She's On The Money - She Skipped Uni, Travelled for 4 Years… and Still Built Her Dream Life

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

Ever done something just because it’s what you’re supposed to do? Well, this week's diarist did the opposite. While everyone else was drowning in student debt and instant noodles, she was saving, flying, and somehow adulting better than all of us. She bought a house in her early twenties, lived overseas for years, and came home with more life experience than any degree could buy. Spoiler: doing life “out of order” might’ve been the smartest move she ever made. Inside this diary, we get into skipping-uni guilt, working smarter than your parents planned for, and how to build a life that actually feels good, not just looks good on LinkedIn. GET VICTORIA'S BUDGETING SYSTEM: Master your cashflow here.Ready to binge more relatable, inspiring, and downright juicy money stories? Check out our ultimate Money Diaries playlist. Listen now 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 - 4See 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 yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawakanidawaman daman imelan, mumibangaraboma ininyalan waka, gaunonyakarumja, wutunadanar. 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 stories for educational purposes of course welcome back to another one of our money diaries where i get the absolute pleasure of sitting down with one of our she's on the money community members and talking to them about all the nitty gritty details of their money story. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got an email and it sounded identical to this. Dear She's On The Money, I started working at 14 and then I met my husband at 16. We skipped uni, went straight into full-time work and saved hard. We were living at home and

desperately wanted our own space so at 22 years old we bought our first home. Then we rented it out while we spent four years overseas on the ultimate working honeymoon. We came back, sold that house and eventually settled into our dream home and now we have two babies. We never thought we were quote good with money but maybe we've done all right after all. Money Diarist, yeah you have done all right after all haven't you? Yeah looking back over it yes we've done pretty good. I am so excited for this money story like it just feels oh I also just love love like I've just got so many when people are like oh I met my partner or my husband or my wife or whatever I'm like oh tell me like I want the pervy details this isn't like you know money questions but like I need the dirt

um so let's dump into it before I ask any more pervy questions I want to know if I asked you to give yourself a money grade from A through to F, what would you grade yourself? I would say a B minus at the moment. B minus. All right, let's go with that. And now can you tell me a little bit more about the nitty gritty of your money story? Yeah. So I guess the first kind of memories of money I have is probably as a kid, we came from a, well, I have two sisters and my dad works, mum was a stay-at-home mum and from stories that they've told us they worked and saved really hard but as kids we wouldn't have known that they instilled that if you want want certain things you work for it save up and then you can purchase it with your own money so we had chores and pocket

money and stuff. But it wasn't until I really wanted a mobile phone that I guess they put their foot down. And the only way to get a phone at that point was to be able to pay for it myself. And so I was actually 16 when I started work, but started working at the Glamorous McDonald's. No, sorry. That's a great first job. It is a great first job and yeah, worked there for would be nearly eight years or something like that, but mainly to be able to pay for a teeny tiny Samsung flip phone. I was about to ask what phone did you want? Cause you're 35 and I'm 34. So I feel like we're on the same page about what like phones we wanted. So Samsung flip phone, was it the one with the little screen on the front

that had the time. Yes. Yep. Yep. Sexy. I love it. Yes. So yeah, bought the phone, had the prepaid credit on it. One of those phones where you freaked out if you accidentally hit the internet because it would suck it all up. Oh yeah. Don't do that. That's expensive. Yep. Yep. Yep. And also only text your friends after 8pm because like we're not spending 55 cents on a text. Exactly. And then I was always a saver. I've always put money aside into savings when I finished school it was the goal was buy a car and I did that we went and got a personal loan it was like a we maybe did it as like a 10-year personal loan or something and it wasn't a huge amount probably like eight thousand I think not a huge amount at 18 it's a huge amount eight

thousand dollars but I paid it off within like two or three years because everything went to that and I was living at home still with mum and dad at that point had started dating my now husband at 18 and yeah so everything went towards saving and paying off the car loan which we did really quickly. And then it was working with my husband to save up for a house. We both, school was not our thing. So we both deferred uni and then got the taste of full-time work and full-time income and both decided we weren't willing to give that up ever. So we lived between our parents' houses for two or three years while we saved up for a house. We actually never lived together, I guess, officially lived together until we bought our house. But we did do some house sitting to

test the waters, see if we could live together. Yeah, that's a good thing to do. So did you meet your husband at school or at your job? So we met at McDonald's at the age of 16, working together. Macca's love stories. It is and then started dating when we were 18. Oh my god so you knew each other for two years before that happened I need to know like who had a crush on who first like did you have a crush on each other the whole time or like how did it become we knew each other for two years and then we started dating? Yeah so I think we were just in like the same kind of friendship group at McDonald's and then it just blossomed from there at some point I can't really remember who had a crush on who first, but that's cute. And then tell me a little

bit more about that. So you like bought your first house. Like when did you get married? Cause you said that you, you know, you went on the ultimate working honeymoon. How old were you when you guys were like, okay, let's get married. Yeah. So we bought our house at 22 back in 2011, just before he turned 21. And then we decided to get married in 2014 because the plan was always to travel. The timing of it was never certain until we decided it was better to get into the property market first. So we actually got that advice from another McDonald's manager when I was out on a course and he was like, no, get into the property market first, then rent it out and travel. And so I took the advice of a random Macca's manager. You know what? Sometimes it

works. Sometimes it works. And it worked out beautifully. So we rented the house from 2014 to 2018. And in that time, we spent two years living in London, jumping about Europe. The rent covered the mortgage plus a little bit oh my god how good like I say we feel really lucky but we obviously worked hard I don't like to say we feel lucky that the timing all just worked out really well but we worked hard to get to that point and then it all just kind of fell into place which was lovely so we had two years in London jumping about Europe and then weren't ready to come home. So then we spent two years in Vancouver, jumping about Canada and enjoying life over there. The house was rented out. We did get burned by a few tenants, but it all

ended up working out. It was just the logistics of dealing with real estate agents in a different time zone. Yeah. So talk to me when you were living in London and then in Vancouver, what kind of work did you do? So I was doing admin work. I'd actually done a diploma of HR management because I thought that was the career I wanted. Spoiler, it's not. That's okay. You were a baby. Yeah, I was a baby. And my husband was working for an Australian tour company, which very conveniently provided some discounted tours for us. Oh, how good. You guys had it worked out. We did. Yes, we were very, very lucky with the timing of everything as well, because after living in Vancouver for the two years, we came back to Australia in October of 2018, just before the world descended into mayhem. I was about to say, what good timing to then get to go into lockdown. But I feel like it would have been more stressful to go into lockdown overseas.

oh a hundred percent I look at it now and go thank heavens we got the travel in that we did especially for how cheap it was to travel around Europe we used to have a look at Skyscanner and go oh look there's a 10 pound flight to Switzerland then I'd look around at work and go does anyone want to go to Switzerland for the weekend stop it yep but that's so cool like my best friend or one of my best friends Rosie lives in London at the moment and she does like she's just come back from Sardinia like I look at her we have such different lives but I watch her on with so much envy because she's like yeah like my friend and I are just gonna go to Sardinia for the weekend I've taken an extra two days off work and I'm like imagine if that was my reality like

you can just do that and she's like yeah yeah yeah we got some cheap flights and we found a cute resort I'm like what like that would be my annual holiday it was something we had to learn really quickly in terms of money because we went from being paid weekly here in Australia to monthly in London and the first few months we would go oh we are rich and we'd book all these trips and then the trip would come around and we'd be like oh we're poor we got nothing we got nothing to spend here in the country so we would stay in youth hostels and first time it was we'd make a ham and cheese sandwich and wrap it in a napkin after a couple of months of doing that I just took a snap lock bag in my handbag and we'd put the ham and cheese sandwiches in the snap lock

bag so lunch was done for the day I don't know if you're following me on social media but yes I still do that my son my husband and I went on a holiday to Bali recently and I took his whole damn lunch box perfect but like I just feel like you do what you got to do to save some money and don't get me wrong could I afford lunch like now yes but old habits die hard if you're not making the most of it so we came back and I found a job where I am now as an executive assistant and researched a company that had good maternity leave because the plan was always to start a family once we arrived back in Australia and got settled back into the house that was rented out. So October 2018 to January 2019 we were living at my parents place which was a shock to the system

and we were ready to get back into our own space by January and then so worked for a year the company I worked for had I think it's a pretty good maternity leave policy um so I was able to do that and then we had our baby girl in May of 2020. Ah congrats! Right in the middle of lockdown. Oh my gosh. That would have been a fun time. Yep. I came in and out of the hospital. I had to visit it while I was in labor three times. I went in and out from home and they like check my temperature and I'm like, I'm in act, like I'm proper having contractions. I've not been anywhere but home. Oh my God. I don't know what I would have done. Like having now gone through labor

and like the whole process, like the idea that women had to go through that and girl, you are stronger than me. I think I would have had a mental breakdown. Oh, I thank heavens the hospital we were in didn't restrict partners. So my husband was there. I don't think I could have done it without him. And we were really lucky in that for the majority of the pregnancy, there was no restriction on him coming to ultrasounds or OB checkups or anything. So he didn't really, except for maybe the last like four weeks, he didn't miss out on that experience, which was good. Oh, I'm glad. Cause it's like not the case for so many women. And like, I feel like so many people in our community are still holding trauma over that. And like,

that's just, it's just rough. And whenever I hear it, I'm like, I don't know how you got through that, but I'm proud of you. So May, 2020, you had a daughter. Did you go back to work after that? So I took 12 months maternity leave. I ended up going back slightly early for strategic reasons. We were coming up to Easter, Anzac Day, public holidays. So I returned like two or three weeks early so that I could ease into it with the public holidays and get paid for those. Smart girl. You're a strategy queen. yes and then so I returned to work on a flexible work arrangement three days a week I was doing 30 hours and because we were still in pretty much in and out of lockdowns the office wasn't fully

opened I was able to work a couple of hours while my daughter was napping on my off days to make up the 30 hours rather than doing three 10 hour days good girl I love that and you said you have two babies when did number two come along number two came along in July of 2022 exciting what age gap is that that's like 20 two years two months two years two I'm like 20 months or 26 months yeah good job how exciting what's that age gap like uh it was really hard to begin with. I think my algorithm told me that going from zero to one was harder than going from one to two. I don't agree. Going from one to two was much, much more of a shock wake up call than it was zero to one. But I did have a unicorn baby first. So she slept well. She was very chill.

Yeah, but you don't know that at the time, do you? You just think that's parenting. and I was like oh like I was able to bake and exercise and have my rest and keep the house in order and then two of them I was like yeah no this you need to lower your expectations I love that I was talking to one of my girlfriends the other day who has three and she's always just been this like superhero mum right like and she's had relatively good kids and like she'd always say things like, oh my God, like, you know, I'm just really trying so hard to be a good parent. It's really paying off. Her third kid is now what? 11 months old and has humbled her. Like she's like, um, no, none of that was me. None of that was me. We just had two really good kids and I was

deluded into having a third and I love them to the end of the earth. But also what the hell is this? Yes. I can empathize with that. I feel like that, that sounds reasonable. Maybe I should introduce the two of you to share some trauma and now take us up to today did you go back to work after your second baby yeah so I went back to work um so I'm back at work now full-time but I'm still on a flexible work arrangement where I work full-time hours in four days oh nice yeah so we've kind of said it I had my set of values for how I pictured mothering and parenting and my limit for daycare was three days so I only wanted them in some sort of care for three days at most and we my husband and I have worked together to make it that I have one day off a week he has one day off with them a

week then my eldest is kindy age so she is in a kindy three days a week and then my youngest is at daycare two days and then we're very lucky to have the support of our grandparents or their grandparents my parents the grandparents are around to look after them during school holidays and on the one day that my youngest isn't at daycare and my eldest got that because everything was shut down when she started daycare she actually had alternating days with the grandparents when I first went back to work with her I feel like you've got your village sorted that is a good position to be in we have a really beautiful village of people who are happy to jump in and help not just family but friends as well a little side story is so I had a beautiful home birth with

my second oh really yeah beautiful loved it everything went smooth loved not having to get in the car while I was having contractions and then six weeks postpartum my appendix gave up oh get in the bin it did go in the bin um so it gave up and I had to rally the troops basically to help because so she was six weeks old luckily I had like a freezer supply of breast milk I was gonna say were you breastfeeding as well because that would have thrown your breastfeeding into a spin especially with like all the medications and sedation and like oh my god no like that's all my head went to yeah first thing I packed breast pump the nurses were like you're mad um I am but also this is important to me and it's funny because before you said something

that resonated with me. You said, I had this idea of what I wanted my parenting journey to be like, and that's exactly like me. Like there's no right, there's no wrong, but like I'm the same as you. And my husband and I have worked out how we both have a full day off a week so that we can both have Harvey that day. And like at the moment, he's still only what, like 19-ish months old. So then he goes to one of his grandparents on another day and then he just does two days daycare. And is that right or wrong? No, but that's in my head what I liked the idea of. And you said, I liked the idea of three days.

And I'm like, pop off, queen, but I love that we can have these conversations because it's not like, you know, the right thing to do is X because there's no right or wrong. But, like, that's what makes me feel comfortable as a parent. Exactly. It's what's right for you. And if breastfeeding or pumping while you're in the hospital for your appendix is what you want to do, pop off, queen.

And so we rallied the... the village, had someone dropping off newborn bottles, had, lucky I have a friend who's a paramedic nurse. So she taught me how to hospital because I didn't know. I rocked up at the hospital and I was like, with my mom, I'm like, I don't know how to hospital. Where do I go? What do I do? I wouldn't know either. And also I don't like it either. No. And so, yeah. And we had friends come over to keep my eldest company, had people to come relieve my husband. Like it was just, it showed me how important it is to have a village. Good job. Good job. All right. So you've got two babies. Currently you do four days per week, but full-time hours, three days daycare,

village around you. Tell me what do your husband and you do for work that you've got this great flexibility? Yeah, so I'm an executive assistant. I mainly work from home at the moment, although I think that will change at some point. And I won't be stoked about it because I love working from home, but I get the job done and I do it well. And my husband is a senior relationship manager now. He's just been promoted, which is awesome for a finance company. So... Hey, that's cool. And neither of you wanted to go to uni? No, none of us did. What kind of incomes are you earning? What, like as an EA, what do you earn? And then

what does your husband earn? Yeah. So I am on 98,000 a year and that's with 12% super included, I believe. And then my husband, And I think he's on about 115 full time, but he only works four days a week. So minus 20% of that. Yeah. Cool. Oh my God. I love this. So tell me a bit more, like you obviously have a good income. You've got your two babies. You've had a very good, like, I would say trajectory of like being able to travel and come back and own your house. Like what a little dream, how good, but what are your next big money goals? Cause like you're not planning for a wedding. are you two and done are we planning for more babies like I feel rude asking but then I'm also

like lol it's anonymous I can ask these questions without it being rude because it's actually a finance one tell me about what does the future money goal thing look like yes so two and done we are done because we have purchased a caravan with two bunk beds okay we're done yeah we don't actually have any more space in top and tailing there'd be too much fighting yeah so that was the that was a deciding factor no we were always planning to and done so big money goal at the moment is to save up for a new car that can tow the caravan a little bit easier than the current car I was about to say do you have a car that can't tow the caravan you bought because that's kind of low-key funny no it can tow it works hard we want a car that can tow heavier so it doesn't

have to work as hard. Yeah. Maybe you can take luggage with you. That would be good. Yeah. The kids can come. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But until then, sorry, child-free holidays only. What else are you currently working towards? So that, and then I guess the bigger money goal is, I mean, all the life stuff saving up for just to give the girls the choice of education, whether we go public schools or private schools and the biggest part I guess of our money goal is to save up to be able to do longer trips in the caravan and explore Australia because neither of us have done like we've traveled Europe we've traveled Canada but we haven't traveled around Australia and that's what we want to do with the girls while they're on the younger side of things so that we can

get those core memories and just enjoy that simple family time. And Australia is beautiful. Like just there's so much to explore. And the fact that you can kind of pack up a caravan and go like, what a dream. I love this for you. So I want to share just, I guess, how we were able to purchase the caravan. Yeah. Yes, please. Because it's a bit unique. I was about to say like that we can talk about debt, but also tell me, how did you purchase the caravan?

So we purchased the caravan because we were given early access to some inheritance. Oh, very cool. How did that eventuate? Is that something you were like, hey, can we get it? Or were they suggesting it? So they suggested it. They've helped two siblings as well. They wanted us to have it. And I actually struggled with it for a while after they'd given us the money. And I was like, oh, what do we do? like should we be more responsible and put it all in the mortgage or should we be investing it what should we be doing and it was actually something my dad said that made it feel like it was okay to spend on the caravan and that was he was he said two things actually one he said I wish we

had done more big things as a family when we were kids and my mom and I looked at each other and like, you are crazy. We did lots like as a family. So no, you didn't need to do more. But he also said, your kids won't remember you paying off the mortgage early, but they will remember the holidays and the trips that you do. And he said, you know what, if you get into a bind, you can sell it. I mean, he's not wrong, is he? He's not. And I feel like caravans, like I'm probably not looking at them as investment opportunities but they do definitely hold their value like they're not the worst thing in the world like I've I've had a lot of clients buy a lot of caravans and I've always been super shocked at how much they can still sell them for and like I even had one

client actually two clients who have you know just added modifications like updated the like you know backsplashes in their kitchens and stuff in their caravans and sold them for more like a couple of years later after they're like, oh my God, like, you know, we're over this. The kids don't want to go anymore. Cause I feel like there's a period of time. And like, I don't know about this because of my experience, but just from other people's, your kids, when they're young, love the caravanning life. But like once they become like mid teenagers, they have no interest in sharing a space with the parents. So that seemed to be when parents started to go, look, we're just going to get rid of the caravan. It's more hassle than it's worth, but that's when they were selling it

for more. And I was like, what the heck? This is not where I thought that you would get extra cash strong. Yeah. Very cool, though. And I'm glad that you're doing it while they're young. How exciting. Yes, it's very exciting. All right. Let's go to a really quick break, because on the flip side, I just have a lot of questions. Like, I feel like you've got some good and bad money habits, but I also want to know more about this house, your debt on the house, any other debts. And I want to talk about investment. So, guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Money Dress, we are back and I have been adoring your money story. I've like probably been looking down to you the whole time it's because I'm taking obsessive notes

and just making sure I'm keeping up because I'm like oh this is a journey okay and in 2018 you did what all right and then from Jan 2019 I'm like okay cool like I'm just keeping track but talk to me about investing like I feel like you guys for the first half of your lives probably weren't that interested in it but like girl you listen to she's on the money so like tell me about any investments you hold or your thoughts around investing for the future. Yeah you are correct we weren't interested in investing earlier. But now we do have a few investments. So since listening to She's On The Money, I have opened a ComSecPocket account and a Sharesies account. And I've got some funds split across those. The Sharesies is quite a range of things. I kind of

didn't really have a strategy. It was, well, I got a list from my dad's financial advisor of who he has shares with. And I just went, okay, I'm just going to copy. Cool. No worries. So did that. And then the ComSec pocket, you kind of just pick one of their six ETFs. One of their few. Yeah. And I just did that. I was like, I think we've got some Australian ones, some environmental ones. Yeah. For those playing along at home who are like, maybe not in the investing market yet, ComSec Pocket, I would say is more of a micro investing platform where ComSec has chosen to create this like refined platform where when you log in, I might be wrong with six, but it's like between six and 12 ETFs that their brokers have specifically picked that you can choose from.

So you have really limited options. It doesn't mean it's worse or better. It just means you have limited options. And a lot of people like that because they're like, I've got analysis paralysis, but I want to invest. And I also don't want to like pick from the entire like share market. And then Sharesies, which we talk about on the show all the time, is a full service platform. So you have access to every single thing on the Australian market, every single thing on the US market, the same for New Zealand. And I feel like that can then be a little bit overwhelming. is that why you're like oh I've got a range like because there's just so many options or is that just because you're like I copied my dad's financial plan or like what's that looking like

moving into the future yeah so some of them I was just like oh I know this company I'm gonna buy a share in it. So I've got things like Coke, Downer, EDI, like Nab. There's a big range of shares. It's not that much money. Like we've only got two and a half grand in there and I don't put into it regularly, but I've just realized that I want to now a bit more regularly with some of the money that I make from my side hustle will start, I think I'm going to start putting like 20% of each job in there just to invest. Yeah, no, love, love. And this is why I like asking questions because I'm like, well, what does that actually look like for you? How does that work? Because it's just different for everybody. And like, that's the frustrating thing,

because I think once you start investing, right, like I feel like all of us, we go, I want to start investing. And then you're just looking for the answer and you're hoping that the answer is like, you'll somehow stumble on someone that says you need to download Sharesies and then you need to buy these two ETFs and then everything will become clear. And that's just not how it works because everyone has a different situation. And even if, right, I said do that, one, I would be in breach of my financial services license. So we won't be doing that. But two, I know enough about the investing world that that would be wildly irresponsible because what works for you is not going to work for the next person and the person after that. Like it's

just crazy how different everyone needs to invest. And that's why you have to invest time and energy in working out what you're going to do. So what's the plan for your bigger investments for the future? Like talk to me about superannuation. How's that tracking? You've been working since you were very young. So I'm assuming it's looking all right. Yeah. I don't know what is normal for like someone my age, but I did spend six years out of the workforce as well. So my super is sitting at 82,000 and my husband's is at 91,000. How old's your husband? 34. So like the average balance for someone in their mid to late thirties falls between 70 to $90,000. And you are just smack bang in the middle, even though you took some time off, that might not be how much you want

have in there for future planning but like you're not far behind and then men is slightly higher than that but like we don't care so much about their superannuation balances I just care about bumping the women so anyway that's a good thing yeah I love that and I love that you know your numbers as well because that's really really important talk to me about debt so you bought your house I believe you purchased that in 2011 rented it out organized it the income from the rental was paying the mortgage and a little bit more. What does that look like today? Like give me the nitty gritty. How much did you purchase a house for in 2011? In 2011, we purchased a house for $435,000. I can't remember how much the mortgage was at that point, but we just scraped

through not paying lenders mortgage insurance. And that was because we worked for a bank. Does that mean that you got a 10% deposit and no LMI as well? Because most banks back then, I think did that deal. Yeah. I think we may have even been like a 9% deposit and no LMI. Yeah. Money win. Money win. It's just gotten harder from there. Yes. Yes. So this house, I couldn't see past the color of it. We nearly didn't buy it. We had to go back to it three or four times. And in that time it dropped. Girl, the color? The color. Yeah. Well, the price dropped because clearly it was a really bad color. Yeah. The price dropped. And having looked at the history of the house, I'm pretty sure they made a loss, which makes me feel sad

for them, but win for me. So no, we're not mad. We're not mad. So hold on. What'd you do about the color? Is your house still really ugly? It got painted. Yeah. See, there you go. You can fix those things. We need to look beyond the cosmetics. Exactly. The first time we walked in there, I could not see past it. I said to my husband, I was like, no, we can't, we can't buy this place. It's ugly. Oh my God. That is quite funny. But also I want to be like, look past it. look at the bones of the house. I can buy you some damn paint. You don't like the carpet. I can rip it up. So that house we actually sold in 2021. Okay. And how much did you sell that for? So we sold it for $742,500. Stop it. How good is that? And what did you then do? So you had a nice

amount of equity to play with to maybe purchase another house. Is that right? We did. So we sold that house in would have been around mid 2021 we actually were homeless for about three months but flush with cash so that's all good yeah so we had no backup no property that we had a offer on or anything because at that time properties were going like so quickly that we couldn't have the condition of to sell that place to buy a place so we went through sold it lived with the in-laws for about three months with just a one year yeah just turned one chaos yes and all our stuff went into a storage container and split between the two grandparents houses and then we actually, the house that we're in now, we bought privately, off market,

no real estate agents or anything. Oh, how did you work that out? So we did get shown through the property and they hadn't signed with the real estate agent. Oh, cheeky. They shouldn't have shown you through the property. They were trying to decide whether they were going to sell the property, the owners of this one, We're trying to decide whether they were going to sell the property off market or put it on market because they thought they could get more for it, but they were empty nesters. There was too much maintenance. They were ready to move on. So they were still deciding and we'd had a look through. It was pretty much perfect for everything we wanted, except it didn't have a pool. But

but for what they had been asking for it we had enough aside that we could put a pool in and I wrote them a letter and dropped it in their letterbox and said thank you so much for inviting us into the house to have a look totally understand that you've got to do what's best for you if you do need to take it to market but we can definitely see ourselves growing our family and growing our kids old here, like a bit of a tug at the heartstrings. And then the owner called my husband and we went from there. Like it just, it worked. It happened. We ran into them again at a local park and the conversation continued and they sold us the house. Oh, that's so good. So what did you purchase for?

So we purchased this place for $941,500 and the mortgage that we've got at the moment is $571,000. Oh my God, how good. And what year did you purchase that in? Because you sold in 2021 and that was mid 2021. So like early 2022, is that? No, so September 2021 we purchased. Yeah. how exciting and then do you know what the house is worth now because like sorry I know you're in Queensland I won't be more specific than that and property in Queensland since then has done relatively well yes so the high kind of value of the house is 1.5 ah look at you guys go you got some nice equity I have to ask you said oh it doesn't have a pool so as a Melburnian I interviewed

a money diarist a couple of weeks ago and she was like oh my god we have a pool and I was like oh bougie, but I feel like most houses in Queensland actually have a pool. So like that's fine. And that also makes sense because you were like the empty nesters, there was a lot of costs and I was about to be like, is it because there's pool maintenance? Did you put in a pool? Is that something you don't have? Like, it seems like the way you said it, there was a value there that you were like, I want a pool. Yeah, we put a pool in. How much does it cost to put in a pool? So that was I feel like it was about 60,000 but we got landscaping done as well so we got proper drainage under the grass and everything and yeah so it's about 60,000 for the pool fence and landscaping

that feels more reasonable than I thought it would be yeah so that was back in 2021 I think it's more Well, no, it was early 2022 that it got finished. It got finished just in time for Australia Day, I think. Oh, how good. So you could enjoy the rest of summer. Yeah. And then the landscaping got finished just before giving birth to my second. So yeah, you don't need that type of stress.

So you purchased for $941,000. The current mortgage is $571,000. It's worth about 1.5 mil. Tell me, do you have any other debts? So we do have a solar loan that we got purely, we had the cash. We got it because the interest rate was 0.99%. And we were like, well, we'll just keep that cash offsetting the mortgage and smart. See strategy queen. Yeah. It does pay to know people working in a bank and remaining friends with them. But yeah, so we got the solar, there's about $9,000

owing on that from what was, I think it was like 12 or 13,000 three years ago, which we're not paying extra off on that at the moment. Now, if the interest rate's good and it's bopping along, your money's working harder on your mortgage anyway. Exactly. And then we also have a credit card, which gets paid off each month, like the total amount owing so there's no interest paid on that it is just a tool to pay for everything get points and have the money sit against our mortgage for the extra 30 days that it can smart girl tell me a bit more because I feel like all of this like you know I met my

husband when I was like 16 started dating at 18 like we didn't go to uni like a money story could have looked very, very different. Like it could have just been not the way that it has worked out for you guys. And you know, you are clearly very intelligent. You clearly have your heads like screwed on properly. So you've made it not just work, but like you are, I would say thriving in this situation. How have you done that? What is your best money habit? What can we learn from you? Because I think that there is this narrative out there that to be successful, you have to go to university. And that's just not the damn case. Like most of my team have not gone to university. like from my perspective now as an adult it doesn't matter but the pressure is put on you

when you're like at school what are you going to do you need a job that starts with an a like you need to be a doctor a lawyer a engineer or something and then all of a sudden that's just not how the world works what's your best money habit how have you done so well oh best money habit i think just i don't even know because it doesn't feel like we have that many good don't have many good habits but I guess it's just one looking for the best deal or the smartest way to make the money work for us and talking to people who know more than us and being not afraid to ask for help or ask the questions that might seem silly at the time and yet like literally it's always looking for the best deal like my husband is very good at finding he he's much

more patient than I am I am like well I want it we need it just get it wherever you can get it fastest but he will look into it we do utilize marketplace a lot for buying and selling so I think that's something as well like we literally this morning sold our pram because we don't need it anymore and so that was a nice little cash infusion nice how much how much what pram did you have I need to know is this a good investment yeah so we had the bugaboo donkey gorge how did we like it yeah loved it went from an upper baby vista to the bugaboo donkey because I couldn't picture having two kids on top of each other I needed them side by side that's absolutely fair and I loved my vista I loved it see I'm a vista hater I'm a vista hater I think that they're so

big and so clunky and so heavy and I'm very lucky that I've never had one but I have looked after my friends and family's kids who have vistas. And I was like, I am never getting this pram. Like, but you know what? Once you have a vista, I feel like you join a cult and then everybody is a vista mom. And you're talking about your adaptations and stuff that you can put on there and how much you can fit in your basket. And I just don't care. I got the pram that was most compact and I could pick up and put in my car with one hand, like slay. Cause you can't do that with your vista, can you? You can't, you can't do that with the donkey either. No, but I feel like once you have two kids, you just don't have a choice. You're going to have

to go down the heavy pram route. One, you're living a life of luxury. Two, you do what you got to do. Yeah, that's exactly it. And yes, so yes, it was a good investment. We bought it from Marketplace. I'm not actually sure. I think we may have sold it for more than what we bought it for because I can't remember what we bought it for. Well, if you bought it secondhand, what did you sell it for? I put it up for $535. That's a good deal and did they like bargain you down or did they just say great I'll take it for $535? No they just took it and I mean we did have additions to it so probably overall we came out even. Yeah and I mean those things for those playing along who maybe don't live in the pram world like us that's like a two and a half thousand

dollar pram after you add like the additional seats and like the liners and whatever else you have to buy. Like she's Spinner. So that's a good deal. I love this for you. Are there any other ways that you've been injecting cash into your house? I had a sneaky suspicion that there might be one because, you know, I'm not going to give her like identity away, but her email address has UGC in it. So tell me about this journey. Yes. So, oh, this is a journey. So I started doing a side hustle of content creation for brands in last year and it started because I didn't really want to go back to work full-time but couldn't afford not to and started looking at ways to make money from home fell for a few not scams but scams but there was a light at the end

of the tunnel because going down and learning about this kind of icky side of content creation brought me to the user generated content side of content creation, which is working with brands to create ads, but as a user of their product, more authentic, less polished. And so I've been doing that for a year and a bit and love it it's fun isn't it it's fun and it's given me so much confidence like for me to be here doing this would never have happened like a year or two ago when the first brand deal came through it was just like the silly little happy dance that I did when I got that email and realized it wasn't a scam. And from there, it's just kind of keeps ticking along and I really enjoy it. And I've made like a lovely community of people online now. So what

type of income do you make from creating user generated content? Because it's a different space for those of you who maybe are listening, you're going, what is that? So we all know influencers make content and they post about, let's just pretend it's like a skincare brand and they post their skincare review. Now, influencers are losing popularity because obviously we prefer much more authentic content that's a little bit more organic, that's from mums and people that actually use the product, give you a genuine review, but maybe don't have a million followers, maybe don't even have any followers. So the brands reach out, say to Money Diarist and say, hey, could you just like trial our products and give us an honest review and they pay you for it. But what type

of income are we being given? Yeah, so it can definitely vary depending on your negotiation skills. But so last financial year, I made $6,500 because we've just done our tax. So on average, I would say like per job making between like my minimum is $250 up to I think the highest I've been paid is like five or six hundred dollars for a job and that's maybe like when you add in all the admin hours and like creating a concept and stuff maybe like two or three hours of work per job um so it feels pretty good I love that I love that for you and like don't get me wrong like you know you could get bored of it at some point but like I kind of love it and as somebody who I get to play in that space, obviously more as an influencer, but I have this, I would say privilege

because I already own my businesses. Like I've got She's On The Money. I've got Zella. I don't have to do skincare stuff, but like I love a little skincare moment. I love trialing products and I love being like giving my organic response. It just feels special. Like it feels nice. I love sharing with the community and like just even creating, it gives you more confidence. And you've just said before like getting me on your show would never have happened without it I love what it's given you yeah and it was something outside of being a mum and a traditional work setting that like at the moment it's a fun hobby but maybe some point it could become a job thing I don't know like I don't know what that looks like into the future at the moment it's fun and

I don't, it's bonus money. Like that's fun money to play with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So let's flip the narrative. What's your worst money habit? Sorry. I would say worst money habit is that we've fallen off the track of like budgeting. I used to go in and like go through the accounts every month or even every week and go through like, what are we spending here and there and make sure like we're kind of putting money aside but life likes and I don't make that a priority anymore so is it something you want to get back to yeah I think so we've tried like a few different ways of automating our like transfers and stuff there's all of our money is our money it's all combined and just gets shot out of the pay account on payday and pays the mortgage and put money

aside for like the annual bills and the quarterly bills and stuff but I'm probably not as strict with it anymore particularly grocery shopping is probably bad because I'm like I'm not setting a dollar amount to what we buy for groceries. I want what I want and that's what I'm going to buy. I'm not compromising on that. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a slippery slope, right? I'm going to fix it for you though. I'm going to set you up with my money masterclass so that you can get back on track. And it's not necessarily about restricting. Like I don't want you to have to set a budget for your groceries, but I do want you to go through your finances and be like, okay, on average, we spend X on groceries. And then you're really aware of that. And you're just across your

finances. And I'm biased because I made it, but I think that the spreadsheet in there is next level. So like all you have to do is put in what things cost you and what your income is. And then I split out what bank accounts it should be in, how you would divide that up and what that would look like so that I do the hard work and you don't have to do the planning. Cause I feel like budgeting, yes, you can go into a spreadsheet and update it and that's great. And you've got visibility, but it's about that next step of like, okay, but which bank account should this be going into so that I don't dip into my savings? If we've got this big savings goal, like you're planning on another caravan holiday or something, we can put that in and I know that we can work backwards.

So I go, well, when's the holiday happening and how much do you need? And you go, yep, I need $2,000 and it's happening in six months. And I go, great, well, this is how much you need to put into that bank account each and every single week or month or literally fortnight, depending on how you set this up to make that happen. So I do the hard bit and then hopefully it will be like, you have to do the work, I'm sorry, but like it'll be like waving a magic wand and you'll feel more on track. So I feel like I can fix your bad money habit. That's a good deal. That sounds perfect. Take the mental load part off. I love it. Tell me a little bit more at the start of this episode, you said,

I reckon I'm a B minus. Is it that budgeting piece that would take you up to an A plus or what else do you think you guys would need to do or change to get there? I think to become an A-plus would be to, yes, have better oversight of the budget and more knowledge and regular investing. Yeah, fair, fair, fair. Talk to me a little bit more. Is there anything that you're doing at the moment to work towards that? Or is that like, oh, like, you know, we will at some point? Or is that something you're working on? Because I feel like you're already working on it. like throughout your money story, you're talking about your shares and your ComSec pocket app. And I just feel like you're already doing these things. It's just maybe time to get there. Yeah, I think time and just setting it up as a habit to like habitually be putting money aside. Whereas at the moment it's when there's a bit of extra cash, we'll go, okay, well, let's throw it

in. So yeah, making it more strategy, more strategy and more like regular, not so sporadic. We need some direct deposits. We need to do our budget and cashflow and understand that and know how much free cashflow we might have. And then we need a direct deposit that we set up every single month or how often you get paid that just takes it away from you and puts it in there. So you don't even have to think about it. That's what we need to do. Exactly. All right. Well, I'm glad that we're on the same page because that's what my money masterclass is going to do, thankfully but I'm really sad that we've run out of time I feel like you and I could keep chatting I just I want to talk more about just like everything but unfortunately that is not the

reality of our situation thank you so much for joining me for having a really good chat I've taken six million notes because I'm like oh this is cool oh she's an EA she does this like it's just so fun I feel like it is such a privilege to get to sit down with people like you literally every week and be like tell me about your money story how can my community learn from you so thank you so much because i know the community is going to eat this one up thank you very much for having me adore adore 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 authorized representatives of Money Sherpa, PTY, LTD, ABN, 321-649-27708, AFSL 451-289.