She's On The Money - The $60k Debt Wake-Up Call That Changed Everything

Episode Date: January 18, 2026

If you’ve ever looked at your debt and thought how did I even get here, this one’s for you. Because that’s exactly where our Money Diarist found herself when she realised she was about $60,000 deep. There was a car. A wedding. Setting up a home. All the things that feel like you’re just meant to do as you build a life. Until one day she zoomed out and realised a life in debt wasn’t what she wanted for her family. Once she started learning how money actually works, everything shifted. She wasn’t bad with money like she’d always thought. She’d just never been taught. This episode is about what happens when financial literacy starts to click. How she tackled the debt without spiralling into shame. How a few strategic moves changed everything. And why when life later threw her a serious curveball, having those foundations already in place made all the difference. A big thank you to our partner Skye Wealth for bringing this episode to life. If you're ready to get your insurances sorted, you can learn more about them here. We have a long sttanding referal patnership with Skye Wealth and only ever partner with people we trust. GET VICTORIA'S BUDGETING SYSTEM: Build a money system that actually works for you here. FREE MONEY TOOLS YOU'LL LOVE: All our best free resources in the one place here. Ready to binge more relatable, inspiring, and downright juicy money stories? Check out our ultimate Money Diaries playlist. Listen now Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+. And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.  Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yambina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imelan, mumubangaraboma ininyalan waka, kaanonyakarumja, wutunadanar. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections,

bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. She's on the money. She's on the money. hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that lets you be pervy about other people's money habits educational purposes of course welcome back to another one of our money diaries brought to you by sky wealth where we get to talk with one of our incredible she's on the money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got an email and it sounded exactly like this. Dear She's On The Money, I went from zero financial

literacy and around $60,000 of personal debt to a complete money makeover and getting my life together. I paid off all of my debt, built a healthy emergency fund and started investing. I even moved to a rural location to meet my money goals. I thought I had everything sorted and was excited for a long and financially comfortable maternity leave until my baby's unexpected medical costs completely decimated my savings and emergency funds. I had to pivot, but I am currently clawing my way back to getting our finances under control again.

Money Diarist. Hello. that sounds elite but also just so stressful are you okay is baby okay she is now she's doing amazing now but it was a scary 12 months that's for sure but yeah it's it's been a whirlwind but um yeah hearing it back it sounds like a lot but yeah it sounds iconic sorry and I know that you're like oh like I've had to pivot currently clawing my way back and that's exactly how it feels but like you had the emergency fund and the savings to get you through that and that's what they're for as much as we don't like having to rebuild because we feel like oh my goodness I'm starting

from scratch but like that's that's the point like that's what they're for you didn't go into debt and that's so exciting. I know it is such a privilege to have had that there so that I could look after her in the best way possible and give her the best start of life so yeah I'm just very very thankful that I had an emergency fund. All right so let's dive into it a little bit more before I get to ask you about your money story. I want to know what grade would you give your money habits from A through to F if I asked you to give them a grade? I'm going to go with a B, which feels very safe, but I'm starting from an absolute F. Okay. I mean, I could see that when you said I'm from zero financial literacy and had $60,000 worth of personal debt, which I can't wait

to get into. Like I love the nitty gritty of where people have come, but like, I can see why you feel that. I can see why you feel that. And I do feel like B is safe, but we're going to learn a little bit more about it. So my favorite question in the entire world, money diarist, can you tell me a little bit more about your money story? Sure. So I guess we'll start with my childhood. My parents didn't come from money. They would have come from very firmly working class families, but they worked really hard and ensured that when I was growing up, we were in a very comfortable middle class family. I had somewhat of a sense that money might be tight, but we were never stressed about money my parents made us feel comfortable they sent us to good schools and you know we

didn't have a fancy house or anything but if there was ever anything we wanted in terms of hobbies or interests they would make that work like for example I was an elite athlete growing up and I know now as an adult that would have been a huge cost to go through training and travel around Australia to compete but they never once made that feel like a financial burden so they were amazing in that aspect and you you literally never know like when you're a kid you're like oh I'll go to training I'll do xyz you just you've got no idea and also sorry your parents must love you so much because that's such a sacrifice in terms of time not just money like you can throw money at stuff like that but like sorry you're a teenager I'm assuming at this

point the fact that they probably had to go to every training you're not driving yourself there They did. The five o'clock starts at the pool were a lot. But yeah, they were amazing. And my childhood was a bit different in the fact as well that my mum took on the breadwinner role in my family and my dad took on those more traditional caregiving roles. So I was always modelled to really strong female leadership. And yeah, my mum's pretty amazing. So that was really cool growing up that way, which was very different from my friends who all had just a very different family set up but yeah so we never went without but my parents were also very traditional in the fact we didn't talk about money they didn't teach us anything about finances so when I became an

adult and went to uni and and started working casually as uni students do I had no idea what to do with money and I spent every single cent I earned and lived paycheck to paycheck which was same queen fun like I had a great time yeah same but it I guess I always had the sense that I wasn't earning enough to save so what was the point I think I was very all or nothing like if I can't put five hundred dollars away this week why would I bother yeah yeah so I didn't learn anything and I always thought when I started my career and earned more I would save more but as I learned that saving doesn't just magically happen suddenly because you grow up it's something you actually have to learn which I didn't know at the time so when I started working full-time I

just spent all that money too and I think I was a very typical poster child of lifestyle creep I just bought more things I went out more I very much fell into that statistic that you talk about that most Australians don't have access to $500 and despite having an okay wage there was no way I would ever have access to $500 just at the drop of a hat so that's just how I lived paycheck to paycheck with no savings. I feel like that's so relatable literally just to me because that's what I did I feel like I had this idea that when you become an adult your shit gets together right like you just know yeah well yeah yeah yeah like I won't have any debt it'll be fine I'm probably we're going to like find Prince Charming, we're getting married, we'll just buy a house. Somehow

it's all going to work out because a big girl salary, like your full-time salary, it's going to be heaps of money. That'll be fine. And it was for my impulse spending and shopping and a convenient buying. It was great. It's fantastic. But my husband is much the same, unfortunately. He's pretty textbook ADHD and he's very spendy. So we had a great time together. Oh, good. Well, at least you had someone to enjoy it with, you know? Yeah, yeah. Shared hobbies and all that. So it got to the point in 2018, my husband was still at uni and I was working full time and we bought our first home together, which was great. Despite having tried to save up a house deposit, we really had very minimal savings. We were just lucky that

we came across this amazing mortgage broker who really knew her stuff and was able to do all the things to get us into our first home as quickly as possible, which was amazing. But again, I didn't really learn a lesson from that, did I? And I think in hindsight, we did make a good choice in the fact that back then the interest rates were really low and the bank was willing to offer us quite a bit more than what we took. So we were very cautious and took well under what they offered us. Okay. So she had some level of financial literacy. Yeah. But more like a gut feeling more like, I feel like that might be biting off more than we can chew. Were you in personal debt at that point? Like at what point did the $60,000 kicking? Cause I was about to

say you can't have been in personal debt to the like amount of 60 grand and get a mortgage. No, no, no. This is where we head downhill a bit. So I was just lucky that I earned enough to get by. So no, in hindsight, I'm glad we borrowed a lot less because when the interest rates rose, we would have been in a fair bit of trouble because it's at this point that my financial decisions got much worse. So we had the house and then I decided that I absolutely needed a new car. Oh yeah. Well, I mean, new house, new car. It just makes sense. Makes sense. You're an adult now. You've got a mortgage. Yeah. I'll help you justify any bad money decision, honestly. Like I'm very much a do as I

say not as I do. You're not asking me for advice right now. So I'll just help you validate that because that's exactly what I used to be like. Is it a good idea? Absolutely not. But you know what? In our brains, like I get it. Queen, I did the same thing. Absolute girl's girl. Thank you, Victoria. Yes. So I got the new car. So $24,000 on a car that I didn't need. And then me and my husband well fiance at the time decided to plan our wedding and that seemed like a really big financial goal again I didn't know how to save so I thought I would do what everyone else seems to do and I applied for a credit card perfect perfect I didn't know anything about credit cards I knew they were vaguely bad my parents never had them growing up but all my friends had them they didn't

really talk about what their limits were or how they used them I just knew that they had them so I thought it couldn't be that bad. So I applied for a credit card, again, not knowing anything. When you apply, there were two boxes that you could have checked. One was to set a limit for your credit card. And the other was to let the bank assess and decide on the limit. And so I just took that one, not thinking much about it. And I think I very naively thought the bank would have my best interests at heart and they would never lend me money that I couldn't handle. No, why would they do that? That would be irresponsible lending. Never, never. And this is before all the Royal Commission stuff. So the whole process of getting

that credit card was alarmingly easy. And it came in the mail a few weeks later with a $30,000 limit on it. Oh, money win. Like, look how good that is. You probably went, wow, that's so nice. That's so helpful. This is going to be perfect for our wedding. I literally did that I like it's so terrifying to me how little I understood when I saw that I actually thought it was so awesome I was like look how good the bank thinks I am at money that's incredible and I just went a bit mad with my credit card so I ended up putting an entire wedding on a credit card and our wedding was overseas so we did six weeks of travel so that went on there too um did some stuff for the house and very very easily and quickly maxed out

that limit oh good so where were we shopping like I need to know like if you're going to tell me that we've got thirty thousand dollars worth of like personal credit like where do we go like were we shopping at Ikea were we because I feel like the second you have a thirty thousand dollar limit you're like do you know what we should actually get quality items because this is our first time you did that didn't you a little bit I definitely had a very luxury holiday for six weeks very nice for my wedding so that was good but yeah I did buy things I wouldn't have bought normally because I was just happy to tap that and it didn't feel like my money and the scary thing was I knew so little about money it didn't even stress me out like if someone handed me that

credit card now with that limit on it I would be sweating like absolutely not but at the time I just, I just went for it because I thought that was normal because all my friends had credit cards and I assumed that's probably what they were working with too. So then after that, I did some house reno stuff and we got solar panels, which they let me put on like an afterpay platform for $10,000. How good you didn't even need to use a credit card for that one. So great. Yeah. So we can just add that on the side. Now we're at $40,000. $30,000 plus $24,000 plus the $10,000. So up to $64,000. You know what? Why stop there? Why did you stop there? Crazy. Crazy. Yeah. So at this point, my debt repayments were pretty hefty.

Was this a conversation that you were having with your husband? So you've got this credit card and like we are setting up the house. How involved was your, at the time, fiance slash husband in these conversations? Was he aware of the debt? How did he feel about it? Or were you just both two peas in a pod and you were like, let's just set up our lives. This is great. Just two peas in a pod, really. Yeah. It happens that way, doesn't it?

Yeah. Again, looking back, I am so alarmed and stressed out by it at how little we were bothered by it. It just seemed very normal and okay. But you don't know what you don't know, like, and you don't know what's coming either. And I'm about to probably hear that there was a chaos moment or a come to Jesus moment or like a moment where you're like actually what the hell have we done oh yes yes it came in a big way so I had my first child my son in 2021 and a really big value of mine is that I wanted to be

home with him for at least the first 12 months and I had these visions of you know just being at home with him and having a great time and not spending any money because we'll just hang out at home I very again so naive I think you think mat leave is going to be one thing and then actually it turns out that maternity leave just really magnifies any tendencies or habits that you already have just so much more like I love my son so much but he looking back I understand he was not an easy baby he cried a lot he needed to be held by only me 24 7 he didn't sleep I wanted to be out of the house all the time. I went shopping all the time. I needed coffee dates for my mental health, you know. Oh no, I a thousand percent agree with those coffee dates. I think that those

are a mental health investment. You just need to. So I can't even be mad at myself because there's no way I could have stayed at home with this screaming child who only stopped screaming when we were walking around a shopping center. And it's really easy to justify buying things for your children. Oh, don't even. I thought I was the, do you know who I was before I had a baby? I was the perfect parent I was the perfect parent before I became a parent and I was like no I'm not going to spoil my child with too many things I'm not gonna like spend more than necessary and then Harvey points at one thing and I'm like oh it's all yours babe you can have it yep no worries who am I becoming I'm teaching him nothing I'm the exact same and again perfect parent beforehand

And, and then I just, I blew through our money so fast, so fast. So I had to return to work much earlier than I ever wanted to, which was devastating for me. And I sort of looked at my son and I thought, I have no money and I can't give you the childhood that my parents gave me where they could let me do anything I wanted to do or be who I wanted to be because I just don't have the money there and I don't have the freedom to do that and that was really shocking to me and that's not the life that I wanted for him and I also looked around at all my friends who were achieving these big life goals and that seems so unachievable to me too and I'm very lucky I've managed to surround myself with amazing women like they're so smart they're so empowered

and they're so driven and they're doing all these really cool things so I sort of asked them I was like how are you doing this and my friend's really good at money so she put me on to she's on the money oh really is that where it started yes it is I'm not your typical uh barefoot investor into other things I'm straight to you guys feel like lots of people went barefoot or and then straight into this or they were introduced by a friend like complete side note but I often so in our Facebook group, when people join, I can see how they've joined and I'll see their application and it'll say like their email or whatever. And like, I still go through it and often says referred by, and it'll say like someone else has been invited, like your friend invited you to the

group. And then you've like popped your email in and you're waiting for access. And I'm like, it's literally the cutest part of it. Cause I'm like, it's not just you've looked it up and you've come to find she's on the money. It's like one of your mates has been joined this here. I'll just send it to you. And then that it tells me, which is so cute. But I would say most people join our group because a friend has been like, have you seen this group? Do you want to do money with me? That is so cool. That must be so exciting for you to see this little like empire that you've built. It's the coolest thing ever. I'm like such a convert as well. I know I've done the same to friends. I'm like,

you need to get on this. So yeah, I'm like spreading, spreading the word of Victoria. You're spreading the good word. I love this. And one day when I work out how to make it a proper cult I'll let you know but till then we'll just work on our financial literacy yeah but yeah no so I just obsessively consumed all the podcasts from the very beginning read the books did all that and I started just putting all your tips into practice and it was so like liberating it was so eye-opening I always had thought I was bad at money but I'm not bad at money I just didn't know. It's like, I don't know how to fly a plane. I would never tell someone I'm bad at flying a plane. I would say, I actually don't know how to do that. So I don't know why I'm so hard on

myself without money because I'm not bad at money. I just didn't know. Exactly. And for those of you listening along, please skip back 15 seconds and then listen to that again, because that is exactly what I'm trying to teach you. And it's kind of like, why are we crucifying our past selves? like you're in $64,000 worth of debt. I didn't get close to that. I got 40. So like you've blown me out of the water queen, but yeah, I can tell. I really respect that about you. But when you look at it, it's like, well, why would I crucify her? Like she was trying to do the best thing at the time. And yes, it wasn't the right thing, but she didn't have the tools and resources that I have now. And any time spent feeling guilty or feeling like crap about these things that we do is

literally wasted so that why bother ruminating on something like that when we can go wow I know better and when you know better you can do better and that's pretty cool absolutely yeah so it was life-changing honestly so thank you welcome to the family but yeah so at that point I hustled and I hustled hard I did anything I could to increase my income so I returned to work and I got a promotion at work to earn more money I got a another role sort of adjacent to my current role that bring in more money and also increase my career progression pathway I picked up other casual work so casual like academic work at the university I opened my own private practice so I could earn more money on the day off and on my weekends I ended up working six days a week which

was a lot with a young child at home. Yeah, that's chaos. And so did you take that 12 months of leave or was your maternity leave cut short because of the decision? It was cut short because I needed to earn some money. To get stuff done, you're like, hold on, hold on, hold on. To give my child the best possible life, it doesn't necessarily mean I have to be home for 12 months. Exactly. And like with all those debt repayments, I just had to, like there was no other way forward really I couldn't budget my way out of that and then in my spare time I started doing things like any spare minute I had I was you know doing online surveys or market research she's a real convert I love this like like I was doing transcriptions and things that you could

listen to and type away what that was and like everything through shop back so any dollars I could squeeze and everything was just going straight into debt repayments and I was able to smash down that debt probably within 12 months or so I'm so proud of you I am so excited for you that is so cool yeah it was it was really cool to see that like the power of small things in the past I thought I couldn't there's no point saving a dollar or two here and there and look what it did it it all sort of snowballed and and cleared my debt which is amazing and then through that it's almost like I was forced to learn how to save. So I was really careful that once the debt was cleared, I was putting all of that into savings to grow and it grew. And I got to the

point where I had my own personal emergency fund. I had set one up for our family. We had a decent amount of savings and it got to the point where we could start investing too. So we started investing in shares. We leveraged some equity in our house and got an investment property. Who are you? I know. Past you is like, I don't know her. I've never met her. I just never thought that would be possible. And that's all just been since 2021, you know, or after that, 2022. Can I be really pervy and ask, how was your relationship with your husband during this journey? Because you mentioned before, he's like as impulsive as you were, like you both had the same spending habits and he's a bit ADHD from what you've said.

that can be a really confronting conversation to have when one of you has kind of like gone down the money rabbit hole but maybe the other's not ready to join or like this is a confronting conversation because it can be really challenging to be like hey husband um so we're actually not doing as well as we thought we were it can feel like a personal attack how did that go I actually laughed because when I told him I was doing this he groaned and was like oh no you're going to say I'm your worst money habit but he's not no king no king we know we won't say that no he he's so open to talk about these things and I think we've never shied away from money talk or had any stress about it like I said I've sort of inherited that from my parents that abundance

mindset and even though we were in this tricky place it wasn't that stressful because I could see possibility in it too and so me and my husband are really open to talking about these things and we set up our money dates we did all that and we still do that just to realign because sometimes like I said he is a bit spendy and he out of sight out of mind if you ever think to check the bank account you just tap away and have fun and he's very open for us to sort of readjust and realign and recalibrate what we're doing with our money just as a little check-in so yeah it was never a strain on our relationship which I think I'm just so lucky to have him be as supportive as he years. And he saw that I was on my way with this thing and he sort of just handed over the reins

and he's like, you get it, get it clean, do it. I love that because sometimes you hear, oh yeah, I was hustling really hard and my partner really wasn't on board. So he was still spending while I'm like trying to get ahead. And that can create massive amounts of friction. Like the number one reason people get divorced is because of money. And that doesn't mean that that was your reality, but I was like, let's just bring this up because it is so refreshing to hear. No, my husband was so about it doesn't mean he has to change who he is he just has to be open to the conversations and well what are we going to do to put ourselves in a better position and I'm assuming he wants the best for your kids as well so like good deal he yeah he does he's um now I'm very lucky to have

him I think he's pretty a pretty rare breed in terms of how supportive he is of me and our family so very lucky so I knew our next goal was we wanted to grow our family and we were in a really good financial position to do that and I knew this time around I was going to reach my goal I wasn't just going to have 12 months off on my next mat leave I was going to take the full two years icon which was very exciting but so my daughter arrived in 2024 yeah and at that same time actually my husband was offered this new role and I sat down and did the numbers and I realized if he took this role the increase in his salary would actually offset my reduction in salary over my mat leave how good yep yep so I could use half pay to get us through most of the

way in our savings and it would be covered and we wouldn't have any change to our lifestyle the catch was that his new job was in a rural town we live in a major city so it was a big lifestyle change. And I realized that that meant we could also rent our house out in the city for an additional income stream. You could. Which seemed very clever to me. And so we decided to go for it. And the great thing is we hadn't even accounted for our cost of living in a rural town is so much lower. Yep, absolutely. We live in teacher housing, so our rent is $140 a week. stop it I know we don't pay for some of our bills and there's no shopping center here there's no uber eats there's nothing you know our days consist of playing at the park and going for walks and

splashing in the river stop that is so and at that point in time I'm just assuming some of these things so please correct me but like you've got what a three-year-old at that point and a newborn you're kind of like well it's about quality time anyway like we can spend all of this time together and my husband's going to be making way more money and we'll be more financially secure like that's a win for everybody it was amazing it came at the best time and we realized if we did this yet it's such a magical idyllic season with the children in slow-paced life that we would actually come back to the city and be in a better financial situation we could actually make it into our forever home like I said we bought our first home my husband was still a

student we're outgrowing it pretty fast so we took the leap and when my daughter was eight weeks old we moved to a rural town perfect no no I know what's coming now I know tell me so she was 10 weeks old when we started to have some issues and we just moved six hours away from health service and she had these episodes which looked like seizures and she had some developmental issues so she had low muscle tone she was very floppy and very sleepy she had problems with her eyes she wasn't interactive she didn't smile and it turns out she was actually classed as a high risk for cerebral palsy so she's got muscle tone issues she has vision difficulties and a few months later when we started solids it turns out she also had several severe food allergies oh no that's

Do you know what? You didn't deserve that on top of all of these. It was a lot. So we spent a lot of time having to travel between our small town and our major city, six hours away for all of her appointments, pediatrician, allergist, ophthalmologist, physio, OT, dietician. And we had applied for NDIS, but there was a backlog. So it took over 12 months to receive a package for her. So everything we had to do for her, all her therapies all her you know any equipment she needed was out of pocket was paid for out of pocket yeah and at that point they're always saying the earlier the intervention the better like you need to get on this like we cannot wait and so you as a parent you're like great well I'm

just going to have to fund this I can't wait until funding comes in or when the NDIS is ready for this like because the earlier the intervention the better the outcome so what else are you meant to do absolutely and like I said it was just such a privilege to have that money sitting there and so I could give that to her and give her those crucial first 12 months of early intervention. I just feel so sad for parents that were at the mercy of NDIS and had to wait because I honestly don't know what her life would be like now had we missed those crucial months of early intervention. And she's amazing now.

She's doing so great to the point where she responded so well to her therapies. They took her off the at-risk category and now she's just being monitored. But for now, she's... So she doesn't have CP, like we're just hanging out. She was just joking. She was just having a little bit of a drama time. Yeah, yeah. So I just feel so lucky because my therapist had explained to me that those children who

don't get the early intervention can get much worse over time. Whereas if you get in early and sort of rewire the pathways of the brain, it sort of overcomes that difficulty. So yeah, I'm just so grateful. Oh, a little icon. I'm so happy. I was like, where's this going to go? Like, you know, what's the outcome? She's amazing. She works so hard. She's incredible.

Oh, I love that for you guys. That makes me so, so happy. And so now you guys are back to, not square one, because like we have a heap more financial literacy, but tell me about where that emergency fund is and how you're getting your finances under control again. So yeah, I had to think of how to get an income. We weren't finished with living in our rural town. we do love it here and I can't do my job here I need to be in a major city to do my job so I got a bit creative with what to do because I didn't want to have to put my children in care and spend money on child care and then work so I wanted to do something I could do from home and that's when I joined an MLM I'm joking oh my god I was like this is gonna be so good also sorry how dare you

How dare you, like, tempt me with a good time? I know, sorry. I've always wanted to be a teacher, actually, growing up. And in my career, I sort of gravitate towards teaching and training. And at the minute, there's a teacher shortage. So the government is pouring a lot of money into getting people through a teaching qualification into the classroom. So I started my Masters of Teaching and I applied for all the scholarships, all the

grants, all of that. so I'm essentially getting paid to study now and I get to stay home with my kids I'm going to make it through my two years of that leave and I get a qualification at the end and I just study at night and it's working really well I'm enjoying it so much stop it stop it stop it that is so strategic like sorry and you said you were a bee sit down I haven't even finished asking you questions I I even thought about, because of the HECS and stuff and the considerations, but the courses are heavily subsidized at the minute. And like to get a master's is really cheap for what a master's is, compared to my previous master's course. And I knew my HECS reduction would likely come in in

the future. So it's going to drop down anyway. I may as well just top it up a little bit. I'll still be in a better off HECS position, but with this additional qualification. And then I end up in a career that has a lot of career progression opportunity and in future I'll get to have school holidays with my children which I'm obsessed with. Stop it this is so exciting and I just wish I could go back to previous you and like the day that you got your $30,000 credit card and just be like hey did you know that one day you're going to be like investing you're going to move rurally like you'll be getting a second master's degree and you're going to be slaying at life you'd be like, no, that's not my journey. Who is she? I love it. Like you said, we are sort of

starting from scratch, but this time I know what I'm doing so I can see the pathway forward and it's not as overwhelming as it was. And I know we'll get there. We've just got to adjust some timelines. This is so iconic. I love it. So at the moment you're not earning an income because you're on your two years of maternity leave. What does your husband do for work and how much does he earn? So he is an assistant principal and he's on $160,000. Perfect. And then tell me a little bit more about like your big money goals. Obviously it's to increase your education and like get back into the workforce at some point, but I feel like we've already ticked off a number of goals. We've got our first home, it's currently being rented out. You also have an investment property. You

started investing, like what's the plan financially? So we've got a few, I guess in the short term next year we want to take our first big overseas holiday as a family my husband's from overseas so we would love for our children to meet their great grandma before she's too old and just sort of reconnect with their heritage a little bit I would love to grow our share portfolio and our big one is to get into our forever home so that's sort of a longer term goal totally and is that something that you're prioritizing right now are you like okay we're going to get our emergency fund and all of these like short-term things sorted but one day we will step up into a bigger property. Yeah exactly right yeah we just focus on getting back to where we were and then there

are goals moving forward. Yeah and when I'm just like so pervy about all of this stuff so I do apologize but when it comes to that next home is that something where you'll probably sit down and start saving another deposit or do you think that there might be enough equity in your first home and your investment property to hopefully leverage you into a situation where you don't have to like start, start from scratch when it comes to the property ladder. Yeah. I definitely think we could leverage some equity, but I would like to save a bit as well. Yeah. Safety. I feel like it's a good idea. All right. You have worked so hard to achieve everything that you guys have achieved, but I need to know, how are you protecting it? Do you have personal insurances set up?

I do actually. I only got them sorted a couple of weeks ago, but yeah, given that I had to put all my other financial goals on the back burner while I built up my emergency fund, I thought I may as well get my insurances sorted and that way I'm putting myself in a better financial position through that way. Why did you decide, all right, well, I need to set up my personal insurances? I just felt like it would give me more stability and more comfort. And the fact that I have children and more assets now compared to when I was younger, just felt like the right time to sort of square that away and make sure that everything's protected and everyone is safe totally but also I'm like always talking to people who are like Victoria I have assets and children now life is

so expensive where did you start did you just do your insurances yourself did you just like go online and set them up or did you see someone what was the process I went through Skywell okay queen just like a little plug for Phil's team absolutely they were incredible they made everything so easy. I'm not very good at like paperwork and returning forms and things. I get a bit forgetful, but they were super helpful and they made the whole process really easy. I'm obsessed. All right. Well, I mean, that's really great because this episode was brought to you by Sky Wealth, which is kind of hilarious. And I'm with Sky Wealth as is, I feel like most of our community, because we talk about them and love them, but I was not expecting you to say,

I'm with Sky Wealth. I didn't know that at all. So what a perfect outcome. I know, it wasn't planned at all. No, it actually wasn't. But moving on, I want to know. All right, let's go to a really quick break because I want to ask you more about your share portfolio, more about like maybe existing debts and what those mortgages actually look like

and then best and worst money habits that are not your husband. So let's go to a break and we'll see you on the flip side. All right, guys, we are back and I want to talk about your share portfolio. So, you said, I've started investing and that is so flipping exciting. How? How did you jump into your first investment? Because I feel like investing is overwhelming, but the hardest part is doing your first trade. How did you do it?

Well, being a shoes on the money convert, I signed up for shares. He's got my free $10, popped that in and just sat with that for a couple of weeks and then slowly added a little bit more and just sort of built up wherever I could find a bit of money. Until now, it's not scary. It's exciting. That is so fun. And what type of level of investment have we got in our portfolio at this point in time? It's not very big at the minute. So, at the minute, we've got $5,199. What do you mean not big at the moment? I'd like, you know, you hear money stories where they've got these amazing portfolios. So, that's my goal one day. Totally. Like, you could have a hundred grand in a share portfolio, but like, sit down, you've got your first home, you've got

an investment property, you've got two children, your husband's an assistant principal. I think you're doing fine to have five grand in shares, like queen, step back. Cause like, I will enable your purchases, but I won't let you like bring yourself down. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. Thank you. That is very exciting. So did you, once you had your first $10 and you're making your first trade, did you pick an ETF? Did you pick a direct share? If so, how did you make that decision? I picked an ETF. Again, I just sort of went with things that had been discussed on the podcast in terms of having a core satellite approach. Do you want to be on the podcast? Because it sounds like you could like literally run it for me at this point.

I'd just be quoting you all day. That's good. That's what I do all day. I just repeat myself. So why not? So yeah, I picked an Australian ETF, like an ASX 200. And then an American ETF as well in tech. Fun. So, we've got a little bit of diversification there, which is really exciting. Now, tell me about debts. We know of two debts that you currently have, but they are good debts, not bad debts. The first one you took on was your first home with your husband. How much did you purchase that property for? Tell me all of the nitty gritty. Yes. So, our house, we bought for $500,000 in 2018. That mortgage is currently sitting at $548,912 just because we pulled some of that equity out, but it's currently worth $729,000.

Very nice. And it's being rented at the minute for $500 a week. Oh, good rental yield on a $548,000 mortgage. That's nice. Yeah. It is nice. Yeah. I think the yield is 4.75% on that. In my head, I was like, that's about 5%. That's a good deal. Yep. And then so our other house, our investment property, we bought that in 2023 for $456,515. $515. That's very specific. I love that. We have only been paying the interest on that mortgage at the minute. So that's still sitting as it is, but that is now worth $740,000. What?

And yeah, I know it's been amazing. And then it's rented for $650,000 a week. That's even better rental yield. Yeah, 7.42% on that. Sorry. And you're like, oh yeah, I think I'm a B. And you're sitting on like basically half a million dollars worth of equity and have really great rental yields on both of these properties. And you're like, oh no, I wish I had a bigger investment portfolio. You do. I know, but it feels like, because there's a lot of debt sitting on those two, which feels... Okay. Yeah. Like, and I mean, you're probably in nearly a million dollars worth of debt.

fantastic. But if we sold both of those properties, you've got 500G cash. That's a lot. And we don't want to do that because we like the rental yield. But with $500,000 worth of equity, we could absolutely get you into your forever home. I mean, it's probably not an ideal timing right now. So, I'd be like, look, just put that off as long as you possibly can because the equity is going to grow and your rental yield will start paying off more of those mortgages, be more financially stable, but girl, yes, you can save, but I don't think you'll need to for your next property. Yeah. That's exciting to hear you say that. That is so cool.

Yeah. Oh my God. How did you make a decision about that investment property? Because I'm telling you right now, if someone could guarantee me that rental yield, like take my money, that's fine. I'd love that mortgage. So how did you decide, oh, that's a good location to buy? Did you use a buyer's agent or did you guys make the decision? We actually, we came across a financial advisor that sort of specializes in property. We actually were going to go ahead with doing it a long time ago and COVID hit and we panicked and pulled out of the deal. And then looking back at the house that we were going to buy, we were like, whoa,

that went up a lot. Yeah, stressful. So this time we absolutely just have to pull the trigger on it, even if we feel uncomfortable. And I'm so glad we did because yeah, the scariest thing is doing it now that we're in it, it feels fine. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And how did you know to trust this financial advisor slash buyer's agent? Like where does that come in? Because I feel like this space can be really overwhelming and daunting, especially if you've not come from a position of like high levels of financial literacy. So we sort of found them while I still wasn't very financially literate, which is not great because I probably didn't do my due diligence and check on much at all. So really it's just come down to luck that they were actually legitimate and they worked

really well. But in future, I would strongly recommend to anyone not to do that approach that I just sort of, you know, let's just do it and it'll all work out fine. I mean, it's not the worst thing in the world, but yes, I get a little bit stressed when people say they've used a buyer's agent to buy an investment property because there's just so many people in the industry who don't know what they're talking about. And like, you don't know what you don't know because these people, especially people in real estate, and if you're listening to this and you're in real estate, I'm sure you are a delightful human, but we all know there are many snakes in real estate. And they're so good at talking and they are so good at selling

the dream. And it drives me nuts because they'll promise a brilliant rental yield. And then they sell you something in a housing estate that never increases in value. You don't end up with any equity and your rental yield is dismal. And they go, well, that's the market being off. So sorry. like because there's no real ramifications because like you know past performance is not a reliable predictor of future performance they can't promise you anything exactly yeah no like I said we've just been incredibly lucky and yeah I love this so talk to me what do you think your best money habit is I think my best money habits it wasn't a specific habit I think it's more my attitude and my mindset towards money so that abundance mindset because I feel like it's laid

a strong foundation to build everything else on top of like my money habits change depending on where I am with my finances but at the base of that is always that I view money as this tool that can get me places or do things for us or give us freedom and that's allowed like I said me and my husband to speak comfortably about it or for me to start discussing money with my friends which is you know I've been able to set some of them in the right pathway too so yeah I think that's probably my best habit. I couldn't agree more. Your entire attitude throughout this. I'm like, I wish everybody in the community embraced it in the same way. I also wish everybody in the community had a husband that was as supportive. We're not going to make him our worst money habit.

So shout out to him. What is your worst money habit though? Oh, it's so basic. I still really struggle with my budgeting and cashflow. And I have tried so many different iterations of how to budget or track the money in different ways and like you know written or in an app and I am not a freak in the sheets my excel spreadsheets are very basic and they just don't seem to work it always gets to the point where I'm shuffling money back and forwards between my savings and my spending which is really frustrating because then we can't reach our financial goals as well because we're not consistently putting things away because I just need to shuffle it back and forward a bit too much, but I'll keep working on that. No, no, no. I can fix that easy.

I'll just give you access to my money masterclass. I've literally done it all. I'm a psycho. So like when you said you're not a freak in the sheets, I was like, where are we going with this? And then you were talking about spreadsheets. And I was like, well, girl, I am. I'm a psycho. I have not just built a spreadsheet that works. I have automated the entire thing. So all you do is put your budget in and then it will tell you what needs to go into which bank account at which time. And if you're like, well, actually, Victoria, our income comes in on a fortnightly basis, don't worry, queen, just change a setting and it'll be weekly, fortnightly, monthly, like it could even be annually if you want it to be. And I am so proud of that thing.

And the fact that I coded it for basically nine months, like let's not talk about how long it took me. Let's just talk about how good the outcome is. But that has literally changed the money story of thousands of people. And it's my favorite thing ever because like it literally automates it for you. So I'm going to send you that and that I can fix that. You don't have that bad money habit anymore. Bam, done. We're done. Thank you. Thank you so much. That would be incredible because yeah, I just can't seem to get it together. Nope, you've got it. I'm so excited. And to be honest, the way it's structured would work really well for you guys as well, because you'd pick the dual version. So I've got two versions

of it. If you're a single income household and then you've got your dual, but I would use the dual one and just mark yours down as zero just because you're on mat leave, but then you don't have to fix it up at another time. But then joint costs like kids and savings goals and investing goals and budgets for your first home. I even built in, and this is like not me trying to blow my own horn. I just think it's a really cool thing to build in, a mortgage repayment calculator on one of the tabs. So like if you put your loans in and your interest rate and then like have a bit of a fiddle with it and go, well, what does $50 a week look like? In addition, it will tell you how many years it cuts off your loan. That's amazing. I'm just excited about that. I'm just

a maths girl at heart and we're going to stop talking about it because you guys might start thinking I'm a nerd and couldn't have that. But that is so exciting, Money Diarist, and I'm really sad that we're running out of time. If there was one thing that you could say to somebody who's in the position you were in, so they feel like they're drowning in debt, they've just started listening to money stories, it's all completely overwhelming, what would you tell them to do? I don't know I guess start small like you say from little things big things grow and that's truly how it started being able to put a couple of dollars here and there into things was the way to start and then and then it just grows from there so I think everyone can do what I've

done I'm not special I just I got the information I never had and I applied it and anyone can do that so it's very exciting I love it and before we go I need to revisit your grade you said you were a B. Queen, tell me, what does it take to get to an A? Because like, I'm just looking at this going, I don't know what more she can do. All she said was that she was bad at spreadsheets and that doesn't make you bad at money. So where's this B come from? How do we get to an A? Well, like I said, I would like to fix my budgeting and cashflow. And I think given that we're starting over again, I would feel better about my grade once I've sort of gotten back to a position where I feel more comfortable in and then can grow our finances and grow our

goals from there. I won't argue with that. I think that is very fair. Money Diarist, it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know you, getting to know more about your family, your money habits, what you've done well, and maybe what you haven't done so well. It's been really eye-opening, but I know the community is going to love listening to this episode. So thank you so much. Thank you for having me. And also a very huge thank you to Sky Wealth for making this episode possible. I'll chuck a whole heap of information about them, how to get in contact, what they do, how they do it in the show notes for you to check out. 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 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.