She's On The Money - Turning a Property Regret into a Real Estate Win

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

This week's Money Diarist turned her biggest property regret into a real estate success story. After purchasing her first property at 22, she quickly found herself overwhelmed by mismanagement from her rental property manager and strata. The stress nearly pushed her to sell at a loss, but instead, she fought back, secured new management, and reclaimed control of her investment. Tune in to hear how she transformed a major setback into a stepping stone, and get inspired by her resilience and determination to turn things around. SIGN UP FOR THE INVESTING MASTER CLASS! Use the code PODCAST for a cheeky discount. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My friends, welcome back to another one of our Money Diaries, where I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down and talking to one of our incredible She's On The Money community members all about their money story. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got an email and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's On The Money team.

I've always been driven and buying my first property at 22 felt like my biggest achievement, But that excitement quickly turned into regret when I realized my rental property manager and strata, both from the same company, were mismanaging everything. The stress was overwhelming and I nearly sold the property at a loss. It took a lot of persistence, but I fought to get a new strata management company to take over and it finally paid off. Now I'm gearing up to renovate the property so it can become the rental I've always envisioned. I've also leveraged the equity from this property to put a deposit on a new home on the central coast since Sydney prices are completely out of reach. With the settlement just around the corner, I'm so excited to start this

new journey with my fiance. Money Diarist, that's so exciting, but also like so stressful. I feel like I've been talking to so many people over the last few weeks about strata and how painful it can be. Are you for or against Strata at this point? Oh, I'm full against it. Anybody in real estate, like when I meet them, the first thing is I put a wall up because of all the issues in the past. I feel bad, but like, yeah, I would say against. I'm not in real estate. We can hang out. I'm in, like I am kind of in property, I suppose. I'm in mortgage brokings. So like. Oh no, that's okay. I love my mortgage broker. He's awesome. All right. Okay. All right. Yeah. We love mortgage brokers. All right. On the same page, let's start the way that I always start,

Manny Darius. Before I get into the nitty gritty, can you let me know what grade you would give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? At the moment, I think I would give myself a solid B. A solid B. All right. Well, let's learn more about that. Manny Darius, can you tell me a little bit more about your money story? So, my money story obviously started around my parents. They were very hard workers. When I was young, I learned from them that if you want to be wealthy or have money then you have to put hard work in to get there like for example my dad was a sole trader and he would leave the house before I even woke up and then in the afternoon when I finished dancing late at night I would have to walk over

to his work and wait till about 11 o'clock before I could go home so oh my gosh 11 as a kid you would have been exhausted at school the next day oh I would sleep in the truck and then just yeah go home and he would repeat it every day too so like seeing how much hours he put in then that sort of triggered in my mind like hard work means wealth so and then mum was the same mum would do all the business admin for him and was the bookkeeper but then she's working full-time and managing a household with my brother and I so yeah so seeing all the hours that she put in oh what a queen we love that yeah so there was always those conversations around the house like oh you can't please don't take any more work from this person the invoice hasn't been paid or

if we want that machinery we're going to wait for x y then like there wasn't any conversations that were ever struggling but it's just they were around the kitchen never at the table or anything but yeah I just off heard those I was never really involved but yeah hearing that kind of set in a little bit of like financial literacy there even though I didn't really pay attention yeah but I feel like these conscious or unconscious conversations kind of become part of the narrative you kind of go okay well I know what they're talking about like you know it's like your parents family friends like I'm not friends with them but I know lots about them because mum will be like oh such and such did xyz over the weekend and like you remember from all the other

conversations you've had who that person is who their kids are what that looks like like you're starting to put puzzle pieces together what was it like hearing conversations about business as a kid so you know coming home and maybe mum and dad are like don't accept any more work from you know Sharon because she didn't pay her invoice like were you stressed by that because you were like oh my gosh invoices aren't getting paid or were you like get it mum you you show them the boundary like what did that look like it probably was more like get it mum because my dad's more of a joke star if he's not happy with something and then he makes a joke it's like oh he accepts me now or whatnot so like every time mum would say something and put her foot down he would crack a

joke and it would be more of like a laughing situation than oh you need to be serious and get this sorted so yeah it was more funny but I think it kind of set in stone like finances behind me and saving and like mum would be like oh no you can't talk to me today because it's business day and I have to get stuff sorted so like you learned the hard line and also just made me really driven because I see how hard that they work so then when I got my first job I was like oh well mum and dad are working like this so that set a standard so then I should be working like that too or I should be having those conversations. And how young were you? Oh dad had his business before I can even remember I don't remember him in any other job except business so I would have been really young

I remember my first couple of times was when I was in school so like maybe kindergarten primary school I was hearing these conversations. Yeah which is kind of cool and it's also I mean very relevant for me at the moment because I'm in the middle of, I have a six-month-old, I'm seeing all these conversations about daycare and about working parents versus being able to be a stay-at-home parent. And obviously, we're all out here just doing the best that we can, but I'm quite clearly a working parent. But then you get a little bit of anxiety. You're like, am I doing the right thing? When I dropped Harvey off at daycare, this morning, I dropped him off at daycare. He looked like he was having the best time ever. He saw his room leader and his little

face lit up and was like oh heck yeah what a good day this is probably more fun than home oh my gosh yeah like genuinely they are going to be teaching him more and giving him more activities than I could ever do but you kind of go am I doing the right thing so as a child of you know very hard working parents do you think that that was a positive or a negative thing that mum and dad were going to work and drawing boundaries and saying no money Darius don't talk to us today we've you know got to crack the whip on the business today I've got to get you know all this admin out or was that something that you're like oh I'm a little bit resentful because I want to ask these questions when it's anonymous yeah I think it depends on the time because when I was

young like there were times when mum like treated me like a like a business like for example you would love this actually when I started my first job she put like a hard line in and I joke about it and I say oh she cut me off but really she didn't it was just if you want anything you pay for it if you need anything we'll support you through it and so so I think that's good parenting but I can also see that when you were probably what like 14 or 15 you were like that's a joke I hate it here exactly that's why I'm like I was so resentful for it because I went to a private catholic school and all my friends are getting like given everything yeah and I'm there having to like work hard for like I know at the time I was so resentful for it and I'm so grateful now

but um yeah like there were times where she treated me like she was a tax agent like if I didn't pay my board she would send me a text message like a tax person and I'm like mum like you're my mother you know like my friends laugh at the messages so at the time I was very resentful now I'm like no she was just teaching me a really hard lesson and it really has paid off And do you have siblings? Is this the same kind of situation for them? Yes, I have an older brother. He's very savvy. Like I've never seen him do an assignment in his life and he got first in all of his subjects at school. So like he's just very switched on. Why is it always like that? So rude.

Yeah. And that had caused a little tension between us. Like he always thought that I got things that he didn't get. So yeah, I believe mum did the same for him. He actually, I think he got it at some points a little bit harder. Like once he got a full-time job, the board came before I did I got to negotiate a little bit see I feel like that second child privilege like my sister and I reminisce on things that like my parents were like absolutely not Victoria Devine and then Alex would be like can I do this and mum and dad be like sure I'd be like what I was like no I don't have a full paying full-time job yet you can't pay me board like oh I can't pay you were just negotiating this yeah I like it I mean that's a good skill to

develop very early. So I guess now you're an adult, you're 29 years old, what do you do for work and how much money do you earn? Now I work at a local council in town planning and I'm on around 95k a year. And then if you count the rental income from my investment, that's around 23k a year. Excuse me, that's very cool, isn't it? 23 grand a year in, I would assume, passive income. I'm going to ask about debt later, but are you then paying your mortgage and stuff or is that like a 23 clean? 23 before like management fees come out in the mortgage as well. So yeah, I haven't factored that in. And is it positive or negatively geared? I believe I'm still negative. I've only been positive once and that was during COVID when the interest rates were so low.

Yeah, that was a good time to have a mortgage, honestly. Like I remember we got ours during that period of time. And I don't know, but I would like to think that I'm relatively financially literate. So I should have seen this coming. But I got my first mortgage and I was like, this is easier than I thought it would be. And then obviously the economy recovered and my mortgage did not. And I was like, wow, what a surprise. Why didn't I see that coming? Yeah. And that was like mine. I got it when it was on a high and then it went to a low and then when it went to a high and I was like, oh my God, how did I do this before? I know all right so I want to know more you obviously already have a property you mentioned

in your diary in that you have a fiance tell me a little bit about your big money goals what are you currently working towards I actually had to write this down because the last year with all the stress from the rental property like our money goals have changed so much like because I got to a point where I was like my goal was to sell the property yeah because you were like just done Yeah, I was just done. And I went to a financial advisor to crunch the numbers for me because I thought I would be at a loss. But then I wasn't happy with the financial advice because I wanted to see data. I wanted to see those data so I could make that decision. So yeah, but at the moment, our goal is to get the investment property into a condition where it just functions in the

background and I can actually put the rent up to market value because I've kept it quite low because of the condition. I felt so bad. I'm like, I couldn't put the rent up when they're living in that state. I was like, not fair. But that's really nice of you to not absolutely take the mickey because I feel like a lot of landlords at this point in time are just going, well, market's paying this, either pay it or ship out, someone else will pay the rent. And I feel like that's a really awful way to do things. But why did you do that? Is that just your morals and your ethics or where does this come from? I started renting myself around the same time these issues came up. And I even just asked for like a fly screen door, like just, can I please

have a fly screen on the front door? And they said, no. And I'm like, that would have cost them like $30. So, and they kept bumping the rent up on us, hence why we now live with the in-laws because every year they kept bumping it up. And I kept going back saying, no, I will accept CPI increase and they match that, but it's just, I thought it was unfair. So how can I put higher rent on them if they're in poor living conditions? So you just have your head screwed on. I like that. Tell me a bit more. You mentioned that one of the things that was getting in the way of your money goals was your rental property issues. Tell me a bit more about that. When did they start to come to fruition? Did you purchase? Obviously when you purchase, hopefully you had

a good solicitor that took you through like, here's the strata. This is what it's going to cost. This is what it means here. Any potential issues, but when did it become a massive issue for you? And yeah, tell me a bit more about that because that's one of the like, I don't want to say horror stories, but it's one of the things that if you're purchasing property, you just don't want to run into that issue. Yeah. And when I did purchase the property with my fiance, I grilled everything. So it's definitely taught me a learning curve, but yeah, I recognized it when like I didn't have any communication or any issues for two years so I just thought things were good and then I noticed on one of the inspections at the bathroom looked like there was a bit of

mold and I just emailed and was like hey like can you send me some more photos if that's mold I would like to get a builder in and get things sorted like can you arrange an inspection and the response back it was just oh you could just tell it was going to go downhill it was like there's been a leak our builder's onto it don't worry about it I'm sorry that's not what I asked yeah I called the property manager and was like look like that's great thank you for being on top of it but like I still want to do an inspection when did the leak happen it was six months ago they didn't tell me yeah and as soon as that happened I was like shit here we go so I kept pushing for an inspection and it took about a couple months and I finally got to like go in

have a look and oh it was like the most defiant day because like if I sold the house on the spot at that inspection I potentially would have had to drop the price by like 20 30k because of the amount of work that was needed and it was so defiant considering I worked so hard like at one point I had five jobs like there was even points where I had two jobs yeah because I was like I was so determined to get this house no I love that so much yeah so I was like this is so defining like and to not be told you're like I'm literally paying you to be in communication with me and you're not so what happened then obviously there was mold and it was identified yeah there were so many things like I knew I purchased the house with a an issue in the bedroom and the issue

had grown no one told me the balcony flooded the like living room there's so many issues so from there like I tried to build a relationship with the tenants once the real estate left he kept trying to avoid me talking to him. Of course they do. I was like you're kidding so I gave him my email address and I'm like blind CC me and everything like I'm going to try and track things from here they don't get along with the real estate they don't report things to the real estate because they had a lot of issues so things weren't getting reported. A lack of communication ends up ruining everything yeah so I was like just tell me so I did a whole page of works and I sat down with the property manager and said look draw a line in the sand whatever's history I don't care

like it needs to be brought up to a good condition this is my list of things to do so many times I followed up for months every two weeks I called them I kept trying to follow through and I never got a response I'm rocked up there I've had meetings with the strata manager and she said yep, we'll get things sorted. And they're not doing it still? No. Well, they did go in and fix the bedroom, but they were meant to fix the balcony at the same time. And for a year straight, they kept telling me that it's been fixed. They're like, it's been fixed. It's been fixed. I'm like, show me the invoice. I want to see the invoice. They never sent me the invoice. I put motions down. I phone called, emailed everything for a

year. And then I had enough. The balcony flooded. I put five grand worth of electrical through that property and all the water went through my new electrical and I lost it. I was so angry. I called them and I was like, you promised me. Did they ever have to pay for that? Because to me, that just seems like negligence and that's not your responsibility. And I mean, that becomes quite complicated, but what did you do? Well, when I called her, she was kind of like gaslighting me a little bit because she said it had been done. I'm like, send me the invoice on the phone. and it didn't have anything for the balcony. And she's like, I'll call my contractor. I was like, you can call me back in an hour with an answer, please. If not, I'm going to fair trading.

You're a savage. Do you want a job? You can work for me. I don't know what you'll do and I don't have these issues, but I just know that I want you on my team. If I've got an issue, I'm calling you. You're going to fix it. I got to that point because I was so stressed and I was like, I've given you two years to actually come to the party and I tried to be nice and support you and like just work together and you just threw it in my face. So yeah, I started to become a bit savvy. Yeah, good. You have to be, especially when they're literally walking all over you. So what happened? I know that they ended up getting the boot. Yeah. So they called me back and said I was right. And I was like, okay.

And you were like, wow, what a coincidence. Yeah. I was like, thank you for finally listening. So after that phone call, that was a line in the sand for me. I was like, I'm done. I went and got a new property manager but obviously changing the strata is quite hard because you have to go through the right process and get everyone to agree with your house how many different owners are there in your strata thankfully there's only six i'm not in a massive unit and it also is i think it's 50 of people at the meeting you need 50 of that vote so everyone at the meeting because half the people didn't show up they agreed so thankfully i had a relationship with them and they also have

similar issues that we could move forward to a new strata. I'm always so confused. As somebody who has worked my butt off to get into my first property and you'd be the same, it blows my mind that you could organize a strata meeting and then people literally don't turn up. I'm like, this is a property that you own. This is your wealth. Why don't you care? Especially because I'm assuming that you well articulated to them why you needed the meeting and shared all the issues. Like if there are issues in my house, babe, they're probably in yours as well. Like, do you want this? Like we're spending money on this and you don't care? Like what in the wealth? Like how? Yeah. And that's a common thing. And that's my tip. If you're having any issues in

a strata, get your ass to the meeting, jump on the strata committee. Like don't ignore it. Yeah. A hundred percent. And I feel like saying I'm on the strata committee sounds really complicated, but it's not. It's not. Yeah. It's absolutely not. All right. So tell me a bit more. you got somebody new, you got all the issues sorted. How much did it cost you? Thankfully, a lot of the issues fell back to Strata. So at the moment, I haven't actually had to do that much of money out of my own pocket, but I do have around 15K estimated of renovations that I need to do now. Yeah. And is that off the back of all the damage or is that you adding value to the property? All the painting and the carpet

would be off the back of the damage but everything else would be us adding value. Yeah okay so not too bad and I mean fresh carpets and stuff like that expensive but it makes the apartment just feel so much more welcoming as well so I mean there's probably a lot of value in doing that so now all of that is there there's 15 grand worth of things that you probably need to spend on is that kind of your big money goal is that what you're saving for or where's that going to come from, how's that going to work? Well, I've already got that money in savings. Oh, look at you go. Oh, don't worry, V. I've already got it in savings. Okay. It's just also like if I'm worried because that is a big chunk of my savings after the house,

I'm just like, oh, what are we going to have left? But it's a bit like that, right? Property can feel like an absolute money pit and it's a massive goal for so many people in our community. And I I totally get it. It was a massive goal for me as well, but you really need to weigh up what that could add to your financial burden. Like for us, we're exactly the same. Like we found out all the plumbing in the back of the house had literally been done DIY. Like it all had to be replaced. And because it wasn't identified in the building and pest inspection, like it wasn't something that I could weigh up. Like Money Dose, when we removed the deck on the back of the house, their idea of plumbing was they had literally hit a hole into a stormwater

drain. Like I am pretty convinced they just did it with a hammer. They smashed a hole into the stormwater drain. It wasn't even cut. It was smashed. And that was how they were dealing with the drainage under the deck. I see all that at work too with compliance because town planning and some of the stuff that they do is insane. So that's why when I bought this property, I checked everything. I was calling council. So, you did everything and still got stooged? Oh, no. This was my second property. I checked everything. The first property, the rental, I had no idea. Oh, okay. Well, that makes me feel a little bit better that you didn't get absolutely screwed from the start. But it is really stressful, right? And if you don't know

what you're looking for, you just don't know. And that's why paying the professionals can really help sometimes. I remember when we were first purchasing my house, we'd found this three bedroom apartment. And at the time, our budget only allowed for, we thought maybe like a two bedroom, I don't know, unit or something. So, this three bedroom apartment seemed really luxe and I was very excited about it until my solicitor was like, Victoria, have you read the minutes of the strata meetings? And I'm like, no, I didn't even know you could do that. And all of the cladding on the outside of that property was needing to be replaced because it was a fire hazard and it was going to cost like 400 grand across all of the people that own the apartments.

So in addition to us purchasing, it was very clear that there was probably $50,000 in addition that we would have needed to tip in at some point to replace the cladding. And I was like, I didn't even know that was a thing. It's crazy to think that if we hadn't looked, we might have ended up in a situation which would have been financially crippling at the time. Like it would have absolutely ruined us. I probably would have had to sell. Like that's not something that I would have had. And that's a very good point that you bring that up because now in Sydney, a lot of my friends can only buy sort of apartments because that's in their price range. And if you don't look at the minutes and you don't chat with your solicitor and go into that detail, you could be

in a situation like that because I have a friend who's currently in that situation. That's a really good point. And there are probably people listening to this going, what are you talking about? But if your apartment building or the apartment building that you're looking at has a strata or a body corporate, they're going to have meetings and they might have them quarterly or every year, but you will have access to the meeting minutes. So the notes from the meetings to see what they were talking about. And then you can see if there are any issues from that, because if I was in a strata, you know what I'm bringing up in the meeting? The issues I have. And if you get to a point where you say you've already purchased it and you don't know where

to go from there. Like, fair trading has been very helpful and they have a lot of information and you can have a chat with them about your issues. So, yeah, if you do get to a point where you have purchased in, I did lean on fair trading. Good, because that's what they're there for. The only thing is, but if you put a complaint in, they're there to protect the strata. They're not there to advertise the issues. So, it's very hard to determine which strata is for the bad. Oh, that's so stressful. All right, Money Diaries, let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, I want to ask you a few more questions because you said, no, that was my first property. And I was like, excuse me. Okay, baller. I want to talk about

investments and debt and your best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere. Money Diaries, we are back and we have been talking about Strata, which has been Honestly, really interesting for me, but probably eye-opening for a lot of people who probably didn't realize how much control you can still have while being in a strata. You mentioned before, Novi, that was with my first property. The next question I've got is, do you have any investments? My friend, how many houses do you have? So with houses, we just successfully got our second house. Congrats. So I avoided strata. I did not go get anything with strata. So yeah, Yeah, we are in settlement at the moment. Oh, how exciting. Tell me. So, this first property,

did you buy that on your own? Yeah. So, my first property was on my own. I actually do give credit to my mother because she did help me a lot with that. A lot of people didn't take me seriously, a 22-year-old, like trying to get a house. So, I do give her a lot of credit. So, she did help with guarantor as well. And then after a year or two, when I had better finances, I refinanced to get her off the loan. How good is that though, that after two years, you got to get rid of her as a guarantor? I feel like so many times when you're speaking about guarantors, you think it's going to be for the life of the loan, but why did it free up? Did you pay off enough or did the property price change? Did you end up with some more equity? How? I did try and do as much as

possible in that first two years towards the principal. I did get a bit of a pay increase as well. And with the second job, it helped me with a lot of the bills that I would have originally taken from savings. So I could get a bit of a chunk of savings as well. So all my finances were a little bit better than the first assessment for the loan. So that helped and I was able to get them off. And it was also very low interest rates at the time. I think I refinanced and it was about 2%. Okay. Nice for some. That's unheard of in this day and age. Yes. Yeah. So, tell me a little bit more about that first property. I'm really pervy. How much did it cost? I know you had a guarantor, but how much did you have to save? How much did it cost? What was it worth? What's it

worth now? I need all the juicy dates. Babe, this is anonymous. I want to know all the details that would be inappropriate to ask you if we were at dinner together. No, that's fine. So, the first property the rental it was four and a half and I had 45k savings already for the deposit my parents were guarantor for around about 90k to help me with that so I ended up getting the full loan it's currently been I had to do a re-evaluation for the next property it's currently sitting at 575 or something oh how good is that yeah so and I think I've only had it for about six years and it's gone up. So it's not like obviously as much as a house. It's a little bit different to a unit because it actually is a townhouse. It's like a duplex. So that has affected

the value a little bit, but anything up is better than nothing. I'm sorry. That's a lot up. I always say like in this economy, but literally in this economy for it to have gone from $450,000 to $575,000, Like that is very nice because as you guys know, I run a mortgage broking business, Zeller Money, and we talk every day with people about buying property. And we really have to dispel this idea that property is going to work the same way that it did for your parents. So like when my parents had the ability to purchase, it wasn't unheard of to have a property that you purchase. And then 20 years later, it goes from being worth like 50 grand to like four meal. That's obviously a little bit sensationalized, but like that was quite, you know, you would

believe it. That stuff did happen. It doesn't happen anymore because our economy can't sustain it. But to see a property go up a couple of hundred grand, yes, please. I'm quite happy with that for you. When I got the re-evaluation, I was like, oh my gosh, because I was working off the previous one and that's where I was like, I'm at a financial loss. But when I saw that, And I'm like, oh my God. Yeah, exactly. And that's you creating wealth for yourself. Okay. So you did that on your own, obviously had your mom. That's really good. But you have a fiance, is that who you've just purchased your second property with? Tell me about this purchase. This purchase is out of Sydney because obviously the market's a bit better. I went looking with him for a couple

months at the time, did go looking for a house, came back with a ring. And then three weeks later, I went up again and then found the house. Oh, very nice. Yes. We purchased together. In regards to the financials that we used for that, obviously, my equity or my financials were tied up in an asset compared to my partner who was tied up in cash and savings. So, we had both different financial situations. So, when we were going for the loan, it was his money for the deposit and then I did everything else and I had the equity to sort of counteract that. Yeah. And a good broker would have been able to sit you down and go, well, this is what it's going to look like, money diarist, and here are a few different

options and talk through that. I think that so many people are like, oh, it's a bit complicated. Maybe we can't buy because we don't have a deposit. It's like, well, actually go and talk to someone about how that might work because it can be a bit complicated, but a broker can sort it all out. So, what did you purchase for? So, we purchased for $730,000. Oh, very nice. And what did you purchase for $730? Is it a townhouse? Is it a house? Is it an apartment? I know it's not an apartment because you said no strata. Yeah, no strata. It's a standalone house. So it's probably like three bedroom, two car, one bath. It's on a quite generous block as well, cul-de-sac. So we're happy about that.

Oh, in a cul-de-sac. How beautiful. And it's probably like a five minute walk from the beach. How good is that? But it's a complete reno, like it hadn't been touched in 30 years. The tenants that are in there now have been there for that long. So considering nothing's been done to it, I'm like, this is a perfect reno at the same time as we could move in right now and it'll be perfectly fine. And is that the intention? Are you and your partner going to be moving into that property? We hope to, but first it'll be six months of renos at the rental property and then it'll be

renoing that new purchase and then hopefully it'll be moving up there. Yeah. And so the plan is to, is it still leased out for the interim to the same people? Yeah, thankfully, because we didn't expect to get the house as quick as we did. We thought it would come towards the end of the year. So yeah, we're keeping them on for another six months. And then when we're ready to switch to that house, we can do that in March. Yeah. How good? And have they been good about it? Obviously, having lived there for so long, like they probably would be attached. What did that look like? Yeah, I remember because I was the first one at the inspection

and the lady wouldn't let the real estate in because she was so attached to the property. She didn't know there was an inspection too. I don't think that was communicated to her. And when I had a chat with the real estate, I was like, oh, I didn't know if you wanted me to like interrupt or anything. And he was like, no, no, no, it's just they've been here for so long they're very attached, which is fine.

Like their grandkids go through there. Like you can tell they're very attached to the home. Oh, that's really sad at the same time as like being so sweet that they've looked after it. Like, oh, money diarist, tell me about debt. So obviously you purchased for $450,000. What do your mortgages look like now? And do you have any other debt? Yeah. So my other debt is a hex debt of $7,000, but I estimated that would be gone by next financial year with the salary sacrifice. Then you've got my rental property, which is sitting around 390, I think it is. Hey, that's pretty good on a 575 property. Okay. So I'm kind of glad

that that's underneath the 400 number. That was really good to see. Isn't it crazy that in our heads somehow that makes a lot of sense? We're like, oh, but it's under 400 grand. It's like, well, where did you get that number from? And you're like, I don't know. It just feels good. Yeah. It just feels good. Like you've dropped down. It doesn't feel as big as it would if it's $399. Exactly. $399, that's astronomical. $390, oh, that's doable. Yeah. And what about the second property? The second property, I believe the loan would actually be $690 because of the deposit we put into it. So, the loan isn't as the full price. Yeah, because your partner had cash, didn't they? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, that makes a lot of sense. So, it's just hex and property at

the moment? Yes. We did pay off a car loan too, which is great before the house. So we've ticked that one off too already. And is this your partner's first property? Yes. I low-key love that you were the one that got in first. You're like, oh, look at how much I bring to this relationship. Yeah. Well, when I first started dating him, because I knew he had that savings there, I was like, oh, like it was a little bit deflating to be honest, because I knew my savings are wrapped up in an asset what do you mean you've got assets that are creating wealth I want to like go back and shake you and be like I'm sorry this dude just has cash like yeah because it was sometimes where like because you had that financial behind you especially

during COVID where you had like your job wasn't secure like sometimes you did have that regret come through yeah so it's hard to like shake that off with that imposter syndrome as well like I genuinely feel like women are the worst at this they're like oh but it's not good enough what like absolutely not you were an absolute catch obviously you're engaged because you said in your letter in fiance do you have wedding plans if so tell me about the finances like how are we funding a wedding in this economy my friend yeah well it only happened like potentially a month ago so oh my gosh did it actually that's so exciting and then we got the house a couple weeks later so show me your ring show me your ring okay this is very important oh it's like a

gorgeous gold band with an oval you are living the dream my friend did you have any say in what that was gonna look like no I had no idea it was coming I know like I told my friends I wanted an oval but like yeah he did everything he went out and picked it like I didn't have any so he did very well for himself because he doesn't usually plan a lot of things so the fact that he planned this and then like the proposal and everything and surprised you how did he propose we need to know well we went looking for houses and afterwards after we finished the whole day of looking at like 10 different houses we went to like a lookout and he asked me at the lookout oh my god why is that so wholesome there's something about like a simple but well thought through proposal yeah I think it

was like he's like well if we're buying something for the rest of our lives might as well have like a ring. So cute. I love that. So have you spoken about weddings? We've spoken about like a location, but considering the house and the stress, like I didn't realize how insane settlement and stuff were. I haven't really had time to like really pick a date or look at anything. Ah, that is so fair, especially because you've only been engaged for a month. Like you have so much time. Money Diaries, what do you think your best money habit is? I kind of have two, considering I was brought up with only thinking about like needs and wants and being able to split that into two separate categories I usually only buy things that I need and like maybe like once a season or something

like winter or summer I'll go out and buy things that I want like with clothing I don't care about brands and all that sort of stuff yeah I'm pretty good at sticking to what I need and making a list of what I want and then figuring out which one I'm going to do first but the main money habit that I have been doing since I was young was my employer splits my pay up for me and it goes into four separate accounts like savings spending and a house account so when I get my pay I only see $250 which is my spending and in my mind I'm only getting paid $250 even though in the background the money is going elsewhere already. So your employer lets you set it up that they pay into like four separate accounts for you. Yeah. Because they have a fancy system,

it allows you to do that. But my partner just does the automatic transfers. So you can do that as well if you're in bank. How good. So you don't even see it. And then you've worked out in your like little budgeting cashflow system that $250, is it a month a week? Like how often is that? A week. And it's just, that's the leftover after all my things are divvied up. And what do you spend that $250 on? Is that like your fun money or is that like groceries, or what does that look like? I think that's just a bit more fun money. It's just like, if I ever want like a coffee during the week or something like that, or if I go out on the weekend, I'll use that money. And if there's anything left over, I just transfer it to my

savings and start from $250 again. So that's, yeah. I feel like that's such a, it's very similar to my money masterclass, which you've probably seen online. But I talk about that fund being your food, fuel and fun. So like anything that you tap your card for, like, you know, if you're getting petrol, you're getting a coffee or, you know, for me, I used to play netball. So like that amount of money would go into there and every single Thursday I would direct debit it to that account. And then on that same Thursday before it transferred, I go in and get rid of the excess and be like, okay, cool, starting clean. And I feel like it's such a good budgeting hack because in the back of my head, I always knew, all right, Thursday, Friday, and I had it

on a Thursday because I knew that the weekend was my busiest time. I'm like, all right, so Thursday, I'm gonna have new cash like in my head I'm like it's new cash and so if I wanted to go for brunch I'd be like oh okay that's probably you know like $50 or whatever it is so like in my head I'm like I can only do that once and like budgeting with a smaller amount of money do you feel that it takes the stress off because it did for me like I feel like I'm less stressed because all the other stuff is automated in the background yeah it did a little bit but then when it got to the point where like because I did have a bad relationship once with money where like I bought a I bought a trip and I cried because it was a want and not a need and it was the biggest payment I've ever done

and I remember I was so young at the time and I was so upset so at one point it did get to a point where it's like oh I don't have any money and I didn't want to tap into that savings even though I knew I had a big chunk of savings and I think it's because I had it on the house and I was taking it away from that dream and putting it to something else so at a point it did it was a little bit negative because I kept being like I don't have any money when really I do but once those bills the bills account started telling up like oh my god it was so much easier when a bill came in I can just pay it because I knew that I had at least a year of bills saved up so it did take a weight off my shoulders. I feel like that's where people just assume that you must be really good

at money, therefore it doesn't stress you. And that's where we need to do a lot of work around our money mindset and what that money is actually for. And if it's for fun, it's for holidays, like you've got to find a way to enable yourself to spend it. Otherwise, we're going to just be stressed about money forever. Have you changed your mindset around that now? Yeah. So after my little travels, I did sort of get a different attitude where like experiences and things that I want sometimes are worth it and that even though it is a want and you don't need it like it's fine to spend that money if you're going to be happy so like for example I moved out with my partner after COVID and we started renting and everyone told me renting is dead money but we are able to

be together every day in that experience see I think it's a lifestyle choice rent money is not dead money at the end of the day you're going to have to pay in some way shape or form to put a roof over your head. If you've got the privilege of living at home, fantastic. But that's not something that everybody has. So whether you're paying cheap rent or expensive rent, that comes down to lifestyle costs and the lifestyle you want to lead. And I think that the idea that rent money is dead money, it's like, well, actually it's not. And that's actually a pretty entitled thing for people to think because we all need to put a roof over our head. Exactly. And the experience of living with my partner, when you just were in COVID and I couldn't see him for like six weeks

straight like it was a relief yeah and it would have been so stressful yeah I was happy to pay for that like a hundred percent all right tell me now what do you think your worst money habit is I think I over complicate things like even my brokers like you have too many bank accounts so sit down I'll do what I want yeah I think I over complicate things I look at things too much or I go through the budget too much and I read you the formula too much especially when it comes So at the moment I'm trying to conjoin finances with my partner and because I overthink everything or I have so many bank accounts, it's actually making it more complicated than it should be. And I think I'm just going in a downward spiral. So yeah. And now that we've purchased everything

with the house, I'm like, I'm going to have to redo this again. And that's like, I don't want to, but I know I need to. Yeah. And how do you manage that at the moment? Are you a spreadsheet girly are you a back of the envelope girl is it all in your brain like how are you budgeting I have a spreadsheet I'm a massive spreadsheet fan so at the moment I haven't got a budget spreadsheet updated but I have a spreadsheet with every single bill that we've had in the past six weeks because our bills came at the same time oh how good that would be so handy yeah it was like when's the bill due what account are we going to pay from because we got accounts everywhere and we're not joint yet and who it's to just because all our bills came at

the same time as we're paying everything for settlement. Yeah. And it's so stressful. It's so overwhelming. Hey, all right. Well, I'm actually going to gift you my money masterclass because in my money masterclass, there is a, so there's a singles option, but then there's also a couples option of how basically my husband and I manage money together, especially if you now have a mortgage and it really turbocharges the use of your offset to make sure that everything goes in and then out and it will simplify everything for you so that you can kind of see your partner and then yours and then what is together and it's all automated. So hopefully with that spreadsheet you've made with all your bills, you can then take all of those numbers,

put them into my spreadsheet and then have a really clean outcome. And I think that my favorite part of this is you and I are already on the same page about having that food, fuel and account. So it's basically going to align to your values already. So I'm excited for you to look at it. Also, if you're a spreadsheet girly, you're going to think it's really aesthetic. You're going to be like, excuse me, what do you mean? It's all automatic. There's even a debt tracker in there. So you put in your mortgage, you put in their interest rate, and then it'll tell you how long it'll take for you to pay it off. And then you can play around with, well, what would an additional $10 a week look like? And it'll show you how much time it cuts off, which obviously

I'm really proud of. I don't know if you can hear it in my voice, but like, I think it's real cool. Thank you so much. Especially the fact that it's set up to be with an offset because that's what we have too. We have the offset. So it might be like perfect that I start using that and then it reigns me in. So it's obviously going to turbocharge it if you have an offset, but if you don't have an offset, it operates on a cash hub system to make sure that every single dollar that comes in is going to work as hard for you as you do for it. Because I just look at it and go, how many times do we just like lose money along the way? Like small amounts that just fall away. So, it really simplifies it to make sure that you're capturing as much as possible.

And instead of budgeting, and I mean, I'm obviously a fan of this, but I think you'll like it. But instead of budgeting in terms of restricting yourself, it just shows you, hey, money diaries, this is what you're spending. Are you okay with it? And you're going to go, oh yeah, or I actually want it to go somewhere else. Like it's not really about crucifying yourself, which I feel like in your money story, you probably fall into doing really easily, which we don't want to do. We want to have a positive money mindset. Thank you so much for that. And also might keep me in line and don't overcomplicate things. Oh, I'm excited. And I mean, you deserve it. You shared your whole money story with our community. That's the least I can do. Money Diarist, before we go,

you have just told me so much about your journey like you are so cool you're not even 30 yet you work in local council you're doing town planning you're earning 23 grand a year in rental income that you set up when you were basically still a child like be for real like you negotiated and I mean you did say you had your mom's help but like girl power like she made sure that you're in the right position. You got this investment property. It was what? $450,000 and now it's $575,000. Are you joking? You are creating wealth for yourself. But at the start, you're like, oh, I don't know. Maybe I'm a B. And then you go on to say, I've just bought my first house with my partner. I also have an investment property. That's what I brought to the relationship.

Also, when I was talking to you about money goals and you were like, oh yeah, I really want to fix the house. And I'm like, oh, how much do you have to save? You're like, oh, I actually already have that in savings. I was like, what? You already have that cash sitting to the side and you're so clear about other debts. You're like, oh, I've got the mortgages, but also the only other debt I've got, it's hex. Yeah, there's only seven grand. And I already know in my head that that seven grand next financial year is going to go. What? Be for real money, Darius. Do you actually think you're a B? Because I think there are going to be a lot of people listening going, she's a bit delulu yeah like I did think about maybe like a b plus because I know that having

two homes before 30 in this climate is insane it's really cool yeah like you probably won't hear that from a lot of people so I definitely know like that's insane but I always think like there's more to learn there's more to improve on so that's where that a would be like there's so many things I can do like between like learning stocks or getting to a position where I can put extra payments into my super or my home loan. Like those things are things that I feel like would get me to an A. But they're all completely doable, which is kind of cool. So, that I feel like is a lot more about money mindset than you going, oh, I have a lot of work to do. It's more around going, oh, I actually need to sit down with a spreadsheet and work out what additional

mortgage payments I could have or what amount of money I have for investment if that's in line with my goals and values. So, like that's so doable. The next time I talk to you, you're going to be like, B, I'm basically an A. And I'll be like, I know, I already knew. Hopefully by the next time I talk to you, my house loans are a bit lower. And then I'll definitely be like, I'm A plus. Yeah, a hundred percent. All right, Money Dice, sadly, that is all we have time for today. It has been a pleasure. I have loved talking to you. My favorite thing ever is just talking to people about their journeys and going, how on earth have you done that? Like at the end of the day, like 95 grand, really great salary. But also I'd say in our community, a relatively common

one so lots of people are going to be like hold up how did she do this and it's actually just hard work like at the end of the day it's no magic it's no like I got given you know a big deposit or a big inheritance like no you actually just had to work really hard and now it's paying off because it's been what six years and now it's paying for itself how good I know it's just bigger and better from here I love it well thank you so much I've adored learning more about you and I just know that the community has too. So it has been a pleasure and I hope that we get to cross paths in person at some point. Thank you so much and thank you for having me on. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your

individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.