She's On The Money - Wait till You Hear What this 25 Year Old Has Built on a Macca’s Paycheck

Episode Date: November 30, 2025

If you’ve ever looked at your payslip and thought “there’s no way I can build anything on this,” this diary is the proof you need. Our Money Diarist started on eight dollars an hour at Macca’s, saved like a girl with a plan, and built a foundation that most of us don’t hit until our thirties.... and she did it before she could legally rent a car. This episode is packed with the stuff that actually matters when you’re starting small. The tiny habits that added up to her first thirty thousand dollars. The mindset that kept her choosing long-term wins over short-term fun. The discipline she built on a low wage that turned out to be her biggest superpower once her income jumped. If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll start saving “when you earn more,” this diary will change your whole perspective, and maybe your next pay cycle too. If you want the motivation to start with what you’ve got, this diary will light that fire.  Ready to binge more relatable, inspiring, and downright juicy money stories? Check out our ultimate Money Diaries playlist. Listen now Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+. And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.  Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Ti, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yambina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan. Mumu bangada boma ininyalan waka, gaunan yakarumja, wutunarana. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. we thank acknowledge and respect the aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see she's on the money podcast acknowledges culture country community and connections bringing you the tools

knowledge and resources for you to thrive she's on the money she's on the money hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that lets you be pervy about other people's money habits for educational purposes of course welcome back to another one of our money diaries where we get to talk with one of our incredible she's on the money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got an email and it sounded exactly like this. Dear She's On The Money, I got my first job at 14 at McDonald's and I've been working and saving ever since. At 19, I bought my first townhouse while studying at uni and trying to make a mortgage work on a part-time income. A few years later,

my partner moved in and started paying rent and that was the beginning of us building something bigger together. We've since bought a home of our own and that first property is now an investment. I'm obsessed with your podcast. I listen to every single episode. I would absolutely love to share my story as a single young girl who started working at Maccas who now has a portfolio of $1.5 million at the age of 25. I'm so passionate about budgeting and money management. Let's chat. money diarist. So you're like a millionaire, but you're like 25. Isn't that crazy? All right. So tell me a little bit more about your money story. Let's go back to you being 14 and your first job being Maccas. Okay. So my money story probably started when I was 14. I was working part-time

at McDonald's. My parents were very much into my sister and I starting work as soon as we turned 14. So we worked at McDonald's and I was earning $8 an hour at the time. That would have felt like a lot. It was a lot. And I love the extra money that I was bringing in as well that I could spend. So I was on eight dollars an hour. I was working most weekends and night after school as well. And I gradually worked my way up through McDonald's to become a manager by the time I was 17. Oh, OK, cool. Yeah, it was really exciting. So through McDonald's, I was able to save up enough money to buy my first car. And then from there, I was able to also save my deposit for my first townhouse that I bought in 2019. How much did you save for that? Because that's crazy.

Like going from, you know, 14 earning $8 an hour, obviously working up like earning some more, but there are so many people. And I mean, this wasn't that long ago, guys, like, you know, she's 25. This is not like, you know, 30 years ago, you know, you bought your first home and we go, Oh, great. Like be unrelatable. I feel like during this period of time, you would have been seeing friends and family and stuff still saying like oh the property market's really hard to get into how much did you save like I'm jumping ahead but like girl this is impressive as all heck yeah so I saved $30,000 because the townhouse was only $250,000 that I paid for it yeah so they had it advertised for $275,000 but because I was part-time I was at university I was obviously

females. So they were like, oh, you can only borrow like to purchase up to $250,000 to borrow $220,000. Yeah, that's where that came from. And I put my offer in. The owner at the time was desperate to sell. He was an investor. He wanted to buy all the property. So he was like, you're the only person interested. I'll just sell it to you. So that was really, really good for me. Money win, we'll take that. And then I spent the next five years living in that property and studying at university. And then once I graduated university, I saved up some money with my partner and we moved into our next house that we bought, which was last year in May for $745,000. Oh my goodness. Yeah. We wanted a bit of house with some land. So he saved up a deposit

because he was paying me rent at the time we were living in the townhouse. And so he saved the deposit and I drew the equity from my townhouse and we bought this house we're currently living in now. Oh my god so tell me you bought that townhouse and I know I'm jumping ahead to the like you know investments and debts and stuff but like I know people are thinking it right now and we're real pervy you bought for about $250k what was the equity when it came to purchasing your like family home I suppose with your partner? Yeah so I ended up drawing out $110,000 in equity to give a little bit of perspective obviously the property market has increased since then so it's currently worth 650 000 sorry what you bought for 250 and it's worth 650 yes yes and

the property valuation a year ago when i was buying this current house i'm living in it was valued at 500 000 but today is valued at 650 000 so another money win so when we're offline you just give me all your property tips and tricks. I would put my money in there. Absolutely. You are getting way better returns than anything you could in the share market right now. And that's not to say that property is a better investment, guys. Do not take what I'm saying as that. But property on average does perform across the board lower than the share market. Fine. We know that on the risk reward chart. But tell me a bit more about this. You live in Queensland and I won't specify your location or anything like that, but I think it's good context because there's no way

you could have bought a $250,000 townhouse in the last 20 years in Melbourne. But tell me about, did you think that that would happen or were you just stoked to get property or what was your strategy around that? Because girl, that's impressive. Well, initially buying the townhouse in 2019, I was living at home with my parents and all my friends were getting brand new cars. And I said to my mom and dad, I was like, I need to buy something with all this money I'm saving. like I need to put my money somewhere. And that was when we started looking at property because my parents were like, well, you've got a car, your car's perfectly fine. I didn't have a brand new car. It was like a $5,000 Holden Astra. So it wasn't anything crazy. Yeah. And so that was where

that came from. And at the time you couldn't have predicted the housing market would go the way that it has. And I went in with the idea that it was going to be an investment property eventually, but I couldn't have ever imagined that it would have increased the way that it has and obviously COVID has a lot to play into that as well so that has definitely helped to increase. So a bit of strategy but then also right place right time tell me why you know you're 19 we are I would say still babies at 19 like I look back and I remember thinking when I was 19 I'm so mature like look at me go and then I look back and I go who was that child like how did she even get out of the house but when you were 19 how come you had such a different money mindset to your friends who were

buying new cars and traveling and doing all of that and you were like I want to do something constructive with my money did you grow up with really financially literate parents or like how did you know to do this because that's not normal in a nice way it's perfect like I just I wish I had that. But also I kind of did in a way. My dad was an accountant, but I thought I knew better than him. So I listened to nothing that he said. But fair enough. And as you do at 19, like you just want to go out and live your best life. Yeah. I knew everything. I wish I knew what I thought I knew at 19. Yeah. And I think that's why I really resonated with your podcast because I did have really like financially literate parents. My dad said to us when we first started

working at McDonald's that we had to transfer at least half of our pay to our savings every week and then he wouldn't charge like rent or board. Oh I love that as long as you were saving he was very happy to support you. Exactly so we would transfer money every week and it was in an account that was like a bonus interest type account and we couldn't access it without my dad coming with us to the bank. So we would have a bank book and we would write down every week how much we transfer and watch it grow and then when we got our statements you would see the interest come through and then you go oh bonus love that and it teaches you to compulsively save and I remember my dad says all the time I remember we took you shopping once and your mom pulled out a dress

and she goes you should buy this dress it's beautiful and I looked at the price and it was like $40 and I said to my mom mom that's like five hours work for me absolutely not you're an icon yeah it's true it's true it adds up and my dad was like because we were living at home mom and dad would pay for everything that we needed to get through school and all of our essentials but if we wanted to go out on the weekends we wanted to eat cake away or we wanted to buy clothes that was on us and because we're on such a low wage you learn the value of money and yeah I'm really grateful for that because that's the reason why I am where I am today I feel like that's really relatable as well like so many of my friends and I and this makes no sense

because you know if I put myself back into like your shoes right now my hourly rate is not the same like as it used to be like you know I'm a bit complex I'm a business owner ebbs flows whatever but I still have in my head one of my first jobs that I was relatively well paid in I was earning $28 an hour and for some reason whenever I think about purchasing something my head goes back to that hourly rate of $28 an hour and I go, that's a lot of money if you think about it. Do I earn $28 an hour? No, no, I earn more than that. That is a privilege. But like for some reason, my money mindset is stuck at that. It's $28 and I think 52 cents, like 50-ish cents, right? And I just have it in my head. And anything that's like in my head, I'm like, oh my God,

brunch is like two and a half hours worth of work. Like that's how I see it. And it makes no sense, but it does. It does. And I think it really helps you learn the value of money and how much things cost. And even to this day, I'll go out, we'll get a meal, say at the pub, and I'll always go for like the $20 burger and chips as opposed to the $40 steak. Like, and my mind just goes that way. And when you do that, I think it's really good because I was, I was talking to someone the other day and they're like, Victoria, I know that I should save. I am very clear on that. I've listen to all your content. But in the moment, I've got the pub menu in front of me and I go the $20 burger or the $40 steak. And I just know that I'll love the steak more. And I go,

what, what the heck? Like, I'll just buy the steak. What about your money mindset do you think means that you're very happy to lean towards the cheaper option? Even if there's maybe an option on the menu that you're like, yeah, like you're right. If both of them were $20, I'd probably pick the steak, but it's not. How do you make those decisions so consistently that are putting future you first without leaning into always being instant gratification? I think having goals is the most important thing for me. I talk to my partner about this quite often, having a goal of what we're working toward. Because then when I go out for dinner, I go, okay, yeah, I would love the steak, but I'm going to have the burger because then that $20 that I could have spent, I'm going

to put towards my future wedding, for instance. And then I go, okay, that's going to be more worthwhile for me. And it's going to get me closer to my goal than the steak in this moment. Yeah. I love that. But it's also so important to have these conversations because I'm the same. Like I used to be the steak girly and always pick like, oh, the most expensive thing. But now I'm like, oh, you know, it's a Wednesday. Yeah. We are out with my friends. Like I don't need an expensive. Like we're not celebrating anything like pipe down, Victoria. I feel like the one thing that we struggle with is not comprehending the fact that we need to save or the fact that we should invest, especially if people are listening to this podcast, right? Like they're

in the right place. It's the in the moment decisions. It's the feeling like you're missing out. It's the analysis paralysis. It's the comparison. Do you find yourself looking at your friends who have maybe nicer cars or bougier experiences and going, oh, I'm a bit envious? Or you just running your own race and you're very cool with it? I think I definitely used to back when I was 19 and I was saving all this money and I felt like it wasn't going towards anything at the time. I definitely compared myself as you do try and keep up with trends and where people are at who are similar to you and in the same stage of life. And I definitely have friends who have like nice new cars and they go on big holidays and I'm going, oh, I would really love that for

myself but I know that's coming in due time like I know that if I put my mind to it I can get there too and I also recognize I am in a different stage of life as other people and I recognize that it's all about creating wealth for my future and making sure that I'm in the best possible position I can be and I really resonate with when you talk about financial freedom because that's something that I really want for myself as well I love this tell me more about today because I can see you nobody else can, which is an absolute privilege. But money, Darius, that is a very nice engagement ring. So where are we at with life? If I see something sparkly, like my eyes light up, I am a bowerbird at heart. So I feel like, you know, from 14 Maccas buying your first home,

you've just bought your first property. I feel like life's happening around this. So tell me a bit more about that. Yes. So at 19 years old, when I bought that first townhouse, the same year I met my current fiance. I met him in June that year and then I bought the townhouse in December and so we'd only been together for six months and I said to him you know would you like to move in with me and I knew it was very early in our relationship but at the time I didn't have anyone else but I really wanted to be with and or live with and so he said yes and we moved in together and we've been together ever since. We got engaged this year in April and he's the one who helped save the deposit and we bought this house that we're living in together now. So I'm

very, very lucky. He's really great. And he's really helped navigate our goals together. We come up with the goals list together and what we want for our future. And he's really on board and he really works towards saving for the same goals as me, which is really great. And I really value that. I love that. And I love asking about people's love lives as well. I'm like, oh, who's your partner have you got a partner do you want that like what's going on so tell me about today like you know you got engaged in April 2025 which is so exciting what do you do for work how much money are you earning now yeah so I work as a pharmacist I'm currently earning 115,000 a year and yeah today we are currently working towards going on holidays and we also are saving towards

our wedding as well so I'm going to Japan next year in March and then we're getting married in September 2027 which is really exciting and we've we've come up with like a little savings plan so that we can put money away every week towards our wedding because I recognize that weddings are quite expensive but I am similar to you Victoria where I would love a traditional wedding and I want to be able to enjoy that with all of our family and friends yeah and you have to start saving sorry you just have to like it's so expensive and it piles up but I'm so glad when you said I'm getting married September 2027 I was like queen you've got so much time and then you sorry what a smart queen as well a pharmacist at 25 earning more than 100 grand sorry what the heck

yes yes I try I try so my pharmacy degree was is very rewarding and I I'm very lucky that I work in an industry where I can give back to the community and have an impact on other people's lives. And I, yeah, I really love that. Stop it. You are an absolute angel. All right. So tell me a bit more. You said you and your partner have some big money goals. You've bought your property this year. What are the other goals you're working towards? The wedding, I'm assuming is on there. Japan is probably on there. What else have we got? Yeah. So I'm heading over to Japan in March and we had been saving since we bought this house last year. So last year in May, when we bought this current house we have been putting away money for Japan every week and we also put the

same amount of money away of our home loan so we make extra payment of the loan as well and that's the deal we put equal amounts away every week and then we eventually saved up enough money so over the last year to go to Japan so we booked that for March next year which is kind of like our reward to say you know you can have the house and you can have the bill but you can also save for a holiday It may take a bit longer than, you know, other people, but we are working towards that. And the last thing I wanted was to go into debt for a holiday or a wedding. So that's why we booked our wedding for 2027. And we've got a plan where we're both putting money away every week towards that as well.

So we're kind of putting our fingers in all the buckets at the moment. You are a woman after my own heart. Now, let me be pervy. What type of job does your partner have and what type of income are we playing with there? Yes. So he's an area sales manager. job. He earns $90,000 a year, but he also gets the fringe benefit tax. Oh, very nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How good. So between you, you've got a pretty good income, like 200 grand plus,

but at the same time, you are children in my head, like anyone who's under 30, instantly a child still, like you're just a baby, but you seem to have your goals very outlined. Can I be really perfect? I love shiny things. I love a wedding. Have you decided on your wedding budget? If so, what does that kind of look like? What are we saving towards? Yeah. So I actually used your wedding budget tool that you, your spreadsheet that you created. It's free by the way, guys, just download on my website, wedding budgeting spreadsheet. Absolutely. So I went through your wedding budget spreadsheet and I also got quotes from vendors that I thought I might want to use. And I got a few different quotes and I've plugged them in there and I'm hoping to do

my wedding for around $30,000. I know that that might be expensive to some or inexpensive to others, but that's the budget I'm currently working in. So by my partner and I putting away $160 a week each week between now and August next year, we will have money in there to pay for the wedding. Yeah. And tell me, cause like, I know that everybody's wedding budget is different, right? And like, someone will be like 30,000. I would never. And then to be honest, like 30,000 for the wedding I wanted, absolutely not enough. I'm so sorry. And that's okay. What style of wedding are we going for? Like, you know, you've obviously already done the budget and kind of worked out on average, we need this. And I'm sure you're probably going to work out a buffer and

whatnot as well. But like, what kind of wedding are we having? Are we having 5 million people turn up? No, definitely not. We're thinking about 60 people. We actually have our engagement party next weekend. Oh, exciting. Yeah. So the people who are coming to our engagement party, we're hoping will still be the people that will attend our wedding so we're thinking about 60 people would be ideal for our wedding yeah and what so you want a traditional wedding does that involve a church or like what kind of semantics does that involve yeah so we're not going to have a church style wedding we've actually booked a venue which is on top of the mountains so we'll have like a mountain style wedding with a reception hall on the same property so I think it's a private

property so it's a DIY type wedding so we bring all of our vendors to the venue which will be really exciting. Adore that's what we did for our wedding I mean not the same style but like making sure that the ceremony was at the same place as the reception meant our guests didn't have to travel but then also because we just booked the reception they didn't charge us to get married at the venue so like that was a bit of a money win. Absolutely and this private venue they have like a huge house that sleeps like 12 people. So we can have all of our family and friends like closest to us stay, which is really important to us because we're very close to our family and friends. So we wanted to have a wedding where everyone could be involved

and be a part of our special moment. That's so special. I'm so glad I asked. All right, let's go to a really quick break because we'll dive back into more of the money stuff. I want to talk about your investing strategy, more about debt and then your best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Money Diast, we are back and I want to talk investing. When it comes to property, you're really good at that. You bought your first property in 2019 for $250,000. And last year when you got a bank bail, it was worth $650,000. Like I would love all your tips and tricks. I just feel like that's a really good flipping deal. Are you investing in any other way, shape or form? I'm currently not investing

in any other way at the moment I've been listening to your podcast and I've been interested in shares and I'm also thinking about potentially investing in a pharmacy so they're all things that I'm thinking about because we've got the equity in both properties now I'm going do we buy another property do I put money in shares do I buy a business I'm kind of in a stage where I'm unsure which way is the best to go but I'm definitely interested in having a potential third investment That is so exciting. Can I be real pervy? To own a pharmacy, you are a pharmacist, so that makes sense, natural extension. How does that work? Like, do you have to find the location? Do you go call up Amcal and say, hey, I'd like a location? Like, how does buying a pharmacy work?

I'm still in the very early days of like deciding. So as far as I'm aware, there are your big franchises that will offer some type of funding when you purchase a pharmacy with them but there are lots of like legal restrictions particularly in Queensland you can only have like I think it's a maximum of six pharmacies and you have to be a certain distance apart as well you can't be side by side with another pharmacy retailer so there's like certain yeah laws around that, that I have to navigate. And no one in my family own a kind of retail business. So it's all very new to me. I don't know much about it, but I'm definitely interested in having conversations about business. I feel like that might be the next step for us. That would be a very, and given

you're so young that, I mean, business is obviously risky, like any type of investment, but given you have the background and maybe you find a location that works really well for you, like that feels like kind of an essential service business like that feels like a bit of a no-brainer in a way if you've got the funds and access to be able to do something like that that's cool yeah I feel like I'm the kind of person who if I put my mind to something and I keep pushing like I can get there I just need to believe in myself and I know that I'm 25 so I've got some years in me where I can really invest and put a lot of hard work into potentially owning a pharmacy and building that business up. I can already see that you do the hard work, girlfriend. Like I can already see

this working for your personality type. That's crazy cool. I love it. So tell me about debt. I want to dive back into this property conversation. So you have your first investment property. You purchased it for $250,000. What's owing on that mortgage currently? Yeah. So like I said, we had to, I drew the equity out of that property to purchase the next property. So we currently owe $320,000 on that property. Yeah, cool. That makes a lot of sense. It's still worth $650,000. So that's a good deal. And now tell me about your second property. I believe you said you purchased it for $745,000. What's the mortgage look like on that? We currently owe $520,000. So a year ago when we bought it, we owed $560,000, but we're then

paying money off every week as well as making the minimum payments. So yeah, we've paid $40,000 off in the last year, which is really nice. Look at you guys go. And is property something that you're going to continue to invest in? Are you looking at it going, oh, once we get a bit more equity, like we'd love another property? Or is this where that business conversation kind of comes in? Because obviously you could potentially use some of that equity to purchase a pharmacy. Exactly. So at the moment, we're not too sure. I do love buying property and I think it's a good investment and obviously we've already got one. So I kind of know what to do and what it's about now. But the only thing is the property market has increased so much since the first investment.

I don't know that if I purchase again, it will have as good of a luck as the first one did. So we're just kind of tossing off at the moment. I'm in that bit of space where we're like, we'll just keep paying extra money off our mortgage, bring that down. hopefully the equity will increase and then we can look at maybe a business instead of another investment at the moment. No, I love that. And that's why I was asking. But at least, you know what, you've got your head screwed on. You're like, I don't know if it'll work the same way it did in 2019. It's worth some investigating though. Tell me, are there any other outstanding debts that you have? I only have a HECS debt.

That is cool. How much does a pharmacy degree cost? Yeah, not cheap. It was about $45,000. So I currently have a $37,000 Hex debt. Hey, that's not too bad, especially with your income. That's just going to tick away over time. And obviously your income over time will increase as well, which is very nice. And it could completely go off the Richter scale if you start becoming a business owner and that changes. How fun. Absolutely. Absolutely. So tell me now, do you have a really good money habit? I feel like you've had really good money

habits this entire time. I'm not going to lie. I'm looking at this being like, mate, if I was 19 and you were my friend, I would have been so envious. Tell me, what do you think is your best money habit? My best money habit would probably be my ability to budget. I think that putting that money away every week is definitely something that I'm good at and I'm good at holding myself accountable and making sure that I do it consistently. So I definitely say that is my best money habit what's your worst though I'd say probably spending money on clothes I do love a good shopping haul especially when my favorite retailers send me a text message and say they're having a flash sale and I'm like oh my gosh you guys know how to get me so I'll probably say that's

my worst money habit where I buy clothes online clothes is my worth I'll buy clothes and I'll do like a haul of clothes maybe once a month. Well you can FaceTime me I would love to see your hauls like don't get me wrong I feel like you're still probably is that blowing the budget like is that blowing it out or are you just like no it's not but I really shouldn't be. Yeah it's not blowing the budget but there are some weeks where I would do a clothing buy and I'd really cut myself fine for the week you know where you leave yourself with that last five ten dollars and you go, you're going to have to make this work this time. You're the one that did the order.

Yeah, you did this to you. You did this to you. Literally, I'm like, now I got to live with it. So I can absolutely resonate with that. In fact, I still have my emergency funds and stuff. Sometimes I'm like, oh, there's not many fun money left. Let's just see how this week pans out. Tell me now at the very start, you said, I reckon I'm a B minus or a B.

What do you think, given everything you've told me? What do you think I think, firstly? And then what do you think it would take for you to get to being an A or an A plus? You're probably thinking maybe I'm more of an A minus B plus kind of girl. I would say much better than that, yes. Okay. Well, thank you. That's very nice.

But, like, look what you've done. You're still a child. Thank you. I would probably say maybe, maybe like a B plus. Maybe a B plus. But what would it take to get to A plus? I think more knowledge. I think I need to learn more about different types of investment, which is I think if I can learn more about where I can put my money, I can make better choices. I can help you with that. We can be besties when it comes to money.

That's why I love your podcast. I'm a religious listener and I've been going back and listening to old episodes as well because I saw that you have your playlist with like how I listen to a property playbook and then I listen to like how to save for Christmas and how to save for travel now that we've got travel coming so I can make better choices yeah love I'm so excited for you girlfriend I'm so excited that you're in my community you're 25 you are absolutely smashing it you are going to retire so happy so healthy so just everything like I find this so inspirational. So many people might be like, geez, Louise, I'm 25 and that's just not possible for me. And the reality is, it is. You just have to pull your finger out and do some

work and start small. And we're not talking about buying our first home for a million dollars. You purchase first for $250,000. And don't get me wrong, I don't know a lot of properties nowadays that are $250,000, but it's not like opportunities like that don't exist, but they are only going to become opportunities you could engage in if you have the savings and you have the discipline and you've been working towards it I think that getting off track these days is so easy because you just go I'm disheartened I can't be bothered why would I even start saving but like from little things big things grow money diarist you are a perfect example of that like how good I'm just I'm so excited I get to share this with my community thank you thank you so much and I have friends

who are in situations where they're saving for houses and they're struggling because the housing market is so volatile at the moment and prices are so expensive compared to what they were. So I definitely recognize that I got very lucky at the time that I purchased the townhouse. But I do hope that people can listen to this and potentially feel inspired that you can do it on your own.

Like I was just 19 and that like, I just all I did was consistently save and I just had to keep putting that money away and at the time that was maybe $100 or $200 a week but like you said it grew into $30,000 which was a lot for me at the time and I was like oh my gosh I need to put this money into something so that I can actually see my money going somewhere and then yeah from little things big things grow and I just hope that maybe someone out there who thinks it's too hard can listen and be like actually all I need to do is just start somewhere. Just start. 100%. You have to start with the foundations because yes, property might become a part of

the strategy or the share market might be, or there might be other opportunities. But if you don't create the base and you don't have the foundations and you don't have savings and you don't have an emergency fund, the opportunities aren't coming because even if they come, you can't seize them. You can't do them. So it's just, it's something that I'm obviously wildly passionate about and have been talking about it since 2019, actually. So we're right on par together. But I'm just so excited that stories like this are coming out of my community and you're so happy to share so that other people can learn. You're an icon. Thank you. Thank you. And I recognize that my parents taught me very similarly to how you speak with the

community. And that's why I was like, I really would love the opportunity to come on here because I feel like more people need to hear about the way to budget and the way to save. And I was very lucky with the upbringing that I had, but I recognize that not a lot of people had that. No, they didn't, but they can create it. Resources like She's On The Money and there are a million different other pieces of content out there you could engage in. Yes, if you had parents, you were more privileged, 100%. But a lot of privileged people do not make the most of the situations that they were in, are in far worse positions than you would expect of them just because we don't know what we don't know and we maybe don't seize opportunities in the

ways that we could and I think that whilst yes it is so beautiful that you're like V I want to acknowledge my privilege here I love that I really really do I also want to acknowledge that it wasn't just privilege that got you there it was hard work and you had to do that because you could have just been like it's pretty easy living at home hey I'm going to spend all my money on clothes and shoes and makeup and I want a new car those are easy decisions to make but a lot of what has happened in your life is not due to luck my love it is yes we started ahead of the race that's fantastic but you still had to do the race yeah that's true that's true well I'll let you go but thank you so much this has been an absolute pleasure thank you so much for having me I really

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