She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: She's Crushed Her Consumer Debt

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

This wonderful community member went from major consumer debt to owning three properties! She was inspired by Victoria to follow her passion for finance and is now well on her way to becoming a financial adviser. She's a ray of sunshine and we can't wait for you to meet her! Send us your Money Diary! 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 my favorite episode of the entire week of Money Diaries, where I get the absolute pleasure of talking to one of our She's on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got an email and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, Victoria. I went from major consumer debt to owning three properties and was inspired by Victoria to follow my passion in finance and I am now in my professional year to become a financial advisor. I did try to post on the Facebook page and was told I should share my money story here. You absolutely should, my friend. Congratulations, I'm so excited. Welcome

to the industry that I'm no longer a part of, I think. Yes, no, I was a little bit disappointed when I heard that you're moving out. Oh, sorry, I still hang around, I promise. My game plan originally was like, if I go to, you know, forums and whatnot for advisors, then I can run into Victoria and meet her. Oh, I go still. You do? Okay, great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm so excited about it. It's funny because obviously I'm no longer a licensed financial advisor and I stepped back to focus more on the She's On The Money community. Obviously doing one-on-one client work took a lot out of me and a lot out of my day. Adored it, but obviously loved doing community stuff. But deep down, I'm a nerd, babe. If there is a forum, if there is a advisor conference that

I'm allowed into, I'm like, hey, hi, it's me. And I've obviously got a heap of financial advisor friends. So I usually just tag along with them. I'm like, oh, would you look at that? I work for Sky Wealth today. Oh, that's crazy. I've come along as an associate, which is really, really fun. But you will still see me there because at heart, I really miss it. Oh, that's great. So let's learn a little bit more about you. I am super excited about this because going from being in consumer debt to having three houses, slay, but then also to love finance so much that you're like, you know what, this was so fun that I wanted to help other people do that. I'm just really excited. So let's start the episode as I always do. Money Diarist, if I was to ask you to give

yourself a grade from A through to F, what would you say your money grade is? Oh, at this point in time, I would say a B plus because I have gone a long way, but I still have a fair way to go as well. So I'm not where I want to be, but I'm on the track to being where I want to be. Yes. I love this. Let's learn more about it. Money Diarist, my favorite question. Can you tell me a little bit more about your money story? So a bit of backstory is that me and my husband had our first child and we had just gotten married and we did purchase our first home. So we did already have that. I had just had my second in early 2020. Great, when COVID hit. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we were in over $30,000 worth of consumer debt at that point in time. We had after pay, zip pay, credit cards, personal loans, you name it. One night when I was up late, you know, feeding the baby and that, I come across your podcast and I got hooked. hello friend I'm a 3am kind of gal you know yes definitely and I got absolutely hooked on it and because I was on maternity leave so we only had obviously my husband's wage and then part of the paid rental so it wasn't obviously too much yeah we managed to pay within that year of my maternity leave just over 30 grand worth of consumer debt oh no you didn't yeah like while on leave while lovely. What? That is epic. I want to know a little bit more. First things first,

how did you get into consumer debt? Were things just like getting out of hand, like obviously having two kids, getting married, buying your first house in quick succession? I don't know if you know this is expensive and also stressful, but how did you end up in that debt? And then I guess, tell me a bit more about this getting out of debt thing, because that's impressive. So yeah, like I said, we had bought our house and then just after we bought it up, like owner occupied. One month later, my husband proposed to me. So yeah, then from there, everything, we ended up getting a like purse line to finish paying out the rest of the wedding. The wedding was part of it. And then, you know, you see all those cute little Instagram and like

Etsy stores. So I bought all the wedding stuff on there and used after pay. And the ads up, hey. Yeah. It was a lot of materialistic things. I think going back, a lot of the consumer debt we had were because of materialistic items I think the only other consumer debt which part of the personal loan which I try not to incorporate is the solar panel loan yeah that's a bit different though hey yeah yeah that's not items for a wedding that's an investment into you not having an electricity bill in the future yes oh it's been so great and then obviously with my impending baby coming I decided to spend it up and yeah add on the zip pay and the credit card and that

it had gotten to the point where we were just spending spending spending and not actually realizing you just kind of got out of control that is fair but the important question here is how on earth while you were on maternity leave did you get out of that debt because that's crazy for anyone to get out of $30,000 worth of credit card debt in one year but like to do that on a single income with paid parental leave which we all know like is honestly the bare minimum it's minimum wage how so obviously I set out a plan I fell in love with excel spreadsheets woman after my own heart oh I should hear all the girls at work they they laugh about it and then I found out like you know what was my biggest debt what was my smallest debt what had the highest interest I you know

went through and I compared what was what what would be the best way so obviously I think I started with like the after pays because they were the smallest went on to the zip pays and then just slowly did it from there you did an episode on junk insurance yeah I got on the phone I called and I think we ended up getting about five or six grand in total no you didn't yeah back so that really helped money win it was a great money win so but you don't know what you don't know right and the second you hear something like that you're like wait hold on are you telling me and then you check and you're like excuse me how has this been happening to me and it's not because you silly it's just you thought you're doing the right thing and then it just tacks on and tacks

on but I'm so glad you chased it up because you know obviously a lot of people don't it's worth it though hey it definitely is and like I said that's what helped us pay a big chunk of each of the other things and then obviously I set out a budget that was the biggest thing was like well we need to know you know what we're doing and it was good because we had that year as well break from daycare. I was on maternity leave and my first child went to kindy. So it's nice once they go to kindy. I've spoken about it before, but I was horrified at how much daycare is going to cost us. That is not going to be the best season of my life, but I think it's a necessary one to keep working. Yes. Well, my second child finished daycare at Christmas time. So we're in

kindy and we're out. You're out. You're out the other side. Yes. I'm so pervy, especially about this debt reduction thing because I've obviously been in a very similar position. So I really empathize with, you know, how overwhelming it can be and how it keeps you up at night and it makes you feel sick and you just don't know what to do. But once you start smashing it down, you said before, I started with the small debts and after pay. Do you feel like starting with the small stuff really motivated you? Cause you were like, wow, tick, that's gone. Next thing. Like, do you feel like it kind of compounded over time how committed you were to debt reduction or like what was the feeling along the journey? Yes. I found, you know, because the smallest ones were

like the first ones to go, that gave me my boost, that confidence to go, I can do this. Like we've gotten rid of the afterpay. Now let's get rid of my husband's SIPPAY. Let's just keep going. Let's do this. Like, and I realized as I kept paying one off, instead of spending that money that we used to pay it off, I would just chuck that onto the next step, which helped, you know, so that money I pretended that we didn't have, which was absolutely great. And that's what helped as well to pay down those. So yeah. The momentum just keeps going. And then you, I don't know, when it was happening to me, I just consistently felt lighter every time something else was gone. I was like, yep, feeling lighter, feeling better. Like this is so good. And you kind of forget how

bad it was and then you realize oh my gosh I've created this entirely new lifestyle for myself yes I had to go back because I knew I posted on the Facebook page about it so I had to go back and it was July 2020 and reading what I had put up and how much I was you know going through again and going oh my god I have come this far I can't believe it so gosh I love it I'm so proud of you all right I have to ask the next question because I need to know now obviously you've got two kids who have passed kindy money when no longer paying daycare but what do you do for work how much money do you earn currently i am doing a few roles i love to just not stop so i am currently a mortgage broker oh exciting yes and then i'm also completing my provisional year to become a financial advisor

oh exciting yes so i'm in the learning phase at the moment i still do need to have a mentor for my mortgage broking until I think about Easter and then I'll be fully accredited. So what I earn at the moment is $65,000 per year, not including super and then a small amount of commission on the side. Yeah. Exciting. And especially because you're in your, I guess, provisional year as a broker, that's pretty good. So tell me about the commission side of things. Cause I like to be really clear when talking to people, especially in broking, cause they go, isn't it dodgy to get commission? Absolutely not. But how does that work in your role? Is that per loan settled or is that across the board? Do you get a certain amount of commission based on what the business earns or

how does that come about? So the business gets paid a commission for each loan that's drawn and then they pay me a smaller commission on that. So at the moment it is 10% of all loans and any new business that I bring because I'm currently in a financial advisors. Any new business that I bring in is an extra 6% on top of that. Oh, that's nice. That's not bad at all. I'm going to be really pervy. So mortgage brokers, I don't know if you know this guys, but I actually own a mortgage broking company called Zella Money. But do you get 10% of the upfront fee? So when you see a mortgage broker, when the loan settles, the bank pays the mortgage broker a fee, right? And that fee doesn't mean that you're paying more to see a mortgage broker.

In fact, it's exactly the same whether you go direct or not. You just get a whole heap more help using a broker. They get an upfront fee, but they also get a trail. Are you getting any trail or just upfronts? I'm getting upfront and trail. Oh, yes, she is. See, that's what I wanted to know. We do that with our team as well, because I think it's the fairest way to do it. Like you didn't come this far to only come this far, your income should go up each and every single year. What do you think over the next few years your income is going to look like? Oh, I am hoping it is going to go up. I know statistically when I did my training with mortgages and that, that statistically on average,

mortgage brokers earn $150,000 per year. Financial advisors, I should say, are about $100,000 to $130,000 roughly. It depends on obviously where you're situated. We're regional. Yeah. Regional is much harder. Yeah. So I am hoping to probably hit that hundreds eventually. Oh, you'll get there in no time. If your business is giving you upfront plus comms and a really good base, like I think you are going to be just fine. And once the ball starts rolling straight off after you've finished your provisional year, oh, you're going to be fine. I say that because I literally see it in my own business every single day. Great. I love it. I can't wait. you have to tell me when you crack the six figures. I want to know now, you've obviously

gotten out of a heap of debt. What is your big money goal? What are you currently looking forward to? Because my husband and I, we obviously share everything. We have the same mindset, which is great when it comes to money. I'm the finance minister as he calls it. So I handle all that. Our next big money goal, we do want to get to a hundred thousand in investing. So that's our next big one. How far away is that? Oh, we've got a few little things in the pipeline until we've only got about 10,000 at the moment. So. Hey, that's 10% of the way there. That's not bad. Yeah. So we're hoping just over the next six years or so to do that slowly and then just leave it, you know, let it grow, let it build. So. It's obvious you're going to be a good

financial advisor. We're setting very clean, clear goals that are attainable. Let's go to a really quick break because on the other side, I have a lot to ask about because in your letter in, you said, I own three houses and that's a flex we have not dove into yet. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Money Diarist, we are back and I'm assuming you don't have three primary residences. So I'm going to need to know, my friend, do you have any investments? If so, what are they? Yes, I have two investment properties and then obviously the 10,000 shares that I have at the moment. So tell me about how that happened because that's pretty big deal to have two investment properties plus your primary residence plus 10 grand in shares. That's wild.

That is something that a lot of people dream of. How did you go from being in $30,000 worth of credit card debt and consumer debt all the way through to owning your own homes, multiple of them. So like I said, after I went on maternity leave, I knew I loved finance. You helped me see that passion. I actually started at the bank because I wasn't sure what avenue I wanted to take at that point in time. And working at the bank, doing lending and that, I kind of fell in love with that lending side of it. And we had paid out our consumer debt. We had a little bit of money in the bank. And originally we were actually going to do a house of land package. So we had signed on for that in early 2021. And then they turned around and said to us, oh, it's going to

be another two to three year wait pretty much because it hadn't even been titled then. And I thought to myself, I thought, well, what are we going to do with this money? It's just sitting there. We should try and do something with it. And yeah, we ended up buying a little unit. We only paid $200,000 for it. That was our budget. We didn't want to spend too much. Yeah, $200,000 in regional Queensland. So it's only about a five minute drive from us. And we have had wonderful tenants in there. It's been amazing up until the end of this year. And then my husband's grandparents moved from Tasmania up and now they're living in there. Oh, how wholesome. I love that so much. So are you renting it out to them or is that something, so they're paying for

Yes, yeah. And what kind of rental yield are you getting on a $200,000 investment? At this point in time, we're only charging them $300 per week. Hey, that's pretty good for a $200,000 investment. Like, that's not bad at all. Like, I would definitely buy a $200,000 apartment if I could rent it out for $300 a week, like money win. What were you renting it out before when they weren't family?

Well, it was still $300,000, but originally the real estate was going to increase it to about $320,000, $330,000. And we thought, oh, you know, we'll leave it at $300,000 because we're already positively geared in that one. Oh, that's very sexy. I like that. Tell me, what do you owe on that property? Currently, I owe about $160,000 on it. Being at the bank, I got lender's mortgage insurance waived. Oh, must be nice. Yeah. We just put the base amount, 10%, I think it was, to put towards it i love that all right but that's your first investment property yes what's the second one my friend and when did you purchase that so that one we purchased in mid 2022 and we purchased this up in airly or cannonvale very fancy area she's a bougie gal yes because our

overall plan is to because we're so negatively geared with the first one we wanted to go a bit more negatively geared, you know, more so neutrally geared. So we purchased that one, yeah, back in mid 2022 for $236,000. We are currently renting it at $400 per week. Oh, very nice. So it's so interesting hearing these stories because obviously we have these conversations in our community all the time about property being completely unobtainable, right? People are saying, I can never get into my first home. I can never get into my first, you know, investment property. It's all too expensive because I think all of them are looking in inner city Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane and you just go, world has changed,

unfortunately. And as much as we don't like it and we would love to buy inner city, not everyone can afford a $800,000 apartment. And looking at it going, wow, look at these investments, $236,000 on a property that is now paying you out 400 bucks a week. there are properties in Melbourne right now that are renting for $400 a week that I guarantee are $700,000 or $800,000 to purchase. Where did you get this knowledge to purchase in these areas? Obviously, you're pretty savvy at finance nowadays, but how did you make these decisions and know that they were right for you and your family when it came to purchasing investment property? Well, with the first one, we did want one in where we were close

to just because we liked the area and we knew that even if we did move away, that we'd always have that one as an investment. I used to work as a property manager. Oh, you've got heaps of experience that you didn't tell us about. Yes. So being a property manager obviously also helped in knowing the ins and outs pretty much of that. And then with Airlie or Cannonvale, I should say, five minutes outside of Airlie, but I still class it because my husband and I, we eventually want to like when we have we're a bit more cash flow positive we want to renovate it eventually and then actually just use it mainly as a holiday home. Oh must be nice. Eventually down the track so that is why you know Airlie appealed to us because you know it's not too far from where we

are and you know we could do weekend trips and that eventually. And I mean looking at that I've obviously been really pervy because if anything I am a snoop and I've just calculated your rental yield on both of your properties, which you obviously have done before. But for those listening, the $236,000 property in Airlie renting out at $400 a week gives you an average rental yield of 8.8%. That's sexy. And then even though you're like, oh, we just, you know, charge the grandparents $300 a week. Like that's, you know, what we feel comfortable with. Purchase price of $200,000, you're sitting at a 7.82% rental yield. Like those are numbers that inner city Melbourne people would dream of. Because if we flip it, right, $400 a week, as I said,

that's probably going to get you like a studio, one bedroom apartment in like Hawthorne in Melbourne, like a little bit further out. You're not going to look at, you know, anything less than that. Like I think a lot of people listening are going to be like Victoria, $400 a week is a good deal. $750,000 is about average for those areas for an apartment. Yeah, that rental yield is 2.78%. I'm so excited that you're killing it, but also like slightly envious that I haven't done this myself. Oh, thank you. She's an investing queen. So what's the next steps when it comes to property? Obviously, you're pretty good at it. You've got this background in property management, so you feel pretty confident in picking. You obviously have not gone beyond your means when

purchasing property, but what next? Is there more properties on the horizon? Like where are we going? What are we doing? Sounds like my husband. I don't know. Sorry. I always want to have a plan. I love a future. I love strategy. I love getting ahead. But also, as I said, I'm a snoop. I'm going to need to know. Me being a mortgage broker, I know what we can afford to buy now because I just like to know that. We do have, you know, available equity in our current home or in the first investment. So we could potentially get another investment property. My husband is looking over at WA and Bunbury because that's where he's from. But that's going interstate. So that's a bit more research for me to go into. But at this point in time, we've got a bit more in the works before I

would want to probably look into that. Yeah, that's very, very fair. I think it's really interesting when you talk to people about their investments, right? And I know that Ellie is a fair bit away from where you currently live, however you are in Queensland. So it kind of makes sense that you know that market, you know what's going on there. You know, it's not too much of a step. Whereas for someone like me, who's living in Melbourne, buying in LA, that feels really scary. Like, and I'm not saying that I wouldn't do it with the right research and the right support and all of that. I might even consider it, but it's one of those things that you go, it makes sense that you're buying where you know, and then over time you might spread

your wings a little bit more and go oh actually what about something here here or here yeah we do have one more sorry no we don't have another investment sorry sorry one more what our first investment it's a unit and it's next to another unit we have said to the people residing there they are elderly oh yeah and we have told them we'd love to own it pretty much like oh hey if you guys ever go to a retirement home or look to sell it come see us first because honestly that's we'd want. If we got that third one, we'd be happy. That's really cool. And it's in a location that you know, and obviously, let's be honest, even if you bought it at market rates, that rental yield's looking pretty good. Definitely, definitely. Oh my gosh, I love it. All right, let's talk about

debt. Obviously, we understand a little bit about the properties that you have. Tell me now about any debt that you have, like even on your current property that you're living in. So our owner occupied, we owe $230,000 and it is worth about $450,000. Very nice. Yes. And the first investment property, we owe $160,000. And last time I checked, that was about $235,000. I do a net worth every month. Do you have a spreadsheet for your net worth calculator? I do have a spreadsheet. I'm currently building one out for the She's On The Money community because I'm obsessed with tracking net worth every month. And I love updating it. My team are really excited about that, but that's coming. I'll send you a copy. Don't worry. Oh, that's amazing. It'll be very aesthetic.

It'll be very pretty, but it'll be like a dashboard of keeping track of your net worth. I'll have to transfer it all over because I think I'm from like December 21. Oh, but you've got heaps. No, maybe yours is literally perfect for you. It honestly doesn't even matter how you do it, but if you're doing it, how motivating is it? Where you can see it? I get so excited. Yes. Sorry, back onto debt before I forget. And our second one, it is worth about $265,000 and we owe $242,000. We did use the equity from our owner occupied to buy that. So there's not really that much equity in there at the moment, but there will be eventually. But that makes a lot of sense though. So if you're looking at that going,

oh, what percentage of it do you own? I'd be like, oh, like not much yet, but you've literally owned it since 2022. So you're doing really well. Like you're at the start of the journey. I don't know if you guys know, but a mortgage is a 30 year commitment. I mean, in Latin mortgage literally means till death, which makes you sound a little bit negative if you tell clients that. So as someone who owns a mortgage brokering practice to a mortgage broker, probably don't explain the meaning of mortgage to them. It gets a little bit dire, but you go, wow, you've got 30 years to pay it off. But I think it's really interesting, especially talking to you right now at this point in, I guess, your wealth journey, you've put all your ducks in a row. Like obviously you're making

about 8% on both of those properties. Like that's clearly going to pay off over time. Because if you look at the interest rates at the moment, you're not paying 8% on your properties years yet. So even if you didn't lift a finger or do the renovations that you've got planned or buy another one, over time, they're just going to tick away. And let's say they extinguish themselves after 25 years, which I would probably expect them to given what you're earning and, you know, what it's worth. You're then going to have, what, $400 plus $300 a week every single week coming in as passive income. That's a money win. We're setting ourselves up for success here. I love this thank you we do have a little bit more debt but I will explain a bit more why we do

currently have a car loan I know it's consumer debt but the reason why we did have the cash for the car but we decided let's put it into renovations which built our equity up and that's how we purchased the next investment property so she's got a plan and that's what we like to see if you say I've got a car loan I'll be like oh what did you buy and then you explained to me oh look it actually financially made more sense to do a b c and d also we have two small kids so we probably really needed the new car to transport them around i don't care i just want people to make well-educated decisions i don't mind if you've got a car loan as long as you're on the track to understanding exactly why when where and how what upsets me is when people

like oh got a car loan at 18 and i just didn't realize how expensive it was or what that meant or that it would actually cost me $400 a week. Like that stuff is heartbreaking when people don't have the education. I'm sorry, you just told me about your two investment properties and you building equity in your current house and now you've got a car loan. Do I care that much about that? Not really.

Well, we currently owe now $38,000. We are very far advanced. So we are on track to pay it off by September this year. No, you're not. Hold on, you owe $38,000 and you reckon you're paying it off by September? It's going to be a push. Who is she? So my original plan was Christmas, but I reckon I can...

Bring it forward. Focus a bit more now that there's, yes, no more daycare or that. I reckon I can smash to September. Oh my gosh. Can you please check in and in September we can do a like, where are they now episode? Because I'm just shook that you have the capacity to do that. Tell me per the detail, what does your husband earn? So my husband is a truck driver.

His wage goes up a bit more, like up and down. Last year was about $107,000 for the year. But that's pretty good. That's a solid income, but then you look at it and go, all right, well, you did that on mat leave. That $107,000 plus what minimum wage, which would be about, I don't know, $30,000-ish max a year from that to kill it. I love it. That's your entire income paying off a debt. I'm genuinely shook. I'm so proud of you makes me want to like hug you through the screen. We need to know though, this stuff doesn't just happen. What is your best money habit? What can you share with us that we can go, all right, it's the start of the year. We're going to need some motivation and we want to copy this money

Darius because she seems to have her head screwed on. I did actually reach out to a few friends and go, what do you think, you know, is my best money habit? Oh, I love these. And they all agreed. So I'll go we have a big freezer in our house like it is a massive chest freezer you get charged the same amount whether it's full or empty so what we do every four to six months we do massive meat shops we buy in bulk so we buy from the meat works which is a lot cheaper and then we cut it all up we pry back it we put it in the freezer and then I actually do a freezer inventory which everyone laughs about I'm obsessed how do you keep that is like on the freezer is there a book on your fridge like how do we do this currently it's in my phone at the moment from there we do monthly

meal plans because my husband's a truck driver it can change a bit but it's always good because you think about for the month then you know the weekend's coming up that you've got you know to go out to dinner or something on and then from there it's a big long one sorry oh no I'm loving this and then from there I do weekly shots but what I do is I shop online I try and look at what the specials are on Monday as soon as I come out at five o'clock I'm obsessed with you I have heard of this before and the dedication are you kidding and then I obviously on the Wednesday morning when all the specials come out I re-go through if there's anything gone on sale so you get both sales she's a genius I do a click and collect for like a Thursday Friday and that will

last us yeah through pretty much and you possibly on the weekend we drop in and grab a loaf of bread but I find shopping online doing click and collect has saved us so much money because we don't go through the aisles and go oh I want this oh maybe this will be good it's literally me going okay this is our budget this is what we're going to spend and that's it oh my gosh I'm obsessed you can't tell us all this and not tell us what you spend though that's a bit rude what do you spend on groceries so we aim for every week to be under two hundred dollars under two hundred dollars and you've got two kids yes yeah oh my gosh have you got any pets we have one dog and is that included in your weekly food shopping, you've got two kids, a dog, a truck driver, husband, and we all know

they eat a lot yourself and it's less than 200 bucks a week. That is just no meat. That's still crazy. You and I both know that's crazy. Like I'm spending way more than that. And I just have one husband. At the moment, maybe in a little bit when we're a bit more cashflow positive, but at the moment I have a goal. This is what I want to do. This is all we can spend. I'm not a food prepper. so like I just I don't have the mental capacity I think it is very ADHD led I don't like having a meal plan where it says on Thursday you have to have tacos because the second I say that I go well I don't want that and I want something different so I am the worst when it comes to meal planning but tell me how you pick your I guess recipes and is that something that you're like no no no like

we're fine with it we don't mind or are they more complex like buy in bulk you know make curried sausages that last six weeks. Like what kind of meals are we making here? I currently own a Thermomix, which I think is amazing. I bought that at the start of my health journey that I had. Of course, you've had a good weight loss journey as well. In addition to everything else, she's just like this little queen glowing up her life. Oh, thank you. So from there, it's all kind of entwined because on my weight loss journey, I've realized, you know what's in jars and everything like that so we make a lot of stuff from scratch yes we still use jars for certain things but no I go through each day and like you know we do a lot

of rice and pasta dishes a lot of veggies trying to get veggies into the kids I am a part of it's called the skinny mixes which is thermomix but it's healthy so like the easy mac and cheese that are on there has four hidden vegetables in it and the kids absolutely adore it oh how cool I would adore that too it is really really good surprisingly like you think oh it's got sweet potatoes zucchini carrot and another vegetable that I can't think of and you think oh that's a bit weird in mac and cheese but it is so good it works yeah oh how good is that and I enjoy cooking as well so I enjoy baking and whatnot so that's something a pastime that I enjoy so I love that it works for you I wish I could be more like that I just know with my habits that

that is so unobtainable like it just makes me envious if I'm being honest I want to know now what is your worst money habit it's not groceries no no my worst money habit is when I'm at work or when my husband is away and a bit you know I haven't pulled out the food for dinner because I know he's away I will do uber eats or get takeaway so that is something that I'm working on I have a goal set this year a smart goal so I've even got a little visual calendar that I am going to tick off every day at work saying I didn't bring anything for lunch I don't have leftovers I'm gonna have noodles I'm not gonna get takeaway so I went through last year's you know statements for the year and just seeing how much I spent for the year I wasn't happy and I

was like no I need to get this under control so yeah is that something that you do every year like go through all of your annualized spending and go, well, actually, once I added up, I'm not all that happy with that. Yes, I did it not last year, the year before with buying alcohol. So we did do a lot of renovations that year. So we bought a lot of tradies alcohol, but just seeing the amount there, I was like, oh, sorry. Then we focused last year, you know, and we cut it down by half, I think, which was really, really good. I love looking at things on that bigger scale. it works really well for me because you know here and there let's be honest I think we can all justify an Uber Eats on a Friday night like it's so easy you go oh it was 40 bucks like at the end

of the day like it's fine but when you extrapolate that out and go oh actually that habit's costing me a lot of money and I didn't really realize it feels so powerful to be able to step back and go no I'm going to change that and you can actually see the tangible change like it's just it's so helpful. So I feel like your worst money habit is actually going to become a pretty good one because you're so aware of it. Money Diarist, I'm genuinely so impressed. You have so much tenacity, but also just such a plan to go from being in $30,000 plus worth of consumer debt to owning three properties and talking about another one. And you've gone on this massive finance journey. You're a mortgage broker, but now you're becoming a financial advisor. And I'm just

genuinely like what the hecking like this woman doesn't just have it all together financially she's also doing like meat shops every four to six months and really getting it like who is that organized with two small children but then they also think they're only a b plus so let's have a look at this probably we'll have to argue with you here I do apologize but do you really think that you're still a b plus when all of that gets laid out on the table I just know I still have a way to go like I do understand I know the car loan I think that's my biggest thing that's holding me back once that's paid off that's why I'm so aggressive like aggressive with it once that's paid off I think I'll feel a lot better I'll be a lot more free so because I don't like consumer

debt and you know the way that it worked it worked for us but I'm like let's just get rid of it now fair so what would it take to get you to that a a plus just being consumer debt free or is there anything else that you're like, no, I'd really want to do X, Y, Z. I feel like so many of us have our own ideas of what an A actually looks like because there's no real definition, right? It's just how we feel about it. I think once the car loan is paid off, I think I would be happy to move to an A, maybe A minus, maybe. And that's easy because you're going to smash it out by September. How good is that? All right, Money Dice. Unfortunately, that is all we have time for today, but I have adored this. This has been such a fun conversation, but also a conversation

where I'm like, what the heck, how does she do this? And it just proves you don't have to earn millions to be a multiple property owner. It's so exciting meeting somebody who's like, no, no, no, we have a pretty standard income. Like, you know, at some point I love to crack six figures and, you know, have a $200,000 household income. But even without that, you still have three properties and they're all really yielding well and they're working well and over your wealth journey I just know you're going to smash it like it just makes me so excited so congratulations but also thank you for sharing that with my community I think they're going to love it thank you so much for the opportunity I've been it's been amazing being on with you oh my gosh no of course thank

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