She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: She's Got The F.I.R.E

Episode Date: June 16, 2024

At 28 and after ten years of travel, fun, work and a bunch of health issues today's Money Diarist decided to change careers. She was broke starting over and owned nothing! And now at 38, she's kicked off a 12 year plan to retire at 50! How exactly is she going to achieve this? Tune in to find out! Friends! If you loved this episode, then we know you are going to love Victoria's new book! This book has been written so you can feel empowered and see that YOU have the power to rewrite your own money story! Get your copy now, click here!  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 of millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our Money Diaries episodes where I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down with one of our She's on the Money community members and learning all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded a lot like this. Hi, She's on the Money. At 28, after 10 years of travel, fun, work, and a bunch of health issues, I decided to change careers. I was broke starting over and owned nothing. At 38, I've kicked off a 12-year plan to retire by 50. Money, Doris, retire by 50 and you only started recently.

What the hecking how? I know. It's the plan that started this year. I'm hyper-focused on it, on most things in life. Well, we need to know how you're going to do it because that's an epic plan and also who doesn't want to retire at 50? Like I think everyone listening is going to go, yep, I want your advice. What are you doing? Tell us. So let's dive straight in. Money Doris, if I asked you to give your money habits a grade from A through to F, what would you give yourself? I think that I'm a solid B plus. A B plus. And you're still planning on retiring early. Like this is giving me hope for me. All right. Let's dive in further. My favorite question, as always, is Money Doris, can you tell us a little bit more about your money story?

I come from a real working class family. I'm the youngest four kids. My parents met later in life and my mum tells the story that when they got married they had $500 in the bank account and I feel like that's really how my life has translated as well. I don't know how they did it exactly but all of us kids just had this work ethic from a very young age. We all started working as soon as we could. I remember delivering pamphlets and doing all those sorts of jobs when I was a kid with my older brother and sister. I started working when I was 14 for Coles. Oh, good. Great first job. Well, it was a long first job. I worked there for 10 years.

Oh, epic. Yep. So I worked there all through high school and all through university. I was the first one in my family to go to university. Oh, congrats. How exciting. Thank you. It had its own challenges though, because I was the first one. I felt like I also lacked a lot of direction. You were like, I don't know what I'm meant to be doing here. What do you mean? I have to self-plan my studying. No one around me has ever done this. What the heck? It's not

like school, is it? No. And I was working full-time at the same time. I was having a good time. I was partying. I was making memories with friends, doing all the things you should do. Oh, you were doing everything. You were busy, busy. Yeah, I was busy. I always had a focus. You know, I was always good at saving for something that I wanted. So, you know, obviously the first target for everyone, a car go to schoolies oh yes did all that and then when I was 21 I did an around the world trip with some friends I took eight weeks off work and we went around the world and it was just like such an eye-opening experience for me do you remember what that cost you because that is wild eight weeks would have been spino considering I'm 38 though you have to like it probably was

something like eight thousand dollars back then I remember the airfare was seventeen hundred dollars That must be nice. Yeah, it was fun. I still spent everything that I had in my bank account and came back home. I feel like that's a rite of passage, though. Like if you're going to do that, you have to spend everything and come home with like 22 cents and start from scratch. Like there's no in between. Negative $2,000 more likely. Yeah. There you go. Yes, I came home and I started saving again. I thought, you know, that was so much fun. I am going to go live in London like everyone else who's 21 and wants to move overseas and have those fun couple of years. So I remember this one, I saved up $40,000. Oh, what?

Full disclosure, I was living with my family on and off in this period. I moved out when I was 19. But when I decided to move overseas, I moved back home when I was 23. And I lived with my parents for a year and I saved up $40,000. $40,000 in a year is epic. Like, if I moved back in with my parents and saved 40 grand, I'd be over the moon. Like that's halfway to a home deposit. In fact, in some situations, that's a whole home deposit. it. Yeah. And in retrospect, probably money better spent. No, we don't regret past things. That's not on the cards here. I have no regrets in life. I really don't. Good. And so I took a year off and I backpacked for a year and I spent every cent of that $40,000. And I ended up in

London on someone's sofa who I'd met in Europe. And I ended up staying there for two years. Really fun. You know, did all the things you're supposed to do. You traveled whenever I could, worked five jobs. Oh my gosh. Did whatever I had to do to get the money flowing in and take weekend trips to Malta, to Italy, wherever I could go. All right. Must be nice. It's really fun. I definitely am pushing all the young people in my life. I'm like, just drop what you're doing and just go. I love that so much. I didn't get to do that rite of passage. And like, while I don't regret it because I feel like I've ended up where I need to be. I'm also envious when I hear about other people's adventures. I'm like, I'm not that cool. And do

you know what? I'm actually so type A that I don't think I could have ever done any type of travel that wasn't booked and planned and spreadsheeted out. So when you say, oh, I ended up on someone's couch and met them in Europe, I'm just like, that sounds so cool and so unlike me. I could never. Each their own. I'm a twin and my twin sister didn't come with me and it was the first time we'd ever spent time apart and it was a real shock and she didn't come. I tried to talk her into coming. I tried to get her to stay when she came and visited and it just wasn't her thing and she doesn't regret it at all either. She knows that we had a great time. Yeah, she's more like me. Like if there's no control, like I'm out, like I can't deal with that. And that's very her. So

yeah, like everyone has what they want to do on their list. Like she did things differently and we reunited obviously. Of course. Relationship stronger than ever. I love this. So then what happened so I did come home for a little bit in between and I felt really like a fish out of water I didn't know what I wanted out of life I didn't know where I wanted to live a lot of my friends were scattered around the world I'd lost contact with a lot of friends so I decided to go back overseas and I went to Canada for a year oh Canada's beautiful good choice yeah and it was really difficult actually to find a job in Canada it's a slower pace it takes real time to like get a proper job and putting roots there so I kind of felt like I was capable of more and I'm like what

am I doing like I've had this degree from when I was 19 I've done absolutely nothing with it and so at that point I was quite unwell as well so I decided to come home and just sort of focus on what I wanted to do and the big sort of deciding factor was it sounds ridiculous now but I wanted an office job I wanted to be able to feel comfortable at work you know not be on my feet talking to people all day. I'd been in sales for a really long time throughout my whole life and you know with the illness being so undiagnosed at that point and unsure what was going on I just felt like a comfortable spot would to be sitting in an office doing something. That's fair. So I looked into my options and I always had an interest in accounting and finance and I was always sort of

focused on that. Very sexy topic I've heard. Yeah so I decided to do my master's. I came home I enrolled in masters I took back an old job so at the time in between I was working as a travel agent oh that would have been perfect you had traveled so much so you would have had so many good recommendations and known how to book and get stuff done like you would have been a perfect travel agent I ended up working for a really successful travel agent who had her own office so she was so busy she couldn't keep up with her own workload so she paid me a casual rate to just come sit at her house and do all her work for her which was perfect it took all the stress of the job out of it. And I had an hourly rate coming in and I could go study and not stress about work.

Oh, how good. And you still got to like flourish in an area that you like knew really well. I love that. Yeah, it was really fun. So I got my master's and by the time I'd done all of that, I was turning 30 and I was starting to feel the pressure. Like I don't own anything. I'm still broke. I'm probably going to have to take a grand position and start from the bottom up. so that was all a bit terrifying so I took a grad position and I was back to 50k you took a grad position in what give us some context so I did actually originally take a grad position in big four accounting yeah it was not for me it's not for me either babe I was 30 I'd been working for 15 years I was definitely not in the same headspace or life what's the word as your peers just we

weren't in the same chapter of that book no and also I wasn't really willing to work 80 hours a week in a job to work my way to the top when I had been doing that my entire life what do you mean but that's so expected don't you sell your soul yeah exactly and I wasn't selling and you should be grateful to them I should I tell way too many people that I quit that job after five months They probably like want me to sign something to say I never worked there. They're like, please stop talking trash about us. And you were like, can't stop, won't stop. Sorry.

Yeah, it's horrible. I actually made a couple of really great friends. Like, and this is the thing, everything that I've done in life, I've taken a friend with me. No regrets. Like everything's been great. So I ended up calling the travel company that I used to work for as an agent and said, I've just finished my accounting degree, my master's, I'm going to do my CPA.

Like you got anything for me? and so they hired me oh how cool which was much better much more my speed talking about travel which is always fun for me that's sort of the start of my finance accounting career I suppose adore and so I've just been building my career from there so 30 I was just so hyper focused on buying a house and finding somewhere to live and putting roots down where I was living and just being here and not you know feeling the need to jump on a plane and run away again I love that so tell me about today what do you do for work how much money are you earning so I work as a financial controller oh big dog job yes I've been working for about four years

as a financial controller and my current salary is 130,000 plus super very nice yeah and I also have a side job a side hustle I suppose that work ethic hasn't stopped has it no so I earn about $15,000 a year from that. What do you do? Is it online? Is it out? What type of role is that? So I bought a private business with a few friends and we run the business together. I obviously don't work in the business full-time. Two of my colleagues work full-time in the business and two of us have full-time jobs and do this on the side. So it's a business that I worked in for many years and we have a real passion for it and we wanted to find a business to buy and it took some time, but we found one and we bought it in December of last year. So I'm a minor stakeholder.

How cool is that? And then you've got an income coming from that. Yeah. So obviously the end goal for me, I think would be to step full time into that business. But it's got a lot of growth to happen before that can support another salary. Yeah, of course. Oh my gosh. How exciting is that? So let's get back to your big money goals. I know you said earlier when you wrote in you're planning on retiring at 50 and you've got a 12-year plan would you say that's your big money goal yes so tell me more about that how does that work how do you know it's going to take 12 years how did you work it all out so I guess because I've been working for so long I just kind of had this picture in my head of working to 67 and going

that is not fun most people get to 67 they're either unwell or they can't travel they can't do the things they want to do and it just made me really sad to be honest and I thought 50 is a great age you're still young you can still travel you can spend time with friends and family so I just have it in my head that 50 is the day I'm gonna stop working and I worked backwards from there so I was like how much money do I need what do I need to have done so there's a few things I need to have paid off my home yeah and then I need to have enough money to live off between 50 and 67 until my super can kick it and then my super has to be sufficient to do the 67 onwards yeah great yeah so at the moment I'm thinking I need about 600,000 in my share portfolio to do that I've

got to invest about four to five hundred dollars a week into the portfolio from now until 50 yep and I think I've used conservative numbers maybe not maybe it's going to go up and down and we want to be conservative because I'd like to under-promise and then over-deliver instead of being absolutely stumped. Yeah. And look, the reality is I'll get to 50 and I'll be like, oh, a couple more years and then maybe I'll, you know, buy something or, you know, reality will set in. Hey, it might change or you might go, you know, I'm not ready to stop working. I actually want to do, you know, some part-time stuff. And maybe you travel for six months of the year and then come back to work can balance it differently. I feel like the word retirement sucks because people just assume it's

old and it's boring and you sit at home and you go for walks. It's not good. You're actually reaching financial freedom at 50 and that gives you the opportunity to choose. And nobody's in that situation, right? Where you can go, do I want to work? Yeah. No. Imagine being in the situation where you're like, I don't have to go to work anymore. No worries. Like what? Yeah. And that's what I'm aiming for is flexibility. That's the one thing that really lacks in, you know, a nine to five. How much did you calculate that you need in your superannuation? So I was hoping to get about the same amount in my super, about 650,000, because I figure it will keep compounding after 50. I wanted it to have over a million by the time I was 67, which I think it will. I'll probably

have to see someone at some point to kind of soundboard it out and make sure that my numbers are right. But at the moment, this is the back of the napkin kind of calculation. No, I like it. Because if you've got $600,000 in each of those, by the time you reach that goal of 67, you would probably have about 1.2 million in super. And that will give you an income of about $60,000, which is pretty sexy if you've already paid off your house, because then you don't have mortgage repayments. And then from then on in, it will depend on whether you're drawing down that $60,000, at which point the compounding stops and you just consistently take that. Or, you know, you seem up and about, like you do not look like you're going to retire at

50 forever. Like it's a good plan, but like your work ethic, I think is going to come through. So I wouldn't be surprised if you're like, oh, I'll just do some odd jobs or I'll, you know, work part time or I'll do this and then stop for a bit and then go back. So I wouldn't be surprised if you top it up a few times. But if you let it compound, that $1.2 million 10 years from then would then be $2.4 million. So it just depends on what you want to do and what that looks like. Yeah, because I live a pretty lean life. So $60,000 to me is a pretty good number to aim for. But the reality is, you probably want to go on really nice holidays. You probably want to try and do some business class airfares maybe.

Yeah. When I was a financial planner, I used to talk to people about that. And it's very serious because I think if you sit down and, you know, I said to you, all right, well, your situation right now, you're earning 130 plus super, like you're saving and investing. So, you know, let's strip it back and pretend that you were on, you know, $80,000 a year. Would that be enough? And you go, well, yeah, 80,000, that would be great if I didn't have a mortgage. But the reality of retirement is you have a lot more free time. And when you have free time, you spend more money. You're not going to work every day and packing your lunch and it's all good. Like if you're home 24 seven, eating lunch at home, you're probably not that enthusiastic about. You're probably planning

more holidays. You're probably going out for more coffees. Like we actually have a bit more of a luxurious lifestyle. And I'm not saying that everyone is afforded that, but if we're planning for it, like I want you to have the best retirement ever. Like I want you to be completely financially free not financially constricted and free so it's different for everybody but I'm always like no you probably want to retire with a higher income than the one you earn right now even though you probably don't want to hear that I know and that's the thing I'm battling with because my sister's quite often like you know you need to enjoy life too and I definitely do but she's like go and spend some of your money enjoy it and I'm like I am I'm still traveling I'm still going out for dinner

like I'm not holding back on anything I'm fine line between the hardcore fire and still living my life yeah I think I've said this on the podcast before and that's fire so for those of you playing along at the home who haven't heard about fire it's financial independence retire early it's kind of a movement where a lot of people will prioritize saving and investing above and beyond lifestyle so they'll save and invest like 80 percent of their income and that works so well like it's crazy the people that can do it I applaud I'm not that person like I think it's been made very clear like I'm a lifestyle girly like I don't think that I have enough delayed gratification to put it off you my friend probably way better at it than me and you'll reap the

benefits but you know the marshmallow experiment with the kids like I ate the marshmallow straight up like I just ate it already like I didn't wait for two marshmallows to be put on my plate 10 minutes later like I have no chill and I will be buying myself that oat milk latte but it's all about balance right and I look at you and I go I wish I love it I feel like I've got a couple of friends doing fire as well and I mean when they do I'm like well I'll just pay for the coffee yeah like I want them to achieve that but like we're still going out for coffee yeah like I would never say no if a good friend said do you want to meet me for lunch I would never say no no because of money. Never. No, I love that. I feel like there needs to be some level of balance because at the

end of the day, you were saying before, basically old age is a privilege denied to many, right? Like not everybody gets to go and live that life. And if we're just working towards it and don't live life in the interim, like, I don't know, maybe I'm justifying my spending. No, you're totally fine. You have to enjoy your life and you have to be happy. And that's my philosophy really. Exactly. All right. Let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, I want to know more about your investments. I know that you've got a little holiday house we haven't touched on yet. I want to know about your debts and your best and worst money habits because I feel like we have heaps to learn from you. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Money Dice, we are back

and you are investing every single month. You mentioned before it was like $500 a week. Is that correct yeah so I salary sacrifice 250 a week into my super and then I do 400 a week into the share portfolio who is she that's crazy so tell me about your investments how did you pick them how are you managing them where did this all start this has been kicked off this year so it was after my 38th birthday I started so we're probably five months in that's okay so I really picked some random stuff to begin with like anyone does I just bought a few stocks that I was familiar with some single stock I also have some money invested in a business I used to work in so all up in shares I've got $50,000 oh my gosh she's well on the way 25 is tied up in the private business

that we're running and then 25,000 is just ETFs so random bank of ones what everyone does I think at some point, I think once that gets to maybe 50,000, I probably should get some advice and make sure it's all in the right thing. Because I just hear, you know, VAS, VGHG, and I'm like, okay, great. Yeah, I feel like so many people do that. They go, this is tried and true and tested. Let's start here. Yeah. So it's already had its ups and downs. So I'm like, kind of more comfortable with how it's going now. At the moment, it's half between shares and raised because I just didn't know which one was the right one yeah so at some point someone's gonna say to me no put it all here and have it in one spot and do this and that's what I'll do but for now it's just started so

that's got about yeah 25,000 in it how good that's so exciting in my super I've got 150,000 oh very nice yeah I did have a few years away I'm sorry that's still so high like you're a baby you're still 38 and you've got 150 in super. Yes, please. Also worth saying though, in the peak of COVID, it was $65,000. So I don't know what that says about the share market, but like obviously it can come pretty quickly, I think. Yeah. And that would be compounding. I don't want to scare anybody, but it's been a few years since COVID-19. In fact, it's been five years. Like that's actually wild. So compounding and then also the markets were down during COVID. So like, I'm not surprised. I've been watching mine slowly slowly get up and up and I feel like it's had a good run so maybe

it's time if you haven't looked at your super to go and look at it and put it in the right fund for you and the right risk profile to make sure you're in the best possible position yeah so I made sure that's all in growth and you know doing what I wanted to do smart and I have at the moment 150,000 in cash. Oh, okay, big dog. It's in my offset for now because part of my strategy to pay the house off in 10 years. So I kind of want to keep a big chunk in the offset, but I also like having that flexibility there that I should probably put 50,000 of it into the share portfolio. I'm just a bit nervous to do that. I don't know why. Because it's a big chunk of money and it's very normal to be nervous about making big financial decisions on big chunks of money

when it has your future at risk. I don't know if I'm overstepping here at all, but with everything that you've said, it sounds like you're well on the way to achieving this. But I know you said, oh, maybe when I get to like 50,000 in ETFs, I'll get some advice. My friend, I'd be talking to a financial advisor now. You've got more than enough cash. You've got more than enough super, like you are well on the way. Like I feel like when people are planning on retiring early, even when you're, you know, just in a position where you do have a bit of cash and you want to make the right decisions. Like analysis paralysis, I feel like gets the best of us and making a decision sooner rather than later is going to put you in a better position sooner. So for me, I'd be like, yeah,

actually, let me set you up with one of my financial advisor friends after the show, if you're keen and we can get that ball rolling. Yeah, that's probably what I thought you would say. So yeah, that's the cash. And then I have my home and then I have an investment property that I own with my brother-in-law. Which is very cool. So that's all your investments. I want to know about this property thing. So how did you come to own an investment property with someone else? So my brother-in-law has always had an apartment at the coast that we've stayed in all the time. And he did make a comment recently about me being a freeloader. I shouldn't say recently, this is about three years ago that's recent let's go with that he had to sell that property because

they bought their dream house in 2021 and they had to make a few decisions and they decided to sell it and he instantly regretted it and he said we need to buy something at the coast and he goes if we buy something you're buying with us because you're there all the time yeah yeah yeah you got to buy too yeah so we actually called up a guy that lived in the building complex that he owned in previously and he owned five units in the building and we said we want one yeah he goes give me x amount and it's yours and so we took it oh my gosh how good that regret was real strong hey oh so strong I kind of say it's my investment property because on paper it's all in my name yeah because they bought the dream house they couldn't actually buy it yeah they couldn't get

the finance for it immediately yeah yeah yeah that makes sense yeah we have a very trusting relationship and we contribute equally to everything. It's just in my name. So I'm kind of tapped out in terms of property. I was going to say you'd be tapped out in terms of borrowing capacity now. Yes. Yeah. Which is the only downside, but obviously it's a family holiday house. We have so many good memories there. We have a really good time every time we go. But also it's a good investment, it sounds like. And it's a good investment. So we paid $570,000 for it. And they just sold two in the building, but they're all completely identical and they sold for $720,000. Oh, very nice. Yeah. So it's been a good investment. Yeah. Great. And what

is the mortgage on that sitting at? That's sitting at $475,000. Okay. So you're sitting pretty on that. I feel like even though it ties you up for borrowing capacity for a short period of time, it's actually not the end of the world because it's a good investment anyway. And what would have you done with borrowing capacity? Buy a property to be in exactly the same position and it's probably gotten you ahead in terms of cash flow as well because you're only technically paying for half. Yes. So that's not bad at all and then so that's at $475,000. It was a $570,000 purchase and it's probably worth $700,000 plus. Tell me about the home that you live in. I know you live in your own place. Yeah. So it's worth about $550,000 and the mortgage is $415,000.

Oh, she's got that down a fair bit. Yeah. I recently sold a property to buy this one. It was a little bit of a downsize, which is why I have the excess cash. But yeah, it was a lifestyle choice. It's a much better location. It's in a city close to restaurants and shopping and it's just really great vibe. I love that. And I mean, if you're at 415 and then you said before that you've got $150,000 in your offset, that means what you're only paying your mortgage at 265,000. That would make you feel very good. And I mean, at the end of the day, like I love tracking net wealth of like clients and also myself, and I'm sure you're doing the same. Like once I work all of that out with your shares and your superannuation, like you're

basically broken even. Like that's very sexy. I like this for us. Yeah, but that's sort of it for investments right now. Oh, that's it. We've just spent the last 10 minutes talking about all your investments and where you're going. My friend, you are doing so well. I love it so much. You've obviously got the $415,000 in your current home and then you've got what, the $475,000 left over, but obviously it's only half of that technically. What other debts are you in if you have any? None. None. Slay. I love this. There's no car, there's no zip pay, there's no afterpay. Tell me a bit more about your journey with debt. Is that something you've ever worked with or is that something that you've ever had? Yes. So there's probably two stories. I probably

shouldn't tell you. No, I want to know. I want to know. Like everyone knows that I ended up in 40 grand of personal debt. It's no secret. Like, I don't think we should judge past us on the decisions that we made when we just didn't have the information that we deserved, right? Very true. So I've always used consumer debt, but I feel like I've used it to my advantage. Well, I mean, debatable. It got to a point where in COVID, obviously, when I realized I was living paycheck to paycheck and we were facing the fact that we might lose our jobs, all these things were happening. That to me was the turning point where I was like, okay, let's start listening to these podcasts. Let's get things in place. So leading up to that point, I always racked up

a credit card, went traveling, came home, balance transferred and paid it off. So I never in my entire life have paid interest on a credit card, but I have always maxed them out. Yeah. Yeah. When I came home to do my master's, I was in a bit of a bad car accident and I had no money and I had to buy a new car and I wanted a brand new car because I was really freaked out about security and stuff. So I bought a $14,000 card on my credit card. On your credit card? Yes. And then I balance transferred it to a credit card that had interest free for 12 months. And I paid that off over 12 months. Oh my gosh. She's a genius. She got the car interest free. Okay. I mean, I can't condone this because I feel like it's a slippery slope, right? Like if I did that,

I know that I'd get in trouble, but you did that and it worked out for you. And that's why we're like, she's on the money because we can learn. But one of the most important things that we can do is learn what would work for us and what wouldn't. And I know that wouldn't work for me, but I'm low-key a little bit jealous that it worked out for you. Yeah. So that was the first, probably people were calling me an idiot, but it all worked out well, obviously. And you're like, yeah, idiot. But did you pay interest on your car loan? That's what I thought. That was my comeback every single time. Thank you, Victoria. And so then when I got hyper-focused on buying a property, I actually had a broker laugh in my face

and tell me to come back in six months when I actually had money. Excuse me, you clearly didn't come to Zella Money because we would never. No. A broker laughed in your face. That broker doesn't deserve their job. Bye. I know. I obviously didn't use that broker. So I went directly to my bank where I'd been banking for 20 years and I had a great relationship there. So I went there and I said, be honest with me. And they said, the most you can borrow is $240,000. Okay. And I went, okay. Good to know. Yeah. So I went and got a personal loan for $20,000. And I came back three months later and said, I've got a $20,000 deposit. I want to buy a house for $240,000. And they said, yes. And I bought an apartment for $240,000. Oh my God. You're giving me so much

anxiety. It was a lot of anxiety. Like, I don't mean to be rude, but you clearly didn't have a financial advisor. I did not. Like we would not have let you do this. I just wanted to be living in a house. Well, it was an apartment, let's be real. And I just wanted to be independent. I didn't want to rely on anyone. I didn't want to borrow money. It's probably worth saying that I've never in my life borrowed money from my parents, from a bank ever. So I borrowed that money and it was on a seven year loan. And then I got the mortgage obviously. And at the same time, I was still traveling. So I still was racking up my credit card. And I got to the point during COVID when everything blew up and went, oh my God, what am I doing? Like, what if something

happened to me? I can't leave this for my family. And so I took the baby steps, you know, I focused on one thing. I paid down the credit card first, then I paid down the personal loan during COVID. So I paid it off in three years, I think. Okay. So you actually smashed it out. So you've kind of proven to yourself you're able to save in this capacity before. Yeah. Great. and then I started focusing on the mortgage and it was at that point that I decided okay I'm in a great spot now I'm gonna upgrade so I sold that apartment for 300,000 oh my gosh yeah which is great money win yeah it was really good that was during COVID so it was 2021 and then I bought my next place which was the biggest spend so far that I've ever made but it was the dream place

and it was beautiful and it was in a nice suburb so I bought that and I had no debt at that point So it took me about a year or a year and a half during COVID to really just get rid of all of that, sell everything and then start again. It's kind of my pattern. It's just starting over. I like it. But I'm also so impressed that that worked out for you because if that had gone backwards, you would have been in a pickle, my friend. And, you know, I would have got laughed out of any bank. Like at the time I wanted to make an investment at work and I just had to scrounge the money together because there was no way I was getting any more lending from anyone like I was at my cap I was still not on the best salary then

and yeah I just had to focus on clearing them all and improving the credit score doing all those things and and you did it yeah I did it oh my god I'm so glad I asked about debts even though I was like I know she doesn't really have any other debts because that's the story I got yes actually I also had a very large HECS debt. It was $55,000 when I finished my master's and I'm so dirty right now because I paid it off last year. Yeah. But I think that I might get a credit anyway because I did have a $17,000 debt at June 1st last year. Right. But I paid it off and now everyone's getting a credit. Wait, what date did you pay off your HECS? I think it was November last year was my last payment. Right. Okay. You will probably get an indexation refund then. I was about to say

I've had a few people message me and they go, am I going to get a refund because I paid off my HECS debt because I didn't want to get indexed? I'm like, no, no, no. They're giving refunds to the people that were indexed. Like you're not going to get a refund. But if you then were paying from the 1st of July to November, the indexed rate of it was 7.1%. That will probably be refunded to you, but it will be refunded via your tax return. Which is fine. I mean, free money, like money you didn't think was going to come your way. I mean, it's nice. So thank you very much. I'm looking forward to that because I was one of the people that didn't pay off any more of my HECS debt. Because I looked at my HECS and I said, look, 7.1% is really high, but also my mortgage is

increasing and I'd much prefer to be creating wealth still knowing full well that my HECS will just tick away in the background. And I know that it's more money, but at the end of the day, like my mortgage could go up again because, I mean, it's tumultuous times, right? And now I'm like, hey, that was a good decision because now that 7.1% is going to get refunded and I'd love to see it. Yeah. And, you know, I would also say to someone, like, I would not have paid off that HECS debt if it weren't for the fact that I bought my current place last year because it was affecting my borrowing power. I was in mortgage prison and that's the only reason I paid it off. Like, honestly, just let it come out of your pay. Like, there's no point paying

it before your mortgage. Yeah. Unless you've got a good reason, but I also feel like do the maths, work it out, chat to a broker, because I have had people come through Zella Money before and they have paid off their HECS because they thought that's what we would want them to do. And in reality, we would have much preferred to have that $30,000 as a bigger deposit because now they had to go back to the drawing board and save for, you know, six more months to get back to where they wanted to be. Whereas a lot of banks are quite lenient when it comes to, you know, considering your hex because they just go well that's a good debt like they don't see it like credit card debt or personal loans so good to talk to someone before you make a big decision

like that because it is a big decision about a lot of money right yeah and it hurt like to pay 17 000 yeah all at once yeah and they don't even send you like a thank you note like what the hecking like i just gave you 17 grand like you could at least buy me a coffee yeah i know and the brokers are like, can you print out a statement proving it? I don't believe you. Oh, excuse me. I'm so glad you didn't use those brokers straight into the bin. All right, Monty Doris, I want to know, I feel like we've got heaps to learn from you. What's your best money habit? I think that when I have a goal in my mind, I'm very good at putting money towards it. I think so too. Like I have learned a lot in this last half an hour. I feel like

when you want to achieve something, we're doing it, but we're like doing it twice. For sure. I don't know how I got that. It's obviously something I'm focusing on a lot more because I did get to that point where I got a little bit unraveled, but obviously I was able to grow my salary, which was handy. And sometimes we've got to get a little bit unraveled so we know what that feels like so that we don't do it again. For sure. But yeah, that would probably be a good money habit. I'm a little bit too generous, I think, sometimes. That's not a bad thing. I think that's a kind thing, like not the end of the world. Would you say that's your worst money habit yeah because I'm on the cusp of you know fiercely saving but

then also wanting to live my life I am a bit of a splurge spender and especially when it comes to health like I will try anything once like I'll try every specialist I will try the new treatments I love a good steam room I love a sauna oh who doesn't a little bit lux I mean you have a high income at the end of the day and you don't have any kids and you already have a mortgage like I feel like you deserve the facial, you know? Yeah. Thank you. You definitely deserve it. So you're a bit of a splurge spender. Has that gotten in the way of your saving? Sometimes. Yeah, for sure. And it's usually a trip. Like usually someone goes, oh, like, do you want to maybe go to Fiji for a week? And I'll be like, okay, sure. Well, yes, obviously I want to go to Fiji for a week. Who

are you asking? I know. And I will definitely prioritize things like that over a goal that can change that I'm flexible with for sure. Fair. All right. At the start of this episode, you told me that you think you're a B plus. Like I'm going to argue with you because I think you're way better than a B plus. Like you are killing it. But reflecting on everything that we've spoken about, do you think that you are still a B plus? If so, tell me why. If not, what is it going to take to get to that A plus? What does that look like? In my head, it's okay to be a B plus because the A plus means that I'm having to sacrifice a little bit more, which I don't think I'm willing to do. I'm okay with being a bit spendy here and there, if it means, you know, life is more

enjoyable, a little bit fun along the way. So I think I'm comfortable being a B plus. Maybe if the years, you know, get a bit easier, I'll save a little bit more and try and earn a bit more money. Maybe, I don't know. No, I disagree. I think you're more of an A and you're an A because of that mindset because you're so aware that you want to still live life and find that balance and I think that money can be overwhelming and all-consuming and that you know a lot of people assume that an A plus person has no fun like I would argue that someone who's really really good at money actually understands that they have emotional and lifestyle needs in addition to just hoarding cash in the bank right like I would actually say that somebody who hoards cash in

the bank and money gives them anxiety, but they save every single dollar, they're maybe not an A plus because they're not where they need to be, right? Yeah, fair. But each to their own. And I mean, if you're saying that you're still a B plus and you're happy there, like who am I to disagree if you're still working towards your goals? Like, I don't even want to argue with you right now. I just want to talk more about property and how you mastered the credit card balance transfer game. To me, that's blowing my mind. Yeah, it does affect your credit score. Yeah, look, it does. And it's definitely a do as I say, not as I do kind of thing.

We're just sharing this so that you can learn from our money diarist, not necessarily replicate her behavior, but I mean, you do you with the right tools and resources, right? For sure. Money diarist, it has been an absolute pleasure having a chat with you. Unfortunately, that is all we have time for today. But thank you for letting me share your story with the community. They are going to love it. And your friend that bullied you into coming on the show, I thank her because this was

so, so worth it. She'll appreciate that. I love that. 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 MoneySherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.