She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: The Savvy Saver

Episode Date: September 24, 2023

Today's gorgeous community member and her partner purchased their home at 26 years old with no financial help from family or friends. Using some savvy savings, and wise investments, she is sure to encourage you on your own journey! 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 pleasure of sitting down with one of our She's On The Money community members to learn all about their money story. Let's jump into it because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi Victoria, I love your podcast. I have been a long-term listener for a few years and thought my story may encourage someone to keep going with their financial goals. I'm now 27 with some savvy savings and investments. My partner and I have been

able to purchase a $1.3 million property in Sydney at the age of 26 with no financial help from family or friends. We've been in the property for almost a year and we couldn't be happier. I'd love to share how we did it with the community and encourage anyone who has a similar dream on their journey. Money Diarist, you're just coming straight in being a baller. Okay, no worries. Welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. Oh, I'm so excited about this for you. Congrats on the purchase, by the way. Yeah, we're very happy. Oh my gosh, I love it. All right, let's start as we always do. Money Diarist, I want to know, what grade would you give your money habits on a scale from A through to F if I asked you to give them a grade?

Oh, I think I would give myself a bit of a generous A minus. All right. That seems very good. I can't wait to learn more. My favorite question of all time. Can you please tell me a little bit more about your money story? My partner and I, we've been together for about five years. And essentially when we got together, we basically had the dream of owning a family home that had a big, beautiful backyard. my partner he's from the country so that's what he always grew up with and we always wanted to have a dog essentially and so when we met each other the savings dream was on we basically tried to save up as much as possible and we first started out we lived with a family member we slept on a

king single for about a year oh my gosh together together don't recommend no I can't see how that would be a recommended option but it was just basically we did a lot to save basically you do what you got to do. Exactly. And it was just the best option for us at the time. From there, I cracked it and we moved out into a rental during COVID. And from there, we were able to purchase our first property, which was a villa. Now, I would love to say that it was all savvy savings, but it definitely wasn't. My partner, he actually took one for the team. We basically have family members that work for banking. And they basically told us that if you work for the bank. And as long as you have been with the bank for one month, you can pay a 10% deposit on a

property and you don't have to pay LMI. Yeah. My partner at the time, he was working casually and so he needed full-time income anyway. And so he sold his soul to work for a call center at one of the big banks. I don't know if that's selling his soul or being a genius. He's a genius, but he absolutely hated it. See, he did definitely take one for the team then if it was a role. He wasn't passionate about. Definitely. I mean, no, hey, like some people do love that role. I have friends who love that role, but for him, it just wasn't a good fit. Yeah, fair. And he basically did that for about five months and then left. However, we bought a property almost exactly a month after he started. And then from there, we were in the property for about a year where we made the very

scary decision. Do we stay in this property or do we take the gamble to sell it? It was pretty much right at the turn of where the Russian-Ukraine war was announced. And it was when we had that awful weather. And so there was starting to be those feelers of that interest rates are going to rise, property prices are going to crash. And we just thought, let's sell now, make the profit, and then buy a property almost straight away, our dream property, and put that down as a deposit, our profit. And that's essentially how we did it. Oh my gosh, you're going to have to tell me though. Like we need the pervy details. You can't say we bought a villa, then we sold it. Now we have a dream property. Like this is, she's on the money. So how much did you pay for your villa?

What did you sell it for? So for the villa, we bought a two bedroom, one bathroom villa in a reasonably nice suburb. And then we bought that for about 800 and we put a $80,000 deposit. So 10% exactly. We basically changed up the floors. We ripped out carpet, just put down those laminate floorboards, painted the place and then sold it a year later. I think it was 13 months later for a million and fifty oh my gosh you're a queen yeah so that was actually a record for the suburb for the villa we were just lucky no no no you worked for that that's not just lucky you bought a villa you flipped a villa you saw the potential like I don't know what about that was luck my friend thanks I must admit it was very scary very daunting but the mindset we

had was that, yes, the villa's going up in value, but a house will go up greater in value. And so for us, it was the case of we moved out a few suburbs to basically buy the house. So we would never have been able to buy a house in the suburbs we had the villa in. So we just moved out that little bit further. And for us, it's just ticked every box and we couldn't be happier. Oh my gosh. So you flipped it. And then you mentioned before 13 months. Now, I know why you said 13 months, but why is 13 months important when selling a house? Well, because you have to be in the house for at least a year so that you don't have to pay capital gains tax because it's not an investment. The second you said 13 months, I was like, this woman is savvy. She is all over it.

Like the fact that you even knew to get your partner into a job where you were working for a bank so that you could do the 10% deposit with no LMI. I was like, these guys have their brain switched on. No wonder out the gate, you're like, A minus, easy. There's only a very small amount of room to grow. I love this. I'm so pervy on it. So tell me about buying a $1.3 million property. What type of deposit did you then have for the property? And like, how do you feel about it now given interest rate rises? Yeah. So we were actually incredibly lucky. So the bank that we are with, with our mortgage, we basically were able to port our loan from the past property. So So basically we had about half of our mortgage is fixed. And so that is fixed at a 2% interest

rate until 2025. Literally get wrecked. Yeah, because we were able to transfer that across. And so not many banks do it, but the bank wherewith does. So it was very lucky for us. So I feel really good because when we bought our property, it was literally about six months later from when we sold our property. And so things had turned a little bit. It was just after the peak in property prices in Sydney. And essentially we just had the mindset of, all right, we've got a 20% deposit. We either do it now or we wait and see what happens. I just had a gut feeling that Sydney prices never really stay down for long. No, they don't. And I knew immigration was going to open again. I knew things were going to happen. And so I'm very lucky that my partner,

he just said, go for it. I trust you. And we just found the right property and it all basically just fell into place. Oh my gosh, I love this so much. And now you're in more than a million dollars worth of debt. Tell me what that feels like. Yeah, it's a million and 50. Honestly, it is scary. However, I think we came at it with a very good mindset where we budgeted very well, knowing what each of our salaries are. And we basically planned for worst case scenario. Yeah, great. So I work in sales where a lot of my income is commission. And so we didn't count any of that commission when buying the property. And we ensured that we had quite a significant buffer per month to put straight into savings for things like car rego or council rates or

something like that. We made sure we had a certain amount of money to buffer all of that, including Christmas presents, birthdays. You don't know what could come up. Yeah, great. I feel like that is, you know, a perfect time to ask my next question because you said. We really thought about our salaries. Tell me what those salaries are. How much do you earn and what is your job? So as a whole, my partner, he's on about just under 70. And for myself, it does fluctuate again because I work in sales and I work in sales in the health industry. And so last year I took home about 160. Oh my gosh. How did you get into sales in the health industry? And tell me a bit more about the actual breakdown of your role, because obviously some of

that is going to be made up of commission. Yes. So I got into it basically straight out of uni. I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I actually got into one of the lower pharmaceutical sales, hated it, left that 18 months later and just got really lucky with this role that came up and it just seemed to be the perfect fit for me. And ever since then, it's just been climbing as demand for the job. It's great because I'll never lose a job because everyone needs health, I love that. Smart woman. And so if we break down my salary, it's about $107,000, which is my base. And then I get a $15,000 car allowance. And then the remainder is commission where if you hit 100% of target per quarter, you get about $10,000.

That is very exciting. I feel like that would motivate me a lot. Do you find yourself, especially working in sales, really motivated by that big goal? Like every quarter being like, if I do this and I, you know, really slog it at work, I'm going to smash it? Or are you maybe not as motivated by that? My personality, I'm very goal orientated. So sales was the perfect role for me. I love having something to work towards. And essentially, again, even in my personal life, that's how we are where we are now is because I have a goal and essentially I like to budget and work out the parameters to achieve it. So I find it motivating. I love it. All right. Well, tell me a bit more about your big money goals. Like you've got the house, you've bought the dream

house. You're in a million dollars worth of debt. What are your other goals and what are we working towards at the moment? So there's a few things I'm working towards, but probably one of the big things I'm working towards is a wedding. My partner and I would love to get married in the next few years, but also we're trying to get ourselves set up for kids. Childcare is incredibly expensive. Maternity leave is also quite expensive. And so we want to make sure we have a big enough buffer that we're not in financial straits when that time comes. I adore this. I have a question. are you engaged at the moment? No. No, no, no, not a bad question. I was talking about marriage with my partner and we moved in together and we bought a house way before we got married.

And I always find it an interesting conversation because the other day I was talking to a girlfriend and she was like, oh, I wish I was getting married soon. And I was like, oh, like, do you talk about it? And she's like, no, I'd never mention it. I don't want him to think that I'm putting any pressure on. And I was like, I don't think I put pressure on, but also I was quite clear. Like if we buy a house, I do want to get married. I do want to have kids. These are my goals. What timeframe are you thinking? Like what works for you? How have you had these conversations with your partner? Oh, we're exactly the same. Yeah. We have a house. So it's all about honest communication, openness. We talk about it quite a lot. And for us, even though we want to get

married right now, financially, we know it's not the right time. And so it doesn't change anything marriage. We're committed to each other. And again, we've got a house, we've got a dog, we've got it all so for us it's just when we're financially ready that's when we'll do it i love that conversation i also want to ask a really perfect question because you mentioned that your partner earns just under 70 grand but you're on like 160 who's paying for the ring we have a joint account we've each got our own accounts and we each put a specific amount of money into that account per month so we've had the discussion that when it does come time the money is just going to come from the joint account. What's going to be the surprise is when he asks me,

not the fact that we're getting engaged. Yeah, no, I love this. Also, like, nice for him to have a sure thing. Like, he knows you're going to say yes. Like, surely that won't make you nervous. I was talking to my now husband about that. And I was like, why were you so nervous when you proposed? Like, you knew that I was going to say yes. Like, you knew this is what I wanted. And he was just like, I don't even know. Like, what if you changed your mind? But what happens if you don't like the ring? I think that's the biggest nerviness. To be honest, I didn't even care. I was just so happy to get a ring and now I love my ring, but I just couldn't care less. Like I remember a couple of friends chatting to me and being like,

well, if I don't get this ring, like I won't be happy. I was like, mate, I would have a tinfoil ring and I would be so happy with that. Like it really didn't worry me. Do you know what that makes me think of? What? Taylor Swift paper rings. Oh yeah, no, I would have taken a paper ring. Easy, easy. I've already asked for a necklace with his initials to go around my neck because I'm a Swifty at heart, but that is okay. Even if he says, that's really lame. Who even does that? You're in your thirties. I'm like, it's not the point. It's not, it's not the point. Talk to me a little bit more about, I guess, weddings and

planning that. Obviously you seem, from my perspective, to really be across the finances in your life. Have you discussed what type of wedding and what type of budget you'd be looking at? Yeah, definitely. So each to their own. My partner and I, we don't think there's great value in having a very expensive wedding because it's one day of your life. And so for us, my parents have offered to give us finances for a portion of the wedding. Oh, how nice. We don't want to really put up more than about $10,000. Oh my gosh. And then my parents will put up about 30 and for us that's plenty for a wedding. Oh my gosh that's so much money. Yes but technically that's less than the average. Yeah I remember having these conversations

prior to getting engaged we would talk about what a wedding would cost what type of wedding my partner wanted versus me and I would have honestly been very happy all I cared about was good food so I was like I don't care if we go to a registry and then we go to a beautiful restaurant and have like a very fancy dinner with like our favorite friends, like call it 10 or 15 of them. Like that's in my head, the most romantic wedding ever. But my husband is a member of a soccer club and has been since he was tiny. Obviously that was never going to fit the brief that I had. So we compromised and had good food and a really big wedding, which was not a compromise. It was a very, very large financial outlay, but I don't regret it. It was one of those things where

we had those open conversations at the beginning. And I think my partner came to the realization, he was like, holy moly, like I have met a woman that does not want a massive wedding. And it's funny you say that. You're the opposite, are you? I would love to elope, hire a photographer because that's what's important to me is just photos because that's how you're going to remember it in so many years. But he wants a big party. We both thought, well, let's compromise. Let's just do the big party. Why not? Like you only get married once but we want to do it country style so we want it to be super relaxed good music and just everyone just get drunk yeah great 10 out of 10 everyone at that wedding is going to have

a brilliant time I can't wait to hear about it all right let's go to a quick break and we'll get back into the money questions right after this all right money diarist we are back and I am adoring the conversation that we are having but I want to know do you have any investments If so, what are they? If not, do you have plans to invest? Yeah. So when it comes to investments, together, my partner and I, we have about $10,000 in stocks and that's about it. And then super. How did you decide where to invest your $10,000 in shares? So very honestly, I don't have an interest in the stock market. That's fair. I left it to my partner,

whatever he wanted to invest in or what he felt passionate about, I just let him do it and I trusted him. Love that for you. All right. I want to know now, we know about your $1,050,000 mortgage, but do you have any other debts? If so, what are they? The only other debt we have is my partner's HECS debt and that's about $25,000. Do you have a plan to smash that out or are we leaving that as is and just ticking away or is there a plan in place at all? We have a plan in place. This financial year, right before they added the interest to it, we smashed out about $10,000. And so we're going to basically keep smashing out hopefully roughly that same amount each year until it's gone. Do you have a spreadsheet?

Do you track all this? I feel like it'd be the sexiest spreadsheet I've seen in my life. I track nothing. What? Absolutely not. I'm going to fix that. I will give you my budgeting cashflow masterclass and you can go and do that. And I feel like you'll be even more in control. Maybe that's what it's going to take you from an A minus to an A plus. But I want to know now, because I feel like you've got a number of them. What is your best money habit? Best money habit? Budgeting. As soon as money comes into account. But you don't even track it. What are you doing? How do you budget without a spreadsheet? I'm so confused. It's all in my head. We figure it out. Like we sit down together, we write everything up

and basically we go from there. So we have a certain amount of accounts, you know, money for the groceries goes into X, Y, and Z. Money for et cetera bills goes into X, Y, and Z. And we don't then don't touch our savings and we've got the offset. So any additional money just goes straight there. I love that. So how do you split expenses between you and your partner given you have different incomes? So for us, income, it doesn't matter. So we basically split based on what we earn. So because I earn a significantly more, I pay more and I'm more than happy to do that because he pays for things in other ways. I love this because obviously if you've listened to my podcasts and know the show, I'm very much about percentage-based equity in a relationship because

obviously there's going to be a very significant difference between someone earning about 70 grand and someone earning about $160,000, you're going to have so much more financial freedom than he does to make decisions and go on holidays and even just eat out or grab an extra coffee. How did this conversation come up when you got together? And was there ever any friction around that or was it just always like, yep, we'll just split it by a percentage? How did you have this chat? I guess for us, my partner and I, basically when we got together, probably about a year into it. We just knew we'd be together long term. It was very organic. I'm a very upfront person. So I'll just say it and I just wear my heart on my sleeve. And my partner, he's incredibly supportive

and he loves the fact that I earn so much. He's like, you're a girl boss. I love it. I would too. It's actually epic. And so for us, it was just a case of, all right, what do we both feel comfortable with? And what do we both agree is fair? And that's how we did it. I love that you got to have that open, honest conversation. I don't want to stereotype here, but I feel like often men cannot be that comfortable with having a conversation when the female is the breadwinner because obviously they could feel inferior. They shouldn't because it's got absolutely nothing to do with that and money doesn't define you. But I just think that

that conversation is interesting to ask questions about because sometimes it comes up that it was harder or they had to get over something. But I love that he was just like, yep, straight out the gate. That's sweet. Yeah. He's incredibly supportive. You mentioned earlier in the episode that you know you've got a house and you've got a dog but the reality is you can only say that because you got a dog like two days ago right so this snoring that maybe people could hear in the background who's that yeah so this is our new little puppy a new addition to the family and she's just napping on your lap and I get to see her it's so sweet but if anybody hears any little puppy snores that's where they're coming from because like we don't want to put her in another

room. Money Diarist, I have another question for you. I want to know, we did what your best money habit was, which was budgeting, but what's your worst money habit? I think it's, you know, a two sided coin. I think the worst money habit I have is that sometimes I can budget too much. And so I don't let myself just enjoy things sometimes. So for instance, like I'll go out to a club or something with some friends and my partner. And in my head, I've got a budget of I'm only spending this amount. And so then I don't let myself have an extra drink here and there. And this is where my partner comes in and he's very much like, babe, it's going to be okay. Like we're fine. You can have another drink. We can stay out another hour. You're having a really good time.

It's not going to be the worst. Exactly. So budgeting for me, it's great. I do it, but it can also be my own worst enemy. All right. Money Dyrist, at the start of this episode, you said, I'm an A minus. Can you talk me through why you think you're an A minus? And then if after our conversation, would you change it or would you keep it as is? Yeah. So the reason why I said A minus is because yes, we've accomplished so much, but we still do have a significant amount of debt. There's still things we're working to achieve and there's always things to learn. I don't know everything. There's definitely things I would like to learn regarding tax back, more about investing in shares for myself. But also one thing that I really, really want to get into start doing

and making it a better habit is starting to salary sacrifice for my super. It's not something I've done in the past, even though everyone says I need to. And so that's why I would give myself an A minus is that, yes, I feel like I've done so well, but there's still more I could be doing. I couldn't agree with you more. Like as much as you're saying there's more, I'm like, you're killing it. Like you have such a good income. You're going to create such good financial security long term. You've got a puppy. You've bought your dream house. Like, oh my gosh, I'm just so excited about it. I wish we had so much more time to chat. But unfortunately, that is all we had time for today. Mani Dharist, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so

much for sharing so much of yourself and your story for us to learn from here today. I love it. No worries. Thank you. The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.

Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of MoneySherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.