She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES UNMASKED: Hannah Sands

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

Welcome back to another Money Diary episode, but this time with a twist. We are thrilled to share this bonus episode Money Diaries Unmasked with you this week! Today's super special guest is musician, content queen and savvy saver Hannah Sands. Join us as she shares this very public Money Diary and talks all bout her business, side hustle, family budget and how she makes it all work like a dream. Get set to be inspired! Friends! If you loved this episode, then we know you are going to love Victoria's new book! This book has been written so you can feel empowered and see that YOU have the power to rewrite your own money story! Get your copy now, click here!  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 this week there is a little bit of a twist. Instead of having an anonymous money diary, I'm bringing you what I'm going to call celeb money diaries. Not that our guest this week is a celeb, but we're just stretching it because she's going to be one day. I'd like to introduce you to my internet friend, R&B artist and content creator Hannah Sands. Hannah, welcome to the show. Hello, thank you for having me. I am so excited about this. This is our first like public money diary where people can go and

follow you and see what you're up to. But one of the things that instantly drew me to your content, one, before you started doing any type of budgeting content, was that you're an epic R&B artist. Like I have been following you for so long and vice versa, I think, because the other day I was looking at like an old post trying to find some engagement stats and I was like oh that's from like 68 weeks ago and Hannah's commenting on it. That's me I was trolling but she's on the money posts ages ago. I like it I appreciate it and thank you for trolling them in a really kind way like it was never like you know actual troll content but Hannah your TikTok bio says you used to be average but you're trying to be better and the content that you

create is really around money and music and lifestyle. And you've recently gone viral a few times and been picked up by the likes of the Daily Mail, which can be good and can be bad, let's be honest, because you are so brutally honest about your budgeting. Tell me why you started creating content like this. Oh, I love this. In this season, I'm just obsessed with speaking about money. So I'm just like so excited for this conversation. Same girl. Welcome to the show yeah I feel bad why did I start creating content like this I saw something on my for you page that was a what I spend in a week and it was by a TikTok creator Ella McGrath I think her name is I love her content and I was so incredibly triggered and I was just like I remember hearing

my internal voice just be like I would never ever share what I spend my money on on the internet but then you did though immediately I clocked that and I was like that is interesting I don't have that feeling about many things. And I was like, well, that's exactly what I'm going to do. And it was like the next day I started planning, like it took me a little while to plan how I was going to execute it. But I was like, this is something I'm going to do. I love it because it's not just, oh, here's how a budget works. And I feel like so many times when I see content creators online creating budget content, I don't know how to articulate this without offending anyone. And you and Ella are great at being transparent, but there seems to be this really

aspirational vibe from their content where a lot of people might look at it and go they are actually like obviously they're sharing their budget because they're really good at it like oh they're obviously sharing their budget because they're a really high income earner and you know they can afford four oat lattes a day and that seems really fair and you kind of go well how have you found this balance I suppose of just being like nah let's be real it's me I'm Hannah I have a husband I have a beautiful son and, you know, this is what we spend. And this month, like we didn't save and we had a really great time. How has that content shaped the type of following that you've gained since then? Like, is it all about being transparent? Are you now empowered by it or are

you like far out? I wish I didn't share that. I am so empowered by it. I think a big thing, and this obviously ties so much into like my money story. When I grew up, my family had a lot of secrecy and shame around money, or it was just something that was argued about. So it was just like, okay, cool. Money equals problems. So when I grew up to be an adult and have my own money, I just had no concept on being sensible with that money. It was such an uncomfortable relationship with money. So I feel like I started to notice, especially after becoming a mom, other moms I would talk to, like, I don't know if it's just people I was speaking to, but there's just a lot of secrecy and a lot of like, you know, people holding back when speaking

about money and I just thought this could be so empowering like if I saw this content five years ago oh my god like I would feel so empowered and so seen and that was exactly the feedback I got people are messaging me just being like I feel so seen by your content with your budgeting like and people stop me on the street they're like oh my god I love your budgeting content I'm like never did I ever one think I'd be known for budgeting secondly be on a finance podcast like this is someone who's you know who bitchily told myself I'm bad with money so it's like literally who is she so tell me a bit about who you used to be I suppose in your TikTok bio you say used to be average but I'm trying to be better what does used to be average even mean

so this is a preface for a lot of my content the direction I'm going at the moment because I was like that notorious party girl terrible with money and upon reflection like my early 20s mid-20s was a lot of self-discovery, but kind of catapulted. My parents split up when I was in year 12, so about 2012. And then my dad passed away, sadly, in 2017. So I was very fiercely independent. In my early 20s, I was living abroad and things like that. I had such negative habits with money, with lifestyle, with food, with alcohol. And a few years ago, when I met my beautiful partner he was like a really big turning point for me and we both were just like life can be so much better than this you know what I mean 100% just exercise money food it's funny like 2020 we

went sober at the same time we started being hyper aware of like how we spent our money and how our money behaviors impacted our happiness I love that it was like this big just momentous ball that kept growing and we just started being better across the board and I'm like wow our life is so much better now. Obviously, you went through a series of traumas for that. But often you find that it's one party in a relationship who wants to go down that route and the other's like, oh, what are you doing, babe? Like, this isn't us. How were you so on the same page about this? He's Brazilian. So he's just different to Australian men that I've been with. But he was just immediately like, I can't wait to be a father. He has these really traditional Brazilian Catholic values. And

having that like stability was something I've never experienced before. And it just made me want to be better. Like we used to smoke and drink. Like when you look at how much money you're spending on alcohol and cigarettes, it was like, what are we doing? Like, this is crazy. It just made sense. I think when I first said to him about like the direction I wanted to go, it was a bit of like, oh, like a bit uncomfortable. Then it was like, this is the obvious choice. I love it so much. All right. I'm going to ask you some of the stereotypical money diary questions because you don't get out of those. You just have to do them publicly. So let's start with grades on money. So what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them

a grade from A through to F? I knew this question was coming and it's interesting because like I have consumed so much these other money over the years. So it's like quite surreal, like sitting here, but also hearing those questions. And when I thought about the question, my initial reaction was a lower grade. But then I thought, what do my habits now actually tell us about my money habits now? So I think I would give myself a B minus. I like that you've really thought about it as well, because I think so many times we just have this underlying assumption of ourselves that we aren't good at money and that, you know, even though you're practicing being good at money and you're budgeting at the moment, it kind of feels a bit like a cosplay. You're like, oh yeah, but

I'm just practicing that right now. Deep down, I'm not good at it when the reality is like you've changed your reality. So I love the B minus. I think that is fantastic. Tell me a little bit more about, I guess, your money story as well. So you've explained that your parents split in grade 12, which would have been not only traumatic because any parents splitting sucks, but like year 12 is such a pivotal period of time as well to go through something so just upheaving. Tell us a little bit more about, I guess, how you learned about money growing up and then what you're trying to teach your son about money. Okay. So being a parent now, it's really shone a light on like just how different parenting was for our parents' generation. Like

everyone has different information accessible to them, but it was a different world in the parenting game. And I feel like my parents had a lot of conversations around us as kids that I probably wouldn't have around my children. And especially with money, like it was just always a point of arguing or it was like kind of used as, you know, a tool like, oh, can I have this thing as a kid? And it's like, no, because we've spent the money on X. You know, it's just like not information that you need as a child. No, and it feels overwhelming. Like you just go, oh, sorry, dad. Like, oh, now I feel like a burden and a child should never feel like a burden. Oh, a hundred percent. You feel guilty. Let's be real. It was really messy. And

my dad was a contractor, I guess, like a consultant. So there would be like big influxes of money and then big spendings of money. So there'd be like one like really lavish Christmas and like lots of presents. And then it would be like really tight. There'd be like no money. So it was just really unstable. So I think I had this association with money that it was not stable, not safe, can't be talked about healthily and just yuck. yeah fair and like that's kind of what you were shown as well and I think it's so challenging for kids because like you don't conceptualize you know erratic income like you can't understand oh well dad just got this really big contract and that makes sense you just go why did we have that

now we don't have that like you feel like you've lost something and I think that that carries through to adulthood in the way that we spend and often if we've been through traumatic periods like that we start spending without a lot of regard because you just go, oh, well, money comes and goes. Like we'll probably come into a big bulk amount of it at some point and we'll be fine and I'll pay off that debt. But it's not necessarily true. I worked since I was like 14. And then when I turned 18, went straight to the bank, got a credit card and went to Europe. Yep, slay. Like it's not even a bad thing to talk about. I think it's just, I didn't have the level of financial literacy that I want to afford everybody. And now she's on the money community, right? Like

I grew up with a dad who was fantastic at money. Like he's an accountant, like he's brilliant at it. I just look at it and go, I wasn't ready to hear what he wanted to share with me though. And I find that so interesting because so many times people will say like, oh yeah, well, your dad was an accountant. Makes sense that you're a financial advisor. And I'm like, no, like, I think I automatically just bucked it. You know, this idea that my parents knew what they were talking about. Like, you know, I remember crying at the dining table because my dad would be like, you have to do your maths homework or you have to learn your times tables or whatever. And I'd literally be like crying because I didn't want to do it. I'd be like,

you don't know how hard it is. And then I became this adult who needed to get into debt so that I learned how painful that was so I could get out of debt and now teach others how to stay out of it. And a lot of people go, don't you regret that? And I go, well, not really. Like it's part of my journey. And sorry, dad, still love you. Please don't hate me for this. I love that. Sorry I didn't listen. And that's such a beautiful like tie in because when I did go to Europe, like, yeah, I had some big years and I had to learn that lesson too. But when I was learning that lesson was right when She's On The Money started. Oh, welcome. Welcome. And I remember someone at my work, just being like, have you listened to that? I started listening and that was like the start of

me getting out of debt. And that was the start of everything, like this whole journey, which was like, when did She's On The Money start? What year? Oh, like 2018, 2019. Depends on whether you were introduced to the podcast or the Facebook group. Podcast. Yeah. Okay. So 2019. Wow. Yeah. That was the beginning of it all. So I was like, yeah, about 25. That was when I started getting out of debt. And that was like, just listening to you, having you in my ears and having the community members in your, I think that was the start of such an incredible revolution for millennial Australian women to hear that other people were going through money shit and they're not just like the only one, you know, like, and that's what it was for me. And I was like, okay,

I can do this. And I got out of like 20 grand of debt, which was just insane. Oh my gosh. I love that so much. I adore it. Hannah, we know you're an R&B artist, you're a content creator, you're a mum, but we now need to know the deep nitty gritty. What do you technically do for work and how much money are you earning? okay so technically I am a content creator I have a business where I do content strategy so I work with business owners and content creators to grow their social medias and it's all kind of under the same umbrella so I have content strategy and I'm a content creator and I do music and I earn income from all three of those avenues that is literally so slay if we said a percentage breakdown would

you say that like content strategy is number one then your content creator is number two and music is three yes that's very accurate at the moment I would say so my business is socially sans that's my content strategy business and it's in its first year I officially started in July after I came off maternity leave with my son it's always changing but I've estimated this year gross I'll earn about 160. How good is that? Oh yeah. First year out. Oh, I'll just earn 160. What the hecking? How did you go from being, oh, I'm on mat leave. You know what I'm going to do? Come July, I'll start my own business. And it's not just going to be like a small business where I have to sacrifice a lot. How have you gone from being, you know, literally on mat leave to earning approximately 160?

Well, one of my favorite things to talk about and the way that we connected is TikTok. And And I was like so many other millennial women who was just like, I don't get TikTok. It's just people dancing. I don't understand it. Like I'll never be on there. And when my son was six months old and I was me and I was giving myself the ick, like as an artist, you hear about how transformational TikTok can be for people. And I was like, why am I like this? Like, why do I have this limiting belief that I can't do it? It's because I wasn't really giving it my all. And I've always been working. I was in postpartum on maternity leave, but I have time. And I decided to go all in on content creation. And I spent like a good few months just figuring out the ins and outs of

TikTok and really forming a strategy. Well, last year alone, I'd grown to almost 50,000 followers on TikTok. And that's hard to do now. I mean, it is, but there's definitely formulas. And that's why I started my business, Socially Sans, because I had so many people coming to me being like, how do you do it? How do you do it? And I was like, I wonder if I can apply this to everyone else. And surely enough, I can. And I have worked with so many incredible content creators, moms, business owners, like brand owners. And I'm like, okay, there's a real thing here of helping people. So yeah, I've started working with so many beautiful creators and the demand just grew and grew, obviously, because there's that demand, I guess, for people who want to

step into that, want to grow their audiences, but they can't figure it out. I started and I really like lent in and it just has been kind of insane. Like I feel like even 160 is like conservative for this year. Like it's a big time. I love it. And I love the growth. Tell us a little bit about what does your husband do and how much on average is he earning to bring to the table for this like whole budgeting content that you put out? So my partner is a casual barber. He works four days a week. So he's home with us three days a week and he earns roughly 50k. I just love watching your content I obviously am about to have my own baby which is really really fun and watching your husband be a dad I'm like I hope this is what it's like when Steve becomes a dad

because you can just see how engaged he is in the process and how much love there is in your family like it's one of the things that I just really love following you for because I just go it's not just budgeting it's not just this like your lifestyle is something to be envied I'm just like they're always so happy like the other day you posted this video of you guys just dancing in the kitchen and I was like that's what I want I love that I mean look it's definitely not always happy the relationship after baby is a big shift and it's a beautiful shift and it's an evolution but it's definitely not thousand rainbows and smiles all the time we also don't have a heap of support Paulo's family's obviously in Brazil and I just don't have much family around so

it's been a real initiation and step up in our relationship but I do always try to keep it real with my community as well because sometimes I'm just like wow like the mum rage early on I was like wow I've never been so angry it's okay now and I don't want to freak you out but like no I can see it coming for me like I can just see it manifesting oh yeah the rage was real I was like okay and you know that is well connected me with my community because a lot of mums are just like we don't want to see just aesthetic gorgeous people online all the time like it's not realistic like we want to hear how creators feel after you've had a blowout with your partner how do you feel what are you working through what are the steps we're taking you know like it's a whole

beautiful mess and although sometimes we are gorgeously happy and I feel like we are building out a life that we really value and really desire sometimes it's difficult as well and messy and ugly I love the transparency I think it's really really important tell me a bit more about money though. I want to know, what are your big money goals this year? What are you currently working towards? So this is a tricky question for me because I'm like, I want to set these big goals and I have goals that I'm working towards, but I think they're not like tangible things necessarily. I think one of my big goals is we want to have another baby. Yes, more babies more often. I know. Look, my partner's Brazilian. Big families are really common in Brazil and we want a big

family. But if I'm going to be in this serious role as my own business owner, I need to have shit sorted up because I need to be able to put myself on maternity leave. I need to know what that looks like. This is just all new for us, you know? So I think a money goal this year is to have like that plan kind of clear of if we're blessed to get pregnant again, how that looks and what that looks like and how I can go on maternity leave. And then I think the big thing there is that my partner wouldn't actually return to work. Yeah. And I think that that's really beautiful, but it's a compromise that you need to make in order to have the life you want, right? Like we're in the middle of working out what this looks like for us and baby's not here yet, but we'll be very,

very soon. And my husband's taking the first six months off and it's strange watching people's responses to that as well, because, you know, you're the breadwinner in your family at the moment and I am as well and you know my husband loves his job like as I'm sure yours does but you just go well what compromise do we need to make to make this work to give our babies the life that we think they deserve like I don't want to have them in daycare full time and I'm not saying that's even a bad thing I just don't want that like I might turn around and go actually change my mind we're on a daycare wait list anyway because I'm like well what if after six months my husband doesn't like staying home like I don't want him to feel forced into you know a lifestyle that he

you know isn't in love with so I think there's so many moving parts of it but even just us like we have been planning this baby since like 2020 and like then we decided okay we'll get engaged then we'll get married and then once we get married we'll try and then you know we obviously had a number of complications along the way and so it didn't work out the way we thought but we've been budgeting since then to go, all right, well, Victoria needs to take time off. That means how are we covering all of our expenses? How are we, you know, going to deal with this? How am I going to keep my business up and running during a period of time where I have to step out? I'm the face of the business. How does that work? It is a lot to take on. It is. And I think I want to say like

how just cool that is to have that conversation with you and be here and be like, you know, just to hear you say you know you're the breadwinner of your family and so am I like what an incredible time and how incredible just to be sitting here and having that conversation as well because this isn't something I imagined for myself you know it's all happening but I think you're right like there's not that many people having conversations like that and it is interesting even with sharing my money so transparently people have like pre-determined ideas about me in my life it's like you know people will be like wow how rich are you and And like, it's interesting, but I think even the few people I have said, and now the entire world

that like, you know, oh yeah, my goal is to like retire my husband. I mean, like, it's not like that, but it's just like, I think our life looks so much fuller with me being able to work with like a flexible schedule and him being able to stay home with our babies. And he loves the idea, I'm not speaking for him, but it's a really powerful conversation and a really incredible evolution of our family and of your family. And it's just like, it's so exciting. I'm just so here for it I am also so here for it I think I just assumed everybody would be so much more like yeah that just makes sense but a lot of people like wait what's your husband gonna do at home like what's he gonna do I'm like why aren't we asking this of women like you guys are here saying

oh are you sure your husband will like that I'm like just like your husband my husband I think wanted babies the day that we met like he would have had babies like way way way way way ago I have been the problem like I am the issue I'm the one that's like look I actually do really want to get married first. I would really like to buy our first property first. And like every time he'd just roll his eyes and be like, fine, let's do this. And then can I have the baby? Does that make sense? And I think so many times people look at it and go, well, what's your husband going to do? And I'm like, my husband is so capable and so kind. The only thing I don't think he's going to be able to do guys is breastfeed. And that's fine. Absolutely everything else is going to be

covered. Like that's fine. I'll take the breastfeeding journey on. No worries. I'm just taking one for the team but people are so confused when you flip that gender narrative and they go wait what do you mean you're not planning on spending that much time at home don't you have to recover and I'm like of course I'll give my body time to recover but like I thrive in business I love my team I love my work I love my community and I just don't want to spend that much time away if that changes though guys don't worry I've got heaps of content banked for you so you're not going to miss out. Let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, I have so many more questions for you, Hannah. Guys, don't go anywhere. All right, we are back with Hannah

Sands, who is a gorgeous R&B artist and content creator and mom and business owner and all-round hustler. Hannah, I want to know, when it comes to investments, are you investing? If so, in what? if not do you have a plan oh triggered no not meant to be triggering I think it's just this journey where I'm like constantly wanting to be better and I'm like that is definitely something that I do I mean she's on the money literally taught me about investing I'd never heard about investing before and then just going down this like massive run of all the things I think investing in properties is definitely something that feels aligned for us we own our home that we're in now And I think that's what happened when we were kind of going down the road of becoming more

financially literate, deciding whether to invest in some investments. And then we got pregnant and decided to try to get into the property market. And that's what we did. But definitely goals is to be investing in the near future. I adore it. And I think that we need to break down this idea that you have to already be investing to be good. Like you have the financial literacy to know what you need and how that works and where

you're going and that's what I want to afford people with not necessarily go all right well where's your share portfolio chop chop let's get on it it's more you know when that can fit into your lifestyle you know when that's going to work because as it turns out Hannah money's not unlimited like you can't just do everything all at once and when you're creating this journey it's kind of like there are key milestones along the way and we can't hit them all at one time like that's unreasonable and really, really unrealistic. So true. So tell me about debt. So have you been in debt? You mentioned it before. Are you in debt currently? What does that look like for you? So I'm currently in $450,000 of debt with this beautiful home. I've gotten out

of personal debt, which is just so wild because there was definitely a time literally four years ago where I just could never imagine getting out when you're so under it. You know, you have $20,000 and you're like, yeah, $200. Like, yeah, it's chipping away, but then it does compound and you're like, oh my God, I'm actually going to get out of this. And then like closing the account. I mean, it feels like an afterthought now, but it was a huge part of my twenties. And that's as well with my content. Like I hope that people who are listening and are on that journey, because I just so see you and I so resonate with that feeling of just being like, this is me. Like, this is just me forever now you know yeah being out of that feels really good I adore that so much what do

you think your best money habits are I feel like you've got a few nowadays and I think you should share best money habits now would be since starting this budgeting series it's like the chicken and the egg right like the content actually came first I was like I want to do this like content what does that actually look like and I realized I had to go through my expenses and track my expenses. So it's like, that has been kind of revolutionary for our family. Like actually looking where our money goes. There's a piece of content that went like semi-viral in the first week when I was beginning to track our expenses. And I realized we were spending $70 a week on eggs. We eating all these eggs? Are we throwing them at our arch nemesis? Like how many eggs is

that? Literally, I don't even want to talk about it. Look, as I share my content, our values, like we really like organic and local food so we get our food from the local farmer's market it's organic it comes with a price increase that's just the way it is we don't really like to eat meat and any animal produce from the supermarket so it comes with a price increase and we're fine with that we're adapting our lifestyle to suit that because it's a value of ours so eggs ain't cheap baby they're like 12 a carton oh my gosh but what are you doing with all these eggs genuinely i need to know like are we just eating eggs every day for breakfast like you didn't address the fact that I asked you if we're throwing them at our arch nemesis. What are we

doing with so many eggs? Take us through the egg consumption in a week. No arch nemesis eggs have been thrown. We do eat a lot of eggs. We have like three eggs each for breakfast. My son has two eggs for breakfast. My son's one and he's resilient. He eats a lot. Yeah. Okay. You know, that's eight eggs in the morning, done in one day. I can't deal with that. That's so many eggs. My partner of bakes. So like, you know, he'll bake, he'll cook like a quiche or a frittata. That's got like seven, eight eggs in it. Then he'll make like a custard. That's got 10 egg yolks in it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you're just eating really well and I'm actually quite envious of it, but I have in my head, like my sister and I talk about this all the time and this is really rogue and totally not

meant to go on the show, but like in my head I have an egg rule. Like I can only consume three eggs a day. So like if I had like two eggs for breakfast on toast, like I have one egg to spend later on a snack. If you said to me, oh, you had scrambled eggs. Well, sorry. I know there's probably three eggs in that. Can't consume eggs for the rest of the day. I don't know where this rule comes from. It can't even be that healthy because eggs are great for you. But in my head, three eggs, we're done. Like it's just an egg rule. And my sister brought it up. There's a cap, three and you're out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like three and done. And my sister ages ago brought it up and I was like,

why are we like this? Where did this come from? What is this about? Why have we got an egg rule? Maybe it's because they're so expensive. We do not share that rule. We absolutely don't. So what other good money habits do you have now that you didn't have previously? Circling back to the tracking expenses, that's just a massive one. It's time consuming. Going back, I mean, this and subtle plug, but I've switched to UpBank and being able to see the breakdown has been so helpful because before I was literally going manually every single week. But we got rid of so many subscriptions. We got rid of so many spendings that just weren't serving us. I think this is a good habit that I can touch on,

which is just like before when I started, there was so much miscellaneous spending, like of stuff that I just couldn't even tell you why we were spending on those things. So I think that's a really good money habit. Yeah, I think that's pretty much my good money habits at the moment. I love it. All right. Surely there are some leftover little naughty money habits. What do you think are your worst money habits at this point in time? Is it eggs? It's not eggs. I'm going to classify that as a good money habit because my gut lady loves me for it. I am going to say, I think that the way that we grow up around money is so deeply rooted in us and I still have to kind of catch myself with spending large amounts. I think

there's a fine line of like, I've never earned this much money in my life. So it's a fine line between when I'm going to spend something and I'm stopping myself. Is that because I'm scared that it's a bad money habit because I'm like unconsciously spending thinking it's going to come back to me? Or can I afford this thing? I don't have that self-trust yet. I'm trying to figure that out. So it's like that in itself is a bad money habit. Yeah. Are you budgeting for like discretionary things or like fun money or things to spend on yourself? I feel like as women, especially as we step into this, you know, different era of being a parent and a wife, we kind of step back and go, oh, there's not much room for me. Like you'll happily spend it on your

husband or your child, but you'll never spend it on yourself. Like, is that something you're allocating or trying to find a little bit more wiggle room for? Or is this something that you're like, no V, I haven't really thought about it. This is probably the problem. Okay. So I love that you touched on this because I don't know what it is about my husband. I'm just obsessed with him and I love spoiling him. He's such a humble beginnings guy. Like he comes from a really small town in Brazil. The first flight he ever got on was to Australia when he was like in his late 20s. Can we just side note, how did you meet? Because I love love. Okay, we love love. I used to manage a hospitality and events business in Brisbane and a short walk was a barber shop where

there was a coffee shop at the window. That was where everyone would go and get their coffee. So I'd go there like multiple times a day and get a coffee and I'd see him cutting hair. Yeah, sure, it was for the coffee. Well, it was in the beginning. And then I remember saying to my friend who managed the barber shop, like, what's that guy's deal? You know, she was like, no, no, he has a girlfriend, you know, and I would kind of give him the eye and he would just like completely shut it down, which now upon reflection, I'm like green flag. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent green flag. Go off King. Yeah. Like you protect your space. I like that. Literally. He fully cold shot her. And this was years. And there was always a little bit of like, I'd always see

him around or like whatever. And then years later, COVID era, and he popped up on my Tinder. Oh, hello. Obviously that girlfriend thing's not a thing. Literally. And I was like, okay, you're single. Fabulous. Messaged his colleagues at the barbershop being like, hook it up. No, you didn't. You didn't just message him on Tinder. You were like, I'm going deeper. Like this has to happen. Always the side road. So I was like, message his colleagues. I was like, hook it up. I think he thought I was joking. So he never did anything about it. Why are they so silly? Sometimes I just wonder. He was literally like, ha ha ha ha. I'm like, cool. I'm literally waiting. No, no, no, no, no. Like this was serious, boy. Yeah. This is

love and it kind of was just like that and then we started messaging on Instagram but because English isn't his first language I rely heavily on my banter to woo people yeah okay and he just wasn't picking up what I was putting down he would have been like that is so strange why did she say that what a strange lady pardon like I'd say things he'd be like why you say that and you'd be like because it's funny but it's not funny when you make me tell you that it was funny I'm like I'm wooing you, sir. Can you not tell I'm wooing you? Like he just didn't get it at all. So then anyway, months past my friend was like, you have to just invite him to your house for dinner. Like you have to go old school here. Like just to see if there's a connection. Yeah. Great. Invited him

for dinner. He came for dinner. The rest is history. I love this so much. I love, love. I love that you saw him on Tinder and then you were like, I'm not going down this Tinder route. Like absolutely not. I'm going to make other people do my work. Yeah. I'm going to make them involved in my love story. And I mean, it worked out for you. So I love this. Tinder brings all the good people together. Oh, we're pro Tinder. Yeah. I just love spoiling him. So that's definitely something that you're so spot on there. Like I do, like his birthday was in January and I had my biggest cash month in my business in December. So I was like, what do you need baby? Like, let's go. And yeah, but I think that I'm okay with spending on myself and actually with my budgeting series,

something I haven't really shared is that that doesn't include money that I put aside for my business expenses yeah and I'm like you like I'm a business girl when I spoil myself it's on my business it's like I'm purchasing new stuff for my business I'm investing in another mentor for my business I'm doing another course my business like that's my fun splash that I'm doing so that's very me coded I feel like whenever people are like what do you treat yourself with I'm like please don't get me wrong I really love a pedicure at this point in my life I actually can't reach my toes so I've been treating myself to those more regularly but I'm so like oh I'll do my own nails at home. Like, you know, if I want to get tan, I'll do that at home. Like, but you want to talk

to me about new microphones, headphones. Like you want to talk to me about anything that I can spend in my business. I'm like, Oh, have you seen those new mics that came out? Like recently I purchased and you will understand this cause you're an audio girly as well. The DJI lapel mics, they're in the little magnetic box and they charge. And I was just like, this is so perfect for content, very hot, talk dirty to me. And then everyone else is like, yeah, cool. So I'm going to take my friends out for breakfast and I'll be like, you have fun. I've got a microphone to play with at home. You can come eat 12 eggs with me for breakfast. That's fine. Yeah, exactly. I'll bring my mics. It can be an ASMR, very exciting piece of content. Very, very exciting. All right,

Hannah, unfortunately we are running to the end of this episode, but I want to know at the very start, you said, look, I'm a B minus. And I feel like you put a lot of time and energy and effort into coming up with that B minus. But what would it take to get you from that B minus to you saying, V, I think I'm an A plus? It's a sticky thing, right? It shouldn't be with like the more money that we're bringing in has anything to do with our money habit or our grade that we give ourselves. But for where I'm at with my business, I've invested a lot into my business and I've got some really big goals. And I think the next step for me to get to that A plus is show that I can uphold my good money habits with more money. So like welcoming in the bigger money months

and then actually sticking to my guns and doing what I know to be the good decisions I feel with my money. And I think a big thing I want to touch on was a big money goal as well for me is to be neutral, like neutrality with money. Cause that's something I've never been. It's always been like ups and downs, like super just energetically as well. Just like, Oh my God, money. Oh my God, money. You know, I just want to be like, yeah, of course, money, money, whatever, you know. I love that I feel like neutrality is something that we don't talk about very often but we should talk about more maybe I'm going to steal that and make a whole episode out of it and call it I love it I'll credit you don't worry I'll be like neutrality inspired by Hannah Sands

but I think that that's a topic that we don't talk about enough because money is so inherently emotional and it's so tied to our self-worth and it's so tied to how we think and feel about how our life is going, when in reality, like people aren't defined by money. So why do we do this? No, I totally agree. And I think A plus for me would be like, and I'm getting there. Like I even shared on my TikTok the other day, like something small, but I went and bought my partner a Weber. He's like a barbecue guy. I saw that. And I was like, oh, slay queen. Yeah. He loves to barbecue. And we've been wanting a Weber for ages, but it's been one of those things, you know, it's like we wanted a baby Weber. So it's like $600, $700. I'm like,

you know we can afford this this is fine and I spent it and I like remember tapping my card and just feeling nothing and remember being like oh I need to celebrate this like I'm not clenching I'm not tense like I feel free about this no but that's good yes I was like this is where I want to be going so when I'm there more often I think that's the A plus for me adore oh my gosh what a perfect place to leave it Hannah I have adored this chat I am so looking forward to continuing to follow your journey, but also having shared you with our community, hopefully they'll go, oh my gosh, can't wait to tee into what Hannah's up to. But also I'm so excited for the journey that you're on and also bringing some more public money stories to, I guess, light to be able to

share more publicly. Because obviously you guys know I adore our money stories and I think that they need to stay anonymous because they are relatable. They are you, they are celebrating our community but I also want people who are in the public eye to be stepping up and going no this is my money story this is what's going on because so many times we put people who are in the public eye on pedestals and go well they must have grown up rich like Hannah could not have been in this position to earn 160 and like be a badass mom without having some level of privilege and just getting to know people just it helps so much when it comes to understanding money so thank you for being the first. I adore it. It's truly an honour. Thank you so much, Hannah. It has been an absolute

pleasure as expected. I loved it. Thank you so much for having me. The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289. Thank you.