She's On The Money - Underpaid? Here’s How to Fix It + Oura Rings Vs a $20 dupe

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

You’re working harder than ever… but where’s the pay raise? If your job keeps piling on responsibilities without the extra dollars to match, what do you do? Do you ask for a raise, push back, or start looking elsewhere? We’re breaking it all down. We’re also tackling a big relationship question—what happens when you and your partner aren’t on the same financial page? Whether one of you is saving while the other is spending, or your money goals just don’t align, we’re unpacking how to handle it. Plus, we put the viral $750 Oura ring to the test against a $20 budget dupe to find out… is it really worth the hype? See the Oura ring dupe here.  Ready for more laughs, lessons, and unhinged money chats? Check out our oh-so-bingeable Friday Drinks playlist. Listen here. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast that makes personal finance fun, especially on Fridays. It's our favorite day of the week because I get to get my team together and celebrate you. How incredible she's on the money community. Miss Jessica Rich is back as always and going to be sharing our favorite money wins of the week. Miss Bex Syed, she's here with a number of different broke tips. She's broke, not just feeling broke. And we'll be helping to answer a money dilemma, which this week is all about not being fairly compensated at work and something that you slid into our DMs about, what do you do when you and your partner aren't aligned

on your joint goals? I feel like that would be so hard. You fight? You probably do. That's it, end of the show. End of the show. You know how to solve fights? Communication.

I thought you were going to say fists. Also, you looked at Jess like you were about to kick her out. I looked at Jess because I thought that Jess would say communication. Oh, I see, I see. No, Jess was ready to throw hands. I'm from the West Side. Do you know what? Jess looks innocent.

Nah, she could. She honestly is often on the verge of throwing hands. Yeah, totally. Like, that's just Jess through and through. Before we get to all of that, though, guys, how were your weeks? I'm hoping none of you threw hands. You go first because I feel like you did throw hands at least three times. Now that I can talk, no, I didn't.

Makes me good. Happy Valentine's Day. Love it. I haven't done anything. Oh no, that's a total lie. We had a photo shoot yesterday, which was very fun. I haven't done anything. I'm like, I have literally had the biggest week, but I don't know where you were at Jess. We had, it was such a fun day. We shot lots of content, lots of fun videos. It was all very cheesy. We hired that house back down on the Morning to Peninsula that we hired when I first did like our investing masterclass. So we like did our investing masterclass, wanted like beautiful sets. And one of the most cost

effective ways to do that was to hire out an Airbnb essentially that we're allowed to film in so that we didn't have to hire like a production studio, which is really expensive. But then also our team are all across the country. And when we come together to do content weeks or content days, they need accommodation. So I said to the girls, what if we hired a really big, like fancy house? That's so clever. You all get a bedroom. All the bedrooms have en-suites. So you've got your own rooms and stuff but we have this big girl house for a week and it's just it is so much fun like getting to produce content and have everybody in one place at one time like it's just it's a very good week

for me I was wondering whose house we were in no it was not mine absolutely not it is currently for sale though Bec and Jess I think we all pull our money if we pull our money we still don't have enough for the deposit because the house lmi i actually don't think i want to know it's listed from seven mil oh whoa that's so many dollars five percent of seven mil 350 000 literally like you could buy a whole house for the yeah that's that's what i'm saving up for for a little apartment isn't that crazy that's crazy yeah so we won't be doing that um but it's nice to borrow for a week. Yeah. It was very nice. Thank you for letting us borrow your house. Bec, how was your week? Really good. Really cute. You know, I just, I really like that. I know that I'm in a

relationship, but I also, I really love my friends. My friends are the loves of my life. So it's a very big, like, you know, I want to, I want to celebrate Galentine's Day and Guy-lentine's Day. Guy-lentine's Day. And they, them-lentine's Day as well. So it's a big week of love and laughter. I think you would just say valentine in that case. Well, I guess there's already a word for it. Because I thought it was everyone. I like how you were trying to be super political and like politically correct.

And I'm like, valentines would actually just meet the brief. Turns out actually that there's a word. Yeah, it's good. It's good. You just wanted to share the love. Yeah. And obviously the photo shoot was so much fun. I've never felt so like fancy, you know.

It does. I mean, standing in a $7 million home does up the ante. It does something. Yeah, it does something to you in your bones. The confidence, I feel like, grows because you're like, the photos can't look that bad because look around. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. People aren't going to be looking at me.

They're going to be perving at what that mirror cost or whatever. Yeah, and I think you can polish a turd if you're in a $7 million house. I think the thing that Jess and I loved most about the house is, like, we're pervy, right? So, like, everyone does this. Like, let's be honest, you're at an Airbnb. I'm opening the cupboards. I'm looking in the drawers.

I'm looking at those teas. Yeah. Those individual packs. Yeah, the individual packs of the teas they had. Jess and I go around and we look at the homewares. We love our homewares. Good love our homewares. Jess and I, Target, Kmart, H&M, so many of those things that I was like,

oh, my gosh, this bookshelf is probably going to be covered in, like, such expensive. I'm like, it wasn't. It's a very good exercise in things don't have to be expensive to look. I mean, like, granted, obviously, you have the backdrop of the $7 million home, which is probably our thing. And when we Googled the dining table because we were like, oh, this dining table is stunning, it's $15,000.

Yeah, couldn't be me. But it was very cool to see that they did have a lot of beautiful accessories that were from Kmart and Target. Yeah. Yeah, I was like they really did the high-low, but, I mean, maybe I'll get them and my house will look $7 million. Is that how that works? Yes, that's how it works.

Yeah, good. My new Kmart cushions make my house look like a $7 million house. Exactly, yep. That's exactly how it works. it's not even half, not even a quarter, like wild. Anyway, this week has been really fun, but I was wondering, do you want to hear one of our five-star reviews? Yes, please. This one was really cute. So this one is from Jackie. She says, empowering. Like many others, has literally changed my perspective and my behavior towards money for the best. I've just

made my first investment with an ETF and I'm so happy. I love the dynamics between the hosts and find the podcast overall to be a positive and educational space oh lovely thank you thank you jackie yeah and congratulations on your first etf purchase she's an investor but also like the fact that you took the time out of your day to just leave something positive on the internet that's gorgeous thank you thank you so much i adore it all right speaking of positive our facebook community is one of my favorite places to hang out on the internet miss jess gritchy yes what money wins and confessions are you bringing to the table this week? Well, I want to start off with a follow-up from a couple of weeks ago. You might remember I read a money win from someone

about Planet Fitness. Oh, yes. And we said, oh, they're not Australian. How annoying. They are. I said, I'd go away and do some research. We had some queens slide into our DMs to confirm that Planet Fitness is in fact a thing here. I like that this podcast is actually a two-way conversation. Yes. Absolutely. I feel like a lot of podcasts are just like, you hear the content, you leave it. No, no, no. The DMs are open. If we say something on here, it's actually open conversation. Absolutely. I love that you listened to this, but I actually want your opinion. And when they jump into the DMs and they're like,

oh, you know how you talk about Planet Fitness? Are you kidding? I know. That's great. This is just a long voice. Unlimited straight answers. Yeah, once a week, I believe. But Alicia also slid into our DMs and said,

apparently in the Newcastle area, Planet Fitness has changed the name to Earth, but they have the same amenities. So maybe look out for that. It's Earth, U-R-T-H, like the cafe. U-R-T-H. Yeah, Earth. But to refresh people's memory, so you pay the $10. I think it's $10 a week.

Is there more expensive? This sounds like that. I promise it's not. $10 a week is the gym, the more expensive. If they want to give us free memberships to, like, unlimited spray tans. I was like, I want to test out once a week spray tans. Okay. Okay.

Okay. I guess you have to have it every single day. But, Jess, how many times do you need a spray tan in a week? Well, this is what I was thinking because I was kind of running the math in my head. Once. Because it's once a week. I just need a tan once a week. Totally.

Max. About $5 a week for the cheaper version, but that doesn't cover the extra amenities. So it's $10 a week for the more expensive. They call it Black Card, and that includes your once-a-week spray tan, use of the Hydra massage, use of the Red Life therapy boots, use of the massage chairs. Is that USD?

No, it's Australian dollars. $10 is the more expensive. Isn't it crazy? And the thing I was thinking is I'm no longer like a regular tanning girly, but back in the day when I was doing my weekly tan, you'd use about a bottle a month, right? And if you get like an Isle of Paradise or a San Tropez, that's about $40 a bottle.

So for the same price that you were spending on tanning, you could just do the spray tan and then you've got a gym membership for free in my mind. Yeah, see, I've gotten back into tanning. I've done the opposite. I feel like on social media there's like an uprising in influencers who are like, I'm not tanning anymore. I'm embracing my pale skin.

And I love that for them. But right now I don't feel that comfortable in my skin. And the, like, I'm sorry, you can't deny it. when your body is covered in a coat of spray tan, my confidence increases. I'm sorry. It does something to my ego. And at the moment, I need that. So I'm just going to roll in tan every week and it's nobody else's business. I'm feeling much better about my body. Thank you for asking. As you deserve to be. Planet Fitness was also the one, I think I read this in the Money Win, where you can bring a guest. Actually, this was your bro tip. You can bring a guest in

staffed hours so it's quite economical I feel as well so I don't know I've never been to Planet Fitness so I can neither confirm nor deny it but I was thinking maybe I should just pay 10 bucks one week and go test the spray tan out and see how it is in Melbourne there's one in Geelong yeah Geelong oh Geelong's close to you yeah yeah there are a few others that was just the closest one to me but we anyway we can look into that one's called Planet Fitness or that one's called Earth these are that's Planet Fitness that's the Planet Fitness website anyway enough about them but I just wanted to follow up. Yeah, what else have you got? I feel like it's a good conversation to have. Yeah, I just thought the girlies might like to know we followed up, we did our due

diligence. And because it's a two-way conversation, can you girls tell me what is the best fake tan that I can do at home? Like I don't want to go get a spray tan every week. Like I know some people do that. That's just not my journey. That is an admin nightmare. I need something that I can put on at 10pm. Like that's the vibe. That's the goal. Tell me what the best at home, like mousse tan. i think is yeah like that for me yeah the one that i can put on yeah like what is the most like i've won for you non-fail you have won that's weird i sometimes i wear fake tan what sometimes i just just for a little bit more orange because i don't i kind of go a bit gray in the winter oh yeah weird so what are you putting on i can't remember what it's called

It's like a little bottle and you shake it and it's foamy. It's like moussey. It's like foamy. You are describing everything. You are describing every fake tan under the sun. Let's take this offline. Yes, okay. I'll try and find it.

And you can tell me which one you recommend, but I just need to know. Yeah. Because, like, they aren't cheap anymore and that's fine, but, like, I don't want to spend $70 or $60 or $40 on a bottle of fake tan that then makes me look orange. Fair. Totally fair. I paid my dues in high school with my orange tan.

I don't need to relive that in my 30s. All righty, next I've got a money win from Jordan who said she used the online chat to price beat via Bunnings so she got an extra 10% off the best price she could find for a carpet cleaner that Amazon had on sale. She ended up saving herself $70 and she picked it up an hour later. Oh, okay. Don't forget about the online price beat and you can do it

at the chatbots if you don't like talking to people. yeah sometimes it does feel like awkward when you're like hey um so can you see online like this is actually cheaper at this other store can you price beat it oh I could never I do I have no regrets yeah absolutely JB Hi-Fi hates to see me coming yeah I love a JB unlucky unlucky because I'll just get it up on my phone and be like next I've got a money win from Tess who said she'd been eyeing the aura ring for ages but couldn't bring herself to splurge then out of nowhere, she won one at her gym. What? Which is crazy. And I thought this was a good spot to quickly interject because you and I both got these for Christmas. Yes, we did. And they're so

expensive. They're so expensive. And I love mine, but I will say, because I wish someone had told me this, mine looks like shit now. And I've had it for maybe a month. I don't even want to talk about it, Jessica. I text you a photo. So my husband bought me my aura ring for Christmas because, and do you know what? I will put the link to this in the show notes of this episode. I purchased on AliExpress, which is like a direct from China kind of website. It's legit. It's okay. I purchased a dupe Oura Ring. So for those of you following along at home, an Oura Ring is like, it's like, it's got the functionality or a lot of the functionality of an Apple Watch. So it's a health tracker. So in my Oura Ring, I can track my steps and my heart rate and my sleep. And it's

been really helpful. And I purchased it because I used to have an Apple Watch and then I didn't like looking like a spy kid. So I stopped wearing it, but I did still want to track my health, right? But I couldn't commit to the Oura Ring price because by the time you buy it in USD, currency conversions it's about $750 so it is a very expensive purchase yeah and when I look at the ring online and in like all of the TikTok videos I looked at it's quite a chunky ring too and like I'm not a chunky jewelry kind of gal so I wasn't even sure if it would be comfortable to wear so I ended up buying and like researching surely it's been duped like the world is very savvy nowadays, found it. Perfect. Depends on whether you've used AliExpress or not before,

but it will cost you anywhere between like $17 and $27. For basically the same thing, the only thing it doesn't do, Bec, is your temperature. So a lot of people, and one of the reasons why my husband then decided to purchase the real quote aura ring for me was I was in love and still am in love with my dupe, my cheap one, Jess. Jess had the cheap one as well. looks the same. Yeah, it looks great. Looks identical. And sadly, wears the same. In fact, I think, was it like Christmas Day or the day after Christmas? Jess and I were texting. We were like, whoa, we both got Oura Rings. We were so excited about it. And then I said, this is really exciting, but low key, did you expect when you like opened the box and like held your Oura Ring

that it would feel like better quality? Right. And Jess was like, oh my God, yes, because it didn't feel like like better quality than the dupe yeah like the dupe actually is the same in fact I would say at this point my dupe is in better condition than my aura ring because my aura ring has completely changed color I see yeah so I just want to say a heads up for anyone who's thinking about it is mine is just so scratched up typically wear it on my non-dominant hand which is what they recommend I take it off if I'm doing like I don't you know do pick up weights or do dishes with it on like I try and look after it but even so I've had it for like a month and it looks trashed which I just thought good chance for us to let people know that because if you're spending I was shocked

I thought spending so much money so much money I thought it would last a lot longer so you get a doobie and I mean it probably is gonna last but it just doesn't it doesn't look as nice as it could and I think that that's it's an important consideration and like Jess and I I think we're on the same page here we upgraded to the aura and like that was something that I was like oh my God, if I could get that for Christmas, like that would be elite. I really wanted to track my temperature because of fertility. Okay. So you can use it. Yeah. You can use it to track your period and like use it as in my case, at some point I want to get pregnant again. And like, that's a really helpful tool to have, but if you don't care about that stuff, I can't see like,

and the analytics are obviously deeper on aura, but like, honestly, the due, you know, when you just like is it worth it depends on where your values are at really but like try the dupe first and then maybe upgrade if you're like oh I do love this or whatever I don't know it just feels like such a boy that sucks that kind of money that you're like well it's even more exciting if you're testing you win one for free oh my god that's a good thing for a gym to give away too great yeah wow next I've got a money win from Carla who said she's returned back to work after taking some time off for her cancer treatment she's managed to pay all of her beginning of the year bills with her very first paycheck which is a massive win for her because obviously things

were getting a bit stressful with not working just to say carla i hope you're doing well like we're sending you all of our love yes can you update us like are you okay i know that you had your treatment and you were back at work but like how are you doing like yeah looking after you and making sure. A hundred percent. And then also side note, sorry, financial advisor comes out in my brain. I don't know if you have any insurances inside your superannuation, but if you do have like inside your super couple of insurances, check if you were able to claim on them. So I think a lot of people have this misconception when it comes to like life and income protection and stuff that you can't claim on it unless you die. And you might actually be

able to do what's called a partial drawdown, which is where you can claim on your insurance for having a significant health event. So like check, just check. And it might be no and then like, okay, no worries, you haven't missed out on anything. But you might be missing out on some cash if you haven't checked. So sorry. If a financial advisor comes out, I'm sorry.

Next up, a money winner from Emily who said her husband went to Vinnie's and she got a pair of brand new Uggs that were priced at $15. Oh, what? They had $10 on their Vinnie's loyalty card, so he got them for $5. That's cheaper than Kmart. That's so good. Kmart's ones aren't even like real shirling. Yeah. Shirling?

Shirling. That's crazy. That's the word, isn't it? That's like the sheepskin word. Is that what that is? Shirling. Shirling? That's cool that you know that. Yeah, thanks. She's a pinchler girl. Oh, she used to wear track pants, hug boots and a singlet. What a time. And then lastly

this week, I've got a money win from Ashley who said money win, $7 a kilo for Cherry Hill cherries at Coles. Oh, that's a good deal. I will be stopping at Coles on my way home. Oh, yes. I love cherries. Do you know what I really want to make? Side note, I've never had cherry pie. Oh, I love that song. Yeah. But like, I want to try cherry pie. So I feel like I'm going to get some cherries and make like a from scratch. Yeah. Well, it's Valentine's Day. I feel like it's the day for it. There's something sexy about cherry pie. Yeah. No,

I like it. All right. Bec, I need to know, what are your broke tips for people who are actually broke yes makes you feel broke I feel like crazy I must I must be missing a reference you are missing a massive reference I'll fill you in after the episode yeah because there's a difference Beck I don't know if you know this but there is actually a massive difference between feeling broke and actually being broke oh my god absolutely and like if people say they're broke online yeah but they're not they just feel broke yeah a little bit offensive oh yeah actually broke right it's like I get it I get that feeling but also it's not fully the same I think maybe poor and broke because it is if you like have your have your savings and you are fine you are secure but if

you've got savings you're not broke you're not broke but you're still like oh I'm I'm running I don't have some extra cash to spend probably the way and you've spoken about this before oh yeah as somebody who you know has very openly and we are very uh grateful for your generosity in terms of you being so open but you're like it does make me feel like trash when someone's talking about like oh I'm so broke when you literally are but you know they have savings like it does scare me you know when like someone's like scared about something and you're like oh my god I feel exactly the same as you because we're in the exact same boat and they're like I'm scared but here's my safety net and you're like whoa okay I don't actually have a safety net I should be way scared

than you and I didn't realize that until you said that that's the kind of feeling it's like I'm panicked now all of a sudden yeah and that's not a situation anyone should be in true anyway we will move on from that and i will explain the tea the tea oh my god i'm so excited so this first one comes from sophie who must know me a little bit too well because i mentioned a few i would have been a few months ago i reckon like this gaming app that sounds dodgy but it's like i think it's called free cash or something you download apps you play games you get money and it is legitimate Yeah, because you have to watch all the ads and stuff. It is.

Yeah, you do have to watch ads. You don't have to spend money. You don't have to spend a cent. I've made like $7 in a few months. I've made $7 in a few months. That's $7 you didn't have. That's $7 you didn't have before. Exactly.

And it is fun. No judgment. I would say it is fun. Thank you so much. No judgment because I play Candy Crush and I don't make a dollar from that. But imagine you having- Useless game. Totally.

Imagine you were just like in a scroll hole for hours and you're like, oh man, this is so dumb. But then you're like, wait, I probably made 40 cents today. If I was earning money playing Woodcube Puzzle, I'd be rich. You could be. Okay, but if I was earning money from watching TikToks, I would be wealthy. And there's probably a way to do that. Yeah.

Oh, there's no way. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. So Sophie said that Shopback actually have games on there. Sorry, what? Yeah, and so Sophie made $50. I haven't like fully. Sophie, $50?

I know, isn't that so good? I will be looking into this. Yeah, that would have taken me like a year to make. So this is really cool. gaming app. You need to upgrade your gaming app. Exactly. I don't need free game anymore. I need ShopBack games. So I'm going to be checking that. Just wanted to let everyone know, please check ShopBack games. Okay. And this next one comes from Amrita, who says, if you check your spam, make sure there's definitely a difference between spam and scam. I noticed this the other day too.

Obviously you get your like all the promotional stuff in your junk inbox. But Amrita said that She found an email from MyCarAuto, you know, the Kmart, offering her $100 off and 17 cents. Oh, I got that email too. Oh, did you? Yeah. 17 cents off petrol at Coles Express. Oh, yes, please.

17 cents off is a good deal. I know, isn't that so good? And I believe the 17 cents off petrol is for like eight weeks, like two months or something, which is a big chunk of time. So that's why I know it's a dumb broke tip because I'm like, I'm telling you to check your spam. Don't forget, my car, points love are coming in. My car, you can get fly-by points when you do your services there.

There you go. I didn't know that. And your tyres and stuff. And I don't know if it's all services, but I know with my last one, maybe it's a deal that they run, but looking into it, I got a year of free roadside assistance with my service. Yes, I always get one of those. Yeah, so don't pay for roadside assistance.

Totally. Do you know what I mean? Double stack it. Oh, my God, double stack it. God, you're so smart. You're so smart with your words. And then this next one comes from myself. Obviously, it's Valentine's Day.

And my pay cycle falls on the 15th and so. Oh, no. I know. So I'm like, well, all this. And also mine and Jess's anniversary is on the 7th of February. So it's 7th of February, 14th of February. I'm like, I ain't got any money left. That's savings.

That's everything. I've got no money left for arguably one of the biggest times of the entire year for me and my partner. So I decided to take up a few different hobbies that were really, really cheap. So I crocheted a big love heart pillow. Why are you the sweetest person in the entire world? That's very sweet. But I just want you guys to know that it literally costs like,

I think it costs $13 in total. That's the stuffing. That's the yarn. That's the crochet needle. But I actually used my finger because it was so thick. Wait, you crocheted with your fingers? Yeah, my finger was the crochet needle. So you're a crochet with your fingers and I'm an ally.

Yes. Yeah, nice. Gorgeous. Imagine the power we have between us. We have so much power. so that was honestly yeah because the crochet needle was not actually needed I used my finger instead that was probably eight dollars in total and that's a gorgeous gift you spray it with a bit of your perfume gorgeous oh my god you're so sweet like can you imagine either of our partners

absolutely not absolutely not like I'm living vicariously through you that's so cute well I What other suggestions have you got? The next one is actually I also took up pottery and literally with like the firing and all this like legitimate pottery. I saw on your Instagram your pottery creations. They were so cute. Yes, thank you. So I have, you know, a matchbox, which I'll share online. Matchbox ceramic that is usable.

I try to be functional is the word I'm thinking of. And then obviously all these other little trinkets and things like that. Oh my gosh, you are so cute. The whole thing costs like $15 for 10 kilos of clay, which is gigantic. It's going to last for the rest of my life. And then to actually get everything fired is like, I don't know, it's $10 a kilo or something. When you say to get everything fired.

Oh, sorry. You take it somewhere and you just get it fired. Like is there like a clay shop? Yes. Well, this didn't make any sense to me before I did this, but my friend actually told me. So you have to go to a pottery. I go to Northcote Pottery, which is actually not in Northcote,

it's in Brunswick East. They just Google pottery supplies near you. And they fire things for you. They also fire things. And so you firstly. That's so cool. I had no idea. Yes.

And so my friend was like, yeah, that was a hobby that was out of reach for me. Oh, my God, totally. I thought the same thing. But I would recommend stoneware clay. It's easier for beginners to like, it's malleable, whatever. So you go in and then you do one firing. You glaze it. You paint it.

You paint it. You glaze it. You fire again. That's it. I'm obsessed with you. You are so creative. Thank you. Do you know how many people will have partners that are like,

tonight they're going to be like, oh, I thought about getting you flowers. Oh, I thought about taking you out for dinner. Nope, nope, nope. Oh, I thought about. Thoughts? Dump him. No. Thoughts aren't paying the bills.

If you guys could see. Bec? Yes. What's Jess wearing today? Well, this is really quite a festive jumper. It's pink and red. It's pink and red. It's beautiful.

It's romantic. And if I squint my eyes a little bit and look a bit closer, it actually reads, dump him. And so I think it's like maybe it's on brand for today. It's big red capital letters. It says, dump him. So I think it's a reminder to anyone out there, whether you're dating a he or a her, if they're not putting in the effort,

then friends are the best alternative to and they're the best everything but you don't need a partner and if they're not putting the effort go to your friends and have a nice galentine's day yeah they're not hand sculpting you clay yes hand knitting you huh exactly get out of here someone's gonna have to call steven up someone is gonna have to let this man in on the secret i'll call him i'll drop some clay off for him well i love that i feel like that is very wholesome Let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, we are going to be having a chat about not being fairly compensated at work, which is going to be hard and something you slid into our DMs about. This week, we're talking what to do when you and your partner aren't aligned on your

joint goals. Not on Valentine's Day. Oh, savage. Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a listen to this week's Money Dilemma. Hi there. Have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve? The She's on the Money team is here to help. Every week we tackle your dilemmas, both big and small, to answer your most burning money, career and life questions. To get involved, simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now let's take a listen to this week's Money Dilemma. hi my issue is about pay rises and job title change so i work as a product developer for a medium-sized fashion brand and our product team consists of my manager who's the head of product

another product developer and a print coordinator we used to have a fashion designer as well but they've fired her during our yearly review we was discussed that we were understaffed and overworked so we'll be hiring someone new to help us out shortly after the other product developer and announced she was pregnant so our new hire was going to turn into a maternity leave cover due to personal reasons my manager has moved away for six months and will be working remotely and the print coordinator has just quit we don't live in a major city so it's hard to find someone with the right experience and now my manager's not in town she won't be able to train someone new so what was a team of five has now become a team of two who is just me and my boss who is working remotely

i've now been tasked with handling print work fashion design and product development last year we had three full-time staff members for these roles and now it's just me. This is casually mentioned to me in a group setting, framed as an opportunity for me to grow. Last year, I did ask for a pay rise and I was told that growth isn't linear and that my role depends on experience over time as I don't have KPIs. I suspect asking for another pay rise would mean she'll just say that it's temporary for the next six months and once the other developer comes back, the role will change again help me please i can send you more info okay i did you say mo gay i said okay oh okay mo gay doesn't make sense no like even if i said that

this sounds really that this this is so annoying it's one of my biggest pet peeves maybe it's not identical to what our listener is talking about but when uh companies either strategically or accidentally or whatever make the team a little bit less and less like every year just subtly and like give each person pre-existing person more responsibilities until they have so little people in their team that they don't have to pay that much but everyone they're still doing all the work is what i'm trying to say and that's that annoys me but i don't have any advice that victoria could give that what about advice that you would give I would find a whole different place to work I would start from scratch you're like catcher yeah I would be leaving there as soon as possible

so Bex over and out yeah I am and I think I just we're not just like numbers we're not money makers we're just we're like they haven't haven't seen that already then they haven't like kind of been like oh wow we're really putting a lot of pressure on our team already then i i i just think you should leave i just think you need to start from scratch you need to get out of there asap and maybe that's bad advice no that's not bad advice it's advice from a friend that's true the advice from a friend your friend i'm your friend exactly but it could be redeemable jess what are your thoughts well she you said that it's bait your superior said that it's based on the breadth of your role rather than role description.

I knew she was going to go down these roads. I would be saying, oh, that's great to hear because the breadth of my role has expanded to include three other people's jobs. So by your definition, I should be earning all of their salaries. Oh, my gosh. Based on your definition. Oh, my laugh is so embarrassing.

Sorry, carry on, Jess. Obviously, they're not going to do that. But I would argue that you're in quite a position of power. Like they have lost every. Oh, yeah, you are in a massive position of power. you probably don't feel that way right now, but you are my friend. They've lost every staff member but one who is remote. And it's your manager. It's your manager. You're the only one holding down the fort. You've just told me it's very difficult to hire into your job. Everything

that you have just said says to me that they can't afford to lose you. Do you know what I mean? Obviously, if you're not being looked after, as Bec said, get the hell out of there. But I'd be sitting down with your managers and saying, hey, I'm doing the jobs of three people. You haven't replaced any of them. I've taken on all of their workload or we've split it between myself and my manager, however it's worked. List out all the things that you're doing that you weren't doing before and say, hey, like either you compensate me for this. I just can't do it actually. Yeah. Or I'm getting out of here. Yeah. Those are your options. Yeah. It's so good. It's an interesting conversation to have because I think a lot of us go, oh, it can be absorbed. And you go, yeah,

of course. And I mean, in our team, things happen. We're a tiny team. So, you know, if someone leaves or if, you know, let's take a good example. Someone's on holiday. I'll be like, hey, Jess, can you help out for X, Y, Z? And I feel like that's very different. No, no, no. It is very different. But like you'll shift around what you're doing and put a few things off so that in your 38 hours of work a week, like you can accommodate a few extra tasks. But if I said, can you please take on Brooke and George's roles? Your current role needs to step back as well, because you're telling me that there's going to be more capabilities that I need to fulfill each and every single week. But at the end of the day, you're actually only paying me for 38 hours a week.

Like you are paying me to be present for those hours. So I would be sitting down and going, okay, cool. Like I do all of these things and you've just given me a list of other things you want me to do which ones are going to take a cut like which ones am I not doing so like I do and you might want to break down the role because like they can't really argue with this you want me to break down the role into okay well you know I don't I don't really know what you do because I know you explained that you're a product developer but I don't know what this means um when you said print coordinator I was like I don't know what a print coordinator is but they must be important because you've said you've lost them. So you had five people and you do not

have the capacity to do all of those roles. So I would be sitting down and going, okay, cool. Like I do my job for 38 hours a week. Did you want me to like allocate Fridays to doing parts of her job? Oh yes. No, maybe. No, no, no. We're hoping you can do it on top of that. Okay. Well, one, when am I finding the time? Cause that's actually really unreasonable to expect, But two, no worries. Back to what Jess was saying, you said growth isn't linear. It's going to be based on, you know, what I take on and that's fine. So if I'm taking this on for this period of time, I do actually expect to be compensated. And I know that our listener wrote in or voice noted in and said, you know, maybe I would revert back to the original salary. Like, and let's

pretend you really want to stay in this job and it's not about leaving and finding somewhere that values you. Maybe that actually never happens. Like, cause after six months, let's pretend that maternity leave cover comes back and you know, other people are on the team and they go, oh, we're going to put you back to your other salary. I would go, okay, great. No worries. Who's taking those jobs off me? Cause I can almost guarantee they won't take the jobs off you. And at that point they can't revert your payback. Cause you'll be like, cool. So are you saying that you now want to pay me less to do the same job? Or are you actually going to be taking that off me? Cause if you're going to be taking that off me, great. And I'm not going to beat around the bush here.

You don't need to be paid for the two people's roles if you're not doing the two people's roles. But I can almost guarantee that if you've taken this on and proven to them that you do it and you're doing it really well, this sounds like a company that's probably not going to hire if they don't need to. Like if you're proving capable and competent in that role, we're not talking about burnout. We're not talking like you need to take all those things into consideration, But the likelihood of them actually dropping your salary back to what it was before would mean that they would have to sit down and talk to you about the fact that they're taking capabilities off you.

Because if they said, oh, Beck, it's been six months, we've hired this person. You go, cool. How's my job changed? Embarrassing for them. True. So also you mentioned that you don't have KPIs. Not every business has KPIs. We don't.

She's on the money. We don't have KPIs. Like Jess doesn't have any. but that doesn't limit her so what that says to me is that the business is using their lack of framework to not support you in your growth I would be asking for KPIs and even just chalking up what you do because you're totally right like I don't have set KPIs that I work towards have you said to me what have you done you know in the last year oh I know what you've done I can think of 10 things off the top of my head that I would go oh I've done this I've done that

up to this and that. Like I'm sure in whatever job you do, it would be the same. And if you're not sure what that looks like, maybe look at other job descriptions or role descriptions for your job and look at what the kind of key markers are within the industry as a whole and go, oh, like that's what I can benchmark myself against. Because even if there aren't KPIs in place, you will be delivering something. Absolutely. Especially in such a small team. Like I find that the smaller the team, the harder it is to just float along as well. So I'm assuming that there would be a lot that you were doing, but yeah, I would be asking for KPIs because they've essentially said, Hey, our business structure actually really limits your growth. And even

your ability to understand what you've achieved is what you just said to me. And that's not cool. Like I would never sit down with Jess and be like, well, because you don't have KPIs, like what? Like for us, it doesn't make sense. It's not in our culture to have KPIs. Like I don't want, like, that's just not for me. And that's fine. Other businesses would be like, we would absolutely fall over without our KPI. And that's cool. Like each to their own, but don't then use something that you don't have in your business as an excuse for not supporting your team. That's not fair. I just think it's a cop out for them to be like, oh, we don't have KPIs. Like, okay, cool. So how did you write the job description for the now missing

like three people in our team? Like, where's that come from? Like, how did you work out what their capabilities needed to be? How do you know what I need to cover? Like, there's just a lot to it. And I'm not saying that what they're doing is right. It absolutely isn't, but it also just sounds sketchy. You said something that told me your business is toxic. You said about, I think it was a product developer. You said, but they fired her. That tells me everything I need to know about the culture of your business and the fact that you need to get out. Whoa. Like, but they fired her like as though like the tone of that was not you know oh but they had to let her go it wasn't oh but they fight like it was the tone and that's so fine like I get it but that's

telling me that management probably aren't that respectful yeah because that's not how people who have respectful management talk such a great point should we get into this week's oh my gosh I can't wait. I can't wait. Are you ready? Yeah, ready. Okay. Hey, she's on the money queens. Hi. My partner and I want to buy a home together this year. I have an apartment I bought alone during COVID times that has equity and have saved a substantial amount, made many sacrifices, don't worry, to have for another house deposit. They only have a 10th of what I have saved, smaller salary than me too, so it's not entirely their fault, but I'm ready to go. I can't help but feel hurt and dismayed that they're taking so long to catch up.

I realize it's not their fault, but I've been working tooth and nail and feel like I'm more ambitious. What should I do? Thanks, guys. What would you do? Oh, I have anxiety in my belly. I know this happens all the time. I'm sorry, guys.

I don't know why this is happening, but I get this whole conversation is like scary and stressful. first of all the partner doesn't have as much disposable income yeah and so that in itself is like yeah they're probably gonna take a bit longer but i do want to preface this whole thing by saying i know that our um listener is not by any means being cruel or harsh or anything they did say that they understand the situation but the person on the other end who might not be making as much money probably already feels a little bit like, oh, I'm kind of not contributing financially as much as I could. You might feel a bit inferior in that way. But at the end of the

day, let's all remember that everything is completely made up. Money is made up. The value of ourselves should be based on how we are and how we treat people and what our values are and stuff like that. That's actually what matters. But I can understand that now we've kind of gotten to this point where how much money you make can make you feel either really inferior or really superior, which it should not. How much you save, how the ability that you have to save, none of that should actually matter. But I can understand that's not what's in question here. I'm just saying for the person who's not saving as much might be feeling a certain way. But it's Some people, I really admire this.

They can really make themselves not want to get Uber Eats and not spend an extra 30 cents to get soy milk and all these things. They are so on top of it. Do I get soy milk? Do you get soy milk? I get soy milk. Sometimes it's a dollar more. I know.

I could tell you your coffee order. It's fine. It's fine. I get it. You can. But even sometimes I'm sitting on my couch and I'm like, I really feel like a Coke Zero. I will literally Uber Eats it.

I know it's bad. I know it's really bad. I'm going to get a cup of Uber Eats. No judgment, but, like, you are not Uber Eats in Coke Zero. Because I wasn't just in the mood. Have a couple of bottles in your pantry. Barb, listen, you can't tell me that when I'm already thirsty and don't have any bottles in my pantry.

But I will be doing that from now on. Next time you want to do that, call me. True. You'll drive to me and bring me a Coke Zero. No, I will yell at you. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. Yelling will make people sad and make people want to get Uber Eats.

I'd be like, Bec, Bec, I know where you live. Like I literally know where you live and you are walking distance from getting yourself a Coke Zero. That's true. Get off the couch. That's true. That's true. Okay, well, I'll message you next time.

What, you live in a regional town that doesn't have access to Coke? Like, no. They probably also wouldn't have Uber Eats. So I'd just be thirsty all night. Oh, no. I know. It's almost like water doesn't exist. It actually would be really hard.

But I'm saying even as someone who doesn't actually make that much money and I mean I make a decent amount but I don't have any savings. I'm like I shouldn't be doing this. It's still in those moments I'm like it's nothing. It's not like I'm like battling in my mind. It's like not even a thought for me. I just cannot possibly save in those moments. And so I think people who can and always do and are very consistent

and very impressive but some people just genuinely are wired differently and that's not their fault. So I think all those negative feelings, you know, they're valid but maybe try not to make, not saying you are, but maybe try not to, you know, kind of like transfer that feeling to the person who is already not keeping up. They're probably stressed, I'm sure. Yeah, there seems to be a gap between expectation versus reality.

Like your expectation might be up here but like who set those expectations? Was it you and your partner together? Because like, you know, buying a home is definitely like you, you might both have that goal and that's great. And you've said that like as a shared goal, we want to purchase a property together, but like, what's the reality of your financial circumstances? And did you actually sit down and agree to, okay, like if you and your partner Beck sat down and said, oh, we want to buy a home together. Like there would be a lot of conversation around well okay what do we need to do to achieve that and what's valid and what's what's going to work or not because you know you spend money differently to other people and I spend money

differently to other people as well and we need to talk about you know what are your habits what are the things that are going to happen like what disposable income do you even have to save and if those conversations have been had and you know your partner was like yeah yeah I'm saving this I'm saving this and then you get to the end of it and they just don't have it that's a different story to, oh, actually, I never had that conversation with my partner and I just expected that they would be as good as me at saving, then, oh, we need to reset that. Yeah. Jess, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, depending on what kind of conversation you had at the start, the thing that our listener wrote in that kind of flouted for me was you said that you've made a lot of sacrifices to save your deposit. I think, like, obviously keeping into account the fact that your disposable incomes vary, do you feel like your partner is matching that energy like are they also willing to make sacrifices that's what i would kind of base my feelings on like are we both like dream like if i earn double what you earn you of course not going to be able to save the same amount as me and that makes perfect sense but if i am then still foregoing the uber eats and foregoing all

these things but you're still going out on the weekend and blowing it with the boys or doing whatever it says that maybe our priorities are a little bit different which is not a bad thing but again, you kind of need to get on the same page. I would look at, can you afford it? You've got equity in a deposit 10 times the size of your partner's. Can you just buy by yourself? Like I know that also 10 times is a lot. It's a big difference. So like if you're saying, oh, my, my deposits 10 times what yours is, maybe you have a hundred thousand and your partner has 10,000, or if you've say 50 grand, they have five grand. And it's like, well that's actually significant and to me if you had that amount maybe they're not ready to buy

either because they might not have like a good emergency fund they might not be equipped for that financial decision which you clearly are and that's absolutely fine but I would be looking into that Jess and I mean it's not necessarily your situation but like you're buying on your own and like that's the plan and you know I don't think that that's a bad thing this listener has actually done that before they said that they have an apartment that they've already purchased with equity like is that something you want to do again or let's talk about time frames why are you in a situation where you're like oh I really want to buy I really want to buy like you actually already own property do we need to wait for your partner to like you know you're ready to go

fantastic but they might not be there yet and this might be like their first purchase that they really want to share with you and it should be exciting as opposed to stressful like yeah where's the sense of urgency around purchasing coming from right now yeah because like I get it I do the second you decide you want property like oh you want it yesterday I get it but like where's that pressure coming from can we talk about it and have you run the numbers to see that they can service the loan once you get it would be my thing because if you're saying again we don't have exact figures. So it could be that they're saving $5,000 a month and then it's not a question of that. But you need to remember that once you get your deposit together and once you make the

purchase, you still have to pay your rent. You still have to pay your rates. You still have to pay all of those homeowner things. If they're struggling to keep up with you in terms of saving for the deposit, chances are they're probably going to struggle keeping up with you in terms of having the funds for those things too. So have you done the numbers? Are they capable? is that something they want to do like can they only do it if they completely sacrifice their lifestyle maybe that's something they're not eager for yeah like you've got to get on the same page about a lot of things and at the end of it if you find that it's just not the right timing for the both of you is it something you can and or want to do alone and if not maybe that's an avenue you

can explore yeah and even just the language used in that message like I just always break everything down so I try and understand it you said but I've been working tooth and nail and feel like I'm more ambitious like that to me is a reflection of you maybe saying their work ethic and what they're doing like there's no way like and this is maybe just personal preference but like there's no way in any dynamic where I would say oh my gosh I've been working tooth and nail if the other person wasn't lacking if that makes sense like you know Jess and I might be working on a project together and I might go I've been working tooth and nail on this and like the next thing would be because I feel like Jess is letting me down because otherwise I'd say someone in the group project's

not doing yeah someone's not doing their part because otherwise I'd say we've been slaving away at this together because you told me it was a joint goal but now you're saying you think you're too ambitious because yeah I just feel like you wouldn't say I think I'm too ambitious if you felt like the other person wasn't lacking that trait. Yeah. But also I do want to say if the person is like ambition and money, there's no like correlation. No, I agree. And it's also so hard. Like let's imagine, you know, we spoke to him or I spoke to a money diarist a couple of weeks ago and they were like, yeah, my partner works in like as a kindergarten educator and they don't make much money. Like you think about these roles where someone might be working,

you know part-time or they might even be working full-time and just not making enough to pay rent bills this that the other and save and you might find that the person who earns $45,000 a year is actually a better money manager than someone who earns $200,000 a year because the person who earns $45,000 to save it requires them to go above and beyond with their budget and be super frugal and like really savvy and like the fact that they're even saving anything should be rewarded Yeah. But then someone on 200 grand, they get to sit back a little bit more comfy and be like, savings are not that hard. It's like, yes, it is. You're in a privileged position where that comes so much easier to you. When in reality, if we looked at it, the person who's earning

$45,000 is a better saver. Just because you've got more doesn't mean you're better. Yeah. So I just, I think it's so important to like break it down and be like, well, what is even there? Like, do you understand their capacity to save? And once you understand that, what are their values? Because my values play out in my spending all the time. And I don't actually want that to change. Like if someone said you have to cut absolutely everything to do X, Y, and Z, but that thing wasn't as important to me as it was to you, like it's probably not going to happen. Sorry. I'm so sorry. One more thing. One more thing. Oh, I'm ready. As a person who has been in a similar situation with someone who's buying something that I wanted

to be a part of but only had like a small portion of and was like wow this is literally my only opportunity I didn't know about doing it but this is my only opportunity because I don't have like the luxury of like family or or anyone who will be able to lend me money in the future so I'm like this could be my thing and then to not go through with it or to not have the money to like kind of keep up with the person you're going to buy with it does feel like shit to be honest and so maybe your partner is like I've never had the opportunity I've never been so close to being able to buy my own property and my only opportunity right now is to do that. The only option is to do that with you.

Otherwise, I just cannot feasibly buy myself a property. And is there an option to – and if you're like, oh, yeah, I'm happy with that, maybe there's an option to like maybe do like 5% – I don't know, make it like legal or something, do 5% of theirs. Yeah, you can have an agreement based on what you contribute. So it's like at least they're kind of in there, you know. Yeah. But I don't know.

They're a full conversation. That's the thing. We did ask the community. Do you want to know what they say? I would love to know. So we asked, what would you do if you had saved more than your partner for a house? 10% of you said you would wait for them to catch up. 28% of you said buy the house alone.

And 61% of you said buy together with what you have now. Cool. So then we asked, how would you handle feeling resentful about saving more? 56% of you said I would have an open conversation about it. 30% of you said, except you have different situations. And 14% of you said, I would reassess our financial compatibility. Resent is one of those emotions I feel you have to deal with it. Because if you leave resent alone, it simmers and festers and just takes over and takes

on a life of its own. Like you can't sit on it. You have to, I feel like you have to have a conversation or you have to come to a point of resolution within yourself, but you can't just leave it because it's just going to eat you alive. Yes, I agree. I agree. We did ask the community for their two cents.

First person said, my fiance and I are in the same boat and we're planning on getting a binding financial agreement and still buying. Cool. I love that. That's literally what you were suggesting there. Another person said, you need to get your goals in alignment. It sounds like you're not on the same page when it comes to expectations. Another person said, dividing finances only sets you up for always comparing finances. Which is kind of interesting because like same like when Steve and I were saving for our first home we had a joint savings account to do that in and we honestly didn't keep track and that's a very privileged thing but we didn't keep track of who was contributing what and like there will be like if we go back there will be one

person who contributed more but at the time we were working towards a shared financial goal of having a family home together and like you know if and when we would have like separated I think we would have dealt with it then but it was never something that crossed our minds to be like oh but you're contributing this and I'm contributing that but in saying that we did feel like we were contributing semi-equally like one of us earned more at the time Steve earned significantly more than me so he he's the one just to be very clear wasn't me he is the one that would have been contributing a lot more than I was, but like the way we saw it was one day it'll all come out in the wash. And like, we're both contributing to this relationship. And like, from my perspective,

I'm very grateful, but the way my husband sees it is like, we both contribute and it's not always financial. Like it can be in labor and division and support. And like, I just find it really refreshing that sometimes those comments are coming from my husband and not me. Someone else said, you need to unpack why you currently feel hurt. There might be a lot more to it than just that. I agree. Someone else said, maybe worth a discussion because how's the mortgage going to be split based on your different salaries? Another person said, you have to honor your feelings and respectfully tell them how you feel. We think communication is the answer. No, we would never. Another person said, it's not the total that matters. It's whether they

matched your sacrifice to save in a similar way. I agree. I love that. And then last one, someone contributed, we split based on percentage of our income. I bring in X percent and he brings in Y percent. So that's just how we split our joint costs. Cool. Lots of options. There's so many options, but it comes back to communication, doesn't it, Jessica? As always. Oh my goodness. Well, it has been a week. I have been grateful for everyone and everything this week. And I'm just so grateful that we got to have a chat with you guys today. Yeah. So good. We will see you bright and early on Monday morning for a money diary though. See you then. Happy Valentine's Day. Bye guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider

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