She's On The Money - What It’s Really Like to Raise Twins (And Battle Double the Costs)

Episode Date: December 15, 2024

Twins in a pandemic? Talk about a curveball. This week’s Money Diarist faced double the costs with none of the extra support, but she found a way to turn her finances around. Now, she’s sharing how she paid off debt, started investing, and built a budget that works—even with two four-year-olds running around! Curious how she did it? Hit play to find out. 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. This is my favorite episode of the week. Welcome back to 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 we got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's on the Money. Did you know that Centrelink doesn't classify twins as multiples? That means parents of twins, like me, don't qualify for the multiple birth allowance, even though we have to pay for literally two of everything. When our twins were born in 2020, right in the middle of COVID,

we were juggling double the costs, formula, clothes, nappies, while also building our home and worrying about job security in the middle of a pandemic. Fast forward to now, and we've paid off our consumer debt, started investing for our future and our boys, who are now four years old, and built a budget we actually stick to. Automating our bills has been a game changer too. Thanks to She's On The Money, I've gained financial literacy, confidence and the empowerment to invest in my future. Money Diarist, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here. I am so excited. Low key, this is going to sound crazy to anyone but probably you.

I would love twins like I just think that would be so fun like I know that that's probably a handful and I'm sure you're going to tell me about this but like oh if there was a way to be like oh if you do this so I have this supplement Victoria and you can have twins I'd do it I'd absolutely do it you're like Victoria's crazy it's definitely double the love and double with cuddles that's for sure. See, I just, exactly. I just think it would be so cool. Anyway, let's do a money diary. As always, we always start asking the question, well, great, would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? I reckon I'd give myself probably a B minus. I like this. I like this. Tell me a little bit more now about your money story.

Okay. So growing up, we certainly never went without, but money wasn't something that was openly discussed in our family. Our parents always bought my brother and I good quality footwear, good quality clothing, but we were taught the value of money and how to sort of make things last. We were never really threatened with being bought cheap and nasty things, but we were, I guess, educated to look after our good school shoes, look after our runners, look after our belongings because things don't come for free. Yeah, that's absolutely fair. And how is that translated to your money story as an adult? I think it's had a pretty good translation. I certainly never take anything for granted now, especially now that we're sort of on the

other side of COVID and just how much anxiety there was in those couple of years. But I think nowadays my husband and I have definitely got a good concept of the value of money, not just because of how much things cost, but also making things last and not sort of succumbing to, I guess, trends and fast fashion and things like that. That is so fair. All right. I want to learn a little bit more. We were talking about your life and we're still, I guess, talking about your money story. You mentioned at the very beginning of your email that you sent us, did you know that Centrelink doesn't classify twins as multiples? What is a multiple to Centrelink then? Because I would assume that multiple means multiple birth and that would be twins or triplets. So

can you please educate me? Because when I read that, I was like, turns out I am not very intelligent. Well, I guess, yeah, as the name suggests, a multiple birth implies birthing more than one child or adopting more than one child at a time. We didn't really know what to expect, obviously, finding out that we were having twins right at the beginning of COVID. But yeah, we thought we might have been able to get, I guess, a little additional support. I would have assumed. Yeah. I mean, so did I. But according to the website, even though when I had to fill out the application for my twins' birth certificates, I had the tick that they were part of a multiple

birth but that doesn't really entitle us as twin parents to much more than that which literally makes no sense because it's literally double of everything it's not like oh well actually you are having two babies but just buy one car seat because they can share like they can't all of the big expensive things you need two of like a pram great now we need the double pram which is double expensive. Like what? So what does Centrelink think a multiple birth is? Triplets, quads or higher. Oh, okay. So because you only had two babies, that's not impressive enough. No, I guess growing and giving birth to two babies simultaneously isn't good enough. Oh my gosh. I want to ask about twins though. Was that

a shock? Is that something that ran in your family? We do have twins in our family. A bit like you I always thought it would be cool to have twins until I actually fell pregnant with twins and it certainly was a shock we found out very early on that we were having twins so we had I guess plenty of time to prepare for that I mean I was very grateful to have fallen pregnant but I also cried all the way home from the first ultrasound appointment it would have been terrifying yeah yeah my parents didn't believe me that we were having twins when I told them I thought I was joking so it took several weeks for it to sort of fully sink in and then accept the fact. And at the time we were living in a little two bedroom unit. Oh no. And you were probably

like, oh, if we have a baby, we've got a two bedroom unit. We can pop them in there. It'll be so easy. And then all of a sudden your life would have been in a spin. That was our plan to stay in our little two bedroom unit with our one baby for a little while and then upsize when the time was ready. And then yeah, two babies was a big shock. And I think within gosh, two weeks of finding out we were off to the real estate agent to get appraisals to sell our unit, but then trying to sell a unit in early 2020, as I'm sure you can appreciate, it wasn't very easy to do. No. So what did you do? We sold it, thankfully, but it took months to sell.

Oh, how stressful. Yeah. So I got to the point when I was 35 weeks pregnant. Oh no. We had just- Hold on, 35 weeks with twins. That's impressive. I think so. I got to 36 weeks in the end. What do you mean you think so? I know so. 36 weeks with twins. You are golden. I was not very comfortable, I will say that much. I was horizontal for the last several

weeks of the pregnancy. Oh, no. Yeah. So, we got to 35 weeks and we just accepted an offer and we were ready to exchange contracts and then the buyer pulled out. Excuse me, that is so rude. I know. A heavily pregnant woman doesn't want a buyer to pull out of the sale of her home. So, we're very upset about that. But then our agent was able to turn around and find another buyer on the same day who purchased the house sight unseen. What? Yeah. The stars really aligned there.

Yeah, the best outcome for us. So you're saying the week before you had a baby, you sold your house? Two babies, yes. Yep, yep, sorry. But the week before you gave birth, you were like, oh, I'm just going to sell the house. That's all good. No, I thrive under pressure.

Yeah, I was on the phone to the solicitor I think a couple of days after the birth in the hospital just confirming everything was good to go. So there's no rest for the wicked. Oh, my gosh, no way. I kind of adore this. like tell me a bit more about having twins financially. So obviously when it starts or when you find out you're pregnant, is there any additional associated costs with having twins apart from all of the expected things like an additional car seat and two bassinets and all

of that stuff? Like is your pregnancy different financially? Yes. So as you said, we had to buy two car seats at the double pram, two bassinets, et cetera, et cetera. But because twins and multiples in general are considered a high risk pregnancy, there's a lot more appointments you need to have antenatally. So I was having appointments at the hospital with obstetricians every fortnight. And then obviously that was covered by Medicare because that was through the hospital, but I also had to have four weekly ultrasounds. And because they're not just ultrasounding one baby, they're ultrasounding two babies. So I was charged for two babies. What? Yeah. It's double the cost for an ultrasound for multiples.

That was my experience. I don't know what that's the experience for everybody. I'm just, they really said, we'll take them for a ride. Like really said, you know what, we're going to kick them while they're down. Yeah. And then when I reached 30 weeks, it was fortnightly ultrasounds after that, because obviously the high risk of complications. So I eventually reached, I think it's called the Medicare safety net. Which is an achievement. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't have to pay anymore for the ultrasounds, which was good. Oh my gosh. That is so stressful. So am I assuming that you went through the private system then? No, I went through the public health system.

Right. And it was still out of pocket for ultrasounds and stuff like that? My ultrasounds, they weren't done at the hospital. They were done privately. Yeah. Okay. And is that because it gave you more peace of mind or is that just the way it goes with twins? Because I literally don't know how that would work. Yeah, I think I'm not entirely sure what the process was, but I know my GP was pretty adamant that I have my ultrasounds at this particular place because it was a women's health center with gynecologists and women's health sonographers there. And I was quite happy for that. Like we were very luckily in a good financial position to be able to fund the ultrasounds ourselves,

but they did add up at the same time. Oh, a hundred percent. So what are we paying on average for a twin ultrasound from memory? I mean, it was four years ago, but. Yeah, from memory. I mean, I was only paying the gap, but the gap I think was still maybe $100 each ultrasound. Oh my gosh. I feel like it adds up so quickly. And now they're four, which is so exciting. Is this still super, super expensive or are there ways to cut costs with twins? I've got no idea. I've got nothing to compare it to. So I don't know what a singleton would cost. So we're more or less out of nappies now, which is great. But I've got boys and they eat so much food.

So our grocery bill has certainly increased exponentially. We're obviously having to navigate childcare as well, which we're very lucky to receive the childcare subsidy. So that and the second child subsidy, because we've got two children in childcare, which is wonderful. But that obviously is a cost. And then birthdays and Christmas, you're buying two lots of presents. So we don't try and spoil them rotten, but we do try and,

I mean, they're so young, but we are trying to educate them on the value of things like they got bikes for their birthday this year we're trying to teach them that this was a big present and that Santa might bring slightly smaller presents this year so yeah that's fair that is very fair I love that I can definitely resonate with boys eating a lot like I only have an eight month old but he's already 13 kilos and I genuinely look novel holding him people are like oh is he walking yet and I'm like baby can't even crawl yeah he will eat a lot of food yeah please send help how did my baby just put away a whole risotto like i don't know all right i want to ask some more money questions tell me what do you currently

do for work how much money do you earn i'm a physiotherapist and i earn about 115 000 a year which includes super and can i be really pervy what does your partner earn he earns about 90 000 a year very cool and tell me what are your current big money goals what are you guys working towards? We're trying to pay down our mortgage like a lot of people are and we're also hoping to save up for our first overseas family holiday either next year or the year after. That's exciting. Where are you planning on going? What does that budget look like? I haven't got that far yet. We're looking at Fiji. We've been considering New Zealand but our boys just love the beach and I like just sitting by a swimming pool and so do they. I have seen lots of people

online going to Fiji and I feel like that looks super kid-friendly as well. Yes, we just took them on a little holiday to the Gold Coast recently, stayed at a lovely kid-friendly resort, which they just loved. So we're hoping to take, I guess, a bit of a bigger leap and fly and, I guess, travel internationally as well. That's very exciting. Another cost though, because they fly free under two, but now you're paying two seats for two four-year-olds. Yeah. Plus you've got to get passports as well. So that's another cost that we've factored in. Oh my gosh. And they're so expensive now. Passports are exorbitant. Yeah. All right. Let's go to a really quick break on the flip side. I want to ask about, you said that you were investing. We talked about your

mortgage. I want to have a chat about that and I want to know about your good and bad money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Money Diarist, we are back and I need to know, you said that, I loved this part, so I'm going to read it out again. You said, thanks to She's All The Money, I've gained financial literacy, confidence, and the empowerment to invest in my future. Tell me about that investing journey. Well, we've recently, I guess, took the plunge and still dealing with a little bit of analysis paralysis in terms of investing. I've obviously been a long-term listener of the podcast and I've read the investing book. Thank you. That's very fun. In the last couple of, probably the last 12 months, we've started investing in ETFs through

Vanguard. How good. Yeah. So it's, I know it's baby steps. You got to crawl before you walk, but we're happy that we finally got our foot in the door. And I guess I'm just trying to live by the saying, it's not about timing the market. It's just timing the market. I love it. And I love that you're like, oh, they're baby steps. But then also I was a financial advisor and like most of my portfolio is ETFs. So like, it's actually the same steps that someone established would be making, but you're like, oh, this, maybe I need something bigger and better. And then you realize you're actually fully doing it properly. Yeah. I love that so much. All right. Talk to me about this mortgage. When did you get it? What did it look like? And then after, I'm going to

touch on consumer debt. Okay. So, we got our mortgage in 2021. We bought our land and built our house. And at the time, we got the Home Builders Grant from the government, which was fantastic. So, at the time of final drawdown, we had a mortgage for, I think, $606,000. And then we managed to pay that down over a couple of years down to $585,000. Oh, nice. Yeah. And then only in the last couple of months, we finally took the plunge and bought ourselves a new family car. So, we borrowed against the equity in our house. Oh, smart. Because the interest rate would be lower than a car loan.

Yeah. They lowered it down. So, weirdly enough, our interest rate, I think at the time was 6.5%. And then when we borrowed, went into the bank and we borrowed against the equity in our house and they lowered it down to 6.2%. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It's because the car obviously isn't a secure asset, but the house is. So you end up in a sweeter position, which is kind of nice. You probably weren't expecting that one. Not at all. So our mortgage is currently sitting at $647,000. That's exciting. It's eye-watering. So yes, but at the same time, it sounds like you're very across what that looks like. And

I'm assuming that with twins, you probably needed a new family car. What did you buy? What was the thought process around that? You're like, we need a new family car, but like, do you buy the biggest SUV on the market or do you just buy the smallest car that everyone can fit in? Like, where was the thought process and the budgeting when it came to purchasing that? Talking about cars. So I might just backtrack a little bit. When I was 30 weeks pregnant, I was involved in a car accident. No. My car was written off. And you were okay and the babies were okay? I was fine. Babies were okay. Yeah. I had to spend a couple of days in hospital just being monitored, but then I had to start my maternity leave early because the complications were just deemed too high risk. That's way too

high risk. Yeah, I started my mat leave early. We were then unfortunately without a car. Luckily, I had comprehensive car insurance and we got a payout for that, but it wasn't enough to go and buy a brand new car because my little car at the time was going to be our little family car. We used the insurance payout and some of our savings to buy a new car, which was a medium sized SUV. But my husband has had a single cab ute for several years and we were practically operating as a one car family. So, because we couldn't put any car seats in the single cab ute. Two kids with car seats? Yeah. So, essentially we bought him a new car and it's an Isuzu D-Max. Yeah. Okay. And then everyone fits in that, which is nice.

Everyone fits in the car and then some. So, that's lovely. How good. And so, tell me a bit more about your consumer debt journey. So, you've got this mortgage and that makes sense. I think you're in a really good position and that type of debt is actually good debt because it's creating wealth into the future. But you said we've paid off our consumer debt. Where did that come from? What did that look like? So before I started listening to the podcast and as our house was being built, we went into a furniture store and bought all new furniture for the house because I wanted nice new furniture, as you do when you get a new house. And we signed up for a Latitude Go card. At the time,

I wasn't aware that that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. But that's okay. You were doing the best you could at the time. Yeah. And so we got beautiful new furniture and then I sort of learned the difference between good debt and bad debt. And my husband and I said, look, we need to pay this off as soon as we can. So we hustled and we paid it off two years and three months early. So we paid it off about five months ago. Hey, that's so good. And was that, tell me how much does a furniture, like decking a house out with all new furniture, what does that cost? It was $9,000.

Oh, that feels like a lot, but at the same time, I'm glad that you smashed it out and you probably have a really nice couch. Two new lounges, it was a dining room table, it was a new bed, it was TV and it was the whole kit and caboodle. But I mean, the house looks beautiful, so... It does, it's all about the aesthetic. There you go, there you go. How did that make you feel when you started listening to the podcast and you learnt the difference between good and bad debt? Were you like, oh no, I'm

in this pickle? Or were you like, oh, it's not so bad. Or like, what did that look like? Because I feel a bit rude sometimes when I'm like, oh, hey, I don't know if you know this, but that's actually really terrible. Yeah. Sorry about that. Bye. Yeah. No, I was very conflicted. That's for sure. Because we didn't need new furniture, but we wanted new furniture. And it was probably a bit of an impulse buy, but that's when we decided this has got to go. This is a liability in the bank's eyes and mortgage broker's eyes. So any excess money we had left at the end of the month, we would just put towards like straight onto that debt. And when we paid it off back in July of this year, we closed the account. So it's gone. Yeah. Very cool. I love this. So next question I've

got for you, you've paid off a heap of consumer debt. It sounds like you've been really smart with the way that you've gotten a car loan. You've got a healthy mortgage. You've got two kids that you're wrangling. You are working full-time earning really good money. What do you think is your best money habit? I would say that my best money habit is I'm pretty savvy shopper particularly when it comes to grocery shopping I shop with Woolworths and I've got the everyday rewards the subscription that they've got oh yeah yeah and we've also got pet insurance with Woolworths so we get two ten percent off discounts per month so I use that when we shop online which is wonderful always looking at what's on sale and we also collect

our reward dollars that we accumulate with points and so the rewards dollars that we had collected up until earlier this year, we used to buy our kids birthday presents and then we'll do the same again for Christmas. So we're not really out of pocket that much come birthday and Christmas. You are so smart. Like I have done literal podcasts on points hacking and whatnot, and like I get it. I understand the concept, but it hasn't been until recently that I've been like, oh, I really need to like work out what's going to work for me. It's actually so fun. Like I have been collecting all I'm I'm on the other program so like flybys and like collecting those and then I found this program where I can get five times the points if I sign up and I'm just like I feel

like a hacker this feels so fun like I feel like I'm gaming the system and I'm like okay cool I'm gonna have enough points for this and it's like free money I adore it yeah so I'm pretty happy with that and I think Christmas is approaching and we've currently got about 160 dollars in reward dollars sitting there. And that's after we'd spent about $200 on the kids, but their presents earlier in the year. See, that's good. Tell me, what does Christmas look like for the kids this year? How are you budgeting? What are you going to purchase? What have you asked Santa to purchase? How are we dividing all of that up? I know Christmas is only a month away. We haven't put too much thought to Christmas. The kids are asking for an in-ground swimming pool and a baby

for Christmas, and they're unfortunately not going to get either. Oh, both of those really reasonable. Yeah. Easy. No worries. Let me just pop out the back. I think I have two spare. Yeah. So that's unfortunately not going to happen, but we've been taking them to the shops and just letting them look at things that they might be interested in. And I'll take a picture of them. I want an in-ground swimming pool. Okay. I just have a spare 50 grand laying around. No worries. Yeah. So I've just been sending pictures of things that the kids are interested in to our family and just said, look, this is something that they would like. If you're happy to buy them, that would be great. Please just let us know so that we

don't buy it ourselves. Yeah, that's fair. I feel like that's the smart thing to do. This is our first Christmas with a baby. And I said the other day to my mum, oh, I'm thinking about purchasing XYZ. And then later she sends me a screenshot of her purchasing it. And I was like, I'm glad you told me, but also you just stole my present idea. Rude. But something else we've started doing as well is because we've got an investment portfolio each for the boys is we can give certificates for their investments. So people can give us like a gift that we can invest instead of giving them like a present as such. That's so smart. So tell me about this gift certificate idea. Are they transferring you cash and then we're making up a fake little certificate or like,

what does that look like? And how are you telling the kids they're for? Like, do they understand? What we've been doing with family recently is they might get like a little book as their, I guess, their materialistic present. And then the adults will just give us maybe $20 or $30, which we can then put away and then we can invest that for the boys. Or I know Vanguard have a feature for children where you can upload the details of their account and someone can deposit their cash into their account for them. Yeah, that is cool. Tell me how you're investing for your kids. I feel like this is such a hot topic in our community. Everyone's like, I don't know what I'm doing. I've got analysis paralysis, so we haven't done it yet.

how did you decide to start investing for your kids we just want them to have the best i guess chance at a successful life when they turn 18 or 25 we haven't quite determined what age they'll sort of receive the money yet but we started investing for them at the same time that we started investing for us which has been in the last 12 months and currently we are auto investing 50 a month each for them through vanguard and then we auto invest 200 a month for us as well That's so cool. So, you're doing it through Vanguard and did you decide to purchase a particular ETF? Have they got matching portfolios or what does that look like? So, my husband and I, our ETFs are just with the Australian stock market. So, I think it's the

BASASX, that's the ticker. And then the boys, we've just got set on, I think, like a moderate growth. I'm not entirely sure of the specific details there, but I think in the last 12 months, their portfolio has gained about $30, which has been pretty cool. How good. So, you just replicated your portfolio for them. So, everyone holds the same. I love that. How good. All right. Now, I need to know all of that. Those are brilliant money habits, but what's your worst money habit? Oh, I'm a bit impulsive. It's a really bad habit. Same, don't worry. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, tell me more about that. How does it impact day-to-day money life?

Oh, I struggle with a bit of a YOLO mindset. Sometimes I see something I want and I'm like, oh, I want that. And then I might just go and buy it. It's a really bad habit. That's why I try and do a lot of, I guess, shopping online because I can look at it and go, I'll just close that tab and I'll open it up again tomorrow. But when I'm actually at the shops and I'm probably not going to come back for a few days or a few weeks, I might just buy it on the spot. So I'm trying to instill the putting 24 hours between myself and the purchase methodology, but that doesn't always work, especially going into Christmas time. Oh, no, no, no. It's so hard. I resonate with that so much. I'm more of a do as I say,

not as I do kind of finance expert. I'll give you all the tips and tricks, but I've also got to be really honest that sometimes I'm not that good at it because it's not that exciting having a finance expert that's perfect at money. But at the same time, I'm like, but it's Christmas, it's coming up. I'm going to need to get it. And I don't want to have to get it in the week rush up to Christmas. That just feels stressful. Yeah, I think I also need to be a little bit more planned, but I feel like it's ingrained in us at the same time. So now that we've had a chat, I want to know more about this B minus because it sounds like you're pretty set. What would it take to get you to an A or an A plus if I asked you what your money habits were in the future? What

steps are we taking to get there? I think I just need to cut the frivolous purchases, to be honest. One of my really bad habits is I'm an avid reader and I buy a lot of books and then I keep buying books, but I don't read the books that I've already got. And then I just keep adding. Oh, you and I are the same. Yeah. It's a really toxic trade, unfortunately. Or I read on my Kindle and then I go and buy the physical book from my bookshelf like a trophy. Oh, why are we like this? Literally the same. If I really like the book, I'm like, well, I want it on my bookshelf. Yep. Yep. So I need to cut the frivolous spending, I think, just because I get,

I'm trying to unsubscribe from a lot of marketing emails at the moment, especially we've just come out of, I guess, Black Friday sales and I'm getting all the emails saying 70% off storewide and I just go and look online and I'm like, oh, I don't need that, but I might buy it anyway. So just really trying to be more intentional with my purchases, I think would probably get me up to an A. I love that. I actually have a website recommendation for you that I have recently used, but I actually used it probably like five or six years ago and it worked really well. And this isn't sponsored just to be really clear. This is just me being like, hey, this worked. It's called unroll.me. And you like log into this website and you put in your

email details, which does feel a little bit dodgy, but I have like looked into this platform and it is secure. And then it categorizes all of your marketing and bulk unsubscribes. I need that. Like it literally goes, hey, here's all of this. Do you want to unsubscribe from it? And I like tick the box. I'm like, that was truly like hundreds of different marketing emails. And that worked really, really well. So I don't know, it might be for you, but that saved me a heap of time and also made me feel really accomplished. Excellent. Now I need to, I think, look into that one to save myself some money as well. Oh, I feel like the emails, people are getting so good at email marketing that I say something and I'm like, oh, it's from my, for example, recently,

it's from my favorite pajama brand. I don't need that. No worries. But then I read the heading and I'm like, you've got me. I need to click it. I need to read it. You've got me. You win. It's a slippery slope. I just need it not landing in my inbox. Money Diarist, I have adored this. I feel like this has been really fun. I want to ask a little bit of a finisher question because when you found out you were pregnant with twins, you said you cried all the way home from that appointment. I feel like that could be really disheartening. Like it can feel, and I'm assuming you didn't have other friends who had twins and you were like, what is going on? If someone is listening to this and they have either

just found out they were having twins or they are going to have babies in the future, what would be your advice? What would you say? Are you going to say, yeah, just strap in? Or are you going to say this is like really good or like what would your advice be to either current potential twin mums or future twin mums? I think as you said strap in buckle up it's a it's a roller coaster of a ride but it's I think it's really showed me just how strong I can be we've had some really tough times and also some really positive moments as well as they get older and sort of coming out of the trenches I suppose you could say things do get a little bit easier I always found budgeting when you have to buy two of everything is very helpful. And if you have people that you can

lean on for support, whether it's just help with the children or help financially, I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, but we're very lucky it was an option for us, then find your village if you've got one. Good. And is twins as fun as I seem to think it is as a singleton parent? I don't know. It's cute dressing them in the same clothes. We've got identical twin boys. It would be. It really would be. Yeah. So, dressing them in matching outfits is always fun, but then I can't tell my own children apart sometimes. Oh, that is good to know because I just assumed that you'd inherently be able to do that. Do they correct you? Are they at that age where they're like, I'm not Bob, I'm Ben?

Yes, regularly. We often get stopped in the street as well. People are just curious about twins as well. So that's always fun. I've been asked some really weird questions over the years about twins. So there's never a dull moment. I feel like people would have a lot of audacity. They do. Some of the questions I've been asked have been intensely personal and just you'd never ask a regular parent that. Absolutely not. I feel like I would be Googling witty comebacks to be like, wait, you can see the second one? Yeah. Some people say that, or it was like a buy one, get one free promotion at the hospital, things like that. Yeah. Literally. I'd be like, bug off. I don't know you.

Yeah. People just, I don't know, they just forget their filter when they see two or more babies that just look the same. It's just like a really inherent curiosity in some people. Well, I am very proud of you. I think you've done an epic job and it sounds like your kids are going to grow up knowing a lot about money and a lot about values. And I think that that's really, really special. I have adored having this conversation with you. And I just know that our community is going to love listening and getting to go on the journey of like, oh, what's that like? Because I mean, as a new mom, the trenches are deep. I feel so much for you having done it two times over at the same time like the relief I felt when I got to put my

singleton baby down asleep knowing that there was a second one oh my lord your mental health might have been out the window yeah we're working on the mental health still but that's okay yeah that's okay it's an ongoing journey for all of us thank you so much I have adored this thanks babe 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

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