She's On The Money - She Lost Her Fiancé, Her House and $30,000 in the Same Year

Episode Date: July 12, 2026

A few years ago, she thought she had it all figured out. The house. The fiancé. The wedding. The future she'd spent six years building with the person she thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. Then, on a random Tuesday morning, she got a text message. He was leaving. Just six months before their wedding. What followed was a blur of heartbreak, a house sale, more than $30,000 in lost wedding deposits, and the very real task of rebuilding a life she never imagined she'd have to start over. But this isn't really a story about what she lost. It's a story about what happened after. Today she's a qualified dietitian, has over $150,000 in savings, a growing investment portfolio, and a level of financial independence she never knew she was capable of. We chat about combining finances in your early twenties, trusting your gut when something feels off, rebuilding after a major breakup, and why sometimes the plans falling apart end up making space for something much better. By the end of this episode, you'll be rooting for her harder than anyone.  New here? Follow us on Instagram (@shesonthemoneyaus) for Q&As, bite-sized advice, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.  Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements (queenacknowledgements.com) 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 - 4451289See 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 yambina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan, mumubangaraboma ininyalan 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 habits for educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to one of our money diaries brought to you by our friends at 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, buckle up. I thought I had my future secured. A new home, a wedding, and a life with my fiance. While I was in the thick of a six-month stint of my master's placement, he walked out on a random Tuesday, leaving me to sell our house and cancel a wedding that was only six months away. I lost over $30,000 in wedding deposits and almost everything I'd spent six years saving for. It was the world's most expensive lesson in why you should never consolidate your finances with a man without a backup plan. But I rebuilt. Since then, I've secured graduate roles, built a successful career, and achieved financial independence.

Today, I earn more than ever with over $150,000 saved and $20,000 invested all in my own name. Money, Doris, be so for real. It is crazy. What the heck? How? How? When? Where? Like, oh, so many questions. It's so funny like listening to that and thinking, oh, that was my life at one point. It's just wild. And do you know what? I know that you were probably so excited to marry that man because like, you know, that was what you were working towards. But now you look back on it, you're like, thank God he walked out. Like, thank God. Yeah. It's so funny. Like thinking when you're in it,

it's just your whole world's kind of like crumbling. You're in almost like a black hole being swallowed by the world. And then you come out of it and you're like, oh, okay. Everything happens for a reason. Yeah. That's crazy. All right. Let's jump into it. first question I've got, money jurist, what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade? I would probably say I'd be a B, no plus, no minus. Girl, you've got 150 grand saved after you kicked some man to the curb. And I know he quote walked out, but like, I just feel like he's the one missing out here. Tell me a little bit more about your money story though. I want the nitty gritty and the things that impacted it. Yeah. So, I mean, my money

story, I guess, starts like anyone else's. Money wasn't really spoken about growing up, but we had it. We weren't fighting for our lives or anything like that. We were very lucky. Me and my sister went to a prestigious private school around the area. I remember seeing my parents wear the same winter woolies for years and years and years. I remember having a conversation. I was just going into year 11. And I said, you know, I don't really want to be here anymore. Like I'm sick of the school. I don't really, I was very different to everybody else, I guess, because I couldn't do the things that they were all doing. We didn't really have the money for it. But I remember my parents saying, you know, if there's anything that we can give you in life,

you know, we won't give you a brand new car. We're not going to be able to give you a deposit for a house or anything like that, but we want to give you a good education. And looking back on it now I'm thinking like those were their values you know it was good like we we got a good education we got a good upbringing we never struggled but we also never really saw the extent of it either like I know that money was there but then it wasn't there but then it was there again so I guess I kind of always had that growing up like I needed to hold on to money so I got a job very very early I think I was 13 when I got my first job at Donut King yeah very cool I was making like $8 an hour or something ridiculous. Yeah, but also like Donut King's cool. Like that

being a first job, like I think I would have thought that you were the coolest kid at school. I had unlimited cinnamon donuts. Yeah, see, good deal. Great deal. It was quite good. But yeah, no, I've never been out of a job since. So, I've always kind of held onto my money. I've always saved and I did like end up, you know, buying my first car, achieving all the things that I kind of wanted to do and then I had met my ex-partner when I was about 18 so I was fresh out of school. Oh just a baby. Yeah I was really little he was 20 at the time so we only had a two-year age gap and I had taken the gap year to just kind of work a little bit I was a bit burnt out after you know the end time of school like my schooly experience so I was

working and I remember we sat down and it was probably from this point on money kind of became a conversation that we would have quite often so it was very embedded into our relationships which was I guess a good thing but also turned out to be a bad thing towards the end because the focus was just always on money and we sat down and I was saying you know I really want to buy an investment property like that's what I want to do that's my next kind of goal and he had said You were just a baby. Yeah, I was. I guess I just wanted to. I keep saying that, but you were so young and you're like, nope, I want to buy an investment property. That's my goal. To me, that's crazy in the best possible way. Yeah. I think I had big dreams. I had big goals and

I was just really motivated. So yeah, he said, oh, well, let's just, let's do it together. And I said, okay, yeah, I could do that. He's like, why would you buy an apartment when you can buy a house like we can go in together we can it could be great so we did we saved and like in theory that makes sense if you were going to be together forever like when my husband you know was my boyfriend and he suggested that we buy a house together I was like yeah great I would love to like I didn't question it either and I think like growing up like my parents never had like his money her money so it was just like normal to have you know okay yeah we'll consolidate all of our savings. We'll spend the money that we earn together. It's not separate. So, that's what we

did. We consolidated our finances and we were saving for a house and COVID hit. So, he had ended up moving into my parents' house. I think like everyone kind of did at the time. And then we pretty much saved. So, I went back to uni after my gap year and I did my undergraduate. I had two jobs at the time, just trying to save. I always felt like the onus was on me. Even though he was making quite a bit more than me, he had his own business. He was a tradie. The onus was on me. I needed to put money in. I needed to still have money to spend at the end of the week. I couldn't ask him for money type of thing, if that makes sense. Yes, I always felt like I had to work and I was just doing ridiculous hours. I was working at a pub during my time at uni. So I would work

from five o'clock in the afternoon to three o'clock in the morning, go to uni, come home, do the same thing again. Oh my goodness. And that was just to save as much money as I possibly could. So anyways, we ended up getting engaged. And I think you just always have this gut feeling, right? We were having problems before, just like anyone else in a relationship. Problems exist. and just before we had got engaged I remember just thinking to myself like I don't know if I really want to be with this person for the rest of my life awkward yeah very awkward because within like two weeks after that he had proposed to me so we went on this really extravagant overseas holiday to the Maldives what do you do at that point yeah literally I'm like oh okay

So I'm not going to say no, obviously. Like, I think there was just a very long period of my life between when, I guess, from when we got engaged to when we had split, where it was just constantly like my gut saying no, but it was always going to get better. You know, like, we'll get engaged, it'll get better. We'll buy a house, it'll get better. We'll get married, it'll get better. Kind of never got better.

So yes, we got engaged and then I had started my master's degree, which was really, really really intense it was four days a week from eight o'clock to four p.m so it was practically a full time job almost yeah of course so and just like so mentally demanding as well like I think people are quite like that's not the worst thing in the world but it's also just like you're constantly trying to like jump hoops and learn new tasks it's not like going to work nine to five Monday to Friday and you know how to do those tasks like you are consistently learning something new and your brain is just yeah overloaded as someone who's been there I get it yeah there were so many times I was just thinking I don't want to do this anymore like I just I don't have the brain

capacity to do it but I always wanted to do it and my profession's the type of profession where if you don't have your master's degree you don't have anything like you can't get accredited unless you have your master's degree so I had to do it so I would you know go to uni come home from uni and then go work a five to three shift at the pub and then do it all over again. And he had said to me, all right, time's right. We're getting married in, I think it was probably year out. We need to buy a house. So again, that like gut feeling, I don't really want to do it, but we did it anyways. I didn't want to do it only because the second half of my degree, I had to go and do six months of clinical placement and then six months of a thesis as well. So I kind of

again, had the feeling of, I'm going to have to really work hard. The onus was on me again. I always felt like I had to pay. He never would, I guess, offer to pay for anything. So I was thinking, okay, we'll do it. I'll just manage. I'll just save. It is what it is. So we did. We bought the house. We went away on a holiday and I think things were quite rocky at the time. Went away on a holiday came back and he had said that he was going to leave and this was just like a constant kind of thing and this time I just said you know what just go like just go like was that something where he was just lording that over your head like if you had a fight he'd be like I'll break up with you kind of vibe or like yeah like what did that look like we would have a fight and it

would just the bags would come out and it's I'm going and I'd you know sit there and go no don't leave please don't leave me and then yeah I love you I'm you know deluded and also just know what I know yeah I think I just got to the point where I was like you know what I just I don't care anymore just go so he did he left funnily enough came back not that long after and we were fine for months we were good we worked things out you know our wedding was only six months away like you know, it was all happening. It was exciting. I had spent $30,000 of my own money for the deposits on the wedding. He didn't spend a cent. It was all mine. Why wasn't he putting cash into this? Like where, where was his contribution and why wasn't that being questioned? So he owned his

own business. So it was the business money and then it was our money and that was it. Does that make sense yes I I kind of get it but also like why wasn't money being taken out of the business for his contributions it just never was it was just never spoken about it was never an option I'm always so suspicious yeah it was it was never an option it was just like that was the way that it was you know so I did end up yeah spending quite a bit of money on that wedding and then yeah he messaged me on a Tuesday morning I remember being in the thick of placement and it was so exhausting as well because again, I was working and then pretty much my Friday, Saturday, Sundays, I was working again. So I just didn't get a break and the first half of the week

was unpaid anyway. So I wasn't making any money and it was all just going to the house, going to the house, going to the house. I had no money at this point. After the deposit was paid for the house, our payments started coming out for the house and then all my money was gone to the wedding, I really had nothing. I had an emergency fund, which was, I guess, a good thing, but that was only $5,000 and it didn't really get me too far. I remember getting that message and I looked at my phone and I just ignored it. And I thought, I'm not dealing with this right now. The message said, I'm packing my bags. I'll be gone by this afternoon. Take care of cancelling the wedding and take care of the sale of the house. Where was this man going? Why did he get to walk out?

what's going on here? I'm very confused about his audacity. Well, at this point, I don't know. I was blindsided. To this day, I still don't really understand it. I don't understand the capacity of it. Wait, he never explained it? No, he just left. He just said, I'm done. I'm leaving. Also, all of this is up to you now. I mean, the dots kind of connected after the fact, but yes, at the time, just walked out and I said, that's fine. I'll see you when I get home and then you can go on your way whatever you want to do you want to do so yeah got home he asked where the ring was I told him he took that and then he said are you able to deal with the wedding and also deal with the sale of the house and I said well no I was already embarrassed obviously

we were so close to the you know the wedding happening everyone was excited for this this big wedding. And I said, well, no, you can message all the vendors and cancel it and I'll deal with the sale of house. That's fine. I'm happy to deal with that. And yeah, I think the sale of the house probably took about six months to sell and he wanted to settle on $30,000 less than what we paid for it just to kind of get it out of the way. And again, I said, no, like he had ruled my life for a very long time. We were together for six years. He had ruled my life and had a say in so much of my life for all that time he wasn't getting a say in this and I wasn't going to lose the money that I had saved my whole entire life for like it just wasn't happening I'm so proud

of you for maintaining that because it would have been so easy to just be like fine get out like yeah yeah well there was definitely times where I was thinking like I just want it gone and I want to finish it but I ended up sticking to my guns and we did end up selling it for a little bit more than what we paid but I pretty much just got yeah I just got kind of what I had walked in with so I did end up losing out of money in that sense in terms of like repaying the mortgage etc but I did end up getting that money back because at the time I had literally nothing I was doing a six-month placement and I had nothing to my name and I had burnt through my emergency savings so quick so it was kind of good to see that money and cut the ties yeah totally but yes but also

just like what the heck is going through this man's mind like don't get me wrong like clearly things weren't perfect but to just pull the pin and be like you you have to deal with this to me is like low-key crazy yeah I mean again to this day I don't know and I'll never know I mean you know he did end up moving in have you speculated is there someone else like that's the first thing I thought of. Yeah. So, he was actually living in my family home. So, we had bought the house with the, I guess, assumption that we were going to move into it and we got the first home buyer's grant. Yep. So, we didn't move into it. We were thinking, okay, on the 11th kind of month, we can move into it and not have to pay stamp duty. So, that was the plan. So, we were living

at my parents' house because we were obviously kind of saving for a wedding, paying for the mortgage. I was also on placement as well and that man was never going to give me. Yeah, crazy time. he was never going to give me money to like survive or anything so about two months later I want to say he ended up moving out of his mum's home into his now girlfriend's family home as well so interesting it's just like the cycle repeats yeah I was like what's going on here like how is this working because like there has to be something going on in the background for that to have been like such a clean like not clean but like for him to be like all right I'm done full stop if you'd gone back and forth for so long like yeah oh why are they like this I don't know

I don't know look honestly it's just it's probably the biggest blessing in disguise I remember being so upset like you've dodged a bullet but tell me a little bit more about this concept of you losing all of this like you know deposit money but him not having to recoup that did you ever say all right well you owe me half or did you just let it go like what what happened there I honestly there was so much back and forth and he was always right where it was just like exhausting to me I didn't even bother with it like he was always right no matter what I said he was always right I didn't want to get like mediation I didn't want to have to go into depth with everything I was willing to just cut my losses and leave because I remember my mom saying to me she said would you

be happy to kind of you know be embarrassed because you never had this big wedding that everyone was hoping for or are you happier that you didn't have this wedding that everyone attended that everyone celebrated and then you got divorced you know two weeks three weeks later oh she's so right but it's so hard to see that in the moment right because you're just like oh my god I'm letting these people down and I don't think if we asked anybody who was invited to your wedding do you feel let down they would have been like no like I'm so glad that they're doing what's right for them like nobody would have felt that way but you do in that moment I'm sure of course I mean I had my whole life sorted I had the house I had you know I was just about to finish my

degree I had what I thought was the perfect man I had all my ducks in a row and then all of a sudden and everything was this is crazy so he's like still negotiating settlement of this house with you and sale price while living at a new girl's house yeah yeah and queen you can keep him like you can keep him like I promise I'm not looking at your man because like nobody should be no and I'm just like I'm happy to not have a leech like I'm happy for him to leech off another female that will support him. Yuck. I feel bad for her. Me too. But I mean, it is what it is really. You know what? You pick your poison, don't you? Exactly. Exactly. Oh my goodness. Money Diarist, I want to know, what do you do for work now and how much money

do you earn? So I only graduated a few months ago, November last year. Congrats. That's so exciting. Yeah. Really exciting. It was six years too long. So, I'm now an accredited practicing dietitian. Oh, very cool. Yes, yes. I work between a few jobs just because it's really hard in the industry. Like the jobs are pretty far and few between and especially full-time roles as well. You'll most likely find dietitians that do have quite a number of roles and it just makes

up their full-time week. So, I work in the community three days a week and then I work private practice two days a week and then I'm a contractor on the weekends as well in a GP clinic so you're still just hustling and working your butt off yeah again I think I have like this fear of just never having money again yeah fair like what I said before like I just always need to like hold it tight I mean I respect it but I also don't want you to burn yourself out tell me how much money are you taking home for all of that? So for my like my full-time role between the two jobs I make about $95,000 a year which is for a graduate dietitian quite good. Oh that's very good my queen. Yeah I

got super lucky with the roles that I got and then with my contracting role it's ad hoc so some days I might be taking in you know like $500 for the day and then other days I might only make $80 so yeah okay it's dependent on the referrals yeah that's crazy but also like so good and what's the plan because like obviously you come into this industry you've worked your butt off you've done your master's and you're kind of still in that like grad mode but do you have a like I want to own my own practice or you want to like go completely you know private practice or what's the plan yeah I think one day I would really love to kind of have my own practice have a bunch of people working with me, create my own team. The market is however, very saturated. So I think

most of the time everyone would be happy listening to an influencer online that doesn't really have a degree or anything because everyone eats, everyone knows what to eat. No, I don't. I hate that so much. Yeah. So it would be good. That is kind of the goal. But yeah, at the moment, I'm just kind of building up my clinical skills as best as I can to become a good dietitian eventually. And are you leaning into that social side to kind of build a clientele out or what does that look like for you? Yeah, I guess in my contractor role, because I work kind of under my own business name, like it's very separate, even though I work in the same clinic, it's very separate. I have my own identity there in my own company. I think kind of building up that clientele,

building up that name for now is a good kind of stepping stone. And then I guess, you know, in a few years down the track hopefully my goal becomes a reality it totally will and it always is so disheartening when and like and it's the reality right when you say something like oh well you know lots of people would prefer to follow an influencer and it drives me insane because it's like what do they know like they're saying things with conviction and it's getting you in trouble like I don't know about you and you probably shouldn't agree to me in this moment but I feel like all of the influences right now that are dropping health and beauty stuff are really promoting heroin chic as like a body aesthetic or and that's just not what it should be about

like we've come so far like in being strong and being women and eating the right stuff and now it's just like we're going backwards so we need more people like you to have voices that can be amplified to keep us happy and to keep us healthy and to put us in the best possible position because listening to influencers is horrific like I find myself even when I'm talking about my journey I'll be like I am not a doctor but this is what I'm doing please do not listen to me all I know is money like I've got my finance degrees I've got a business degree like I know what I'm talking about there and I've even got a couple of psychology degrees we can talk about that anything outside of that I'm not a professional stop asking me like you want to talk about food

go to a dietician go and talk to our money diarist like I cannot tell you how frustrating it is when people like can you do a day on a plate no absolutely I cannot like I cannot do a day on a plate because not only would it not be the right thing to share it would set like you know unrealistic expectations not because I eat too much not because I eat too little all of that but like that's crazy to think that I would become an influencer to influence what people are eating in a day get me out of here get me out a lot of my job is literally just debunking the latest nutrition myth on the internet so it's quite fun I have this gorgeous naturopath that I see probably monthly Zoe if you guys follow me on socials who would have seen me tag her a heap

of times but I like am always going to her and you know chatting about my health doing bloods doing everything properly but then I'm like what about this like oh have you heard of ozempic everyone's talking about it which is just like we try to sit down like this is crazy and like we get to have these good conversations about what's going on and it just really reiterates to me like do not listen to influencers listen to people who are actually educated like did you not just hear how much our money diarist was slaving away to make sure she has the knowledge to put people first that's who we want to be championing drives me insane my love drives me insane but let's move on from that because I want to know what are your big money goals because obviously getting back on

your feet financially was a big money goal sorry there's $150,000 in your savings right now so I feel like we've achieved that yeah what's next what are you currently working towards I mean even though I'm very very scarred I would like to get an investment property again well that's not a bad thing though like that's just an asset class we just don't want to buy it with a douchebag partner who's going to move in with a girl they told you not to worry about you know yeah so I think if I do do it it'll definitely be a loan but yeah I just want to make sure that I guess I'm very secure able to you know pay the mortgages do everything that I need to do again I feel like I have this kind of mentality it's like it's never enough like I need to have money because

you just never know when you're gonna need it so I guess eventually I will look into securing my next kind of investment property. But that's really exciting. All right, let's go to a really quick break. And on the flip side, I want to know a little bit more about this investment property journey and what it could look like. I want to talk about debt and how you feel about it. And then we're going to talk about best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere. Money Darius, we are back. And I want to talk a little bit more about investments because you said, hey, I'm not that scarred when it comes to investment properties. The man, sure, but like the investment property, I probably would get straight back into bed with one of those. Tell

me about the plan there. Is that something that you're like, look, V, I just know I want to do it. I haven't got a plan. Or are you kind of working towards having a specific deposit saved or where are we with that? I mean, at the moment, I'm just kind of plodding along, I guess, because I worked so hard. I pretty much rebuilt the last six months of my life, probably a little bit more. I've been rebuilding kind of all of that money back and going from having nothing in my bank account to, you know, the sale of the property coming through and then kind of rebuilding my finances up from there. I think probably within the next year or so, I'll look into buying a property. Oh, that's exciting. And so soon. Yeah. No magic number. Like I'm not looking to, you know,

hit $200,000 or anything like that. But I think just when I'm ready, when I feel ready to do it, I'll do it. I have no doubt you'll hit $200,000. So it sounds like you are hustling and hustling hard. Are you investing in any other way? Yes, I am. I do have a ComSec account. So I have, I checked this morning, it was actually $20,493 thus far. Oh, Icon. And how long have you been investing what made you dive in first she's on the money stop it yeah you did not have to say that but like I'm glad that we're all putting ourselves first I've literally got all of the books do you actually that's so sweet it makes me want to cry when people are like I've got your books I'm like what do you mean like I thought it was just my mum who bought

no I bought them as well I have them my dad also helped as well so I did go to him after kind of listening to a lot of the podcasts, I guess, around kind of investing and things like that. Yeah. And I went to him and I started off with a ComSec pocket. So I think I probably put like $200 into that maybe. And then my dad, who's an accountant, I went to him and I was like, I want to start investing. Can you kind of tell me what I should do? Not necessarily what I should invest in or anything. And he was probably like money diarist. I've been telling you this for years and you were like, yeah, but I've listened to this podcast. And he was like, I don't care about your podcast. I have been telling you for years. Why didn't you listen to me? And you're

like, no, you never told me. That's crazy, dad. No, he really did. He's like, I've been saying this. If you invested X amount, you know, in five years, that's 4%. Sorry, dad. You're just too male. I'm sorry. We're not here to listen to men about how to run our world. It's just not going to resonate. I didn't even listen to my own accountant father, as you probably already know if you read my book I'm sorry dad I love you but I'm not going to be listening no it doesn't make sense like it just it wasn't even a choice it was subconscious it's like when he would sit at the table with me every night after dinner and do my master's homework with me and I would just go no I can't listen to you not making any sense so oh I wrote about that in my book as well and how I used to

sit at the dining table with my dad and he'd be trying to teach me times tables and I would cry like I would sit there crying and he would be like no Victoria you're not getting out of this by crying you are sitting here and doing it and so I'd be sobbing and be like five times five it's so funny because I swear my life was exactly the same but no he he told me kind of how it worked so individually investing into different stocks and just from that point I did my own research I sat on it for a little while like I probably sat on a couple stocks that I watched for about three months or so yeah did a bit of you know research and stuff and then I did end up kind of picking a couple stocks to invest in and then ever since then I've just picked other stocks to

invest in so which we love which we genuinely love like I feel like sometimes it does take a little bit of sitting and a little bit of planning like it's never you listen to one podcast and then did it and if you did I'm confused like how did you just get the confidence because I didn't even have the confidence to do that. No, it was very confusing. To me, that's insane. I need to step back and make decisions slowly. Yeah, I'm the same. I needed to just sit on it for a while and understand it before I kind of did invest in individual stocks, especially like blue chips and things like that. I didn't really understand. Yeah. That's so exciting. And is that something where over time you're going to be investing more or are we really prioritizing getting into an

investment property? Or are you just like, V, I'm just doing whatever feels good right now? No. Well, I try to put aside each week about $100 depending on kind of like my pay that week. And then I just kind of wait until I'm ready to buy a certain stock or buy more of a stock that I've currently already got. That's kind of how I work. I love that. All right. Tell me about debt. Do you have any debts? Have you ever had any debt? I feel like I know the answer to this. No. At the moment, the only debt that I've got is my HECS debt, which is I think, so I paid off my first undergraduate degree. So I've just got my master's sitting in there. I think at the moment it's like $20,000 maybe. Yep. And are you planning on paying it off or are you very happy with that?

What's your approach? I've been thinking about paying it off, but I'm happy to just kind of ride it out for the next couple of years. And again, just save, invest. And then maybe when I'm in a better financial situation, I will pay it off. We'll see how we go. Totally. So tell me a bit more about personal insurances because you are quite young is this something I mean you've read my books so you know how important I think this is but is this something that you've set up or organized or even thought about yet no I don't have any personal insurance but I have been thinking about it doing it through my super but yes I don't have any currently I think definitely something to ponder about it is important I just don't have any I think it's very important and

you definitely should, but that is okay. That's something that could definitely take you from a B to an A overnight, I reckon. Tell me a bit more. I feel like you're going to have some pretty good money habits. You don't go from losing literally everything that you'd saved for and losing all your wedding deposits to having 150 grand saved without some good money habits. So what do you think is your best money habit? My best money habit, and I've been doing this since my first job, as soon as I get paid, I pretty much put a certain amount into savings, an emergency fund, my car expenses. I have a whole range of different accounts that I allocate and then I'll leave myself my budget for the week once that budget is gone. I mean, I try and budget as much as I can,

but once it's gone, it's gone. So, I practically will live off two-minute noodles if I have to. And I mean, that's a good thing, but where does that discipline come from? Have you always had that or are you just like no I don't want to spend any more money or I don't want to you know go above them I don't know how do you get that mentality because so many people just don't have it right they just go no I could never do that like I wouldn't I wouldn't sacrifice that yeah I really don't know like I just pretty much from the first paycheck I got I started doing it no one told me to do it I just I did it and I've just been doing it for pretty much my whole working life. Yeah and I think that that's like honestly relatively healthy as long as it's not like

restrictive in every other part of your life but I'm also like how do people just know this and then other people don't like obviously it's part of your money stories but like which part how do we teach this? I'm not too sure again I think it was just because growing up money wasn't scarce however we did have periods where we didn't have money so I think again it's just I hold on to whatever money I can. And I guess that's probably going into my worst money habit. That's probably my worst. So what is your worst money habit? I think, again, probably just holding on to all my money and being scared. And I guess being stung in the past now, that's probably made that a little bit more heightened and substantial. It's like, I can't lose my money. I've been there

before now and it scares me. So it's like, I can't not have any money, if you know what I mean. Yeah, that's kind of scary. But also, what does that mean in the future? Have you found a new partner? Is that something that you're interested in? How do we move forward once somebody has kind of just been like, oh, by the way, I'm out. Also, you work it out. Also, you're up for all of these costs. That would scare me off. Yeah, I do have a new partner, actually. Yay. Well, I'm glad. Yeah, he's great. He's unreal. He has spoken to me about consolidating our finances but I'm just like very scarred it's not happening absolutely not sir so for now it's my money your money and yeah I guess somewhere down the line if I feel comfortable doing it

then I may probably not all of my finances like I did prior but it may be something that you know down the line we do end up doing but yes I think my scarcity kind of mindset I do need to work on it's something that I know I need to work on but it's just a matter of I don't really know how to do it because it's so engraved in me. Yeah tell me a little bit more about this scarcity mindset and how you feel like it's holding you back because I think a lot of the time people are like oh a scarcity mindset is really bad but sometimes it can be a good and a bad thing and I'm not trying to reframe it to be good because clearly you're like V I want to work on this but like can you tell me a bit more about where you feel like that's holding you back? I mean

it's not necessarily holding me back from anything but there is definitely times where say I've you know blown my budget for the week where I do have $15 left at the end of the week my friends might say like hey let's you know go out for dinner or something and I'm like no so I do kind of miss out on things I would you know obviously like to kind of lengthen that out a little bit or try and work on ways that I can you know maybe extend my budget to allocate fun things, but I've sound really boring actually now that I'm talking. No, I don't think you sound boring. I think you sound relatable because so many of us are going like, you know, we don't all have 150 grand saved, but so many of us are like, oh, that's holding me back. Oh, but is it?

But isn't it? Like life is stressful, my friends. Like so many of us are just trying to get by. And then we identify things that we're like, oh, I'm struggling with that. But I also have never heard someone say that they're struggling, especially around money. Like how many times have you heard someone outside of the She's On The Money and like the podcast money space say, oh, I'm really struggling with my scarcity mindset. It's holding me back from creating wealth or creating happiness. Like these aren't questions that we know the answers to. Like we just don't. So I think it's so important that we talk about this and go, what about that is holding you back? Or, you know, what's going on? And you're saying, hey V, well, not really holding

me back, but I am missing out on like life experiences with my friends. And like, that's what I would want to build. Wow. How insightful is that for us to know? And how insightful is it that somebody gets to listen to this money story and go, hold on, that's how I'm feeling. That's crazy. Like I thought it was just me. Like, I think it's just really special. Yeah. It's good, but it's also not good at the same time. So I'd like to get to a good, happy media. I do get it. I do get so tell me now that we've spoken I feel like you're a bit of a weapon also you just like you've gotten back up dusted yourself off and been like I actually don't need that man I'll just get a newer better one and then you did like be so for real like that is a hot girl move now that

we've spoken do you really feel like you are just a b like I don't know what would make you an a What do you have to do to get to become an A given you're so young and have so much ahead of you? I don't know, actually. I think probably to become an A, it would mean that I do have, I guess, better, I guess, relationships in terms of money where it's not like I'm constantly holding on to it and, you know, it's something that I constantly think about. I just don't have enough of, like, and I think that's the thing. I'll never have enough of it. no matter what my goal is no matter what I reach it will never be enough to me so I think that is probably the only thing kind of holding me back at the moment it's like a blessing and

a curse really but that's also not the worst thing but it does sound like maybe it's not a I have to save more I have to buy an investment property for me it sounds a little bit more around your money mindset and like feeling comfortable and like getting really comfy in this relationship that you're now in about how you manage money moving forward because you just don't want that to be something that you know lords over you for the rest of ever like I just feel like that could be all all consuming and overwhelming right yeah exactly no and that's not the worst thing to want to work on right and like I talk a lot about it in my books as you would probably know so I'm going to gift you my money masterclass to do because as much as it's just a budget right it's also got

so many videos about money mindset and getting on the same page and like feeling confident with money. And I just think that you might benefit from that. And if that even pushes you to a B plus, I would love that. I would love that too. Thank you. I appreciate it. Adore. Oh, I'm glad. I was worried that you'd be like, no B, like I already have it. I was going to buy it like probably two months ago. I was like, I'm going to buy it. And then I didn't end up doing it I think well I'm glad you did it because you've just saved and like I'll gift it to you as a little bit of a thank you for doing a money diary with me because I'm like hold on this would really work for you and like I think you'll find the budget like the actual

spreadsheet really empowering as well especially if you're trying to like plan out what's next or where you're going and what that looks like I'm excited for you to do it but I'm also just really grateful that I've had the opportunity to do this money diary with you and like share a bit of your story and you know throw some mean words around about your ex-boyfriend from my side not yours it was a therapy session very respectful and you know what maybe no one's broken up with me like that because they just know that i would be a savage like i'd be so rude like i'd get cancelled no one cancels victoria divine they've tried and you know what pop off sometimes they're right sometimes i need to pull my head in but at least i'm honest you know not on my watch no it's not

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