She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: No degree & a 6 figure salary

Episode Date: September 26, 2021

Our Money Diarist this week shares her journey from money, to nothing, and back again - and not without a lot of hardwork. Hope you love it xThe 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 Toni Lodge and joining me for another Shopback Money Diary is financial advisor Victoria Devine. Hello, my friend. Hello.

Are you ready for another Money Diary? Yes. I've got a green smoothie. I'm a vision of health. I am so, so ready. Well, that's what's important, a smoothie. Oh my gosh. A green smoothie makes you feel like you've got your life together.

You're like, wow, I'm one of the hot Instagram girls now. It's like when you exercise in the morning, you're like, wow, I'm really better than everyone else. Yeah, I literally am. and I went for a walk this morning. So like I am better than everybody else. Oh my gosh. No, that is absolutely not the case. In fact, I made myself cringe a little bit when I said that. So let's jump straight into today's money diary. Tony, can you read out this week's money diarist's email for me? All right, here we go. Hi, she's on the money team. I grew up in a chaotic house

with five other siblings that was very unstable and often saw us in refuges and safe houses. unfortunately domestic violence and emotional abuse was the norm and through that i didn't think that more even existed no adults around me worked and center link and having a victim mentality was the lens i grew up in scarcity where money was not abundant and that shops like target were too expensive to shop at at age 17 i was kicked out of home and worked two jobs while finishing my hsc i am now 31 have a well-paid job with no uni degree and two properties i was so inspired to have more and be more that I decided I didn't want what was around me and would love to share my story. Oh my gosh, I love that. I'm so excited about this. Tony, we obviously have

our money diarist on the line. We do. Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? Yeah, we're well. It's such a pleasure to have you on. Thank you for sharing your story. That's okay. It's a pleasure to share it. It's so weird hearing it back again, even though I wrote it. It's always a little bit mind-blowing when you're like, wow, that's actually really impressive, especially when you hear it about yourself. Yeah, it's kind of like an out-of-body experience. Because we've talked about before, maybe, oh, should we get our money diarists to tell us like a quick version of their story so it comes from them. But we've had quite a few people say that they actually like hearing their story back because they go, wow, how far have I come? You

know I started here and now I'm here and oh my god Tony when you read it out it felt like I was listening to someone else's story and I thought wow good on them but it was actually about me it's so true and I think if you read it out yourself you get like it's I don't know it's like you're just reading from a script but someone else reading it you're like go that person yeah but it's actually all about you and we want to hear all about it great well I can't wait to share so ask me whatever you want ask me all the perfect questions oh thank you for the permission we are definitely going to do exactly that. But first, as always, we are going to go through our planned questions. So let's kick it straight off with what is your attitude towards money?

So my attitude towards money has changed from obviously being a child to now an adult. And I think I've had to force myself into a different mindset. So from being a baby to age seven, we had money. And then when my mom divorced my stepdad, we didn't. So, I was really kind of, there was like this juxtaposition of being used to having nice holidays and things to having nothing. And so, that was really, it was really weird. And as a child, you sort of don't understand why, you know, all of a sudden, you're being sent to the corner store and you're only allowed to get the, you know, the $1.80 bread because that you've only been given $1.80 or whatever it is. And so, I became very conscious about how much things cost and how stressful money was and I almost

started to resent it because it was painted this like bad scary thing that was like oh you know these terms like filthy rich and you know all these negative things around money so for me I kind of was like it was just always never going to be abundant so I you know grew up just wanting nice things and not having them and I you know would think about things like oh when I'm older I can't wait I'm going to shop at Target because I thought that Target was literally the top tier of retail at the time because I didn't grow up in you know the city so that to me was you know a forbidden store but it you know it's just it's really odd I guess I was only sort of allowed to shop at the five and ten dollar rack and so if I got new clothes and it wasn't on that rack we

weren't buying it. So, it's definitely changed a lot as I've grown up and started to earn my own money. But, you know, I guess that's just part of, you know, growing up and learning about the value of a dollar and how you can make your own way. Wow. I love how comprehensive that was. I feel like I really got to learn a lot about your money journey through that description. So, thank you. Next question is, what do you currently do for work and how much money do you earn? yep so i work in um commercial property management and i earn 117 000 a year what 117 grand a year yes and then sometimes i get a bonus which i'm hopefully waiting to find out if i get this year depending on the company's performance oh my gosh and no uni degree at all

no never went no you need to go wasn't allowed to shop at target 117 grand yes I I love that I love that for you I love the fact that you are doing so well having come from a situation where you weren't even surrounded by adults who taught you what work ethic was like that is that is really impressive are you proud of yourself I am and I think you know I've always been a bit of an observer so you know I would look at people that I went to school with and their parents had money and I would look at the habits and things that they did versus the people around me and you know it's really I just kind of saw well you know if people that had no money all the time were whinging about money they were also the ones that generally would you know maybe smoke or drink or

gamble and so I kind of really drew the line of why that they were in this situation and other people weren't and so I kind of just thought well I want to follow the path of people that are doing the smart thing and that's what I've always tried to do so you know when older people sit there and go oh back in my day how you know I wish I bought this many houses so it was always a focus for me to get into property because I could understand that there was value there and that that's something that I wanted and I think because I didn't have a home as a child we moved around a lot and I was in halfway houses and refuges having a house was so valuable to me and I just I would have given the blood out of my veins to get there and I feel like I nearly did

it was all it was hard that's such a grown-up and mature perception for you to have had when you're at school to look at the other kids and their parents and go I want that I don't want this and there's not a lot of people that would have that kind of outlook or ability to read that situation like that I guess it's just such a testament to what you went through and how you got there and it's so inspiring I hope that there's a lot of people listening that are maybe in this situation at the moment that you've been through that can go actually there's more than this I'm so impressed I cannot tell you six figures two houses and no university degree is a feet but to then put on top of that that no one taught you that and you had to learn that yourself

and you were just so perceptive growing up that you knew you wanted that ah you are inspirational I'm so impressed thank you that's so sweet I think I'm just really stubborn so um but that's not what stubborn would have got me but I just like I used to get you know I think because my family had such a bad reputation growing up like we were known as the house with the police there all the time and you know like just really and so I used to get you know people's mums would say I don't want you hanging out with that person and and so and I used to always um get told that you know people would say oh she's going to just be like her mum and have lots of kids and so I think there was this fire in me that was like screw you I'm going to prove you wrong

yeah I don't want that I don't want that and I think it's you know it's not about yeah how many kids you have but like say for my family situation there's six of us with four different dads and that was the perception of of coming you know of lots of nastiness as well so um yeah it was just yeah I think it was pure stubbornness and not wanting people to know what was going on so when um so my mom has a mental health issue and she threw me out when I was 17 and the careers advisor at school said to me you know now that you're living with another family maybe you should think about dropping out of school and he said to me have you considered being a flight attendant because you're very attractive and you're the perfect height and I

was so angry and so offended and I mean this is going back you know a little while now and you'd never drew like they would probably get fired for saying it these days but I remember thinking there's no way I'm dropping out of school now. Now that you've said that to me, I am actually going to stay just because I was so annoyed and that anger just fueled me getting my HSC. So I worked two jobs and finished my HSC and then was able to save and go to Europe for a year. Oh my gosh. And then when I got back from Europe, I moved back in with my mum, which I didn't really want to do because we don't really get along. And I was so determined to save for my first property. So I was 22. I was earning $750 a week after tax. That's good innings.

Yeah, it wasn't bad. And I saved $500 a week for a year because I didn't go out. I didn't do anything because I was so determined. I was so determined, but also I grew up with nothing. So I was so used to sacrificing that sacrifice to me didn't feel like the biggest thing in the world because I've thought well if it's you know a short-term pain for a long-term gain so I slept in a bunk bed for a year and saved $500 a week and then got a second job because I wasn't happy with how I'm impatient as well as stubborn and I girls got great my I then bought my first property at 23 for um for 255 000 it's now valued at 550 what oh my gosh she's like a mogul now tony well look i don't know about that that was just a good timing wait till you retire you are going

to have this epic property portfolio you're gonna be making bank you're gonna be going to europe every year because COVID will be done. It'll be so good. Oh, that's the dream. So, yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, there's been lots of sacrifice. And while other people were, you know, when we turned 18, going out and drinking, I couldn't afford to. And so, this is before the time of internet banking, I would put different money in different envelopes with different labels about what I was and, you know, which is now what we do with all the accounts we have. But I just got to really good habits I knew that I needed to keep a roof over my head and I was very good at stretching a dollar because I didn't have lots of dollars yeah but you'd also grown up knowing

how to do that and I feel like people really underestimate having gone through that and how resourceful you become and how you can actually work it all out whereas somebody who maybe hadn't had that experience would be like that's impossible I could never and you're like well you've never have been put in a situation where you've needed to be that resourceful, have you? So I think it's really impressive that you're using it to your advantage as well. Like it's just, it's so cool. And we've gone so far off track, the questions I want to be asking you, but you are so interesting and this story is so inspiring that I know nobody listening is going to be mad at me. So hopefully that's the case. I'm just assuming. So the next question I have for you is what is currently your

big money goal? So my big money goal I've just achieved this week. So the property we've got at the moment is a really old house and we're renovating it. And the bathroom was just, oh, I couldn't, I hated even getting ready in there. It was so awful. It was like falling apart. So last year I got a $10,000 tax return. So I put that in savings. Oh, fancy. And then I have been saving this year and we just saved $20,000 to do a new bathroom, which should be finished this week, but it's been just blood, sweat and tears to get this bathroom finished. And who knew that they were so expensive and they are. So warning to everyone. Oh my gosh. I know the second you start talking about home things, it just spirals out of control.

I feel like you get a tax for that and a tax for weddings. Like it just happens. Definitely. I wouldn't think it would be that expensive because I've been to Bunnings. I've looked at how much toilets are. Who would have thought getting them actually installed is the pricey part? I know. But that's really exciting that you've actually just met your big money goal. So, on to the next one.

On to the next one, yeah. So, the next one will probably be I'm looking at starting a business and I'm trying to just pull together some capital to do that. Oh, my gosh. What's your business going to be? So, it's because I work in property, it's going to be a property management like service and but more so to holiday houses because that market is just exploding at the moment. That's very smart.

She's a genius, Toni. This woman has already gone places and she's going to go more places. Oh, yes. Thank you. I love it. All right. So, we already know you have an investment property, but do you have any investments? So I obviously have my super, which up until listening to She's On The Money, I never considered

it as an investment, but I've definitely become more interested in it. And I now check in and I watch it and I understand it. And so I have $80,000 in super. Oh, that is so good for your age. Well, I didn't realize, but I think it's the average I wasn't sure about. So I didn't know that it was good until you mentioned it. That's a really good amount of super to have. And I think that people underestimate how much that they need. But for someone between the age of 25 and 34, the average balance for women is $31,600. And you're running rings around that. You're literally more than double that amount,

my friend. So when they say, have you got enough in super? You're kicking it. You're doing pretty well. Well, that's good to know because I was sort of like, I don't know, I feel like I'm my own worst enemy I was like I wish it was a hundred and it will be I'm sure especially with your salary and the contributions in the next couple of years it'll absolutely get to a hundred but I think it's also a testament to you because as you said you've been working two jobs since the age of 17 and in your lifetime superannuation has always been mandated so you've been earning super arguably for a lot longer period of time than most of us yeah so I started working when I was 13 but I used to get paid cash so that probably didn't contribute to my super but um I also used

to be self-employed and I was religious about putting my own super in most people aren't well and I think at the time I was always like oh I resent putting this whatever it is a week but now that but now that I you know I'm stepping back and looking at it I'm like thank god past me made that decision because now present me is and future me will benefit from that um and I also salary sacrifice about $30 a week into my super because honestly it's so important and I see and again just by you know sheer observation you see these women that are you know maybe they're divorced or they're single or whatever the case and they're really struggling at the age of you know 55 and they don't know what to do and I don't want to be one of those women. Yeah it's so

important to realize that I was speaking to someone the other day about you know women and poverty and getting towards retirement age. And here in Australia, the biggest growing demographic of people becoming homeless are women between the ages of 55 and 65. And I think that nobody thinks about that. And the reason for that is everything you just said. It could be they're going through a divorce. You know, they might have lost their partner. They are single and hadn't prioritized retirement yet. There's a lot going on there that I think that we push to the side and don't talk about because you go oh it's all too hard it's all too much but these women could have been you know in such better positions if someone had kind of scooped them up a couple

of years ago when we were our ages and said all right tony it's really important make sure you're making subannuation contributions here's where you should be at here's where we need to go this is what this looks like because that literally could have saved them from the reality they're experiencing now but right now we need to do a lot about that so you're absolutely right we don't want to get there but I think it's also important to acknowledge that right now that's a really big issue for us that's a really big thing that a lot of people are going through but I don't think is being spoken about nearly enough yeah and I think too many women and this is just like from my own personal experiences I watched a lot of women around me as a child just be with men because

it was easier than being alone and so my husband will tell you I'm so fiercely annoyingly independent that I'm like you know I went before we got married he signed a prenup just because that property was mine and so you know and look he's amazing and but I'm just so I never want to rely on a man and if that means making personal contributions to my super now then so be it because I never want to be that woman that spider monkey that goes from tree to tree out of desperation of necessity yeah and I think that's really relevant as well it puts you back in the control seat it puts you back in power and whether that is a man a situation of place an employer like having enough freedom of choice is going to come down to your financial situation

and you're never going to be forced to do anything you don't want to do if you've got funds behind you and that as much as it's not a nice reality is the real reality of what financial freedom can afford you absolutely and whether you like talking about money or makes you uncomfortable or whatever the situation this is the reason it's important all those reasons you just mentioned yep yeah all right back on the train of questions do you currently have any debts I've got a thousand dollars owing on my credit card um and I sorry forgot to mention I've got two thousand dollars worth of shares because I joined raise thanks to you oh yes queen amazing so I'm trying to get my shares up and I'm trying to understand that as well but yeah not no not many debts only um yeah

the thousand dollar credit card which will be over soon and mortgages oh of course well yes um so I have but that's constructive debt that's not bad personal debt so I know why you didn't mention it it's all good I still want to know about your mortgage okay I will tell you about the money okay well I told you that I bought um a little villa when I was 23 which I mentioned about what I paid what I was earning and um what it's worth now so when it was being rented out when the property in that area boomed I wasn't living there at the time and um it literally like doubled I and I was like, what? That area became cool. Who knew? So I went and met with a broker a few years ago and I borrowed the equity. So I pulled a hundred thousand dollars out of that because

obviously it had increased in value and I refinanced the loan and then bought another house, which is where we live now. Oh my gosh. That is so good. I'm so excited for you, but also just like so unnecessarily proud and I say unnecessarily because like I am not allowed to be proud of you because I had nothing to do with your journey I always say that I'm always like oh my god I'm so proud as if I contributed in some way I think it just shows that we have a great community here like I'm proud of things that I hear about on money diaries of complete strangers and it's like no I get goosebumps sometimes and I'm like oh the feels oh yeah That's so good, isn't it? Money diaries are literally my favorite. All right. Next question.

Do you use Shopback? I, you know, I haven't, no, but I understand. I think it could work. I think it's a great idea. If I was going to buy something, I definitely would use it, but no, not yet. I feel like you're potentially too intelligent to shop online in the same way that I do. So do you know, actually my shopping is actually, I, like I said, it's taken me a long time to get out of this like scarcity mindset so and my husband's like the exact opposite because he grew up with money so him his money's story is very different to mine but when we were buying a vacuum cleaner I couldn't part with $700 for the Dyson like I wanted to but I physically was like oh I was too scared so I bought this crappy little thing that was a few hundred dollars cheaper and

it was the worst and I ended up taking it back and upgrading to the Dyson and my husband was like I told you so buy what you want the first time buy quality the first time but I but I find myself doing that over and over and I keep thinking learn the lesson yeah I feel like that is a good lesson and I guess it's one of those things that it's kind of the circle of poverty in a way right because you buy what you can afford not going for the best thing and that might be you know like school shoes right so like the expensive school shoes you remember the Harrison school shoes that everybody had that like really beautiful buckle up ones with like butterfly pattern all right well you guys might not but i know everybody listening is going to be like yes they were the

only ones we could have at school because like otherwise we weren't cool we weren't cool tony sorry no i i obviously you're not telling me anything i don't already know no no i'm giving away my money story at the moment but it was really important to have those shoes but they were really good quality shoes right but if you compare that to someone who maybe couldn't part with $110 for those shoes and they went to Kmart and got like $20 school shoes, they might have to buy those $20 school shoes five or six times during the year, therefore costing them more than what the initial investment of the more quality shoes were, but they didn't have the capital at the start to outlay that. And that's what potentially keeps people in that cycle of,

you know, buying stuff that is the cheapest, but trying to replace it because they don't have the capital at the time and I think it's really nice to be able to afford right now like oh yeah cool I can afford the quality one but it's also one of those things that you go oh my gosh like that's not something everyone can do and that's like you know a privilege of wealth like I'm so grateful that I can go and I do the same thing and I'm so grateful that you know I can go buy a Dyson if I really really need it um and I mean it's not like I go and buy a new vacuum every year like I've had my most recent Dyson for two years. And the one before that I think was nearly 10 years old, but you buy quality and it lasts. But most people who are in that situation, they just go,

I can't afford to just buy the quality one, would love to. So I don't know, for me, that was a really good reflection point to go, how lucky are we? Like to be able to now buy a Dyson when you were younger, that wouldn't have even been an option. Yeah. And I used to, like, it's funny, the things that we tell ourselves. So when I was younger, I was in a completely different occupation and I was on, you know, like a much lower income. And I used to tell myself these stupid things, like when I'm on 55,000, then I'm going to buy that. Or when I'm on, you know, and then I, when I set myself the goal of being on a six figure salary, I would say like, oh, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. And then I hit it and I would move the goalposts again on myself. And I was like, what am I doing?

it's so unfair on yourself I know but anyway it's what we do right all right well let's ask you because that sounds like a not good money habit let's ask you what your best money habit is my best money habit is I'm very good at and this is gonna sound bad but I'm very good at going without so you know if I have to stretch my pay for a week or a fortnight or whatever I kind of hold out the cash flow of paying for certain things. And then so, and I think that comes back to not having that anxiety around not having money. But I'm very good at prioritizing. I'm good at saving. And I have probably over 15 bank accounts where I divvy up things and they're all labeled. And so, the way I sort of like to look at my money is that each account is a bucket.

And even if I put one drop in that bucket a week, it'll eventually get full of water. oh I love that I really I haven't even considered it like that I really like that mental space I hope that a lot of people can take something from that because even if you just don't realize exactly it'll fill up at some point how special I think all my buckets have holes in them you need new buckets I think some of us even need to just get some buckets to begin with um yeah all right flip that what is your worst money habit it's probably that mentality thing about either like there's not enough to go around that scarcity thing um my husband's like just buy the damn shoes or you know whatever so I think it's a bit of that and still sometimes I find

myself going for the cheaper option of things even though like we just talked about with the Dyson or the shoes or whatever it might be. And sometimes I have to really force myself to break that habit. But then I feel really proud when I do, because I'm like, I acknowledged, I had that level of self-awareness. I acknowledged what I was doing and I changed the behavior to then get a different result. I love that. I just feel like you are so gritty. Like you just have so much grit about yourself. And like, that is, that is a compliment if you've never been called gritty before, but it's like one of those things that, you know, if I'm anything, I hope that I have more grit. Like I get up when, you know, I'm pushed down and I try and I try again and I'm

tenacious. And I just, I really respect what you're doing. And I think it's really inspirational. Oh, thank you. All right. So to summarize all of that, because we took the long way around, what grade would you give yourself if we forced you to give yourself a grade? I would probably give myself an A because I think that I can certainly acknowledge all the things that I've done and where I've come from. But I, you know, I know there's still things to do. So, you know, there's like savings goals. I'm trying to get my emergency fund up to a certain amount and things like that. So, yeah, I'd give myself an A with room for A plus potential.

I love that. I absolutely agree that you are an A and I have a few perfect questions in just a cheeky minute. All right. So diving straight back into this, during the questions that I was asking you before, you mentioned that your partner grew up in wealth and you didn't. How have you guys spoken about your money stories to get on the same page because they were so variably different? That's a great question. So he was actually married before we were together and as a result of that, had to enter into a part-time agreement, which is similar to a bankruptcy. So when we started dating, I was obviously aware of the situation and that made me nervous, but I just wanted to understand it and understand his money story and understand

how he spends money. But because he grew up with money, his family was kind of of the opinion, like you just buy it and it makes you happy. And he kind of, that was just the, you know, the scenario. But when he was an adult, you know, it was like, if you buy it, but then there might be finance attached or whatever. And I, I'm like, no, that is not how we're doing things. So, I was like, look, it would make me feel comfortable if I could manage the money. So, he's had to work really hard to get out of that and build up his credit rating again. thankfully he's he dated someone who had their own house and is really savvy and um yeah so like you said before a man's not a financial plan but no one said a woman isn't that's maybe but look

he's I think yeah we're just we're both on the same page now but sometimes like I'll catch him doing something where he'll go oh just buy it and then I'm the exact opposite way I'm like no I'll just wait so we're kind of like if I'm fire he's water so we it's really interesting but we've definitely, we're on the same page about it, but the bankruptcy and everything was really tough. Wow. And how did you feel coming into that? Like you mentioned before you were a little apprehensive, but how did you work your way through that? Because obviously would have been a bit confronting having gone through, you know, a lot of this growing up and knowing that money wasn't in abundance to then be faced with, I really like this guy, but am I going to go behind?

like is that not what i want yeah i think for me it was about understanding everything so i wanted to understand the level of debt where it came from you know really pervy um wanted to understand what he was spending his money on where it was going where it was coming from and also we can like so we sat down put a plan together we consolidated all of the debt um then the the person whoever like the entity is that negotiates it tries to get it down and then he set a goal of how long he wanted to um pay it off and I said I we wouldn't get married until that was paid off so that's so good yeah so I think you know establishing the boundaries about what does that look like for you and and and he's done it but I think what the hard thing was is people

don't realize when you go through that um I remember him going to get a phone plan at Telstra and you can't even get a phone plan so I had to then get the phone plan in my name which I know a lot of people would cringe and say you know you shouldn't do that that's silly but I certainly wouldn't go get a car loan or anything but a phone plan I was happy to do. I actually wanted to be able to call you yes this is as much for me as it is for you I get that but yeah it look it was hard and it was challenging and we've certainly put it behind us now but you know he isn't even on the house that we we've got now together so we've got an agreement where he owns 40% of this house because i used my equity so we didn't split it 50 50 um but he he still has something even though

he's not on the deed because he couldn't go on the deed because of his credit rating yeah wow so it makes a huge impact people don't realize you know things you do when you're 18 and yeah it carries with you like a bad smell but it sounds like you guys have worked through it and now you're married yes that means he's out of that debt completely right yeah that's that was the reward that's a pretty good reward I'd be trying to lock you down ASAP too when did you guys get married uh 2017 so we've been married four years nearly oh exciting and pervy questions because weddings are really expensive how'd you budget for that so I I didn't want a big crazy wedding because I'd rather go and travel so we only spent seven thousand dollars in our

wedding. And then we had a 30,000 dollar honeymoon in the States. So my wedding wasn't very expensive to answer your question. I love that though. Cause it goes, and that's actually why I was being really pervy. I was kind of like, I reckon she's had a really savvy wedding and prioritized her values. Um, and that's exactly what you did. I was, I was being a little bit presumptuous there with that question. You're right. But I was not wrong. Would you recommend that? Is there anything you would change about that process? I feel like it's a good place for us to learn. I feel like with my wedding, I mean, I only had a really small intimate wedding of 30 people. So we didn't spend a lot of money. So I guess it depends on how big your family is and who you want to come and things

like that. But the only thing that, and this is again, a worse habit of mine is I think I can do everything so I catered my own wedding and the morning of my wedding I was cooking and I think if I could go back again I'd probably pay for some extra help yeah I feel like that's maybe a good hot tip yeah don't cater your own wedding yeah so that's the only thing because I think I can do it all and I can't because I'm human so I think that would be my only thing if you're going to do it yourself yeah give yourself a little bit of a break and get some help yeah cut yourself some slack at some point I feel like on the morning of your wedding that's a really good time to give yourself that slack as well that's right yeah but no it's so interesting I guess when something

happens to you financially how it changes like your whole perception so a couple of years ago I worked for a company and I was doing some property courses through them. And the last day of the course, they got me to sign a contract to say if I left, I would pay it back. And I thought it was for the one course I was doing. And then when I resigned six months later, they deducted $5,000 from my last pay. And I was left with $200 for the month. And I will never forget how that feels and I fought it and it's fine but I never want to be left in a situation like that so I had an emergency fund at the time but I think I just never wanted to give someone else the power to control how I navigate my life through you know feeding myself even yeah that's just it

though right like money is not just about the luxuries it's about the bare necessities and paying rent yeah put food on the table and I think so many people forget the importance of it because it's such a boring topic sometimes or it's something I know it's not boring not you you can't preach to me like I obviously don't think it's boring I'm such a nerd I have like a color coded excel spreadsheet and I'm like how is this how's this account going and if we offset this listen. Oh my gosh. You are my spirit animal. Let me know when you want to come out of commercial property and join the she's on the money team. You would be an asset. I am there. Side hustle. Oh my gosh. You'd be a really great financial advisor as well. Oh my gosh. It's funny. I hate

maths, but I love money. Oh my gosh. You don't have to do well at maths to be a good financial advisor. I promise you. In fact, you know how in grade 12, they're like, you really need to be able to do this maths, the exams, no calculators and no notes. I'm sorry. I'm a financial advisor. I now have a calculator on my phone. I even have Google on my phone. I don't need to know your times tables. Tell me how compound interest works, Sharon. That's right. Yeah. I just want auto sum in Excel. I don't care about anything else. Yeah, exactly. We have so many tools and resources now and don't get me wrong. There's obviously a lot when it comes to finances and money and being able to actually calculate it but at the same time it's one of those things where it's actually

less about the maths and more about the planning of resources and i think that you know if anyone's thinking about it financial advice is a pretty sexy courier i think that is probably a really great place to leave it so tony as always just before we head off we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to australia's aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples they're the traditional custodians of the lands the waterways and the skies all across australia we thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn we pay our respects to elders past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness the advice shared on she's on the money is generally nature and does not consider any of your individual circumstances she's on

the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or any financial decision and we promise that victoria divine is an authorized representative of australia pacific funds management proprietary limited abn 34132463257 afsl 339151 see you next week guys