She's On The Money - What's the deal with Parental Leave?

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

Happy Wednesday Angels! Today V and G are sharing the ins and outs of your rights surrounding Parental leave and who can apply and HOW to actually do it! Some handy links below!G's podcast recommendation, The Fair Work Website resources, and Services Australia.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. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.https://intercom.help/sharesies-au/en/articles/5497762-sotm-10-top-up-terms-and-conditionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom maternity leave what is it what are we entitled to financially and how can we set ourselves up to be in the best financial position possible whether we planned the pregnancy or if it came along a little sooner than expected my name is georgia king and joining me is financial advisor victoria devout who are you oh i think victoria divine that's actually really embarrassing i'm just gonna write we're leaving that in g keep on what's your next question

b i'm just gonna start at the start which is often a good place to start all right how does mat leave work in australia what's our system all right so thank you georgia i didn't realize i was so forgettable but here in australia we have what we call parental leave not maternity leave let's call it parental leave because it is just a little bit more inclusive, but that is leave that can be taken after employee gives birth or after an employee's spouse or de facto partner gives birth or after an employee adopts a child under the age of 16. Parental leave is actually quite simple to apply for. You just sign into your MyGov account and apply, which is very exciting. In terms of the amount of time you get off, employees are entitled to up to 12 months of unpaid parental

leave and they can request an additional 12 months of unpaid parental leave so technically we're not talking about the financial side of things you can take up to two years off for having a baby or acquiring one through various ways which is actually kind of cool in terms of employment because not a lot of places in the world have that level of flexibility and when we talk about being able to take that time off you might be thinking well v of course i can just say I'm not coming back to my job but essentially your job will hold your role for that long which is really nice to know that when you want to go back to work George you've got a job waiting for you which is actually really exciting in terms of who is eligible all employees in Australia are

entitled to it it doesn't matter if you are casual part-time full-time freelancer doesn't matter if you're employed you're entitled to parental leave but there are a few prerequisites you do need to have worked for the employer for at least 12 months before the expected date of birth or before the date of adoption or before the leave starts and you either have or will have the responsibility for caring for a child so you can't just take parental leave if you're not the person looking after the baby you can't be like oh my partner had a baby and is taking all of this time off and i guess i'll just take it off too like that's not how it works sadly but that would be really nice and in terms of if you're a casual worker as i said you can still get parental leave but you

need to have done two things the first is you need to have been working for your employer on a regular basis for a minimum of 12 months and the second thing is that there needs to be a reasonable expectation of continuing work for that employer had you not had the child so you can find out so much more about the specifics of that on the fair work website which we obviously will link in the show notes as always v okay so that's kind of who gets it and how long you can take off do you get paid in this time bd da da da yes you do and i think that that's the most exciting thing and something that i really want to point out as being quite special like i know that a lot of places have better parental leave policies like i know overseas there are a lot of places where you get a year and

you get like a whole heap of other benefits. But at the end of the day, to know that our government is supporting us to have a child is kind of cool to know that we're not going to be in a position where we don't have any income at all. So here in Australia, we have access to parental leave pay, which is what it's called. And it is pay based on the minimum wage, which you are able to receive for up to 18 weeks. Currently, that pay is sitting at $772.55 per week, which equates to about $154.51 per day, Georgia, before tax. And it will be paid to you either via your workplace or directly via Centrelink, depending on your personal situation. There is also dad and partner to pay, which is available for your partner, which is available for up to two weeks, which I think is

really cool as well to know that they can also spend some time getting to know the Bambino. In saying that, this is just the base amount of parental leave that we would get as employees here in Australia. Your employer might have a different schedule set out. Like you might work for the Australian government, in which case you might be able to take up to 12 months off, which is wild and so cool and get half pay for that entire time. So we are not talking about your specific employment situation, but rather the base level of parental pay that exists here in Australia. And often it doesn't happen in small businesses because they can't actually afford to pay you while you're not there. But in bigger businesses, companies and government-based

roles, it is often a really good carrot on a stick. And if I'm being honest, I know a couple of people personally who have actually decided to work in particular areas or go you know what I have a skill set I'm going to work as this but I'm actually going to make sure I get a job in government because they prioritized the parental leave policies that they had and I mean I think that's pretty smart in addition to the fact that they always get like minimum of 15 super in government-based roles like maybe we all should work for the government I don't know sounds smart but also I think it's really important to take into consideration and important to differentiate the fact that we're not talking about like the parental leave policy that impacts you particularly

georgia but more like the base level of parental pay that we get because i also know there are some employers out there that will give you a full 12 months of pay to have a baby which is really cool but also not something that is financially viable for a lot of companies so v in terms of who is eligible for parental leave pay who is it yeah who is it what do you what tests yes so to be eligible you do need to be the primary carer of that child so as i said before g you can't just take the time off and your partner is the primary carer you need to also meet an income test a work test and residency rules and all of the information on that is available on the mygov website so to break it down a little bit more the income test means that you must have an individual and in

quotation marks adjustable taxable income of either 150 000 or less in the 2019 to 2020 financial year or $151,350 or less in the 2020 to 2021 financial year. So obviously you can't be making bank and also access parental leave pay, which I know for actually a few of our community members is quite frustrating. Then the work test means that you'll need to have either worked for 10 of the 13 months before birth or adoption. And it needs to have been for a minimum of 330 hours in that 10 month stint, which we've worked out to be about one day per week. So it's not like you have to have been working full time to access this, but you do need to have roughly worked a day a week to be able to get parental leave pay. And it's also worth noting too, that if you are on JobKeeper

at any stage, this also counts as work. So don't stress too much if you found yourself in a situation where you're thinking about taking parental leave, you're like, oh my gosh, I've been on JobKeeper this whole time. No, it counts as work and that is okay. And there are actually a few more stipulations to this that we're going to link in the show notes. So if you do have further questions, you can follow Services Australia up in our notes below. And then when it comes to residency rules, this is pretty simple. I'm sure you guys already know if you're a resident or not, but you either need to be an Australian citizen or you need a permanent visa or a special category visa or a specific type of temporary visa to access this, which again is all

on the mygov website and very simple to work out whether you are eligible or not now you did touch on this before v but does our employer pay us at all slash do they pay us this money from the government like what does that look like it can be pretty confusing because as i said before like sometimes it's paid from your employer and they receive the money from the government and then hand it to you and then sometimes it will come directly from centlink depending on your personal situation. But the way that it works is that the Australian government makes the parental leave payments to the employer more often than not, who then pay that onto you in the same way that the JobKeeper system worked, for example. And then that said, many employers have created their own

policies around parental leave that they might offer in addition. So this is often why the government pays directly to the employer. So if they are topping it up or they're doing something different, they can absolutely pass that onto you in just one payment instead of having a number of different ones and you having to go to Centrelink and a whole heap of other workarounds. But in saying that, you will never get less than the minimum. So as we said before, Georgia, the minimum was $772.55 per week. You will always get that minimum. Your employer is not going to take some off the top and then pass it on to you. It's literally just for tax record keeping purposes and making sure that it's actually the easiest and simplest process for you so if you're getting

less than that maybe that's a little red flag we need to look into according to the wgea which you know george i do love they said on their website and i quote leading practice organizations provide permanent employees with a minimum of eight weeks of paid parental leave at full pay for primary carers and a minimum of three weeks for secondary carers and both women and men must be given the opportunity and both women and men must be given the opportunity to identify as the primary carer so i think that that's important to take into consideration as well because it's not saying that women who have the baby more often than not or people who have wombs have the baby and then they are the primary carer. That essentially is telling us that if the parent can just choose to

be the primary carer and we just need to let our employer know who that's going to be and what that is going to look like for us, which I think is really exciting and definitely a little bit of a change of pace to what it was historically. Yeah, it would be interesting to look back. I haven't got that in my line of questions for you, V, but maybe we could follow that up this week somehow. But yeah, it would be interesting to see how far these rules have come, I guess. I think it would be super exciting, actually. And I'm just dumping this on you here and now and committing to our community that you will post in the Facebook group just asking if they're the primary carer or not and what situations have worked and what haven't worked. I just think it's so exciting and interesting. And I mean, I'm not having kids anytime soon. Hopefully in the future, I absolutely do feel my life full of babies, but that is not yet because

she's on the money, property playbook, business Bible, all my babies. Like we have a lot going on. Like I've got Zella as well. Like you guys, I'm a bit busy, but at the same time, I just really want to know how people are working it. I've got a couple of girlfriends actually, who have taken some time off to have the baby and recover. And then they've gone straight back to work. And then their partner is the primary carer for 12 months. And I just, I love the idea that people are changing the way things were working because they're like, oh yeah, actually that doesn't work for us. Or maybe the person who is giving birth, George, is actually the breadwinner in the family and they have to return to work. So the other person is put in a situation where

they're like, look, I don't really want to be the primary caregiver, but financially it made more sense and so we as a couple have made this decision for our family for it to work this way but in saying that I also have a couple of girlfriends who have returned to work really quickly and neither of them have stopped work at all and they've got care externally coming into the home to help them so it's just different for different people and I'm so pervy on what that looks like because more often than not let's be honest Georgia the reason we make these decisions is financial it might be worth doing an episode v on returning to work after you've had a family and strategies around i don't know i agree i feel like that would be a really good episode especially

after and you probably don't see this because you don't get in the dms of the she's on the money instagram like i do but we got so much good feedback after the careers episode that i think we might weasel some new ones in there yeah everybody loved that and i'm loving the feedback from it so if you have any other ep ideas guys let us know let us know we are all ears and we just want to educate you guys for sure okay so if you're self-employed v does things get a lot more complicated so yes and no self-employed people are still entitled to take paid parental leave which is very very exciting even if their business doesn't currently make a profit which is also a very nice thing you just need to ensure that you don't actively run your business while

you are on leave as you will then stop receiving payments as you'll be considered to have returned to work. So you need to be really careful about that. And the benefit to being self-employed at this time is that you can be more flexible with the time that you take and often you aren't as restricted. It's one of those things where no, you're not going to miss out if you are self-employed and it is so nice to know that you don't even need to be turning a profit. You just have to have been working in that business for a certain period of time. Like you can't just go, ah, I'd like to take that, I'm going to establish a business today and apply for it tomorrow. It's not going to work like that. You do have to have a legitimate business, but it's really nice to

know that that support exists there. And again, in the same vein, when I talk about people who are employed by other businesses, it's really important to think about things like super and emergency funds and making sure that you are financially okay, but that would apply to anybody regardless of how they are employed. Okay. That's super interesting. In terms of actually receiving parental leave pay V? Do we take it all at once or is it rationed out? What does that look like? So as of July last year, so 2020, not 2021, if you're eligible for parental leave payments, you can claim it for one set period and one flexible period. So what the hell does that mean? So the first set period is a consecutive period of pay for 12 weeks, which needs to be

used over that time within the first 12 months of having or adopting a child. That second flexible parental leave payment allows you to use up to 30 days of that payment, which can be used in a way that suits both you and your employer. And it needs to be used within 24 months of the birth or adoption. And it's typically started after the first set of PLP period winds up. This flexible PLP, and I say PLP because it's parental leave pay, is really handy when you have to start slowing back into work and maybe you want to work two days a week and then have PLP payments for the rest of the days if you want to take half days, etc. So it just enables you to be more flexible with your employer to make sure that you don't have to be on parental leave or not, if that

makes sense, so that you can actually come back into work in a little bit more of a smoother the process and it's really important to note that your unpaid parental leave ends when you return to work even if you are going back at reduced hours or days right okay interesting so it seems like it does change from workplace to workplace would you say other than listening to this episode v that it's a good idea just to chat to hr to get a good absolutely it is and it hurts a sticky situation and g it shouldn't be this way but he's saying that maybe you don't want to talk to HR yet. Maybe you don't want to tell them about your pregnancy yet, or the fact that you're trying to get pregnant. It might not be something that you're comfortable sharing with

your team or your boss or your employer. So I totally get that. So the first thing I would do is actually go and review my employment contract and understand what that policy is. If your company is big enough to have a HR department, you best believe they're going to have a parental leave policy that you can weasel out of somewhere and read up on and make sure that you know what that means for you. And obviously, if there are other people in the business who have taken parental leave, you could probably learn from that experience and see what they did. But in saying that, if you're comfortable, have a chat with HR, but at a base, employees should actually alert their employer 10 weeks before intending to start leave of their situation. It needs to be in writing

as well, technically, and you need to tell them how much leave you intend on taking and your start and finish dates at that point obviously you can then work with your employer to make that more flexible or change that if things change and if you can't give them that much notice then just as much notice as possible is recommended but 10 weeks is the recommended amount from our friends at the government georgia so b what if you were like i'll i'm gonna take six months of leave of mat leave pat leave uh but then you have your little ray of sunshine and you're like sweetheart I want to spend two years with you. Can you change your mind? That's actually fine, G. It actually happens all of the time. And if you're intending on taking less than 12 months of leave, you can

actually then extend it up to 12 months, but no more. You just need to give your employer a minimum of four weeks of written notice once you make that decision to extend it so that they can sort their stuff out and get somebody in that role and make sure that everything is all good. If you've taken 12 months and you want to extend beyond that though you can actually tack up to another 12 months on in total but in total it can't be more than 24 months and again you also need to give your employer four weeks notice if you're intending to extend that in saying that that is just the legalities around it and i'm sure that you could work with your employer to say oh actually i want to take some more time off or i would like to be more flexible or actually do you know what

this whole parenting thing thought it was going to be a dream thought I'd want to stay at home with my little ray of sunshine but I miss my work friends can I come back sooner so it's going to be really flexible and again you just need to talk to your employer about how that works this is just the base amount of understanding that you guys need to kind of like springboard off and create your own plans with V you said there that you can potentially go back earlier if you want to what if there was someone in your role though like yes that's where the negotiating needs to take place so often if you're going to take mat leave for a significant period of time your employer is very likely to find a mat leave cover for that or distribute your role within the team

internally so that they can pick up the slack so again it's just about negotiating that with your employer and as i said before it's just about being mindful that there could be someone in that role. So if they've actually signed a contract for nine months, maybe you'll need to actually have them see that entire maternity contract out before they leave. Or you could work with your employer to come back on a part-time basis. Again, completely dependent and I can't speak for every employer in this situation, but sometimes you're able to negotiate back in earlier or maybe longer because more often than not, if someone has taken a role as a 12 month mat leave cover they might be very comfortable to extend that for three months and be like oh yeah no

problems if you give them enough notice again I know that legally you only have to give them those four weeks notice about extending it but if you know someone is in your role and they are on a mat leave cover the more time you give them the more likely they are to have been able to extend really comfortably because I know personally if I took a mat leave cover role and my time was coming up and it was four weeks before the end of my mat leave cover was ending you best believe i'd probably have something lined up already and my employer would probably be a little bit frustrated they didn't have more time to say hey george victoria's not coming back from parental leave on the time do you want to extend your contract for three months you might go yeah no probes

like give them as much notice as possible because it just makes everything easier for everybody involved question yes if the person that replaced you in your role yeah while you're on mat leave is better than you can they be like see a g we're keeping janine no no that is illegal yeah that and that is actually illegal and that is the whole point of you know making sure that that role is available for you when you return it's also why when we talk about in the casual employment side of things they need to make sure that your role would actually be enduring for you to actually be eligible for it but at the same time it's one of those things where again I can't speak for every employer but we've all heard horror stories about this happening and that's why it's really

important to have your emergency fund and have yourself set up and potentially just be keeping in touch with your employer during that time I'm not saying that you need to be working with your employer during that time but it's one of those things where it's actually flexible and it's actually on your terms and remember our friend Rebecca Pritchard yes she came in to talk about cost of babies with us. And she's actually one of my dear friends. And she recently had the baby she was pregnant with when she was on the podcast. Her name is Della and she is delicious. She is such a gorgeous pudding. Yeah. Very, very cute name. Very cute baby. But Rebecca had her baby, but she's been negotiating with her employer to still do some of the things that she really loved

doing. So Beck, just like me, is a financial advisor. We love talking about money. We love keeping in contact with our clients. So Beck had actually negotiated to have a few workshops and stuff still in her contract to do while she was on mat leave under the guise that her employer knew that the baby would be involved, knew that she would, you know, maybe need a little bit of backup, but also just to keep her skills up and just to keep her engaged with her community and her clients. So that is entirely possible as well if that is something you want to do. But in saying that, not everybody feels that way about their job, Jay. No, exactly. For some people, it's just a job. Exactly. And you're like, Victoria, that sounds crazy. I do not want to hear from those

people for 12 months. Like I'm looking forward to it. But again, it's just different for each and every single person. And that's where we need to have that inherent confidence to have those conversations with our employer and negotiate things and bring things up and say, oh, hey, I know that I'm taking mat leave, but like my favorite part of the job is actually, you know, seeing what's going to happen with this particular client project. Do you think that I could just be looped in when that actually settles so that I don't feel out of the loop? Or do you think that I could maybe attend one of those meetings to stay on track and, you know, keep my skills up? I think it is really important to know that you do have the power to ask that.

And more often than not, like let's flip this situation. I'm an employer. Gee, if you went on parental leave and I didn't hear from you, I'd be like, okay, no problems. Absolutely can do that. But if you turned around and said, oh, I'd love to be involved in X, Y, and Z, I would bend over backwards to make sure that you were included in on that because I know how good that is for my business. I know that you being committed to the business is such a beautiful thing. And I also know how much value it would bring to our clients and our team. So I just think that asking is not putting anybody out it's actually bringing a better work community together but also definitely no pressure in yeah no you don't have to still be there yeah okay good to know uh before we head to

the break fee this has been a very top heavy show uh i feel like there was news recently floating around about leave being approved for miscarriage is that true talk to me and it's actually really special so you are absolutely right a few weeks ago the fair work act of 2009 was updated to include miscarriage as a reason to access compassionate leave so now full-time employees can access two days of paid leave or unpaid leave for casuals and that applies to the spouse or de facto partner as well obviously this is incredibly important and from my perspective we're just injecting a whole heap of opinion right here it's not enough time but it is a step in the right direction when it comes to that. Miscarriage is so important to talk about because

it happens so often and it's actually a really traumatic event. So I don't agree with the two days but I'm really glad that we are stepping in the right direction and starting to include that but I do think it's something that employers need to be more flexible on and I also know yes in the Fair Work Act you can access compassionate leave but also I think that there are a lot of employers who would be like just go and leave we'll look after you it's okay because that is something that is incredibly traumatic and you need support during that time and it just doesn't take two days to get over something like that so you think workplaces these days would be much more open to granting you leave if you need it i would hope so but in saying that it's a very hard topic to

tackle because it's a topic that more often than not again i'm not an expert in this situation i just know enough about it i guess to to be having this conversation miscarriage happens more often than not within the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy so you are very likely to not have even told your employer that you were expecting a baby at any point in the future so for me it's really good it's a step in the right direction but as a community and as a society we need to be normalizing miscarriage conversation and talking about this process because i know personally again i'm just taking this back personally if i suffered a miscarriage and i was working in a big corporate environment I would be very unlikely to share that with my team I would just take sick leave

for that period of time because I just obviously need to work through that and go through that process but I wasn't ready to share the fact that I was pregnant so yeah I just I really support obviously talking about it as soon as possible and sharing it but not every situation is like that and it's so beautiful that we can now access those two days of bereavement leave but at the same time it would mean talking to somebody about that and i just don't know as a society if we are ready to have those conversations not that we're not it's just that most people in situations like that might not want to talk about it with their employers which is totally fair and totally reasonable i assume if you went to hr you were at a business that had an hr department that it

would be confidential anyway yeah absolutely but it's one of those things where if you're going through that it's incredibly emotional like you're experiencing significant trauma and going hey george can i pull you aside for a minute i'm just going through this and i'm hoping i can access that like i'm not sure about the semantics of how that would work i just think we need to talk about miscarriage as a more open topic than we currently do because at the same time as being really grateful that we now have these two days two days is not enough but also how many people are going to willingly put up their hand and be like oh yeah i really need to access that because it happens so often and more often than not it's something that you didn't foresee coming yeah i've been

listening to a really interesting podcast um recently v called darling shine not sure if you've heard of it i haven't it's by two best friends called ality pullen and uh chloe chapman and basically it's them navigating stories of grief and they've both had a really rough trot recently in life um and one of the big themes is miscarriage so if you are like me and have never really understood the kind of grief that that can bring upon a person that's a really good place to start um it's a yeah it's a really god it's a very emotional podcast but um definitely trigger warning on that one yeah at the same time i think it's a topic that we need to be talking about and even if it's something you haven't experienced we need to understand that so that

we can support people who are going through that um let's head to a very short break but after that we will be back to chat about this expensive life stage and of course how we can safeguard our super at this time be right back guys okay they get straight back into it hello hello how hard is it to adjust to having just one income when you've always relied on two if you are in a partnership. So it could be super hard. It's one of those things where I think we should be trialing these things before we actually jump in the deep end. So if you're planning on having a baby in the future, potentially trying to whittle down your expenses to being able to be paid for with one income is something you can do to start preparing for it. But again, obviously I would

absolutely promote proper budgeting and proper cashflow and making sure that you understand every single dollar coming into your accounts and how it is being used and where it is going. And obviously scale back on those non-essential spans. I think it's really important to really reiterate what budgeting means and budgeting isn't about restriction. It's not about going on a diet and stopping yourself from buying things that you shouldn't be buying. It's actually about fully comprehending how many dollars come into your account and how many leave and on what, and whether that is actually in line with your values. So if you're leading up to a period of time where you're going to be functioning off one income, it could be a good idea to start

saving for that period of time so that your expenses are covered during that period of time. So Jay, if you're planning on taking six months off and we'd worked out that your expenses were like $5,000 a month in total, maybe we work out how to save that $5,000 a month in total so that we know, yep, my partner's going to have their income coming in, but we also know that that buffer exists and we can pay for things as that happens so that we don't feel like we are financially restricted or behind during that period of time. So it's going to be different for everybody. Some people will be listening to this and going, hey, we already function of one income and save the rest of it. And I'll be like, okay, you're a wizard. That's really cool. But

not a lot of people are in that situation. So it's about planning for the bare minimums and maybe even giving up some stuff during that period of time that you are on leave that you don't necessarily need. Doesn't mean you can't go back to it when you have a dual income again, but you might go, Oh yeah, actually. All right. So we're going to cut back on our streaming services. We're going to change this. We're going to get rid of a subscription to that so that we have really lean expenses during that period of time. So we're not stressed because at the end of the day having a baby to look after is stressful enough you don't need to compound the stress by having even more financial issues to deal with i assume if you're a single parent obviously it's

going to be much harder but would you just say absolutely would you just say to manage it the same way that you just did for yes absolutely yep you might be in a situation where you may need to go back to work sooner and you might not actually have the luxury of taking as long out of work, especially given you only have the opportunity to receive that parental leave pay for up to 18 weeks. So if you're in this situation, I think it's also really important to give yourself permission to go back to work. Like that doesn't make you a bad mom. It doesn't make you a bad parent. It actually makes you a really strong parent because you're doing the right thing for you and your financial situation. And it can be really hard. And I think it's one of those things

that we actually recently spoke to Lucy on the podcast. And Lucy is the estate planning lawyer from a couple of weeks ago and she was saying how some people do return to work earlier or you know stay fully employed even though they're looking after kids and I just think it's really important to realize that everybody's situation is different and having your kid in daycare is not a bad thing having your child looked after doesn't mean that you're a bad parent in fact filling your own cup and putting yourself in a situation where you're creating financial security for your family is one of the most important things that you can do. And I know that it can be hard and I know that it can be stressful, but after being in the position of being a financial advisor for a

significant period of time, it is so important to fill your financial cup first, because that is going to lean towards bringing up a child who values work ethic and values money and values the effort and energy you put in and also feels secure because no one wants to be in a situation where they can't afford things at the end of the day it is the reality of a lot of people but you are doing the right thing for you and your family so i'm not saying you have to do these things but it's more i don't want you to feel like you're making a decision because you're like oh but like i really should stay home because it's the quote right thing to do my friend it is 2021 there is no such thing as the right thing to do but there is such thing as the right thing for you and your

personal situation and only you can decide what that is you do you um you do you boo boo so if we have a mortgage and we're stressed about finances yeah so now maybe we're in a partnership and we're going down to one income is there a way of like reducing your repayments or getting a better deal like is that something we can look at yes genius question and this is again about going back to the budget and working out what we can do. But if you are in a situation where that is not going to be enough, it certainly is something you can do. So it's going to vary from lender to lender, but many are going to allow you to maybe make interest only payments. So if you're currently paying principal and interest on your mortgage, maybe you're going to choose to cut it back and

pay less on your mortgage for that period of time. And maybe it's a good time to have a chat with a broker to work out a situation that works best for you, because you could change the structure if it's going to significantly impact you having to pay that during that period of time. But also, this is a cute little reminder, G, if you haven't refinanced your mortgage and it's been a few years and you don't have a one or a two in front of your interest rate on your mortgage, maybe it's time to check that and slide into our DMs and we can hook you up with a broker that actually works for you. Simply gorgeous. Okay. Finally, V, my last question for you today. You and I chat about super on this show more than probably anything else maybe i love super how how do we sort out

our super at this time when we're out of the workforce okay so first things first i think gee springing this on you as well i think we're going to do a mini super series in the not too distant future because i want to talk about super in more detail and actually have some wholesome conversations about like what it means and what risk profiling is and like really dig into the nitty gritty of superannuation because I feel like we know what it is and how much gets contributed to it. And we know what compound interest is now. We know how it grows, but like, how do we make the right decisions for us? How do we actually tangibly pick a super fund? At what point should we be re-reviewing our super fund? How do we know if our super funds are bad? Super fund. Like I've just

got a lot of questions that I know you guys want me to answer. So putting that to the side, we know Georgia that in Australia, women retire with significantly less super than men do. And our non-binary and our friends in the LGBTQIA plus community also retire with even less than women do. But that has a lot to do with this time in our lives when we are starting families or taking time off work or returning to work with reduced capabilities. So employers aren't legally obliged to actually make super payments in relation to the paid parental leave. And we also don't accrue leave entitlements during the paid parental leave period. So to help out during this time, if you have a partner who would still be working while you're off, you could potentially ask them

to help out by making voluntary contributions to your super, which is a conversation that is hard to start, but I promise worth it in the long term. But also again, thinking about should we be increasing how much we are contributing to super is that of value to you personally is that something that you should be considering now or is it something that you're going to consider when you go back to work like how are we going to look after future us because we don't have to be the statistics if we choose not to be at an early stage like if we are saying women statistically retire with less super than men okay i don't want that though so how do i personally take myself out of that bucket and put myself in a different one that says I'm retiring with the on average amount

or I'm retiring with more. How do I do that? What does that mean for me financially? And usually it's not such a significant change that it is going to financially cripple you. So I've just got lots to say. That's what that mini super series is going to be about. Can't wait. All right. Good ep BD. Look, we've gone on and on and on. It's been a long ep. I've loved it. I think the moral of the story is that there's a lot available for you you're legally entitled to a maximum of two years off and that protects your role um but basically it all comes down to your workplace as well so if you are confused you want more information have a chat to your HR department and they will be able to help you out or check our show notes because we've got a whole heap of

resources linked just for you guys absolutely gee as always I think we've run out of time here I feel like we always run out of time really quickly but just before we head off we'd really like to acknowledge and pay respect to australia's aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples they're the traditional custodians of the lands the waterways and the skies all across australia we thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn we pay our respect to elders past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She is on the money, exists purely for educational purposes and should

not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision. No, sir. And we promise Victoria Devine is an authorized representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management, Proprietary Limited, ABN 34132463257, AFSL 339151. See you next week, guys. Bye, guys. you