She's On The Money - She Want Prenup?!

Episode Date: July 6, 2023

It's Friday again and time to join Victoria, Jess and Bec as they celebrate your money wins and losses, Bec shares some broke tips, plus they answer a Money Dilemma about the difference between being on a casual and part time contract. Plus this week you slid into our D.Ms about prenups...otherwise known as Binding Financial Agreements in Australia. How do you have this conversation with your partner? Listen in to find out. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money.

She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who had a Barbie party last weekend and it was basically the most lit thing in the entire world, but nobody cares. So today is Friday, which means it is time to celebrate you because last Saturday at my Barbie party, it was about me. But today it is about you and celebrating our incredible She's on the Money community. We are genuinely so excited to be back again for another Friday episode. Today, we're going to be sharing our favorite money wins. I'm just going to be taking us through the top tips and the top money wins from our group. We'll be helping to answer a juicy

money dilemma, which this week, guys, is all about understanding the pros and cons of being a casual or a part-time worker and how that works. Bec, you're going to sprinkle in some little broke tips, which I'm very excited about. And we're going to be unpacking something you slid into our DMs about, and we're going to discuss how to bring up a prenup with your partner. How do we have that conversation? So that could be really fun. But first things first, to my loves. How was your week? So good. I feel like the Barbie party just like set the week off on a high. If you follow me on Instagram, you know, getting that costume together was quite the ordeal. You love a theme though. We love a theme. Jess is committed. Well, Bec dyed her hair,

well not dyed her hair, but spray painted her hair a different color. So I feel like everyone bought in and I said on the night, it's so rare that you have a party like that with as many people as you did and every single person buys in. Everyone was committed. Every single person went hard it was so much fun I mean it was probably the aggressive invitation that I sent if you remember the invitation did say that was great standard Barbies will be rejected at the door like if you do not dress up don't bother coming yeah like go hard or go home like this is a costume party sure sure sure not one person didn't put effort in no that's true that is true I really like that but also this is something I do get nervous about when it comes to themes

is that they're going to cost a lot of money. They don't have to cost that much if you're just going to be creative. You were really creative. So just putting that out there. 100%. Jess already had a costume box full of costumes and it cost next to nothing. Ready to go. That's an investment.

It is. My boyfriend made fun of me and then I got to whip it out and be like, well, there you go. See, the costume box is paying off. Yeah, 100%. Exactly. How was your week, Bec? My week was really lovely.

Hectic, hectic work week. Lots going on. But also really nice. I'm trying to, like, make time for mates and also work, and I don't want the two to bleed into each other. You know what I mean? Yeah, so this is work time, Jessica. Apologies.

This is work time, babe. No laughing. Fellow business associate. Hello, colleague. We don't refer to each other by name anymore. Ah, yes, this is my colleague. This is my colleague. My esteemed colleague.

No, but my week has been pretty lovely. Oh, how good. Happy new financial year, by the way. Oh, isn't it exciting? Huge. Me and you, me. Yes. If you guys have fallen a little bit off track when it comes to your financial goals, I think

this time of year is perfect to just get back on the horse. Yeah. I feel like so many times we get to July and we're like, oh my gosh, I haven't achieved anything. So we still have like literally six full months to do so much stuff. Exactly. Like get back on it. If you haven't done your budget, download our free budget from our website.

If you're worried about cash flow, now's the time to sit down and go through your finances. If you haven't got your insurances in order, now's the time. you want to review your mortgage, go talk to Kate at Zella Money. There are so many things that you can do to put yourself in a better financial position. And I mean, listening to this podcast is arguably the best one you've made this year. Well done. Starting the financial year off on a great foot. I love it. All right. Well, let's dive straight into something that is literally my favorite thing ever. And that's like our money wins thread. Jessica Ricci, what have you pulled out to share with the team this week? My first is a money loss who came from Ali, but I'm going

to follow it up with a potential money win. She said, money lost, took the kids to Disney on Ice, but life win. We had the best family night out ever. And I actually just got a TikTok the other night that had someone who was going to Disney on Ice and it was a video and she'd gone to Kmart and she'd bought a bunch of Disney merch there for a quarter of the price and just took it with her and pulled it out of bag. It was like, oh, look what I got you. So smart because those places will take you for a ride. I think it was something like $70 for a soft toy. So going to Kmart or Target or wherever. And Jessica spent it. Yep. 100% I would. Not a question asked. No, no, no, no, no. Would. Did. Have. Will. We went to Disneyland twice last year. I'm pretty sure she went ham

both times. Wow. I bought the overpriced merch. But if you're taking a kid, they're not going to know. So if you get in early. Honestly, I should have done that to Jess. Look at these ears. Jess would have been like, yay, I haven't seen these ones in the 50 different Disney stores I've been into today. That's so cute. Or if you go to an ice rink and dress up as whoever the Disney character is. Bam, Disney on ice. Guess what?

No difference. Not a clue. Could just be Beck and Victoria skating around. Exactly. I feel like me on ice skates would not be a good idea. It would be funny. You could save me money. Let's do it.

Let's get our Disney ears out and go ice skating. Yeah, let's do it. She's on the money Disney on ice. Done and done. I'll see you there. My next money win comes from Claire who said, Money win? I'm rereading my books in my bookshelf again.

So I've saved myself $25 on buying a new book. Love it. That's a good money win. Simple but effective. Next, I've got a money win from Julia who said, instead of buying a new dress to wear for a wedding, a friend of a friend let me borrow one of hers for the day. I just like the idea of sharing.

I love that. And I love that they weren't like a super close friend. We're becoming far more comfortable with sharing clothes. I feel like the sharing is the way to go. Sharing truly is caring, especially in this economy. So you'll love to see it. You best believe I'll be asking to borrow that tutu off Jessica that she wore to my Barbie party.

Any time. Just for a casual Wednesday in the office. Yeah, absolutely. Don't put it past me. If that is an option, I am in. It's never a bad time. My next money win is from Rihanna who said, Money win, I've been having a hard time personally for the last few weeks.

So on Saturday, a friend of mine made me a home-cooked lunch slash bento box. I was out all day on Saturday and their lunch was such a lifesaver. I love this. That is actually so wholesome, Jessica. Are you making lunch for the team this week or? I can try, but as a not great chef, you may or may not want that. We are all having dinosaur nuggets. That's exactly right.

Next, I've got a win from Georgina who said, we paid off three out of our five expensive degustation restaurants on our honeymoon station by using credit card and flybys points translated to restaurant gift vouchers. Oh, so smart. I've spent months maximising the points we could get on transactions, particularly from Flybuys to do this. That's great.

Flybuys and Jessica, two peas in a pod. In fact, this week I went to the Flybuys office actually and I had a corporate speaking event which was so slay. Like imagine telling the Flybuys team who are arguably better at budgeting, like they are the queens at tips and tricks. They asked me to come in and tell them. That is really cool. Isn't it cool?

Yeah. So fun. I'm very jealous. Love you, Flybuys. Just so you know, Bec would like to draw your attention to the fact that she drew a sushi. I don't know why you, I don't want you to keep going right now. We're not sure why. I need you to just look at the sushi that I drew because you said bento box.

Sorry, continue Jess. We'll put a picture on mine. Yes, please. If you think you're not neuro spicy, babe, you're wrong. Next money win comes from Shivangi who said money win, shopped for the entire year at the iconic sale, bought 20-ish pieces of clothing and got 50% off my entire shop on top of the sale price. ended up paying $700 for shopping worth $3,800.

Then I used Shopback and Qantas points to get extra points on it and that was beautiful too. Oh my God, Shopback. I love Shopback. How good. Just a reminder because I feel like we haven't said in a while but the code SOTM gets you $10 if you sign up to Shopback. And you've never used it before and that's a big money win.

Yes. Big money win. I am their biggest fan. And lastly, I'm just summarizing almost the entire thread from this week. It went both ways. Hundreds of people. Hundreds. in the money win or money loss, did or did not get Taylor Swift tickets.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. We feel you. We see you. We're working on a little solution, could you say? We have. You didn't hear it from me. I didn't think you were going to be in trouble.

What have we got? We've got four little solutions that we're trying to find a solution for. Yeah, we're trying to find a solution to give you a solution. But just know we're working on it. We've got your back, besties. You're going to want to be following us on Instagram and on Facebook. That's all I'm going to say. You need to be following us on socials because it won't be on the pod.

No, it'll be a little surprise. Interesting. You didn't hear it from me, though. Imagine if it was just like us giving away pictures of Taylor Swift. I know, I was thinking that too. I was like, imagine if you guys just. No, it's not. It will make you cry.

It made me cry. It's very exciting. Anyway, carry on, carry on. That's all I got for this week. All right, Bec, I need to know your broke tip. What have you got this week? I'm kind of excited about these ones because they're very relatable, I would think, to the general public. So the first one comes from Grace, who has two for me.

So I'll read them both out. The first one is reuse your teabags. We were talking about reusing off-air before. I draw the line at the teabag reuse. Usually, I mean, usually same. But if you know, if you have one teabag left and you literally can't afford. Oh, no, we've all been there. We've all been there.

You can't afford to buy a new box. Reuse the teabag. Don't worry about it. It'll still be like a flavorful water, which can be delicious. Weak tea is for plebs. Rather than reusing, could you maybe double up the quantity of water that you're putting it into? Because I just worry about bacteria.

You just leave it for another day. I'm sure putting it in... Not for tea leaves, surely. If you're like maybe making two teas or something like that, you can... At the same time. At the same time. Got it, got it, got it. But yes, ideally, you know, you want to...

Because they do get moldy or something if you leave them for a while. That would be my thought. No, double the water. That's a good one. Double the water and then you can pop one in the fridge for tomorrow. Exactly right. So reuse your tea bags. Reuse anything that is able to be reused, basically,

I think is a really good general tip. The next one is... Toothpicks? Yep. Are you reused toothpicks? Blech. Blech. Move on.

I'm not even going to see how many different things you would reuse. I've reused gum. No. Sorry. No. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Blech. Okay.

This next one. Do you know if I make that sound, actually? I hope I'm not triggering anyone, but if I go in front of my husband, it triggers his gag reflex. I know a few people that that would actually... I'm so sorry if you're driving and gagging, but I'm cackling. If you have turned it down, you can safely turn it up now because Victoria doesn't have to gag anymore.

This one is a very good tip. Okay, sorry. This is for Uber users. Use Uber Pool. Sometimes you actually don't have anyone else in there, but you've saved so much money. So always use it, even if you do have someone in there, whatever, you know. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

We can be friends. A lot of the time you actually don't have anyone else in there because no one else is using UberPool. That's quite clever. Yeah. I've never thought, I didn't realize that they would just not put someone in there. No, yeah, you can get that. You can get that. That's like getting a free seat row on the plane.

That's what I would equate that to. Yes. Which is rare. Rare. But sometimes it happens. Now, I do have another one from one Courtney who has sent in, after hearing about, you know, my Fitbit situation, Courtney wrote in and said that she heard that basically Medibank has a Live Better program. You be healthy, you get points, you can redeem those points to buy a brand new Fitbit. Yeah, you can.

I had never heard about this before, but do it. I feel like it's a win, win, win. It's like the AIA vitality program. So I'm pretty sure that Medibank is through AIA, correct me if I'm wrong, but that program kind of gives you discounts and rewards you for being healthy. And you can get like percentages off your health insurance and you can like redeem your points for things and you get more points for doing more things. Like you can get points for just doing your steps, but you can also like go to the optometrist and have your annual checkup. You get points for it and you can redeem it on stuff, like gift vouchers and stuff. It's

actually really good. I love that. Not sponsored, just I thought that was real cool. No, I do love that. But if they do want to sponsor me, I would be very keen on working with them. Wouldn't hate it. Wouldn't hate it. Lines to my values, you know? Yeah. So my broke tip for this week is to bring your own sauces, condiments, everything, wherever you go. So if you're getting a meat pie, you don't want to pay an extra 20 cents, sometimes an extra $2 for a little, what do you call those things sashay no it's like comes in a tiny little bowl ramekin ramekin of sauce or so you're just carrying around a 700 ml bottle you can you can bring the bottle but you can also just get little tupperware containers always bring your own condiments so if you're getting i don't know

pie from 7-eleven i don't know if they charge for sauces but no no 7-eleven sauce is free so that's money when you could take another 7-eleven sauce yeah save it for the next time someone tries to stooge you on sauce because 7-Eleven would never. They would never. Yes, exactly. You can save up on those or whatever, but just don't be spending even 20 cents for extra sauce. Bring your own sauce, bring your own condiments. See, I've never done that, but I do. This is probably a deep insight into my personality. I'm the saltiest woman you've ever met. Like ask Jess, I put salt on everything. And then she'll go back and put more salt on it. Yeah. Like if we're having toast with butter, salt. We're having any food, salt. We're going

to the Thai place, salt. Like there needs to be salt on all of my food to the point where I have gone to my doctor and said, can you please test my sodium levels? I think this is obscene and comes back normal. He said, no, what you're consuming is fine. I steal the salt packets. From like Maccas and stuff? Yep. And I put them in my purse so that I'm never without salt. That's a good idea. I quite like that. Can't be without salt. Salt queen. You can do that at hotels and stuff. I also carry my own tea bags in my handbag. Yes, yes, yes. In a little Ziploc. Yep. You've seen it. Yep. I've got little tea bags because like, what if I need a lemongrass ginger tea? I'm not spending $5 getting a lemongrass, like a cup of hot water. Absolutely

not. That is so true actually. And I used to do that a lot and it's so much cheaper. You go to like, you know, your servo and you get a cup of hot water and you just chuck your own tea bag in there. It's so much cheaper. You might think I'm a sting, but I'm a smart one. There you go. Little sauces, little tea bags. You just need a little mini kitchenette. And just looking at us like we are insane. I'm like, nah, nah, no judgment. No. As a chicken nugget girlie, I'm all for doing what you got to do. I love that. Thank you, Jess. More salt, more often. Yes, exactly. Save yourself some money. Let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, we're going to be talking about the pros and cons of being a casual versus a part-time worker. And then we're going to

discuss how to approach having a conversation about a prenup with a partner. And that can be really awkward. So don't go anywhere because we're going to feel really uncomfortable having this conversation. You can't just leave us. Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a listen to the Money Dilemma for the week. Hi there. Have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve? The She's on the Money team is here to help. Every week, we tackle your dilemmas, both big and small, to answer your most burning money, career and life questions. To get involved, simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma.

Hello, She's On The Money friends. I'm absolutely loving the potty. My money dilemma is that I'm in a bit of a sticky situation at work at the moment where I love my job and work pretty much part-time hours as a casual, but I've just been asked to go on a contract to part-time, but I'm kind of having a hard time understanding the benefits. At the moment as a casual, my hourly rate is higher and I still get pretty regular shifts, but I know from other staff who've been asked to go on a contract, they've been threatened with reduced shifts as it's kind of out of their budget to pay casuals. However, I know in the summertime, they are generally short on staff anyway. So Victoria and team, can you help me understand the pros and cons of being a casual versus part

time beyond the hourly rate and what might be the other benefits of being one or the other? So this is a tricky topic because if you're doing here in Australia, then you should absolutely head to the fairwork.gov.au website to learn a little bit more and not just take a podcast as gospel, but I have done the reading. So I'm basically just spitting out what I've read on that website. But I also know from personal experience in our community that if you're a casual employee and you've been doing consistent part-time hours for a minimum, I believe, of 12 months, you're technically not meant to be on a casual contract. Some companies don't want to move you to a part-time contract because that means they actually have a minimum obligation to you.

Like if I had employed Beck on a casual contract, technically the nature of our arrangement is that I wouldn't some weeks have to give you any shifts. But if you were on a part-time, we have an agreement that there would be minimum shifts. So some companies want to keep you casual. Some companies might be, as yours is Maya, she's on the money friend, might be trying to move you to part-time because their casual plan isn't working out as well. But there are pros and cons to both. So when it comes to casual employment, you would have what we call a loading. And that's why your hourly rate is higher. You have a loading because you don't get sick pay and you don't get to take annual leave. You don't accrue annual leave and you don't get a lot of the other benefits associated

with being a full-time or a part-time employee. So a part-time employee has the same rights as a full-time employee, but you definitely have a few less benefits involved when you're a casually employed. But to make up for the lack of benefits, you get a higher hourly rate. So there are a few things, I guess, that come in and it's going to really depend on what you want out of life. I know when I was back in uni, and this was 10 plus years ago, so things have definitely changed. I got offered a part-time role and I said, no thanks, because I actually wanted the loadings of being a casual employee and I liked the flexibility. I didn't care about unpaid leave. I didn't care about all of those things because I was kind of like broke as hell. So I didn't

want to take annual leave and any annual leave periods. I actually wanted way more shifts to make more money. So I liked that flexibility. But at the end of the day, I think this is going to depend on what your personal circumstances are. So negotiating with your employer is important. Asking for more information, I think, is also important because if you're missing out massively financially from making that shift because it works better for your employer, I think that there needs to be a really good conversation around, hey, I can see that this puts you guys in a way better position, but it doesn't do the same for me. In fact, I'm going backwards.

So what are we going to do about it? Maybe you're negotiating that, yes, you take a cut on your hourly rate, but it might not be as much of a cut as what they're proposing. Do the math, sit down and write out what you'd take home per week or fortnight or month or however you get paid on the casual versus the part-time contract, but also what other benefits are there? Are you actually going to enjoy the fact that you now get paid leave? It might be a value to you.

Are you actually going to benefit from sick leave? Because if you call in as a casual when you're not well, you're probably not getting paid for that. So it will really depend on your contract and how that works and having open, honest conversations with your employer, but I would be checking out the Fair Work website because I feel like they are the most reliable source of information. And it really depends on what award you're on as well as to what the regulations look like, because they're really different if you're in construction or you're a barista or you're a waitress, or maybe you're working in

an art gallery, like all of these different things are going to come into play. So there's not a one size fits all answer here as to which is better, because according to Fair Work, part-time contracts are relatively attractive because there's more responsibility on the employer. However, you might be like, past Victoria, I loved my high hourly rate. So to me, that made sense. What would you guys do? I would just say to be aware that going onto part-time, it's going to really depend on your contract. Because I remember when I worked in retail and I worked for the same employer on a casual part-time and full-time contract. So I did at all. But the part-time contract or the standard contract was a three-hour minimum. So I know that

she said in her note to us that she was worried that if she stayed casual, they might penalize her by reducing her shifts. But if she went part-time, like she would be guaranteed shifts. But sometimes employers can be sneaky because if they set that minimum at the lowest amount, which in the retail award, at least at the time that I was working, it was three hours a week. they are only required to give you whatever's outlined in your contract if they set that at 25 hours a week that would be your minimum but sometimes employers who are doing it to reduce their costs will put those minimum hours in as low as possible so that they can chop and change that roster around as they need without actually having a significant obligation to you outside of

your prorated benefits based on you know whatever that minimum hourly rate is yeah it makes me really frustrated because the tone of that message was a bit threatening not from our community member you weren't threatening love you but when people are saying oh my gosh like you'll get less hours it kind of feels like a threat like Jess if you don't sign this contract and agree to work for less right now which is what it would feel like you're going to not get the work so you better sign yeah and that feels awful and I think that there's a conversation around that and that's why I'm saying, maybe go check out Fair Work and have a conversation. You can always call them for some advice and see what happens. But also it kind of is a no brainer as well. Like let's say that that

was not threatening at all. And I've got Beck and I've got Jess and Jess is on a contract and she's part-time and then Beck, you're hourly. I look at that and I'm putting someone onto roster. If I'm the business owner, I'm going to go, ah, one, I've got minimum requirements that I need to meet with Jess. I don't have any obligation for hours for you. Also, right now, per hour, Jess is cheaper. So really, regardless of whether I love you, Bec, or not, from a business perspective, it's just going to make more sense to just roster Jess on. I'm just going to chuck Jess on, like, let's pretend apples with apples. You have exactly the same role. One's part-time, one's casual. I think that that could come into play. But also, that then doesn't feel fair.

I would be asking, well, why are we making this shift now? How does that work? where are the benefits for the employees in this circumstance I know you've been casual up until this point and they might go well actually the business is far more solid now like before we were up and down and you know we're a new business or whatever it is now we know year on year these are the hours we need this is the amount of staff we need we're just going to do part-time and from a business perspective that makes a lot of sense and is actually in their best interests because they could say okay well you know we're just hiring this way and we if you don't want to move over you could go find another job like sometimes it's just them trying to run a clean good business

so we need to take into consideration I guess their motivation for this and maybe it was about making hey well the sun was shining you had this really high casual rate and that was really great but now everything's more solid and the option on the table is a part-time contract like let's just have a look at what those things look like and how that benefits you and I don't mean to end my conversation on a, I guess a sour note, because it's not sour, but sometimes we outgrow roles and jobs and people. And if the option is going part-time or finding another casual role that really serves you and makes you happy and gives you the remuneration that you are looking for, well, maybe that's the decision that needs to be made. I'm not saying leave because they're

making you sign it. That's absolutely not it. But you might go, oh, well, that's okay. It was nice while it lasted. Yeah, totally. Bec, do you have anything to add? Would you say yes or no? I guess for me, I had a similar thing, same as you guys, where I was working at a bowling alley and they pretty much just went from casual to part-time and started like, it wasn't threatening, but it was very, I'm going to say, I'm going to say threatening and saying like, you know, if you don't move to part-time, you won't get shifts, et cetera. I kind of just had to do that.

But the decrease isn't as noticeable as you might think it is. It depends obviously on, you know, as you're saying on your contract and things like that. But I guess like just adding up what, it's a bit hard to say, but like what your average sickie days are, let's say you take four a year, which is really isn't much. I love a good sickie for a mental health day for anything really. It's important. It is very important. So let's say you take like four a year.

Let's say that's roughly $700, $800 a year. Maybe you're making that in, I don't know, like maybe like say deducting that, if that makes sense, because you won't get paid that when you're a casual. if you moved to part-time, will it kind of even out? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And with leave and stuff, it's also important. You might say, no, I don't want to take any leave and that's okay. But when you leave that job, your leave balance will be paid out. So it's not like you're not working towards anything in that aspect. I think that it all needs to be taken into consideration. And it's honestly a bigger conversation than, oh, I get more per

hour like the benefits and entitlements that exist are obviously financial but also go beyond that like I can't sometimes afford or historically couldn't afford to take a mental health day I was completely burnt out I go to work because I needed the money yeah how nice is it to go oh I can call in sick today yeah exactly I can stay in bed and not stress about finances yeah so I think there's lots of pros and lots of cons and ultimately you have to decide that for yourself somebody else can't tell you, but we've given you the resources and the tools and hopefully a little bit of insight to make that conversation and that decision a little bit easier. All right, let's segue into another community dilemma, guys. We're going to talk about prenups because this week I

got a message and it sounded like this. Hi, ladies, I'm getting married soon to the love of my life and I couldn't be more excited and happy. I would really like to sign a prenup. It's not at all that I think the marriage won't work out. I've just worked so hard all my life to create my own wealth and it's something I value a lot. My parents separated when I was younger and money was very messy and a huge stress in both of their lives. After watching this happen, I made it my mission to become financially independent. Anyway, my question is, how do I bring this up with my fiance? I don't want him to be hurt or take this personally, but I'm worried he will. I will note currently we have our own finances. Nothing is combined yet. Thank you so much. All right, guys,

Do you want to go first, Jess? I will start by saying prenups aren't a thing in Australia. We have the BFA, Binding Financial Agreement. I don't even need to be on this podcast. If you want to know more, we've done a full episode on that. So type BFA into your podcast app. BFA, she's on the money. I'm going to write that down.

Or it might be under Binding Financial Agreements, actually. Type that into your podcast app and it should come up. Yeah. I personally am a big fan of the BFA. I'm all for it. Similar to our community member, my partner and I currently have entirely separate finances, as you guys know, if you listen to the Property Playbook, shameless plug, I'm trying to buy a house. Great podcast. Excellent podcast. Fantastic host. I think so too. Thank you so much. But I

have literally already had the conversation with my partner and said, hey, if I buy a house, we will be putting a BFA in place. Sexy. I have all of my friends, most of them have shared finances. Several of them are married or have children. I have said to all of them, none of whom currently have BFAs. I love this. You're like the pesty aunt who's like, I have an account with money so you can leave whenever you want. Literally, I've learned from the best and I basically just parrot Victoria and I say, hey, girly. FYI. Yeah. I think for me, it is really, and the way that I explain it to my girlfriends, because everyone listening, you're basically my girlfriend. I pretty much have said the way that I approach it with my partner and the way that I

would approach it with anybody is saying, it's not about saying, I think you're going to take half my money. It's not because I think you're a bad person. It's because I want both of us in this relationship to be looked after because I care about you and I care about me. And I think that these choices are best being laid out now while we care about each other. Because I think the thing that we've seen through our money diaries and through, you know, just things that we've heard and seen here and there is that when things go wrong, you're not expecting it and it makes things harder if you're not prepared. So if I was in a relationship with my partner and I cheated on my partner, he's probably not going to be thrilled with me. I wouldn't be thrilled with

you. No. You're better than that. Yeah. So then if we're trying to divide up assets, I think there's all of this animosity, there's emotion, even if there's no cheating, even if you're just breaking up because it didn't work out. There's all of these things going on that mean maybe not everybody's in the fairest, kindest mindset. Whereas if you have an agreement in place that you've put together when you both love each other, when you both care about each other, when you both want the best for each other. Exactly. Then I feel like you're going to have the best possible outcome. And yes, people say that they're not fully airtight in the way that maybe a prenup is in the US. Like there's, you know, all of these nuances, which again were covered in the episode. But I think that having

something in place is just nice to protect everybody. Like in the same way that if I got a BFA, it would be to protect me. We would also be putting clauses in there to protect my partner as well. And so I think you go... It's two ways. A hundred percent. Like this isn't just about me saying, I think you're going to take my money and I want to make sure that you can't do that, you gold digger. It's about being like, I want both of us to be... She gave me money. I was going to say... I served you a gold... No.

We were all... I'm noticing this side of you, Jessica Ritchie. Yes, you have. At my Barbie party. That's true. I did see that. Dropping it low. She was like this super classy fairy. And I was crumping on the desk. It was a lot.

No, but yeah, I think just putting something in place and being like, hey, it's not just about me. it's about us and I want us to be looked after, rain, hail or shine. Do we hope that we never have to use it? Absolutely. I hope it's the most useless piece of paper that I own. However, you don't know what you don't know. And it kind of sucks as someone who's spent so much on their wedding, speaking from experience. Thankfully, I haven't gone through a divorce yet, but the statistics are that more than half of all marriages here in Australia end up in divorce. So nobody goes into a marriage with the expectation that it's not going to work out. It's an expensive process with a lot of legal obligations that you don't accidentally fall

into. It's not, oh, we woke up and we got married in Vegas because you actually have to register a marriage in Australia or the intention to get married. I believe it's like more than two weeks before the wedding. You can't like get drunk and just get shotgun married here. No, it's a month before the wedding and you can't just get shotgun married. So it wasn't an accident. Like you guys did this and had enough thinking time to work out whether it was a good idea

or not. And so I think just sitting down and, yeah, reiterating what you were saying, I think my way of approaching it would be flipping the narrative. I'm not going to talk about my assets because that can make me look really self-absorbed really quickly. I'm actually going to say, hey, I want us and I want you to be protected. And I think that that's the best way to have a good conversation is immediately by putting yourself in their shoes. Like it does feel confrontational if I say, hey, Bec, we're getting married. I just want to make sure my stuff's protected from you. Right.

Like that feels a bit like, oh, I didn't realize you were worried about your stuff being exposed to me. Whereas if I approach the conversation with kindness and I say, hey, Bec, I love you with absolutely everything I have and I cannot wait to get married. But there's this podcast that I've been listening to and blame me. I want to be that person that you can just blame for anything. I don't care if your partner doesn't like me. I really don't. So you can tell them that it's my fault. Oh, my friend Victoria told me about this really weird concept of binding financial agreement kind of makes sense. What do you think? Like, don't just start with being aggressive. I need to protect my stuff. Start with this open, honest conversation like,

oh, I was listening to this podcast. I hadn't really thought about it because you're kind of a long way down the track. So if you're talking about a binding financial agreement and this person is your fiance, you've already been their girlfriend or their boyfriend or their partner for a while, I'm assuming. And if this topic hasn't come up before, they might be a little bit jarred by it. So I think blaming another source or outsourcing it to become, you know, Jess and Beck and Victoria's fault. I would love to be the reason you got a binding financial agreement in place. Like I'm all for it. Use me. But I think sitting down and having that conversation is really important. And there's two folds to it, right? So as you guys know,

I've spoken about it before. I have one with my husband. It was established when we moved in together, not when we got married. We lived together for years before we got married, but I was like, ain't no man going to take advantage of me. I don't know if you know me well enough, but that obviously happened. But there were two conversations there. There was protecting the me that went into the relationship with my partner and she didn't have the success and the situation that she's in today. So there was protecting that, but then there was also protecting what we were creating together. And so for me, I know, and this might be different for everybody, but I know to get where I am today and have the life I have and have the assets that

we have, regardless of who put what dollar where, it was a joint effort between my husband and I. And so that is a very different conversation if we divorced as to, you know, who owns what. The thing that was important to me was protecting my businesses. Because if my relationship doesn't work out, well, you guys know I'll be even more obsessed with you. And I didn't want that to come into play. So those were the things I wanted to protect. And then, you know, Jess's situation is different again. She's buying a house on her and I didn't have property. When I got in a relationship with my husband, I was in debt. Like he didn't have anything. I was like, do you want it? You can have it. But your circumstance is an actual physical house, which someone could

contest. Whereas mine was a business. It might be a car. It might be an inheritance. It might be anything, but having these, literally. Do you know when I was with my ex-boyfriend, we got a cat Bailey the love of my life the day I got him I was like by the way this is my cat yeah like I have paid a hundred percent for him I will cover all of his costs because if we ever break up because I think deep down I kind of knew it wasn't gonna work out long term I don't know I didn't know at that time otherwise I wouldn't have been getting a pet with the person right I was like this cat is mine if we ever break up this is my cat it's not even a conversation I'm going to engage in. Then we broke up and I was like, I'm glad I had that conversation. Kat,

let's go. Lucky, lucky. No, I completely agree with all of that. I would say make sure that your partner knows that you're not planning for the demise of your relationship. Because I think that's maybe something that your partner might think. And maybe a version of me that's not as secure with the person I'm dating, I would maybe think, are you preparing for us to not last? But The reality is it might not, it might, it doesn't matter. Either way, better to be safe than sorry. And better to have that conversation when you're in a good place because if you're in a bit of an awkward position

or you've just recently had an argument, like, now is not the time, my love, like, don't bring it up then because your partner will think that you're catastrophizing and maybe trying to protect yourself and, like, go down that thought pattern. Sure. I mean, if Steve cheats on me, I'm going to be taking him to the cleaners. So. That's the thing.

Good luck. Good luck. May the odds ever be in your favor. Yes. Vicky D, what did our community say? So there were lots of comments, lots very similar to what Jess said. A lot of people said, go for it. Just ask at an appropriate time and prepare for questions. They might not be on the same page as you. So that's a really good point, bringing up that you might be so ready to have a conversation about a binding financial agreement. That does not mean that they are in the mental space for it. So I think pre-planning is important. Maybe going, hey, Jess, I've been listening to this podcast, they really recommend before we get married, having a binding financial agreement.

Do you want to have a chat about that at some point? Do you want to go away, do your own research, have a bit of a think about it? You know, I'm going to do a bit more research too, like I'm not ready to have the conversation yet, but go away Jess, have a think about it. And then, you know, maybe next week over dinner, we can have a chat. They've had the time to, I guess, absorb that, do their own research instead of you bombarding them. Because arguably, if you've listened to our Binding Financial Agreement episode. You've listened to the conversations we've had about estate planning. You've listened to that. You are so ready for that and prepared and they might not be. So give them that grace. Someone else said,

we have a separate account each and a joint one. It means that we have our own safety net and we always will. How are you planning on managing money together as you grow? What does that look like? Are you getting married and then joining finances or is everything going to stay exactly the same as it was. Maybe we could have a bigger conversation about money and life and sorting stuff out after we get married. Is anything going to change? And then the binding financial agreement could be part of that conversation. So it's just a little key part of the wider conversation about how we manage money, because there's lots of things to consider. It's also like health insurance. It can be cheaper if you've got like a couple's policy.

Do we share a Spotify account? Oh my gosh, no. So it only goes all the things, but you're right. No, no, we don't share a Spotify account because his music taste. Uh-uh, get off my Spotify. Stop telling me I like this trash. I don't. That does suck that you can't have individual accounts if you're sharing Spotify.

Is that right? No, that's not right. Oh, you can have different. Well, because like six people were using my Spotify account, remember, and I had no idea. I wasn't seeing their playlists. Oh, okay, I see. I don't know how that worked because my playlists become all of Steve's music and then Taylor Swift gets the yeet and that's all I want to hear.

Unacceptable. So, all right, someone says this really should have been a discussion before you got engaged, not weeks before. Don't need the judgment. We don't need the judgment. Asking now is the best time because you've just learnt about it and you're just considering it. I don't think we need to be going, oh, you should have already done that.

You know what, there's a lot of things I should have already done that I've never done. You know what they say, the best time to plant a tree is 100 years ago. Yeah. Or today. Exactly. Or something like that, they say. It's beautiful.

Thank you. They also say that about investing. The best time to invest was 100 years ago, but the second best time is today. Yes, that's the way. No, you said the exact same thing. I'm just really driving home that you were right. Thank you. Someone said, I don't have a partner yet, but I've worked really hard and I will be

protecting my assets. Yes, queen. Get it, queen. Yes. Someone said she definitely should do it. If he's offended, then he has his head in the sand. You've been listening to my podcast. someone said more so for my peace of mind than what he thinks he will take it as he can

oh i just feel like we just need to approach all these conversations with a lot of kindness someone said after losing a lot more than twenty thousand dollars to my ex my now partner is the one who suggested i should protect myself i like that's good i love that and someone said she should just say exactly what she said in that message it was very kind yes so there's just been a lot of, I guess, support. I think the most important thing is that, yes, I agree, it would have been beautiful to have this conversation before getting engaged. But you don't know when you're going to get engaged. No. I knew because my partner had a ring and he told me he had a ring. And so I was really angsty about it. But like not everyone's partner does

that for them, you know? Totally. Totally. So it might have been a surprise and you hadn't had that conversation yet. Like maybe you just didn't think about it until right now. That's okay. Exactly. You might be married already. Yeah. That's not too late to have that conversation. Yeah. Like I would be having that conversation irrespective of where you are in that journey of your relationship because ultimately it doesn't just protect you, it protects your partner and that's the point. It's a two-sided agreement. It's not just me going, hey, Jess, sign this. It puts me in the best position if you ever leave me. Ew. No. No, David. Ew, David. Ew, David. I don't get the reference, but I like it.

Schitt's Creek. Schitt's Creek. I've got to watch that. Do you know my first dance was the Simply the Best version from Schitt's Creek? Iconic. Truly. Iconic. Wow.

An absolute moment. Never posted that because it was a moment for me. Oh, beautiful. But you can go look that up. It was a very good song. Cool. You're welcome for the wedding song recommendation, my friend who's currently engaged to be a fiancé or engaged to be married.

Exciting. All right. We will see you next week, guys. Have the best weekend. We love you all. and get your binding financial agreements in place ASAP. Bye. Bye.

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