She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: The 100 Hour Work Week!

Episode Date: July 21, 2024

Today's Money Diarist is 28 and working over 100 hours per week in a niche safety roles in the mines. As the first of 7 in her family to graduate with a degree, she's as hard on herself as she is a hard worker! Looking to make her hours more sustainable long term, her passion for the change she's making everyday in the workplace is what fuels her. We can't wait for you to meet her. 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. Guys, welcome back to another episode of Money Diaries, where I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with one of our She's On The Money community members and talking to them all about their journey. Now, this week, we got a message and I would like to read it out to you. Hi, She's On The Money. I am 28, working over 100 hours per week in a niche safety role in the minds and I'm earning over $187,000. I'm the first out of seven to graduate with a degree and earning more than anyone in my family. It's safe to say I'm pretty hard on myself and while I know I can't keep this pace up forever, I'm really passionate about my team and the change

I'm making in my workplace for the better. I'm such a fan of the show and you've definitely helped me along my journey to get where I am. Money Diarist, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. So lovely to meet you. No, thanks for writing in. I'm so excited about this because it's just such a fancy role. But also like, girl, 100 hours a week, I would simply pass away. Yes. Well, it works out to be about 96 hours. Oh, okay. Well, in that case, what are you complaining about? But I also work eight days on and then six days off. So I do get a break in the month. But yes,

you do come home pretty tired. So how many hours each day are you working? Like what time are you getting up and going to bed? So I get up at 4.30. Ew, David. There are people on my site that get up at 3.30 and go to the gym morning and night. Absolutely not. I feel like I'm privileged to have a sleep in. And then I get home at either 5.30, 5.45 or sometimes 6.30. So yeah, long days. Oh my gosh, those are long days. Let's dive into the questions though, because I just have

so many things I want to ask you, but I want to keep the ball rolling. So money diarist, first question, what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? So I've thought about this question long and hard, but I think it's fair to say I would give myself a C plus. A C plus? Yes, I do have some good habits, but I really started off with basically nothing and I am halfway there. I feel like I've still got some room to go. All right, let's learn more about that money, Darius. Can you tell me a bit more about your money story? Originally, I grew up on a farm. I was one of seven kids. Things were pretty good. like with our home life, we got to buy whatever we wanted. We went to the nearest city, which was

500 kilometers away and could pick out whatever we wanted. There was no budget and there was not really many no's at that time. My parents owned two businesses and a farm and two houses. And seven kids. Yeah. My gosh, they were busy bees. Yeah. And then there was no really any issues. We were never taught about money. I just knew we had quite a bit we were doing not too bad and then it was time to move to the nearest city to go to high school and then I noticed mum and dad there was a bit of a shift in dynamic as in I

didn't really see my dad as much they were still together but he stayed on the farm and me and the girls moved to the nearest city we're actually going through a massive drought and the business wasn't doing too well at all. So we ended up having to sell our farm and move from the farmhouse and sell one of the houses we owned. And then I noticed more of a shift and my parents actually split up. Myself and my two other younger sisters and the older sister moved into a rental with my mum. Things were quite tough. I did notice a massive shift in our spending and mum was always saying we can't afford this. So you have to ride your bike. And it was quite different to what we knew. I went to university by myself. I drove up in my car by myself. I knew I wanted to better

myself. Then I was living off sometimes $20 a week. I would spend all my money on going out. I think it was more like a self-sabotage type deal. I had no money. So whatever, I'd just spend it if I did have it. But isn't it wild now that you're earning so much? So we know you earn 187,000, like the amount of money that it takes nowadays to have a good time. But how on earth did we exist on 20 bucks a week and still have a great time and go out and somehow return very inebriated? Like how? I would sneak a lot of alcohol into clubs. There would be a lot of house parties through uni. Yeah, we kind of just made it work. My friends weren't the type to spend big or anything. So if we wanted a good time, we'd just kind of try and do free things or

yeah, have more house parties instead of spending it on going out. It's smart. I need to learn from that because I feel like I just trip out my front door and accidentally spend $50 nowadays. Like I can't even go to the supermarket without it being a three-figure amount. Like I can't win at the moment. I feel like that's common for everybody though. So back to your story, you went to uni and then? And then I actually studied a degree in natural medicine. It took five years to study. I was doing six units at one point and I really did not have a life. So I didn't really spend, I guess, too much money during that time, but things were tough. My mental health was really bad and I didn't really put

pressure on myself to save. But then when I graduated uni, the only way to make money as a naturopath is to basically either consult off an existing wellness practice in a room or you start your own business up. So I decided to go into a holistic doctor's clinic and it really was not working for me. I had a bit of a life meltdown. I was like, I'm earning less than $200 a week. I've just graduated uni. I can't get any clients. I'm trying my hardest to make money and my mental health was really bad at that point. So I went home to mum and I said, what do I do? I've just spent five years on a career that I can't get anywhere. And this was after eight months of trying. And then she said, well, just go work on the mines for a year. Just give it a

year and then you'll have enough money behind you to restart your naturopathy business. So I gave it a go and absolutely hated it. I mean, I feel like going and working in the mines is very, very different from naturopathy. So I'm not surprised that the career you spent five years building and thought you would like was maybe a bit different to working in the mines. Yeah, it was honestly horrible. I was working within the geology team. Because I didn't have a degree in geology, I just felt like I wasn't respected and I would never be a geo. I would always be in the entry level kind of role. It didn't sit well for me. I worked way too hard at uni. So I did so much research over the next six months while I did that role and I found the role

that I'm in now. It's very niche. I can't say exactly what I do because there's only a few hundred of us. Yeah. And I would be able to pinpoint you or find you on LinkedIn in 0.2 seconds. Yeah, exactly. But now I am earning, as you know, a great figure. It doesn't come easy though. People think you go out on the mines and you earn this great salary and you get looked after, cooked and washing done and rooms made for you. But honestly, in my role, you have to work for what you make. So I don't consider myself lucky. I consider myself just a really hard worker and really driven. I don't think I've ever thought that the mines would be easy. Maybe that's because I have had, you know, friends work in the mines. I also have a team member who works for me at the

moment who worked in the mines before I brought her on to She's On The Money. And like, even just hearing the stories of like, let's be honest, how hard it can be for a woman to get ahead in such an environment. I'm just like, that would be so challenging for me. Like I think I'd exist in a permanent state of mental breakdown apart from the fact that you have to get up at a ridiculous hour and do basically manual labor all day to come home and have probably the same dinner every night. It's nice that it's made, but like, let's be honest, it's mine's food. I feel like that's just not for me and that's okay but it's not for me like basically everything you just said is exactly how it is especially being a young female in quite a unique position trying to make really

big changes and convince managers to care about the stuff that I'm trying to implement is quite daunting I cried a lot when I started this position because I still had to work my way up to where I am now I constantly have to remind myself that I can do this what you're doing is good and having a bit of reassurance is always good. But yeah, you definitely doubt yourself. Oh, that would be so stressful. How did you get through that period of, you know, not feeling like you were a good fit? Because I know I went through this in finance and I was so lucky that, you know, I was surrounded by all my friends and family when I'm doing this, right? So like I'd have a really terrible day at work and then I'd go home and call my mum or I'd

go home and my housemates would be like, what happened? And I'd be like, I need a wine and I can tell you. But when you're out on the mines, you're going back to arguably a relatively cold single room and you're all on your own. And I just feel like that would be a lot. How did you get through that? Because for me, the thing that got me through it, you know, completely different situation was having that sense of connection. And I feel like being out in the mines and being so regional, you just wouldn't have that. So I feel like you've potentially got a lot more grit than I do. It's funny to say this, but the team I work with, I actually like my family. I call them when I'm not even at work and they're at work just to see how they're going. We're a really

close team. When I started and I had a few meltdowns because of different attitudes, I guess, my manager was absolutely amazing in coaching me through that and not taking things so personal. I'm trying to make the company spend money on things they need to care about because the government says so. Not everyone's going to like me. It is my job. I just have to take the personal factor out of it and just know that I'm here to do my job. Since then, I have just built thicker skin. I just keep being very transparent with my team with how I'm feeling. Luckily, no one has rubbed me up the wrong way. I stand up for myself as well now. People thought they could treat me however they wanted, but now they know I bite back. They haven't done it in a while.

Yeah, good. I love to hear it. I feel like it can be so hard. And I like that you've said, I've got a thicker skin, but at the same time, you're like, it's my role. It's not me. I think so many times at the start of careers, we go into roles and forget that irrespective of whether we like it or not, there are going to be politics at play and people aren't going to like that role, whether it makes sense or not. And it's often not you. It's just the job that you have. and you're immediately going to be on the back foot because of that. Money Diarist, let's get into what you actually earn. You said before that you earn $187,000 a year. Is that including or excluding super? That's including super.

And how often do you get paid? Tell us a little bit more about what hits your bank account and every week, every month, every fortnight, what does that look like? Yeah, so I get paid monthly. It is a long month waiting for that to hit my bank account Because I do have a really big HECS debt after studying on top of my undergrad as well, I earn about $14,000 a month. Oh my gosh, that's so many dollars. That's like five figures hitting your bank account. Yeah, it is.

But that's before tax. I actually only see it's about $8,500, $9,000 because so much of my money goes to my HECS as well. but then we also get bonuses, which is great. Oh, okay. Tell me more. How many bonuses are we getting? So, you can earn up to 5% per quarter of your salary. Oh, how cool. And what do you have to do to meet that? So, the whole site has to meet their safety target and production target. Hey, that's kind of cool. I like that safety is included in that.

Yeah, we have a great safety culture and we have a scorecard we need to comply with and it's all about safety interactions and speaking up. So, you have a good safety culture? Yeah, yeah. So, that all goes towards a balanced scorecard and at the end of the quarter, if we meet our production and safety, then we get up to 5% of our salary, which can be quite a lot. But of course, if you make a lot, you get taxed a lot. Yeah. So, how often would you make that 5%? I have been at my position for a year and we've hit 4.2% for one quarter. Oh, nice. So we do get up there and I've only received three bonuses. Sorry, I shouldn't say only,

we have received three bonuses. No, no, that makes sense. And like, I think that a lot of the time when we're talking about money, we often go, oh my gosh, that sounds so privileged, but we're actually just looking at your role in general and you've been in your role a while now. And so going, oh, I've only received three bonuses out of the 10 opportunities or something. You might go, well, it's not actually about how much it is and it can sound entitled, but it's not meant to be. I knew exactly where you were going with that because it's often like, yeah, I only hit my goal three times already. That's kind of what you were saying, right? Yes, exactly. And because

there's so many different things that come into play, it is actually really hard to get a bonus. when we do receive it, it's a huge, I guess, bonus. But everyone's really excited about it because we have headquarters where we haven't met it. And I've been here for that. And it's hard because everyone wants that little extra money in their bank accounts. A hundred percent. And that would help so much. And I know that you're not in this situation, but there are a lot of family men and family women out there that are going to work in the mines and they're leaving their children and they're leaving their partners and they're coming up to the mines to work and they are currently under a heap of financial stress

because their mortgages are absolutely cooked. So, this idea of a few thousand dollars in addition, they just go, oh, that would take so much pressure off. And then to not get it would be really stressful. It would just be a little bit disenchanting, a little bit disheartening. Yes. There's people at this site that literally say, oh, I hope we get our bonus because I need to pay my mortgage off and things like that. That's so stressful. So, do you, bank on this bonus or are you someone that's like, no, I only budget with what I have and if I get a bonus, I get a bonus? Or like, what's that look like for you? I absolutely don't count my bonus at all. If I get it, I will only believe it when it hits my bank account. I pretend it's not even

there. If I do, we may splurge a bit more on our holidays or I'll never count on that to pay my bills. No, of course. And I think that that's the smart way. But in a cost of living crisis, when all of our mortgages are completely increased, I was going to say something a little bit ruder there, but decided to catch myself in the moment. I feel like we start having to bank on our bonuses because we go, well, that's actually the only way that I'm not going to go further into debt. So, I don't have a lot of choice right now. So, if that's you, don't feel bad. It's not an ideal situation, but it's definitely something that I know a lot of people are doing. Money Diarist, you mentioned holidays before, and that leads well into this

conversation or this question I'd like to ask is what are your big money goals? You've got some big incomes. What are the big money goals you're currently working towards? So I'm currently trying to buy a house. I have my deposit ready in my account. It has been extremely hard where I live to buy a house. You can't say I have a deposit in my account. This is she's on the money. How much money have you got, babe? I have $53,000. Oh, that's so good. My deposit for my home only has to be 5% because I did actually qualify for first home buyer's guarantee from not last year's notice of assessment the year before. So, I just got my approval before the new year ticked over. So, I have three months to use my first home buyer's guarantee.

Yeah. I was about to say, has that expired yet? Because for those of you playing along at home, they do expire. No. So, I've got to about middle of August to find somewhere. How good. Yeah, it's extremely hard. I did put an offer in yesterday. That's so exciting. What are we trying to buy? It's a little townhouse in a city. I will obviously have to live in it for six months. That's what the guarantee requires you to. It doesn't really need renovating. The house is pretty much perfect to move in. How exciting. That happened yesterday. when do you hear? Today. What are the probabilities do you think? 50-50. My partner actually knew the real estate agent. So all fingers crossed. I'm still quite nervous. I have been in the top two

offers before and this person won it by five grand and I was like, oh, why didn't you call me? I would have given you five and a half grand. Yeah. So I don't get my hopes up too much, but we'll see how we go. But yeah, and then it would ultimately turn into an investment property. Yeah, that's fair. Are you buying with your partner or is this a you purchase? This is just a me purchase. He has been there for the ride. He's come to every home open, but he is not ready to buy his first home. But that's fine. We've been together for six years. We know each other really well. And I also just love an independent woman. I love that you're like, oh, you're not ready? Okay, well, I'm still going. So if you're not

getting on the train. Just move over. Thanks. Yeah, I wait for no one. If I want something, I'll get it no matter what. I love this attitude. Is there any other big money goals you're currently working towards? I want to pay off my car. I brought a car for work when I was a consultant and I was getting a lot of tax back through my car because I was using the mileage every week and the depreciation was tax deductible. However, because I do work away, I can't claim my car anymore. And it's just sitting there looking really sad. And I'm paying a lot of interest on my loan. So it is up for sale, but I want to get rid of it or pay it off. That's actually it for my money goals. I have already traveled to about 20 plus countries. So I don't really have

many holidays that I want to go on anymore. Oh my gosh. You can't just throw that in at the end and be like, oh, I've traveled to 20 plus countries. What? Money Diarist, what are you talking about? How have you managed to travel to 20 plus countries? Can you tell me a little bit more about how you budgeted and paid for that? Because I'm assuming that was before you worked in the mines. Is that right? Yes. It was through uni and before uni, I traveled to Europe. I think my budget was honestly like four or five grand for four months. Oh my gosh. It was crazy. Yeah, I've done lots of Asia and then I lived overseas in China for a little bit.

Oh yeah, that's just normal. That just comes up later. Like when we're talking about our money story, like of course that didn't come up. Yeah. Like I said, if I want to do something or if I want to go somewhere, I just make it work. I know I wasn't earning much money before. I did get into a 7K personal loan debt that would have probably contributed to my traveling. I did pay that off through my super when we could access it through COVID, unfortunately, but I just wanted to prioritize getting that down. It was killing me at the time. Yeah. And I feel like that gives you a little bit more financial freedom and also paying interest. It kind of levels out. And I mean, don't get me wrong. We don't want to

do it for the wrong reasons. But a lot of people made the decision to use their super money to pay off debt. And I don't think it's the worst thing. Like, did you then feel a lot lighter and a lot freer? Yeah. At the time, I think I was working in a factory because of COVID. Like all my hospitality jobs just went out the door. But I worked in that factory for like five or six days a week. It was honestly probably the best decision that I made because I paid off my loan and then I got a head start and then that momentum kept growing so I don't regret getting my super out and there's obviously more time now that I'm earning more money to get that up a little bit I love that all right let's go to a really quick break on the flip side I want to know about your

best and your worst money habits I need to ask so many more questions like you can't just spring on us been to 20 plus countries sorry you're going to want to give us some travel tips as well so guys don't go anywhere. All right, Money Diaries, we are back and we have been going through your money story, which has been incredible thus far. You're working more than 100 hours a week, or as you corrected, 96 hours a week in a niche safeties role up in the mines. You're earning $187,000. You were talking before about how at uni, you had to kind of cut it yourself. You were only on 20 bucks a week at some points but then at the end of the last segment you just said oh yeah and I've traveled to like more than 20 countries when you were planning to travel did

you put together a budget or you're a bit yolo like what was the plan how did that work it was absolutely yolo I think at the time I had it was an ex-partner we moved to a different city and then I was unhappy there. But I had, I think it was $4,000 to $6,000 in savings. It was barely anything. And I said, I want to go overseas. Maybe I want to work overseas. So, we literally just left. Catcher. I know. I mean, that's a lot to have in savings in general, but not a lot to then quit your job and leave the country. We didn't think about it. And honestly, every time that I've been traveling, it's been a similar story up until this year. I'm such a planner now. it's been more of spare of the moment kind of thinking and I don't regret it at all because

sometimes if you do build up like your holiday too much in your head or you're planning it I don't think you'd get as much out of it if you were just like living it day by day some of my best memories is meeting people randomly and I'm still in contact with some of those people now I agree on the spontaneity as well like whenever my husband and I have you know planned holidays and gone on them like yeah we plan where we're going but a lot of the time we don't plan what we're doing because the one time that we did do that I didn't enjoy it at all because I was like okay cool so like our Monday to Sunday has been planned out on Monday we're doing this Tuesday we're doing this and like we'd get to the location and realize there were like other things that we

were interested in that we would have preferred to do but we like pre-planned and paid for all of these other tours or whatnot and I just feel like the spontaneity is the most fun and our most recent trip, we booked where we were staying, but we didn't book in any activities. We kind of just flew by the seat of our pants and we're like, oh, that looks good. Let's see if we can do that tomorrow. And if we weren't able to, we were like, whatever, like, that's fine. We were trying to book last minute anyway. So we had such a better time. I'm not saying it's for everyone because I've got a few friends who are like, if this isn't planned to a T and we don't have all of our dinner bookings as well, I'm out. And I'm like, oh, that's not for me. Love a spreadsheet, but that part's

not for me. I completely agree. And sometimes the people you meet when you are traveling have like way better recommendations than you would see online or TikTok or anything like that. Like if you're just meeting someone in a bar, I guarantee you'd probably get some better tips from that way. I love it. All right. Tell me about investments. Do you invest? If so, in what? If not, why not? So, I was investing hardcore into one ETF, which was Better Shares, and I was putting half my pay every month into that investment account. Okay. I love this. Where's this going though? Yeah. So, it was compounding. I only had in there for two years, but the dividends were paying around $250 a month, which was okay.

but then I took all of it out for my house deposit. Okay. But that's fine because was that part of the goal? Like were you investing with the idea that you'd pull it out for a house deposit? Yeah, that was always the plan. But now I feel a bit lost. A bit naked. Yeah. Once you've got the house, I think that you will get back into, you know, paying off a mortgage and that's working towards an asset. And you'll also have, the ability to invest again in the future, but it does feel a bit ick when you pull it out because you're like, wait, I was getting dividends paid out and that was really sexy. Tell me about how you picked that ETF. Honestly, it was from reading your book. I wanted to go with a safe stock and

I didn't want to go for individual companies themselves. So, honestly, it's going to sound bad, but I just picked like the safest one and one that kind of appealed to me. It did have a few mining companies within the ETF. Some people won't agree with that. Some people won't and that's so fine, but like also they're tried true steady stocks. So like when you're looking for a really solid ETF, often it will be made up of, you know, mining. You'll see BHP, you'll see Rio Tinto, you'll see all of those because they're tried and true and have consistent returns. So it's a hard conversation to have, hey? It is quite hard, especially because a lot of my groups from studying natural medicine did not align with the mining lifestyle either.

It has been a little bit difficult to discuss this sort of stuff with some groups, but you can call me. I'd love to talk about it. Every decision I've made, I've backed myself and it's definitely paying off. One thing I would say is trying to convince the bank that I consistently save this certain amount every month was a little bit tricky because it was going into a stock. It wasn't going into a savings account. I literally had to get the statement from Sharesies to prove that I was actually saving for a house deposit through this stock. So that was something that I was a bit blindsided for and it took a bit longer to get pre-approval for my house. I'm not surprised and if you're in that situation and you're investing with the idea of purchasing, the best thing you

can do is clearly label your transactions in your banking statement. So I wish that you'd known this beforehand but if you are transferring money out to your share trading platform instead of you know, labelling it share transfer. You're labelling it house deposit savings or house deposit investment so that there is purpose to it. Even if you don't use it for a house deposit later down the line and you decide to keep your investment, having that label and having the ability to, you know, search in your banking statement and highlight all of them and print it out. For some reason, the banks love that. It is possible, as you said, money diarist, like you can prove it and a good broker will give you like a spreadsheet to fill in or something

that will help you along that way. But was it fine after that point? There was something else that they had to check as well, but basically I've got pre-approval and I'm ready to go. Just finding the right place will be hard. There's almost 200 people at every home open. What? 200? Yeah, literally it's like a carnival. There's cars lined up the road. Oh my gosh. Have you thought about using a buyer's agent? That would have been my next step. However, if I don't find a house within the timeframe I have, I'm just going to save up for another six months and then I'll have the 20% deposit. Yeah, I won't have to do my first home buyer's guarantee. There's no rush, I don't think. Yeah. You're like, I really want this. Yeah. All right. I want to know,

you mentioned before you have a HECS debt and a car loan. Tell me about the debts that you have. Yes, so my HEX debt was at $98,000 as of yesterday. However, I've just done my tax and it's now sitting at $81,000. Oh, that's a nice drop down. Yes, it is. However, we still get the HEX refund. I think it's around 3%. Yeah, because of the indexation that they applied and now they're going back and reimbursing you for that, which is kind of sexy. Yeah, I mean, I can't believe how much I care about this now. If someone told me this before I started uni, I would have definitely have thought about the course I was doing. I think

a lot of people get stuck at high school choosing a course and they never get told about the indexation or the debt and how this affects your mortgage borrowing capacity as well. Yeah, it's wild. Something that I look back on my, you know, career at high school and I just remember the pressure of people going well what are you going to do when you get to uni what subjects are you going to pick because you have to do this this this and this to get into this particular uni course so like I'm 16 and thinking about what I'm picking in my you know year 11 and 12 classes to get a good career but I'm 16 I don't even have a fully developed brain yet and you expect me to know what I want to do for the rest of my life like what I want to do for the rest of

my life is convince my mum to buy a four pack of vodka cruises. Like that's all I cared about at the time. And my mum wouldn't do it. I was really hard done by. So I just feel like it's wild to think the amount of pressure that is being put on kids without fully explaining to them like, oh, hey, the financial impacts of this, this and this. Like one of the things I wish I did was take a gap year. And like my little sister did it. And I've always been a little bit envious of the freedom that she got from being able to take a year travel you know have a little bit of fun I'm not saying I could have afforded it but I just know that if I had had that grace I probably would have gone into what I'm doing now a lot quicker I did two psychology degrees and then I went into

business and don't get me wrong I think I use psychology every day and I adore it but I probably would have gone a very different path and I ended up in the same situation as you where I basically had a six-figure HECS debt and I don't know how I did that. And how much it affects your borrowing capacity is absolutely out of this world. So I did a comparison and I think I could borrow up to $900,000 and then now my borrowing capacity is at $503,000. That is wild. I don't think I've seen it impact it that much. I feel like there might be some interest rate changes in there as well, but that's why we want to talk to a broker about what we can do and what that looks like because a story like that might make you go, oh, well, in that case, I'm going to pay off my

Hexdet ASAP. But if you'd chosen to do that, you're going to put yourself further behind in the property game. So, we need to be having these conversations with mortgage brokers to go, is it worth me paying that off? And they might go, yeah, actually, because X, Y, and Z. Or they might say, don't do that at all because it makes sense. So, we need to have these conversations with somebody who can actually put you in the best possible position. So, if that's you, obviously, I'm passionate about this because I own a mortgage-broking company and we can chat. But at the same time, I think, don't make a decision before having an educated conversation. I think so many times we can make decisions based on how scared we are. And that definitely would

have been me if historically I didn't sit down and do the actual numbers. I agree. Money Diarist, I feel like with your history of being one of seven and going through arguably a pretty tumultuous period of time between your parents splitting up and the drought, you probably have some good money tips, especially being a poor uni student and one that traveled to 20 plus countries. So do you have any good money tips or tricks for us? What is your best money habit? My best money habit is definitely when I get paid, I have an up banking account and I put half of my pay, like I said, it used to be in my investment fund. Now it's just in my savings account going on that house deposit. And I have honestly probably about 15 different little

savings accounts on up. I love that. From eyelashes to hair, to shoes, to whatever I need, obviously bills and everything included that goes in there straight away and any leftover money that's not on bills and I give myself $800 a week when I'm home to spend on food going out and leisure things gets put away to an emergency account and gradually that account builds up and yeah that's how I save I also like to bulk food prep as well when I'm home if I can be bothered prepping food, that is. One thing I've noticed is Marley Spoon is very good for prepping your meals on a bit of a lower cost budget. I feel like people think that that's insane, but it is much cheaper, hey? It actually is cheaper. So, my partner loves going to the

shops. I don't know why. He will go to Coles two to three times a day, sometimes on the weekend. Sir, get a life. I can't think of anything worse. I won't get out of the car. No, if I have to go to Coles, we're going to do click and clicks. Like, no. He'll be like, oh, I forgot something. Oh, I've got this. Oh, just go to Coles later.

I'm like, no. But... Mate, it's going on my list and I'm going to get it later in the week. Like, we're not going every day. Like, oh, he must spend so much at the grocery shop. My partner seems to have no debt and spend very little. so he's happy with mee goreng and tuna for dinner. I'm not okay with that. No, that was good at university and it was novel. I think that if you asked me to eat a packet of mee goreng noodles

today, I kind of would have flashbacks and I'm not okay with that. Yeah, but then he'll ask to eat half of my leftover food. Yeah, because it's good because it's Marley Spoon. yeah but I found Marley Spoon to be a big help in my budget for food costs and honestly cutting down my drinking when I'm home there's a bit of a build-up for when you're on site when you get home all these exciting things you can do you get FOMO when you're on site so you start creating a list on what you want to do when you're home and I think yeah cutting down drinking and maybe planning one to two activities on your R&R is more reasonable than doing something every single day and trying to make up for the fact that you're away.

That's fair. And I feel like that probably happens a lot at the start of your mining career. And as you get further in, you're like, I can't be bothered with this. No. And it's meant to be an R&R for a reason. You're meant to rest and recover and not go out drinking, partying every week. Yeah, okay. Well, tell that to someone else.

Tell me a bit about your worst money habit. What do you think that is? I love food and I do like fancy drinks and cocktails and I do love splurging out if I'm not in the best mental headspace. So I will go to the shops and just buy a pair of shoes or a pair of jeans or something just to make myself feel better and then I feel really guilty about it. So I think instead of splurging, maybe putting some time between my purchases or actually dealing with how I'm feeling in the first place would probably be a good idea. Maybe some breath work or meditation. That sounds like me. That's why I'm always telling people like put 24 hours between

you and your spending. And it's mainly me trying to convince myself that I should do that. If I'm having a bad day, I get a little bit spendy. It's good to be able to recognize it. But I think it's interesting because so many of us will say, oh, I'm feeling a bit spendy, but we know that that's not going to make us feel better, but somehow we still want to do it. Like we want to do it just to feel something or we want to do it for that dopamine rush. And then the dopamine come down sucks because you're like, oh, well now I still feel trash about that situation. And I'm also $200 short. Like I think that there needs to be more thought in it, but it's so hard to do that, especially in the moment. So I get it. It's not the worst money habit. And thankfully you earn

more than enough for that not to be the worst thing in the world. Marnie Dyrist, we've had a good chat. I've learned a lot about you. I feel like you're the type of person I just want to be friends with you. So we'll just keep in contact for a really long time. It's good. But you're earning $187,000. You're only 28. You're putting in so many hours at work. You're clearly about to get a new home, which is so exciting. And I have all my fingers and toes crossed for you. you're saving literally half of your paycheck you're thinking about meal prepping you know you're not investing right now but you were and you used it to your advantage and you're a better position because of it and you've just got all of these plans and I'm so excited about

it but at the start of the episode you rated yourself a c-plus like be for real tell me a bit more about this c-plus like we've had this great chat like you're planning to sell your car and you want to get rid of that debt and you're really thoughtful about this. You knew off the top of your head what your hex debt was and you somehow think you're a C plus. Please riddle me how that makes sense. Because my salary is so good, it looks like that my money habits are better than what they are. But I honestly feel like I have way too much learning to go to rate myself higher. I have read all your books and listened to pretty much every podcast. I love this. How unlucky for you.

I would ideally want to retire quite young. My parents will never get to retire. And if I want to do that, I really need to put in some more effort in my spending, hopefully buy another property after this one in the next year or so. So yeah, I have a long, long way to go. So I won't rate myself higher just yet, but maybe in a year. I feel like that is a really good reflection and it's quite clear you know what you want to achieve. At that salary level, that's when I start to go, have you spoken to a financial advisor? Is that something that you have done or you would consider doing? So I did get a financial advisor's contact and then I lost it. I can give you a new one. I have somebody who's actually in your city. I won't mention them here on the podcast because

we haven't given that away thus far, but I'm going to set you up with that later because I think that that's probably one of the best things you can do at 28 on that salary. It might be a little bit expensive, but I think that it would be money very, very well invested to make sure that you're in the best possible position moving forward. It's one of those things where a lot of people say, is it worth getting financial advice? And I can't say yes to that because sometimes it's not worth it. Sometimes people have such clean, clear budget and cash flow systems and they've got their own investing plan and they have their property plan and they go, well, even if I saw an advisor, this is what I want to do. I've got absolutely no interest in changing

and I've already done all my personal insurances, Victoria. And I go, well, don't bother. It literally would be a waste of both of your time. But where you're at, knowing that you have so much to achieve and you need a plan to do that, I feel like it's one of those situations where it's not because you earned heaps it's because they could actually have a really big impact on what you want to do so for me I think that is a good place and probably a good place to leave it because I've run out of time I've spoken to you for ages and I've adored this but unfortunately that's all we have time for today so money diarist thank you for joining us I have adored this I feel like I've made a new best friend and I know that our community are going to feel exactly the same

way. So thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks, Victoria. It was so lovely to meet you and thanks for the chat. 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 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.

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