She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Generational Change

Episode Date: March 28, 2021

This week we had the absolute pleasure of talking to one of our community members who says her story is nothing impressive - which couldn't be further from the truth. She's changed her situation in a way many think isn't possible. Buckle in guys, this one made Victoria cry in the best of ways (and we left that part in despite her asking us to edit it out).Joining you on Money Diaries this week is Victoria Devine and Ryan Jon.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. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Ryan Dunn. I'm here with Victoria Devine. And oh, how the tables have turned. Well, you were taking too long with all the dumplings over there and we just need to get started. I'm not that sorry. I got dumplings and didn't have to do my own intro. Sorry to interrupt.

Ah, that's no problem. Today is a Money Diary episode. It is. And this Money Diary, they emailed through, and this is a really impressive story. Not because of the mad riches they've got, but I guess of where they started. Okay. And it's a really inspiring story. So, read this email, V. Okay. She says,

A few episodes ago, Victoria said that you guys wanted money stories that aren't about people who have done something incredible. I haven't saved a lot of money. I haven't got a million dollar share portfolio and I have a salary of $60,000. My story isn't impressive and I'm sure it's not especially uncommon, but I'm really proud of myself. I was born into a single mom household. My dad was never in the picture. A few years later, my sister came along again without a dad. My mum, who wasn't able to work, lived entirely off Centrelink. Our electricity was often cut off, and from the age of four, I would worry about where my next meal would come from.

My whole family was poor, but my grandmother had better money habits. She put an incredible amount of time and effort into trying to teach me how and why I should save my money. She told me that if I studied and worked hard, I might even be able to travel one day. I got my first job at 14, and I committed myself to being able to go on holidays with my grandmother i'm now 27 and to date we've visited singapore bali england spain ireland portugal and france together i worked my butt off in uni for much

of it supporting myself often working 30 hours a week while studying full-time i graduated top of my year and was the first person in my family i'm gonna cry i know that's why i got you to read you're so mean this is so mean oh my god you are i'm sorry this is not what i intended our money diarist is actually on the line already um sorry that v's just having a moment with your story this is so special despite learning to save until recently i was still under the impression that home ownership and shares were for people with much for people who are much more rich than me through years of persuasion my partner finally convinced me that owning a property was achievable and two years ago we bought a house here in perth and she's on the money has shown me that i can

invest in shares so i've started dipping my toes into spaceship please don't get me wrong i do have a lot of privilege i'm white i'm smart and i've had my grandmother without whom i believe my life would look very differently i'm not set up to retire with millions to my name but my money win is that i don't think i'll ever have the electricity cut off or have to sell my possessions to afford food like my mum did. Money Diarist, welcome to the show. Sorry, I couldn't read your letter. Is it weird hearing V read your story out?

Yes, very, very strange. Even though I've read some of it, it sounds strange. V, I've seen you cry many times, but I've never seen this much liquid come out of your face. That's really mean. Oh, my God. First of all, can I just start by saying what a legend your grandmother is? Totally.

I tell her that all the time. Yeah, great. Where did she get this knowledge from? Like where did, like she's obviously taught herself or someone's taught her along the way? Yeah, she taught herself. So when she got married very, very young when she was only 18 years old and she comes from a family as well who weren't very well off so um she's just very switched on she started off with bad money habits but she made mistakes and learned from them and she's grown into someone who has very good money

habits and was able to share them with me tell me about the pride when you said grandma we're going traveling just like you said all those years ago we're doing it like i got chills when i saw that What was it like for you? Incredible. She, when I was quite young, I got my first job because she told me that if I did, we could work together and go to Singapore. So I worked really, really, really hard and I paid for what I could. And knowing for her, the fact that I was able to cover as much as I could was really exciting. she was able to gain a travel buddy and we've managed to make so many memories together

that I wouldn't trade for the world and I think when I told her that I had the money that I needed to be able to go with her she definitely teared up she was so proud of me oh so she should be that's incredible that is such a cool story and I think it really got to me because at the end of a day so many times you read these stories or hear these stories of people who you know have been through such adversity and maybe been put in similar situations and they kind of just fall into the same habits and from the sound of it you've really worked your butt off and you know you're supporting yourself and you know you've recently purchased a property and you're the first person in your family to complete tertiary like study like you're changing the future and

the generation that you've come from and I think that that's just so special and I think when I started reading your email because it was the first time I saw it um you started with saying you guys wanted money stories that aren't about people have done something incredible and I was like okay like I don't really know where this is going but like I would argue that you absolutely have so you lied to me like you tricked me sorry you're not sorry I'm gonna cry as well yeah no Honestly, it's such a special story. And I think that these are the stories that, you know, people often like, oh, we want to hear from more real people. We want, you know, more money diaries that are more relatable. And while this might not be super relatable, it's so inspiring and it is so impressive to hear your story. and I think people need to remember when you're asking for stories that we get we're not here scouting them out like we don't we absolutely don't put our noses to the ground and beg people

for their stories because I don't want those stories to come from there I want them to come from a community that wants to share and we only get to share the stories that people are willing to share like if you don't email us and say hey I'd be really happy to come on and we are so grateful to have you but if you don't say you're willing to share that story like we can't get it out there we can't share it with the world and it deserves to be shared like that's such an epic story thank you so so to get back to the way that the she's on the money money diaries are meant to work my friend can we go through the questions that we usually go through and then maybe straight after we can have another chat to get a little bit more clarity amazing yeah all

right let's start with what do you actually do for work my friend? I work in marketing and public relations in the not-for-profit sector. Awesome and how much money do you earn and how much is sitting in your bank account right now? I earn sixty thousand dollars a year plus super and currently I have about five grand sitting in my bank account so I've just finished furnishing to my house. That's super exciting though. Yeah. What happens to money once it hits your bank account? So I have a few accounts. I have four accounts because I read a certain very famous book. I heard there's a competitor coming out soon. You can mention the book. You can absolutely mention the book. I like it. Okay. So I read The Barefoot Investor. So I have four different bank

accounts um i've also pre-ordered it ah you're so cute all right well here i am about to be like oh my gosh we'll send you the book have you done the budget and cash flow masterclass i haven't okay well now you will send you that we'll send you that thank you no that's okay like here i am thinking i can send books and people like no we've already got the book we want the expensive one we want the expensive fries well it was the first time in a while i haven't put 24 hours between me in my spending oh my gosh you broke the rules i'm sorry look i'm not mad i'm not going to hold you accountable to that one in fact because the book hasn't come out yet i'm not holding anybody responsible for their financial decisions until the 16th of june yeah

so i've got my four accounts um that i transfer into as soon as i get paid um one of them is um like emergency savings uh which i obviously keep and try not to touch unless i really have to that's always been a non-negotiable for me it's emergency savings um but yeah so my next question is how do you currently feel about investing do you invest if so how so i didn't invest until very very recently um until you did your investment mini series which uh finally pushed me over the edge to download a spaceship um so i'm currently three hundred dollars in oh my gosh that was so recent yeah i um i i got excited i love that i think that the best thing about spaceship and rays and those sort of things is you don't need a big amount to start with so did you feel a bit

more comfortable knowing that i can i can just start small and it's fine and there's no fees and and low risk did that make it feel a bit easier for you definitely for a really long time i wanted to invest in contact or something like that but the amount that you have to save to get started and to feel like you're getting anywhere is just really intimidating. So I felt like starting with Spaceship is more achievable and so it might be a better goal for me to meet at this stage in my life. Yeah, 100%. I think what people don't realise is that Spaceship's legit too.

Like it's fully invested, proper portfolios. Like we're not talking, we're not sponsored by this, by the way. I always feel like I have to preface this because so many people are like, oh, yeah, your sponsorship with Spaceship is what got me on board. I've literally never been sponsored by them. We give them money. Yeah, I give them money. But hypothetically, if they wanted to sponsor me, I wouldn't say no.

But I think it's really important to understand, like, that's a legitimate form of investment. And I like their portfolios. I mean, obviously, you know, as an advisor, not able to recommend them. But, you know, if you've looked at it and you think it's the right fit for you, like, I'm so excited that you found a product that works for you and your situation. It is actually so great. Yeah, definitely. It's been really working very, very well. I really like it.

So thank you for making me aware of it. She's an investor, Ryan. So the next question is, do you currently have any debts? I have my HECS debt and my mortgage and that's it. They're good debts though. They're not bad debts. Yeah, do you consider them good debts? How do you feel about those debts?

Yeah, I'm completely fine with them. I was renting for a really, really long time. So it feels not that renting is dead money, but it feels nice that it's going towards something for myself. It's money that I'd be spending anyway if I were renting. And as for my HECS debt, that's a huge part of my story and it's a huge part of who I am. So I'm very proud to have the university degree.

So, I mean, the HECS debt is a byproduct of that. Yeah, absolutely. And arguably it's going to be the thing that helps you create wealth in the long term with a career that hopefully you love but also can, you know, earn a better career for the longer term. And I really like that. Yeah, it's an investment. Absolutely it is, my friends.

Speaking of money habits and investments, what is your best money habit? My best money habit, I would say I tend to be quite good at grocery shopping. Oh, I didn't see that one coming. I thought you were going to be like, yeah, saving. And I'd be like, yeah, I can see you bought a house and you've got some good money and you're investing. tell me about your grocery shopping oh I'm I'm very stingy when it comes to groceries I love tell us your secrets I love good food but I also love not spending money so um I'll be very uh

careful I'll write shopping lists um from like the for the recipes that I want to make that week then I'll go down to my local Aldi and I'll buy everything I can then I'll supplement at Coles or Woolworths, and usually for both my partner and I, our grocery bill comes out about $80, $90 a week. What? For you and your partner, and you're, like, cooking really beautiful meals? Yeah.

Oh, my God. Is it taking it too far to ask what you're eating and, like, ask for a meal plan? If you made a meal plan, share it. Come on. What kind of stuff is regular? Well, tonight we're making fish tacos. Oh, yum.

We don't buy cheap ingredients, but what we do do is we will make a couple of servings of the meal. Great idea. Nobody said that more fish tacos is a bad thing. Not one person. Things that have never been said. Oh, too many fish tacos. Yeah, no, I take my food very, very seriously.

I like that. But, yeah, I have a large collection of cookbooks and I have all my favourite recipes that are budget conscious um marked so i can always refer back to them 90 a week yeah victoria and i have been out for fish tacos and spent 90 at lunch and she's pointing to the studio now we were recording that's full of dumplings and yeah okay i get it b yeah like we're not we're not good at food budgeting yeah what's your favorite budget conscious meal it's a meal called uh pumpkin chili con carne it's from a cookbook written by r kelly at sinners sorry by who it sounded like you said written

by r kelly and i know that's not right taylor it's in it's the personal trainer based in south australia yeah from adelaide gee she's yeah oh she is absolutely killing it yeah yeah money diary would be pervy i want that one what did you do with your first 65 million dollars is it too much to ask for that recipe so that we can share it in this week's newsletter like our money diarists of course not i'll send it through yeah email it to me when you email me before but let's flip the narrative for a second what is your worst money habit oh my worst money habit um in contrast to my grocery shopping I do like a good brunch um so I have been known yeah I have been known to go to a few too many brunches and spend a little bit too much money

um it is a character flaw that i'm working on you're like how it's become a part of our personality now that we like brunch you're in perth money diarist what area is your go-to for brunch i live in rockingham and anyone who lives in this area will probably know a cafe named brother of mine it's in daldivis it's only like two years old but it's super trendy and really cool and um it's in the middle of the suburbs but it's really really cool What's the term brother being used in cafe names? Because one of my favorite cafes is my other brother in Camberwell. The cafe downstairs from the studio here is called the Stubborn Cousin.

Oh, okay. It's just family members. Attack them. Yeah. I like that. Let's move on. I would love to know, what is your big money goal at the moment? What are you really working towards?

My big money goal is probably working on my share portfolio. I want to expand that to – I really love owning property, but the property that we do own, it's a cheaper block, which I wanted because it means that I can still travel without having to stress about money. But to make up for that, I would like a bigger share portfolio. So my main goal right now is expanding my share portfolio and paying down my mortgage as quickly as possible so I can achieve financial freedom. Ah, she's a woman after my own heart. No wonder I cried. I'm so embarrassed I cried. It's so, like, usually that happens at my computer because I read the email by myself

and then I go and I'm like, yeah, I've read your email. I'm all good. I definitely wasn't emotional about this. All right. If I forced you to give yourself a grade, what would you grade your money habits? I would say that I have experienced a little bit of lifestyle creep recently. so with that in mind I'm probably going to go with a B. A B? What? No you deserve more than a B. Really? Yeah from your story and I'm not meant to argue with money diarists that's one thing that I

always say I won't do but given your story and the fact that not only are you 27 you now have a mortgage you've bought a house you've saved you've gone to uni you have a killer job and you have a share portfolio like please please you're at least a b-minus no but I genuinely would have assumed that you would have thought a little bit more of it but why have you rated yourself a b um I guess uh mostly because I graduated three years ago and um I've had to keep lifestyle creep front of mind ever since because I do tend to get a little bit excited from time to time so I like having hobbies and hobbies can be expensive I guess I have managed to keep myself in check most of the time so maybe I am a being a bit hard maybe I'll go with an A minus

I like that that absolutely feels like a glow up to me and one I can definitely get behind but hang with us for a hot minute because we'll be back right after this break All right, so money diarist generational change. Doesn't roll off the tongue, but it's very meaningful. Thanks for answering our questions and sharing your story. No problem. So my first question is that you kind of mentioned that, oh, I thought property and shares was for, in inverted commas, rich people.

You know, people who aren't like me, aren't like us. Now that you do have some shares in Spaceship and you own a property, what's your thoughts on that kind of in inverted commas rich people kind of vibe is that like a self-defeating thought that isn't real or what's your thought looking back on that i have to start by saying obviously i do live in australia so i think property is a little bit more achievable here um but i would say that it wasn't real it was never real um i think where that thought comes from it is a lack of education in the area. I never realised that you didn't have to have tens of thousands of dollars to your name to create a share portfolio and in my head it was

always the landlords versus the renters. It never even occurred to me that you can move up classes i guess if you will um and achieve these things for yourself so it was never real uh it was just an attitude i guess yeah absolutely and then i guess sort of a similar question on on attitude one of the first things that v ever said to me when i started working here was and sorry if i've said this a million times v said it's not that these people i'm just wondering what the hell i said to you? V said, it's not that our community is not smart. It's just that no one ever taught them. So V meets so many smart people, doctors, lawyers who come in and they're like, I don't have no idea what to do with my money because no one ever told me what to do. So what's your

thoughts on that? Because, you know, you could have grown up quite easily without this financial education. Then your grandmother comes in and she teaches you all this stuff. So what's your thoughts on the power of, you know, you're obviously quite smart, how different your life could have been if no one just actually taught you these simple things if i had never believed that i could change my life i would have stayed on the path that i was born into unless because my grandmother told me that i didn't have to live the rest of the way that i was born it meant that i knew that was possible and i was able to make it happen for myself I think what you guys do is essential and incredible because not everyone has a grandmother like I have and the fact that you're able to educate people on the fact that they can change their stars is priceless because some people won't hear that from a family member and some people don't have family members who know that because some people have been stuck in this cycle.

their generations and generations so I think with education and I think by telling people that they can change things for themselves you'll see more of people changing their lives for the better I really love that and one of my favorite quotes is I don't know where it comes from but it is she believed she could so she did and I think that that is so powerful because before you said like if I hadn't believed that I could it never would have happened and then you said obviously your grandmother was foundational in that. And I love that. I really, really love that. But what about those people listening to this money diary who don't have that hype woman? What about people who don't have that person in their lives who believes in them? Where can they find

that? I think for the people who don't have that person in their lives, the main thing my grandmother taught me is that I can if I want to. So the main thing that people who don't have that sort of person in their lives need to know is that they have that power and it might be really hard at times and your family members might not always understand or agree they might question you they might think that your values lie in the wrong places but you can make that change to yourself you just really need to work at it and you really need to surround yourself with the right people who support you in that and just to add to the answer there v you said where can people get that if you're looking for someone like that in your life let today's money diarist be that person

yeah i love that you've seen how it's done you've seen where this person started and you see where they are now so even if they're not necessarily really close to you you know geographically you've just heard it's possible there you just heard it i love that i love that that's absolutely so true and I think it's kind of like our community is your inspiration you don't need one person to step up and directly say it like you can say it to yourself and that should be more than enough but what would you say to people who were in your situation so obviously you've you've changed before you said you've changed your stars and I really liked that but what would you say to those you know to the single mums that have the daughter that they're really stressed about bringing up

and you know they're struggling week to week like you've turned out incredibly like what would you say to those mums? I want to start off by saying to those mums that your children won't blame you um I think my mum was always very afraid that I would blame her for being born into that situation but I have nothing but respect for my mum she may not have taught me good money habits necessarily but she made me who I am and that's really really special so please never think that your child will will resent you for what they're born into. It'll be hard at times. Sometimes they might wish that they can go on the school excursion or something like that, but they'll grow up and they won't blame you. I think an important thing for single parents and parents who are stuck in really

tricky situations to do is understand that you don't need to have a lot of money to teach good money habits. My grandmother didn't have a lot of money. She saved for six months to fly me over from Queensland to Western Australia when I was very, very young. Six months she saved. You really don't need to have a lot of money. You just need to have the education and the belief that things can change and you can learn together with your child.

Make them a part of that story. I could not love that anymore. And I think that that's a really special place to actually leave this money diary because I think that that's more than enough. I'm all worked up. I'm so inspired. I love this stuff.

Obviously, that's why She's On The Money exists, but I genuinely love this stuff. So thank you so much for sharing your money diary with us today. Thank you. So many people are going to listen to that and it is so much more than something not incredible. Like you said at the start, you tricked us all. Thank you so much.

It's been an absolute pleasure. What an absolute legend. I adored that money diary. I want to hear more stories like that. I want to share stories where they're super inspiring, but also really realistic. All right. On Wednesday, Victoria Devine and Georgia King are fired up for our Wednesday deep dive episode. We are.

We are actually already fired up for it. Like we pretty much yelled and rioted in the studio over that episode. Yep. It's a bit of a bit of trauma, a bit of energy in the office as well. There was. All right. That's on Wednesday, but to finish up today, V. But before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,

the traditional custodians of the lands, waterways and the 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. Now, the advice shared on Shoes on the Money is general in nature, and it does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision. And we do promise I am actually an authorized representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34132463257 AFSL 339151. And as always, thank you to our producer, Legend Ryan, for pulling together today's episode. and I heard that there is a sneaky shout out

for one of his friends called Sam. Sam Blacker also helped on today's episode and if you want to be a part of Money Diary and you've got a story that you want to share, V and I can't stress enough, a lot of people are like, oh no, mine's not a great story. We actually want a diverse range of stories

so don't feel like your story doesn't fit. That's actually what we want. We're trying hard to find some different stories so my email address is ryan.john at shesonthemoney.com.au Blow up my inbox. please find him to his dm share a story and we'd love to get you on as well of course hit up she's on the money on instagram or become one of the 150 000 people in the facebook group as well

where people are sharing their stories thanks for listening chat to you soon see you next week guys