She's On The Money - Should You Buy a House or Invest? Let's Break it Down

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Should you buy a house or invest the cash instead? That’s the exact question one of our community members is facing. After a separation and the sale of her home, she’s now sitting on a lump sum. But with property prices still out of reach, she’s torn: should she wait it out, buy in a cheaper area, or invest the money and build wealth another way? We also dive into a DM that seriously put our ethics to the test. Someone got undercharged at checkout, knew it, and walked away. Should she have gone back? Is it stealing… or just retail karma? Plus, we’re sharing some of the best broke tips and money wins including a genius hack to get 40% off pizza every time and a money-saving ways to use Google Image Search and Facebook Ads you’ve probably never thought of. Tap play for the laughs, the loopholes, and the life advice you didn’t know you needed.  Ready for more laughs, lessons, and unhinged money chats? Check out our oh-so-bingeable Friday Drinks playlist. Listen here. Join our 300K+ She's on the Money community in our Facebook Group and on Instagram.  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 that makes personal finance fun especially on Fridays. It is my personal and our favorite day of the week because we get to get our team together and celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. Miss Jessica Ricci, she's here sharing our favorite money wins from the group. Bec is going to be here sharing her broke tips and we'll be helping to answer a money dilemma. What do you do when you have to sell your house because of a divorce? And then something that you slid into our DMs about, are you being dodgy when you don't tell a shop that you know they're undercharging you. That's interesting. I feel like it is really interesting. But before we get there, guys, how have your weeks been?

My week's been good. It's been a little crisp in the air, a little fall vibe, if you will. Yeah, but I don't like it. Oh, I do miss summer already. I miss the heat. This is going to sound so dumb as someone with a wardrobe full of clothes. I don't have any winter outfits. I feel exactly the same. And it happens to me every year. Every recording I have had over the last few weeks for the podcast, I have worn these pair of jeans because like I get overwhelmed looking in my wardrobe being like, what do I wear? Like, it's not going to be super warm, but like, I also don't want to be cold, but I want to look good. Yeah. Anyway, like that's the biggest first world dilemma. So maybe you and I can sit down and make like a Pinterest vision board

of like our winter wardrobes because I just want to be able to walk into my wardrobe and have a few ideas of the outfits I have but I don't want to buy anything new yeah like I know I have cute stuff and I know Jess has cute stuff yeah but so do you and I know you do yeah so like we need to just like I don't know match outfits for each other or something because like I'm not buying more winter clothes no I'm 33 like I have a wardrobe you gotta wait till summer starts and then everything's tough. Yeah. But in summer I don't need a coat. Well, that's when it's cheapest. And then you'll be thinking about that. Yes. But at that point I'm like, I don't need a coat. I already have coats. Yes, that is cheap, but I'm being impulsive. And then come winter, I'm like,

I wish I was more impulsive. Yeah. I haven't managed to crack the cycle. Anyway, Beck, how's your week been? Because I've gotten off track completely. Week's been really good. I'm I'm a little bit sick, so I apologise in advance. Ew, get away from us. I know. Lucky this studio is so big, so you're sitting over there. I feel like we're at a safe distance right now. But you know when you have that thing, like the back of your throat is itchy,

but also the nose holes, and so you can't like, you kind of like do this thing with your tongue. Oh, it's like a spot you can't scratch. I know exactly what you mean. You do that thing with your tongue and then you, anyway. You need to have some honey, like coat your throat in something nice. Honey, honey. I feel like I want to get a comb and just like cut in the back there.

I totally get that. But this is the time when everybody who, you know, when you're like get really sick and you're like, I did not appreciate being able to breathe without some kind of something impacting me. This is the time, Jess, breathe in. Yeah, take advantage, you guys. We value nostrils, but we value that.

That feels good. Everyone who's listening right now, take a second, breathe in. Yeah, breathe in. I'm so grateful. appreciate the times that you can breathe clearly because winter is coming it's not going to stick around I'm so grateful for those moments when I'm when I'm sick but I so take just take advantage when you really you know when you have like a tongue ulcer and you're like I I can't remember what it's like to eat without being in excruciating pain when I get ulcer so when I get very stressed

I get ulcers Jess has seen them before they are hectic like one time I was like Jess I've got this really bad also and she's like yeah yeah whatever whatever and I was like do you want to see it and she's like yeah and I like pull down my bottom lip and it's the entirety of my like around my teeth like along the bottom of my gum like it was probably like five centimeters long and she's like oh shit put that away that is like mostly ulcer it was disgusting like it got to the point where I'm like not talking like I'm like trying to talk with my mouth not move it was painful so I've just decided maybe I should lower the stress levels in my life yeah fair fair fair It hasn't happened in a very long time though.

So do you know what my favorite Magnum is at the moment? Almond. It's no, no, it's the white chocolate one. It is, it's like a white chocolate Magnum with the passion fruit and then biscuit in the crumb. Getting worse. Biscuit in the crumb though, that's nice. It's getting worse.

That is the best ice cream. But I do find that there is a divide. There are people who believe fruit in ice cream is acceptable and there are people who think the fruit in ice cream is the devil. And I feel like you were like, fruit, ice cream, no, it should be chocolate. Absolutely. Yeah, no, that's illegal.

Because it's like you're eating dessert because you're eating dessert. You're not trying to get in a healthy. See, I'm going to say something controversial and I do not believe in mixing nuts with chocolate. Oh, I completely disagree. Nutella? Sorry. Oh, no, that's okay.

That's different. But like pieces of nuts and fruit in chocolate should be illegal. Like the fruit nut block, illegal. Or just nuts. like what about like a hazelnut hazelnut surely that's a different that's an experience that's an experience a lot of loopholes there's a lot of loopholes but nuts and chocolate in general so far we've named everything and she's like well that's different you know what i'm just gonna stick to money i'm not a food blogger you can leave that ton on he can be like the food

content creator and he can make all of the roux yeah he can make all of the rules he actually made me dinner last night gorgeous yeah so slay he made the most delicious chili honey butter chili honey butter yeah it was like a whipped butter with honey and chill like a chili crisp he said through it wow that's lovely give me the recipe less and he was like oh you don't have to eat the bread and butter if you don't want sorry it's the best bit i beg your pardon exactly did You were nothing. Yeah, seriously. Anyway, moving on.

Sorry, V, how's your week? Oh, my week's been good. I had dinner at a friend's house last night. They cooked for me. I've been up very late. Like I didn't get home until like nearly midnight, which if you know me, that's not okay. I've seen it time and time again.

I'm very tired today. I don't regret it, but I am very tired. In fact, I ordered a large coffee, which again, if you know me, I never do because I believe in like get a small coffee at the start of the day, which means I can have another one later in the day. But if I get a large at the start of the day, I've capped out my caffeine. And it's not because there's rules on caffeine.

It's because I'll be a jittery mess. And that's not going to work for me. But today I'm going to be a jittery mess. Live, love, laugh. Absolutely. Anyway, week's been good. I'm still on a high from going to Canberra. Guys, the budget is so hot.

Like, oh, that was the coolest thing ever. I interviewed the Minister for Finance and Women. So cool. Like I'm still just, I'm just excited about the fact that I did that. That's really cool. Anyway, still keep talking about it. The media is still talking about how influencers were invited to Parliament House and they don't believe in that.

This made me angry. It made me so angry, especially like Millie Rose. Millie Rose Bannister. She got ripped a new one on TV. I could not believe what the project did to her. Horrific. Millie is an incredible human being who has created a charity from scratch. Like I'm going to put the links to her charity in the show notes.

It's called All Kinds. And she is honestly one of the coolest people ever. She's created this charity. She's having a really big impact. She does really beautiful content online and is not someone that you would say, oh, influencer, right? No. She has an ambassadorship through Lululemon, which honestly, slay from Lululemon to pick up someone who is genuinely impactful in this space and go, you know what, we're going to

work with you directly because impact. And they essentially distilled her down to just being a Lululemon ambassador, did not mention anything about her charity, did not mention anything about why she might have been there to understand how change is being facilitated at Parliament House, I was actually so mad for them. We had, I would say, second tier news outlets reaching out to people like me for comment being like, what do you think about influencers being at Parliament House? Guys, just because I was there for Tuesday, I was actually there for the Wednesday. Obviously, I didn't make any type of comment because I'm like, I'm not perpetuating this. Be so real. I

left them on read, but I'm actually so angry because at the end of the day, these quote influencers, if you look at every single one of them, they are either a finance content creator or a social media content creator that is tapping into a market of people, usually women who aren't understanding politics. What a better way to get more people talking about politics than getting the people that you already are engaging with talking about it. And it's just, it's this divide and I know we're biased but like old media new media or traditional media new media the way that new media is looked down upon when you have outlets like the Daily Oz and as you were saying Millie's Charity that are engaging people in a way that they haven't been before

it also made me really mad. No one was paid to be there to be very clear. I've seen a lot of liberal content come out recently saying oh these influencers were probably paid to be here. No we were offered an opportunity and a seat at the table and we took it. In fact, for a lot of these influencers, it costs them a lot to be there because they were taking time out of their business. They were changing their plans to be able to attend this, which they thought would be impactful for their communities. There was no money exchanged. It was, we got offered a seat at a table and I was like, heck yeah, I'm taking that. I'm taking up space in a place that I've never felt welcome before. Right. How cool. That is really cool. Why aren't we talking about the

fact that politics is becoming more approachable? Like at the end of the day, I'm excited about this. You guys probably not as engaged with the budget as I was every year. I do like a little budget wrap of like my favorite things out of the budget or the things that I think are going to impact you the most. And like, I don't mean to toot our own horn. I do a little bit, but at the end of the day, I posted a screenshot of my notes app from the frantic notes I was taking about the budget as I was watching it. And that got thousands of likes. And these traditional media outlets who are posting about influencers being in Parliament House and whatnot, they got like four likes on their budget posts. Be for real, people are in real time engaging with our content. Maybe you

should be doing some reflecting about how that is being perceived and maybe take a leaf out of our book at the end of the day we are without filter sharing our opinions they're going through editor after editor getting sign off for their content no people are over it and just the fact that the majority of creators that were being taken down were female to really upset me I think again like there's a lot of old bias particularly when it comes to the political space and it was really disappointing to see that play out and it was really hard to see you know Millie and you and tash and emma i'm watching it and i was angry but do you know what millie like go look it up because millie handled herself she did a great job with such grace and she clapped back at them

on national tv an icon i'm desperate to watch this i'm going to show you straight after yes anyway let's move on from this because i could go on and on do you guys want me to read you a five-star review yes please say less all right sit down this one is from little dear cute five stars. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for educating me about finances and money overall. I would never have been this educated if it wasn't for your podcast and engaging content. I am so grateful for you. Isn't that cute? That was a good one. Thanks, Lil Deer. Thank you. What a cute name. Yeah. And it's like Deer, D-E-E-R. So it's like the little animal. Oh my gosh, adorable. Very, very cute. But let's get into it. Jess, you've been

in the community this week looking at everyone's comments what are your favorite money wins all righty firstly this week i've got one from rachel who said during my local pilates studios open day they ran free classes all morning and they provided a goodie bag which had various freebies and discounts for local stores in the area she got a discount code for a free class and then she won an extra 10 free classes on top of that so she managed to walk away with 12 free classes pilates socks coffee croissant voucher and a bunch of other discounts oh that's great influencer event and i love it yeah i think that's so cool next i got a money win from asia who said it is dividend month for me oh we love a dividend month love that for you money win from rachel who

said she got her house evaluated for sale she spent the last six months reno-ing it and they did it all themselves turns out it's worth more than a hundred thousand dollars than they thought it would be so you made a hundred grand in the last 12 months baby pretty much she said once they sell the money will be able to help them continue their ivf journey which is really exciting they've spent a lot of money on it with no luck but fingers crossed for you rachel i've got all my fingers and all my toes crossed and i'm sending you all the baby dust absolutely next i want to money win from crystal who said she has 211 left to spend from her salary packaging in the meal and entertainment category yeah instead of going out blowing it on dinner she's

gonna buy a heap of food and freeze it so that she's got her meals all set up okay she doesn't on groceries. Great idea. I was talking about like salary sacrificing the other day. And if you do salary sacrifice, it would be a good time now to just do a bit of a review and an audit of like whether this year you used all of your salary packaging. Was it worth it? Because so many of us go, yeah, it will totally be worth it. But then if you're spending it on dining and eating out, could that have gone to something better? I'm not saying don't dine out. That is not me. I'm not a restriction girly but if you didn't actually use it because like lots of us are aspirational yeah like I'm a new mom do you know how many times I've said we'll go out for dinner we are not going

out for dinner like bedtime is 7 30 I'm not leaving the house you can have uber eats my husband will meet you at the gate because if you wake up the baby you are dead to me but I think so many of us over estimate how much we'll spend yeah so like do a little bit of an audit do a little bit of a check that pre-financial yeah yeah end of financial year prep and then lastly this week i've got a money win from alex who said she moved houses recently and it's forced her to go through the pantry with a fine tooth comb she's managed to cook and bake heaps of stuff with you know ingredients and bits and pieces she already had which meant the grocery bill has been so much lower the past couple of years that's good such a good feeling yeah and

that's it for me lovely oh it's your turn beck well if i may i'm very excited about these ones actually, but I also don't want to talk it up too much because you might be really disappointed. All right. Well, let's just give us the first one and we'll see how that goes. Okay. This first one comes from Alex with a Y, love that name. Oh, cute. Who says that if you just look into like Kohl's and Woolworths, they have the, you know, those everyday extra and whatever the Kohl's equivalent is. And with this subscription, sometimes it's half price. So let's say $35 for the whole year.

Yes. And then you get half price delivery, I believe, but you also get every single month 10% off. I know this should be true for the Woolworths. I don't know about Coles. I'm sure there's an equivalent for that. But if you do your grocery shopping once a month with that 10% off. Yeah. It always asks me at checkout, do you want to use it on this transaction? Yeah. No, I don't. I'm buying $10 worth of groceries for lunch today. Save it for the big show.

I do not want to be wasting that, but I always get a little bit of a pang of anxiety thinking i'll click the wrong button and then i'll waste that right that's what you'll do at the start of the month yeah big shop and don't go ever again don't ever go to woolworths no for the rest of the month and then use the coals one the week after is that what you're saying okay you want to thank them you're saying loyalty doesn't pay yes oh actually you know i was thinking of just getting the one but you could do the two that's a great idea yeah and if you're in a couple then you get I'm assuming if you're both buying one you get the double for the whole household don't call Woolworths and ask them whether that's ethical I don't know if they're like oh one per

household like we can't hear you sorry sorry yeah also you cut out sorry what's your next book tip I'd be like that's a that's a strange sounding tunnel so Alex said that best wait until this goes half price maybe your boxing day sales maybe your after payday sales and you really do get way more out of it than you're actually paying so that's my first broke tip yeah what's number two the second one is actually from a close friend of ours a friend of the pod uh our producer has given us a go oh it's emma do you know what emma is honestly like we're gonna have to get her on the show at some point because she is the savviest person ever and i know that she's been feeding you broke tips in the background i just

know. I know. She's been here going. So clever. Hey, Beck, under the table, here's another broke tip. Yes. It's so clever. So this one, Emma has tried and it has proven to be true. So what you do is you Google, if you're getting takeaway, you Google Domino's. Yeah. I believe you go to the website. Wouldn't hurt. You go out, you just press back. You Google Pizza Hut. Yeah. And there should be an ad. Right. That comes up at the top of the search. Oh, because it would be remarketing. yes yes okay they're getting real crafty but right now we're using their marketing to our advantage exactly and then it comes up at the top just a little little ad saying dominoes 40% off and so you get 40% off dominoes that's so good so smart is that that is so brilliant

that is genius saving money for ads jess is aware of this i don't know if you're aware of this but if you Google Facebook ads library, you can find the Facebook ads library. And then once you're on that page, you can type in your favorite brands. So say you love Naked Harvest. Sorry, Georgie, but I'm using you as an example. So you love Naked Harvest. You can then type in Naked Harvest into the Facebook ads library, and it will come up with every single ad that they're running. And usually one of them is going to be a remarketing promotion and you can just click into it oh and you can be like oh cool there's my 10 discount code god that's good bam so clever and you can just see all of the ads that they're running yes thank you that is so good yeah genius

but i want 40 off pizza always and now we've got the hack absolutely it's dangerous because domino's is already pretty cheap so i feel like it's cheaper than just than doing your job they won't sponsor us anytime soon because we are undercutting them but i have no regrets now what is your broke tip okay my one i saw this little thing it was on like instagram but it made me think it's called zift z-y-f-t but i believe it's very similar to if you go into like the shops and you literally just i'm not sure what the equivalent is for iphones but my one's called google image search where you just like google image oh you have google perfect perfect that's crazy so if you go into a shop and then you literally just google image search anything

that you want to buy. It's quite time consuming, I'm sure. But if you go in and you're like, I'm going to spoil myself and buy a really nice olive oil. You just Google image search. You see all the shopping will come up. Everything, every price anywhere will come up in this Google image search, hopefully. And you'll be able to see if it's cheaper somewhere else. Which is honestly genius. Genius. So I think even if it's like something that is, that looks the same, if it's shirt you said i was in savers no but it's genius it's genius it's genius a top a shirt of a lounge anything you're like are you trying to get clothes cheaper than at savers is that what you just said it wasn't savers it was symphony's in richmond and it's extremely expensive so they're taking

the mickey they really are and i'm like this is an opportunity shop that's what op shop is for it's for people who cannot afford this kind of stuff i feel like so many of them are taking the mickey i totally okay you shouldn't be taking advantage of it no absolutely absolutely not i don't like it um and it was donated okay so i mean you got this for free and now you're taking the actual piece but okay i know i don't like it no um but i'm assuming there are you know cost the energy no they're taking the mickey sometimes i'm like they're taking the mickey sorry you just told me it was saint benny's um they are church run they no you're taking the piece yeah that does not align with that doesn't align with our values and our values

but yeah so google image search before you buy uh anything ever so i do that i take it to the next level should i be admitting this i don't know but i will take photos of sorry but i will take screenshots of influencers content like if i like their side table or you know a trinket that they have on a table and they've like you know posted it because i don't actually want to reply to their story and be like where's that candle from just google image search it yes i google image, search everything. Isn't it good? Yep. Photo of what they're wearing. Oh, I want your red shirt. Fantastic. I'm just going to snap a picture and find it for myself. I am a resourceful queen. I don't need anybody to tell me where to find stuff. I'm going to do it myself. Good for

you girl. Thank you. And time is money. So that's another broke tip. Exactly. Exactly. That's been really good. All right. Let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, we're going to be helping answer a money dilemma. What do you do when you have to sell your house because of a divorce. Sticky. And then we've got something that you slid into our DMs about. Are you being dodgy if you don't correct a shop when you know that they're undercharging you? Don't go anywhere, guys. Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a listen to this week's Money Dilemma. 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. Hi, she's on the money. I'm a 30-year-old single mom to three beautiful kids. I recently had to sell my family home as part of a really messy divorce however I've been left with quite a large lump sum of money from that sale I've got now about $140,000 in the bank unfortunately though due to the house prices and interest rates I've been in touch with a broker and I'm unable to borrow what I would need to repurchase a house I'm just kind of wondering what should I do I'm a registered nurse I'm already working as much as I can more really

than what I should be and I just feel like I'm in a massive money dilemma with do I just leave my money in a high interest savings account with the hopes I can buy if prices improve or interest rates improve I just don't know and I could really do with some advice that's really hard I'm sorry that you're going through this. I know that trying to figure out what to do with your finances is already hard enough without then overlaying, you know, all of the emotional trauma that comes with something like this, particularly if it's a messy divorce. So I'm really sorry that you're going through that. My thought would be that you're probably in an adjustment period right now. You're used to splitting expenses, your rent, your groceries, your utilities,

which may not be the case anymore. Yeah. No one talks about how when you get a divorce, everything just doubles like yeah same but it's like the single tax right like everything's 100% the single tax inherently just becomes more expensive for you yeah and knowing that you've got your three beautiful babies as well I think that maybe just take some time and adjust to what this new season of life looks like for you you might find that there are expenses you weren't prepared for you know you you don't really have any historical data to go off in terms of setting up your budget and stuff. So I would probably be inclined to say for a little bit, keep it in a high interest savings account. You don't need to make that decision right now. Similar to kind of

like what Victoria would say when you receive an inheritance, you don't have to move the lump sum super quickly or immediately. Like let's get used to what things look like for you now, and then you can make a more informed decision down the track. Bec, what are you doing? I'm saying a very similar thing. In my mind though, and I know it's very complicated and I'm not sure what our listener's situation is like, but I'm really hoping that the labour, the mental and emotional labour

of like, you know, child rearing and child caring doesn't all just fall by default because I believe, did our listener say that she's a single parent now? Yeah. And I'm like, that's, you know, you both decide to have children so it sucks that it just kind of sounds like it's all falling on one person. But anyway, I don't know the situation. So I'm hoping that the expenses and the labor and the running around after people and taking care of everyone is equal there. That's

all I'm going to say. It has nothing to do with what our listener is asking and I'm very sorry. So I would do the same thing. I would keep it in a high interest savings account until exactly you kind of figure out what the new normal is like. I guess, I mean, it depends on where you live and what you're actually able, what you have capacity for, but maybe just like trying to find like really affordable housing right now, which is very, very hard to do. I don't know if you're renting or if you're currently living in a house that you both bought or what the situation is like, but yeah, just trying to get on top of that, figure out what your expenses are and then going from there. And it might mean, I know a couple of weeks ago, maybe we had someone on

talking about, should you move to afford something nice or stay where you are around your community? And I'm kind of like more in the boat of that. But if it means you have to move out a little bit further than where you are or whatever to find something more affordable, that's also an option. But yeah, I think absolutely what Jess is saying, high interest savings account, figure out what your new normal looks like and kind of go from there. I love that. So when I'm thinking about this, we're going to do some episodes soon on divorce because I think that so many people are going through this and it feels like the blind leading the blind sometimes. Like I'm speaking to so many girlfriends who unfortunately are going through this situation at the moment. It can get

messy and then you get these lump sum payments and you feel overwhelmed and you don't know what to do, but you also know that you want future financial security, but you also want to provide for your kids, but you also just, you feel stuck. Now, just because you can't afford property doesn't mean you can't invest. And with $140,000, you can afford to pay for financial advice. And I absolutely would be doing this. Like at the end of the day, being a single mom is hard. You have three kids to look after and we're all out here just trying to do our best, right? You said you're a nurse. So finance isn't the first thing that you completely understand. I'm not saying that you're not intelligent, but go get someone who can put you on absolutely the right track

to not only find your feet, but thrive. Because with that $140,000, you could invest it. Like that could work really well. Like you could have a share portfolio. We could step back and be like, you know what? The property market is actual cooked. I actually don't want to have anything to do with that. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to rent a really nice house and call it for property. I'm going to rent a nice house and you know what? I might even talk to the real estate agent about negotiating a longer lease so I feel like I have more stability. Like can I have a two, three, five-year lease? That is becoming more and more popular. Then if you had invested that $140,000, all right, so we've got that cash, we're going to put it into the share market.

in 30 years time at an average rate of return of nine and a half percent which we know is the average market returns for the Australian share market over the last 30 years if you're invested for 30 years that 140 without any additional contributions is going to become 2.3 million dollars whoa that is going to mean that you could retire very comfortably in saying that you need financial advice because you've got three kids what costs are we incurring what amount are we keeping aside for a healthy emergency fund so that you don't feel financial pressure because as much as you might go housing equals security like I feel secure like I don't feel like I'm providing for my kids right now I promise having a mortgage that is stressing you every single month is not

going to be as valuable as you think it is than having an emergency fund that you know if the kids come home with another permission slip for a excursion that's a couple of hundred dollars you can be like, yeah, no worries. Like I've got that covered. Like what's going to make you feel like the best mum that you want to be? Like what's going to give you that freedom to be the mum you want to be in this situation? Because more often than not, when you're going through a divorce, you didn't have three kids thinking you'd be bringing them up on your own. Like that's not most people's plan. Like most people, and like I have spoken to a lot of women who have gone through divorce. They're like, girl, I love my kids. I would not change a thing about my life.

like, that's not it. But had I thought that I would be a single mom, I would have stopped at one. Like, you know, I never really comprehended the idea that this wasn't forever. And you're not planning on it. Like, I don't think anybody like gets married with the intention of leaving. Like, don't get me wrong. Like we have all the best intentions, but we need to create some really solid plans to put you in the best possible position. So for me, that would actually start with financial advice because just feeling like you're doing the right thing is one thing, but to have someone on your team getting shit done is going to take it to the next level. You're going to feel so financially secure. We're going to look at your super. We're going to look

at your savings. We're going to look at your lump sum. We're going to make sure that future you's okay, but we're giving these kids the life that you want to give them. Yeah. Slay. Let's do that. Like that's an investment into your future that I think you should be making. Because even if we go, all right, we're going to speak to a financial advisor. And with my salary, I can't afford a mortgage, but what I'm going to do is invest a lump sum of money. And then I'm going to contribute to that each and every single month. And we're investing, I don't know, 500 bucks each and every single month. That investment portfolio goes from $2.3 million to $3.4 million. Like we are creating financial freedom for ourselves. You are creating legacy for your children. You are creating

financial security for them. And for me, that to me, now I am a mom, feels much more secure than just getting into a property. Like property, very sexy. Yeah. I feel like, especially in Australia, we look at property and go, we can see it, we can touch it, we can taste it, we can feel it. It feels secure. That doesn't necessarily mean financially that's the best decision. And sometimes we have to make decisions that are in line with our strategy, not just in line with our emotions. All right, Jess, would you like to jump into the juicy DM? Absolutely. All right. So the DM we got this week. All right. She's on the money. Tell me if I'm being dodgy. My husband and I were buying a fridge and a washing machine from one of the big chain

stores. And when the staff rung it up, the total came out way cheaper than we expected. We just paid and left before anybody said anything. I thought we both realized at the time, but when I brought it up, he suddenly got all serious saying we need to go back and fix that. I was like, are you kidding? If they overcharged us, they wouldn't be chasing us down to give our money back. Big stores make mistakes all the time. They've probably got insurance for this. It's not like we scammed a family run cafe or something. He reckons it's about doing the right thing. But I kind of think it's retail karma and we should just be taking the money win. who actually is in the wrong here? I would not even second, like think about this for one second.

I would not question anything. I'm taking it and I'm running. Unless it's like a small business, totally as they're saying, small business, you know, little cafe, a family run, anything like something that's small on the small scale. I'm not doing that. I get it. I get where that anxiety would come from that feeling. Yeah. Yeah. But really it's like a money win as far as I'm concerned. Great. Because I can promise you. So you need to go in and be like, sir, we're not going back. Oh yeah. No, I'm, I'm saying to your husband right now, don't worry about it. Sleep easy. I'm not worried. Don't worry about it. Plus the profits these, these guys bring in disgusting. Can I take a stab in the dark? Yes. Jessica, the guilt would eat you away,

wouldn't it I have been known to go back to a shop if I've realized that I haven't paid for something but I like I agree with your perspective like I think big corporations very much take advantage of the little guy on the daily yeah it's just I taking her power back yeah like and I'm all for that I just know that I personally like it will keep me up at night if I feel like I've done the wrong thing and that's something that I would feel is coming a lot of guilt over but yeah I see both sides I think that you know electronics are also a high ticket item it's not like a $15 you know t-shirt or something like that so I get it there's always the chance that if you got this is very specific but like if you got them delivered like if they might notice when

like the invoice or something yeah well because the way that it works if that's what they've done is if you've only paid for one item that is the only item that will be on your invoice so then if you've bought like a washer dryer. They've actually mucked up and then you're not having that item delivered because the delivery people will be like, you don't actually have a washer and a dryer. Yeah.

And then you go, yes, I do. And they'll be like, prove it. Yeah, show me your receipt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's a chance that it might just kind of course correct itself anyway, depending on, you know, what you bought and how you're getting it.

So are you relying on course correction? I feel like maybe that's a happy middle for them. You know what I mean? Like if you guys can't come to an agreement, maybe you go, okay, well, it's in the universe. The universe can work it out. Yeah. I don't know how I feel about this.

definitely known for letting people know that they're not charging me. The other day at the airport, I ordered two fruit salads and she was like, yep, let me go get them. Like the chargy thing will come up. And then it never did. And she came back and was like, here's your fruit salads. Have a good day. And I was like, you haven't charged me because she clearly didn't click the thing. And she was like, oh my God, other people would just walk away. And I'm like, the guilt would eat me alive. But a year ago or so, I accidentally stole a whole roast chicken from Kohl's. Kohl's, I'm so sorry. I did try to pay them back though. Cause like I stole it. I walked out, I'd gone through self-checkout, but you know, when you like grab more items than you

think you were going to, so you didn't grab a basket. I'd put the roast chicken. I took the slip and put it on my arm. Right. And so then I had all these other items that I'm checking out. And cause I had my handbag and a roast chicken on my arm. I literally didn't scan it at self-checkout left. I stole a whole chicken guys, got home, realized what I'd done. I'm not going back to the shops. It's not happening. Um, I ate the roast chicken 10 out of 10 roast chicken. It does indeed taste better when it is free. Um, so then the next time I was at Coles, I went up to the, you know, the area where they like sell cigarettes and I was like, Oh no, you probably have it on a camera. Like I didn't want to be blacklisted. I don't know. Do they like, I don't know at my

local supermarket, which is like a boutique supermarket, not the one I went to. There's actually a sign up at the front door and i'll take a photo of it and put it on socials because it's funny and it's of this guy who clearly steals a lot from them and it says banned for life like and it's this photo of this guy going through a checkout and i just have that in my mind thinking your face outside kohl's kohl's is gonna be like here's our list of people because like they've got ai and stuff at the checkout i don't know maybe they're gonna be like this woman steals chickens um anyway I was like I'm gonna go back up and I said to the girl hey this like really awkward thing happened and like I explained this whole process in the same way that I just explained it

to you because I was like this is so awkward and she's like just leave it and I was like no but like should I pay you for the chicken now she's like I don't even know how to do that yeah and I was like okay fair enough she's like just a win is a win kind of vibes and I was like okay well I tried but I don't think they'll do the same for a washing machine and a dryer but I mean I think it all comes down to like you personally. I don't think it's the end of the world. I don't judge anyone for not. What if you didn't notice? Well, that's the thing. I'm sure it happens all the time where people do and they just go, oh, well, there must've been on sale. Yeah. And I remember checking my statement once and I got overcharged for a coffee and I was like,

rude, but I can't be bothered fixing that. Well, that's true. It kind of karmically. A financial privilege. But at the end of the day, I was like, oh, but like things happen. and I do think I don't know I feel like karma comes around and we should do the right thing where possible but then if it's a big company it's very different than if you went to a mom and dad electrical company and bought a washing machine off them than if you went and bought it off one of the big guys absolutely if you're not even making a dent in the whole ecosystem I agree then whatever but yeah a small like business you want to know what the community said I do actually Right. So we said, if this happened to you, would you go back and tell them? Turns out most people

are becks because only 8% of people said, yeah, I'll go do the right thing. In this economy, I get it. Yeah. In this economy, honestly, no judgment. We're just talking about our personal experiences. 34% of you said, depends on the amount. And 58% of you said, nah, I'm taking the money win. Gorgeous. Love this. We then asked, do big retail chains deserve the same ethical treatment as small businesses. No surprises here. 63% of you said big retail is not the same as small business. 9% of you said, yeah, wrong is wrong. Okay. 28% of you said, depending on the size of the mistake. Now I love that. But then we also, as always said to the community, what's your two cents? First person said, I just assume it was a really good sale. I'm not going to think

twice. There you go. Another person said, I don't want any excuse for karma. I'm going to go back just purely to try and avoid the bad juju. Fair. Someone else said, I would be worried about potential claims on the warranty. That's a great point. Yep. Someone else said, you can Google the profits those places are making and the salaries of the CEOs. You won't feel so bad after that. yeah yeah yep someone else said sounds like op is seeking justification for theft wrong is wrong scary spicy someone else said my mom works for a big retailer the markup is crazy they actually lost nothing take your win and run yes girl another person said people often forget that some places we see as chains are actually franchises that are run by small families

that's also a really good point great call yeah but I don't yeah look maybe we google it someone has said ethically thinking it does feel a lot like theft big company though equals little people with shares impacted I don't think their shares will be impacted no no so honestly all businesses have some level of risk built into their budgets and insurance yeah 100% like if it's so big they'll claim on insurance or you know what if it's that bad that sales assistant will call you and be like hey jessica i made a mistake i need to fix it up and you'll go i didn't even realize like surely that happens yeah anyway totally that's it from me and from the community gorgeous well i hope you guys have a lovely weekend yeah i'm off to school camp we'll see you monday

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