She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: A Hard Worker With A HUGE Heart!

Episode Date: June 5, 2022

We cannot wait for you to meet today's Money Diarist! As a kid from a low income background on a scholarship at a private school, she never felt like she fit in, but early on she formed an appetite for very hard work. Now, with four kids including two of her own, and two more she is a joint kinship carer for, she's juggling fulltime work, family and study. And did we mention she has a heart of gold?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!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. 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.

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 Shop Back Money Diary Monday where we chat to one of our Gorge community members. We learn about them, their life, their story, their money and all of the fun bits in between. Today, I've got G King on the mic. Hello. How are you going, honey? I am so excited to be here. I know you never get to do the Mondays and they're really good, fun episodes.

I can't wait to see what it's all about. Well, let me tell you, we have, as always, an excellent diarist and she said, I'm 28 years old with four children, two a joint kinship carer with my mum and two are my own. My father moved to Australia from New Zealand 35 years ago, came for a holiday and met my mum. I grew up with two minimum wage parents who worked multiple jobs to send my brother and I to our local private schools in Sydney. I have worked since I was 14 and had a variety of jobs in that time, from your standard first job and climbing the ranks there to a career shift from time to time to now finishing my university degree and studying to become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

I have a home in Sydney which has doubled value in 18 months, a share portfolio and of course my super. Just a regular mum doing my best for her kids and her family. What a story. Oh gosh, I can't wait to hear more. I know, we've got our diarist here. Hello, how are you going? Hello everyone.

I'm very excited to chat to you because it sounds like you've worked your way up and done some incredible things in your time. But first, let's start with our structured questions, shall we? Money diarist, can you tell me what's your attitude towards money? Well, money actually still at this point scares me. I don't like dealing with money. I find it stressful and having to organize that is just not something that I like. I may like spreadsheets, but actually organizing everything isn't fun. But I think it also comes back from being in an environment like I went to a private school in high school and having everyone have money

literally falling out of their pockets. Their school holidays looks like a trip in Europe or something like that. Whereas mine looks like working 40 hours a week just so I could upkeep the social agendas throughout the term. So I think that's where it started from. So I started up really, really high in my expectations. That's what I had to live like. So then over the time now, it's definitely a lot different. I'm far from that sort of lifestyle, but that's where it started. And that's where I think all my scaring and all of that came from. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. What do you do for work and how much money do you earn?

So I'm an RTO trainer and assessor. So I take home $57,000 annually, plus I get a $15,000 car allowance, plus super, and then they cover like my expenses. So like if I have to travel to go to a location, accommodation and food, if I have to fly somewhere, all of that's covered as well. Yeah, that's really good. or something that you get super on top of your base with something like that as well. Can I jump in and ask what an RTO assessor does?

Yeah. So an RTO is a registered training organization. So it's like a TAFE teacher, but in like a business perspective. So lots of organizations have them. So depending on what they have, they could just be doing a certificate two, certificate three, four diplomas. And that's what we assess and train that process generally in like a business perspective. So like I work for a company and I'm a trainer for them individually. Cool. It's kind of like adult exams. Like you're, you're learning to deliver this thing and you're the exam deliverer walking up and down the room being like, are you doing the right thing? Scary. I was scared of people like you. I don't do it like that. It's very different, but I do like from 14 year olds,

cause I have people that start at the age of 14. So I have younger people and I have older people as well. That's so cool. You said before that you're saving up and working your way up. What is your big money goal at the moment? My big money goal at the moment is probably not like some sort of savings goal like most people's is, is that we would like to renovate our home. So when we purchased our home 18 months ago, it was a four bedroom kind of project home built 20 years ago. So it's enough to meet our needs, but obviously going through lockdown and everything, you kind of want to work out that you want to have more in your home so you can have activities and enjoy all the moments that you can. So we just want to put a pool in and just do some other little

things to our home just to make it more user-friendly for our boys and be able to spend more time with them. Home renovating is so expensive as well. Victoria's going through the process now and it blows my tiny little mind how expensive something like flooring, which you don't assault. You're like, I walk on it. How much could it possibly cost? Turns out very expensive. Yeah. Wild. Now you did tell us you have a share portfolio. Can you tell us a little bit more about that and your investments. So in the investments, I'm going to claim that it's my share portfolio because it's mine and my partner's, but he organizes that. So I was actually brought up in a family lifestyle that shares were not a good thing, like don't touch

them, you'll lose all your money lifestyle. Oh, yes. We've heard that before. Yep. Whereas my partner, his grandfather was a very big share investor. He did very well with he worked up high and he retired at the age of 40 because of it. So he started his share portfolio about five years ago. And I think we started with about $10,000, like increased it up. And then now I think we're about at $50,000. Oh my gosh, incredible. And you have your super as well on top of that, you said as well, which is awesome. Now, do you have any debts to kind to flip it on its head? Yeah. So we, obviously we have our mortgage and then that's about 800,000 at the moment because we just refinanced to be able to do some renovations. Yep. And then

I also have a novated lease for my car for work because I drive over 1500 to 2000 kilometers a week. Wow. So just needed a car for that purposes. And I also have a HECS debt. And how much is your sitting at currently? I probably should have checked. I think it's about 30 grand. Yeah. No, that's all right. Close enough. Now, Money Diarist Mondays are brought to you by our friends at Shopback. Do you use the Shopback platform? I sure do. We love to see it. Do you have any fun little hacks or tidbits for it? We've had a few people over the last few weeks sharing things and I've been like, I didn't know you could do that. So where do you love to use it? Pretty much just anything I purchase, I just double check Shopback first. So like if I'm in

store which is hard I like to buy things in store obviously to get those endorphins when I buy something yes however if I do see it online and I can get like 10 cash back plus this and this and I'm like okay I'll try it all on and then I'll go and buy like sometimes I buy it online in store oh you can do that no shame I'm just like oh what do I need just so I don't forget if not I won't do it like yeah if I'm doing a little bit of me time with kids it's like if I don't do it now it's not going to be ordered. And then with holidays, that's probably my biggest thing that I've taken advantage of. I think it was not a holiday that I planned. It was a family's wedding. I booked accommodation and I was just waiting for a sale before I kind of booked it on

shop back or anything. And then they emailed me one night and they're like, oh, 30% shop back. Huge. Yeah. So I think I got about $450 back from accommodation. How good is that? That is incredible. That is so good and leads really nicely into my next question, which is what is your best money habit? I'm definitely a person that won't buy anything unless it's on sale. So I will bulk buy. So I purchase a particular laundry powder. If it's half price, I'll buy 15. If, you know, I drink almond milk. So when the almond milk goes on sale, I'll buy 50. So I just buy everything. So that's really, it's hard to budget when I do things like

that because I'm buying for such a long period of time. But I know out of the long run, I'm saving myself so much more money. So that's probably my best money habit that I won't buy anything unless it's on sale. Do you have, when you're buying such big quantities like that, it makes me think of, have you ever seen Extreme Couponing? The video is, it's an American TV show because couponing isn't really a thing here. I wish it was, I'd be all over it. But they have like these things that they call stockpiles and they have rooms where it's almost like a a little mini shop in their house with all of their stuff that they've gotten on sale do you have one of those yeah I do in our garage so I have like a walk-in pantry that we converted when we got our home

and then in our garage obviously my cars don't fit in my garage which was a bit sad because that's why I wanted one but I have like two freestanding pantries out there and I also have like the Bunnings, like racket shelves with everything there. So I have from nappies to a whole shelf of milk, bulk rice, pasta, everything's there. If the apocalypse comes, I'm hanging out at your house. She's set to go. I love that. Incredible. What is on, I guess, the other end of the spectrum? What would you say is your worst money habit? Sometimes if I haven't bought anything or spent something on myself, I'm very bad at buying things for me. I'll buy things for my kids all the time but if I do buy something for me that whole concept of being good and making

sure it's on sale goes through the roof yeah sometimes though I feel like if you're not looking after yourself you deserve a treat as well every once in a while I think mums put so many other people before themselves and it's like if you're gonna look after yourself you can't as well do it well every once in a while right yeah it would work if I didn't feel guilty about the purchase afterwards so that's why if I do it I just need to do it and make sure I feel good about it. And then I don't feel like I'm not justifying it every day. Well, the She's on the Money team gives you permission to not feel that guilt, girl. So hopefully that helps. Thank you. Thank you. Alrighty. And lucky last question. What grade would you give your money habits if we asked

you to give yourself a grade? I would give myself a B. So I definitely think I do well that I organize myself and budget. But in the sense of platforms of organizing my investments and understanding my money flow, I kind of have no idea where everything is going. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. And we can definitely help you with one of those things off the air, but let's go to a really quick break because I have a heap of questions that I want to ask you about. So don't go anywhere. Welcome back to another Money Diary Monday and Money Diarist. I want to start off by asking you about your private school experience, because I think private school is something that can be super polarizing.

And you said for yourself, you had two working class parents who were working really hard to make that education happen for you. You yourself were working as well. And you were watching your peers go on these elaborate holidays or have money to spend disposably however they wanted. And you said that that kind of shaped your perspective on money a little bit. And I just wanted to talk to you about what that experience was like for you as a child, because that would have had a really big impact on you now as an adult and how you feel about

money. I definitely think it impacted me about what I needed in life. I felt like I definitely have to be very materialistic. I needed the newest and the best things and your social life was very busy. So, you know, if you had someone's birthday party that you were going to, then you had to make sure you had a new outfit, you had this, you had to buy them a gift that was, you know, above and beyond that anything that you'd probably get gifted yourself but that was kind of the environment that you kind of dealt with obviously there were other girls in similar situation as myself but I think when you are a teenager and going through puberty you just want to fit in yeah I just wanted to fit in and I definitely I went through primary school going through bullying because I was the only girl

child that was actually had brown skin oh my gosh that would be so hard already yeah so when I was at school like I would come home and like cry because everyone would make fun of me so then in high school that was like had to fit in had to fit in yeah so it was very very difficult on that perspective and then when I finished school I was not friend I'm not friends with anyone from high school like I you know will say hello to people but I actually never have any good relationships from there my friends that I made were actually people that I worked with so one of my best friends that I've been friends with for like 15 years now was someone that I met when I was 14 that we worked together we still work together now within the same company just

doing different roles but we both went to private schools but we both don't have that perspective that like we need to up one each other all the time it's like oh what new thing do you have it's like, we're both like, how can we save our money? How can we, you know, do the best for our kids and be able to give them everything without thinking that they need the newest iPhone, the newest iPad or anything like that. Yeah. So it's also colouring your relationship with your kids now. Out of curiosity, are you going to send your kids to private school as well, or will they go to public school? It really depends on, I would like to send my kids to whatever school suits them. So if my kids all go to different schools, then they will all go to

different schools. I want to find a school that fits their needs and their lifestyle of what they would like to do in their life. I don't want to base it on a school that I want to go to. So if it becomes a private school, then that's 100% okay if that's the best thing for them. But if it's a public school, it's a public school. That is such a beautiful answer. I really love that. And as someone who went to public school, like I feel like they get a bit of a bad rap. Like there's public schools, private schools, there's definitely more resources available at private school. But I think there's totally benefits to both and it's a really great perspective to have to say it's going to depend on my kid because every kid needs different things so I think that's a great way to

do it. Yeah and especially having our two foster children as well like they currently go to the public system that's only because of the financial they came into our life very quickly and it wasn't something my parents had ever planned to add into their lifestyle like they had done kids because I'm a little bit older than what they are. But in that sense that the way that the education we're choosing where they go to high school is based on their requirements. So one of them is definitely not a educational learning kind of kid. Like he's great with sports. So like we're going to focus on schools that are sports focused and all of that. Like he's never going to be a uni student or anything like that. Like we know he knows that. So we want to make sure we give

him absolutely everything that if he would like to be a rugby union player, then we'll give him every stepping stone to get to that place. Incredible. I wanted to ask you, Money Diarist, about your journey with investing. So you said you grew up in a household that did not approve of shares. How did your perception change with that? Was it purely down to your partner or was it listening to She's On The Money perhaps? What was your story with that? I wish it was my partner and I believed in him but it wasn't. So it definitely was she's on the money. So obviously I thought we needed to do something about our budget. I wanted to buy a home. He wasn't like really into buying a home. We used to go on holidays like two times a year and spend like

a whole salary on holidays because we lived at home and that's what we could do. So he always did the savings and did his portfolio and he does I think it's like the day trading kind of thing. Like he looks at it every day and he's like heavily invested in it. I was like, I don't have time for that. It's a big commitment. And even then you can put all the time and effort in the world into it. And some of it just comes down to luck as well. Yep. And I was like, I don't care that much to sit there and like understand each of them. Like I would like to know the basics, but like, I'd rather pay someone to do it for me. Like that's just not on my top 10 to-do list. So then my parents definitely were very like, shares is you lose money. That's not how you

future proof yourself. And I think living week by week, they still do live on credit cards and they buy things I feel outside of their means and don't accommodate for anything. And that's super stressful for me because I'm like, why did you just do that? And they will complain about money, but then we'll go buy a brand new TV. Yeah. And you're like, this is an endless loop that just is not resolving itself. So it's never, I don't think I can do anything to help them. I try, but I understand to myself that if I would like something, I need to, you know, aim for it and get to that point. And through shares, that's hopefully something that we can future for later so that our share portfolio is primarily going to be for our kids just so we can start

saving and like having that fun so if one day we want to go hey we want to buy you a car then we can that's incredible I want to actually ask about your kids and the foster kids as well that you said you kind of job share almost with your mum and you said before that they came in a little bit unexpectedly how did that happen so how do they come into your lives firstly and then how does that job share work because obviously having two kids of your own is a big time commitment in and of itself with the school runs if you go into different schools and all those kinds of things. And then you've got another two that you're helping out with as well. What is that all like? So I had my first child, he's three now, when we both lived at my parents' house in a

granny flat. So I was about six months pregnant and they came into our care and they were about three and four at the time. They were family, friends, kids that we used to look after all the time. Like every second weekend we would look after them so mum could have a break. so they used to come over for three four days every fortnight and then at the point it got to the point where the youngest one who came into our care first she had severe allergies so she was allergic to pretty much life and had really bad eczema that her skin was scabbing and you know she couldn't do anything it was a very miserable life for her so her auntie had taken her to the hospital and then she wasn't allowed to go back home with her mother because they thought it

wasn't a the right place for her yeah so they asked my mom if she would like to take care of her so obviously that was a discussion as a family that we had to have she couldn't really make a decision by herself and I said to them like I'm more than too happy to help like whilst I live at my parents house which I obviously not having my own kids at the time didn't realize like what I was putting myself forward for and then also the justification that her brother wasn't coming with us so we would still have to liaise with the mother to do visitations and stuff like that so she we said like okay one person like it's fine like she'll be okay and then a few months later the brother came into our care because something happened and then within like six months

so I then had my child and then I was at home so I was doing like morning school drop-offs at daycare and primary school everyday pickups, then organising swimming lessons, organising like all the Centrelink things because they are in foster care. They go through Centrelink. Had no idea how that program worked. So much paperwork I can imagine. And this was pre-COVID. So you physically had to go into locations. So like I'm like taking a newborn into these places, taking a newborn into courts, like doing all of that. So at the moment, so we moved out about 18 months ago or probably 12 months ago because we renovated before we moved in so my parents look after my kids during the day whilst I'm at work so in the mornings we'll drive an hour to their

place because we live an hour away joys of Sydney property prices can't afford to live near them oh my gosh feels yeah so we drive an hour to my parents we do breakfast and then I'll drop the kids off at school on the way and then I'll go to work and then I normally work later in the night so then someone will pick up the kids in the afternoon and depending on what activities there are we'll take them to like swimming, rugby training, basketball and then my partner will get home and we'll make dinner for everyone that's there. Oh my gosh it sounds like a busy life. Yeah like a full Brady Bunch situation and I mean hats off to you and your mum that is not an easy situation to find yourselves in and to put your hand up and say, yeah, like we'll help these

people is just incredible. So I'm so impressed, honestly, and thankful that there are people like you are who are willing and able to do stuff like that to help out families in need. It's just amazing. In terms of the financial aid that you get from the system, is there still a significant financial burden that falls to you or is everything kind of covered? Because I imagine things like swimming and like they're once not needs and I mean they're so important if you are able to do that for your kid for development and confidence and all those sorts of things but I can also imagine that from like a court's perspective they wouldn't maybe account for that kind of thing absolutely not so my mum takes all the payments because they live like with her so I kind of am

the assistance in other things but it definitely doesn't cover everything so we still have to pay school fees even though we go to a public school yep so at the beginning they offered to pay for uniforms and stuff like that but ever since they haven't offered they also I know with our local school provide the school with different grants so because they are Torres Strait Islander as well they receive grants at the school and because they are classified as foster children they also receive grants I've learned that those grants for a teacher aid don't actually go towards the children, because that's how the public school system unfortunately works. It goes to those that are in need. And if he's not classified as a need, even though he being there brings those

requirements, they don't get access to them. So like swimming lessons is not paid for and they aren't a cheap expense, but we have a pool. So we believe swimming lessons is a requirement. I myself used to swim like four mornings a week. So like, that's just the norm for me. and then like sports as I said before the eldest boy he is not an academic child he never will be he doesn't enjoy it and which is absolutely fine he is great at sports so it was really exciting he had his rep rugby tryouts for the grade above because he's too young for his like reps doesn't exist for his age and he actually made the team on the weekend oh that's so exciting yeah congratulate congratulate him for us. We will. So it's really exciting that like he has these opportunities and

everything, but if we didn't do that for him, he wouldn't get that. No, that's not something that is in the tick box kind of formula of what the requirements they give. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's so hard to think about the opportunities, I guess, that are available to some people and not to others. And yeah, it's really special that you are providing that for him. And I think that perspective as well of, hey, like maybe academics aren't your thing as someone who grew up in an environment where like my education and the schooling process that I went through was very academic focused. As someone who was kind of less inclined that way, I know that it can be really disheartening

to experience that. So I think the fact that you're going, hey, like if that's not for you, that's so cool. Like you have other awesome skills and let us support you. What can we do? I think that he and all of your other kids are going to grow up and have really, really fantastic lives because of that. Thank you. To shift the conversation back to you, you said before that you're finishing off uni and you're studying to become board certified. How long have you got left? What does that look like? How are you going juggling study and your certification

alongside working alongside being a mum to so many beautiful kids? It's definitely a juggle. So after having kids, I realised that breastfeeding and support for women postpartum is pretty much non-existent. And I definitely went down the rabbit hole of exploring options to be able to provide that support and nurture women postpartum. The saying that it takes a village to raise a baby is 100% true, but no one realizes that taking a village doesn't mean coming over and holding the baby for five minutes. It's coming over and doing the washing for mom, cooking food for mom, like letting her sit there and taking that time and that bonding that's required. So after not realising because there was such a non-existent, I was studying a Bachelor

of Commerce in Human Resources. So I think I have like two subjects to go. I've just been pregnant or having a newborn every time a semester would start. Just bad timing. Yeah. I was like, probably not a good time to do it right now. So hopefully I'm going to finish that off this year. So I am find like just it's done. And then I am currently also completing a certificate for in breastfeeding education, which is done through the Australian Breastfeeding Association. So I decided to do that to gain knowledge for myself on my own breastfeeding experience and being able to advocate for myself within my workplace and return to work and be able to continue to complete that, which obviously in my industry, in some places, it's not really a normal thing. So be able to provide

that in for my place and then also for other places as well. And then once I've done that, I want to start my journey to become a international board certified lactation consultant. Unfortunately, it is a really difficult niche to get into if I'm not a nurse or a midwife, because it's an international certification there's certain like either TAFE grade units or uni degree units required and then clinical hours as well so Australia doesn't have the foundations that for example the US do so in the US they have like centers that primarily there for people to study to become an IBCLC and then you can do the whole program through them so yes you may pay like five to 10 grand to do it, but that whole certification can be done. Whereas in Australia,

if you're not a nurse or a midwife, it's a lot of a more tedious process to get there. So I can, like I've added some units into my degree because I had electives to kind of go towards it, but then I'll have to work out how to do the other ones. But at the moment, I'm kind of just educating myself and putting myself out there to try and help other mothers and be that support system, which I don't think is out there at the moment. That's amazing. I love that. And I mean, I haven't had children, so I'm probably definitely not qualified to speak on it. But a lot of my friends have actually, who have had kids, have said that breastfeeding was way more challenging than they thought it was going

to be. Like you kind of have this idea that it's going to be easy. The baby just knows and there's the boob, there's the baby. It's all happy and it all works. But that's actually not the case, which is kind of crazy to think about. I didn't know that, obviously, not having had children. So yeah, I think more education is never a bad thing. And that's a really cool thing to be pursuing. And I love that you're kind of changing your future to suit what you learned as a new mum. That's incredible. Yeah, especially like I would say I would be a younger mum, like I was 25 when I had my first child. And I think, you know, having been the first person in my friend group to go through everything and not knowing anything, you are

definitely guided by the system and yes I feel like our hospital system has its place but unfortunately sometimes they don't provide the best breastfeeding knowledge to mums it could just be what's best for their hospital and what their protocols are because there are protocols that they have to follow they have rules and regulations that they must abide by and it's not what's best for you. Sometimes it's what they have to do. So understanding that, like I'm surprised and many people are that I breastfed my first for so long and did so well without any intervening. Whereas with my second, I was more well aware, more educated. And luckily I did because our breastfeeding journey probably would have ended a lot earlier because we had a lot of issues

throughout the process. My kids like to not like me to have dairy. So thank you so much. It's been a long time since I've had an ice cream. Oh no. So yeah, like if I didn't have the knowledge or the information about how to go through that process, I would have just been like, oh, okay, I'll just do this. And that's not what I wanted to do. Like I am 100% grateful that I've been able to breastfeed my children. My second is now 18 months and we're still breastfeeding. So I have the opportunity to express during work and he has bottles with his caregivers when he's at home. Wow. I feel like I have learned so much this money diary. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for joining us and really incredible to hear all the things that you're doing. Let us know when

you are qualified because we'd love to be able to share that with our community. I think that's really special. But George, I think that's all we've got time for. Did you want to wrap up the important bits? Absolutely. Firstly, I just wanted to say thank you as well to our money diarist. That was amazing. And I think the thing that I really took away was just how caring you are. You are an incredible person. And as Jess said earlier, we are so lucky to have people like you in our community. I've got like goosebumps. That was just a really beautiful story.

And thank you for sharing it with us. And good luck in the future. Thank you so much for having me on the show, guys. It's been a really good experience. Yay. All right, guys, here's the boring stuff. 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 and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of In Focus Securities Australia, Proprietary Limited, ABN 47097797049, AFSL 236523. Thank you so much, guys. We'll see you on Wednesday. See you then.