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She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast Millennials who Want Financial Freedom. Today's Friday, which means it is time to sit back with the girls with a bevy in hand, to unpack our favorite moments of the week, and of course to celebrate you fool She's on the
Money community. As always, we're going to be discussing our favorite money wins, We're going to discuss what's making news in the finance world, and we'll be hoping to answer a do you see money question, which this week is all about having awkward conversations about setting boundaries in the workplace. But before we get there, miss Jesse Gourichi, could you let us know for those of us who missed out what happened on our Money Diaries episode this week.
This week's episode got so much spectacular feedback because this particular woman had left a relationship and a little content wandering here talking about abuse. So if that's rough you, perhaps not the episode and just skip a head like thirty seconds right now. But she left an emotionally, physically financially abusive relationship. It sounded so hectic, and she ended up with a mountain of debt in her name that she.
Had not accrued. It's so unfair. I still think about this every day since we have spoken to her, and it just it frustrates me that you can be lumped with somebody else's debt and it's legal.
Yeah, over one hundred grand in debt she was left with, and she paid off every cent plus interest. She did it all by herself. She's debt free and now she's.
Truly she's just thriving.
She has her driving, she has a new partner. She just genuinely radiated so much warmth and happiness. And to look at her and be like, you have bloody been through it and you have come out the other side. This beautiful, amazing person was so so inspirational.
It was epic. I loved her. Georgia King, Hello chusy week being my love, A good week, good weak, good week, not bad.
Yes, yes, that's always good week. I'm like from the wardrobe of last time.
It's good to be back with the girlies.
You're welcome, Welcome back to the Welcome back to the studio. What happened on our deep dive this week? Gking on tour so.
We discussed how to have difficult conversations with your boss spicy, So we covered things like salary, your workload, workplace culture and so on.
Culture culture.
The main thing I feel like that came out of the chat was how to be assertive in the workplace, which is something you're really good at. I'm looking at Victoria for people that can't see.
It's actually yes, Jess is really asserted. Don't try crossing her boundaries.
Is that you've learned since being it? She's on the money jest? Or has it always come naturally?
Largely it came from working in a male dominator. I don't think I started that. Yeah, it definitely would have different. I've got a better You have taught me a lot, but yeah, I think working in a male dominated industry, Like I kind of learned.
You just got her.
Sometimes ye do it getting down.
They do right.
And a big part of that conversation was talking about email etiquette, which we maybe so.
Passionate.
It was so interesting. We were saying you should always take the word.
Just out of your emails. I remember that's a conversation we had in like my first two or three weeks of employment. I got you to read over something because I was new, and I was a bit like, please help me, and you like read over something that I'd sent, and you're like, delete, delete, delete, delete, And I was like, and you're like, I just don't think just the word absolutely not what I said. And you said, I don't think that you should be justifying your language. Just say
what you mean. And I was like, oh okay, And now you feel so much more empowered. I'm the queen of the one line email, Like, you know what, don't waste anybody's time, I think is respectful.
Yeah, I'm still stuck in a land of smiley faces and every center.
So nice to see you. Just wondering if I could report explanation Mark, but like that's just it, right, and who are we actually appeasing? There is that you thinking you're going to be uncomfortable, and then if you contrast it to a jes email, which you know, they're not rude, like by any stretch of the imagination, you are always kind to you always like, hey, Victoria, hope you've been well, here's the thing I need from you. Let me know when I can have it. And I just feel like
that's so direct, so clear. And we obviously deal with a lot of different stakeholders in the work that we do, whether it is clients or you know, talking to our radio station or talking to book publishers or any other people that we're working with. Sometimes you just don't need the back and forth. You just need to be like, yep, no problem, here's the time, here's the date, here's what's going to happen, or vice versa. You're a bit confused about a lack of clarity because maybe you weren't so
clear like, oh yeah, what about like three pm? No, no, no, like it's three pm. Like we are very clear about setting expectations so that we always have clarity, and I think that the way you write emails just really helps that. And it's you know, it's empowering to just be like, no, I just say what I meant.
You shouldn't feel bad, Like, don't feel bad about saying or asking for what you want or need or mean like it is such a female thing. I think to really put it back on you to handle somebody else's emotions and it's not your job.
Yeah, stretching that out though, we're obviously going to remove this week from our emails as a community, the word just. We're going to delete the word that because that is a word that literally doesn't need to be there. Yeah, because it's a filler. No sentence needs the word that, So remove that and also exclamation marks from the end of your sentences. No one needs to have a really good day like they just don't.
No, you know what, I'm very blunt, but you can pry my exclamation marks from my cold dead fingers.
Okay, sorry, sorry, let's move on, George. Before we move on to money wins, this week, Jess has had a bit of a money speaking about being asserted, being direct. How about you ask Jess how her weekend was and maybe what she got up to on Sunday this weekend, j Rick talked to me.
We went to a wedding my partner and I and we caught an uber. There was a bit of a gap between the ceremony and the reception, so caught an uber home, got upstairs to the hotel. Probably two minutes between leaving the uber getting upstairs, my partner goes, forgot my phone, left it in the backseat. Oh my gosh.
No.
Call the uber man, say hi, I'm so sorry my partner's phones in the back of your car. He goes, yep, I've got it, but I've got a passenger. I'm like, you left me two minutes ago. How And he's like, I'm really sorry. I'm on the way to the airport. And I was like, no problems, totally get that. Okay, you're going somewhere. That's so fine. Can you come back
to drop it off later? Obviously, like there's this thing through Uber you reimburse them for their trips, so it's not like he's out money, Like I will pay you to bring it back. It's my fault, my boyfriend's fault. Here's yep, no problems. Is this the best number? I'm like, yep, great, call you later. Wonderful. Everything's dreamy phone coming back. No, no, no, no. So it's seven o'clock. We head to the reception. It's been four hours at this point, haven't heard from him.
Starting to stress. Send him a text and say, Hey, just letting you know. We're heading back out. We're going to be at a different location. Just give me a buzz before you come down. I'll let you know where we are. Silence. We're at the reception. Reception goes late. Of course, it's a party, we're celebrating. My phone dies, and I start stressing. I'm convinced he's going to call me and I'm going to miss it and I'm never going to see this phone again. So we leave, go home,
charge it. Crickets still, it's like midnight at this point. At this point, I realize that I have my boyfriend and fine my friends for like safety and you know, occasionally stalking purposes. Sure, and so I look up his phone. Great, the phone, George.
Yeah, you know, it's actually detrimental because I'm the type of person that, yeah, Jess just left.
She calls me.
She's like not absolutely, like story, sorry.
So I can see the phone. I'm like, okay, great, Well at least I know where he is. And I kind of monitor it for a few hours, he stays in the same spot. I go, okay, I'm going to assume that's his house. Just kind of tuck that information away for later.
What are you going to do with some dude's home addressed?
She's on the money wreck anyway. So next day, still haven't heard anything. Call him again. He's ignoring my calls. Call James's phone, ignore you too. I called my partner's phone like sixteen times, like I thigive, you know, if maybe he's driving in his car and he hadn't seen it.
I'm so obsessed with me.
He must think I was a psycho. Well he by the end of the story, he definitely did, because you definitely are. The whole rest of the day goes on. I get in touch with Uber, I say, hey, I spoke to my driver. He confirmed he had it. Haven't gotten in touch with him since. They tried to get in touch with him and emailed me back and said, we're really sorry. We couldn't get a hold of him either.
Weird. I was like, okay, no problems, but he definitely has it because he told me he has it.
Correct. Also, I've been stalking him. He definitely has it. Yeah, kind of freaking out at this point. So it gets to three o'clock the next day. He's had the phone for over twenty four hours. He's not picking up any of my ten million phone calls that I have left him, and we're kind of at a point where we're like, what do we do?
What would Victoria do? Go to police? Victoria would go to the police and submit a police report. What did just do?
Though?
Is the real question here.
We decided to jump in the car and dry it with the house. So we get on the freeway all active.
I love it. I was so dangerous. We are not endorsing this story by any stretch of the imagination. You can't just turn up to a random man's house.
I felt really bad about it, like a little bit invasive, and I didn't want to be a good person, but I had tried every other avenue. Anyway, We're driving to his house and then it moved, and I'm like, oh, no, is this about to be like the amazing Race two point zero where we're just chasing this man all over Melbourne? Spoiler it was, so we see him stop at a subway on the top of had I mean, I see him stop on find my friends.
And it's not fine my friends anymore. It's fine my old uber driver.
So I say to my boyfriend do we just give it a crack? And he's like, well, we didn't come this far and not try. So we drive to this subway. The subway is on the corner. We're at an intersection and my partner goes, I'm pretty sure I see the car and I'm blind, I'm not wearing the boss. I'm like, well, that sounds great, and he's like, I'm pretty sure someone just got into me.
I would have been screeching too, I know you.
It wasn't. Oh well, that's just great.
It was like.
So we scoot into the parking lot. The guy is getting ready to like leave, and I say to my partner, park behind and block him in.
Oh my god, So what does she do? Parks behind himself.
I eat out the car door, run around and I get his window and he's looking at me like what is going on? And I didn't want to tap on the window because that just felt like too much.
Because driving across the city to go to a random man's location is not too much, Oh my gosh, too much. Don't tap on his window. Og I would roll the line line. He rolls down the window. I go, Hi, excuse me, I'm so sorry, you have my phone? And he's like, what, Like, no, I don't. He looked so confused. He knew so sorry.
I was in your yesterday. You called. You told me you have my phone, and he's like, ah, Jessica. I'm like yes, and he gave me this look like he just didn't know what to say, and so I just kind of preemptively cut the conversation. I was like, I am tracking this phone. I know that that's how we found you. Can I have it please? And he just kind of gives me this kind of sheepish look and pulls it out of his glove box and hands it and I go.
Thank you so much.
Run. I'm like, babe, dry screech out of there.
Story I've ever heard anybody would like a lesson in audacity, just call Jessica.
I regret nothing, but I absolutely wouldn't endorse it.
In the future. I can recommend the police. They are they a.
Great job, they do a great.
Job at great community service, and they actually have this thing called a police report that you could smit, so you don't need to track someone to their house. In saying that, George, the thing I was surprised about was if you pick up an iPhone in twenty twenty two, that is going to be tracked absolutely, do you know what I mean? Like, how did you think you were
going to get away? If that was his intention? Maybe he made me he busy, who knows, But if his intention was to keep the phone, why isn't it Dolph?
Yeah, I don't know. The whole situation was really weird, and I feel like I should add an important detail here, which is my partner, who I think I've said before, is at UNI. His on placement. He moved that day, like because his placement was two hours away from where we lives. He literally was moving house that night. It was kind of like, I now will never situation to
get this phone back. Otherwise he was like, I'm gonna have to go buy a new phone, and that's like a grand n yes, so much so it was like an added level of pressure.
Yeah.
I was just like, I don't want you to have to buy a.
New phone, and I also don't want to not be in contact with my partner when he's moving away for placements.
Like okay, right, Yeah, So Yeah, I got real hectic and just went fully rogue. Please don't do that, be safe. But all got a money win, money win.
I did have to buy any h stove away from your creepy crazy story, Georgia King, what are the money wins from the shees on the money community?
This way we got a couple.
Jess is obviously my favorite for the wee, but I'll kick us off with Amelia. So money win. Last night, I was doing some online browsing as I've wanted to treat myself to a few new pieces of clothing, something that I rarely do. Just before I checked out my carts, I decided to follow the rule of putting twenty four hours between myself and my purchases. And boy did it pay off.
Yes, Cleaen.
This morning I woke up having won a two hundred and fifty dollars voucher to Universal Store.
Okay, that's not normal. You don't usually wake up your two hundred and fifty dollars in your account, guys, she said.
Turns out all those little competitions you enter actually payoff. Sometimes in combination with a Uni Days discount code, I got two hundred and seventy five dollars worth of new clothing for free in money were not bad.
I've got a cousin that is an absolute super slow thirt a competition like she is absolutely everything. She's won TVs. She just won trips to Hawaii, She's won multiple different flights like it's crazy. She's so good at it.
Sie, I would just never do it. You've got to be in it as a mystic. Well, that's not in it, and that is the attitude. Well done, Amelia. The next week comes from Steph. After getting a personal loan at seventeen, I can finally say at thirty two that I have paid it.
Oh, oh my gosh, I get it. I love that.
The next one comes from Ellira. For the first time in my twenty nine years, I've saved five hundred dollars in a month with three kids, overwhelming living expenses and the ex e thensive petrol guzzling trips to UNI for a degree that is a sixty three kilometer drive from home and then sing me three cakes back as well a lot of kilometers twice a week, alongside full time.
Work and three bambinis.
Exactly.
Oh my god, how did you even do that?
I know? She said, She's pretty proud of herself.
Her goal is to get to a five hundred dollars a month minimum to go on their first holiday at Christmas time. Oh my, well done, Eleira. The next weing comes from Emily. It's my birthday tomorrow.
Happy Birthday, Emily.
And today I got an email from boost Juice saying that I get a free smoothie.
Oh my god, I sign up to that day three D the birthday freebies. There was a TikToker that went around the city. I followed her. She went around the Melbourne CBD just having a day of free stuff, Like she got free Goozminey Gomez, she got free boost Juice, like I think there was like a cupcake shop that gave her a free cupcakes.
She's like free food day and I'm like, Hi, incredible here for this, what a point we love. The next moon comes from Jemimah. I just bought my wedding dress off marketplace. It's in gore just condition, and it's already been altered to be exactly my side. When the dress looks brand new, and I've saved myself thousands.
Literally, and alterations are so expensive. Coming from a current bride, that's really Oh my lord, they wedding dresses. Yeah yeah, okay, of course insanely expensive. Like I nearly spat my tea out when I read the quote. Yeah, well, well done to you, Jemima. The next win comes from Hannah. I was in Coal's shopping today and I found some Veggie Geoza family packs. Normally they retail at eighteen dollars fifty each. They were on clearance for two dollars thirty moarths.
I took all three were left. No shame.
Now I have meals to last meet more than a week if it just under seven dollars.
Yes, giosa are so unnecessarily expensive at the supermarket, Like I know exactly the one she's talking about, because the big white packet veggie Guosa eighteen dollars.
I know it.
I know it well.
Sometimes thirty one there.
That's a money win of a lifetime. Sometimes they have fifty percent off. They'll buy me two packets of giyosa too for the press of one baby. That takes me to our last money slush life win of the day. Imagen bought her first shares money loss. They immediately tanked, she said, Luckily for the long term. Well, no one followed a man in an uber home, so I mean
they're great money exactly us. So good. All right, let's go to a quick break and when we get back, we are going to be talking about setting expectations with your workplace. And just wants to talk about the interest rates?
Alrighty, I want to talk interest rates because we pre recorded a little early last week because of scheduling, which not great for us because then the RBA rates got announced. We han't chatted about.
It that we are pre recorded our episode last week. Spoiler alert, you'll don't record it at five am on a Friday morning. What do you mean?
I know? Crazy?
Can you tell me we've.
Got you think?
I just snorted?
So for those who don't know, I'm pretty sure you would have seen at this point. But the RBA or the Reserve Bank for Australia increased the official cash rate from zero point one to zero point three five percent, which was the first increase since twenty ten, which had a lot of people in a bit of a tailspin. People going, oh my god, this is crazy, this is ridiculous.
How is this going to impact me? The ultimate idea of it and correct me if I'm wrong, V. It's aimed at reducing inflation, right, yes, sir, And essentially that is because commercial banks will be paying this higher rate of interest on the money that they borrow on their short term loans, and then they then pass that increase
expense onto us, the consumers. So that will mean that if you have a loan with a bank, or if you have a credit card or any line of credit, more likely than not you're going to be paying more. And so if you're paying more, there people are more likely to be saving in their savings accounts, which hopefully we'll see a little bit of an increase as well. Not required, but we can hope we lay in hope we do for people in this office, and that reduces spending,
which reduces demand, which consequently reduces inflation. It's a whole big, long, slow on effect. My economics teacher in your ten would be very proud of me right now. But V, we put up a post on Instagram summarizing this. If you're a visual learner, I would highly recommend going and having a look at that. And we got some really bias you did make that, indeed I did. I would really appreciate any and all compliments and feedback, but please tell
me that was a pretty post. We got some really good questions, so I thought we could just chat about it, talk about the outcome. I know as well, you personally, V have a perspective on this that is a little bit different from what we've been seeing pumped down in the media.
So I aways feel like I'm just going rogue. I'm like, I don't care, and everyone's like, you have to care, and I'm like, it's not as important as you seem to think it is. And it is totally important. I get it, but I feel like the media jumps up and down and makes things sound terrifying when in reality
they're not. And we'll get to that, But why don't we ask some questions so that I don't go on and Victoria Devine rant, My favorite part about this ge is she hasn't prepped me on these questions, so these rogans, it's really nice from Jess this week. Thank you for the preparation.
I'm so welcome. So a lot of people are saying that they just don't understand how making loans and other things more expensive is going to reduce inflation. They say it seems a little bit counterintuitive to be like, hey, everything costs more, let's add on the cost of your loans to that as well.
Yeah, so the economic consequences of that, like that's purposeful. Essentially, what they want to do is increase interest rates, because increased interest rates lead to a downturn in economic activity. So you're going to borrow less money, you're going to be transacting a little bit less, you're probably going to save a bit more, create a bit more economic stability. And that's the point. That's why they're increasing the rates.
That's the point. Right, The higher the interest rate, the less likely you are to go and get a mortgage, Right, Jess, this is helping with inflation because the costs of goods and services won't increase when the interest rate is so high. So I've done this on purpose. But the whip side of that is it could actually end up impacting unemployment and wage growth as well. So it's kind of a like two sided coin where you're like, Yep, this is good.
We need to slow down inflation because up until March this year, for the last quarter, we've actually had the biggest increase in inflation. And I think they're freaking out a bit and just going far out. We can't keep that up. It's actually in our best interest to increase the interest rate because it means that bread and milk and all of these consumables are not going to increase as dramatically and as rapidly as it could if we didn't have some kind of cap to put on it.
So they're kind of trying to put on a lid on it in a way.
So does that mean be that the price of groceries and petrol and stuff, will that actually decrease?
My friend keep dreaming. That is absolutely not how it works. No, it doesn't make it go backwards. I'm really sorry. But what it will mean is that it all stays stagnant. And we want stagnant when it comes to inflation. We just want things to sit pretty and not increase. I've seen a lot across Instagram about what inflation means for hospitality, and at the moment it just feels a little bit
scary because it's small things that really add up. Like they're saying a five dollar latte in the Melbourne CBD is going to end up being five dollars fifty and I know for a lot of people, you're going to go, Victoria, five dollars for a latte is already ridiculous, but it's that fifty cent growth that's happened over three months that you go, well, if that happened over a year, that's actually two dollars, and that's actually a lot of money.
Imagine if this time next year, if we didn't cap inflation, we'd actually be paying seven dollars for a latte. So, like, I think we need to see what we're trying to stop and not go, oh, my gosh, they're trying to increase interest rates in the property market's already so hard to get into it. It's like, no, we're actually trying to make it so that you can afford your life still and you can still afford to put food on
the table. Yes, the property market will be impacted, but not as significantly as you seem to think it is, or as the media seems to think it's going to be impacted.
On that note, the other thing that I'm seeing a lot of people talking about is their mortgages and people being really concerned about the impact of this increase and the rates is going to have on their repayments. What's that going to look like?
It's not as bad as you think it is. It's still obviously something that we need to budget for. So on a five hundred thousand dollars loan each and every single month, you're looking at a difference of about sixty five dollars, So it's a lot. But at the same time,
it's not like your mortgage repayments have tripled. So a current mortgage repayment on half a million dollars is going to look like nineteen hundred and sixty seven dollars, and the new mortgage repayment will look like two thousand and forty one dollars, which is not massive. But when you start to look at what mortgages around Melbourne actually look like, the average property price in Melbourne and in Sydney is
more than a million dollars, right, terrifying? Terrifying. Can you imagine telling your parents that twenty years ago, like when your kids want to buy property, it's going to be more than a million dollars. They wouldn't have believed you, No, I don't think they would. They would have all started investing more in property. Yeah, but a million dollar mortgage is looking at about an increase of one hundred and thirty one dollars monthly, so as much is that sounds
really scary? And yes, that's absolutely going to be in some way, shape or form passed along to us. I think the important thing here is not jumping up and down about your mortgage rate increasing. It's actually about going, gin know what am I putting myself in the best possible position right now? Have I spoken to a mortgage broker recently and actually said is this the best rate
and structure for me? Because so many people that have DMed me over the last week to talk about interest rates, have you know, asked about their mortgage and they've been like, they are my interest rates going to increase? This is ridiculous, they can't afford that. And I just go, okay, like I totally get that quick, perfect question. What are you paying right now? And they're like, oh, my mortgage is at like three and a half percent. I'm like, nosis, like,
when was the last time you revisited that? And they're like, oh, like four or five years ago. And I'll be like, at the moment interest rates are sitting at about two and a half, reasonably, go and get that refinanced, and
you're actually going to be even better off. So I think this, from my perspective, is a bit of a kick in the bottom to make sure that one you're not over subscribe to, you know, streaming services and having a look at your budget and seeing what you can cut out of there, and having a look at refinancing your mortgage if it's time to do that. I think that we can be far more proactive than we are.
Please don't get me wrong. It is a lot to ask, you know, if you had half a million dollars left, Hey, Jess, can you find another sixty five bucks a month? Like that is hard, But I think that there's a lot of things that we can do ourselves to put ourselves in the best possible financial position.
And those numbers we're sharing are based on an initial rate of two point five and an updated brave two point seventy five. Obviously, it's going to very depending on where you start where you finish. We do have a handy dandy again, a great little piece of content on the Instagram, that little cheeky picture some clever gal that that gives you a really good overview if you're a visually it myself.
Yeah.
So on the flip side of this fee I think I've heard that maybe this could be good for potential first home buyers because maybe people that can't afford their mortgages will fold and then there's an opportunity for first time buyers to enter the market.
Is that true or is that.
That's absolutely true? It could happen, Like, if you think about it, there are a lot of people around Australia who are struggling to pay their mortgages and this is going to add a really unnecessary level of pressure that they have to deal with. So it might mean that people do choose to sell their properties because they're like, do you know what? Unaffordable? Can't do it anymore? And there are going to be people in that position. Does that mean that there's going to be an influx of
properties that are suitable for first home buyers. Maybe? And the reason I say maybe is because more often than not, more expensive your property, the less likely you are to struggle financially to pay that mortgage. If you've got a two and a half million dollar property, g very likely you've got the cash flow to support that. And like you know, one hundred and thirty one or two hundred and sixty two dollars a month, or your two million dollar mortgage, it's probably not that much of a stretch.
But when you have a three hundred thousand dollar mortgage and you know you're up to your eyeballs in personal debt and you've been trying to pay all of that off, it is a massive stretch. So yes, it could free up some property. But does that mean the property prices are going to decrease? Maybe? Maybe not, because property prices are driven by demand, so there are already so many first home buyers. We're sitting at a table with one, Miss Jessic Gricci is desperately trying to find a property.
Do those first home buyers demands go away? Absolutely not. So I don't know if it will mean that there is going to be a reduction in price on the properties, but rather an increased in saturation and an increase in being able to access them. But I don't know how much that will impact how much you end up paying for that property.
Does that make sense, Yeah, it'd be interesting to see what happens.
There's been talk that this increase is the first of more to come. Do you think it's likely that we're going to see more over the next year and If so, is there anything we need to be doing to prepare.
Look, I think always having a tight budget and cash flow and being really aware of what's coming into your bank account, what's going out if your bank account is always going to be the basis of what I practice and what I preach and what I jump up and down about. Yes, it is very very likely that our rates are going to increase again. Is it fair? Yes? Is it going to increase soon potentially? Do we have
any idea of what that looks like. No. The RBA are going to be meeting again on the seventh of June, which means that's when we'll get a little bit more clarity on what that looks like. But the thing I want to share here is actually what inflation looks like around the world because Australia at the moment we kind of live in a little bubble right, Like, our media
isn't as broad as it is internationally. We always see Australian media outlets they're obviously going to get a b in their bonnet about what it means to increase inflation, and we're like, this is horrendous. It's the worst in the last three months that it's been in the last twenty years, and you just go, great, what does that
actually mean? So let's contextualize this a little bit. In Iran, their inflation rate is sitting at twenty nine point nine percent, a lot, Turkey sixteen point three percent, Nigeria twelve point one. Then we go down and down and down, and Australia doesn't even make the top five. So I think to
contextualize this a little bit. Yeah, it does suck. Yes it is going to impact us, but we've been living in a world where our government during COVID has really tried to cushion our fall from this to make sure that we're not feeling inflation as much because we obviously have a bit tighter purse strings during COVID and everyone's
financially impacted. And now they actually need to start letting out that inflation so that we can go back to what is going to be COVID normal, right, So they do need to increase it slightly, But I think the important thing here is context and it's going Look it is increasing. Does it suck, absolutely, but look at Iran, like look at what's going on around the world. Inflation is very normal. It does not mean that our government is doing the wrong thing. It's actually an outcome of
a healthy economy and this is a good thing. So during the midst of you know, we have had announced this week. Earlier on Monday, I got an email I don't know if you guys got it that said the early voting's open. And obviously right now our media is completely saturated with political paraphernalia. Let's call it that. It's not propaganda, but like they do sledge each other a fair bit. Jess, you and I we were having a conversation earlier. It's insane to me that they can just
be so mean. It's to be childish, isn't it. Yeah, Jess, you were talking about the YouTube ad.
Yeah, there's a YouTube George, I don't know if you're saying. There's a YouTube ad that's running at the moment. And I am not going to name names because I just don't want people to think we're fulling one side or the other.
No, we have no opinion here. We have a platform. It is not our place to tell you what decision to make.
Correct but it was obviously an ad put out by one of the major political parties, and it was do you ever watch the TV show at Angela Anaconda where it was like that weird black and white paper I don't know what type of media you would call up.
It was done in the same style and it had the premiere of a state and one of the political campaigners depicted as a Marionette doll, and it was just so DYSTOPI and I was like, why are we having these people build their platforms sledging other people than just sharing what they stand for? Deperate because somebody would have spent so much money to produce and run that ad, and I go.
I know you, just like you paid for this.
I found it a little bit gross. And I feel like, you know, a lot of people are focusing on the wrong things instead of say what they do stand for. They're just trying to make other people look bad and it just goes.
For them and they are naughty, naughty, naughty, Like I feel like that is so true. But I'm bringing that up because I want to just preface that this is going on alongside an election, which means that people are automatically going to one make a bigger deal out of it, but two make it look like the other party's fault. Yeah, but at the end of the day. This is just
economics and this is how it works. And yes they are going to try and drag it in and talk about it and make it look like they're going to do so many things and stop this and stop that, and they're going to put you, Georgia King in a much better position when in reality, like they don't have a lot of control over that. So I think being really cautious of what people saying at the moment is really important. And a few people have slid into my
DMS being like Vie, who are you voting for? Like I think that you'll know who to vote for, and I'm like, nope, I'm not sharing that. That is not my place. I actually promote you guys living by your own values. And there is a website it is votecompass dot ABC, dot net dot au, which is a fantastic website that you can go to and you can find out how your personal views compared to Australian political parties so that you can make the right decision for you.
And I would absolutely recommend going to that. That's obviously not sponsored, not indoors, they haven't asked us to do that. I just really want you guys, to be voting with your genuine values, not what you're seeing on social media or not what you're seeing, you know, a YouTube commercial slander someone with So I think it's really important to know our own values and that vote Compass website is actually really good for that. But let's move on friends.
Alrighty guys, I think it's time for money question of money dilemma?
Who's with me? Lie song? You know, like Drake, I want that hot Lablie.
We'll go on the street as it's brewing in the background. I've heard that worked on I'm pretty sure on the streets. So we won't have that.
We will have the poor royalty free version. Hi.
There, have you got up money dilemma you just can't solve? The Sheese 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 quick voice recording and you may just find yourself on the show. Now, let's take a listen to today's money dilemma.
Hey, chicks, I'm just wondering, what is your advice or commentary on workplaces that normalize things like not taking your full lunch break or not taking one at all, or places that expect you to stay back late, way beyond your contract hours regularly, or even expect you to do overtime for free. I find myself in these places far too often and never want to get the boss off side, But also these things are unreasonable, and want to advocate for myself.
This one's spicy. You guys are employed, I feel like I have a lot of audacity and I would say a lot of colorful things to an employer who expected that of me. But before we get there, I don't know our money diarrest from a bar of soaps. She's obviously a fabulous member of the she's on the money community. However, I do think before we start this conversation, we need to outline the fact that if we're going to talk about this, we are talking about unreasonable. I don't know.
I feel like if you're in a nine to five Monday and a Friday job, like there is a thing called reasonable overtime, where you know, if you've just got a really busy workplate, you do have to do a few extra hours of work one week and you're not going to find yourself in a position where you're getting paid over time. I feel like there's this ebb and flow nowadays where gen z or what are they called
the TikTok community. I feel like a boomer right now, but you know, like the younger, the young's these days seem to think that any time of overtime is ridiculous, and any minute of my lunch break that has been you know, eaten into is absolutely ridiculous. And I totally agree that boundaries need to be set in a workplace, but I think we're talking this is beyond reasonable overtime, and it's beyond you know, maybe one time missing your
lunch break. We're talking about consistency here and boundaries being overstepped, and maybe you're feeling really uncomfortable about it. Is that a fair thing to disclaim it with?
Yeah? I mean that's an inclusion in a lot of contracts nowadays, is that you work your your hours up to and including what they deem reasonable. And I think the point here is that some workplaces, more so than others, take the piece a little bit.
And I definitely do. That's why I needed to disclaim it. So you guys can't pipe up and be like, what do you mean, what's a lunch break? This happen on my own show.
Yeah, So I think like, yeah, there's a big difference between oh my gosh, today there's this one big project and if I leave at five o'clock on time like I'm supposed to, someone else is going to have to stay back by themselves to finish it, yea, rather than a systemic where three lunch breaks, stay back late every day because if you don't, you're not seen to be working as other people.
It's that culture and I used to work in that culture, and it's disgusting and I feel like it's really bad if your mental health. It's arguably very bad for your physical health. But I want to hear before I, you know, put these people in blust. What would you guys do? Jess, I know you've worked incredibly corporately before. Have you run into this before? Yeah? I have.
And it's interesting. I think like how I would handle it now and how I would have handled it when I was younger, you know, older, more confident, more assertive. As we discussed earlier. I think when I was younger, a lot of the time I just kind of copted it on the chin and then complained about it's my friends kind of like, well, I'm going to do it because I don't want to kiss anybody off.
Yeah, well I'm going to do it, but I'm going to stick about it, okay, correct.
Whereas now I think it's about having a conversation because I mean, maybe your employer or your manager or your team aren't realizing the amount of time that you're putting in. Should they be paying attention and anything that. Yes, but let's not make it asumptions. Maybe it is just as simple as raising it and saying, hey, can I get some time in loop for all of the time that I'm staying back or is there something that we can absolutely?
But the flip side of that is and I feel like we really have to say it because I don't want to be like, yeah, girl boss, tell them and then have someone experienced negative repercussions.
Yeah.
Absolutely, it's s There's a tough conversation to have, right And there is the chance that if you do start raising these issues, if the workplace you're in has a poor culture and they are actually toxic, there is a chance that there will be negative ramifications for you and it might be that you are put on some kind of notice. It might be that you're told that culturally you're not the best fit for them because you're not meeting their expectations of what they deem is reasonable.
Is that shit? Ae thousand percent? And I would say if that is the case, probably not a workplace you want to be in long term.
Absolutely agree, But you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot when you really need to have your job.
Well, and that's it. That's why I think it's important to just say, hey, should you stand up for yourself? One thousand percent? But also I don't want to be the reason that somebody says something and then goes, oh my god, I lost my job.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
From an employee rights perspective, though, can you lose your job for asking if.
You should have theoretically lunch break you're entity.
Poretically absolutely not Georgia. That would blacklist you a little bit. Oh George, you're just not a good cultural fear. Yeah, it's like you're not going to say it was your lunch break. No, Like you're culturally not the best fear. If you're on probation as well, it's a really easy thing for employers to kind of, you know, be like, oh, you know what, it just didn't work out, see you later,
or like performance management. There are all of these tools that, yes, there are, You're right, like, they couldn't just turn around be like Georgia and you're taking a lunch break every day you're fired. But with that being said, especially having worked in a couple of somewhat toxic workplace cultures previously, she's on the money.
No, there are definitely things that an employer can do if they want to, if they are dissatisfied like that, and if you are experiencing anything like that, a thousand percent, hit up your union, hit up Fair Work Australia. They are a friends, fantastic, fantastic resource because nobody should be
experiencing that. But it's one of those things where it's really hard, I think, to police to the fullest extent, because you can have one opinion and you can say, oh my god, I know that the reason this is happening is because I stood up for myself because I
didn't want to do that over time. But then your employer could turn around and say, oh, actually they weren't getting along with other people, or they didn't culturally quite fit in, or the positions become redundant, or any other number of things that you go And we don't mean to scare you, but I think it's a really important preface to make because I would hate for someone to walk away from this.
That's a lot of tickets on ourselves. Imagine just assuming that people are going to walk away from listening to our contents super empowered, like, oh my god, I listened to another Shit's on the Money episode and now I'm going to take over the world and tell my boss to jump Like that's a few tickets. But let's assume that that's the case. But I think it's also about setting really healthy boundaries and starting to, you know, not
necessarily be super confrontational. But if your boss gives you a t at four point thirty in the afternoon and you know that that's going to take you past your five pm finish, and you know you might have something book, do a drink with a friend, or you might just want to go home to sit on the couch with your cat. I think setting really healthy boundaries and just
going hey, Jess, thanks so much. Is it all right if I get to that in the morning, and they might go why and you'll be like, oh, well, I just don't have enough time today to do it, like I've got to leave at five, and unfortunately this looks like a two hour task. And I think it's about starting to set really healthy boundaries where they know that
you're just not willing to take that on. I think that there's a very big difference between Hey, you're willing to take on the work and like, oh yeah, she just leaves at five pm on the dot. Like that, from my perspective, is potentially not what we're trying to look like. But we're trying to set healthy boundaries. So instead of you know, leaving at five like you mentioned, you're leaving at seven. Like that's really unhealthy. So I think being a bit people please or esque can be
to our detriment as well. So I think setting healthy boundaries starts with setting healthy expectations, so going hey, did you need anything else this morning? I'm actually gonna pop out for lunch at twelve, and starting to set boundaries where maybe you're not necessarily saying to your boss, hey, so I don't get lunch at all, And I think that's ridiculous, Like you could potentially get them offside with that.
Can we find a softer way to start introducing these boundaries into your daily conversation where instead of going, I think it's ridiculous, you just going do you know what I deserve my lunch break, I'm gonna go at one. Hey, I'm actually leaving it one to go for lunch. Was there anything you wanted me to pick up on the
way back to just set that boundary? And I think that that is a much healthier way of starting to see how they respond to it, because confrontation is not always the answer in these circumstances, Like sometimes it's absolutely necessary, though, And in that case, I would be looking at making a list and just keeping track of things and taking the emotion out of the conversation that you need to have. We're not talking about like I just feel like I'm
not respected. I am not respected. We don't feel things. They are things. When you're at work, it needs to be pragmatic because I promise, and this is going to sound really harsh and terrible, and I promise, guys, this isn't how I feel about you, but I promise your boss just doesn't care about the emotional side of it your boss just cares about getting the job done and you being a good employee, and I really just I don't care how you feel about it, like I care
pragmatically what that means. And you know, as somebody who is an employer, I'd be heartbroken if my team thought that I was, you know, crossing their boundaries or not respecting them, and I would, you know, it's twenty twenty two. I would hope other bosses feel the same way too. So I think it's also really healthy to be like, hey, I don't know if you know about like I literally
don't have time for lunch. I'd be horrified, Jess, if you turned around and said I just don't have time for myself, I'd be like, what, Like, I'm so sorry.
And I think when you're having those conversations as well, there's probably a little bit of power. And I have done this in the past where you just kind of no no in a past job. I'm gonna say it, and you're gonna be like, oh, no, that hasn't This is about me, about me, It's all about me, but just keeping track of those things. So rather than just saying I feel like I never get time for lunch saying hey, in the last three weeks, I've only been able to take my full lunch break twice, or in
the last month, I've worked eighteen hours of overtime. And having something I think a little bit more solid to put in front of somebody shows one that you personally are really feeling it and taking it seriously and wanting to present them with information that they can digest. But on their end, if you go, oh my god, like that's a whole three or four extra days of work
that you've done, that's mind bowing. I think that that also can have a little bit of an impact, and a lot of times if it's a bigger business, sometimes things have to be run up through different managers or if you're in a bigger business. Obviously, as a small team, for us, it's really easy if I have a problem to be like, hey, Vy, this kind of cooked, and
you're like, no problems, let's fix it. But in big business it can be a little bit more challenging, and so recognizing that you might need to have something that your boss can take to their boss, or their boss can take to their boss, so that they can reallocate re sources to ease your load. Yeah, because that process isn't always as direct as simple as it really should be.
So on Wednesday's episode ES, we spoke about the importance of keeping a paper trail. So if you're up for a promotion or something like that, just having that evidence on hand so you can present it to your boss is very helpful because otherwise they can just dismiss you and you.
Know, pretend it hadn't happen. And it's so hard to advocate for yourself when you haven't really done it before. And I promise evidence is that thing that's going to feel like that crutch when you walk into that meeting. You're like, no, I have my stuff sorted out. I know I deserve this. I know I can advocate for myself in this conversation, not just oh yes, I feel like I deserve a raise, like that's just it's not
the way things should go. The other flip side, I guess from the employer's perspective, And you know, as I said, I'm a bit I don't want to say good boss. I think I'm bloody b but like I just I get really anxious that I would take advantage of people and I would never ever want that. So I think from my perspective, it goes one of two ways. If you're working over time with me, there's two things that
could go wrong. I've either that allocated you too much work for the amount of hours that I have you each and every single week, in which case that's a me problem and I really need to reallocate that or think about a way to lift that workload. Again, it's not on my employees. It's on me as an employer to make sure that your allocated tasks that are in line with your job description and your capabilities, and if not, cool,
we need to reallocate. Sometimes your boss might not be privy to the fact that you know, hey, g can you just organize this spreadsheet in the head It might be a timided job. In reality, it might be a three hour job, and you just need to sit down with your boss and be like, do you realize that, like these things that you're allocating me are taking so much longer than you think they are, in which case,
is there a way we can automate it? Or can we just reset realistic expectations of what this work looks like? Or on the flip side, I'm allocating you work you're staying back to get it done because you don't actually have the technical skills to do that work I have allocated you, in which case I need to have a look at it and go, okay, cool, is there any training I can give you jest? Or we need to do some stuff that could help you, or is that
the right role for you? In which case you need to have a think about it and go, am I really struggling here and I just don't understand the role? Or am I not passionate about it? So I'm putting it off all throughout the day to work on it at night to get it done. And I'm staying back not because I'm not good at this, because I just really don't like my job and I'm just not doing it when I should be doing it. So I think that from my perspective, those are the two ends of
the spectrum where I go. It's either absolutely me or it's my team member that I need to be supporting more. Both outcomes are it's my responsibility to manage that as your manager. So I think it's important to look at that as well and potentially give your manager or your employer the tools to understand that, Like I think it's about having those open, honest conversations and just feeling out
what that means. Because like confrontation, if you're making a TikTok like sounds really good, like I'm got to put up with anything, in reality, it's a bit of a different circumstance.
So definitely go back and listen to Wednesday's episode about how to have those hard conversations, and yeah, really recognize that it's a case by case basis. We don't want anyone making any rash choices and finding themselves in a sticky situation. But also, if you're being asked to do something that's unreasonable, that's not cool, and that is something that your employer should be fixing. And if they're not, maybe it's time to all.
Of your other options whom you need to say sorry for your loss, and they'll say what loss, and you'll be like me, tutlu. All right, that is all we have time for today. Georgia King, can you wrap the boring but important stuff?
Let's do it, okay.
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See you next week, guys, guys mhm