She's On The Money - We Get Really Pervy About How This 25-Year-Old Built a $100K Investment Portfolio

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

If you've ever wanted a front-row seat inside the mind of a young, self-made investor, this episode is for you. This week’s Money Diarist didn’t inherit wealth and she didn’t walk into a six-figure salary after uni. Instead, she hustled hard, built strong networks, and made investing moves that paid off—and yes, we get really pervy about it. We dive deep into her first-ever investment, the mistakes she made along the way, and how her strategy has completely evolved over time. If you're looking for real investing inspiration (with a big side of hustle), you won’t want to miss this one!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 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 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 a message and it sounded exactly like this. Dear She's On The Money, when my parents divorced, I learned one thing. I never want to find myself in their financial position. From that moment, I've worked tirelessly to build a life of independence and security. To reach my goals, I've juggled multiple jobs, from rearing cows on my family farm to nannying and tutoring. The common thread,

almost every opportunity I've had, even my current job, has come from the relationships I've built along the way. At 25, I've reached $100,000 in shares, and I'm now planning to buy and rent my first property. If my journey has taught me anything, it's the power of strong connections and the doors that they can open. Money Diarist, this sounds so pervy, so interesting. It's a real story of like, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Absolutely. Yep. Every step of the way can attest to that one. Oh, I can't wait to learn more about this. I feel like you're going to tell me a lot about how to win friends and influence people. But before we get there, what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? Probably a B

plus to a minus at the moment. Always room to improve there. Okay. I want to know more about that. But before we get there, my favorite question of all time, money, Doris, can you share a little bit more about your money story? So I grew up on a farm, which you got that from the intro in there. I did pick up that vibe. And got my first job while in high school as soon as I could. And that was, I guess, in my time in high school, it was very much to save for your first car. And that was the first savings goal on the list, I guess. I had a lot of different jobs in high school. I worked at the local bakery. I waitressed on weekends in all of the sport that I was playing as well. I was umpiring and doing things like that as well. And then on the farm,

if we had a potty lamb or a potty calf that had lost their mom, we were allowed to feed it morning a night and we would reap the money from when we'd sell those calves or lambs on. So it was a great little cash grab, I guess. Oh my gosh. My mum used to do that growing up because my mum grew up on a farm. She used to do the same thing. Like if you reared the animal, that became kind of your responsibility. And then when you sold it, that was your profit. Did you say a potty lamb? What does that mean specifically? I feel like I've picked up the vibe, but I don't know what that means? So they're like your little pet lamb I guess that have lost their mum or mum couldn't take on twins or triplets so we'd take one off of her to give them the better shot at life I guess

but it was a great little after school evening activity until it started raining and you didn't really want to go out the back but you were their carer. Did you have a couple of siblings growing up? Yes I've got two younger brothers so they were all in on that as well. And did you like have little arguments over who gets the next one. We had designated jobs per se. So it kind of like rotated in threes as to who got the next one or who had the time at that time. Yeah. Because I would have been like, no, I want all the sheepies. Like I want all of them. Thank you. I love that. And then one sibling had chooks. So the chook egg money that we used to give to friends and family used to go to them. So we kind of divvied it up easy enough.

That's really cute. So tell me what happened as you got a bit older. So, as I got a little bit older, I had a gap year before starting uni and right before I went to uni, moved four hours away from home, my parents separated. So, I have a pretty clear, I guess, time between childhood and adulthood and that was real smack in the face for adulthood for me. And while they've been super financially supportive along the way, I think the lessons underlying that for me was how do I not find myself in a situation that stresses me out like that and ever since then it's been very much how do I safeguard and protect myself and find my own independence which is what I very much formed a basis of through uni. And I feel like that is

something that a lot of people in our community are going to resonate with what you would have been in your late teens when your parents decided to divorce tell me a bit more about that was that something that you were like oh we could see it coming a mile off or was it a surprise or like I'm just so pervy like you're anonymous so I get to ask these things like you'd never sit with your friends at brunch and be like, oh my God, friend, tell me why your parents divorced though. Like rude, but I get to be a little bit rude because it does form your money story, right? Absolutely. Yeah. So I was 19 and it was exactly two weeks before I moved to our major city. I didn't see it coming, but there was probably signs that it was there, but I had just finished

my gap year I was working fully through summer in a coastal town so I wasn't seeing them all of the time and the way they were interacting in those like I guess four weeks leading up to when I was told so I felt like I was kind of out of the loop a little bit but maybe there were some factors that I didn't see or considered them to be a bit different or maybe that's normal that weren't normal oh you just don't know what you don't know and like I don't think anyone goes through their life being like, I wonder how mum and dad's relationship is, unless it's like super tumultuous or something. So when you found out, what did that look like? Was it immediate? And I'm more talking about like, I guess the financial side of things. Did one of them move out and then

have to rent? Like, tell me about that, I guess, financial journey. So living on the farm, that was obviously our primary residence. We had a beach house in one of the coastal towns. So mum moved basically permanently down there. Oh, that's so lucky that you had that. Yeah, she didn't come back from holidays essentially is the way that I saw it at that time. And yeah, it was pretty quick. Like siblings went back to school.

I obviously moved to uni. I was packing my whole life up with one parent at home and it wasn't that like wholesome, I guess picture that I had put in my head about my parents moving me to my major city and I was like doing my own thing now it would be everyone joining in and being happy for me. It was very much like one parent helped me move. The other one was very supportive from the benches. And it was from then on, I was like,

oh, our life is going to look a little bit different from then on. But I would say, well, it's been six years now. So like we're very much better for it. Like a really good time now. Yeah, good. But what did that mean, I guess, when it comes to money? Because you obviously saw that situation, you know, happen and unfold. And you said, I never want to find myself in their financial position. What do you mean by that? Because like the situation that I have painted in my head right now, only because like, I don't know you, this is just from what you've shared. You're like, dad had the farm. We were lucky. We had a beach house. Mom moved there. And I go, that seems pretty clean, but I know deep down it's not because of the way that you've

written it. So tell me like, well, what does that mean? Why wouldn't you want to be in their financial position? Because like if I'm divorcing someone and I've got a separate house, that sounds pretty slay, not going to lie. Yeah. I think the position I don't want to find myself in is like fighting over money or the money that I have being taken away from me per se. I found during that time in terms of how good divorces can be, it was pretty amicable, but it kind of felt like it put a strain on my relationship with my parents and the farm as well. So, I'm obviously got one house dad stayed in his and has a farm but it was I guess the assets under his name that got taken from him mum's who obviously has to work and things like that but yeah that time just taught

me that I never want to I guess get to a position of a divorce and want everything that someone else has I want to build it for myself I want to safeguard anyone else against that and be quite independent and that's where a lot of I guess my attitudes and passion for this has now come from is I never want to be like my mom and have to take everything or most of it to live. To set yourself up. Yeah. And I guess that I'm just going to go back and I'm going to assume some stereotypes here and I would love for you to correct me, but I'm assuming farming was your dad's thing. And I'm just going based off like literally my grandparents, right? Farming was their thing, but it was like mainly pop running the farm and Nana did the books and

kind of supported him to do his thing. So I'm assuming that when you have a farm, that might be the way it worked. So can I assume that your mum wasn't able to foster a career to be as successful or like tell me a bit more about how that kind of falls out. Yeah she had a business until my younger siblings were born and then she couldn't do that full-time so was caring for us and was able to because of our financial situation. She went back to work probably part to full-time almost as we were kids growing up because we obviously didn't depend on her as much. But I think some of her financial habits put a strain on their relationship and her, I guess, spending might not have been covered by her own work, but it kind of put a strain on like

the money coming in versus money going out. And I feel like I'm not getting this or not getting that. And I think that's where a lot of the conflict came from, whether we saw that or not. we'd never went without. We were definitely a middle-class family and had everything we needed, but perhaps there was some assumptions that there was more money there than what there was. And that did cause a little bit of conflict on their spending and how they managed money together. Yeah, totally. And do you feel that, oh, I'm picking up that money was a very big motivating factor as to why they might've decided that divorce was the best option? Yeah. And maybe just not on the same page about it, which I'm so aware of now going

into relationships and friendships and things like that. And obviously money, even six, seven years ago, wasn't spoken about as much. There's a lot of financial stresses on farms. Seasons come and go. We might've been in a really positive, great position and spending could have been a bit more lenient and flexible. And then other times you've really got to rein it in. And that can be a lot on people when you're not used to those differences in cashflow. Yeah, a hundred percent. I don't know. This is why I love money diaries. I get to be a little bit pervy about like, oh, how did that impact you? What did that look like? Because in farming, it does ebb and flow. Like you can have a bad season or like, I remember I've had friends who've had hay completely

saturated and had to throw it out. And it was like literally like 50 grand as their income that year. And just, it can be heartbreaking, but I can imagine that puts significant stress on a relationship, especially if you're not on the same page. Need to ask, are you single? Have you got a partner? I do have a partner. And has that really guided the conversations you're having with them around like, okay, cool. Like this is how I deal with money. What are you thinking? Like, are we having money conversations from the get go? Absolutely. We've been together for quite some time. He's also from the same country town as me and a farming family as well. So. Oh, he gets it. Yeah. Seeing, I guess,

how I've treated my money and gained a lot of independence throughout uni. He's been so supportive and guiding. We obviously have different ways that we work on that, I guess, but it works fast and we're very much on the same page with that. I adore that. All right. I'm going to move away from this topic. I'm still not going to get into my questions yet because I just have some other stuff I want to talk about before then. I need to ask, you have said, all right, I want to do this. I've been through this experience. We've talked about it, but you said to reach my goals, I've juggled multiple jobs. Like you've done, obviously rearing the cows and then you've done nannying and tutoring, which I think is pretty

straightforward. But the cool thing is you said almost every opportunity, including the current job you have has come from the relationships you've built along the way. What do you mean? How did that work? Like obviously rearing the cows. We know that that came from your parents owning a farm. Great. Fantastic. But like nannying, tutoring, your current job, tell me how you essentially talk your way into these things? So, I took a gap year between high school and uni and I was a front office like receptionist at a school. So, I went through all of the right, I guess, checks and education levels, first aid training and all of that that year and that carries on for about 12 months to two years, I think, some of the things. I started uni quite

a clean slate. I didn't quite have a job when I moved yet, but I found a nannying platform and applied through there. And someone on the other end reading my application was writing up my profile to start, I guess, gaining babysitting work. And she reached out to me and said, I don't want to put your profile up. I'd love to have you look after my family. Oh my gosh, that's so cute. You must have had a great profile. She would get to see them all. And then she's like, oh, this girl, I'm in. Yeah. Yeah. So she didn't interview me, but she was the one that profiled me and she was like, can I grab you first? And I was like, well, it's what I wanted anyway. Like I wanted a job and

you're saying you've got one. Absolutely. So they were number one and they're still a really close family of mine now, six years later. Um, and then now I tutor their kids instead of babysitting them. But that was step number one. The dad in that family is one of my personal contacts as a referee for a lot of the jobs I apply for. Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And those sorts of things really do help someone finding their feet in a new city and being so young and new contacts. And that has led on to other babysitting work through just referrals. So I didn't actually have to use the agency for too long after that. I had already rounded up enough work that I needed to outsource to other people already. Yeah. So that got me into

more babysitting and tutoring, but my most recent babysitting family, they live down the road and they have family in England and that's actually allowed me to travel with them overseas on different holidays and things like that as well. Yes, please. How does that work? So what, they just go, hello, money diarist. We're going on this very fancy family holiday and we would like you to come. Yeah. So when I was in my full-time job and they said, oh, we've got you know, three kids, one's going to be six weeks old on their first flight. And we think three kids to three adults sounds better than three kids to two adults. Would you like to join? So I took three weeks of leave and said, yeah, I'll happily support and come see England in a

different light. Oh, that's actually the coolest thing ever. And I mean, what a privilege to be able to travel with that family because they trust you so much. I feel like that might be, I don't know, in my head, that's like another level of nannying. Like you've got nannying and like, they're like, yep, come to my house, money diaries, look after my kids, obviously trust you inherently. But like, to not only be trusted with the kids, but like, oh, we would actually not mind you being there for our family holiday. That's so special. I think it definitely comes down to the relationship I've built with them, though we're pretty close now. And I guess being so relatable also helps. And yeah,

it was great to meet all of their family and obviously slide in quite nicely to the dynamic. I love this. So tell me, what do you do for work now and how much money are you earning? I'm in a marketing role for a sporting organization and I earn $85,000 a year, which includes super. But I'd say in terms of what I earn, it would be around 100K once I add in my side hustles, which we've gone through a little bit. But yeah, nannying is still ongoing. I still tutor, got some netball umpiring in there, some freelance marketing work. And now I've also just bought a photo booth business, which is starting to take off. Oh my gosh, she's a hustler. Okay. So tell me on average, like what

would your last tax return have looked like? Cause you obviously earn 85 grand in your quote main job, but like that's a lot of side hustling. I think I was around a hundred K, my partner's an accountant. So he was very supportive through that. $100,000 at 25, slay. Tell me more, like you've piqued my interest. I actually need to know two things. One, you said a sporting organization and like I win and I'm not going to out you which sporting organization that is. But like, if you didn't want me to know, you wouldn't have had a picture behind you of what sport that was with them wearing the uniforms. Like I've put two and two together. Nobody else can though. So that's fun. But I need to know, how did your relationships

get you into this role? Because like the role that you've got is for a pretty fancy sporting organization. How did you swindle your way in there? I was previously, I started in a grad role in a consulting firm and the relationships above me actually gained all of my referees, but a lot of different contacts and people were talking prior to the interview. So yeah, had a great interview process, but by the end of it, it was like such and such spoke to me, said you knew XYZ and this is why you're hired. So once again, it was relationships from one company that built the relationships to the next. So I've been quite lucky in terms of everything's been like fought for on my own, but I've had such a good supporter base behind me that I've built through relationships

that continues to shine through everything I do. And I want to talk about that. And I don't know how you're going to answer this because you come across as relatively humble and that's a compliment, I promise you. But when people say like, oh, it's come from the relationships I've built, like how are you building relationships where people are backing you in this way because I think a lot of us will go yeah but like how do I build that relationship like someone might be listening to this going but I nannied and like it hasn't become that fruitful of a relationship like you're doing something special are you just a really beautiful nice human that people resonate with automatically like or is there some strategy that you've got to like always follow up or something

I just need to know because this doesn't happen for me, babe. I would say I'm very reliable and hardworking, which people admire and trust. I think that got me in the door to a lot of things. But when I have other people's backs, that seems to have supported me, whether it's in the work I do, whether it's dropping to attend to an anaphylactic reaction because the grandparents didn't want to do the EpiPen, whether it's quickly jumping on something at night to get a deck ready the next day I think it was more that becoming really trusting and then also I guess I have a pretty happy bubbly personality that I always try to bring to everything I do with my work ethic which has really helped but it's definitely not paying

my way through or asking favors left right and center it's very much the hard work side of things and demonstrating that through my work and my passion and my care for people I love that you know that about yourself too. Because like, do you know how many people would be like, oh, I don't know. It just happens. Like to be able to back yourself and be like, no, no, no. Like I am really nice and I am going to go above and beyond. And like, I have no doubt that you're incredibly intelligent, but like what everybody can take from this is you're saying that the key to your success actually isn't intelligence. It's hard work and all of those things that we can do irrespective of our industry or what job we have or how we're doing it. It's being present and

being committed and showing up. And I think that, yeah, we can all do that. And that's really cool. The other thing, complete side note, you bought a photo booth business? How does that even come up? How do you go, oh, do you know what? I've got this really fancy marketing job. I think I'm going to get another business. It's so random. I was freelancing and supporting the lady that did run the business and she had another business in conjunction that was taking off and she wanted to spend more time in that so after two years of running events and doing the people side of things anyway she was like would you like the admin side as well and take this on full-time and at the time I must have been caught

in a moment of weakness but I went absolutely why not this is the next thing to take those I guess smaller freelancing gigs off my plate and focus my energy into one bigger side business. I love that Okay. So tell me a little bit more about that. Cause obviously it's a smaller side business. Did you have to spend some serious cash on that to get in or like, how's that work? Most people in businesses like that have like built them from the ground up. They haven't purchased them. So like how? I would note that I didn't know how to buy a business or like how you find businesses to buy. Still don't really know the second one. That's true. Not many people do. That's why I'm like, you've got to spill. You've got to tell us.

So yeah, obviously this one was approach-based, but it was $15,000, which I paid in cash. That was a sale of the business. They had kind of scaled down because they didn't have the time and energy to put into it. So it was kind of valued at the time, but I'd argue it was somewhat undervalued based on the contacts resources and set up. And then I also set up a trust, which I think was like the company side of things might be $1,500 or something like that with the fees so yeah I put that in from the cash that I had and I've almost paid that back in the six months that I've had it with the pre-existing bookings and the upcoming events that I've got yeah set up zero set up those side little things as well and finding my way with the processes I

want to deal with I guess in that I'm obsessed also you've just said something that most people wouldn't think about if they were buying a small business at that size and like this is I don't know how to explain it. This is very smart. You said, I set up a trust. Where did you get that information? And why did you know that putting your business in a trust was going to be beneficial for you? I don't have all the answers there because my partner's an accountant and he said, this is step number one. And that's where we're starting. All right. I was like, where are you getting this from? Like, and I knew that you'd said your partner was an accountant, but I was like, did you like get some advice or did you

do something? Your partner, your accountant partner would have given that advice, which tell him I'm grateful to him for putting you in that position like thank you sir you genius where's the future of that business going like you planning on scaling it and quitting your full-time job or is this just always going to be a side thing you're going to hire staff like obviously I'm asking all the big hitting questions but I need to know yeah so I absolutely love my full-time job so I don't know if I could give that up yet but I've obviously worked so hard in so many different smaller side hustles that it was like maybe it's time to just focus attention and energy into one so that's the plan there is to I guess realign my time a little bit but it's a great networking

opportunity as well like the different events that I get to go to and chat to people and take their photos and hand out printouts and just get to know so many different types of people is I guess the social side of it as well is awesome but financially it's just I guess a bit more passive income in a sense. I'm able to scale that side for myself as well. And it's also just, I guess, leaning into when my circumstances change, like I would like to have a family one day, maybe I could continue that on the side instead of my full-time job and support myself financially there. Yeah. So tell me, what are your big money goals? What are you currently working towards? So we said 100K in shares, I hit last year. So I'd like to get to 150K by the end

of the year. By the end of the year? Yeah. My friend, what the hell? It's a bit of a stretch goal there, but it's a primary focus of mine. So we'll see how we go with that. And I'm currently working year to year at the moment in a lot of my goals. So the other one is to purchase an investment property. I say purchase because the saving in the hard yards has been over time. It's just, I need to bite the bullet and actually do that this year. So on the hunt at the moment. Okay. So how are you 25 and have $100,000 in shares? Riddle me that. Where does that come from? How did you do that? Because you are just a baby and that is a lot of money, my friend. I'm so proud, so insanely proud of everything you've achieved, but we need the tea. How did

you do that? I kickstarted that process in COVID. So 2020, a lot of downtime, share markets fallen. we spent a lot more time at home instead of in the city. So we were surrounded by family that were also doing similar things, investing in shares and ETFs and, hey, you should probably have a look at this. So I received youth allowance throughout uni and that doubled in that time and my expenses did not double during that time. So fortunately, I channeled a lot of my money and energy into, I guess, exploring shares, exploring ETS. So that first year was a lot of dabbling into different things and then working out what worked for me. But in the past two years, I think I've changed from cash is king into I need to see my money start to work for me. And I've just gone

hard and hard and hard. I'm obsessed. You are like a woman after my own heart. Tell me, what are you investing in? You've got a hundred grand, which means you're pretty bloody serious when it comes to being an investor. What was your first share purchase? Oh, first share purchase might have been Flight Centre. Oh, okay. Tell me why. Because I think I know why. I knew travel was going to come back at some point. It was just having a massive hit at the time. Do you read Reddit a lot? No, I don't actually. That was all over Reddit during COVID. Everybody was talking about investing in Flight Centre because it'll come back, it'll come back and their share price plummeted. And I'm like, who did you get that information from? Because I feel like there's a niche group of

people who all aggressively invested in travel. Yeah. I think the other half of people invested in Qantas, but I said, no, that's a bit more diversified than Qantas, which is why I went down that path. I was booking a holiday pre-COVID crash and I thought, well, I want to book a holiday at some point. So that's where Flight Center came into it. I was confident enough with the share price at what it had kind of bottomed out at that it would rise. So that was one of those ones. It did take a while to pick up though, I will admit. And in those early months, looking at red or looking at green meant a lot more to me than what it does now. I will happily admit that. I guess my biggest investing mistake was A2 Milk buying at a high and watching

that drop a little bit. It was an amazing cash cow for some people, but not for me at the time. but it's just taught me that I don't have to hop on other people's rides. This is my journey and I'm investing what I believe in instead of, I guess, those little voices. And when you bought A2 Milk, did you buy that company because you'd just seen a lot of hype about it and thought it was going to be fantastic? So you were buying kind of the top of the market? Yeah. Hype and a few other friends were in it, so they had confidence, but they also purchased at different prices to me. Yeah. But that's like such a good lesson because it's kind of like you're seeing other people be successful and you're like, great,

like I'll jump in on this too. But like they would have gotten in before you and oh, how frustrating. So tell me now, I'm so pervy on this. You've got a hundred grand. I need to know what is your biggest holding now? Like what is the biggest investment you've got inside your portfolio? VAS ETF Vanguard Australian shares. So that would be, I'd say almost 50%, 45, 50% into there. And then I've got the Vanguard International Shares, which is VGS. I'm in the VAE, which is the XAsia ETF as well. And then I've dabbled in ComBank. I've really maxed out that one now, but that was awesome. And I think that might be it. Yeah, I think that's it. I've definitely, obviously, research and learnings along the way. I've bought, sold, and now it's

very much. I've joined the ETF train and happy to be there. Yeah. I was about to say, often you find that, and this has gone full investing chat, so I do apologize, but I think this is so pervy. Often you find that people go into an ETF as like kind of a gateway investment because they like don't want to pick one investment and want instant diversification. And it feels like pretty safe, but they think, and I say think in quotation marks, that real investing is direct shares. And that's like not the case at all, obviously, but you've done the opposite. You were buying direct shares and like picking stocks. And now you've gone into essentially three different ETFs and like, I can see your strategy. Your strategy is diversify across markets and then further

diversify by having three different ETFs. So you've got an Australian one, an international one, and then an Asia one, which I think is very, very intelligent. And you've clearly done your research because a lot of people who then go, oh, I also added Asia because Asia performs a lot different than an international portfolio. Like usually Asian ETFs carry a lot of tech stocks in comparison to international. Anyway, there's like a lot of conversation to be had here that I am just so pervy on. Moving forward, what's the plan for your share portfolio? Continue to invest in those ETFs. I think they're buy and hold forever in my mind. That money really supports me in terms of dividends, currently reinvesting them, but I can see how that could cover bills in future,

support me when I'm having a family and have other things that pop up. But at the moment, obviously there's a lot of growth in them anyway. So it's really exciting to see and it's put me in good stead for now. Oh, absolutely it has. I'm so excited for you. So tell me on average, how much are you contributing to your share portfolio on a monthly basis? About $3,000 a month at the moment. Oh my Lord. Okay. Okay. Tell me how you're doing that. Like how are we getting three grand of free cash flow on essentially $100,000 of income each year? So the three would come from a lot of side hustles, but my dividends would be at about three as well. Oh my gosh, that is so sexy. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just reinvesting and

I'm just grabbing money from my pay, money from side hustles. You really are hustling to not be in the same position as your parents, aren't you, my friend? Like you did not lie. You were not missing a beat. You were just like, okay, let's go to a really quick break because I actually have so many questions for you and we're going to get to them in a hot minute. All right, Money Diarist, we have just dove very deeply into your investment journey and I'm sorry if that was so pervy, but when you get the opportunity to quiz someone on their $100,000 portfolio that they've built that they have at 25, my friend, I'm taking and seizing that opportunity and be like, what do you hold? How do you hold it? What are percentages? Because

this podcast, like I can't give advice. Like I could never sit down as a licensed financial services professional and say, oh, you should buy A, B, C, and D. Because somebody could listen to this podcast and replicate exactly what you have today. And it might not be successful for them because you've gotten in at different times and done different things. And that's fine. But I love the opportunity that She's On The Money creates for the whole community to learn from one another. like it is just so empowering to see somebody who's gone, oh, I was doing direct shares because I was trying to be legit and I've actually learned a lot and now I'm just going to buy and hold ETFs for the rest of my life. Like that's such a mindset shift. When you started investing and,

you know, you told me that lots of your friends and family were talking about ETFs and stuff. Why wasn't an ETF the first investment that you made? I don't think I was quite educated in that space enough at the time. So a lot more reading, a lot more listening, She's on the Money podcast, all of that has come from that, I guess. So initially, particularly at that time, some of those ETFs had only just kicked off and hadn't gained a lot of traction. And I think my age group has come through with a lot more accessibility to personal finance accounts and financial articles that are more digestible for myself and my age group. And that's really supported, I guess, where I've landed with ETFs. I'm obsessed with you. I love this so much. And

I just love what I know people are going to get out of this conversation. It makes me want to cut the podcast up and like literally do, yeah, let's do our money diary. But like, I just want to take that investing chat and make it a whole podcast so that I could talk about this all day. Girl, you and me both, and you might be invited back on the pod so that we can just talk investing. Don't put it past me. Talk to me about debt. Do you have any? I'm assuming no with the amount of cash flow that you have, but what are your feelings about it? Like, would you ever take on debt? How do you feel about it? What does that look like in your financial journey? So I've got my hex debt, but I wouldn't classify that as a bad debt. That's just going to sit there

and come out at tax time. But I do use a credit card for points hacking, but I wipe that clean week in, week out. So there's no technical debt there. But other than that, that's it. I don't have a negative attitude towards debt if it's used in the right way per se, but I'd closed all of my afterpay accounts and things like that at a very young age. It just didn't work for me in the way that my cashflow was occurring and it just didn't make me feel good either. So no negativity towards debt, particularly looking into a mortgage for this investment property. That sits well with me, but that's it. But that's a wealth creating debt, and we're not going to just cough up a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

You did mention earlier that one of your goals is to purchase an investment property and you've been working towards that for a very long time. What does that look like? How much have you got in savings at the moment? Are you talking to brokers? When's this purchase going to occur? I've always had strong cash savings and that seems to have just compiled year on year. So, I've got about $65,000 in cash. Okay. Not what I was expecting, big dog. So obviously the money for the business came out of that as well. So that would be a little bit higher if I didn't do that, but I don't like to look at it that way. That's an investment that you made. No, absolutely not. We're not going to regret that. So that has been just compounding

year on year. And I do contribute to that to make sure I've got the highest interest earning on that. But I think I've been a bit afraid of, I guess, the negativity around interest rates and making a bigger purchase. It's not as liquid as shares. So I've been overanalyzing every situation, I guess, for a very long time. And now it's time to bite the bullet. Otherwise, yesterday was the best day, but today's the next best day. So it needs to happen. A hundred percent. So have you started that journey? Are you going to engage a broker? Are you just going to go down to your local bank? What's the plan? we'll start to, we've just started to engage with a broker at the moment. And we're just

looking in some smaller hotspot areas that we're more comfortable in at the moment. I love that. That is so fun to think that you're finally achieving it. Like it sounds like you've just been a big saver. And I don't know, I feel like sometimes we listen to these stories of people that you're like, oh, cool. Like she sounds so relatable to me. She, you know, earns $85,000. And then the journey starts to change and the story starts to get a little bit juicy and you go, oh, she's got all these side hustles. Oh my God, she's got a hundred thousand dollars in savings. Oh my God, she's got a hundred thousand dollars in shares. And oh my God, she's got $60,000 in savings. Like it starts to become, I guess, unrelatable. And you go,

I don't want to listen to this. Like she's not me. And I just go, good. Like we can learn from people in different situations to put ourselves in better circumstances. Like you're really proving that you don't need hundreds of thousands of dollars to put yourself in the best possible position. And I think a lot of us just go, it's not relatable because she's got so much savings, but there would have been a time. And yeah, you've clearly had the privilege of finding financial literacy for yourself early and going through, you know, even if your parents are amicable, a traumatic life event that has pushed you into going, I actually need to take this really seriously. And I'm sure you've sacrificed a lot along the way so that you've got savings,

right? So can you tell me a bit about that? Because I think sometimes we listen to these stories and go, that's not relatable. That's not going to be achievable for me. Like I'm never going to do that. But your current today's circumstance is an outcome of the situations you've been through. Have you had to sacrifice along the way? Like, has this been just super easy breezy for you? No, I'd say the multiple side hustles has led me to miss out on social events and things like that when I lock in babysitting in advance and a lot of weekend work. I sacrificed my mornings for morning nannying before work now too. And I guess that all takes its toll. But throughout uni, I was so frugal with my money. I watched where every dollar

went and I don't feel like I missed out per se, but I think that's where I really capitalized on making sure I wasn't creeping up on using lifestyle creep, I guess, in a way that I wasn't able to fund myself and fund the savings. I think as a kid, you always grow up and it's like, oh, save your first car and then the rest will really work itself out. And I got to the other side of that and I was like, what do you mean? Who's going to tell me what to do now? What's the next goal? No one's told me what the next goal is. And it was like, oh, right, this is on me to implement another goal. Otherwise, that's it. If I don't have something else to look forward to or to work towards, that's it. I remember when I had my first consulting job and it was the

biggest job I'd ever had. It was so fancy. I'd graduated university and I was actually the youngest in the company. And I was so overwhelmed by all of these people in their thirties and forties because they looked like they had their stuff together. And I just thought, that's fine. One day I'm going to have my stuff together because life just happens, right? Life happens for you. Like you don't have to lift a finger and one day I'll have a home. No worries. And then cracks start to appear and you realize that those people don't have their stuff together and life isn't just going to happen for you. You actually have to make it happen for yourself. And I think that you've absolutely done that. And I'm just so excited about it.

Obviously, you've mentioned you're really frugal and you literally use every single other waking hour to make it revenue generating. And that's not for everybody and that's fine. But what is your best money habit, do you reckon? I'd say it's documenting my savings and where that income comes from. I'm so good at tracking everything via Google spreadsheet and I have a goals like month to month to hit, I guess. And I work in breaking it down because yeah, 100,000 in shares sounds overwhelming, but that was once like a 10K goal and 10K across a year. So I've really broken it down month to month to make things more digestible and easy for me to achieve, I guess. And that's obviously all conditional coding. So everything goes green

when I hit something and I get a little hit of adrenaline from it. Oh my gosh, there's a spreadsheet. You are a woman after my own heart. This year, I'm probably getting a bit more into tracking what I spend to tighten that up a bit instead of where the savings goes, which has always been my focus. This whole episode, I thought I can't help her with anything. Like this woman is a genius. I'm going to gift you my money masterclass so that you have access to like my budgeting and cashflow tool that will definitely do that for you. It'll probably like marry really nicely with like your investment trackers and how you're doing that. But like this whole episode, I've been like, this woman's just got it sorted. Like she doesn't need, she's on the money anymore.

I've found a way to help. And I love this for us. So after this, I'll set you up on that. But do you have any bad money habits? Like surely somebody this good at money doesn't have anything bad. Tell me, please tell me you actually do. I do think I do. I think I need to put a bit more time between my purchases and those unnecessary spending habits, clothes, travel. You are very well-dressed. I have been perving on your beautiful denim top. It's very on trend. Thank you. Very cute, very chic, but I feel that in my soul. And probably just that all is summed up in curbing lifestyle creep, which I feel like I've

found that effect of keeping up with the Joneses a little bit in the last 12 months. So bringing that back to earth, that's probably my worst money habit at the moment. I love it though. That's like not even a bad money habit. Clearly you're very good at money, but you're quite reflective on like how you could be better. At the start of this episode, you said, I reckon I'm a B plus or like maybe even an A minus. What's an A plus to you? Like what would you have to do or facilitate or change so that if I spoke to you again, you're like, obviously I'm A plus. Like what would that look like? I don't know when I'll ever be able to say that I've made it per se, but A plus to me would be

like, yep, I've made it. I've set out everything I achieved to set myself up for life. So, I think when I feel set up for life, that would be an A plus. For me, I'd still say an A minus to an A. There's still work to be done there. And I think my type A personality would never let me into that A plus category. Oh, I get that. I get that. And that's why I like asking because I'm like, what's that even going to take in type A? People are like, wait, don't ask me that question. I would just like to consistently undervalue myself instead of being questioned on this. But I'm obsessed. There are going to be people listening to this and they're like, is she crazy that's a plus to me and I agree but I kind of like that you're also you know halfway

through the journey you're like I know I've achieved a lot but I'm gonna do so much more and like I cannot wait to touch base with you at some point in the future and you can tell me about how a relationship has got you into your next biggest best job my friend I'm very sad that this is all we have time for today this has been so fun and I've adored how much we've spoken about investing and your parents and the journey and why you don't want to be where they were. And not only do you not want that, you're not going to have that. Like you've actually set yourself up for future financial success in such a beautiful way. And like, it's so nice to talk to you about it because you've just done it on your own. Like nobody's come along and been like,

oh yeah, actually I did get some shares from my grandpa. Like you've actually just gone, oh, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do it well. And I've committed to it. And last question do you find that now you have committed to it it like compounds not in terms of like obviously growth but like do you become more committed to it or now that you've got a hundred grand you're like oh I can relax even more committed to it I'm even more passionate about it I can't believe when it ticked over I didn't I felt excited but it was like oh my god there's so much more in me to get to the next thing like what do I have to do to get to the next step and you know what they always say the first hundred thousand dollars is the hardest to

earn like it's the hardest to earn it's the hardest to save it's the hardest to invest and like you've done it like i'm just so excited about this diary thank you my love leader has been so fun getting to know you a little bit be pervy i'm grateful that you've let me be as pervy as i have but i know the community gonna adore this as well so thank you for sharing and caring and being part of the journey and part of the community you make literally people like you are what makes she's on the money so rich thank you so much v in the team for having me 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

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