She's on the Money.
She's on the Money.
Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast mililes who want Financial Freedom. You're joining us for another one of our shop Back Money Diary mondays, where we get to chat to one of our beautiful community members, learn about them, learn about their story, and ask all of the juicy questions that you guys at home absolutely want to know about Victoria, I've got a really good one for you this week.
Are you ready? I am so ready?
What have you got so our diret said, I am approaching thirty and starting out. I have what might be considered an average money story, but I am working on it. I've experienced severe soul crushing consumer debt after making horrible financial decisions in my early twenties that left me with a terrible credit rating. But I am on the up and up, improving my financial position one step at a time.
Although my story might not be super inspiring, I think it's relatable to the Shoes on the Money community to show people there is a light at the end of the tunnel once you accept that you deserve the light. And my heart, can I just tell you I'm so excited for this chat.
Oh my gosh, me too, money diarist, you are hanging out in the wings. Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Hello everyone.
Oh my gosh, I am so excited to have you here. And I guess the first thing off the vat there's no such thing as an average money story. Like, come on, my friend, you've been in the ses on the money community long enough to know that, no, there's no such thing as average. Story is so special. Yeah, absolutely, but let's get straight into it. Can you tell us a little bit about your money story? Yeah?
Sure. So I grew up in a relatively middle class, sort of working family, and I was quite privileged to be able to travel really extensively when I was younger. I was never really left out with anything that I really wanted, and I think that kind of set me up for the misconception that money's easy. Money is you know, essentially it did grow on trees because I didn't see how hard my parents worked in the background to give
me the things I wanted. Yeah, which sort of led me into this false sense of you know, oh, everything will be fine. I can have whatever I wanted when I started working. So I started working when I was fourteen through high school, just part time jobs just to sort of have a bit of extra pocket money on
the side. But once I started a full time role when I was nineteen, that led me into living way beyond my means and you know, thinking that that was an acceptable way of living and really really really did not think a future self at all.
So yeah, I feel like that's so relatable though. I feel like so many of us work when we're really young, and we kind of just don't comprehend money because money diarist, what were you doing with your money when you were working at fourteen? I feel like what we don't comprehend once we get to eighteen or we move out is that that money now has to pay for living expenses as opposed to disposables. So I'm interested to know what
you were doing with your money. Well, the roof of your head was paid for.
Yeah, absolutely, Bolkovt just went to hanging out with friends, shopping. I had, you know, just going to things like parties and going out to dinners on a Friday night after school and you know, gifts for friends, that sort of thing. I really didn't have to pay for, you know, things simple things such as regro when I was you know,
the seventeen eighteen year old mark. That was something that was always gifted to me, and I didn't have to really anticipate that the money that I was earning had to go anywhere else other than fun, which then led me into a world of hat.
Yeah, and you just think it'll keep going, right, You're like, that's fine, Like I don't have to change my lifestyle. But I'm going to move out. I'm going to get my own apartment. It's going to be so fun, right, And where's all my money?
Yeah? Exactly?
So, oh my gosh, I feel like I did that a fair bit, and that's how I ended up in a little bit of a pickle when it came to personal debt when I was younger. But moving on money, darist, what do you do for work? How much money do you earn?
So I'm a contract coordinator for a large defense subcontractor, so I work in the defense industry without actually being part of the ADF. So quite interesting. Actually, I started off as the receptionist for this company on quite a lower salary and just have taken the opportunities that as they've come and moved on to a personal assistant execute of assistant and now a contract coordinator, So I'm quite
proud of that. I've finished high school, but I don't have any further education after that, so I'm quite proud of where I'm at and where I started.
Oh my gosh, she hustled her way to the top. I love that. And now, how much money do you earn?
So I'm on eighty three thousand plus super.
Oof plus super or. We love that. We love that. That is so good.
Yeah. Yeah, very proud of where I've started to where I was at because when I started this company five years ago, I was on about the fifty thousand, So yeah, I've just been trying to work my way up the ladder.
I love that. And you definitely have worked your way up the ladder by the looks of it, Like that's so pretty good climbing.
Yeah. Yeah.
Is there a lot of career opportunity to keep progressing that in the same company, like if you stay even longer.
Yeah, absolutely. So it's a huge company and we operate all over the world as well, so there's lots of interconnecting roles and opportunities as well as the defense sector just obviously just will keep going and growing. So even if I step out of the company I'm in now. There is so many different levels within government as well as the private sector. So very fortunate to have landed myself randomly in this field. Was it something that I
had wets drove out to really achieve? I was in legal services beforehand, so yeah, very excited.
Oh my gosh, that is so cool. And to be a little bit pervy because you did tell me a little tip bit about your life before we are started recording money darist. You're currently on maternity leave. Is that correct? I am yes. Can you tell me a little bit about how that plays into I guess your role and your pay, Like how much paid leave do you get? How did you apply for it? How did you tell your work that you were going to be taking a period of time off to have a beautiful little baby.
Yeah, so obviously very fortunate to live in Australia with such a well, I think a good maternia leave system provided from the government. So I think after tax I'll be getting about eleven and a half grand, which is the eighteen weeks full pay at at the minimum wage, and then on top of that, my supplier provides twelve
weeks of full pay. However, They've got a bit of a weird system where you get half of that upfront and then half of that when you return to work, which for me will be in September this year.
Oh my gosh, So twelve weeks of full play plus the government time off, which means you're taking what like is a about twenty four weeks off.
Yeah, so twenty four weeks of pay and then the rest is unpaid, which obviously that's a bit of a juggle between what I've received from the government and my work and then my husband's salary as well. So yeah, the next ten I'm a super budget now, which I wasn't in the past, so I've really like stepped out what we can afford each month. So yeah, lucky to have the whole year off, which was nice.
Oh how good. I've got so many questions about that, But we will leave back to the second part of the show money diarist. What is your big money goal at the moment?
Would be to buy a larger property. So in our first home at the moment, but it's a two bedroom, one bathroom little house, so just to buy the next house, and for us in the position we're in, we're going to have to sell this one to afford the next, especially in the current market. So that's the that's the biggest goal. And second it's just building wealth in other areas, so shares, Super and just general savings as well is another huge one.
Oh my gosh, so many goals. Yes, ah, so exciting. Next question is do you currently have any investments?
I do, yes, so Super. I have about one hundred and twenty thousand in Super.
Sorry what and you're not even thirty yet. Yes, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in Super. Yeah, sorry that track? How did that happen?
So? I am so guilty of completely ignoring Super. I had about six or seven different funds across, you know, from working since I was fourteen and swopping jobs. And about a year ago we went and saw a financial advisor.
I've hurt. They're good people, yeah.
Yeah, and he just moved everything into one fund and just that fund. I guess it's been performing quite well. And yeah, I was very shocked about six months ago when I logged in to find that I had one hundred and twenty thousand there, from completely ignoring it to having such a balance, I was, yeah, very very surprised and yeah, have.
You ever contributed additional to super? No, No, you've just amassed it since you were fourteen, and it's been growing and growing. Because the average amount of money in superannuation for a woman between the age of twenty five to thirty four is actually thirty one six hundred dollars. So like, you are blowing that out of the water, my friend. I don't know if you knew that, but when you said that number, I was like, hold up, you're not
even thirty yet. The average is literally like thirty one grando.
Yeah, because I know that government is really notorious for paying a high level of super. What percentage is your super?
So it's just a standard at the moment because we're not technically part of the AAF. However, I did work for two years at the ATO, so yeah, but that again, I was earning a very low salary there. It was like an introductory to work sort of program straight out of high school almost, so I think I was on about thirty six thousand dollars a year in that progress.
Yeah, you wouldn't have got you wouldn't have got bucket loads a SUPER for that salary. And my friend, no, the other question I have is actually look just being really pervy, because I think a lot of people are going to listen and go, what that's so much super without trying, which is the biggest money whin I've heard
to date. But the question I think is more around hours, because a lot of us do start working when we turn fourteen years and nine months old, and we go down in my case, to the local ice cream shop and get a job. And so when we work, they aren't legally obligated to pay us super innuation until we hit a certain amount of hours or a certain amount of income in a certain amount of time frame. So money Diarist, were you working a lot of hours when you were younger?
Yeah, I was probably working about twenty hours a week, I would say so from the age of fourteen. So I two went down to Muff and Break and started out there and then moved on to.
Oh my god, one of my best friends worked at Muff and Break. It was the best. We were in grade ten and she used to bring muff and Break for like morning tea the next day pretty much daily. It was the best thing ever.
Yeah, it was great. And then I moved on to Barnacle Bills, which is the Seafood Shot down in South Australia and also Woolworths were my three that I moved around in during high school. And yeah, probably about twenty hours a week throughout that whole period, which.
You definitely would have been getting paid superrom whereas I was only working like maybe a couple of hours after school. Like, I definitely didn't accrue twenty hours a week. But the other thing that is playing to your benefit is you didn't go to UNI. You just went straight into the workforce, which means you've been accruing a full time salary worth of super even though you're saying it was a lower salary, but you've just been consistent, and consistency pays off over time.
And I just think that that's so often underplayed that you go, oh my gosh, I'm going to be so far behind because I didn't go to UNI. But you have all these years on other people of superannuation accumulation.
Yeah right, I don't know if you want me to talk about this now.
And talk about whatever you want. You're the boss of this show.
I did go to UNI for a few semesters, which has left me with a heck stet, which is part of my debt that I wanted to talk about because I have seventeen thousand dollars of HEX set with no degree.
So well, let's get into that because that's actually the next question, my friend, So money dis talk to us about your debts.
Yeah, So currently I have a two hundred and forty thousand dollars mortgage which we've had for ten years, so just sort of working that down. I also have a sixteen thousand dollar car loan. So I've always been the type of person to just have a five hundred dollar car that's just sort of gotten me through and you know, no pow of steering, no power windows, that sort of scenario.
So last year I bought my first big girl car and I was fortunate enough to have ten thousand dollars that I put down as a lump sump payment and then just sixteen thousand for the remainder. So I'm quite happy with that, and that's that because it's given me probably a safer mode of transport than before. And then I have seventeen thousand dollars in hects as well.
And you were saying before that that hex is for a degree that you didn't end up finishing, So talk to me about I guess how you made the decision to maybe not keep studying, but also how does that hex step now make you feel.
Yeah, So, to be honest, a lot of people say, you know, hextex is fine, you don't ever worry about it coming out because it's all taken out before you receive your net income, so you won't even notice it. And I found it to be the exact opposite, to be honest, I started out when I left school, or when I finished school. My mum was begin to you go to UNI or you get a job. It was, you know, nothing really in between. So I started a nursing degree. I did two semesters of that and really
really really was not for me. So then a couple of years later, once I'd had a couple of years in the working force, I thought that I needed higher education to get me anywhere in the corporate sort of world. So because of that, I started a business degree online. And this is during the period where I wasn't that great with my finances, so kind of just buried my head in the sand, miscut off dates for subjects I didn't even start, So that added onto my hex Yeah.
So now I have, Yeah, the seventeen thousand dollars hex step for something that I didn't even invest myself in, nor did I really care about. And now I'm definitely seeing the negative of that.
So you're seeing it come out. But I'm going to make some assumptions that you learnt a fair bit even if it wasn't for your future career during UNI. Would that be a correct assumption? And I mean a lot of people say, like, oh my god, I can't believe I'm paying for a degree I'm not even using, which in your case, you said you did nursing. You're not even working in a space close to nursing. So I can see how that would feel like a bit of
a waste. But I feel like we get a lot of life experience and learn a lot about ourselves during that period. So as much as you're paying for it now, is it as big a waste, I don't know. Yeah.
Look, during the nursing time, it wasn't you know. I got to live a bit of the UNI life, which was obviously really fun and met a lot of really nice people through it. But during the business side of it, I was working full time. I kind of signed up thinking you know, I was going to give myself all these incredible opportunities to earn more money down the track, but it was it was a case of me signing up.
I did a few subjects. I failed my accounting subjects, so that will give you a bit of an insight as to where my money was at at that time and just my mindset around it all. So you know, the business side of HEADS was just a complete mistake.
And yeah, yeah, I feel like I totally get the regret. I don't want you to feel bad about it. I feel like you've learned a lot from it and it's helped you become who you are today. But I also look at it and I go look at how much pressure you were putting on yourself, and how much pressure other people in our community are putting on themselves to go to UNI for degrees that they might not even want to work in spaces that they don't even fully
comprehend the career opportunities. And like, obviously, if you go do nursing, there's a really brilliant career of nursing ahead of that. So please don't get me wrong. It's not saying it's a waste by any stretch of the imagination. But for you in particular, like you have a really great salary. You haven't had to go to UNI for that. Like I know Jess, you're the same. You haven't gone to university for the career that you are doing at the moment, and both of you are I would say,
wildly successful. So I think if you're in that position and you're like I really hate UNI and I really don't like it, like, don't follow something you don't love, because it's not going to give you, I guess the outcome that you think it might, Like, it's not just
going to miraculously turn into a high paying job. Because the one thing that I do see that you two probably have in common, my friends, is that you have really great work ethics, and you work hard, and you have direction and you put your head down a money arris that has been obvious from the fact that you have progressed so quickly in your career to different roles and kind of like climbed that ladder on your own. You don't need to a degree, you don't have your own ladder.
Right, And I'm very big on that as well. So you know, when I talk to my younger cousins who are just about to finish high school. I hate asking the term of what are you going to do next year? Because I just think that if that takes two pressure Yeah, and I think if that takes two to three years to figure out what you want to do, I think
that's better than just jumping straight into a career. I know people that have gone and done, you know, a six year engineering degree and wound up as police officer. So you know, I just think the pressure to know what you want to do straight out of high school is just immense, and I think it can probably lead people down the wrong path for maybe not such a happy career. Yeah.
I couldn't agree more. And I mean I've got that from understanding that she's on the money community and talking to so many people. But even looking back on my own career when I was eighteen, how did I know that I wanted to do what I wanted to do? Like I had no idea, Like I was drinking vodka cruz is Like if that's that's like a summary of the life choices I was making at the time. How was she little vodka Cruzer Victoria? How was she picking
future Victoria's career? Because even if she'd tried to predict what I was doing today, it wouldn't have come to fruition. I feel like year eleven and twelve is also a massive amount of pressure as well, that people like, if you don't perform well and you're eleven and twelve, like you won't get into UNI and then basically you'll die.
And that's just not the case at all. Like so many people on the show as well have been like, oh, I was a mature age student, got a really really terrible ATAR, but like, you know, just entered later and got my dream career once I found that focus. Like, I think we need to give ourselves a little bit more space. But moving on, because I feel like we could all talk about this forever. Money Diarist to one of our favorite questions, do you use shop Back?
Look? I do have the app downloaded and I have an account going, but I'm not an active user, which I should be because I online shopped like an absolute fiend. So I need to be bad. It needs to be better in that space.
I feel like I was really bad at using shop back until I installed it on my Chrome browser, and now it just automatically pops up. It's like, oh, you look like you're buying something. Turn on shop back and you're like, yes, yes, turn it on, turn it on. So I feel like until that point, I didn't really shop through the app, but I definitely shop on my desktop. And I probably shouldn't go on about that because if you look at Jess, you'll probably be like, well, I
know you do. You probably should be doing your work. Victoria money Darist. Next question, what do you think is your best money habit?
My absolute best money habit, which I'm very proud of now because old me would have again buried my hand in the sand. Is my budgeting skills. So I budget, you know, every single month, and I don't know exactly where every single one of my dollars is now going. Old me literally just use my card intil it was declined and I had no idea what was coming in and out.
But now I'm totally across it. Got a beautiful spreadsheet that I'm extremely proud of running, and yeah, that's probably my best money habit.
Oh my gosh, I love spreadsheets. I would love to see yours. Where did you start, like when it comes to budgeting and spreadsheets, you said before you had your head in the sand, were in personal debt, Like, how do we change our mindset to being a spreadsheet queen? How do we do it? Like where did you start? Because it feels so overwhelming for so many people. Yeah?
Absolutely, so I just did the old print out the statement, found out what was going in, what was going out, What was a monthly sort of trend of mine? So online shopping gifts as well, so I like, I like giving gifts, so really budgeting now I have one hundred and fifty dollars a month for any upcoming birthdays or baby shower gifts, things like that. But it was a case of opening my account and really just going through old school about what was in and out and just
the monthly trends. So once you start, and then it just snowed balled into there into my epic spreadsheet.
Yeah, from little things, big things do really grow. But it's kind of like a snowball effect. But first you have to put your head out of stand.
Right Is that right?
Absolutely all right? To bring the tone of this converse all the way down money, dirice, what is your worst money Habit.
Would have to be just my It is much better than previous years, but just my lack of self control when it comes to online shopping. I was an absolute sucker for Instagram ads and you know the junk mail that would come into the inbox, and you know, whatever brand was having a sale, and I thought that it meant if I didn't buy what I wanted in that sale, I was never going to be able to get it again, which is just not the case.
So hid it's not, but it's so easy to be like, oh my gosh, but like it's on sale, I really wanted it, and now it's like discounted. If I don't get it now, I'll never be able to afford it or get it or I totally get that sense of urgency.
Yeah, so just and my I just had no self control around that at all, which is it has gotten better, but it's it's still there. And I do have quite high taste when it comes to fashion, so you know, the twenty dollar cotton on dress just doesn't do it for me anymore. So I have to I feel like I have to anyway go you know, go to the larger, more expensive brands.
Feels It's called lifestyle creep, my friend, we all experience it. It is depressing when you start working it out. And do you know what's more frustrating is that I totally get that the twenty dollars came out dress would have probably done the same thing. Am I comfortable with it? Though? Do I want that? No? Does that set my heart on fire the same way that the steel dress I have saved on my browser right now does. No. No, I'm going to get the steel dress right.
And the worst part is that I hardly ever wear them. So I've probably got ten to twelve dresses in my wardrobe right now that I've never worn, but they're just so pretty.
Oops. Yea, all right, before we go to the break money diarist, if we forced you to give yourself a money grade, what would your grade your money have its?
I thought about this and honestly, old me wouldn't even sat down for the test. I would have completely skipped test, wouldn't and just sort of accepted an F. Whereas now I think I'm sitting in the C minus to be plus kind of range because I've still got a long way to go, but I've improved so so much. So yeah, C plus to B minus range, I feel like that's fair.
I do have a few questions for you, though, so let's go to a quick break and we'll jump straight into them after that. All right, money Diarist, We are back, and I feel like our office is a little bit baby crazy at the moment, So I want to start by talking about your gorgeous three month old. Can you talk us through that process of planning for maternity leave? Before you mentioned that you're taking some unpaid leave in addition to the paid maternity leave that you're going to get.
How did you budget for that? How do we start thinking about topics like that. I feel like it's so overwhelming when you're in this phase of like, this is what I really want to do, But then it's like the balance of one do we have the budget, but two how do you drop to one income? So can you talk us through your mindset and how that works? And yeah tell us all yeah, sure.
So we were fortunate that we didn't have to save for any of the IVF processes or anything like that, which I know can be a really big expense. So for us, the biggest thing, you know, was buying everything that you needed for a baby. And I know a lot of people say that babies don't need much, but it is a huge snowball, and you think that you
do need everything that's out there. So I was fortunate enough to be on a salary that I could save quite a bit, so I've I managed to save and pay outright for everything that we needed for the baby. We also have a husband and I have quite a big savings account to fall back on, so we Once I factored in what I was going to be getting as the lump some sort of payment from the government as well as my work, I just split that into the twelve months and made that my new salary for
the month. So that salary combined with my husband's salary, just sort of breaks even on all of our bills. So I was fortunate for that. But then we also did have the savings that we could fall back into, but it was just more the preparation that was needed to buy everything the car seat. It really does add up, and I would say that we probably spent about five grand leading into leading into the him being here.
Oh wow, can I ask you just said?
Obviously, it's really hard, and I would totally be this person who is like, I must have everything to be as prepared as I can be. Was there anything that you purchased pre baby that now that you have your little one, you're like, that was so unnecessary.
Oh, such a good question.
Yes, and I have a very good example because I just sold it on marketplace the money we need. Yeah, so there is a particular brand of and I call it a baby coffee machine. So because we're formula feeding, it basically makes a bottle in thirty seconds. You press one button and it's done. So no, thirds Yeah, it's it's amazing that exists. Yes, So I bought it about three months before the baby was here and had it all set up on my kitchen bench ready to go.
And once he was here and we started the process, it was just much easier. I found anyway to use the old thermo and scooping the formula out of the tin yourself. It took about a minute to make a bottle, whereas this four hundred and fifty dollars machine did it in thirty seconds and I didn't even turn it on. So I sold it on marketplace only last week.
Yeah, oh my gosh, that's so expensive as well. It was like, yeah, I didn't even know that was a thing, a little baby coffee machine. But it does formula, not the coffee like what, Yeah, they think of everything, Like I only recently learned of that snoo thing that like rocks your baby, and I'm mind blown that there's like
a device in a bed that rocks you up. Anyway, Yeah, probably sound very naive in comparison to a lot of people who are listening to this podcast, who are seasoned mothers, and they're going to be like, Victoria, you don't know what you're in for one day.
Yeah.
When it came to buying stuff for baby as well, did you find that you had to make up a budget at the start or did you collect things as you go, Like how many things do you think on average a new mum would have to buy? Like was that five grand an average baby shop or was it a oh well, actually we got the cot and the prem for free, like it was a handy down or like what I guess scope did that five grand include?
Yeah? So again I had a queen of a spreadsheet going and I had everything lestened to what I wanted and how much it was, where I could buy it, where was the best deal. So I was very prepared in that sense, but I probably just took it to the next level in terms of as just said, I felt like I needed absolutely anything just in case I needed it, So I probably spent one thousand dollars over what I probably needed to in a lot of the gadgets that are on the market at the moment, and
they really know how to target mothers in particular. I think that you need this to make sure your baby is sleeping well overnight and is happy. And it was just allow all of those products I have actually used, I really really did not need. So in terms of the five grand, I probably only needed to really spend about four on the essentials. So the biggest one was
the prem. So my husband six foot four, so we needed a prem that sat up quite high, and unfortunately that meant for us that it was the most expensive one, but it was just it was just worth it first saving his back in my back on it, I'm five foot tens as well, so I'm quite tall, so you know, just that for us was a necessity item. And then we unfortunately didn't have a lot of friends that I had babies before us, so we didn't have things right
hand me downs or secondhand. And I know you can buy a lot of things on marketplace, but they sometimes advise just to buy a new for the safety side of things. YEA.
Well, of course, of course, I feel like I wouldn't even know where to start, So asking questions like this is just personally very helpful, so I appreciate it. But let's pivot away from baby stuff. I want to know about savings while you are on maternity leave. So you mentioned before that you've worked out your budget and like your husband's income can help you cover bills and stuff like that. Are you saving while you're on leave or is that something that you like. Nope, we've just put
that to the side. That's not happening while we are doing this. Yeah.
So, and I think this sort of touch back to my old self and what I feel like I need to do to make myself happy really is the method of paying yourself first. So I actually give my husband and I both give each other a three hundred fifty dollars a week for our play money, which I know sounds excessive, but that's just what we figure out we need because they're both quite social people, so we do have quite a large play money bucket that we dip into every week, so there is an opportunity for us
to save. But that hasn't been our goal well on attornity leave, so we have quite a big amount of money that we can use every week just for you know, going out to dinners and things like that. But if we can save money after that point, then that's great. If we don't, we haven't put the pressure on ourselves to as well.
I think it's a new mum that you can't undervalue as well giving yourself the opportunity to do something for you. And this is applicable to any I guess a new parent who is you know, primarily caregiving. You're the one on attorney leave, so I'm assuming this situation you're the one who's with love the most. I think that as much as you say it seems really excessive. You're not getting to go to work every day like you would
normally and have those adult interactions. You're not getting time away from your little one, who of course you would love immensely. I have no doubt, but I think that you need to remember that there is so much value in giving your self space because you deserve that as just a human being. And yes, it might be costing you money, but I think maybe for your mental health, particularly because you said.
You're a super social person.
I do think that it's really important that you're recognizing that, and it's really admirable you've gone, okay, well right now, this is what I need.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And we said before that before we started trying for a baby, that we wanted the baby to fit into our lifestyle rather than change our life to suit baby, and we were just watching it that we had a salary that we could maintain our lifestyle while me being on the tonity leave just to we didn't want to miss out on things and feel like that we had to give up that aspect of our life just because
they was here. So again, quite a fortunate position to be in, and I definitely don't take that for granted, but that's just the concession that my husband and I had that we wanted to still maintain what we wanted to do and not feel guilty about that money.
Ros we've talked about budgeting for baby and planning what was going on, and earlier in this episode, you actually said that you saw a financial advisor about twelve months ago. What was that trigger point of seeing a financial advisor potentially having a baby. Is that where we were at mind frame wise, like what was a trigger point for saying an advisor, I guess is what I'm trying to get around to asking. Yeah.
Absolutely, So there was two. One was definitely planning for our family. The other one was just learning more about the shares an investment market. So we had a con sec account going and we just weren't sure if that was where we needed to be for the the best financial outcome or if we needed to move that into
you know, the other areas of investing. So we just wanted to get advice on that really, and then that sort of rolled into combining you know, consolidating soupers and what we need to do for a wheels, what we need to do for you know, setting our child up for the best future that he can have as well. I'm really concerned, should say concerned, I'm not sure, but concerned about the housing market, you know, when he's twenty
five years old. So I'd love to have the opportunity to give him a bit of a house deposit already sitting there. So I just wanted to get the ball rolling really on how that all works.
I love that, and I feel like financial advice is something that people often have triggers for so you'll go ages not even considering it, and then there's some kind of life change and you go, we should talk to an advice now, like we probably should edit together and have that chat. But the next question I want to ask you is actually about Super. So you talked about rolling Super together and while you're on maternity leave, you wouldn't be contributing to Super through your salary because that's
not a part of it. But have you and your partner, and I mean maybe not because you do have a pretty healthy looking Superannuation account, but if you and your partner talked about what that would mean for you to miss contributions to Superannuation during that time that you're off for you.
Look, we haven't had the discussion, but I've been very aware of it because it's quite a hot topic in the mother's online mother's group that I'm in that has, you know, three thousand members and a lot of people do talk about this. We again, didn't have the conversation, and I'm currently not contributing to Super again. I think it's also because I did have the larger balance sitting there, so I felt like I maybe wasn't really missing it.
Over the next twelve months, and I knew that when I go back to work, I'm going back to all my full time salary as well, so I could not make up for the time. But I you know, it's not like I'm only going back part time, where again I would miss the next fifteen years of contributing the same sort of amount.
Yeah. So, yeah, you've thought about it, but it wasn't the biggest priority. I feel like potentially that would have changed if you'd looked at it and had like twenty thousand dollars in Super, You'd be like, oh, actually, maybe we need to plan around this. But yeah, financially, I think you're doing fine because it sounds like you've turbocharged your career.
Yeah.
Yeah, speaking of career, just before we head off, I wanted to swing it back around.
I know we've been chatting out baby.
Beau but all maybe crazy, but just to change that, Super Jess and Super as well, I wanted to just chat about you a little bit and ask, as a fellow degreeless person who has worked their way up in this industry, how did that look for You've obviously sat at one company for many years now, and you came in on kind of a more entry level role. How did that career progression go. Did you put your hand up, were you talking to managers asking for promotions? Did you
just wait for the right opportunity? How did you take those steps? Because I think there'd be a lot of people in a similar boat who maybe don't have the degree to back stepping right into a big role, but have big inspirations to do what you've done.
Yeah, so definitely it was seeking out other opportunities as they came up. I didn't really wait around for someone to tap me on the shoulder and say, hey, do you want to do this. That has happened once in that career stepping stone, and I was very lucky for that because that landed me what I'm in, the role I'm in now. However, I just, yeah, again, just took the opportunities as they came up. I consulted with the
HR team at my current employer as well. Obviously, the industry i'm in as well is a largely male dominated industry, so for instance, in my team of twenty five, I'm the only female. There was a lot of opportunity sort of given away those lower level sort of roles to really just take little baby steps to sort of get where I'm at today.
Incredible.
How do you find being the only female in a team of twenty five, because that's not an easy position I wouldn't imagine to find yourself in.
Yeah.
So, before going into this industria that she worked in legal services where there was a major lee female team as a legal secretary. So I really enjoy the different side of things. And obviously heading into Materney leave as well, they were very supportive and it's just it's a very different environment about an enjoyable one as well.
Incredible, Jess. I know that you thought that was going to be your last question, and it was maybe your last question. But when we were introducing our money Diarist, she had explained that she was in debt and offline we had been talking about credit scores, and I feel like I want to finish their money Diarist. When it came to debt and credit scores and being in a little bit of a pickle, you, I'm saying you were pretty severely impacted by, you know, not having a very
shiny credit score. Can you tell us a little bit about that? And I guess how you got out of that situation?
Yeah? Sure, So growing up I really didn't even know what a credit score was, and by the time I knew what it was, it was too late. So in my early twenties I had gotten myself into about twelve gram with a credit card debt and really just buried my head in the sand. So I was the type of person that was ignoring the calls, ignoring the mail. I knew I would be getting a letter from my bank and I would just rip it up and put it in the bin. Yeah, which is horrible.
No, it just feels like I can feel that stress, like when you say I'd rip it up and put it in the bins, Like I didn't even want to look at it, like just get it out of sight, out of mind. If it's all ripped up, it doesn't exist.
Absolutely. And I was the type of person, which I know has been spoken about heaps in the community as well, is the just living for that moment and not really caring about future self. And I was the person that you would always see going out traveling and eating at fancy dinners and having all of the fancy clothes. But behind the scenes, I was in really a really bad place financially where I didn't eat, I didn't look at
my makeup. I did not log into my makeout, I did not log into any of my debt portals, nothing like that, because I was just ignoring it, which just impacted my credit score massively. And by the time that I realized what impact that had on just day to day lives, so phone plans, things like that, it was too late for me. I couldn't I couldn't get it
back up. So once I accepted the debt, and I just accepted that first phone call from the debt company saying hey, you know, and they weren't as scary as what I thought they would be. I thought they were going to get on the line and just completely almost destroy me. But they were, oh my.
Gosh, no, they're usually super kind.
Yeah, and they were very All they wanted to do was just to make sure that I was aware of what I had and how can they help me get to where I needed to be, which was really positive in the end. So that all sort of started spiring when I was twenty two, twenty three, and now twenty nine, and only I was of about two months ago. I have my credit ratings back up to where it should be, and I don't have any defaults as to that anymore.
And I just I think I just wanted to say that it's a long process, but you know, the years toick by so quickly, and so I'm not even thirty yet, and I have the opportunity now to go out and get you know, the house that I'm I'm in now, is I'm in? My husband's naying because I couldn't. Yeah, I couldn't do that. I didn't have a pad squat.
Yeah, I really couldn't even do the home loan thing with your partner because your credit score was just not having a good time.
Yeah, and again, but by the time I realized what it was and what impact it had, it was too late. So oh my.
Gosh, I feel like that's really powerful though. And what you just said before about how the years go really quickly, it's both ways, Like they go really quickly if you're not acting on a debt either, like they go really quickly and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe it's been like three or four years and this is still sitting there. But like we could have used that time to get out of debt. So I feel like
the sooner you just pick up the phone. The sooner you put a plan in place, the sooner you pull your head out of the sand, the better for you, because now you're twenty nine and you've got all of these wealth creating opportunities ahead of you, and it's not the worst thing in the entire world. Whereas if you'd left this for another ten years or another fifteen years, which lots of people do, you would have been in a pretty big pickle.
Absolutely, And I didn't want to have the conversation with anyone, didn't want to have the conversation with myself, with my partner, with anyone about it. So I just ignored it, and I probably ignored it two to three years longer than what I should have.
Yeah, I feel like, my friend, that is a really good place to leave it. We have covered so much in this money stories, so thank you so much for your time. But unfortunately I do think that is all we have time for today. So just before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples. They're the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing and for caring for the
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See you next week, guys.
Bye,