She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: FIFO wife

Episode Date: February 14, 2021

Today we hear from an absolute angel who has her finances nailed - but it hasn’t come easy. FIFO wife has overcome adversity and transformed herself into the best kind of hustler. While she’s juggling a lot at once, FIFO wife is acing it and we know you’re going to find today’s chat not only insightful, but inspiring. Joining you on Money Diaries this week is Victoria Devine, Ryan Jon and Georgia King.Do you love the podcast SICK and want more SOTM? Course ya do. Join our Facebook page to share your money wins and money confessions, follow us on Insta for daily inspo to keep you on track and DEFINITELY subscribe to our newsletter https://www.shesonthemoney.com.au/newsletter the written recap of the pod's key takeaways, including some bonus bits you won't want to miss.Finally, if you're in a money mess and need help untangling the muddle - we've got you sorted - simply record your question and send it through to us at [e-mail] and you may just end up on the podcast!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. And now for an introduction from our friend Isabella, who's four years old and the youngest member of the She's on the Money community. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, and podcasts for people who want financial freedom. My name is Georgia King.

I'm a copywriter and jazz student. And each week, I sit down to chat with Gloria DeDine. Joining us today on this episode of Money Diaries is once again, Ryan John and our friend, Georgia King. And also, guys, I'm here. Thanks for coming in. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much.

This week's episode is actually a banger and I'm so excited about it. this story is honestly so inspiring to have gone from a financially abusive relationship to being an absolutely epic mum of two who gets her kids out of bed pre-6am and into daycare before she starts work at seven every day. This episode is honestly going to be one of your favourites as well. So let's dive straight in. Ryan, can you read the email she sent through to you? I'm 28, full-time worker, part-time uni student studying commerce. That's already a very busy plate two little kids in full-time daycare and a fifo husband we just started building our family

home and we will rent out the current duplex we're in when our new home is complete my money story hasn't always been positive this is my second marriage my first was abusive and it left me with nothing not even friends i had to rebuild my life from scratch um i wish she's on the money was around back then which is uh it's nice to say my parents split not long after the first marriage gendered so I've been helping my dad with financial literacy ever since thank you very much that she's on the money we're snowballing credit card debt that my mother left him and learning to get back on our feet first of all thanks for messaging I know we kind of sometimes take it for granted but sharing your story is not easy so thank you for that no worries hi how you

going very good and we know that your husband you mentioned he was FIFO and he's just left Yes, he has gone back to work. So can I ask, when you're a full-time worker, part-time uni student, two small kids, and your husband's just gone away, how on earth do you survive the day? Because that sounds like a lot going on. That's epic. Yeah, it is a lot going on.

For me, it's all about routine. I have to have routine. So we are generally out of the house by 6 a.m. Oh, my gosh. And I start work at 7 a.m. So it's a really long day for all of us. I do need to make sure that pretty much everything has been done at home prior to leaving the house. Otherwise, if I come home, then I've got massive panic attacks that I've got so much to do.

Yeah, that's the worst part. Oh my gosh. So you get two kids up, ready, out the door and to daycare by 6am? Yeah, so they're generally at daycare at 6.30am and then I start work at 7. You're clean. And you do that five days a week? Five days a week now, yeah. Oh my gosh, that is actually epic.

I'm so impressed just by that. I can't wait for the rest of this. I have so many more questions and we'll get to them soon. But let's go through the quick fire questions first just to bring everyone up to speed on where you're at. Yes, these are the questions that everyone knows and loves. So we will start with, can you please describe to us your relationship with money?

I feel like now my relationship with money is actually really good. I did not have a good relationship with money growing up. And then once I got to a working age, so I think that's 14 and nine months, I was able to get my first job. From there, my parents paid absolutely nothing for me except for some food on the table. Everything from then on, I had to do myself. So it was a real journey in learning how to save, how to pay my debts, pay bills and from there getting into a relationship with somebody that controlled everything was really hard and getting out of that was even harder. So I was able to learn a lot more after that ending.

So it was kind of my beginning to, I guess, find what I could do with savings and where I could put my money and how it would benefit me in the future. Yeah, epic. And what do you do for work? What do you do every day? I know you're at uni, so can you explain a little bit more about that? Yeah, so full-time working, I am an office manager. so within administration and accounts and university i am in my second year of studying

commerce with a major in accounting epic i love when people are studying money but that's just uh me ryan you have an accounting degree don't you yeah currently going to a very good use oh it sort of is again now oh you're back you don't really work with she's on the money i'm back i'm back it's very relevant um good question here have you ever asked for a pay rise If so, how'd that go? In this current job, I have not needed to ask for a pay rise because they see the work and effort that I put in, so they approach me about it, which is great.

However, previously in different jobs, I have asked for pay rises and generally they're pretty accommodating as long as I have the evidence to back it up of why I think I deserve it and the reasons behind why I might need one. That's pretty rare that an employer themselves will go, you're doing a great job here's a pay rise and don't make you ask i mean it's how it should be but it's i feel like that's pretty rare that is super rare yeah it is pretty rare i've been with this company for the last three years and i am really happy to continue on for as long as possible

yeah that's awesome i hope everyone in the she's on the money team i'll take note of that now when you left we were comparing resumes that's fair let me know if you need formatting help um all right What do you earn and how much money is sitting in your bank accounts right now? So I earn $90,000 per annum plus superannuation. Currently in my bank accounts, I've got two mortgage offset accounts and an up account. Yes. And using the she's on the money code, by the way.

Yes, queen. Like they haven't sponsored this episode. I'm just like in love with up. I love it. so offset accounts um have three thousand dollars in them and then the up account has roughly fourteen and a half thousand dollars and a lot of that will go towards doing things for our new home after our build is complete so how exciting bill saving and when's the house due to be completed probably mid this year we're just waiting for the slab to go down that's so exciting that's so much

fine building a house so good also uh can we just give a quick props i know i'm meant to be asking the questions but uh quick props working mom two kids gets up super early and makes a banger of an income yeah all of us just nodded our heads in here so good um so do you feel confident when making decisions around money i do now i feel like everything that i do is very highly researched or I might sit on a purchase for months and months before I do it. So I feel pretty confident with what I'm doing at the moment. My other half has absolutely no idea with money. He just sends all his pay to me and I'm the one that divvies that up.

There's always a way. I feel like FIFO, often that is a story I hear. I feel like they're like, all right, I'll just go away and make money. Can you deal with it back at home? Far out. Pretty much. which I guess it's just easier for us because I'm able to put it towards where it needs to go. Whereas if it was sitting in his account, then he sees it as spending money.

Smart. Do you feel like you're on the same team when it comes to money? Absolutely. We sit down and go through spreadsheets. We go through budgets. We go through where money is meant to be going for bills and what's coming up soon. So he knows everything that's in our accounts. He knows what's going on. He just doesn't want to know. Not that it sounds like you need it, but do you want the shiz on the money budgeting and cash flow masterclass? Do you know what? I already received that from the lovely Victoria.

Really? It was my daughter. It was my daughter that did these. Oh, my gosh. Is your daughter Isabel? Yes. Oh, my gosh. She's my favorite human.

Oh, that like actually. Hey, fill me in. The other day, oh, my gosh, in the Facebook group, Ryan, you clearly don't listen to our podcast, so if you'd like to leave. That's cool. The other day, we had a little girl write in that she introduces Georgia as her doll in the back seat of the car.

Oh, that's it. I'm back now. I'm back now. And then Elle sent in the recording because I said, if Isabel would actually record that for me, I would put it as the intro to the pod. Yeah. I did.

And it was the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. How did I not put two and two together that it was you? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I already gifted it to her. Oh, well, have another one. We'll give away one on her behalf. How about that? Oh, that's lovely.

Damn Victoria about that, not me. All right, so back to the questions because I'm not good at keeping on track today. Do you guys currently invest? If so, how much? And if not, why not? So I have been looking at investing for a little while and I do have both Rays and Spaceship.

So there is about $500 in each of those platforms. then we are looking once they get to a certain amount probably pulling that finance out and sticking them into a portfolio that is a little bit more than just a micro investing portfolio and I will probably approach a financial planner once we do need to do that hello yes I do know someone um next next question is do you have any debts of any kind if so what are they and if not what do you feel about debt? I do have debt so I have a HELP loan or HEX loan and that is at just under $7,000 for last year and that is a very good chunk of my pay that is gone each week so that'll be paid off in pretty well no time and I've also got a credit card which has a $1,500

limit and I think I owe $24 on it at the moment. Oh bougie you've really really splashed out there. I think that that's a direct debit for life insurance, to be honest. Okay, that's a good thing. Yeah, that's probably, yeah. Yeah, I'll allow that. I'll definitely allow that. I just have the insurances direct debited off the credit card and then as soon as I see an amount that's owing,

then I just transfer the money back on there. Yeah, that's smart. So do you have any good money habits that you're especially proud of? When I see money in my account towards the end of the week and all bills are paid, food is purchased, then that money pretty well just goes directly into savings or it goes into the emergency fund and I tend to if I have cash which is pretty rare these days but if I do have cash then whatever is left in my wallet towards the end of the week all goes into a money tin as well so

that's notes that's coins whatever's there. That stuff adds up so quickly I find that my partner still uses cash for stuff i really genuinely don't know why and there is this bowl beside our front door that he always puts spare coins in and i've started collecting it and putting it in a money tin because if i find it it's mine right so that stuff adds up and maybe last year just before we moved i took it down to nab and tipped it into the other machine how much exciting there was like 580 dollars it was a big tin it was more than a year it had been sitting in our house for 500 500 bucks of your partner's loose change. Of loose change.

And then I told him it was mine. He didn't agree, but he's still up for debate. Well, ours is going to go towards a catch. So I'm really hoping that there's a bit more than 500 in there, but we'll see. It sounds like you're probably better at it than I am, because I'm literally scavenging dollar coins and 20 cents that he had from lunch. So I think that maybe you're a little bit savvier than we are. Back to questions.

What is your worst money habit? I'm going to say it's probably one that's been heard before but I don't really spend money on myself um because it does feel guilty yeah I'd say that that's probably my like worst is I do feel really guilty if I do spend something on myself my partner actually told me this time he was home that I need to go and buy some more undies and I said no I don't need to and he says ball they've got holes in them sorry don't feel guilty about buying undies if they've got holes in them i work at kiss the radio station at the moment and we're giving away like lots of money you know prizes like all radio stations do and every time i ask what are you going to do with

the cash every single mom i speak to goes oh the kids the kids and it's sort of a i always ask oh what about yourself do you want to buy yourself something and it's almost like not only were they're not going to do it they hadn't even considered that they go oh would i spend it on oh no no no the kids that they'll want it they'll they'll do something v why why is this it's normal i feel like being a mum changes your mentality i'm not a mum yet and i just i obviously have enough experience with clients who are parents and i feel like the second you have small humans to look after brings you one a heap of joy because you get to look after them and how great is that but two, you're responsible for these little lives

so you feel like you should be looking after them before yourself. Yeah, Al, does that sound about right for you? Were you happy to spend on yourself before you had kids? That is exactly true. When you're alone, you don't technically think about anybody else except for yourself or maybe your partner and you can slash out the cash however you want and then once you've got kids, well, then there's a whole new ballgame.

it just becomes all about them so you're responsible for tiny humans and that kind of weighs on you in a way and I know it's not a negative thing I actually really love that people are always thinking of their kids first because there are heaps of kids that don't get put first so it's really nice to hear that but it's also like ah you're still important my friend like you still deserve you know new undies for example but I do think it's a really common thing and I think that a lot of people who are listening who are potentially mums or dads are going to be like oh yeah guilty can i also just point out i found out today prams cost like two grand oh my gosh i didn't know how expensive they were everything baby is expensive it's like weddings my girlfriend's

having a baby and yeah insane right learning curve can i add that to the list of uh questions that we ask you how much was your pram oh which one oh my god go on why are there multiple tell ask childless podcast hosts what we're in for please enlighten oh the first one that i bought was i think it was about three hundred dollars because i was able to get it second hand and then i realized that it was not a pram i could go running with so the wheels would wobble and i thought my child is going to die so then i got a yeah i mean one of the key features is not death So then I ended up getting a second pram that was a running pram and that was about $700.

And then when I found out I was expecting a second child, then you go up to the double prams and that was over $1,000. Jesus. Does that hurt to part with? It really does. So prams are not exciting to buy? No, they're not. and especially like cots and, you know, bass nets.

There's so many things they need, those tiny humans. There is. You don't even pay rent. If you have more than one child, it's great because then you can reuse things, especially clothes, but for the first child, you're shelling out so much money. Yeah, right. All right, we want to deep dive into so much,

but last question, and we're all been nodding our heads, being very impressed with what we're hearing, but in your mind, what grade would you give yourself and your money habits um now i would probably say maybe a b plus there are areas that could be improved especially with the budgeting side of it because i probably don't have everything budgeted for so it's a bit of a heart palpitation moment when unexpected bills do come in and we're sort of scrambling away for those last pennies. But I would say to get to a higher grade, it would be speaking to a financial planner about investing.

Okay, so jumping straight back in, I actually have a couple of perfect questions that I want to chat with you about but the first one is I'd love to know a little bit more about why FIFO so obviously FIFO involves a fair bit of sacrifice and from the sound of your money diary you are actually putting a lot into this because you don't have a partner at home 24 7 um you know what made you and your partner decide that FIFO was the right thing for your family um my partner was actually doing FIFO when we met so we haven't really known anything different except for when our first child came along he decided that he was going to stay in Perth to be able to do just a normal job which was a huge pay cut but we were able to sustain that and after

almost a year of doing that he decided that the money was better doing FIFO and we've just gone back to that and not known anything since so and what was that conversation like so I've lived I've lived in Perth and WA a fair bit and FIFO is is really common in every friendship group there's a couple of people and it's a really normal part of life but tell me that conversation when oh my god we're expecting a kid this is so exciting you don't want to miss out but you're earning this great money so how you know was it an easy conversation to have or was it a quick decision or yeah how did that sort of come about it's really not an easy decision it's not a conversation that you want to have but for us it was sitting down and discussing all of the

financials and where we were pulling the money from for bills and knowing that we wanted to get out of the current house that we're in because we were just outgrowing it it's too small for us so the solution to that where he doesn't have any qualifications to be able to sustain a higher income was to go back to FIFO work so now he's building up qualifications while he is doing this fly-in fly-out job and it is our long-term goal that he will be able to come back and pursue another role within an area that we're happy with to still sustain some of that income and what is swing the right word what swing is he doing at the moment yeah so generally his company does a four week on two week off swing so you won't see him for four weeks mostly yes oh my gosh and you've

got two small children that you get out of the house by six i'm actually so impressed honestly one is 18 months and one is four so it is quite a battle to get them up and get them out of the Would the 18-month-year-old, like, I feel like it sounds like cliche to be like, they grow up so fast, but, like, they would be a different person four weeks later, right? Like, they'd change so much. Yeah, so each time he would come back from a swing, she would be absolutely completely different and she'd take 24 to 48 hours just to warm back up to him.

She didn't know who he was. Oh, that would kill me. That would break me. Yeah, I'd be finished. I'm in awe. i feel like that's such like you guys are really setting yourselves up for a great financial future and it sounds like you're so on top of it like genuinely i'm so impressed and something that we get a lot of cheese on the money is like oh my gosh can you do more relatable money stories like

you know with lesser incomes and it's just like this is actually so common there are so many people that are really sacrificing their lifestyles and their families to put themselves ahead financially like i really want to celebrate that i want these people on our podcast so we can go wow like how incredible like these people are really working for it um not that anybody else isn't but i just feel like how cool is that yeah it's so amazing to hear and this is yeah it's a unique story for money diaries we haven't really heard anything like this no no so i um want to be a little bit pervy i know you mentioned that you were in a bad relationship before was that a financially would you say that's a financially abusive relationship prior to meeting your current

partner um it was abusive in all sense of the words including financially and um that pretty much made me forego family friends and I ended up building a house or putting together a deposit and building a house with this person um all for me to basically lose everything so it definitely was the thing that broke me the most I think and it sounds like you're in an epic position now but I know that people listening there are going to be a few who are in this situation like what was your trigger to go you know what I can't do this anymore like this is not the relationship for me and walking away um it was pressure to have children and I finally found the courage to stand up and say that I didn't want to have children with this person

and that is the stick that broke the camel's back so from there it got very messy and I needed to just escape and I wish I had of known about emergency funds or um taking photocopies of things or photos of things because that would have helped me out so much in the end yeah far out and that's why i did that episode on financial abuse because people just don't think about these things because we just don't know that that's what we're going to need well you don't think it's going to come to that no one does and when it gets to that stage there's such a level of control that exists that you can't even ask them oh hey can i have copies of this they won't give it to you like you end up completely helpless so i yeah i've had so many

messages from women being like i really am grateful that i've listened to that episode because i've set it all up i'm not ready to leave but i will and i'm ready for that and i just oh it breaks my heart that they're in positions like that and i don't know if this is a weird thing to say but i from all the stories we've heard the overarching theme is you just feel like you're trapped and it's never going to change and i think to see the position that today's money diaries in is maybe just some sort of light at the end of the tunnel that some way somehow you know it doesn't have to be like that forever you've turned into a big hustler yeah um and just on that i i did make a note before when we said oh who takes care of the money you and your partner

on the same page there was almost like a spring in your step and your voice was very confident and proud to say oh i take care of the money i take care of all that um so i guess compared to the previous relationship does it actually give you a confidence boost and something you're proud of the, you're like, yeah, I'm in charge of the money. I know where it's going. I'm in charge, you know, I'm taking care of it. Does that feel really good? It does actually.

I mean, it gives me a lot of confidence in our relationship as well, but more so it just, it makes me feel proud that we're actually accomplishing something and we're doing it together. It sounds like you're a team. Yeah, it really does. It really, that's really sounds cool. You mentioned like when you were younger that there wasn't a heap of like spare money from your folks and family and stuff, and you kind of had to sort of scrap for yourself.

is that uh obviously whilst not ideal do you think that kind of taught you some you know you seem to have this hustle and grind about you do you think you kind of learned that the hard way so to speak absolutely i i believe that finance really should be taught in schools but it's not put it on a t-shirt i mean oh my gosh you're preaching to the converted here um because it's not i guess figuring out the hard way that you needed to be able to actually save money to afford what it is that you're wanting or to pay your bills whereas a lot of the people that I went to school with they were given money given opportunities and they don't know how hard they need to work for it in the future so I feel like I've probably come out on

top in comparison to a lot of the people that I either went to school with or knew as friends so I did what 26 money diaries last year recording them and stuff and I often found found it was the people that had a slightly poorer upbringing or a lot of people where their parents were from overseas it's like it's it's a massive disadvantage but it actually turns out to be this great i mean it sounds condescending to say big advantage but the mindset they have and the value in a dollar and they're not going to waste it and they're going to work really hard it was a really strong theme that throughout all the money diaries i did last year's it was really absolutely when When you've got no money, you definitely value what it is meant to do

because, I mean, we don't have thousands or hundreds to spend. We've got to put the effort in to be able to earn that and you really value where it's going. And how is that shaped how you're teaching your kids about money? Well, She's On The Money is definitely shaping one of my children. I can't tell you how excited I am about that. that actually made my week I was so excited and when you had sent that through I hadn't checked that inbox yet I literally ran across the office and got everybody in the office I was like I have

the best thing you've ever heard and made them come into the office I was in and listen to that I was like listen to this this is the best thing um genuinely that made my week thank you she was so excited to record that too she's a future podcaster I'm telling you um no it is it is really shaping her mindset because I mean I have bank accounts set up for both of them and five dollars a week goes from my account into each of theirs so they are aware that they get money into their account which with some bonus interest will probably help them to either buy a car or a house deposit in the future i was gonna say it sounds cute five dollars but by the time that compounds over their life and how young they are that it's gonna be a really nice little chunk of

cash when they're old enough to do something fun with it so that's a really cool idea yeah and i don't notice it missing from the account either so it's pretty easy for us how did you come up with five dollars by the way like i feel like um pocket money these days everyone has an opinion on it. How do you pick what you give your children as pocket money? So when I set up her account, it was when my husband was working in Perth and we were both earning a pretty low wage and it was just the amount of money that I thought would be okay being debited from our account each week where we're not going into an overdraft. So that is where I came up with the five dollars and then once the second child came along I thought okay well ten dollars all up is

not a big expense missing from our account each week and I did the numbers crunch the numbers until they're 16 year olds to be able to buy a car or yeah I thought it's pretty a pretty good chunk of change to put towards a decent car for them in the future absolutely absolutely I think it's like nearly like five or six grand each yeah 18 or something and that's before compound interest and yeah like if that was invested that would be more but like i think if it's savings to go towards something how good that makes me so excited when i was younger i remember my parents calculated and this totally wouldn't buy you anything nowadays but my parents gave you 50 cents for every year old you were so if i was 12 i got six dollars a week yeah right and if i was

13 i'd get six dollars 50 and that was really cute that was how much i got and uh my my salary uh review came every year on my birthday and i would get my extra 50 cents a week guys you've done a good job um you have turned one year older congratulations um on your tenure here at the employment i'd say once they're at a i'd say once they're at an age where they can start doing chores around the house that five dollars is definitely going to depend as to whether they do those chores or not yeah yeah totally so how much are you earning a week now though v so the 50 cents you're on what 35 yeah i'm now on at least 35 from my parents so yeah yeah no worth in our tax yeah exactly guys it is worth it stick it out for the long term um all right does anyone in the

shoes on the money team have any other questions i just want to know how's it been how did you survive in western australia doing five days lockdown you poor things look for me and my job it was no different to every other day we still got up we still went to daycare and i was in the office as required because we were apparently essential workers hashtag pray for perth all right well that with that i think it is absolutely time to wrap this diary up thank you so so much for joining us honestly i've loved learning so much about your journey and i'm really grateful that you've wanted to share that with our community oh thank you for having me i'm so excited to be able to share it and if you want to hear the money diary's daughter one more time

this is what she sounds like hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast for people who want financial freedom. My name is Georgia King, I'm a Gahobira and Janus student. And each week I sit down to chat with Victoria to dine. Just before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the traditional custodians of our lands, waterways and skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing and for caring on the land 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 money diaries 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 a financial decision. We do promise I am actually an authorized representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited, ABN 34132463257, AFSL 339151. And thank you again, as always, to our producer angels, Beck and Ryan, for bringing this all together and making us sound super shiny each and every single week. See you next week, guys. Bye, guys. Thanks for watching!

you Thank you.