She's On The Money - The $75k Property Nightmare We Didn’t See Coming

Episode Date: February 1, 2026

This week’s Money Diary is a property rollercoaster. One that starts off feeling sensible… and then does three loop-de-loops. Our diarist bought, renovated, sold, and started building again while raising a family and spending long stretches on one income. Then a builder collapse meant she had to find $75k more to cover costs.She shares how she kept things steady when cash flow was tight, the calls she made to protect her family, and the point where she realised property didn’t have to do all the work on its own. You’ll hear how investing entered the picture later and what finally helped things feel less fragile. This one shows what it looks like to adapt when your plans change, without everything falling over. SORT YOUR INSURANCE: 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: Master your money 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 - 4451289.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. Ti, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan. Mumu bangada boma ininyalan waka, kaanon yakarumja, wutunarana. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections,

bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. She's on the money. She's on the money. hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that lets you be pervy about other people's money habits for 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. Hi, she's on the money. I've had a pretty

wild property journey over the last five years that I would love to share. I've bought, renovated and sold one property and later bought into a quarter of an investment property. On top of that, we bought a block of land and chose our dream floor plan only for our builder to go under. So not only did we have to find a new builder, we had to find an additional $75,000 after taking a loss with our first one. We did finally receive a VMIA payout. So we invested a big chunk of that and it's increased in value. Money Diarist, this sounds chaotic and a little bit stressful and also really exciting. Look, we've come at the other end in a positive note now, but at the time, I'm not going to lie, it was pretty stressful and pretty intense. Did you cry a lot? Because

I would have cried a lot. I would have shed a lot of tears over this, especially after taking a $75,000 loss. I would have rioted. Yeah. And on top of that, being on one wage, predominantly during that time, because we had babies in between all of that. Oh no. Like as in exciting, but yes, also so much more stress. So much more financial stress. Yes, absolutely. So you did all this over the last five years. And to add that to the mix, you've also had not baby, babies. Three. You've had three. Three kids in three and a half years is not wild enough.

Queen, what? That's a money story in itself. Any of them twins or you did three separate pregnancies back to back? Yep. I love this for you. Yeah, we thought we'll be strategic and smart with that. We sat down, did the numbers, had the conversations and it's still, yeah, life happened. Three in three and a half years.

Do you know what? I love kids. So I'm never going to be like, oh my God, that's so bad. I would love one day to have at least three children. but just the idea of doing it in three years. Not for the faint of heart. Yeah. Are you okay? That's what people said to us when we were pregnant with our third. Oh no, I did this on purpose, but like, how's your mental health? Because like toddlers are a lot. Like my toddler this morning, I dropped him off at daycare and I was like, oh, this is cute. Like he's not upset.

Like this is amazing. Cause like, you never know what you're going to get when you drop a kid off at daycare. It's just a mixed bag. He sits down at his little table to have his toast with his friends and he points at the door and says, door to me. You are 18 months old and you just kicked me out of your daycare room. Can we have a cuddle? And he goes, no. But mummy loves you. I don't want to go yet. Okay. I guess I'll see myself out. See you mum. See you. Like I'm no longer required here. That is perfect. Kids humble you in a way I didn't expect. And you've done that three times over. Money Jairus, before we get into asking all the juicy questions, I feel like I'm already starting, I need to know what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give

them a grade from A through to F? I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. And I think I would aim for a B minus to a B. A B minus to a B. All right. Let's learn a little bit more about that. Like let's learn more about your money journey, your money story. Take me back to where you would like to start, Queen. I can start from my growing up, I suppose. I suppose forms the basis for your money attitude. Yeah. So I was raised by a single mom of four children and I'm the oldest. So in order for us to survive, I suppose, and to try to flourish throughout life, I had to pick up a lot of the slack so mom could work. So after school would finish, I'd have to come home and cook dinner and things because mom was at work. I'd have to make sure the house was clean enough for

the next day, get my brothers all organized and ready for bed on my own while mom worked because she worked in hospitality so she wouldn't get home till like 9 30 10 o'clock most nights and that was my life growing up really until forever I suppose like that's iconic of you but it's also a lot of pressure on a young person to kind of have to step up into that parenting role when you're meant to be the child yeah yeah it made me mature very very quickly and I suppose look it's all on perspective the way I look at it I could have gone the poor me this is really hard this isn't fair route or I could have gone this is a lesson this is it is what it is what can I learn from this and what can I do to help our family survive and get through this chapter and

then what can I do in my future to help with you know money and set myself up and my children up so hopefully we're not in the same position yeah love and so what did that translate into in adulthood obviously growing up as a female you go through you're like my friends have this and I don't have that and you go through like the materialistic kind of phase I suppose it taught me that I don't really need to have everything all at once just because X, Y, and Z has that and just because the bank of mum and dad for them have that and they get given this and they got given a car or they get a new outfit every weekend. I don't need that and that's okay and it's okay to go without. It doesn't mean that I'm lesser. It doesn't mean that my mum loves me any less. It's

just the situation we're in and she gives me everything that I need anyway. Do I need another pair of shoes? No. Be nice though. Yes. Yeah. Be nice though. I get it. I get it. And especially when you're young, it's very hard to separate those two things, especially when you see other kids getting it because as much as you probably understood, there was some pressure. You never fully comprehend what that actually looks like. So it doesn't feel good. Yeah, that's right. That's right. But I suppose we were always just taught to measure your own wrist. So like, look at what you can afford, look what you can do, and then look at that in a positive way and appreciate what you do have, which is something I've brought into adulthood with my own children too. If you

don't need every toy that your friends have, if you don't need everything that you see at the shops, look what you do have at home and play with those things, you know. How can you be grateful for something new if you're not grateful for what you already have? Yeah, that's right. So I think it was a positive experience really. So fast forward, you've got a partner. How did you meet? What does that all look like? We met through my brother actually. So they were friends through work. And yeah, I just met at a house party one day and they were history really with best friends now. I love it. And talk me through, I guess that journey, because you and your partner have been like, all right, I've had a pretty wild property journey over the last five years, which I was

like, that's a cool story. Let's talk about it. But then you dropped, I also had three kids in three and a half years during this period as well. And I go, girl, are you okay? Like what is going on? So how did this all culminate? You are 37 now. How old were you when you met your partner? So we met when we were mid twenties and then we ended up getting engaged in 2016 and that's when we bought our first property. And our first property was with the intention to renovate it and flip it and sell it within a five-year period that was our intention it was really hustle bustle the area that we brought in was wonderful for that stage of our life everything was close but it was an old property so it needed a lot of work which we knew we bought that in 2016 for

$440,000 and then we got engaged so we got engaged that same year and then the renovations done to the house during that 2016 period we did a lot of things but there were minimal costs so we'd get family held what we do it ourselves so like painting the walls we painted the house because it was all different colors the whole house was lino so we stripped the entire house with gorge so like we got we had the original floorboards underneath so oh you did i was like when you ripped up the lino was it a like woo moment or a disappointing moment because no it was beautiful i love that quite a job removing those pins though there's nails so the whole house but that's okay we did it yeah been there done that and then we got that obviously

polished and waxed and stuff by a professional. Yeah. But we did minimum cost that year. And then the following year in March, 2017, we booked our wedding for that coming December. So we had about nine months. So we tried, we tried really hard, really hard to save for that wedding. So I worked two jobs during that time. Husband worked three. Oh my God. Just because we, it wasn't within our values to get a loan out for the wedding. We really wanted to be on the dance floor with everyone and go, we did this. Yeah. A hundred percent. Not tomorrow. We have to start thinking about the debt we've got to repay yes exactly yeah after this the next chapter starts it's fun it's all uphill from here we really worked really hard during those nine months but again we did

stuff ourselves so tradie friends tradie cousins removing chandeliers or pacing them with down lights yeah installing fans again little things but they have a really big impact like even on just a plain room fresh paint makes a world of difference that's right then we ended up falling pregnant with our first little love yeah a few months after the wedding which was so exciting but we hadn't really taken into account like future plans whoops yeah you were just but like that's just fun like sorry you're freshly married and let's not think about it well yes and no like I don't know you never know how long it's gonna take and then it's magic anyway and if you want kids like I feel like you just want kids yes it's nice to plan but like it's very hard to

Yeah, that's right. It's not easy for everyone. And we didn't know what our journey would be like. So we thought, let's just start trying and see what happens. We were fortunate that it happened quite quickly for us, which I don't take for granted. Yeah. No, that's okay. But like often it's a surprise as well. Cause I feel like as women, we spend our entire lives trying not to get pregnant. And then people tell you for whatever reason, it's going to be hard to get pregnant. So when you start trying and you get pregnant immediately, often you're like, wait, what? No, no, no. I thought this would be like a process. what do I do now yeah I wanted this but yeah what does it mean so we'll do that coming November

cool so 2018 but then we had worked so hard for this wedding and everything that we had saved for went towards it so we were like okay we have this plan of renovating this house and flipping it within the five years from when we bought it yeah what are we going to do so we had the discussion and we went to the bank to get the house evaluated to see if it had increased in value and it's actually gone up $80,000. Oh, money win. Yeah. So we decided to borrow that $80,000 against the home loan. And that was our nest egg towards the renovation. It was exclusively to be used towards renovating and that's it, not to be touched for anything else. Adding value. So then again, we're still working full-time throughout my pregnancy. So it was okay. We could survive,

we could save for upcoming baby. Nice. Not a whole lot, but we had this little nest egg, which was nice yeah september of that year rolls around so i'm coming up to my third trimester and my husband's on a bus night with his cousins yeah and we had to renovate our bathrooms we had to strip them gut them yeah don't worry smite we'll get it done we'll get it done before the baby comes no worries we'll start straight away we'll be like i'm due in two months i'll be sure yeah no i promise i will get it done so in they come they're banging balls and we're gonna quickly choose tiles and this and that because yeah it's gonna get done and the lady at Reece says it's called she does it all the time it's called extreme nesting

wouldn't recommend yeah that is extreme nesting I was just on my hands and knees like scrubbing skirting boards so I feel like you took it to the next level yeah extreme yeah so the first time my first little love was born we had no shower one wall tiled in the bathroom which had been completely gutted and that's it that's all we had so oh my god you came home from the hospital and you were like cool so the hospital shower was trash but it was incredible compared to no shower that's right so we had to travel and pack a bag every day to shower no at a family member's house which with a newborn is not easy with a newborn and you're healing yourself too yeah like and do you know what like the shower I spent a lot of time in the shower postpartum because I just

you feel gross like you're hormonal like it's a place that you can escape to and you didn't have that I'm so sorry okay it was my own fault I said yes okay but like they said that they would do it as well yeah yeah you know tradies yeah so then any money that we got from our mat leave we save into account so when I stopped working and you get like your payments from work and things like that we didn't touch it we called it a baby account yeah we just tried to live purely off my husband's wage paying the mortgage paying good for anything else we had to do that yeah but nothing for the baby was to be touched unless he needed something my first little love was nine months old when we got pregnant with our second again planned so wonderful yeah choice we still

had some renovation money so i'm really determined that not to touch it unless we're renovating then lockdown happened for everybody yeah so she came in may of 2020 yeah so lockdown happened was wonderful we could slow down didn't have to rush to get anything done it was out of our hands really then once we could start getting back up and getting tradies back in we eventually gutted the toilet which is a one toilet place gutted the laundry and then we started to get the house evaluated. So we wanted to ask ourselves the question, do we want to stay in this area that we love so much? Do we want to move further in, further out? What do we want to do? After lockdown happened, we felt that we really loved the quiet and the slowness of it all with

kids. It kind of changed our perspective. It did change you. Like it changed, we didn't have kids through that period, but it definitely changed my values. And even just like the way we, and I think this is not just me or you, I think it changed society a lot. Even just our work-life balance expectations. And I think it's been for the better. Absolutely. I think that people suffered. I'm not taking away from that. Oh, no, no, no. But like those of us who just had to go through lockdown and that was not a fun period, I feel like we had a values shift. Yes. And I think that that's okay to say it doesn't take away from the fact that it was a very traumatic period of time for a lot of people. But like, sorry, you're based in Melbourne as well. We had the longest

lockdown in the world. Of course, it is going to change you. Of course, it is going to make you question things like, I'm pretty sure we all went up the wall at some point as well. Absolutely. So after assessing the situation and the information that we had at hand, we decided that we loved the quiet so much now that we had kids. So we thought we might want to go out of North a little bit more. So with our two little loves, we went to display homes and eventually found one that we loved, which was great. You know, you sit on it for a while, you discuss it back and forth and then, yep, we do love this floor plan. Let's go ahead. Yep. Our property ended up going up for sale and selling before auction,

making a $250,000 profit. Stop it. That's such a good deal. I was very surprised. But also like you bought for 440 and then you got 80 grand of equity. You got to use that to reno the property and then you still made a clean, tidy profit. Like money wing queen. It was, it was lovely. It was lovely. Not to be used for us. It was solely for the house, but our next chapter to begin. So we ended up deciding on an area that we liked and we thought we're going to spend a bit more on a tidal block because we've got two kids. We feel like we might want a third. I can't wait for blocks to be tidaled. It's just too much of a long process sometimes. So we'll buy a block that's already tidaled, pay a bit extra. We can

start the build as quickly as possible. The contract bill was around $350,000. So on the contract for that, that was great. We couldn't get a bridging loan at that point because I wasn't working enough for the bank to give us that. Yeah. That's a pickle of a situation. It's so frustrating, even though you're like, I have a contract and I'm fully employed. And they're like, no, sorry, you're on maternity leave. You're null and void. It is so frustrating. Yeah. And we can prove we could pay it. Yeah. It's not the point. It's not the point, is it? It's fine. It is what it is. That's fine. So our builder at the time told us I should take four or five, six months for the house to go up because the blocks are retitled. Great.

So we thought we'll save our pennies, it's five, six months. Let's move in with family and save some money during that time. So then whatever we make, we'll save to go towards a house. We can buy furniture, you know, do the backyard, whatever else. So we tried to move in with husband's parents. The sister was still living at home at the time. Mum and dad still working full-time at that point. Husband working full-time.

I was at home with two kids. Perfect. But it was locked in. Perfect. We went back into lockdown. So we had to somehow manage the children to be quiet. Everyone's in their own separate rooms, working full time with their jobs, plus two kids. I actually happened to pick up some casual work during that time.

So I'm a primary school teacher. So I got to go in to help essential workers' children that were still allowed to go into schools at that time. So I went in and did that two days a week just to help us with some cash. Once we were there for a little bit, we wanted to be strategic. And we booked a dinner out, just the two of us, and took time to discuss what the future might look like. and if we did want three children, how was it going to work?

How would we survive on one wage with the upcoming mortgage? Did all the maths. Yeah, it's a lot. Had a really, really in-depth discussion about it. We thought, yep, okay, we can make it work. We felt like there was someone missing. All right, let's do it. I love that.

That's so sweet. Two is lovely. Two could be enough. Nope, someone was missing. We weren't done. That's right. The six months we were meant to be living at parents' house turned into seven, eight months because the bill kept getting pushed back.

Yeah. And the house next door to my mum actually went up for sale. So my mum's going to leave her house to us anyway in her will. So she said to us, why don't you consider buying the house next door and have it in a investment property? So my brothers and I set up a trust and we did that and we bought that house for $660,000. Yeah. So after a 30 day settlement, me and my family moved into there. Oh, perfect. You were probably like, I'm going up the wall living with in-laws. this is a perfect opportunity. I don't even care how it happens. But I was wondering, I was like, how did you buy into a quarter of an investment property? I'm thinking, is this a good idea? It was with your brothers. That makes a lot of sense. Okay. Yes. Yes. So that is quite strategic.

Trying to be, trying to set ourselves up for a better future. So we move into the investment property. So obviously we still need to pay our quarter of the mortgage. Fair is fair, but we also need to pay rent because it's an investment property. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're the ones using the property. That's right. So we're paying rent, we're paying a quarter of that mortgage plus our mortgage of the property that's being built, which is slowly coming along.

So as you go through stages of the build, the amount increases because you need to pay back the builder for whatever's happened during that time. So that's slowly increasing. Still paying rent, our quarter of the mortgage is also going on. But everything, look, we're surviving at this point. Then interest rates start to rise and then they keep rising and then they keep rising and rising.

and I feel like they didn't stop. No. And then our house still wasn't getting done. And so things were getting tight. So we had to use some of the money from the sale to help us to survive. Yeah. To pay rent, to pay the mortgage, to pay our bills. Of course. So watching our profits slowly disappear. Oh yeah. That would have been so stressful as well. Cause you're like, no, this is meant to be set aside for this other thing and you just can't help it sometimes. It was out of our control. Yeah. And we've worked really hard on our first property to earn that money so yeah but that's okay things happen that's fine so then we're up to the last stage of our build so the last stage should typically take two to three weeks it shouldn't

take that long for what we're told so you're paying for a mortgage up until that point pretty much the entire mortgage is owed minus a couple of thousand dollars that final stage the builder goes under no gone could you not have waited a few weeks to go under sir like that's very disrespectful so with four weeks left to go ish bad timing yeah terrible timing so we had almost a full mortgage paying full rent a quarter of another mortgage and there was no end in the foreseeable future because there was no one coming to balance out and were you pregnant at this point because you'd done that date with your husband where you'd probably decided we are going to have a third baby were you pregnant at this point as well I'm just putting two and two together and

I'm like the timelines are getting away from me I think you were knocked up yes I had my third baby in August of 2022. So he was here five months after we moved into our investment property. So we now have three kids as well. So like there was nobody missing at this point, three kids, basically three mortgages. What a delight. Yes, it was lovely. So with a seven month old, a three year old and a four year old, it was tight. It was tight. We were told to lodge a claim. This was what everybody was told, to lodge a claim through VMIA, which is the Victorian Managed Insurance Agency. I think all builders have to be covered by them before they start a build from what I understand

yeah legally so through the haze of sleepless nights and babies everywhere I lodged this claim but they're in no rush to pay up so I was not thinking about getting money from them to help us in any way I just thought I need to go back to work casually even though with three babies at home I didn't see a way out I had to make it work so I went back to work casually so the bank would give us more money more money yeah to include our loan and it ended up being about $75,000 that we needed. So we had to get three different quotes from three different builders, send them into the insurance, the BMIA, sent it into the bank. They ended up approving us for about $75,000. Oh, good.

So sent it all to the new builder. We ended up finding just a small builder that helped us. It was tough to find a builder, to be honest, because nobody wanted to touch it. Yeah. It's somebody else's work and they've got to come in and fix it. And they don't know if they've done a good job and if they've gone under, they may have cut corners. Like there's just a lot, right yeah and their insurance like they'll have to take it on and just hope for the best so yeah it was a big ask but we ended up finding a lovely small builder who completed the build for us which was nice i'd end up getting finished in maybe another four months on top of that so it was longer than expected but still doesn't matter they got done then after we were in our house

maybe after four months of being in so we got in the end of 2023 yeah we heard from vmia and they sent us a payout of $90,000. Oh, how good. To compensate us. That covers the $75,000. That's nice. It was a lovely surprise because like I said, I didn't account for that money. Because you were like, we're not going to get anything from this. Yeah. And you're kind of like, I've done my due diligence, but like you hear so often people going to these institutions and then it all being swept under the rug or having to take it to court or like there's just so much chaos. 95 grand queen that would have felt good it was nice to get a little win to be honest it was yeah it was blow after blow after blow oh my god so it was nice that someone

came through yeah it was lovely that's chaos so then you got your payout and then what did you do with your payout so we owed my brother ten thousand dollars he helped us with the bill to get hitting a calling system so paid that back yeah straight away and then with the eighty thousand that was left we used 20 of it to put roller shutters on for safety purposes things for our kids we wanted to do the backyard just to flatten it out make it habitable so the kids could go out and play oh how nice and we couldn't do it ourself we tried and landscaping's so expensive isn't it it's so expensive we just wanted grass we just want grass why is it so expensive we did that and then we had about 40,000 still to play with so I spoke to my husband we've read

all your books. He's still got it right now on his bedside table. Does he actually? That's iconic. I love that. No, I believe you. Oh, it's right there. Guys, she's recording from her bedroom and that is my book beside her husband's bed. What a man. What a man. Exactly. So after reading your books and, you know, trying my hardest to learn. And like I said, I want it to be better. I want to set up a future for my kids. We decided just to invest that $40,000. Furniture will come later. Other things will come later. Let's just invest it and see. So it's been invested for a year and a half now and it's up to about $55,000. Stop it. And how did you make a decision on how to invest? What did you invest in? Did you use a share trading platform or what did

you do? So we've got it invested through Life Sherpa. Perfect. So it's an EFT. How did you find Life Sherpa? Because we love Life Sherpa. I'm licensed by Money Sherpa. So Vince, who owns both of those BFF. Yeah. I think I got it through you. Yeah. I think I got the recommendation through you at some point. I love that. Yeah. So thank you for passing that on. That is okay. They do a good job, right? And for those of you following along at home who are like Life Sherpa, what? Life Sherpa is kind of like, if you don't want to do it yourself, it's like a financial advice service, but they automate a lot of it for you. So it's a much more cost effective way, but it's also just good. They're good people doing good things. I'm so glad that

you've had a positive experience and sorry 40 grand invested now you're at 55 yeah just a year and a half oh in a year and a half money win yeah we're very impressed and we just and we had a bit of savings left over from the kids money that we try not to touch so we invested that as well and just do a separate kids account because we thought we're not touching it anyway we might as well put it in there instead of the bank it's working better for us in LifeShaper so that's also made another $700. It's only been three or four months that's been invested. You have worked so hard to give your family literally everything. And I feel like you are a budgeting queen, but I need to know how are you protecting it? Do you have personal insurances?

Not yet. And it's really something that makes me feel really uncomfortable and guilty that I haven't sorted that out yet. But it's going to be a 2026 goal for sure. It has to be. I love my kids and I've worked too hard not to protect it about that yeah it's crazy because I feel like so many of us don't think about it and then we do and then it's a really big admin task and then it's not I promise it's not a really big admin task it's just like pulling the trigger and making an appointment so you guys have gone through this chaotic property journey you're finally in your dream home which is a money win what's next so more babies no you're like three I've tapped out babe. There's plenty. Yes. It's a bit chaotic, but there's plenty. We want to save for a Europe

trip. Gorgeous. Is that your next big money goal? Kind of. We're just putting little pennies away because it's our 40th in three or four years. So we thought let's just start putting money away for that. Yeah. Just so we can go with our kids because we don't really splurge. We don't really do big things like that ever. Lovely. We're really mellow, keep it slow, enjoy the kids as they are now. Don't do too much too quickly. So we think we're really saving towards that because that's something we would enjoy and we think we want to give them that experience they'll be old enough to enjoy it then yeah and probably remember it as well yeah yeah because if you do go to Europe there's lots of walking there's lots of you need a lot of patience you need to you know test this

and taste that so I think bringing them all their babies would be a bit tricky and I suppose with money where to next I'm looking for a side hustle on top of my job that I do because you don't have enough on right now. I know. I'm just really driven. I'm a very driven person. I'm very goal orientated. I can tell. So if I could be doing more with my time, I really want to explore that. So I'm looking for like a side hustle, whether it be, I want it to be something that aligns with my values and I want to take, to take consideration and not just go for anything that might pop up. So I really want something in finance side of things. I don't know what exactly yet, but something that helps people to achieve their goal. I think I would really be fun

fulfilling. Obsessed. So do you have any other big money goals that you're working towards? Is it just like now smash down mortgages and save for Europe? Or is there something else on the table as well? Because I feel like you guys have big dreams. You say you're slow, but like you're also making big bucks. Yeah. We want to invest more, I think as well. That's always something that comes up in our conversations. We don't earn enough weekly now to do that per fortnight or per pay cycle. So we do want to invest more. And look, my husband floats the idea of buying another investment property. I'm not sure whether it's worth it now with the government taxes and things, to be honest. I need to do some more research on that, but

we do want to definitely invest more. That's a non-negotiable for us. It's just when, when can we? When and where and how. Yeah, that's fair. And also finding the balance because it sounds like you've been through, I would say a lot of financial stress and you're probably a little a bit triggered by that because you're like, I actually just don't want to be back in that situation. Like we don't have to do that. So let's not do that. If it means that we don't have another investment property for a long time, that's fine too. Absolutely. It's been a lot of, do you need that? Yeah. Do we need that? Because we don't really have the money to buy that right now. So it'd be nice to just be comfortable for a little bit. Yeah, totally. Especially while kids

are little and you probably want to seize different opportunities. And I mean, everything adds up. And the second you said you had three kids I'm like that's expensive and it's not just because you know you might choose private school or something but even if you want to take the kids to the zoo the family pack is two adults two kids you've always got to spend that extra to get the third kid in and just everything adds up yeah then we want ice cream and then I want chips and then yeah and if one got chips three gets chips that's right it adds up very quickly it would all right let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, I want to ask a little bit more about your investment strategy, the debt that you're currently in on all of those properties and your

best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Money Diaries, we are back. I want to know a little bit more about your investment journey because it's not one that we have as commonly on Money Diaries, right? I feel like every time I talk to somebody about what do do they're a DIY investor which is fantastic but you've got more of an assisted approach but not like a full-blown financial advice approach. Yes. How was that system for you? You went through LifeSherpa they obviously made recommendations based on what you would invest in what does that look like for you? They offer different platforms to invest into so you could go there was a percentage of risk base. I just want to know what you do. Yeah we did the highest risk. Good job I

mean if it works out for you great yeah because we're long term so we thought let's do the high risk it says the recommendation is not to touch it between after eight years and up above so we thought we're not in a rush for this money if it works well for us and it works hard for us there and it makes us money great let's just leave it and see what it does so we've just put it in there we've not added much to it it's just sitting there and it's doing its thing i know you said before like cashflow is just not allowing us to invest more per week. But what would happen if that changed and you had like a couple of hundred dollars every month to invest? Can you just drop that in or do you need a specific plan? How does that work? Yeah, we would budget that in.

We've already floated that idea of when I start to work more, my pay goes up. We'll put a bit more into our investments and a bit more into my super just to try to make up for the years that I was on maternity leave. But it's not, we're not there yet because the pay increases haven't rolled around yet. Talk to me now about debt. So you've sold your first property. We got a $250,000 money profit out of that, 10 out of 10. We then have your current family home and your investment property. What did the total on your current family home come to? So at the moment, our home lands on $700,000. Exactly. And do you remember what you invested in that? Because I remember you said earlier that there was like a $350,000 build contract, but that didn't include the land.

That's right. So what was the land and the build contract? The land was $480. Okay. And the build was $350-ish. So sitting on $700 is pretty good. Yeah, we've tried really hard. We put extra every fortnight, every pay.

We put extra regardless of our financial situation. Yeah, that's why I'm being pervy. I'm like, so what did you spend on the land and what did you spend on the build? So I can do some maths and work out if $700 is like a really good thing or like, you know, you're still at where you started. Do you know what the property is worth now? has that changed? Yes, it's worth around the $950 mark. Okay, Queen, how exciting. That must be really validating after having gone through arguably a pretty traumatic period to get there,

right? It's nice to hear. We don't have an intention of selling, nor do we have any intention of borrowing against the house, but it's nice to know. It's a good thing. Well, nobody wants to hear that their property is worth less than what they're paying for it. That's very stressful. But tell me now about the investment property that you've got with your brothers. How's that tracking. I'm assuming that once you moved out, you leased it out to somebody else? We did, thankfully. So we bought it for around $630,000. We initially were paying interest and capital. With the interest rates, we all bought young families. It just became too much for us. So we just ended up going back to the bank and asking to just do interest only for a little bit,

just until things calmed down and we can breathe a bit more. So we pay interest only on that. monthly, it takes one and a half thousand dollars, but our share is $110 per week. Okay. So it's, are you saying that the total mortgage is one and a half thousand dollars? The total mortgage interest only. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's like the total. And then you split that 1500 bucks across you and your brothers. So it goes four ways and then you all contribute. And what is it rented out for? Do you have a good rental yield? We do have a good rental yield. I believe it is 480 a week.

Oh, nice. And what do you guys do with that? Do you put that straight back into the mortgage? So is that $1,500 being offset by the rent coming in? And then obviously you'd have like land tax and all of that other fun stuff to deal with. But that sounds like a good little system that you guys have worked out. Yeah. So it goes towards the mortgage and then we put our share in to cover the rest. And then there's always a bit more of a buffer to cover if unexpected expenses pop up. Yeah.

And I feel like if you're going to be doing an investment with somebody else or with three brothers. So it goes four ways. We need to build in a buffer so nobody gets surprised when air con breaks or the hot water system needs repairs or something happens. Because as you said before, you all have young families. We don't just have money sitting there for stuff like that. So building in the buffer would probably save a lot of stress. Do you know what that property is worth now? Because you said you purchased it a few years ago and you've got like $630 owing on it. what's it worth? At least $950 now. It's in a very good spot near main road shops around the corner. So it would have gone up significantly in that time, I believe. Yeah. And not to be too

morbid, you did mention, hey, mum is going to leave the house to us. So we've bought the house next door. Is that a future development opportunity? Is that where our brains are going? Because I feel like you're a reno queen. Yes. There's the discussion. We do want to do that however it's going to be left to me to do the boys are kind of like yeah let's like build properties on it but you can organize that you like you've done it before you can do for a project management fee I can do anything I should do that like I looked after you when you were children and you didn't have an income now you're benefiting from it I do too thank you so much for coming absolutely you should do that oh my goodness how stressful but also like very fun to know that

like everything is kind of sorting itself out along the way. Talk to me, what do you think your best money habit is? I think as I'm getting older and with children and everything, I think my best money habit would be, I try to consider things more now and I try to slow down and I try to compare worth versus value before I commit and before I purchase something. So for example, oh my gosh, this clothing brand is on sale. That's really cheap. That's amazing. I should jump on it. Is it worth it? Do I need it? Is it going to fall apart after a month of wearing it? Or like, look, it would be lovely to go to Japan. Like my friends are going, you know, is that expensive holiday worth it for us right now in our current situation with the ages of

the kids that we've got? Probably not. So I'm trying to be more considerate, I suppose, and slow down with money. And that's a really good thing. And I feel like you are quite resourceful as well. Like the fact that you were like, yeah, I went back to work and I was, you know, working as a primary school teacher, two days a week during COVID. I'm like, this girl's a hustler. Like you are resourceful. And it's, it's just so nice to hear. Like, I just, I love women who are like, no, I can go do that. That's fine. Before you said, I want to do more with my time. And I'm thinking, what do you mean more? You are working and you have three children, queen. That's okay. I've got one at school, one at kinder. So it gets a bit easier.

It gets easier over time, but that doesn't mean that we need a side hustle, but I love that you want one and I am backing you to the hilt. On the flip side, what do you think your worst money habit is? I think my worst money habit would be the little spendings that can occur. So if I'm with the kids at Target and there's like a sale on and they're like, mom, I'm like, yeah, that's fine. It's so easy, isn't it? Hopefully I get a baby Chino as well. Like that's fine. I think those little spendings can add up. They totally can. They totally can. But then it's also like we need to find the balance between financial stability in the long term and also enjoying the journey. And I don't know, a baby Chino is just so cute. It's $2. I have a baby Chino.

It's fine. Yeah. But then it's $6, isn't it? That's right. So you're like, yours is just tripling. I love this so much. Money Dice, you said, oh, I think I'm a B minus or a B. Like, are you sure? Like reflecting on all of this and everything that you've achieved and gone through and done literally all at the same time. Do you feel like that's accurate? If so, what would it take to get you to an A? I am quite hard on myself. I've got very high expectations of myself. So I think maybe it could be moved to a B plus, but I think to move it to an A or an A plus, I just want more money coming in to build ourselves up and sit ourselves up comfortably for the future. So I think once I'm working more at my current job or

with a side hustle and I can feel us getting comfortable and I feel like we're getting somewhere, that would make me feel a bit better, I think. That's fair. I wouldn't argue with that, but I think you're doing pretty damn well. And I'm just very proud of you and everything that you've achieved. And the fact that you did three babies in three and a half years while doing all of that, you're an icon. I'm obsessed. That is very, very cool. Money Diarist, I wish we had more time to chat, but thank you so much for doing a Money Diary with me, sharing your journey, sharing what you've done with your family, with your properties, literally everything. I think that the community is going to love this episode as much as I have loved recording it with you. So

thank you. I really appreciate it. 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 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

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