Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr the Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery 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 a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Today is Friday, my Friends, which means it is time to sit back with the girls with a bev in hand, to unpack our favorite moments of the week, and of course, to celebrate you
how incredible She's on the Money community. As always, we'll be sharing our favorite money wins, We're going to discuss what's making news in the finance world, and we'll be helping to answer a juicy money question, which this week is all about how to label your expenses when doing a bank account audit. But first it is time to recap the week that was.
Jess.
I'm going to start with Monday's money Diary, because this week was a spicy one.
We spoke to a money darist who got arrested, oh, because she.
Had her identity stolen. But to add insult injury, she's an adult. Okay, great, so the cops emailed her dad. The cops literally emailed her dad to ask about her and her whereabouts and what's going on. And this diarist I almost used her name, awkward, like, what is this? Why are you emailing my dad? She goes down to the station. She literally got arrested, got fingerprinted, got processed.
Obviously she got let go because it wasn't her. She's actually a very intelligent PhD student doing a lot in Papa, New Guinea. But that is not the point of the I guess main part of the story. The story is the cops contacted her dad and she got arrested.
What the heck?
If I got a fail say well, Hi, it's the police, I'd be like, no, we're investigating your daughter.
I actually could not believe this story because one that just seems like a gross like overstep of personal boundaries. If I do something wrong as an adult, I don't expect someone to call my dad.
Yeah, that's really really strange. And I think like, as the dad, you'd also be like, what is going on? What's happened? Like you'd probably stress him out. And if she's old enough to have, you know, done a PhD and stuff like, presuming that her dad is a little bit older, so that would be like a lot for him.
Scam.
Yes, the police were emailing my dad, and my dad called and said, honey, look the cops have emailed me. I'll be like, Dad, sit down. The cops did not email you as much as that child messaging WhatsApp is true, Like it's just not a thing.
Yeah, don't give them our credit car taking credit card details.
But I just think it's so wild because Jess, can you imagine someone just calling your parents to ask about you if you're in that circumstance, Like, it's just a gross overstep of a boundary that honestly, anyway, I've got a lot to say about that. It was a super interesting episode. She's now absolutely flourishing, but it was a really good insight into what happens when your identity is stolen.
And I feel like this past year, we've really been talking about that because it's becoming more and more prevalent. Like I had a friend the other day tell me that one of her parents had their identity stolen.
I'm like, eighty to.
One hundred thousand dollars worth of personal loans taken out in their name, and when they contacted the bank to be like, hey, this is fraudulent, like there's three loans, they were like, oh, yes, someone flagged the first loan on your file as maybe not adding up, but no one.
Looked into it. Your Joe care.
That's awful, And do you know what it was?
It turns out it was, like just because the story is interesting, it turns out it was an ex real estate agent who was a leasing agent and then obviously submitted all of their personal details which were now being used to apply for personal loans. That is wild and
obviously so illegal and literally awful. But I'm telling you because I have applied for rental properties before I've handed over, you know, all of my personal details to people that I thought I could trust, and it just turns out you've got to be super super critical of where it is. And I guess it's another reason why we should all be checking our credit scores all the time and our credit reports to just make sure nothing awrye comes up.
Yeah, and if you want to know more about identity that we did an episode at the end of last year all about what to do if your identity is stolen or if you think it might be stolen. So that's a really good episode to go back out as a good jo.
Speaking of deep dives, Just what happened this week on our segway, Yeah, it was real smooth until we pointed it out.
This week we spoke all about setting up your investment plan for the new year, New year, New me, new investment plan. It seems like kind of the vibe.
New year, New me, New goals that I'm going to forget about by the end of January's where I'm at.
Yeah, absolutely not.
Because we spoke all about making sure it was sustainable. Yeah, making sure we're setting realistic goals, making sure that we have the room in our budget to achieve the investing goals that we want to say in place for ourselves. So it was about setting yourself up for success in the new year and really aligning that to what you're hoping to achieve overall, as well as in your investment portfolio.
It's so easy to get super motivated at the start of a year to then actually not achieve any of those things because the goals that you set were unrealistic or just not sustainable. Like how many times I don't know about you, Jet, but I don't know how many times I've set the New year's resolution to get fit and be healthy and then I've written goals like go to the gym four times a week.
That's just never going to happen for me.
Yeah, Like, it's just unrealistic to expect me to do that, And the same thing happens in your investment world and in your money world. We actually just need to be really realistic about it and set goals that work out for us.
Yeah.
Absolutely, So it's a really good step by step to set yourself up. We're all feeling good and, like you said, really motivated at the moment, so let's harness that energy and prep ourselves for a really good twenty twenty three.
Exciting all right, Speaking of exciting, my favorite part of the show is actually talking about our community so let's jump straight into the budget direct, money wins and compassions of the week. Jessica Rici, what are you bringing to the table?
Starting off with a New Year's themed one from Lauren? She said, pre ordered the She's and the Money budget Journal through shot back a twenty twenty three money win.
Oh one hundred percent.
And also that's just a little good casual plug. Did you do that on purpose to remind the people that maybe don't follow us on social media?
We have a budgeting journal that's come out so exciting. It drops on the.
Tenth of January, so so soon. Yes, sorry, it wasn't available in times of Christmas. It turns out I didn't plan to make this until too late in the production schedule. But that's okay because you can still order it and get on track for twenty twenty three.
And I'm really excited.
Absolutely. It's packed full of tips and tricks. It's a really great way to track all of your spending and again your goals as well. There's check ins throughout the years to help keep you on track. I feel like you did a really great job of designing it super thoughtfully in line with kind of the little tips and tricks that we've given in the past. So if you wanted a Victoria Divine in your pocket, maybe this journal
will be good for you. I feel like it's everything you would expect from machines on the Money Budget Journal too, so it's not just like rite down your budget, it's also like reflect on your goals and your money story and what's going on. Like there's all the stuff that I think is really important to focus on as well, all right.
Next money Win Jess.
Comes from Emma and she said money Win only bought groceries and fuel last week. I avoided the shops and deleted the incoming It's on sale emails to not tempt myself with unnecessary miscellaneous spending. Queen behavior absolutely. Next one comes from Kate, who said money Win, I couldn't afford the two hundred dollars ticket to go to a festival to see some bands I've always wanted to see. Then I saw that they needed volunteers. For a few hours,
I helped out. Felt good, got to see the bands I wanted and it looks great on my resume.
Oh my gosh, how good.
That's actually a hot tip that I didn't know existed. While I was at UNI that I've only really recently discovered that you can actually volunteer for a lot of festivals to help set up or pack down or whatever it is, and often they'll give you a ticket to the festival's payment and tickets to festivals are so expensive, ridiculous.
Well, we did the same thing last year and we did our Shees on the Money International Women's Day events. We got some people to help us to volunteer pack give bags. Don't forget that's coming up in March. So if you haven't got your ticket, head to the She's on the Money website.
It's running out or at the moment.
We have almost none left, So jump on there if you're wanting to join us, and keep an eye out because if we need volunteers, we'll be putting a call out on socials just like we did last year.
That means free tickets you love to see it.
Next week comes from Nicole who said she went to an event on Friday night, got a discounted ticket for twenty nine dollars, pre booked her parking for fourteen, then walked away with quite a few free books. Some of them are going to go to friends. One of them was autographed, and others she hasn't read yet, but she's really excited to.
Oh my gosh, genius. Also, what kind of event is only twenty nine bucks? Cheap parking and free books like line it up? I want to go to that event next year, The Ultimate Finance event next week. I've got few comes from Catherine, who said she's been saving her virtual spare change every day and has just about saved enough to pay for her holiday accommodation this month. Five hundred and fifty dollars saved since August, so it adds up really fast.
Oh, when you said virtual money, I was like, what are you talking about? Virtual money? Is it like yeah? Is it like pretend money?
Is it like the money I used to make on neopets from doing games?
I was like, when you're we out with this?
And when you said, oh, it's actual money, I was like, that's actually even better than neopets money.
I feel like it's like roundups, but maybe manually if her bank doesn't offer it or something like that.
That word just threw me. That is very impressive.
Also, five hundred bucks, that's a lot of money. I'm going to recheck my roundups because I feel like I could be doing more brilliant.
And the last one I have today comes from Alissa, who said I had a bookcase, TV unit and two coffee tables that I needed to get rid of. After no bites on marketplace, I found out that Ikea does buy back their furniture.
That's right.
A quick trip to Ikea on Saturday, and now I've got six hundred and thirty dollars in.
My back pocket. What the hell? How good is that?
It wasn't selling a marketplace? So you just dragged it to Ikea and they brought their stuff back.
And I feel like every person on the planet had at least one piece of Ica.
I have a Calix bookshelf that I don't need any more, and to be honest, I'd be embarrassed to sell it to somebody else because it's.
Just really well loved.
To Jessica, I'm a drag it back to Ikea, get you some money back.
Ten out of ten idea.
All right, let's go to a really quick break, and then after the break, I'm going to talk about the rising cost of living, and we're going to talk about how to label your expenses. When we're talking budget and cash flow, don't go anywhere.
All right, everybody, welcome back. As you said before the break, the cost of living pressure is really dominating everyone's worries. I know that I have seen it. I've had to expand my budget for my groceries, for my utilities, for my petrol. It feels like everything is just getting so much more expensive, and it's really stressful. Turns out I'm
not alone. Apparently fifty nine percent of people who were recently surveyed were concerned about the skyrocketing cost of grocery and electricity prices, soaring cost of rent, and the rising interest rates for twenty twenty three.
Yeah, it gives me the ick, but it absolutely makes sense that in twenty twenty three, this is what people
are worried about. Like, I just feel like, one, it's not fair, but two it sparks a really good conversation in our podcast, but also just in our business in general, Jess, when we're talking about content and how we can actually have the biggest impact on our listeners this year, because I just feel like for the last twelve months we've really focused on interest rates and investing, but it really seems that the crux of people's issues aren't just in
being able to afford to invest. It's really about bringing down our grocery budgets and how to be as savvy as possible with electricity and those costs that we can't actually as easily control. And I feel like it's so easy to go, oh jes we just won't go out for dinner as much, but when the grocery bill is exorbitant, like what are we meant to turn? What are we meant to do? So I just think it's so interesting to understand. I guess what's going on. And obviously interest
rate pressure is insane. And in December Jests, I think I've already told you this. I'm shocked, and I'm happy to share this with the community. Everybody knows I own a property. My partner and I have a mortgage, and I want to be super transparent about that. We probably have about nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars on that mortgage.
Right.
I have calculated maybe I need to go see Kate from Zella Money, because if she listens to this, she's going to be horrified. But I calculated that from January twenty twenty two to December twenty twenty two, my interest pays on my mortgage. We're paying principle and interest. At the moment, my interest component of our mortgage has increased by twenty one hundred dollars.
That is two one hundred.
Dollars on my mortgage, which, let's be honest, is actually a very normal mortgage amount here in Melbourne. Like the average property price is more than a million dollars these days in Melbourne. It's even higher than that in Sydney. So it's actually a really normal amount of money for somebody who lives in the inner suburbs of Melbourne to have,
you know, taken on, especially with a partner. But the idea that we are now under twenty one hundred dollars more financial stress than we were, Please don't get me wrong. I acknowledge our privilege and even being able to access a mortgage and being in that position, but it has really changed the way that we're investing and saving and setting financial goals because that's twenty one hundred dollars a month that has to come from somewhere else in our
budget to be allocated to the interest payments. Because from my perspective, I just want to be smashing down my home loan as much as possible as I can. But where is that coming from? How is that going to work?
And thankfully, as I said before, acknowledging all the privilege that I have in being able to pay it, but oh my gosh, the pressure that I feel right now, knowing that I just can't see how our community is as level headed as they are at the moment, I would be losing my mind as well as them.
Yeah, And it really is coming back to that conversation around setting yourself up for success and being realistic with what you can do. Because this article said that just putting food on the table is the number one worry of people for the upcoming year, and you go, okay, well, if you can barely afford to feed you know, your family of for your family of two, or whatever that might be, how can you then be thinking about investing?
And I think it's really easier then fall down that slippery slope of feeling like you're not doing enough and feeling really stressed. And it's important to remember that we are in a really tumultuous economic time, I think, and we're really looking forward to making sure that we as a team do everything that we can to support you guys this year with content that really helps to set you up so that you can feel confident and hopefully not quite so stressed.
Yeah, and I just feel like investing content as much as it is super exciting. And please don't think it's going anywhere. In fact, I have a whole investing course planned for this year, so please don't think that we're going to reel back on that in any way, shape or form. But there will be so much more relatable content when it comes to savings and groceries and everyday living expenses and budgeting and debt reduction and what to
do because Jess. Another thing that has come to light over the last twelve months, because obviously research has been done, the year is over, we now can look at it in reflection. Debt rates for Australians have increased by ten percent. So in twenty twenty one, twenty nine percent of Australians had some type of personal debt that was not a mortgage, and then in twenty twenty two that went.
Up to thirty nine percent.
Wow.
And with the rising cost of groceries and putting food on the table and electricity and fuel, I feel like it is never ending. And I cannot see that going
down this year. I can only see it increasing. And I don't think that there's any shame in that, because at the end of the day, if our community is going into debt, I know they're educated enough to know why they are going into debt and how they are going to get out of it on the flip side, but it's just really upsetting that in the world we live in, people just are needing to rely on things like that, And as I said, absolutely no shame in it.
What we want to do, though, is make the most educated decisions for our circumstance, and sometimes to put food on the table, put your kids through school, and put you in a position to actually thrive in the future. Sometimes you do need to take a step backwards, and I think that it is a really privileged thing to say just don't go into debt, because that's just not
an option for a lot of people. So I think it's important to acknowledge that that if it's gone up in twenty twenty two and then in twenty twenty three, as you said before, Jess, our number one concern is groceries and fuel and energy, it's just going to increase even more. It's sad, but we've got this.
We've got you.
We're going to support you. And maybe we'll pop a thread up in the Facebook group this week and go ahead and leave a comment let us know what's stressing you out. What topics do you want us to cover this year? Because I mean, we're really here to help you guys, and.
Makes our job really easy if you just tell us what to do. I'm out of ten.
We don't even need a producer and Lisa yeat No, we keep our Melisa. We love Melisa, we love her.
All right, let's move on.
We have a listener question this week which is all about budget and cash flow, so I feel like it's really relevant.
Let's have a listen.
Hi, there, have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve that. 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.
Hi, my name is Vanessa. I'm reading your book and I'm on the bank account out it and I have a question. We have two kids and we have swimming classes, basketball, soccer, gymnastics. Those expenses. Where do I put them on fixed? Like necessary or discretionary? Some of them we think are necessary, like swimming classes, we could agree the other ones are discretionary, but I'm not sure how do I put them or where do I put them? Thank you and your book has been very helpful. Thank you.
Oh that was the sweetest message ever. Hi, Vanessa.
I'm really excited that you're asking this question because it actually opens up a conversation of values and beliefs. And there's actually not one actual answer to this because a lot of things that you're asking about, and I'm really grateful that your kids can do them are privilege. For a lot of other families that is not accessible. And as much as it for you, non negotiable. And you know what, growing up, swimming lessons for us were non negotiable.
My parents did not let us get out of them, regardless of how much we didn't want to do it, were to love it. It was one of those circumstances. But growing up in Australia beside the beach. My parents were like, there's absolutely no way you are not going to learn to swim. So I get that that question of is it a necessary thing or not is really actually up to you and your family values.
I think what you really need to.
Do in this circumstances step backwards out of the budget categorization mode and actually into a conversation with your partner about values and what is discretionary and what isn't not necessarily What do your kids do right now? But what is a necessary expense versus how do we personally categorize something that's disposable? Because you know, swimming lessons and tennis lessons and all of those extracurricular activities you could argue
are not necessary. But in some families you might go, no, absolutely, this is a necessary expense in our household that goes in that column. And I totally get that. But again it's quite personal. However, if you're in a position where you are trying to cut back and work out what is going on, maybe it is time to have a look at, well, how many discretionary things do the kids get to do? Do we allocate a specific budget to them? To spend on. You know, if they want swimming lessons
and horse riding lessons and whatever else they're doing. Maybe we allocate a certain amount per week and the kids get to decide how that is made up of. Or I just think there's a few things. What do you reckon, Jess, how would you categorize it?
I personally would probably put them in discretionary. However, that being said, I think the thing that's worth kind of keeping in mind here is that you can come back to this budget as many times as you want throughout the year. And you know, we're talking about how things are potentially going to get a little bit tougher as the year goes on. If you put something into necessity now and in six months time of year, oh my gosh, we need to find an extra two hundred dollars in
the budget. Every month, you can come back to your budget and go, oh, you know what, maybe we pop the swimming lessons on hold for six months until we kind of back on our feet and things hopefully stabilize a little bit and we can bring them back in. Or maybe we go from two lessons a week to one lesson a week, and so you can always come back,
and that's something that I do. I obviously use the Budget and cash Flow Master Class Plan for my budgeting and I review it every I would say, at a minimum two months, just to come back and make sure that it's all still working for me. So pop it wherever feels right to you now, But know that if you know as you go along it's not quite working out, you can change that. There's no rule that says that you can't.
And it's really fluid, like personal finance is just that, right. I say this all the time. It's personal, so it's up to you. But when it comes to budget, it is actually quite fluid. So as you said before, Jess, if you need to find it an extra two hundred bucks in the budget, what could you move from you know,
essential over to discretionary and back and forth. Because it's kind of like, and I don't want to be too trivial about this, but I've got friends that I'm talking to at the moment that are saving up for like Europe trips or saving up for a car purchase, and I'm like, well, why don't you just put your TV subscriptions on hold until you achieve that goal because it
might not be forever. And I think often when we're canceling something or putting something on the back burner, you just assume that's a finite decision, like that's it, Like all right, well, I've canceled my stand membership, therefore it's gone.
No.
Why not cancel it for three months, achieve your financial goal, and then get it back in line with the values that you hold. Because from little things, they really do add up. Like we say it on the pod. We've said it for years on the pod. From little things, big things grow. And I think you're right, maybe it's time to go all right, well are we doing two classes a week? Could be dropped down to one? What is necessary? But it's all about discussing it with family
as well. And I think that that's probably a really good place to even get your kids involved in the budgeting process, because I'm a big believer in kids being
more involved in financial decisions as a family. But I also think it's too much of a burden to lump the entire budget on children and go, oh, this is how our entire family works, in our budget, and our rent and no our mortgage, in this and this, and because sometimes it's just a bit overwhelming, but that could be a really good gateway of Hey, guys, Mum and dad have done the budget.
We have X amount to spend. Here's what this cost. This cost sits costs.
What do you think? How do you think we should manage this? And it could actually be a really empowering way to get the kids involved. But each to their own and personal finance is just that, it's personal, so there's not a right or wrong in this circumstance.
Oh my gosh, I love that. And if you're listening to this, going what is this amazing budgeting costs.
The budget and cash flow course you've ever seen in your entire life.
Absolutely, head to the She's on the Money website. It's the Shees on the Money, a budget and cash flow masterclass. And given it to the new year and everybody's working on getting their finances sortag. Should we give them a cheeky discount.
To help them ount? Absolutely? What's the code you're going to make?
Just plug in pod fifty and that will give you fifty dollars off. We'll keep that valid right through the end of the month for you, So get in and hopefully that will help you tear everything up and get really organized so you get some sort of for twenty twenty three ten idea.
All right, I think that is all we have time for today, JASCRICI have a beautiful weekend and She's on the Money listeners, I love you season Bye. 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.
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