She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Carrying the Pressure & Bridging Two Worlds

Episode Date: November 6, 2022

This Money Diarist is a 22 year old, first generation immigrant from Sri-Lanka and on top of studying her masters in psychology is managing full time work and three casual jobs! With her home country of Sri Lanka enduring the worst economic crisis it has ever seen, and her father still living there, she struggles with her desire for the 22-year-old care-free life of her peers and the very real need to provide for her parents. How you can offer support to people in Sri Lanka:Sri Lanka Red Cross SocietyFoundation of Goodness  Give2Asia UNICEF UN Central Emergency Response FundWorld Food ProgramThis 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. 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 Shop Back Money Diary Monday, where we get to chat to one of our community members to learn about their life and their story and their relationship with money and all the juicy bits in between, Victoria. Jessica. How are you? I am excited. I have a really interesting diarist today. Let me tell you all about them. They said, hey, she's on the money team. Being a 22-year-old first-gen immigrant from Sri Lanka, my life has always revolved around finances. My financial wellbeing has taken a dip in 2022 thanks to the compounding effect of trying to afford rent, study my master's in psychology, work three casual jobs and all the whilst dealing

with the worst economic crisis my home country has ever seen. Holy moly. Like a lot of other immigrants, I find myself getting caught between the struggle of wanting to live the 22-year-old carefree life and the pressure of having to have my shit together so I can provide for my parents because they have no retirement funds. Whilst my story is not unique, I feel like it's a valuable discussion to have with this community and I can't wait to share. Oh, that's giving me goosebumps. thumbs. Money Diarist, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Oh my God, don't be silly. I hate that you said, oh, my money story isn't unique. Like,

yes, it is. Everybody's is. You might have some shared experiences, but I promise nobody in this entire world has a matching money story. It's kind of like a fingerprint. But how about we get into it? I really want to hear about this one. All right, Money Diarist, can you tell us a little bit about your money story. Okay, so I feel like I have a bit of an anxious attachment to money, like a true psych, but this manifests in almost a scarcity mindset when it comes to money and that's probably heavily related to my childhood. So for context, I am a 22-year-old first-gen immigrant from Sri Lanka and growing up, my family would be classed as low-income. so we grew up receiving family benefits from you know Centrelink and youth allowance which

I just want to say like we're so privileged to live in a country that has like such good social security so very grateful for that and my parents are really you know smart skilled hard-working people but because of certain circumstances my dad had to live in Sri Lanka while my mum essentially raised us on her own in Australia in a new country. Props to her. So amazing. So in terms of family income, so even when Sri Lanka wasn't going through a financial crisis, converting a Sri Lankan salary to Australian dollars is obviously not that stellar

and because my dad was the, I guess, primary income earner. And additionally, my mum had to retire early or stop working early because she had a workplace injury. So she was predominantly a stay-at-home mum. So safe to say that money was very tight growing up and there was a lot of rhetoric about being able to afford things. And I was very, very conscious of the concept of money from a very young age. But I guess I'm saying that I'm really grateful for where I came from and I feel so blessed

for everything that my parents did for my sister and I. And I genuinely didn't feel like I missed out on anything as a child. It was more the sacrifice was on my parents' end. You know, they kind of sacrificed living with their partner. They didn't really indulge in any discretionary spending, you know, buying clothes or going out to eat. But most notably, they didn't invest into their financial future in the conventional Australian way of, you know, super and investments so instead they kind of funneled all their money into us and our education and in a weird way we're kind of their investments and sometimes I feel like there's a huge pressure to almost be a good return on that investment and be able to take care of them

financially and help them retire and actually enjoy their life so yeah that's kind of my money story in a nutshell. Is your dad here now? No he still lives in Sri Lanka so he's not a citizen whereas like the rest my sister my mum and I are so he lives there. Oh my gosh that must be so hard for you guys. Yeah it was pretty tough especially for my mum like obviously being in a new country at one point she was working full-time and trying to look after two toddlers which I just can't imagine how crazy that would have been so yeah she's honestly done such an amazing job. wow yes it sounds like it is there any plan in the future for him to join you guys it's kind of tricky I feel like eventually yes and I think it would be easier for him

you know to live here long term just because the rest of his family does but in terms of wrapping up kind of whatever's going on in Sri Lanka right now and figuring that out it's kind of hard for him to move here. Yeah, of course. And also we're kind of waiting till me and my sister get jobs and we start earning an income. So if he does leave, then we can kind of cover things. Oh, wow. That's such an intricate but special place to be. I know it's not the ideal outcome, but like that also feels like a lot of pressure on you, money diarist. Yeah, definitely a lot of pressure, but I've got my sister to share the pressure with. Totally. All right. I want to know, you mentioned in your write-in that you have three casual jobs. What do you do for work

at the moment? How much money do you actually earn? Great question. So as I said before, I'm a full-time master's student in like a psychology master's student, which takes up most of my time between like clients and admin and, you know, classes. So my main job would be something I picked up in the middle of this year which is essentially like a tech job at my university very random my second job is like casual academic work so I teach a couple of tutorials after hours and also mark student assignments and my third job is doing some casual like research assistant work for the lab that I did my honours with which is really cool but in terms of the actual number it's really hard to pinpoint because it can just vary so vastly depending on how many shifts that

I pick up. But I kind of estimated between $500 to $1,000 a week. And I would say collectively, I probably wouldn't be earning more than $35,000 to $40,000 in a year as a full-time student. But I'm very keen to finish studying and actually start a full-time wage. Understandably so. All right. I want to know, sounds like you're pretty clear on this, but what is your big money goal? What are you currently working towards?

So one of my more short term goals is to save a bit of money so I can do some solo travel after my master's because I didn't really do much of that when I was younger. So I think that's a really important thing to like experience different cultures. my second big money goal would be to like many others like get an investment property one day but honestly the idea of that like navigating that space seems so daunting because I don't really have any like I guess mentors in that area so that's kind of something that I just am hoping for down the line and I guess the biggest one would be to earn enough to support myself and also my parents. Yeah, of course. Of course. All right. Next question. Do you currently invest?

Yes, I do have some investments. The best one being super. So I try to contribute as much as I can. And I think I have around 15,000 tucked away in there at the moment. Who is she? Casually working full-time masters, has a massive investment portfolio. That's unrelatable content, my love. I've also got some stock investments as well so I think collectively across a few platforms I've got about 57,000 in there at the moment wow what oh my gosh a queen a few other investments just a couple has a sneaky entire house deposit plus some hidden away but like a huge disclaimer I lived at home during undergrad so even like paying bills and bored just does not amount to how much it actually costs to live out of home yeah of course so yeah I'm very like privileged to yeah

be able to but I'm proud of that amount and technically this is an investment but I've got about 9 000 in my emergency fund and that I feel like is an investment in myself because it just helps me sleep at night and knowing that if something went wrong there wasn't anyone that I could really rely on without putting them in a worse financial position so having that buffer is just so important to me so I call it an investment. I think it's an investment absolutely and I think it's really special for you to be in that position because I'm sure that's a position your parents would you know never have even dreamt of being in in themselves which would I'm assuming make them so proud of you and know that you're absolutely killing it and the sacrifices they've made is

you know they're really paying off yeah I think they are I think they are pretty proud which is yeah it's a nice feeling understandably so all right money diarist I want to know I think the answer to this Jessica is no but do you currently have any debts I don't have any personal debt or like credit card debt but I do have quite a hefty amount of hex debt because obviously studying psych so it's currently sitting at 34 000 at the moment thanks indexation but it will actually go up to 38 000 once I finish my master's yeah yeah so that's a bit stressful but it could have been worse I got lucky with the CSP funded place but I definitely know lots of psych people who have like Hextech's nearing the $100,000 mark because... Cough, Victoria Devine, cough.

So yeah, it's such a long process. Oh, my love, I feel you. Like it feels like a lot and I now don't worry about it at all because I feel like I have a way better education on it. But when I did my undergraduate degree, that added up. Then I did my postgraduate, then I did a master's, and then I've gone back and done some random other things. And like we're currently sitting at a hundred plus thousand dollars. And that gives me mad anxiety when I look at it because I hate the idea of debt. But at the same time, I'm like, no, this got me here. Like we've been doing pretty well so far. And, you know, I guess reframing that really helps because as much as it's a debt that doesn't carry any interest, which is nice, it does still have indexation.

So we do have to be careful of it. But at the same time, I get why it's not a priority for most people to pay off because I'm not making it a priority because it hasn't gotten in my way of creating wealth or buying a house. And I like the idea that if I wasn't making any income at all, they're not going to chase me for it. Whereas that is not the case with a mortgage or a personal loan. Money, Doris, I need to know, you sound pretty savvy. Do you currently use Shopback? Yes, I do. I've been using it for a couple of years now. A couple of years. Of course you do. I checked my lifetime earnings and it was $180, which yeah, I'll take that. That is a lot of cash like that is a shopping spray on the iconic for me what was your last shop back purchase

what was it I think it was something from the iconic actually yeah relatable content I love to see it all right next question I feel like you're gonna have a really good tip for us here what is your best money habit I would say my best money habit is if I do say so myself my work ethic and discipline when it comes to earning and saving money I've been working since the age of 12 with like netball umpiring and whatnot and I've taken a couple of years break in like later high school but yeah working since the age of 12 and kind of saving always been a good saver full credit to my parents but I'm also I feel very disciplined when it comes to spending money on things that I really value so for example I don't really value eating out as much so I'm really good

at like making my food at home and taking it to work in school but on the other hand I really value like living in a really nice space that's like close to uni and work and also I really value the gym so I'll spend a bit more on those things but then I'll save on things that I don't really care too much about. Yeah. No, that makes absolute sense. And I feel like this is a really common theme, Jess, that we see in a lot of our money diarists. Kids of immigrant parents are absolute queens with money. Like they just are so good. And I feel like have such wholesome values and have parents that just go above and beyond for them. And you guys need way more credit because we have so much to learn from you. On the flip side, what is something we don't want

to learn from you. What is your worst money habit? I guess I touched on this in the intro in the letter that I wrote, but my worst money habit would be, I don't know if it could be classed as a money habit, but it's the level of guilt that I feel when I spend money on discretionary things, knowing that there are people in worse situations that are struggling to make it out, just make it out here. And yeah, just the guilt of spending things that are not seen as like productive or actually contributing to anything it's just very stressful and like you want to assimilate and kind of do all these like really fun things and go traveling and whatnot but then you also think about okay that money could be allocated to you know family who might

need it more or back into your future to give yourself that financial backing so the guilt that I feel whenever I do spend money on, like I said, like a hundred dollars in a night out the other week. And yeah, I just was spiraling, just thinking about how much money that I kind of just blew like that. So. How are you working through that? Because I feel like that's a really big piece of the puzzle for a lot of people in your situation, because, you know, I understand the guilt. I totally get it especially when it's so confronting I mean every single one of us has that on us though like you know there is always quite a better thing to spend it on does it mean you shouldn't spend it absolutely not but I would love to know are you working through that is that

something that you're like oh like I haven't really addressed it I mean you're working in psych you're doing your master's this is something you've spoken to someone about like I feel like this is a really big thing that we need to talk about more in our community that's a really good question and I try to remind myself that it is okay and I think even the decision to kind of so I moved from my home state so I used to live in Victoria and I moved to like Brisbane to kind of challenge that idea that I always have to take the route that is going to be like the cheapest or I'm going to like save the most money and then I could you know yeah so I've to kind of take in actions that will force me to spend more money but allow me to kind of

grow in other ways and see that I guess the benefit of spending money in certain situations like for example on that night out yes it wasn't productive but I really had a really good time and it set me up for like a good week so trying to reframe things like that but it's definitely easier said than done oh a hundred percent I totally get it and I mean it all goes back to you being able to be your best self because when you're your best self you can fill other people's cups in the best possible way and if you feel really constricted that ultimately is going to lead to some form of burnout or tiresome or you might feel some level of you know being overwhelmed with the responsibility that's on you so I think we need to find a happy balance but I do think

it's quite normal to want to talk about it as well and go oh I feel so guilty but also you shouldn't my love. Like you are doing the best that you possibly can. In fact, you're doing way more than most of us. So always, always look back at that. Money Diarist, if we forced you to give yourself a money grade, what would you rate your money habits? I would probably give myself an A. You know, I think I've developed some good money habits over my life. Yeah, there's some like skills and goals that I need to work towards, but I think I've done okay. You could not agree more, my love. All right, let's go to a quick break. And right after the break, I want to dive a little bit more into your money story. Don't go anywhere.

Welcome back to She's on the Money and Money Diaries. I want to start by adding a little bit of additional context, if that's okay. You mentioned in your letter, obviously, there's a really severe economic crisis going on right now in your home country of Sri Lanka. For anyone who's not familiar or hasn't been kind of keeping up with that, can you just give us a really, I guess, high level summary of what's going on and how that has kind of then impacted your family and what you guys have been going through? Absolutely. So Sri Lanka is basically going through their worst financial crisis.

So they declared bankruptcy and what's kind of happening is people are struggling to get access to essential goods like food fuel and medicines people are experiencing daily power cuts for like 12 to 13 hours because of resource shortages I remember a couple of weeks ago I was trying to speak to my granddad but he could only spare like a few minutes because he had to reserve like his phone battery in case like there was an actual like emergency or he had to use it for other reasons so yeah it's incredibly sad to see you know especially so many kids that are you know at school trying to learn and they can't because they're like paper shortages power cuts and they obviously really do want to learn a lot of them the inflation rate is at 70 i think that was in

september which is crazy to even fathom and the currency has also like plummeted worsening the financial situation of many families, including myself, because obviously my dad still lives there. Most of my family on my mum's side still lives there. And so, yeah, it's just looking pretty grim in terms of how they're going to come back from that. And especially because businesses can't really operate when there are these power cuts and there are these shortages and people aren't getting the right nutrition or their basic needs aren't being met. So yeah, a lot of people are definitely negatively affected by this and I don't really know what the solution would be. It's absolutely awful. And I think we definitely, I absolutely am guilty of

forgetting how privileged we are here. You know, we've been talking about our rates rises and, you know, inflation here and we're like, oh my gosh, it's so bad. And then you look to somewhere like Sri Lanka. And you're like, it's 70%. Like, how can anybody even afford to be alive, let alone to do anything or enjoy their life on any level? You know, you said before that it's really tricky, obviously, with everything going on, getting your dad and the rest of your family back over here. How has that, I guess, kind of impacted the choices that you have made and that your sister have made? Because you've said the investment that they ultimately made within you guys and in your education. And that's a big weight to carry on your shoulders to know

that the future of your family is, I guess, kind of resting on you. And then overlaid over the top of that, there's obviously all of the anxiety you must be feeling around their safety and their wellbeing and can they access food and water and things that no one should ever have to worry about. Has that shaped the choices that you have made for yourself in terms of your career and the opportunities that you're trying to seek out definitely I think I don't know if the crisis happened like earlier I don't know if I would have even moved interstate so yeah I think that would have really impacted my decisions and changed my priority just because it was more expensive and my money could have been put to better use I guess so yeah in terms of now it's

me just trying to make sure that I can finish my education as soon as possible and look for like full-time work and not really taking a break I suppose I wonder when and if I will burn out at some point which is yeah but just trying to finish things as soon as possible and not really you know spilling my day with either work or uni and just working like seven days a week trying to do everything so it doesn't take me extra time that I don't really have because obviously my parents are getting older as well and like my granddad as well like trying to figure out how we can look after everyone so it's it's very much that like collectivist culture as well where you don't really think about yourself and you have to think about the whole family unit and

what that looks like so I hope that kind of answered that. That's a big sacrifice from you to give up not your youth that sounds very dramatic but you know to give up things that you want to do you said you wanted to travel and you want to live your carefree life to give that up and go oh like I probably am going to burn out and I'm just going to have to deal with that when that comes that's a lot for you to take on and for your sister as well to take on I can't imagine how hard it is but it's very impressive that you guys are doing everything that you can and that you still seem so positive and so happy and yeah I just can't imagine being in that situation it's a lot you kind of want to articulate it as that's a really big burden to carry but I would never want people

to feel like their parents or their family is a burden but you know what I'm getting to like it's kind of like yeah it's this weight that you carry but it's like obviously a choice as well like there's an element of this isn't a choice but also it's a total choice and I just think that that's really beautiful that you I guess lean into that and you clearly are so on that train of like I want to help my family I want them to be in this position I just I really admire that I have a lot of respect for it and anyone else who's going through that circumstance it's just so damn impressive yeah thanks just out of curiosity when do you graduate I'll graduate at the end of next year so I've finished my master's that is very exciting tell me about what type of job you want

after your master's obviously there's like what is there seven streams of psychology which one are you going into my love so I'm in the ed and dev education and developmental stream at the moment. I don't know. I'll be doing externships next year. So I think I'll get a better idea of what I'm actually into. I don't think it will be private practice. I feel more community-based work. But honestly, yeah, I have no idea. I thought I'd figure it out. You have heaps of time and thankfully studying psychology, there are so many different options. I think I've spoken about it on the podcast. I thought I was going to be a counselling psychologist and then I ended up going into organizational psychology, which I didn't even

know existed before I started psychology. I was like, what do you mean the science of people at work? That's not a thing. So there are just so many different ways to use a psych degree. And look at me now, I'm not even in psychology, but I use it literally every single day. So there will be something I promise and I can't wait for you to find something that you love and that you adore and that you feel like you have a really big impact in because I think that most people who do psych, they do it because they want to fix things and they want to, you know, have an impact in this world. And it just is another testament to how much of a special human you are. So thank you for joining us, Marnie Dyrest. Thank you for having me on. Oh my gosh, of course. Before we let

you go, I'm sure that there will be a lot of people listening to this episode who might be hearing about the economic crisis for the first time and might be wondering what they can do to help. Are there any resources or charities or anything that you could recommend people look into if they are wanting to help out yeah there's a few different fundraisers and also I know of a lot of local artists that have been creating some like merch and the proceeds go to people in Sri Lanka so I could potentially actually send you guys some links to things yeah that would be great we'll put them in the show notes yeah that'd be good that'd be awesome yeah that'd be so great so send some links we'll make sure that they're in the show notes so if anyone wants to give a helping

hand or even just do some more research and become more educated on this there will be a few links in the show notes so definitely check them out but with that i think that is a beautiful place to leave it money diaries thank you for joining us and as always jessica ricci it has been a pleasure doing another money diary with you see you guys on wednesday see you then 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.