She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: A Survivor With a Fascinating Job!

Episode Date: June 9, 2024

Today's diarist never thought she would be unemployed or renegotiating the mortgage, she had a career that was going places, and then cancer hit - twice! After she was told 10 years ago that she wouldn’t live this long, she's still here, with two adult children, and at the end of a steep learning curve. Plus you will never guess what she does for a living noways! Friends! If you loved this episode, then we know you are going to love Victoria's new book! This book has been written so you can feel empowered and see that YOU have the power to rewrite your own money story! Get your copy now, click here!  Use the tax cut calculator to estimate you annual tax cut. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our Money Diaries, where we get to talk with one of our incredible She's on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, Victoria. I never thought I would be unemployed or renegotiating the mortgage. I had a career that was going places, then cancer hit. Twice. I was told 10 years ago that I wouldn't live this long. And here I am with two adult children and at the end of a steep learning

curve. I hope others can learn from my experience. Mani Darist, hello and welcome. Hello, thank you. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for writing in. I am very excited to have you. What made you want to share your story? I guess I learned a lot and especially now that you hear that others are struggling with the cost of living, there is just that desire to be able to say, I've been through this too and this is how I got through it. Yeah, wow.

I'm excited to get into it. So let's start at the very start. Money Jurist, I've asked you to give your money habits a grade from A through to F. What would you grade them? I would give myself a B. A B. I like that. Let's get into it. I'd love to know now more about your money story. So, Money Diaries, let's dive in. Can you tell me a little bit more about your money story? Six or seven years ago, I was firstly diagnosed with leukemia and had to take time off work. At that time, I decided to leave my full-time permanent government

safe job and then when it was time to come back I found I could only get contract work and then of course I had breast cancer diagnosed. Oh my gosh you go through leukemia and then you get breast cancer like talk about being kicked while you already went down. I'm fine now I'm in full remission from the breast cancer and the leukemia is a chronic condition it's more of a nuisance than anything but it does impact on my ability to get contracts hold on to them and have the flexibility that employers are looking for particularly in my previous profession which was very hands-on face-to-face work so yeah we went from a situation where we just the year before borrowed the maximum amount we could from the bank. And I was earning 70% of our income.

Oh, wow. I had two weeks before surgery and overnight, that's it. Somehow make it all work. And we had teenage kids at the time and yeah, going to the bank, renegotiating the loan, doing all the things you're supposed to do. And we did manage to hold onto the house and we did see it through. Yeah. Wow. I'm impressed that you managed to see it through given you were the breadwinner in that situation. How much of a spin did that send you guys into? It was huge because also I think something that's often underestimated is the amount of time off that your partner has when you are unwell or vice versa. So it wasn't just that I was not working at all, but there were frequent significant or important appointments that my husband wanted to be there

for yeah and he found it hard because he's dealing with this new reality particularly in that time frame when you know this is advanced get your affairs in order sort of thing so oh wow and he had to keep working we did not want to lose the house we didn't know what the future was going to whole. But I don't know, it was like my daughter's in final year of high school and we were going to at least stay in the house until she'd finished high school. We didn't want to disrupt her at such a critical point in her education. Yeah. Wow. That sounds like an absolute whirlwind. That would be a horrible situation to be in. But I'm actually really glad to hear that you had a husband that really wanted to be there for you and support you through that. That's

so important and sometimes it's just not the case. So I adore that for you. What happened next? Obviously, you had two teenage kids, you managed to keep the house. What happened once, I guess, you went into remission? Well, I guess one of the things that happened, which I don't think would have happened otherwise, my husband was working as a supervisor in a retail store and he wasn't happy with his job and he wasn't well paid. And we were in this situation where something somewhere had to give. So he went into a whole new career that he absolutely loved, that he got paid almost double what he was earning before. And it started out simply from necessity and he just was determined that he was going to do everything he could to take the pressure off me

and now he's doing an occupation where he feels more valued. It takes the pressure off me. When I am able to work, I don't feel like I have to do the same amount of hours. I can cut my hours back and it's even given me the luxury of being able to start my own business on the side. Oh, how cool. I love that. I love that he's in a career that he just feels a lot more fulfilled and valued like everyone deserves that but it kind of sucks that it was out of necessity but very cool that now he gets to enjoy it. So tell me a bit more about what you do for work now and how much you earn when you're able to work. Okay I work for myself I'm an author mostly I write feminist erotica under a pseudonym. Oh very cool not what I expected money diarist.

especially for someone who'd had an academic background but it started just as a side oh i mean that would probably make it even better like are you kidding me like that is very very cool and also for those of you playing along at home like money i literally looks like one of my mom's good friends like she just looks like one of those people that you'd be like oh haven't seen you in ages money dress love to have a cup of tea with you and then you're like yep feminist erotica, let's go. Adore. I started doing it as a side hustle. I used to joke that when you meet people and you're dealing with cancer or chronic illness, every time you meet someone you haven't seen for a while, they'll say, how are you? And it's such a loaded question.

Oh, yes. I loved it when I started writing this, often on the chemotherapy chair, that it gave me something else to talk about. And the nurses were buying my book. So that was pretty cool. Oh my gosh, that is actually so cool. So are you self-published? Do you distribute all of this? How do you do it? Yes, I'm a self-published indie author. And to be honest, for all those indie authors out there, these first two books, I didn't spend a cent on them. I put them out there just because these were something I'd written for myself that helped me and I thought was rather self-indulgent but they've started to get all by themselves a bit of a following in Germany they're written in English in Germany they're earning a tiny bit of money for me on the side and that's

given me the justification to say okay it's really hard for me to hold on to other work let's get serious about the writing. I am obsessed with this. I just love that you've got this side hustle that I didn't see coming at all, like did not see it coming. And it's actually very well timed because, you know, complete side note, Money Diarist and complete side note, everybody listening to She's on the Money because you're not here to hear about feminist erotica. But I had it recommended by like four different other people over the weekend, this stream and a whole heap of books by, what is it? It's called Chestnut Springs, which you might've heard of, but you are probably up and coming. I feel like it's going wild on TikTok at the moment as well. So I'm not surprised

that you're popular in Germany. It's probably going to spread far and wide in the not too distant future. Fingers crossed. Oh, I'm excited. So at the end of the day, how much does an author writing content like yours make? The fact that I have not really invested any money yet, I'm making about $200 a month. So, you know, I can feed the cat. Yes, very, very nice. And let's be honest, that's a lot more than a lot of other authors. Like I feel like lots of authors write books and then don't make a dollar. So this is very, very good. And it's only going to compound from here. Yeah. And so now I'm in the position to be able to be in the house that we held on to. The kids are fine. They've both gone off to university. You sort of breathe a sigh of

relief and think we're not in that horrible situation anymore with our backs against the wall and I can actually move on as a writer knowing that that experience probably helped me with my writing as well. Yeah, that is very cool. All right. Well, tell me a bit more about your money goals now? What are you currently working towards? What's your big money goal? My big money goal is getting debt free. I mean, I'm 57 years of age now, and I'm probably not going to have the amount of time that others do in their retirement because the nature of my illness, I need to be able to get out there and do the sorts of things people normally do in their seventies. I need to be able to do them in my sixties. So we've only got the one debt and

that's the house. And my dream is to have the house paid off and a granny flat on the house and rent those both out. And then we could travel as grey nomads. That's my dream. Oh, that sounds very, very nice. And is your husband up for that? I think he's a bit of a homebody. He would have gladly stayed here. but he also knows how important this is to me. I've talked about it for such a long time. I think I've worn him down. And he can be comfortable.

If you're doing the grey nomad thing, you might have a caravan or something similar and you'll still have all of those home comforts. I'm sure he'll wrap his head around it really quickly. Yeah. All right, Money Dice, let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, I have a lot of questions for you. Like this has gone in a direction that I didn't expect.

So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Mundy Doris, I want to know, do you have any investments? If so, what are they? If not, what's the plan? No investments whatsoever. We've had a laser beam focus on the mortgage and nothing else. Do you have superannuation? Yes, not a lot, but it would be enough to build the granny flat. Yeah, very cool. And is that something that you've done a little bit more planning for? Is that something that you're like, look, we've talked about it and it'll happen at some point, but no idea what the cost associated with is? Yeah, I've really looked into the granny flat and I see it as a rent potential and provide the additional income that we need

in retirement. I love this. I would argue that your writing is an investment in itself. I mean, it started to bring in an income stream. Is that something you're going to spend more time on? Or is this something that you wrote a few books while you're in the chemo chair and now you're done with that? Or like, what's the plan for being an author? I couldn't imagine a situation where I wasn't writing. Even if I was a millionaire, the urge to write is so strong. I'd probably write really bad self-indulgent poetry, but I'd still be writing. I love that so much. And I can hear it in your voice that you're really passionate about it as well. Like you can just hear that little spark of like, no, this is my thing. Have you always been a writer or is this a recent

discovery? No, I've always been a writer. I always had these 10 year plans where first you raise the kids, you get debt free, and then you live a simple life and you write. I think the big mistake I made was thinking that this is the order that things have to be in and you can't do all these things simultaneously. I wish now that I had taken my writing serious at a younger age. All right, Monday Doris, you mentioned before that the only debt that you have is the remainder of the mortgage. What does that look like and what's the plan for getting rid of it? Yeah, it's $230,000 and realistically, while I know these days that's not a lot, I don't see us getting that paid off by my 60s.

So having the granny flat was so that we would have income and we're hoping to have the mortgage to the point where renting out the main house covers its own costs. It doesn't require anything from us. Yeah, that is very cool. I feel like these days more and more people are getting to retirement and still having a mortgage and having to find ways to pay it off during retirement or do exactly what you're planning. Because doing the grey

nomad thing, while very sexy, let's be honest, like that sounds like a life worth living. It's also relatively cheap in comparison to a mortgage. So if you can do that, that's actually going to put you in a pretty good financial position. Was that one of the motivators as well? Or was it just like, that's a bonus? It's a bonus. I think I've just got a wandering spirit and I'd love to live a simpler life. I love it. So have we got any plans for when that might happen or have you been, you know, fantasizing by Googling and looking at caravans online? Like what's the plan look like at this point? I got it pretty sussed because, you know, I do my own, at what point will the mortgage be at this point and so forth. So the year I turn late in my 60th years, which

is just over three years to go we should be free how exciting I love this for you talk to me a bit more because I know in the background you're a pretty savvy saver and pretty good at getting a dollar to stretch tell me what you think your best money habit is my best money tip is always think through every purchase that you make. We have a rule that we do not buy anything over $300 without talking to each other first. That's our boundary line. People can have different boundary lines, but I think in a relationship, when you've really got to pull together, you have to have some rules around, these are the purchases I can make without saying anything, and these are the purchases we should talk about first. And I always do my shopping having a

shopping list and I keep it really low. So yeah, for a lot of us, our grocery shopping is our biggest discretionary bill. And that's where I'm really able to keep the costs down. Yeah. So how are you doing that? You're going in with a list, but like, are you meal planning? are you online looking up recipes like what are you doing that you would think impacts saving so much on your grocery bill? I am able for the two of us if I have to to do a shopping trip for under $50 a week and make sure that we've actually covered all our nutritional requirements there are treats, you know, but I come at that with knowing exactly how much calcium, how much magnesium, how much niacin. I literally get down to that level to decide, well, these are the bare

minimums we need to meet so that we're not compromising our health. And when you go from that level, I think that's really important. Oh my gosh. I think that's genius. It sounds like a lot of work though, but clearly worth it. Now, I wanted to ask you a bit more about money here. You mentioned before you're 57, you're married, which is very exciting. Have you shared money? Have you had separate money? What has that looked like throughout your lifetime, especially having raised two now adult children? Okay. My husband's my second husband. Lucky guy. We have one bank account each that's our own and we just have a set amount of money that goes into that bank account for our use. We don't have to explain anything, but almost all of

our money goes into our everyday accounts and our mortgage. And we get excited. We sit together and we look at the graph for that mortgage, probably once a fortnight and just go, yay, we can see it going down. That's been a big thing. And was that something that when you got married, you just decided to do it that way? Or how did that eventuate? I think we both felt that it was really important that we were very open with each other about money. I think that was always the case. It became even more critical when we had our backs against the wall. When you get those red bills and you're struggling and you're thinking, here we go, another payment plan. Having that total transparency meant that there was one less thing that I had to stress about.

There were many, many times when there was no money other than managing the bills and doing the absolute minimum. And it sounds like you've been able to work through that and actually budget really well. And now you've got your groceries down pat. I feel like you are on top of it when it comes to saving and budgeting. But I want to know, what do you think is your worst money habit? I am bipolar with money. So during those times when I was able to earn a good income, the most bizarre thing would be that suddenly I would just splash the cash. It was like, okay, I don't have to live like this anymore. And I deserve this. And I would spend up big on silly things. And I think, why did I do that? Relatable. Except when I actually have real

choice. Yeah, that's fair. I feel like you do the best you can. And then all of a sudden you have heaps and you're like, breathe a sigh of relief, but that's maybe not the best thing. I feel like that's very relatable though. Money Diarist, at the start of this episode, you said, I think that my money score is a B. Do you think that that's accurate still now we've talked about all your good money habits, which I'm very impressed with. And can you tell me what you think it would take for you to become an A plus? I think the real test is if I was to have the money, you know, in a way it's so much easier to save when you don't have it and you have no choice yes the real test is when you do have it and you still want to achieve your dreams you know stick to the same

course and suddenly know that extra money is not going on the mortgage I think the real test is if I was to suddenly have an additional income perhaps from my writing it would be interesting to see how I manage then and if I can hold myself to account. I'm excited to see where your writing goes. I think that that's got big legs. Thank you. Marty Durris, unfortunately, that is all we have time for today, but I have loved getting to know you.

I've loved learning a little bit more about your money story. I've loved sharing you with the community and I know that they have loved listening along with us. So thank you so much. It has been an absolute pleasure to have you on. Thank you very much. the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and

should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy a financial product read the pds tmd and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.