She's On The Money - She Was Told She’d Never Make It. 200 Rejections Later, She Proved Them Wrong.

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

What do you do when you’ve applied for hundreds of jobs and all you’ve got is rejection emails? This week’s Money Diarist knows the answer.... because she kept going. But this episode isn’t just about the knock-backs. It’s about grit, glow-ups, and the moment everything finally flipped. From small-town “you’ll never make it” whispers to proving every single doubter wrong, this one will hit every nerve if you’ve ever felt stuck, behind, or ready to give up. 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. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan. Mumu bangada boma ininyalan waka, gaunan yakarumja, wutunarana. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's on the money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing

you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. She's on the money. She's on the money. hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that lets you be pervy about other people's money situations for educational purposes of course welcome back to another one of our money diaries episodes where i get the absolute pleasure of sitting down and having a chat with one of our beautiful community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because we got a message this week and it sounded exactly like this. Dear She's On The

Money, I went from being a small town country kid where there were only eight people in my year in primary school to being a big town lawyer who is finding her feet financially. After applying for 200 jobs to get my first law job. I have savings and investments for the first time and I no longer spend every single cent on random items and of course I have big career goals too. My money story is unique and I would love to share it with the community. Money Diarist, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited. People aren't going to know this but I saw your name, our producer booked you because you obviously had a great story and then I saw your name and I'm like hey we're internet friends like we talk in my dms all the time and I was like kind of low-key

excited because you've messaged me along this career journey of yours being like hey what should I do here or what does this look like and I think we've bonded over it so I'm excited that you've come out of my dms and now you're on my show like this is so exciting the way I squealed when immering me I was like no way and then I've told literally everyone it's a good story and it's one of those things where like I'm obviously quite active on socials but I'm also very active in my dms like I love having a yap with my community like it's not you know I just post random stories and then don't reply to you like if you ask me a career question I'm like all right sit down babe so my thoughts are um I have been known to send voice notes I send like

attachments. I'll find links on the internet for you. Like, I just think we're besties that haven't met yet. And so I think we became like that. And you would ask me all these career questions. And I remember always saying like, girl, this is so common, stop stressing. And so now I'm glad that we're talking about this on the podcast. Cause I'm hoping that those DMs become an episode that help other people feel confident going through this. Cause like it can be heartbreaking to be like I applied for 200 jobs like so many people would have given up before then right yeah I am definitely known for my grit and my never giving up but if I could just even help one baby lawyer just know that it's so common you will I love it so our friend from across the ditch is on the show

now to give us a lot of confidence but before we get there and before I dive further into your story. My need to ask, I need to know what grade would you grade your habits from A through to F if I forced you to give them a grade? I would give myself either an A minus or a B plus considering where I've come from. I'm definitely reckon I'd be about an A minus B plus sort of range. I'm very excited to learn more about this. I know a little bit about you, but now's your time to shine. Tell me, tell me a little bit more about your money story. So I grew up in a very small town north Waikato much like what my money story said there was eight of us in my class so when I started having big city dreams it was you're not good enough you won't make it tall poppy syndrome

was rife that kind of thing and I grew up in a I'd say probably middle class sort of household we weren't riding the poverty line but we also weren't going on yearly holidays we weren't splurging on big items and that kind of thing money was never really talked about either so I would pick up on signals from my parents and I knew that money was tight but it wasn't talked about still and then I moved from the North Waikato to Christchurch with five hundred dollars to my name and a dream of somehow I'm going to make it I don't know how I don't know when but I will I started a Bachelor of Law after working out that law is a lot easier than forensic science oh yeah I was doing chemistry papers and not doing very good but my law papers

I just found so much easier I don't know how that makes sense but it does for me what do you mean it doesn't like that makes a lot of sense like you just have an area that you flourish in yeah it's like some people they're like girl I couldn't do financial management what the hell but I'm actually really good at marketing and economics like we all just have something that somehow just makes sense to the way that our brain is wired. It just clicked and off I went. And then during my four years at uni, I dealt with my dad being terminally ill. As you know, he's from our DMs, he's going down palliative care end of life at the moment, which is really sad and hard, but unfortunately it is the way of life. My ex-fiance was in a motorcycle accident and almost

died and I've set exams on the hospital floor. You literally cannot say that you're not committed to your studies or your career, like knowing you in the background, like this woman, holy guacamole, like she's told me so much about it, which I'm so grateful for. But also I'm just like, sorry, what? Do you know what I would have been doing? Trying to get an exemption, like trying to get out of it, like not doing it. And you're like, oh no, like I could do it on the hospital floor that's fine I was like is that even an option you just you make do and I attribute the way I am to my mother when I was in high school my dad had a workplace accident and slipped into depression and a very very bad depression so my mum became a single mum while

dad was there but she took over the reins of everything and I think I only ever saw her breakdown maybe twice that entire time and during that time I was the feral teenage daughter and she had my two sisters to deal with at the same time and I think watching her strength is what gave me my strength to be like oh no that's just the way I life and then I got my law degree which is probably one of the most exciting days of my life. You're from a small town I didn't ask before but what did your parents do like was this something where they had higher education as well or are you like one of the first in the family to go through that journey I'm one of the first in the family that's so sick isn't it my mum was a horse trainer growing up and then she moved into

dairy farming and that kind of thing as a kid my dad did dairy farming and truck driving and then he had his accident and didn't work for 10 plus years and then he ended up working for a government role and has only recently retired in the last four years I think so yeah I'm the first one to go to uni the first one to get a big girl degree and it was definitely the biggest middle finger to everyone that I grew up with that said you wouldn't amount to anything and did your parents love that because like I just I know my parents were really proud of me and like I went through that journey but I didn't face nearly as much adversity were they like jumping for joy because I just would have been like yeah that's my daughter she's gonna be a lawyer like oh how cool

yes that was definitely my parents the day I graduated I was dancing in the car park in my sixteen hundred dollar Valentino rock studs yes yes I love this for you so much and then yes I got my law degree I then was swim teaching and dairy farming to bring money in because bills don't stop no that's crazy rude I didn't you just show them your degree and they just waived all your bills no unfortunately not I did try that yeah and I was applying for job after job after job from I think didn't need him right up to Auckland including my hometown despite the fact I said I'd never return but like I would for a good job yeah and I was given a chance in South Canterbury and me and my partner went from living together and working together to

not living together and not working together and going long distance and now I get to be graced with my presence again because I'm moving back. Absolutely talk to me about you said that your ex-fiancee was in a motorcycle accident nearly died you did your exams on the hospital floor what happened there with that relationship because that's another spanner in the works before meeting the one that you are going to marry so we met just before I moved to Christchurch and he moved down with me and it was all well and good the relationship was just popping along as it does I don't think his sister or his mother liked me very much they've just got terrible taste it's phone and then he crashed one of my cars I didn't think much of it and then he had a motorcycle

accident one morning on his way to work and he had one of the worst open book pelvic fractures that his doctors had ever seen oh god basically yeah absolutely horrific he had to learn how to re-walk he had to learn like relearn everything and the accident itself wasn't exactly the beginning of the end but it was his attitude towards it all so I very vividly remember the day of the accident his phone was smashed so I let him borrow mine to talk to his mum and at the same time he was looking on trade me to buy a new bike and I was like you almost died can we not do this right now can you take five seconds to be like holy shit this has just happened and then he crashed a second car of mine which was my first adult car that I had managed to buy myself and then that

was sort of the beginning of the end and I very vividly remember paying for the deposit for the celebrate and I had my juice and everything at this point in time and my gut just going you are making a mistake do not do this and it was then and there that I was like now I'm done it was just something that you were like this like because it's not about the accidents and I know that what you've said and I'm just trying to read between the lines here a little bit I know what you've said is like you know he crashed my car so like if my husband crashed my car I feel like my attitude is going to be very different because I'd be like holy shit like you're my husband and I'm obsessed with you and like you know but I'm assuming that it wasn't that

he crashed your car it was probably the attitude around the entitlement of crashing your car and how that worked and all like is that right if I'm reading between those lines that it wasn't like that he crashed your car because I feel like if I crashed your car you'd be like oh my god V like what happened are you okay like let's get through insurance and we'd work it out like you wouldn't stop being my friend if I crashed your car so is that the right pathway that my brain is going down definitely the entitlement I'm trying really hard not to bad mouth him because he's not a bad guy it's just his attitude was just you're anonymous right now so you could trash this man and I would allow it but I think it's important because it's interesting and I'm just stepping aside maybe this

is a little side quest conversation obviously we've got shares on the money and you listen to this stuff because you want financial literacy and you're so interested in people's money stories, but intertwined into our money story is our life journey and our life stories. And I've just had so many messages historically of people saying, oh my God, like I worked out that I didn't, and this is so sad, but I worked out that I didn't want to be with my husband anymore. I didn't want to be my person anymore because this money diarist was talking about what their partner was saying and how their partner was treating them. And I was like, you shouldn't put up with that. And then I realized I was putting up with that. I was like,

oh my God, awful. But I think it's so important that when we talk about these money stories, we're intertwining real life events and like, you know, a little bit more context so that we can genuinely learn, which is one of the reasons why I love that they're anonymous. Because you could be like, this guy cheated on me, did this, did that. And you know, I want the goss, so I want the juice. And yes, we're not going to trash talk somebody that you don't want to trash talk. But I also think it's like, let's read between the lines here a little bit. There clearly was something more than oh he just crashed my car so I broke up with him going on because I wouldn't want someone to listen to that and just pragmatically go well that's what she said so no so he was so blasé

about the fact that he had crashed two of the three cars I'd ever owned and he his attitude was the bike accident where he almost died and I was at the hospital 8am to 8pm every day with him helping him learn how to pre-walk deal with the hospital this that and the next thing and then his mum would swoop in take over and he'd be so grateful for her but at the end of the day it was like okay I'm the one putting everything on hold being taken for granted here what the actual hell was going on I was there so often that some of the very lovely nurses would actually order me dinner as well they were brilliant they were probably the people that got me through but yeah I couldn't deal with the attitude and no matter how much I asked for counselling this that and

the next thing to work through it he just didn't care until I told him I was done and then he was like I'll go to counselling I'll do this I'll do that I'm like no too late I've been asking you that for six months I'm done fair so then you met the love of your life yes and how did you meet them? So I coached his little brother's football team. It's definitely a meet girl. Yes, I coached his little brother's football team and his little brother was at boarding school and their parents had gone overseas and I needed to pick, I'll call him Pipsqueak because that's his nickname and there's only a handful of people that know that I call him Pipsqueak. I picked Pipsqueak up from his brother. That's such a Kiwi nickname. I'm loving this. I call him Pipsqueak because when

I met him he was shorter than I am now I have to look up and he's not finished growing yet so he's going to be so much taller than what he is um so yeah I picked Pip Squeak up from my now partner and that afternoon I was like I was sitting here I was thinking I was like huh he's kind of cute I just continue the conversation you got a cute brother nice yeah and he thought similar and he shot his shot I was like oh if you want me to repay the coffee favor just let me know because I had brought him a coffee that morning just to be nice because I was we were meeting at Starbucks and who would have thought three years later here we are adore adore I love that do you want me to repay the coffee favor does it mean that we get to go get coffee together yeah that was pretty much

it I love this I literally love love like I would love a whole podcast on just like how people meet. Like my story is kind of boring. I met my husband on Tinder. So like when I ask other people and you didn't meet on Tinder, I'm like, Oh my God, tell me how did it work? Cause like, I'm so blasé in real life. Like someone could have been like, I really like you. And I'll be like, yes, as a friend, goodbye. Yeah. So moving on from that, that's kind of like, I guess your money story and where you've come from. Tell me a little bit more about today. So what happens when you have to apply for 200 different jobs I feel like that would be really hard especially on your confidence it is so hard I remember sitting there a rejection email after

rejection email being like and looking back now it's not about you it's about the situation and you're just not a good fit for the job but at the time I was like what is it about me that they don't want it tore into that little eight-year-old that got told she wasn't going to amount to anything no I hate that but there was just this little voice in the back of my head going there are far too many people sitting there waiting for you to fail keep going yeah and and it's rough because I think you take it so personally but like at the end of the day it's genuinely not personal and like the job hunting period of time you go oh it must be me you know what they must have seen straight through my resume into my personality and into my soul and that's what they

don't like and in reality I'm so sorry to downplay it to this but you were one of hundreds of applicants with exactly the same flipping degree and it probably had nothing to do with you personally and everything to do with luck or application timelines or oh my god like their dad used to be a lawyer as well and they got to do a little internship at a law firm and you didn't have that because you had parents who grew up dairy farming like it's literally not about you but how weird is it that we jumped to this idea that must be about my personality how did they know how did they look into my soul and see the things that I'm self-conscious about and hate that too I don't know what it is but it was just straight to the a stagger through the heart I

couldn't get over it I was like this is sucks and if it weren't for my partner he'd be like no keep going there are other jobs out there someone sometime somewhere is going to give you a chance exactly and like applying for 200 that's a long slog tell me a bit about this like process though you're applying for 200 jobs right how long a period was that was that like you did that all in one week did you do that in a couple of months probably between a year and a half to two years yeah so from the time I graduated to getting this job yeah and so tell me a little bit more about your strategy so did you change your resume did you update things because like you know if you and I always talk to people about this like your resume might not be terrible but it might just be

hitting the mark in your particular industry were you like redoing your resume or changing the way you do cover letters or were you just like you know what I'm just gonna have at it and it's the resume for the entire two years it was a bit of both I was very very lucky I went to lunch with a friend and her daughter's father and we were discussing me applying for law jobs and he goes oh I know someone at a law firm I'll put you in contact and then I went to a conference I met this very lovely lady we had a chat and she went over my resume with me and she went change this like make it bullet points don't make it pages this that and the next thing and I did that and she was like make sure you just tweak the cover letter to each employer and I was like oh that's so much

but I did it anyway and then I just would flick application after application after application off because at some point something's going to stick to the wall. And then it did so tell me about that pathway. So I am currently a criminal defense and family lawyer. Bougie that sounds so bougie I love it it has its perks it does have its downfalls but the job that I'm doing at the moment I am very sad to be leaving but yeah absolutely love my job at the moment we're not sad we're not sad because we've just got our new dream job yes we have yes so tell me what you're currently being paid and then what you're going to get paid in this new role so I'm currently being paid $55,000 a year with KiwiSaver. My understanding is my new role is going to be

$60,000 a year plus KiwiSaver on top, I think is what it's going to be. Yeah. So tell me a bit more, like give me a little bit of a, I don't know, baseline, because in Australia, if you said I'm a baby lawyer and I'm getting paid $55,000, I would say that's about graduate rates. Is that where you're sitting at the moment? Like, what does the career trajectory look like like what are your I guess financial goals for your career not in general we'll get to that because I've got questions. So what I'm being paid is about right for where I am I'm 15 months into my first job so it's a it's pretty on par with graduate role unfortunately criminal lawyers don't get paid what they should. It's almost

like criminals they're criminals and they actually don't have heaps of money that's crazy right I mean just between you and I the drug business is fairly lucrative well yeah absolutely but only if you're successful if you're making it to court you probably didn't do that well no yeah so at the moment I do a lot of legal aid work and even then we don't get paid what we personally should I think we should be paid I can go into court on a Tuesday at 10am and I'll walk out I've had days where I've walked out at quarter past five at night and in between then I would have been yelled at I've been abused I do have really really lovely clients but everyone's lovely when they need something but yeah I don't think we get paid enough for what we deal with regarding

financial goals I don't really have a whole lot of financial goals for my career I just have goals if that makes sense so I would really like to make my small time goal is making partner small goal my small goals making partner okay sis sit down my medium goal is owning my own practice I think that would be pretty sick to put it politely it is pretty you know what working for yourself is pretty sick that's how I would explain my job and then my big time goal would be becoming a judge would be probably my ultimate that's a big dog job how do you become a judge in New Zealand like it's a bit of a different system than Australia but I think that they're pretty similar what do you got to do so my understanding I don't have a whole lot of

understanding of how to get to judge level because I'm just a baby so I haven't quite mapped that out but um my understanding is you can either be nominated or you can put your name forward and then they go through this big whole rigmarole they look at what you've done over your career they look at cases you've been on what your impact has essentially been and then yeah they go yeah no kind of as well that's my understanding at least I may be a little bit wrong do you know what I'm going to give you some unsolicited career advice and if that's what you want to do fantastic we can do it like literally the sky's our limit but what I would do is look up all the judges that you know and that you respect look them up on LinkedIn look up their

career trajectory and see what the hell they've done so how did they get into that position yeah they might have been nominated or they nominated themselves great but to actually get the role where did they work did they make partner and you might start to see a theme of okay so most judges in my area they go through this semi-similar career trajectory of doing this job doing a more senior job making partner being partner for 10 years then doing like this and it might give you a little bit more of a like guide of how to get to where you want to go and I give this advice to so many people who are like oh I really want to be in you know head of HR but I have no idea how to get there and it's like well go snoop all of the heads of HR and see what their previous jobs were

it's 2025 LinkedIn is free and the only thing you need to worry about when it comes to LinkedIn is literally that they might see that you were on their profile and I don't even think that's a bad thing like a baby lawyer was on my profile yeah great I'm definitely going to be doing that because there wasn't actually something I've thought about doing stalk it's public information it's actually market research. Looks like I'll be doing that once I finish work today. Girl, I am sneaky. Like I just don't take no for an answer. So that's one of the things that I've done. Also, I've looked at people who were previously in jobs if I wanted an in to the business and I'd be like, oh my goodness, like connect with them, be like, hey, I really wanted

an in to this business. I see that you used to work there. Do you know anyone that's still there? And then they might go, oh yeah, oh my God, like my friend Cherie is still there. Let me introduce you to her wow I've got a connection in the business and I didn't have to go through the front door I like that if there is a back door I'm finding it I like that actually that's really handy I feel like when there is a will there is a way and you've got to be a little bit sneaky and it turns out you don't just get paid for being complacent so if I want to work with a brand or I want to work with a company and like going through the front door isn't working for me I will work it out that is fine how do you think I got the prime minister on my podcast babe you think we

went the kosher way no no no when there is a will there is a way anyway back to your story you want to be a judge which is really exciting and you don't really have like solid financial goals for your career but what about for your life what are the big money goals you're currently working towards so my short to medium term would be paying off my car loan and my partner apparently wants to look at buying a house next year so probably think about coming around to that decision and having more in-depth conversations about that I'd also like to travel more I've spent the last eight years of my life stuck in uni I'd like to experience the world a little bit I love that tell me I want to know about your partner what does he do and how much does he earn

he works in civil construction okay that sounds kind of sexy he drives diggers for fun so he gets to be a little boy in a big boy's body all the time perfect my son would be very envious yes i reckon harvey would love the diggers every time every time we see a truck truck truck yeah yeah yeah you're right we can look at it for 10 minutes can we go now yeah and he earns so he's variable because of it's very weather-based but I think we've worked it out that it's 70 to 80,000 a year is what he's on at the moment he's potentially moving up to a more managerial role in the next few months which is really really exciting considering he's only been there less than six months already yeah perfect now tell me a little bit more about this

goal of purchasing a home? Because if you're on a $60,000 plus KiwiSaver and then your partner earns between 70 to 80, like how realistic is home ownership for you in New Zealand? I don't know as much about the New Zealand market as I know about the Australian market. So my partner's got a decent chunk in his KiwiSaver because he's been working since he was 17. And for context, for those of you listening along, in New Zealand, your KiwiSaver is your retirement saver but you're allowed to access the cash that's in it for your first home deposit so like is that what you've been kind of using them for along the way yeah so I don't have a lot in my KiwiSaver because I needed a surgery that I didn't qualify for publicly so I took

money out from my KiwiSaver to get that done but I do plan on paying that back because compound interest and all of that of course fun stuff that I'm currently missing out on so we will be looking at that and we're looking at buying slightly out of Christchurch where the houses seem to be more manageable and potentially closer to outreach than what buying in Christchurch would be yeah no that's fair I'm just I'm just interested about your country's market and what that looks like and how that would work and then yeah I don't have like New Zealand clients but like I do snoop things and a lot of our Kiwi pals ask us a lot of questions about the home buying journey and yours is honestly like your housing prices are astronomical at the moment like it's actually

wild thinking and that's why I was like is this reasonable is this logical like I don't know you you're the one that might've done the numbers. I personally want him to pay off all of his debt first before we talk about going into home ownership, just because I have heard horror stories of people getting to the final step and the bank's like, you've still got this loan, no. And that's why I think that even in New Zealand, you should be talking to a broker now. So like, not necessarily just assuming, but if you're like, oh, maybe we will, maybe we won't go and talk to a broker and be like, what would it take to get us into home ownership? And they can maybe give you a plan because they might say, you actually need to

smash down all of this debt and have this amount saved. And we can take X, Y, Z from your Kiwi saver, but you're going to need this amount of cash to top it up. And that would get you a borrowing capacity of $500,000 or whatever it is. So get your little plan together, go ask questions, go, go, go. Cause then they will tell you, and then you can make a plan. And then you're not married to this idea of oh we might buy next year and it would be so flipping heartbreaking if you're like we've been working towards it really hard and then next year you're like let's buy and a broker's like no it's going to take you years no don't do that I have told him that if he is serious about wanting to buy a house we need to go talk to a broker exactly but I mean he doesn't

want to listen to me at the moment so I'm like okay well we're not buying a house bye that's fair That's absolutely fair. Apart from like buying a house and traveling more, was there anything else that you would add to that when it comes to money goals? Probably paying off my car loan. Yeah, yeah. I feel like that's a really good one, especially before property ownership. All right. Let's take a really quick break because on the flip side, I want to ask a little bit more about investments. I want to know a little bit more about this car loan. I need to be really pervy. And then what your best and worst money habits are. So guys,

don't go anywhere. All right, Money Diarist, we are back and I want to dive straight into talking about investment. As you guys know, wildly passionate about that. So I want to know, Money Diarist, if you invest, what do you invest in? If not, why not? What's going on? So I have KiwiSaver and I wrote down the specific numbers because... Thank you for coming prepared. I know that my favorite Money Diaries are when they give the numbers and I'm like, ooh. yeah but I never press it I'm always like whatever you're comfortable with I will take

if you want to trash your ex-partner I'll take that if you want to give me specific numbers I'll also take that my KiwiSaver is currently sitting at $13,115 I took eight grand out of it for my tonsillectomy and I am planning on paying that back once my car loan is paid back I also have invested in shares and I have $1,291.71 in it at the moment and I started a majority of that probably since I started listening to She's On The Money. Oh yay! And I have a regular $50 fortnight investment that goes into it. I have one of the automated profiles that sharesies have on a fortnightly rotation and then I have ten dollars of punt money so I just chuck that on a random share that I've got that's going well at the moment. That's fun especially if it keeps

you engaged in investing. So it's automated but I also get that ten dollars of fun money where my brain is like oh I'm spending money but I'm actually getting dividends for it. Yeah money win we're like also investing for our future and that's a lot of fun is that ten dollars per fortnight as well yes yeah so it's forty dollars gets automatically invested and then the ten dollars a fortnight for fun money and and talk to me about how your kiwi saver is constructed so you guys don't have as structured of a system as we do in australia with superannuation what does your kiwi saver look like how is it made up so my kiwi saver is done through my bank which is one of the big four I think it would be and I am in the growth fund which is known for

high returns and large ups and downs in value love and did you go in and change that or was that a default how did you get into a growth fund so I changed that we had it was on the one that was just slightly lower than that but I was like I'm 27 I've got time I'll just chuck it in what's the worst that can happen and I contribute four percent and my employer contributes as well I do and so what kind of percentage does your employer contribute I don't actually know the proper percent of what they contribute but at the moment it's about $55 a fortnight from them. Awesome. All right. Talk to me, are there any other investments that we've skipped over that we haven't discussed? I have savings, but I don't know if you'd really

class them as... I do want to know. I was going to ask about debts and then savings, but I want to know what's in your savings account. In my emergency account, I have $1,000 sitting in a term deposit I have 861 dollars in my emergency fund and then I've probably got two three hundred dollars sprinkled between like the short-term savings accounts that I've got and why have you got so many different savings accounts because before you were like oh I you know we've got these goals of maybe buying a house and stuff are they specific savings goals for that or are they just random accounts. How have you structured your bank? So much like what is set out in the She's on the Money book, I've got a fund for my car account. So insurance, rejo, this, that,

and the next thing. I've got a travel account. I've got a short term, whatever. I've got a medium term and I've got my long term. Perfect. Love. Now talk to me about debt. So you mentioned earlier you're in the episode, I have a car loan. I want to know what's your car? What's the debt? How did it work? How did we get into having a car loan? So my car is a 2015 Mazda XLR. I have $9,480.81 left on the car loan. I got the car loan because I was driving a Corolla, but I was also driving a significant distance weekly so I needed a newer car that I knew wasn't going to break down on me I got the car loan I knew that I'd be able to service it without putting myself into detriment and I just got it because it's a new car it's only 10 years old I'm gonna have it for the next

hopefully 10 plus years and yeah just the car loan seemed to be the best option for me at the time. So the thing is, I think people think I'm like real negative on car loans. And yes, I do classify them as bad debt. But then when we get into our situation, some of us, we just need a car loan. Like we just, we do not have the cash to go and buy a whole ass car outright. Like I'm not delusional, but what we then need to do is, okay, what is the best situation we can put ourselves in for this? And it sounds like you've been really reasonable with purchasing a car. What was the purchase price of the car if you now own $9,400-ish? So it was $11,000.

I sold my Corolla and I put $1,000. I transferred them $1,000, so I got a $10,000 loan. And I pay that back fortnightly at $130 a fortnight. That is going to increase in two weeks' time because... New job, new income? Yeah, new job, more money. and then by that point as well I've got the amount that I want in my emergency fund so I can divert that money to the car loan get that done that money can then go back to the emergency fund

bump that up to the 10k mark that I want and then go from there so tell me do you know the interest rate on your car loan 13.65 percent and I got a discount on it because I'm a member with the law society. I love that. Look at her go. She's like, actually, yes, sit down Victoria and talk to me. What's the structure of that loan look like? So is that $130 per fortnight going to pay off the entire car? Will you get three years into the loan and have a balloon repayment? How's that going to work? So that'll just pay the car off completely. In how long? I think it's four years, but I plan on having it paid off by the end of next year, pending my financial working the way I want it to. No, I like it. And you said something before

that I think is also really important because I think so many of us get hung up on debt reduction. And yes, debt reduction is so flipping important. Get out of debt. The sooner you get out of debt, the sooner you can thrive. But I also want you to have an emergency fund because if you don't have an emergency fund and something happens, we get into more debt and then we create our own cycle and that's really bad. So the idea that you are really prioritizing your emergency fund, yeah, you're paying your minimum repayments, but you're going to bump that up. I just think you've got so much strategy. I'm just like, oh, she does know. Oh, what's your interest rate? Oh, yeah. Okay. This girl is switched on. I combined quite a lot of, so I follow

a reasonable amount of financial people and I combine bits and pieces from each of them. So I've got the Dave Ramsey $1,000 emergency fund then go into the debt reduction. Yeah, I don't like Dave Ramsey, I'm not going to lie. I think he's a bit of a, anyway, we can talk about that one off air. But the whole $1,000 then debt reduction and then go back to the emergency fund, it's gone. The theory is solid, his attitude is not goodbye.

No. This is just for context. If anybody's like, what's Victoria talking about? Look up Dave Ramsey on TikTok and see all of the content that gets created about him. He's the same person that says that people who are in debt do not deserve to eat at restaurants. And I just, sorry, sorry, get off your high horse. He also forces his religious beliefs on his team members, which I think is insane. I didn't know that. Oh, girl, I'm going to blow your DMs up after this. So is his financial advice at the end of

the day a terrible thing? No. You know what? He gets lots and lots and lots of people out of debt every day, but the way that he often drives that is through shame. And I think that is abysmal. Yeah. No, you shouldn't be shamed for that kind of thing. Absolutely not. Like, sorry, you're doing the right thing. Like if you were on Dave Ramsey's show, he would say, right, well, you can't have a life until your car loan's gone. Like that's embarrassing. That's disappointing. Like he would slam you for no good reason. And how does that help anybody? No, no, it doesn't help anybody at the end of the day. anyway sorry who else do you follow I follow you I follow Simran I'm going to pronounce her last

name wrong she's free yeah no budget babe she's American based oh she's cool yeah I love I love everybody else you can keep all that she's no shit and I love her yeah yeah she's very direct I really love that too and I love talking about these other people not because I like to slam Dave Ramsey but because other people might listen to this podcast and be like oh there's more people out there that I could engage with this type of content with like I am not trying to gatekeep like there are so many finance content creators out there and I actually want you guys to follow heaps of them because I want you to consistently be thinking about this stuff and taking everybody's advice with a grain of salt and working out what works best for you not what Victoria Devine just

thinks yes because I can be a idiot too so you know how it goes get the whole range of advice from here there and everywhere which is pretty cool all right do you have any other debts I have my student loan which is currently sitting at $105,069.10 that's really sexy oh it hurts you know what really relatable though given you have a very very good higher education how does student loan debt work for you do you pay an interest rate what does that look like in your country? So it's interest free while you're in New Zealand, but if you go overseas, then you've got to pay interest on it. I'm not entirely sure how much the interest is. Don't leave the country. No, not at least until it's probably below $50,000. Now I heard before at the very start

of the episode, you said, I was dancing in the car park in my Valentino Rockstar shoes. And I thought you're a queen I'm a shoe queen too I get it but I also need to know how do you save and spend on arguably a $1,600 pair of shoes I feel like you might be a little bit savvy so I need to know do you have any good money tips what's your best money habit probably the way I shop for groceries so at the moment where I live so I live in two different places I go back to Christchurch on the weekends I have pack and save new world countdown in the warehouse all within walking distance or I drive past oh money when yeah I have a spreadsheet where I've got my grocery list on one side and the shops on the other and I will spend 20 minutes I'll go through

each website and then I'll look at whatever's cheapest and then I'll be like right I'm going to um, peck and save for this. I'm going to countdown for this. I'm going to warehouse for this. My partner hates it, but I love it. I'm sorry, but you're saving money. Like that's smart. And if you've got the time and you enjoy doing it, that's a great way to do it. I've saved $20, $30 on groceries before. Oh my God. I'm obsessed. And every single week you're like making the time to do that. The small things will add up. Like that's where your investing money is coming from. If you're saving that per week, like, girl, like, no wonder you can afford to invest and, you know, save and pay off your car loan and get everything done on a $55,000 income.

Like, you're getting it. I love this. Yeah, it's all about, I wouldn't say priorities, but it's important to me and I want to hit the financial freedom. And I have proven time and time again that I can make a fortnight's worth of food from a hundred bucks. I am obsessed. Let's bring down the mood, though.

what do you think your worst money habit is I asked my partner this because he says that he reckons that I made budget myself too thin so yeah okay over the week everything's accounted for but come the weekend if I want something I don't not have the money for it but that money's already accounted for but that's also going to change with the new job because I won't be traveling so much I'm going to have that spare money that was already accounted for for guests oh that's cool as well yeah so most of my expenses are being cut in half with this new job so that money's going to be there so talk me through that because I think that's a really important thing to discuss because you're going from a $55,000 income to a $60,000 income both

a plus KiwiSaver and a lot of people will be like oh it's only five grand but did you go ahead and do like a budget and work out you know well if I take this new job yes I'm getting a pay rise but I'm also going to save in all of these other areas like have you done those financials? So I haven't gone down to the dollar yet because I'm you sent me the KiwiSaver calculator website they were pretty on par but I don't want to budget and catch myself out so I had that buffer where my final paycheck from this job is going to be the first week of my new job so all of my bills will be accounted for so come the first pay I'll be able to be like okay cool this is what I'm looking at but at the same time I'm also going from paying two lots of rent to just one to paying

maybe a hundred bucks per fortnight for gas instead of two hundred dollars tell me more about that because you just said something that I haven't picked up on before and that was that you're paying two lots of rent why when where how I know that you're living between two places but how does that work logistically so I pay for a flat in South Canterbury where my job is and I also contribute to rent where my partner lives because I mean it's a glorified storage unit at this point in time point in time because it's got all my stuff there but I'm not there But I only pay $100 a fortnight for the place in Christchurch because I'm only there on the weekends.

I'm not doing a whole lot up there, but that'll change when I move back. Yeah, and I'm just being pervy because, like, I don't know the distance. What's the distance between where you work and Christchurch? Like how long does that take you to get to and from? About two hours. Oh, and that is a big drive. Yeah, yeah. So I will leave 5 p.m. on a Friday.

I'll get home about 7 30 depending on traffic and then come Monday morning I'll leave at six and yeah no definitely not not not fun but I've done it for 15 months I did it to get my foot in the door and now I get to move back to Christchurch and I'm not going to have to do the two hours worth of driving on a Monday morning that's so exciting and that means you get to like live with your partner permanently like ah I love this for you I feel like everything is just getting better and better and it's because you took so much time and put in so much energy to like just solidifying this you were so like no I am going to get the career I want to get and I am going to be able to do it and yes I've had to make a whole heap of compromises to make this work but like now it just

feels like that's not really a compromise anymore is it no I was talking to my counsellor last night and I was like if I took a step back and I looked at my life and I overlaid it to the plan that little eight-year-old me had it's damn near spot on I've got the career I've got the partner I've got this that and the next thing and I'm like this is actually my dream life what is this when did this happen I'm obsessed and you know what I just love that like I feel like you remind me of me where we clearly have some insecurities you said something before that I wanted to like pick you up and hug you for you like I'm really used to not being liked by people and I was like no like you just haven't found the right people you haven't been in the right rooms and if you're

in those rooms like you're in the wrong ones that I wanted to pick you up and be like no no no no but I didn't want to cut you off and like there's just been a lot of like goings on and you're like saying now I have my dream life and it's really proof that money doesn't buy happiness like your personal accomplishment and being able to reflect on where you've come from and where you're going like because a lot of people will be like wow sixty thousand dollars is not going to be enough for me but like you know what's not enough having heaps of money and still not being grateful from where you've come from and what you're doing and like you're actually never going to be happy and just like listening to you is like oh my god yes queen like she is living her dream life and

that is just so cool and you've got so far to go and I can't wait until you're like B sliding into my DMs I'm a judge now and I'll be like is this illegal to DM like are we allowed to talk still like it'll be just so exciting at the start of this episode you said V I reckon I'm like a B plus or an A minus and like that is a very good grade to begin with but what would it take to get you to an A+. I think potentially getting rid of my car loan would definitely help and sorting out my cash flow so I'm not caught short at the end of the week. Yeah, I'll do that for you. I'll give you my money masterclass and then you can go do the money masterclass right before you do your new job. And then you can get all of your budget and cash flow and car loan and everything sorted

and it'll be really attractive. And you already told me in the She's On The Money book, I structure my money like this. So it's actually going to work for you already because it's the same kind of structure. It's just way more gritty and I do it for you. You still will need your spreadsheet for your groceries though, because I don't have that level of detail in there, but I can do everything else. So let me do that. And then your new job, it's going to be flawless. I'm so excited for you. Thank you for that. I really, really appreciate that actually. Oh, I'm so excited for you? Paying the car loan off and I think potentially having like the fully funded emergency fund because I'm so growing up I had the scarcity mindset and I had two younger sisters so my

coins would disappear so I'm still used to the oh it's gonna it's gonna disappear eventually so yeah potentially paying the car loan off and sorting the fully funded emergency fund out would bumped me up a grade or two. That's so exciting. But I like that you've got so much clarity around where you're going and what that looks like. You're like, well, actually to get to an A plus, sometimes we talk to people and they're like, oh, I don't know. I just don't feel good at it. And it's like, well, let's make a plan. You can be good at money. Like being good at money isn't about being smart or having some kind of financial backing. It's just actually about choosing to be good at money and then just diving in. Like you just choose to. And there's no start point that

feels like the next day you've got your shit together. It's literally just one day you decide, I'm just going to start making small steps in the right direction. And then all of a sudden you've applied for 200 jobs. You're 15 months in, you're moving to a new like area because you finally got your dream job. You get to live with your partner. I'm just so excited about all of this for you. It's making me so happy. So thank you so much for sharing this journey and this story with me. I feel very, very privileged to have been a part of it. Thank you for being available for big sister advice because I'm the oldest so I don't have someone to go to for big sister advice I got you I got you and I've got everybody else who wants to slide into

my dms and be like so what about this like I think people think that because I've got like some followers or something like oh she wouldn't want to talk born to yeah born to give unsolicited advice that's where I thrive best unsolicited advice is the best advice in my opinion and I mean, you asked for it. So like, it wasn't even unsolicited. You solicited that advice and I gave it to you for free. Anyway, guys, I think that is all we have time for today. Money Dice, it has been a pleasure. And I just know that the community is going to love listening to this episode as much as I loved recording it. So I really appreciate it. But for everybody following along, we will see you bright and early on Wednesday morning for a deep dive. Bye.

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