She's On The Money - Should You Buy Gold Bullion and Would You Delay Your Dream Job Incase You Have Kids?

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Gold prices are on the rise… but does that mean you should be out here buying bars? This week’s Friday Drinks kicks off with a shiny dilemma: one listener wants to know if investing in gold bullion is a smart financial move, or just a panic response. So we're chatting about when gold actually makes sense as an investment (and whether that jewellery sitting in your drawer is secretly part of your portfolio). Then we get personal: would you delay your dream job just in case you want to have kids someday? We dive into the pressure to plan around maybes and how to make big life decisions when nothing feels certain. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Friday ep without your money wins and broke tips. Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of miscarriage. If this topic is distressing for you, you may want to skip this one. And if you need support, Miscarriage Australia has a list of helpful resources available here.FREEBIE: we’ve teamed up with our friends at Moonpig again for a pretty iconic Mother’s Day offer: right now, you can send your first card completely free with the code MUMSOTM. Head here and add a cute photo, a sweet message, maybe even a voice note.  Webinar Replay: Catch the Constant Contact webinar replay here, and the first small business marketing mini series youtube video 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 our favorite day of the week because we get the team together and we get to celebrate you. Our incredible She's On The Money community. Miss Jessica Ricci, as always, is right here with her money wins straight from the Facebook group. Miss Bex Zayed is going to be sharing her broke tips and we're going to be helping with a money dilemma,

which this week is all about whether you should buy gold bullion and something that you slid into our DMs about, should you delay a work opportunity if you think you might have kids? I find this such an interesting conversation. one that historically I didn't think I would be having, but now I'm having these conversations with my friends about like, oh, do I take a new job? Oh, my current job has a really good mat leave policy. I just never thought we'd be here, but we are. Anyway, before we get there, what'd you do this week, Jess? Not much. I feel like I've moved on to the next holiday. So now

it's Mother's Day, which I know some people will say probably not a huge holiday. I disagree. Mums are very important. FYI for anyone as well, we've got a little moon pig giveaway again. Oh Oh, my God, the Moon Pig giveaway is actually elite. So good. Also, you guys are not taking advantage of this. It is free. It is a free card. Yeah.

Also, if you don't want one for Mother's Day, that's fine because I tried the code. It might be for Mother's Day, but, like, you can pick any card. Yeah, so I think it's SOTMMUM is the code. We'll put it in the show notes. But you can create any card. Vida, you made a really cute one for Judy. It was really sweet.

You can personalise it, put your handwriting on it, And it ships for free too, which I thought was really good if you're someone whose mum is maybe interstate or you won't get to see them. Also, there's no catches. Yeah. Like, it's free. You can send your mum a card to her house for free through Moon Pig or you could send a card to you for a later date.

You could, like, customise one for your partner or customise one for a friend and, like, have it in the bank. Yeah, literally. Like, there's no downside. It's a money win. We're getting into it early. You can have that one for free. And what about you, Bec?

A week has been really lovely. Came back from school camp. Camping was so fun. It's everything I could have dreamed of. All the games, the excitement, seeing all your friends just in the one place and you're like camping in like a group of 10. Not camping, it's like, you know, dorms. Is that what you call them? Cabins? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fully. It's giving, I don't know, school camp. Yes, it's giving, and that's exactly what it is. And it was just, yeah, it was just really wholesome and nice. And usually I'm like, my friends know I don't like a sleepover because i need to scroll for a certain amount of time i just want to be my own you can do that but it was really fun you can do that in my house that's so good thank you

like sometimes we will just sit on the couch together and scroll scroll that's all you need yeah i love coexisting who's also in our team um she calls it mouse time that's my favorite and you've got to be quiet like mice and i think that that's really cute and everybody needs a little bit of mouse time yeah what about you how's your week my week was good live love laugh it has been mundane as always. I have had a few speaking events, which is always really good. And then, yeah, just I'm spending more time in the Zella office at the moment, which I don't know, I'm loving it. I know that like that probably comes as a surprise to you guys, but like I do spend a fair bit of my week working from home because I do feel like I'm a bit more productive.

But recently I've gone, oh, maybe I'll spend like an extra day a week in the Zella offices because like I have these really big goals for the business this year. And like, obviously if I'm not present, things aren't going to happen. And I actually need to put my money where my mouth is essentially. So that's been really good. Every single month, my team pick a word of the month. So like we will do like a different word every month. And then all of our activities or things that are in addition to the work that we're doing are themed. And I love that. But this month it's been refocus. And so like we're refocusing on like what our goals are and refocusing on like exactly what is important. And, you know, even just refocusing personal and professional. So

like we've run a workshop, like we did a whole morning where I got brunch in, we all sat in the workshop room and we talked about our personal goals and set some new personal goals and then our professional goals and what we want to achieve by the end of the year and what we want to achieve by June. And just, I feel like when you have clarity, you just feel so clean and fresh. And that's where this idea of me coming into the office a little bit more is anyway, refocus has been the vibe and it's vibing. Yeah. I like that. I like that. Anyway, would you like to hear a five-star review? Yes, please. Oh, I love this part. Maybe because it strokes my ego. This one's from Holly. So Holly says, I found She's On The Money and The Broke Generation in July, 2024.

four they absolutely changed my life i've binged every single episode starting season one from july last year i'm finally up to date this week that's a long time we have more than 700 episodes i've now paid off all my debt which included twenty thousand dollars left to me by another person i have a really healthy emergency fund and we are on track to buy a house this year with the help of the beautiful girls at Zella. Victoria has such an amazing and kind way of breaking down terms and explaining things so they don't seem so complicated. Jess is so kind and has such a way of wording things

that you feel like you're on her journey with her. Beck is so relatable and honest. I just want to give her a giant hug. Thank you, ladies, for the work that you do. You have changed so many lives, including my own, and I am so eternally grateful to be able to access she's on the money and everything that goes along with it. Oh my God. That's so sweet. I would give you a giant hug. And you know what? Becky is a giant hugger as well. I am.

Giant hugger. Yeah. How'd you know? I love it. That is so sweet. And congratulations. That is no easy feat. That's so impressive. I love that. I'm going to go talk to the Zella team now and be like, so Holly, she gave us a really good review. Can you just tell her I love her? Yeah, totally. Seriously. Get us some Easter eggs. So sweet. All right. Let's get into it a little bit further, Jess, community money wins. What have we got? Alrighty. Firstly, I've got one from Allie who said, I'm getting married in September and I was trying to get a dress for cheap. I found a brand new $2,500 wedding dress with tags still attached on Marketplace and I only paid $775 for it. It was the exact dress that I wanted and this is a huge saving because we'd budgeted $2,000

already for a dress. So she's in the green and I feel like that never happens with weddings. congratulations Ali and congratulations on your upcoming wedding next I've got a money win from Kerry who said she attended the constant contact webinar with Victoria a few weeks ago that one was so fun it was really fun and she's just received her free business bible book in the mail she said it's a money win because I was going to buy it anyway to help start up her dietitian practice but she also got a free constant contact trial for customer emailing systems so she's very excited and I was going to say if anyone couldn't attend that webinar there is a replay for all of our small business owners. We put it on YouTube. Put it on YouTube. Because I feel like you're a

small business owner, babe, you're busy. You probably didn't have time, but we recorded it and Constant Contact let me put it on the internet. So that was really nice. Really exciting. We'll pop a link maybe to that in the show notes if you want to check it out. Next, I've got a money win from Kimberly who said, my husband gave me a bag of two small clothes to drop off at the Salvos bin and I noticed that they were two old Aussie soccer jerseys in there. I thought they might be worth something knowing that they were close to a decade old a little vintage moment so she put them on ebay for 99 cents each and got about 95 bucks for them sorry what she said not bad for something he was gonna throw in the bin oh ebay slept on i feel like i agree it's not slept on by

me yeah you know i love ebay you can find yourself some bargains and also you can sell like i know that i've seen some people saying it's hard to sell a marketplace and stuff i feel like ebay is really good for branded stuff yeah and also i like that you can just buy something on ebay and it's yours i don't have to message the seller and say what are your bank details how does this work get cash out yeah no i'm just paying with paypal and i am feeling safe it's showing up at your door we love so true next i've got a money win from nitty who said i called the holiday home owner directly for a property that she saw listed on airbnb genius she asked if their Her night rate was lower and she saved herself 80 bucks over two nights for a cute place on the

beach. And it was dog friendly. So she had a fur baby could come with her. So she didn't have to spend money on doggy daycare either. Love. Always worth a quick Google. I feel like a lot of places will do. And especially so like my top tip here is if a property is listed on Airbnb, I'm sorry, Airbnb, but like we're all just out here for a money win. But if the property is listed on Airbnb and it has a name, like if the place has a name and it's like, you know, the fancy pants lodge or something google the name totally like google what they've called the property because like if they've gone to that effort it probably has its own website or it probably has another listing and you can go direct yeah clever anyway i tried to do that a little while ago went direct and they

were like oh yep to book the property we need a deposit of x but booking it through airbnb no deposit oh so i was like catch up booking it on airbnb yeah seriously so check it before you wreck it. And then lastly this week, I got a money win from Amy who said she bought a cute vintage keyhole dresser at a vintage store. Her partner's a sweetheart and is picking it up on Wednesday for her. I love this. We love a little vintage furniture piece. Yeah. Iconic. Okay. Give me your broke tips. So actually just quickly while we're on the Airbnb train. Yeah. My partner, this is kind of relevant. Do you have a girlfriend? Who would have known? I No, I will not shut up about it.

But she wanted to stay at Melbourne Place. I need her, I need Bec to talk to my husband about ramping up how obsessed he is with me. Yeah, I can do that. So you call Steve and you call James and be like, here are the expectations I'm setting because I want what Jess got. I can have an open and close checklist for breakfast and nights and then like, you know, during the day service sort of thing.

Because you sit in the bar, you really do. That is really sweet, you guys. Turns out we probably should just be in lesbian relationships. Yeah. Honestly. It's kind of nice. I've got to say, it's kind of nice. Kind of?

It sounds like a dream. And this is going to maybe, you know. This is going to annoy us again. It might annoy you. Jess, like, very casually mentioned she wanted to stay at Melbourne Place, which is just like this hotel in. Yeah, it's cute. I've never been there, but I had never heard of it.

But I was like, oh, okay, cool. I'll, like, you know, surprise her with a little, like, Friday night thing there. But then I went to the, I Googled it. Yeah. And I went to the actual website. but then I thought hang on one second I'm sure I've seen booking.com and like what if and all those places on shop back it's like 18% this one for this particular day it was 30% back on

no it wasn't and I bought it through there I got like $30 or something yeah money something more than more than $30 I remember that and so make sure you do that first before you go through all these other avenues I feel like obviously Jess and I and you we are all obsessed with shop obsessed But like, I feel like people are forgetting, like it was trendy and now it's just like a part of everyday life. Yeah. Forgetting to use it. Please don't forget. Please don't forget you guys. Like it wasn't trendy. It's actually making you money. Yeah. And we love free money. And even if it's like 5 cents per transaction, it's like, that's going to add up. From little things, big things grow back. Exactly right. And I'm sorry in advance, I am going to go back to show back

with the last. That's okay. That's okay. What's your second one? No, actually that wasn't a tip at all it's just a freebie but the first one comes from that wasn't your broke tip that was not my broke tip oh that's just a hot little extra so this first one comes from sam who says that apparently and i haven't physically fact checked this but if you buy something from bunnings and it's like under a hundred dollars then if you go in and it's like say it's like you know general wear and tear it's just not working anymore they will replace it if it's under a hundred dollars they just replace it no questions asked that's a great policy i heard they do the same for plants That is incredible.

If you kill plants, you can take it back and be like, my plant's dead, and they'll be like, oh, here, have a new one. That's crazy to me. If you have your receipt. I think that's insane because, honestly, if you kill a plant, it's usually user error. Yeah. So I don't know why they're giving you another one

because you're probably going to kill that too. But it's nice to know that they are that generous. That's insane. I had no idea. Wow, I have so many plants that I've got to take back. This next one comes from Emma. who is maybe a friend of the pod who says that Emma's going to become an ongoing character I think so I think she's like online offline yeah okay yeah what's Emma not the one that we used

for every other week as broke tips what's Emma doing this week I mentioned that there's a place in Ringwood called Ringwood Repair Cafe okay where you go get yourself a coffee but also if your shoe is broken they repair it for free no they don't yes I mean like maybe to the best of their ability they're probably not like a full i don't care that's genius but they they repair shoes that's what i've seen but i'm sure like they'll do that is it everything emma says it's crazy it's everything what so you just got a broken bracelet they'll be like oh let me have a crack at that they'll probably have a crack at that oh my god it's like going to like a parent's house for a coffee and then they fix it yeah oh this is so wholesome i know isn't it cute i wonder how people

can bring broken items to be fixed by expert repairers apparently expert repairers what it says i love this it's giving men's shed vibes so my husband's grandpa is involved in the men's shed and like people in his local community drop off broken pieces of furniture or whatever and they fix it for free oh that's so sweet it's the most wholesome thing ever this is what we need community yes i'm all for this i was talking about community the other day and the most important part of community I feel like we all say oh there's no community anymore there is if you choose to get out in it like if you're choosing to actively get out in the community you're gonna find it you can't just sit in your house and expect community to happen like you've got to go out

you've got to be present you've got to be giving I think that to create good community you've got to be one of those people that gives more than you expect back yeah it's there it's there it's absolutely there and I've only really been tapping into that I would say in the last 12 months since having a baby because it's been the first time that I've actively engaged with like my community center that I'm actively going to the library that I'm actively going out to mother's group like that I'm realizing this community thing yeah oh yeah I like it here oh yeah I like it here like i just anyway i think it is very wholesome and now i've got like this little group chat and we're all like oh has someone got this i'm looking for x we do we've got you we've got that in

brunswick i don't want to be i don't want to be i know you're better at it than we are a good karma network where you just put in community is key how nourishing is it oh it's so nice it's so good and then my broke tip very similar to my first freebie is that um if you the other day i was like going to get DoorDash. And I was like, I'm sure, I'm sure there's a way I can do this smart. And then I put all these things on my cart. It came to like $35 and I went on Shopback. I bought a DoorDash gift card for $30. You're a genius. And just use that. I got like five bucks. This woman is gaming Shopback. Yeah. I love it. Free money for everyone. All right. Let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, we're going to be talking about whether you should

buy gold bullion or not, which I think is a very interesting question and something that you slid into our DMs about this week. We're talking about whether you should delay a work opportunity because you're planning on having kids. So don't go anywhere. 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, Victoria. I've been following your podcast and reading all your books. I love all your content. One thing missing from your books and I'm wondering if you had any advice on purchasing gold billions. I hope I pronounced that right. Yeah, I'm just doing some research at the moment and I'm playing the ASX share market game, which has been super fun and educational just to get my head around dipping my toe in the market. But I've, yeah, just want some advice on your thoughts on buying gold and storing gold. Thank you. Bye. Oh, this is interesting. There's a lot of conversation going on in our community at the moment about bullion, which I'm sorry to correct you. It's bullion. But it's because

gold prices have increased significantly recently. And you will often see in times of economic uncertainty, things like gold increase in value because they are physical assets and they make people feel comfortable. Right. So you go, oh, I'll put my money in gold because it's, I can touch it. I can taste it. I can see it. I can hold it. Right. It's like a physical asset and physical assets during terms of economic turmoil do well. What are your thoughts before we get there? Jess, have you thought about gold? Is that something you want to purchase? If so, why? We did a blog post a few years on gold. It's something I've considered. I know that it's attractive for countries with a weaker dollar. Yeah. I'm excited. I'm like, oh, girl, you know.

yeah like the countries where their currency maybe doesn't hold up or it's quite unstable i think so inflation hedging that's exactly what i meant yep that's exactly definitely where i was going with that um but yeah i know like i know that that's the case for me it's not something i've invested in it just seems a bit tedious because you store it i don't know i was just kind of like what the hell is going on so it's an actual physical bar yeah they're really quite they're also very little. Have you not seen a bar of gold? No, no, no. Like a picture of a bar of gold. Yeah. So when people say they're buying gold, they're not just like investing on the share market. You will go to a company that issues gold. Really? And you'll purchase gold from them.

And more often than not, you'll also pay them a storage fee to hold onto and look after your gold. So like some people might buy a bar of gold bullion and you can buy them in lots of different weights. So you could buy like 10 grams or a hundred grams or whatever of gold. You're literally buying gold resource. It's giving games night. It's giving, I am playing Catan and it's a resource that I've purchased. But you're buying this asset and you can store it. Some people keep them at home. Some people keep them in a safe. Some people keep them at a company that stores gold. You could have a safety deposit box. Like lots of people just buy this physical asset and hold it. And the reason that people do it is gold historically has held up during times of economic turmoil,

as I said before, but it usually holds its value during cost of living crises, making it relatively safe during uncertain times. It's seen as, as Jess was saying, a lot stronger. So in countries where their dollar's not as strong or their government's not as strong, people hold gold because it's stable and often like gold will slowly increase over time. It'll increase. And that feels really safe. I mean, a lot of people might be looking at gold at the moment because it's in the news a little bit, like when an asset increases in price, you know, the news picks up on it and like gold's up and you're like, oh, gold, I haven't thought about gold. But it could play into your diversification. So it behaves very differently from shares and property, which can

obviously, not obviously, but it can help reduce the overall risk of your portfolio because it gives a little bit more stability. As I said before, it's a tangible asset, unlike an ETF or a share, like you can hold it. Like Bec, you could go to the place that issues it and you can hold your gold bar in your hand. There's no counterparty risk. So gold doesn't actually rely, when I say counterparty risk, like it doesn't rely on a company, like it doesn't rely on a company's performance or a bank's solvency or, you know, a CEO getting involved in a scandal. It's an asset, full stop, end of story. And there's, as Jess was saying before about the global thing about, you know, currency risk, there's actually global demand for gold. So like it's recognized and

undervalued all across the world. And it has been for years. Like what did pirates trade in? Gold coins. So it's very easy to liquidate, i.e. sell if you need to get the cash, which is good to know. What does that actually mean though? Because a lot of people are going to go V. And this person who wrote in, fantastic. She said, I missed it. You're right. Probably should have touched on it, but it's not an asset I love. So for me, when I wrote my books and for me, when I talk to you guys about wealth creation, I want growth and long-term wealth building. And if that's your focus and that's your plan, shares and ETFs might be a better option than gold because shares have income potential. Shares can pay dividends, giving you regular

passive income. Gold can't do that. Capital growth. So over time, the share market has historically delivered better performance than gold. Ownership is one. So like when you buy shares, you're actually buying a very small portion of a business, not just an asset that you hold. Liquidity. So yes, you can sell your gold, but it does take a lot longer to sell your gold. And there are higher transaction costs on selling gold because brokers get involved than you just hitting dispose of your assets and then compound returns. So like reinvested dividends create more market growth, create a bigger, stronger portfolio. So if we compared like gold and shares, like the purpose for me, gold stores value. And that's why Jess's point

of like, you know, currency hedging is essentially going, all right, well, when the market is not doing well, at least I have gold and it's holding its value. Whereas shares, I would say their purpose is wealth creation. Returns. Historically, gold doesn't have very high returns, doesn't give you any income. Low returns in terms of growth. Shares, high long-term returns, and also you get some dividends. Risk. Obviously, gold is lower risk. Shares are higher risk, but with higher risk comes higher reward. I talked about liquidity and then growth in portfolio. So like if we talk about your portfolio, the reason you would hold gold is because you want it to be a little bit more defensive, a little bit more solid. You want the returns to be consistent. And that is usually

aligned with a more conservative investor or an investor at the end of their investing life cycle. On the flip side, shares and like our podcast, I would say resonates with younger women, women who are working full time. You're probably looking for growth. You're probably looking to generate wealth over the long term and put yourself in a better financial position. So gold can, I would say, protect your wealth. So it can protect your wealth over a long period of time. I would say on the flip side, shares build your wealth. So are you trying to protect your wealth or are you trying to build your wealth is the question here. And a balanced portfolio actually might include both, but you need to look at your goals and then decide on

which one makes the most sense for you so for me it's very here there they're very very different assets gold I would say is incredibly conservative shares are about growth what I'm hearing is I could buy myself some gold jewelry and consider it an investment you do have to remember though when you buy gold you're often buying 24 karat gold it's pure and when you buy like a bracelet or whatever it might be 10 karat or 14 karat and it's mixed so yeah you can buy gold just buy really good gold hmm this is crazy I can't believe it's a thing it's like a cartoon thing yeah it really does yeah so you're saying that my bracelet that I'm wearing right now is just going to increase in value but only if I melt it down and we don't take into consideration that

the brand of it absolutely overpriced it you can melt it you can melt it yeah gold is completely reusable wow so if i if you did have a 24 karat even not 24 karat it can be melted down and separated oh my god this is so cool maybe we'll link our blog post it didn't go into all of that and it's a couple of years old but it might just be a helpful resource for people to check out actually hasn't changed um so that blog post is still valid would you like to talk about this week's dm guys i know you're ready i know you're ready because i live for gossip all right hi she's on the money crew. I have a money dilemma, which has been weighing really heavily on me over the last few weeks. I've recently been offered a training position at work that I've been hoping

for ever since I started my degree. It's my dream job and to get offered training so early in my career is an absolute blessing. However, I've also recently gotten married and we've been talking about trying to start a family soon. I feel like I'm now stuck between making a choice between my career and my family. I don't know if I should be taking the training position, which would be two years full time for the qualification and risk getting pregnant in the middle of it, or if I should decline and risk missing out on the opportunity. I've been having so much uncertainty and anxiety around something that I've wanted so badly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I really, really, really think that you should be following your career dreams and goals because I

i want everyone to watch have you guys heard of night bitch no it's with any recommendation you make i'm in okay i think our listeners should watch this before because i i i really do think i just don't want you to get into a place where you're like i don't know like if a child you are happy obviously like every you know you love your children and they bring you so much but i just fear that i like a lot of people do kind of like lose themselves once they have a child and they're like their identity. And like, it's so much more work. Like it's so much more consuming than we ever realize. And so I feel like, first of all, having that conversation with your partner, whoever you're having a child with, and some people have a child on their own and some people

do it with multiple people. But I think that if you have a conversation, you really, really are sure of all the expectations. You're like thinking about every aspect of every single day. That is really important because you don't want to get to a place where like you're having a child with someone. And then you realize that the load is really not very equal. And you just by default, go into the stay at home parenting role. And then you, by default, give up all your hopes and dreams. And then before you know it, 10 years have passed. And you're like, people are like, hey, what do you do for work? And you're like, oh, I used to be. And then you're like, no, I was that. I was a lawyer. Now I'm a mom. And that's great as well. But you just don't want

to lose yourself. You don't want to lose your identity. Keep following your dreams. If something happens if you fall pregnant you must have that conversation about distributing the load so that you don't lose yourself your partner doesn't lose themselves everyone's happy just don't give it up don't give up your dreams watch night bitch that's the biggest takeaway all right I'm gonna watch night bitch please Jess what are your thoughts on this I think you need to decide like do you want to have a kid in the next two years or not like you've kind of said oh I've gotten married we're thinking about it and I know that you can't always plan like it's not a perfect world but like you can definitely go, is the plan to have a kid in the next two years or not? Because I think this

is more than just taking on a job. Like you're taking on a level of education. And to me, it feels a little bit wasteful almost of both your time and the resources of the company that I'm assuming would be paying for you to do this training, whatever that is. If you were to get halfway through, for example, and then drop out. With that being said, I would also look into, well is it something I could put on pause it's hard because we don't know what the training is but like could I do if say I got halfway through my training and fell pregnant and went on maternity leave why can't I come back to it can I pick the training back up but I know that sometimes with these things like you there's like a time limit on it so I would just look into that to

know your options but I think that like if you're going to have a child that's probably something that you do need to be planning for regardless so it might be helpful for you to solidify what those plans ideally look like, because we also know that getting pregnant is not linear and the best laid plans can go awry. Yeah. Like I wouldn't say that it's really our place to tell you yes or no. I think it's really something you've got to look at within yourself, because as you said back, I don't want you to put your dream job on hold. And just because you're going to have a child doesn't mean that you're not going to then want to come back to that dream career. And it would be unfortunate to give up an opportunity, but I think you just need to weigh

up what you want it's that classic thing you can have everything you want but not at once yeah and I do think like as much as I know that we say all the time like in your workplace wouldn't hesitate to replace you I do think like there's some level of consideration owed to them if they're going to be footing the bill for you to do whatever this training is and putting that time and that resourcing into you if you know for a fact that in 12 months if you can be pregnant you would want to be pregnant. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. Can I bring the mood down? Yeah. So I look at this and I just go do the course, do it, sign up for it, get it done. I would have spent a lot of time in limbo if I had put my life on hold and my career on hold

because I wanted to have a baby. And when I said I want to bring the mood down, I found pregnancy hard but I found it extra hard because I had two pregnancies before I had Harvey that I lost and one thing that made everything I think a lot easier was having my career having things in the background that I was looking forward to being able to get out of bed and go to work and still do the podcast and work on the online courses and none of that was on hold because of Victoria's planning on having a baby at some point and so therefore we need to pull back I think at that point in time, I was so appreciative that like, we weren't like planning to take time off because you just never know how long that's going to take. Like you could get pregnant first go,

slay. Do you know what? I don't think you owe anything to your employer. I would be really upset if I found that someone in my team was prioritizing my business over their ability to have a baby, because that is so hard. Like for some people, they start the journey, bam, pregnant it real quick congrats for some it takes literal years and the idea that you would have then put your career on hold because it's thing that wasn't eventuating and your whole life becomes paused like don't do that to yourself I would prefer you to have to go to your employer because it's none of their business how you got pregnant was it an accident like people get pregnant by accident all the time yeah like we don't have to say yeah actually I took up your training

and then my husband and I actively started trying to conceive a baby so that I could pull out of this training that you put me in. We're not going to put it that way. Go, oh my goodness, what a blessing, found out I was pregnant. Let's deal with that then. Because I can almost guarantee this can be put on pause. Like if you're planning next year trying for a baby, you've got 12 months in this training.

It then takes nine months to make a baby. You're most of the way there. That's true. Like, can you continue the training without full-time employment? Maybe it's something you could polish off on mat leave. I'm not saying that everyone could do that because mat leave for everybody is very different, but like we can work it out. And I'm very much a, look, let's just go with the flow kind of girly because pregnancy is not something that is, as you were saying, linear or easy. And you can't guarantee that, yep, I'm going to have

this super straightforward pregnancy. Do you know what? You might get to the end of the training. let's pretend it takes you a bit to get pregnant. You've agreed to the training. You do all the training. You have your dream job. You have your baby. Everything's looking up millhouse. You then go, I never want to return to work again. I love being a stay at home mom. Wow. What an opportunity that you have the choice. Like I just want you to have choice and by putting it on hold or on ice, because you're so worried about impacting other people is not putting yourself first. Yeah.

Put yourself first, be a little bit, and it's not selfish, but feel selfish. I don't mind. I think it is fantastic. What did everyone else think? Everyone else had a lot of different opinions. So we first asked you guys a few questions. We said, what will you do if you were our community member?

41% of you said, take the dream role. Jobs do not wait. 5% said, hold off for your family plans. And 52% said, try to do both and see what happens. two percent of you said too hard to decide we then asked should women factor in potential pregnancy when accepting a high commitment role even if it's just a maybe 35 percent said yeah it's being realistic 56 percent said no it shouldn't be a factor and nine percent said i've made decisions based on this before i'd love that and i like that i've made decisions based on this before

because you can really only talk about it when you're in it yeah like parenting like as a parent is so much different to what you think it's going to be. You go, okay, cool. Like, how am I going to, you're thinking so much about the juggle. You're like, how am I going to do this? Like, what will we do for daycare? What will we do for child rearing? How will I return to my career? I promise you it flows a lot easier than you think it's going to. Don't get me wrong. Like there is the juggle, but like your lifestyle changes so dramatically that like it just becomes part of the new normal. Like I'm not thinking about my career and all of my girlfriends and like the girls that I know in mother's group, we're not like, oh, it's linear and you have to

stop your career here to start here. Like, I think we need to just be talking about this and working out how we can continue and how we can keep having these conversations because it's putting you in the best possible position. So we said, what's your two cents? First person said, I factored in pregnancy if considering changing jobs because I needed security and stability. That's a different story than taking training though. Yeah. And like that goes back to what I was saying before. I've got girlfriends who are like do I move because I want another baby but like a new maternity leave policy would mean I have to be at a location for a certain amount of time before I get access to the maternity leave like do I want to wait that long for a baby do I want to have a baby and stay

at this company like it's a juggle in that case we are actually thinking about it the next person said it sucks we have to choose between career and pregnancy yeah when you were talking about I was just thinking I hadn't when I gave my response like I really hadn't even considered which is very naive like the gendered lens and the fact that my husband didn't have to do this well yeah and I mean it depends as well on whether or not our listener we don't know if they plan on being the primary caregiver or what that looks like yeah that would all factor in but it just yeah it didn't even come into my brain I was like how awful that that is something that weighs so heavily on a lot of us I know that plays into the next response someone said there's

actually no right or wrong answer as long as the choice is yours. I agree. Yes. Which I couldn't agree more. Someone else said, you can always leave a job if it doesn't work out, but you don't want fear to hold you back. Next person said, starting a family shouldn't compromise your career goals. There's always a way forward. I agree with that. Like, I just think, work out your career, dive headfirst into that. Because do you know what? Some people like me, I got really sick. Yeah. For the first 12 weeks of three frigging pregnancies, be for real. That should be illegal. Like I shouldn't have to go through the first trimester three times. And I had H, I got diagnosed. I'm not just saying I had HD, but I got diagnosed with HD, which is a severe

form of morning sickness. Right. I didn't know I was going to get that. Like I thought that I was going to glide through and at maybe eight months we'd wind down. No, like my whole entire life went into a spin someone else said take the role work for 12 months and then start trying in the second tier another person said i gave up opportunities for potential pregnancy and then had fertility issues just take the job yeah and another person said and this plays into jess and is a perfect way to wrap it men wouldn't worry about this so why are we yeah which is so true they'd be like why are we talking about this just take the job today and we'll work it out later do it do it just do it. All right. Well, it has been lovely, my friends. Have a beautiful weekend. And on the

flip side, we'll see you on Monday, bright and early for a money diary. Gorgeous. Bye, guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289. Thanks for watching!