She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Smashing Her Goals in the Seafaring Industry

Episode Date: May 19, 2024

At the tender age of 21, today's Diarist has already visited 15 countries, saved $65K and has just moved interstate all thanks to her career in the seafaring industry! Next stop is saving for a house with her partner who is a Captain in training. She can't wait to share all of the opportunities her unique industry has giver her, and we can't wait to share her with you! Friends! If you loved this episode, then we know you are going to love Victoria's new book, Money Diaries with She's on the Money! This book has been written so you can feel empowered and see that YOU have the power to rewrite your own money story! It's coming in May but you can pre-order 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 for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to my favourite episode of the week, Money Diaries, where we get to talk with one of our incredible 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 like this. Hi VN team, I'm 21 and I have visited 15 countries, mostly through work, saved $65,000 and have just moved states all thanks to my career in the seafaring industry. My partner, who is working towards being a captain, and I are now saving for a house.

I've learned so much in this industry and it still has so much more to offer me. I can't wait to share my journey thus far. Mani Dharist, that's kind of cool. You're 21, 15 countries and you work in seafaring? Yes, thank you for having me. Very fun, very niche. I want to learn more about it. But before that, I want to know what grade would you give your money habits if we asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? Yeah, so I would give myself

a B minus. A B minus. All right. I feel like that might not be entirely accurate, given what I have learnt thus far in the two seconds we've been on the show. But Money Dice, let's dive straight in. My favourite question, as always, is can you just tell us a little bit more about your money story? Yeah, of course. So I was always taught from pretty much when I was really young that money is not only necessary for basic needs, but it's also really important to have for stability and peace of mind. So when I was nine years old, my parents went through a divorce and it was really important for me to understand that we have money to fall back on. My parents had always raised me to be very appreciative and grateful for the opportunities that we had growing up and that

we had money that they'd worked hard for. They always taught me sort of how to manage my money from an early age. So when I was 14, I was paying for my own phone bill. Oh, wow. Yeah. When I was 16, I bought my first car outright and I bought all of my lessons as well. And then when I was 17, I went on to pay for all my registration and stuff without any of their help. But, you know, when I was younger I kind of thought oh they're making me pay for all these things and my friends don't have to do that but now that I'm old I'm really appreciative that they you know drilled that into me at a young age. And you've just learned a lot through that process. Yeah so from there I worked all through high school. I worked full hours during year 12 which was a lot and when

I graduated it was peak COVID. Oh no. Yeah I went into university and I wasn't really enjoying it that much with no one on the campus or anything. So I decided to go get a fun job and take a gap year, which turned into three gap years. Yeah, I stumbled into the seafaring industry just in hospitality and I honestly can't look back. So tell me a little bit more about how you stumbled into the seafaring industry to begin with, because that's niche. I don't know anybody who just goes, oh, I stumbled into a ship. So tell me a bit more about how that came to be. I kind of had a sat down with my mum and we talked through and I said, I'm not really sure if going to university right now is for me. And she kind of suggested that we had a

distant family member who was working on a small luxury cruise liner. And she suggested that I go give it a try and if it's not for me then it's not for me so I did and within two weeks I was on a flight out of my hometown and yeah stepping foot into a boat. How cool is that and you've loved it ever since so much so that your partner is in the industry and you don't see yourself leaving any time that is very very cool. Yeah. Now tell me how a 21 year old has managed to visit 15 countries and also save $65,000? Because $65,000 is a lot of money in this economy, my friend. How? So working on ships has made it really easy. When you're on board, you don't have really any expenses at all. So I didn't pay for any rent. I wasn't paying for food. I wasn't

paying for my wine at the end of the day. Like everything is pretty much included. They pay for your flights and your hotels so that cuts out almost everything that anybody has to pay for so it made it really easy to save. I like the idea of the little wine at the end of the day being included that's a little perk that I didn't expect. Of course yeah and then also with that job it allowed me to travel we went to many countries like Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia so working whilst traveling made it, yeah, again, really cheap and easy to go to all these places. Yeah. How cool. And did you get to travel while you were there? Like obviously going to different countries, I would be so itchy. I'd be like, I want to get off the ship. I want to look at stuff.

Did you have time off the ships to explore? Yeah. So I was really fortunate that I was working on an expedition cruise liner. So that means that they're in port or anchor every day and the guests get off and they go enjoy all these experiences. For us, obviously, we don't work 24 hours in a day. We worked 10 hours and then we had these huge breaks where we were able to get off and go ashore and, you know, figure it out for ourselves. And yeah, I did some really great things. That is very cool. So now tell me, what do you currently do for work and how much money do you earn? Yeah, so I'm currently a casual steward on board an overnight passenger ferry. my wage fluctuates each week but at the moment I'm averaging around 3,200 per fortnight after tax

oh my gosh yeah and I'm working about four days a week oh money win and is it hard to get to and from from home because obviously if you're on a ferry you'd have to live close to the port of the ferry and vice versa like how does all of that work if you end up in a different location for the evening, do they still pay for your hotels and stuff like that? Yeah. So the particular company I work for does pay for fuel. I live around an hour away from the port, so they do compensate for a lot of the fuel. And if I finish at midnight, I have the opportunity to stay at the onshore accommodation as well. Yeah, cool. So you're also kind of safe as well, which I think is really important. Like if you've had a really big shift at work or something, like not having to drive

that extra hour, or I really like that they do that for you. And so you're earning about $3,000 ish after tax per fortnight. And is that something that you will continue? Like, are you currently studying in the industry? Like what's the plan for the future? Yeah. So at the moment I'm in a first year Bachelor of Science, majoring in marine biology. Currently this industry is working really well because I have the opportunity to study whilst working. So I do see myself doing it for the next couple of years. How exciting. I love this. I need to know now, what are your big money goals? What are you currently working towards? Because you got 65 grand saved, so you're well on the way. What does that look like? Yeah, so the biggest

money goal is for my partner and I to step into the property market. We are looking at purchasing an investment property hopefully next year. With Zella, no doubt, obviously you're going to come through us. We'll look after you. Of course. I've already let my boyfriend know who we're going through. Oh, you're a solid one. I owe you. Yeah. So we kind of came across that decision because we both have the opportunity to live at home still. And we also both work away for long periods of time. So it only made sense for us to look into rent vesting. Yeah, that's very cool. and a good idea at your age where you still don't know where you're going to be placed. I was saying to you off air before we started recording in the maritime industry, I've had a

fair few friends go through this and they always end up in the most random locations. So you kind of can't predict where your family home is going to be. So I feel like rent vesting will really work for you guys at this point in your lives. Do you have any other big money goals or is it just property, property, property at the moment when it comes to chatting about finances? getting into the property market is the biggest money goal but obviously my partner and I do have itchy feet we do want to travel to a lot of places so saving up a bit of a travel fund as well is yeah on the books I love this where to next oh I don't know we're still sort of deciding hopefully Southeast Asia do a couple of months there a couple of months ah you're living the

dream. I feel like I have additional FOMO now that I'm a mum. I'm like, oh, so it must be nice to be able to go and spend a couple of months in a different country. That's now no longer an option for me. So a little bit envious. That sounds awesome. I actually have a whole heap more questions for you, but let's go to a really quick break. And on the flip side, I want to know more about investment. I want to talk about debt and we're going to talk about your best and worst money habits, which I think there's going to be a few good ones given you've saved 65 grand and you're basically still a child. So guys, don't go anywhere. Money Diarist, we are back and I want to know, do you invest? If not, why not? If so, in what? I have started dipping my toes into investing.

I currently have $3,000 in raise. Oh, that's exciting. I'm using the roundups feature and also investing $50 weekly at the moment. What made you pick that platform and like what was I guess the trigger to even download an investing platform to begin with? Like what was your, all right, now I'm going to do it moment? Yeah. So I'd never really considered investing just yet until I'd listened to Shoes on the Money. And I had a few friends that were using Raise kind of just to get their head around it. They recommended that as well. So that's why I chose that platform. At what point were you like, you know what, I'm actually going to start this? Because I feel like so many of us really struggle with that pulling the trigger moment.

Like we talk about, oh yeah, I'll do that. I'll download the app. And like, it can feel like an admin nightmare, even though it's not like you literally download the app. I feel like we all put it off. So what made you download it? I was talking about it with one of my friends and he kind of mentioned about how he's just started doing it. And that was like, I'm missing out. FOMO. I like it. Yeah, FOMO. Absolutely. Peer pressure works for a lot of things. And I'm honestly not mad if it works to get people investing. Like I'm happy to be that little bit of a bully if it means that you're in a better financial position. So I really like your friend. What a legend. Yeah. And I also have 18,000 in my super. Oh, very cool. 18 grand at

21 is looking very, very nice. Is there anything about your super that you're like, I want to contribute more or are you just watching it tick over? Like, do you have a super plan? Yeah, I'm hoping that once I become a permanent full-time employee that I can start salary sacrificing. For now, it's just not really viable. I also have a goal to look into my superannuation because I haven't really looked into how it's going. I just sort of checked the balance and that was it. I like that. I feel like that is a very good plan and it's super easy to do. So smash that one out. My friend, I want to know, I feel like the answer is no, but do you have any debts? If so, what are they? If not, have you ever been in debt and how do you feel about it?

I do have $2,000 in my HECS at the moment, which is going to grow as I finish my degree. But apart from that, I've never been in any other debt. That's very cool. Now, $2,000 on HECS is looking pretty good. But as someone with a HECS debt that's only going to increase over time? How does that make you feel? Have you got a hex plan or are you just looking at it going, nope, that's absolutely fine by me? Like, what are your thoughts? Yeah, it is a little uncomfortable to know that it is going to go up a little bit. I haven't really thought too much about it as of yet. I always had the idea that I was just going to let it tick along. But now with the indexation being a little bit bigger than I

had anticipated, I might have to look into doing some contributions towards that. but I haven't really gained enough information to sort of make a decision yet. I feel like one of the best things you can do given your mix of circumstances so your hex is going to increase but you also are planning on buying property and you have a nice amount of savings one of the best things that you could potentially do is talk to a mortgage broker and the reason I say that is so that you can understand how your hex is going to impact on your ability to get a loan. Now it won't stop you from getting a loan I think that's a massive misconception where people are like, oh, I have got this HECS debt. I need to smash it all down

before I get a loan. The way that banks see it is it's a HECS loan. Actually, that's a loan that one, obviously, if you aren't earning an income, you don't have to pay back, which is very attractive, let's be honest. But two, it tells them that you're usually more qualified and you're going to earn more income in the future. So they look at it and go, yeah, it's not like having a car loan. It's not like having personal debt, but definitely have a chat to a broker because they could say, look, don't worry about it, money diarist. It's an absolute non-issue. Or in certain circumstances at Zella have meant that we've said to clients, look, we know you've got X amount on hex. You've also got this amount in savings. If you just paid off that hex, your servicing would

increase by another $30,000 and you want that. And they go, oh, that would be fantastic. So $2,000 probably not going to do the most at this point, but I'm assuming given you're planning on purchasing with your partner, your partner might also have a hex and it's good to just understand the process before you dive headfirst in. And I think a lot of people don't realise they can have that conversation a year before you buy, just so you go, no, we've got our heads screwed on. We know what this means. We know what interest rates are probably going to hit us. We know what our situation looks like. And we even know what type of deposit we need because we know what we can access when it comes to grants and schemes. So, you know, side note there, just trying to give

advice without giving advice. Chat to someone so that you're in the best possible position so that none of it has to be stressful. Money, Darest, I'll stop on my rant because I want to go back to you. Tell me, I feel like you're going to have some good money habits to share with us. What have you got? What's your best money habit? So my best money habit would be that I'm very good at living within my means. For example, I currently share a 2002 car with my boyfriend. We're not very interested in buying anything new or shiny. If it'll do, it'll do. I'm also very good at like not falling into micro trends and purchasing something just because it's cool at the time I think that that's yeah become a real big issue lately micro trends is a good one

I hadn't really heard it framed that way before but I totally am buying into this micro trend thing I'm assuming when you say micro trends you're talking about like consumer items like the Stanley Cup or a particular lipstick. Is that what you mean by micro trends? Yeah, like the Stanley Cup or like buying the new Sambas when, you know, you've already got perfectly good shoes at home. Yes, I love this concept. I'm going to steal this concept from you and make it an entire podcast because I feel like micro trends could be ruining our financial lives. Probably. So what other good money habits have you got? I've just become really good at saving where I need to. I won't purchase something that's expensive without really

good thought about it. I've learned not to be really impulsive. So I'll let it sit in my shopping cart for a week. And if I really want it, I will get it. Yeah, I love that. I feel like putting at least 24 hours between you and your spending leads to better financial decisions. But if you can leave it awake, like I feel like that's even better. But my friend, I have itchy feet and I'm impulsive. So I'm just going to stick with my 24 hours because I feel like that's reasonable. But if you can leave it awake, Slay, do you have any bad money habits? Like what do you think is your worst? I do. And you're really not going to like me for this. Not a thing. I love everybody regardless of their decisions. I have got absolutely no structure or budget towards

managing my money. How do you save 65 grand and not budget at all? I feel like you're better at it than me then? I don't know. I just sort of get paid and then I take out what I need when I need it. Like I don't transfer $400 a week for this. If I need to go to the shops for groceries, I'll just transfer what I'm about to pay. Yeah. Okay. I feel like that is very common for your demographic because obviously you don't have heaps of overheads. Like I'm assuming in this situation, you said you were living at home, so there's clearly no rent and there's no real big bills. you don't have a car repayment or anything so this makes sense for your situation but I don't mean to bring the mood down it's not going to serve you well for long because the second you have rent

the second you have big bills to pay you're going to go wait what where's all my money gone like this makes no sense because you've been so used to being able to take from a pot of money that didn't have a lot of expenditure yeah absolutely so my 2024 goal was to get my budgeting sorted and start managing what comes in and out. But I'm still sort of yet to get there. That's okay. I'm going to fix you up. I feel like I've been doing this a lot on the show recently. It's not normal for me to do this, but we're going to keep doing it because I like it. I'm going to gift you my money masterclass, which will do all of the budgeting and cashflow for you. So it's like an epic spreadsheet. I'm biased because I made it, but it literally automates

all of it. So you just put in what you're spending and it will tell you what account it needs to go to and what you've got left over to allocate towards those holidays you're planning or the home purchase that you're making and it will ask you about your goals so that we can work towards those. It's all automated so it'll be really low effort but really high outcome and I'm assuming that leads into the next question I have for you. Monday Darius at the start you said I'm a B minus. Is it budgeting that would take you to an A plus? If not what would get you to being an A plus money person? I think the budgeting as well as being more resourceful. I have access to be able to look into lowering my phone bill or exploring different banks or

exploring my super, but I just haven't done that yet. As soon as I get into that and step into the property market and start budgeting, just becoming more organized all over, I think it would take me up to an A plus. Totally. And I need you to be good at budgeting before you get a mortgage, my friend. Like it is going to give you whiplash. A mortgage, it's not terrifying, but having that amount of money, leave your account and you go, wait, what? Like this month, I didn't want to save that amount. I wanted to go on a holiday. Like it locks you in, in a way that you've probably never been locked in before. And I think that getting on top of your budgeting now, especially 12 months-ish before you're making a purchase. One, you're going to be a

broker's dream because you'll be like, oh no, this is my budget. These are my bank statements. I look perfect on paper. But also just putting yourself in a position where you're like, no, I'm actually totally in control of this and I can afford a mortgage repayment of X while maintaining my lifestyle and still being able to travel and whatnot, I think just puts you in the best possible position to be successful long-term. Wonderful. Thank you. How good is this money, Dyrist? Unfortunately, I think that's all we have time for today, but I've loved this. This has been so fun knowing that you're in an industry that you're really passionate about, but also you're a killer saver and you are absolutely smashing it out of the

park. I'm so proud that you're in our community. So thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. I know our community are going to listen along and maybe be a little bit envious that you've saved so much at such a young age, but I think we've also taken some tidbits along the way to put ourselves in a better position. So thank you. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. It was great to meet you.

Of course. 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. Thanks for watching!