She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Making Change from Classroom to Boardroom!

Episode Date: November 20, 2022

This gorgeous member of our community has a VERY full plate! She's a dedicated Humanities and Social Sciences teacher with a commitment to invoking a passion for social justice, especially equality for women. She's also a director on a board for a non-profit NDIS service provider, all the while managing a chronic health condition (endometriosis) with the ever increasing demands of her teaching role. And we haven't even mentioned her property journey yet...wait till you meet her!This year our Money Diaries are being brought to you by the legends at Shopback! Check them out at https://app.shopback.com/aus/partner/SOTM and you'll get a cashback bonus when you sign up!Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another Shop Back Money Diary Monday, where we get to chat to one of our community members to learn more about them and their lives, and most importantly, their finances. Victoria, today I've got a good one for you. Do you want to hear it? Oh, I haven't heard that line in a while. I have no doubt it's good though. Let me tell you all about our diarist. She says, I am a dedicated humanities and social sciences teacher with a commitment to invoking a passion for social justice, especially equality for women. I'm a director on a board of a non-profit

NDIS service provider, challenging the status quo for recruitment in this space. Life is not without challenges, including managing a chronic health condition, endometriosis, with the ever increasing demands of my teaching role. Endometriosis strikes women financially in a number of ways, including in applying for personal insurance. I am privileged to be able to work full-time, but I'm aware that so many other endometriosis warriors are not so fortunate. Thank you for reading a small snapshot of my personal story. Oh my gosh, I want to know so much more, Money Dyrus. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Victoria.

Oh my gosh, no, thank you for coming. Let's dive straight in. I want to know more about your money story. Please elaborate, my friend. I guess, yeah, my story is kind of diverse. It's a little bit different. You could say I have one of those stock standard public service kind of professions, but outside of that, I'm also heavily involved in volunteering and I'm also you know facing the day-to-day challenges of having a chronic health condition so yeah I feel like I could share a few tips and a few experiences of course you can how long have you been working because obviously I don't want to elaborate too much but how long have you been working and I guess how long have you known about

your endo yeah so I've been teaching I'm in my eighth year now which sounds crazy it just it's on so quickly. I had to actually look it up before I spoke to you guys today. And my endometriosis diagnosis, I was 15 at the time, 29 now. So almost 15 years, it's definitely been a huge part of my life. But fortunately for me, I was diagnosed early and was given that opportunity. Whereas so many other women I speak to go many, many years without any diagnosis. Yeah. Wow. All right. We want to know, what do you do for work? How much money do you earn? So I'm a high school teacher and I earn $109,000 gross per annum plus superannuation. Wow, how good is that?

Yeah, it's a quality remuneration, but it's definitely something that's stepped. So it's a salary. So as you build experience and accreditation, then your wage grows as a teacher. Oh, of course. And you said before you'd done it for eight years now, which I can absolutely sympathise with in a way. I was thinking about how long I've been doing my job and I got an email a couple of years ago for my 10th year reunion for my high school. And I was like, ah, I feel like I'm going

to opt out of tracking. And I'm also going to remove my year of graduation from LinkedIn. So we're moving on from that. Take from that what you will. All right. Money Diarist, I want to know, what is your big money goal? What are you currently working towards? So I don't know if I'm allowed to have two, but one of my big money goals at the moment is that I'm saving to do some renovations to my house. And I also have another big goal, which is saving to travel overseas to Europe. So sort of got two things happening at the moment. Epic. All right. Next question. Do you have any investments? If so, what are they? Yes. So I have my super, which is chugging along nicely despite the little bit of downturn at the moment. And I also invest in a couple of

index ETFs. Oh, how did you pick those? Basically through a lot of research, like based on my study while I was at university and then reading and listening to podcasts and yeah, just I decided more of a passive approach is probably most appropriate for me. I love that. Jess and I have just finished a series where we talk about like passive versus active investing and what might be right for you. And I'm loving hearing how clearly you're like, yeah, the passive approach works for me and this is the asset class I've chosen. Like that makes me so happy because sometimes people will say things like, oh, well, I have this index ETF because that's what my friend said she was using. And you're just like, no, no, no, I did my

research I know who I am and what I want and what I need I am obsessed how good is that yeah like I have a couple of like I invested in two different shares and that's just like a very small amount that's a bit of an experiment and one's been quite good and I'm like oh that was a good one and another one's been bombed because that particular company's just had like turmoil hit them in an unexpected way so I don't think anyone would have picked it so yeah it's a bit of trial and error isn't it but I guess that's where you can go and I would call what your strategy currently is. I would call your strategy a core satellite strategy where you have your core investments and then you satellite invest around it. And that's exactly what I do because it's just

to me, I want to invest in direct shares, but I also know that's not where I want my majority of wealth and the wealth creation because I want the stability. But I also, I have fun in the share market. Like don't take that away from me. That's my favorite part of it all. So I completely resonate with that. Next question I have for you. Do you currently have any debts? If so, what are they? So I only have my mortgage and I say only because obviously that's quite a considerable debt. So yes, I have a mortgage. But a mortgage is a good wealth debt. So talk to us about how much is left on your mortgage and what you purchased that property for. So I think there's about $290,000 owing on my mortgage. And when I purchased the property before COVID, well before

COVID, I think it was about $335,000. That's not bad at all. Yeah. Yeah. So, I live in a regional area. So, obviously, I'm in that position where I'm not paying a million dollars to enter the market. And obviously, before COVID and the big increase in prices, house prices, I've worked in my favor. Yeah. Wow. All right. Next question, my friend. Do you currently use ShopBuck when shopping online? Yeah, I do have the extension on my browser and I feel like I go through spades where I use it all the time and then, you know, won't buy anything for a while, but yeah, I definitely use it and it's, yeah, it's great. It's free money. We love free money. That is a money win. All right. Next question. We want to know what is your best money habit? My best money

habit is like automating my finances. So I am just a very busy person and I hate having to manually pay a bill or, you know, actually have to have things in my head and think, oh my gosh, I've got to do this. So I automate all of my regular bills, my mortgage, you know, contributions to super, investments, savings, all of that kind of thing. So it avoids that temptation of, oh, you know, I'll get to it one day, like I'll contribute to my super one day, or I might invest one day. If it's just gone, you don't really notice it. I feel like that's also one of my best money habits. I kind of feel like it's out of sight, out of mind. If it's set up, I feel secure. I know a lot of people don't feel that way though. They're like, no, I really want

to manually manage it. And I'm just like, no, sir, that's not for me. Not for me at all. No. All right. Let's flip that narrative on its head. I want to know what is your worst money habit? Oh, this one was hard. And I, it actually came to me as I was putting the garbage bins out the other day and I was like, oh my gosh, you need to stop buying like excess food. I think I have best intentions. What am I going to have for the week? Let's put a meal plan in place. And then it gets to Thursday and I do not want to have that. And so you go to something else. And then, yeah, so I think food wastage and falling into that trap towards the end of the week, you know, well, I might just get something for dinner is probably one of my worst money

habits. Jess, last week's money diarist had literally the same habit. It is so funny because I'm exactly the same. Like past me who food preps on a Sunday, she's so healthy. She has the best intentions for the week. She believes so much in future Victoria, but future Victoria, she just wants to eat pizza. She wants the pizza man to bring the food to the couch in a perfect world so she doesn't have to cook that really healthy meal. Because it's also not about just being lazy. I just don't feel like that anymore. And I find that really hard to navigate. Is that something you're like, oh, I really want to work on it? Or are you like, all right, this is a habit that I'm just going to agree to disagree with? I think I definitely like, particularly for health-wise,

it's so much better to prepare food at home. And, you know, usually you can get a couple of nights out of it and that kind of thing. But yeah, it's definitely something I need to prioritise. And I think if you come home and you prepare dinner, as soon as you walk through the door, it's easy. As soon as you hit the couch or whatever, it's gone, it's done. Totally. All right. I want to know this last question before we go to a quick break and we'll deep dive further into your money story. But what grade would you give your money habits if you're forced to give yourself a grade? Oh, well, this is my specialty. And every time I hear people, I'm like, oh my gosh, you're so under, you're undercutting yourself. Like you should give

yourself higher. I think for knowledge, I would give myself an A just based on, you know, every day, my education background and that kind of thing. But in reality, I think a B because there's a lot of things I could be doing better and there's always room for improvement. So I don't think I'm like a solid A. I would say a B plus to an A. I like that you defaulted to like a rubric you're like, in this category, I get this, and in this category, I get that. Like, let me give you some comments. Like, it's fine. And the feedback on that, and we'll talk about it at Parent Teacher Info Night. So, tell us, Marnie Dyrus, what would mean that you as a student could go from your current mark

up to an A plus? What would it take? Less talking in class? Yeah, maybe. Like, I was definitely a talker in class. Yeah, definitely one of those people. But yeah, probably I think like particularly with interest rates increasing, I think I need to move around a few savings accounts. I definitely need to go back to my mortgage broker and get them to check my interest rate. Oh, I can do that for you. I've got a good mortgage broker. Yeah, I know. I've seen that. Yeah. So it's just like little things that I'd sort of set every six months that I'll revisit. So I think there's a few things that I need to re-evaluate and particularly in the new year, I'll revisit everything again and make sure it's all chugging

along nicely. I love that. All right. With that, let's go to a really quick break because I have lots of questions and we'll get to them in a very hot minute. Alrighty. Welcome back, everybody. Money Diaries, I want to kick things off by talking through your endometriosis diagnosis and the impact that that's had on you because we've touched on on the pod before endometriosis is one of those things that is extremely commonly misdiagnosed it's often ignored there's like a really significant problem that I've seen even just within my personal circle of friends of people having the symptoms and they're pretty severe symptoms and more often than not it being chalked up to just really bad period cramps have you taken a panadol like not

necessarily being treated with the severity that it needed to be. And then over the last few years, we've seen, I think when we spoke about the budget earlier in the year, more and more money being committed specifically to research and assist in learning more about endo. What was the process of getting diagnosed like for you? Because you said that it was nearly 15 years ago, so it probably wasn't as commonly spoken about as it is now. How did that go? Did you find it hard? Did people kind of take you at your word right away? So it was really challenging because at the time that my family and myself started seeking some answers, I was really only 14. And in society, endometriosis, it was known about, but it really wasn't talked about. And there was among the

medical profession, a sort of unfounded assumption that a young person as young as 15 wouldn't have endometriosis so a lot of the presentations to the general practitioners were look it's just bad period pain a lot of young women experience this have you tried this that and the other have you tried contraception everything known to men they try first and then you know in a six-month period I went from being a really healthy happy person to becoming just completely debilitated and I was struggling to play sport I was struggling to go to work which I had a part-time job at the time I was struggling to go to school and I just yeah became a really broken person unfortunately I went to a GP and my mum was such a huge advocate and she said look I'm a medical professional myself

my daughter is not well and you need to actually listen to her and I want a referral to a gynecologist and it sort of went from there and once I saw this gynecologist who was like oh my gosh you're ticking all of the boxes I want to book you in next week for a diagnostic laparoscopy once that was undertaken I woke up and I think I'd reached the point where I thought I was crazy like I remember saying to the nurse you know like did they find anything I think my fear was they'd say there was nothing there and I'm thinking like am I going crazy there's something wrong no but you're not you're not crazy I remember her saying no we definitely found quite a considerable amount so they removed the endometriosis during the um surgery so that

obviously made a world of difference to my pain levels wow that's crazy that it took your mum stepping in and really advocating for you and you know that's amazing for you but so many people just either don't advocate for themselves or have somebody who really talks up because I feel like too many times people get told, it's just period pain. You just need to, you know, maybe lay in bed for a little longer. Have you tried a weight pack? Like a weight pack might really help you. You could take one to work. Like that to me is crazy talk because our bodies aren't actually meant to be in that much pain when we have our periods. Like it's just not actually normal. And I think we need to talk about this more often because I have a few friends who have endo very, very

significantly. It impacts their fertility. It impacts their quality of life. It has involved lots of different surgeries over a long period of time. And I just don't think people understand that endo isn't just bad period pain. Like it's actually really, really significant. Yeah, definitely. And when you say to people, like I remember when I was diagnosed and I'd returned to school and everyone is trying their best to be supportive, but because young 15-year-old girls, 16 year old girls, they don't really understand what it was at the time. And they're like, oh, okay, fantastic. You've had your surgery, you're fixed. And it was so hard to explain that this is an ongoing condition. And a huge percentage of women actually have a recurrence, which I have

and have had to have five surgeries since then. So yeah, it's such a struggle. And a lot of women do fall into that. I want to empathize with you. So they'll say things like, oh, I have bad period pain too. Like, oh, I do yoga and like I eat, you know, clean and I do this and that. Have you tried it? And I've got to the point now where I'm just nod and smile and be like, yes, like, you know, I have tried everything. And it's so undermining when people like, have you tried eating clean? You're like, this is a chronic illness. Like you're clearly not seeing how chronic this is. Like eating clean might make me feel better for a week, but it is not going to fix the problem. and I think it can be you know obviously from you it would just be emotionally exhausting having to

deal with questions like that or comments like that so consistently because it makes you feel like your situation isn't as valid but it absolutely is and to me that just sounds crazy. Yeah I mean it is getting better like I have noticed progressively as as time has gone on I've become an adult and in adult spaces there's less of a tendency for the people I engage with now to say those things. But definitely as a young woman, a very young woman, I was just, yeah, I felt like there was nobody who really understood. I'm so sorry you had that experience. It's not one that I wish on anybody. Talking about chronic illness, how does that still impact your day-to-day life? Like endo is obviously something that's just not going to go away.

So does that impact your teaching ability or your ability to work? Like how does it impact you day to day, I suppose? Yeah. So I, since I've been diagnosed, I find I have 18 months to two years of what I call it, I refer to as a honeymoon period where I feel quite well. And then in that sort of third year, I start to get the pain recurring quite badly. And that's when it starts to impact work. So, you know, over the years I have had to take a fair bit of sick leave and sometimes the urgency to have surgery means that I might just have to take a week or so off all of a sudden and then day to day you know I'm pretty much one of those people that just get on with it and I sometimes find that it's better to be busy than to be at home thinking about

how much pain I'm in or how you know awful I feel so you know work is still quite hard I'm not a laborer obviously but as a teacher you're on all day you're putting on a performance it's like you're a performer you know I'm really happy to be here so excited you know we're talking about global warming today and you're just trying to put on this show to engage these 15 year olds and it's super tough like it gets to the end of the day and you're like wow like I haven't sat down and I feel so exhausted so it is really tiring it's a really an illness that really wanes on you and you get to the point where you're just like is there ever an end point for this yeah Wow. And one of the financial impacts you mentioned earlier, obviously taking time off

work, using your sick leave, maybe taking unpaid leave, but you kind of hinted at it in your earlier letter that any chronic illness, but endo as well specifically does have a big financial impact on your life. Can you talk us through that a little bit? Yeah. So endometriosis, it has so many direct and indirect costs. For example, I could not be without private health insurance with endometriosis because if I didn't have private health insurance I would be on public wait lists that are in my region 18 months two years long because surgery for endometriosis is not considered a priority it's an elective surgery so with COVID for example I wouldn't have had my surgery last year I would have still be on a wait list so the cost with private health insurance

then the cost with seeing a specialist the out-of-pockets there the out-of-pockets for you're an anaesthetist, you know, the hospital gap, scans, ultrasounds, experimenting with different contraceptions that aren't on the PBS, dieticians trying different diets, exercise regimes, pain specialists, physios, you name it, I've done it and it all comes at a huge cost. That's insane. It's insane to me that that's elective surgery. Like that is not elective surgery. That is, oh, that frustrates me. And I guess that opens a whole other can of worms of discussion that I could have with you today, which is not what this is about, but it just, it blows my mind that things like that aren't prioritized and, you know,

to dig a bit deeper into that for a hot second, if it was happening to men, it would already be top of the list, right? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think if a male was complaining to their GP, like I'm in this amount of pain, like I can't work, I can't go and play golf or whatever it is. Oh yeah. Straight to the top of the list. Like that's chronic. Yeah. They'd be like, oh my gosh, like we must do something for you. But if it's a woman, it's like, oh my gosh. We complain. Just get back in our boxes, I suppose, is the summary of that, which is honestly really gross. And I just think that that's, you know, putting us even further behind because that impacts your ability to progress your career at the end of the day and

generate more income like you're already burnt out at the end of a working day like god forbid you wanted to have a life outside of that like I'm sure that there are days where you just go home and you absolutely crash and burn and there's just no option for side hustles or you know taking on tutoring jobs and doing all of that other stuff because it's just not compatible to the life that you have and that's just not fair. I used to tutor in 2020 you know peak of COVID I was tutoring as well and I just burnt myself out and ended up yeah leaving it but I definitely you know a side hustle with the workload and with the chronic illness it's just not something that I would contemplate at this point in time yeah wow was your experience with chronic illness what kind of

pushed you to become a director on the NDIS board that you're a director for not directly no like it wasn't something that they even knew about and I would say they actually don't know about that diagnosis I was approached due to some involvement that I had with some fundraising locally and the board had a couple of vacancies and so they were looking to diversify the board particularly women and young women so that's why I was approached and also my educational background so they were looking for someone who could bring that knowledge knowledge as an educator as well. Did you find that it was a really male dominated space? Like you said, they were looking to diversify. When you moved into that space, did you feel that lack of diversity? Yeah. So

it is diverse in other ways, but not with gender. So when I commenced, there were three female directors, including myself and nine men. And I was the youngest person on the board by probably about 15 years oh my gosh so it was a little bit daunting particularly with the men on the board a lot of them had an accounting finance background so you know they were very up to date with budgets and cash flow and just all of the lingo basically so I remember my first meeting I came in and I'm like oh my gosh like they gave they'd emailed me all these spreadsheets and all these documents and I remember just staring at it and I'm like I have nothing to add thankfully like I learned very quickly and I I think that urgency of like I just don't want to look like I don't

know what's going on like I need to I need to immerse myself in this and once I got up to speed you know I was able to contribute with in relation to the finances I find that really interesting because I guess to I want to say sympathize um but I guess back you up on that I sit on a board as well. I'm the treasurer for TLC for Kids, which is a children's charity that is very close to my heart. I've been doing that for what now? Over three years, which is crazy. But when I first started, I would pour over every single document that was sent through to the board and make sure I knew it back to front. Like, yeah, the financial side of things, that's where I really understood it. But like everything else I was pouring over and I would go to these meetings and, you know,

hope that I looked intelligent, didn't look silly and realised that all of the men on the board, they weren't doing that. They were just turning up and they're like, oh, what was this? When was it sent through? And I'd be like, what the hell? Like, what the hell? Like, why aren't you guys on top of this? This sounds so familiar. Like, I think I went in over prepared and I knew that they always read the budget and all of that kind of thing and all the financials for the month. But as soon as it came to, oh, has anyone reviewed those risk management plans for this client? or has anyone reviewed that grant application or that letter? They're like, no, I'm sorry. Like I didn't get it. And I'm like, mate, I can see it. So you soon learn, yeah, that this unfounded sort

of feeling of inadequacy and you think, well, actually. And it's not true. Like you are so adequate. You've just never done it before. So it makes sense that it wouldn't make sense to you. But I think that that's the difference between, you know, men and women. And we talk about it on the podcast all the time, like women will only apply for a job if they think they meet 100% of the criteria and men are just kind of like floating along. They're like 60%, that sounds good. That piece get degrees, no worries. And I feel like every aspect of our lives kind of that filters into it because, you know, I'm not going to make assumptions, but I'm assuming you already would have been overwhelmed with this idea of a board because I was, I was like, oh my gosh,

like I cannot believe, like it was like this massive piece of imposter syndrome where I was like I can't believe they're not only letting me in but they want me to be the treasurer like what on earth they're gonna find out that I'm terrible at least at some point they're gonna fire me and I'm gonna be so embarrassed and you know that's not the case at all but I just don't think men have that same thought pattern no because they've never been put in a circumstance like that where their gender like is reflective of their ability to do a job and you know people just assume we wouldn't know, right? We were silly little women. And now I'm sure you kill it because you spent so long poring over the details and really understanding what makes that board up of,

but essentially like boards aren't as overwhelming and frustrating. And if other women are listening, join one, do it. Would you say the same thing? Yeah, definitely. Before I was approached, I would never have seen, you know, an advertisement or, and thought, oh my gosh, like I should apply for this board. I would have thought that is for a male who is super experienced in their field you know obviously has a finance background and you know it's been one of the best experiences because you are an advocate for vulnerable groups in our community and you bring such a wealth of knowledge being from an educational background like you can look at things and say well what is the value in this particular service that we're providing and I'm a big advocate

for in disability service provision that we're not just providing something for people to do like it's not just to fill your day like it should be meaningful what life skills does this activity give this person like how does it prepare them to become more independent and transition into independent living if that's their goal so I think it's a you know it opens up so many opportunities you get to meet clients and you know they're very open they will tell you something's not right and you know it really drives that incentive to think well okay well we need to fix that. And I think a lot of times I've said during a meeting, oh, well, that's a minor issue. I said, okay, well, in the scheme of things, it's a minor issue for you, but for this

client every day, it annoys them. So let's just get in and get it done. Yes. And do you know what baffles me even more? Earlier, you told me, you didn't tell me the statistics, but you told me the numbers. You said it was yourself, another woman and nine men on the board, right? And I was like, um, sorry. So while you were just talking, I did a little bit of Googling my friends. In Australia, male teachers make up 22% of all teachers in all classrooms in Australia. And to think that then the saturation in your board is majority male, to me, that doesn't make sense. Like we need more women in this space, not just because women in leadership roles is important, because it is, but I'm sorry, let's make it reflective of the industry as well. Like that

makes no sense that a majority are men when a lot of the issues pertaining to this space issues that impact women directly. So I just, baffles me. I'm so glad you're there. But I also think if, you know, people in our community are thinking about it, put your hat in the ring, like, you know, lots, you're a strong, smart person and you will be welcomed into a board. I promise often people aren't getting onto boards because we're not applying. Like, and I see it when I talk to other boards and, you know, talk to my friends, like even when the slots are available, women just don't throw their hat in the ring because we just don't think that we've got enough to add and you absolutely do. Yeah, definitely. And I've said it to a lot of my

friends and some of them are younger and a couple of them are on boards as well. And it's just so great to see that they are applying, but we're trying to encourage other women as well. And you can start small. It might be with your local football club, netball club, a really small provider of a particular service. And you can branch out from there. I think, look for those opportunities, but also ask, you know, if you see advertisements for annual general meetings being held, you can go along to them. You can express an interest beforehand, particularly if they do say, look, we are calling for nominations. So yeah, there's definitely opportunities out there. And it's cool to have an impact in a space that you're passionate about

as well. And it sounds like you're doing that. And I'm just, I'm proud to say that you're part of our She's On The Money community. You sound like a stellar human being. Thank you. Marnie Diaries. Thank you so much for joining us today. It has been an absolute pleasure learning more about you and your journey and everything that you've been through. I feel like you are so impactful and so young and have so far to go yet. Thank you for being part of our community and thank you for joining us for a Money Diary today. Thank you so much for having me. No, of course. All right, Jess, that is all. We will see you guys for another episode of Money Diaries next week. Bye.

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