She's On The Money - We Left Australia for a Startup Dream in San Fransico

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

Would you leave a job you love, move countries while pregnant, and bet on someone else’s career dream... with the hope it could all pay off big? This week’s Money Diary is a bold one. Our diarist packed up her life in Australia to move to San Francisco for her husband’s startup job, trading career security for the chance at something bigger. Now, she’s navigating life without an income, American healthcare, wild rent, and double tax returns... all while preparing to become a mum. It’s a powerful reminder that sometimes the biggest money moves aren’t about what’s in your account. They're about what could be, if the risk pays off. 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 I get the absolute privilege of sitting down and talking to one of our incredible She's On The Money community members all about their journey. I got an email this week and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's On The Money. At 36, things were pretty settled. Married, a toddler at home, another baby on the way and a mortgage in Melbourne. But in January, we made a huge call. We packed up our life and moved to the US for my husband's job at a startup. I left behind my career and income to become a full-time mum, and we now get the fun part of paying tax in two

countries. It's a big gamble. If the startup takes off, we could be looking at paying off our house and setting ourselves up for life. Right now, though, we're in that messy middle part, hoping that the risk really does pay off. Marnie Dyrus, this is so exciting to talk to you. I have so many questions. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. And thanks for doing this across the world. I mean, it is what? It's 1pm for me and I think 8pm for you. 8pm last night. 8pm like she's living in the past. She's living in the past. Yeah, we are a little bit in the past here.

I love that. All right, let's get into it. As always, I ask every single Money Diarist the same question to start the show. Money Diarist, if I asked you to give your money habits a grade from A through to F, what grade would you give them? Probably a B or B minus. Oh, okay. We weren't too bad and then yeah we've made this big gamble which I don't know could be a good money habit could not. That doesn't mean that you're bad at money that doesn't mean that at all but I need to know more can you tell me a little bit more about your money story? Yeah so

my husband and I have very different money stories which has been interesting at times so I grew up in what I consider like quite a well-off family we didn't really want for anything when I was kind of in grade five though we made this big call and the whole family moved to ironically enough America for three years while my dad did his master's yeah it's a little bit of history repeating itself and so we went from being in a very good position to having really no money he didn't earn anything my mom didn't earn anything and that was a really big shock for all of us but I think a really good lesson and then when we came back things were a little bit tough at the start and my parents were very good at age appropriate information about you know we can't

just go and get this because we're a little tight at the moment because we've had to put some money here but he's kind of that paid off for them as well and then things got much better again and we went back to that kind of more well-off lifestyle which has been good that we got that little bit in the middle where I was like oh money doesn't just come really easily it can be there and then it can go and sometimes you've got to make a sacrifice to get ahead in life. It's actually such a good lesson, especially at that age. Like it might not have felt super comfortable, but like in retrospect, I'm assuming you're like, hold on, that was actually a really valuable lesson. Yeah, no, it was not comfortable at all, but no, it was a really good lesson.

Cause I think otherwise I could have definitely gone down a path of like privilege where I didn't really realize how hard you have to work for things. Whereas my husband's from the exact other side where he grew up with not quite as well off a family and he's had to work very hard for what he's got. So I think we kind of mesh quite well because I've had that experience. So tell me a bit more, like I'm just so pervy and thankfully this is anonymous, so I get to be pervy, which is the best part, right? So your husband not growing up in such a well-off family, it does, I won't say surprise me, but it just doesn't seem as on brand to them be making really big risky decisions like moving to the US. Because usually

if you've had a little bit of like, you know, a financially tumultuous upbringing, you're usually a bit more about the stability. Do you think his money story has changed? Are you like kind of pushing him to get out of his comfort zone? Like how does someone who grew up in that situation then be comfortable to go, let's go to another country, babe? Absolutely. I think I, I mean, I don't want to take full credit, but. You're the ringleader. Yeah. When he was like, oh, I've been asked to move to the States. I was like, let's do it. I mean, there was lots of considerations, but my immediate thought was like, we have to do this. Like it's something he's always wanted to do. We have to do it. He's also very close with my parents. And so he knows that

story about us also packing up and going away for a few years and coming back and the payoff that that had. So even though it didn't come from his family, he has seen that in family. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's very cool. Tell me a little bit more about this move. Like that happened at the start of the year for you guys. How quick was the turnaround? Because you said in January, we made the call but it's now like mid-year and you already live there you're set up you have kids overseas like that just feels like a massive change talk me through how you moved to a different country on I would say relatively short notice yeah so actually we made the call in so he's worked for his company for a few years and he came back from a work trip in August and was like I've

been asked to move we took about a month to really well convince him that it was going to happen and work through all of the financials and his salary and all of that because it was all going to change moving here and then by the time like we could have moved within a month of us making the decision but then it got close to Christmas so we thought let's let's do Christmas at home yeah let's do Christmas at home I'd also just found out I was pregnant because moving overseas was not enough craziness and I didn't really want to move first trimester anyway and so yeah we made the call to wait until like late January so we could have that time with family get over the first trimester and then yeah start the year fresh so does that mean you're about to have another baby yeah in July so

I'm one of my 33 weeks oh I was like trying to do the maths in my head and I was like first trimester no one wants to do anything in their first trimester like that is that's a write-off so we moved out of our house six weeks before we left and moved in with my parents the same week we moved, I was seven weeks pregnant and got gastro. No, no, that should be illegal. It was just the worst. Like we've moved a few times and that was the worst experience of my life. It was horrendous. No, thank you. No, thank God. Like I remember that for me and I just really wish I could cut out, you know what, not the whole thing. That's fine. But maybe from week five to 11, like they don't have to exist. That's fine. It wasn't great. And gastro on top of it was just

the icing on the cake. That's rude because like do you know if it's morning sickness or gastro or like a mix of both or like how do you decipher? Well I rang my obstetrician and I was like I think I've got really bad morning sickness and she's like oh you didn't last time and also going from nothing to not being able to keep any liquid down in like two hours not morning sickness yeah. Yeah okay so tell me does that mean that you're gonna have a baby in the American healthcare system? It does. And it also means I'll be an American citizen. Oh, that's kind of cool, isn't it? Dual citizenship, baby. Well, actually, we have to apply for the Australian one, which is a bit of a process

as well as I'm learning, but they'll be automatically, yeah, Americans. That's crazy. When we come back to visit again at Christmas, she probably won't be Australian yet, which is really weird. Oh my goodness. That's actually kind of, oh, I find that kind of crazy. No, I find that very, very strange. But yeah, navigating the US healthcare system, that's been a steep learning curve as well. So can I ask you a little bit about that? Because I'm so perfect. Like it's obviously

astronomically more expensive. Did you go through the private or the public system with your first baby? Private. Yeah. So you went through private, which in Australia, you know, not absolutely necessary. I did it as well. And I felt like all of the reasons that most people pick private were the reasons I picked it. But did you go private in America? Like how does the health insurance work over there? Because I'm assuming when your husband moves, you got insurance as a part of his job. Yeah, we were really lucky. His work paid for our Australian health insurance to start with, which they thought was a great bargain because our health insurance here now for three of us is $40,000. Yeah. Wild. No, that's crazy. And there's like different...

No, hold on, hold on. Backtrack. I just had to swallow that information. It's costing your husband's company $40,000 a year for three people for health insurance in America. Yes. Oh yeah. you didn't stutter okay sorry no no that's correct and there's different tiers but we just kind of went with the best one because we don't know anything else which is expensive for them but it's actually cheaper for us to have her here because of the level of cover that we've got so it's the way we're doing it is basically the same as the private system in Australia so I've got my own obstetrician we're going to what is a very bougie American hospital we walked in and I was like oh this is what you see in the movies like oh is it really a gallery or a hospital yeah it's

very very different to anywhere I've been before but it's actually going to be cheaper to have our baby here I love that for you because that could have been a significant financial burden which is why I was asking I was like I have all of these questions but just the idea which is why there was a lot of stress when we moved and I kept asking these questions and so my husband told his boss very early in the piece that I was pregnant because his boss is like why are you so hung up on health insurance. Because she's pregnant, babe. Yeah, that's why. Do you know what? Like sometimes you don't want to tell people early, but like that would have taken a weight off everyone's shoulders because they're probably thinking, is he just trying to come up with

every excuse under the sun to not move? Like, is this man just like clutching at straws? But the reality was that's actually really important for us right now. Yeah. Because if you don't have good health insurance, like it is very expensive. My husband ended up in emergency here. He had a skiing accident and his part of the bill was $350. That's pretty good. But the hospital charged insurance $60,000. What? Those numbers to me are just astronomical. Like there's no way that that's what it costs. Like there's just no way. Absolutely not. We've seen just for like little visits, like a physio, I think charged insurance $1,500 to insurance and we pay 10% of that. So that's okay. Yeah. But that's also crazy. It's crazy. So you've already made money

on the health insurance side of things. I love that for you guys. Talk to me about the cost of moving though. So often when we hear that people are moving overseas for roles, especially to the US, they'll often like pay for your flights and accommodation. They'll like pay for your removalist costs. Like what was covered for you guys? Yeah. So a lot of that was covered. So our lawyer, our visa lawyer was covered for all three of us. Our flights were covered. We didn't ship that much stuff, but shipping was covered. A hotel for, I think we were in a hotel for a week that was covered. And a little bit of furniture came out of that allowance as well, as well as a very expensive tax consult to figure out the tax situation in both countries. Yeah. So talk to me

a little bit about that tax situation, because you mentioned that you're paying tax in both countries, which from my perspective is a little bit more complex and probably tells me that your husband might be a little bit more intertwined in this startup than just a salary and PAYG employee. Is that a correct assumption? Yes and no. So his package is salary plus options, which also gets complicated because it's a startup. So he actually can't sell the options at the moment. It's nice to have, but you can mainly just talk about them. Yeah. But it also means we don't have to pay tax on them. So that is good. They sit there, we ignore them, except for when we get homesick and we fantasize about what happens when they

vest. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Don't want to get too technical, but there's a treaty between Australia and America. And basically you pay the top tax rate in either country and you're not going to get double taxed. You're not going to get double taxed, but the tax rate in America is lower. So we'll pay tax here and then we'll submit our Australian tax return. And then we do the top pop tax because we're still considered Australian tax residents because we own a house in Australia and our visa shows an intent to return to Australia. He also pays for private health insurance in Australia that he obviously can't use because we live in a different country, but because of the Medicare levy surcharge. I was about to say the Medicare levy did not

leave you out. No, it did not. So he pays for the cheapest health insurance that he could find. A hundred percent, because otherwise it doesn't financially make sense. No, for me, it was less important, but on his salary, it was. Oh no, it just does not make sense. Because for those of you following along at home, if you earn more than $90,000 Australian and you don't have private health insurance after the age of 30, you have to pay the Medicare levy surcharge. And for some people, they just go, well, it doesn't matter either way because I'm just like bang on $90,000. But once you start earning more than that. The surcharge is more than private health insurance costs, at which point

you'd prefer to just pay private health insurance and essentially save some money, which makes sense as to why he's paying it. But that must just be like a little bit annoying. It is a little bit, yeah, annoying. I mean, when you do finally come back home to Australia, it means that there won't be any loading for having not had private health insurance for that period of time. So like, not the end of the world. I'm trying to reframe it so that it looks really nice for you because I'd be annoyed. No, it's just one of those like so many annoying, frustrating little extra expenses that popped up that we didn't realize. Even like, you know, coming here, you know, we got a bit of a furniture allowance, but we had to buy more stuff, which we totally expected. But even the

first month we were here, there was, it takes a while to get an American bank account. So he didn't actually get paid for the first month. So we were paying everything for this first month in Aussie dollars, which is not a good exchange rate at the moment. It was nearly double. Yeah. And that would have got you. Is that hard, the exchange rate? Are you finding that, yes, the exchange rate is challenging or are you finding it relatively easy? Talk to me about that. Not so much anymore because we are in USD now and we're paying for everything in USD. We just work in US dollars, but we do still have an Australian mortgage. Sometimes we have to send money back there. So when it was really low a few weeks ago, we transferred a little bit extra.

Yes, we did. And made a little bit of that. We never pick things right, but we managed to get it right at the bottom of the exchange rate. So that was really, really good for us. But yeah, it's, that's been a bit of a learning curve. Not as bad now that, yeah, we work mostly in US dollars. Yeah. I was in the US now a couple of years ago and I just, I found myself, even though I had transferred money over to my wise card, so I was operating in USD and I was paying things in USD, I was still doing the mental like loop-de-loop of maths to work out how much my Starbucks coffee was costing. And I was like, oh, this is making me sick. Do you still go, this is astronomical? Because I do feel like when you look at the cost of living in America,

it is much higher than in Australia. Are you seeing that or feeling that? Or what does that look like on a day-to-day basis? It is. So I don't do that as much as my husband does. I kind of, I don't know, a dollar's a dollar for me in my head, which is probably a terrible way to go into it but there's definitely been things that are more expensive like I mean groceries on a whole are probably more expensive if something costs five dollars in Australia it costs five USD here so that would be more expensive I'm in California electricity is outrageously expensive here so that was a shock yeah we moved in winter our apartment hadn't been lived in for a bit it was cold we pumped the heaters up and two weeks of electricity cost us 600 US dollars no it didn't

Yes, it did. Oh, I would have cried. I was like, we're going to have to go home. Like we can't afford this. We can't live this. We have now reined that into about $280 a month, which is huge. That's a pretty good difference. Yeah. We've been working hard on it. It's also getting into summer here. So that helps. Oh my goodness. I'm obsessed. I love like knowing the ins and outs of travel and moving and just the idea that you were like, oh, at 36, I did that because I don't know, I feel like I'm 30, nearly 34. And I look at it and I go, oh, like I've had a kid. I want to have another kid. Like my husband and I have careers here. I can never imagine moving. And then you're like, oh no, we did that at 36. I'm like, oh, so there's still like opportunity to

like do these big moves. Let's talk about the money side of it though. You said that you went from having a job and a career here and you left that behind and now you're a full-time mum. Can I know what were you earning? What have you like kind of hung up so that you can make this big career move for your husband and then we're going to ask about his income. Yeah. So I was earning 125,000 Australian dollars. Oh my God. Pro-rata to four days a week. Yeah. And what kind of career did you have? So I worked in fundraising and philanthropy. Oh, very cool. That's a very nice space to be in. How lovely. It was fantastic. I really liked it. Oh, well, I'm sure you'll get back into that because like people who do that are few and far between. Like I feel like there's

not that many people who are good at that. No, but America is a good country for that. But there is so many things to weigh up with me going back after this baby, including I don't want to work full time and America does not have a good part-time work culture or really any part-time work culture. And childcare here is outrageously expensive. And I've heard it's not, how do I say this nicely, not to the quality that you would expect either. So like then finding a good place might be challenging it depends yeah so some places are not so great some places are really good and where I am a lot of people just have nannies oh okay that would be expensive yeah so a nanny costs a nanny for a single child costs 60,000 US dollars a year and if you do a nanny

share so they look after two children I think it's about 35 40 per person which I mean it's insane but it's also like, it's their income. Like you were paying someone's whole wage, but yeah. A hundred percent. But like, there's no government subsidy, is there? No. So we've put in a financially probably irresponsible decision. Our daughter goes to daycare one day a week, even though I'm a stay-at-home mom and it's 175 US dollars a day. Oh my goodness. And like, well, we could compare it to Australia too. And I'm about to ask about your husband's income. Cause obviously I'm expecting it to be good enough that you left the country. Right. But the daycare, if your husband earned that in Australia, I'm assuming

you wouldn't have got subsidies anyway. And like at the moment, I think my daycare is now 214 Australian a day. And like, I'm not complaining about that because, you know, there's a lot that goes into that. And I mean, you know, lots of people will be like, oh, that's ridiculous. I pay like 110 or whatever. But like my daycare fees are very reflective of the area that we live in. Again, privileged to live there. But then it also includes things like all of his meals, all of these nappies, all of these like formula, which lots of places don't include and you have to. So there's like good and bad, but like once you reach a certain income level, even in Australia, you get no subsidies. But I believe there's nothing at a bare minimum in America at all,

is there? So, I mean, I don't mind sharing where I am. I'm in San Francisco. So it's a very kind of liberal city. And if you are a very low income earner, then there are some subsidies from the city, which is I believe rare and not that common in other places in the States. But we absolutely do not qualify for that. I did try the little calculator just in case. I was like, it costs me nothing to open a website. No, I can have a little look. I can have a look and get the answer I expected. It's called wishful thinking. Exactly. Talk to me now. What does your husband earn and what does he do for work? We're in San Francisco. He works in tech. He's head of AI for his company. Oh my God. That sounds bougie. Yeah. It's very cool and a little creepy. And he earns

255 USD, which I believe is, I checked earlier on the conversion, it was about 396,000 Australian dollars, which is not what he was earning in Australia, but he got a pay rise to move here. His boss saw our budget spreadsheet. I love that. And was like, you're going to need a little bit more money. Yeah. Well, my husband was like, we're going to need a little bit more money. Here's why. And also like, I mean, you've stepped back from earning $125,000 so that he can take this step up. You mentioned before that his job is like salary plus options. What does options mean? Yeah. So he has a share component to his compensation. He was a very, very early employee with this company. So he's got a very good option package, but it's a startup. So

at the moment we can't actually access those options or sell them. Of course not. But it's nice to know that's why it's going on. That's what we're working towards. That we're working towards some kind of event where we will then be able to cash that in. Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent. Like we're thinking early Apple employee, like I'm manifesting the same journey for you guys. Yeah. I think he was employee number like nine or 10. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So all the early kind of no one who joins the company gets quite as good a package anymore because that was kind of the extra compensation for he joined it before they were even earning any money. So, you know, you could lose your job

tomorrow. He's some like added bonus if we actually do well. That's crazy. And can I be real pervy? What did your husband do in Australia? Because to go from, you know, working in Australia to working for a US startup as the head of AI, like I feel like that's just not that much of a traditional pathway. Like what did he study to get this opportunity? So way back when he did his bachelor, he did finance. Very sexy. Nice guy. Yeah, he's very sexy. And then worked for government and then decided that he didn't love that. And he went and did a master's in business analytics. So not an MBA, but like an embassy. And then he got some jobs working in Australian startups and kind of data science. And then we actually came on a trip to the States and he was

like, San Francisco is where it's at. I need to work for a US company. And he found this job and he worked remote, started in data, and then it's kind of worked his way as the company has grown into AI and as AI has grown. That is very cool. I'm so like, I've just got, maybe it's because my husband has a very similar role in Australia. Like he's head of in a particular company, like data and analytics, and his background is econometrics. So like, he's also super nerdy. They would get on very well. Yes, they would. And I'm vibing that you and I would get on very well. And I'm like, we probably have very similar tasting men. I'm like, oh, so maybe we could move to San Fran, Stephen. It's so funny. So I found a mom's group here and everyone, not that many

people who live in San Francisco are from San Francisco. Everyone's moved here. And it was like one of our first meetings, we all kind of went around and said like who we are and what we do and like why we moved here. And if they weren't in tech, their partner was in tech, except for one couple who are both lawyers, but one works for Google. Talk to me about big money goals. we've obviously made some pretty big I guess money moves and literal moves what is your big financial plan what are we currently working towards paying off our Australian mortgage would be amazing so we own a house in Australia we currently rent that out the rent doesn't cover the mortgage but it wasn't like we really like the house and it financially didn't make sense

to sell it so paying that off and we would love for an exit event so that we can sell our options, that would be amazing. And I say our options because in the States, your partner has to sign the contracts and options form too. So my name's on it. I'm over to the other side of the world. They are also my options. I'm sorry. I feel like your name deserves to be on it at this point. You gave up $125,000 a year to move for somebody else's career. And while we would do it for our partner right now, you never know what the future holds. I'm sorry. We need to also secure our own bag. Like, sorry, that's the rules. Like we are in this together. We are very much in this together. I love that. So we want an exit event.

We want to pay off our mortgage. What else do we want to do? I mean, really, we want to get to the point where he can then start up his own thing, which is what he really wants to do. So we're all working towards him being able to, you know, he's hooked on the startup thing now. He's a typical startup, San Francisco junkie. I mean, he'd love to do it in Melbourne back with family and friends our goal is to get back there it just doesn't have the legs it just doesn't have the same ability to scale or scope he would because like now he's here making the connections that he needs to make it will be easier back there i would need the funds to do it a hundred percent mike and that stuff is expensive it is it is even just enough for him to like pay us even if i like

we move back and i get a job that pays the same that again doesn't cover our mortgage so enough for him to have there that we can just pay off our mortgage and living expenses while he can do his own thing. That's kind of what we're working towards. Well, fingers crossed. Let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, I've got a lot more questions. Like I just have more pervy questions. So guys stick around. All right, Money Diaries, we are back. You mentioned that you've got options, which are essentially shares in the organization or the business that your husband works for, which is very cool. Are you investing in any other way? What does that look like? Yes, not as much as we were. So we've got a

NAB trade account with, I think it's about $9,000 in it. And that's on a dividend reinvestment plan. So that just keeps ticking over every quarter. And that is specifically set aside for our kids. So when the youngest one turns 18, they can split it and whatever is in there is theirs to help them. And I've got, I think it's $4,000 in a superhero account that we used to put about $200 a month in, but we're not at the moment. Oh, and I've got some Telstra shares I've had since I was like 10. Oh, how do you end up with Telstra shares at 10? I think I was 10 maybe. Whenever they first came out, my parents got me some. Oh, that's cool. And I've just, again, I set them up. It was like a dividend reinvestment thing a few years ago and they just sit there ticking away. I could not tell

you what they're worth. But yeah, I've had them for a long, long time. Literally since you were 10. That's actually very cool. I mean, that means that you beat Warren Buffett in terms of early investing. He started at 11 and you started at 10. So he can really just sit down and retire now. Yeah. He's probably doing a bit better at it than I am, but yes. Yeah. I mean, true, but he's 94. You've got heaps of time, baby. You've got heaps of time. Exactly. Yeah. And I was probably not as smart at him as the start. I think it was like a $70 dividend I got every so often. I just, you know, 13 year old me thought that was so cool and I was so rich. That is so cool. In hindsight, I'm like, I wish I'd invested all of that back. But you know

what? Hindsight is 2020. Talk to me about what you're doing about your superannuations while you're away. Nothing. That's cool. Why? Because we can't afford to. Yeah, that's so fair. I mean, you've got a baby on the way. And while you do have a high income, it sounds like you have a high living cost at the moment as well and a mortgage and all of that other stuff. Have you at least set it to the right profile and like checked in with them to make sure that it's ticking along the way that it needs to? Yes. Yeah. We still check it quite regularly. Mine is, I think I'm at like $90,000, which is pretty good. And my husband's at, oh, I think 200. Oh, very cool. Yeah. So we can afford to sit back for a few years with that, which is. Yeah, easy. But you

did think about it. Like we might not be contributing, but we just dotted all our I's and crossed all our T's before that happened. Yeah. No, no. That was one of the many things that we had to cross off our list before we left. A hundred percent. Now talk to me about debt. You mentioned that you have a mortgage here in Australia. When did you purchase your first home? So it's actually our second. So we purchased our first. Oh, okay. Big dog. Yeah. A little humble brag there. No, we purchased our first in March, 2020 in Sydney. It was an apartment. Our mortgage closed the day I lost my job from COVID and my husband lost his a week later.

I would have just cried the whole week. Yeah, I still drank the champagne. I would have too. Honestly, you've got to take whatever win you can. I was like, I've just got to drown this. Yes. So that was not ideal, but that was our first home. And then that whole building sold to a developer for quite a good profit,

which helped us get into the home we're in now. I will be completely transparent that my parents paid the 20% deposit for that as well. and then helped us out a bit to upgrade as well. So talk to me, like, that's brilliant, but I actually care more about the developer story. How does that happen? So you closed on your first home. That's really exciting.

You bought an apartment and then what? A developer knocks on the door and says, we want to buy this whole building and we're going to give you over market for your apartment or like, how does that work? That's exactly what happened. They said, we want to buy this building. We want to develop it.

It goes through Strata. I think they needed a 75% approval. like resident approval to do it it was something like 90 i think two apartments said they didn't want to do it but they got forced to oh yeah and then they paid us above market rate for it i mean that's a good money win it was an amazing amazing money win that was unexpected and then you're coming to purchase your second property and i'm assuming some of the profits from that and then obviously your parents helped out which is really cool but was that a family home was that another apartment? Like what did we buy second time around? So that was a family home. So it's a

three bedroom townhouse in like inner Melbourne. Oh, very cool. And what did you purchase that for ish? That was in 2022. And that was for 1.325 million. Very cool. And what do you reckon that's worth now? Because I feel like the Melbourne market has slightly increased. So 1.3, are we looking at like 1.6 maybe? No, it's probably about the same to be honest. You reckon? I reckon it's probably about, because it dropped a bit and then it's now the interest rates are going down, it might go up. I feel like it's, yeah, I don't know. Well, I've got my fingers crossed for you. Yeah. I mean, more is always better. Oh, I feel like the things and like, this is coming from a relatively educated perspective for those of you playing along

at home who might not know, I own a mortgage broking company. So I talk about mortgages literally every single day. I feel like a three bedroom townhouse in Melbourne has been quite popular, like the three bedrooms, not two, it's three, would push you up a little bit more. And as you probably know, when you purchased that for what, 1.32, you were probably paying more than you knew you wanted to, but it was because it had three bedrooms, right? Yes, but also less because we were living in Sydney at the time and property in Melbourne was way cheaper than property in Sydney. Oh yeah. So you've like reframed it to be very sexy. We thought we're getting a great bargain. Meanwhile, all my friends in Melbourne are like, you did what? You paid what? No,

that's a good deal. I like it. But compared to Sydney, way cheaper. I love that for you. She's positive. So what's the long-term plan? Like we obviously, you said before, I'd love to pay off, you know, our entire Melbourne mortgage. We want to have an exit event. We'd love to essentially get rich. But is the plan like the dream plan to come home? Your husband gets to start off his own start up in Melbourne? Like what does life hopefully look like in the future? That is a dream plan. Currently it's just survive because yeah, his income sounds high, but we also haven't touched on the rent that we pay in San Francisco. Oh, could you tell us more about that, please? The third most expensive city in the world to live in. Gross. Yeah, it is. Our rent is about

4,800 USD a month, which is about seven and a half thousand Australian dollars for a two-bedroom apartment. I was about to say, what's that get you? And you said a two-bedroom apartment. I was like, wish I didn't ask. Yep. So is that normal? Have you got like a really bougie apartment? Like have you got like a butler? Like what's going on with like that amount of money? That is normal. That is actually probably on the like lower end. Right. Like it's a nice apartment. It's not a super bougie apartment, but it is also not a really crappy apartment. Yes. So talk to me about general living costs. Cause I think I'm a little bit shook about four and a half thousand USD for rent per month. What's groceries costing? What's your average bills? What does all of that look

like? Groceries are about $200 a week. We eat out Friday nights and maybe a couple of lunches on the weekend, but that's probably another $150 a week. Yeah. I mentioned electricity, that's gotten cheaper. We don't own a car here, so that is helpful. Public transport here is also cheaper, which is really nice and free for under 19s. Oh, that's kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Daycare was $175 a day. If I think of other expenses, my toddler does a couple of classes as well. So they're, I think 20 something dollars a class, but the city also does lots of free kids activities here, which is fantastic. So we've got some kind of regular freebies that we do as well. Yeah, that is very cool. I feel like it all adds up. Talk to me about when you're eating out,

what's tipping culture like? Because I feel like that just gives me anxiety. Oh, I hate tipping culture. I am the worst. I am giving all the Australians a bad reputation. I am so sorry, but no, I don't tip my hairdresser, even though you apparently tip your hairdresser here. Tipping culture is huge and I am terrible at it. See, I just, I get it for restaurants and stuff like that because we know that they get really bad minimum wages or whatever but then it's like a hairdresser what do you mean like are you on a bad I just don't comprehend it I'm still paying you $300 to do my hair like and that's 300 USD like that's yes yes it is 550 Australian like oh let's add that expense in yeah there's a hair every like eight weeks that I pay and no so I

think some of the chipping I get like the Uber Eats drivers absolutely that is mostly how they earn their money, tip them. But I feel like it's gotten, even since like I lived here when I was younger, it's gotten way more extreme and higher amounts. Now you buy a coffee and it's like, would you like to tip 25% of your $7 coffee? Well, no, not really actually. Yeah. I feel like I, I don't know. I just, I would say that I'm good at money and that just still makes me uncomfortable. I feel like if anything, when I was in the US a while ago, I was over tipping because I didn't know exactly what to do and I just I'm such a people pleaser I didn't want to like offend anybody and then I'm like oh what am I doing but if I lived there

that's not sustainable you can't do that. No I under tip because otherwise everything is like 25% more expensive and it's already more expensive. Wild oh my goodness I have loved this talk to me what do you think your best money habit is? We were quite good at saving and I know if we're so good at saving at the moment. I feel like it's a bit challenging at the moment. It's a little bit challenging at the moment, but we are very good, I would say, at kind of choosing where we want to buy things that are a bit more expensive and where we find ways to save money or buy things that are maybe on the cheaper end. Yeah. Smart, smart. What do you think your worst money habit is? And I'm super interested in this because at the start you said,

oh I think I'm a B or a B minus and that's gone down like I just feel like you've got a reason for thinking your money grade has gone down and I need to know oh Amazon it's so easy here you just like think of something and then like suddenly it appears in your Amazon order because it's like same day isn't it yeah I'm like oh that pair of shoes is cute oh it's arrived at two o'clock in the afternoon and I'm getting better at it my husband is terrible like we go through our budget every month and he gets to the end he's like oh we spent how much on Amazon and I'm like yeah because you were like oh just do it just add it he's even got the Amazon like credit card he's like oh we got five percent back on everything and points and oh my goodness he's got got by the

Amazon bug I order stuff on Amazon in Australia and I think that's bad but like in the US I'd be unstoppable we did in Australia too and it is just the whole like next level here also there's not a lot of like shops all of the shops are closing in San Francisco itself is doing a big push to like bring retail back to the city because we got decimated in COVID but all across America like you know I'm pregnant I'm having another baby there are no baby stores you can't go look at baby things there's a couple of like small super bougie ones in the really expensive areas where I was like I just need to look at cots we're gonna go but then you're like I wish we never came yeah there's nothing you know my daughter grew out of her pants all of a sudden almost like overnight

and there's a H&M in the city I could get to but that's the only place to really buy kids clothes really other than like online or if you trek like way out to the suburbs which we don't have a car we not gonna go an hour on a bus to get to Walmart yeah crazy I miss clothes shopping in person yeah I feel like I would miss that as well so you reckon that's your worst money habit and that's why your money score has gone down. I feel like you guys are killing it though. Like to have picked up your entire life at like 36 and been like, nah, we're going to give it a crack. We're going to go international, especially with kids. Like, girl, you're giving me anxiety. Like I don't even want to leave the house with my toddler sometimes. Like that's not me.

That sounds very attractive. The flight was the easy part. I think because I'd done it before, like we were older, like I was 10 when I moved, my youngest sibling was six. So we were older when we moved, but like we'd done it, we'd seen that it was. It was feasible. Yeah. Yeah. It was feasible. And like, she's young. She misses like my parents terribly, but she sees them every day on FaceTime and she's living her best little life. I love that for her. She's just a little San Francisco baby and she's going to have a San Francisco sibling soon. An American sibling at that. She will. We took her on a cable car for the first time on the weekend because she loves trains and trams. I think it was the best day of her entire life. I love that for her. She's a

train kid. She was waving at everyone passing by like she was just the queen. She was the queen. She was. And every time it stopped, she'd clap like, yay. It was just the best. I love kids so much. It's ridiculous. I'm so excited for you. Has she started to adopt an American accent yet? No, not yet. She still has a very Australian accent, especially there's this thing over hear about the way we say the word no. No. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly how she says it. So no, she hasn't yet, but we play a lot of wiggles to keep that accent going. Yeah. Good. I like that. Yeah. I'm sure she'll get one. Oh no. And little America that's coming soon. I definitely think like they're just going to cop the American accent to begin with. She will. Yeah. She'll

just come out with it straight away. Oh my goodness. So now that we've had a chat, I feel like you said you're a B or a B minus. I don't know. I feel like you're doing really well especially for like the risk that you're taking in the hope that it will pay off and I have no doubt that even if it's like not the options that you thought it would be like it's a I guess life changing experience that is arguably going to pay off for the rest of your careers do you really think like you're a B or a B minus or like what would it take to get you guys to an A at this point I think it's just because it's so I feel like we're in such a precarious position with like we are kind of just covering expenses you know we have a huge mortgage we have a huge rent

there is a tax bill coming at some point I feel like yeah if we knew that that was all going to be fully okay then yeah probably like an A but it's just that unknown is really yeah the unknown is very challenging yeah it just eats away at you a little bit and you're like oh have we made the right choice I feel like even if financially you haven't made the right choice like what an experience for you guys. What an experience for your kids. Like this is so cool. But also like dual citizenship. This is how I sold my husband. My biggest thing was because he's like, oh, this could be a really bad financial decision. And I was like, yeah, but I don't want you to look back when you're 60 and retiring and being like, oh, I wish I'd done that thing. Like I

always I think you'd always regret not having made the move. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm excited for you guys. I hope you stay in touch because I think that's really fun. And then when you're in Melbourne we can get our husbands together and they can talk about data and analytics and I think that that would be very wholesome for them oh he needs someone because he tries to talk to me about like all the new models that are coming out and I'm just like yeah yeah yeah I have no idea it's so nice that you wrote algorithms all day I don't know what that means thank you exactly I'm so glad you're so passionate about this but this is not my passion I love that money diarist it has been a pleasure getting to know you thank you for staying up late and doing a money diary with me I know the

community is going to love hearing this as much as I loved interviewing you. It has been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 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.