She's On The Money - Why Owning Property Isn’t Always the Safety Net You Think... And the Relationship Red Flag That Has Us Concerned

Starting point is 00:00:00 My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gulinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan, mumubangaraboma ininyalan waka, gaunonyakarumja, wutunadanar. Hello beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's On The Money podcast acknowledges culture, country, community and connections,

Starting point is 00:00:41 bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast that makes personal finance fun, especially on Friday. It is our favorite day of the week because we get the team together and we get to celebrate you, the incredible shoes on the money community. And yes, you are hearing right. It is just Ricky taking over today because unfortunately, poor Victoria is under the weather. Don't worry though, we're keeping

Starting point is 00:01:11 to the usual format. I will still be sharing my favorite money wins. Bec's got some of her best broke tips all ready to go. And then we'll be answering a money dilemma, which this week is all about what to do with a property which is currently an investment if you don't want to be a landlord and something that you slid into our DMs about which is whether you should share your passwords with a partner. Juicy juicy. Sounds gorgeous. I know but before we get there I have got a five-star review that came to us via slightly unusual avenue. Okay. Truthfully we'll take what we can get in this office. We're not picky so a beautiful community member messaged us and said she tried to leave a review on Spotify and it wouldn't let her comment so

Starting point is 00:01:48 she sent it through via Instagram. Oh, lovely. Thank you. So she said, I divorced my husband six years ago and had to start from scratch. We had been together for 14 years and everything was shared, including our friends and our then six-year-old daughter. Over the last six years, I have worked my butt off to give my daughter everything she needs financially, but also, and more importantly, I've built my confidence so I can role model being a strong and independent woman to her. About four years ago, I started to educate myself with books, podcasts, websites, articles and basically anything I could get my hands on regarding financial literacy and I am obsessed. I have an amazing job that I love, no stress in my life and no consumer debt. I'm back

Starting point is 00:02:27 on track to pay off my mortgage by 50. I'm maxing out my super contributions, invest outside of super and I'm generally just loving myself sick. Thank you for being a part of my kick-ass financial journey. I love your potty episodes ladies, you've got the best vibe. My wish is that I can share my financial journey with other women so they too can feel inspired and build confidence because money can reduce stress enormously oh my god isn't that so beautiful so cool that is so impressive and good for you that's so cool what a laundry list of things that you're doing as well that's just amazing that's great I do worry about that kind of thing so I'm like okay you know I'm not even considering some people have children some people have shared finances what's a divorce

Starting point is 00:03:08 there are so many different walks of life out there that I'm like does this advice apply to everyone. And I'm sure it doesn't for every situation, but it's really comforting to hear. Yeah. And just incredible that you're modeling that behavior, that determination, I think for your daughter would be just so wonderful for her to grow up around. Really, really cool. Good on you. Absolutely. Now I do have a very fun question again this week as I always do. I love this part. It's so fun. You can ask us anything. You can drop it in the comments on Spotify. You can DM it to us. I think we put a thread in the Facebook group. However you would like to ask, but it can be about anything and we will answer it right here live on the show. This week's question comes from Madison.

Starting point is 00:03:46 She wants to know, what's your go-to dinner when you can't be bothered cooking? Great question. I have five fried eggs or... That's very specific. With anything else or just the eggs? Just the eggs and I don't cook them all the way, you know? Like a runny... Like a runny egg. But you don't have toast to dip in it? No, because it's quick and it's easy and I don't like... The toast takes a long time. The egg in and out. You know what I mean? I fear that in the time it takes you to cook five eggs, you could arguably cook some toast too. Yeah, true actually. But it's also thinking about the mess that it makes. I don't want any mess. I don't want a single bit of mess or I just go literally to the servo and get a protein shake and that's it. But if I have to

Starting point is 00:04:29 cook at home, five fried eggs and so much oil and then it just slides right out and there's barely anything to clean. You are so funny. You're giving Gaston, if anyone knows what I'm talking about there. That's hilarious. What about you? My go-to is we always have in our freezer, I think it's Steggles. You know how there's two frozen chicken brands, Steggles and Ingham. I don't know which one it is. It's one of the two. They do these tempura chicken little bites. They're like little chicken popcorn bites. And so I'll do rice, the chicken popcorn bites because you just chuck them in the air fryer. God, I love my air fryer. Chuck them in the air fryer, boil up some edamame because we just always have it in the freezer. And then I just make a little sweet

Starting point is 00:05:07 sesame soy sauce it all up to do everything because I put the rice in a microwave rice cooker the chicken goes in the air fryer the edamame just goes in a boiling pot of water and then for the sauce you just stir it in a pan so all of that takes like five minutes to cook it's really quick and easy but it's actually I feel like it's kind of giving like a little bit of nutritional value but it's very speedy but what is it like four different things you're using yeah but like I don't know to me that's so easy when I can't be bothered cooking like that I'm like that's enough to like make me feel full and fed yes but it's I don't have to think about anything you know yes okay I understand we have different takes on what that looks like I'm thinking one

Starting point is 00:05:49 point wonder hilarious okay got you got you got you that's a great question thank you I love it if you've got one leave them in the comments because I would argue that the random question is one of my favorite parts oh my god I love getting to do it same I do also I have to say love doing my money wins and confessions I've got some to share with you this week if I may of course please thank you so much firstly this week I have a money win from Tina who said money win our car broke down and our mechanic recommended taking it to Toyota as the fault code was a known fault and Toyota would possibly fix it through goodwill if I insisted two and a half weeks later and I've gotten my car back with over twelve thousand dollars worth of repairs completed with

Starting point is 00:06:26 no out-of-pocket expenses to us the mechanic could have just told us that we needed the expensive repairs and made the money for himself but instead he was really kind and helpful oh my god i feel like in my mind always trying to rort you for every dollar you've got so when you find a good one so you just gotta insist you see him for life okay good to know i'm gonna insist if it's a known mechanical fault not just if something's wrong with the car got you i feel you skipped the important part okay it's important that's important i see oh my god it's incredible next i've got a money win from lana who said she found out they were paying gst for something that was not in fact GST registered. So they now owed a refund of about $8,000. Just a reminder,

Starting point is 00:07:08 GST is not something you can just throw on an invoice if you're not qualified for it. Oh, I get it. Oopsie. You look very confused by that. I very much am. Next, I've got a money win from Peachy who said, money win completed my 10,000 points for my fly by shop four weeks in a row one of those you know challenges that you do across the month that's 50 worth of points that she'll stash away for christmas then i've got a money win from medhi who said i subscribed my partner to ko sports so i could watch the cricket for a dollar a month

Starting point is 00:07:43 otherwise it would have cost me 30 bucks sneaky but definitely a money win i'm assuming they had previously had a subscription you know the email so using those of you know people around you or perhaps your very embarrassing hotmail email that you made 15 years ago when you were in high school would also do the job. Oh my God, clever. Lastly this week, I have a money win from Sarit who said, I did a survey. It was so fun. It didn't take long. And I won $5. It's an important win because every single dollar counts. And I couldn't agree more. Oh my goodness. Well done everybody. Well done guys. Have you got some broke tips for us this week to share as well? I might certainly do. I live in constant fear of the day I say that and you just go, oh, actually, no,

Starting point is 00:08:25 we're not doing it this week and I feel like an idiot. I live in constant fear of that too because it is hard, you guys. It is hard for my producer to find broke tips for me. If you've got a broke tip, we put a thread in our Facebook group every single week. If you're not in the Facebook group, shameless plug, all the good stuff goes in there. So that's where I pull the money wins from. Bec gets her broke tips there as well. So if you use the search bar, you can find the relevant thread. We'd love to share your best ideas. Please. So this first one comes from Jem, who says, every school holidays, I buy a month of different streaming services and my kids enjoy watching new shows and movies for under $20 for

Starting point is 00:09:03 the month. That's so good. It's so worth it when you compare it to trips to the cinema or buying new movies. That's so true. That's really clever. I like that one. That is really clever. You do a little popcorn at home. Totally. And a lot of them you can just get like, just make a new email, get a free trial sort of thing. Clever, very clever. Thank you, Gem. This next one comes from Alana who says, look up what food, fruit slash veg scraps you can plant to regrow.

Starting point is 00:09:28 So you get free food, lettuce, herbs, onions. Some are harder than others to keep alive but so worth it. That is so true. Turns out if you leave some things too just for long enough, like potatoes and garlic, they'll just grow things all by themselves. Totally. Straight in the pot they can grow. Totally.

Starting point is 00:09:47 all you have to do is neglect and you've got a whole meal okay so my one and this one's definitely from me and not our producer ever but she says all i say if you're looking for child care but don't need long days have a search for occasional care options she uses one at her local community center or i use one at my local community center She doesn't need a full day and gets six hours of daycare for $17 after the child care subsidy. Oh, my God. That seems like a bargain. From everything that we've heard about how extensive child care is, that sounds like a great tip.

Starting point is 00:10:25 That's so good. I feel like you could just do that even if you're like, I've just got to have a big nap, you know? So clever. A fat nap. A big, fat nap. I'm going to take my child to daycare for six hours. That's so clever. So thank you so much to myself and to Emma, our producer.

Starting point is 00:10:40 And now that we have that wonderful evidence of exactly why we're not a parenting podcast, I think let's go to a really quick break. When we come back, we're going to chat through all sorts of fun things, including what you should do if you've got an investment property, but you don't actually want to be a landlord and whether you should share your passwords with your partner. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back, everyone. Here's this week's Money Dilemma. Hi there. Have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve? The She's on the Money team is here to help. Every week we tackle your dilemmas, both big and small, to answer your

Starting point is 00:11:15 most burning money, career and life questions. To get involved, simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma. Hi, she's on the money. I moved in with my partner about two and a half years ago. I had a two-bedroom flat which I rented out when I moved in with him. We will get a contracting out agreement which means the house we're currently living in is completely in his name so I have no financial interest in it and that's fine because I don't contribute to any of the costs. I've kept my place as an investment property because we all know a man is not a

Starting point is 00:11:58 financial plan and I need a backup in case things don't work out. However, I'm quite sick of being a landlord, to be honest. I don't like the extra admin it brings, but I do want a safety net. I'm thinking of selling it. I will make a decent profit and I can put that in a high growth investment fund for my future. However, I am worried on the off chance we do break up, I won't have enough of a deposit to buy my own place again. If you could help me, that would be great. Thank you. Firstly, a round of applause. A man is not a financial plan. Absolutely. You can see us sitting here silently snapping. Yes, absolutely. I think that you're absolutely right. Like having some kind of safety net is really important. We obviously don't know

Starting point is 00:12:44 what your financial position is when it comes to this property. Is it positively geared? Is it negatively geared? So are you earning profits on it or are you paying a gap? If you sell it, will you be making a profit? There's lots of things that factor in because if you were to sell your property, totally understand that you don't want to be a landlord. I think a lot of people probably get into that position where they think it's going to be fantastic. We hear a lot of times people saying, oh, I wanted to be a landlord, but I'm paying all this extra money. It's all this extra work. And it's like, that is unfortunately kind of what you signed up for. So it's, I don't think it's uncommon to find yourself in that position. And obviously for a listener, it started

Starting point is 00:13:17 off as, you know, a primary place of residence and now her situation has changed. I think that doing the maths and seeing if you were to sell, would you make a profit is important because if so, then theoretically that profit could become a deposit in future should you ever need it. It would be totally up to you and we really can't look from the outside in and say how likely it is that you'll need that, but you could then choose to invest that excess money. You could keep it aside in an emergency money, you could put it in a high interest savings account. There's lots of different options. But I would say also if you haven't looked into it, if the admin is what's overwhelming, you could look at getting a property manager. You don't have to manage

Starting point is 00:13:54 that property directly. You can pay somebody else to do that for you. I've never been a landlord, so I don't know what kind of difference that makes in terms of how hands on and hands off you have to be as a renter. I know I've had some really shitty property managers, so it could go either way on that one, but it is an option that's available to you. I think it is really important. It is really fantastic that you're thinking about having a backup plan in place because you truly just never know what the future could hold. But as to where you put that money, there are a number of different options. And I think for me, it would really come down to just running the math on everything and figuring out what that looks like. Could you maybe invest some of the profit and not

Starting point is 00:14:33 all of it? If you haven't had one done recently, I would have your property value assessed to give you a bit of an idea of what that might look like. Or you could have an agent come through and give you their thoughts. Keep in mind, sometimes they do blow a bit of smoke because they're trying to secure you know the rights to sell the property having an idea of what that all looks like will hopefully give you a bit of clarity on how much of a buffer you may or may not have if you did choose to sell and step away from that yes because I also think I want to say there's definitely no shame in choosing to step away from what you once thought was like the right path forward because I yeah I think that you've got to do whatever's right for you and yeah there

Starting point is 00:15:10 are a bunch of different options available but that's what I would kind of consider true I also am wondering i don't know what the process is or if this is any different to having a property manager but i know that in sydney for example if you own a house and you let the council or community or government use it as a housing house i know it's different in melbourne there's like there's like housing blocks but in sydney they were just like random houses or apartments or villas or whatever that someone actually owns the landlord owns it but the council or the community or the government is using that as a council housing or community housing spot.

Starting point is 00:15:49 And I feel like in that situation, just from watching my mum kind of like talk to the landlord or property manager or whatever, I feel like the landlord is quite hands-off in that scenario. I don't think I ever heard no hide nor hair from the landlord. Yeah. So I'm like, I'm sure. The government takes on the responsibility potentially or like a department or something.

Starting point is 00:16:11 There must be some benefits to doing that because, like, First of all, I feel like I would like to do that because it's like, oh, you know, I'm doing something good and we don't want any empty houses. It's like a, you know, a housing crisis, but you also kind of like get more of a hands off approach. And I think it depends on the council that you're doing that with or the state you're in or when all those kinds of things. I would have a look into that because I feel like that that is like a really nice middle

Starting point is 00:16:35 ground. It could be a nice middle ground where you're like, I know that was the thing. That's awesome. Like you can be completely hands off and you're also doing something really good. So that is another option. But other than that, I think, yeah, it is good to have a security blanket and a safety net, I guess. But I think if you just had the money and you had it like invested or you had it in a high interest savings account, I feel like that's like, you know, it's a big chunk of money. I think it's for me, it's not advice, but I think that for me that would be plenty for a safety blanket.

Starting point is 00:17:03 but if you just want to keep the house and kind of not do all that admin can you like rent it out to privately to like a friend or a family member you're like hey you can have cheaper rent but you got to do all the repairs yourself or something like that kind of find a way where it's like a little more private you don't have to do too much they can take on all of it and they just pay you rent every week or month or whatever it is is another option but all I would say is proud of you. And yes, man is not a financial plan. Keep that mindset and you're going to be just fine. Yeah, you're right. Like you wouldn't have to, like if something did happen and you found yourself, you know, no longer living with your partner and you did need to move, you could always

Starting point is 00:17:44 rent for a little bit before, you know, if you had renters in your property, for example, in Victoria, it's different in every state, but if your renters are on a lease, you can't just kick them out so that you could move in anyway. So I understand that it might be nice to go, I want to have a safety net of a house there. So if I needed somewhere to go, I could go there. But you actually might not be able to go there in actuality. Anyway, you might have to get a rental property regardless, in which case, if you were to sell it, you could do the exact same thing that you might have to do, get a rental property while you kind of figure yourself out, sell down, you know, the shares or access the money from wherever you've put it after selling your

Starting point is 00:18:23 investment. Totally. And it might be kind of a similar situation because, yeah, just because you have the property sitting there, if there is a tenant in it, unless you're doing short-term rentals or something like that, there's every chance that you won't be able to just move straight in anyway. Yes. Which is also worth considering. But with that in mind, should we move along to this week's juicy DM? Yes, please. It's short but sweet, but also very spicy this week. So our DM said, hi, I have a friend whose partner thinks that he should have the password to her banking account. They aren't de facto. They both live separately, but they have been together for a few years. I'd love everyone's opinions on this. I take it we have opinions to

Starting point is 00:19:06 give. Yeah. I just, what the, what's his reasoning? I want to know what the reason, because like it's not a shared account, there's no reason for this. You don't even need to know how much money someone has in their bank account. That's a crazy request. So I think my thoughts are, I beg your god damn pardon. No, he doesn't need to log in. I would say like, you know, sometimes we're doing something to surprise someone. Like my partner just went away and I said that I really needed her house keys and she was like okay I don't know why but sure and then just like decorate it because it's her birthday blah blah sometimes we're doing these things and we're doing these things that like you don't absolutely don't need that I don't understand why you're asking for that and that's really sus

Starting point is 00:19:53 but you're trying to do something cute I can't imagine a reason how that could work in this case but if it's very sudden and it's very like urgent and it's very sus and there's no real reason for it it could be something like that like maybe there's some sort of competition he's trying to enter for her through her bank yeah I don't know like I'm trying to think of like reasons why he could do it or could be needing it for some sort of surprise but let's say that's not the case and say you're coming up blank because I got nothing yeah me too actually I don't have a single thing in my mind for that but I'm thinking red flag I'm thinking seems controlling seems a little bit like he wants to be in her up in her business up in her business what in a way

Starting point is 00:20:34 that's like sounding I don't know if you've heard the who the hell is Hamish or maybe that's not the one there's a different one very con manny very like I can help you invest and then take all your money very Ponzi scheme so I think unfortunately as always communication is key but really trying to get to the the bottom of what the hell he wants to do in there and if it's invest something ponzi scheme immediately immediately immediately the the urgency of investing her money like she can see like if it actually is legitimate she'll be able to see like oh wow you're getting some good investments i'm not giving you my money maybe separately a little bit here and there i'll put my own money into this thing whatever it is but your assumption

Starting point is 00:21:19 is he wants to invest of her is that maybe i'm thinking it's something to do with that and if there's an urgency to invest someone else's money than ponzi scheme i like i'm very pro like broadly very pro password sharing i've been with my partner for a decade pretty much i know all of his passwords everything he knows all my passwords everything we share a lot of passwords for a lot of things the one thing that i do not have password to for him nor for me is the bank accounts yes because there is simply no reason to like if he said to me hey like how much is in your bank account, obviously I'd more than happily tell him. I mean, honestly, with the house, he's well aware there's not a lot in there. He knows all the ins and outs. We're very open with all of those sorts

Starting point is 00:21:59 of things, but there's just still no reason for either of us to have access. If it's a shared account, totally different story, which we do have a shared account. I've said before, which we use for like bills and groceries and stuff, which we both obviously have access to. But for your own independent bank account there truly is no reason yeah like not a single good reason like I was exactly as you were I was going god puzzling it out trying to think like why what could he want to do with that yeah and nothing good was coming to mind at all and even if it was something good I think to ask that of someone you really need a shred of content please I'm begging as you said I thought big fat red flag yes and did do a quick little google just to see what the thoughts were

Starting point is 00:22:42 on this and so this is coming directly from nab which is obviously one of the big four and they very explicitly say never share your password with someone not even someone you trust yes what about your friends and family regardless of whom you share it with once you share your password you lose control of how it's stored or how or when it's used you may not be covered for fraud one of your responsibilities as a nab bank account owner and a user of the internet banking is to protect your password. Sharing your passwords or pins may affect a claim for any money lost due to fraud.

Starting point is 00:23:13 And I think that is a big, fat, important reminder we need to put in front of that. Yes. Exactly as you were saying, God forbid if he was wanting it for nefarious reasons, if you just happily go, of course, love of mine have my password and he was to do something terrible,

Starting point is 00:23:28 the chances are that you may not be able to recover that money in the same way that you would if your bank account was hacked. Totally, totally. and that's really important to remember. We also saw from a family lawyer, somebody said, one of the first things that we recommend to clients after separating is to consider changing all of their online passwords to everything, even their email accounts. And again, that comes back to that data privacy, data protection, because once you give somebody access to something,

Starting point is 00:23:54 there's no control over what they're doing with it. And like, yes, obviously you can change the password in future, but all it takes is one transaction for them to potentially take it and do something with it that is going to put you in a really horrible position. So I would be saying, ask them why, like, and if they are not giving you a very good reason, because truthfully, I can't, as I said, I can't think of a single good reason. Yeah. If they can't give you a good one, it's a big fat no from me. Absolutely. Completely agree. What did the community say? Let me tell you, we got a lot of responses to this one. So firstly, we did ask a couple of polls. So we said, what would you do if your friend told you that her partner wanted their

Starting point is 00:24:33 password? 6% of you said we'd leave it for her to decide. 17% of you said I would explain the risks to her. Another 17% said I would find out more, but keep an eye on it. And then 60% said I would tell her it's a red flag. I'm shocked that it was only 60%. I know. Shocked. You guys. Next, we said, how do you feel about sharing passwords broadly with a partner? 21% of you said, I'm fine with it if we're in a committed relationship. 46% of you said, I'm only okay with it if we're married or de facto. And 33% of you said, it is a hard no from me. Honestly, every single person said exactly what we said.

Starting point is 00:25:14 They said, it's a huge point of concern. It's a big red flag. There's no good reason. Yes. I could read them to you, but we have about 500 responses that all say the exact same thing. So I'm just paraphrasing it for you here right now. I really just want to hammer home to you guys. If there is not a good reason to share your banking password with someone, if it's not a shared account, there really is no reason. Totally. And I would argue if he said, oh,

Starting point is 00:25:38 like I wanted to set us up to do bills or to do whatever, I would be saying set up a separate shared bank account. You should always, always have access to something that is just yours. god forbid you need your emergency fund whatever you should always have that tucked away in a place that only you can touch and also if you're listening to this can you please update us because i'm dying to know i'm desperate to know as well i'm desperate to know what the outcome is yeah i'm really curious because i i did i thought about it for a while and i just truly couldn't think of anything no interesting yes maybe because it could be like refer a friend no there's no reason you'd need a password for that. That's so true. That's silly. There's nothing. There's

Starting point is 00:26:18 nothing at all. But anyway, hopefully we hear from them. We can report back to you guys. I'm glad that we're all kind of on the same page with that one. If you have any thoughts or concerns, you can always also reach out to like the customer service team at your bank and they can talk you through any risks that might exist. Totally. But I think that's a really good place to leave it for today. What do you think? Yeah, I think so. Well, what a lovely episode it's been. Thank you so much, Jess, Rikki. And well, Victoria, we'll see you bright and early on Monday morning. Bye guys. Bye. the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your

Starting point is 00:26:52 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 divine and she's on the money are authorized representatives of money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.

She's On The Money - Why Owning Property Isn’t Always the Safety Net You Think... And the Relationship Red Flag That Has Us Concerned

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