MONEY DIARIES: A Savings Wizard With Wanderlust

Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr

Let's get into it. She's on the Money.

She's on the Money.

Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our episodes of Money Diaries, where I get the absolute privilege of sitting down with one of our beautiful She's on the Money community members and talk to them all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got a message and it sounded like this, Hi Ve. I grew up in a very low socioeconomic single parent home and always had to be

Thank you.

Let's start the show as I always do. What grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F.

I thought long and hard about this. I'm very proud of like how far I've come, but I still think I've got a long way to go, especially some of the goals that I've set myself in the future. So I'm sitting on a C plus at the moment.

Oh is C plus? Let's learn more about that. But first, I feel like you have a super interesting money story, so let's dive in. Can you tell me more about it?

Sure? Yeah, the said of my intro.

I grew up in a really low socioeconomic country, upbringing in a little, tiny two bedroom house with a single mom, and you know, it was a very basic like no TV, no broadband, no phone reception, like really just basic living.

Were we And how old are you now?

I've just ten thirty, right, perfect?

And yeah, my mum was like an amazing mother, but she just didn't have a lot of the skills herself when it came to like mindset or finances and things like that to instill some of the in us that I've had to learn along the way. So I think a lot of my childhood was in like that real survival mode financially, and then I guess that really pushed me to become very independent from an early age. So I started working my first job at eleven.

Eleven, Yeah, I was just a baby. I was assembling hundreds of these little window washers. Yeah.

And then got my first like normal job at fourteen when I was legally able to, and then worked my way up until I finished school.

Moved out really quickly at seventeen as soon as I.

Finished school and moved to the city, and then all through that that time, I'd started building on becoming a musician because that was what I wanted to do. So I started gigging professionally at around fifteen, and as I started to bring in a bit of income from that and also work my other job, I was able to pay for my own school fees and all of my extracurricular stuff. Everything that I needed to pay for was from my bank account basically, except for food and rent and stuff from my mum.

I actually was very lucky kind of through my life.

After I finished school and even towards the end of high school, I had like these really close family friends of mine who were our neighbors growing up, and they really instilled a lot of really different mindsets into me. And they were actually the first people who took me traveling at sixteen with their family, and that helped me fall in love with traveling.

Oh wow, how cool is that?

Yeah, really big step in my journey. And then yeah, so seventeen, moved out to home, started working. Thought I was going to like hit it big, you know, working a real big, grown up job, and then was on like nine dollars thirty an hour in retail.

It was so depressing.

You do feel like it's big at that point.

Right, you do, But like looking back, you know, forty hours a week for four hundred dollars.

You just go, wow, where are those people now who are willing to accept that? Because like, we would have a bigger business if that was the case.

I think everyone would hit no, yeah, well we'll be working hard.

And then I basically had a big shake up at nineteen. A lot of stuff happened in my life and that really made me like reconsider what I was doing with myself. And that's when I really started going into music a lot more fully and started gigging solo, which made it a lot easier for me to pick up a lot

How good is that? How did you find open universities? While I was studying, there a few people doing like the OUA stuff through the same course that I was doing, and I'd never heard of it before, and now I'm like the biggest fan.

It's hard to say because I've never done a degree in person. So I don't know what the difference in, you know, the education.

Part of it is not much as someone who went to r MIT and had people in the same class doing OUA and I was like, wait, it's the same.

Yeah, I guess the only thing for me was like that it is quite isolating. So you know, everyone has these really good relationships that they formed through UNI and like experiences that they had and long holidays and stuff, whereas the OUA was, you know, less subjects at a time, but you never had any holidays.

So I did two subjects at a.

Time, but for semester zy, so it was just back to back to back study.

But you got it done, got it done in the three years.

Yeah. And then I also, like all of my UNI memories are like working until, you know, three in the morning to finish my assignment and then getting up at five to start a job at an animal shelter that I was working at at the time.

Oh my gosh, an animal shelter.

I thought you might like, yeah.

If nothing, I am predictable, So tell me about that. Because I also saw behind you, which obviously this is an audio podcast, I saw some little ears before and I wanted to interrupt to be like, who's that, But that's not appropriate.

Sometimes I'll tell you her name at the end. She's very cute.

She's my little tried enjoy dog and she's amazing. But she's from the shelter and I worked there. I volunteered for a year, and then I worked there for three years as an animal attendant with mostly the dogs, which was a really big part. This is around twenty you know, when I was reshuffling, I was studying, I was gigging on the weekends, and I was doing this job at

And so yeah, she was six when I got her.

How did you know? Take them all home?

I fostered a lot again audio, but you can see the pictures behind me.

They're my foster babies, my favorites.

I wondered who they were. She's got a beautiful, like gallery wall of pets behind her, and I was like, surely then all hers they were at soboy, how sweet.

I urge anyone who loves animals to, you know, go and volunteer at an animal shelter if they have time, because it's such a rewarding part of life to go and like health animals.

I adore it. So that was you at twenty, that was me.

At twenty did that for a few years.

You know, a lot of the time working in that industry, it's common to get kind of a bit of burnout. Yeah, they sometimes they call it compassion fatigue. And it's also very physical. It's all those things. So I was definitely ready to have a bit of a trip. And I'd been at that point, like solo backpacking about a month at a time whenever I could, mostly to Asian countries, and I felt like I was ready when I was about twenty three to go on with as big trips.

So I went to Europe for four months.

Oh my gosh, and yeah.

It was so amazing and like definitely the cheapest budget trip ever.

I was about to say, how much should that cost you?

I mean, this is why I so wanted to talk to you, because I had such trouble costing up trips when I was talking to people, and I found it like really hard because some people would spend twenty thousand dollars in six weeks and some people would spend five thousand dollars and six weeks, and you're.

Like, well, how am I meant to know?

So I kept a really detailed list of literally every dollar I spent, and on that trip, I spent eleven and a half thousand dollars for four months, including my flights, my travel insurance, Like every dollar I spent on the trip before or after I left.

Tell me, was that like a really frugal trip? Like, obviously it's so hard to cost up. I get it, like any holiday I've ever been on, I'm like trying to benchmarket, but you go against what, like against other people's decisions, Like you were backpacking, Obviously that's a budget friendly option, but like what were you eating? What were you doing during the day? Like how did that work?

The first trip to Europe, I used a company called bus About, which will come into the story a bit later actually, and that company is basically like a year hour pass almost all around Europe. I don't think it exists anymore after COVID, but you you basically hop on and off the buses all around Europe and you could just hop on and off every second day.

To wherever you wanted.

So that pass was like, I don't know, twelve hundred dollars or whatever, but that covered the whole season of travel through Europe.

Oh wow.

And then once you're like dropped off inner city, you just do whatever you want to do. But it's a good way to meet people too, like, because you're on the bus often with other travelers and stuff, and it's pretty social.

So I use that half the trip I was actually CouchSurfing.

Oh very cool.

Yeah, so that was a bit of a different way to do it, staying with strangers on their couches, sometimes in their spare rooms, sometimes on a mattress on the floor whatever.

And to me, that's like Airbnb but free.

So they would kind of offer up whatever they had and they would tell you, you know, roughly what you'd be sleeping on and where it would be and all that kind of stuff. And you could read all their reviews to make sure they felt safe and reliable and stuff.

I was about to say, as a young female, how did you feel comfortable CouchSurfing through a foreign country, because that gives me insane amounts of anxiety.

Yeah, I felt very comfortable as long as I could just read the reviews were all very positive. And stuff, like, you know, if they had hundreds of reviews saying that they were the nicest person ever whatever. I felt like very comfortable. But there was a couple that I didn't actually ever stay with, but they looked super dodgy, So

To stay in a situation.

Yeah, so smart.

You know.

I did have one where I was about to arrive and the guy went like, oh, hey, by the way, I can't find my spam mattress. All good if you sleep in my bed, And I was like, nope, absolutely not. Like I'm booking the first hotel room. I see, that's fine.

So worries you're a creep. That's weird, so weird you're giving me the ixer.

But everyone else was so nice.

I had people that had like Center of Barcelona, whole guest room, my own key to come and go, Like it was amazing, and it was free.

That's so wild.

Yeah, this beautiful cultural exchange too, because they're doing something lovely. The way that they explained it as hosts was that you were helping them travel when they can't travel themselves.

Oh that's so sweet.

Yeah, it's like bringing the travelers to them and also getting this excitement about their own city that they don't often have unless someone is coming.

Oh that's so sweet. I was literally just thinking in the back of my head, like I wonder what the value exchanged there is, because like, I don't know how comfortable I would be having just random people sleeping in my spare room, but each to their own. And it makes a lot more sense when you're like, oh, they get a lot out of it too. I was like, okay, yeah, that seems legit.

Yeah. I think couch theffing maybe isn't the community it used to be.

I think it's switched to another platform now that's more what couch theffing used to be, because I think couchsurfing's turned a bit more into Tinder now.

No, not ideal.

So I did that. I stayed in the hostels.

I just traveled super cheaply, you know, walked everywhere, you know, ate out a little bit, but mostly kind of just like cooked at the hostel or whatever. But it allowed me to go for four months through twenty two countries. And have the best time.

That is so cool. I can't believe it was only eleven and a half thousand dollars, Like, are you very kidding? So what happened after that? You get back after a four month massive trip?

This is wild?

So then I got back from that tree. But as I said, it was that travel company bus About. I was back for a few months. Then I went to Hawaii with my partner at the time, and then literally fun out with like four weeks. Notice that bus About had actually chosen me for this like worldwide competition that they put forward.

No, they hadn't.

Yeah, it was a.

Search for four different content creators to make what they called the ultimate travel Squad.

So they like, and you made the squad.

I made the squad. So I was put on as the blogger.

And then I was sent over with this company to travel for another three and a half months with three strangers a girl from America, two guys from New Zealand. And they sent me on this like all expenses paid them to create content.

Yeah, what how much was that worth? You have to tell me?

Well, I guess it would be worth probably about twenty grand or so.

It was nicer than CouchSurfing.

Yeah, it was a bit of an upgrade for me, and we got paid about fifteen hundred US, and obviously we got like a per dem of about fifty euros a day I think, or thirty euros a day to fifty dollars.

Yeah, but like I would take that to be able to travel. Ye're like, yep, no worries, Oh and I'm getting paid.

Yeah, So that allowed me to travel again.

So you can imagine after I got back from that, I was like so addicted to traveling and so experienced at that point of like having gone to a lot of Asian countries and a lot of Europe at that point. But then I thought I might as well come back and like finally finish my degree and get into my industry that I've been studying. So I did a little bit of work, and I worked in PR and marketing and social media in like the music and entertainment industries

That really doesn't help in that industry, nor does it help you thrive traveling or is the singer no, no, no, no, you're out for the count.

Yeah.

When they were saying that you felt really like disposable in multiple industries, I was like, yeah, all the industries, I feel very disposable.

Yeah, every single one of them.

Yes, So COVID came. It was obviously really tough to be any of those industries. I stayed on job keeper with my employer so I could at least continue working. We didn't have the same type of work obviously, there weren't any festivals or events or artists touring or anything, but we did some like online coaching and different things to keep busy. Yeah, long story short, that kind of

Oh how fancy.

Yeah that was amazing. Another amazing like bucket list thing that I didn't see.

Pop up, so cool. Yeah, yeap.

After that, I was very burnt out, and I went again to Europe for four months, and that was a fifteen thousand dollar trip.

I did all the costs of that too for you go, and that was.

Again just like hostels and yeah, just like doing overnight buses and staying with a friend of mine who's over there, who like I nanned for her child in France for a little while while I was there for a few weeks, and that obviously cut out accommodation and everything.

Your life is so much more fun than mine.

I'm sorry this is a bit long, but like I feel like they're all kind of stepping stones to the bits and pieces.

No, this is the best.

So then that happened. That was an amazing four months trip.

And then I got home and I've been yeah, focusing on you know, music and doing a bunch of like social media freelancing work, which is now what I mostly do. And I've also just picked up another thing which is great as well for artists. I've started doing a bit of like ndis support work.

Oh, very cool because it is like.

The most flexible job out there for people who need like to work during the day because obviously a lot of musicians used to work in hospitality, but that is a lot of the time on nights and weekends, so it's never really worked for me to work in and so I found this This is like a really great means to an end.

It's cool and you get to like enjoy the time. And I am making a grand assumption having spoken to you for what the last twenty minutes, that would nourish you a lot. Having come from like an animal shelter and been this really empathetic human being, I just feel like you would love that role.

It was great.

I really really enjoy it and it was such a good year thing to find. That also gets me off a computer because again that like burnout through a lot of like my own freelance work.

Alongside this FETA film job was just screens.

Literally from the moment I work up to the moment I went to sleep door and that was so draining. So having this where you're like out and about in the community and it's very human focused and it's very enriching.

I really enjoy it.

It's not like my forever career, but I really love it as a supplement to all the other things that I.

Do one hundred percent. So now you've started during business, you're doing six million things. You have the most colorful life. I love it. I want to ask you about your income, but I'm real pervy too. You said in your letter in that you've been long distance with your partner, which is very very exciting. You want to buy a house together and clearly settled down. How did you meet your partner and how did you get away with all of these massive trips without them?

We actually met, really cute story. We met on that trip over in Europe.

I was hoping you would say something like that.

Yes, he was friends with some of the people I got paired with, So we met in Holland, and yeah, our story started over there. But he's wonderful and he because he's in healthcare, he actually prefers to go and work regionally, so he's like the kind of only one in town rather than one of many in a city,

Yeah.

How good. I was like, how did this work? Because, like you said, you had a partner. She's pointing at her engagement ring, which I obviously noticed because low key it's massive, and so now you're getting married and buying a house together.

Yeah that's the plan.

How cute? So tell me. Obviously we know you do some NDIS support worker stuff. You're obviously a singer, songwriter and a freelancer in social media. How much money are you earning for all of this?

Okay, so it's quite variable obviously because of COVID and traveling and all that kind of stuff.

So I broke it down as a singer songwriter.

I kind of have my day job version of that, which is like the typical cover gigs where I do play my original music, but it's like at bars, restaurants, music venus and stuff. Corporate stuff is quite a big money earner in that. And then there's the original side, which is like you know, the artist side of releasing

Hour roughly casual. So I usually earn between sixty to one hundred thousand dollars a year.

Oh that's variable, hey.

Very variable. And that's like twenty twenty one.

Obviously, with COVID it was like fifty five thousand, roughly half half music and half of my other freelance work. Twenty one twenty two was one hundred and fifteen thousand. That was sixty thousand music and then again roughly half half.

I love that as a singer songwriter, you're earning a good wage too, like sixty grand to do what you love like.

Ah.

That makes me so happy because so many times people who you know are in that space, they earn nothing, and they don't get the I guess credit that they deserve and all the work that they deserve. And there's this expectation in that industry that you'll work for free, right, and it's ridiculous.

Yeah, don't get me wrong.

I have definitely done my gigs for either free or like literally silver start somewhere.

Yeah.

I think that now, diversifying through like the kind of day job side and and the original artist side is really important to me.

And a lot of artists have their own opinions on that.

But for me, if I'm going to work a day job anyway, why wouldn't it be playing a gig anyway?

Yeah, and getting some exposure, getting some more experience doing something you love like.

I honestly see that as paid practice, And why wouldn't I just do that?

You know?

I love it?

Okay, So twenty two twenty three, I earned just like around sixty thousand. Almost all that was music, but I did travel for five months.

Oh yeah, that does get in the way of earning an income, I've heard.

Yeah.

And then this year though, I've made about thirty five thousand in the first four months, which is when I calculated this, So I'm on track for about ninety.

Thousand this year.

Oh very nice.

Yeah, so that's a bit of a mix of everything. Really.

That was twenty thousand music, five and a half thousand of the NDAs work, and then four thousand freelance.

How good. Such a perfey breakdown as well. Thank you. I really appreciate it.

I thought you'd enjoy it.

I don't love it, you said in your letter in obviously you're planning to buy a house. You didn't tell me that you were engaged, though, So tell me a bit more about these big money goals are we currently working towards.

So I've got a fair bit of savings. I've got about I don't know if you want me to go into this already, but.

If you're willing to share what's in your savings account, we are all listening.

So I've got about like forty six thousand in savings.

How are you doing this, you money with it, like you're doing all these troops, you're earning epic income like twenty two to twenty three. Oh no, Biggie made sixty grand, traveled for five months, like you are living the dream.

Well, I was gonna say in my Best Money Habits section, but like I honestly just think it's about like working really really hard when you're home and living really cheaply and then traveling really cheaply, And that's how I do it. Yeah, I mean I am obviously lucky when it comes to loans and things. My partner is a healthcare professional working regionally, so he and I would be eligible for a higher ability to get a mortgage.

I think through his opportunity.

You're probably gonna not have to pay l amine. You would probably get a mortgage for a ten percent deposit, which is very sexy.

Yes, that's what we've listening to. Obviously, that's an advantage from just being with him. Although caveat he was totally broken and we got together so.

Well, you've got a thing or two to teach it.

We built that up together, like we've built this up from the ground up for the last six years. Adore so there's forty six thousand dollars of savings. I've got about three thousand dollars kind of in my various other accounts, and I've got a tax account where I just put like thirty percent of any invoice that I haven't already paid tax on.

It's so smart.

Through the NDAES, I go through an agency, so they take tax out already, but everything else I just put thirty percent away.

Especially in a gig economy, having that account is so smart because so many of us just forget it or say we'll do it later. And then tax time comes and you're like so overwhelmed, so anxious and crippled because you're like, well, where am I going to get this money?

Well, and that's the thing.

I never used to think about it, and so I'd kind of look at my savings and be like, wow, I've got all this money. Who And then I'd get my tax bill and I'd be like, oh, crap, there's ten thousand dollars taken out already or whatever.

It is, So well lucky you had it in savings. So many people don't have it in savings. They just spend it and then go, oh, oh, now I've got a tax debt I can't pay, and that just gives me mad anxiety.

I think that comes from my upbringing though, like I'm terrified of living week to week. I live very below my means, and you know, even all the travel and stuff is very cheap and thought out. Also, while I go away, I sustain my whole life at home. So I have a dog, I have my rent that I'm still paying, my car, my phone bill, everything still gets paid for at home, as well as me traveling, so I'm not like packing up and going and having nothing at home.

Oh my gosh. So you've got some savings, you're planning on purchasing a home? Any other big money goals?

Yes? Just a trip overseas again this year.

I didn't see that coming from me.

Travele.

Wow.

Yeah, because it was my thirtieth.

My partner has actually gifted me the flights, so that's our thing.

Oh, thank you, sir, What a good present.

He knows how to win me over, for sure. I like it.

Maybe you should consider marrying him.

I think, I say, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

Great, let's go to a really quick break on the flip side. I want to know more about your investments. Your thoughts on debt and your best and worst money habits. So don't go anywhere, all right, money diris So we are back and I want to know your thoughts on investing. I feel like you've got so much going on at the moment. So if you said, oh, I haven't thought about it, I'd be like, yeah, cause you've got six million things on. But what are your thoughts on investments?

Yeah?

So that's something that I definitely marked myself down on because I think even my mindset around investing is very scaredy cat.

So that's okay, we all start there, I promise.

Like it really does kind of terrify me to put my money into something that I could lose. Even buying a property, it's taken a lot of convincing on my partner's.

Behalf to be like, let's just do it, you know. So that's something that.

I don't have a lot of money in, Like I have my super I don't have a lot of super And that's another thing I marked myself down on.

I've only got like eleven thousand.

Sorry, you're in the gig economy.

Yeah, but I don't pay myself super. That's something that I need to get into.

Yeah, I was about to say, we probably need to talk about being self employed and paying ourselves super. But also, you're not that far behind. Lots of people are in that circumstance.

Well.

I also, and don't judge me for this, I got some bad advice during COVID.

And I actually did pull out twelve thousand.

Probably didn't need to at the time, like it would have probably gone a lot further had I left it in, but I didn't know any better, so I pulled it out at the time.

So that's so fine. I feel like so many of us did that. And also when you're like no judgment, I'm like, when have I ever judged people and their money behaviors? Like if I laid all mine out, you'd be like, oh, pot calling kettle black, no worries. I didn't do that, But I've done some money things that I'm not so proud of. In hindsight, I.

Hadn't started listening to you very much at that point, I guess. Yeah, so I got that.

And then I've just got small assets like my car, my music equipment, which is worth like several thousand dollars but no heats. And then I've got like little tiny bits of money. I think I put five hundred dollars into again crypto when someone told me to, and I think I've got like one hundred dollars in the chaisias, And so I don't really put much thought into those things.

Oh see, you are investing, like.

Oh but literally enough yet so not consistently okay.

But like one hundred dollars in charesis is so much more than most people who say they're a scaredy cat about investing. I like that you've taken the first step. You're on a platform, You're slowly starting to educate yourself. Those little steps they end up being the big steps, because even just like getting on a platform, putting your first dollar in, like it's massive, but like you're on the way, you'll get there when you're more comfortable.

It's something than's on my mind for sure.

And again, listening to all the resources and things that you put out every week, I definitely feel like I'm getting more educated and comfortable with it.

So a doore now question? Do you have any debt?

No? None, I've never had a credit card.

I've never had a loan or a personal family loan or anything like that. So that's something I've just again been very afraid of. I've never wanted to put myself in that position.

And what is your best money habit? I feel like I know where we're going with this, but I need to know.

Okay, I hope you don't mind, but I just like would love to share a few when it comes to travel and music as well, just a really specific so I think in general, my best at like op shopping and secondhand first always. So yeah, I would say ninety five percent of my closet and things I own a secondhand.

And I love that, like I love secondhand shopping. I live in a sharehouse.

My rent is really really cheap, which means I can sustain it while I'm away because I don't have the option of moving home and putting stuff at home or anything that's not like a liberty of mine. So and then I also meal prep. I like never eat out or get takeaway or anything. And I'm just like hustling all the time, like I'm always just like networking and keeping an ear out for opportunities and deals and things like that.

I've got quite a few for travels.

So one is like traveling to more affordable countries Eastern Europe, Asia, like places that are you're going to put your dollars a lot further. Recently, I really loved signing up for the newsletters for different companies because that's where you always find out the best deals.

So just to like blow your mind a little bit, like I went to.

Bali last year for a whole week flights, accommodation and breakfast included, and it was five hundred and fifty dollars.

No, it wasn't. It was No, you're making up what newsletter is date Jetstar Okay. I was about to say you cannot gatekeep and be like, oh, just sign up for newsletters. Hopefully you'll get the deal of a.

Light starle no gatekeeping, all right.

All right, onwards and upwards? What was your next tip?

And yeah, saying with that, I went on a cruise as well for seven hundred and fifty dollars each for ten days.

Everything included what.

Like it would have been like full food, drink everything.

Yeah, three course sit down meals like all the four islands, everything, seven to fifty each.

Yeah, Oh my gosh, I've never been on a cruise as somebody who you've done lots of like traveling, which I feel like is really independent travel, like you pick your schedule. What was it like to be on a cruise ship for ten days? Was it fun?

I didn't think I would like it.

Yeah, See, I feel like i'd feel trapped.

Yeah. I didn't think i'd like it.

And I thought also I maybe wouldn't be the clientele on the boat, if you know what I'm saying. I thought I might be the younger demographic. But I did actually really enjoy it with my partner, and the people in the islands were incredible, Like we made very close connections with some beautiful locals.

That was really special.

But my partner and I were actually like even more excited by at the end of that trip because I then got to go back on that same cruise again like four weeks later, because I got asked to sing with the blues band. No you didn't, Yeah, So we were like frothing these blues players that were amazing on the ship and then yeah, I got up and did a few songs with them, and then they're like, come back to this cruise in four weeks so, oh my gosh.

So when money diarists, you say, I'm always hustling always, like even on holidays.

She hustling, Yeah, she hustling. Okay.

And then another one is like if you have flexibility, which obviously I do and I know a lot of people in like full time don't. But skyscanner, you can just search flights to anywhere, like it's called like flight roulette if you want to look up specifically how to do it.

I do want to look up to that, so thank you.

So you just basically look in like where you want to go from and then do anywhere, and it will show like the cheapest places and which times of year and all that kind of stuff to go to. That's always helpful if you literally have no idea, like in Europe when I had no plan, I would be looking up like just where's the cheapest place to get to and I go from there?

Oh how cool? Also really fun.

Yeah, it is pretty fun. You never know where you're gonna end up. I ended up in.

Morocco, so oh my god.

That well, okay.

And then overnight buses when you're traveling are great for saving on accommodation and travel and also like baggage because you don't have to pay for extra baggage free walking tours.

I could not advocate for them enough.

When you're traveling, I always talk about walking tours, like, whenever I get to somewhere new, first thing I do is a walking tour to find my feet and find what's around, and like, they're always such passionate locals running them.

And it's a great way to meet people as a solo traveler too. But also get all the best tips and tricks for saving money. I always carry a water bottle when I'm traveling. Saves a heap of money. Staying in hostels or like couch surfing or whatever was great. Also, if you're gonna eat out and do a fancy meal, try and do it at lunch because often you can get three courses for like twenty dollars or fifteen dollars or whatever is this in Europe?

Oh yeah, they have their like lunchtime specials.

Hey yeah, and at night it would be sixty eight dollars. So it's so good. You save so much money doing it then, and then I use shop back on bookings dot Com.

I've gotten quite bit of money back.

Who is shot back I was just going to say again, like, always have enough money to get out of a pickle, because safety is the most important thing when you're traveling.

I really like that you've put that in. Look, it's really really smart. It's you know, something that a lot of people say when they're traveling is like, oh, I'm on a really strict budget, like I don't have an emergency fund. If you can't afford travel insurance and you don't have an emergency fund to travel, I genuinely don't think you're in the position to financially be able to travel.

Actually, another thing that I didn't add in but is also have a few different cards with a few different banks as well, because you just have to have them on you and keep them in different places, maybe one in the wall that you carry and one in your bag you know that's locked away, because sometimes you'll get to places in your combank or whatever just will not work and you definitely need access.

And actually recently I've been using Wise.

It's a really good bank account for traveling, So I'd recommend that for anyone wanting to travel between currencies as well.

How cool do you want a job at? She's on the money, you're always hustling.

I'll take it. I'll take it because feel like you're.

Full of tips and tricks, Like how good is this?

That would be fun leaving a podcast interview and then getting a job yep, sligh okay?

And just quickly with music, I play solo.

It's obviously expensive to have a band, so playing solo is a great way to start if you're wanting to like start.

As an artist.

Yeah.

Now, grants and funding are a massive thing.

I don't know if you want me to go into detail later, but like definitely would recommend looking into that as an artist.

Yeah, totally. I feel like sometimes we forget that these things are available. What's your favorite website for learning about grants and funding? If you are a musician.

There's a few different tiers of them.

So first of all, look at your local city council arts sector and then look at the state organizations. In Queensland it's Key Music or Arts Queensland Music. New South Wales is in New South Wales Music Victoria. I don't know what the other states, but there'll be one as well as there's national ones as well, so like Creative Australia or Australian Arts Council. I think they're the same

Yeah, how cool. Oh my gosh, all right, do you even have a bad money habit to share heaps? Oh no, all right, let's go.

So I would say shopping when I'm overseas and baggage fees are bad. Not being organized with tax every year

I never used to do that, and it was just like a shock.

But now you are. That's not a bad habit, it's a bad habit that you solved.

So yeah, tax is still my thing that annoys me.

Also, probably the biggest thing is being scared to invest and also just like not paying myself souper and not putting into things that are going to set me up for success in the future. And that's where my partner has been very good for like being like, let's just buy the house, like it's not going to go downhill from there, like let's do it.

I like his mindset. I think it's really good.

Yeah, he's good.

He balances me well in saying that being in a long distance relationship is also probably a bad money habit because that was an expensive venture too.

You're about to change that though, You're about to buy a house together. Will work out how that works. Yeah, you're finally settling down. I can see the ring on your finger, Like life is maybe about to get a little less hectic.

Little less.

Yeah.

At the start of the show, you said to me, I'm a C plus and I was like, oh, okay, no worries. But then you told this beautiful story of like, oh, I grew up in a really low socioeconomic household, Like I've always been really independent, like you are basically the

Like, again, I'm proud of where I came from and how like hard it was growing up with money and the mindset shifts I've made, But I still feel like there's yeah, a lot of like future building I want to do, and I think probably the biggest thing is like setting up more in come streams that I can use when I'm away as well as when I'm home hustling, because that's something that kind of lets me down every year is if I want to travel, I'm not working

I don't know, Yeah, Okay, I.

Was like, maybe be a little bit kinder. The C plus doesn't feel that reflective. You're like, I've never had any debt, Like I don't have any, Like this mortgage will be the first thing, but that's like good debt. I don't know. I feel like you need to go home and have a good hard think, my friend, because you're being quite harsher on yourself. But that is okay. I feel like it's good to have it pointed out sometimes.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, ah, sadly, this is all we have time for today. But oh my gosh, this has been so fun chatting to you. I feel like, obviously I'm not going to be able to go on a big overseas euro trip anytime soon, but you've motivated me to want to, and I think that that's either a good or a bad thing. Not sure.

Looking for the deals now that's the way to do it, that's all right.

My husband and I have every intention of taking our baby overseas at like four months and making that work. Everyone thinks that we're insane, but I'm like, Yollo, this will be fine. We will get there. But oh my gosh, this has been such a fun money. I really appreciate you sharing so much with the community, and I know that they're going to love you and your story just as much as I have.

Oh, thank you.

I hope it motivates people who are in a different way of living, you know, really based on flexibility and the arts and travel and things like that, to not feel hopeless and to know that there's things that you can implement to still keep up with everybody else and do what you love because there are ways of keeping your values intact and also doing doing kind of what you need to do to stay independent and flourishing.

So yeah, thank you so much for having me.

I'm obsessed. Of course.

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