She's On The Money - THE SOTM EOY PARTY… Plus Should You Get a Credit Card & Is Building a Home Really Cheaper Than Buying?

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

It's our biggest Friday Drinks of the year so we're throwing a party aka our year in review. The stats, the moments that surprised us, and the community wins that honestly deserve more airtime... and of course your favourite blooper reel. Plus we get into which is cheaper, building vs buying a home. Building can look cheaper, especially online, but the reality is a lot messier. We talk about where the costs sneak in, why timelines matter, and why this decision feels very different depending on where you live and what stage of life you’re in. And because it’s summer, we talk credit cards. Should you get one to get through the next few months? When does it help, and when does it just make things harder later? We walk through how to think about it without shame or scare tactics. Need the team’s take on your money dilemma? Send us a voicemail here.Or if it's more of a spicy money drama and you want the communities verdict? Slide into our DMs here.  Ready for more laughs, lessons, and unhinged money chats? Check out our oh-so-bingeable Friday Drinks playlist. Listen here. Join our 400K+ She's on the Money community in our Facebook Group and on Instagram.  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, gulinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan, mumubangada boma ininyalan waka, gaunan yakarumja, 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 makes finance fun especially on fridays and my friends it is not just any friday it is boxing day and the last friday of the year so today we're going to be throwing a little she's on the money end of year party to celebrate you our incredible community. And that means we are shaking it up. We are doing things a little bit differently. I'm sorry, Bec, in advance, but we are skipping the broke tips and going all in on the celebration vibes with your biggest money wins of the year. And we're going to be helping to answer a money dilemma that's all about which is the better option, building a home or buying

one. And something new slid into our DMs about should you get a credit card to get you through the rest of summer. And of course, we've got our favorite end of year tradition, which is maybe everybody else's favorite, our blooper reel. I can't wait. But before that, my friends, how was your Christmas? How did you celebrate? Oh, it was really, really fun. I just went to my mom's house as per my mom and my three brothers. And we just played games. We tried Trivial Pursuit, which is probably the hardest game in the world. I was such a nerdy kid. I loved kids Trivial Pursuit. that's the same same and we play it with my nieces and nephews now and like I still love it I'm like oh you want to play that that's crazy yeah like I mean yeah you're going down it's crazy what do

they do they play the kids one or the regular we play the kids one still but we have the adults one and another game I've been loving recently is called articulate I love articulate I do I love articulate yeah but yeah with I don't think I've ever gotten a trivial pursuit question right Really? Just to go back to Trivial Pursuit, but Articulate, amazing. Taboo, is that the one where you like? Yeah, we love Taboo. I love Taboo.

Yeah, so we just kind of do that. It was really nice. It was a nice, wholesome time. What about you guys? I love it. I love it. Mine was good. Lots of food, friends and family, the three Fs.

Just, yeah, I love this time of year. It's so nice to be surrounded by joy. I knew we've had some good weather, which has been really lovely, and just, yeah, like soaking it all in. I love that. When you said the three Fs, I was like, oh, like my three Fs? the food, fuel and fun. And then I was like, oh no, actually people are much cooler than I am. That's what I think when you say three Fs. The three Fs for make it festive.

Bec, funnily enough, you started on board games and that's what I got for Christmas. I asked for this board game set because I was like, oh, like we actually just don't have these things. Whenever friends come over, like they might bring one. We've got like a random assortment of games, but I wanted the classics. And I found on Amazon that they had these like classics, but they were like in like coloured boxes that look like books. Oh, I've seen those on TikTok. They're so cute. So I got them for Christmas and I'm so excited.

My house, 2026, board game house. Gorgeous. You want to come over? We're playing board games. Yes, please. That's the best house to be. Yeah, I just think that's really fun. So I was really excited about that.

And then obviously just like lots of food, lots of family, like just hanging out. Like our Christmases are very chill. Yeah. We hosted so we didn't have to go anywhere and I love that for me. That's so exciting. I do. All right. Well, let's move on because this is the part of the show where I would normally share

a five-star review, but because it's the end of the year, I wanted, I guess, She's On The Money wrapped and I've pulled together some stats for you guys. So move over Spotify. We've got the She's On The Money wrapped. Oh, I love that. Cool. So first I feel like this is me blowing our own trumpet and like really loud. Are you ready? Because of all of you, our community, I love you. She's On The Money was the number one Australian business and finance podcast again this year. Oh my God. Isn't that crazy? We're just girls. Wow. We're just girls. Mind blowing. You guys downloaded our podcast, sit down 6,184,158 times. Oh my God. I can't even comprehend that as a That's insane.

No. And get this, you guys listened to 75,543,240 minutes of She's On The Money in the last 12 months. That's, I don't have the words. It doesn't even feel, how is that possible? 75 and a half million. That's crazy. Girl, what?

Oh my God, that's literally, that's incredible. I wonder how many times they heard the word slay. That's the 70 million. Yeah. Yeah. And also just the idea that that many people have had us in their ears for that long, wild, which I've done the maths, equates to 52,461 days of putting future you first. Whoa. Oh my God. Well done everybody. That's incredible. Hold on, hold on. I've got a guessing game for you because I've done the stats again. Guys, how many years does that equate to? I was just thinking in my brain,

I wonder how many years that is. Wait, what was the number again? okay so it's 52 461 days of putting future you first um 365 days in a year except for every four years i'm gonna say take that into consideration because i have to actually 10 oh wait were you gonna say 10 that's so dumb girl what no that's why you're on as like content I'm on as maths girl I'm gonna say like 160 oh she's good I'm gonna say 176 okay it's 143 oh seven years so like you you're pretty close like those are pretty good guesses wow I'm very impressed over a century of us oh my god unlucky unlucky for the people who have consumed that much I mean you're probably in a better financial position which is exactly what we wanted that's

And sorry, Spotify, for taking your rap, but I will give you a little bit of a shout-out because Spotify also gave us some awards in the year 25. If you don't mind. So we won the Marathon Show Award, which means our fans listen to us 99% more than other shows. Whoa. Oh, guys.

Isn't that cute? We got a Most Talked About Show, which means we get 99% more comments than other shows. And I love reading those comments. I read them every week. It's like we're in our DMs. Get in our DMs. I'm too scared.

We are born to yap. They're all fun and nice. They're fun and nice. And when people aren't nice, I'm like, well, why are you here? Yeah, fair. That's fair. I will give you a refund on everything you've paid to listen to this podcast. Yeah, totally, totally.

Off you trot. And then, get this, we won an award for being one of the most shared shows. Wow. So we were shared 99% more than other shows. That makes my heart really happy because it makes me think that you guys are listening and going, wow, I think this episode would really help somebody that I know. And that's what we've done. Yeah, that's incredible.

And we're so lucky because those are stats that we can't get ourselves. Obviously, like that's internal stuff from Spotify. Like we can't compare ourselves to other podcasts because we don't get access to their data and analytics. So it's really special to like get that insight because I can get the data of how many downloads we get. But like, where does that put us on the grand scale of things? Like wild to think that you guys binge listen to us so often. And I just think that I just, I'm so lucky. That is so cool. Oh, also I've got some more Spotify wrapped stuff because as a podcaster, I get this cool login to Spotify that gives me my own podcasts wrapped. We love a little bit of data. Are you ready? Absolutely.

I don't think you're going to be surprised here. I'll give you one guess. Which music artist did our community listen to the most? Taylor Swift. Surely. Yeah, it was Taylor Swift. And this is not going to come as a surprise, but I also think that if you go, oh, well, if they're listening to She's On The Money, they're listening to She's On The Money books. That is not true. The answer is not me. But what was our community's most listened to audio book? Elizabeth Gilbert. Love, eat, pray, eat, pray, love. Eat, pray, love. It wasn't. Can I say ACOTAR. I'm just manifesting that it's my girlies. No, it's not like that's probably up there, but like these are my girlies, the self-help girlies. Do you want another guess? Cause I was

like, it's a self-help ish book. Oh, easy, easy way with Ellen Carr. What is that? It's the stop vaping book. Oh, the stop vaping book. No, I understand. It's not on the list, but that's a good recommendation. I thought only I can think of is the Barefoot Investor, but I don't want to say that I mean you don't have to say barefoot investor because it's let them so it's the let them theory by Mel Robbins oh that makes so much sense actually yep and also just to throw it out there guys she is coming to tour Australia next year she she is and my producer Emma and I or our producer Emma and I have been crafting little PR emails to get her on the show because I just think what an epic opportunity to have her sit down the let them theory and money oh it would

be so juicy and I feel like this is just a really good time for me to be like if you have a connection if you want to slide into her dms if you want to hear her on she's on the money you could just let her know yeah you could just let her know so if you would want to hear Mel Robbins on the show while she is here in 2026 I don't know help her go out I just feel like that would be good content I couldn't agree more and I'd love to meet her oh my god yes like this is very self-indulgent at the same time as in my head being really good content anyway moving on what do you think our most popular episodes were great I'm thinking like investing for kids oh my gosh yeah really well not for kids but investing for beginners oh yes so our number one episode was

investing for beginners stop dreaming and start doing in 2025 great one sick yeah great number two number two rich girl mindset and how to get it yeah we all want to be rich uh-huh and then And number three, I want to say the first episode. Maybe not for the most downloaded, but I know people listen every year. It wasn't. Was it a Friday drink? No, it wasn't. This is going to stroke a team member's ego though.

It's not us. Brooks. Brooks Investing Diary. So Brooks Investing Diary. How this She's On The Money team member built her portfolio and can retire by the age of 35. It was a goodie. It was a goodie.

And then I feel like the video clips went really viral and like it is quite crazy to think that someone so young is building a portfolio to be able to retire at 35 you go how does that work it's just like we'll sit down I'll show you exactly what I'm doing yeah totally yeah it just got so many I don't know good reviews good content so yeah we'll do more of that in 2026 we do blogs every week I know that not everybody knows that we post blogs but I love writing I don't know if you guys know I have a whole column in the age in Sydney Morning Herald and they let me rant every week. They give me a thousand words to just spend. And I can tell people my thoughts and feelings. I love that. We also do that internally. So we

have a blog, our most popular blog posts on our website. And I actually have carved out the Christmas gift guide because that was obviously the most, because I feel like everyone's like, oh my goodness, I need this. But our most popular blogs coming in at number one, Three mortgage hacks that could save you thousands without you giving up your daily oat latte. I felt that was a very important piece to add. Very on brand for us. Yep.

Number two was asking for a friend. How much does everyone really have in super? Asking for a friend's a fun. Yeah, but we also use our community data. Yes. So we always dive into, well, this is how much our community has. And number three was the best high interest savings account in Australia right now.

Yes. With all of the hoops explained. A great blog that was. Jess no Jess has read it we went back and forth like that blog was like I would say a team effort because not only did we have to like write a blog but we had to do the research we had to do this whole damn spreadsheet I just I was like I'm not having people coming back to me and go Victoria are they just like the best high interest savings accounts you could find on google no no like ask Jess the spreadsheet was extensive I think I'm just more impressed that you guys

remember because you do them all the time I would be like I think it was trauma certain things just stick in your mind for whatever reason you associate with them with something I'm glad that that one did well not like none of those were sponsored they were just blogs that we were like let's do the best high interest savings accounts in Australia right now and it was really fun because we'd come up with like new banks or like find other things and then unfortunately I make the team read the pds I'm like you can't just like look at their website marketing yeah totally So that's where the trauma, I think, comes for Jess and George and Brooke. I can see it in your faces.

Anyway, I'm going to make sure that all of those are linked in the show notes for you. So if you missed them and you're like, but they were the top ones, you're not going to miss them for very long. Now let's move into the money wins of the year and the things our community are most proud of. So we asked our community what their biggest money wins of 2025 were and what they were most proud of. But before we share them, I wanted to ask the same thing

for our question of the week so I'm not giving that to the community what are you most proud of in 2025 Jessica Ricci I don't think anyone's gonna be surprised at all I'm proud that I'm building a house yeah finally she earns dirt I know it's it feels that wasn't meant to be condescending I promise but like that is so slay yeah I could not be more thrilled to be in debt that's it's been a long time coming as everybody knows it's been quite the journey and I'm just really happy that the process is going and I'm so excited about the fact that I'm building what will be a home that's crazy that's so exciting and I just love that I know you wanted to buy something pre-established but now we're going through I say we because I feel like I get to

join in we're going through the process of like just picking out all of her like designs and like the tiles and the bathroom and the kitchen and I'm just like this is going to be the most Jess house ever there's gonna be lots of pink there's so much pink there's so much peach there's so much pink I'm just so excited about it I couldn't yeah I'm over the moon honestly anytime I think about I just like right now if you could see the mirror I'm like beaming I just yeah it's so exciting it's so nice Jess I'm so stoked for you Miss Bex Syed what are you most proud of honestly I was gonna say there's no like moment that sticks out for me but I I think that I am genuinely proud of the fact that I do live paycheck to paycheck but somehow I've managed to keep my share house

alive I've managed to do all the things I need to do and staying happy and staying free year. So I am just really proud that I'm not rich, but I'm really making it. And I'm very happy about that. Maybe 2026 will be the year that Bec finally lets me do her cashflow system and then implements it. That's the hard part. You're an investor. You've been an investor for more than 12 months now. And I just feel like that level of security probably really helps as well. Absolutely. What are you most proud of this year? I wish I could be like, oh, I had this big thing that I did I think it's just the community I feel like our community has come together more this year than ever before I feel like we are lifting each other up and we it sounds so fluffy

but when I was thinking about it I was like it's literally just that vibe of like the community coming together and I think because we've been around for so long I'm now seeing more stories come out where they're really big big wins so like I'll get messages now every week of people not just going thanks so much you helped me with my budget and cash flow which you know in year one we definitely got but people are changing their entire lives or have changed their lives or they're graduating a uni course they didn't think that they could have done without you know us hyping them up or they've bought their first home and they started in debt and it's taken five years but they're still on the journey with us and it's just so special to know that our community

are so successful like that's really really cool I think from a like a personal perspective my husband and I bought our I don't know our forever home this year which was like the biggest thing ever and I've you know I don't want to talk about it heaps and heaps because I know that we're in a very privileged position but I also just go this house to me was something that I could never have comprehended like I did not think that that was ever going to be our reality and I have worked really hard and like I don't want to downplay it like that's where it came from it came from hard work it came from you know all of the tears all of the sacrifice all of the everything but like what do you mean I got to purchase my dream home so that for us is really cool and just the

idea that you know this is the home that Harvey's gonna grow up in I just go what like this is the home I'll bring other children home to what like that's so cool that's just cool for me and I think that stability is something I've always wanted to achieve for my children. So yeah, a bit fluffy, but also like, I guess, community and I bought a cool house. Cool. Great year for everybody, I say. Oh my God. Absolutely. Great year. Now, Miss Jessica Ricci, you have gone through and done a fair bit of work to pull out what we think are some pretty big annual money wins. What have you got? Alrighty. Firstly, I've got one from Georgia who said she started the year with $25,000 down from 49 left to pay on her consumer debt she's now 16k in the green including a five thousand

dollar emergency fund and completely debt free oh my god she said her credit score is the best it's been in five years amazing how incredible is that that's so much money that's so much money sorry sorry sorry so she started this she's doing more than a thousand dollars a month to smash that out yeah and build her now that's more than two and a half grand a month yeah wild what an icon georgia next rihanna said her biggest money win of 2025 was getting a promotion at work through self-advocacy building her personal brand networking with colleagues and putting herself in situations outside of her comfort zone she said she knows that she will continue to capitalize on these skills into the future as well good on you then i've got one from

zoe marie who said she refinanced her home loan at the 12 month mark to her everyday bank so she could maximize the offsets paired with a few interest cuts that we've obviously had. And now she's technically paying over a thousand dollars less per month, but they're still paying additional funds to try and bring the term of the loan down. I love that so much. Very clever queen. Yes. Paying the same amount, paying it down faster. That's incredible work. Next, Sarah said her biggest money win was double checking her income tax and super by doing her due diligence and reading up on policies and pay scales plus a few confident discussions meant she received thousands in what she was owed

and that had been mistakenly missed on payroll and may have never been picked up on. Oh, my God. Wow. That's so good. Always cross-check. Totally. That's a dream.

Genuinely. Next, Katrina said that she has paid off her mortgage in 2025. Sorry, the whole mortgage. The whole mortgage? That's cool. She says, we changed the way we divided our money into our accounts and it has changed our life. I learned that prioritising paying off the mortgage is exhausting,

so make sure you reward yourself occasionally yeah it would be i think is a really great tip totally next sarah said using loyalty cards throughout the year and saving them up for hard times she's been living on them for a month and it's been hard as she's moving into a new house and it's meant she can save where she can adore past you set up future you incredible work and then lastly i'm going to do one this year from talia who said she graduated university set herself a long-term money goal and because she wants to have investments equal to her hex balance before she starts a family and has to take parental leave she said it took seven years but with the 20 cut applied and her most recent small chunk invested her portfolio balance is now

greater than her hex balance she said what's more exciting than that my little one is due in eight weeks stop it congratulations talia that's amazing work stop it i absolutely love that ah i love our community so much it makes me want to scream like i just i'm so ridiculously proud of everyone in there. It doesn't matter if you, you know, we're just looking at cutting down your afterpay or you paid off your mortgage. Like I don't care. I'm equally excited about all of those things. Yes. You guys are incredible. All right. Let's go to a really quick break. And on the flip side, we are diving even deeper. We are going to be talking about which is a better option. Are we going to be building a home or are we buying one? And something that you slid into our DMs about,

should I be getting a credit card to be getting through the rest of this summer? Spoiler, I wonder what Victoria thinks. Anyway, let's go to a break. welcome back everybody let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma hi there have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve the she's on the money team is here to help every week we tackle your dilemmas both big and small to answer your most burning money career and life questions to get involved simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show now let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma hello sotm squad happy friday i'm in the middle of listening to one of the episodes

actually but i have a dilemma or a question so to speak about building versus buying this year me and my partner bought our first house a townhouse and we are well and truly on the way of looking what the next house looks like for our family home or and i work at a bank in the construction lending sector. And right now it's proving true that building is going to be a lot cheaper than it is buying. And that might change obviously in the next like one to five years. But I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on buying versus building. Thank you. Well, I had this exact situation this year myself. So I feel kind of qualified. I had a very similar situation to our listener in that I was just finding that everything that was established was so expensive

to the point where prices were being pushed up beyond what I felt was reasonable for them. Like you would be overpaying in my opinion. Now I'm obviously going through the building process. I'm still in very early days, but I think it's been a fantastic decision for me. I think the really fun thing, especially if you're someone who's particular is when you build, like all of that control sits with you. So you get to pick as Victoria was saying earlier, like all of your tiles your wall color like all these different fun things and I think that that is a really exciting thing to me like it's something that I've really enjoyed it has been a bit of an arduous process but it's been really fun the other thing is and I guess because you guys already have your

property it's probably not as applicable to you as it was to me but building a home meant that I was able to take advantage of a lot of grants and schemes that I would not have qualified for had I purchased established. So like the first home owner's grant, the stamp duty exemption, because of the cost of buying established homes, I would have capped out on that. Whereas if you're buying land and then building a home on it, the assessment is done on the value of the land at the time that you purchase it, which is often like half-ish of your total cost. And so like that saved me, I believe like 30 plus thousand dollars in stamp duty. I'm looking at Victoria because she knows the numbers I'm like yeah I went through her numbers yep yeah I validate

everything she has said so far yes yeah so those were huge things for me obviously for you that might not be the case because you've already bought a home but I think I'm a big fan of the process of building heaps of people said to me over the years oh I wouldn't build your first home and now that I'm doing it I don't really understand why they said that like maybe started building not to be rude but it's like when people are like how hard could parenting be true when they're not parents um and I go you sit down you just wait people say things like oh my god I would never let my kid no sorry you can't say you can't give them the iPad yeah yeah yeah like don't get me wrong you might have a very smooth process and I'm manifesting that very hard same but

yeah yeah sorry to cut you off tell me your thoughts okay so when it comes to building versus buying on paper building is going to look cheaper. That doesn't mean it is. I think we need to look at the season of our lives and, you know, to flip this, we didn't build, but my husband and I purchased our first home with the intention of significantly renovating it. And we did, and we sold it and like it all came out in the wash. And when I say it all came out in the wash, it was a chaotic process. Like Jess, you remember my chaos period. And I can't tell you if that was all the builders fault, terrible builder, by the way, sorry, not builder, terrible project manager. The builder was delightful, terrible project manager. It wasn't me, by the way, I didn't do

it myself. But like, if I had, it would have been just as bad. Anyway, that process meant that we thought we would have ended up walking away with a bigger profit on the house when we sold it. And that's just not the reality of the situation. Absolutely fine, because that's not what you're checking in with. My husband and I decided that building wasn't for us, because it really depends on where you're building, what you're looking at. Like Jess is building in an area that has a lot of construction already and you're going to go. Land availability.

Yeah, you're going to go with a house and land package. So for me to build in the area that I would have wanted to build in, it would have meant there's no empty blocks of land. It would have meant a buy a house, demo a house, rebuild a house, which is going to have a lot more costs associated with it, not just because of demolition, but because it's out of the area that most of the builders are working in. So Jess is going to get more preferable rates because they're also building three houses down

the street that have very similar fittings and fixtures and they can kind of keep things on a similar timeframe. There's a lot to it. It also depends if you've entered into a fixed rate building contract versus a not fixed rate building contract. And as we probably, I don't know if you guys are watching, but like mining is getting more expensive. Minerals are getting more expensive. Iron ore is getting more expensive. And for this, it means that lots of people's budgets are being blown because they're like, oh, well, you know, these floorboards were $50 a square meter. They're now $60 a square meter. And you think 10 bucks here and there, what's the difference? But this stuff adds up and then it's also the delays. So Jess is in a perfect position from my perspective.

She's got a rental property that she can live in. You could go month to month if they kept pushing it out and make it work for you. But there's a lot of people who will build and then go, oh, I'm moving with mum and dad for the six months. They say it takes, then it takes 12 or they have to keep renting and paying the mortgage on the land. Look, there's just a lot to go through. So I don't think that there is a right or a wrong, but I think it's about deep diving because like I wouldn't do it in my area, but I did the numbers for Jess and I was like, yes, dive in. Like that sounds fantastic. Like, you know, she'd already done the research before she even bought the house on the type of builder she'd use, how much

the type of house she would want to purchase would cost what the upgrades would look like what upgrades she could afford versus not like just went deep that's what I want you to do if you're going to be doing that whereas I went deep on mine and I was just like my goodness like this is crazy and you know I don't want to scare people but like I have a neighbor down the road from me who did the knockdown rebuild their house is going to be beautiful um they're already 50% over budget. That's crazy. And like, once you get there, what do you do? Just stop building the house. Yeah. So you have to make sure that you know what you're up against when it comes to building. Like, yes, you might save on stamp duty, but like, what does the timeframe look like? And

I feel like yours is very predictable, Jess, because of the style of house, the location, et cetera. Through a volume builder and stuff too. Exactly. Exactly. Whereas if we had done it, we could have gone through a volume builder, but because it's so out of the way of every other house they're building, we would be the ones that would be left lagging while they prioritize getting a bulk lot done. Yeah. The other thing I would say, sorry, you reminded me of something very good. I spoke about this in a YouTube video. The costs that you look at for houses online are so not even remotely close to the final cost of the house. No, it's crazy. They'll give you the budget version. Yeah. And it's like, so you have to factor in upgrades, site costs, which will vary

depending on where your land is, the cost of putting appliances, driveway, your driveway's not included, fencing's not included. There are lots of things like that that you need to factor in that will be on top of whatever those listed prices are online. Yeah. So you go, great, that's the house. And they're like, yeah, the shell of the house. Yeah. That feels so mean. Yeah, it is. But then there's just such variance between what you do. Like Jess would go in, right? So she's picked her like shell of her house and now we're going in and we're looking at the kitchen. Great. Do you want marble benchtops? I don't need it. Yes. But like some people would want that upgrade. Yeah, I see.

That's going to cost you between $10,000 and $30,000. Yeah. Like, and that's another cost to be added. Great. What types of appliances are you putting in? Are you just putting in the most basic or are you like, no, massive cook, I want the fanciest European appliances? Well, that's going to change the price point again

and these changes around the house are going to add up. Yeah. The type of tile you pick. One could be the most basic tile, dollar per tile, money win. Yeah. And you could be like, oh, I really like these Italian blue ones. They work really well. Great.

That's actually $17 a tile. And that adds up. So it's not that they're trying to screw you over. They can't give you an accurate representation of what your dream house is going to look like. Yeah, that's fair. Because they're not trying to mess you around. They're like, the base costs this. Yeah.

And then your kitchen could cost, like we could probably build one for 10 grand, money win. Or did you want all of the luxury inclusions? Because that's a $50,000 kitchen. Totally. Well, that's a hundred thousand dollar kit. Do you know what I mean? So is that fair to just give it a one price? I see. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. So anyway, what would you do? Build or buy? God, I, I, I just am so, it's not my world. It's not my wheelhouse, but I think that I wouldn't have the patience to build. I feel like I would, I would be so excited to be purchasing

that I would want it to be already existing, but there is something really nice about knowing that you're walking into a home that you've bought and you other than the builders are the only ones to touch the service you're the only one that's lived there you're the only one to live in that house ever you know there would be something really special about that do you care about that are you excited about that i i mean yeah like i guess it's something nice like well no one had sex on my kitchen counter yeah i think there's something in it all being do you know how sit up beck and i are interested yeah it's because you want to no no we were just we're just interested in the opportunity yeah that sounds not as good victoria's coming on to me but i'm open to it that's so fine

you know what i would if i could but i can't so i won't that's so fair i don't think i'm glad to either so yeah i'm married maybe in another relationship yeah it could have worked it's a real shame but if you could keep your kitchen counter clean for us that would be fantastic that would be fantastic um I just didn't care about that as someone who's always like lived in rentals and bought secondhand cars like I just actually that's a great point like all my couches were second so you're like I've got this brand new kitchen no one has had sex on my kitchen bench the couch though yeah don't know what those stains are look I'm in the market for some couches okay that's like anyway oh god all right let's move on I feel like that

has probably wrapped that up. Would you like to get into the DM that we got? Absolutely. Yes, please. All right. So I think this is a really timely one, which is why I picked it. So someone looked into our DMs this week and said, hi, she's on the money. I have a dilemma that I'd love to get some opinions on. Context, in term four, I took a nine week opportunity as a teacher's aid in a town 20 hours from where I'm from. As a temporary position, I won't receive holiday pay over the next six weeks, but I will have permanency there in 2026. However, I'm concerned about finances over the six-week holidays that are coming up. I've left with $5,000 in my bank account and $4,500 in my raised shares at the moment. I don't have any debt, just $2,765 of

total rent to pay for the next six weeks before I return to start my new job. I'll also have a few big expenses over the holidays. The big question here is, should I apply for a personal loan or a credit card to get me through this period, or is it wise to withdraw some of my money from shares? I mean, maybe it's because I am kind of savvy with my money now because I'm perpetually broke and sorry everyone who's hearing that. You're definitely getting better. I don't think you're broke. You're not actually, you know what, I'm going to veto you. You're not allowed to call yourself broke when you have a share portfolio. Yeah, true actually. Yeah, that's true. That's a really good point. That's crazy. I'm taking your identity away from you. I'm so

sorry. That's so fine. I think that I would just be picking up and I know that it sounds like they're quite busy, but I would be picking up like odd jobs here and there. It's a really tricky one. I don't think you should go into debt because it could get out of control really quickly, like a wildfire, you know? So don't risk it. Don't risk it. I'd be trying to find odd jobs here and there before dipping into your shares. I mean, six weeks is a long time to not be working I think that I'm with you I'm team like pick up some extra work if you can do some door dashing do whatever to me you say like what I have heard is rough a little bit over half of your income or money that you have half of your five thousand dollars needs to go to rent in my

mind for myself two thousand dollars to last that six weeks would be enough to cover food etc I don't know about your bills and stuff and I don't know about those large expenses that you alluded to So if the combination of those things is going to chew through all of that $5,000, I would be saying then, yeah, you do need to look at an alternative option to give yourself a bit of like safety, whether that is picking up jobs, that would be my personal preference for you and for myself too, honestly. If you had to get a credit card and I'm not against credit cards, I have one for the points. I think I would just say, be smart about it. So I would save signing up for the credit card until the last possible minute so that you can align your

repayment with when your first payment from your when your job because I assume at most your first payment would be every four weeks but I believe for teachers each day it's more often fortnightly so if that's the case I would say maybe like a week or two before you go back to school when you arguably probably are quite skint get a credit card do not spend more on that credit card then you will be able to pay off with that first pay cycle and make sure that you do so so you're not paying any interest is it an ideal situation obviously not it really comes down to are you responsible enough to have a credit card all those sorts of things exactly as beck was saying if you're going to spend and get into like a bad cycle wouldn't recommend definitely my preference

would be just pick up the extra work to get you through because six weeks is a long time to not be working. But if you absolutely had to, I don't want you to not have any money available to you at all. That's my thought. Totally. I agree and don't agree. I would be like saving the credit card as a last resort. Like just because I feel like that's a fantastic way of dealing with it, Jess. It genuinely is. But that's how so many people get their first credit cards and then get themselves into debt because they go, this will just get me through this period. And then after this period I'm just not going to use it again but then next month happens and you really want to go to someone's birthday or the month after that happens and you're like far out I've

got this unexpected retro cost I'll just chuck it on my credit card and deal with it later and that's how the debt starts to snowball and you start to get more and more comfortable using your card and you don't think about it like nobody gets a credit card with the intention of going into significant debt I don't think I've ever met someone who's been in significant credit card debt and I've said well you know why did you first get a credit card talk me through that and they go well, V, I just had all this expensive luxury stuff I couldn't afford. And I just thought, yeah, I just thought I'd get a credit card and I could have that stuff. It's always a story like that where, oh yeah, I had this six weeks and that's the like tipping point. So I feel like

it's a very slippery slope, which is why I would avoid it at all costs. Not saying it's the end of the world to do that, but I just want a caveat there. For me, it would be what you suggested as well. What could you do in those six weeks? Could you jump on AirTasker and, you know, do some proofreading for somebody to get a few couple of, like a couple of hundred bucks in? Are there tasks that you could take up? Is there a cafe you could go and work in? Could you do tutoring? Yeah, could you do tutoring? Like, I feel like lots of cafes over the holiday periods always want some more hands on deck. And if you went in and said, hey, I'd love to work for you for the next six months while you're, you know, dealing with

additional holiday traffic, like that's a money win. That's probably a good tip for people who are listening to this on Boxing Day and they're like oh like I don't start uni till March or something yeah that's a busy period for most like people in hospo so yeah I would look at that I would obviously firstly want to look at like your budget is there anything you can delay like is obviously we're paying our rent but are there any things coming up that you're like oh I actually don't have to spend that this month I could put it off until I have my full-time job again but yeah for me I think it would be about budget and cash flow how can I bring in some additional cash okay maybe we could look at our raise portfolio because in all honesty from a pragmatic point

of view I'd prefer you to pull out a couple of hundred dollars that you need from your share portfolio then get a credit card to cover that I don't know how long you've been investing in raise I don't know what that looks like but if it's either on par with the market or just above the market it's not the end of the world and then you could create a little plan once you get back to work to like replenish that amount but yeah that's probably where my brain is at I'm just so scared of you getting a credit card and then falling down the credit cloud, like slide basically. Totally. What everyone else say. Everyone else always has an opinion and I love it. So the first thing I asked you guys was what would you do if you were our community member? 44% said I

would be trying to reduce my expenses. 34%, you guys, we're all on the same page, said I'm going to look at holiday income. 12% said they'd sell shares and 10% said look at loan and credit options. So I feel like that's reflective of the conversation we had. The next question we asked was what's your biggest priority with money right now? 38% said working on your budget and cash flow. My money masterclass is a great place to start. 26% of you said growing investments. My investing masterclass is a great place to start. 19% said avoiding debt and 18% said generating more income. Then I asked you guys, what's your two cents? So diving straight in, first person said,

will they even be eligible for a loan or a credit card if they're not currently working? That's a great point, actually. Oh, true. Yes and no. If you've got a signed employment contract, usually. Yeah, true. There's a low bar.

Yeah. Not saying that is a good thing, but there is usually a very low bar. Next person, it's a two-parter. I would make up a budget and try my best to stick to it. Also try and get some extra cash flow in, maybe with tutoring or other casual jobs, just keeping everything in the black. Yeah. Next person said, can a family member learn new money interest-free and then you can pay it

back when you're working? I mean, not the worst. Like if, if you're in a situation where your mom can give you 500 bucks and you pay her back and it's very clean and easy, I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. But not everybody is in a position where they want to do that or can do that. Next person said, hubby and I use a credit card responsibly to manage cashflow and it works well for us. I agree. So do we. So does Jess. Like it's not a bad thing. Bec, what would happen if I gave you a credit card nowadays? No, today I think I'd be okay with it. You'd be good? Like maybe even a year or two ago, it would have blown out of control. Yeah, so you need to know your personality and whether that's going to work for you. Totally, totally. Next person said,

if she's offered permanency in 2026, she should be receiving holiday pay. Union Chats ASAP need it. there you go good to know well yes and no so absolutely agree but I'm pretty sure holiday pay only works like once you're in the job yeah like your contract doesn't start until the first date yeah so maybe you get holiday pay next year for like the 2027 holidays but you don't get it this year does that make sense because there's no way like if I took on a new staff member logically I wouldn't be like oh Jess come work for me from you know the start of February I'll just start paying you now yeah that doesn't make sense to me but again I'm not a teacher so that might not be how it works I'm just a little bit like call your union anyway and find out and last one I'll give

you this person said absolutely don't do it just go get a casual or retail or cafe job credit is always a trap yes yes yes true all right I feel like that's a good wrap on it I don't think we should be getting a credit card to get through the summer season not because it wouldn't help us but because I think it's a slippery slope. Fair. Now, I do and I don't want to get into this next segment. We have set the expectation that every year we give you a bloopers wrap and unfortunately you guys blow up our DMs telling us how funny

and how much you love it and how you hope it never goes away. So you would have heard about our producer, Emma, but then we also have Sam who is our audio engineer and Sam likes to keep track of us and maybe just keep us a little bit humble. Yeah. So every year, Sam collects little audio clips and files them away to humble us at the end of the year. And I can't wait.

And none of us have heard this bloopers reel yet because Emmergate keeps it until we start recording live. Let's just jump in. What's Sam going to roast us about this year? Let's find out. Let's do it. It's been a big year at She's On The Money and it would be remiss of me

if I didn't give you a look behind the scenes of the show. Oh, sorry, not remiss. How do you say it, Victoria? And I think it would be amiss of me not to mention that. Honestly, I feel bad. If I'd let Victoria know she was getting sayings wrong earlier in the year, we'd have been able to nip this in the bud. Or butt, according to V.

You need to nip that in the butt. It's also up to management to nip that in the butt. Now, this year we started full video episodes for the Wednesday Deep Dives. Why haven't we done this for the Friday Eps? Well, it's mostly so the girls can record audio and do other important things at the same time, like apply cuticle oil. Has anyone ever said...

Sorry. Oh, my God. I saw you say that. Is that cuticle oil? Yeah. Sorry. I don't remember what it was before. Sorry.

Don't keep going into it and keep talking. Okay, sorry. I didn't mean to have to follow the show. Oh, sorry. Shut up. We were doing it on the sly. We've always known Bec was the chill one of the group, but this year she was almost as chill as a certain turtle from Finding Nemo.

Totally. Totally. Totally. Totally. Totally. Totally. Totally. Totally.

Totally. And while Victoria's Spotify rap may say otherwise, this year revealed that her favourite band is No Doubt. I'm just a girl. I'm just a girl. I'm just a girl. Oh, I'm just a girl. Happy holidays, everyone, and have a great 2026.

oh he went nice he was gentle this year that was not as bad as it could have been thanks sam um but also totally oh my god i need to be so conscious of that no i love it what i'm getting is you're pretty perfect yeah you know what i mean yeah i mean i don't know how much should you pay sam to get out of the blue between me and him i'm just a girl oh my god oh well i feel like that is a great place to wrap this show up guys it has been a beautiful year and I cannot wait to dive into 2026 with you all we have so many exciting things coming up with what a summer series so that you don't miss a single thing and you get to start on the absolute right foot and just so much investing content so much budget and cash flow content just so many fun announcements coming in

2026 I can't wait happy new year guys happy new year good babies bye the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy a financial product read the pds tmd and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.