She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: The Spending & Saving Swing

Episode Date: July 16, 2023

Today's Money Diarist has already been on a huge financial journey at the tender age of 25. When she was 6, her parents suddenly separated due to a secret affair. Her spending and saving habits go through extreme swings and a misdiagnosis of anxiety/depression cost her dearly both mentally and financially. But a recent diagnosis of ADHD has helped her turn a corner, and she's just paid off $25,000 of consumer debt! She's right at the beginning of her journey to financial freedom and wants to share it with the community. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money.

She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where I get the absolute privilege of talking to one of our incredible She's On The Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded like this. Hi V, I'm 25 and spending is my crack. Due to a secret affair, my parents suddenly separated when I was six. Mom has always been a saver. Dad, total opposite, and relies on loans no matter the paycheck. My spending and savings go through extremes. After being misdiagnosed with anxiety

and depression in 2018, my mental and financial well-being was taking a beating. Late 2022, at 25 years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD. This was an incredibly expensive but relieving experience as the world and my financial behaviors made sense. Now I've paid off $25,000 worth of consumer debt, but I'm right at the beginning of my journey to financial freedom. I have no savings and dopamine hits are still my crack, but I'm learning every day thanks to She's On The Money. Money Diarist, are we two peas in a pod? I think so. Oh my gosh. I feel like this is so relatable. being misdiagnosed with anxiety and depression when you actually have ADHD I feel like is so common and while I still do have anxiety and depression and I am medicated for both of those

things I feel like so many times people just whacked my ADHD off the table because they were like babe it's just depression it's just anxiety it absolutely is not so money diarist I'm really excited to learn a bit more about this but as always I ask this question at the start so that we can get a little bit of frame of reference. If I asked you to give your money habits a grade, what would you grade them on a scale of A through F? So about two years ago, I would have given myself a B. And then up until about six weeks ago, I would have given myself a D. And I think now I'm tracking back at a B minus. Oh, a B minus. That's a glow up in six weeks. Yes.

I'm excited to hear more about that. Let's ask my favourite question ever. Can you please tell me a little bit more about your money story? I feel like this one's a little bit spicy, especially with how you wrote in. Yeah, so like I said, mum, really good with money, always made sure the bills were paid. Dad, very impulsive, quite similar to me. But it wasn't really something that was spoken about at all, really.

I had no idea about our situation. I only knew that we were having home brand family pies for dinner, mushy peas, that kind of thing. Saying that though, I didn't go without completely. I was really fortunate to be really close to my grandparents because my parents were quite young when they had me. So I did get to go to England with them when I was younger and they kind of spoiled me a little bit. But I've started to come to terms with ADHD playing a big role in my money story and it's kind of all or nothing mentality with everything not just money but I'm getting better with it now I'm still working it out it's still a day-by-day thing I went to a private school which was funded by my mum's work

because she works in the government which was really good and I wasn't allowed to work during school, so I had no basis of how to save money or how to even work or interact with people. After school, I went straight into work. I didn't have any time off and I just started working at a local retailer that I didn't like it. It was just that got me through, got my first paycheck, spent it all because that was the first bit of money I'd ever kind of received. and it just kept going so kept earning kept spending I was lucky enough to be able to live at home so I didn't have rent but it got to the point where I started to need to pay for things and that's when it got a little slippery and I started to rely a little bit on credit cards

and getting a loan. I never was taught to save or had any type of knowledge on what to do when you get a paycheck. So it was, yeah, a slippery slope, got into a lot of debt working in the field that I do in dental. I wanted to have straight teeth. That was a very expensive escapade. Oh, I can absolutely relate to that. I did not realize how expensive it would be to straighten in my teeth. And that was with a discount as well for my line of work. So that was quite expensive. I had to buy my first car. So all those things, I just thought, oh, need a loan, need to get a payment plan. And I thought that was okay. So yeah, that's kind of where that went to. Oh my gosh. So it just all added up and added up. Do you think that you got, I guess, that mentality

from your dad because he was very much a, I rely on credit. So when you first got your credit card, it didn't scare you or worry you in any way, shape or form? No, it terrified me. I didn't like the idea of getting a credit card or getting loans or anything, but I didn't know any other way. So yeah, my grandparents, my mom was always don't get a credit card, don't get a credit card. But my dad, without meaning to, kind of opened that door. That makes absolute sense. I feel like sometimes when you just don't have enough, you're like, I'm terrified of this situation, but I also can't see another option on the table for me at the moment. How did it ultimately spiral from you just getting a credit card to get by to being $25,000 of debt? I don't know.

honestly I think it's just you're living life and I kept having that YOLO mentality of I only live once I just need to do whatever I can I didn't do any major travel I didn't do anything crazy but I wanted to be young and afford going out to dinners and I was always comparing my situation with people around me who could afford to do that because they had jobs in school they had parents who could afford it. So I just wanted to keep up with the Joneses and I secretly knew that I couldn't do it without those things. Yeah, I totally relate to that. I feel like it's such a, I want to say slippery slope, but it's not. It's like a hill because you know what you're doing each and every single time, but each and every single time you tell yourself like,

oh, I won't rely on it next time. Like I'll just sort it out this time. And then it just, it feels like it gets away from you, right? Yeah, exactly. So you said before, now you're out of debt. $25,000 would have been super overwhelming. How did you get out of $25,000 worth of debt? I didn't have $25,000 always. It was kind of putting myself in debt, getting out of it, putting myself back in worse debt, getting out of it. It was a back and forth situation. A cycle. Yeah, it was a cycle and I couldn't break it. And I'm happy to say I've finally broken it. What's the secret? How do we break it? There are lots of people who are struggling with this. And to be honest, I feel like I still struggle being a little bit spendy. There's

no secret and I haven't worked it out. So if you work it out. So helpful. Thank you for coming on the show. Nice having you, Money Diarist. So, so great. All right. I want to know so much more about this. So I need to know now, what do you do for work? How much money do you earn? So I have these written down. I'm a clinic manager for a dental practice, which is about 66,200 a year, including super. And then I also have a second job, which is a food and beverage attendant. And I get anywhere from $80 a week to about 300. So it kind of just depends on how many hours I'm getting and if I can mentally keep up with it. When you said food and beverage attendant, that reminded me of when I was at uni and I used to do

like casual work for events and stuff. Is that similar or is this like in a restaurant or what does that look like? In a bar and restaurant, but same award rate, I think, with doing events and stuff. Yeah, how good. And that just is flexible depending on how much staffing they need or like the events and stuff that are going on there or what does that look like? Yeah, so sometimes I'm really motivated and I want to earn heaps of money. Other times you're like, I do not want to have a second job right now. This week is hectic. Yes, exactly. And I want to pick up heaps of shifts. So I work and then I burn myself out. And then the next week I don't want to work at all. So it's just, I'm still trying to find that happy medium of how many shifts is enough

for me. Yeah, absolutely. So what does that mean? You're taking home each week on average between the two into your bank account? So I get paid fortnightly. So fortnightly is $2,030 from my dental job and then around $200 a week for my bar job. That's not too bad. So talk to me a little bit more about your money goals. You've got this $2,030 plus maybe $200 a week ish coming in each and every single fortnight. What are we working towards? You got out of debt, you said in your letter in that you're now, I guess, beginning your journey to financial freedom, which I think is so exciting. But what does that look like? What are the big money goals that we have on the table? So I want the white picket fence Australian dream house. Yes. But there's also a few things

in between that that I really like to do for myself. I have two holidays coming up one in August for a country concert which I'm so excited about. How cool. I know I know and a wedding next year for one of our best mates so they're two of the short-term money goals and then next year I am hoping to get a breast reduction so that's kind of a really big goal that I'm working towards that I'm hoping will be a next year thing. And is that something that you're working with a doctor to make sure that it kind of goes through Medicare and you actually get it as cheap as possible? Or is that something where you're going, all right, well, my back isn't breaking me. This is cosmetic because they're obviously two very different streams you could go down when it comes to a

breast reduction. No, I definitely went down the doctor referral path to get it because it's medically necessary. So a lot of it will be covered under Medicare, which is fabulous. An absolute money win. Yes. But that means that you're probably on long wait lists. So what does that look like, do you think? I don't think it's too long a wait list. I live in the top end, so we're pretty lucky with that sort of thing. We don't have the best choice, but the waiting list isn't too bad. How much do you think that you'll be out of pocket for that? I have to pay about eight to 10 grand upfront and then we do the surgery and then I will get

a lot of it back, potentially about two grand out of pocket after all this, but I still have to have the money there beforehand. Yeah, to fund it. So what will it look like when it comes to like work? Are you having to take annual leave or sick leave or have you looked at that yet? Haven't looked at that yet. I probably could take some sick leave. Well, it's medically necessary. That is absolutely sickly if my friend. Sweet. Yep. They can call me.

I won't be out of action for too long. I spoke to my doctor and he said maybe two weeks, but a lot of my job for my main dental job is sedatory. So I'm not assisting anymore as I'm the manager. So I don't do that side of things too much. Yeah, that's cool. That's good to know. And I feel Like so many times when those surgeries come up, people only look at the final cost of the actual surgery and not like your time out of work or the time it's going to take to, you know, get back into work or this one, which one of my friends had recently when she had a breast reduction, the amount of money that she had to spend on the hairdresser to get her hair washed because she didn't realize that she wouldn't be able to or she

wouldn't be comfortable to lift her arms above her head to wash her hair. So maybe that's something you could factor in or just get a really good friend and a kitchen sink involved. And I feel like you'd save a whole heap. You best believe my partner will be washing my hair. Yeah. 10 out of 10. I love that commitment. All right. Let's go to a really quick break because after I want to talk about investments and a little bit more about debt. And also you cannot start a letter to me that says due to a secret affair and then not give me any more details. So we will be back on the flip side. Money Diarist, we are back and this is not an official Money Diary question. But as I said before the break, you can't write me a letter that says, hey V, due to a secret affair, what's the

goss? Like how did that come to, I guess, fruition and come out? And how did you find out about it if you were only six? Well, I didn't find out about it until only a couple of years ago. Really secret. Yeah. Everyone bounced across and, oh, ask your mom, ask your dad, ask this person, ask that person. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I kind of woke up one morning and my dad wasn't there. My mom came in and said, hey, dad's just going away. And that's all I remember. Honestly, I was six. I don't remember too much. You're just like, all right, see you soon, dad. Yeah. and I still saw my dad every weekend still have a really good relationship with both of them it was just a really strange time when I was younger but they tried to make sure

initially that it wasn't too complicated and too involved for me so that was good on their behalf but I think it's still something that's underlying that I probably have to work through a little bit sometimes I was about to say I'm really impressed that through that because like you best believe if my partner does that to me straight under the bus straight under the bus like and I'll be driving but I feel like that's such a mature way to deal with it because obviously kids aren't emotionally mature enough to be able to comprehend something like that I was going to say oh it's really good that you kind of missed that younger trauma but it's something that I think when you learn something like that about parents in particular, it does end up impacting

you. So do you think this in any way impacts your money story or how you approach money or even how your parents approached money while you were growing up? I think it had a bit of an impact on my mum, making sure she had savings or something to back her. She was always really good with money, so she kind of did anyways. But I think it just reinforced that people aren't always together forever things happen and you need to have something there to save you so you're not stuck or in a situation you don't want to be yeah no I totally agree with that I always find it so interesting because that could have been I guess a pivot point of your childhood or it could have been something that really was like the sticking

point of I guess trauma but the way they dealt with it I don't know I find that really mature of them because as I said, I'd be driving the bus. I don't know. I would hope that I had the same maturity. I want to know next though, talk to me about investments. You said that you were at the beginning of your journey to financial freedom. Do you have any investments? If so, what are they? If not, what do you want them to be? So I just have the super and I've been making some extra contributions to that for now just because I'm not too confident with the investing world yet and I'd rather have more savings to lean back on just in case for an emergency fund but I just checked before this and I'm sitting at $38,600 in my super. Oh my gosh that is so good

for your age you are 25 years old and have $38,000 in super. Really? Yes that's massive my friend that is so good talk to me about your super fund did you pick your super fund have you ever changed it what does that look like I was with one that my first job created for me and my employer who I have now at the dental practice we're super close I've been here for six years and he's kind of like my second dad he teaches me about those things we have money conversations all the time. So I kind of said to him one day, what super are you with? And then created one in Oz Super and yeah. How good. I love it when I can ask questions and people are like, yeah, I put myself in a super fund that made sense for me. I looked at my options. Like it's just so nice because at

25, no, I didn't have it together. Absolutely not. Like I think I still had three super funds. I didn't really know what they're up to. I was wasting fees on all of them and I just didn't make it a priority, but future you is going to be so much better off because you've done that. And I just, it makes me so happy. All right. Talk to me about debt. You mentioned that you had recently paid off $25,000 worth of consumer debt. Do you have any other debt? If so, what is it? No debt at the moment. Queen behaviour, you're smirking while saying that. Are you super proud? I am because it's been a long time coming. Yes. I love that. And what are we doing to stay out of debt? Well, the emergency fund is being created as we speak. Love. And I've started

automating things a lot more because my impulsivity and dopamine hits, like I said, a crack. And I struggle with that a lot. So I've had to automate things and redo everything. And now it's, we're going good. We're going good. I also, it's very common knowledge that I also have ADHD. And I feel like one of the biggest game changers for me was actually automating my cash flow system. I feel like because I am so impulsive, but also with ADHD, it's very out of sight, out of mind. I feel like so many times I'd get a bill and then I get the late fees because I hadn't paid it and I'd seen it come in and I go, oh, I'll pay that. And then I never think about it ever again. So I get the late fees or I get the fees for like, you know, having a fine, like a parking

fine. I remember I let a parking fine get completely out of control and it was like a $88 fine that ended up costing me close to $500 because I literally just kept forgetting about it. It's not because I didn't want to, it's because I kept forgetting about it and everything when it came to money was so overwhelming. So hearing you say, oh, I'm automating things, I think that's so smart. It's literally why, and I'm going to gift it to you actually, we'll talk about that after, but it's why I created the budget and cashflow system that I have. So my online masterclass, because that masterclass, one is built by me who has ADHD, but it automates everything. So it kind of like takes control of your budget and says,

what's your budget? And then it spits out what your actual cash flow should look like to have a clean budget and have a clean, I guess, list of goals. So for me, that was a game changer and I think it might be for you. So we'll talk about that later. Well, you'll be pleased to know I already did it. You already have it. I can't even gift it to you. No, you can't. I'll send you a couple of books. I'm glad we had this conversation. Did it work? Did it help? Yes. Did it actually? Or are you just saying that because you're literally on my show and you can't say, oh, V, it was pretty trash? No, it was good. I just changed things because I'm very particular with things. So I changed it up a little bit, but the basis was

still the same. Which I absolutely allow. All right. I love hearing that. But tell me about your emergency fund, because you mentioned before when I said, how are we staying out of debt? You said, I'm going to have an emergency fund. How have you decided on how much you're going to put into that? So I didn't have a end goal amount as such. I'm kind of just, I have a direct debit that goes from my normal account to the account I don't have access to every fortnight when I get paid. It goes straight into there and that's about 500 bucks a fortnight. Oh, that's going to grow very quickly, my friend. Yes, that's the plan. That's very attractive. I like this. Thank you. And then every time I work at the bar, that paycheck goes straight into the emergency fund

as well. So I don't see it because if I see it, I spend it. I love this. You're just like taking control by completely taking it away from yourself. Genius. Genius. I love that. At what point, and I mean, you said you hadn't really thought about it, but I guess what would be a number that off the top of your head makes you feel comfortable? Is it a thousand dollars? Is at $5,000? Is it $10,000 that you go, oh, that would be nice. I'm kind of aiming for five grand at this stage, keeping in mind I do have some holidays coming up and I do have some things that I need to pay for. But five grand for me at the moment would be kind of nice. I'm excited that you get to go on this August holiday because I feel like when you explained why you were going,

your face lit up. Is country music something that you're really passionate about? If so, tell me a little bit more about this holiday and how much it's going to cost you. I'm a country gal so I love country music. We're going to see Luke Combs who's going to Adelaide. Somehow I managed to get tickets. I was on the ticket website four hours before the tickets actually came out so I made sure I got tickets. We've kind of got a bit of a rough budget that my partner and I have worked out for the holiday. We like to pay for things as they come up so that most of it's paid for. Is he the guy that sings the Fast Castle? He covers it, yeah.

But he's sung that, right? I feel like that's come up on my Spotify and he's really good. Yes, it would have because it's just gone crazy, a little too crazy for my liking if I'm honest. Oh, rude. Is that why you had to like wait on the website because other people have now gotten in on what you already discovered? Yes.

Rude. That's how I felt about Taylor Swift and now I'm validated by the amount of fans she has because I'm like, yeah, well, I knew about her when I was young and you said I was lame. Yeah, exactly. I love that. I love that so much. But you also mentioned that next year you're going to a wedding and that's something that you're budgeting for. And I feel like that's a really topical conversation, right?

So I'm assuming you're going to a destination wedding. Can you tell me without going too much, I guess, into it, because we don't want to throw anyone under a bus, but where is that and how much do you think that's going to cost you? so it's in Victoria and usually my partner and I we wouldn't really travel for people's weddings and that sounds horrible but it's a lot it's a lot of money but it is one of his really close friends and I would never imagine saying no yeah absolutely so we've made a decision to go whether that be for just the wedding or we have a couple of days down there with them I'm not too sure, but we just paid for the accommodation for three nights, which is 600 bucks, which isn't too

bad. Oh my gosh, that's so much. It's still a lot of money to go to somebody else's wedding. And like I adore it. And as someone who has been a bride and I have had people travel for me to come to my wedding, I was so overwhelmingly grateful, but I wouldn't want anyone to think that I didn't think of the financial implications of that. And like the idea that it now has to become one of your money goals, to me goes, oh, is there something weird about this? Like, is there something that maybe means you're putting off your life goals and your emergency fund and you creating financial freedom to celebrate somebody else? And like, obviously it's so aligned to your values and that's fine. I just always like to have these conversations that arguably make people

uncomfortable, but sometimes we have to be uncomfortable to ultimately put ourselves first. But I love that you were like, oh, we usually don't do this, but this one's really important to us so that makes me very happy it was a big decision to do it and I've always previously been in the mentality of oh I just can't afford it and that's always been my what I say when people say do you want to do something I just can't afford it but with this new mentality I've got around money and with my understanding of my diagnosis and automating things making things a lot easier myself, I'm starting to realize that if I have a goal and I put my mind to it and I have a plan, it will happen. And this is just one of those things that we really want to do because he is

one of my partner's best mates. So it's kind of not an option for us. It was a high value thing for us. Oh my gosh. I am obsessed with this mentality change that you're making. And it just makes me so happy to know that you're, I guess, reframing that. And we know, or I know that reframing is such a powerful technique that you can implement literally at any stage it is free but this idea of going from I can't afford it to it's actually not in line with my values or it's not in line with the goals I'm working towards right now because regardless of your income regardless of you know what your values are or what costs you have at the moment this idea that you can't afford it actually stems back to it is not a priority for me and I think that that's

much more empowering than telling yourself and giving yourself this dialogue of like, oh, V, I can't afford it. It's like, well, actually, regardless of your income, a lot of people would choose to do that and that's okay. And they can quote afford it because they have the money and they're not going into debt for it. But when I say I can't afford it, I go, I can't afford it at the cost of all the other goals and the values that I hold. I can't afford it at the cost of, you know, putting to the side something else that's incredibly important to me. And I think that that just puts you in so much more control. And obviously you've only recently changed this mindset, which I'm so excited to be on, I guess, the journey with you of, but how have you seen

that making you feel just this shift of going, oh, I'm not going to say that anymore. I'm going to say this. What does that look like? It feels really good to know that I can contribute to things for example my partner and I've been together five years now and a lot of the time it was just we wouldn't plan things because I couldn't afford it and it was really heartbreaking because we're a really big camping fishing couple we love it it's our lifestyle it's who we are so for me to have to say no a lot of the time even though I really wanted to was so hard and it started to affect our relationship a little bit because I wanted to say yes, but I knew that if I said yes, he would be paying for all of it. And to me, that's not right. I need to pay half.

So it's really uplifting now that I can put towards things. And if we need to pay for the wedding accommodation, we did it the other day. We didn't have to use a payment plan or it wasn't like a, oh, you know what? We just can't afford it. So yeah, it's uplifting. I really, I'm enjoying it. I love it so much. Like it genuinely makes me so happy. And I think my favorite part about this is like, you can walk the walk. Like you could tell me, yeah, I'm so empowered by this, but I get the privilege that nobody else listening to this podcast gets. And that's, I can see you right now. And you are like beaming when you're telling me this, like, you've got this smile on your face. Like I'm so proud of myself and I'm genuinely, I guess, gratified by this. And it honestly

makes my day. Like this is why money diaries are my favorite, like learning about people, learning about their journeys and knowing that they're putting themselves in the best possible position. It's so lame, but like it's my favorite. All right. We are coming to the end of the show. I'm so sorry, but we've got a few questions before we go. I want to know, what do you think your best money habit is? Best money habit, starting to automate things now. And I always compare pricing I never take the first price if we're going to a hardware store and I need to buy something I will be asking for a discount or I'll be asking for something or I always look out for deals love yeah and then flip that on its head my friend what is your worst money habit and you

can't say ADHD um okay I will go around it and say being obsessed with something to the point where I'll buy everything for that hobby or that obsession and then never using it because it's overwhelming. And I did it with a sewing machine. I've done it with so many things in my life and it's taken a lot of money from me, this habit that I have, but I'm working on understanding that impulsivity, letting it sit for 24 hours and then going back. Even if I put it all in my car, see it there. And then the next day, forget about it. It just, yeah, that's my worst money habit. I had to stop myself the other day. So I went down a rabbit hole and anyone who has ADHD knows this happens after the hour of 8pm. You'll be sitting on the

couch. Like, yeah, it's like after 8pm, like you're not going to do it during the day. You're busy during the day. You're thinking about other things. But I got in my head after seeing like two TikToks of someone using what's called a Cricut, which is essentially this like laser cutter printer that can cut out stickers and like lots of different things. Right. I decided I needed one. I was like, I am here for this. We're going to need the cricket. We're going to need all the accessories. Like if you've got ADHD, you don't just do entry level. Like that would be stupid. I'm so committed to this new hobby that I've never tried that we're not going entry level. Like we need the mid level like machine. We also need all of the accessories because like the accessories

look really good. I need all of the different papers because like what if pink isn't enough, right? So I put them all in my cart and it was like a thousand dollars worth of stuff. and I had to stop myself. I was like, what am I doing? Like, this is not okay. I didn't do it. I told myself I'll put 24 hours between me and my spending and I didn't do it. And I'm so impressed. But when you said that, I was like, I swear I have a new hobby every single week. My husband actually, sometimes I'll come home with something and he'll be like, oh, is that this week's hobby? Is it? And I'm like, I feel personally victimized when he does that. Why can't I be more like him and consistently enjoy my lawn.

Like it's just not going to happen. No, that's not how it works. It's not how it works. And 8 o'clock is the worst time. Right, just after dinner. Yeah, just after dinner, sitting on the couch, watching something on TV and then you start scrolling. Yeah, because you can't just watch TV.

Like we've got to do all the things all at once and we're flicking between TikTok and the internet, like Explorer to like look up these things. We're not just on one thing. And then, oh my gosh, I've got this great idea. are you ready to hear it it's an adhd library you get in with an adhd diagnosis like that's what you use your like your library card for but instead of books it has hobby buckets and you can go in and in one bucket it's like the sewing hobby and in another it's like the cricket hobby

and then the next week i can return it and get a different hobby like and we all just swap i'm down yes i'm so down for that see i feel like that would be good you want to do embroidery this week, no worries. Take home all of this stuff. Your house is not going to be messy anymore because it's full of all your hobbies and your crafts and things that you take up. It's definitely returnable. How good's that? You hand it over to another ADHD girlie. And it'll stay in the bucket because you don't start it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then you return it next week. We will have late fees though, because we'll make an absolute killing because every ADHD girlie won't return it on time and we'll just make a whole heap of money on late fees. It's a really good idea, I think.

It's like a toy library, but for adults. I think we're done here because I've absolutely lost the plot. But at the very start, you said six weeks ago, you rated yourself as a D and now you're a B minus. I feel like you're way better than a B minus, but I want to know from your perspective, after all of this, it sounds like you are absolutely killing it. Like, I mean, you did say I've got that white picket fence dream home. We didn't talk a lot about that, but we talked about your money goals and what you're trying to achieve and the fact that you care a lot about your super and you have a second job and you've automated your savings and your cash flow and you're working towards an emergency fund, I would say relatively aggressively, what do you think it

would take to get you to an A from a B minus? I still need to rein in those impulsive purchases and understand that you don't need that top 10 times because next week it won't be the top of your dreams. What do you mean? I don't need to buy it in every single colour, but I have it in white and I really like the white, but it comes in black and navy and beige. Do you think I should not get those now?

No, and you need to learn and we need to learn and stick together to not be so impulsive and to be a little more realistic I think I also with that impulsivity if there's something wrong with me or for example I'm seeing a dermatologist right now because of my skin I've always had acne I don't just half-heartedly go into that I go into that I buy every product that I need I go crazy with it I'm doing I'm going back and forth between if I can rein in those impulsivity habits and stage the appointments out rather than just being all focused in on once and spending a lot of money on it I think I can potentially get my grade higher but I just I know in myself

I still think I will be a B for a little while longer until I can get those under control. But it sounds like you are absolutely on the path towards an A plus like you are taking all the right steps. And I think after hearing you speak, I guess the tagline of ADHD should be go hard or just go home. Because like, we're only doing one of those two things. There is no middle ground. No middle ground. Absolutely not. Anyway, it has been so good talking to you. I feel like you and I are genuinely two peas in a pod. Thank you so much for sharing your money diary and your story and your journey with us. I feel like it's so inspirational to talk to someone who's just gotten out of debt and has just made a mindset shift to putting themselves in the best possible

position it's inspiring but it's also just so beautiful to see how people are changing and putting themselves in the best possible position and it makes me so proud but so excited for you so I cannot wait for an update from you in the future okay yeah I promise I'm so excited thank you so much for joining us 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.