She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Geophysicist at the Top of Her Game

Episode Date: June 11, 2023

This 32 year old, mother of 2 is a geophysicist in the energy industry making $152k only working four days a week. She followed in her father’s career footsteps, but not before going though her own cycle of consumer debt. She is passionate about pay transparency and wants to shed some light on the earning potential in industries many people don’t know about! Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where I get the absolute privilege of talking to one of our incredible She's on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because we got a message this week and it sounded like this. Hi, She's on the Money team. I'm a 32-year-old mother of two who's a geophysicist in the energy industry, making $152,000, only working four days a week. I followed in my father's career footsteps, but not before going through my own cycle of consumer debt. I'm passionate about pay

transparency, and I wanted to shed some light on the earning potential in industries many people don't know about. Marnie Darist, welcome to the show. Hello, thank you for having me. Oh my gosh, do you get really excited being able to say, well, I'm a geophysicist? Like, I just feel like that's big dog energy. I mean, it sounds a lot fancier than it actually is, but it's kind of funny to see people's looks and be like, I have no idea what that is. I love that. Like, I'm not going to pretend I know what that is. I think it's got something to do with rocks, but I would love to get into it. Yeah. Yeah. Look, slowly, slowly. Let's not, let's not make me look too silly too early, but let's get into it because I'm really excited to learn about this. Pay transparency is

obviously something I am wildly passionate about. But I also, I need to know how a mum of two who's only 32, we're basically the same age as earning 152 grand, not even having to work a full work week. So let's get into it. But first things first, I want to ask, what grade would you give your money habits on a scale of A through F? So I actually don't like this question, mostly because it reminds me of doing performance reviews at work where you're having to oh sorry to trigger you straddle the line of like you know humble but also trying to tell it how it is but also trying to get that promotion oh this is anonymous this is not the time to be humble my friends so let's be corporate let's circle back and answer the question so i'm gonna say a

yes queen yeah we'll get into why when where and how right after this but i think that this is not the community to be humble in my friends like i will celebrate any win you bought your first house let's celebrate you saved money on your groceries let's celebrate you got out of consumer debt I am partying with you like I don't care how big or small your money win is like they're all for me like humble is not a word that I think should exist in our vocabulary and I think for so long and I'm sure given the industry you're in women have put themselves behind by trying to be too humble and like oh well I shouldn't toot my own horn too much and then it ends up biting you in the backside and that's not a good thing at all. So like, let's just throw humble out the door and

just be honest. How about that? Great. Let's do that. All right. Agreed. Agreed. Let's carry on with the interview. I'm going to ask my favorite question of all time. Can you please tell us a little bit more about your money story? Yes. I was thinking a lot about this and actually, I don't think money has ever really stressed me out. I've always worked a lot. And even when I had no money because I was spending a lot of money. I'd never really, I didn't really find it very stressful. I had three jobs in high school and I was just always really busy and I found money to be very fluid. Like it came in and then it went straight back out again. And that was pretty much happening for most of my teenage life. And then into my twenties, I got, did the classic

credit cards and got into quite a lot of consumer debt. And I'd go on a holiday and be like, oh, I'll just put that all in the credit card. I'll pay for it later. It's fine. But because I was always working so much, it never really stressed me that I couldn't pay it. It just came in and out, really. When I bought my first car, I got a car loan. It didn't actually occur to me that you didn't buy a car using a car loan. I didn't realize that people just paid cash for cars. I just thought that's what you did. I was the same. Don't worry, my friend. I just assumed that's how people acquired cars. Like who on earth would have $14,000 just in their account? To me, that was absolutely absurd. Nowadays, I'm like car loans. I write them in my business and

they're not the worst thing in the entire world. They can be quite constructive, but I wouldn't have won myself by. Yes. So it kind of all changed when I met my now husband and we are very money transparent with each other from a really early in our relationship. And I remember him telling me that he had $40,000 in savings and I was blown away. I was like, how do you have that much money? Is that what made you like get married? Because I would have been like, that's really sexy. Yeah.

So basically he funds my entire time. Yeah, that's like really hot. No, he doesn't. So actually he became my sugar daddy and I just say I'm a geophysicist and I just, I don't do any of that. Victoria, you've just seen right through me here. Maybe put a mirror to myself and be like, what are you doing? You're making a good income.

you need to sort this out so we did the classic sort of barefoot investor and then really got into podcasts like she's on the money and really turned it around to make our money start working for us and work to benefit from the great salaries that we have yeah no i think that that is such a relatable journey i have a few questions though how'd you meet your husband uh we met at work Oh, hey, that's a really wholesome story. I feel like every man and his dogs met their partner on Bumble at the moment and that's the boat I'm in. So I just kind of expected any other 32 year old woman to be like, yep, Tinder, Bumble, Pinge, something. Yeah. He's an engineer and I'm a geophysicist and we were working on the same project and it makes it sound like we sort of

like locked eyes across this like, you know, program that we were doing and it wasn't like that at all. We just became friends and then it sort of blossomed from there, but it's quite nice. not ruin the magic, please. I've just got this idea. It's a bit like a Big Bang Theory style romance. So I would like to carry that on in my head for the rest of this interview, if that's okay, money diarist. Absolutely. I also really want to ask, so you said a lot about, look, I worked a lot when I was in high school, money wasn't really stressful. To me, it was very fluid. that tells me a lot about your money story in itself I kind of want to ask in a pervy way I guess what was money like growing up so like did your parents have a lot or a little is that

something that you weren't too stressed about money because your parents weren't are they values that were instilled in you or was it you going you know what I really need to work myself because I don't have enough I want to know a bit more about that because it kind of helps to contextualize the information you've given us about how you currently feel about money? Yeah. So we always had enough. It was never an issue, I guess, in our household. My dad is a geophysicist too, and he made good money as well, but my mom didn't work. She was a stay-at-home mom and then she did a bunch of other bits and pieces, but mostly it was my dad supporting the family. But they have a very casual approach to money as well. I'm pretty sure my dad would just

give everything he has away and not even blink an eye. Like he just didn't really, it wasn't stressful for him either. But I do remember my mom being very budget conscious and like, you know, we're going to spend a hundred dollars on groceries this week and that's all we're going to spend. Or you've got, you know, $50 to buy new clothes for this winter or whatever it is. That's $50 is not nearly enough nowadays. But for the extracurricular things, it was, you can do it, but you have to pay for it yourself. So there was ski trips at school that I wanted to go on that I had to save money and pay for myself. There was a volunteer program that was two weeks in Africa that I had to save $2,000 for. And when I'm 16, that's a huge amount

of money. So that's why I just started working so much. That's so much money. I'm so glad I asked because I feel like sometimes when people say, oh yeah, money was really fluid. I didn't care too much. Often you find that the reality of that, I guess, situation is that they just were given everything and obviously money is really easy if you're given everything but to know that I guess that came from your own work ethic and being taught okay well we'll give you all the bare necessities and if you want to do all the fun stuff like going to Africa or going on a ski trip like you've got to work for that that probably set you up really nicely for a good work ethic going I guess into adult life do you think that that was the case? Definitely I mean

I was never shy of working, even when I was at uni, even when I was, you know, it was always, if you want something, you just work hard for it and then you'll be fine. So yeah, I think it, I think it definitely set me up work ethic wise, but it did sort of, because they never really taught me about saving, I would save up for these trips and then I would go back to a zero bank account and have to start all over again. Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. All right. Let's talk about your bank account though I want to know what do you do specifically for work and how much money do you earn? So I'm a geophysicist well actually currently I'm on maternity leave so things are a little bit different right at this very second but as of six weeks ago I was a

geophysicist earning $152,000 only working four days a week because I have a toddler at home and didn't want to go back full-time. I'm in the energy industry and I guess you probably want to know what a geophysicist is and does. Yeah, yeah. If you could just make me not look too silly while explaining it, that would be fantastic. But you know what, you do you. So basically, I work with seismic data and you've probably heard the word seismic from... Oh, yeah, totally. Yep. Yep. Seismic data. Yep. Yep. From like earthquakes emit seismic data and it's basically sound waves. But a really good way of thinking about it is, I mean, everyone knows what an ultrasound is and what a sonographer does. Yes. Where they take pictures

of your belly and your babies and everything like that. And they use tiny little sound waves to see what's inside. I basically do that, but to the earth. So it's on a much bigger scale and it's a lot more expensive, but it's, it's the same technologies. Yeah. I've had ultrasounds before and just one ultrasound cost me like $330 and I got like not that much back. So like, I can't imagine. No wonder they pay you $152,000, my friend. Cause like I'm pretty small. The earth is pretty big. Yeah. I mean, it's not unusual for a seismic survey to cost about $10 million. That's really not unusual at all. Oh my gosh. But that's a really good way of putting it. And that's kind of a really cool job, but I need to know, cause like obviously $152,000, that's pretty

sexy. Like a lot of people want to earn that. So like if I'm listening to you, you sound super relatable. You sound super fun. You obviously have really good work-life balance. I mean, at the moment you've got a six week old, so maybe not that greater like life-life balance, but like we'll get there. How do we become a geophysicist if this income sounds very attractive? It's absolutely doable. Like it's a, I did a Bachelor of Science majoring in geology and geophysics. There's not nearly as much maths as you think there is. And you get to go on a lot of field trips and spend a lot of time outside doing a geology degree. So I can recommend. I read somewhere that geologists are the happiest people on campus because they just get to spend

all this time outside like looking at the earth and then I did an honors in specific geology and geophysics at a different university but that's it it was a four-year degree and then I got hired by the company I'm at now yeah that's it yeah that's it it's like it's real specific yeah yeah you are really downplaying this my friend I just I mean if you every university degree is difficult when you're in your early 20s and you're you know struggling to focus and you've got to put the effort in you've got to put the time in but it's you don't have to be like you know a super whiz at maths or a super whiz at physics or a super like it is an achievable thing to do and it's fun and then I mean base salary is coming out of that kind of degree into the energy industry

or into the like resources industry, you're starting at $100,000 easily. Easily. Like I started at $92,000 and that was 10 years ago. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's really interesting as well, because I'm just going to back it up a little bit. Obviously that is really epic. Like the idea that you did a Bachelor of Science and then, you know, an Honours in Specific Geology, like all of that, you know, as much as I'm being silly is really impressive, but it's also relatively specific. and when I was 18 years old or I was 17 and I was putting down my preferences of which universities I wanted to go to, I'm not going to lie, I don't think I even knew that this career existed or that it was an option for me or the earning capacity of that role looked

like that and I think that that's something that as a teenager trying to pick your future career, like you kind of just pick what you're passionate about and obviously you had your dad. So you said, I followed in my father's footsteps. So I'm assuming that your dad probably helped you pick what you need to do to get where you need to go. But I guess, how did you forge this career path? Because obviously it's relatively specific. And if we want to do something as well, a lot of us are going to go, oh my gosh, like, how did you even know that that was what you needed to major in? How did you know? It's an interesting one because I took a gap year between school and uni and did a couple of ski seasons as you do and sort of fluffed about a bit

and I really didn't think I was going to go into science and into geophysics. I'd gotten into uni to do something completely different but I spent like about three months working for my dad and just went oh no we are very similar and I find this very interesting and then I just was like oh I'm going to become my dad. But then at the same time going, well, I've lifted the pressure from all my siblings. So I guess that's good. So I think that's one of the reasons why I really wanted to talk to you guys, because if I didn't have my dad or know someone in the industry, you just don't know about it and people just don't know about it. And people don't talk about the earning potential in resources industries. I don't know why, because it's very attractive

and you're getting to do really cool stuff. And now's a really great time to be into it because there's so much change happening in terms of like how we operate, looking at climate change and the impact of all of that. Like it's a really interesting time to be looking into resources. And if you don't know, you don't know. So that's one of the reasons why I really wanted to talk to you guys and just sort of be transparent about what's possible. Thank you. I am obsessed with that. I think having conversations not only about pay transparency, about career progression is so important because as I said like I wouldn't have had a clue like I didn't have a dad that could tell me how that worked and I definitely didn't have anybody else in the family that that I could

do that I mean I grew up with brilliant parents and when you said oh I'm becoming my dad like we have so much in common I laughed because I was at dinner the other day with my parents and I was sitting there and my dad and I threw our heads back at exactly the same time and had like a cut paced laugh and then we looked at each other and I was like you are me I am you like we are we like we are exactly the same and then later that evening like my mum and I did something super similar again and I was just like when I was younger I think my worst nightmare was becoming my parents like I used to think oh like I don't want to be anything like my parents and now I'm like what a privilege like these are the coolest people in the entire world and I'm so similar to

them it's not funny. I find it the biggest compliment when they're like, oh, you're so much like your dad or, you know, both you and your dad aren't funny at all, are you? And I'm like, ha ha ha. Like it's to me the best thing ever. But a lot of us don't have that privilege of education or just learning. I mean, my dad was an accountant, which is probably where I got some of my love of talking about money. But I also used to cry a lot when he was trying to teach me my times tables. So I'm not sure if that was constructive or if it was traumatic. I haven't decided yet and I'm still like 31. And my mum, she worked as a coroner. So yeah, I used to be in grade three telling people, oh yeah, no, my mum works with dead people. And to me, that was

really normal. Neither of those career paths I wanted. So I forged my own, but it's just so interesting because I didn't even know that you could become a geophysicist in four years, like with four years of study. I just thought that would be like 10, 12 years of study. And now you're telling me, oh yeah, like if you go do a Bachelor of Science, like obviously there's some specifics to it, but then you go and do an honours and, you know, you're in for a very good career and that's life-changing, right? Like that changes the trajectory of people's lives. And if we can even have a small impact on that, I guess, sphere of people who were relatively like me, like I don't know what I don't know. How do we learn what different careers do and what those

trajectories look like because Google doesn't do this for us. No, it's really interesting actually because you look at those charts that say what are the best careers to get into and the income next to it and never does anyone say geophysicist. It's not there. No, it's not something we've talked about. I love that. I feel like it's so important to be transparent, but also really important to just go, actually, I love my job. It's really cool. While we're still talking, I guess about your job. How were you able to work a four-day work week? Is that because you have one of those workplaces that's taken a five-day work week down to four or is that because you're part time or like how does that work with I guess work-work balance? So they actually they do do a

nine-day fortnight at my work currently but I was working part-time so I was only working four days a week and it's really project-based and it's not as a GF is that you can there's a whole bunch of different things you can do, like work in the field, you can work on roster, you can work, you know, there's a bunch of different ways you can make it happen. But I was just working at a desk and doing a nine to five. And just when I came back from having my eldest decided I didn't want to work full time and they went, great, you can work however much or as little as you want. And I just came back four days a week. Yeah. Wow. So you have two bambinos. I got the privilege of seeing your youngest who is six weeks old. How old is your other child? She's just turned two.

How sweet. I want to know how at your age you made the decision, okay, now's the time to have babies. Like what did you think of when you were, I guess, working out what your career would look like? Because for a lot of women, the idea of stepping away might be a little bit daunting or scary. And now you're telling me you've got what, two under three? That's terrifying, especially to someone who doesn't have any kids yet but how are you managing that and your career and what that looks like going forward? That's a really interesting question because it wasn't a career decision per se. I did a test to see how you know how many eggs I have left or how long I could have left to potentially have kids and the results came back terribly and it was like you

either need to start doing this or risk not being able to do it at all and my husband and I just went, all right, well, we'll just give it a go. And we were really lucky and had my daughter quite quickly. And then we thought, well, we may as well just keep it rolling and had the second one. And we were so lucky that we had the ability to make those decisions and had the information in order to do that. So I'm a real advocate for getting tested, but it's sort of, I was at a point in my career where I had enough technical background that I knew that if I stepped away, I'd feel comfortable coming back and not have lost too much in terms of credibility or in terms of career progression, which is really real. The other thing that made

it a lot easier was that my work offers paternity leave for both men and women. It's 18 weeks full time, which means we're getting more and more men who are taking, yeah, it's amazing. We're getting more and more men taking 18 weeks full time away from work or 36 week part time away from work and so you're having more men stepping away from the job for long periods of time which sounds like it shouldn't be benefiting women but it absolutely is because they're getting that same separation and they're not just you know pushing through for that next promotion next promotion that was a huge benefit I'm starting to see now as well. Ah I love it that's actually epic you mentioned something that I haven't done and I'm 31 you said that you went and got your

eggs tested and your fertility tested, what drew you to say, all right, well, I want to get this done? Because up until, I guess, you know, this point in my life, I haven't really thought about it. I mean, I got engaged and that's when I thought, oh my gosh, like life's getting pretty real. Like, you know, and always talked hypothetically about, oh my gosh, when we get married, we'll then have babies. Like it wasn't a prerequisite. It was more, that's just how I thought my life was going to pan out. What drew you to have your fertility tested? Because so many people don't? I think probably two things. One, I'm such a scientist in that I just love data. I just want all the information to make the best decision I could possibly make.

And two, the women in my family are not good at having kids in their 30s. And that was a real eye opener for me to say, okay, if this is something I want to do, let's just get as much information as we can. And then we can, you know, be better prepared for whatever way it's going to go. Yeah, I was a bit similar. Do you know what? I didn't even know that you could get your eggs tested. I'm assuming I would have had I known that that was an option. I did do genetic testing. I got my at the time fiance to also do it with me so that we could plan that way. I didn't know how easy it was going to be. I worked with a company called Eugene Labs and like that's not a sponsored mention. That's just the company I worked with. And I think it cost about $800 to get done.

and they sent us a package and we both just put saliva in a jar and then sent it back. And that was honestly so simple. And then we had like a debrief with a doctor and that was done via Zoom. So everything was super, super easy, but that's about $800 to have done. How much did it cost to get your eggs tested? And I guess all that fertility testing. Initially, it's just a blood test actually. Really? Yeah. You just go to the GP and they do it. It's like a proxy just to sort of estimate how many eggs you have left and it gives you like an age range like you have the blood test results of someone in their 40s or someone in their 20s or someone in you know between 35 and 48 or whatever I can't remember what the age range was but mine was really bad

like 45 plus not good and then you can go take the next step of actually getting your egg your follicles counted to see how many you actually have left or you can start going down like you can go see a fertility specialist but I think for us because it had come back and said that this is not you know it's not looking good it doesn't actually impact the quality of your eggs you just have to start trying sooner and we went well yeah because you've got less eggs yeah even if we did more tests it probably wouldn't change the decision to just start trying so let's just start trying wow do you know what that's blown my mind I had absolutely no idea it was just a blood test and that it could be so simple. And I'm assuming I'm not the only one. So I'm glad that we've

captured this on the pod because I think that there's going to be a few women maybe driving to work in their car going, what the hell? Like we should go and do this ASAP. This chat took a real right hand turn. Yeah. Yeah. It literally did. I'm so sorry that I've gone so off track. Let's get back on track that that has been so helpful. To be honest, I've been thinking a lot about the cost of fertility. So there's probably a lot of episodes coming up on that and what it costs and how much it costs to actually freeze your eggs and do all these things. Because I feel like it can be such an overwhelming space to navigate, especially as a young woman

who, you know, you might not even be ready to have babies. You might not even have a partner. So you're just like, oh, I can't even consider this. So I kind of want to break that down. But let's get back onto the money track. I really want to know, you're obviously making bank, but what is your big money goal? What are we currently working towards? So we've got a few, and I say we because everything with my husband and I is very joint. So it's sort of like I don't have a specific one

separate to him, but we really want to pay off our house by the time I'm 40. And that sounds like a really weird number to go for, but I felt like it was a stretch target that we could maybe hit. So having a goal, really specific goal like that, I quite liked. So we're heading for that. And then we want to buy like a piece of land that has enough space for some chickens and an orchard and just that sort of rural lifestyle to be able to relax in as we sort of head into the peak of our careers and then sort of wind down and hopefully retire a bit early. I adore that. I'm so excited about that. Tell me a little bit more about this goal of paying off your house by 40. How much was your house? How much is left on the mortgage and how are

you tracking? So we bought the house for $750,000 and it was at auction. And when they said sold, I just burst into tears. Ah, so happy. And then I didn't know you, this is weird to do this, but when we went in to go sign all the papers, I gave the current owner a massive hug. And I think she was like, what is happening? I would have done the same thing. She was very confused. I've never won an auction. I've only lost them.

So I've never had that experience. But I have every, I guess, belief that had I won any of the auctions that I've bid at, I would have hugged everybody in the near vicinity. It was, yeah, it was really exciting. We actually got it for like nobody else bid at the auction, which we thought was mad. So we did get it under the reserve price. Money win. Yes, very big, huge money win.

but we actually we now only have about four hundred and sixty thousand dollars left on the mortgage what yeah we've just been pouring money into it basically love that's so exciting so by 40 is really achievable yeah if we keep on the current trajectory I think we're looking we're looking good very very sexy sorry to be so pervy but this after all is she's on the money and it's quite literally my job so let's go to a really quick break because I actually have more pervy money questions right after this. All right, Money Diarist, we are back and I am genuinely so invested in this conversation with you. I feel like you have so much knowledge to share with us, like there's just so many interesting bits and pieces about either your money story or about

what you've learned and about what you're sharing with us that I think a lot of people are going to get a lot of value out of this. But I want to know, the next question I've got is, do you currently invest? If so, what in? We do invest. And I should preface this by saying my husband also makes a good wage. So he's in management now and is earning more than I am. So we're in such a good position that we do have enough money to invest in different places. We have some shares in ETFs at about $100,000 at the moment. There's some index ETFs, some emerging industry and tech stock and then our company shares that we get issued every year. And then we have our super and my super sitting at about 150,000 at the moment. And also my husband got crazy and decided

to invest in some crypto, which he's holding, he tells me. So there's about $20,000 sitting in crypto at the moment. And then we saw a financial planner a few years ago and just to make sure that we were on the right track of what we were doing with our income. And we started an education bond that they recommended that has really good tax implications if you're spending money on education. So because our kids are really young still, we thought, well, we may as well start doing this now. So by the time they do get to high school, university, whatever, there's money there that we can then leverage the tax benefits from. So there's about $60,000 sitting in the education bond at the moment. I bloody love an education bond. I feel like that's such an interesting

addition because education bonds are not something that a lot of people know about. I've mentioned them on the show before, but I think a lot of people don't realize, I guess, the power in them. Do you think that that was something that you would have gotten into without an advisor? Oh, not at all. It made getting the financial advisor really worth it because you just, you don't know what you don't know. It's like, we're not money, you know, we're not financial specialists. And to have someone be like, actually, this is a really good way to make the most and let your money work for you. We thought that, I mean, it just made it worth it really. Yeah. Epic. Oh my gosh. All right. So the next question I have, my friend,

is we already know about your $460,000 on your mortgage left, but do you have any other debts? If so, what are they? No, my HECS is all paid off. I was actually really lucky when I went through science was quite cheap because they were trying to get a lot more people through science degrees. So definitely, and I didn't know this until I started paying it off that my, like some of my classes were half price. And so I can recommend going and having a look. Yeah. So it was really, I just was like, oh, great. So that was a money win, but no, we don't have any other debt. Love. All right. I want to know, I feel like you've probably got a number of good ones, but what do you think is your best money habit? I think I've got two really good ones. The first

one is that the money transparency between my husband and I just makes everything so much easier. We share a Google Sheets account, like spreadsheets, where we both update. It's all live and we can see exactly what our money's doing and exactly what we've budgeted and exactly where things are being allocated every month. And we look at it quite regularly if something changes and the conversation is very open and that just makes everything so much easier. And then the other one is that we hardly ever go out to dinner or breakfast or anything. Like, we're real homebodies and we just were quite, I love shopping at Audi and I go and we do like our weekly shop. And for us, it's not, you know, we spend like less than $200 a week on groceries.

But if we do go out, we go out hard. Like we'll go and do like a 10 course degustation and just make it really worth it. Yeah. We're a bit similar, but my friend, how are you doing all of your groceries for under 200 bucks a week? Like what, what the heck? And is that because you shop at Audi or is that because you're a super whiz meal planner or like what's the secret there? Because that's pretty good. Yeah, I think meal planning definitely helps and we do shop at Audi, but we'll go and we're very like simple meals. It's not, everything's not too complicated. You don't have too many ingredients. You pay enough for good quality meat and then you just get fruit and veg and then whatever else you need. And like,

honestly, my kids don't eat very much. I've got a two-year-old and someone who just drinks breast milk. So they're cheap at the moment. So really it's just a family of two and like a third. And like a half third, a third that probably just throws food and isn't that grateful for it at this point in time. That's right. All right. Let's flip the narrative. What is your worst money habit? This is probably going back to me still feeling like money is a bit fluid. And if I'm in the mood to spend, it will just pour out of me. Like I be like, we need new bed linen. I won't even look for a deal. I'll just go to Sheridan and spend $800 and I won't even think about it. And it's terrible, but I feel so lucky that I can do that

and obviously I don't do that very often. But when I do, I'm just like, oh, well, here it is. Here's all my money. Oh, I feel like that's not the worst thing ever, especially if it's in line with your budget and you have all these other savings and investing goals and you're kind of smashing it everywhere else. I mean, the best thing in this situation is that you're super aware of it. So I'm not too worried about that if I'm being honest. Yeah, I think my husband probably worries about it a bit more than I do. That's always the way. That is absolutely always the way. All right. Now that we've talked, I feel like I know the answer to this already, but I'm going to ask anyway. Now that we've talked, do you still think that you would give

yourself the grade of A? Yeah, I think so. I think we're in such a fortunate position and I think we've really taken the steps to make sure the money that we have and the money that we're earning goes into really good places. So I'm really comfortable that we're doing a good job at the moment. So I'd give myself an A. I love that. What do you think it would take to get you to an A plus? Probably hitting some of the money goals that we have, paying off our house and getting that property and seeing us retire a bit early, but they're really long-term goals. But I think if you don't have something to strive for, you stop trying. I think that's probably what's stopping

me from being like, well, we're just amazing. Because for us, there's still stuff we want to achieve. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. Oh my gosh, I have adored this conversation. Money Diarist, it has been an absolute pleasure and a privilege having you on. I will let you get back to your six-week-old. Thank you so much for your time. No, this has been great. Thanks so much for having me. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards

your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289. Thank you.