She's On The Money - We Chose a Long-Distance Marriage For 2 Years to Build Our Future

Episode Date: July 6, 2025

What would you sacrifice for your long-term financial goals? In this week’s Money Diary, we meet someone who made a bold, unconventional choice... moving countries solo, leaving her husband behind, and taking on a whole new life to set up their future. From rural Japan culture shocks to rapid salary growth and a financial strategy that’s anything but ordinary, this ep is full of unexpected turns, big mindset shifts, and proof that building wealth doesn’t always look the way you’d expect. 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. Tii, gulinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina 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 days where we get the absolute pleasure of sitting down and talking 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 a message and it sounded exactly like this. Dear She's On The Money, my solo mother raised my brother and me for the majority of our childhood until I was around 13 years old. I would watch my mom sit there for hours shuffling money around across

credit cards just to pay bills. We didn't go without, but we knew things were tight. Fast forward to 28, I've completed a four-year business degree. I've paid off a $30,000 student loan in five years, started working full-time, and received eight pay rises in the space of five years. Then, two months ago, I left my job to take a work opportunity in Japan for the next two years, but I left my friends, my family, and my husband back home in the interim. Marnie Dyrist, welcome to the show. That's big.

It's massive. Thank you, Victoria. That is so big. I don't know what it would take to get me to move countries, to leave my friends and my family and my husband. So before I get to know the nitty gritty of your story, I'm going to ask the same question I ask everybody money does. To what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? I would give myself a B. I have come a long way, especially in the last five years, but there is still a long way to go. I feel like I need to know more because

it sounds like you're pretty savvy. You've paid off a $30,000 student loan in only five years and you've got eight pay rises in the space of five years. Money Diaries, can you tell me a little bit more about your money story? Yeah. So like you said, my brother and I grew up with a solo mom and I knew it was tight watching her manage her finances. And my dad was kind of in and out for the majority of my childhood. And he kind of was the person who lived out of his back pocket. so growing up I didn't have the best role models with money and then when my mum met my stepdad at age 13 we moved in with him and his children and they have kiwifruit avocados and dairy so from there I had the opportunity to start working in the family business and I got the

opportunity to learn about diversification and they're not afraid to spend money to make money And it gave me a whole new perspective on managing money, not being scared of it. And yeah, just really working hard to achieve something. That's crazy. Tell me a little bit more about that journey and about, I guess, what that means for you now. Yeah, obviously, like working in kiwifruit in New Zealand, there are lots of opportunities if you're willing to work hard for it. So I was given an opportunity to work in a company through my stepdad.

So he knew the context there. And I started off just at ground level there. And in about three months, I was moved up to supervisor. Six months after that, I got promoted to IC. And then shortly after that, I was made manager. all through. I give credit to my stepdad for helping me get a foot in the door in the industry there, but also teaching me how to work really hard and encouraging my passion to work in horticulture. So tell me, what does it mean to work in kiwi fruit? Is this, I don't know,

we've all seen the TikToks where in Japan, the apples are like $30 each and pristine. Is that the type of, I guess, fruit production you're in? Talk to me, what does it mean to actually grow kiwi fruit in japan it's a learning experience that's for sure the climate here is crazy it is hot in summer like 30 degrees plus it's cold in winter it snows here you're having to irrigate to keep the plants alive the soil is completely different from new zealand so this whole process has been a learning curve not an easy one at that but yes it's obviously we grow for Zespri so the brand as a premium so we're trying to grow a premium product here and yeah put a beautiful piece of fruit on the shelf. That's very cool so talk to me a bit more you've

made this decision to literally leave your home country and go to Japan to work for the next two years what type of position is that going to put you in? I'm not fully sure when I get back to New Zealand what work will look like for me currently I'm in a management position looking after like kiwifruit start to finish so I'm hoping it's more like a operations manager role or something a bit higher up but yeah I do love growing and being outside and working with the team it's a really good feeling I love that and are you moving overseas to get I guess more experience or like so that you come home to a better career or like what has possessed you to go I'm leaving my friends and my family and my husband for the interim the money was a big one and obviously

the experience of growing in a different country and just to grow myself really personally and professionally yeah you're only 28 I feel like you're still a baby I feel like I am a baby you are not really I just feel like anyone younger than me must still be a juvenile but money Doris I want to know what is your official job title and how much money do you earn? My official job title is Kiwi Fruit Orchard Manager and I'm earning $140,000 gross. $140,000 wow and is that like is there tax implications of earning that in a different country? I get paid back in New Zealand into my New Zealand bank account so there's some tax things that go on in the background that the company deal with for me on my behalf that's pretty cool and is this kind of

like a secondment like you said you work for like zespri which is a premium kiwi fruit brand have they kind of like sent you over there and there might be opportunities when you get back home is that kind of how it works so I work for a different company back home but zespri is the marketing side of the fruit that we sell. So they're like a single desk that all gold kiwi fruit goes through. They're my favorite kind, just for the record. Yeah, they're pretty good. In terms of back home, I've always wanted to work for Zespri, but again, that's, yeah, not sure where that will lead yet. Oh, I reckon if we manifested, it could happen. Talk to me, you've moved overseas, you're earning 140 grand. What are your big money goals? What are you currently working towards?

It's always been my dream to buy my first home and live the Kiwi dream out in the countryside somewhere with a few animals. But lately, my mindset's changed a bit now after realizing that buying a home for me to live in isn't actually an investment. So now I'd say my money goes to more heavily invest and just plan some more travel. Awesome. So let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, I want to know more about Japan. I want to know more about investing and debt and best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Money Diarist, we are back and I want to know, you have a very nice income. You've moved all the way overseas to be able to,

I guess, save and invest. What's the plan around investing? Are you investing or what are your thoughts on it? I do invest a tiny bit. I have $1,255 invested in Sharesies. I feel like you've got the right accent. You've got the right accent to be investing in Sharesies. Yeah, just not fully confident in what I'm doing yet. So little bits at a time. No, that makes absolute sense. And like what the big money goals you're working towards, have you got like aggressive savings accounts or is the plan to get a little bit more confident with investing? Like what are we looking at when it comes to finances? I put into KiwiSaver. So I've got $47,200 in there and that's in an aggressive fund. So it's meant to be returning 9.6%. Oh, nice. And then I have $61,300 in a

savings account, but that's only returning 2.3%. And what's the plan with that? Or are you just a big saver? I would love to invest quite a bit of what's just sitting in my savings account as it's not really doing much for me. So I guess the next step would be to talk to a financial advisor on where I should be putting that money. Very fair. So talk to me about what the future looks like. That's a lot of savings and I feel like you are absolutely killing it. Is the plan to save up as much of your salary as possible? Do you get any type of living away from home allowance or anything that kind of helps you live in Japan? Yes. So the house I'm in is fully provided. So I don't pay rent. I don't pay power. I don't pay internet. I have a vehicle fully

provided for me. I get two return flights home to New Zealand a year, which my husband can also use as well to come and visit. I am funneling away as much money as possible. Living costs in Japan are very low. I was about to say, I've heard that living costs in Japan are low. So like, talk to me, like what are the biggest culture shocks? Like what's it like going from living in New Zealand, which is a very Western way of living, to living in Japan. And like I saw you before on your Zoom camera before we decided to turn them off to make the internet work a little bit better. And I was like, oh, she's definitely in a very Japanese establishment at the moment. Yes, my house, it's very Japanese. The doorways are tiny. We've got tatami mats on the floor and

it's very Japanese in the countryside where I am living. The biggest culture shock. To be fair, it's probably been quite easy the transition here it's more so maybe the food the food is totally different it's delicious but definitely not what I'm used to communication is massive like trying to talk to people in rural Japan there's just not much English happening so you have to google translate everything I was about to ask like how's your Japanese if you're living and working in Japan is that something that you're working on or you came fully prepared Ed, what did that look like? No, I'm working on it.

I would like to start classes. I'm only coming up to my third month here. So I've still been settling in a bit. But yes, I would love to start learning Japanese. But for now, I have a full time translator who works with me on the orchard so I can convey tasks to the team. And if I need to go to the doctors or whatever, she's always there to help me. Oh, my God.

So hold on. This company that you're working for, fully provided home, fully provided car. you've got two return flights back and forth from New Zealand each year. There's a translator that follows you around. Like this sounds like a good gig. How did you fall into going, you know what, this is what I want to do. Like, did you just apply? I know you said that your father-in-law is somehow involved. I need more info. How do we get a job like this? Because it sounds like a dream. So I've been working in Kiwifruit for five years now. And one of my good friends that I went to university with her dad is who I'm working for at the moment and he's asked me three times to come

over actually but I kept laughing at him and saying no and I actually had a horse and stuff back home so I couldn't anyway once he passed away last year it kind of freed up my responsibilities somewhat so I decided to play with the idea and talk to my husband and see what he thought about it and we both thought it was an amazing opportunity, a good way to save a fair chunk of money each month so we could buy a house when I got home. Yeah, I guess the opportunity just presented itself, but I did not go searching for it. That's really cool. Talk to me. How do you have that conversation with your husband? Because I don't know if mine would be that down for me literally leaving for two years. What does your husband do and how did that conversation come to

fruition my husband is also in kiwifruit so we used to work for the same company very cute I assumed given your father-in-law I was like this is a family affair yeah yeah we worked for the same company so I grew the kiwifruit back home and he would tell the grower when to harvest to get the optimum pay up and obviously provide support throughout the year so he came on to work for my client our clients as well so that's how we met how I approached the situation um I kind of just brought it up lightheartedly a couple of times and I guess the times I brought it up things weren't quite right with work or family or animals so just kind of kept pushing it to the side and then it got brought up again so we sat down and had a bigger conversation about

it he couldn't come with me because he has an 11 year old son back home oh right so that's why we have to do the long distance but yeah he'll be coming over in September with his son again so we're going to plan a few cool trips and hang out as a family then but for now we're making the best of the situation for the long-term goal yeah that is very cool honestly the idea that you guys can basically save, I would say almost your entire salary. Is that right? Yeah. My total outgoing expenses are only $2,461 a month. So I'm pretty much saving $4,600 each month. That's actually so cool. And I like that you're so specific. You're like, well, my outgoings are X and my savings are Y. That is very cool. You mentioned before, I'm a B and I've come a long way in the

past five years. Talk to me about what that means because you just showed me before your money story you wrote in, you said, you know, for your business degree, I paid off my 30,000 student loan in five years. And like, I've had eight pay rises in the space of five years. Like, what do you mean you've come a long way? Where did we start? Like, were you not good at money? What did you mean by that? Yeah, I was not good at money. I guess I didn't know how to manage money very well from my upbringing. There was never savings or that I saw anyway. It was always a lot of stress and a lot of anxiety around money during school like school holidays I would go out and work on the orchard once we had moved in with my stepdad so I guess that was my introduction to

learning how to work hard for money and not taking it for granted that money would always just keep flowing as well yeah that's so fair yeah that was the basis of where it started to changed for me and then in university obviously no students really have an income so to speak but I did have a part-time job and some student allowance that helped me get by I think it was university when I stumbled across your podcast actually and I was just addicted to it you helped me build my spreadsheet for all my finances I love that I've done all this stuff that I didn't know I did you're like you helped me do this and I'm like slay of course I did yep I was absolutely right there. I remember. Yes. I just started taking accountability for my money. It's really

hard though. I feel like if you've grown up with a different money story, then finally taking accountability can be really hard or really challenging. Like it's not like at the end of the day, I try to make it sound sexy, but it's not that fun. Like it's not that exciting, but it's really important. Right? Right. Yeah. So talk to me. Do you have some good money habits? If so, what do you think your best money habit is? I would say my best money habit now is not impulse buying. I think things through for a long time before making the actual purchase. And I know where all of my money goes thanks to the spreadsheet that you helped me create. Love. I'm glad that I was there. I definitely remember it. I was absolutely there. And on the

flip side, what do you think your worst money habit is? I have money sitting there, but it's not doing much for me. So getting that to its highest potential. I feel like that's not a bad money habit though. Like I feel like you are in the right place to learn and grow and change. I mean, you said I have, what was it? $1,255 if I'm not incorrect on shares is, and like you've already got like a really nice amount of savings and you've got plans to kind of increase that. I feel like you're on the right track and we all just kind of do it in our own time. Yes, yes, we do. any other bad habits you would like to share? Occasionally I'll sign up for like a subscription service for the free week and then I forget to cancel it. Yeah I feel like that happens to the

best of us like I feel like it's a rite of passage so tell me if I said Marnie Dyrist what would it take for you to get to become an A plus what would that look like? I would say do some more research on investing and where I want to put my money so it can work best for me work out whether buying my first home is actually what I want to do or if it's more investment property or stocks or something like that I want to put my money in and also not feel guilty about spending money when I do want something sometimes I feel like I should be saving as much as possible and not just assuming that because I have a decent income that I'm allowed to spend as much as I want kind of thing yeah I feel like it can be hard especially when you're making such a big sacrifice like you're

literally in another country so you're like no I need to save as much as possible but then also girl you are 28 in another country you also need to live a little bit and like make some memories and enjoy the journey as well definitely I've been putting 400 a month away for when like my husband comes to visit my mum comes to visit we can do little micro trips around Japan oh that will be literally so cool when is your mum coming she comes in two weeks oh so you've got heaps to look forward to because you got mum coming in two weeks and then your husband coming in September I feel like that's a good amount of breakup yes definitely and then I get to go home at Christmas for three to four weeks oh how good is that I feel like it's all lining up money Doris I have loved

to learning about you. I've loved learning a little bit about kiwifruit and Japan. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on. And I know the community are going to listen to this and be like, well, that was fun. That was a wild ride. Getting to know exactly what happens when you, I guess, decide to get good at money and then make a really big change because of it is very cool. Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much for having me. No, of course. It's been a pleasure. 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 authorized representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.