She's On The Money - Should You Pay Off Debt First?

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Ever got an extra bit of cash and wondered if it should go to your debts first? That’s a money dilemma a SOTM community member is having, so we’re breaking that down today! Plus, Jess is sharing your best money wins, Bec’s coming in hot with her top broke tips, and we’ve got a spicy DM about whether chasing up friends for a few bucks makes you petty or practical. It’s finance, fun, and Friday vibes all rolled into one. Tune in for a laugh and some smart money moves! We'd LOVE you to vote for us for the listeners' choice awards at the Australian Podcast Awards.  Vote here (Voting closes on Oct 10.) 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 to get our team together and celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. Today, Ms. Griechi is going to be sharing her favorite money wins from the group. Bec is going to be sharing her broke tips and we're going to be helping to answer our money dilemma, which this week is all about if paying off debt should come first when you score a sweet bonus and something that you slid into our DMs about. This week, we're talking whether chasing up friends for a few dollars makes you petty or practical, which I feel like is going to get some divisive conversations going around the table.

But before we get there, I usually ask you how your weeks were, but we've been chatting offline and while we shouldn't read our own reviews, we do. We do. We do. And there've been some really beautiful ones. So each person in the team has picked out their favorite five-star review and we're going to read it and share it with each other because I feel like that's just spreading good positivity. And I just, I like the vibes. So Beck, what are you bringing to the table this week? Obviously there were so many good ones and some that like, you know, mentioned all of us individually. And so I just want those people to know. I get so anxious and then I'm like, I'll read it. I'll be like, okay, that's actually really nice. So I want those people to know that

I really appreciate those, but I didn't want to be selfish. So I'm going to read one that's just a general one. This one's from Paula. It says such a beautifully thought out and put together the podcast, full of relatable, approachable content that is highly valuable and smart. Oh, thank you, Paula. Thank you, Paula. How kind is that? So nice. I love it.

Jess, what have you got? Mine's a little bit longer. It's from Ange. It said... I've got a long one too. Perfect. I've been a long time listener, but with periods of stopping and have absolutely loved the last year and the structure of each week's podcasts.

I'm now going back and listening to those episodes I've missed. Victoria, Jess and Bec are a great group of gals to listen to, and they always have me laughing, very engaging and the content is always helpful or interesting. I'm so grateful that Victoria has kept this podcast going. I wouldn't be in the position I am today if it wasn't for the pod, especially being brought up with no financial literacy. Isn't that so sweet? That's where we do what we do. Yeah. All right. That's so sweet. I like this because I feel like we're setting ourselves up with like such a little pep in our step. This is good. This is good. So my favorite five star review is from Liz Cox. And it's actually the reason why I wanted to share

some positivity, right? So she said to all the people who are making specific comments with those star ratings, I think you're missing the fundamental point here. I'm 41 and have learned more about finances and investing in the past month with the help of this podcast and a few others than I have in all my years living. And the information has been invaluable. I wish I had got this type of thing years ago. This information is free, so informative and so useful. Isn't that so sweet? And thank you for sticking up for us because it is so funny when you're like oh wow my personality has never been on blast like this before. I can't change that. I can't change anything actually. You're choosing to be here for free. And we're just trying to help

people learn. I just really like talking about money. I really appreciate that. Someone was silly enough to consistently let me have a platform to do that and the fact that people still listen blows my mind and I'm so grateful for it. But overlaying all of that, the fact that women in particular are changing their lives because of the content that we create, I couldn't be more proud. It's really beautiful. Isn't that so cool? Keeping on the positive notes, Jess, I want to know, money wins and confessions from our Facebook community. What have you got this week? All righty. Firstly, one I think we can all appreciate from Bailey Jean, who said money win. I am a size 7 women's shoe, but I fit into a children's size 6 in Adidas.

Isn't that genius? Beautiful. So I bought a set of Adidas Sambas, which are obviously very trendy right now, on the weekend from the children's section for $130 rather than paying the full price women's, which were $180. Oh, God, that's good. It's actually so smart, and the Sambas that I want are always out in the colorway that I want, so I still do not own Sambas. Please bring back the beam pink.

I don't know. What's that one? I don't know that, but I know that I'll like it if you like it. It's like a fluoro pink. They're just really cute. Are they the ones Brooke or Georgia has? No. Oh, okay.

The team really like a pair of Sambas. We do. Yeah. We're all basic. Brooke's got the Neapolitan ones. Georgia's got these like real beautiful like hot pink ones. I'll have to Google all these shoes. I'll show you a pic after.

Yes, thank you. Next, I've got a money win from Grace who said Medibank gave me $100 for staying a customer during the COVID period. Thanks, Medibank. I know. How nice. Money win. Money went straight back into her bills account.

So, a little circular economy there. Next, I've got a money win from Mandy who said she confronted her boss and made sure she got the higher duty pay she was entitled to. She said she worked in a male-dominated industry and the leading hand above her was going on a holiday. Leading up to his leave, he tried delegating his job out and writing out a schedule so no one had to step into the role entirely to be entitled to his pay. She took on the majority of the stuff and the things that he said, oh, don't worry about that, she also was going to have to deal with if something went wrong. So after he left the country, she spoke to her boss.

And he waited until he left the country. Honestly, smoke on. Yeah. And her boss confirmed that she is effectively doing that role. So she brought up the higher duties clause in her contract and she agreed that she was entitled to the pay. Money win. Sick.

Iconic. Also, I think it's so funny. Like, it's not funny, but it is funny. Like, we're just girls. Like, I don't want to be confrontational about this, but I also deserve to get paid what I deserve to get paid. So I am going to wait till you leave the country and then I'm going to bring it up. Yeah, I also hate that she had to-

Like you don't like confrontation, don't like that you had to do that, but love that you did. Yes. Totally. Good for you. So sneaky to be like, oh, I'm splitting it up between everyone. So everyone has no work and no one has more pay. That's so dodgy.

That's sneaky. Well done, Mandy. Really happy for you, queen. Next, I've got a money win from Rachel who said she got a very nice bonus for referring a friend to a lovely real estate agent who had previously helped sell her family home. She connected her friend to the agent and they then used them for something and they got a couple hundred bucks in cash. Great.

Thank you. She said she thought she'd maybe get like a bottle of wine or something and instead, cha-ching. Okay, I love cash instead of wine. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Give me the money always. Just imagine, here's a $50 crispy note, Bec.

How good's that? You'd be like, this tastes much better than wine. Yeah, definitely. And you can buy 20. You can buy however many bottles of goon. Bottles of goon, bags of goon. Bags of goon, baby. There you go.

Next I got a money win from Caitlin who said she just booked flights to Switzerland and I immediately went, oh, pricey. But she said it was a third of the normal price. They paid $3,000 in total for two people return from Brisbane to Zurich, which is unbelievably cheap. $1,500 return flight. And then when you get there and burgers are like 50 bucks each, you'll be like, why did I come to Switzerland? I wonder if it's like crazy layover or something. I don't know, but it was with Qatar, she said, if anybody wanted to look it up for themselves. So there you go. I love that.

And then lastly, I just wanted to shout out, we got a lot of good pet tax photos this week. So definitely go to the thread. But shout out to Alicia, Sarah, Brooke, and Gabby, who all included photos of their pets, not just cats and dogs. We had chickens. We had horses. It's all happening on the thread this week. I love pet tax.

Go have a look. And don't forget to leave your money wins there so I can have a look and maybe read yours out next week. Yeah, we actually don't charge for our community. It's a free community. You can join it. obviously look up she's on the money on facebook and join but we do ask for pet tax and pet tax is payable in the form of photos being posted in our group of your pets yeah if you don't have a pet

you take a photo of you can share other people's pets you can share cute pictures that you found on instagram or facebook literally wildlife like we don't care yeah is it an animal i mean yeah you talk about the pet you've got to post a photo of the fat yeah but like they're the rules they're the rules talk about a pet you gotta post a photo of the pet yeah but they're the rules and we made them um because it's actually my group and i can do whatever i want well exactly isn't that cool exactly right this is what people do with adult decisions like you know when people like what would you do with adult money obviously i said i wasn't going to ask you about your weeks but like

Jess, what did we do with our adult money this week? Well, we had a very fun team retreat this week. You did? We had a lot of fun. We stayed at a really cute little hotel in the city, which was really great. We stayed at the Pullman, which was like bougie. It was very bougie. It felt bougie.

There was a bath in my room, Bec. A bath? Yeah, you like know it's a fancy hotel when there's a bath. Oh, yeah. And I did fill that bath with bubbles. It was lovely. Oh, yeah, like the bath wasn't in her room, so she borrowed my room for a bath because obviously I'm not going to just take the bath for myself.

No, it was incredible. But we, in the midst of our working day, we were a little bit brain dead. And so we said, you know what we should do? Do you know what's going to make us feel better? Yes, Bec. What would make us feel better in the middle of the day? Well, I'm thinking like GYG or something like that. Oh, I love a GYG.

Bigger. I think bigger and cuter. It is also like, I mean, food themed in a way. Melbourne Royal Show, Petting Farm. So close. No, really? Like we would do that? Yep.

We went to the aquarium to see Pesto. Oh, cute. We went and visited Pesto. I don't know who that is. I was just going to say for those who don't know. So for those of you who don't know Pesto, Pesto is a king penguin baby who was born in captivity at the Melbourne Aquarium. He is the biggest king penguin to have been born in captivity in Australia.

He's a chonker. He is so chonky and he's standing next to his mum who looks half his size. He's still got all of his baby feathers so he looks like brown and fluffy, not like a king penguin and he Beck is the cutest thing you've seen in your life I just showed her the video that I took I actually got a photo with pesto life made we posted it in our broadcast channel so on Instagram we kind of have like a it's kind of like a group chat for all of us but like we just post I guess behind the scenes content if she's on the money things that we're up to every day we post some polls if we've got questions and I posted my selfie with pesto in

the group because that's obviously the content that you guys are here for but of course that's what you can do with adult money jess yeah i love having adult money you can charge people pet tax you can take your team to go see pesto the penguin like life is good yeah life is great but i mean getting a little staycay midweek not mad about it even better we actually just got back beck we stayed there last night came to the studio from the hotel i could feel a glow yeah feel really nice slept very well but like last night team got to go out just had a little watermelon cocktail i did my one drink and i was like oh there she goes on the table a few wood-fired pizzas and i was like it doesn't even feel like it's a midweek night what is this

yeah that's nice but it does suck when you remind yourself but like you're sitting there you're having the best time then you remind yourself you do have work tomorrow and then you feel that feeling your belly oh i've gotta have work yeah we didn't want to leave we actually wanted to move in. Alas, we can't afford to live in hotels, so we just do it part-time. Good, good, good. And maybe with enough broke tips, we could save up the money to do it. We absolutely could. I mean, we did save up our points and spent that. Yeah, hey, that's a good broke tip.

It's actually a pretty good broke tip, but Jess, let's segue away from your money wins and into your broke tips. Bec, what have you got to bring to the table this week? Okay, so I'm really loving the ones I have this week, actually. So the first one comes from a friend of mine not jess but actually i do have another friend um one other uh from bianca who says if you keep the you know those little pillows in your pill bottles that are like for moisture oh yeah like the moisture clothes and stuff yeah yeah pillows if you put those in like your bathroom drawers or your makeup bags and stuff it's all the moisture something something something happening that's a very helpful tip it starts the moisture getting into like your makeup

and, like, your undies and socks drawer and stuff. Yes. Oh, yes. That's also what she said. Undies and socks drawer. Smart. I put them in my cookie jars when I make cookies. Yes.

Because I like a crispy cookie. Oh, that's actually a really good idea. A break tip for you. That's great. And then things last longer because they're not – Bianca and I would get along well. I actually do think so. I really think you'd like Bianca.

This next one comes from Kylie who sent me a photo of an app. It's called Half Price, Cole's Wool Words. Oh, my gosh. Go to, like, your Play Store or whatever. That is so perfect. which someone DM'd me this week and said, you need to share with your community this half price app. Perfect.

I haven't had time to look into it, but you have. And now it's a broke tip. Now it's a broke tip. So the app's called Half Price. It is. And it says basically get the latest half price specials from Coles and Woolworths for free. No catalogs needed, even though I do love a catalog.

Yeah, but also there's an app. You don't have to read the catalog. It pulls it all together for you. True. And it's better for the environment, isn't it? I love that. Yeah. You just like, you jump on there, you'll check if you want to do your,

if you do your weekly grocery. I'm really obviously you guys know I'm bad with money so I do a daily grocery shop and it costs a lot more money but if you do do a weekly shop yeah jump on there first and just see what's on see what's half price and maybe like do a challenge where you just only get half price things I will not pay full price for like cleaning products laundry detergent pods biscuits like because they all run on a cycle like every two to three weeks they all go to half price so I will flat out refuse to buy them full price because I know in like two or three weeks they'll be half price I didn't know they ran on a cycle.

That's very good information. There's a guy on TikTok who made a plug-in, I think, that goes on your Chrome browser. Yeah, it's so smart. And it tracks it. And you can literally see some products, like one week it's $30 and the next week it's $15, and it just alternates weeks. Okay.

This is something that really makes me quite angry, actually. I wrote an article on Sunday. I write every Sunday for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. It is probably the coolest thing about my career at this point. I have a weekly money column, be for real, and I have complete control over what I publish, which is very, very cool. But this week I talked about how the ACCC is taking action against calls and bullies essentially for price gouging. And I have been really fired up about this for a long time because that guy on TikTok, Jess, he shows that the prices go up and the prices go

down. But if he goes back a little bit further, he used Oreos as an example in one of his videos and he showed that, you know, this week they were like $5 a packet and then they were on sale for like $3 a packet, which, Bec, you might go, that's a pretty good deal. But then he goes back further and he goes, well, actually six months ago, $3 was the full price and they would go on sale for $2.50. I remind them for a dollar. It's crazy.

Yeah, like and all of that is fine but you just look at it and go, hold on, you're actually being quite manipulative here trying to convince me that $3 is a good deal for this item when historically it was more. And obviously Oreos, from my perspective, they're an essential purchase to me, but like they are actually a luxury purchase. But this is happening on bread and milk and all of the things that we can't control. And obviously I follow the news quite closely, but Albo, our mate, Anthony Albanese, who is our prime minister, posted this week and said, have you ever done a double take on the tag. He said it's not good enough. That's why he's beefing up the ACCC with more funding to

take on misleading and deceptive pricing, which is, I think, a really good thing. This isn't a political statement at all either. I'm just sharing that our current government is doing something about it. And that's what we love to see here, not a political conversation. And they've introduced new mandatory food and grocery code, which means that supermarkets will face huge multimillion dollar fines for doing the wrong thing. So I think that is a very good step in a very correct direction when it comes to, you know, obviously times are tough. Inflation is really hard. The cost of goods and services are going to increase, but people taking advantage of us during that period of time, unacceptable from my perspective. Totally agree. Yeah, totally.

So good money went back. Thank you. Sorry for the side note. I just had some information that I wanted to share because this is now a news podcast please no I'm very grateful for all information is good information so tell me what's your broke tip so Jess always has a way of accidentally perfectly segwaying because you did say something about plug-in before I'm really I'm really clutching at straws here but you know that's perfect something about plug-ins and you've got a plug-in for us yes um so I was buying you know Millie Savage you went to school with Millie Savage I love Millie Savage yeah and I was so I was online I was buying some Millie Savage stuff because um it's it's my partner's birthday and soon and I was just like I'll just get in early

because she was also having a sale but anyway so there was a sale on and then also I went to the checkout and I totally forgot I had this the few plugins a few extensions in my chrome and miraculously without doing literally anything an extra $50 was taken off the price I'm sorry what so so this extension gave you 50 bucks off and it did it for you and you didn't even have to look up a discount? I don't remember doing anything. I just, I was like, it was like came up. What's the extension? So there is Honey. There's also Pouch and Coopert. I feel like Coopert is better. I have all of them on running all the time. Okay. So it's the broke tip. Have all of the extensions. Don't just limit yourself to one. All of them. It's like, you know, and also make,

make sure you're not downloading viruses, but like just, just Google them and then download all of them. Download legitimate ones. We know that Honey is legit. We know Shopback, Cash Rewards, all of those like you don't have to be monogamous when it comes to absolutely cash back absolutely i'm with everybody yeah those things are really good because they often will automatically when you get to like your checkout it'll just like run it for you and so i've used honey i don't know i haven't used the other ones but i've used honey before and i know that it'll like automatically plug in and try like a bunch of discount codes any that has on file and like i love that so it's i literally feel like you know in a movie yeah because it does it it's like in a movie when

And someone's like hacking something at your screen. Because literally it just is running through coupon codes. It'll be like, try, happy new year, happy birthday, I miss you 10. Like it just runs through any that may be. And that's what I do at checkout. So is honey the better version of me? Quite possibly. No, literally.

Nothing could replace you. It's kind of anxiety inducing though. You're like waiting, you're hoping. What's going to work? What's going to work? But it is good to just have. So that's mine. I love that.

So we've got some discounts from Beck. We've got some money wins from Jess. We had some cute five-star reviews. Let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, we're going to be talking about if paying off your debt should come first when you score a sweet bonus. And we're going to be getting into something juicier about whether chasing up your mate for a couple of dollars is petty or really practical. So don't go anywhere. Welcome back, everyone. Let's take a listen to The 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 team. Firstly, love the pod. I'm single in my 30s and have a really good income. I am set to receive a $17,000 bonus, which is amazing. This is the gross amount and I'm due to get it in the next couple of weeks. I'm extremely lucky to receive this, but I just wanted some advice on how to use it. I want to do some renos on my house and I've wanted to do it for a while now but I also have $11,000 worth of debt and this is not included in my mortgage obviously. This debt is from past bad decisions, a personal loan that has $4,000 left that was

$18,000 and the rest is on an interest-free credit card for travel. I'd love some advice on how I should manage this. It's obviously a big sum of money. The renovations I really want to do, but I know that having this debt gone would make a huge difference. Thanks. Okay. I have an answer, but I don't want to go first. So, Bec, what would you do? Okay. So, first of all, Bec was like, I would just go on a holiday. Yeah, seriously. I would not be doing responsible things with that money. That's cool. No, but I just want to say like paying down that debt, $18,000, like on a personal loan

tune, which I assume is like quite high interest. Like that's incredible. So very, very well done. Personally, I don't know. It's probably not the right thing to do, but I would just pay the $4,000 from the personal loan. So just like wipe that out of the way and then slowly pay off the interest-free credit card at your leisure.

And then you want to do renos, you want to do things like that. I would probably see how much that costs, maybe put a little bit aside for that and And see if there is like, you know, say, for example, you want to like do your whole bathroom, be like, oh, I would feel good right now if maybe just the walls were painted and then do the rest later. Like I would probably just find a way to do as much as I could with that money, the remaining money, and then honestly treat myself with the rest. I love that.

I love that. And I think that working, you said something really good about the renovation. So like, for example, I'm about to renovate my bathrooms and like I had no idea what that would cost. So like, have I renovated before? Yes. spent like every single time you renovate, it's going to be a different amount because there might be different like facilities. So for example, in the first house that I renovated, everything was

brick. So like all the walls were brick, which meant that moving things took a lot of time, a lot of energy, really hard. We are now renovating in a house that is basically, it's like a shack. It's like a beach house and it's got the thinnest walls in the entire world. like some of the walls don't even go all the way to the roof so like removing them or changing them super easy so much less of a cost however I actually went into race plumbing the other day because they like do like that free consult thing and they were explaining that with the design that I had drawn up there are going to be some hidden costs because moving like the toilet to where I want to move it to is going to be a bit more expensive than I'd anticipated because I didn't

realize that like moving the plumbing was like something that was so much more expensive and that's fine but your idea of going and getting a budget and understanding what it might cost for you is really good because you could google it but like that's not going to give you insight like I've seen online people who've renovated their budget for two grand and then people who spent fifty thousand dollars and you just you never know right but I think that's good advice Jess what would you do? I think an important part she said that a lot of her debt that she has is from bad past decisions. And as someone who's also been there, I think an important part of like moving out of that phase of your life is learning to make sacrifice because I think it really helps

you then go, what is the cost of the things that I did? So like if I've spent all this money and put it on a credit card and it wasn't a necessity, like you went on a holiday and maybe you couldn't afford the holiday, so you put it on the card. I think an important part of like growing out of that habit or that phase is going, okay, well, because I did that, I now need to make sacrifice. So to me personally, it feels important to pay that debt down, even the interest-free debt, as much as you're not, like you're totally right, Bec. It's still a bad debt. Yeah. From a financial perspective, like you're not losing money to interest on that. I agree the personal loan is definitely the more pressing priority that I would say has to be paid off. But I think like learning

to go, oh, well, I really want to renovate my bathroom, but I still need to make up for the money that I've spent. And I think that it would be a really good way to kind of help teach yourself good financial habits to go, okay, like as much as I want that thing, knowing that I've earned this great sum of money, using that to pay down my debt is the more financially responsible choice from my perspective. And I think that doing that will really help solidify you into good habits, or at least that was my personal experience. Like from a financial perspective, you know, the interest-free card is maybe not the worst thing in the world and maybe you could split the money up and that would also work really well. But I mean, just speaking on what worked for me,

I think maybe learning to go, okay, like I want to close that chapter of my life of bad spending and, you know, make the choice that is maybe not the fun choice, not the exciting choice, but the one that will put me in the strongest foundational position is probably what I would suggest. But, I mean, you could do whatever you want. So, obviously, there are two different opinions and that is great because we all do what's in line with our own values and I don't know her values. but if I was in this position, I would actually step back. I know I've got $17,000. First thing I would do is actually go and work out what my renovations are going to cost so that I can create myself a little budget. Then what I'm going to do, I'm going to trot down to Zella Money. You need a good mortgage broker. A mortgage broker is going to sit you down and help you structure your debt. And I don't think a lot of people know that we do this. So you've got $17,000

dollars in cash. That's fantastic. There is heaps of things you could do. You could go on a holiday. You could pay it all off your mortgage. You could pay off your personal debt. You could spend all of that money on a renovation. But what I want you to do is sit down with a mortgage broker who can look at your mortgage and go, okay, cool. Do you have any equity? What would that look like potentially to release some of that equity to spend on your renovations? Chatting with a broker to say, hey, Bec, I know that you've bought this apartment and you want to do renovations, but what's the long-term plan? Are you moving out of this in six months? And you go, yeah, well, I only bought it so that I could get the first homeowners grants. And now I want to move

out because it's not even in the suburb that I want to live in. I'm just making up a situation, right? And your broker could actually say, well, actually, let's step back and look at rental yield in the area. Well, Bec, I know you want a new kitchen and that sounds great, saw Victoria do her caboodle kitchen, looked elite. But it doesn't actually add any value to you leasing out your property. So spending 10 grand on a kitchen is probably not actually a good investment because your kitchen's fine. Maybe aesthetically you don't like it, but they're going to be able to give you some ideas and some insight as to whether the decisions you're making around renovation are going to add value or overcapitalize the property,

which is a really important factor to take into consideration when doing renovations, because you don't want to go, all right, well, I bought, you know, my apartment for $500,000 and then, oh, it's not the right kitchen and not the right bathrooms. And I'm not going to leave here forever, but I'm going to spend some money on it. And then you actually ultimately have put more money into this property than what you would get back if you sold it, is not putting you and future you in the best possible position. Obviously that is not necessarily the reality of her situation, but what I want you to get from this is that talking to a mortgage broker is going to put you in control. That mortgage broker can then sit you down and have a look at your debt.

So one thing a mortgage broker can do as well is take that interest-free loan and maybe consolidate it with your mortgage. They could also advise you to pay it off from your $17,000 worth of cash. I definitely think that that high interest $4,000 loan should be knocked on the head pretty quickly. But again, there's so many moving parts. But what I would be doing is getting some advice and the money win here is that talking to a mortgage broker most of the time, and I know in my business it is, it's free. So like you're not going to pay to go to Zella Money. Some mortgage brokers do charge. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that's their choice. I just don't. And the reason I don't charge for appointments is because I know

that I will be paid by the bank for settling your loan and I don't want to double dip. It just doesn't sit right with me and that's fine. But that's probably where I would go with that. Okay. I like it. I like it. Just get advice. Like if you've got these experts at your disposal, why are we not using them? Absolutely. Like I know that you're trying to do the absolute right thing and that's so exciting, but like zoom out a bit and be like, oh, I could talk to a mortgage broker. You know what? They might even be able to refinance your loan and get you a lower interest rate and across the board, you'd be able to pay off your mortgage quicker and you'd be in an even better financials position. So true. Sexy. I love it. All right. Let's get into something a little

bit spicy. Are you ready? Are you ready? So this week we got a DM and it sounded exactly like this. Hey, shoes on the money. I've been labeled the tight ass in my group, so I need some advice. Fair point. We're the right people to come to. Absolutely. The other night, eight of us went bowling and had food and drinks, et cetera. I paid the entire bill to make it easier. And one of the girls calculated everyone's share. Then everyone transferred me their bit. The next day I was checking my bank, as you do, and I noticed I was $4.25 short per person. I know it's small, but across eight people, that's like $34, which is not nothing. So I mentioned it to the group super casually, not thinking it would be a big deal. Well, now the girls are calling me the

receipt police and making jokes about me double checking every cent. They've even sent memes to the group chat I honestly didn't think that $4.25 was a big deal I was just cleaning up but it's still my money right now I'm feeling like the villain for bringing it up was I being too petty or was I right to ask for the full amount to be fixed up and how do I stop the teasing without making it more awkward oh my god I'm so sorry that they're doing that I know you really mean That's awful. I can't imagine in any friend group I've ever had that someone would be, like one person in everyone would be so comfortable knowing

that I'm out of pocket so much. Absolutely not. There's not a single chance. If you said I miscalculated it or in this situation somebody else calculated it for you, they miscalculated it. I think that everyone should be transferring it to you but also that person should be like, oh, sorry, begged to put you in that position.

Totally. because it is like the end of the conversation yeah because like if you're like hey it's a sorry extra five bucks each but because it's you know everyone it's like it's a significant blow to my bank out there's I wouldn't even have to finish that sentence before everyone is already like well I already paid out of you like yeah yeah absolutely like I'll transfer right now you know like not a big deal at all there's the I I know it's it's hard to say $34 is so much money as well like don't get me wrong like some people will be like oh I could cover that that is your privilege. Like that is such a nice position to be in. If you were like, I wouldn't worry about

that. I am so grateful for you. I totally get that. I'm so happy that you're in that position, but not everybody is in a position where carrying $35 of unexpected cost is reasonable for them or even fair. Why would you want to put your friend in a financially stressful position? Yeah, I think personally last resort for any scenario is get new friends. But in this case, I feel like maybe you need a nicer community around you because they do not seem like nice friends. We'll be your friends. I'll transfer you five bucks.

I'll transfer you five bucks right now. Send me your pay ID. I'll send you five bucks. I'll send you $34. That's fair. But Jess, what would you do? I feel like I've said something similar to this before where it's really annoying because you do feel kind of like a jerk when you're like oh you owe me three dollars or four

dollars like I get that it's kind of embarrassing to say to someone hey or like because you do feel petty like it shouldn't feel that way well that's exactly it oh it was my Christmas this happened to me one year like I like paid everything and it was yeah anyway so I fully understand that pain and I think maybe the best way to communicate it to people like again not that you should have to justify but you know obviously understanding that you want to soften the blow and not be teased anymore. I would maybe just point that out to them. Like, oh, $4 from one person seems like nothing. It's a coffee. But when it's everybody, it adds up to a certain amount. I want to be in group chat. I want to be added. I've got stuff to say. I'd be like,

hi, I'm just here. Was this bullying about money? That's weird from you. That's a very strange thing to say publicly. Weird. Yeah, totally. Weird. Like, I think if it was me, I would just message the group chat and say, hey guys, I was like, maybe lean into the joke a little bit to make it easier on yourself and be like, I don't mean to be the receipt police, but, you know, with everyone owing me money, it adds up to X amount. And I, you know, again, if it was me, I'd probably just be like, oh, and I had really planned on spending that money on something specific.

You don't have to justify yourself, though. You shouldn't have to, but I also understand the need. Yes. If you're not great with confrontation to soften that blow. So that's kind of how I like it. That's why we liked before that we waited until that person had left the country. Then we brought it up with our boss. Totally.

we're just girls yeah so like I would probably kind of try and show the bigger picture and maybe say oh I had it allocated to something like that's why I'm kind of chasing it up like be like oh I'm so sorry but like I had it set aside for someone's birthday present with even if that's not true just that's what I would do to make myself a bit more comfy and I think not that this helps your situation right now but probably a good lesson for everyone going forward is if people owe you money maybe you be the one that works it out so that you can make sure that it's done correctly Yeah, the first time. But, like, as you said, Bec, very much the overwhelming thing is people should not be making you feel that way.

And I'm so sorry that they are. That's horrendous. And you're not, like. Just send them this podcast. Yeah, send this podcast. And be like, skip to 16 minutes and 43 seconds. I dare you. And listen to the three of us saying, we think you're all jerks.

Fat jerks. So stop doing that. You heard it here. Yeah, completely. You heard it here first. Oh, my gosh. What would you do, Bebe? Honestly, I would follow them up.

I feel like I'm the type of person that if you make fun of me for that, like I just, I want to make you uncomfortable. Like I would be the first to be like, that's a really weird thing to say out loud. Aggressive. I like it. Yeah, I like it. It's assertive.

That's a really weird thing to say. Yeah, like that should have been an inside thought. Oh, your inside thoughts are currently outside. Was that a mistake? No, but genuinely like, oh, I didn't realise it was an issue. hmm my bank account details are yeah yeah don't even like like we don't need to play into the drama like your option your friends are kind of being dicks and I don't know like I thankfully don't have any friends that I would ever feel like I need to call out like I feel like all of

my friends if I was like far out that was five dollars short it's like the same as your friends back there immediately oh let me fix that like totally I'm also the same like I don't want people to be out there, I think on a deeper level, like even going bowling and having some drinks. I remember back when I was at university, having to think really carefully about the social engagements that I was partaking in. Like I would have Googled the bowling alley and made sure that I could afford the game that my friends wanted to do. I'd probably extrapolate it out in my head and be like, oh, what if I want to do a second one? How much would that cost? I probably already looked at the menu like to make sure that it was in my budget because like I didn't have money and

if I did I didn't want to feel uncomfortable in a group situation like I feel like we've all been there at some point where we're like oh yep okay I can afford that to then be $34 out like I couldn't have afforded that and flipping back to who I used to be and I'm very privileged to have like I guess glowed up since then financially, but like flipping back to who I used to be, that would have kept me up at night. That would have made me feel sick. And then for people to be mean to me about that, like, why are you shaming someone about money? Like that's giving me the ick that these people think that that's okay. Like, I mean, flipping the narrative a little bit, who knows? Like maybe this money, this diarist, because we always lack a lot of

context here. Maybe this person who has written in, everybody knows that Jessica has daddy's credit card and Jessica actually put bowling on daddy's credit card. So maybe they're playing a little bit of like a game because they're like, Jess, you didn't even pay for that and you're chasing up that $5. Like, and maybe they know something we don't. I'm not justifying it, but Like, I just think that any type of money shame, not acceptable. No. If you owe someone money, pay them the money, regardless if it's $500 or $5, it doesn't matter.

Exactly. Don't be a dick about it. We obviously asked the community. We said, would you ask everyone for the $425? 51% of you said, yeah, it's my money. 49% of you said, no, I'd leave it. And I'm pretty convinced that 49% of you who said that you'd leave it, you just would leave it because it's awkward.

Yeah, totally. Like, not because you don't believe it's your money. You're just like, oh, I wish it was calculated properly at the start. Unfortunately, there have been times where like I'm sure there are people out there who, and myself included, where you have literally three cents and you're like, I actually need that. That $34 would have been a whole grocery shop. Yeah, totally.

Cut that out. And also, we live in Australia. It doesn't cost us anything to transfer our friends' money. Like that $4.25 is going to cost you nothing except the $4.25 cents to put it in someone else's account. Yeah. Just do the right thing. We also ask the community, there are two types of people, those who ask for and transfer the exact amount to the cent and those that use round numbers. Who are you? I feel like that's so interesting. Which one are you? We said every cent counts. 36% of you said yes. And 64% of you said, actually, I only deal in round numbers.

Yeah, I agree. But I always round up. Always round up. Yeah, I agree with that. Always round up. Like, Jess, if the bill's $38.50, what are you transferring? Wait, $39. $39, yeah. Yeah, like we're not like. We're not going crazy. We're not going to $50.

No, but like you get a little bit of tax. You get a little bit of tax. Yeah. Because you are the one that took it for the team. Yeah, you took the admin on. That's the other thing that's really unfair about this is no one wants to be the one to pay the full bill. You guys didn't put your hands up.

Yeah. I put my hands up and I paid for this and now I'm out for this. I would do you a good deed. I'm punished for a good deed. One out of ten. We know they say about good deeds. No good deed. Sorry, that's a wicked reference for anybody.

Well, I haven't seen that, but I love the singing. Thank you. We're going to move on from the singing because, like, while I love the singing. It's not good. It is not good. It's not ideal, but we said to the community, all right, we're going to need your two cents and I've got a few for you.

So first person said, why should the friend have to pay another $35 on top of what everybody else has already paid? Completely. Exactly. Someone else said, just leave the group chat. They don't sound like very good friends. Leave the group. Paula Whitney in general.

All right. Yeah, Paula Whitney, leave the group chat. Someone else said, I use Splitwise with my friends and it helps so much. I do love Splitwise. Yes. I adore Splitwise. Every time I travel with friends, we use it. But also, if somebody put the wrong amount into Splitwise.

You have the same problem. Same problem. Yeah, that's true. But also Splitwise does really make things clear. Someone else said, she can lean into being the receipt police, send back cop memes and the she's on the money rhetoric. Photoshop yourself into that one of the cop with the moustache pointing, being like, you owe me $4.38 and send it to all of them.

Yeah, this is a good idea. I really like that. We'll make you a meme. You message us and we'll make you a meme and it's me. it's me looking down the barrel of the camera being like i will find you um yeah hi sorry i just heard that you don't pay weird someone else said i never pay the bill for others as they take ages to pay me back and i'm the one that always pays back immediately see this is what happens when you're a good guy i feel like the people you know those people that take all the photos

and they take forever to send it they're the same people that take forever to send money so So I would steer clear. It's a good sign and I think steer clear of those ones. Yeah, or just go places that split the bill. Pay for yourself. Yeah, go split the bill. Split the bill. I'd love a split the bill.

Someone else said, I'd actually drop it because that's who I am as a person, but I would never offer to pay the bill to make it easier for anyone again. Yeah. That'll tick them off, won't it? Someone else said, let it go. There's bigger world problems. Must be nice to have that point of view, isn't it? That might be her biggest, that might be a big problem in her world.

You don't know. Yeah. Someone else said, sorry, think you need new friends. I'm a nice lady. These girls seem nasty. That's so sweet. Maybe you guys can be friends. Yeah.

Someone else said, 34 bucks is half a tank of petrol. If it was one or two people, sure, five bucks is no big deal. But eight people, that's a lot. Absolutely. Someone else said, I only deal in round numbers. I round up. I consider it the tax to the person who paid. Agreed.

I agree. A good place to leave it, my friends. Yep. As always, we hope you have a beautiful weekend. If you haven't joined our Facebook community, please do that because I just love having all my friends there that want to see and pay pet tax. I just mentioned Whitney and tomorrow I have a Secret Lives

of a Mormon Wives little deep dive coming for you. So if you've stayed to the end of this episode, you now know what's dropping tomorrow. So we will see you or I will see you tomorrow, but the rest of the team will see you next week. Have a good weekend, guys. Bye, guys. Bye.

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