Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud or the Order Kerni Whaltbury 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 us that let you be pervy on other people's financial situations for educational purposes, of course.
Welcome back to another one of our.
Money Diaries episodes where I get the absolute privilege of talking to someone from how She's on the Money community all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this, Dear She's on the Money. After my youngest spent time in the Niicquu, I realized how precious time, really is. I didn't want to keep putting off the dream of traveling with my family, but I had no idea how we could make it work. That's when I
decided to get creative. I took my skills as a paramedic and turned them into something completely different, a business I could run from anywhere, and.
It's given us so much freedom.
Now we're raising our kids, investing in our future, and finally getting to chase those travel dreams. The best part, we didn't need to become millionaires to make it happen, and I'd love to share how we did it.
Money diarists, that sounds so excited.
Yeah, it's more complicated than that in real life, but it is a lot of fun. We've had a great journey.
I'm sure, But like that was honestly a great little clickbait loop.
What do they call it?
A hook to make us go, oh, she was a paramedic, But what is she doing?
How is she doing it?
So let's dive straight in because I would love to know more about this moneyed diarist before we get into it, though, I want to know if I asked you to grade your money.
Habits from A through to F what grade would you give them?
I think probably a B minus B minus.
All right, let's learn a little bit more about you and your journey. My favorite question ever money Darist. Can we dive a little bit more into your money story?
Yeah, so, I'll go all the way back to be an eighties baby. So I was raised by parents who went through the difficulties in the nineties with the recession, and money was always not tired. But everyone was conscious of money, I guess, being raised by parents who were very much like, we need a home, we need security. Not that that was ever explicitly said to us as kids, but it was always there, right for many families.
I think of that generation, it's a tone like, it's a feeling.
Yeah, and yeah, you feel it for sure, even if it's not said. You know that that's the most important thing is to have a roof over your head, food on the table, and everything else is after that. So as I sort of got older, I realized that you can do more than that with money if you have the ability to do so, you know, as the economy changed as I got older, and that kind of thing.
But you know, when you're raised that way, you always have that undercot like I have to make sure I have X, Y Z, and you feel guilty if you don't do those things. So in my twenties, I was earning quite a bit of money and I didn't particularly want to follow that route. So I suppose I wasn't as thoughtful with my money I could have been, because I wasn't sure, you know, if I didn't want to go to that same path, but I wasn't sure what
other options there were. So I just followed my love of trouble, which is the only thing I've ever wanted to do. And I spent all of our dollars, a hardened dollars on traveling the world on my own, and then when I met my husband as well. So yeah, we've done lots of things after that, but that was my younger years. That's how I spent all our dollars. As that time went on and we had kids, we sort of weren't too sure again how we could continue
that life. We went through covid own of Victoria, like I'm sure you guys did, and then had our second and I just thought, I really want to make this happen, you know, for sure. I want to find a way that we can have enough money to do exactly what it is that we want, whatever it is that we want, So we took a really long time to decide what our priorities were, and then how do we go about earning the money in the way we want to get those priorities working for us? I guess yeah, to live that life.
Which literally sounds like the dream, right, like getting our money in order, like so that we can live our values and live our dream. Like I know you were like, oh, you know, I didn't spend my money very thoughtfully in my twenties, Like, babe, that's what your twenties were for, to learn what you like and what you dislike. And how would you know if you liked travel or not
if you didn't get those experiences. Like I think that you did exactly what you were meant to do in those moments, but I want to know more because like, you can't just be like.
Oh, I've kind of cracked the code.
Guys, you don't need to be a millionaire, but you can craft your life to live in line with your values and.
Travel, Like what do you do? How do you do it?
Like my next question is meant to be like what do you do for work and how much you earn, but like, I feel like there's a bit more than just your job. I want to know how you got there and how you crafted this and even how you had these conversations with your partner to go like life could be better, Like we could create something here.
So it was really when when our littlest was born and he was in NICKQU, my husband was working a billion hours a week. Luckily, you know, he was able to keep his job through COVID. I'd taken a few years off, you know, to be at home with our eldest, and I was sitting in nick Q one day, and you know, I knew I had all these skills, I didn't really know what I was going to do about
going back to work. At the time that he was in NICKQ, we were told in the early days that there was a very strong likelihood that he would not live a easy life. He would potentially have a significant brain injury, and you know, we would have to adjust our lives to fit around that, which of course we were prepared to do. But I was like, I have no idea what my future career is going to look like. It's definitely not going back to the paramedic, so that's not going to work if I have a child with
extreme physical needs. My husband's work was it's great, but it's not enough to sustain a family for years and years, you know, on just one income. And that's not what we really wanted to do either. And one of the nurses said to me, we've been talking for hours because you have a one on one nurse and Nick you like that. And she was just sitting and chatting to me, and she said, what do you want to if you could go home, take him home and he's healthy, what
would you do? And I said, well, I'd pack up my house, I take my boys, work on my laptop, and just travel until we feel like we're ready to stop again. And she's like, well, then just do that. I was like, okay, I guess I'm just going to do that. So the next time I talked to my husband, I was like, let's float this lady.
I feel like that's crazy advice. I feel like it's crazy advice at the same time as being like great advice because like you would know that, like Nick, you nurses like they're a next level special like their advice, like they're warmt like to be a nick you nurse, you're a super special human being for her to be like cultivating this relationship with you and then just being like, hey, money doves, just do it and you're like.
Yeah, great, let's just do it.
Like I feel like that was probably a very pivotal conversation for you where you were like, yeah, you're right, let's just do it. So what you went home, you created a plan, like I need to ask, how's your son now? Like he's obviously out of nick you because you're traveling, but like what happened in that situation.
Yeah, so he's two and a half now. He At the point of that conversation, we still weren't one hundred percent sure of how what his long term health would be like, but we knew he was probably going to come home. That conversation was literally the turning point of our lives. The next time I spoke to my husband, who managed to get COVID, well, our little one was in NICKI no, and I said, why don't we just sell everything we own, travel and just spend time with
our kids, because you know, we're in the paramedics. You see, life is so short and it can end at any moment. But you never think that's going to happened to you. And those weeks that we thought he might not survive really just brought home for us, right, what are we doing? Like, what do we actually want from this life? We want to spend time with our kids. Obviously that costs money, so how do we what do we do? What does
that look like? So, you know, he said to me, I used to work in medical admin before I was a paramedic, so I can obviously talk to people and I've got the admin skills. And he's like, why don't you just do that? Like if you want to work, Like, why don't we make that happen? So that's exactly what we did. You know, he came home from nick You we sold literally everything we owned and we bought a caravan and went traveling around Australia and it was just
the best. Having that time together with my husband there too gave me a chance to sort of grow my business, so I could start out. There wasn't too much pressure on me in the beginning because we had some savings, and then yeah, just grew from there. A little bit
of word of mouth. I was doing some you know, just sending out invoices for clients and booking appointments, and then you know, that person recommended me to someone else, and someone else and someone else, and on and on we go, and two years later, I've been fully booked for a while. We are in a house at the moment, we've stopped for a little while, and I work around my husband's house so there's always someone home with the
kids here. Works part time. I work part time. And it's yeah, we travel whenever we can.
That sounds like the dream. It is.
It was our dream. I think that's there. Yeah, I love it.
So I need to get pervy though.
Yeah, I know, but I think I love the idea that the value at the crux of that is obviously like travel, but spending quality time with your family. And I just irrespective of whether you want to travel or you want to, you know, create a big business or do whatever, like, quality time with family is so special and being able to prioritize that is theirpic. But I need to know, like what is your job title, like what is your business? And like how much money are
you earning? Because I think some people might go, oh great, like she travels, she just lives in a caravan and earns twenty grand a year and that's enough for them to get by. But like, I know that's not the case. So could you give us a bit of insight into, like, quote your job description or what your clients would say you do, and then how much money you earn.
Yeah. Sure, So I am a virtual assistant. I work specifically in Allied Health, where you can work in really any field you want to. You can work for tradees or whoever, so Allied Health virtual assistant. I work for myself. I'm a sole trader. I've just increased the clients that I'm working. At the moment, I'm working enough. I should be on track to earn about sixty k this year. That's part time. That obviously I have all my business
expenses and all those kinds of things. So that's my best estimate for what I should earn this financial year.
Yeah, that is very cool, and I have to be super pervy. You're going to have to tell me what does your husband do if he's able to work part time as well.
So he's a trade it's unusual for him to be able to work part time. But we just sort of we move somewhere where we knew that was a possibility because trades are in higher demand and you can be a little bit more open with your wants and needs. And yeah, it worked out, but you know, we took a bit of a leap. He asked the question and
got what he asked for. So yeah, it's lovely actually because he despite him just working part time hours, he has been able to keep a company car and he has his phone paid for too, So those are expenses that you know, we don't have to worry about. Running a second car is so expensive, so be able to keep that benefit has really been a bit of a game changer for us too.
So that's a total money win. Tell me a bit more like I feel like you've I don't know you've got it so sordid, but you probably still have some big money goals.
You came home one day and said to your husband, all right, we're done.
We're selling everything and we're traveling. After making that decision, what are your big money goals? What are you currently working towards.
At the moment, we've given ourselves till the end of next year, we're not too sure whether we want to head off traveling again for time. At this stage, I earn enough that we should be able to go overseas and travel full time as long as we stick to you know, like the cheaper country. So that's an option. Maybe we want to move somewhere else, maybe have a second place and live six months of the year in the warm six months of the year and the cold.
We'll just tossing up a few ideas at the moment, but one of the goals we really want to be mortgage free by fifty that's one thing we both really want. That's about twelve years away. And obviously saving for whatever is going to happen at the end of next year, whatever that is, more travel or you know, a second home or whatever.
So talk to me about saving and budgeting, because I feel like to be able to achieve the lifestyle that you have to be able to live in a home right now and also be mortgage free by fifty, you probably have to be pretty savvy, Like you can't just go, ah, we just travel and do whatever we want like we were in our early twenties.
What does that now look like like?
Are you sitting down with a spreadsheet every single day or every single month, or are you just you know, working it out as you go, like what's the plan, Because saying something like oh, we want to be mortgage free by fifty, in my head means that there must be some kind of strategic plan at play in the background.
Yeah, we definitely. I'm all over every dollar that we spend, probably a little obsessively. We do zero dollar budgeting, so we give every dollar that comes into our house a job, whether that's you know, putting at the moment where saving a little account to save up to renew our passports in a five years time. So we trying to keep a little bit of money tucked aside for every single thing that could potentially come up. So we don't have
an emergency funders such or general savings as such. We have lots of little tiny goals all in sort of one or two big accounts, and we yeah, keeping one that I'm in there every day, but I am working on it once a week minimum, because it does take a lot of budget. You know, we live in a really little house. Well it's barely three bedroo. It's two bedrooms and one bathroom for the four of us with
two raucous boys. That's chaotic. We've moved regionally so that we don't have a huge housing cost or prices that other you know, cities have. I grew up on the Gold Coast. There's no way we could afford to live on the Gold Coast. Now, I buy pretty much everything from op shops. I've got probably enough clothes to last everyone a week. That's about it. We don't have any excess of anything. We don't have excess food, you know, clothing. We don't drive if we don't have to. We walk
or we ride our bikes. We're very conscious of spending more than we absolutely have to. So having said that, I have a pensiant for takeaway coffee. We'll talk about that later.
But you know, I feel like everyone's got something right, you've got to have something you cannot And I'm glad that you said that, because I'm like, this woman is incredible, Like she's budgeting, she's saving, like she's doing zero dollars budgeting, Like this is crazy. And then you're like and the coffees. I'm like, okay, it is a bit relatable, Like this is good, this is good.
So tell me.
About this idea of no excess of anything. I love that concept. Is that a way that you've always lived or is this something that when you decided to sell up shop and get rid of everything and travel for the first time. You got rid of everything, because I feel like for me to be able to get rid of everything and travel, that just sounds like an admin nightmare.
We it was. It definitely wasn't admid nightmare. I was never very into like clothes or anything like that. So we didn't have heaps of stuff, but we had a normal family amount of things.
Right one hundred percent.
So when we got our caravan, we only had about one hundred and fifty kilos of stuff that we could put in. That included like bedding, gas bottles, saucepans, everything, and that adds up very quickly. And we lived for a year like that. And so when we moved into our house, we were like, we really don't need all of the things. We don't need, you know, three fry pans.
It's nice to have, but we don't need them. You know, I don't need well, no, I need an air fry That's the one thing I missed the whole time we were away.
Can you fit an air fryer? I feel like you could fit an air fryer in a caravan. I feel like that's a good idea.
Yes, we only had twelve volts, so all along I was like, quick find power and you know, plug something in and just quickly eat sup and then get rid of it again.
What type of stuff have you accumulated excess of? You were saying before, like, well, we have some stuff we don't need, Like, I don't think I've ever thought about that in my house. I'm like, I need my stuff, please don't take it away. Like do you look through your house now and go we don't need that and want to get rid of it?
Yes, I mean I know. It's totally change my mindset. My husband hates it because he likes having things. So I'm like, why have we got eight towls? We don't need eight towels. Let's get rid of four of them. Let's donate them. He's like, could we just not? Can we just have towers? Is that okay? And we have a lot of books. That's one that you can't take those obviously in the caravan. They're way too heavy. So
we're both readers, so we've got stacks of books. I'm like, these are unnecessary, but I'm not going to get rid of them till we leave again.
That's so fair.
Are you putting things in storage when you're traveling or are you literally getting rid of it and then you know, accumulating stuff when you park again.
When we left for our chapran Australia, we got rid of everything. It was mostly stuff that we both had before we got married, and it was really old. I've been together for like twelve years, so it was oldest stuff and it was due for replacement. So we gave it away to a young lady who was moving into her first rental. That felt like a nice thing to
do this time. If we leave, I would say, we'll probably rent our house out furnished, just to save the drama of trying to move a couch and all those things. But it's definitely changed out. Before I would have been like, I don't want to rent my house that was furniture in it. I don't want someone sleeping on my couch and stuff like that. And now I'm like, eh, it's just a couch, like he cas. It's replaceable if you really need it, or you can just have memories. You know,
that's fine too. So it's changed the way we look at things that aren't essential, you know.
I love that.
I feel like it's a really healthy mindset shift. Like going from feeling like maybe you don't have the life you want now having the life you want and realizing it was never about stuff but more about experiences is something I think we can all learn from. Like there's this great quote that says, if you're not content with what you already have, more stuff is not going to make you more content, And I just think you're living that and that's really cool.
Yeah, I think it's served us well here. The little town that we live in is a mining town, so as you can imagine, there's lots of people with lots of money. Some of the houses are stunning, Like I mean, I wouldn't say no to one of those houses if someone gave me one, but I don't feel the need to have it where I think it is very ingred in our culture to have the biggest upgrade things, you know,
like upgrade the car and upgrade your house. And not that there's anything wrong with that, but I love that I don't feel the need to do that because it just takes the pressure off. You'm not worried about it.
Oh totally.
I think it's so healthy. All right, let's go to a really quick break. On the flip side, I want to talk to you a little bit more about this mortgage free by fifty. I want to talk about investing, I want to talk about your debts, and then I also want to talk about this coffee habit you mentioned, because I feel like that's going to make this a little bit more relatable.
So guys, don't go anywhere Money Diarist.
We are back, and I just feel like this has been such a fun chat and to get to mortgage free by fifty is a pretty big goal, right, Like you've set this. I know that you are a spreadsheeting queen. But before we get into me asking you about your investments and how you're doing.
That, how did you start budgeting?
Like your spreadsheet that you said you're going into on a daily basis and then working on every week is on your phone?
Is it on a laptop?
Like?
How are you managing this? And did you download something like where are we beginning?
Yes? So it's actually it's not a spreadsheet, it's an app that I use. I wasn't too sure if I should mention another.
Oh, you can mention anything. What app is it?
I use a wine app? Which is since you need a budget.
I've heard this is fantastic.
It's incredible. I downloaded it by chance when I was pregnant with my eldest. By the way, he's asked me to give him a shout out if that's okay, Hello Darla.
He can have as many shout outs as he wants.
Hi, don't forget mum, please mention me.
Oh of course angel.
So yeah, when I was pregnant with him, I was like, well, our income's about to be terrible, so let's look into every kind of budgeting that we can. So I came across the Wine Up podcast, and then of course I
came across your podcast and or not. It went from there and the app the Wine Up has has been like a game change of us, combined with all the other you know, verbal resources that we've got on podcas and it really just really looks at making sure that you've got enough money to do what you need it to do until the next time you get paid, which I find is specially helpful when you have a variable income. So I have that app. Yeah, that app is with me all the time. My husband has like obviously has
access to it, but he can see it live. So if I change something, he can see it and vice versa.
Oh, that's actually really helpful because so many people ask us questions about apps and I'm like, well, I don't really know. We used to have pocketbook that went away, Like people talk about why NAB, but I haven't used it. And one of the main questions is I want to have a budget, but I want to be able to share it with my partner or like we can edit it and see what's going on.
That is great feedback.
Yeah, it's great, and I think you can actually add. Don't quote because we don't use it, but I think you can add like your kids and they cannot see your budget, but they can have access to their own within your family. I'm not too sure how that we.
Well, dad is cool. I will look into this.
Yeah, it's been a life saver for us really, And apart from that, I love my numbers, so a lot of it sits in my head because I just enjoy doing maths all day walking around the house.
You're preaching to the converted, Like, I'm not going to think you're crazy for that. I would actually be like, call me, tell me what you're up to.
Especially I try to do like compounding interest sums in my head, I'm like, just do it on the computer.
Oh, that's actually a little bit complicated.
After the first year, I'm like, this isn't going to work in my head anymore.
Yeah, So using that up really showed us where we have not excess money because it doesn't allow for excess money. It gives every dollar a job, but it allows you to see where you can move in your budget to put extra money towards your mortgage. So at the moment we pay I think it's just strive five hundred a week towards our mortgage. That's the minimum repayment. And then at the moment we're doing one hundred dollars a week extra.
And as the months go on in our app, I'm like, oh, I can pull ten dollars from that fund and ten dollars from that and I can just save eight dollars a week instead of ten dollars for our passport, So that gives two dollars more for our mortgage. So each three months, we're going to add another fifty dollars per
week to our mortgage, if that makes sense. We're gonna up the repayments, the extra payments by another fifty dollars until we sort of get to the point where we're like, I got no more WIGOROUM for now, I would just have to stop there. And I'm thinking that I'll be at around three fifty four hundred extra a week. I've worked that at that should get us done by.
Fifty which is very cool because I think so many people like I love the way you're talking about this as well, because you're like using numbers that are really relatable. You're like, okay, cool, well if I move ten dollars here, like I'll be able to save eight dollars here, Like those small things add up, and you've probably looked at all of the mortgage calculators online, but these little amounts
do genuinely add up. So like ten dollars here in there, if you're not in this budgeting space, you might think, oh, that's like you know, a coffee or two, that doesn't matter, like why would I bother putting that on my mortgage.
But at the end of the day, these little amounts add up over time, and you're going to end up paying your mortgage off sooner than other people in similar situations, just because these do have compounding impacts, right, So how have you seen these small amounts start to impact you being able to pay off your mortgage sooner, because like being able to pay a couple of one hundred dollars off from all those small steps is actually a massive feat.
I think it's just mostly about being conscious of it. And when you've got a card in your hand and no record of what you're spending other than a bank statement, it's so easy that you just lose five dollars here and ten dollars there, and if you actually see it, you know, moving from this account where you can spend it to an account where you don't want to spend it, so onto your mortgage. It's like that positive feedback loop, right,
You're like, oh, that feels good. I'm going to do that again and again and again, and every single time just feels Yeah. We really are enjoying putting money on the mortgage because it's a tangible asset I suppose for us, and we're like, oh, we can touch it and it's there. You know, if when we're got little kids it feels safer, it will probably because it is, you know. Yeah, So we're just really giving ourselves positive feedback and it's yeah, helping immensely.
Yeah, I love that.
So with this idea to have your mortgage gone by fifty, are you investing if so in what what's the plan around that?
Yeah, so we use Pearler. We at the moment, we're not investing as much as we have in the past, and that for us, the Pearler account is mostly being used to save to do some investing for our kids. So my folks give them like ten dollars each week and we put that into a Pearler account for them and we match that. So that's what we're doing at the moment. But in the past we've been putting more in and then it felt like it was too much. You know, we didn't really care he let it properly.
I was like, oh, yeah, I'll just throw that much in there, and I didn't really think about it properly. I heard you on a podcast with someone else the other day talking about this, and you're like, you better to just take a little step rather than going gung ho, And then like, no, I don't like it. It's too much, like.
Exactly, like baby steps in the right direction mean that nothing becomes overwhelming, Like how many times have I like and maybe this is just me talking from my own experience, like and being a little bit adhd.
I'm like, all right, well now.
I'm really passionate about this hobby, and like I go boots and all in. In the week after, I'm like, I didn't really like that. So I think that we need to like test the borders and see what happens. And you know, if you're putting too much into it, like and it's impacting the rest of your world, Like that's
not positive. And I know that investing for kids is so important, and like I adore that you're doing that, But one of the best ways to put their financial security and their financial future first is to invest in yourselves and pay off your mortgage and be financially secure and role model that because they're more likely to be financially secure in the future, not just because you know, when they got to eighteen they had a little trust
fund of some cash that they could blow. Like, I think it's the behaviors and it's you know, the underlying tone of money that you teach that is so much more important than what you can invest. But still, like, investing is clearly very important, and I don't know a passion project of mine if you hadn't picked up on that.
No, I mean your podcast is what taught me about I was like, you're investing in oh etsaw, that sounds scary when we're on the road. I was like, I just binged your podcast traveling.
Oh so I've been around Australia too, you have. I'm so lucky.
I was like, why is on my internet working? Victoria's halfway through a podcast. I'm not happy about this.
I'm sorry about that.
Sorry, So you've got to download the whole episode to make sure that it doesn't cut out.
Yes, but yeah, And so I was like, okay, well we can do that. We can just check ten dollars in here and there. And it's really addictive when it going up. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is we went a little bit too hard.
But that's okay, because like you were able to pull back a bit and now you kind of know your limits and what you're working on. And I think that that's a good learning as well.
Yeah, I think too. I know one of the questions you're going to ask is like, what it's one of your good money habits, and that sort of ties into it. I'm like, we've become really good at working at what our priorities are. I think, and you know, at the moment, our priority is a time with our kids and having a fund to travel, and also them having a safe place to live always. So we're able to do those three things not much more, but that's what we're able to do right now, and we can just be happy
with that, and that's great. Like, I love that we can just be comfortable with that.
I adore that so much.
And just the idea that your priority is to give your kids a safe space, like is a much bigger concept than you probably imagine it to be. Like so many people would just take that for granted. But then on the flip side, so many people will be saying, I I just had that, Like that is honestly so special and like it's honestly one of my biggest goals is to just always be that safe place. And to do that, you actually have to have a good hold
of your financial literacy. You have to have a good hold of your investing because otherwise you're not able to create that sustainably. So tell me a bit more about debt. I want to know you mentioned your mortgage. How much is your mortgage? What are we paying off? Do we have any other debts floating around? How do we feel about it?
So we've got our mortgage which is three fifty just to touch over that, so I think, yeah, our payments that just shire five hundred a week and that I mean, I've got hecteat. I try not to I think about it, but I'm sort of like, I'm not going to stress about it. So far, I haven't earned enough to need to pay it, like since I've had the kids. So I'm just like, I'll deal with that problem maybe one day.
Honestly. Yeah, I'm on your team for that one.
Yeah, that's it. No other debts. We have talked about getting a credit card to you use it like a you know, to pay our bills on it and then have our money in our read or account for our mortgage and just save a bit of interest that way. We're both very like nervous about that because we don't want to have any other depths or you know, anything like that. And even though we know it would get paid off, it's still a bit risky for us. So that's it. That's us, very basic.
No, But I love that and I feel like it's a good consideration to have because for so many people, a credit card is something that is a slippery slope, and you've kind of got to know your limits and you go maybe like the benefits don't outweigh the risk, And to be honest, I like.
Being a little bit conservative. I don't care if it's a bit boring, that's fine by me.
Now, you told me before about your good money habits, which I adore, but you also mentioned coffee. Do you have any other bad habits?
What are they? How are you working through them?
Can you just have a little bit of a confession with us, because I feel like you've been too good too.
Oh no, I'm definitely not good. I think probably the nerves got Jimmy. So my husband does on call as well, and we don't use those callouts as a predictable sort of budget, like, oh, next month, we should don't x amount because it's sort of unpredictable and well, I don't know if it's a bad habit, but we certainly don't put that to as good use as we could. You know, it's quite a fair bit of money if he does
even one call out. I'm like, that's a significant amount of forbody that we could put jars, our mortgage or whatever. But we're like, oh, we aren't it. We need to go away for the weekend, Like we haven't. There's two hundred and something dollars for you know whatever, let's go get expensive ice cream and take the kids to time zone. So I sometimes feel like we should probably rain that in a little bit, but you know, the mum, part of my brain's life, we have to enjoy ourselves.
Kids are only young once, Like there's going to be a period of time where you go, kids, do you want to go to time zone? And they go, no, Mum, that's lame, Like I don't want that to happen yet for my son.
So I don't know.
I feel like you need to make hay while the sun is shining as well, Like we've got to live a little as well and enjoy the journey.
Yeah, I mean we have I suppose built into it income already. We have like that fun money. So I'm just like, oh, I look at this bonus fun money, which I think we're gonna have to sit down and be like, okay, let's be as somewhat more intentional. Maybe half of those call out you know, extra money can be fun and half can be towards our travel goals or whatever, so it's definitely a jog. Although you know you're like, I just want to hang out with my kids.
They're fun. Like my six year old is so much fun. He's a wild and he loves does though I.
Feel like nobody talks about this enough, Like you always get the people that are like, just wait until they're fore just wait until they're six, Oh, just wait until they're a teenager, And like, I don't know, hanging out with my nearly one year old is so fun, Like he is the best, and like every day I feel like he just gets better. So I can just imagine, like when he's six, that would be the most fun.
I don't know. I feel like having kids, if that was like a choice that you made, is a privilege obviously, but like, just wait until they want to hang out with you.
Now.
At the start of this episode, you said, look, they I reckon. I'm a B minus and I was like, okay, tell me about it, and then you went on about how you literally live in line with your values and your goals. You're got to pay off your mortgage by fifty like you've got a full plan. You're like a budgeting queen. You've introduced me properly to why NAB and I cannot wait, Like I want to talk to you, but I also want to get off this podcast so I can go and download the app and play with
it myself. Like, I feel like you are a very cool individual. You're investing for your kids. Yeah, you like maybe overinvested a little bit and have like pulled that back a bit, But that just tells me that you know your limits and your budgets and what's going on.
How would you get to an A plus?
Is it about having a little bit more restraint with your additional fun money? Like I can't think of how you would get to an A plus, So I want to you from you what your plan is?
Sure? I think in my twenties I earned a lot of SUPER because my income was quite high. And then when I took I didn't really plan on being a state home on for those few years, but COVID had, you know, other plans for us, and I missed out on SUPER. We just didn't even consider my husband putting some of his income into my SUPER just wasn't something that came up. But he has been saying for the
last couple of years. Don't forget. We need to really repay your super, you know, the years that you missed out on.
So I love that that's a priority for him though, And it's not you asking him, it's him telling you, like king behavior.
Oh yeah, he's great like that. He did his apprenticeship as a mature age student when I was earning heaps of money. So it's all We've always been very like one high and one low, like a whole relationship your team. Yeah, yeah, for sure, it's all one fund. But I'm like, oh gosh, I don't have as much super. I've just got just shy of one hundred km my super and that doesn't feel like enough. I'm thirty eight.
That's a lot of money for thirty eight, Like that's impressive. But at the same time, I totally understand how much you were earning before, and that would feel like you're going backwards.
Yeah, it does. It does feel like for me. For it to be an a plus, i'd have to Yeah, it'd be at least another fifty grand in there, at least at this stage. And yeah, much more mindful with this extra money that we get from call out and things like that.
I feel like you've got a good handle on it though, Like I feel like you've got some really good clarity on what you would need to do to get to an A plus.
And sometimes you talk to people and they're.
Like, oh, I actually don't know what it would take to get to an A plus, but you're like, oh, actually, V so my super is here and this is what I need. Like, I just love that you've thought of everything and you're like, oh no, we're already having these
conversations and there's a plan in place. So basically, by the time you're fifty and you've paid off your mortgage, your super is probably going to be in line and everything's going to have worked out and you're going to be a plus fifty year olds.
That's so exciting.
Yeah, I mean it feels like a million years, doesn't it. But every year, well, every day counts. I think I've learned that, yeah, for sure, mostly from your podcast.
I still remember high school, Like I look back and a go that was like only a couple of years ago, and it wasn't.
It wasn't just a couple of years ago.
It was you know, double digits ago plus, and I just go.
Ah, time really does fly, doesn't it.
Especially when you have kids. You're like, wait a second, we aren't you just born yesterday? What's happened to the last six years of my life?
Exactly exactly, But it sounds like you are absolutely making the most of it.
I adore this story.
I love that you've shared how you've you know, been able to travel, been able to live the lives that you want, and not have to become millionaires to do it. Like, I think that there's a massive misconception to have that level of freedom you need millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, and that's just not the reality of the situation. Sometimes it's just doing it money, diarist, I wish I had more time. This has been an
absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I adore it.
It's so special.
Thank you, Oh thanks for having me. I had a good time. The nerves got to me in the beginning, but I really appreciate the chat. It was lovely.
I promise I'm not scary like this, No need to be nervous, Like I'm just a girl wanting to hang out and be pervy on your money.
That's like, how do I rate myself. Oh my goodness, to be minus. She's not gonna be happy.
No, when have I ever? Oh my gosh, I get it. I get it. But at the same time, my friend, I just love a coffee and a yap as well, Like I just do.
I love it. Thanks for having me.
Thanks so much.
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