgage, but I also have really bad money habits. Tell us about those. That's literally the next question. Spill the beans, my friend. I like my takeaway coffees, which I'm trying really hard to stop because I'm well aware of the money going down the drain. And I like expensive clothes. But in saying that, I feel like I don't buy many things. I just buy expensive thing so it kind of evens out in the long run I tell myself that often too don't worry and then they resell so much better they actually do so then in a year's time it's like you're making money you're a woman after Jess's heart because Jess literally there was this dress you wanted recently and you were like okay so if I buy it I can resell it for this and I was like you

You're on the money. Already thinking about it. You're already thinking about it. What is it? I'm the same. I love that. Oh, my gosh. All right.

Well, I've got a fair few questions for you after the break, but I want to know before we get there, what grade would you give your money habits if we forced you to give yourself a grade? Maybe a 7. A 7 out of 10, a 7 out of 50. Where are we sitting, my friend? 7 out of 10.

Sorry. And why? Because I think I'm okay. I think I know things. it's sometimes I don't actively implement them as in I still have really bad money habits sometimes my takeaway coffee my expensive clothes and things I do also love a good holiday but I'm also I think aware of how to make the most of my money maybe yeah fair fair let's have a chat about all of this right after this quick break

all righty money darris i want to know you mentioned in your little write-in to us that there was no debt in your breakup because you both had a lot of savings which i feel like is a great position to have been in such a good place to be when you're like all right this relationship isn't working out let's split like how many couples can say they have have positive income. Yeah. How did that work? Did you both just kind of go, okay, well, I've got my own savings account and you've got your own savings account. We're just going to go our separate ways. No, everything was joint and then we had things to sell effectively. So then in it, we just sold everything that we had, which meant that we both had cash, I suppose. So we cleared

all our debt. Incredible. And is that why you're now thinking about protecting your assets from partners in the future are you did you just find that process kind of challenging or is it just now you're kind of forward thinking you know should you find yourself in a situation like that again that you want to be a bit more prepared yeah and I suppose being a bit older now as well like I was 19 oh you're a baby yeah so like we both had nothing so it was fine we didn't have to consider these things but just been a bit older and both of us having things and and again like now I have three of the little people that I have to consider at the same time. It's not just protecting myself. So just the best way to go about that, I suppose. I find that such an interesting question and I

will address it in just a second, but I find it such an interesting question because people who are in relationships and they're 18, I still think that they should be considering these things because Jess said on a recent podcast, you prepare for the worst, but you expect the best. and I don't even think it's necessarily about going, okay, let's sit down and have a binding financial agreement because money dires you right. Like you probably started that relationship with nothing. You probably just came out of home and you're like, let's get married. Like this is so sweet. And that's such a romantic story. But at the same time, I think if you're in that situation, no, you don't really have to be thinking about binding financial agreements. But I think that

women particularly, because we're the ones that always end up suffering the most from breakups. I'm not saying that men don't. I'm not saying that, you know, there aren't people where that situation hasn't happened to them because of their gender. But I feel like women are always on the back foot because they lack financial literacy. And I think that regardless of your situation, even if you don't need it, you need to know what that looks like and know, okay, cool, these are my values and this is what banking is and this is how to make a payment and this is where our bills are. And even if you aren't in charge of the budget, understanding the budget in your relationship is so important and making sure that everything's equal. Someone might,

you know, wear the pants in the relationship and pay all the bills, but that doesn't mean you should just bury your head in the sand and not know how to. I think it's a very different situation. But when it comes to starting to protect yourself, it's about putting yourself in a situation where you're protecting your assets, especially because you have those three little people. And I think it's about setting boundaries and thinking about things like binding financial agreements for next relationships. I don't know if it's necessary to go down the route of having trusts set up, but you could always think about a trust being set up so the assets sit in that. But it is an expensive way of going about it. But I'd be really careful of the

relationships that you form, not saying, oh my gosh, the relationship's bad, but about the boundaries in that relationship. So what does it look like? How often are they staying over? What are the expectations financially from both sides? And we recently did a really good episode with Georgia and I, where we talked about what happens when your partner has kids and they're not your children? How do you pay for them? At what point do you bring up shared expenses? I think it's being really conscious of these expenses and drawing the line in the sand. Thankfully, you mentioned that you got a house and then a partner, so you would have had premarital assets, so assets that predate the relationship starting, which is quite important in, I guess, the eyes of the law.

But at the end of the day, it really depends on what that relationship looks like into the future and whether you're planning a big future with them or you're planning to, you know, just date casually for a while. I have no idea what that looks like for you, my friend. So talk to me about how you would want to protect your assets having gone through that situation. Well, I think that's the hardest thing about it, isn't it? Because when you're in a relationship and you're at that point with someone you're like oh I love you this will never end and let's do all these things together and buy these things together and do what I mean like yeah totally glasses on but then you have your good friend in the other ear saying oh you never thought x would be like this but yeah yeah

and it must be heartbreaking being like that's not the person I knew that's not the person I trusted to make those decisions like I'm not gonna put myself in a position where I you know have children with somebody that I don't trust and see a future with right like you don't go let's have a baby and then break up yeah Jess yeah like let's go do no one does that you always expect the best but I think as Jess was saying you need to also prepare for the worst and always know all right well if this didn't work out this is the backup plan would you say in your last relationship you just didn't have that and you just had to deal with it as the blows came as you actually just structure yourself and you were like, well, let's sell this stuff. I guess that's the next logical

step. Yeah. And I'm very much a jump in the net will appear kind of person as well. So I was just like, all right, this has happened. Like, let's just do this. And, but when you're 19, you don't go into a relationship thinking that you need an exit plan. Of course not. When you're in your 30s. And do you know what? If you're 19 as well, I really doubt if I had turned around and said, money, Dara, sit down, let's have a chat about what if this doesn't work out, you'd be like, excuse me, we're in love. We're in love forever. And I don't need your help. Like nobody at the age of 19 wants financial advice when it comes to that kind of thing. Cause you go, no, this is true love. You've never felt this. Like Victoria, you might not be in love with your partner as

much as I am. Like I totally get that as somebody who has had a long-term relationship before my current partner, Steve, I didn't know that was going to end. And then it did. And I was like, what a surprise. This is shocking for everybody involved. But I think it's such an important thing to put your own financial literacy first, because what's the worst thing that could happen if you're educated? What's the worst thing that could happen if you know your rights and you know that you can have a binding financial agreement and you know you can have all these things structured? It doesn't necessarily mean you have to do anything or put a binding financial agreement in front of a guy once he starts sleeping over. I think it's more about going, all right, well, these are my

things. Those are your things. And it's about the open, honest conversation that you have throughout that, you know, the beginning parts of that relationship. Yeah. I want to ask you about how are you looking after yourself? Because being a mum could be a full-time job in and of itself. And then on top of that, you are working full-time across two different jobs and running a business. I don't know how you have enough hours in a day to be frank. Do you sleep? Yeah. As I say, I don't sleep. I go to bed when my kids go to bed some days at seven o'clock. Oh my gosh. I feel like that's smart. That is a smart mum win. You've got to look after yourself. I'm a morning person. So when it's busy, I'll get up at four and get a good two or three hours in before the house wakes.

Oh my goodness. I could simply never. Mums are super. Like honestly, it's like you've got, you give birth and you've got superpowers. It's just, it's like magic. How do you go about prioritizing because you've got your own small biz on top of, you know, kids need attention 24-7 and you have three of them and you're also, you know, out of the house working at your jobs. How do you prioritize everything and make sure that it's all ticking away? Because having a small business, there's a lot of small business owners in our community who will attest that that is a big time suck. You have to put a lot into that. I think as soon as you have kids and I had my eldest was yet to turn three when my third was born. So they're all,

there was three within three years oh my gosh she's crazy too Jess it was it was crazy but my one word of advice always was you lower your expectations at each kid and you realize that you're never gonna be as good at everything as you were at one thing so you kind of just have to appreciate that some nights my kids might have chicken nuggets out of a box but we're eating and we're fine and that's gonna be okay yeah and then some nights I have to call in sick to work but I'm getting paid and I'm fine and that's going to be okay I think it's just accepting that you can't be perfect at everything all of the time and knowing which ball to drop as in when you have 100 balls in the air it's sometimes okay to drop some and things won't break so just being aware

of which ones drop that is a great mindset that is a really really good mindset also I hate that you think that chicken nuggets aren't like a really good dinner um because that's definitely a daily choice that I have made in the recent days. All organic, of course. Oh, I don't even know if Jess's are organic. Definitely highly processed. You're like, they came from the drive-thru. Yeah, the place with the big M. I love the balls to drop analogy and just knowing which one. Obviously, I never know which one is okay to drop and then it breaks. I'm like, oh, maybe it wasn't that one. So you got together with your partner when you were 19 and then obviously no one foresees a relationship breakdown, but sometimes like, you know,

I don't know your situation. I'm not even going to ask about it because that's not the point of this diary. But sometimes you just need to get out of a relationship and, you know, you're just like so committed to that relationship, especially because of tenure. There are going to be people listening to this going, oh my gosh, she's done all of this and gotten out of a relationship that wasn't the best thing for her. What advice do you have to those people who are in that situation, who are listening along going, oh, I just don't know how to handle it. What do you wish someone sat you down and said, all right, money address, this is what you need to know before you go through this situation. Honestly, one step at a time. And it's always harder in your mind than

it is in real life. It was easier than I thought it would be. And I think a lot of women are always like, I can't do this because he will, I can't do this because of this. And I'm like, one step at a time and I think it's always harder in your mind than it is in real life yeah I feel like that's good advice even for every other situation especially at 3am where everything seems like the actual worst like that seems to be the time that everything for me compounds and it's always harder in your mind that it is in real life I really like that that's such a good place to probably leave this thank you so much for spending so much time with us I'm so grateful that you wanted to share your story with us and share our money. I feel like that's been so interesting and also made

me feel wildly inadequate. Like three kids, three jobs, hustling, has a mortgage, wants to buy another property. Like you are killing it. And I am so wildly proud that you are part of our community. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. Oh my gosh, of course. I love having you. Thank you so much. But as we always say, unfortunately, that is all we have time for today. Jess, would you like to wrap our show? Absolutely. Don't forget, guys, 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 a financial decision. And we promise Victoria Devine is an authorised

representative of InFocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited, ABN 47097797049, AFSL 236523. See you next Money Diary. Bye.