She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Staying Financially Afloat & Living On A Boat!

Episode Date: July 3, 2022

It's time for our favorite part of the week again, where we get to meet a community member! This week; she learned the value of money early on when both of her parents retired young. Now, she is gearing up for a life afloat, and is moving onto a boat with her partner to save money. She's hard working, dedicated and definitely thinks outside of the box, 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. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are Authorised Representatives of Infocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited ABN 47 097 797 049 AFSL - AFSL 236523.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 chat to a community member about them, their story, their finance, their finances. Their finances. And all of the fun things in between. So today, I have an excellent one for you. Oh, you don't have a good one.

You have an excellent one. Brand new adjective. Would you like to hear it? Yes, I actually want to get a list of adjectives. I should. We can just like filter through all of them because that's all we've got. That's the extent of my copywriting skills. It's right-click thesaurus.

Genius. Thank you. Alrighty. Well, here we go. Listen to this. Our diarist says, both my parents retired when I was 14 to 15 years old. I learned the value and importance of money early on. My partner and I are planning to move onto our boat we bought last year to save money.

We won't have to pay rent, water, or electricity. Money win. What? We love a boat story in this office. Oh my gosh, yes. Like, this entire podcast has been throwing below-deck vibes for so long. Money Diarist, welcome to the show. Do you have a below-decks boat? Hello, and no, not that fancy.

A boat's still a boat. You're doing better than me. Oh my gosh, yes. Imagine owning a boat. Glenn James owns a boat. He's pretty fancy. He is pretty fancy. Let's get into the money questions, though. Money Diarist, are you ready? I hope so. All right, let's give it a crack. The first question is, actually, can you tell us a little bit about your money story? Well, as you said, my parents retired when I was quite young, still in high school,

and I'm an only child. My parents also divorced when I was, I think, 12. So I lived with mum. She, yeah, retired. So my guess was on, I'm not sure which thing she was on, but government allowance. And yeah, it was quite tight. She was quite open with me most of the time about bills and how much she had in a bank account and it was yeah really scary for a lot of the time knowing that you had you know a hundred dollars to last the rest of the week or until she got paid or whatnot but I do think I was still yeah very privileged in she owned her own house and I never went without what I needed I went to a private Christian school but that was from inheritance from my grandmother that passed away. What a good use of inheritance. Yeah that was

how cool. The deal that under the age of 21 or whatever it was it could only be used towards education. Yeah that's quite what a smart grandma. Yeah. She had your back I love that and how old was your mum when she decided to retire? My parents are a bit older so she had me at 42 so she would have been 54 if you were 12 I think I was 14 or 15 when she retired so a few more years on but yeah but around about then yeah yeah still young still young enough to enjoy the fact that she was retiring which is kind of nice as well yeah she's always been she's still so busy she does a lot of volunteer work and community stuff so she just doesn't stop oh I love that though. All right. Next question, Money Diarist, is what do you do for work and how much

money do you earn? So I am a full-time university student and I also work as a disability support worker 30 plus hours a week. Wow. Like full-time and then basically full-time. Yeah. It's intense. Oh my gosh. And how much money do you earn from that job? Approximately about 60,000 a year. Hey, that's not bad for a full-time uni student. That's really good. Yeah. All right. Leading into the next question because I want to know what you're doing with that money. What is your big money goal? So for my partner and I last year, it was to buy the boat, which we did at the end of last year. And now we have a few different things pending our life, I guess, for the end of next year would be to buy an investment house. And then we also want to do

bit of traveling. Very cool. Can I be super pervy? How much does a boat cost? We bought ours for $40,000. Oh my gosh. That's so much money. I love that. Tell me about your boat though. Like Jesse's looking at me like I shouldn't be asking these questions. Like what is it? It's like clearly not a dinghy if you're going to be moving on to it. So tell me about the boat. Yeah. It's a liveaboard. It's a 35 foot bounty. So it's still small, but it's livable for two people, I guess. Got a little kitchen or toilet, little like seating area. Everything you need. Are you going to like more it in a, no, you know what? I'm going to go back to the questions because Jess is going to get me. Next question is, do you have any investments currently? Apart from super

no. Epic. Next question. Do you have any debts? Just my hex debt. How much is your hex debt, my friend? I think it's just under 30,000 currently. Not too bad. And how do you feel about it yeah pretty good so as well with that inheritance I got my oh no sorry it wasn't the inheritance my parents when I was younger set up a scholarship thing and I think it might have been twenty thousand dollars was saved and because I have another degree I did when I first finished high school and that went towards that. So that was awesome. Hey, that's really cool. What was your first degree that you did? I did a Bachelor of Social Science. Yeah. Awesome. Very cool. Story checks out. That makes a lot of sense. Next question. Do you currently use Shopback?

Yes. Not often as I don't buy a lot of stuff, but I do use it. Oh, what did you last purchase on Shopback, my friend? Protein powder. Oh my gosh. What? I love asking this question because it's always so interesting. Interesting. Like what kind of protein powder are we talking? Is this like real niche content or are you like, Victoria, I just got it at Coles? Yeah, I just got back into the gym. We're trying to, so I thought I better buy some protein powder and yeah. A money win is a money win. Am I right? Absolutely. All right. What is your best money habit, money diarist? My best money habit I would say is when I do have a goal, I save really hard. I love that. All right. What is your worst money

habit? So I get a bit stressed out and anxious and I find that say I have a university assignment or something going on and I have a deadline, I will splurge and buy takeout or treat myself because I just have to get through that day. I don't know if that's bad. I feel like that's a coping mechanism, my friend. Like you just said you have a stressful day so you get takeaway to make it feel better. Like, oh, Jess is looking at me again. She's going to be like, no, Victoria, some people think that's bad. And I'm like, oh, that's how I live my life and cope with stress. Mexican food. Everything in moderation. Everything in moderation. That's not the worst. And Marnie Darius, last question before we go to a quick break. If we forced you to give yourself

a grade, what would you grade your money habits? I think a B. And why would you give yourself a B? I think I do well in certain areas, but there's also a lot I can improve on. I love that. I think that seems really fair. I thought she was going to say B, for boat. Let's go to a quick break. We'll be right back after this. All right, we are back. And Money Diarist, I want to know what possessed you and your partner to turn around and go, do you know what? We should buy a boat. so it's always been my partner's dream to buy a boat as he grew up in a family that sails and I guess it's become my dream as well since being together and yeah it was really appealing

to find out that you can live on one and save a lot of money doing so and not have to pay rent oh my gosh so tell me about how that works because you can't do you just like take it out into the bay and leave it there and you just live on that boat in the middle of the bay like do you have to pay mooring or something somewhere? Like how does all this work? So technically you can't live on a vessel for a period of time in New South Wales. So we will move to Queensland as it's more of a common thing in Queensland and you can live on boats in Queensland. Oh, you can't in New South Wales? It's only for like a period of time or you have to keep moving around. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So there's two options. You either live in a marina,

which is a little bit more expensive because you're paying for the facilities and it's just easier use I guess but it's still severely cheaper than renting yeah and then the other option is a mooring which is obviously out in the water and you would have to paddle in and out and that is ridiculously cheap oh which one are you doing my friend I think we'll start out in a marina to get used to doing that and then the goal is to get out to a mooring. Oh wow and how do you find a mooring? Do you just go this looks like a nice patch of ocean I'm gonna live right here? I'm not 100% sure yet it's all very new to me I think you like through contacts yeah. Wow how cool so what happens on the boat so you said you don't have to pay for like water or electricity or anything like

that like what powers the boat then so you have your main batteries and then you have solar panels and our boat has a wind generator so that's what powers everything and you still have to be quite cautious of how much energy you use yeah it sounds much more environmentally friendly as well if you're generating all of that power that you're using from like the elements rather than you know coal generated power which is quite cool fun little side effect yeah and so talk to me about work so if you're living at a marina I'm just so interested in the way other people live their lives so if you're living in a marina do you wake up every morning you have a quick shower on the boat do your hair do you make up and then go to work like you get off your boat and go to work

is that how that works yeah you have to be very minimalistic I guess and I don't really wear makeup and I'm just a quick get ready person so either yeah shower at the marina or get a gym membership and shower there and then also in disability the houses I work at there's like a bathroom I could use if I really wanted to. Yeah that's quite cool so it like really fits with the job that you've got and the lifestyle that you're living. Yeah. So talk to me more about how this is working towards your future goal you said before that you and your partner are saving and you want to buy a house and all of this other stuff how much quicker are you going to be able to save for a home because you're living on your boat a lot quicker so at the moment we pay 4.30 a week in

rent so obviously we'll have a few expenses with the boat but counting maybe half of that in each week it'll be yeah a larger chunk and it will make it a lot quicker have you actually run the numbers because I'm assuming when you were kind of deciding whether to get out on the boat or continue living the way you were in terms of what you'll be saving on rent and utilities and all of those other general lifestyle costs. Yeah. So there's still a few little expenses with the boat, like the mooring or the marina and whatnot, but I'd say it's approximately $15,000 a year. Wow. Oh my gosh. And that will obviously get you so much closer to a home so much quicker. What's the plan then?

You're going to buy, you mentioned before, an investment property. Is that so that you can invest and then potentially retire early like your parents did? Or like, what's the plan, my friend? Both my partner and I love adventure and traveling. So that's, yeah, really our main goal, I guess, to enjoy life and live it to its full. We've got some great family and friends around us that have invested and invested well. so we have their feedback to get into the market as early as possible and yeah build I guess our retirement off that yeah you said you love adventure will you be I guess using the boat

as a partner like would you travel on the boat as well around Australia or other areas yeah so that's my boyfriend's big dream and then I'm more of a travel overseas so yeah I really really hope that we can use the boat and sail overseas. Otherwise, yeah, we'll be sailing around Australia. You'd save so much money on that aspect as well, because as we know, we've just booked a trip and flights and accommodation is so expensive. So if you can take the boat places, in addition to having, I guess, saved on your normal living expenses, you'd be saving on your holiday as well, which is pretty cool. Yeah. And the current degree I'm studying is high school teaching. So yeah, I've only recently

found out that I will be able to stop in different places if we do go around Australia and just pick up casual work. Oh my gosh, how cool. That's awesome. To be really pervy again, what does your partner do? How's this going to fit with his work and lifestyle? He's a disability support worker as well. So he said he'd, yeah, just pick up work where he can. Oh my gosh, you are two peas in a pod or two peas on a boat. I feel like that's really sweet. All right, Money Diarist, you're going to say like 15 grand extra a year obviously that takes a little bit of financial pressure off but earlier in the podcast you mentioned that your worst money habit was that you stress about money how are you dealing with that so I'm still stressed I'm always I'm earning the most I've

ever earned but I still find myself so anxious that I'm not going to be financially secure I I guess, and be able to be financially stable just in the future. Why do you think that's the case? Obviously, you've got a good job. You're a uni student. It sounds like you're a massive hustler. Why do you think that's taking up so much of your mental space at the moment? I think I've always been a casual shift worker throughout all the different jobs I've done since school. And I've never had the Monday to Friday full-time job so yeah just that stability I guess I've never had. Do you find that it's something that you're craving or is it something you're like oh my gosh everybody else

has this so I want it like is it potentially a bit of you maybe not looking at your own journey and really comparing your journey to that of everybody around you maybe? I think it's a bit both. I do wish sometimes to have that routine during the week as doing shift work. I really struggle with, you know, my own self-care, like going to the gym or appointments, that sort of thing. And then also, yeah, probably a bit of seeing other people's lives. Yeah. I think it's one of those things that a lot of people in our community are probably resonating with right now. they're like, oh my gosh, she sounds so cool. She's just bought a boat. She's saving for a home. Her and her partner are basically living the dream, but you're still really stressed about

money, which is not where we want to be. So what I would probably look at is really making sure that you're on top of your budget and cashflow. Like, do you have a really structured budget and cashflow plan that you go, no, I know what's going on. I do have an emergency fund. I do know what would happen. I think that once we really start to look at the bigger picture and go, all right, well, have I got my financial stuff sorted? Yes, probably. Sounds like you do, my friend. It's actually about working backwards and going, well, where's this money anxiety coming from? And that's why we always talk about money stories and where they come from. Because more often than not, as much as money in the everyday is super stressful, this stuff actually is usually

underlying. It could be underlying stress from growing up and before you mentioned your mom and you know, not having a hundred dollars in the bank account to last the rest of the week until she got paid. Like this is stuff that I actually really promote people to even just like organize a time with a therapist or organize a time with a counselor to sit down and go, all right, I need to talk this through because I'm actually in a pretty good financial situation, but it just feels all overwhelming and all encompassing. Is that something you'd consider? Yeah, a hundred percent. I feel like that's unfortunately all we have time for today guys just before we head off can you wrap the boring but important stuff absolutely so don't forget guys 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 a financial decision and we promise Victoria Devine and she's on the money are authorized representatives of InFocus Securities Australia Proprietary Limited, ABM 47097797049, AFSL 236523. Good work, Jess. See you on Wednesday, guys. See you then.