She's On The Money - She Didn't Pay Rent for Seven Years. Now She Owns a $1.2 Million Home.

Episode Date: August 2, 2026

This week's Money Diary proves there isn't just one way to build wealth. Growing up in a working-class family, she didn't inherit financial advice, a house deposit or a roadmap. So she made one herself. From 18 to 25, she skipped renting altogether, house-sitting her way across Melbourne, looking after other people's homes and pets while quietly saving every dollar she could. It wasn't glamorous, but it helped her buy her first home on her own in her twenties. Fast forward to today and she's 36, single, earns $177,000 a year, owns a home worth around $1.2 million, has more than $250,000 in super and is slowly building an investment portfolio, all without relying on a partner to get there. We chat about climbing the corporate ladder while completing a master's and PhD, navigating redundancies, why she's still not convinced she deserves an A for her money habits, and the reality of building financial security on your own. It's a conversation about doing things differently, trusting yourself, and remembering that building wealth doesn't have to look the same as everyone else's.See 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. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan, mumubangaraboma ininyan waka, gaunonyakarumja, wutunarana. 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 lets you be pervy about other people's money circumstances for educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries brought to you by our friends from Sky Wealth, where I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with one of our incredible She's On The Money community members and talking to them all about their

journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's On The Money. I come from a working class family. I had no financial education except for one hairy accounting elective and instead taught myself along the way. I now see what I could have done differently, but remind myself that I did the best I could with the knowledge I had at the time. I also did it my way and by myself. I worked throughout my studies and climbed the career ladder in corporate while finishing my master's and PhD. In 2015, I bought a unit by myself. Looking back, I'm so lucky that it worked out. If what's happening to interest rates now happened then, this would be a very different money diary. I sold at quite a profit

in 2024 and bought my forever home. Solo again. I'm now 36 with more than $250,000 in super, a home worth $1.2 million and a small but growing investment portfolio. Money diarist, hello. hello hello be so for real that is so so cool but also you know my ex-boyfriend and this is really weird because we used to hang out when I was like 20 at house parties I know I know I've come a long way since then and so have you girl same like please put me in that bucket like I was saying to you just before we have to tell the community this because like they need the background law but I'm really excited about this because not only did you know me when I was 20 I knew you when you were 20 and girl look at us now. I know I'm a little bit older than you but

yeah not much. Girl I am 35 you are 36 sit down. All right let's dive into a money diary because I'm just genuinely as someone who knew baby you getting to know your money diary now I'm going to be able to like place it so much better. And I hope that that, I don't know, I hope that translates to the community getting an epic money diary as well. So let's dive straight in. Money diaries, to what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? I think a B, maybe a B plus. Love. Let's learn more about it. Can you tell me a little bit more about your money story and the things that have impacted it? Yeah. So I'm the youngest of four. My dad was a tradie. Mom was a stay-at-home mom. So, money was tight and there

was also no financial education. They didn't know anything. They still don't. They're retired now. Like they're okay, but they're not rich. Dad always says to me that he doesn't know where I learned this when I'm telling him what I'm doing with investments and every time he comes and walks into my house. I got my first job at 14, nine months and I haven't stopped working since. I made eight dollars and eight cents an hour my first job dollars and eight cents that is so specific I love it still remember it and it's still my frame like if I buy a jacket I'm like oh is this worth 10 hours of work oh my goodness I default to that as well I'm always like oh my god it's 50 bucks that's like three hours of work and then I'm like hold on hold on you're stuck in

the past yeah exactly but also that's still a lot of money yes I know right and so yeah I've been working since then have a pretty hard working ethos there have been times in my life since then that I've had no money I had no money at the start of COVID and then I lost my job but it's always been okay I've always kind of bounced back and yeah worked the whole way through studying one of the ways that I guess I saved money back then was and this is a hack I tell anyone I don't know if you remember this I didn't live anywhere from 18 to 25 I just house sat really yeah I just looked after dogs and cats. You're a genius. How did I never notice that? Yeah. So I saved so much money. I thought you just lived with your parents. In between. Yeah. So if I wasn't doing a house sit,

but I saved a lot of money that way. And that's how I bought my first house so young because I had never paid rent. That is so cool. But also just like such hustle. Like I love that for you, but was it a lot being everywhere and nowhere at the same time? Yeah. And I didn't even have a license back then so I'd be lugging a suitcase around and going to work from different places going to uni from different suburbs but it means I got to see where I wanted to live I got to live all over Melbourne and figure out what area I like that is very cool so tell me what does it because I'm just taking a stab in the dark right now like you've got a house worth 1.2 mil you've got 250 grand in super you gave me a little bit of insight into your parents what is it like

being in a better financial position than your parents like is there yeah different dynamic what does that look like yeah it is interesting I remember a while ago dad asked me he doesn't know exactly what I make but he knows how much I bought my house for and he's also like I've got a daughter she's the youngest daughter she's a hustler and has a master's and a PhD so I don't think it's four dollars yeah exactly he said you know are you earning over a hundred thousand dollars and I was and I was like yeah and he said oh god it took me decades to earn that much which is true but also with the you know the buying power that that money gets you I'm like I have done all of this by myself I do have a very big mortgage so yes on paper to my parents

I make a lot of money and I do but a lot of it's tied up going off to quite a big mortgage and you know all my other living expenses I don't have a partner to split the bills with but yeah it can be awkward at times and I can be a bit more generous than they are money-wise in terms of presence but for me presence are about the thought not what it is so yeah that's never bothered me totally and I really resonate with that because like as somebody who's also in a financial position where oh do you know how cool it is like genuinely one I didn't know like you know when you don't have money you don't think about this but you know you might go to Chasden and want to purchase something for your sister or purchase something

for your mom and you just go oh that'd be so cool but I can't do it yeah like I never thought that getting into a financial position like I'm in now meant I can do that yeah and like it sparks so much joy like the idea that if my mom wants something and it's her birthday I can just get it I know right like it's so much fun and I forget that sometimes people are like Victoria are you sure. And I'm like, girl, I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm almost certain I'm getting more out of this than you're getting out of this. And it's such a privilege. It absolutely is. I do feel bad sometimes when my siblings are like, that's too much money to have given the child. And I'm like, whoops. Whoops, I don't have my own. That's so good. All right. So do your parents know what

you earn now or have you kind of always skirted around telling them? No, they don't know a dollar figure they just say a lot and I'm like sure yeah wow and is that because in those conversations where they're like oh can you afford that house because like I think that parents kind of sometimes default to money diarist like we want to make sure that you're not making a bad financial decision are you okay can you afford this like I'm assuming that's where it's coming from is that because you withhold that number because you're awkward about it or is that because you're just like oh I don't really want that out there? Or what's the thought process? Yeah. I think originally it was not wanting them to change anything, feel awkward or, I don't know, put more pressure on me. Not that I

thought they'd ask for money, but that maybe they treat me different. And if we're going out for dinner, they'd be like, we'll pay for everyone except for money diarist. And I was like, I don't want that. I don't want a spotlight on me. I doubt that they would do that. But tell us, tell us, what do you do for work? How much money do you earn? Yes. So, I work in research and development at a not-for-profit. And I also have a few side hustles where I teach adults who are changing career. I do a bit of writing. So, my taxable income ends up to be $177,000. That is a lot more than $100,000, isn't it? It is. And I work in a not-for-profit, right? So, I've got not-for-profit benefits that actually lower my taxable income. Also, don't get me wrong. I adore

that you work in a not-for-profit and knowing you you know not super well but knowing past you and current you to an extent I would say that we talk on Instagram at least once a week I feel like I know that a not-for-profit suits you but hypothetically if you ever wanted to go into corporate you could probably double your income exactly yeah I always say this pesky morals I could make a lot more money if I work somewhere else girl if I turn she's on the money into a pyramid scheme for reals. Like I could be at the top of the triangle of opportunity. Yes. All right. So, tell me, what is your big money goal? Because it looks like you've achieved a

lot already. Yeah. So, when I bought the second, well, my forever home, I guess, my second house, one at a time, I don't have an investment property. It needs a bit of work. So, that's been what I've been working away on I designed my en suite which ate most of my savings yes was that more expensive than you thought it would be oh my god it was so expensive and I did go bougie for my en suite but just the cost of the actual labor was surprising it was a lot higher than I thought and because dad was a tradie he thought I was getting ripped off but then I got several quotes and I was like this is the cheapest by ten thousand like it's yeah that's crazy yeah it's expensive and I didn't even have an emergency fund when I moved which I know wasn't great but

I had a bit of a life loss and a money win that means I got some money from the victim of crime financial assistance so that is now my emergency fund and I won't touch it it won't be used on any of the next home improvements I'm slowly saving up for them and doing some do-it-yourself to save some money there too and so yeah the goal is to make this my dream house and to pay it off and keep growing my investments. That is so cool. So like your ultimate money goal is basically what you're already working on and the things that you've already achieved, just making them bigger and better. Yeah. I am obsessed. Now you touched on something that I don't want to dive too deep into, but when you said you got some cash from the victims of crime unit. Yes. What can you tell

me about that? Just because I think we don't have enough conversations about stuff like this. It's something that I think a lot of people have probably, I don't know if you've shared this publicly as in with your friends, but a lot of people don't know it's a thing. Yeah. So the old scheme was really hard and you had to really prove what had happened and fill out all these forms and go to different people. And so I got in about halfway through that and stalled. And then they changed the scheme. And so if you've been through a crime in the state of Victoria, you can apply for getting money back for things related to the crime. So I had put cameras around my house because of the crime happened at my house and I had gone to therapy

and so I was just asking for reimbursements from that but then the caseworker assigned to my case was amazing and she said hey you can get a financial like lump sum because this is a class a crime which means you can get up to twenty thousand dollars in cash and so she helped me through that I just needed a statement from my psychologist she didn't even have to fill out a form she just had to like write a paragraph and then it was really quick from there so it worked out well and so that cash has hit your account and it's now your emergency fund yes does that make you feel a lot more just secure in general yeah absolutely because with like what the job market's doing at the moment in my sector I know some people are losing their job and I don't have

a safety net like I said I don't have a partner my parents don't have the financial means to support me so if I lost my job and it took me a while to find my job servicing the mortgage would be a big big stressor but now I've got a few months or more than a few months in that emergency fund so that really helps. Can I ask you about being single because I feel like so many of our She's On The Money friends are single and you're killing it like what do you mean you're like I'm more than 170 grand like you've got your own house you just live love laughing like another human being I'm assuming would have to add significant value to your life for you to be like yeah I guess you could tag along yeah tell me what is it like being single at 36 because I can see the benefits

but I can also see that for a lot of our community they're like what is wrong with the world am I ever going to meet my person yeah I mean look I feel that especially if you're ever on the apps you're like oh god is this this is all that's left I don't want kids so I don't have a time pressure yeah I don't need to get partnered up I mean you can obviously have a kid without a partner but that has its additional challenges that's not your choice either that's also not my choice so I don't really feel yeah a pressure to get a partner like you said someone would have to add to my life rather than detract from it and I've been through some pretty bad relationships the class A crime was related to something with a relationship so it's not really a goal of mine

but then I do know like, well, financially it would be easier. And sometimes I think, no, I've had a hard day. It would be nice if there was a partner to have a chat too. Call me babe, text me. I'm really good at wine. Yes, you can do that. So tell me a little bit more, I guess, about that side of things, because we talk a lot about the single tax. How do you feel about that? Is that unfair? Is it just like the cost of being single in this economy is it something that you're like the government should absolutely be helping us a little bit more because like what you do you're very intelligent and i

just really want your opinion on this yeah i guess i mean i have made the choice i live in a three bedroom house by myself i know right because i wanted to study i work from home quite a bit oh well then obviously you need a whole house with three bedrooms god forbid we work from the dining table well i used to do that at the unit but i felt like i lived at work yeah that's not cool so but so i've made this choice so sure i've got a an electrical bill that it doesn't half i have lived with a partner before and when he moved out it didn't half like the service charges more so i don't know if they could but i've still i've made this choice so i'm in two minds about it i see

you know yes people are struggling but then oh i've made a choice i could live with housemates it's more the structural stuff like I want to go on a holiday oh the price is per person twin chair oh okay well do I have to what's the price for one person hotels obviously be more expensive you could never go on a cruise because there's not really like that maybe there are on some but there's not like bunks so you can't do it a cheaper way those are the things that I'm like oh okay yep there's the there's the double cost for me because I don't have someone to split the hotel with or whatever yeah I really feel like it's a bit deceptive when they say oh it's like a thousand dollars a head and you go great but there was always a built-in minimum like just

say the room's two thousand dollars and you can share it with two people and it's an additional fee for one more like just brand it to me differently so it doesn't feel like I'm paying for someone to be there when they're not going to use that yeah exactly although once I did get two welcome wines so I was like okay well you know what put all of the conversation we've just had in the bin she got two welcome wines it was worth that one glass of champagne is that a money week I don't know you're already probably paying doubles they were probably like this woman's paying double she deserves two wines yeah all right money diaries let's go to a really quick break because I want to get your thoughts on investment property I want to talk about debt

insurances and your best and worst money habits. So don't go anywhere. All right, Money Diarist, we are back. And you said something before that I was like, oh, interesting. What's your thoughts on investment properties? Yeah, this is definitely something I was thinking about because I only had like $250,000 remaining on my mortgage at my old house. And I was like, oh, do I keep it as an investment property? Do I stay and try and pay it off. But if I did that, I looked at my borrowing capacity and I was like, oh, well, I'm not going to get into the forever home. And then I'd have to make another interim step. So, I sold that. I bought the forever home. But actually, just recently, I was talking to a

financial advisor and this is the second one who's raised it who were like, you've got a lot of equity in your home. You could get an investment property. And I was like, oh, but that just seems like more again for a single person I'm taking a more risk and so I kind of said oh I don't know if it's for me their brokers ran some numbers they sounded too good to be true so I was actually going to book in with Zella money to be like what is the like reality here well my one of my mortgage brokers did just get put up for mortgage broker of the year again so amazing she's got it together but also it is a lot to talk about and even if something makes sense quote on paper and even if the numbers you know let's pretend they're not too good to be true they're just really good numbers

and you're like wow that could work out for me like it does all fall back on you like it's not as though if something happened to you it's all right we'd get pie on my partner's income and then I'd get income protection like if you're getting income protection and this is something that when I was a financial advisor I used to talk to my single clients a lot about a lot of that is going to be soaked up with support for you as opposed to it defaulting to your partner and I'm not saying that's the right thing but often it would default to your partner and yet would use that money to pay off your mortgages or you know live love laugh but if you're single and you can't lift a finger because you've broken something yesterday well what are you going to do

You either have to rely on your parents, which unfortunately right now we are in similar positions. We're in our 30s. Our parents are aging. We cannot be relying on them to be like, oh, I'll come over and give money to our sponge bath. Like we're going to have to pay for these things. So what would that look like? And you're right, it is more risk. It's not something that is super terrifying. It's not to say you shouldn't do it, but it is definitely something to go, well, if you want to remain completely financially independent, what does that look like? has a financial advisor brought up the conversation of debt recycling to you no so i mentioned it to this person do you listen to podcasts by the chance yeah exactly i actually bought my niece your book even though she's like 14 because i was like you're doing this and i bought her shares and stuff i was like you're going to be better off than i have been love that so much yeah so i haven't looked into it in a lot of detail i know what it is in theory from your podcast and that's what I was kind of saying to them like the only exposure I have to property at the moment besides my home which is my house is I do have a REIT in my share portfolio

so I just feel like that shares and maybe some debt recycling into getting into more shares is safer for me than having this whole other house because yeah like we just said I don't have a safety net it would all be on me if something were to go wrong and I've been through two redundancies so I'm like oh do I ever want to do that again like that was stressful and you kind of have to role play it out in your mind and be like if I did this and hypothetically I was made redundant again how would I feel and a lot of the time you know I'm reading between the lines here you would go oh I'm actually not comfortable with that that would send me off a cliff I absolutely don't want to do that but something like debt recycling could work to your advantage

where we're, you know, trying to maximize the fact that you currently don't have deductible debt. We could create some deductible debt, put you in a situation where you are kind of turbocharging your investment. But if you were made redundant, there's not another mortgage repayment and a tenant moving out all at the one time. And I think that that's where our definitions of, quote, a safe investment need to be very strictly defined. Because what does that mean? Like it actually means most of the time that our money, Darius, just feels safer. Not that on paper one's safer than the other, because you could argue that property is actually a lower risk asset class. But the reality is sometimes we just need to take the option that makes us less money

because ultimately it puts us in the best possible mental and financial position. And I think there's a really good balance there. Money, Darius, tell me about debt. How much debt are you in? How do you feel about it obviously being made redundant with debt would absolutely suck what's that like yes so the redundancy was actually really fortuitous the second one anyway because I walked straight into another job so okay yeah like a recruiter reached out to me that day and I was like yes so I ended up just having a lump sum that actually distinguished one of my mortgages like the split mortgage yeah okay so now I have 750k debt on my mortgage I don't have any HECS I don't have any car loan I do have a credit card for emergencies but I've never used

this one I did have one that I use more frequently 10 years ago and I did have you know debt sometimes I would carry over but it never really felt out of control and I was always like oh there'll be more money but I think now again looking back on some of the things I did I'm like oh I could have done that better, but I did the best with the information I had at the time. And it's set me up for where I am now, which is a lot more of a structured approach and bill buckets and different savers and everything's automated. Okay. Icon. Yeah. Can I ask a little bit more? I want to know, what did you buy your last apartment for? What did you sell it for? And then I've got more questions to follow on. I just don't want to overload you because there are many.

so the place I bought in 2015 I bought for 490 the market was crazy at that time so I ended up buying like directly on a train line the only way I could afford to get into the suburb I wanted I was then having the discussions with my real estate agent 10 years later about oh do I sell do I keep it as an investment property and we were looking at some of the works I had to do because there's some kitty cats and there was just some stains on the carpet and what kind of stuff do I have to do? We were getting those quotes and then he said, down tools, I've got a tradie who is interested. So I ended up selling it off market. I took into account, it was so good, but it happened much quicker than I was expecting. And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to buy a house.

So I took off 30K from the price because that's how much the improvements I were going to put in was. So I sold it for 670. Okay. Very nice. And how did that off market happen? Did you start any of the improvements and like literally have to put down tools or what did that look like yeah we were still in the quoting phase so I had a list of things that the real estate agent thought I should do and he's the one I bought the house off and I kind of just know him from around the local area and so I was about to buy the floorboards and about to do the stuff and he was like stop stop stop we've got one we've got a very good offer he was just yeah bringing through people yeah it worked out really well and was it just someone who was like nah i'll buy that because

the like market's obviously crazy and we'd prefer to snap it up now not wait till it gets on market or like what happened yeah so it was he wanted to do a bit of a fix it up yourself because he was a and it was a young couple their first place that they were buying and so they were also seeing how expensive everything was getting and so yeah a bit of well we'll snap up the one that's not ready because we have the skills to improve it. Yeah. Yeah. Because that means that obviously you would have put 30 grand into it. So you're like, I'm going to knock that off, but then they're probably saving money because he's a tradie and it's not going to cost 30 grand to do what he wants to do. Exactly. Money win. I love it. So then how much profit did you then take and put into the next

property? Yes. So I took pretty much everything just became my deposit because I did upsize quite a bit. I did have a partner at this time, which is partly why I upsized to a three bedroom, two story, two lounge room house. And then we broke up a month after I moved in. Wait, wait. So what did this mean? I bought it myself. Yeah. Okay. But what did this mean? Did you at any stage go, oh, maybe we should buy together? Or did you just the whole time be like, you're not invited. You can't, you can't buy this with me. You can live here. I'll charge you rent. Like where did that go? Yeah, it was my house and he would have paid rent, which was the same situation with the other house. The partner then had paid rent. So it's always been my house and I've protected myself as much as I could. But yeah, it now means that, oh, I'm in a big house by myself. Better get some more cats, I guess.

Absolutely, you should. If there's going to be a stereotype, we should absolutely lean in, you know? Yes. So, I bought this place for $950,000, even though it was listed at $1,500,000. Wow. And I don't quite know how I did that. Even the real estate agent was like, I don't understand. You deserved it. That's what happened. The universe said here you go. And now the street, everything's kind of similar in the street. So, other houses with exactly the same layout of mine have sold for $1.1 and $1.2.

So, I assume I'm sitting on a bit of equity. that is very nice and have you spoken to someone about like working out what that equity is or you're like at this point in time I don't care I've just been talking to my financial advisor and if I make a decision I'll go and find out the dollar figure yeah I was speaking with someone but I wanted to finish the bathroom renovation first and so now that that's done we will probably get that re-evaluated yeah 100% and when you do get a broker whether it's one of my brokers or whether it is somebody else just make sure you ask them for an in-person one because often a bank will especially if you've got a house that didn't sell that long ago, they'll do what's called a

desktop review. And that's where they basically just Google the house, look at all the specs and go, oh, in this industry, and they do what you did. They look at your neighbors and go, oh, they sold for 1.2, so she's worth 1.2. But you might have the best bathroom on the street and the best everything on the street. And we kind of need the bank to know that. All right, money diarist, talk to me about personal insurance. What does that look like for you? Yes. So when I bought my first place in 2015 I looked at getting some insurances my sister had gotten really sick just after she'd bought her apartment and so that kind of scared me yes absolutely is she okay now yes she's good I think I actually messaged you at the time because like I'm a I'm a bigger girl

a bigger woman and my I call it the fat tax because I got a 50% loading on my insurances even though I was three kilos over what they wanted yeah and I was like oh I should have lied no I shouldn't have I shouldn't do insurance fraud but three kilos they wouldn't have known that looking at me no they wouldn't have and like but that's like it's so important to be transparent as well because hypothetically if something did happen and you went to claim and they could prove that you were over they would have like come down on you like a ton of bricks But yeah, I remember at the time I was like, okay, there are actually options here. And a lot of people think, oh, well, maybe I just can't get insurance because of my BMI,

because that's what insurers default to, right? And I think it is the most outdated system ever. Like we all know that BMI is not reflective of your health. Anyway, that's a conversation for another day, my friend. but there are some insurers that are far more lenient and have higher BMI you know things that they look at as opposed to some insurers where we just go do you know what don't even go with them because like it's just not going to put you in the best possible position how did that work out yeah so I did end up with we looked at like another one and so I did still have to play

a loading but I did get the coverage and then I reviewed that a few years ago with Skywell oh she's in the game she's in the cult all the all the cross promotions here but also see guys people I know personally even take these recommendations it's not just podcasting yeah I haven't reviewed them since I moved and I know that I'm probably slightly underinsured with the new house but I do have income protection I carried that over from an old employer as well so that actually didn't have exclusions which worked out really well oh money win yeah I had like six months after I left to take it up. And I was like, yes, yes, please. Thank you. I will take that. Do not ask questions. Exactly. And I've got TPD and I've got accidents. So, you know,

and if I died, my family would just sell the house. So it's not like I need to pass money on to dependents. So on paper, I'm probably slightly uninsured, but I feel fairly comfortable with where I'm at. Yeah. And as you said before, you know, if I was to pass away, my family can just wrap stuff up. Unfortunately, it's a lot more complicated than that. Do you have a will? Yes, I do. And I've updated it. I was about to say, and do they have access to that will? You didn't write it on a napkin and put it in the back of a cupboard and hope that that would work. No, no, no. There are multiple copies and they're dated and there's...

Look at her go. I'm so proud of you. This is so good. All right. Tell me, what do you think your best money habit is? I'd say it's still pretty frugal. So, I'm doing an Ikea do-it-yourself hack at the moment where I'm building Beauty and the Beast bookshelves. Stop. Love. You sent me photos and I'm obsessed because I am too. I got some quotes for some custom wardrobes and I was like, absolutely not. Yeah. The quote was $15,000. And so, I went to do an Ikea hack, but then I also got some of the stuff on marketplace because I was like I'm doing it cheap but I'm doing it cheap cheap and the older Ikea stuff is better quality so if you can get anything on marketplace that you're

gonna be drilling into I think that's better than buying brand new yeah I also go to a lot of free events locally and I have I'm a big reader I've read 48 books already this year so it's June like we're recording in june what are you doing i can't afford that well um or i can but it would you know but i don't want i don't want to so i go to the library i love that though libraries are so underutilized i was watching and i'm like i don't get the opportunity to read a lot but i do watch a fair few like mini youtube documentaries because i'm just i'm really cool still okay and there was one on like libraries dying and you know maybe this is the last generation of genuine like librarians and I was like wait what no that's yeah no yeah I hate that

I don't want to go to a library and have it just be all automated that's not the point I know and they're so lovely there like when I moved I was I'm walking distance from a library and I was like oh how novel they run all these pun intended no but I love that it worked out that way they recommend books way better than any algorithm like it's just lovely that's so good and just it's such a hub of community as well and i i love it harvey and i we go to the library we pick up his books he asks to go i bought him a specific bag to take to the library with his books like i just hope that that sticks around all right flip it i don't know what it's going to be this i think is going to be really rogue what is your worst money habit I think you know we spoke a bit earlier

about maybe sometimes being a bit too generous spending too much money without thinking about it on gifts or the cats a bit of a bleeding heart when it comes to like oh you need chemo okay so spend $18,000 on one of the cats and he passed away $18,000 yeah over three years but yes do you know what like I can't judge you for that because if my cat got sick I'm telling you right now I should not have money like I should not have access to my if they told me even if I had no money I think that's one of the things that could send me into debt oh yeah some of it was on credit card back then yeah this is a cat that passed away a long time ago but I just paid off all that credit card debt and then COVID hit and I lost my job and I was like oh no I have zero

dollars so that I get it so yeah and probably a little bit too much on uber eats if we're honest but I've tried to build both of those into my budget I've got a spreadsheet and it has percentages of where to click put everything out and so I have tried to build that okay one percent of my salary goes to gifts and if you run out of money then you're making the gifts so okay I kind of like that now tell me now that we've had a chat what grade would you give your money habits from A3 to F because you gave yourself a B and I'm really struggling with the B like sorry it's 2026 you have a 1.2 million dollar house more than 250 grand in super you make more than 170 thousand dollars you're single you don't need no other person like what would take you to an A? I think

for me it's just having that outstanding debt and I know it's going to take me at my current rates depending on what the interest rates do 19 years to pay off my house oh she knows done all the math there's spreadsheets everything's ruled by a spreadsheet and that's just a long time to be having this hanging over my head I didn't feel as stressed in my last house because once the payments were a lot smaller and I was still overpaying it but what was due was you know a lot less so I think once that goes down a bit I'll just feel a bit more safe and then I'll be like oh I'm an A but yeah that's the main thing and my investment portfolio it's not much it's only like five grand so if I had more in there as well I think those two would bring me up to an A

but I think that you're killing it anyway like be so for real you are still in the grand scheme of wealth creation a baby and you're so far ahead of so many people in our community and like we don't compare but like I just feel like you're pretty harsh on yourself yeah and I think some of it is that right the comparison is the thief of joy for sure and I try and go no I did the best with what I had at the time but then I go oh but I could have been here I could have done this so I do try and you know keep those negative thought patterns at bay yeah and I feel like we're so good at comparing ourselves to our peers and like I'm assuming that your comparisons given you have a master's you have a PhD you've got a pretty damn impressive job I would assume that

the people you're surrounded by are like ah we went and looked at another investment property on the weekend or that's crazy I bought my wife a new car I wish I should have got her opinion on that like I'm sure that there's a lot of like frivolous spending but also just more wealth and I feel like that's something that we should also point out quite regularly as well because the circles that you transact in become the point of reference for comparison and that doesn't mean that that's the norm or the average yeah absolutely that's okay because that's like your normal but like you're killing it like I want to fight with you on the b but like honestly you're much smarter than me and I'm not willing to start that argument money diarist thank you so much for

having a chat i feel like we've been here there and everywhere across this episode but like what a good episode to share with the community thank you so much for spending so much time with me and just yeah being so open with the community i love it thank you the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money

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