She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Creating a new life in Australia

Episode Date: September 12, 2021

Happy Monday Friends! Our Money Diarist this week shares her story of coming to Australia with no English, how she has navigated her visas, and how she survives only being legally allowed to work 20 hours a week. A really incredible story that hopefully our community can relate to and feel inspired by if this is something you've always wanted to do!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 is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. my name is tony lodge and joining me for another shop back money diary is victoria divine what a coincidence seeing you here tony lodge imagine if we were both on the same internet recording platform same podcast same time same lockdown oh my gosh twins i love it money diaries are literally i was saying this just before to you tony when we weren't recording money diaries are

literally my favorite part of every week. I know we do deep dives and I know we do Friday drinks and I know that we have other podcasts and I know I should love all of those children equally, but I do not. Money diaries are my favorite because we get to talk to our community and share those stories. So with that in mind, and I won't keep ranting on about it. Can you read this week's money diarist's email to me? Okay, here we go. Hey, she's on the money team. I'm an international student and i'm only allowed to work 20 hours a week in australia so it's very challenging to earn little money and pay for studies food fun etc i came to australia with a dream learning english four years after lots of adventures and weird jobs i not only speak the

language but i love living here and i see this country as my home i'm still struggling with money but thanks to your podcast i'm making progress and i can actually see the light at end of the tunnel oh my so kind that's so wholesome oh and we've got our money to rest on the line you can hear her giggling everyone's gonna be like we know they're there um well thank you so much for joining us that's such an amazing story thank you hi guys how are you we are so good we are better having met you let's jump straight into the questions because i have so many questions about your situation so first things first what is your attitude towards money oh um i've been thinking a lot about this question because i don't really have a straight

answer um i grew up with these like two role models uh my mom will be the one um saying like oh let's go shopping we deserve it we work hard even if if we didn't but she will say that uh whereas her partner will be the one saying like oh like no we can't spend any any money we need to say we need to be very he was very like tight and greedy towards money um so as I as a result I've always struggled with my attitude towards money sometimes I just feel like very haunted um by debts and uh other times I just feel very guilty if I if I've spent some money on something so it just fluctuates you know like so I can't decide if I feel really bad about it or if I feel good or yeah oh my gosh you should never feel really bad about it that breaks my heart when

you say I feel hunted by debt like I feel like that would be really relatable but it also upsets me because no one should feel like that yeah oh my heart all right so let's learn a little bit more about you what do you do for work and how much money do you earn I work in marketing and um i currently earn 45 000 a year is that including the 20 hours work a week that you're allowed to do so you earn 45 000 for the 20 hours a week yeah hey that's pretty good money yeah yeah it's a new role so yeah it's the first time i'm earning that money here so it's pretty good um congrats on a new job my friend thank you yeah it's pretty good and I will say like I'm finally just in this stage where I can relax a little bit um and I can afford the life here

so is marketing what you moved to Australia to study no so I studied marketing back home um okay many many many years ago I've been working in marketing for uh the past 10 years um yeah so I graduated in Colombia I'm from Colombia I graduated in Colombia from um advertising uh which is apparently here in Australia it's not the same but uh let's call it just marketing yeah and um yeah so I work in Colombia and then I got a job in Central America so I moved to Central America um but yeah I will say like I was very young like I didn't know how to uh enjoy and money and save money and then just appreciate the money that I was getting um I had this really really good job and I was earning a lot but I never saved anything I just blew it all but you

were young and you were having fun yeah we have absolutely all been there I totally get it quick really perfect question money diarist um we're on zoom so tony and i can see you you look 22 like maybe 21 but you said that you'd been working for 10 years so um how old are you i'm 31 oh my gosh i would never have i am 30 i would have literally assumed you were at least eight years younger than me oh thank you oh my gosh yeah like i was studying while i was at uni I got a job in an advertising agency when I was 21 I've been working since I was 13 but in marketing since I was 21 oh my gosh and what did you move to Australia to study I wanted to learn English so my initial plan was just to come here for six months and I was just like yeah well like how that

went yeah I know I just felt like oh six months will be enough I just wanted to learn a little a bit so I could get a better job um yeah and then I just after six months I was like oh my god like I can't speak a word like I was so scared uh so I was like oh maybe I'm gonna extend my visa another year and then that yeah ended up being four years now I love that I I love that you've come here and like found home that feels so nice that we get to share that with you and I have another perfect question completely off the railroads um Tony's gonna be like get back to your normal questions I'm the producer please do the right thing Victoria but you've stuck around and now you have a partner did you meet your partner here or did you move with them

no I moved uh on my own um and I met him here oh and now you're gonna stay for love how cute yes that's exactly right I think actually Victoria she might be staying for the dog that she mentioned before we started recording yes she has a dog guys dog people are the best kinds of people so you know this money diarist is pure you just know all right next big question is what is your big money goal um big money goal at the moment I will say it's just to pay for my next visa um so it's how much are visas oh it's just a little bit of a mess because uh i'm currently on a student visa uh student visas like the cost of them depend on the course that you want to do if so if you want to do um like a bachelor's degree or if you want to do a diploma

a certificate or a master's so yeah the course just depends on that um so I've been doing all these courses and courses and courses because that's the only way how I can stay but now um that I've met my partner we've been together for a year and now the next step is just to get to apply for a visa it's called a partner visa and so I stopped studying um which will be a relief surely means you can work more hours right yeah exactly yeah I get like full rights to to work here um so that visa cost me around between eight grand and nine grand so I've been saving this yeah like all this year for that and I will apply in December so that's my that's my money goal for now that's a lot of money for sure yeah especially when you're limited to how many hours you can work

and oh that's difficult yes but it takes serious commitment and I think that's something that is so underestimated by you know the average Australian they're like oh okay so you came to live here it's like yes you did but you also got all of these limitations on you and all of these requirements and then they're not just you know personal requirements that you need to meet or restrictions there's also a whole heap of money that you need to hand over and it's just like we are so lucky one Tony to have been born in Australia but then two to have people who love our country so much that they're willing to sacrifice that much to stay here like yeah and share it with us yeah I love that yeah I love this country it's given me so many opportunities

and yeah just good experiences so yeah I definitely want to stay next question is do you currently have any investments um as I've learned from this podcast only my super oh my gosh but I'm so glad you know that that's an investment yeah I know now yeah I love that so so good and I think that you're in a position where it's like yep cool you actually don't have the capacity to start investing yet and that's okay it is not a bad thing to not be able to invest and I would never want you to feel pressure that you have to start investing because other people are like you're running your own race and I think it's so important to remember that and not put pressure on yourself to start something because you think it's expected um next question and I know we know

the answer to this already but I want to talk about it in more detail do you currently have any debts um debt uh I will say oh probably I don't consider the visa as a debt um because well I I have the chance if I want to just like stop that process and then just go back home I can do it so it's not like I own that money yet but I do have a debt but it's just for $800 now which is the current course that I'm doing it's a diploma so what we do here in Australia as students is like you have the possibility to pay up front or otherwise you just pay installments which is what I do so I have to pay like every month or every two months I have to pay a thousand dollars so I can keep studying um so currently I need to pay eight hundred dollars just to finish um

paying for this course that is so much money though isn't it to have to just pay up front I know the yeah education here is very expensive all right next question do you currently use shopback I know about it because of you guys so I looked it up yay look at the impact Tony but I haven't bought anything yet cool Paisley Paisley next question is and I think that you're going to be pretty savvy I think we've got a lot to learn from you my friend what is your best money habit best money habit um I don't know if that's good or not but I have created this weird habit where I just oh gosh embarrassing but I just I go to this whatever website where I want to buy things from like skincare or clothing whatever I got them yeah and I just put

everything I want to buy I just put it in the cart and then when I go to the checkout I think do I need this and 90% of the time say that I do not oh so you're good at catching yourself out before you just spend money yeah so I just literally just close the whole website I say okay cool I saved some money so that just shut it down all right yeah so that's I saved that that's saving right and but I would say just basically I just ask myself like do I really need this and but most of the time like I don't so yeah I just don't spend it she's better at that than I am Tony because sometimes I'm like no no I really do need that white dress even though I have a hundred other white dresses like I'm so good at convincing myself of what I need so I think it's

an actual talent to convince yourself that you don't need something when you are so emotionally invested in it like I think that's underrated that is an impressive good money habit I like it let's turn the tables though and ask you what your worst money habit is um worst money habit um probably is the completely opposite like sometimes I just have this random thought like okay my I deserve it same as my mom used to say I just deserve it and I just literally spend it all and then I just spend time feeling guilty and so yeah it's not like a very healthy behavior I will say but yeah that's my that's my worst money habit sometimes like I just spend it all and then feel guilty but that's not um I don't know like I don't do that every single month

is just I can be good for like good like saving and all that for like I don't know three four months in a row and then I do that sort of thing do you think that's probably though because you have to save so hard because you can only work such like a small amount of hours it's probably because you have to be so strict on yourself that sometimes you're like ah I just really want to buy something or I'm like I've been looking at this thing for three or four months and I just really really want to treat myself I've been working really hard I feel like obviously Victoria you're that you're the expert but is that like one of the psychologies behind spending? Yes my friend it is and that's essentially why I often compare strict budgeting to a strict diet because at some point

you are going to binge you are going to fall off the cart and going to do something which is why it is so important to actually incorporate healthy spending habits into our budget consistently instead of just always restricting ourselves and going no no no no no it's not sustainable long term to say oh I'm never going to buy something that is you know new dresses or shoes or something that I don't need I think it's good to have a buffer in your account so you can say that is my fun money that is the money that I'm going to allow myself to treat myself with and I think that that ultimately stops that that binge or that splurge at the end of a period of time where you've saved really aggressively because often in those splurges you'll spend so much more money

than you would have if you just allocated yourself like 50 a month or something yeah that's so true the thing is like as tony was saying before like sometimes when i have to save so much it's like no it's so strict like if i don't save this money i'm not gonna make it so i save so so so much and then I just I don't know I just I think I get a little bit frustrated and I say like I just need to spend I just need to buy a little bit and then that little bit just leads to another little bit and yeah and so on and then I'm just very stressed um but I think it's yeah definitely not a healthy behavior like sometimes when I allocate money to spend I feel so much better because oh okay like i i could put um 50 away for this month um so yeah i can go out or like i don't know for a meal

or something and it's it's all right um but it's definitely something i can't do every every month no and i think that that's where we need to be realistic as well because in your situation you actually have deadlines for when you need to have a certain amount of money say for a visa or for something really particular. And given you don't have a massive income, that's a massive challenge for you. So I totally get it. And it's actually unavoidable in your situation to actually reach that goal. You do have to be really strict. So I get why you're blowing out, but I think it's more important to just understand the psychology behind it, not just go, oh my gosh, I'm so bad at this. It's like, no, you're not. You're actually doing what everybody else in this situation would

do as well. It is so normal. All right. I don't think that's the worst money habit just by the way so segwaying into the next question which is if i forced you to give yourself a money grade what would you grade yourself um probably will be a c minus no yeah i will say so i need to no i feel like you have so many good money habits like look at how much you've accomplished and achieved and done there's no way you're a c-minus you only have $800 was it debt come on money diarist well I I will respect it but I also do think that you are definitely worthy of a higher grade um I think probably if I if I change my mentality towards money it could be better and also i think like sometimes when i compare the life i used to have before i came here and and

the life that i have here i say like well you know like when i was living in central america i was earning um american dollars and it was uh like 90k a year oh my gosh compared to what i have here But I also, yeah, like I know that I was very young and I just do it all. But I just feel and I have that fear that, oh, my God, if I earn the same money here, I'm going to do the same. So somehow I just got used to it just to be on a budget and very strict and all of this because it's working now. Now I don't have the same issues I used to have when I was younger. Yeah, but I think that that's also a really big part of your money story. and I'm not going to ask you right now I'm going to ask you after we take this really short break

oh my gosh so we are back Tony and I want to dive straight in to asking I guess about the income difference that you've experienced like I've got a whole heap of other questions about visas and tips and stuff like that but you've gone from earning $90,000 USD which I did some quick maths just before, and that's about $123,000. Which is huge. That is a massive amount of money. And I know that, you know, there's different living costs and stuff like that, but how have you adapted from earning such a high amount of money to making a decision to move countries, change your entire lifestyle, learn English and flip everything on its head and essentially start learning less than half of what you used to earn? Like, how have you adapted? How have you changed?

well it definitely hasn't been easy I took yeah it took me a while just to realize that I didn't have the same life um but it was also a sacrifice that I was willing to do because yeah I really wanted to to learn English um yeah so I when I came here I came with zero English like I knew like the greetings and colors and things like that uh but I couldn't communicate at all so what I put in my email about the weird jobs that I've done and all that is because yeah like if you don't speak the language you obviously can't have it um yeah just like a normal job. It does make it hard right? Yeah so um at the start I just came from an office to have like this position and this money to come here and work in a hotel making beds um and I would make like 35 beds per day

and do the cleaning and all this and it was just shocking it was I would go home and then just think like what am I doing like why am I here like why am I doing this like I didn't know it was that hard um but at the same time like I will work from uh like 7 a.m to uh 6 p 5 p.m and then at 6 p.m from 10 p.m I will go to my English classes um and every that was my routine like every single day wow so once I got to the point where I could communicate it it was it was better like i was okay like and now i can like the transition felt um lighter i will say it felt yeah very very um like achievable to live here and to um work in marketing and all of that um once i spoke the language so at the start was a hard like a very difficult transition but

uh i don't know i just feel like there were all the things that were more positive and that helped me with that transition and helped me just like living that money and that like lifestyle um living it like in my country or in other countries um and not bringing that here because I can't compare I can't expect to have the same life uh in a completely different uh country where I don't where I didn't know anyone when I came to me that just seems crazy and something that I wouldn't go okay this is absolutely worth it but why was it worth it to you why was making that sacrifice and making that decision something that you were like no I don't want to go back I don't want to do that again um because I just feel like that's that's impressive like I'm so impressed with you

initially I think it was uh the reason the main reason why I just didn't want to go back it was because I wasn't working in my field and I was a little bit over it um um I don't know just like working for these like big companies and incorporate it gets very oh I don't know just like heavy sometimes like yeah yeah your mental health is just not non-existent for them so I was working like 24 hours seven um I couldn't rest I was um physically like sick because of the amount of stress I was um dealing with every day um so I think once I came here and yeah like I was doing all these like weird jobs and funny jobs I call them um but uh I wasn't I wasn't dealing with all that stuff I wasn't dealing with like clients or deadlines or things that were making me feel

uncomfortable sometimes like because of the pressure I was just completely relaxed I was oh my god like I'm actually living like I'm yeah like I never felt like I had just like as a teenager like I have a lot of freedom so once I came here I would just I don't know just like um pressed by everything just like shocked by everything I was oh my god this is the world like you know so i think maybe that's why i thought it was worth it and also coming from a like a violent country um to a country like australia it felt completely different like i felt safe here somehow um so yeah that that's probably why wow that is so powerful and honestly such a sacrifice to make that I just don't think people respect nearly as much as they should like

I'm in awe of this story and what you've gone through and the sacrifice that you are continuing to make to live in a country that just suits you better like it's it's crazy I'm yeah I won't go on about it but I'm so impressed but I guess moving away from that part of the conversation and into visas and how easy they are to get and how hard they can be to get I guess what's that process been like for you is it actually easier having a partner now like what's the process been like for you okay with the student visas um it's not easy because you don't get the chance to study what you want pretty much yeah you need to study always something that is related to your career um so in my case i i couldn't move away from um advertising or marketing um of that area because

that would mean that um i wasn't like a genuine student for australia i didn't know that yeah like as i said before so the benefits and rights and etc it's just depending on your career and what you want to study so for instance and also from the country you you come from so yeah so between like governments they have they make deals and for instance uh if you come from chile you will have a work on holiday visa and all the sort of visas available for you but if you come from a country like mine you don't have that option you just have a student visa so you're just allowed to work 20 hours a week and we have to pay a private health insurance we don't have medicare or any we're not allowed to use any any of that um so yeah like in terms of visas the

process aren't easy but if you stick to your career and then just study things that are related to it uh it's easy and i guess like i've learned so much i've done so many uh certificates and diploma isn't this I thought you're probably the highest qualified person I've ever met and then you just like think back and go wow imagine the amount of people that would have and I'm making a grand assumption here and I promise you I wouldn't have been one of these people and I know no one that I'm surrounded by would have been as either but just the amount of people that would have been so disrespectful to you while you were working as a housekeeper like it it blows my mind that the people doing these jobs like you know I've never thought any

less of it like a job is a job and it you know puts food on the table and does all of that but like you were coming from earning $120,000 Australian each year to being a housekeeper and I just can't imagine that jump and how that would have emotionally affected you as well just change is so dramatic and I just I'm in awe of you sticking to it genuinely I'm so proud of you and you know what like how lucky are we that you want to hang out with us and be in our country and like you know contribute to our economy and I just think that's so cool and so special thank you the other thing I think people just fully underestimate which is so hard for me to comprehend is the fact that you have come here not speaking any english and you've learned an

entire language like that is insane to me that's that that you could come here and take that leap and just think you know this is i've i've got it i can do this when you know there's lots of people that set out to start learning a language and give up because it's too hard you know that's you can speak an entire language that's not native to you because you moved here and it was just a choice you made and that's just wild to me I know that's not really money related but no I'm just so impressed oh wow that's one of the most expensive uh courses that you can do here it's English I think really yeah I think I've paid the same amount of money that I've paid for my actual bachelor's degree back home just to study English here yeah I would have taught you

for free darling you wouldn't have been able to speak properly if you're that from Tony I'll teach you love says Tony saying that um I don't want to generalize and just saying like everyone that comes from uh south america or colombia specifically um it's in the same situation because that's not yeah how it is like i've got i've met a few people here that they just uh they learn english back home because we do have english lessons and everything but people like me never learned because i just didn't want to i didn't think i need i needed to learn english to be honest yeah um so yeah i've met people that they spoke english before and then they just came here to do

like a master's or and their situation is completely different yeah and and of course and i mean that it's not to generalize in any way shape or form but like everybody has a different journey right and like this is just yours and we're so lucky that we get to share this journey and you know learn about it but you know for those people that are on student visas at the moment and feel like they're struggling do you have any tips or tricks that made it a bit easier for you yeah well I've got so many tips in terms of language and also in terms of like visas oh my gosh give us both in terms of language I think some of the um I don't know like a good piece of advice that someone gave me a long time ago was just uh just get out of your comfort zone

because a lot of people don't do that they just stick to what they know so they stick to um i don't know like the um latino community or like people that speak the same language and they're very scared of like uh hanging out with australians because they're like oh i don't know if they're gonna judge me because i don't speak well or things like that um or also because our cultures are very different um so probably it's just yeah get out of your comfort zone um throw yourself in the deep end make some friends exactly it's not impossible like I did so many weird things like I joined meetup uh apps and like uh well we'll bff up and everything and just to go out and meet up like with um female friends and male friends and yeah and I watch like tv every day and then just

like kind of like throwing myself into this new language and new experience um so i think sometimes people just um keep working on these uh jobs that they don't want to work or they don't want to do it's just because they feel like they're not good enough in the language and yeah so that in terms of the language and in terms of like the visas it will be probably have um a better understanding how the system works because sometimes we just and that happened to me like I just I didn't know how like the visas uh work how like I didn't know if I had a chance to stay or if I had a chance to do things like differently yes sometimes uh it's good if we just seek for advice with like an immigration lawyer or people like that that can give us some light

it can actually give us some options and say just stop spending your money on this just go and study these or go and i don't know apply for this sort of visa and that's gonna give you some relief because that's what we think like once you are on a student visa you just look looking desperately okay what else can I do I just want to stay I just want to stay you know so once you just seek for professional advice um yeah that's gonna make your life easier probably is it quite expensive to speak with an immigration lawyer or like is that quite accessible um it is uh but yeah it is very expensive did you engage an immigration lawyer to get everything in in an order for you or yeah uh I did so once I stopped um studying English when I wanted to study something else

because I wanted to study something related to the jobs that I could apply uh in Australia so I yeah I spoke to an immigration lawyer um and I think it was like 30 minutes and I had to pay like 300 something like that oh my goodness and he that's so much money especially when you're not earning much at all I think he basically told me I needed to go back to my country because my career wasn't good here and I was yeah I was just in tears uh but I rightfully so that's horrible yeah after that experience um I talked to more people and friends and uh the um South American community here is super big so everyone kind of like know what like each process is about um that's good yeah so that's when I realized like oh okay I've got a lot of opportunities

actually like I can find um a company that can give me an sponsorship or I can I don't know just like um change my career kind of and study a master's degree and this and that's gonna give me another chance to stay here or um yeah just like no I'm not I don't want to say like I'll meet someone and get on a partner visa because that's not the ideal situation that wasn't my plan when I met my partner just a side note yeah no I feel like if that was your plan my friend you would have done it a lot earlier yeah true not wasted not wasted all that time yeah yeah so yeah once you kind of like ask around and you just don't decide to do things just on your own because sometimes that's not the best um option um so yeah once

you do that I think you have more clarity in terms of visas and processes and also the law changes every single year so we need to be up to date with that as well oh my gosh it's so complex and I'm so grateful that we've gotten to learn a little bit more about you and your journey and the journey of other people in similar situations to you who are trying to go through the visa process and do want to stay and actually want to get a good job here because you are smart capable humans and you just have to learn the language like it's crazy to think how much language is a barrier for so many like and what opportunity we're missing because learning another language is so challenging like as you said before it's not just the language it's so expensive to learn

as well which I'm sure is a massive barrier for so many other people as well but oh my gosh so grateful to have shared your story thank you no thank you for sending in your your journey with and sharing it with us because it's it's it's honestly such an eye-opener and I think there's going to be a lot of people in our community that listen to this that have either been through what you've been through and you know risked it all and moved of overseas and tried to learn a new language or people that would really like to do that and you know use you as a bit of inspiration so it's been like such a pleasure to have you on thank you so much i enjoy listening to the podcast every single week oh my gosh i love that yeah i've learned a lot a lot oh i'm so glad well

i hope you keep learning and you keep hanging out with us on the podcast every week yes definitely i will all right well i think that is all we have time for today but as always just before we head off would 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. The advice shared on She's on the Money is generally 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 and we promise that victoria divine is an authorized representative of australia pacific funds management proprietary limited abn 34132463257 afsl 339151 i will hang out with you next week on money diary see you soon guys