She's On The Money - Nailing Your Finances in Your Single Era (and Beyond)

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Being single isn’t a money downgrade… it’s just a different rulebook. One where you’re covering the full cost of life, making every decision solo, and are somehow expected to hold it all together. So this ep is all about ditching the idea that life (and finances) only get easier once you’re partnered, and giving you the tools to build something solid, confident, and completely your own so you thrive in your single era and beyond.  Inside this ep:💅Why a man is not a financial plan💅How to reset your budget for solo living💅Smarter ways to handle “the singles tax”    💅Financial planning that actually works on one salary and real life💅The mindset shift that turns being single into financial advantageFURTHER LISTENING: How Much Super Do You Really NeedMORE SINGLE MONEY INSPO: Our single finances playlistFREEBIE: Download Chelsea’s $10 meal planINVESTING CODE MENTIONED: Sign up to Sharesies, use our code SOTM10, deposit any amount and get $10 to invest. T&Cs apply. SORT YOUR INSURANCES: With Skye Wealth here. We have a long standing referral partnership with Skye Wealth and only ever partner with people we trust.  Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+.And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha 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 - 45128See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Ti, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yambina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imelan, mumibangada boma ininyalan waka, kaunanyakarumja, wutunadana. Hello beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people, We thank, acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's on the money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing

you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. She's on the money. She's on the money. hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that's here to help you build wealth no matter what stage of life you're in and today it's all about managing your money in your single girl era because being single changes the entire way you do money you're not splitting rent you're not combining incomes, but my friend, you are in full control. You get to set the goals. You get to pivot fast. And if you do it right, your single season can actually be your most financially

powerful one yet. Today, we're going to break down how to budget, invest and build wealth as a party of one. I'm Victoria Devine, retired financial advisor. And while our friend Beck his way, I have the fabulous Miss Jess Grucci filling in. Hello. Hello. I'm so excited. We were both saying this is such a necessary episode in our community, but both of us feel right now quite underqualified. Like neither of us have been single for 10 years, but we both have been single. I've been in the trenches, girl. I mean, you're saving for a house on your own still. So I feel like in some ways you're still individually managing your finances. And my job used to be to just set up people's finances. So the amount of single people I have set finances up for, I feel like does make

me qualified. Totally. Life doesn't end just because you're single. You can still do it all. No, not only did I want to do this episode because our community keeps going, I'm single. What do I do? I also wanted to do this episode because one in four Aussie households are a one person household right now. And for women between the ages of 25 and 64, nearly 40% of us are single. So if you're managing money solo, you're actually not the exception. You're actually the new normal. Jess, sad to think about, but if you became single tomorrow, what would your first money move be? I think I'd have to redo my budget because my, right now my life is set up where we don't share all of our expenses, but as you were saying, we split our rent, groceries, good stuff, utilities,

all those sorts of things so I think I would have to like have a look at what I needed to spend strip back to the bare bones would you get a housemate probably honestly yeah I mean it would depend I could afford to pay my full rent for the house on my own but like would I want to it would slow down a lot of my other goals I was gonna say would it stop you investing and saving yeah like I could but I'd have to pull the money from somewhere right I feel like now we're in our 30s though you'd be relatively strategic about picking a housemate not just like oh get them in they're fine they seem nice I think I'd be like grilling them because the amount of horror housemates that we've had historically I'm like yeah do you know what that's not the season of life for this no

not at all but you touched on before that you would have to go back to budgeting and budgeting I would say is especially important for singles because the average one person household here in Australia spends $2,835 a month on living expenses alone versus $2,059 per person if you're in a couple. So that equates to what I'm going to call a single tax of about $776 each and every single month. Or if we want to extrapolate that out a little bit, $9,300 a year. That's crazy. Well, it kind of makes sense because like if you go to the groceries like my husband and I we pull our money together but at the end of the day like it's for both of us he's contributing I'm contributing like I can add the little sweet treat without it super impacting our budget in comparison to if it

was just a single income yeah and I think you guys are the same yeah like you start stripping back and you actually have to spend more so I don't know it really frustrates me because when you're single I want you to be setting yourself up financially and I feel like so many people in our community say things like B what can I do like I feel like I'm just like always cutting it close to the wire like every month yeah as much as this episode is going to be about tips and tricks I also want you to know like yes like that's what's going to happen and sometimes saving is going to be harder investing is going to be harder and we're not waiting for another person to be our financial plan yes if you become a couple and then you decide to combine finances down the track

things are going to be a little bit easier but like if we can work ourselves out now we are so financially powerful yes you're not maybe investing as much as you want to or saving as much as you want to but like you're in complete control and I don't know about you Jess but I think we're both like kind of control freaks oh yeah and so like that kind of sounds good to me so the first thing we're going to do if we are single we are going to look and I mean this is probably if you're not single and you're listening to this hey friend same um but we are also going to take tips and tricks from this because it's really good like take a look at your bare bones essentials before anything else I want you to figure out what do you actually need to survive so like what is rent

what are bills what are groceries if you've got any debts what are your minimum repayments that number is going to become your financial baseline so that's the baseline that we're starting with then I want you to start thinking about making your emergency fund reflect your genuine real needs I think sometimes and I say this all the time like I try to aim for about three months of emergency funds yeah but like some of us go oh I've got a thousand dollars and like that's fine but emergency funds they literally matter for everybody but they especially matter if you're single there's actually no second income to fall back on like if you lose your job you can't be like to your partner hey could you just like cover this month's rent and I'll work

it out later that's just not an option there's no second income to fall back on if things go wrong so you actually need to be able to be solid enough to carry on on your own and I was actually talking to my single best friend yesterday about this. And she was saying like, I just love having my emergency fund. But before I had it, I didn't realize how much I needed it. Yeah. Like she had it. She had always like $500, $1,000 set aside. And like, I don't know about you, Jess. I don't want you to agree with this, but like she might have felt some pressure from me to get her stuff together maybe I was going hey I'll sit you down and I'll do your investments I'll do this I'll do that not that I would ever give advice you know that would be a breach um but I would give tips

and tricks right once she got her emergency fund she's like Victoria the freedom I feel like just knowing that stuff hits the fan girl I'm good yeah the peace of mind yeah and like it there is definitely a peace of mind in having as little as you need in an emergency fund like I mean so many of us are going to be listening to this and going, I can't get three months together. I literally get it. But others are going to go, that would make me feel more financially secure. And that's kind of what we're working towards. If right now, all you can afford is 50 bucks, money win, you've got $50. I promise future you is going to be bloody grateful that you even had that. So like no amount is too little, but what we want to do is start working towards like, what are our real needs?

how do I actually get to this and like we've done episodes on side hustles and extra income and Jess you are like the queen of the side hustle thank you I would have a recommendation to hustle up a little bit of an emergency fund just so you feel a lot more financially comfortable then what we're going to do is create a bills account and we're going to split the cost with ourselves so you can't have your rent I'm sorry you can't have your electricity but what you can do is kind of trick your budget into feeling a little bit easier. So what I want you to do is if you know that like your rent each month is $2,000, you're going to strip that back to a weekly amount and then set a transfer amount weekly into a separate bills account. So when the expense actually hits,

the money's already there. So if you know that, you know, each month you've got $100 in electricity bills, let's divide that up. Maybe it's $25 a week and we just do an automatic transfer. We're just making sure we've got our own backs and that the money is already sitting somewhere else oh it feels like it's not ours anymore when we pay a bill then we're going to use what I call either my cash hub or a sinking fund to avoid I don't know financial chaos over predictable costs so like how many times and I know you don't do this anymore but when you're a bit younger you were like oh my god I forgot that rego was coming oh my god I forgot that that insurance was there and oh I completely forgot like for me netball uh registration fees are coming out and

it's like quote only a hundred dollars but like only a hundred dollars that's all I've got right now yeah so a sinking fund is essentially money that you're setting aside in advance for expenses that you already know are coming so we know that netball fees are coming out we know that our car insurance is going to come up even if they're not monthly we're thinking additional things too sorry we're just girls beauty appointments new pairs of runners your best friend's hen's weekend or maybe even Christmas so instead of just like panic buying and being like oh my god like this month is going to be a really expensive month I'm going to have to really cut back my budget and work out what the heck's going on you're kind of saving or pre-saving really small amounts so

future you can then spend without guilt or stress or getting into credit card debt which by the way when you're single Jess you and I know really easy to do oh is it ever do as we say now though not as we did learn from our mistakes yeah and then um I I love this and I already know that you love this um because I can see your calendar set a calendar reminder for everything so whether you are the default bill payer in your household or you need to renew your insurance or do your registration check automate it then put it in your calendar so that we don't have to rely on our memory alone because girl my memory sucks and I would say I'm a relatively smart person even if you think you can remember it put it in your calendar when it pops up you'll be like yeah

I'm across that it might validate you or it might remind you of something that you forgot I like to double up my calendar reminders too so like two weeks before let's say my like house insurance for the year will renew I have a reminder double check like your insurance like shop around so I've got time. I know I can see your calendar it's genius and you do that for work things and I think that you know if you're managing your work life that way and it works why not manage your money life that way like pop it in the calendar pop the reminder in and make sure that you're kind of like mapping out your budget because once that's done the chances are the biggest chunk of it is going to go to one thing. Could that be housing? No it's the worst

isn't it? I feel like rent has increased astronomically over the last few years. And I guess once you come to the conclusion and understand how much of your income is going to housing, I would be asking some questions. Don't get me wrong. It's all about values and we're just going to reiterate our own values. But is there anything that you can do to bring that down? Because when you're single, if you're covering 100% of the rent or 100% of the mortgage on your own. I would say that's a huge load. And I guess this might be the perfect season to get a little bit creative. Like Jess, what are some ideas if I don't particularly want to get a permanent housemate? Cause like that's not for everybody. No. And I totally get that. Especially if you're

going through a period of change already, where you're going from being in a partnership, being single, like so much change at once might be overwhelming. You could look at downsizing potentially. Like right now, my partner and I share a four bedroom house. I don't need that for just me. I could move into a one bedroom if I had to, and that would save me a lot of money. Could you look at moving maybe further out location wise? So if you're living closer to the city, moving somewhere more rurally, perhaps with good public transport, if you still need to get to work somewhere more urban is a really good option. If you're not renting and you own your own property, maybe you could rent out the spare room, like get yourself a housemate or Airbnb it

if you want to dip your toe in the water. I've got a friend who Airbnb's their room out. Jess, they don't even own the property they just got approval from their landlord yeah they live near a university and they airbnb the room out come exam time because apparently some people travel and they don't want to during exam week so she lists it during exam week yeah makes a killing that is so clever and she like gets some extra bank and like let's be honest jess exam week is at the end of the year usually timing sorry right in time for christmas she's got a little extra cash holder she's figured it out yeah give it a little test around it's a good way to see if maybe you could do the housemate thing I feel like it's a really yeah great option it's totally flexible

which when you're single you've got that flexibility you know nobody else's routine or preferences need to be considered so you could house it you could move into a granny flat you could couch surf and live with a family member or a friend for a short period of time we did a money diary like last year of that girl who just pets it yeah and she's like yeah and then if I have to all pay for an Airbnb for like the week in between, which is like financially that works out so much better for me. But she's like got on this website, I believe it's Mad Paws. And so she's on Mad Paws, but she like books in advance. And now she's been doing it so long. She has like this five-star rating and everybody wants her to like look after their pets. But she's like,

oh, if I have to Airbnb in between, like, yeah, I live out of a suitcase. I've got a heap of stuff in a storage unit, but like, sorry, I'm saving so much money. And that's the thing is like, you can live your life on your terms while you figure it out save some cash up like why not try something a little bit unorthodox sorry and she's using somebody else's wi-fi to work from home three days a week and she gets to cuddle cutie little pets oh my god like if I was single again I just feel like even like low-key even if I was living in a share house to get out of the share house genuinely and go live in somebody who can afford to pay a pet sitter's house yeah sorry they've probably got good wi-fi maybe a few good snacks in the fridge if they let you at them

I don't know I just have this idea in my head that people who pay pet sitters probably have a nice house with no housemates that you could enjoy while they're on holiday and that sounds like the dream especially if you're single 100 it's actually so funny like complete side note when I go on holiday our team kind of go oh who is looking after your pets Victoria because it's not about having a nice house it's I have a house with no housemates yeah when I'm away for the cost of you looking after my cat, you can watch my Netflix all day and not have to worry about your housemate. Yeah. That's a money win. And cuddle the cute little kitties. So there's lots of things that you could be creative about Jess, but I guess big picture, housing is usually going to be your

biggest cost. So anything that you can do to minimize it is going to free up some more cash that could go to like debt repayments or savings or investing, or even just creating like a little bit of breathing room. Totally. And then there's your groceries, which I think is another big expense that adds up so much faster especially when you're shopping for one person 100% and I think that's where you need to kind of like I would say master the art of solo grocery shopping and I was never good at this like whenever I cooked I was cooking for a family of four irrespective of whether it was just me or maybe I was cooking for me and my housemate somehow I didn't have the ability to cook for less which is fine I think some people can resonate

with that. But like meal prep. Exactly. Well, I was always eating curried sausages. I'm telling you right now they are elite, but I would say you need a strategy to not just like reduce waste, but what it does is make your money go further. So if meal prepping is part of that strategy, money win. For me, it was because I couldn't seem to understand recipe sizes. And a lot of websites actually now have the ability to like scale your recipe I don't know if you've seen it up the top of like recipe or whatever recipes.com or whatever it is it goes like make it for six and you can like put in one and it will just tell you the serving for one that's so clever I think the most annoying thing for me though is when I look at those recipes I'm like sorry what do you mean

half an egg yeah like that's just I'm sorry that fried rice is now having one whole egg and it's just going to be eggy fried rice, like a little extra flavor. Also, I've written down some tips and tricks. Plan meals around ingredients that you can reuse. So like, again, I used to be bad at this. I wish past me had this tip, but instead of choosing like totally different recipes each night, cause you're like, I'm really going to mix it up. Base your meals around a few really versatile ingredients. We actually did a free ebook on recipes from cooking with, was it cooking with Chelsea or $10 meals with Chelsea. I'm going to put the link in the show notes for you, but she literally will be like, okay, you're going to buy a packet of chicken thighs and we're going

to do them three different ways this week. So you're still mixing it up, which I think is really important because otherwise you might get bored or not want it. But also you're only buying one packet of chicken thighs instead of one chicken breast and two chicken thighs and something else and whatnot, I would then also freeze your leftovers. So like I'm an optimist. So I would always put them in the fridge and then be like, I'm not even home for the rest of the week and then have to throw them out. We are freezing our leftovers because your freezer is going to become your best friend. Portion your leftovers into like different containers so that future you can just get it out. I guarantee on your microwave, like me, you have a defrost option. So you don't

just have to chuck it in the microwave and superheat the middle of it. Your microwave has a defrost option. Then you heat it. Sorry. Why didn't no one tell me that 10 years ago when I was single and superheating the middle of my leftover risotto and then like eating the frozen bit around the edge? What the hell? But that way nothing is going to waste and you have meals in the fridge when you get home, girl. Yeah, perfect. Have you seen that TikTok of the person who got, I think they're meant to be like jumbo ice cubes or something but they're like big rectangular super cubes there you go like the big rectangular ones but they'll freeze things in ingredients so like she'll do one tray of like veggies and one tray of rice and one tray and then she'll take

out a cube of rice a cube of veggies and a cube of something even if she cooks them all at different times even if you're just doing that into like ziploc bags yeah like you don't necessarily have to freeze it into entire meals having some leftover rice and then like a week later having some leftover curry wow bam there's a meal in your freezer it's like build a bowl it's perfect it's genius and the super cubes so it's s-o-u-p like as in soup not s-u-p-e-r but super cubes they're on tiktok i don't i don't know how much they cost they might be astronomical who knows but like you could find a dupe you can find a dupe or you could just use a ziploc bag yeah like Who cares? Just the concept of going, oh, I have leftover rice, but no curry. Oh,

is it worth freezing it? You probably used to chuck it out. No, put it in the freezer because you probably have leftover curry or something next week. And then we have, bam, a meal that you, I'm going to say technically didn't pay for. We love that. Because you were going to throw it out. I'm like, Jess, I don't know about you. Have you ever been able to cook the right amount of rice? No, never once in my life. Never once. And then also we want to be, I feel like so many of us want to buy things in bulk because it sounds good you and I love a bulk deal but I feel like Costco is an experience oh absolutely we go to different countries Jess and every time we've been to a different country where have we visited just to check the Costco

exactly you have to it's a rite of passage and also your Costco membership in Australia gets you into the US one and like why would you not and they have different things because it's America anyway that's not a money win but what is a money win is just because you can buy something in bulk doesn't mean it's actually better for you yes it might be on the label cheaper per kilo and you might go okay cool well I'm gonna buy a whole kilo of this but then it goes off before you can eat it or then it sits in the back of the pantry and you've completely forgotten about it I would say you are literally throwing money in the bin sometimes it's actually better to spend 50 cents more on something or even a couple of dollars more to make sure that it's not going to waste

and then you're not spending an extra 10 to get the bulk version that you don't ultimately use yeah and that's a really hard lesson for me to learn because i'm always like no i'm without a deal i'm sorry i want to get home and then like facetime my friend and be like jess did you see this i got this for this amount yeah if you're not facetiming your friends when you get a good deal what are you doing and then also this is a good deal that like I don't know if everybody does this you should I do this for snacks and like if I'm like oh I want to make sandwiches this week we're not going to the supermarket aisle where all the bacon and the ham and stuff is we're going to the deli because do you know what you can do in the deli buy one chicken schnitty dream you can

buy two slices of ham you can literally go hey I'd love a handful of olives the deli lets you buy literally exactly what you need without having to go and buy like a whole can of olives or a whole packet of ham that then goes off and it's going to cost you seven dollars what the heck also they do cheese sliced cheese you can get like three slices of cheese if that's all you need you don't need to spend ten dollars on the bigger box of them that ultimately dries out in your fridge because the packaging is not actually ideal for cheese i love that and then jess i would say when it comes to spending in general like guys we have to get savvy I'm so sorry I know I said it a million times before we're in the middle of a cost of living crisis that means that yes you might go

but I have a good job or I have a good income it actually means that financial pressure is so much more on literally everybody like we are all feeling it I'm not saying that it's all equal but like to not be able to save at the moment pretty normal to not be able to add extra to investments to feel like every single week we're cutting up fine that is unfortunately the normal of right now but I need you to know that right now more than ever spending in alignment with your values and your goals is really important with one income I believe it is really important to get intentional we're not trying to restrict yes sometimes we have to cut things out but like we want to get really intentional with our money because we're not here to cut everything but we

are here to make every spend that we have to make mean something don't get me wrong i know that you're probably thinking oh v but if i go to the deli and get it it's like literally a dollar whatever it's from little things big things grow like those little savings over the long term are going to mean that at the end of the year you'll be like wow there's an extra 500 bucks sitting my account from the small decisions i made throughout the year yeah what other tips and tricks would you add to my list that I've just started creating? I would say maybe look at using the cost per use rule really ruthlessly. I think that... Root? That's my way of justifying things. Yeah, we've got to be aggressive. When you're single, you're the only person using something

true. So it's kind of like if you want to buy, you know, I'm going to use the slow cooker example. You want to buy a slow cooker because you think it'll make my life so much easier. I'll cook all my meals in it. Great. If that's true and you're going to use it every day, perfect. If you're going to use it to cook a meal once and then put it in the back of your cupboard and it's going to collect dust for six months probably not worth it and you're the only person that's time to put on facebook marketplace sell it literally which i think is another good one if you are buying things buy them second hand if you have another single friend in your friend group can you team up just because you're not in a relationship it doesn't mean you have to do everything by yourself

good point yeah if you're going away can you split a hotel room if you are you know sharing streaming services i'm all about that sorry i don't care streaming services you shouldn't be like that we're in a cost of living crisis i'm a household across multiple locations yeah you're my friend we're basically family we can share a family account can we get on you know the shared spotify you know there's lots of things that you can do to split a cost just because you're not dating somebody it doesn't mean that you can't do it with them did you side note i'll send it to you if you haven't seen this but have you seen the girls that are currently living in new york they're australian and they share their finances oh and i'm obsessed caitlin and talia yes i am

obsessed with them i keep commenting on this stuff and i'm like yes more of this please like also because i want it to come up on my feed more often what do you mean you guys have just decided we're friends we live in new york we have different incomes but we've decided to split it makes our lives so much easier that's what i mean like there's no rule that says you have to do it the traditional way do whatever you want genuinely and then lastly i'd say socializing is really important especially if you are single it can be easy I think to go oh well you kind of go one of two extremes you're either out all the time or you become a real homebody so I think social life is important especially if it's your main source of connecting with other people but dinners and

drinks and gifts and events they can all really add up and so make sure that we're being creative with keeping you know the costs down I think that's a really good tip as well because like I think when you're single you can go oh well it's kind of like the single tax like it doesn't necessarily have to be like can we grab like can you come over to my place Jess and we'll go for a nice long walk and I'll make a cup of tea in our little keep cups and we'll go from there like it doesn't always have to blow the budget but don't get me wrong I think when I was single oh girl I really looked forward to like going out for dinner with my girlfriends it just wouldn't have been the same if it was always at home like it's something about going out having a nice pasta can you find

like what nights the pub deals are on. Like, sorry, I remember when I was at you. Cheap Tuesdays, wing Wednesdays. Exactly. So we are making the most of that steak and the wine deal. Like I will go to a pub 20 minutes from my house happily for a cheap steak, 10 out of 10. All right.

So, Jess, we've covered the budget, the day-to-day stuff, but after the break we're going to get into what I would say is like the juicy stuff, which is your wealth building strategy. superannuation investing and how to actually grow your money when you're doing it solo you don't want to miss it all right everybody we're back we've covered the budget and now let's get into the bigger picture stuff and wealth building I feel like so many women are just in limbo when they're single like if you're single and listening to this and being like V I don't feel like I'm in limbo like pop off queen I love that for you but I just see so many women who are waiting for

a partner or waiting for you know two incomes to go oh well once I have a partner it'll be easier and I can start building wealth no no we want to start creating these small habits now so that honestly if your intention is to get into a relationship and you do end up with two incomes we just turbocharged that as opposed to going, oh, I'll learn then. Sorry. I don't know about you, Desmond. If I was single and I was starting to date again and I found out that the person I was dating had their financial shit together, invested with saving, even if it was like small amounts, I'd be like, you are way more attractive. Sorry. But are we not making ourselves more attractive partners? Yeah. And also what happens when we make ourselves more attractive? Oh,

we we value ourselves higher less likely to put up with bullshit you attract what you put out exactly so if you want to marry rich become rich and it'll be easier i love i think that's my hot tip from this podcast but you actually have some really good advantages on your side if you're single and you don't have kids sorry as someone with kids you have so much flexibility my friend use it. You can take on higher paying contract works. You have the ability to quit your job and not have anybody to rely on you. You can move for a better job. You can live smaller. You can spend less. You could stack a few income streams and make the most of the time that you've got. There's actually nobody else that you have to factor in or schedule time for, which, you know,

you might not want to hear it, but that means that you've got fewer excuses and more room to make bold money moves that are going to help you build your wealth the next thing I think is very attractive but at the time you might be like the I'm sick of being single I get it but like embrace being the solo decision maker for a while that is so slay you don't have to negotiate risk tolerance ethical choices or goals with literally anybody else you even if you want to go on a holiday there's no like oh Jess where have you always wanted to go and you say oh Thailand and to go I was thinking Japan and then we negotiate where we're going sorry you're just going to the one that you want you get to build wealth based on your values your timeline and your comfort level

one of the first things that I want you to do is look at your current salary and I want you to ask yourself and it's hard but I want you to ask yourself is this enough for the life I want to create for myself when you're single unfortunately no one's actually topping up your income behind the scenes. There's no like, oh yeah, like I can save X amount, but it's okay because we'll still go on holiday and my partner earns more. So he's going to pay for more of it. So if your pay's not cutting it, my friend, it comes a point where you, and it's sad, but you just can't budget harder. You can't out budget an income that doesn't suit your lifestyle. You actually need to earn more. And that's where you might need to get really bloody good Jess at negotiating. Maybe you do

need to push kind of off the edge, change your job or upskill. But the first step I would say is being really honest with yourself about whether your current income is supporting the future that you're working really hard towards. And that can be really hard because you might say, V, I love my job. And don't get me wrong. Not everybody who's single has the ability to just go get quite a better job. Like you might live real early and be like, V, I'm a nurse. Like I can't just go to a different hospital that pays more. That's not a freaking thing. I get it. But maybe there's a side hustle you could do. Maybe there's selling on Facebook marketplace. And like we talk all the time about boosting your income, but I think we do need to be honest with ourselves

because we've done so many money dares about people changing careers and ultimately changing their lives. Do you have to do it? Absolutely not. But if you're unhappy, I'm sorry, we need to make some changes, Jess. The next year is kind of reiterating the point. It's diversifying your income to give yourself more breathing room. So things like side hustles can actually help spread the risk because it adds extra cash flow without relying on somebody else. Jess, I would say that you are like the queen of a second income. What would you suggest for our single community members? I think there's a lot of platforms out there now that make it really easy to pick up odd work. AirTasker, driving for Uber, driving for Uber Eats,

Amazon delivery. There's lots of options that let you pick up work on a as-need basis. And I think it makes it really easy to set yourself up because you don't necessarily need any skills. You just need a car or a bike or whatever, and you can do that in your own area, which I think is really- And you can turn it off and on. Exactly. Which I think is really handy because you can do as much or as little as you need. you don't need to invest in anything to get started like it's all quite straightforward otherwise I would say selling your stuff like there's that statistic that what is it most people have like over $500 of unused just things in their house way back in the day I think it was

like 2020 Jess I was working with Gumtree you might remember this and like they did a really big and this is 2020 so I reckon it's more now because like TikTok Instagram we're really good over consumption. They did a heap of research and they found that most people in their households have $500 worth of stuff that they could sell. Yeah. Yeah. So it's find the things, find the things you're not using, find things, especially if you're downsizing, like we were talking about earlier. Don't just, I don't want to say don't donate stuff because I know that it's important to support charity. Sometimes we donate because we're being lazy and can't be putting it on marketplace. At least give it a go. I think even if you're selling something for $5, if you sell

10 things for $5, that's $50, right? And so can you do a market store? Can you do a clothing rack? Can you do some kind of pop-up thing where you can just mass clear things out that you're not using? The cost per use maybe is higher than it should be. Get it out of there and then get some money coming back in. 100%. And then rent things out if you can too. Like I rent out dresses. If you have tools, people rent out tools. Isn't that crazy? Like you can literally do so much. You just need to start looking at what your options are because you it be like, oh, none of the options you've mentioned, Jess, are what I want to do. You know what? There's probably options that we don't even know about, but you've got to do your research and

like Google, use your friend chat GPT, use all of those things so that you can kind of put yourself in the best possible position. Absolutely. Now, Jess, the next topic I want to talk about is something I'm wildly passionate about. And I say it's sexy all the time. And I don't think I have many people that agree with me, but I'm going to keep hounding this point until it's flogged like a dead horse. Superannuation is so flipping sexy, but when you're single, you don't actually have that doubling effect that couples have when it comes to super where, you know, you might retire with $300,000 and your partner doesn't. Okay. So then now we have $600,000 and we can actually live, you know, a bit more comfortably. So that means that you have to get your shit together

when it comes to superannuation strategy because it matters more. The earlier you either start topping up even a little bit or looking at your investment platform and making sure you're in the right risk profile means the more time compounding has to do its thing. And I feel like at the moment, maybe because it's just recently kind of been tax season and we're all doing our tax returns, people are like messaging me about their super. And I cannot be more excited about that topic. We have a whole episode about figuring out and it dropped recently. So all the stats are up to date for you about figuring out how much superannuation you actually need for singles and for couples. So it is for you, irrespective of your relationship status.

And it just makes sense. Like Jess, it is something that if you don't have any cash right now and you're like, I don't have any cash to save. I don't have any cash to invest. I'm sorry. Go look at your superannuation and make sure it's in the right possible position because that is putting your future you in the best possible position instead of burying our head in the sand like you could change your risk profile and I know that I said this a million times but the difference between a conservative risk profile which by the way most of us if we've never looked at our super in the default because exactly when you sign up and you get your first employer forms and you're like I don't really know what to do and they're like oh sign up to

this default super fund, it goes balanced is the most common option. And you'll be like, yeah, whatever. I'll just pick that. The difference between a balanced super fund and a high growth super fund when you retire is close to $200,000. That's no extra contributions. That's just compounding and your risk profile. Yes. Make sure that, you know, you're not just changing it for the money and you're making sure your risk profile fits, but like, sorry, Jess, if you're a high growth investor and you're not in the high growth fund what the heck are you doing you're missing out free to change you can put future you in a better financial position without even having a dollar to spend yeah sorry that makes so much sense to me so go listen to that and make sure

that you're obviously taking your risk profile into consideration and you know past performance is not a reliable bridge to a future performance and whatever else I have to say but you know what I mean, I think it is so important because like we actually have the ability to put ourselves in a good financial position. Even if you have no cash today, you could have no job, but if you've got your super fund, you can go and tidy that up and keep your financial house in order. Yeah. The other thing I want you to have a look at, and again, I'm very wildly passionate about this is the default insurance. If you have it inside your superannuation fund, most superannuation funds for our audience and our community does actually include a default life insurance and total

and permanent disability insurance cover. And that's something that now doesn't happen. So like we don't get default insurance anymore, Jess, but like if you are like me and you, you know, graduated in 2009 and had a few super funds, they very likely, Jess, have insurance associated with them. Yeah. As a single person, it might be worth having a look at how much cover you've got. Are you spending too much because you've got more cover than you need? You don't have any dependents. So could you drop that? Also, you do need solid income protection. I'm so sorry if you told me, Victoria, you have to get rid of every single insurance under the sun. You get to keep one car insurance, phone insurance, house insurance. I'm keeping my income protection

because if my house burns to the ground tomorrow, my income is what's going to rebuild that house. If my income or I get so, so injured that I can't work anymore. Sorry, I can't pay the mortgage on my house. I won't have that house. Yeah. So my income to me is the most important part. But unfortunately, when you're single, no partner means no backup plan. You have to become your own backup plan, which means in my eyes, income protection is even more important. And I guess while you're at it reassess your insurance that you hold outside of superannuation because we just don't have that plus one safety net so if you get sick or injured like girl who's paying your rent like what's the default moving back in with your parents like for many of us that's just

not an option you have to back yourself so just make sure you are covered yeah and if you do need someone to sort out your insurances sky wealth you guys know phil he's been on the show recently he's a dream his team are all wonderful they'll take a look at everything holistically they can recommend what you can pay from super what they would recommend paying for outside of super do all the things tick all the boxes they're really great they make it so easy yeah and like that's not just like a plug to be like go talk to sky wealth like jess who did your insurances sky well and who did mine sky wealth like it's not because we're like oh go talk to these guys it's like oh we know because they've done all of ours and we trust them and we love them honestly they're

team is so so kind and you're right it's really important to get all of that stuff sorted out what's next on the list so I want to have a quick discussion about working out our financial goals when we single we're running out of time because I don't want this episode to be too arduous but I feel like we're talking about really important things Jess investing can obviously be a really great option for building wealth as a single person because you don't have to have a really big sum like a house deposit and like to me if you are single and you're thinking about a house like I would say that's a lot of risk to carry I'm not saying don't do it like obviously you're going to do it on your own but like there's a lot of factors that come into play that make it a good

idea for you but if you're single and want to maintain flexibility like investing can be a really good option and if you need I guess a little bit more encouragement that you can do it on your own. Studies have found that women outperform men when it comes to investing. Oh, snaps for us. We are just better at it. I'm sorry. We make more reserved decisions. We spend a little bit longer thinking about things. We're a little bit more conservative. And you know what? Even if they're talking about their day trading or their fucking penny stocks, I think it's really important to remember that slow and steady wins the race. Even if somebody is trying to be like, oh, well, I started trading and I made X, Y, Z. Girl, that's not consistent. That's not going to consistently

put you in a better position to build wealth. Also, the good news here is investing is more accessible than it's ever been for singles. Yeah, definitely. There's platforms like shares you do. You can invest with no minimum investment. So whatever you've got. One cent. Sorry, that's a minimum investment. Well, yeah. As long as you've got a cent, you can do it. And they've got roundups. There's all of these different features, auto invest that makes it so much easier for you to get started, regardless of how much income you've got to put in set the habit you're in the habits the most important thing get it ready get it going you can adjust as you need to you can adjust as you earn

more income but getting yourself started over that hurdle of you know it seems scary I think is like a really it's a simple thing you can do yeah and this is like not an episode that's sponsored by sharesies it's also not like a mention that's sponsored by sharesies to be clear but we do have a relationship with them which means they gave us a code so sotm10 and you get ten dollars in your investing account when you start and I get nothing yeah like that's me just being like no the offer was originally five dollars for you five dollars for me and I was like no give them the ten dollars because like I don't know on a hundred dollars ten percent return that sounds really good so sorry I'll give you a ten percent return absolutely good deal free money I'm wildly

passionate about it and I just feel like investing for income matters more when you're doing it solo because when you're single there's no second super fund to lean on or shared bills to have in retirement like girl I'm sorry but you have to cover 100% of your future lifestyle on your own and yes the plan might be to meet somebody but like it's rough out there like I'm seeing my friends go you know what I can't even be bothered dating anymore like it just it's not for me and they're starting to choose making plans forward on their own and if they meet someone great but like we can't just hold our lives and wait for prince charming to come no and lots of women are doing it on their own people are becoming parent like single women are becoming parents they're

building those lives we just go without a partner yeah also sorry we're in the middle of a cost of living crisis when prince charming comes he's probably got a credit card debt like oh excuse the way it's gonna be you know and that's like income from your investments can play i guess such a big role. So I would be looking for investments that are paying you while you hold them, not just when they increase in value and you sell them. So we are looking for things like dividend paying shares, high yield ETFs, or even REITs that give you exposure to property without having to take on a mortgage. Like if you'd said to me, I'm absolutely obsessed with property, but I don't want to buy a house. What do I do? Maybe have a look at an REIT,

which is a real estate investment trust because it gives you exposure to property without having to have a house deposit and that's kind of a money win I reckon because when the time comes to like slow down or step back if you've already created a consistent income from your investments that can be the difference between being free and being in financial pressure for the rest of your life and as someone who's built her house deposit all by herself yay me um sorry is that just like a subtle flex just from me to you she's rich if she was single I'd be like you should date her it's possible though like you can you really can do it and I think like by implementing all of the tips that we've listed above by budgeting by increasing your income by doing side hustles

all of those things it like it can be done like I'm living proof that it can be done 100% and I think that so many people think that it's like serious sacrifice and life-changing but don't me wrong you've sacrificed a lot I don't want to downplay that at all but like it's been consistent decisions that put you on the right path because like once you started your savings account for your first home pretty sure it wouldn't have looked that flash to begin with but like from little things big things grow and as you've said before on the podcast you've never touched those savings there's never been a withdrawal from it so that's a good thing yeah but I think yeah you just have to be slow and steady and be consistent and I mean having the right team on your side

i.e us will be your biggest cheerleaders but if you want to buy a house I mean I own a mortgage business called Zella we can literally physically be on your team and I would absolutely pump up my team's tires every single day of the week because we just have so many first home buyers who are single and do you know how I just get this sick sense of satisfaction when another single girl buys a house, I'm like, yeah, we can do it. Yeah. So good. And what about financial advice in general? I think if you're thinking about financial advice, yes, it can be really expensive. But if you're in a financial situation where you're like, I just need to get my stuff together, I need to work it out. I would say seeing a financial advisor as a single is a really good

idea. But I would probably look for someone who has other single clients and is not used to just, you know, dealing with couples. So if you're like a single high income earner, I think it's really important to kind of get your financial house in order and it might be worth spending the money. But like Jess, as you and I have discussed before, and I think lots of people know, one of the reasons I got out of financial advice is because the cost was just so prohibitive to the people that I wanted to have an impact on. Like I couldn't justify going to someone like you, Jess, if you were single and being like, yep, cool. So my financial advice fees are four and a half thousand dollars. Like I would prefer you to save or invest that money. Don't get me wrong.

That's a very normal figure for good financial advice. And I think that if you're in a situation where you want to get it, go get it. But like I've created this whole podcast so that you can build that wealth yourself. You can put yourself in the best possible position. Maybe if you're looking at investing and you want some further handholding, don't see a financial advisor, go and do my investing masterclass. It's literally me showing you. So I think working out what works for you is going to be the most important thing. I couldn't agree more. And I think it's been a really good episode, but it's probably about time that we wrap up. But before we do, I do think it's important that we just acknowledge the emotional and mental load of managing your finances by

yourself. I know we've given you a lot of advice and a lot of things to think about, but also if you're fresh into a breakup or if you've been single for a long time that can bring up a lot of very understandable feelings and sometimes it does just feel like a slog and so I just want to say like we love you and we see you and you totally can do it by yourself like you really can lots of people do and I know it feels overwhelming and hard but with all of these tips and all of the tips in the back catalogue of the podcast you can go listen to you can do it we believe in you I was explaining to someone the other day it's like getting out of bed you can have a whole really flipping good day ahead of you but like getting out of bed's the

hardest part yeah so if you can just do that and get over the first hurdle and start looking at your finances go the rest of it is easy because you're already out of the bed yeah but we actually need to take the first step and sometimes like pull off our sleeping mask and go you know I need to get in the shower and get my stuff done yeah but it can be really hard so I think the most important thing here is just give yourself grace absolutely I think that we've done enough here if you have loved this episode or you know someone in their single girl era who needs a little money pep talk my friend please send it their way we are all about women backing themselves and each other and as always make sure that you're subscribed so that you never

miss an episode with us leave us a review if you've got a second because it really does genuinely help and then we're gonna see you on friday for another episode so see you soon my friends bye the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy a financial product read the pds tmd and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.