She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Supporting a Partner Through A Health Emergency

Episode Date: October 29, 2023

This week's money diarist is a ray of sunshine and a savvy saver! After her partner suddenly experienced a health episode, the two lived off their savings, draining it almost completely, and are now clawing their way back to a bigger next egg. This diarist proves that even the biggest setbacks, shouldn't hold you back. 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 one of our money diaries, where I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with one of our She's On The Money community members to talk all about their money story. Let's jump straight in because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, Victoria. We burned through all our savings after my partner got suddenly ill and couldn't go to work for three months. Now we're working to build it all back up again. Money diarist, I feel like this is going to be an unfortunately very relatable money diary for a lot of people

in our community. First things first, how are you? I'm pretty good. I'm very excited to be here. Oh, really? I'm excited too. Money diaries are literally my favorite thing in the entire universe. So getting to record them every week is my favorite. Let's start things as I always do. I want to know, if I asked you to grade your money habits from A through to F, what grade would you give them? I'd give myself a B. I like that. All right. Now my favorite question. Can you tell me a little bit more about your money story? So like basically I grew up pretty well. Like my parents worked really hard and we always had like a stable house and you know, we'd never went without anything. And then the moment I turned 16, my mom was like, okay,

you're old enough to get a job, go get a job. If you want anything, you've got to earn it. And so like, that's basically what started it. Anytime I wanted something, I had to save up for it myself. typically unless it was like something kind of expensive then mum would help me went to uni and I met my partner oh you met at uni yeah I love this first year of uni I was like I'm gonna have such a crazy year and then immediately got a boyfriend I was like oh oops yeah that sounds exactly like me I like got out of my long-term relationship I'm like I'm gonna be a single gal go on a tinder date with my husband Steve and I'm like hi do you want to get married sounds like right yeah and he had a very different mindset to me so he was very much a

spender and he'd had a very different childhood so his parents had immigrated to Australia from Vietnam and they grew up quite poor and it was a very rough childhood they like often went without things I'd go to bed hungry you know it was a very tumultuous relationship even into adulthood and it's pretty unstable and it kind of translated across into our relationship where like he was a spender and I was a saver and it ended up causing a lot of fights yeah and it got to a point earlier this year where I said hey I've actually given you so much opportunity I've given you so many resources I've spoken to you about this haven't made any changes this is essentially your final chance do or die and then it was kind of like lit a fire under his ass and

good how long had you been together at that point this is our fourth year so four years okay so four years like enough time to have settled in it's not like the first six months because that would be honestly a bit weird yeah no definitely not it was a long time and then it was also a list like a money story and I was someone that had a very similar childhood and we're doing really well and it was kind of like oh wait I don't have to continue to let what my parents did define me I guess yeah and so that was really good and then we were doing quite well and it was probably about two months of we were doing so well and we're saving so much money and then we're sitting and we're watching the footy at a friend's house and he turns to me and he goes Molly I can't see the

scoreboard and I was like what you're fine we're just drinking you're fine and it happened before and he'd been fine and had gone away and whatever. And we woke up in the morning, he's like, nah, I need to get someone to look at it. So we went and saw an optometrist. Yeah. And he was like, you need to go to the I&E emergency like right now. I'm sending a referral.

And he spent a few days going back and forth and seeing like every specialist. You know, at the start we were quite reckless and we were kind of like buried our heads in the sand. We were like, oh, spending way too much money basically. And he couldn't go back to work for three months. Wow. And we ended up surviving off our savings.

I'm so glad you had them. Yeah, very, very luckily. It was like a message from the universe almost. We're like, here, let's drive this lesson home. Yeah, we're really going to teach you to take financial security seriously. When she said shape up or ship out, she really meant take it seriously. Yeah. I mean, the universe had your back in a really weird way.

Yeah. And it ended up being three months that he was out of work. kind of lucky we had the tax return come through which both of us had to put towards our cars like someone stole his license plate two weeks into this happening so it was like the hair yeah it was kind of crazy so and then we had to do like all the registration fees and yeah wow I had a service I can't get new tires so both all our tax return went to that and then we were kind of lucky we were able to borrow some money from some of these family members who were doing better and he had the tool loan come through because he's an apprentice so that helps us and then kind of got

to the third month and we had that month's rent left and then after that we had nothing left and we were lucky he was able to go back to work oh i'm so glad had kind of returned so when it started it was more so like a gray circle and a bit of peripheral vision in one eye and then now it's kind of back to he can see but it's extremely blurry out of that one eye so is there a diagnosis like what is this so they've narrowed it down to two things but they can't diagnose them so he's being treated for both of them so the first one was he's like a latent carrier for tuberculosis yeah crazy and they think that it could have become activated in his eye but they're not sure you can't treat it so he's on tuberculosis medications for four months

which is powerful and really damages your liver and everything like that yeah wow it's like a really rare autoimmune disorder that's common in like people of asian descent but they can't really diagnose that either because most of them carry that sort of gene yeah okay they can't prove whether it's become activated or not yeah so you've got to hit it from both sides because like it might be the tb or it might be this autoimmune disorder oh my gosh yes he's been on like that as well as immune like suppressants and like some really powerful medications but it's most likely the autoimmune disorder because he's got a lot of the symptoms for it yeah okay and like when this was all happening we'd applied for Centrelink and you know for

emergency payments and he'd gone back to work before we'd even heard anything and it was kind of really stressful because around at the same time we found out that our lease price is going up $200 when our lease ends so we're like we're gonna have to move the university's like trying to teach you something and I'm really not sure what it is I don't know whether it hates us or or not no like the universe doesn't hate us it's trying to teach us something in a really weird way really harsh way so we're having to move and it's like you know we don't really have the savings to move so we're going to have to move in with his little brother which is going to be tough but you know it will save some money we did the selling and then if after like 13 weeks

and they don't give you a response you can call them and complain like but that's so long that's like a quarter of the year yeah it's been ridiculous oh and like he tried to go in and speak to them like you need to make an appointment and they're like oh okay so he tried to call to make an appointment and then he was blocked from calling what yeah if you call too many times Centrelink blocks you excuse me Centrelink it's like your problem I'm calling because you're the issue that's a toxic ex I know it's ridiculous oh it was doing my head in next time get this just call them off blocked numbers I'm never giving Centrelink my number again like it does that but you have to put in your CRN oh it knows who you are it picks up and they're like oh you

can't call you need to go in and it's like you can't go in unless you make an appointment you can't make an appointment without calling ha they've rigged it they know they know what they're doing oh it's messed up no wonder there's always so many people loitering outside Centrelink because no one knows how to get in or get an appointment yeah that's why everyone's so angry but we're kind of grateful because like once we've put in this complaint a few days later we've been approved so we're gonna get back pay of four thousand eight hundred dollars which is basically so much pressure off right so it's like amazing like probably better we got it after rather than during because we probably wouldn't have had all that to put into savings see the pressure's been

taken off a little bit a lot and we're still saving as much as we could really so like he's been putting most of his paycheck away while we can so yeah oh my gosh how stressful how are you in all of this I was having a meltdown like I was so freaked out I was so stressed like I was like when it first happened I was like crying at work because I had to go into work of course we need the money and I was like crying at work and it was just so ridiculously insane and just all of like when you're going back to work I literally nearly fell over because I was so relieved like and same thing with like the centrelink I was like which just feels like so much weight's been taken off like it was so stressful and then like when I'm stressed you get like flare-ups and

it's just yeah wow and like are you dealing better with that now yeah I'm always stressed but like a lot better than what I was I don't want to be that friend but like maybe we need some therapy yeah probably I did used to get it but I stopped going because it's many it's so expensive right and that's like a kick in the gut so I don't want to be your doctor here but like go talk to your doctor about getting a mental health care plan and talking to somebody who is like a third party because it is stressful right like regardless of what your partner like has or is going through like that's such a burden on you and like your partner doesn't like want that no one wants that right like and you don't feel like it's a burden because of course you're going to do

that for your partner like I'd bend over backwards if my husband was sick like a thousand percent but like sometimes you need a third party who's not your family and not your friends who honestly like you know I'd sit down and be like money diarist you're amazing like of course of course you're gonna be like of course you're gonna say that you're my best friend like you need a third party to sometimes talk things through so you go oh that makes sense as to why I was you know crying at work and so stressed and it's something that I think if you knock it on the head now it's not gonna linger later and I think that that's a good thing because like we can carry stress so deeply and it sounds like that's something we need to talk about my friend

always yeah I try to I appreciate it all right you mentioned crying at work which sucks I'm so sorry that's the case but tell me about work what do you do for work and how much money do you earn so I'm actually a full-time student I study pharmacy oh very cool she's gonna be a richie And I work in a pharmacy part-time and I earn $33,000 a year. Hey, that's pretty good for part-time as a student. I do like 20 hours a week, but I pick up heaps of shifts. So cool. Tell me a bit more about pharmacy.

Oh, it's so fun. I love it. Like I work in a community and a pharmacy and I have really great co-workers and we're in a really good area and like, it is hard. Like we do cop a lot of abuse. no why people like this I know it's but then like we have customers like and so I was getting like abused and then one of our regulars already came and it's like here's a bock of chocolate for you guys oh my god this is why I love this place like everyone's mostly sweet but you just get

the psychos yeah there's always gonna be like some bad eggs how much longer have you got for study three weeks oh no you don't I know I'm so excited and then I do like my internship which I'll do at the place I work, and they'll be full-time. So I'm so excited to be done. Yeah. So you're going to be like a full-blown pharmacist in like three weeks. Kind of. But like you do your internship, but like you don't have to study anymore.

Yeah. Well, no, I have to study next year. I still have all my final exams next year. So like I kind of have a year left, but uni in three weeks. Yeah, that's so exciting. So what do you get paid doing your internship if that's now full-time hours? I think it's like $25 to $27 an hour, so probably around $800 a week after tax, I think, roughly.

Yeah. I'm so glad that you're getting paid for an internship. That's a gripe that I have, but also congratulations. That's a hard slog to have gone through everything you've just gone through and then also be three weeks off. Like my friend, you're not going to know financial security. Like you have that 4,800 in savings. I'm just so excited for what the future looks like. I still don't know what the universe is trying to teach you, but it's definitely taught you and your partner to be really good savers. Yeah. A hundred percent. It's like very good. we can live on peanuts essentially so tell me a little bit about your partner in his job what does he do and how much money does he earn so he's a carpentry apprentice and he's all about

850 a week i think don't actually know that's okay i feel like that i don't know you're set up for a very comfy financial life in the future what does pharmacy look like full-time once you become a fully qualified, fully study finished pharmacist? So starting rate is about $35 an hour, but you sort of have to barter. Negotiate. That's right. Negotiate your wage. So it depends on how good I'm at negotiating for myself. Oh, well, I've got your back. So the answer is brilliant. You're going to be brilliant at negotiating your wage. I love it. I feel like you are on the right track that's very exciting tell me about your big money goals what are we currently working towards so right now moving house but after that it's saving to buy a house

that's like the most important thing right now for me I'm sick of renting that's so fair tell me about moving how much is that going to cost are you moving far what does it look like we're not really sure like we're trying to move sort of around this area max of 30 minutes away from my work yeah and the places we're looking at will probably be like two thousand dollars per calendar month roughly moving will be expensive because we've got to pay for like professional clean flea bomb all that sort of stuff yeah I reckon we need at least five thousand dollars to move and to still have a little bit of something in the background yeah fair it's so expensive have you started getting like removalist quotes and stuff like that or are you going to like

do it differently so we move november 16th so i've been trying to organize inspections but it's kind of a nightmare right now doing that especially the finals coming up but i haven't looked at quotes or anything like that normally we move the little stuff by ourself and then like we just get someone for big can i give you a tip of what i did and i didn't realize how cheap it would be i don't know if this is going to be for everybody but we recently moved and i didn't want to pay for removalists like it just wasn't happening i was like absolutely not got the quotes and i was like, that's disgusting. I don't care if I can afford it or not. I'm not paying it. Taxi box. Like this is not a sponsored mention for anyone wondering, but it's like this company where they

take a box of your stuff, like they drop basically a half shipping container in your driveway or like out the front of your house. You fill it up, they take it away and deliver it back to a location that you want it to be delivered to. And like, I think it cost me less than like 800 bucks or something and we got to fit in like our washing machine and our dryer and our like big appliances and our fridge and our mattress and our bed and all of the stuff that definitely didn't fit in the car and then we moved everything else in the car and like it's not going to work for everybody but like I called them I was like hey like can I kind of use this as a moving service and they were like yeah like I guess like there might be like a day in between picking it up and dropping

it off because of their system but I was like you can keep all my stuff for a whole day for it to be much cheaper so maybe that'll work what we did our last was airtasker that was like really cheap and they were really nice i really like airtask i think it was three four hundred dollars for that yeah see that's a money win but like lots of options to look into that don't necessarily involve you hiring a fully qualified mover not those guys are so spino like i'm not saying that they're not worth it but like when you already have a million costs like it's just another cost that you're like, I don't know if I can afford this. Yeah, it's very expensive. Oh my gosh. All right. Well, I'm really glad that you're in that circumstance and I know you can afford it this

time. Let's go to a really quick break. And on the flip side, I want to talk about investments and debt and your best money habits and your worst money habits, because I'm pretty sure after everything you've been through this year, you're probably going to have some really good money habits to share with us. So guys, don't go anywhere. all right money diarist we are back and i feel like i've got a lot to learn from you but let's start do you have any investments if not why not if the plan is to get some what are they and how will that work so i do i've got my super which is sixteen thousand dollars how much sorry sixteen thousand sixteen that's really good for your age and the fact that you're studying

Yeah, I've worked full time for a while and I haven't stopped working for a really long time. And then also I have $1,500 in Spaceship, but I want to take it out. Why do you want to take it out? I want to put it into a Vanguard because I feel like it would be more suited for me. And also kind of like the stuff that happened earlier this year, where they got banned from having people go in there. And then I was just kind of like, nah, it kind of put me off them. I got the ick but it's down so I don't want to take it out while it's down. Yeah I wouldn't

recommend selling any investment while it's down. I don't know if you saw I did a whole video on what was happening with Spaceship. Yeah. Not because it was a bad asset class so don't get too stressed but it was actually around ASIC cracking down on their marketing. So basically they were saying that this product was suitable for a demographic that it potentially wasn't suitable for and ASIC were like until you fix your marketing and can be clear on who your product is for and what it does, you can't have any new clients. And I feel like that's scary nonetheless. But to me, having that, I guess, nuance makes me feel so much more comfortable because I go, okay, well, at least it's not because it was a bad investment, like, or it was terrible,

but I totally get it. And like, it sounds like you're kind of, I don't know, is the word glowing up financially? Like going from a micro investing platform to Vanguard kind of makes sense if you're going to start really taking investing seriously and you're going to your first full-time income, like that makes sense. I like it. So tell me a little bit more about debt. Did you end up going into debt for any of this? Do you carry any debt? What's your hex look like? Tell me all the pervy dates. So I just have my hex, which is $40,000, but no other debts. 40K for pharmacy. That's pretty good yeah I think so yeah are you planning on doing anything more in the future when it comes to study or are you like no no being a pharmacist be all and all like I'm there so I'll probably do

not studying with uni but I'll do a course for compounding and probably going to like home medication review pharmacy which is another course that you do it's through the pharmacy guild yeah what does that mean for your income because I have been not well recently I've had the worst perioral dermatitis in the entire world and I have had to be going to compounding pharmacies to get all of my like creams and stuff mixed up and like it's crazy one how expensive they are but like that's niche are you going to get paid more yeah you do so actually work in a compound do you I get the same thing as what you do the perioral don't get pregnant if you get pregnant it gets six million times worse I will send you a photo of what my face looked like

when I was eight weeks pregnant and you'll be like did you get burnt in a fire yeah you should seen last year I was like covered in it all over my face it was crazy stress I'm not surprised my friend but yeah with compounding you can get paid more because you've got more skills less people can do it so pharmacists don't get like paid by the PBS at all wild I know crazy like not even for the vaccinations like if you do vaccinations it goes to the pharmacy owner no it doesn't it's up to the pharmacy owner to decide whether they give you bonuses for it no spicy it's bs a lot of the stuff that pharmacists do it's wage-based rather than like something like that doctors not do where they get it paid straight from pbs into their accounts as well like extras so if you do like

the home medications reviews so that's like you actually will get your own provider number finally and then you can get reimbursed by the pbs and get extra money for that on top of it oh cool i can't remember off the top of my head how much it is but it is that's okay significant amount yeah how cool oh my gosh and is that something that you also have to negotiate or is that something where it's kind of like you do this and then it's just a given that that's the I guess payment structure yeah so just the payment structure how fun I feel like that would be really really interesting all right I want to know next as we said before like you have absolutely been through the wars financially over the last few months so I have a sneaky suspicion that you're

probably going to have some really good money habits to share with us what do you think is your best? Well, I think I'm like super determined. Like once I set my mind, I'm really good at getting it. And then I'm always looking for like a way to like save money. So like everything I buy from like clothes to like furniture, it's like marketplace or like always on clearance, like absolute final sales. And then like what I was doing for a while was like, I would get, you know, like the food box of HelloFresh and like. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm obsessed with Marley Spoon. You obviously don't follow me. I make my husband cook it for me most weeks. Yeah. That's how I found Marley Spring I do. Ah yes I love that. But I would do like the huge discounts and I just do

cancel it switch them because the moment you cancel and switch I like offer you more. 100% I've got a couple of friends who do that like I'm committed to Marley honestly not just because I have a partnership with them but because I just like the food better like I'm a picky eater at best and I feel like some of the other food boxes are more like not bad like all of the stuff in them is good. But like HelloFresh, for example, is more like a meat and three veg kind of vibe. And like, I'm not a meat and three veg kind of gal. I want my like crusted tofu, you know? So like Mali is my vibe, but that is okay. But I've got a couple of girlfriends who like kind of go, I don't know if Mali will be happy with me saying this, but it's my podcast. They like get Mali

Spoon. They do the like intro that I give them because obviously I get a good discount. I think it's like $225 off or something. So that's a money win. And then when they're done with that, they go to HelloFresh. And when they're done with that, they go to Dinnily. And then when they're done with that, they go to somewhere else. And I'm just like, you geniuses. Like, you must be saving so much. It's like credit card point hacking. Like, I wish I could do it. I just don't have the brain capacity. The one thing I'm doing now is, because I kind of got sick of doing the food boxes because it was like kind of like the same vegetables over and over. So right now I've got like a fruit and box delivery and it's like ones that get rejected by like supermarkets.

Oh, what's it called? It's called Good and Fugly. Good and Fugly. Oh, my gosh, I love that brand. Yeah, they're so fun. I love them. And we get like eight kilos of fruit and veg and it lasts the majority of the week. Eight kilos is so much.

Yeah, you get heat. How much does that cost you? $40. $40 for eight kilos of produce. Okay, that's a money win. It's really good. And you like don't get to really choose what you get. So it makes you try different things and make things stretch.

And like, you know, you've got all this stuff, so you've got to use it up. So it's like a really big money saver because otherwise I spend too much money on takeaway. Well, 100% and it kind of makes you be a little bit creative and I'm assuming like if a recipe calls for broccoli and they're like, ah, well, we haven't sent you broccoli but we've got this other round of vegetable. You're like, yeah, it can go in that recipe. She'll be right.

That's 100%. And like we kind of have to supplement like you don't always get like onions or like the stuff that you want. That's okay. You can pop to the supermarket. Like people put brown onions through self-checkout all the time. So you're always looking to save and I feel like they're good and fugly. they've got a pretty good free shout out on the pod but that sounds really cool like really cool

what is your best money saving tip I suppose obviously this like food box thing but like have you had a really big win that you're like oh this one's real cool I can't look at the money my paycheck when it comes in I have like all set and so like at the moment my money comes in I transfer like my rent into a whole different bank account so we can't look at it we don't know what that is that's the rent and moving fund can't touch it if I don't know what it is I can't see it yeah and then like it also like divvies up like all my savers so like that's the best thing because otherwise I just tap and I'm like oh yeah I love it I feel like lots of people in the she's on the money community are obsessed with up because you can just like divvy things

up into lots of different savers without actually opening lots of different bank accounts and that just like makes sense right so let's flip the narrative like you're really good at grocery shopping and making things stretch and saving but what are you not so good at what's your worst money habit I have such a twistable arm like if my friends like let's go out okay actually no please and I'm like okay you're just social that's a good personality trait oh actually this is my favorite money hack you wear like cargo pants or like something pockets you fill up little sachets of vodka and then you take that out and then you only buy soft drink except when you run out and then you're like oh buy more yep nope I love it you do you boo I feel like the Victoria Divine

equivalent is I always have muesli bars in my handbag because I'm like I'm not buying cheap like snacks because like snacks are expensive we're gonna have a muesli bar before we go to the restaurant so that you don't over order Victoria like keeping Uncle Toby's apricot muesli bars in business are they the best no do they fill me yes they do the job so she's got cargo pants for her cheeky vodka she has an arm that's easily able to be twisted is that because you're super social do you find that you spend a lot if you're going out yes I do spend a lot and like I'll find like especially after a few drinks like I will look at my like account I'm like oh you know like cat food's not really due I'll just take $50 out of there and it's like if I'm sober

I don't do it but if I'm drunk like oh she's a different person when she's drunk she's got an alter ego and her alter ego is very good at spending money. No, well, I think that's relatable. Talk to me about your grade. So we're nearly at the end. I feel like you have been through a roller coaster of a year. I am so glad that your partner is on the mend and back at work. Like that makes me feel so happy. I'm so glad that Centrelink backpaid you. It sounds like you set up all of your savers, you know, you're on top of your super, you're three weeks away from being done with uni which is like the most exciting thing in the entire world at the start of this episode you graded yourself a b do you think that's still where you're sitting at if so

why but also I want to know what would it take to get you to an a yeah I do still think a b I think I still kind of spend a little bit too much than I should for what I'm earning now we don't need to buy cat food remember yeah but like I feel like once I'm working full-time and I can balance that and not like you know lifestyle creep and you know keep saving more that's when I'll feel better yeah and more confident with that and if I feel like I can translate that to the full-time wage then I will give myself an A hopefully I love that from my understanding of what you've just said it's really about feeling confident not necessarily changing habits too significantly because once you have a full-time wage I promise if you keep the habit of your little vodka in

your cargo pants. Like you'll be fine. Oh my gosh, my new dress. I have adored having this conversation with you. As I said before, I'm so glad that your partner's on the mend and everything is on the way up. I'm so proud of you and what you've achieved and where you're going. But unfortunately that is all we have time for today. So thank you so much for sharing your story and being so open and being so vulnerable. I just know that so many people are going to learn so much from this. I think it's, you know, obviously a very good reminder to have a healthy emergency fund, but also just knowing that anything at any time can happen and kind of derail the plan. So I think you've taught a lot to our community and I'm really grateful for that. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. 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.