She's On The Money - The Teen Mum Who Went From Centrelink to a Six-Figure Life

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

Ever feel like everyone else’s life is speeding ahead while you’re stuck in the slow lane? This week’s Money Diarist knows that feeling too well. While her friends were off travelling, she was juggling uni deadlines and midnight feeds. At 17, she was pregnant and kicked out of school for being a “bad example.” Instead of giving up, she finished Year 12 through TAFE, raised her baby, went to uni, and rebuilt her life from scratch, all while living on Centrelink. Fast forward a decade and she’s earning six figures, owns her home, and has cleared every cent of personal debt. But getting here meant facing down shame, comparison, and that constant feeling of being “behind”… so this ep is full of the real talk we all need to hear. This episode is your reminder that it doesn’t matter where you start, you can still build something incredible from right where you are.GET VICTORIA'S BUDGETING SYSTEM: Master your cashflow 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 - 4See 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 ithawakanidawaman daman imelan, mumibangada 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 lets you be pervy about other people's money habits for educational purposes of course welcome back to another one of our money diaries episodes where i get the absolute pleasure of sitting down and having a chat with one of our incredible She's On The Money community members all about their journey. Now let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded like this. Dear She's On The Money, I became a mum at 18. I finished year 12 and then four weeks later I had my baby. Then I went on to university while working and raising my girl. Money was tight

and every dollar counted living on Centrelink. Over the years I've worked hard to build a career, buy a home and create stability for my family. I'm now focused on growing wealth through budgeting, hopefully soon investing and long-term planning. My money journey is about resilience, learning and creating the future I only once dreamed of. Money, Daris, this is very cool. Thank you. Sorry, having a baby at 18 while I'm assuming you fell pregnant in grade 12. Yeah, yeah, it was the start of year 12. So I think I found out on April Fool's Day. oh what a joke the worst April Fool's I did eight pregnancy tests and yeah I was pregnant it was um a real thing yeah no hold on let's backtrack a little bit I want to know before we dive further

in because I've just got so many questions what grade would you give your money habits from A3 to F? I think I'm really on the fence between like a C plus or a B minus yeah I'm sort of like we're doing okay but i guess there's always room for growth and i'm only a new community member i sort of joined the shoes on the money community so i listened to podcasts in january this year so welcome to the fan yeah so i'm a newbie um so yeah still just sort of getting on track but i do think looking back and sort of reading some new books listening to the podcast that i have definitely had some really good habits that have helped me get to where i am now and now it's around kind of refining and girl you've had amazing habits the fact that you finished year 12 pregnant

and did all of that, like be so for real. Like I know that the option of dropping out might have seemed really appealing at the time. And like one of my friends from way back when I was in grade 12, she actually fell pregnant. I would say about the same time as you did in grade 12. She actually went into labor in our English exam and she finished and she is now the most incredible teacher and like does like runs rings around things. She now has like three kids. She's an icon but I just think these stories are so beautiful because that sounds like a really rough start to getting your money story started you didn't have time to set yourself up financially like there clearly wasn't a lot of planning involved in this type of stuff but you've come

out on top like and you're probably in a better money situation than so many people and like that's just inspirational so I cannot wait to hear more thank you you did eight pregnancy tests and then what had a meltdown it was just like shock I think my partner who's now my husband um stop it you're still together we're still together that's so cute I love love we're still together yes so 13 years married this year we got ended up getting pregnant a bit of a shotgun wedding just because I think it was such a hectic year and looking back probably wouldn't do that again but we got married and we were like let's just do this like we're a bit crazy we're in survival mode. But yeah, I was just pretty much very shocked. I think I just walked in the room

and he was still asleep and I just stared at him and then he woke up and he's like, oh, you're pregnant. I was like, yeah, yeah, I am. No. Yeah. So it was a bit shocking and it did change the course of my life forever. You know, going back before I got pregnant, I was always someone who worked really hard. I had two jobs in high school. I'd go from, you know, working one sort of hospital job to another hospital job but you know day and night on the weekends and always had a really big you know work ethic and it was really important to me to work and have money and savings and stability so then to suddenly have your whole world flipped upside down did change things for me and it did unfortunately lead to me not getting any more shifts you know in my job that was you

know working at a very big fast food company at the time and yeah it sort of changed it meant that yeah, I had to apply for Centrelink and had to move schools. My school kicked me out and had to go and join the local TAFE to be able to finish year 12. So it did shift a lot of things for me. Why did your school kick you out? Were they like a Catholic school? Yeah, I was at a religious school and yeah, the principal called me up and said I wasn't sort of a good role model for the younger students because I was pregnant, which yeah, is bizarre in itself because, you know, if we think about what maybe religious schools teach, you know, around loving people and Oh, yeah. No, no, no. It's crazy. It's crazy. I also went to a Catholic high school and my friend

was asked because she didn't get kicked out, which is really good. And I don't know a lot about the semantics of that conversation, but I do remember talking to her because she was asked not to wear the uniform anymore and that she could come to school, but she had to be in plain clothes. And like looking back on that, it's like she's already having a rough time, like to then be ostracized and like pointed out even more. Like what do you like? Sometimes you just look at things that happened during school and you go, why the hell did anybody think that that was appropriate? Like would not the best thing to have been done was keep you in that environment and support you through that and show everybody that no, like mistakes happen

and we are kind. Yeah, absolutely. Horrific. I'm so sorry you went through that. It doesn't make any sense. It's already a hard time. You're already feeling self-conscious. So let's make people more self-conscious. It doesn't really. A thousand percent. So you finished year 12 through TAFE, an icon. I love this for you. What was it like giving birth four weeks after finishing year 12? It was crazy. Like I think I just set myself a deadline, had to get through year 12. So I did that and then sort of had four weeks to, well, you're never chilling. You're exhausted and you end up having more appointments and things like that. And you're running around. so I had my license so I turned 18 sort of halfway through my pregnancy so it was nice to have a bit

of freedom and yeah I just kind of was I think to be honest I haven't really processed a lot of what I've gone through until sort of this stage in life like I just sort of knuckled down and had to get on with it had to go into mum mode figure it out and my goal was always to make sure that you know my daughter had a you know stable life and the best life she could and it didn't feel like she came from a mum who was a teenager because you know obviously stereotypical that you know can look perhaps a little bit different to what I wanted it to look like so yeah then had her and a whole world changed and as it does when anyone becomes a mum and yeah it was obviously you know the ups and downs and the challenges and that sort of thing and maybe yeah when she was about

six months old I decided that I was going to go to uni so I ended up doing a mid-year intake for uni and um you're an icon you are an absolute icon so you went to uni what did you study I did a bachelor of criminal justice okay icon very niche um you know just what I was into at the time and you know still am but yeah so went on and did that and I ended up doing that that was a three-year degree and I actually got to do it in two and a half years stop it of course you did and in the middle of that I also had my second son two years later as well so we adore so what were you when you had your second son? 20. Yeah. Okay. So do you have any more kids now or is it just the two? No. Two and done. Two and done. That is so fair. But also kind of incredible that you

got them done so early. Cause like I had my first baby when I was 32 and don't get me wrong. I don't think anyone ever feels ready. Like even at 32, I'm like, okay, cool. Like I've got the finances sorted. I've got this, I've got that. And I'm in labor and I'm like, this is cooked. Why did we do this. Like, I'm so scared. Like, I can't imagine what that would have been like at 18. But now you're probably laughing at me because last night I was up between two and four because my baby wouldn't stop crying. And you were probably sleeping soundly because you get to live your life having already done the nappies. Definitely, definitely. I think, you know, we all struggle, you know, with parenting and motherhood and, you know, the challenges of being awake in the middle

of the night and feeling a bit lonely and isolated. And I guess I'm learning now that, you know that is normal for us all to go through that at different stages and I've had to process a lot of grief around you know how my life went because back then all my friends you know were off going clubbing and going out and going on holidays and you know had sort of a lot of freedom that I didn't have back then and you know now perhaps I have a little bit more freedom but you know it's sort of similar to you a lot of my friends and I've started to slow down and have babies and you know our routines still clash to this day so yeah it's it's a very different stage life for me now, but I definitely don't forget the challenges of motherhood and yeah, all those

late nights. No, but it sounds like you took to it like a duck to water, which is so nice to hear. Like you just want to know that if that's the journey, like you can just get it done. Do you feel like you missed out? Like, is that part of, you know, you said you're, you're going through some grief and like trying to work through that. Is that because you're like, I really missed out on part of my youth or like what does that part look like? Yeah I think it definitely feels like I missed out on a lot and I guess that's sort of you know part of my money story as well is you know often I got into sort of some bad habits of really comparing myself to other people and you know people would have money to go travel or to just go out for dinner or a coffee and you know

I guess one of my experiences you know I had a really good mother's group I'm so lucky I ended up joining an adult mother's group because the younger ones just weren't my fit but I had a really good mother's group but I was struggling so much financially that you know sometimes they'd be like let's just meet at a cafe and I didn't even have five dollars or four dollars back then for a coffee and so I just wouldn't go and so yeah it was really hard because I was always comparing myself to other mums at that time but also comparing myself to my peers who were all you know obviously 18, 19, 20 living their best lives as you should be at that age. Yeah but the comparison is not comparable. And like, at the time you don't know that, like, but going to

mother's group with the adult group, I'm sure that, you know, personality wise, you might've got on a lot more, but just the differences in circumstances would have meant that you would have felt really less than you would have felt like, oh, I don't fit in here. And I can almost guarantee, like if they knew your situation, they would have been like, money dress, we've got your coffee, come along. It doesn't matter. But like, you're not going to put your hand up and say that like that that's not how we're feeling in that moment or at that time so it's just it's really upsetting and then your friends going out you'd be like well I can't resonate with anybody I'm all on my own was it very isolating during that time? Yeah it was it was very isolating and I

think you then sort of start saying no to people for genuine reason and then the invites sort of dry up and you stop sort of hearing from people and you know at the time I think I became quite upset towards that but you know as I get older you understand that like you know people you know they sort of you know put in the effort and then when they feel like it's not being reciprocated and they sometimes especially at the age of 20 you know often don't have that empathy or that understanding of like what it would be like to be in a different situation yeah 100 so I can really see that differently now but yeah at the time it was really isolating and yeah just really really challenging I'm just sort of doing it on my own but I guess for me I just made the choice that

I was just going to knuckle down, focus on uni, focus on spending time, you know, with my daughter and then, you know, my son who came along as well. And yeah, just put a lot of energy into that. So yeah, really to set ourselves up, our sort of goal was, you know, to buy a house as I think most people's goals are, you know, in that nuclear family kind of vibe. But yeah, so that was sort of our long-term goal. Go to uni, work hard, hopefully get a house and have some sort of stability. Yeah. And like, I look at it and I just go, brilliant. Like how good you've kind of like set yourselves up in this way and you've just got so much time like you're only 30 like the amount of people that haven't even done anything near what you've done at the age of 30 it's not a

comparison but it's just like you probably don't know how well you're doing and I like want to like hug you and shake you at the same time and be like money daris like this is actually like the prime time like your kids are probably a little bit more independent I'm assuming they're 10 and 12. Is that right? Yeah. 10 and 12 and almost 13, almost 11. It's yeah. Birthdays, November birthdays. Yeah. Oh, you're about to go through it again. But I feel like that's the time where now you can focus on your budgeting and you're building wealth and there's no daycare fees. And there's probably a bit more flexibility with school and pickups and drop-offs. Like this is the prime. I'm just so excited for you. And the fact that

you already own a home like stop it tell me a little bit more about what life looks like today because we've talked about like the journey but like what's today you've built your career and you've got a home and you're creating stability what do you and your partner do for work and how much money do you earn yeah so I work for state government so I went into sort of yeah justice related work and currently working as a project officer yeah for state government I earn around 111 000 a year plus super yeah and because you're working for state government what's your super rate um i think it's just the standard it's not it's not the same as federal government which is a bummer but yeah yeah i was like how does that work because every state and territory is different

yeah so um what i think what is victoria on 12 yeah 12 yeah how good and what does your partner do he is a project manager in like sort of the construction space and he earns i think around 185, including super. Stop it. You guys are so set up for success. Like it might not feel like it at the moment because you've just been like, you know, treading water, but like with a good budget and cashflow plan and starting to learn about investing, like, oh, I could like pick you up and make you really rich. I'm so excited about your situation. Tell me a little bit more, like you've bought the house and I'll get to that in a hot minute. Like you've built a clearly incredible career. What are your next big money goals? Like what are you two currently working

towards? I think that's where the limbo has kind of come for the last few years. And I guess I'm a little bit shy to say, like we've been in our house for almost six years now. And I feel like we've probably just been a bit stagnant for the last six years. Like we had this huge goal and I guess we had really big plans to, you know, we got pregnant, had babies, had to go to uni, wanted to my house like that was just our like sort of end goal and then we kind of got here and I think we've just kind of been like oh now what and probably like the last few years have just been so now dealing with I guess the emotional side of how challenging like our 20s and you know life has been for us up until now and sort of doing some work on that but then I think at the start

of this year we were both like we feel a bit directionless like what what's going on and I'd actually seen your book a few times like I've done a few holidays seen it at the airport and I was like, Oh, I should read that one day. Never did like the clown that I am. And then found the podcast. But also like, I'm not going to lie. I'm so sorry. Like I haven't always been good at money and like, yeah, the cover's pretty. And I tried really hard, but like, that doesn't mean I even would have picked up a money book. I feel like you pick up my book when you're like, okay, it's not like a, Oh, that looks like a fantastic read. I think it's like, I probably need to get my shit together. All right. I'll pick up this book. Like I get it.

I'm not expecting you to be like, oh my God, I just saw this great book at Dimmix. Like that's not how it works. I feel like we finally get to a point where we're like, hmm, maybe I need to learn a little bit more about money. And then I'm like, hi, it's me. I've been waiting. Um, yeah. And I think that's, yeah, that's totally it. I think there'd been sort of like desires to probably want to work on like the next stage. Cause I think, yeah, feeling a bit directionless. Like I do really well with goals. I do really well with a clear sort of plan. and then if I don't have a plan or goals I'm just like yeah I'll spend as much money on whatever I want or sure let's book these holidays and who cares you know about savings and that sort of

thing so yeah I guess sort of January this year was sort of like a daughter started high school and it was like wow we like we got to where we wanted to be but also I think I had an idea that things would just sort of fall into place a bit more you know my parents were really good with money growing up. I didn't come from a family that struggled or anything. My husband definitely did. And I think our money stories have definitely clashed in some ways at times. Yeah. It's been challenging sometimes just to sort of be on the same page around money. And so I think this year it's been like, let's, let's get on the same page. I have ADHD and so I get hyper fixated. So like, this is my hyper fixation of the year is she's on the money podcast, reading all your books,

doing the audio books. Like, yeah, I'm crazy. No, you're not. Cause like my hyper fixation was creating She's On The Money. So hi. At one point, I was like, oh, I should just retrain and like get into finance. But like, you know, we need to settle down. So yeah, at the moment, it's just kind of trying to, I guess, sort of figure out where to from here. And probably this year, it's been like maybe looking at investing. I have not started yet, but that's probably my next goal or our next goal is to start to sort of, yeah, I guess, create that sort of longer term wealth and, you know, see where we can put our money that it's actually going to be doing something instead of just sitting you know in a bank account or just spending it just because

it's there yeah and that totally feels like where a lot of our community are sitting and I love your thought pattern you're like oh my gosh yeah like let's hopefully soon invest and make those plans but like what I would encourage you to do is really zoom out and go okay cool like I'm assuming your partner is probably the same age as you we're 30 what are we doing and what do we want life to feel like. So like, instead of talking about like the strategies that can come later, I can teach you the strategies. Like I know all of those, but I can't tell you what you want. So you need to sit down and go, okay, cool. Like we're going to have kids. Let's like do a timeline of like, well, when are the kids going to be both over the age of 18? What kind of lifestyle do we want to have

at that point? Like, you know, are we planning on working in these full-time jobs forever? Like I want you to question everything. Like, does your husband still want to be in project management? Like, is he loving it? Is he not? Like, let's have these deep conversations that do make you question what's going on in life. Like, do you like working for state government? You might be like, yes, queen, I love it. Okay, great. Tick off. Next, talk about something else. But what does even retirement look like? Because you've just spent so long basically on the treadmill of life. Kids, kids, kids, that's all you've been thinking about. But the next 20 years, you can create significant wealth, but the world is going to look really different. You're not going to have

those commitments of getting kids to and from sport, getting kids to and from school, all of that. Like, what are we doing with our free time? What do we want that to look like? And I find that with clients that I've had historically that have had kids really young, they can sometimes once they get their kids to the age of 18, they're like, oh my God, I've just gotten off the treadmill of like getting them through life successfully. What do we do now? We're kind of bored. Like, hold on. Like my entire life was my kids. And now what? I'm just hanging out at home with my husband while my kids are out at the clubs. Like, and I think that that's where we need to be thinking about, well, what does life look like? Like, what does travel look like? I know you said

before we booked some holidays and I love that. Okay. But like, what other places do we want to go? And at what kind of age range? You're like, all right, so we want to do Europe, but maybe we want to do Europe when the kids are a bit older and appreciate it more, or maybe we don't want to do Europe at all. Maybe we want to just go to beach holidays or do you know what I mean? Like, let's zoom out and go, what would life look like for us to be at our happiest? Because I look at your income and I'm like, great, you've got like about $300,000 between the two of you. Life balance is going to look good, but also wealth creation is coming. Like you have so long and I'm so excited about it for you. But like, I think that right now you might be drilling down

into the how to create that life without knowing what the life is looking like yeah yeah and I think that's definitely probably one thing that I've always done is I kind of just go straight to I do it too I just jump straight ahead and I'm like right well investing is the answer but like for a long time I was investing without a real clean strategy of like where I wanted that to go I knew I wanted more money because money buys freedom and freedom is good and that feels great but like now my husband and I okay cool so these are some like you know micro goals of travel like over the next few years and here's some like you know family goals and things that we want to do because like we're still in family building mode and like talking about babies and all of that

but then what does do you want to upgrade cars at some point like are we going to put those as goals or are you like oh we couldn't give two rats victoria that that doesn't matter so i think going into this in financial planning the process is kind of like if you came to see an advisor you would do a fact find process. So I'd collect all of your boring data, name, age, whatever your incomes. Then you do discovery. So we're not jumping into solutions. We're just like, what do you want? How do you want it? How do we create this life? Because the life you want could be yachting around Italy on a yacht for all of the rest of your retirement. Or you could be like, V, I just want to stay home and hopefully my kids one day have grandkids and that's the life I want

to live. We can create both of those, but they require different strategies of building wealth. And so I think we need to go back to the base. And when you said I have ADHD and I was like, great, you're a queen who likes to jump ahead. Same. Yeah. Slowing down is like, yeah, definitely a skill I need to work on. Exactly. And you can like be a little bit aspirational, like organize a date with your husband and be like, what do you want to do when we're like 60? Cause like, I don't know about you, but like I adore my husband and I hope that that feeling is still there when I'm 60 how do I maintain that like what do we need to do in our relationship to make sure that we are still as in love at that point because it is going to take work it doesn't

just happen yeah absolutely absolutely so yeah I think for us um still figuring that long-term stuff out we're definitely working on a bit more short-term things just like trying to enjoy life a bit more because I think for a long time life wasn't enjoyable you know building up hobbies again and you know building up the things that we like to do which obviously you know takes some money. We're both into road cycling. So that is a bit of an expensive hobby. So, you know, yeah, putting money into that and making sure that we're sort of enjoying life while we're going, because I think that it's so easy to get stuck in that scarcity mindset of like, oh, we don't have enough or I shouldn't spend money on this because we did come from such struggle. And

sometimes there can be a bit of guilt associated with that. But then, yeah, just trying to get that balance of doing things that we enjoy now but also creating I guess some money habits that mean that we continue to be you know stable and you know a good support for our kids as well in the future because it's only getting harder to buy a house so yeah being able to buy and help the kids you know buy a house and things like that or even just stay at home longer would be amazing as well no it's so true all right let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side I want to talk about like the investments that I already know you've been researching We haven't dove in yet, but I know we're going to get there. I want to know more about this house,

any debts, and then we're going to talk about best and worst money habits. So guys don't go anywhere. Money Dyrus, we are back and I have been loving this chat and I feel like there's just so much potential in your money story now that you've said, oh, look, I did find the podcast in January and I'm going to like start doing this, this and this, but I'm touching on, or you're touching on a few like themes that I'm like, oh my God, no. What do you mean you feel guilty? Or what do you mean you feel bad? Like we're just starting here. Like there's no guilt when it comes to money. There's no, I don't know. I feel like so many times we crucify ourselves because you go, well, that was a bad money decision. Like, yes. Do you know what is a bad money decision? When

I got into $40,000 worth of personal debt, if you framed it that way, sorry, but if I hadn't gotten into $40,000 worth of terrible personal debt, where would she's on the money have come from. So I think that sometimes you have to go through your struggles and come out the other side to not only appreciate life and the things that you've created for yourself, but like, sorry, they formed you into who you are. Like, we're not sorry about that. Like you're clearly an epic human being doing very cool things and supporting a family. 10 out of 10 from me. Like, I just, I don't think that there should be any guilt there because we all do the best that we can with the tools and the resources that we have at the time. Like, let's go back to baby you,

you had your second baby at 20. If you could have done better. And I said, hey, here's a strategy. I know she would have grasped that, but she didn't have access to it. So were you doing the best that you could at the time? 1000%. But now you look back and you're kind of like, oh, well, that wasn't very good. Sorry, our baby money diarist, she was doing the best she could. We're not mean to her. We're nice to her. All right. Absolutely. Yes, I know. And I am trying to get better at being kind to myself. And yeah, that line you just said, you know, sort of did the best with what I had at the time is definitely the theme of this year, looking back on my life. And yeah, sometimes I think I need to be kinder to myself. So thank you. I think you need to too. And if you aren't going

to be kinder, just call me up and I'll aggressively be nice. Thank you. Money Dose, let's talk about investments for a hot second. You've said before, or in your diary in, you said, hopefully soon we're going to start investing. What does that journey look like? Is that something where you're just starting a conversation? Are you starting the research? How is that going for you? It's very early days. It definitely overwhelms me, which I'm from a lot of shares of the money reading and things like that. And just, yeah, things online, like I can tell overwhelms a lot of people. And, you know, a lot of the, obviously advice is sort of just getting in there is actually the first sort of hurdle. But yeah, no, very early days. I haven't, I think I downloaded

shares use but I just haven't even done anything yet oh that's six million times further ahead than heaps of people but yeah I think it's just like um you know I have sort of always you know a little bit of money left over each month and I'm like oh you know maybe that would be a good idea just to stop sort of putting just to kind of get do my toes in the water and see how it sort of works because I'm not familiar with shares or anything like that like it's very new to me it probably makes me a little bit overwhelmed sometimes thinking about it. A hundred percent. Like, and that's where we all start. When I first started looking at shares before I was even in financial advice, what the hell, what do you mean? Like, and there's just so many different

words and terminology and like the way things work. And what do you mean there's going to be a distribution of dividends? Okay. Well, when does that happen? Like I knew nothing and that can be overwhelming and that's just where you're starting. But I promise the more you dip your toes in the better. And it's not, I don't know, a lot of people go, oh, I downloaded Sharesies, but I'm scared to make my first investment. I've got like a thousand dollars sitting to the side. And you're like, stop, start with a dollar, like start with something that you're like, okay, well, this is the cost of a cup of coffee. You know, if I dropped my coffee, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it can give you that financial literacy. Because I think so much of the time we, especially

as women, especially as women with ADHD, how many times do you over-research, over-analyze, overthink, and then go, I'm not ready? Because you think the further I get into this research, the more I'm learning and the more I'm realizing I don't know anything. Classic analysis paralysis. Classic, right? But the reality is ready is a choice. It is not a feeling. Like you can't just go, oh, do you know what? I'm actually a genius now. I could run rings around day traders. let me make my first investment on shares. Like that is not how people feel. You kind of have to dip your toes in the water and then watch it and go, Oh, how did that work? Oh, okay. Well that

didn't, you know, even just seeing the silly little processes that don't feel big, but are like, okay, well that's how I put the money into the account. And then that's how I picked a share. And Oh, look, that's how quick it ended up in my wallet. And then, Oh, I can see it through the app on a daily basis here. Oh, it goes up and down. Interesting. Like it's one of those things where ready is a choice and you can keep learning because like at the end of the day let's say you invest 10 bucks what if it's on the worst share ever what happens oh nothing okay cool do you know what I mean like I think especially as somebody who is I'm the queen of analysis paralysis ask my whole team like I spend six years making a decision that they already knew what my decision was going

to be like when they pitched the idea it's actually very frustrating but I think sometimes you just have to do it and then go, oh yeah, right. Well, that wasn't the right one, but I can change. Cause we're not talking about putting our life savings in there. Please don't do that. That's scary. And I think that's actually a terrible idea. Yeah, no, definitely not. No, I think it's just sort of to get it, yeah, to start to develop my education in that space and yeah, figure it out. So hopefully I will, yeah, just give it a shot because. It sounds like you're on the right track though. So that is very special. Talk to me a little bit more about your debt. So you've said that you have a house is that the only debt that you have yeah we only have a house so we have had

credit cards in the past and a car loan in the past and all that sort of thing um which oh but you've paid them all off paid them off yes never want to get a credit card again it kills me yeah no we've just got our home loan we did refinance last year and we ended up paying out our car loan like so adding it to our home loan so our home loan's a bit higher than like what it used to be but it was a better interest rate. And we just sort of thought the one payment. A hundred percent. Nope. I agree. And also like the interest rate on your car repayment would have gone down significantly. Yeah. Yeah. It was a nightmare. And we had bought the car on finance. Like I think it just got to the point where I don't know if I'd

do the same thing now, but we had been driving really old crappy cars that would always be breaking. And I had a little tiny bingo with the kids one day and I just was like, nah, I want a newer safer car like and so you know I just didn't really even think about it just when I bought it and you know had to get a car like because we didn't have the money but looking back now like as expensive as it was like I'm so glad that we did it it's reliable we've had no car troubles ever since so it's a hard one where you know I get like car loans and debt sometimes can be not good but also at the same time it got us to a better place. 100% and like I was doing the maps the other day for a friend of mine who doesn't have the cash to purchase a car. And I

was like, actually, I've just looked at all your budget, all your finance, like as much as like a car loan doesn't sound sexy, it's actually the best option for you. Like, you know, shop around, find the best rate and organize it. I think that the problem is when we don't think through these decisions and it's like, you just automatically get a car loan because you go, well, that's how things should be when in reality you maybe didn't need a new car or, you know, it's impacting your ability to generate wealth or put food on the table or live life the way you want to. I think I'm more about questioning every single decision to make sure it's the right one for your situation, but it doesn't mean don't do it. It just means let's just be really cautious going into these

things because I'm sorry, I actually do not live in Delululand. I'm quite aware that most people can't afford to outright purchase brand new cars, but I do want them to be questioning why they think they need a new car because nine times out of 10, it's not a situation like yours where you're like I felt unsafe with my children and I was racking up a lot of, you know, different expenses on fixing cars that were just breaking consistently. That's a bit different to like, oh my God, I keep looking at the Range Rover and everybody online has one and I can buy a secondhand one on Finet. Do you know what I mean? Like that's a different story. Yeah. And I think for us, it got to the point where we were both just driving really old cars,

like $3,000 cars, and they just kept breaking. And by the time we did all the calculations of how many repairs we've done over a 12-month period. It was similar to the loan repayment. And it was like, all right, I'd rather just pray for the depreciation and the interest than keep repairing a car that's just not getting me to where I need to go. So yeah, we refinanced last year and added that onto our home loan. But yeah, it's nice now just having the one payment per month, which is nice. Yeah. So what's your home loan currently sitting at? It's sitting at $633,000 roughly. And you purchased, I believe you said, six years ago. Yeah, six years ago. So we've got it for $696. So it's a little bit higher than we

ideally would like it at the moment. That actually doesn't matter at this point. You've got six million years ahead of you because you're still a baby, but yes, carry on. Thank you. Yeah. So we bought that in 2019 and it's an awesome home. We've done, we've been able to do a few renovations and things like that to it. We paid off our HECS about two years ago. Both of you? Both of us, yeah oh my god so I was about to be like do you have any hex deck because we always forget to talk about that but none there no that was just through work I don't know how I did I did a job for a little while that had some overtime so I was really lucky that I didn't put extra into it but just it seemed to bring my hex down a lot in that sort of 18 month period that I was doing that job

and I hadn't realized and so we ended up getting a really big tax return because I hadn't realized that I'd paid it off because that's a nice position to be in yeah I've only just learned the myGov isn't like a live stat of what your hex is. So yeah, we got a really big tax return. So we're able to do a few things around the house. So we've redone our laundry, we've redone the bathroom for the kids and we've done the floors. So the house is all sort of where we want it at the moment, which is nice. And what do you think the house is worth now? It's worth about $980 when we had it valued last year. Oh, stop it. So you've got some really nice equity sitting there. should you ever decide to like buy an investment property or even have some wiggle room like

oh that's when you said oh it you know 696 purchase price I think you said 633 current loan like a lot of people will be like oh after six years but she's been sitting on that and made nearly 300 grand guys so I think that's pretty good situation to be in if you sold yeah it was um nice to have the car paid out and yeah so look it is what it is um we also did purchase for 100 like almost a hundred percent we had a guarantor from my husband's grandfather he went guarantor which was really kind and we're very lucky about knowing how privileged you know we are we had saved enough money to pay for the stamp duty that was our sort of deposit money just paid for the stamp duty outright so our loan was sort of a hundred percent when we started so yeah it was

essentially 696 and we had that guarantor off in 12 months so oh my god how good yeah the property prices. So we bought on election day in 2019 and it was just the prices were sort of a bit low and no one wanted to buy this house. So we're like, cool, we will. And 12 months later, it had shot up. That's so good. And then you would have got it re-evaluated and then you would have been able to release the guarantor. And the bank were like, see ya. That is literally my favorite thing ever, right? Because I own a mortgage broking business and talk about this all the time. And people are always like, oh my God, like if I get a guarantor, I'm impacting them for life. And it does feel like this. And it is a big thing. Like, don't get me wrong. We're putting a caveat over

someone else's home that says if money diarist doesn't pay her loan, this person will be chased up for it. So it is a significant commitment. In saying that, that doesn't mean that they're going to be on it for the 30 years that you signed for. Like you can literally get out of it within the first 12 months if property prices change or if, you know, you were able to smash down a bit of the loan and release that. For a lot of people, having a guarantor gets them into the market sooner. And if you'd had to save your whole house deposit, especially with two kids, I'm pretty sure it would have taken you more than six years. For the average Australian, it takes 11 years to save their whole home deposit. That's a 20% deposit. So sorry, you're telling me that because

his grandpa decided to go, yep, I will absolutely help you guys. You were able to build essentially $300,000 worth of wealth to sit there and put you in a way better position. Oh my God, a thousand percent. I want to be able to do the same for my kids. Yeah. We're so grateful. And it meant that we got to have some really good conversations about money too. You know, we committed that we would be paying extra on the mortgage because at the time we were saving and paying rent. So we just agreed that we'd keep paying that total amount onto the mortgage, which was about $1,500 more than the mortgage payment at the time. So yeah, we were able to do that and because we were doing that we had that habit we have always paid quite a lot

more so like I think at the moment it's still roughly around 1500 more a month that we're paying off our mortgage and so when the interest rates went up yes we definitely felt that like we didn't have as much sort of redraw sitting there for example like we didn't have to you know shift our expenses too much so yeah yes love love love love so the other thing I wanted to ask because I feel like I don't know I just I'm questioning everything about your story you came and you're like oh probably a c plus or b minus and I'm just like this girl's delusional but okay so tell me a bit more because I reckon you've got some pretty good money habits what do you think is your best money habit I think it's just being able to like if I get something in my

head I can just do it so like I set myself a goal last year that I wasn't going to buy any lunch or coffee up for example when I was at working because I started calculating like how much money I was spending on lunch at work and coffee and I was like girl what are you doing so when I put my mind to something I can really just knuckle down and do it like it doesn't feel like I guess a chore I've always ever since like I guess you know being 18 and we got our first rental back then and I think our rent back then was $2.95 a week and we had about $1,200 a fortnight coming in so you know it was always a sort of a relatively big portion of our income and I've always just paid the rent and the bills and everything as soon as we get paid pay every bill pay all the rent

and then it's like sort of like what are we left with so that you know I'm never behind on those essential things like you know a roof over your head and electricity and water and that sort of things. So I think sort of like my best money habit is, yeah, probably like when I need to, we can sort of knuckle down and just get on with it and really prioritizing those major sort of bills and things like that. And then, you know, I guess life and fun will come later, but now I'm in a spot where we can kind of prioritize both pay the mortgage, pay the bills, but then also have some fun money and that we don't have to have any pressure or anything on. So yeah, balance. See, you're already working towards it. And I feel like that is one of the most healthiest

money habits ever. It's not like every week I sit down and do A, B, C, D, E. It's like I've managed to find a balance between what works and what needs to happen and obsessed. On the flip side, I mean, it better be a good bad money habit because you said, oh, it might be like a C plus. I'll tell you about it. What's your worst money habit? Come on. It's got to be good. I feel like the chemistry between you and I is about to tell me that your bad money habit is probably something I do. So tell me. Oh, I love to shop. I'm very, I can be very impulsive. Like I can be so planned and, you know, organized and cute and it's awesome. And then next minute I'm like, yeah, I want to go get that new outfit or I'm going to the new Mecca or. Where are we shopping?

Mecca, Seed Country Road, Dish. Yeah, we could go shopping together. We'd have a great time. And I feel like we'd enable each other because do you know what I would do? I'd be like, oh, babe I mean those pants are white that's a staple that's an investment like if you need me to be the bad friend I can be like I'm not going to talk you out of a cute purchase my friends are too sensible so yeah I definitely need that yeah so I think my bad money habit is I can just be that bit impulsive and I'll put money aside for something that is like a genuine thing I'm putting aside for. Like I've started getting a bit of a Christmas fund and then I'm like, yeah, but there is a sale. Maybe we'll just take a little bit of money from that.

And like, I need to seriously work on that. Yeah. So I think just that more impulsive spending side of things. But that goes hand in hand with ADHD. I'm so sorry. We are suckers for instant gratification. Like if it is shiny, we are basically bowerbirds. And I think the best thing we can do is consistently talk about that and go, oh, I'm really bad at this or I'm, you know, really struggling with this so that we can try different strategies because a strategy that works for me might not work for you. And you can kind of like trial and error and work out what works. But one of the best things I think you can do is go back through your finances and get a highlighter. It's going to be really boring

and it's also really confronting. So you might need a little bit of like a glass of wine or something to do this, but go back and just like highlight all of the purchases that you think were pretty impulsive and then I want you to write down how you feel about them now because like I can guarantee like don't get me wrong I am a level four at Mecca like you can't tell me like anything basically like I know better but what I also know is that going through and understanding how those things actually don't spark that much joy anymore yeah like and it's the bigger purchases where I've gone all right well I really do you know let's pretend it's a makeup product and right now I'm looking at a Charlotte Tilbury bronzer and I've got it saved in my Mecca cart

on the app. And I have for a while, but I also know I've got a bronzer at home. So I'm trying to be a responsible adult and be like, I don't need that. Right. I don't, but like, I keep looking at it. And have you seen how beautiful the packaging is? Like that gets me as well. So I just know one, I'm not going to go into Mecca, but two, I'm going to keep thinking about this. And then once I've run out of something else, I'm going to give myself that as kind of a reward. and once that happens I just know I'm going to enjoy it a little bit more like if it was impulsive yeah I'm going to use it but like if I feel like I have earned it and I know that we're not saying oh yeah you worked so hard for that bronzer so lame but if I feel like I have delayed

that purchase as much as possible and then I decided I still really want it it sits on my bathroom counter and when I use it it feels better like it just does so like how do we get you to a point where you're like, impulsive shopping is actually not as good as I thought it was. I get this really high dopamine hit at the very start and then I don't give a shit. So what am I going to do? Because I can almost guarantee if I go through your wardrobe, there's probably heaps of stuff I want, but also stuff that you've forgotten about and also stuff that you're like, oh yeah, I really liked that when I was in store and I just haven't worn it. Like it's confronting and it's terrible, but like, that's just who we are. So we just need to be honest about that.

yeah and I think just be more mindful sort of probably in my spending and what I do want to spend things on is probably my next thing to be working on and that's not bad I think my first tip and if you've read my book you already know it it's put 24 hours between you and your spending and I say that because you know a week would be better but like I don't have the patience for a week yeah like like I just need to tell myself Victoria if you still really want it you can have it tomorrow and most of the time because I have ADHD I already forgot what it was yeah yeah I'm exactly the same. And yeah, we've been applying that sort of that a little bit to our just overall household budget as well, because, you know, you decide, oh, there's a furniture sale or we should

buy a new coffee table or something. I don't need a coffee table. Walk out of the store. It's so rough, isn't it? I totally get that. But I also don't think that that drags your money score down to a C plus. Like if I do a very quick recap, I'm sorry, but you fell pregnant while in year 12 got kicked out of school finished high school at TAFE went on to have a second baby at 20 and you were at uni you did uni in a shorter period of time than most people would do how I don't know because I couldn't even balance my work-life balance and I didn't have kids at uni but you popped off then you've built your career have an incredible job both you and your husband own over six figures like and be real that's just going to keep increasing over time because you're

university educated and like you were saying before look I work for state government I know there are so many steps ahead of you in that space like there's just so much opportunity same with project management for your partner yes he's on a really good innings of like what 185 now but like you and I both know that just goes up from there like the more experience they get the more money comes in in that space so like the trajectory is looking incredible you've got a really solid mortgage you've made some really good decisions when it comes to money sorry you said I had a car loan. You know, we don't have that anymore. It's kind of rolled into the mortgage. We've had credit cards, but we've paid them all off. Sorry, you're making really good money

decisions, like really good. And I'm pretty sure your kids are like, oh, mom and dad, we're really proud of them. Like, sorry, you're putting a roof over your kids' heads. And most 30 year olds right now still haven't saved for their first home deposits. And that's not throwing shade. That's just going, hey, I don't think you realize how much you've achieved because you've been in survival mode for so long. Like you probably haven't reflected and been like, oh well actually because like let's go back to the mother's group conversation you're comparing yourself to people who are probably so far ahead of you and also have a 10 and a 12 year old because like school mumps I'm assuming that's where the comparison comes from

girl they're in their 40s yeah they're all in their 40s late 40s yeah mid to late 40s yeah exactly and we're comparing ourselves to that like you're 30 they're looking at you going how has she got her shit together so well and on the flip side you're comparing yourself to your friends that were out clubbing while you were at home looking after your kids. And there's no shade on either side, but they've been enjoying their twenties. And don't get me wrong. I would feel like I was missing out a little bit too. And I'm not disregarding what you've been through, but like, it's kind of like, they've probably only just started knuckling down now. So if you compare to them, that's also a terrible comparison. You're just running your own race, put some blinkers on

because you're killing it. I really like, I'm not going to get you to redo your, like your money grade, but I just know you're sitting closer to an A than you think you are, but you keep finding reasons to drag yourself down and go, well, we're not investing. Well, we don't own an investment property. Well, we just don't have a lot of direction. Good. Find it. That's so fun. Like you're starting here and that's so exciting. Like there's just so much going on. And I think with some good planning, a good budget and cashflow system so that everything flows through, you'll be able to identify what you can invest, what you can save, what life looks like in the future, then we can talk about investing and getting ahead. Like, I'm just so excited for you.

Thank you. Thank you. This is just, this is such a good money story. Like, I just feel like you're right. Your money journey is about resilience, learning and creating the future that you only once dreamed of. Like, if I go back to baby you, you're what, 17? Yeah, 17 when I found out. you found out when you were pregnant. Hey babe, you're married to the man that you fell pregnant to. You are deeply in love. You've been together for 13 years. You own a house. You've got cars together. Your kids are at school. Your first daughter, oh my God, she's just gotten into high school. That's crazy. Did you think it would work out like this? Yeah, I know. When you put it like

that, I'm like, okay, I've actually done probably better than I'm giving myself credit for because this is everything that I did want back then and yeah it is a bit crazy that I you know set ourselves to this sort of goal and this trajectory and we have got here and yeah it is probably nice to be able to go you know even have a conversation like this and be like reflecting back that okay I actually have come a long way and I've achieved a lot exactly and then also sorry you're 30 and you're on six figures like crazy actually crazy to think that you did this yourself like nobody else did this you did this and that's incredible so like straight A for me yes we can work on investing yes we can work on heaps of stuff but not only do we have time we actually

have the budget like there's so much flexibility in your cash flow that we could ebb and flow with and work out what that looks like that the potential isn't just like okay well one of the things we need to do is work on increasing your income so that we can achieve the lifestyle you want we don't have to do that like you're ahead of the game I'm so excited and I'm so sad that we're running out of time thank you thank you money diarist it has been an absolute pleasure having a chat with you today i feel very grateful that we've been able to uncover a little bit more about your money story learn about you i feel like this is a very special money story and i'm hoping that there are a few women in our community who resonate with it as well and go oh my god you're

right i am killing it and comparing myself to the wrong types of people or the wrong standards but I really really appreciate that you've shared your story and I just know that our community is going to be as grateful as I am. Thank you so much thanks for having me on here. 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

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