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. Today, Friends is Friday, which means it is time to sit back with George, Jess and I with a drink in hand, perhaps to unpack our favorite moments of the week, and of course, to celebrate you the incredible She's on the Money community. As always, we are going to be sharing our favorite
money wins. We are going to be discussing what's making juicy news in the finance world, and we're going to be helping answer a money question today, which this week is all about insurances and potential exclusions. But before we get there, it is time to recap the week that was. Mister Sagarici talked to us about what happened on Monday's Money Diary this week.
Monday's Money Diarist took us through a little bit of a journey. She had very sadly lost her father a few years ago and unfortunately found herself in the position where his will wasn't up to date, and her family dynamic had shifted a few times over the years through separations and divorces and kids from different families, which is really common.
There's so many.
Blended families out there nowadays. But something people maybe don't think about is the need to update your will when that situation arises. And unfortunately she found herself in the position where her and her siblings and stepsiblings were kind of disputing what was in the will because it wasn't accurate at the time of his passing. It's just a really hard situation to find yourself in when you're already going through a traumatic experience. You're obviously devastated by the loss.
She said, it came as a surprise, which is really hard in and of itself, and then on top of that, you have arguments essentially with your family. They went through lawyers, there were huge fees. It was just a really messy process. So she explained to us a little bit about how that went down, and it was a really really great minder I think to make sure your will is in order.
We've done a whole episode. If you want to know the how and the why, you might think you're too young spoiler alert, you're probably not get that will sorted because it's not just you, it's all the people that you love as well that are impacted if it's.
Not yeah, and our money. Doors said something that I found really powerful, and that you don't do a will for yourself. She said, you do a will for your family. Like, obviously there's quite I guess a self centeredness to a will because it's my stuff that I'm allocating out, so therefore it is very about me. But in reality, if you pass away, it's actually about your family not having to go through the admin of going through the courts to do dispute will or even establish a claim. And
this money darist. It wasn't just like twelve months, which we usually see that process taking. It was upwards of three years. And that's a long time to be going through a process while you're also grieving like that. It's just not something I would want to put my family through. So if you haven't thought about getting a will, I definitely would recommend it, and I promise it will give
you a whole heap of peace of mind. Moving on from talking about wills in estate planning, which I could honestly talk about for ages like if you let me, which in the office sometimes you guys do appreciate it. But Georgia King, what happened on this week's Wednesday episode, Hello ladies.
This Wednesday, we spoke about the sharing economy and it got philosophical, didn't it be?
It did?
It got a bit sappy, like we just took it off road for a little bit. We did have to get back on track, we did. I feel sorry for our producer this week.
Yeah, look it was. It wasn't the easiest record, but hey, it was super interesting. And for anyone who has no idea what the sharing economy is.
That is okay because we did whole episode so you can listen.
Right, but in some really quickly it's basically the model where individuals share goods and services that are facilitated by some kind of platform or app. So really common examples would be like Uber or Airbnb, and even like trading a rental kind of platform, so like release it for example.
So yeah, it was really.
Interesting talking through kind of the pros and cons of the sharing economy. The pros being that it's like really good for the environment, but then the negatives things like gentrification. What else will the negatives be?
Oh, there were so many listen to the episode. Honestly, I feel like there were lots of negatives, but lots of positives, and I feel like the sharing economy has come so far like it used to be, I don't know, a little bit hippie, a little bit left field. People
would be like, oh, that's a bit weird. Like, as I said on the podcast George, when dress rentals became a really big thing online, I think that they really redefined what that looked like, because you remember when dress rentals used to just be the like Ferrari down the street where you could get like some bridesmaids dresses or rented tucks that probably smell like ciggies like that used to be your dress rentols. And now you've got these gorgeous companies like glam Corner that you just go wow
like that that definitely is for me. But you know, maybe the bridesmaid's dresses and the Sigi tucks are probably not my vibe. You know.
It's also really funny to think about trying to explain that concept to me as like a five year old child or my parents, you know, in the really early nineties, when the internet was not what it is today. Imagine saying to someone, Hey, you're going to get on a telephone. You're going to reach out to someone you've never met before, and you're going to get in their car and they're going to take you somewhere.
Like ye, and you're going to trust them and it's totally okay. So what will happen is they'll just turn up at your house. They've got your address. Yeah, it's all good. Don't know where you're going.
Stranger chang alarm bells are going off like crazy. So it's just wild to think about how far that has come, I guess, over the course of not even fifteen years.
And it's kind of crazy to think about where we're going in the future as well when it comes to the Internet, Like we're now talking about like the metaverse and what the next version of the Internet looks like for us, And like I was even googling guys over the weekend, I read up on, you know, the metaverse and people buying metaverse properties, and I wanted to understand that a little bit deeper because I was like, all right, tell me the crux of this, because there are people,
people in our community, guys who are buying properties or blocks of land in the metaverse for their kids as investments. And I just go, Nah, sure that doesn't exist. Surely no, but like it kind of makes sense the more you read into it and the more online our lives are, and the more you go, all right, well, I guess you know in two thousand and eight, how much of your life existed on the internet and it's kind of like nothing. But now it's two and my entire business
is on the internet. Everything that we do is on the internet. You guys are employed via the internet. Like it is crazy to think, how like essentral in our lives this has become. So it makes sense that it would become a bigger thing. So anyway, turns out you can buy pent houses, and I reckon, we should buy a metaverse. She's on the money, HQ. Well, just not be sick.
I don't get it. Is this like you put on goggles and then you're in.
Yeah, you could come to my house, but on the internet. I hate you. Wait you wait, I'm gonna buy my metaverse apartment. It's going to be the pent house one and one day when I sell it for five million dollars, you guys are gonna wish you didn't laugh with me. No financial advice, yeah, not definitely not because I still don't fully comprehend anything. That's going on? Nor do I even know how to transact like I've just googled metaverse apartments. Thank you, thank you. But let's move on before I
sound like I'm pushing crypto Georgia king. What have you got from the Facebook community this week?
Some absolutely gorgeous wins as usual, girls, So let us rip into it. Let me just pull it up. Okay, So our first win for the week is from Ali money Win. I was able to do the bulk of my month's grocery shopping at Aldi for a total of one hundred and forty dollars. One hundred and forty dollars for a whole month. That's insane.
Anyway.
While she was there, she scored collapsible dog steps for her sweet twelve year old cheap who on sale for ten dollars two weeks ago. That sweet cheep who pulled a muscle jumping onto the couch. So she was on the lookout for steps like these, and Aldi delivered, as they so often do. Have you guys got steps for your little animals?
Dog steps?
No?
I would. I have a friend who has a sausage dog who has a ramp on their carrot less, so like that's very cute.
Can they jump in anyway?
Can they?
Like?
I think they can, but they shouldn't because it's bad for their little backs. So he's got his name's Frankie, and he like trots uppy his little ramp and onto the couch and places himself, And then when he wants to get off the couch, he like walks down to the ramp and goes down. He's like, I'm ready, I'm tough, frank you. The same house has baby gates across the stairs because Frankie is not allowed to go down the stairs on.
He's own so much to think about when it comes to the strokes. The next one here is from Alex So she wrote money when I negotiated my salary as I was being headhunted, but I didn't want to leave my employer. My first pay at my new higher rate hit my account today, and I'm taking home an additional one thousand dollars a month, so I'll have my car paid off in eighteen months instead of almost three.
Yearsue, my god, that's literally cutting it in half. How good.
We love headhunters.
Thank you, well done, Alex. No, that's not what we like, Georgia. You miss the point. We love negotia ourselves, not a head hump, kids. We love negotiating and knowing our works exactly.
Well done, Vee, you wrapped it up. That's what you said, That's what you said. What I said, okay. Next one is from Kiana. She bit the bullet and paid off her Zip pay in one go was nine hundred dollars and she's her account. I've always had money owing on zip page, she wrote, since twenty seventeen, so I'm pretty damn proud of myself.
Oh my god, should be Yeah, you would feel like a massive weight had lifted off your shoulders. I just feel like people don't realize the emotional toll of carrying debt, Like it can be heavy and you might not feel it. You might be like it doesn't make sense. But I promise the second you paid all off, you're like, oh, I didn't even realize I was carrying that way. It's so good.
Could not agree more. V. The next win comes from Amber. This is a long one to strap yourselves in. I'm a big sewer who likes to use good quality fabric. Last week I went to a local lop shop to donate a couple of boxes of old stuff, and while I was there, I noticed there were a few bolts of what looked like cotton fabric. I asked the worker if they were donations, hoping to find out roughly when they would be.
On the floor.
They said yes and asked if I was interested. So when I said yes, they offered me a whole bolt for free. Now, a bolt, I think is like the it's like a ream of material.
Do you guys know what it is.
I'm not a sewer.
It's like the big card board thing that it's Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
Oh, okay, that's a lot like that's that's like not going and getting a clipping. It's like the whole damn thing.
It's the whole damn thing. She said, there's fifteen meters on this bolt, and she's estimated that would be thirty dollars a meter. So she got four fifty dollars worth of fabric completely free.
Wow, the best bit.
I'm starting up a business sewing bits and pieces, and this fabric will be perfect for it. Blessed Oh, I love that. The next win is from Moira. I had to service my car and change the back breaks and discs. I had the money saved all throughout the year and didn't have to for into my savings. And the final win for today Ladies is from Lakeisha. My brother moved into state, so I bought his fairly new sixty five inch TV off him for four hundred and fifty dollars.
Seems pricey, but that's okay. And he gave me his air fryer for free. Hashtag winner.
That's a money win.
You're gonna love it. I'm just gonna say you're gonna love.
It air fryers. Do you know what else you love? Jess? Air wraps if it starts with air juice is probably all over it really niche taste. It's niche taste. But you know what, Actually, I'm going to share my sister's money win. Alexandra de Vine her money when this week or this month was actually stealing her sister Victoria's air wraps, so that was good for her.
Is that why you have that roller in your hair and look like Elvis Nite?
Yeah? I've been trying to deal without it.
All right.
We are back with arguably the most exciting and juicy segment we have ever done, and that's mainly because I watched it on TV the other day, and I am now in absolute shock, Georgia King that Jessica hasn't seen it. Like it's the only thing on TikTok, it's the only thing on Instagram at the moment. I cannot believe, jess you haven't watched this yet, George. We're talking about the Tinder Swindler.
The Tinder Swindler.
Oh, the juiciest of stories, George. For those of you who haven't watched, who obviously live under a rock, what are we missing? Okay?
So essentially it's an old fashioned catfishing story. However, the twist is that this man his name is, or at least he claims it is, Simon levyev Is that right? V?
Have I got that right?
Simon? I think it was something like or something like that anyway, so let's not look into it too.
No.
I think his name was Simon or something like. I think that was his real name, shim On Hays.
I think anyway, he basically conned three stunning and smart women into transferring him hundreds of thousands of dollars in the end. Sorry spoilers alert, we should have said that maybe a little earlier.
Spoiler of it, Yeah, massive right alert.
So basically he swindles them out of all of this money. He meets them on Tinder, hence the Tinder swindler name. But it was really interesting to see how he convinced these women that he was he was. He basically convinced them that he was a diamond Magnet's son, made them all believe he was really rich and had these really scary enemies who wanted to kill him. So he then asked them to transfer money. Rah rah rah, Does anyone want to see it?
Now?
I feel like I've ruined it.
Oh my gosh, you've ruined it. But it's wild to think that people believe this stuff. Yes, like, oh, the amount of red flags that were flying for me. And this is probably very well timed given it is or has been the week of Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day was on Monday, and the Tinder do You Reckon? They timed that Do You Reckon? They're trying to talk about it during Valentine's Day.
It which makes sense that I should have launched it on Valentine's Day. That was a missed opportunity. That's still talking about it.
So but it is wild and I feel like there are so many lessons we can learn from it about dating, but also about money and fraud. And is it okay if people ask you to take out personal loans in your name? Jess? Is it all right? I'm going to haven't watched the show.
I haven't, but going off my intuition, I'm going to say no.
No, it's not so. I think that we did learn a few really important lessons from the Tinder swindler. And you know, as somebody who met their partner on Tinder and I watched this with Steve, I was like, oh, guys, this is pretty wild, like the idea that this guy swindled women out of money and obviously was doing that to a greater extent. We only know about these three women because they've come forward and wanted to be in
a documentary Like that was me. I'm not gonna lie even if you've swindled me out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't know if I would want to go on a documentary to talk about it, like I just I'd feel too uncomfortable.
I feel like it really goes back to what we were talking about earlier in the show around the internet and how we interact with things evolving. Because again, once upon a time, I think it was a little bit easier to spot. You know, Nigerian prince has emailed your grandma saying he wants to marry her if she will
just send him some money. It's a pretty glaringly obvious scam, whereas nowadays, people like old Mate Simon are preying on vulnerable women and I'm sure men as well, getting in on their insecurities and having a little bit of insight into them as a person already, because your dating profile is like a prepackaged show real really, isn't it?
Like here I am, this is.
What I like. They kind of have all of the information they need to begin to establish that kind of relationship. I feel like it's a bit of an easy in for some nefarious activities.
I feel like, for me, there are a whole heap
of like souper red flags in the show. Right, So it wasn't just that he asked for money, but there were these like super narcissistic traits like this person love bombed them really early, which is where they say I love you really early and like shower you with gifts and stuff too early, Because it's like, you don't know this person from a bar of soap, and like, obviously the biggest red flag is that he was asking for money for something that was a little bit left field.
But I can also somewhat sympathize with the women because unlike catfishing, like they met the person, like they could see him, they could touch him, They could, you know, see the wealth around him. I mean, he wore a Rolex and he drove fancy cars, and most of the women would meet him in luxury hotels as their first date.
And the first woman that we were introduced to in the Tinder Swindler, she met him for coffee and then he invited her overseas on his private jet, like I would believe that he was wealthy as well, Like I wouldn't go, oh, this is all scam, because you don't just have a private jet on standby to woo women, do you.
It sounds a lot like I don't know, and I think is another one that's on Netflix. But I followed the story when it was in the news a few years ago. Ammadelvi, have you guys read about that? Yes, yeah, so anyone who hasn't. I think it's impersonating Anna is the documentary that's coming.
Out is a really really interesting story.
I haven't watched that one either, but I followed along, like I said, the news a while back, and the crux of it was that she also manipulated people into paying for massive, massive, massive debts of hers at hotels and restaurants, and she infiltrated the New York Upper east Side lifestyle with no money, and she just left a trail of debt behind her and people who were stuck in these holes that they had to get themselves out of. But it seems to be is that a bit of
a red flag? But because she did something very similar?
When is she a red flag?
She did something really similar where she would spend, you know, pick up the bill, they go to a really extensive dinner and she'd be like no, no, no, like I've got it, or she'd be like, oh, come overseas with me. I'll pay for the hotel. She dropped a lot of money, which sounds very similar to what this guy did to kind of establish early on that she was rich. And then of course her friends who were also rich, like oh well, I'll get the next one, and I mean
nice lifestyle. Can't say I'm shouting any of my friend's trips overseas, but it kind of puts you in that mind frame of oh, like this is how they live. And then when someone like Simon comes along and goes, oh I need help, they go, oh, my goodness, Like he has his own money, so it must be really bad.
Yeah. I am very confused about it, not because I don't understand the scam, which I can, as you were talking about jess Anna, she pretended to be a wealthy German Hairess, right, Yeah, Like how do you just wake up and decide to be that person? Like from my understanding, that would take a lot of money to begin with, Like how did they initially get that cash? I feel like there's so much for me missing for the story. And the one thing that for me was missing from
the Tinder Swindler was how did he start? Like he didn't grow up wealthy, so how did he then acquire all of these really expensive things and manage to get this high up? Like how do you pretend to be the son of a diamond magnet? Like how does that happen? Where are the stepping stones? Not because I want to copy them, but because genuinely I can't comprehend that, Like, what if I decided tomorrow to just wake up and I would like to be an heiress, that would be good. How do you do that?
I think you have to be a psychopath? Yeah, because didn't he he like there was something in high school that he'd committed fraud or something like that. Like, is it a bad egg? If that's not already obvious? So I feel like this kind of behavior is surely just ingrained in who you are as a person.
That's a narcissis Yeah, they absolutely would be. But it just it's crazy how these things start. Like we spoke a couple of weeks ago, I think, just before Christmas about Elizabeth Holmes and how that worked and what was going on there, And I just I can't believe that these people can climb so high with nobody questioning.
Them, like what and no fear, Like how how do you keep on doing that and just keep on ruining people's lives and then pushing on to the next person.
It's so horrible and terrible. Sure you're scared, but they.
It must just be a symptom of psychopathy.
That's George's diagnosed.
Sounds a bit like a human Ponzi scheme. If you ask al, I just go from the next to the next. That's how you keep it up. But I guess to bring it right back around to finance the what kind of steps or what kind of things should we be looking out for if we are in the dating game, if we're getting on Tinder having a little swipe, what can women do to protect themselves to make sure they don't find themselves in a similar position.
Even Valentine's Days this week, I think lots of people are thinking about dating. And the one thing that is really easy to dismiss that the start is red flags. Right, And I've said this before, but red flags are going to be different for everybody, right, Like Jess, you might be like, he breathed funny, so I ended the date and I went home early, and I'll be like, oh, I really liked the way he breathed on me. Like, everybody has their different things, and to me, that's not
necessarily a red flag. That's a personal one for you. But I think that there's a few big ones that we need to be aware of, especially if you're single and going on dates. Asking for money is probably a really big red flag. If you're not in a relationship with that person. But then to further that, for me, it's a really big red flag even if you are, because it means that they aren't able to manage their
own money. And we've seen in our shees on the Money community, we have done money diaries on people who have been in financially abusive relationships where one of our diarists they racked up massive amounts of personal debt because their partner made them take out loans, made them take out a car loan because they couldn't afford it or weren't fully employed, and they promised to pay back, and then they broke up with them, but the car's in that guy's name and she now has the debt. It's
absolutely crazy. So anything to do with money in relationships, I am really weary. And that's why it's also so important for you to be financially secure on your own because I'm not saying that. You know, if Steve's like, hey babe, I really need to borrow a hundred bucks to get to pay day, like, of course I will carry that. And that's a different conversation than can you
please take on a car loan for me? Because I've got really bad credit, Like, oh, I don't care how in love with somebody you are, Like a car Loan is a definite no from me if it's not in their own name, like that's their responsibility. And I get that. There probably is a lot of nuance to this because somebody listening might be like, I'm sorry, Victoria, Like I got my partner's car Loan and it was fine. I trust him. I get that, but we need to just
be extra weary. The second thing was where he was just like loving on them so hard, like I said before, love bombing, And it's where they like become obsessed with you really quickly and buy your fancy presence or they say love too quickly or do you know what I mean? Because they're doing one of two things here. They're either
scamming you or they're obsessive. And that's kind of weird to begin with, Like we've got to be a little bit more reserved because if you've just met some random on Tinder, how were you in love with them after twenty four hours? Like how does that happen? And I know a lot of people are going to listen and
be like but I knew, I get it. Same when I met Steve, same, but it did take a few months to settle it in and become comfortable with one another, and you know, understand their love languages and who they are as a person and just going on a date and understanding their career and what they're up to. Like that is not love, that's infatuation. And we need to understand the difference between those things. Because was I in
love with Steve on our first date. Absolutely not, But I was bloody infatuated.
And that's okay, I've found the whole Like when he was like sending them voice memos and facetiming them all the time, like it was to outsiders, it was super creepy. But when you're swept up in that, it was essentially like these little quasi relationships, So you would just be completely swept up in it. And especially who does a lot of billionaire you know what.
A line I mean, I probably could easily get swept up. Like if you was my type, I definitely be like, okay, Like would I have said no to getting on a private jet with Steve after twenty four hours? No, I would have on the jet. I would have gone on the jet, Like it would have happened, But I think that we need to be really cautious of who we're
meeting online. And I think that, you know, in twenty twenty two, it's becoming so much more prevalent that, yes, social media is our online highlights real, but it's also a way that we could create a persona or change who we want to be into somebody else. And I've been getting really swept up recently on TikTok and in Instagram looking at other people's profiles and being like, oh, I wish I was more like them, Like they highlight
reels are really gorgeous, or they create beautiful content. Oh they're that girl, and there's this idea of becoming that girl on TikTok at the moment, and it's just like they're not. They're just good at content creating. And this guy was clearly good at it as well, in terms of creating content that made you believe this face and you didn't ever feel like you needed to fact check this guy. None of the people dating him googled him at the start of their relationships and tried to research him.
And I don't think you should have to do that, but I think we do need to be super wary of not all that glitters is gold, especially when social media and building a perception is associated with that. Right, my creepy trick.
And I obviously haven't dated for many, many years. But even if I just mean god, LinkedIn, get on LinkedIn. They if they tell you that they work somewhere, because not, again you can.
Oh, that's way less creepy than mine.
What were you gonna say?
Oh, I was going to say, you screenshot their Tinder profile and the reverse Google image search to make sure that it's not a catfish profile.
That is actually so much smarter. But yet do your fact checking one hundred percent. Also, I would add into this if you are in those early stages and maybe you're spending a lot of time together, or maybe you're you know, spending a few days a week living together or whatever that might look like, just be really cautious around protecting your personal information as well. I know that we can all be really.
Trusting, right, Yeah, trusting is a really good word.
And you know you'll give someone your phone password so they can open it and make a call or take you know, use your camera or whatever. I know that we're all good people and we just want to see the best in other people. But I would encourage you to have an element of not paranoia, but just a little element of reservation with giving that information away. And you know it sounds really silly, We're all guilty of it.
Make sure you use different passwords for different platforms. Don't have your phone kin and your bank pin be the same. Just little tiny things that can protect your financial wellness overall in the worst case scenario that you find yourself in a situation where someone is maybe not approaching you with the best of intentions.
Yeah, and I think that self preservation is a really big part of dating as well. Like I feel like there are so many strong, independent single women in our community at the moment, and I speak to them every single day and I adore them. But something that I do notice, and do you know what this happened when I was dating as well, was you start to prioritize
the relationship over your individual time. Like instead of going to plarties with your friend on the weekend and going out for brunch and you know, being quite social, that becomes quite I guess sheltered. And I think being really aware of the friends and family that are surrounding you, and if you're becoming really tunnel visioned in your priorities, maybe you need to have a think about why that
would be. Because if you're putting your friends and your family on the back burner for someone you've just met, is that actually a good idea? Is that actually what life is about? I think there's a lot of conversation to be had around this, but I guess that for us, it's about that financial piece and being independent on your own and having an emergency fund and making sure that if somebody asks you to take a loan out on
their behalf, we're not engaging in that. In fact, if somebody asks that question, I think the best way to actually help is like, hey, okay, no problems. Why how how do we get you out of this position? If they can't get alone, no problems, Let's find a way to get you out of that sticky situation. Do they owe money to somebody? Do they owe money on a credit card or a personal loan? Like you guys know, I am obsessed with our friends at the National Debt Hotline,
Like call them, have a chat to them. Even if you're just not sure, you want to run it by somebody like pick up the phone, talk to a financial counselor and be like, hey, is this weird? Like I don't want to ask my friends about it, but i'man dating this guy and you know, he has a car loan and he can't pay it because he's not employed at the moment. Like, and he's asked me if I can take a personal loan to pay it. Should I
be doing that? In some situations? I feel like making that call is going to save you a whole lot of headaches down the track.
Yeah, really great points. Okay, I'm going to go watch the tin BLUs Swindlen. Now you've all convinced me.
Please honestly it is wild. Please watch Jess and report back like it's insane. And for anybody who's listened this far, when you heard that, I Google searched my Tinder dates.
No you didn't. But speaking of calls, gee, do we have a listener question to get to?
We certainly do. My girls stand by, let me whip it.
Up, Hello, Vikitty, and then she's on the money. Girls. Firstly, I just want to say thank you for making such an amazing little potty. So since listening, I've been working on building up my financial security now that my partner and I have a mortgage together, so I've been going through the process of getting income protection and TPD cover on my super No it's super basic, but hey, baby
steps to financial security. And so during this process, I've received a diagnosis for an autoimmune condition called ankilizing spondylitis. Side note, massive money win because that medication for this is government subsidized and I can focus my money where it will make a difference, So big win. But I did disclose this to my prospective insurer and they won't offer me income protection and TPD cover because of this condition. So I'm just a bit stumped on where to go
from here. Since it's not really an uncommon condition and I'm sure there'd be other people in a similar boat. I wanted to ask an expert. Thank you so much and much love from Tasmania. Bye.
Oh my gosh, this is such a good question, and you guys know how obsessed I am talking about income protection and trauma and TVD and literally all of those things. But first things first, I know that this person was not DJ Tiger Lily, but goddamn, she sounds exactly like Darah, So she actually does she actually sounded so much like Dara. I was like, is this Dara? And then I was like, no,
this story is not Dara. And I also know that she's got a financial advisor and would already have her insurance is sorted, so wouldn't be asking me that question. But if that wasn't a like a doppelganger for a voice, I don't know what was Dara. If you're listening, please confirm, But very good question. And I'm surprised at that process. So I'm going to make some assumptions here so that I can have, I guess, a holistic conversation about this, because I don't have enough pieces of the puzzle to
be clear about this. And the first assumption I'm making is that you did this yourself. You didn't go and get a financial advisor to give you a recommendation, because if you had, that should have been taken into consideration, and conversations between your financial advisor and the underwriter at the insurer should have been had around whether you would get an acceptance or a decline, or whether they would
allow you to have an exclusion. So an exclusion is policy condition on an insurance policy that actually stops you from getting payment if you want to claim if you're unable to work, if you have a particular thing happened to you. So Jess, I know that you have a bit of a bong knee. They might go, hey, Jess, like if you've got any medical conditions, and you'd be like, oh, no, I don't, but actually I have one and it's my knee, like I always throw it out when I'm at frisbee.
And they might go, oh, okay, no problems. But because that's a pre existing condition, if you have to claim on insurance, like, it doesn't seem fair to us to have to pay for something that probably was going to happen or that has already happened. So in that situation, you can kind of go, all right, well, she's already got abung knee. If she needs to take a few weeks off work, why is that the insurer's responsibility, Because you kind of know what's already going to happen, And an insurer's job
is to make sure that they're managing risk. So they need to have a look at risk and go all right, using Jess as an example, and I don't even I don't think i've done your insurances. You do not have
any explain, So it's just a hypothetical. But if we look at Jess and go, all right, this is the circumstance, this is the situation, they're going to go, We're not going to take risk where we have to pay out like we want to make sure that we are paying out for things that we didn't see coming, whereas if we saw it coming, I'm not going to agree to that.
So in this situation, what I'm assuming has happened is you've applied to an insurer after doing your own research and haven't actually looked into a lot of the other policies that might be a little bit more flexible on autoimmune conditions. Now I say this because I've recently gone through the underwriting process with a client who actually has
loopus and that is another autoimmune condition. And there were a few insurers that blanket said no. They said no, we would not touch that person with a ten foot pole when it comes to autoimmune diseases, we just say no, whereas we had to do some more research with some other insurers and go would you accept it? Would you not? And this person or one of my clients, has had their insurance policy accepted but they have an exclusion on
that policy for that illness. So if they have to take time off due to work, if they need to claim on income protection for loopers, they won't get it. However, if they're in a car accident, break their leg and can't go to work and stand in retail for the next eight hours every single day, they will be able to claim on it. So it's not saying no, you can't have insurance at all. It's saying you can have
insurance for absolutely everything except for that one thing. So from my perspective as a financial advisor, I would recommend getting another opinion or even talking to our friend Phil Feel from sky Wealth, which will link in the show notes. Actually, because Phil is an insurance specialist and he has been doing all of our ses on the money insurances. When you guys feel in the form on our website and say I want to talk to someone to sort out my IP, Phil is the one that we usually send
you to. So Phil would be able to have a chat with you about what your options are and why you were potentially declined. But from my perspective, I would be getting another opinion.
Yeah, So for our friends with autoimmune diseases or bung knees or anything that might give them an exclusion. We've spoken before about mental health being a big one. If there a step that we could take to protect ourselves in the sense of, you know, if that particular thing becomes an issue, because obviously our listener is trying to put herself in the best position, and of course we hope that your autoimmune disease is never going to become
overwhelming or become an overarching problem. Should that happen, are there other options of things that she could maybe look into to protect herself in that instance.
So, because the condition already exists, you're kind of in a rock and a hard place because from my perspective, an insurer isn't going to want to ensure you for that condition. So I would be making sure that everything else is set up so that you are okay and you have good emergency funds and all of that. But this is why Jess I am so passionate about getting insurance early, because if she had gotten insurance earlier, before this had even come up, she would have been covered
for it. And a lot of things actually come up as we get older, so you might not have that at twenty when you have your first full time income, and you might go, what's the point of income protection. The point is to get a policy that doesn't have any exclusions so that you're looking after future you. But there's actually not a whole heap that you can do personally when it comes to getting cover for a pre
existing condition. It's like health insurance. If you've already had a cancer, they're not going to cover you for that particular cancer because the probability of you having to claim is crazy. It's really frustrating. But guys, this is why I want you to prioritize getting insurance early. But the second thing Jess and I cannot believe I didn't say
this before, is check your superanuation. There are insurances inside your superranuation, and if you have a default policy, it is very probable that that policy doesn't have any exclusions
on it. So what you're going to do is it going to work out what that policy is and how it works and what benefit it is to you, And you're going to talk to a financial advisor that can help you understand what's going on, because it does become a bit of a balancing act when you have a medical condition that might give you an exclusion on a policy, and that might mean you go down a hybrid model of having your income protection with an exclusion on it
from one place, but then also retaining maybe an income protection policy inside Super that's not as good and you know, not that great, and it might be cheap, and it might only have a payout time of like two years or something. So from my perspective as a financial advisor, I'd be like, if you were a clean skin, i e. Somebody who had absolutely nothing wrong with them, yes I
would replace it with a quote better policy. But because it has no exclusions, it's very likely that I might say, but Jess, keep that one as well, because if anything happens with your knee, that is the policy we will claim on because you aren't going to get into any
trouble with it. So this is why we need to be so careful with the insurances inside our Super, not just jump on the super website and roll them all together and be like whatever, it doesn't matter, because it does, especially as things come up as we get a bit older.
Yeah, so in that case, something is better than nothing. Have your emergency fund in place if you can't get that insurance. Talk to an expert, get them to help sort you out wherever possible. If you can't get that insurance policy, which does happen, and it's really unfortunate. Look after your emergency funds. Make sure you've done everything to set yourself up so you've got a nice cushion should you need it.
Yeah, And I think it's quite unknown, right, So we talk on this podcast about the importance of income protection and the importance of insurance, but I think something that's relatively unknown is that there are people that insurance companies
aren't going to want to ensure it all. Yeah, So there are people who might have and I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but people who have multiple serious medical conditions going on are a very big risk to insurers of claiming and therefore a lot of insurers also sorry, I'm not going to ensure you. So there are some people that I have met and I have had to deliver the news to that Unfortunately, I can't find a policy where someone's actually going to ensure you. It's just
a no go. And that is true for some careers. So for example, and this is a very recent example, because I have a client who is an air traffic controller. If you're an air traffic controller, you won't get income protection in Australia. Nobody will cover you. Why it's too high risk job in what way? I don't know, because from my understanding, an air traffic controller sits in the control tower and doesn't actually go in the sky. But that is too riskier of a job to be covered.
And there are lots of jobs like that where insurance companies are going to be like nop, sorry, George, too risky working at Shees on the money. That woman's crazy, No, but it is quite serious. There are careers that aren't going to get income protection, which is why it's really important to check your superannuation again because sometimes they would have given it to you via default, which is very helpful.
But there are also times when you might have had too many medical conditions, or you know, if you've gone through a whole heap of mental health issues and then physical health issues and you just haven't gotten out the other side of it yet, they might go absolutely not, we're not ensuring you. But the important thing is to get advice so you know what the action plan is.
So my client who's an air traffic controller yes, we can't have income protection, but we've done a whole heap of planning on the flip side to make sure that they do have as much protection as we can afford them at this point in time, which means they have increased other policies and we've worked out different amounts of emergency funds that they'd be comfortable with because they just don't have access to that where most of my clients do.
So I think it's really important and I know that you guys are going to be like bah, but we can just do it ourselves. A policy through a financial advisor is going to be so much more thought out, like at the end of the day, turns out that's what we do twenty four to seven. We leave it, we breathe it, we have been through it. I know who to call if I'm not sure about whether you're going to get a C or not. I know what to talk to you about and what your priorities are, like,
go talk to Phil from Skywealth. I can't do it at this point in time. Sorry, guys.
One last question before we scoot off. You used a term before that I'm just not familiar with. You said, clean skin.
Oh yeah, So in the financial advice world, a clean skin, which I shouldn't even be using on the podcast, is essentially somebody who, if you applied to an insurance company with would have absolutely no exclusions and slides straight into
getting full income protection, full insurances with no questions. It would be somebody who has an incredibly clean medical history, nothing's ever gone wrong, there's no genetic issues in the background, because when you do go for income protection, guys, they're gonna say, have your parents had any kind of issues? Has anything gone on? So a clean skin is somebody who is essentially a dream client for a financial advisor when it comes to insurance because they have nothing that
an insurance company would go little red flag? Can we talk about? Interesting in saying that, guys, I think we're done here. We've talked about clean skins, We've talked about the Tinder swindler of red flags, We've given some dating advice, we've talked about income protection. Like, I just feel like this episode we're done. What do you guys? Reckon? Yeah, ready to roll? It's think Yeah, I feel like this is a pretty good episode. If you don't ask me anyway,
it is time to go. So just before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Right Islander people's. They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn. We pay respects to elders past and present, and we share our friendship and our kindness and the advice sheed 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 a financial decision. And we promise Victoria Divine an authorized representative of Infocused Securities Australia Proprietorly Limited A B and four seven zero nine seven seven nine seven zero four nine a FO CL two three six five two three.
We'll get to the point where that rolls off your tongue again. Drink it was okay, Sorry, sorry, see you next week. Guys.
Hi, guys,