She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: The Ones That Shook Us in 2022!

Episode Date: December 25, 2022

We adore Mondays thanks to opportunity to share the amazing stories of our community members on Money Diaries each week. The stories, the strength and the insight we get from you is just incredible! The best part is what we learn about each other through these episodes, SO our producer Annaliese asked Victoria to share some of the dairies that shook her in 2022! Listen back and bask in these wonderful stories. This year our Money Diaries are being brought to you by the legends at Shopback! Check them out at  https://app.shopback.com/aus/partner/SOTM and you'll get a cashback bonus when you sign up! Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kurni, Wolperi and Awadjuri 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 Awadjuri 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 Shop Back Money Diaries. Wait a minute, we're not just looking at one on today's episode, but we're talking about the diaries that shook us in 2022 today. And I've wrangled on air, the woman who wrangles us, sound producer Annalisa. Hello and welcome to my show. Oh my goodness, Victoria Devine. Hello. The silent voice here, Annalisa, just rocking it with you on an episode today. Oh my gosh, I love it. I'm so excited. I literally

made you do this episode. So I need to take responsibility for this. Why? For those of you who don't know, Annalisa actually has her own entire radio show and has done for literal years. So like if anyone's actually equipped to be speaking in front of a microphone, it's not me. No, but ZD, it's because we love our money diaries. They are our favorite episodes. They are our community's favorite episodes. Deep dives are great. Friday drinks are great. But I know that you love each and every episode but I literally twisted your arm to make you pick not top ones because they're all amazing but the ones that impactful I think yeah I think I was not happy about it and that's why you're here because you were like I don't even have to convince Jess

I'm gonna sit you down well no don't worry about availability like you will do this for me no but it makes sense because I talk to these women I go through the emails and I like talk to them and I get this tremendous privilege of getting to meet I feel I feel luckier than you because I get to spend more time with them even on the phone? I actually get really envious because often before our money diaries, Annalisa will be like, oh my gosh, Emily, you're going to love her and gives me like this beautiful rundown. And then Emily comes on and she might be a little bit nervous or whatever. And Annalisa's like, oh, don't worry. Remember X, Y, and Z. And I'm like, why do you know so much about our diaries already? And that's because every single time Annalisa will

spend time with them, getting them to understand exactly what a money diary is, how to interview well to make sure that they are really comfortable when it comes to being recorded because like that's not everybody's forte but then also just making sure that they're comfortable with the questions and comfortable with the situation and that honestly their mics work properly and yeah I'm envious because I used to get to do that and now I don't but VD you know low grade actually high grade gives me tremendous anxiety is anyone asking me my favorite list of anything whether it be restaurants food like music anything I don't get judged I can't pick but I love an end of year list from other people so this is also why I forced you to do this because

I want your picks and I cannot wait to see the ones because I have my own perspective on the ones that I went into with one idea about what the story would be like but I came out with a completely other education about what the lives of these people are like and I think that's why we love these episodes so much yeah no I'm obsessed with them and honestly when I say each and every single week oh my god money diaries is my favorite time of the week like it literally is money diaries can be so emotional as well. Like even just recording them. Sometimes we get off a diary and I just like cry or I'm just so happy that I have to go for a walk because I can't concentrate on the next thing I'm going to do. Or we spend like 20 minutes working out a way that

this thing could be solved for one of our money diarists. And I just, I feel like you deserve to know how much more time, energy and effort goes into them than any other segment of our podcast. because Annalisa you spend a lot of your week as well doing research for deep dives and I feel like that's just not nearly as nourishing as working out what is going to work on money diaries and how to get the right talent together that really creates a space of openness but also that our community can learn from because the intention of money diaries is not just to chat to people on a podcast like everybody does that but to actually have an impact with a podcast I think is a much harder thing to do and you do very well.

It's so true, Victoria, but, like, I feel like I get this education. You talked about tears before too because I feel like every time I speak to someone on the phone I end up just, like, teary and I feel like they're my best friend and I'm always so excited for you to meet them and also hearing how each one, like, no joke goes. My life was one way before I found this podcast and then I learnt. It breaks me every time. This bit, this bit, this bit, like, has changed, has shook me.

So now we're going to tell you about how you shook us. Well, actually, I don't even know who you've chosen, Victoria. So do you want to get into it, Annalisa? Oh, yeah. All right. Here is the first one. So I grew up in a single parent family and money was kind of always tight for us. Like we're talking black and gold food and homemade clothes and stuff.

Like I never went hungry. There was always a roof over my head and food in the pantry. We just didn't have anything more than the basics. and once I kind of left home it led me to to not want to replicate that for myself but because of like a few life circumstances with growing up I just I made a bunch of really silly decisions and yeah I ended up getting involved with someone who really was the worst person I could have ever gotten involved with but yeah as I said in my letter I was in a very very deep hole financially but I decided that I didn't want to go bankrupt and I didn't want to kind of escape from it.

So I fought my way back to the top, paid it all off. And I'm so happy that my life is so much different now. Oh my gosh. I'm so proud of you. And we've only just met. Can you tell me a little bit about what your attitude towards money is now? Like obviously growing up, it was quite tight and there's absolutely nothing wrong with black and gold. I still buy that every day, but it does become kind of a stigma in your life, right? Like you kind of look at it and go, oh, that means that I can't afford the CSR sugar. And I know that that is something that I've spoken to friends about who have been through situations like that. But what do you see money as now? I see money as it's not the scarce resource that I used to think it was. I think I've got my head

screwed on straight finally. And to me, it's a means to enjoy myself. It's the reward that I get for putting in so much hard work. I have a day job and a couple of side hustles. So I put in a lot of hours. And so the money's the reward from that. So I like to enjoy it. When I go out, I like to kind of splurge every now and then. And I don't think that's a bad thing because I'm not robbing from Peter to pay Paul. I budget for my splurges now. Annalisa, I'm assuming you remember this one. Oh my gosh. I'm seriously, I'm sitting here with goosebumps. Of course I remember this one. So I now follow her on Instagram. I love her. I'm obviously not going to share her on Instagram. I don't even know if I should tell you that I'm following her on Instagram,

but I follow thousands of people because I have no self-control. I'm like, cute dress company, follow. Cute person, follow. That's why if you go on my profile, you'll be like, she follows thousands. You know those people, Annalisa, that have minimal follows? They're really selective. Not me. But I am really grateful to have followed her because I feel like I have an ongoing connection with her, even though we don't speak all that often. this phoenix rising from the ashes is what this episode was called and she survived an emotionally and physically abusive relationship she's the one that ended up in a hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of debt on credit cards that she didn't know was existing and she paid it off like

she didn't negotiate her way out of it she just paid it off because she was like that is the easiest thing for my heart and i just i remember listening to that and resonating so much with it because I was just like, are you joking? Like that's so much money and I would be fighting tooth and nail to get out of it. But she knew how to somehow during that circumstance put her emotional and mental wellbeing before that. And her ex was controlling to the level of not allowing her bus passes

or something I think I'm remembering from this story too. And there's no good level of financial control. But like the phoenix rising from the ashes is the perfect metaphor for what this incredible woman dealt with. Yeah, she changed everything about her life and is now living her best life. I mean, it did take her seven years to get out of debt. So this was not an overnight turnaround in a financial circumstance. And Annalisa, it ended up costing her $250,000 to get out of all of the debt that she was in. But she's now debt free. She's now living her best life. She has a brand new partner, her dream job. She is a homeowner now. And she

honestly has a very successful side hustle which I'm also watching with just so much awe and I am so proud of her like oh I also remember that she liked to spend cash so that she could watch like feel the very real feeling of the money yeah she still does envelopes like money envelopes and I'm just like you do you boo that is absolutely working but to me this was one of the ones that jumped out immediately it was a tale of incredible strength and survival and honestly so into the spreadsheets that she has and she's a boss I think we can all learn a lot from her and this is just quintessentially she's on the money it is this story of a powerful woman overcoming absolutely everything and getting back on her financial stability train and I just that's a good place

to start for me. Mate, I'm with you all the way. I love it. 10 out of 10. Do you want to hear the next one? Oh yeah. So growing up, I had two like really hardworking parents. They both did shift work. We had a nice home and me and my siblings, we all got to do like dancing and like gymnastics, whatever we wanted to do. Aside from that, we didn't really have much else, but like we had more than enough really. My parents would often like talk about money in front of us but I just remember always hearing we're so broke, we're so broke, we're so broke and in hindsight I don't think my parents were ever so broke. They just yeah I'm not sure where they put their money. They were pretty good with it though to be honest like looking at them now they've you know they've

got a house paid off and they've got a good chunk of super and stuff like that. So that's what money was like growing up for me yeah. So talk to me about how when you were 15 you found yourself in government housing? Like how did you go from this beautiful lifestyle that you just explained to going, all right, now I'm in government housing because of a turbulent home life. Like what happened, my friend? Yeah. So they were like, they're good. They're great hard workers and I have a great relationship with them now. But as a teenager, my mum had lots of physical and mental health issues and it was very, very turbulent. And I got kicked out of home. My older sister left. My other sister ended up getting kicked out as well.

And it was all sorts of fun. So it's weird because we kind of came from like a decent home, but it was, we had a really rough like teenage years. So yeah. So into government housing. That's a really interesting juxtaposition. How did you deal with that? Because I feel like going from a lifestyle that you just explained to going to government housing and having to have your own income and then obviously deciding at 18 to drop out. That's a very big shift. How did you deal with that? Were you okay? Well, I've always been like really independent. Looking back, I probably did go through like moments of like depression and stuff like that. But at the time I didn't really understand my own feelings and I didn't recognize like what depression was. But like

looking back, I probably definitely experienced it as a teenager, but I was always really independent I had a part-time job so I just picked up extra shifts there I was happy to work and that sort of thing so I had a lot a lot of good like friends as well at the time so that was really good yeah I love that all right next question my friend I think we already got here but what do you do for work and the juicy part how much money do you earn so I do only fans and I do in-person like sex work so I'm an escort it varies a lot so I average between 5 and 10k a week but that's because I have like I have two kids I don't really work too hard if I wanted to work harder I could definitely what do you mean you don't work too hard you're like oh 5 and 10k a

week but I don't work hard I'm like what I know that's beyond most people's wildest dreams yeah I'm pretty lazy. I only really work like, I do one booking a day roughly, but that's all I really need to do. And like, I've got such a busy home life. It's a perfect like balance. There has been times where I've worked a lot harder and, you know, made double or triple that in a week, but generally speaking between five and 10K. All right, Annalisa, I'm a bit biased here. This is also a friend of mine that I dragged on the show. Cause I was like, we need your story. we need it like I just need it on the show it's very different to the last story I shared with you fascinating this one and again another one that I went into well not I have friends who are sex

workers too haven't sort of asked too much about their finances but there were so many aspects of this story that were fascinating to me and I loved meeting her on the phone too she's one just a bubbly, bright human that you just enjoy interacting with. But I just also love that we're talking about this journey of she grew up in public housing. She was disadvantaged and now she's making 10 grand a week as a sex worker. And we're not talking about sex work as a bad thing. We're talking about sex. She wanted to do this. She knew she wanted to grow up to do this. She knows she's good at it. Get it, queen. And I think we should be lifting the veil a bit more on our friends that are sex workers because it's 2022. Like this is the oldest career in the entire

world. Like literally it has been around longer than financial advice years. So maybe I could learn something about tenure because like I'm clearly not that good at it. What struck me so much too about her story was the level of responsibility and work ethic. And I know she was saying as well that she works harder some weeks, like she could earn more and she work harder. It sounds like she's working hard, but the level of pressure and financial responsibility that is required of her because her industry is so stigmatized and is not regarded by lots of the population as being legitimate and okay. It's just like, actually you are completely ruling it and stuff is really hard. It's almost like danger money. You know, she gets paid so much because

it's really hard for her to manage that money. I can't imagine having to go to work and do something so physically demanding. So not just sex, like I couldn't do a trade. I couldn't do something like even waitressing. I used to be a waitress. I just don't have it in me anymore to be so physically present and have a job that is so physically demanding. So props to literally anyone who does that, because I just, I can't, like I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and I'm like, oh, I'm going to change my day around so that it suits my life. I just can't do it. I don't know, dude, your life seems incredibly busy and very, very full on. You've met me. I walk into recordings. I'm like, yep, so we're not doing that one today

because I'm a lie on the floor. And you're like, okay, all right, you're the boss. But I just, I think it's so important to talk about sex work because sex work is also something that, you know, obviously our diarist was a full service sex worker and that's cool, but there's just so many different ways, shapes and forms that people engage with in the sex work industry from, you know, selling their nudes all the way through to full service sex workers. Like I remember talking to a woman and if you're listening to this, I cannot for the life of me remember your Instagram name, but we had this really exciting voice memo conversation. She was talking about having, I think it was this episode, having loved the episode about a sex

worker because she didn't feel like her industry was as stigmatized as it used to be. And she told me how she does phone sex work and like she works you know late into the evenings being a sex worker just like doing telephone stuff and I'm like yeah great like get it queen and she's like but do you know what people who call me don't realize that I'm a quadriplegic and I can't do any of the stuff I'm telling them I would do to them but that's not necessary to do the job and she's apparently one of the best that you know these people engage with and she makes so much money and I am just so impressed. I'm like, get it queen, like you do you. But I think the thing with sex work is people just think it's, you know, a bit icky. But I have this friend in the community who, please slide

into my DMs, you'd make an insane money diary. But she has managed to make more than a full-time income with the injuries she has in an industry that she had not considered before, you know, having her accident and now can financially do the things that she wants to do that she would have otherwise not been able to do and had to be on disability because what else do you do and I just I think that there's I'm not saying everyone needs to do sex work it's not for me either I totally get it but like I just think that people who work in that industry do not deserve your judgment because they are stronger people than I ever could be and absolutely outrageous the prejudice that exists with the banking system and even how she was talking about going overseas and

all that stuff yeah and that she literally can't travel to some countries because of the work she's that she'll get in. Insane, insane. And I mean, this story as well was a good one about really understanding that just because you make bank and you're making 10k a week does not mean that you know how to manage money because this money diarist has got a little bit to learn and we've been working on it, I promise, since that episode. But I just think it's such an incredible story. It's such a different one. And I mean, it's not stereotypically she's on the money, but it just seem to miss to not include it in this list. Well, I cannot wait, Victoria Devine, to hear what is coming up next. But I am the producer here. So shall I just take us to a break and

then we'll come straight back. That's it. We'll see you there. All right, Annalisa, to recap, we are doing the diarists that shook us in 2022. And we have two more for you. I made you, Victoria, pick a couple, but not the best, not the favourites, just ones that like we went in with some sort of an idea about something we thought we'd learn and we came out with a whole bunch of other stuff. We absolutely did. And I just don't have favourites, but I want to say that this was one of my favourites. Again, it was so powerful, so moving, so inspiring. Here it is. Yeah, absolutely. I've had a bit of a thought about this. Growing up, I'm one of five kids

And we grew up in a very small rural town in the South Island population, less than a thousand people and one income family. So dad worked and he worked very hard. Money was extremely stressful growing up. It was never talked about and there were always many arguments about it to the point where I think all of us kids, there was just so much stress around it and I knew that in order to live a life how I wanted, I needed to get a good career. So back then, I would say very stressful, pessimistic about money. But now that's obviously changed over the last sort of good five years, I'm more positive about money and optimistic, I would say, yeah. I am a paramedic and I'm part-time and I'm on 106k.

it's challenging and every day is different I'm coming up to 12 years in the job and obviously the last couple years have been you know stressful for everyone and this year in particularly I've really really struggled working just with workload and with you know what was going on with lockdowns and then I've had a few family members that died as well and I've ended up having to take a good eight weeks off work I was burnt out and I ended up having to see a psychologist which I still see and she's fantastic and she said you know you need time off you either go down work cover or we use yesic leave she goes because I don't want you to get to a point where it's too late where you've gone past that exhaustion and you're off work and you

can't get back on road because she said that she's got paramedics that have had two years off road and they can't get back on road because they just went past the point of exhaustion and burnout and so I'm in a much better place now I'm back at work and yeah feeling better but I'm still seeing the psychologist. Oh, I'm glad. Like, I'm glad that you got to pick it up as early as that, because you do hear about people in our frontline roles that just get so burnt out. But I also just don't think, you know, this is maybe another stereotype, Jess, that we need to break. But I just feel like people in those roles care so much about other people that when it comes to caring for themselves, they just don't reach out for the help when they need it. And it's like, well, guys, like you need

more support than anybody like you're carrying the weight of the world and so much trauma that other people go through on you like it just makes sense that burnout would be a very real reality however we just need to identify it earlier and give ourselves the self-care and the space to get through that so I'm glad that you're back on the road that's so exciting we're so lucky yeah yeah and you're absolutely right like and normalize it by talking about it I talk very openly to any of my colleagues that I'm working with because all of us need help at some stage all of us do and yeah like I talk to my family about it whereas you know growing up mental health was another thing that was never talked about it was everything was swept under the rug it's just not helpful

Annalisa. Oh my goodness. These ones that you're like, you are just a better human than I will ever be. Excuse me. She's a better human than both of us combined. Like it's just not going to happen. We put the whole, she's on the money team together and we're like, cool. Still not good enough. For those of you who caught on, this was the episode, she's an egg donor and an inspiration. And I can't, like literally a better human than I'll ever be. She gives so much to everyone around her. She was a mouthy mother of two and an emergency services worker, of course she was, and an egg donor, which was so, so special. And she told us, Annalisa, that she was the first in her family to get a degree at all. And she'd been working on the money story that she grew up

with and she's been changing the narrative, which obviously I'm obsessed with. But the story about her being an egg donor I just I can't like it's so perfect like she was so caring and kind but it also just seemed really serendipitous that it happened the way it did for her and her donor parents is that the right terminology I think so the parents that were getting the donor egg and I just I think it's so perfect because the family that she was you know donating to which she's doing again by the way and makes me so happy so these two siblings are going to be in some way related but more importantly to that family they are also moldy so for them to be able to have some level of their heritage involved in their relationship like oh i just and she started

that journey because her brother is in a same-sex relationship and she was like i hope someone does this for him one day yeah he should have those opportunities as well if he wants to be a father and she heard a call out on the news or a news story or something. Yeah, I can't remember how she found it but she heard a call out for a Maldi couple or one of the people in the couple was Maldi and they would love to find somebody that could help them, you know, embrace their culture because like that to me is something I hadn't thought about, Annalisa.

Like I just think that this space is so special and we live in a world where, you know, I had clients when I was a financial advisor that had surrogate children and, like, had, you know, gone overseas to make sure that they were biologically theirs because they were in same-sex relationships and they just couldn't, you know, have their own kids. It just physically wasn't possible. And it's just, it's such a special process to be a part of,

but just thinking about those donors, like... And the process involved too, because she told us a bit more about that, which is honestly not something I've ever thought about until this point, but just the time, commitment and the cost and they paid for everything, but it was really interesting learning the ins and outs of that stuff too you know and the idea that you do this and it sounds so giving but you know we've

all heard of IVF and IVF wreaks havoc on your body because you have to take hormones and you have to go through this entire process and it's actually wild you have to do that to be an egg donor so she did that it's not even for her like I can completely understand why people like it doesn't matter I'm going through this like I feel like crap my hormones are up up the creek I'm bloated I'm this I'm that like this is awful but like it's so I can achieve my dream of having a baby and like people go through this because they want to have babies and I totally get it but she did it for somebody else to have babies so it wasn't just like oh I donated my time or my energy or my effort she donated 24 7 during this process to these people and oh I just obsessed obsessed and

I feel like this diarist has a huge heart she's endlessly giving again and again and she's doing it again. And obviously we love our frontline workers. I cannot believe that she's also doing that. But like Annalisa, it makes sense. Of course, she's a frontline worker. Like I say, better people than me. And I think it was just fascinating. Like I think the whole story of understanding how, when, where, why, like what does this look like? What does that end up like? Like just a special human doing special things. And she's in our community. How lucky are we? Top notch.

10 out of 10. Would record again. Would you like me to introduce you to our last but not least? Absolutely, Victoria. I cannot wait to revisit whatever you've got up next. Here you go. So I feel like I have a bit of an anxious attachment to money, said like a true psych. But this manifests in almost a scarcity mindset when it comes to money.

and that's probably heavily related to my childhood. So, for context, I am a 22-year-old first-gen immigrant from Sri Lanka and growing up, my family would be classed as low-income. So, we grew up receiving family benefits from, you know, Centrelink and Youth Allowance, which I just want to say, like, we're so privileged to live in a country that has, like, such good social security um so very grateful for that and my parents are really you know smart skilled hard-working people but because of certain circumstances my dad had to live in Sri Lanka while my mum essentially raised us on her own in Australia in a new country um props to her so amazing so in terms of family income so even when Sri Lanka wasn't going through a financial

crisis converting a Sri Lankan salary to Australian dollars is obviously not that stellar and because my dad was a I guess primary income earner and additionally my mum had to retire early or stopped working early because she had a workplace injury. So she was predominantly a stay-at-home mum. So safe to say that money was very tight growing up and there was a lot of rhetoric about not being able to afford things. And I was very, very conscious of the concept of money from a very young age. But I guess I'm saying that I'm really grateful for where I came from and I feel so blessed for everything that my parents did for my sister and I and I genuinely didn't feel like I missed out on anything as a child it was more the sacrifice was on my parents

end you know they kind of sacrificed living with their partner they didn't really indulge in any discretionary spending you know buying clothes or going out to eat but most notably they didn't invest into their financial future in the conventional Australian way of you know super and investments. So instead, they kind of funneled all their money into us and our education. And in a weird way, we're kind of their investments. And sometimes I feel like there's a huge pressure to almost be a good return on that investment and be able to take care of them financially and help them retire and actually enjoy their life. So yeah, that's kind of my money story in a nutshell. All right, Annalisa. Oh my goodness. This was a recent one. And to be

honest, I just couldn't get it out of my brain when we were pulling this together. I just feel like that episode was so special and so different. But for our community, I feel like really important to share because so many of our community are first generational immigrants from international or their parents were immigrants and then now they're growing up with a lifestyle that their parents never had and there's just a lot of guilt and a lot of money trauma and a lot of money story that you need to work through here. And there's Dyrist, 22 years old, first-generation immigrant

from Sri Lanka, and along with her studying, a master's in psychology because she's obviously a smart cookie. A woman after your own heart, Victoria Devine. Annalisa, she's managing a full-time job and working three casual jobs to make sure that her parents and her are okay. Incredible. And she still feels like she's not doing enough. Well, I think that title of this one,

Carrying the Pressure and Bridging Two Worlds, it's like I really remember from this young lady that, this young lady, that she was like way more mature than me. Let's put it that way. You and me combined. This like such love and duty to her family and obviously concern for her family still living in Sri Lanka but still also like wanting to be a 22-year-old

and feeling guilty about just wanting to live where she's at, you know, it's so tough. It's a lot. And I mean, I appreciated it. We've had a few immigrant community members on our podcast before, and I think there've been really special stories. This one really stood out to me though, because she genuinely was so hardworking, but didn't feel like she was doing enough. Didn't feel like it was good enough. And I was just like, holy moly, like you are above and beyond but then also with that overlay that her home country of Sri Lanka is currently enduring the worst economic crisis it has ever seen and her father still lives there because he can't come to Australia yet her mum is here and she just wants to look after them she sends money home

to look after them but we talked about it on the podcast because of how bad the economic crisis is you can't just send money to people there's like this whole back way of getting it there to make sure that they're okay. And it's just, it was such a backwards process. And, you know, I think we should be sharing stories like this and more stories like this next year because it's so impactful, so moving, but also so real. Like this stuff is happening in our world and we are so, so privileged to live in Australia. And I have an overlaying level of privilege that I grew up here and I'm white and I'm female in 2022. Like I just, I feel like having this platform is a, have a responsibility to share stories like this with you so that we can help and we can make a

difference. 100%. Like we know that there are listeners to She's On The Money from all over the world and in Australia, people with all sorts of different backgrounds. And that's what makes the community so special. And I just, gosh, you learn so much more when you hear someone's firsthand experiences about what's going on day to day. And we really do, of course, feel for the residents of Sri Lanka and in so many other countries all over the world that are not in anywhere near as safe or secure positions as we are in this country. And absolute reminder to check our own privilege, right? Yeah, absolutely. And I think this makes me frustrated, right? And I don't do it because

I try to be a reserved, nice human Annalisa. But I think having such a special job, because I do think I have a special job. Yeah. It looks like real fancy sometimes. And I get to go to some fancy events and I get to podcast all day and like, it's so fun. But my favorite part is really connecting with our community because to me, there's nothing like it anywhere else. Like, I don't think I know any other place where there's such a vibrant and diverse community of people who are so caring, so kind, so willing to help others, but also so willing to share their own story so other people can learn from it. Like to me, it's wild, but I just, I think that we are in such a privileged position that, yeah, it's our responsibility to share this stuff and share

it with you and, you know, really respect it. But also, we are a more wholesome community because of this. I'm a better person because of your stories. And like, please don't stop sending them. We're stronger together, mate. Oh, it's so lame, isn't it? Like, it's true, though. Like, how much more connected do we feel when we hear another money diary and we can resonate with a tiny point of it and go, wow. Or we can, you know, empathize with something that we're like, oh my gosh, I didn't know about this because there are so many things in the world that we don't have time to shine lights on. But with She's on the Money, I think that there's a lot to still shine a light on into the future. And we are just so damn lucky that we get to do this

every day. And, you know, I'm grateful for it. Victoria Devine, we were talking about tears before. You're getting me choked up. Stop it. We'll go. We'll go. Thank you for being along on the journey, She's on the Money. Thank you for allowing us to share this. Thank you for being there, being present and wanting to share your stories with us because without you, we can't do this. And I'm just, I'm so grateful that we're all friends. What a way to wrap the last Money Diary of the Year, Victoria. See, are you glad I made you do this? I'm glad you made me do this. I'm very, very happy with this. But we do just want to remind you though, that we love each and every one of you and legitimately every story that

comes through is just so special. So special. And you know what? An underlying theme of all of the four that I have picked today is that talking to each and every single one of these people I think if we'd asked them Annalisa oh do you reckon like your diary would make it to the wrap they would say oh no absolutely not like absolutely not like they all just don't think that their stories are that inventive like we had four different diarists on we had the first one which was Phoenix Rising from the Ashes she was so humble so kind but just wanted to share because She knew that she'd done a really good job, but I don't think she realizes how impactful it was.

We had my friend who is a sex worker who I just don't think she understands how relatable that content is as much as not all of us can relate to being a sex worker. We can all relate to not being that great at money sometimes. And I just think being open and honest about it is really important. Holy moly, our egg donor, she didn't think that her job was that important. She was just like, oh, I just want to give back. click my brother's in a same-sex relationship and I just kind of hope that someone would do that for him one day and I'm like what the hell like you are so special and then our final money

diary that we wrapped was our diarist who was carrying the pressure and bridging two worlds and I just she would absolutely not think that she would make a wrap but I think everyone's going to agree with me that these all deserve to absolutely be here but slide into my dms let's chat tell me about your favorite money diary and why and we cannot wait to share so many more stories in 2023. Oh, we have so many of them lined up. I cannot wait to share them all with you. Thank you so much, Victoria, for having me on. Of course. We'll see you in 2023, guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and

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