She's On The Money - The Biggest Money Lessons We Learned From This Year’s Money Diaries

Episode Date: December 29, 2024

The best thing about Money Diaries? They prove that no one’s money story is perfect, but there’s always something to learn. Today, V takes us through the most teachable moments of 2024’s Money Diaries, unpacking the lessons that remind us we don’t have to have it all figured out. From breaking the debt cycle to transforming a side hustle into a booming business, this episode is packed with inspiration, insights, and the kind of financial wisdom you’ll want to take notes on. And speaking of learnings, we've got some exciting things happening in Jan you're going to want to be part of. We’re kicking off Your Best Year Yet and The Investing Masterclass, designed to help you start the year feeling empowered and in control of your money. And, because you asked, we’re bringing back the Financial Foundations Workshop! If you’re ready to build good habits or take your finances to the next level, these are a great way to kick off the new year feeling confident. (Click the links above for deets) Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that lets you get delightfully pervy on other people's finance stories, for educational purposes, of course. I am Victoria Devine, a retired financial advisor breaking down money taboos one juicy money diary at a time. Today is a very special episode because we're doing something I absolutely adore. We're going to be looking back at the lessons we've learned from this year's money diaries. If you know me, you know I am a massive believer in the power of storytelling. Hearing everyone else's wins, their challenges and even their mistakes can inspire us. It can teach us and sometimes it can even give us that aha moment that we've been waiting for. In this episode, together,

you and I are going to spotlight some of our biggest learnings from 2024. They're those moments that remind us that we're not alone in our struggles and that transformation is always possible. Whether it's turning debt into financial freedom or negotiating like a pro or simply mastering the art of patience with your money. These stories are packed with insights that help you level up your finances. And I wanted to start with this very relatable lesson. In 2024, we are living in the age of instant gratification. Whether it's binge watching an entire season of your favorite show the day it drops, having dinner delivered to your door in under 30 minutes, or getting same day shipping on that impulse buy, we're getting used to getting what we want exactly

when we want it. But when it comes to our finances, that mindset can be, well, a bit dangerous. Those spur of the moment purchases and those treat yourself moments can really add up. And before you know it, you're surrounded by unopened packages, empty oat lattes, and an empty bank account. Our first diarist realized this firsthand. She took a hard look at her spending habits. She saw the impact of Insta gratification, and she decided to flip the script. By mastering the art of delayed gratification, she saved herself thousands and made her money work for her instead of the other way around. Let's hear her story and her strategy for making patience her finance superpower. And I think the most important thing as well too that I realized and I learned as

well is that once you get out of debt, it doesn't mean that you're fully, fully out of debt because if your mindset is still the same as before, when you were in debt, you continue to go back to that cycle and it'll be like a rotating door of getting out of debt, going back into debt, getting out of debt and going back into debt. And I think the most important thing to also, you know, keep yourself motivated to get out of debt is to really think about your goal and your why as to why you want to be out of debt and why you're working so hard to, you know, be out of debt is because I finally paid off my zip pay. There was a time where I was sitting down on the couch and I was so bored. It's just so easy, right? Yeah. I was so bored. And I, you know, I'm like, oh, I want to, I want

to buy this pair of shoes, but I only had like, what, $20 in my account after paying off all of my bills. And I was like, do you know what? I'll just apply on zip pay. I'll just spend $100 on zip pay and then pay it off and then close it again. And, you know, I had to catch myself really quickly. Like, no, because that's not who we are. Yeah. That's not who we are anymore. So it takes a lot of discipline to not go back to that after just coming out of that situation. A hundred percent. And because we are humans, humans inherently do not like change. So going back to a cycle that, you know, even though you don't love it, you know it, you go, that's predictable. I know exactly what will happen. I can, you know, work with that outcome. It's hard

to go from there to a completely different mindset of going, well, what do you mean? And this layer of instant gratification versus delayed gratification comes to it. You've been an instant gratification girly for your whole life. You were always used to just getting it and now you've got to wait. Like, what do you mean? Like, I'm not used to that. Like, that doesn't feel good. I don't know why we're here. So, it can be so hard to slip back into the cycle. I know that you've changed your money story over the last few years, gotten out of debt, but what do you reckon your best money habit is? I would say that my best money habit is I've mastered the art of delayed gratification, unless I absolutely need something. Wow. Can you please

teach me? Cause I have not. Did you just see me? For those of you playing along, I had to have a brief intermission cause someone offered me a donut. That's different cause that's free. So. Yeah, it's true. It's true. It was a money win. I'm not buying money. There you go. Thank you for reframing that for me, but tell me more about how to work into this delayed gratification. I actually learned that from my partner, unless I absolutely need something, then I give myself a few days, if not a week to really think about if I want something or not. And more often than not, I actually forget about it. So I like to think that, you know, I'm saving myself so much money from not going crazy berserk on shopping spree if I don't really

need it. I love that. But what was the first step in, I guess, actually practicing delayed gratification? Because I think that so many of us would be like, oh my gosh, this money diarist is so right. I need to, you know, think about what I'm spending. I'm going to put 24 hours between me and my spending. I'm going to listen to V. Like V is very do as I say, not as I do, just for the record. But I think we need to know what was the first time that that was really pressed? Because I feel like we can make all the biggest plans in the entire world and I think we all do, but then you have to actually implement them. I think for me, I guess when I realized that I didn't really need a lot of things was when I was decluttering my bedroom and my bathroom. I had

so many unopened skincare products. I had so many clothes that still had tags on them. and I thought I actually don't need any of these why did I even buy them and so I think that made me realize that like I better start practicing delayed gratification otherwise I'm going to be stuck with all these you know products clothes everything that I actually never needed in the first place and I could have had some cash in my bank exactly could have had cash in my bank and now I can't even sell them because they're out of trend but I'm still keeping them never know because trends always come back around. That's true. That's true. Give it 10 years, babe. This is an investment. Give it 10 years. This was an amazing story of growth and discipline.

I think what I love the most about this is how real it feels because honestly, which one of us hasn't been tempted by the ease of buy now, pay later or the thrill of an impulse purchase? Definitely me. But the truth is falling into those habits over and over can keep us stuck in a cycle that is so hard to break. This diarist is proof that getting out of debt isn't just about paying it all off. It's about staying out of it. And that takes real mindset shifts. She didn't just stop spending. She's rewired how she thought about money and her decisions. If you take one thing away from this episode, let it be this. Your future self will thank you for every thoughtful, intentional decision that you make today. Whether it's resisting the urge to apply for another buy

now pay later account or letting that cart sit unpurchased for a few days, these little habits build up to create a much bigger picture of financial freedom for yourself. This next lesson comes from one of our most downloaded episodes of the year. And honestly, it's not hard to see why. I mean, who wouldn't click on an episode titled 40k salary to $400,000 side hustle? Well, it's the kind of story that's not just wildly appealing, but also packed with practical insights and a big dose of inspiration. In this episode, Aldaira shared how a necessary purchase, something they initially needed just to get their home sorted, ended up becoming the foundation for a booming side hustle. Let's dive into how she turned something they needed for themselves into

a booming business opportunity. So tell me more about this business, because you mentioned we have a machine and it has some debt on it. Obviously, when you were building your home, you realized that the machinery was necessary. Why not purchase it? Why not then lease it out after? Is this like a $20 wheelbarrow from Bunnings or is this like a whole digger? Is this a crane? I don't know. You've got to tell me more about how this works and then how you worked out that you could lease it out. Yep. So when we first started designing the house and obviously a big block. We were like, well, there's a lot of landscaping that's going to need to be done. And we were like, well, we'll do that ourselves. At the time, his brother and his wife

were also building on a large block and his parents were also building on a large block. My God, so much construction. You wouldn't be short for conversation at family dinner, would you? Oh yeah, we will be shortly. We actually joke about what we're all going to talk about in six months time when everyone's done building. Oh, you guys will find another project. I can almost guarantee it. Yes, definitely. So yeah, we looked at it and we thought, you know, well, between just the three of us building and, you know, needing to hire a digger to do some earthworks or a skid steer to do something else, we were like, hang on, this is really, really expensive in town. And if we do that and say we need it, we worked it out

over a certain number of weekends and what it would come to. And we were like, why don't we just buy one? So again, there was some money from the sale of my partner's house. So we actually paid cash for our first machine. How much does a machine cost? So that was a mini excavator. So a brand new Caterpillar excavator. And that one at the time, I believe was $40,000. And then it was about $11,000 then for the trailer. Yeah. Okay. And so you need the trailer obviously to move the excavator. Yes. So to move it around, we did buy a more expensive trailer because you could just buy a plant trailer where you can just drive your machine on and that's all its purpose is. However,

we went for a different trailer that was say a tipper trailer so that people can also use it for soil, which you often... She's a smart cookie. So you can move the stuff that you excavated. Correct. And you can also hire that trailer out as its own asset. Whereas no one really needs to just borrow a plant trailer on its own, but someone wanting to do some gardening can hire a trailer. I see the vision. I get it. So you've essentially invested $51,000 in this trailer and this excavator. And you've, I'm assuming you've used it. Your partner's parents have used it. other family members have used it and now you're hiring it out. What does that look like? Do you advertise it online or is this a word of mouth thing or like, how does that work? How does it

go from, we bought this fancy thing to other people are paying you for it? Yeah. So it did just start out with social media advertising locally. We put some signage on the trailer and on the machine and it just kind of went from there. We've actually stopped advertising for it at the moment because the second part of the business is labor hire, which we've got my partner employed through. So he's out of town a lot with that. So we've actually stopped advertising the equipment hire because we're getting enough with it to cover the repayments on our second machine. Okay. I love this. How incredible was that? This story is such a powerful reminder that sometimes the biggest opportunities come from the most practical decisions. What I love most about

this episode was how intentional they were, not just about solving their immediate problem, but about thinking bigger. They didn't just buy a piece of machinery for personal use. They looked at how they could create value beyond their own household. By investing strategically and tapping into local demand, they turned what could have been just another expense into a thriving income stream. The takeaway here is this. Ask yourself if your next big purchase could be more than just something you need. Could it be an asset that starts working for you? Whether it's renting out equipment, leveraging a skill or spotting a gap in the market, there's always an opportunity to turn every decision into a financial win. This diarist didn't just build their home,

they've built a legacy. How good is that? Now, don't go anywhere because after the break, we're going to be diving into one of the most important lessons for women everywhere. Welcome back, my friends. If you're going through a breakup, or you know someone who is, this is the episode to send them. It can feel like such an overwhelming and intimidating process, especially when emotions are high, but the stakes are even higher. But this diarist's story is a powerful example of how preparation, confidence, and advocating for yourself can lead to outcomes that protect you and your family's future. This was a masterclass in standing up for yourself and walking away with a fair settlement. Let's hear how she did it.

I got a lawyer, which not cheap, obviously, and got myself with as much info as I could. I actually spoke to a really amazing lawyer and she was like, look, there's all these different ways to do this. The best way to do it, if you guys are amicable enough, is to do it through mediation. So you're not having lawyers represent you so you're not like wasting that money and I was like it's so nice of you to say that yeah thank you also an iconic queen yeah and she was just like I'm the one who does these invoices for these clients and I invoice them for like 30 grand and I just think to myself that's money that could have gone towards a deposit or the kids and I'm like you know so we did that a couple of weeks ago we did the mediation which is like a one-day thing to

deal with property and family I'd also in the meantime had quite a few meetings with my financial advisor. He has been amazing, helping me with negotiations and stuff. And so I came out of that pretty well. I went in probably over-prepared, but I think that's a better way to be. And he went in completely under-prepared. And so that's very mediocre middle-aged white man behavior. Exactly. So why should I prepare for this? The world will work for me. So I want to know, let's get into some nitty gritty questions because I'm sure it'll come back up. But now that you are getting back into your career, what do you do for work? how much money do you earn? So I'm a communications manager. I am on 103 per year plus super.

Oh, how good is that? I mean, at the moment you're probably like, oh, everything's so expensive, but like that is a great career trajectory. Yeah. And I feel like there's a lot of room for growth, which is awesome. Where, like, and this is probably not a question that's like a kind question to ask, but like, where do you think you would have been had you not, you know, put the brakes on your career back when you were making sacrifices so that he could earn three times more than you? Well, I know exactly where I would be because this is part of the research I did with going into my mediation. So my best friend and I graduated from the same degree at the same time. She's just recently had her first child, which by the way, having kids in your 30s

is a way better idea for so many reasons. But anyway, when I'm still not getting sleep and you're probably tired and you get to climb into your bed and no toddler is going to be in the middle you'll be saying ha try having an eight-year-old and a five-year-old in bed every night it's uh that's right you know what I feel like you're living my dream so she had an amazing stuff with her career like not to take anything away from her like she's brilliant at what she does but we had very similar you know I would say work ethics and all that kind of stuff she is currently on 210 yeah okay you know so that's the sacrifice I made in terms of being the one at home raising the children and when I said that to him he said well I didn't

ask you to do that I'm gonna literally bunch you in the face so weird my hand just slipped and fell into your nose oh the milk coming out of your boobies wasn't that good and your two days of paternity leave would not have gotten us very far oh that's so weird that we had kids when it suited you and I was 27 and didn't think it was going to work, but we did. So obviously that is actually a fantastic benchmark to have and having these money conversations with your friend really empowered you to have a successful mediation, right? So like, what were those conversations like? Did you sit down with your friend and go, Hey, cool. Like you are basically like we split off. It's like the superannuation ad where they're going up the escalators and that's really powerful.

but like what was that conversation like with your friend were you like can you just tell me what you earn was she open to that like what did that look like yeah so she's obviously been there for me during this whole like massive life change and she knew that I was going to mediation and and I literally just ragged her and I was like hey can you like we all as women need to get better at talking about money and talking about this stuff can you tell me what you've earned in your last like three four jobs and she's like yep when I was at this job I earned this when I was at this I learnt this. When I was at this, I learnt this. And I love that. And she's very similarly minded to me in terms of like, we need to change this narrative for women, especially like, let's not

be like weird about money or weird about sex or whatever. Like, let's just normalize everything. And so she was fully just like, yep. Anything else you need to know? You let me know. I can send you a pay slip for an example. I love her. So tell me how that played into mediation. Like what was that conversation? Like, I obviously thankfully haven't been through this process, but I know that it can be quite fickle. Is that something that you've said, well, actually I'd be here? Yep. So I said, I would be there. And I said, to make up for that, I believe I deserve X amount. Unfortunately, because we are both bad with money, we didn't really have much of a property pool to split. So I negotiated really hard for a good

monthly payment because in Australia, unfortunately, this is another thing they don't teach you. They don't give you alimony. So you have to do it as child support. So that's what I negotiated for. So I negotiated for $4,000 a month from him, which I think for me puts me in a much better position in terms of lending capabilities and things like that. So I went in really armed with all that information. I also went in armed with what he has earned over that time. When they'd break down those calculations of how much a woman... It's not just the amount of time that you spend out of the workforce, it's also the slower career progression because in the time that I was home with the kids, he progressed really rapidly in his career because he had the

time and space to do that. When you were in mediation, did you talk about superannuation? Did you negotiate for any? What did that look like? Yes, we did. This was again where he came in very unprepared. Get it, queen. I love this so much. I'm like, deserved, deserved. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, if you understood how like beta I had been in my relationship, you would be like, who is this person? Like, I'm just like, let's take control of our life now. Oh no. He was shocked too. Yeah, exactly. That's what we want. We want to blindside him. Yeah. So when the subject of super was brought up, he was kind of like, what, why do you get my super? I love this so much. And you were like, well, actually here is the research. Here is the reason why. Well, and I didn't even

have to say it. The mediator said it, which was even better. And I was like, you know, I took nine years out of full-time work, my earning capacity, my earning potential, blah, blah, blah. And then he's like, yeah, but I'm eight years older. So I'm closer to retirement than you. And it was like, irrelevant. Well, you had eight years more to think about this terrible decision, didn't you? Also, and as the mediator pointed out, but you also still earn triple what she earns. I love this mediator, this mediator. We know in the background, this mediator was like, money diarist, I'm on your team. Well, he was recommended by my lawyer for that reason. Iconic. Yeah. And so in the end, part of my negotiating was I negotiated for a higher

figure for the monthly payment and said, I want 50% of your super. And he was like, absolutely not to both. And I was like, okay, fine. What about an equalization of super? He was like, what does that even mean? I was like, silly boy. It means we join them together and then we split them in half. And he was like, okay, fine. We'll do that. But then the mediator said, well, actually, I don't think the court will sign off on that because that's not a fair division. So in the end, I've gotten 60% of your super. That's not a fair division. You asked for half and now you've got 60% of his super. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't laugh at this because obviously like, you know, there's two sides or there's actually three sides to every story, but like, you know,

he deserves to be financially secure as well, of course, but like not going in prepared, saying that 50% is not okay. Continuing the conversation, ending up with 40%. Oh, I love this. So you got 60% of his super. Yep. And now I need to work with my financial advisor about where we put that and how we put that in some super aggressive accounts to make sure that that's doing the most it can do. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Like that is probably my favorite thing I've heard all day. So where does that put you in relation to the average superannuation balance for your age? What is the average balance? I don't know. I think it will end me with about 185,000 in super.

Yeah. So that puts you way above and beyond for your age because you're 35. So that means that you are doing really well. 10 out of 10. This was an incredible story of resilience, preparation and self-advocacy. This diarist didn't just walk into mediation. She walked in ready to fight for what she deserved and she didn't settle for less. The big takeaway here, preparation is power. By taking the time to understand her worth, financially and personally, and backing it up with facts, she turned what could have been a stressful, one-sided process into a win for herself and her kids. It's also a really good reminder of the importance of surrounding yourself with a solid support system, whether that's a financial advisor or a trusted friend or even

both. Having people in your corner can help you build your case and boost your confidence, which makes all the difference. So if you're going through something similar, take a page from this diarist's book. Know your worth, do your homework and don't be afraid to advocate for yourself, even when it is hard. You've got this and your future self is going to thank you for it. This next story is one that many of us need to hear because let's be honest, when it comes to financial planning, we don't always prepare for the unexpected. Our diarist shares the tough reality of losing her mum and the challenges that followed, despite her parents having a wheel in place. So if you've ever said, oh, my partner handles all the money stuff,

or if you've avoided conversations about what happens when things might go wrong, this is the moment to lean in and listen. Mum kind of ran like all of our household finances and my dad pretty much like wasn't really across any of it. He was just really focused on. making the money bringing it home mum will manage it yeah exactly mum will look after it and so he trusted her completely and I feel like it's often the other way around like I've talked to friends who's like dad's handled all the finances but yeah in my family it was like my mum which was kind of great that she was across it all but when she passed away suddenly last year it meant that

dad had a bit of a rude awakening he had access to some of their accounts or mum thought she'd set everything up in a joint account structure. But after she died, we realized that dad had access to about three of the like 10 accounts. Oh yeah. Okay. And then that's a really big process of like applying for it to be released. And like, that's not what you need when you're buried in grief. No, it was quite a lot. And I think like, because the amount of money in those accounts was substantially less than the other accounts I mean like we were fine because dad was still earning but it just put like unnecessary pressure on him particularly around funeral expenses and everything else oh yeah and especially being really unexpected you don't get that grace

period of going let's get our ducks in a row we know this you know awful thing is coming we can you know line everything up like when it's really sudden you go from being absolutely fine one day to being not around and you can't even ask questions like oh hey mom is there anything like that we need to know like you just don't get that grace probably not a good practice to follow she was quite good in the sense that she had this little red book of passwords oh my gosh genius don't recommend that I feel like that's the generation though I can almost guarantee my mum has one yes thank god for mums right with little password books you're like safety first yeah exactly so that was definitely quite helpful because it meant temporarily we could kind of see

what was going on but then we went into probate so all those extra accounts that dad doesn't have it's all been locked up it's been a bit of a roller coaster of like dad having to learn how at internet bank and understanding how direct debits work and just like he kind of knew roughly what was coming in and going out but he just felt like in the few months after mum died he'd been really like slammed with payments that he wasn't anticipating so like yeah funeral costs and everything else and then other big regular payments he didn't kind of know they were coming so yeah I think that's been like a massive learning curve for him but also like a big eye-opener for me is like yeah his daughter just I don't know I think it's so important that I don't

know if you have a parent who doesn't know how to internet bank like make sure they know what they're doing it's so important not to have all the control with one party because you just don't know what life's going to throw at you. That was such an eye-opener this story is a powerful reminder that financial preparedness isn't just about having a will or trusting one partner to handle the money. It's about making sure everyone involved knows how things work and where everything is. What's the big takeaway here? Preparation is about setting up your finances so that if the unexpected happens, your loved ones aren't left dealing with unnecessary stress or confusion. That means making sure your accounts are set up correctly, passwords are shared securely,

and both partners are across the household budget and finance systems. It's not an easy conversation to have, I promise, but it is worth it. Because when you're grieving or navigating a major life change, the last thing you want to do is figure out internet banking or dealing with probate red tape. So take this as a sign to sit down with your partner or your family and have those conversations. Make a plan. It's not about being morbid. It's about creating freedom and security for the people you love. My friends, that wraps us up to the end of our episode. What I love most about money diaries is how they show us that no matter where you're starting from, there is always, always, always a way forward. Whether it's overcoming a financial struggle,

building some resilience, or simply learning to take the next step, these stories remind us that financial empowerment is never a one-size-fits-all journey. It's yours to define. And if you are hungry for more money stories and looking for a holiday read, I heard that Money Diaries with she's on the money is the perfect book for you it's packed with even more inspiring jaw-dropping and relatable stories from people just like you whether you're lounging by the beach or you're curled up at home it'll keep you entertained inspired and maybe even just a little bit nosy and my friends with that that is our last episode for 2024 thank you so much for tuning in for sharing the love and being part of this incredible community i'm going to be back in the new year

with even more stories, more tips and more ways to help you take control of your money and live your best life. I'll see you then, my loves. 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.