She's On The Money - Your money story

Episode Date: June 25, 2019

WELCOME to She's On The Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. She's On The Money is a no-judgement zone. We're not here to make you feel bad, or like you're behind. We're here to make you feel included. Like money is something you SHOULD be talking about, from saving, to spending, to why the hell investing isn't just a man's game anymore. We've got a Facebook group you can find here where you can share your missteps and success stories. We've got an Instagram page that'll keep you motivated. And we've got a newsletter that'll get you across what you need to know. 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 only and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Consultum Financial Advisers Proprietary Limited ABN 65 006 373 995 | AFSL 230323.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My name's Annabelle Lee. I'm a law student who really wants to lift her game when it comes to all things money and i feel like it's not just me that's why i've pulled in my friend and the very best money expert i know victoria divine to help us through the next 12 weeks she's on the money is a no judgment zone we're not here to make you feel bad or like you're behind we're here to make you feel included like money is something you should be talking about from

saving to spending to why the hell investing isn't just a man's game anymore we've got a facebook group where you can share your missteps and success stories we've got an instagram page still keep you motivated. And we've got a newsletter that will get you across everything you need to know. But we'll get to all of that very soon. First of all, Victoria, you should probably get in on here as well. I think I've said enough for now. Who are you and why are we here? Hi. Hello. I'm Victoria Devine. I'm 27 and I am a financial advisor. So what makes you so passionate about women and finance? We are in 2019 and women are increasingly out earning men, yet we don't have the...

Yeah, girls. Yes. But we don't have the tools and resources available to us to put us in positions where we are not going to be disadvantaged. Right. So we're a part of this conversation too. 100%. You started She's On The Money a while ago.

Why was that? Because I'm wildly passionate about empowering women with the knowledge, tools and resources to become financially independent. I think young women feel disempowered around money conversations because they're in a position where finance has never been a topic that they've needed to focus on we don't learn it in school we often we don't learn it from our families when this should be common topic we should be talking about money we should be in a position where empowering ourselves financially to be not financially free but just financially empowered is so important young women need to know this now

because of the impacts it can have 30 40 50 years down the track if we start now it's tiny baby steps that we need to to make to create a secure financial future whereas if we get to 50 55 and we're thinking about oh what are we going to do when we retire it's a little bit too late so it's important to teach younger women about this before maybe they're earning their peak income absolutely because if we can set good money hammots up front we can look at our finances holistically and we can increase our savings as we increase our earnings as opposed to increasing our lifestyle so lifestyle creep is massive and if you are earning $60,000 right now and you know your income's about to go up to $70,000 I'm sure you're already planning what that 10 grand is going to

purchase you instead of saying a car maybe a holiday maybe you've got July Europe FOMO and you want to be in a position where you're doing that too I think it's really important to be in a position where you can say all right these are my values around money these are my beliefs this is what I'll be doing as my income increases. I can totally increase how much I'm saving or investing or putting towards a cause that's really important to me. So that leads perfectly into today's episode. We're starting with money stories. What are they and why do they influence how we spend and how we save? But first, Victoria, let's kick things off by sharing a money win or money confession from the week. What have you got for me? Oh no. That's never good when you start with

It's a money win. It's not a money confession. Great. This weekend, I ran out of time. I had to cancel my hairdresser appointment because I had to do some work. And I have a couple of gray hairs that make me a little self-conscious. So I wanted to cover them and decided that potentially a packet dye was something I wanted to try out. And so I went down to Kohl's and I purchased a $12 hair dye.

And it has worked out perfectly, saving me $150. can confirm looking at Victoria's hair right now it's perfect it looks great for now let's see if this silicon mess is going to create a nightmare later what is your money win or confession mine is a money win this week which I feel like is going to be rare so it's kind of a sad money win though every week I need to fill up my petrol tank because I drive quite a bit to work and I always push it almost to an empty tank because petrol is so bloody expensive these days you are me you are me five years ago but I so I'm driving past all of these petrol stations and they're so expensive and I'm like I can make it home until next week when the price of petrol is probably

maybe lower probably not actually but my car starts making all these really weird noises and I'm like oh no I'm gonna be stranded in the middle of this busy road and then I see in the far distance there's a petrol station and it's four cents cheaper than all the others and I'm like I've lucked out. This is a money win. But yeah, as I said, kind of sad because I'm just such a Stinge. I don't know if that's sad or really impressive. I haven't decided yet. It's sad. I've determined it's sad. It's just such a uni student thing to do. I like it. Yeah. Put that in the bucket with some me goreng. Me goreng. Okay, so now that we've established I'm Stinge and you've got great hair, let's get into the show. We all have a money story, right? What is

a money story and why is it so important? So a money story is our underlying beliefs and values about what money actually means to you as a person. And is childhood and family kind of important when it comes to determining someone's money story? Absolutely. So everything in your money story usually comes as a product of the experiences that you've had in life. So childhood, upbringing, the way your parents approached money, the way your friends approached money, potentially whether you grew up in a wealthy family or not such a wealthy family is going to shape the way you approach money today? Yeah I know for me my parents immigrated to Australia from China when they were like really young 20 years old and they had no money and then when my

sister and I came along it made it a lot harder for them financially and we definitely observed that even though they tried to shield us from you know any financial hardship. Yeah. It was really clear that we didn't necessarily have all the money in the world to buy all the frivolous things and buy toys and there were even times when we would go grocery shopping in Chadston and my parents would be like hey do you want a snack like let's go get some sushi or like let's get an ice cream and me and my sister would be like no we'll just wait till we get home even if we really wanted something because we just knew even though my parents wanted to treat us and spoil us we knew that it wasn't really in their means to do that. So what should listeners be thinking

about when it comes to their money stories? I think it's really important to just acknowledge that we all have a money story and that money story is not a product of our own doing. I think it's really important to say okay i have a money story this is just my start position where can i go from here what are some patterns you see with your clients then with regards to their history with their money and their relationship with how they spend it now so i think it's really interesting when talking to my clients about their money stories where they've come from so you know i might be talking to a client who's in a lot of debt and they're just unsure of why they've gotten to this stage and when you sit them down and go all right well let's have a chat how'd you grow

what does that look like um they grew up in a really wealthy family where money was never an issue it wasn't really talked about credit cards were a really easy thing and potentially when they were growing up that was a really fine position to be in because both of their parents had a quite high salary whereas now they're you know earning fifty thousand dollars as a graduate salary they're in a position where they've you know the bank sent them a invitation to apply for their first credit card and they thought wow cool awesome this is my time to shine and they have gotten themselves into a whole heap of debt without really realising the impacts of it because it was never an issue growing up. Whereas I have a number of other clients who are, you know,

in quite impressive roles, they're lawyers, they're doctors and they are living really frugally because they're really worried that, you know, a rainy day is going to come and they're going to need it for that so they aren't actually achieving the goals that they say they want to achieve because they're withholding the cash for themselves. That's definitely what I do. Even though I'm not earning a lot I'm still a student I feel like I save a lot and I'm a good saver even though I have no idea what to do with my money because I feel like I need a safety blanket because I feel like I put myself in the position of my parents when they were 20 and they came to Australia with no money and they didn't have any support from family or they didn't have any friends here so they knew

that they had to be saving for themselves and for their family and that's kind of I feel like I'm in that mindset even though I have supportive family and friends that would be able to help me if anything ever did happen but I want to be able to rely on myself. 100% and if you've just said that a safety flanker is something that you value that's your value no one can argue with that just because it's a part of your money story and that's where you learned that value I think it's really important to say well you know what I went through these experiences and my parents had these experiences but now I just feel empowered because I've got some money sitting in the bank that if I don't have an income for some period of time I'm going to be okay. And I'm really glad and grateful

that I have that value. I'm really glad that I did go through that and my parents did go through that and that my sister and I observed their hardship because I feel like it's helped me understand that money doesn't come easily. You work hard for your money and you should spend within your means. Absolutely. I think it's really interesting that you say that because so many people have different values and that's just it, right? Personal finance is just that. It is personal and your experience of money and your experience of life is going to be different to mine and it's going to be different to every single person that's listening to this podcast and that's okay what you value and having a safety blanket is really important to you but it might

not be important to the next person and that's totally okay so is it possible to retrain yourself when it comes to money like how can you start if you're listening to this and you're realizing you have a bad family history with money can someone do something to change that absolutely you can change your money story if you choose you can change the way you approach money and you can change your money story but the first thing you need to do is acknowledge where your money stories come from sit down have a think about your beliefs have a think about your values and work out what they are and where they've come from because if you don't know where you're coming from you're not going to know where you want to go I think I've kind of done that my parents always ask me

whether I'm buying myself nice things because I feel like they're they're aware that I was aware as a kid of their financial hardships and maybe I'm a bit too hard on myself and I'm saving maybe too hard even though is that is there such thing I'm really impressed that you are as young as you are and you're saving really hard but in saying that if you think that your beliefs are getting in the way of your goals I think then it's time to have a bit of a think about it but until then I think if you're saving and putting money away and you're happy with that go for it so we know the way you approach money is probably largely dependent on your money story right what's the way that listeners can test their financial health right now? I think the easiest way to test your

financial health just really quickly is something that I've been doing with clients for a little while now and that's to write down four figures. So if you're listening and you want to do this write down the following four figures earn, spend, own and owe. So the first thing you want to do is write down the figure that you earn and that shouldn't be too hard if you don't know your salary package potentially look on your pay slip or have a look on your last year's tax return then what you spend so having a look at what you're spending each month I'm not asking you to go through a super detailed budget and outline to the cent what you are spending on different things I'm just saying do you know on average what you are spending each month are you spending

$500 less than your income are you spending $300 less than your income are you in a position where you're saving $1,000 a month do you know that figure if not now is the time to find out what you own is really important to figure out because that is going to be what creates your net wealth. And we'll talk a lot more about that in the next couple of weeks. But net wealth is what's going to ultimately support you into retirement and through the rest of your life. But what you own is really important. So I'm not talking if you have a nice car or not, because I don't actually classify that as a wealth investment. But, you know, how much money have you got in super? How much money have you got in savings have you purchased a home yet are you in a position where

you own something that is going to contribute to your wealth moving forward and then what you owe so do you have any personal debt do you have a credit card do you have a personal loan have you got a mortgage the important thing here is that owe changes depending on what phase of life you're in you could be 28 and you've got your first mortgage and you are up to your eyeballs in $500,000 worth of debt. But is that debt actually contributing to your future? Yes, a mortgage absolutely is. Whereas someone who's just gotten back from Europe and has a $20,000 bill on their credit card potentially isn't helping themselves. So is there a percentage that people should be looking at? Look, I'm going to straight out say that I think that if you are in a position where

you are saving and you are investing, 20% is a really good number to aim for. So 20% often sounds like a really hard pill to swallow because it is. If you're in a position where you have been in your job for a couple of years, you've probably worked out a way to spend all of the money that you've earned. And I think that that's an okay position to be in. I'm not saying tomorrow you have to be saving 20%, but if you can work towards saving 20%, you're going to be in a significantly better position 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years into the future. But in saying that, it's really important to realise that 20% can be a really unreasonable figure for some people. So if you are in a position where you're earning $35,000, you're in your first job, that is an absolutely unreasonable

amount of your income to be saving. You've got rent, you've got bills, you've got things to pay and to put an expectation over the top of someone in that position is completely unreasonable. whereas if you are in a position where you are earning $300,000 a year saving 20% should just come naturally and if it's not you really need to be sitting down and saying all right how have we gotten to this point. So what can our listeners do with those four figures? So those four figures tell us a lot about your financial health so the first two figures earn and spend tell us whether you are spending more money than you're earning or you're earning more money than you're spending it's quite simple we want to be in a position where we are spending less than we are earning

it sounds pretty simple but it's actually a really hard thing to achieve you might think that each month you are doing a really good job because you're breaking about even but if you look at it on the grand scheme of things on a yearly basis you could actually be spending you know a thousand or two thousand dollars more than you've actually earned and that it's not a recipe for disaster but it's on the wrong track especially if you've got like a credit card absolutely and sometimes you think all right well I really want to go to this music festival I'm just going to put these tickets onto my credit card and I'll sort it out later you will sort it out later but you know if you look at it in the grand scheme of things that might be three or four hundred dollars

more than you actually earned in that year and is that something that you want to do like is that in line with your values are you putting yourself in the best possible position to create wealth long term I think something that's really important here is saying you know what I don't want you to be in a position where we know exactly down to the cent what we are spending each month but if you were a listener who went oh I actually don't know what I spend I think something that you could do in the next week is print out one of your bank statements grab a highlighter and highlight all of the things that were personal spending so I'm not talking about bills I'm not talking about rent highlight the things that you were spending money on that might not be aligned

to the necessities of life so what things are you putting your money on and then work out what you have spent the most money on in that month and then that will tell you what your values are so if you spent the most on going out that to me is what you value the most if not change it change what you're spending so those necessities of life are different for everyone so you'd need absolutely absolutely so necessities of life for me would be rent and bills and you know the cost of my car and fuel and things that I need to get to work and to get through life. Things that I am spending money on that aren't essential are hairdresser appointments and getting my nails done and going out for brunch with my girlfriends. And whilst I love those things, those are discretionary. Those

are things I don't need to be spending money on. And I really need to have a look at whether those things are actually helping me achieve my goals or setting me back a little bit. As much as we want to spend time with our friends and go for brunch. Is it actually helping me? And in the bigger picture, is it actually helping my friend? Should we be doing something different together? I'm not saying put on your friend your financial values, but like is like. Often you will circulate with people who are very similar to you in finance. So is it a good idea to sit down with a friend and be like, hey, we go out for brunch every Sunday. Do you want to go for a walk and grab a coffee instead? Great. So for everyone listening, you and I are going to write down

our four figures get a highlighter out and highlight all the things victoria just told us about and then i want you to go onto our facebook group and tell us the most glaring thing that you're spending your money on that you didn't know you were so go onto facebook type in she's on the money and come join our lovely community hi there you've called the she's on the money hotline. Do you have a money problem you want help solving? Do you have a money dilemma you just want to chat about? Victoria is here to help. Every week, we'll be playing your hotline questions to help make sense of a money mess you may have found yourself in. Give us a call on 0435 293 886, and you might find yourself on the show. But for now, here's Jacinta.

hi she's on the money my problems with money began when i got married at 21 my husband and i bought a house but the marriage crumbled 18 months later and we sold it leaving me with 40 000 in my bank account i was never taught what to do with money as a child so i spent it all within two years taking myself on lavish holidays and shopping trips that time of my life ruin my perspective of money. A decade later, I haven't been able to save anything close to that amount back up. I have $5,000 to my name and seem to continually live above my means. What can I do to retain myself on how to save? Thanks so much. Seems like Jacinta needs a total financial reboot here. What's the very first thing you'd do if you

were in her situation? I think she needs to acknowledge that she's not in that terrible of the situation. She's got $5,000 in her account and that is so much better than most women in Australia, to be honest. If she's feeling disempowered and wants to change her ways, though, there are a heap of things that she can do. So first things first, we just spoke about what you earn, what you spend, what you own and what you owe. So Jacinta, go away, write those figures down and work out exactly what you are spending. What's your financial health look like actually are you in a position where you own more than you owe and I think that from what we've heard from Jacinta she actually is so I think Jacinta needs to have a look at that and go wow

I'm actually in a position where I'm a positive net wealth it might only be five thousand dollars but that's really impressive that is a position so many people would envy to be in the second thing she can do is go through her bank account like we mentioned and work out what she's actually spending it sounds like she doesn't have a hold on what she's actually spending each month and where it's going but it also sounds like she doesn't have some solid goals to work towards and that's really hard like that's a really hard position to be in because why would I be saving and why would I be you know allocating funds to something if I don't have a specific goal in mind and I don't know what I'm working so it's like you may as well spend yeah you may as well spend

like I've got $500 in my account I know I'm going to get paid in three weeks it doesn't actually matter if I spend that $500. But it does because you need to work out what your goals are, where you're going, what you want to do. Do you want to buy a home? Is that something that you want in the future? If not, that's totally cool. But do you want to retire? Retirement is such a boring thing to talk about because it seems so far in the distance. It is something that, you know, seems quite elusive. And, you know, you've got 40 or 50 years to still work. And, you know, people are talking about how the retirement age is going to change to be 17. You're like, wow, that's a million years off. Why should I care about it now? Why should you care about it

now? Because if you're investing $500 a month from the age of 21, you'd be a millionaire by the time you were in retirement. That's crazy. So I think that the impact of taking some small steps today is actually going to have a massive impact on your future. Whether you're starting right now at the age of 21 or you're starting at the age of 35, you can still have that massive impact on your financial future so another thing Jacinta can do is automate her transfers so if she's saying I'm bad with money I don't know what I'm doing make it not your responsibility so I'm not saying don't take responsibility for the situation you're in but stop the part of you that wants to spend money and go out stop that person from having access to those funds so sit

down and say all right I earn four thousand dollars per month this is where that four thousand dollars each month is going to go this is what I have to spend on friends and family and going out this is what I have to spend on bills automate any payments that you can so if you can pay a bill by a direct debit do it put it into a bank account change your banking structure so that you're in a position where all of your income comes into one account all of your bank bills come out of that and you allocate yourself a certain amount of spending money per week and if you go over that well it looks like noodles for the rest of the week because you can't have any more than that. I think putting yourself in a position where you are empowered financially but also constrained by

certain figures is really important when trying to achieve goals because short-term gratification is always such a stronger feeling than long-term gain. Would you recommend setting up like a rainy days bank account? Absolutely and it sounds like Jacinta's in a position where she has set that up she said she had $5,000 to her name but I think it's really important to realize that savings and a rainy day fund are not actually the same thing so savings are something that you put aside to go towards a larger goal whereas a rainy day fund whether that's a thousand dollars two thousand dollars or in Jacinta's case five thousand dollars that fund is there if you're ever in a position where you need to access funds quickly but not draw down on the savings so you're still on track

to make your goals a reality. I think I've conflated the two. Yeah look a lot of people do and I think it's something that is really common. It's not unusual to say well I've got savings I'll just dip into those when I have financial hardship. On a rainy day you might need that entire $5,000. Exactly and then you're back at ground zero. So where do we start from? I think it's really important to differentiate the two. If we've got a rainy day account and we've got a savings account those two things to me personally are different said it a million times personal finance is just that it's personal but if you're in a position where you can create a rainy day fund where if you find yourself in a position where you don't have income for a month or you have a really large

unexpected cost those things aren't going to impact you achieving your goals long term and maybe a rainy day's bank account might be different for someone with kids yes absolutely so I I'm in a position where I don't have any dependents I don't have any kids borrow a cat I treat like a kid and my rainy day fund is far less than most of my clients because I know that that's enough for me to survive financially pay my bills pay my rent make sure I'm in an okay financial position for three months whereas someone with kids might have to factor in child care costs children's fees medical whatever your you know whatever is a part of your story into that fund so my fee or my costs are a bare minimum whereas someone else's might be you know a lot more cushiony so ultimately it

actually looks like Jacinta you're in a position where you're lacking a little bit of direction you might not know what your goals are what your values are and I think to me that's the most important thing to work out this week sit down work out where you want to be in five years where you want to be in 10 years and what you want to do for the rest of your life I'm not saying these things can't change because they always do. But if we can't create direction for ourselves, it's very hard to change our situation. Okay, so Jacinta, it looks like we're doing a couple of things. We're grabbing those four figures. We're also grabbing a highlighter. We're setting up those automatic bank transfers and we're potentially setting up that rainy day fund.

If any listeners want to share their money dilemma on the show, give us a call on 0435 293 double eight six. That's 0435 293 double eight six. Okay, now for the fun stuff. What good would a money podcast be without the pervy stuff? Each week, we're bringing you a money diary. Let's do this. Today's money diary is from a teacher whose history with money isn't straightforward. would. Hi, I'm 28 and I'm controlling. I'm like really thoughtful about everything that I spend my money on. I think like, cause I was a student for a long time towards the end of my second degree, all my friends were working and I wanted to keep up and I was living out of home at that

time. And so I wasn't, I wasn't, I was really conscious of the fact that I wasn't earning as much as my friends were, but I still wanted to keep up. And so like, I kept myself super accountable and I just feel like I never got out of that okay so down to the nitty-gritty stuff how much does 28 and controlling earn and how much has she saved I earn about 72,000 each year right now I've got about 35,000 in my savings yeah yeah I'm really proud of it like yeah I'm super proud of it no yeah it's really important to me um oh my god um to me it represents like my independence and to me it's kind of like my rainy day fund almost like I'm saving for a house at the moment and that's kind of taking precedent with my savings but yeah it just shows that like

I don't know that like this I'm really proud of it at this point in my life because I feel like I'm where I want to be. The reason 28 and controlling has a fraught relationship with money largely comes down to her parents and how they dealt with their own finances. My parents are now divorced but they I didn't realize I didn't learn this until after they divorced until I was like really an adult but they never shared a bank account in their whole marriage and when I learned that I thought I just felt that was really odd and then kind of as I as I learned more um I discovered that my my dad made a lot of the financial decisions which I it's quite traditionalist I guess that like you know it's probably the same in a lot of families um of

people my age as well. I mean, I don't know, but he made a lot of the decisions. And I guess after my parents separated, they stayed married for a really long time so that my dad could continue to support my mum in a lot of different ways. And although it worked out fine, and although my mum in other ways, you know, gained her independence, and even now she's very independent, she owns a house outright, and she's very self-sufficient financially. I just really thought like I I don't want to become a mum and then lose my capacity I know I wouldn't totally lose it but lose some of my capacity to earn independently and so yeah I guess I tie I link really closely when I think about money I link it to my career really closely because that's

obviously it's how I earn money but that in continuing to build my career and using my degree and having a career that's sustainable I really see that as yeah like a safety net for myself I guess. So we know how 28 and controlling gets paid but what exactly happens to that money after it's deposited into her account every fortnight? So I've got I've got some a balance on my credit card so some of it goes to that although I decide each fortnight I kind of decide how much will go to that but each fortnight I have about 400 bucks go to savings and then I have 400 dollars goes to my joint account with my partner now let's talk about investing does 28 and controlling invest and if not why no no I don't um my partner is really interested he has more of a well like

in our friendship group we joke that he's like a businessman like he's yeah like he's but he's that's what that's what he's like like he's got that kind of mind and he looks for opportunities to invest and you know he'll be like the first to tell you that oh this thing like he invested in baby formula and he's actually made like a lot of money from it yeah like but he's he's on top of all of that even if it's something that he's not interested in so yeah he kind of like wears that for us and I don't even I don't invest in anything it's one of those things I was just saying actually earlier it's one of those things that and I'm like this is my personality as well I don't I'm a bit bored by it I don't know enough about it so then I don't want to learn about it and so I just don't

I just don't bother like I just yeah what I've got is like a bank account a savings account that accrues interest and that's pretty much it. Controlling has a little bit of debt too. Here's where she stands with it all. I have 20 grand hextech. At the moment I have about three grand on my credit card. 28 and controlling knows what she's good at when it comes to money. Her best money habit is one she's had for a while and dates back to her early uni days. So my best money habit is that I don't buy anything without really thinking it through like I don't impulse buy ever because I just I there was a time when I couldn't like I really couldn't like I might have had 50 bucks for the week and if I was going to buy like literally if I was going to buy that

top instead of go out that's the decision I made and it's kind of annoying sometimes because I think like god how do I live and I have I have bias remorse all the time I return things all the Okay. And her worst money habit? Well, let's just say it comes back to describing herself as controlling. I'm at the point of my life now where things are becoming more enmeshed when it comes to money with my partner. And yeah, as I said, we're thinking about, we are looking at buying a house and we do share a bank account and that's for everyday things, like that's for bills and rent and stuff. And still I'm like, where's that $50 gone? Did you spend $22 on a Coles?

What'd you buy? I didn't see anything new in the fridge. Like I'm really can be quite picky like that because when it comes to, when I'm, when I'm just managing myself, that's how I keep myself to account, you know? So when he, when he's like, oh, we've got to top up the account. I'm like, why? What's happening? Why have we got, where'd the money go?

You know, I think that's my worst habit. I'm not very trusting now sharing it with someone else. So how would today's money diarist rate her own relationship with money if we forced her to give herself a grade? if I was to give myself a money report I would give myself a B plus because I think I am really thoughtful with money and I am very deliberate with where I spend my money but at the same time I do think that if I'm going to be that way and if I'm going to like wear it like a badge of honor you know that I will return that jacket if I don't wear it if I don't see myself wearing it

and all that kind of stuff I think that I also should be autonomous enough and independent enough to do my homework about like investing or about other opportunities of where to put my money. Okay Victoria what struck you most about 28 and Controlling's money diary? That she called herself controlling instead of empowered. Honestly I think it's something that she should be really proud of you could hear it in her voice and it made me really proud of her that she's created exactly she's created this base that's made her feel confident and safe and I think that if we could all do that for ourselves we would be far far better off but I think she needs to change her mindset around the way she's viewing money her money story sounded like it had a massive

impact on her life and in a really positive way from a negative situation she's created this life where she's going to achieve so many things she said that she feels a little bit bad about you know the way she approaches money with her partner but potentially by having a conversation about his money story they could get on the same page if they can sit down and share things about where she's come from and potentially share the story she's just shared with us with her partner where did this come from why do you feel like this how does this impact our relationship and he can do the same thing I think they'll be in a far more empowered position to have those conversations to purchase a house to have a shared bank account because moving forward it sounds like she's

planning her life with this person and money only gets harder when you introduce dependents and a mortgage and things that are going to put more financial stress on a relationship. So if she can get across how that works for her partner, how that works for her and how those things interlock, she's going to be in a far more secure position than had she not had that conversation. So that's what she should improve on. What do you think she's doing really well? I feel like she's doing a lot. Saving. Saving. I think that she's done an incredible job for her age. There are not many people that can say they've saved that amount of money. I think the credit card potentially could be knocked down. If you're in a position where you've got a credit card with $3,000 on it,

you're potentially in a position where there's an interest rate between 14% and 18% being applied to that. And maybe it's a good idea to consider pulling some money out of savings to get rid of that instead of, you know, paying off interest that essentially gets flushed down the toilet and using those credit card repayments that she's making each month just to replenish her savings. How do you consider her overall self-analysis then? Do you think she's been a bit hard on herself? I think she's been pretty hard on herself, but I think that's a reflection of the goals she's got. She's dreaming big. There are things she wants to achieve and places she wants to go and she knows she's not there yet. To her, an A plus looks like having a home paid off.

It looks like having enough in savings. It looks like not having hex debt. So for her, maybe B plus is the right assessment. For me, I think she's doing fantastic. I would say she's an A plus because she's at a stage in her life where that's a fantastic place to be. But if she says she's a B+, I'm not going to argue with her because we can only go up from here. Well, that's all we have time for today, unfortunately. That's so quickly. Just before we head off, let's quickly wrap up the boring but important stuff.

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 purely exists for educational purposes only and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Oh, and yes, don't worry. We promise Victoria Devine is an authorised representative of Consultant Financial Advisors Proprietary Limited. ABN 65006 373 995.

AFSL 2303 23. That was wordy and numbery, but we got there. She's On The Money is a production of Shameless Media. Follow She's On The Money on Instagram at she'sonthemoneyaus or join the Facebook group at she'sonthemoney. We'll see you guys next week. Please come back. No, I'm kidding.