She's On The Money - When Your Dream Job Isn’t Enough to Pay the Bills

Episode Date: November 17, 2024

This week’s Money Diarist has a surprising twist: her biggest financial hurdle isn’t overspending or splurging... it’s her other job! By day, she’s a full-time public servant, but by night, she’s a comedian chasing her dream—even when it costs her more than it earns. From the challenges of balancing passion and practicality to the financial highs and lows of creative work, this story is equal parts relatable and inspiring. Tune in for a behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to follow your heart (and still pay the bills). 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 for millennials who want financial freedom welcome back to another one of our money dairies where i get the absolute pleasure of talking to 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 went just like this. Hi, She's On The Money. I'm 39, a full-time public servant, and here's the twist. My worst financial habit is also my other job. I'm a comedian and with all the costs involved, sometimes I'm actually paying to make people laugh. Growing up in a low-income area in WA, money management wasn't something we focused on. For 15 years I carried debt but last year with

the help of Victoria's shared equity program I bought my first one bedroom apartment. Comedy has been my passion but it's no small expense. Between publicists, show registrations and venue costs most gigs leave me in the red. Still I'm determined to make it work and despite the financial roller coaster I wouldn't trade this journey for anything. Oh my gosh money diarist. a literal roller coaster from I'm a full-time public servant, but I'm a funny one is really fun. I got a few hats. It's true. I like it. All right. Before we dive into it, what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F? I feel like, you know, I love the podcast and I feel like people always get to this point. Like

they start off and they'll be like, oh, I'm a D minus. And then get halfway through and they'll be like, oh, I've been investing since I was in the womb. Yeah. And I'm like, excuse me. Like, And I'm going to call you out too. So like, tell me what you feel you are and we won't argue now, but we can do that later. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, I'm giving myself a C plus. A C plus. Okay. And I'm probably going to stand by that, but we'll see. All right. Well, we can learn more about that. I feel like everyone has a journey and sometimes I don't want to argue with people either. So let's dive into it. Can you tell me a bit more about your money story? Yeah. So I grew up on a bush block

outside of a small town in southern WA on the coast. My parents didn't go to uni or I think they did and then sort of got the free Whitlam uni and then dropped out in their first year. They did mostly blue collar jobs when I was a kid. We owned our property, but I think the reason they moved down there from Perth was because it was all they could afford. I think the place was $40,000 in the 80s, a 10 acre block, beautiful block. Wow, for 40 grand. I mean, obviously money changes, but like that just feels wild, doesn't it? There were a couple of catches, like the house didn't have a bathroom when we moved in. You don't need a bathroom, it's fine.

Yeah, we had a paddock. Yeah, exactly. Go outside, the sheep do. We just had a bucket and bush situation for a couple of years. You didn't even need the bucket. No, no, we dug a hole a lot of the time and then they built a bathroom, so we were on the up. Okay, fancy pants. Yeah, they're both from, you know, fairly chaotic backgrounds. But I mean, we had a lovely childhood. I don't think it took me a while to figure out that we were poor, honestly.

But that's the best way, right? Because it's all about mindset. Like you might not have heaps of cash, but it's about the experiences and mindset. And your parents clearly did it well. Yeah. And we were just living such different lives to the kids I went to school with anyway, you know, living out of town and this sort of feral life with just animals in the house. We raised baby kangaroos we had you know a pet possum like it was all what you were living my dream life yeah it was very cute and yeah we didn't have much money but we grew our own food so because i think that's how you really feel it is when there's not enough food on the table but we always had you know vegetables and meat from the neighbors and stuff yeah so it was like pretty simple life i

didn't really have any new clothes or anything really wholesome though it sounds like you had a beautiful childhood yeah it was sweet and you know my parents have always been pretty make hay while the sun shines with money I'd say you know I think their attitude was always that it's just there to be spent on living a good life and they're also very you know generous people who always you know helping out friends and family so yeah I in my 20s I moved straight to Perth and went to uni and then went immediately overseas for a few years and lived and worked as you know a waitress bartender that sort of thing you know the usual you know England working holiday situation and then ended up in Berlin for a while and then Darwin for a while. It was pretty chaotic

to be honest. That's so fun though. You're like, yeah, so I ended up in like England and then also Darwin. Yeah. Yeah. You know, as you do. That's the natural extension of England. Yes. Yeah. And I was sort of living hand to mouth for most of it and slowly getting into debt, you know, the classic situation of you get given a credit card when you're 18, when you really probably shouldn't I don't know if I would now I'd like to think they've cracked down on lending enough that I probably wouldn't qualify if I like if an 18 year old in the same situation tried it now no they used to send them out like happy 18th birthday you now qualify for a credit card like I remember the day and I was like sign me up babe sign me up exactly yeah being like a commonwealth

dolomite kid just you know they were like here's a credit card I was like wait hey nine thousand dollars let's go money win yeah and um you know it's the same old story it just sort of creeps up creeps up until the interest payments are getting to the point where they're making it so you can never really get ahead. You just sort of hang off your interest. I shudder to think how much I must have paid on credit card interest over the years. We don't have a joke about it. That's fine. Yeah. Well, you know, in your 20s, yeah, you are very like, well, what am I going to do? Get into my 30s? I don't see that ever happening. Yeah, absolutely not. Ew. And then, you know, by the time I was in my 30s, ended up living in Melbourne where I still am.

And yeah, the debt just really got on top of me. I went back to uni for a few years and I think it was, so basically when we entered the pandemic, I was, I think about $10,000 in debt. And I was working for a council at that point on an okay salary. So I could kind of see, like it was going to be feasible to pay it off. It was just going to be a lot of hard work. And then I feel almost guilty about how much the pandemic helped me out because I know for so many people. It was financially ruinous. So many businesses didn't make it. For me, it was kind of the best thing that ever happened to my money situation. I got a slightly better government job that was due to start, I think, six days after the first Melbourne lockdown started. So I'd sort of

started from my living room, but all of a sudden my salary, because I'd gone from local government to state government, so my salary jumped up like $15,000 at least, if not $20,000. So all of a on anything during. I feel like a lot of people benefited from that. Like, don't get me wrong, it was horrific, but I feel like for a lot of people, it taught us a lot about what we don't need to spend. Yeah, absolutely. It really like cleans the slate a bit and makes you think about, yeah, what you spend your money on just sort of reflexively and what you would have been doing. And did you even like it that much? Yeah. Yeah. And also around the same time I had my Centrelink Robodebt paid back. I'd had one of the completely bogus ones years earlier when I'd

basically gone from uni into quite a high paid job immediately. And so I'd done half of the year on youth allowance and then half of the year on a pretty decent salary. They used income averaging to decide that I wasn't eligible for the student payments based on my income, even though at the time I was getting the student payments, I hadn't had that income yet because of how time works. Well, that's why they had to pay it back, isn't it? Because that was not the right way to go about things. Because apparently I was supposed to be psychic and know what my income was going to be for the rest of the year.

Are you not a psychic? It turns out I'm not. Oh, please get off the show. It was just that classic thing where, you know, you go to appeal it and they're like, there's no appeal, this is done. So I think it was about $7,000. And, yeah, I was so cranky about it that when I heard that there were rumblings of it all being overturned,

I joined a class action lawsuit and I got paid back the full amount and a payout as well, which I was happy about. Hey, money win. Yeah. So this lump sum, and then I'm putting away money from my job and I paid off the credit card, the robo debt and the settlement basically paid off my entire credit card. And I was like, oh my God, I'm at zero for the first time. And I just started putting money away, putting money away. And yeah, it realized as we sort of came out of it that I had enough for a 5% deposit on an apartment, which I wouldn't have normally done because it's sort of a bit scary to have such a small deposit. I just assumed I was going to have to pay mortgage

lender's insurance, but I was very lucky. I did a lot of research, which is how I started listening to this podcast in the first place, just listening to every finance podcast I could get my hands on and teaching myself stuff that wasn't really taught to me growing up, like how home loans work and how property works and was lucky enough to get onto the Victorian government's shared equity scheme, which is a 5% deposit scheme where you don't have to pay mortgage insurance. It's underwritten by the government. And the government also kicks in 25% of the purchase price as a lump sum payment and just sort of sits on the title as a co-owner of the property until you either buy them out or sell the property, which is amazing. And it's basically meant that I was

able to buy a one bedroom apartment that I really love, just a modest little 70s old brick place. Oh, the 70s ones are the best. The rooms are slightly bigger and the ceiling slightly higher. Yes. Separate kitchen. There's no en suite bathroom. It's a normal bathroom. Yeah. I really love it. It's falling apart in places, but we're fixing her up slowly. But she is yours. Yes. And she's well insulated. Yeah. So it's just basically meant with the shared equity scheme that I'm paying. I think my mortgage payments come to about $1,200 or $1,300 a month, which I would be lucky to rent this apartment for.

That is so good. Yeah. It's incredible. You would be coughing that up for rent in Melbourne anyway. Exactly. If not more. Especially on a one bedroom apartment. Can you imagine how much that would be each week for you on your own? Like you'd be at least two grand, two grand a month, at least I reckon, like 500 bucks a week, maybe ish. I love that for you. I had to basically share house up until the age of, I think, 37 to sort of, you know,

keep putting that money away and make it work, which was, you know, you're reaching the end of your tether at that point. You're like, look, I just didn't see myself here, but now you're in your own property. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm really, I'm glad I did stick that out, but you know, that's, I mean, so many people have to rent in their thirties and forties now anyway. So it's, you know, I tried not to be ashamed of it. No, we're not ashamed of it, but I feel like we're allowed to have some expectations for ourselves that weren't met and you can go, I'm a bit disappointed because I'd hoped for myself that the reality would be a little bit different. Yeah. And there's just dignity in living alone, I think. Yeah. Like, and I think

that it's a freedom of choice right like I like that you had the choice but sometimes we go this is just not what I wanted to choose but I can't do anything else about it and I guess that's why I'm so wildly passionate about financial literacy because without financial literacy someone in your situation wouldn't have known about the Victorian shared equity program and that you can purchase and it can be a lot more supported because you might have just had your head in the sand and in like, I'm never going to buy. Like, this is not my journey. Like this sucks. And you would still be in a share house. Not that there's, again, shame in that, but like that would be the reality without research. And most people don't want that. Yeah,

exactly. Most people want to be living in their own place. So yeah, I try and sort of, it's hard because you want to sort of tell people, you want to get the word out. You know, I talk about it sometimes on social media, trying to get the word out, you know, like this might be possible. You know, I'm single. I don't have, you know, family money going into this, like it was possible for me, but it's also trying to be sensitive of, you know, the fact that we're like in a rental crisis and just because it's possible for me doesn't mean it's possible for everyone, but I am sort of trying to get the word out to, you know, friends in similar situations. Oh, girlfriend, you're preaching to the converted. Like I try so hard to tread that

line of going like, I don't want to offend people, but also I need to share these facts. Because the two friends have been, yeah, basically seen it and talked to me about it and had the same realization of like, oh, wow, I actually could do this. See, that's why we talk about it. Yeah. Which is really nice. And I'm, you know, with all the jobs that I've had, I'm pretty good at reading contracts because I've done a lot of sort of government jobs around councils and building and stuff. So I'm pretty good at reading, you know, section 32s and building inspection reports. So I'm always offering to read those for people to save money on conveyances and then just, you know, getting them to get the legalese checked, but I'll, you know, I'll read their

inspection reports. I'll read their body corporate AGM notes. sold. You're an icon of a friend to have. I'll look things up on the work database on the slide and make sure that, you know, the building permits are in place and stuff. I love that. So tell me now, what do you do for work and how much money do you earn? Yeah, look, I mean, obviously keeping this bit a bit, I'm very open about stuff, but I feel like I... We can be a little bit sly. We don't have to, like, I know you've got a government job. That might be enough. Exactly. Yeah. Let's just say I work for a state government regulatory agency, just sort of doing complaint management looking into reports of stuff and checking out what needs to be regulated. I think my

base salary, oh, I should know this. It's somewhere around 95. I just did my tax return finally yesterday. And I think I hit 101 on salary last year, but a lot of that would have been leave loading because I used some long service leave on top of my annual. So I think base salary is somewhere between 95 and 98, I guess. How good is that? Yeah, I'm happy about that. I mean, on the flip side, what are you earning for comedy? Yeah. So I think of myself as a new comedian. I think I've been doing it for nearly eight years

now, but that is in some ways still kind of new. I think until you hit 10 years, you're sort of still figuring it out. So I gig, I guess, between like two and three times a week. Oh my gosh. That's a lot. Yeah. I'm very tired. I just pub gigs around the place mostly. And I do the Melbourne Comedy festival every year. And next year I'm going to expand and do Perth Fringe first and then Melbourne. That is so fun. And what does comedy pay? Like if you're doing these side gigs, is it like, I don't know, I feel like a lot of the time people will probably say, oh, you have to do these free pub gigs to like cut your teeth and like get your name out there. But at what point

do you get paid? Yeah, well, it's tricky because it's like, you know, obviously you don't want to work for free too much, but also you are kind of rehearsing on stage as well. So I think free gigs and working for free are always going to be a part of the process for comedy and I think music and other sort of performing arts in a way that they're not for something that you can sit and refine in your bedroom because you know you you're sort of taking first drafts on stage and you're basically just asking the audience is this anything and you don't want to be doing that on a you know gig where you're being paid a hundred dollars to be there yeah we're probably not going to do that for the first time at a really big paid gig right yeah yeah like it

sounded funny in my head yeah exactly yeah you're just going well that that's nothing that flopped yeah but that's part of the process failing in public and yeah so it's usually i guess the majority of them are probably unpaid the sort of bread and butter working material at gigs some of them are sort of 20 bucks some of them are two drink cards uh some of them are more like 50 or there's a good comedy club in melbourne now called comedy republic which is owned by comedians and pays its artists well and so that's I think $150 for a sort of standard 10 minute spot which is about as good as it gets at my level yeah but because I'm still up and coming I might only do that you know twice or three times a year like just a run of three shows over a weekend so that's

a little treat sometimes yeah that's cool though that these things exist to support you yeah but then the comedy festival is a entirely different beast that I you know I think Melbourne people are so supportive of the comedy festival which is great and a lot of them take a chance on a you know on up-and-coming artists and stuff but they might not be aware just uh how little people are either being paid or how much they're effectively paying to be there in the end if they're not you know a bigger artist in a bigger venue really what does that look like so registration for a standard show in the comedy festival which is usually going to be either 10 shows for half the festival or more like 20 to 30 over the whole festival. Your registrations, I think it's gone

over $500 now or it might be 400. No, I think it's over 500 now just to register to be involved in the festival. So that's just money that you pay to the festival to participate. Hey, this is your door fee. Yeah, pretty much. And the comedy festivals are largely not-for-profits. They're usually incorporated as not-for-profit arts bodies. So it's not like they still run at a loss, I think, and rely on funding. Yes, but comedians and artists are usually not for profit. Exactly. Yeah, I am also firmly not for profit. So you're paying into the festival for the first place. My venue in 2023, it was a guarantee of $1,500. So if you don't make $1,500 in ticket

sales, you'll owe them money. $1,500 is somewhat achievable. That was a 39 seater, but I think they must've had some funding or something that ran out over COVID because then I had the exact same venue this year and it was $3,000, guarantee of $3,000. What? So even after they took out their guarantee of $3,000 and then paid me what was left over, I think my payout for the festival was like $150 or something. And then the $500 on top of that. And then I paid for not many because I think they're mostly useless, but I paid for a few social media ads. My printing was over $100 for posters and flyers. God, what else? Graphic design. Yeah. It just, it puts you well in the hole unless you need to be either like selling out every night or in a venue sort of probably

over about 75 seaters and selling that well. Yeah. And for that, you usually need some sort of profile, which used to just sort of be being on the TV, but these days it's either being on the TV or big online and I am neither. And I mean, that makes it hard, but that's Because you said before you're feeling like you're still at the start of your journey. What does that look like into the future? I don't know. I mean, I've sort of been thinking about that going into another festival and sort of feeling like I'm plateaued a little bit, but you're always sort of hoping that this will be a

year, you know, because the smallest thing can change it, like a really good review in the age. Like you'll see people go into a festival run with like low ticket sales, get a five star review in the age, and then all of a sudden they've sold out the rest of their run or yeah good as they should an award nomination or just just buzz inside you know like that sort of hard to quantify everyone's talking about the show sort of buzz that'll sort of bump you up a bit well you let me know when your next show is happening and we can share it on she's on the money and hopefully all of the she's on the money community will show up for someone who now she's

on the money community yeah i'm always trying to give away you know comps to people that i think might sort of talk about the show. We don't want comps. We don't want it for free. We pay for our community. Well, you know, you can strategically comp and then, you know, then hope that they'll sort of like post an Instagram story or something because it really does, you know, word of mouth is the strongest seller I find. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. So tell me, we know you just bought your one bedroom apartment, which is very exciting. What are your big money goals? What are you currently working towards? I guess my realistic money goal is that I would just like to upgrade to a property with a second bedroom small dreams

I've just I just like a spare room I'm sort of working from home in my living room at the moment because I just don't have a second space to put a desk in and it kind of annoys me that it takes up some of my living space yeah I think just upgrading my property would be a big one and I mean my more sort of unrealistic goal would be that I'd just love to be able to take a chunk of time off work one day and just focus on creative stuff for a while. A friend of mine went mega viral just before we did a split show in 2022 and is now, you know, quite big online and was able to, we used to do really similar government jobs and she was able to basically take a year of unpaid leave from that job and just tour and, you know, make pretty decent money just because

she's got enough social media following to sort of pull a crowd wherever she goes. That is so cool. and yeah I mean you know I don't think I'm gonna go mega viral but you know it would just be nice to have never say never you never know it'd just be nice to have enough of like a lump of money to just be able to sort of pay those expenses and just yeah like gig and then not have to get up for work the next day you know I had a I had a gig in a dive bar last night in Collingwood that was like going pretty okay and I did some new material and then I stayed to watch the other racks and during one of the acts a guy wandered in off the street who was clearly in some form

of psychosis and wandered onto the stage tried to fight the comedian bar staff had to come and get him brought him downstairs we got barricaded upstairs for a while while he screamed and punched walls downstairs oh my god it's not always a glamorous business no that doesn't sound like you're not selling it to me at the start I was like maybe I could be a comedian I'm not funny but this might work for me. No chance. Not that glam. I mean, good on you. But also I feel like this is such an area that needs so much more support. Like we talk about creatives and comedians and like, you know, just artists in general. They're usually people just like you, who have full time, very serious jobs, who are doing this after hours because it's their passion.

Whereas I think that when you go to like the comedy show, you go, oh, I've never heard of this comedian. She must do this all the time. I've just never seen her before. no, it's because she's at work. And you see those people sitting in the crowd and you think, oh, wow, look, they're selling tickets. They must be doing really well. And you're like, oh, actually. And I think, you know, we've come a long way in creative industries in terms of how we talk about like, you know, diversity and representation, which is really good. But I think so much of it is focused on like visible representation, you know, like representation of people from different groups. But one thing that I find is often left out of the conversation

is like class representation and you know diversity of financial backgrounds because a lot of the time the people that you see who are from diverse backgrounds are also from very financially secure backgrounds and you know it's not like you can sort of buy your way into comedy though there's plenty of things that you can pay for that will help you like a good publicist or you know ads on the side of a tram or that sort of thing but there's also just those intangibles like the fact that you know a lot of because I'm a bit older than a lot of comedians I started at 31 and so a lot of my colleagues are in their 20s and you're just going to have an easier time of it if your parents have a nice big house with a spare room and you can live at home so that you

only need to work part-time or even not work. Some of them don't work at all because their family's just bankrolling them and you can do six gigs a week because you've got the time and the energy and you don't have to be up first thing for a meeting after the gig where you got barricaded into a pub. Yeah, and you've got to put your big girl pants on and be like, oh yes, very serious business discussion. Yes, yes. I'm not hungover. Why would you think that? Why would you say that? Don't come here and attack me. I needed a couple of wines after the spicy man incident. Oh, mate, I would have needed more than a couple of wines. Oh, I love this. All right, let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, I want to discuss investing. I want to

talk more about your debt journey and then your best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, Money Dice, we are back and you have just purchased your very first one bedroom apartment. You already want to upgrade, which I totally get. I feel like having a second bedroom just gives you more space for activities. But I want to know, what are your thoughts on investment? What are you doing in that space? Is it something you've thought about? Is it something that you're actively doing now? What's your story? Yeah, it's definitely something I'd like to do more of. I mean, like so many dedicated She's On The Money listeners, I got myself the Sharesies app after learning about it. The cult is culting.

Yeah. And I always explain it to people like, I think you explained it on the show or the person from Sharesies, which is that like, it's not necessarily a way that you're going to make yourself rich, but it's a really good way to just teach yourself like how it works and just sort of develop tolerance to risks. Like I think it was really helpful to sort of start during a time when the market was quite volatile, you know, put like a hundred dollars on and immediately lose half of it and just like realize, oh, that feels bad. But if I just wait, it's bounces back and just realize that like, yeah, just develop that like emotional tolerance to the ups and downs of the market. Yeah. And you really need that. I think there's this big misconception in investing

that you need to kind of invest your life savings and see what happens. I just can't agree with that. Like I just go, I wouldn't do it because I am a bit risk averse, but at the same time now I have an investment portfolio and people will be like, oh my gosh, that's so crazy. But it's like from these little things, my confidence has grown and I understand how to emotionally respond to these things. And I just, you need that education. I mean, you can make yourself wealthy on an investing platform too, but like from the get go, I think if you approach it with a, I'm going to just give myself the financial literacy and I'm going to play around with, you know, 10 bucks or something and see where it goes. That's what starts to build wealth.

Yeah. And so I sort of, I built it up from my initial, you know, I think 100, I just sat there with for a while. And then I think I've got about 3,100 in there at the moment, mostly just on- Look at you go. Yeah, just mostly just on ETFs and then a few just little random ones because I just wanted to see if I could pick a winner. I love that because that's very me coded. Yeah. So I've got my fun ones that are more volatile because I kind of enjoy watching them go all over the place. And then most of it's just in ETFs. Yeah. We call that a core satellite approach if you want to sound really fancy.

Oh, there you go. So if people are talking to you, you can be like, yeah, well, actually I invest on Shazzy's and I have a core satellite approach. And they'll be like, wow, she knows her shit. I have a strategy. Yeah, exactly. That's a legit strategy though. Yeah. So that's the only real investment that I have. Because apart from that, I have an offset account on my mortgage and my very basic version of crunching the numbers, that seems to be one of the best places to have money at the moment. I've got,

I think about $20,000 in my offset at the moment. It was more, but I've just had to pay flights, rego and publicist for Perth. So it's dwindled a little. Yes. But at least you had the money there. Otherwise that wouldn't be an option. And I mean, can we just flash back a little bit? Because you said for 15 years you carried debt, but last year you finally purchased your first property. Now you're a property owner. You've got like 20 grand in your offset. You just paid for a tour. Like you've got $3,000-ish in investing. be for real that is a glow up yeah and that money is also just there you know because i've only got like i don't really have insurance on my apartment because so much of it's just covered by the

building insurance the strata insurance so it's just there in case the pipe bursts and floods the neighbor or you know we get slapped with a building notice and have to put a new roof on or something it's just nice to know i've got that got some cash there i love this i love it so much absolutely tell me about your superannuation what does that look like is it something that you focus on? I don't think I have that much. I've just looked it up on myGov. Oh, I've got $87,000, which I'm not sure is... I don't think I have that much has $87,000. That's a good amount. I'm 39, so I'm not sure if that's good or not. Yes, but like you've been working your butt off and you've got a good amount of super over time that's going to compound. Like this is looking

good. Yeah. I think I was behind for quite a while just because I spent so much of my 20s either overseas or studying or working under the table. And it was like a pitiful amount for a while. But yeah, I guess I've been doing government jobs for a while, but pay a good amount of super. Yeah. So it's not too bad. I love that for you. Talk to me about debt. So what type of debt do you currently have on this property? And will you ever go into personal debt again? So I've got 190 or 200,000 debt on the property, which isn't too bad. Thanks for the shared equity, the government. The purchase price was a about 320. And so yeah, not having that full amount in debt is nice. I mean, it still has

to be paid back eventually, but it can just be paid back when you sell the property. It can just be sort of divvied out, which is great. So yeah, I don't mind that debt. It is manageable. Interest rates, touch wood, probably aren't going to get much worse. So if I can manage it now, I can manage it in the future. I have a hex debt of, I think it's around 30,000 still left, which I know in theory is good debt. I actually do kind of regret my HECS debt. I particularly regret the initial Bachelor of Arts that I got in my twenties. I went to uni when I was, I think, 18. And yeah, I kind of do actually regret going to uni. And I would, like, if I was talking to someone in that position and that age now, I would tell them to, you know, think hard about uni if

they're not going for a really specific like vocational course, or they couldn't tell you exactly why they're getting the degree. And, you know, my parents have said since that they feel a little guilty that they just kind of, it didn't push me to go to uni, it was something I wanted, but that it didn't occur to them to say, you know, are you sure this is a good idea? Because you don't have to do this. Yeah. They came from like, you know, the free uni generation and it really, like friends and I've talked about how it was so sold to us as just like, you know, just a debt that sits there in the background you don't even really have to think about. And

then you look at how much actually is coming out of your salary on your HECS repayments and you're like, oh, wow, I could be living a much easier life if I didn't have them. Yeah, it's a lot. And I feel like you really need to think about it. I think there's this assumption that if you go to uni, you'll automatically do better. And that's just not the reality of the situation. Yeah, because I'm working, you know, administrative clerical jobs, the sort of things that a bachelor's isn't the worst thing for. But the way that I got there and in my specific field was sort of, you know, working up the chain of just like crappy call centres all the way up to government. And those first jobs I did, you know,

that were paying me probably less than minimum wage, just awful call centres I worked in. You didn't need a degree to work there. You barely needed a pulse to work there. You barely had to be alive. Literally. They're like, wow, you show up on time. That is going above and beyond. Yeah. So I actually think I could have gotten exactly where I am now without the Bachelor of arts and philosophy. Oh yeah. That was very important. Right? Yeah. So, you know, it is what it is. You live and you learn. We had fun along the way. So it's only those two debts and no, I will not ever go back into personal debt. I keep my credit card just because it's handy, but I'm very, very militant about paying it off every fortnight. So. Very good. All right. Well,

tell me, what is your best money habit? Well, I thought about this because, you know, obviously your mind goes to, oh, I'm pretty thrifty and I love a bargain and all that sort of thing. And I do have some good money habits. I don't buy many clothes. I try to cook food and not buy too much takeaway, that sort of thing. But I think realistically, my best money habit has just been being quite strategic about trying to get where I am in my jobs just to maximize my earning potential, because I'm not, you know, call me crazy, I'm not passionate about, you know, government regulation. It doesn't, you know, fire my soul up or anything. But, you know, I did make a conscious decision, you know, around the time that I started performing and

doing improv and theatre and stuff like that. Yeah, I took what was a little pay cut at the time to go from working a pretty stressful job at an ombudsman to working at a council, but because I knew that government would be more stable and it's a bit more sort of, you know, once you're in the door with government, it's usually pretty easy to move around. They like to move people around. They don't like to really take on new hires if they don't have to. Yeah. So I kind of consciously took like a technically a step backwards to just do customer service at a council, but I was there for five years. And over that time, I was able to do secondments all over the place in the rates department, the building department,

and start to gather these sort of concrete skills and learn all this sort of really specific subject matter, which then enabled me to move into state government in related roles because I had the subject matter experience. And yeah, so. That's cool. That's very cool. You've been strategic about it. Yeah. And I think otherwise I don't think I'd be on the salary that I'm on now. You've got a good salary and like, that's pretty good. So do you enjoy the work that you do now? Not really, honestly. Sorry I asked. But no, it's fine. You know, it's a, it's a choice you make. You know, I could probably enjoy something more, but I'd take a pay cut of at least $20,000, if not more. I've got friends who work in jobs that they love and they're

just not being paid enough. Yeah. That really grinds my gears. Yeah. And also like I'm able to work four days a week from home, which is invaluable. You know, it means that when I've got a late gig, I can just sort of sleep in until two minutes before I start. Yeah. Yeah. Which is honestly necessary if you're running that work-life balance. Yeah. I was falling apart before the pandemic and then, you know, it was just so nice how it showed everyone that these jobs that they insisted couldn't be done from home absolutely could be done from home. As it turns out, your employer no longer has an excuse to say, no, sorry, people aren't productive from home. Genuinely, you put me at home, I'm way more

productive because I'm not distracted. And I'm not as tired because yeah, I was just burning the candle at both ends before. And now I'm just, I'm eating better. I'm sleeping better. Yeah. My work-life balance is somewhat existent. So yeah, I don't love my job, but I appreciate what it brings to my life. That's good. And I feel like that's refreshing to hear as well, because I think so many times people are always like, yup, love my job. And that's just not relatable for absolutely everybody. Yeah. And I think it can be really hard if you have this message that like, you're not doing it right. If you don't love your job, it's okay. If anything, I'm a socialist. I think it's a little perverse to you know love labor to love love laboring uh-huh exactly but yeah and i

also enjoy that it's for the government you know i've worked for some pretty iffy private companies before it's nice to have you done multi-level marketing i haven't done multi-level marketing but you know i've done cold calling i've done you know you know all of that is fine nothing i'm ashamed of but it's you know it's nice to work for a government department that has a really clear like function to do good for the community. No, I think it's good. I think it's good. Let's flip it and talk about your worst money habit. What do you think that is? I mean, it's definitely comedy. I mean, not for me, maybe for you. I mean, you know, it's just, I guess you could say it's financially responsible because it's

costing me money, but also it makes my life worth living. Honestly, I love it. I find it creatively fulfilling. Like I had good friends before comedy, but just the wonderful freaks I've met doing comedy. You found your people. Yeah. And just people from walks of life that I wouldn't necessarily have met otherwise, because they're just from all over the place, just united by this insane thing that we like to do. So yeah, I mean, my other bad money habit, I think looking at my bank statement would have to just be drinks out of the house. Alcohol is so expensive and bad for you and it's objectively... And it's actually just not socially acceptable to take a hip flask anymore. They frown on it, yeah, particularly when you're technically working

there. So yeah. I've heard that. I think if I stopped, you know, buying a wine at every gig that I was at, I'd probably, I'd be a millionaire. I think they should be giving you a wine at every event. A lot of gigs are giving you, it will give you a wine, but yeah. I feel like I'd need the wine to get on the stage. Like it's an investment from them into you. It does take the edge off. Yeah. But also it's that classic thing of you just end up socializing in pubs and stuff. And boy, has that gotten expensive these days. I'm trying to, now that the weather's gotten a bit nicer, I'm trying to do a lot more park hangs. Yeah, that's fair. That's very fair. Money Diarist, I feel like we've had a really good chat. I have loved learning more about you and

your story. And you said that your money habits were a C plus at the start. I want to know about that? Because I feel like we've learned a lot about work-life balance. I feel like you've got your head screwed on really well. You're like, no, I took a step back in a job to kind of move forward. I've got a lot of strategy around this. I have loved this, but why do you think you're a C plus? Tell me about that. Well, when it comes to incoming money, I think I'm an A minus. But when it comes to outgoings, I consciously don't use a budget. I think I could really tighten things up a lot if I used a budget. There's too much to keep track of. My budgeting system is just vibes-based at the moment. It's vibes. How do you budget? It's based on the vibe.

It's the vibe. I pay off my credit card. Because my mortgage comes out of my offset, I try and put a little bit more than what the mortgage repayments are going to be that fortnight into the offset. It doesn't always make it depending on what my expenses have been. I don't use a bucket system. I just have one. I have a credit card and then one account for everything. I don't manage my money very well, and I know all the ways that I could be managing it better. I have the financial literacy. I have the tools. I'm just tired. I don't use them. I'm just tired, Victoria. I get it. I get it. I'm going to try and help. I don't know if this is something you even want, but I'm going to gift you my money masterclass. So it's automated. So

like, I know we're all tired. We're all over it, right? Like we don't want to do heaps of work, but if you can put in what you get paid, you can put in, you know, some of your expenses, it will do all of the hard work for you. Like it literally will tell you, okay, money diarist, this is how much you need to put into your offset account. And this is going to help you to do X, Y, and Z. It will show you like. Yeah. And I have a set salary. I've got no excuse. And I feel like budgeting can be overwhelming and I've tried to make it not. And I mean, if you're already in the She's On The Money community, you'll probably appreciate the videos and stuff in there, but I'm not going to lie. The most powerful part is that budget and

cashflow system that's basically automated for you. And I've also built into it, which you might find fun or like motivating. It's got a debt repayment calculator. So you can put in your mortgage and then play around with how many years it will take off your mortgage. If you like added an extra like 30 bucks or whatever. And I just think that's fun. That is very motivating. Yeah. Yeah. And you've got to keep you hooked, you know, like budgeting is boring. I've got to give you some pretty shiny things along the way. So I've tried to make it a very aesthetic budget as well. I love it. Money Diarist, I have adored this. This has been a really fun chat. I especially, and you probably didn't see this coming, but I especially love you saying that you just don't

love your job, but it does the job to get you the lifestyle that you want to live. And I think that's so relatable and just such a good message because I think there's this toxic positivity that floats around about having to love your job and having to like be the best at everything. And it's just refreshing. Okay. I just, I just love it. But I know that you think you're a C plus, but I mean, A minus money coming in, C plus money going out. I like that methodology as well. Like we don't have to nail everything, but I've loved this. I know the community will love this as well. thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your

individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and 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 MoneySherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.