She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: She's Self Taught, Self Starting and Smashing It!

Episode Date: October 30, 2022

Happy Monday! This member of our community decided from a very young age that she didn't ever want to have to rely on a partner for her financial stability, and has been working hard to flip her family script ever since. She now owns two properties and rents one to her Grandparents who have experienced financial hardship. Her second property was bought with he equity from her first, she's started her investment journey, AND she is 100% smashing her financial literacy goals too. We can't wait for you to meet her!This year our Money Diaries are being brought to you by the legends at Shopback! Check them out at https://app.shopback.com/aus/partner/SOTM and you'll get a cashback bonus when you sign up!Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another Shop Back Money Diary Monday, where we get to chat to one of our beautiful community members to learn all about them and their story and their life and all of the little bits and pieces in between. Victoria. Hello. How are you going? I'm very excited for this one. I'm glad to hear it because I think it's going to be a goodie. Let me tell you all about our diarist. She said, I grew up with a single mum who gave me everything I needed or wanted. Mum didn't have assets to her own name and was lucky to have married someone who did. I decided I didn't want to have to rely on a partner.

I bought my first house, which I now rent to my grandparents, who have had a really tough financial journey. My second property was bought with the equity from my first. Everything I have worked for myself and I have started my investment journey. I've listened to every episode of the pod and my partner, who is an associate financial advisor, is super impressed with how much knowledge I've acquired. I can't wait to share my story with the community.

Oh my gosh, associate financial advisor, girlfriend. You are doing well. Yeah, he's pretty good. Welcome to the show. I am so excited about your story. You sound, this is going to sound, obviously I haven't gotten to know you yet, but like you just sound so wholesome. Like I'm leasing my property to my grandparents. Like that's the best ever. So money diarist, is it okay if we just jump straight in? Sure. All right. The first question I have for you as always is, can you tell us a little bit about your money story. Yeah, of course. So I grew up with a single mom, always had what I needed and more. I remember when I was young, before I was old enough to get a job, I desperately wanted one so bad. So as soon

as I was old enough, I did. From then on, I was very independent with my money. I never asked my mom for money or borrowed or anything like that. However, when I was in my teenage years, my mom got married to a man who I had very different values with, but he was already set up financially, I suppose so she was quite lucky in that aspect but when I was 16 for my mental health I had to move in with my grandparents and also my grandparents whilst they were married they were only together for the convenience so I suppose they're part of the reasons why I wanted to make sure that I was financially set up myself before meeting a partner so that if I was ever in a situation in an unhappy situation or whatever that I always had myself to fall back on and I

guess that's part of the reason why she's on the money has been such a very exciting thing for me to find oh I've got so many questions about that but Jess will jump down my throat if I try and ask them now so next question I want to know what do you do for work and how much money do you earn yes so I am a sales manager for a chocolate company and dream job yeah it's pretty pretty good. We've got some pretty good things that we sell and I earn 75k plus super and I also have a company car with that. To sell chocolates, 10 out of 10. Let me know when you're next hiring. I am in my friend. 100%. All right. I want to know next, what is currently your big money goal? So now I'm pretty much just trying to get myself set up to be financially free to be set up for

retirement, I suppose. Smart. And to be a little bit pervy, what steps are you taking for that? are we, you know, working towards it in terms of just like aspirationally or are you investing or are you, you know, loading up your super? What does that look like? So I already have an investment property and me and my partner just bought our next one, which we've just moved into. And I have started trying to invest in shares. So in the early days of that, but I would like to invest more in shares. Oh, I thought you might say that. That is the next question on our list. What are you currently invest in, my love? Yes. So I have an investment property, which my grandparents are living in. The house that I've got now, I've got quite a decent super

because I worked as soon as I started 14, I suppose for my age. And then I got $3,000 in ComSec, which I've just started. Oh, very cool. How did you choose ComSec? Like why that platform? Where did that come from? As mentioned, my partner is an associate financial advisor. So I guess he sort of steered me in that direction and also hearing it about on the podcast sort of made sense for me. I had a sneaky suspicion you might be like, well, my partner, and I was like so pervy to know if he was involved in your investment decisions or not, because, you know, you best believe I'm quite in depth with Steve's. All right. I want to know next question. Do you currently have any

debt? If so, what is it and how much do you have? Yes. So I have 340K on my investment property and then 750K on the house that I bought with my partner, which we share. So my investment property is mine solely. And then the one that we're living in now is our shared one. And that is it. I love it. Queen behavior. Tell me a little bit more about these debts. I want to know what are the properties worth? Because it's a different story if you're like, oh, I owe 700 grand and you know, we only recently bought it to, I owe 700 grand, I bought it for $5 million. Like those two situations quite different. I would like some more detail, my friend. Yes. So my investment property is probably worth about 600 to 640,000. So only owe 340,000 on that. And then on the one

that we've just bought, we bought for 735. We also use the equity in my first property to buy. This one. Very cool. All right. Next question I have is more along the shopping line. Do you currently use Shopback? Yes, I do. I currently have, I think, about $90 pending. $90? That's a lot of cashola. I like that. What have you been buying to save that up? When we moved, we bought a new outdoor set and a dining table from Freedom. So I think I got about $67 back just on that, which was good. That's actually so good. $67. That's like all the throw cushions or something. Like that's so good. And I got a $150 gift card from Freedom as well for buying that. So it worked out very nice. Free cushions for everybody. We love to

see it. Next question I've got, I want to know, what is your best money habit? Yes, I pretty much refuse to buy anything unless it's on special if I can't find a discount code online I will find one otherwise shop back will be my fallback and I'm pretty much the same when I do groceries if it's not on special at Coles one week I know it will be on special at Woolworths that same week or I switch it around depending but yeah she's smart I love it let's flip the narrative though what do you think your worst money habit is I believe that my taste is probably a little bit more expensive than my budget so sometimes I will splurge a little bit here and there I think I got in the mindset of splurging once I bought my first house I was like yes I have a house I can

go and do whatever I want now with my money but I've soon realized that just having an investment property doesn't necessarily mean I'm set up just because of that so I'm starting to rein it back in now that I finally have a house that I can live in myself I feel like we need to go through that period though, to learn like what your breaths are and what that actually means. And I mean, you've clearly learned from it, so I don't think it's a bad thing. It's just part of your journey, right? Yeah. All right. And last question before we go to a really quick break and I can dive into even more nitty gritty is if we asked you to give yourself a money grade, what would that grade be? I think I would give myself a B or a B plus. I think I have all the tools that I need to be able

to set myself up. It's basically just implementing them and continuing to stay like that. Now that I've just bought a house, I can finally get into it without all the little extra bits of money that you know, you find that you spend. Yeah, no, it makes sense. What do you think it would take to get to an A or an A plus? So for me to get to an A, I would like to be more regularly investing in the share market, making it a part of my budget and something that I do on a regular basis as opposed to just doing it when I have a bit of extra money. I love that. I feel like you're really clear. Sometimes I ask people and they're like, oh, I'm not really sure, but you clearly have some steps to get yourself into the best financial position. I want to dive more into

that though after this very quick break. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back, Money Diaries. I have a question about finances and your relationship because you said in your letter that you wrote to us that you really don't want to be relying on a partner and that's important to you but then on the flip side of that your partner works in finance and so you mentioned that you know he's kind of maybe someone who held that knowledge a bit and you're really working on that through listening to the pod and educating yourself but I think often when we're in a situation like that and our partner or someone we care about knows more than us about something it's really easy to kind of rely on their input or kind of let them take the lead in that area that they specialize in

So how are you kind of balancing those two almost conflicting desires? So it's actually quite interesting. I'm the one who pays all of our bills and makes sure that they're all paid on time. So I actually take the lead in the finances in our relationship. He did sort of help me out with the shares and sort of getting started on what to invest in. But other than that, I was pretty much set up before I met him. so I actually don't really find that we have any issues in that aspect because yeah I was already

set up before we met but I have found that when I overhear conversations that he's having or I hear something on the podcast and I go and talk to him about it he's very shocked and surprised that I actually understand what he's talking about a lot of the times so he actually has said that I'm probably the most financially literate person who's not in finance. I love that. I feel like everyone in our community is like that. I had that conversation, like Jess and I recently had our book tour and it gave us the opportunity to talk to so many beautiful community members. And they're all like, oh yeah, I know this, this, this, this, and this. And I'm just like, holy moly, you guys are so educated. I am so proud. Like it makes me

insanely happy to know that, you know, it sounds lame, but like you tell your partner something and he's like, holy moly, money diarist, like where did that come from? Because I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for how complex these things can become. So it's one thing to go, okay, I know how to put together a budget. But then when you're talking about the difference between a managed fund and an ETF and you're starting investing, like genuinely that does take a little bit for us to wrap our heads around. So I'm so proud of you. Like I'm so happy to hear that. And I also, side note here, it's kind of like the plumber who has a leaky tap. At home, my partner pays all the bills. I don't want to even look at that. I'm like, I look at my client's

bills each and every single day. Like I'm doing all of it. Don't even, don't even talk to me about it. So I'm, money tourist, I'm not surprised to hear that your partner lets you, you take the lead on that because I do the same thing in my relationship. No, he definitely takes the, the back step when it comes to our finances. Yeah, it's interesting, right? All right, next question I've got, I want to know a little bit more about the pervy side of your parents and your grandparents' relationship, right? You said really clearly when I asked you about your money story that you knew that your grandparents were together in like a convenience kind of relationship. And I'd like to know, one, how you're aware of that, but two, how that impacts

your decision-making around what your financial life looks like and how that's impacted you wanting to be, you know, independent and female? Has this come from them saying that to you or is this like, you know, side observations? Like what does that look like to you? I think it was all around observations when I was younger. So I do remember in my childhood that I believe my pop had cheated and essentially my nan, I guess, wasn't working and he was the one paying the bills and she was the one looking after the family and providing dinners and everything like that and I know that growing up my nan has never been completely happy in her relationship and I know that if it wasn't for us having such a big family and everything like that and if she was able to

provide for herself she probably would have not stayed in that relationship but purely out of convenience they've stayed together and I guess for me that just meant that I never wanted to be in a situation where I wasn't able to financially look after myself. If I was in a situation like that, I'd hate to be stuck in an unhappy relationship with no way out and feeling I have to stay there because of this. I find that a little bit heartbreaking, but really, really interesting because I'm making some assumptions over the ages of your grandparents and it's kind of normal in a way for them to just go, well, it is what it is. I don't have any financial literacy for myself and it really, really upsets me to think that

people aren't living their best lives or their happiest lives just purely based on the fact that financially they couldn't get by and this idea that, you know, I don't know, I just feel bad that your grandma was in a position where she didn't get to live, you know, the life that she potentially could have lived or wanted to live because of that. I mean, she's super lucky to have you and such a big family and like that's a blessing in itself but I guess this is why I'm so wildly passionate about women you know having good financial literacy and complete side note guys have you fallen onto the side of stay-at-home mum TikTok? Oh yes. Oh like it looks so vibey it looks so aesthetic and I just want to jump up and down and be like this is so toxic like you are putting

all your eggs in one basket and money diarist you're pointing out exactly why like you're seeing it further down the track. And you're just like, she's just not the person that she could have been or as happy as she could have been. So talk to me about how you manage that in your personal relationship. So is that something where you've said to your partner, look, I really want to have my own financial independence. Like, are you having these deep conversations now or has your relationship not got there yet? I'm sorry if I'm being too pervy. I just need to know. No, definitely. I guess prior to the relationship I'm in now, I was in a pretty not great one before which I did have to leave and I was lucky to have my investment property

where my grandparents are living in to fall back on and then when I met my now partner I was pretty much set up living on my own everything in my house I bought myself so basically from the very beginning I've been very upfront at the time I was also looking at moving for my career and I was very upfront about I need to you know sort myself out first before I can factor another person in I want to make sure that I'm set up and happy on my own before I can I guess be with anybody else so that's definitely been a big conversation that we've had from the very beginning of my relationship I've been very upfront that I always want to have my own independence I never want to rely on somebody else not being there or you know a relationship breaking down and then

struggling and then not having somewhere to live or not being able to look after myself it's very important to me that I am fine on my own. Yeah totally how does that filter into the way you manage money as a couple like do you have joint accounts do you like manage money together do you have your own like what does that structure for I guess cash flow look like? Yes so we both have our own accounts I also have my separate investment property account which is purely on its own he's got his own accounts, but we do have obviously a mortgage that's shared. And then we also have an account that is shared, which is, I suppose, our spending account. And we both contribute the same amount of money into that. And then we use that for our joint spendings.

I love this. If we wind back to before you were super, super financially illiterate, what were the first steps that you took to kind of put yourself in the best possible position? I mean, self-indulgently, I'd love to hear the story about how you love She's on the Money. Like, I feel like financial literacy for a lot of people starts before you're introduced to that, like you're looking for that content or you're, you know, craving a different way to budget or cash flow. Like, how did that start for you? Obviously, you knew all along that you wanted to have some level of, you know, financial literacy to not be in the situations that you've seen happen in your family. But what were your first steps to going, you know what,

this is what's going to create financial security for me? Yes, so I've always been a very independent person to begin with. But I believe when I was younger, I always, I guess, from family members that I had, you know, everyone was buying a house. And that was the thing that was going to, I suppose, be the thing that keeps them secure is owning their own house. So I think for me, it just makes sense that if I own my own house, I'll always have somewhere to live forever. And my family were pretty much the ones that were like, you know, you need to buy a house. You need to buy a house. So I did that. But I wish back then I actually had a better understanding of what it actually means to

own a house instead of, you know, just buying it because that's what I think I should do and it fits in my budget and everything like that. But, you know, no one at school or anything ever explained to you, you know, about rates and, you know, if things break in the house that you need to, you know, cover that and, you know, property management and insurances and all of that sort of stuff. So I think I just I bought my first one purely because I thought that was the right step in it, you know, in being financially secure is having your own house. And that's where that sort of started. But I wish I had a better understanding of what that actually meant at the time. I'm still very glad that I did, but I feel like I could have been better educated around it before I jumped into that.

You've said a couple of times throughout our little chat with you that ultimately what you're working towards is your financial freedom and that's why you have this property, you have this investment property, and now you're starting your journey in shares. What does that specifically look like to you? Would you like to retire early? Would you like to travel? I feel like everybody has this different idea of what that financial freedom and financial security means to them.

What is it for you? For me, I think it would be to not be stressed about money, not worried about bills or everything like that, just to have everything sort of set up and then not having to say no to opportunities should they ever come along that money was not a restriction. So for me, it doesn't necessarily mean, you know, I get to retire early because the person that I am, I'll probably be working until I die. that's just my personality. Same girlfriend, same. Yeah. I just, I want to be secure that I'm, you know, don't have to check my bank account balance and I don't need to check my bills

every month because it's all just, all just working well. So for me, it's just being completely secure in the fact that I can do what I want when I want and not have to worry about the money side of things. Okay. There is a really big question that I want to ask because obviously buying a property is the great Australian dream. And it's one of the things that, you know, I feel like our community really struggle with because it's hard to get onto the property ladder. Like it's hard to save your deposit. How did you do it? And how old are you? Because money diarist, I can see you, the rest of the community can't because you are absolutely anonymous. You look young, you look fresh, you look vibrant. How old are you? And how did you save for your first

deposit and get on the property ladder? Because I'm just looking at you going, this is incredible. Like, it's not as though you're sitting here going, oh, I have $180,000 income. Like, you've got a really normal, relatable salary. I want to know. Tell us, how did you do it? So I'm 27. I bought my first property when I was 23. At the time, I was working in a supermarket and I guess I just saved.

I just, I was really good at saving and pretty much every bit of money that I had left over after paying bills and whatnot, I just saved and was lucky, I suppose, at the time you just rates weren't so high and I was just able to save my deposit. How long did that process take? I think it took me about a year from once I decided that I wanted to buy to be able to save up for the deposit and have it ready to go. Yeah yeah okay that is good to know because I feel like so many times people are like oh my gosh it's gonna take ages but from the sound of it we already heard about your first property it wasn't like a million dollar property that I think a lot of us millennials seem to think has to be our entry point into the market and now

you're obviously stepping up and you want to step up again but I just feel like your story is so relatable but just also just so interesting like this independent woman vibe I have my own house I've got to run my own life and even though my partner is an associate financial advisor like you're clearly running rings around him and I love to see it. Money Dirst I think that's all we have time for today though thank you so much for joining us on the show thank you for having me no of course i love hearing money diaries they are my favorite part of the week a pleasure as always my friends we will see you next week bye the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your

individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's on the Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.