She's On The Money - Would You Leave Everything Behind to Be Mortgage-Free? And Asking for the Pay You Deserve

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Would you move away from your family, friends, and entire support system just to own a home outright? Well this week’s Friday Drinks is all about big trade-offs, bold moves, and knowing your worth (even when it feels uncomfortable to ask for it). This week, one listener is thinking of quitting her FIFO job and selling her home to move interstate and live mortgage-free... it’s a huge lifestyle shake-up, but is the financial freedom worth it? And we’re also diving into a workplace conundrum that’s way too familiar: what to do when your title, your responsibilities, and your pay are definitely not on the same page... and how to confidently negotiate the raise you know you deserve. Plus, of course, we’ve got all the money wins, juicy confessions, broke tips, and Friday fun you know and love. Ready for more laughs, lessons, and unhinged money chats? Check out our oh-so-bingeable Friday Drinks playlist. Listen here. Join our 300K+ She's on the Money community in our Facebook Group and on Instagram.  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, Kurni, Wolperi and Awadjuri 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 Awadjuri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money. hello and welcome to she's on the money the podcast that makes finance fun especially on

Fridays. It is our favorite day of the week because I get to get my little team together and celebrate you, our incredible She's On The Money community. As always, Ms. Jessica Rucci is going to be sharing our favorite money wins and confessions from the group. Beck, I don't know, maybe you've got three broke tips to share with the community. I don't know. We'll see. Oh, we've got a juicy money dilemma this week, which is all about negotiating a better hourly wage and something that you slid into our DMs about. Should you move away from your family and friends so you can buy a home outright and be completely debt-free. That's a big decision and I just have a lot of questions about how you have enough money to buy a home outright.

What's that look like? We're moving. Yeah, we need to know. Anyway, before we get there, how were your weeks, my loves? It's been good. Nothing exciting happening, just plugging along. Yeah, lovely. How are you? A bit of live, love, laugh. A bit of live, love, laugh. Living my best back energy oh that's so lovely i had gorgeous week i had my boss told all of us to take annual leave just pretty nice and it's kind of like if you want to cancel later boss it's like it's like good for sorry no different boss but um it's good for the company apparently if you put all your leave in and so like i like so they can plan i guess so or it's like it's financially better it's because companies don't like you accruing heaps and heaps of leave yeah because it sits

on their balance sheet as a debt so I as an owner of a business like I've got people in my business and like Jess has some annual leave and it sits in my like my balance sheet as a debt because if Jess leaves I have to pay her out yes yes so it's actually better for the company like if you took some leave because then they get rid of some of that debt but they're just paying your your weekly salary. That makes sense. Well, I just like sprinkled it across the year. And so I just like happened upon some randomly. I'm like the opposite of, you know, smart about my finances when it comes to being a business owner. I'm like, no, I'd never to make you take leave. Don't worry if you're going to bank your leave, bank your leave. If you're going to take your leave, take

your leave. Like, I just feel like that's mean. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. We love a flexible queen. Yeah, absolutely. I just, I hate like side note. I just hate when companies like, yep. So mandatory shutdown period over Christmas. And then you use almost like two weeks of your own bloody leave for their Christmas shutdown period. And then you've only got two during the year to quote spend on new time. Like that just makes no sense to me. No, I agree. I don't like that at all, but I do like running to leave that I forgot I had in my calendar. So yeah, that's fair. I did that. And then my friend held a whole festival for their birthday. So I was just, your friend held a festival for their whole last festival there was like a hundred dollars per head for

two nights camping and so oh my god yes gorgeous gorgeous i'd annually randomly had this festival just been having a great week i don't have enough friends to have a festival if i threw a festival for my birthday it would be me and jess camping that's what they would call it they would just call it camping yeah i'd rather do that in a hotel, if I'm honest. Oh yeah, me too. Me too. Yeah. Like let's not get into that because it makes me seem incredibly out of touch, but you're right. No, I completely agree. But no, so gorgeous week. What about you? Oh, I love that. Nothing interesting to report. Our investing masterclass is open. So I have been spending a lot of time in that, which is really exciting

because as you guys know, I feel like it's not a secret. The investing masterclass is my favorite of all the masterclasses I run. I don't know. It's my hyper fixation topic. Like it's my, the love of my life so I have been focusing on that a lot if you tried to sneak in now maybe you could it's like I was meant to close the doors and stop people signing up but I forgot to turn that off on purpose um so I'll leave that open for a little bit because I keep getting these dms of people saying like oh I've missed out and like I haven't gotten in like maybe you could just catch up and watch the videos that I've already dropped and just catch up but I can't leave it open that much longer because otherwise it's just not fair on everyone who got in early.

Anyway, so that's been happening and keeping me really busy. I'm a bit sad about it feeling colder in the mornings. Like I feel like the coldness is starting to creep back and I can already feel my seasonal depression starting to grow, which I'm not adoring, but I'm trying to work out how I manage better this year than I did last year. So I'm working on that and I'll share updates if I have any. Gorgeous. Yes, please. Yeah. So cozy though. Yeah. See, I need to, I need to reframe it and it's cozy as opposed to cold and wet and miserable. So yeah, I'll work on that. I just need some more Beck energy in my life. Would you guys like to bring up the mood again, a five-star review? Yes, please. I'm excited. This one's from Steph. She says, I've been listening to She's on

the money for years now, and it has properly changed my life, both in terms of my money mindset and in terms of implementing actionable items. I've gone from living paycheck to paycheck when I started listening to having a very healthy superannuation. I actually moved to Australia at 32 and didn't start contributing until 36. Very healthy investments and I saved an entire 20% house deposit all on my own. Wow. I cannot thank these girls enough for how much they inspire women to take charge and better their financial situations. Also, low-key hoping Beck is regularly investing after all this time. Ha ha ha. Well, thank you for your concern. And I am not yet. Do you have your roundups on though? I had to turn them off, unfortunately, but I'm

going to put them back on next pay cycle. But let's do a little Beck check-in actually. How are you going? Are you buying coffees? Are you not buying coffees? I'm still not buying coffees. I was thinking the other day, Beck, when I saw you with a paper cup in hand, I thought I'd caught you. And I said, Beck, is that a coffee that you bought? And you were like, no, someone bought it for me. And I was like, this sneaky little lady. I have, I certainly have. Oh, I forgot my wallet. Oh, I don't have any money for a coffee. Oh, I'm running late. Could you buy me one? Or you just work in our team and our team always like, do you want me to get you a coffee, Beck? Because you're not meant to be buying coffees. And then Beck goes, yes. But you know, I've kind of gotten really

used to the flavor of a French press and I prefer it. It sounds bougier. It does sound bougier. It was like seven bucks from Kmart and I'm pressing this thing down. Don't tell them. Don't tell them the secret. That's true. I mean, do tell them the secret so they can do it as well. But like such money wing for seven bucks from Kmart, that's literally an oat latte in Glen Iris, like be for real.

Genuinely. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. When you put it like that. Yeah. But no, I am investing in sharesies, but I probably do it like once every few weeks rather than weekly or how often I'd like to be doing it.

that is fine. Like that's the beauty of investing, right? You can turn it on and off and work out what works for you. Yes. In a perfect world, you're investing consistently and regularly over time, but like that doesn't work for everybody. I need to just like segue off this for a hot second and like talk more about investing. Was that hard to do? Like, are you just, are you finding it easy to turn on and off your investments or like, cause I think a lot of people go, Oh, I don't want to commit to it because then I'll have to keep doing it and it'll be hard to turn off. no not at all it was so easy plus I don't think I even had roundups on for that long I feel like I just went in because it would it's just like literally a button it's like changing the settings

in your phone right yeah and it's very it was very fun like I I think I I don't even remember when I started it would have been maybe a year ago but somehow I have like I have like 500 bucks in there no you don't actually yeah and I don't even have that much in savings but there's something about like you got $500 invested yeah there's something about like because I like if that was in my savings account I would have so much access to it that would not exist but there's something about like having to withdraw it and I was like I can't I don't know yeah and the bigger it gets the more you're like oh I really can't touch that now yeah yeah like maybe when it was like 50 bucks you'd be like oh it wouldn't matter yeah you're like it's $500 I can't take $500 exactly and you

gotta like sell it from all the different little things you've got it's just too much effort so the best way for me to save, which I know is not ideal. I've got an emergency fund first, but it's just, it just works very well. I'm so proud of you. Imagine like a year ago when you, before you'd started investing and you were like, Oh, I re I remember we like spoke about it. I think in a reel or something, you're like, Oh, I would really like, I want to, it's something I want to do, but I just haven't done it yet. And even if you are turning it on and off, like the fact that you've started and you've left it in there is such a big step. Yeah. Thank you so much. Get it queen. Thank you guys. I love that for you. Yay. Speaking of love, let's move back on to what

we're meant to be talking about on the show. And that is our community. Jessica Ricci, what are the money wins and confessions that you're bringing to the table this week? Oh, right. First of this week, I have one from Rochelle who said money win. I was in Woolworths yesterday and they had nappies on sale for half price. So I grabbed a bag at the checkout. It scanned full price and I kindly mentioned it to the checkout lady. We had a bit of back and forth. She looked into it. And then I got told that because the pricing was incorrect, I now got it for free. Ah, money win. Apparently the same rule applies at Coles, Woolies and Aldi. Rochelle said she would have been happy to just get them at half price, but to get them free is a huge win. And

then somebody commented who worked at one of the supermarkets and said, apparently at the supermarket she works at, you have to specifically mention the free rule. So if this happens to you, it might be worth just mentioning to whoever's checking you out. Oh, does this mean I get it for free? But someone also linked a policy information. So have a look into it. But I was talking to somebody else and this reminds me of that. But like when you said you have to mention it for it to be on it, I was like, that's sneaky, but phone plans. So like when you call up and you're asking your phone company for a better deal, more often than not, they can't give you a better deal. Even if a different company has a lower one, unless you specifically name drop and

go well this other company has it for five dollars less per month at that point they can go okay well we'll match it but they can't match it or drop it unless you like yeah right yeah so good one to keep in mind especially a high tier item nappies are expensive so i think that would have saved you quite a bit do you know what i won't say it's a hidden cost because like you are changing a lot of nappies but like i was shocked at how expensive they are consistently like that you have to get nappies formula all of those things add up like it's just and i'm not complaining at all part of the budget but it's just a lot especially right now yeah so a free one we love that yeah seriously next i've got a money win from rebecca who said my children's daycare were updating their outside

toys and therefore rehoming the old ones to daycare families they scored a cozy coupe and a track for free the kids are obsessed now they don't fight over who gets to go in the car first because they've got one each. Yeah, that's so cute. I love that. I love a cozy coupe. Harvey is obsessed with his. And if you don't get one for free from your daycare, you can pick them up on Facebook marketplace for like 20 bucks. Or if you're like me, you can pick them up on Facebook marketplace for 20 bucks and then spend like a hundred dollars on paint to make it look like a golf cart. Definitely don't need to do that. Second step optional. Next, I've got a money win from Zoe. He said her and her friends are doing a big group trip overseas. She was the

first to book her travel insurance. At the end of the process, she was given a 15% off discount code to share with friends. And then every time someone uses this discount code, she would get a $20 gift card of her choice. So now all her friends get 15% off and she gets all their $20 gift cards. Oh my God. That's so good. She's gamed it. Yeah. Really well done. Genius. And then lastly this week, I've got a money win from Kiani who said she dropped her car off to be repaired in an embarrassingly messy state. That is always me too. Oh my God. I know. She said it was a lovely surprise when she picked it up because it had been freshly detailed. Oh my God. Oh, 300 bucks. Thank you. That is really good. It also makes me low key feel embarrassed. I'm

like, I'm dropping this car off for a service. And then it comes back vacuumed and I'm like, that's so nice, but it's because it needed vacuuming and you probably noticed too. They couldn't avoid. Yeah. Sorry about the empty wrappers, the popcorn, the crumbs, whatever else you found down there oh my goodness well that was a very good wrap of the week jess beck what are your three broke tips so this first one kind of ties into the nappy thing oh perfect kind of not really but anyway i have one from madra who i'm so sorry if i'm saying that wrong who says buy period pants they're the best thing so you don't you have to spend money on tampons pads anymore i feel like if you even like you know moon cups and stuff like that

I was about to add to that. Yeah. I have the period cup from Moxie. I'm obsessed. Yeah. And it's so. I love it. Like it is the love of my life.

Like, and I am not saying that lightly because I know that a period cup isn't for everybody. But for me, that works so well. Like, and I love that it's zero waste. Yeah. Really good for the environment. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

And it's so much easier than you think it is. Like, I think a lot of the time people go, oh, that would be really uncomfortable. like it's not I would make a video on it but the entire Moxie like I don't know if you guys have seen the Moxie TikTok they have like more than a million followers because they do these great educational videos on periods and they're like it's why have you seen like how the period cups fold so like they're silicon and like there's like so many different folds you can do and like yeah you probably do have to get a little bit comfortable with like your own body to do this But like once I worked out the fold that worked for me, we are golden.

We are good to go and it is perfect. There you go. And it's just a one soft purchase. Yeah. And you can wait until the period cup is on sale because I believe it's about $30-ish. And at Chemist Warehouse, this is not an ad for Moxie at all, but like this is, I've tried a lot of them and I like the silicon on this one best because it's like the softest.

Right. Like it just, it squishes more. I don't know how to explain it better than that. It squishes more and it has this, again, weird, but you guys I'm pretty sure 99% of our listeners are female so we're going to appreciate this it has this ribbing at the bottom of the cup so when you're grabbing it to pull out it like has a grip yeah we love a grip it just makes sense so all of that works but they often go on sale at chemist warehouse great to know yeah there you go I was surprised to see that they sell period

undies at the chemist now too because it used to be that you could only get them online it might have actually been Chemist Warehouse. I'm not a hundred percent sure on that, but I definitely have seen them at Chemist Warehouse. Yeah. And I saw period undies in store and I was like, oh, that's so cool. I'm pretty sure I've seen them in the middle aisle, the special buyers at Ali. Of course you would find them there. I love it. I love it. And if you're someone who, I just feel like giving it a crack is a good idea because I think so many times we go, oh no, yes, maybe. And like, I've had this discussion with girlfriends who were like, ew a period cup and I'm like it is the love of my life like this I won't go into it too much but

like I bleed through tampons like it's just not a fun time and this just she's tidy she's nice yeah I can change it in the shower it's a good experience absolutely I love the modibodi undies if anyone wants recommendation modibodi modibodi I think yeah the modibodi ones are the ones that I have as well. Is that the one with an I at the M-O-D-I? Yeah, I think I've seen that. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, gorgeous. They're the only ones I've tried, but they're good. Good to know. Thank you. Oh, I've tried a couple of other brands because I've been very grateful to have been sent them before, but you wouldn't have seen me post about them because like the Modibodi ones, very comfortable. The other ones that I have historically been sent to try kind of feel a little like they

have a plastic lining in them that gives like sprinkle vibes. Yes, I've noticed that. And that's not very fun. No. So like the Modibodi ones don't have that. I feel like they're 100% cotton and very comfortable. Like they don't give that weird feeling. Even like the heavy one, because they do, which I also,

sorry, we've like fully gone off on period talk now, but they do different flow. Like there's a light, medium, heavy or something. And even the heavy duty ones. It doesn't feel like that. Yeah, what I would do at night. I was like, like it feels thicker, but it's still comfortable and it's not crinkly like you were saying.

Yeah. Which I think is good. Yeah. Check them out. I love it. Great to know. How good. Modibodi.

This next one comes from Mill, who says, if you have a chronic condition, you're likely eligible for an enhanced primary care plan. They're amazing. Five government funded visits with an allied health professional example, exercise physiologist, things like that. So that's great to know if you are currently suffering from or struggling with a chronic health condition. Definitely check that out.

Yeah, very cool. And then this last one obviously is from myself, aka my friend. so a cheaper alternative for your soda streams of the world billy bubbles soda gas refills at your doorstep i recommend just having a little google because soda stream i love a soda stream but i don't think i'm spending i know it's really bad for the environment but i think i'm i'm not drinking enough soda water or soda drinks to kind of like justify that i am i absolutely am bubbly water all day, every day. We call it spicy water in our house. And like, I swear it's the primary type of water I drink. Yeah. It's my favorite. I love sparkling water, but I just don't know if

I'm yet drinking enough to warrant that. But I think if you are, or if you have a SodaStream, you're just very environmentally conscious and you can afford it. Yeah. Do check out this other one. It is. Yeah. Cause they do the refills that fit in the SodaStream and they're just cheaper and they drop it to your door and that's a win. Easy. I know that because I use them. BillyBubbles.com. There you go.

Well, good work. There you go. All right. Well, let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, you and I are going to have a deep discussion about negotiating a better hourly wage rate. And you guys slid into our DMs this week about should you move away from your family and friends so that you can buy a whole house outright

and live completely debt-free, which I need a lot of context here. So, guys, don't go anywhere. Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a listen to 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 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. Hello, she's on the money. I would love to ask a question about negotiating

a new hourly rate. So I'm an earth mover, been an earth mover for four years. I love it. I love the money. I love everything about it. But I'm listed as a labourer at the moment, which is a CW3. And I've just been gifted my very own machine, which is a CW5. There's a massive difference in the hourly wages there, which I would love to be able to ask my boss if I can negotiate something in the middle. A CW3 and a CW5 has got roughly $20 to $25 different an hour. That's a lot of money I'm losing each week and each year. Is there any little way that you've got that i can maybe ask my boss in regards with negotiating a new hourly rate thanks love you guys oh i love you too oh my goodness oh my goodness do you i'm not even gonna jump in here back what

should she do well actually this is great this is great timing because i literally just asked my boss yesterday i didn't ask for the exact same thing i just said how do i go about doing this and then she said if you come prepared and i feel like victoria you would say this is a similar thing yeah it wasn't me i'm not the boss she asked no different boss come prepared with your which i don't really like i don't really like this i feel like the cost of living right now is so expensive it should just but kind of be by default but you come prepared with your performance you know like why you are deserving and all this kind of thing why am i deserving to be able to afford bonsai over home brand soy milk ridiculous I don't like it anyway I'm literally getting my head is getting

tight right now I'm very angry so I don't think that anyone needs to do that but if that's what you're gonna do if you're just gonna play the game to try and like get by and live a little bit more of a comfortable life yeah I think I would just kind of do that I don't really know if that's I've never really done this I'm not really the I would always say obviously come prepared it annoys me that your boss is like well come prepared with your performance she kind of she Hold on, are you not my manager? Do you not know my performance? I know, I know.

I don't know. I just have a lot of thoughts and feelings about things like that, which we will leave for another time. We've done whole episodes on negotiating your salary, which honestly, Bec, you should go and listen to. Some of them were pre-you being on the show. And that could actually benefit you. I know Jess is probably going to have an answer similar to mine

because, I mean, we've worked together for like five years now, which is insane just what would you do so it sounds like within your role there's obviously clear guidelines as to what categorizes you into the different things like obviously you've said that you've been given your own machine which is really exciting so that puts you in the higher category w5 i would just cross check that you're ticking all of the other markers for a w5 because typically when you have salary bands like this it's outlined um yeah there's like what's the Award, that's it. Or like bands.

Yeah. There might be a job description or something. Maybe you know somebody at that higher job description that could provide you with their job description so you could like cross-check before you go to your manager. There's a really good guide to awards on the Fair Work website. There's actually a huge document that outlines every award that exists. So you can go to there and you can search by award or you can search by job. It's like there's a lot of different ways you can filter it. And you can go through and you can find specifically what the W-5 is. Cross-check

that you're ticking all the markers. If you're ticking all the markers, I would say don't negotiate. Oh, we're not negotiating. Go for W-5, babe. Like go for that. We're not just going for it. We're just letting our boss know. I think there's been an issue and I'm meant to be on W-5. I actually, I felt bad about it. I checked absolutely everything and I am. So could you just fix that up and see how that conversation goes? Cause that's a different conversation than negotiating to be on a rate that you should already have been on. And then get, that's a great idea because now they're in the position where they have to then tell you you're not. And then explain why you're not deserving of that or why you do not fall by for that. So am I not doing

the capabilities that I already cross-checked and confirmed that I do? That's great. Did you want me to not do those things here in this business? Yeah, actually take some things off my plate in that case. Yeah, weird. It does change the dynamic and I think as women, we automatically go, I really should talk to them about this or, you know, in the nicest possible way I should negotiate it. Hold on. There are some things that aren't about negotiating, which we should have as a good skill. There are some things that we actually need to just back ourselves and be like, hey, business, like this is actually incorrect and you need to fix it and then let them squirm. Yeah. Yeah. But I, as you said, come prepared, do all your due diligence,

make sure you are to heal those boxes. If you're not to heal all the boxes for W5, then maybe you can aim for somewhere in the middle or do exactly as Beck did and say, hey, like what do I need to do to get there? Yes. But yeah, just approaching them. Also you and I, we can sit down later, Bec, and we can work out what you can say to your other boss about getting that pay rise. Thank you. I will literally be like, okay, cool. So this is what you're going to take. The first thing I'm going to tell you to go and find is the Hayes salary guide. So that's downloadable online for free, massive PDF. You're going to have to control F to find your job. Sure. But my favorite thing about that guide is it's, I think it is the biggest recruitment

guide in Australia. And when I say biggest, I mean, it has the biggest sample size. So the most amount of like people in it, thousands, but you can control F your job. And then once you find your job, you can then look at it based on the different states and territories and then the years of experience and what your salary should look like. H-A-Z-E? H-A-Y-S, HAYS, HAYS salary guide. and yeah, go from there. That's something that I've been recommending for years. And it's something

that I use, you know, if I'm looking at pulling a new role into the business, I'm looking everywhere. I'm looking on seek, I'm looking on LinkedIn, I'm checking other job descriptions, making sure that, you know, one, I'm capturing everything I need to, but is the salary reflective? And then I go to the Hayes salary guide and work out what would be reasonable and what is like not. And even if someone comes to me and says like, oh, I would want salary X, but my salary is higher. I'll be like, well, your salary is actually worth more. Sorry. Like I'm not going to pay you less just because you suggested less. Like I'd be so embarrassed. So yeah, that for me is like, I wouldn't say the golden ticket, but a really cool tool. And if you want to, you could say to

your manager and like, this is just side advice. We could write a really nice email that outlines everything and says, Hey, yep. I took your advice. I've gone and done my research. I've gotten all of my stuff together. I wanted to provide you all this information before our meeting. Here's all the information on my performance. Here's how I have excelled. Cause sometimes these conversations are really hard to have in person. Like, cause you like might fumble it or be really anxious, right? So we're going to do this nice email. Also I've checked the Hayes salary guide. I've attached it for your convenience and my salary could be or should be about here let's have a meeting next week to discuss all of this so they're getting all of the information that

they need and know what you're asking for to begin with and it's literally what we were saying before about this c5 thing we're putting the control back in your hands because they're going to have to come back and be like no you don't do these things but what you think it was a five minute email. No, that was a very well researched email to make sure that I'm not sending you a hopeful. I'm being like, Hey, cool. You told me to look at my performance actually did. And I'm above and beyond. Yeah. Yeah. They have to come back and say, Oh no, we can't and whatnot. But it puts you in a much stronger position. Gorgeous advice. Say less baby. Yeah. I love that. Thank you. That is okay. Moving on. Juicy DM. And I say juicy cause I'm just like, how can you afford

a house outright. So would you like to hear it? Yes, please. Hey, she's on the money. We are currently renting out our property to live closer to my work while the kids are young, FIFO worker. It was never our dream home, but it's a good house with nice memories. Now prices have boomed and there's a lot of equity sitting in it. If we sold today, we'd walk away with 600 grand cash after expenses. The thing is, do we sell and buy something else in that budget to be debt-free? To buy the property we actually want, we'd need to move interstate away from family and friends as that's where homes in our price range are. But being debt-free could mean quitting FIFO and being around the kids more while living in a dreamy location. All the investment strategies

say to use the equity to buy something else and keep renting it out, but it's not a good rental. It costs more than it makes. And then we just have more debt. What would you guys do? I wouldn't ever prioritize. It really is a struggle because both what I was about to say was like, I wouldn't prioritize something over lifestyle or like, but then I guess either scenario is lifestyle. It's like spend time with your family and don't have to work as much and move away from your friends and all that kind of stuff. But I'm just sure there's a middle ground. Say, for example, we're here in Melbourne. I could not, with that money, be able to afford a four-bedroom house in Brunswick, but maybe I could in Reservoir. I'm not that far away from

my friends and maybe I'm not buying it outright. Maybe I've just got a $200,000 mortgage. I don't know if that's actually how it works, but a smaller mortgage, you don't have to buy it completely outright. Just get something that's maybe even a little bit more than that and you can be close to your friends and family you don't have to work as much you spend time with your kids like everything's good maybe just get like a part-time job also like not working at all might not that that's what they're suggesting but it sounds great but when you're sometimes when you're on your leave for too long you're like I'm desperately bored and sad and lonely and so there might be this nice balance in between that we're not looking at so you know have a look at

places around you just slightly outside your zone but you're close to your friends still and you're close to your lifestyle you're close to the schools and you're close to everything you know and even if you need a little mortgage it's okay am i is that right am i right in saying that is that a possibility that you get a little mortgage something yeah cool yeah it's all dependent on what they purchase so it's as she's saying our listeners saying that they to purchase a home within their price range they're meaning within the cash that they have so at around the six hundred thousand dollar mark yeah obviously we don't have any context as to where you live or any insight into you know what the distance is and what the price is you know can you move the

example you gave here back as you move you know maybe half an hour away from your ideal location but the price range drops significantly we don't really know what that looks like for a listener yes that's um i would say you need to consider how reliant you are on your network like your family and your friends yeah because if you're someone who has you know mom and dad look after the kids a couple of days a week we're having dinner you know once or twice a week with our friends we've got all our regular catch-ups I think moving away from that would be a lot whereas if you find that because you're FIFO perhaps you're already a little bit more isolated the move may not be as taxing on you or it may not be as hard to move away from that circle it's really

going to depend on like how closely I guess you're leaning on everybody you said that your ideal or dreamy location in my mind I'm picturing you moving to like a beach somewhere right like you're moving from like a city or a countryside town to like a beach or something like that. And so I guess you also have to weigh up like the lifestyle that you would live in this new location, again, against the loss of your proximity to friends and family starting over. It might be exciting for you. Like you might like the challenge. You can make new friends in new places. Like it's not as if you move away and you never talk to anybody ever again. Family is a little bit trickier, obviously, but it really depends on you and your situation. I agree though. I think that

being debt free is a really great appealing thing. And I'm sure many of us would love to never have any debt when it comes to our property. But if you have that $600,000 in cash, you could potentially take a small loan with very minimal repayments compared to what you would are paying currently and have that middle ground where maybe you're still within the state or driving distance. Maybe you're a couple hours away from the people you love, but also in a property that you love as well. Yes. I feel like we don't have enough details to really be able to fully, do you know what I mean? Yes. I totally get it. I've been looking at it and thinking about it and you've just told me that essentially you have $600,000 in equity. Get financial advice. Go sit

down with a financial advisor and talk about your lifestyle goals what you want to achieve what that's going to look like you know that you do want to work less what income requirements you have in the future like just being completely debt-free doesn't mean you don't need income coming in the door like just because you have a house fully paid off doesn't mean you never work a day in your life again unfortunately yeah so what does that look like because a financial advisor could sit down and be like okay cool well let's do some projections and as an ex-financial advisor, this was one of my favorite things. Like we would do projections based on different scenarios. So then we could pick the scenario that made the most sense based on that projection.

So we could project you staying in that property. We could project you renting out that property. And I know that you're saying, oh, that property costs more than it does yield in rental income, which is fine. But like, what would that property be worth in the future? What are your capital gains on that property? What are the selling costs? Back to what you were saying, Jess, what would childcare look like? All of those additional things. Because yes, you want more freedom and flexibility, but just being completely debt-free today might not actually put you in the wealthiest position long-term. Debt-free, fantastic. Sounds incredibly sexy. But if you've got 30 plus years of working left, are we investing? How are we creating long-term wealth? Because extinguishing

debt doesn't necessarily mean that that's the best decision for you. Like I know that with my mortgages, if you just extinguished one today, that like, great, no worries. I'd love to be quote debt-free on my mortgage. But like, what am I doing with that income that's coming in now? Like that would be the question. If I don't have a mortgage, how am I creating wealth? Like, am I investing it in the share market? Am I buying another property? Am I building another business? Like what do all these things look like? That's the question. Not should I just move and be completely debt-free. Yes, you would get more time with kids. And I totally get that because as a mom, I want to spend the most amount of time with my baby, but I also need to pay his

school fees in the future. I also need to create a lifestyle where my husband and I can comfortably retire so that maybe one day when Harvey decides to have kids, I can afford to give childcare to my kids. Like there's a lot to think about and that's probably not the sexiest of answers. but if you are telling me that you have $600,000 in equity in your property, I promise you have the cash to pay a financial advisor to be in the best possible position. That's a great point. What did everybody else say? Okay. So there was a lot of opinions. So first question we asked, what would you do if you're in this situation? 45% of you said I'd sell and be debt-free. 28% of you said sell and

get a new mortgage. 23% of you said hold and use equity to invest and 4% of you said keep renting and wait it out. We then asked, would you move interstate away from friends and family if it meant being mortgage-free and quitting FIFO to be with your family? 26% of you said yes, it would 100% be worth it. 46% of you said maybe it would be a hard call and 27% of you said no, I could never leave my support system. We then said, what is your two cents? And we had a number of good comments. So first comment said, FIFO is very challenging as a lifestyle. I've been doing it for nine years. It's not for the faint hearted. That's a great point. Very true. But also what does that lifestyle exchange look like? So yes, you're changing FIFO and it is not for the

faint hearted, but often with FIFO, you've got like five on five off or whatever that might look like, is that a value to you? Like, are you enjoying that flow? Do you know what I mean? There's just so much to weigh up. Someone else said, just toss a coin. The disappointment or the euphoria you feel at the answer is going to tell you. Oh, great call. I do like that. That's why I said it that way. That's why I said it that way. I think I did it funny. Next person said, it's important to weigh up the other costs of living away, which might not just be financial. Another person said, my husband and I are working in the defense force. We'd sell and move in a heartbeat for more family time. It's fair. Another person said,

we moved. We're never going back. We love our new home and our disposable income to visit our family when we need, which is really cute. I have two more to share with you. The next one is you won't have that time back with your kids. If you're debt-free, maybe you could save again. And the last person said you need to consider what the job market in that new area looks like great point yeah great point that's good and i feel like that's a really great place to leave it interesting question not as juicy as i thought i was like what are you doing to be completely outright and the answer ended up being equity which honestly makes a lot of sense but like yolo anyway it has been a good episode obviously love hanging out with you guys but we'll see you next week bright

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