MONEY DIARIES: An Insight Into Island Life

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 the Money, the podcast the millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money daries where I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down with one of our She's on the Money community members to talk all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got a message and it sounded like this, Hi V. I have a pretty unique career in a male dominated industry and live an island life in a very remote part of Australia.

Haha, thank you so much for having me while you make my life sound pretty interesting.

You wrote that. Oh no, Analisa, our producer, wrote that, So I told you she was a good egg. Before we were recording, I was talking about how great she is. But that is it, though, Like, where is the lie, my friend?

Yeah, it's true. That is my life at the moment.

I'm so excited to learn more about it before we get there. Could you give us a little bit of an idea. What grade would you give your money habits from A three to F if I asked you to grade them?

Yeah, so I was thinking a B plus I think with some of your money habits at the moment.

Well, let's learn more about it. You said you have an island life in a very remote part of Australia, and I want to know more about your money story. So tell me where you come from and now why you're on an island.

Yeah. So I live in a really remote island in the north of Australia, which is about as north as you can get. Actually, it is a beautiful lifestyle, you know. It's a very slow lifestyle, and I've managed to fall into a career up here that I never thought i'd fall into. But it's going very well and I'm really enjoying it and feeling very blessed to have this job. So yeah, island life is absolutely incredible, but it doesn't

How did you grow up around money.

I was raised in a single parent family, so there was definitely never a lot of money while I was growing up. But in saying that, my mum is incredible. She's always managed to provide everything that myself and my brother needed, so I definitely learned a lot of my money habits from her. She was a great saver and instilled those beliefs around money and me and my brother. So after school, I went to university and I lived the university life, which is never a very wealthy life.

On boats. That's interesting. I love this. So tell me a bit more about the decision to go. You know, I don't want to live an office job. I want something else going you know, what is for me a boat? Like how did you go from you know, making that decision, from being in UNI, which is relatively structured, let's be honest, to having obviously a much quieter life, but also working in that space.

Yeah. So I was actually working hospitality when I was in university, and when it came towards my graduation, I was like, you know, I didn't see myself growing straight to an office role. So I was thought, well, I'm going to go work in a hospitality venue somewhere a bit more tropical. So I actually applied for a job on Hamilton Island and I was unsuccessful getting that job, and I was like, well, actually, maybe hospitality isn't for me. So I started applying for some sail boat jobs in

Oh very cool.

Yeah, there was about five years ago now and so it's just progressed from that.

So tell me a bit more. I need to know what do you do for work? How much money do you actually earn?

So I work in marine pilotice. Oh yeah, bit of an unusual job. I at the moment am earning just over one hundred k year. Yeah. We drive boats and we go out to the middle of a shipping channel where we run into the side of a big ship that's still moving.

We run into the side of a big ship moving, Yeah, exactly.

We kind of just smash into the side. If there's a bit of a bang, it's all right. And then we put a very experienced mariner onto that ship so he can navigate it through the reef.

I've heard of this. They're good pilots, but they've never been through that territory and you need someone who's like really familiar with it to like just get on for a short period of time navigate through that and then they get off right. Yeah, yeah, that is cool. So how did you fall into that. I mean, it's a bit of a jump to go from a hostess on a boat to being in marine pilotage. Like, what's the segue there, my friend.

Yeah, it was quite random how it happened. I moved to the island where I'm living now, and I met up with a friend that I'd known previously from the marine industry, and she was working for this company already, and so she got me a job. And I started out as a casual decand that was almost two years ago now, and now I'm the assistant manager two years later.

No, you're not, I am. That is so cool. Congrats. Tell me a bit more about island life though. I want to segue back to this because living remote full stop is expensive, but then I feel like it might be super expensive living remote, but then also on an island. So can you tell me a bit about I guess your living situation. How do you rent and pay for housing or do you pay for housing? And you know what's food like because I'm assuming you can't get any roots.

There's definitely no overeats. So that does help with my savings. Yeah, so living on an island, it is very expensive. I do want to say that you know, in my situation with my work, I am very privileged because I do have some things provided with my job. Food is probably the biggest expense that I see. To be fair, I'm probably a little bit of out of touch with mainland prices.

No, you didn't.

It's quite ridiculous.

That's like ninety nine cents. It colds for me.

Sorry, it's ridiculous. But everything that comes to the island is brought up on a barge, so that just adds a huge freight cost to all the products that are brought to the island.

Yeah, it would.

And also sometimes those products are just not available. Quality offecially, fruit and vegetables can be quite low sometimes. I think I paid ten dollars the other day for a very average bunch of silver.

Beat of silver beat. Yeah, that's not even like an expensive, exciting vegetable. That's silver beat.

I know, but you still have to get your greens.

Oh I'm not disagreeing, Like, I actually really love a bit of silver beat. I grew up on a farm, and I feel like that stuff grows like wee there, but paying ten bucks for it would give me the inck.

Yeah. Probably my largest expense is my grocery bill. Yeah at the moment, Like I said, I am very lucky in my job that things are provided for me. For instance, I have a work car, so I don't have to pay for my own car or fuel. Oh very nice, And I understand that everybody on the island is not privileged to that like we are.

Yeah.

My rent is also subsidized by work, so I think work subsidizes it by about three hundred dollars a week and I still end up paying one seventy a week.

Okay, that's pretty good because that would be expensive rent otherwise.

Yeah, it's really lucky to live on the island without rent supplied by your work. It would be almost impossible just because there is no accommodation available.

Yeah.

Wow.

Work also covers most of my bills, so they pay for my gas and my water and my internet and the only bill I have to pay for myself is my electricity.

This is becoming very appealing. Like I wasn't so sold on remote work, but now you're like, all of this stuff is covered. Also, I'm earning just over one hundred thousand dollars per year. Does that put you in a very attractive savings position?

It does. I had never earned money like this before falling into this role. So I have hit some pretty incredible saving goals this year.

Well, let's talk about them. What are your big money goals?

Ah, My biggest money goal this year is to buy property. So I'm just going through the process at the moment of preapproval.

Oh yeah, so.

Looking to purchase an investment property, hopefully in the next month or two.

Oh that's so exciting. That so soon? And so have you got your deposit together in all of the balls in the right places.

Yes, I have my deposit ready. I have gone through this process once before. But also living on the island, it makes it very difficult to view properties. Of course, it has slowed me down a little bit in my search for properties, but I think I've reached the point where I may just have to purchase without viewing the property first.

Yeah, right, are you purchasing remotely or are you purchasing back like we're your mummy, or like what's the plan with location for this property purchase?

At the moment, I'm looking at Cans in Far North Queensland.

And is that because you want to live there at some point or is this a good investment opportunity or what does that look like for me?

I think it is a place where you can buy a good investment opportunity. Also, if things were to fall through with renting it out and I did have to move there, I would have access to employment. Yeah, and I have lived there previously, so it's a place that's just familiar to me.

Yeah. Great, Cans is gorgeous as well, so like I would not be mad if I had to go and live there, Like, oh no, I have to live in Far North Queensland. How bad is that?

I know it's tropical paradise there minus the crocodiles.

It is so beautiful all right, So property purchase, what are your other big money goals?

I don't have too many what I would call short term money goals at the moment. I think once I take off buying a property, then I'll start to look. But yeah, for long term. You know, I'm not a person who particularly wants to work a full time job for the next thirty years forty years fair, So I would really like to find myself in a position down the track where I can work less.

You know.

If that looks like paying off property so that I don't owe anything on it as quick as possible, you know, those are probably my goals down the track.

I love that. What does not working full time look like to you? Is it just vibing out during the day, Like, how many days a week are we talking that you would actually work? Like, give me an idea of what this goal lifestyle looks like.

So I think my perfect rosstar would be four days a week or three days a week. You know, I have a lot of things that I would like to do on the side, and maybe that could also include my own business as well.

Fun.

Yeah, I don't know what my own business would be, but I would really like to be able to support myself and work for myself. I think that's probably my ultimate goal.

I love it. It is a lot of stress, but it is definitely worth it. All right, let's go to a really quick break, because on the flip side, I want to ask you. I guess about investments, about debt and your best and worst money habits. So guys, don't go anywhere, all right, money dirist. We are back and you are living an island life in a very remote part of Australia, which now you're telling me about it, I'm kind of envious of. Like I just look at it and go, oh my gosh, what on earth this

Well, the only thing you can do on an island is go on a boat.

That's okay. You like boats, I've heard I.

Do like boats, even on my days off. I drive them. So we will go around the islands, go bakeboarding, to slay on the beach, go through a bit of a snorkel, try and get away from the crocodiles is my ultimate goal.

Yeah, yeah, no, thank you.

But to be fair, I actually don't have a whole lot of spare time because I do work two jobs.

Two jobs.

Yes, I do work a second job, so I often use my days off and also my annually to fit my second job in.

Tell me more what is this second job. You didn't mention that when I said what do you do for work and how much money do you earn?

I work for a not for profit in the environmental sector.

Oh my gosh, how did you forget that?

It is just a casual job and the hours are very varying. Some weeks I may not work at all, and then others will do thirty hours a week. So that job looks like a lot of computer time as well. But I also do get to go out into the field quite often and work with traditional owners and rangers on country.

Oh my gosh, gorgeous.

Yeah, so I work on different islands and back on the mainland doing that as well.

So what kind of income are you earning from that in addition to your one hundred grand in your job in marine pilotage.

So that is a casual job, so I'm paid on an hourly basis. As I mentioned, it's very sporadic the hours last tax here. I think I earn an extra twelve grand with that, and I'm probably earn about the same this year.

Yeah, that honestly is so cool. And the fact that you get to, I guess, connect so much with the land. I'm assuming you're learning a lot as you, you know, do the work that you do. I feel like that's a dream. That is very very cool. So tell me now about investment. Do you have any investments? If so, what are they? If you don't, do you have a plan.

So I've been doing a little bit of listening to Shoes on the Money.

Oh my gosh, great idea. Can't recommend it more highly.

I also have a Raise account, which I've had for about three years. Yeah, and with downloading and joining up with Chasi's, I now have started a plan to let my raise get up to five hundred dollars, and once it reaches five hundred dollars, I'm withdrawing that and putting into my Chazia's account.

Oh I love this idea. And I don't mean to buddy in and tell you how to suck eggs. That's not what I'm doing. But did you know that Chaz's has just introduced roundups, so you could like do that inside Chaz's and not change from one investment platform, sell down an asset that might decrease in value, and then transfer it to another one.

I did not know that, and this is why I listened.

Well, there you go hot tips. Love the strategy. Obviously, if we're exposing our money to the share market for a short period of time, there could be some volatility, and so that might be another way to protect yourself. But I'll let you look into that and make your own decision. It's just a little idea, my friend.

That's perfect take out the middleman.

Yeah, but I mean it's a genius idea though, Like, have you found that having roundups has meant that there's just like money there that you're like, wow, I really didn't feel like that came out, or wow, that hit five hundred dollars way quicker than I thought it might.

Yeah, I don't notice the money going out of my account at all. I've had it for so long that it's just been a part of my account and budgeting all the time. I really enjoy the roundup.

I do too. It's what I do because I like to think of myself as a relatively lazy investment. Like I've just like direct debited everything else, so that happens, and then I've got my roundups, and sometimes I log in, I'm like, oh, look at me, that's so nice, Like I did all this work, but I didn't. That's my favorite. I want to know next, do you have any debts?

To make sure? Well, the only debt I have is my hextet. I am feeling quite disheartened at the moment about how large my hextet is. It's up to about fifty five thousand dollars.

Yeah, fair, I would feel stressed, But at the same time it makes sense.

I think going through university and even high school, hextet was always kind of sold to me as an interest free loan, which in the last year particularly, is certainly not I think my hex set was raised by about four thousand dollars last financial year. That is my only debt. I do also have a credit card, but I pretty much just use it for points on larger purchases and then pay it off immediately. With the property that I'm looking to buy, Cans is still quite reasonably priced, so

That's pretty good. And when you look at that and go all right, well, you know it's a two hundred thousand dollars apartment, I can get good rental yield. Would you look at putting less of a deposit down and potentially putting money into like an offset account? Is that something that you've spoken to your broker about. I guess structuring to make sure it works really well for you.

Yeah, that is something that I have spoken to my broker about, and I will be putting it in an offset account.

Love, we're all on the same page. I love that. Tell me, now, what do you think your best money habit is.

I think I am a really good saver.

I know you're a really good saver.

Yeah, which I will also discuss seeing my worst money habits. But yeah, I think I'm a really good saver. I was thinking about this. I also purchase a lot of my clothes, furniture, you know, most things secondhand. My main priority behind doing that is probably because it's the most sustainable option, but it's also led me to like be able to save a lot more money by doing that.

How does that work if you're remote? Like, is it still easy to I guess, get access to that market. You could say, like, I feel like you would have less options.

Yeah. So living up here, everything in my house is actually provided by work, so I don't need to go out and buy furniture plates, that kind of stuff. When it comes to clothes, I am a big sucker for Deepop.

Oh.

I love Deepop same.

I love to be able to support people as well and selling the clothes that they no longer use rather than bigger companies.

It's genius. I love it. I feel like I checked Deepop before I make any purchase nowadays as well, because I'm like, oh that's cute. Someone might have put it on Deepop and half the time they.

Have exactly yeah. And that's quite easy. To get things sent up in the mail. It does take about three weeks to arrive. There's no instant gratification.

Oh I would suck up there. I would forget that I'd ordered things and then they'd turn up and be like oh yeah, yeah.

I do end up at the post office quite a lot off.

Here, and segueing from that, what do you think your worst money habit is?

So?

Yeah, as I mentioned, I think I quite a good saver. I think my attitude towards money has shifted quite a lot lately, So I think my worst money habits are

But you didn't have the tools and resources and knowledge that you did. Now, you can't be too harsh on yourself. I feel like so many times we look back and go, oh, my god, I would be so good if I X Y Z. Well, you know what, I'd be so good if I started investing the day I was born. But I didn't, did.

I You're right, it is a terrible game to play, the hindsight game. I think. Also one of my worst money habits is I have always been a good saver. As I mentioned, but typically before I moved up here, that savings was always put towards travel. Yeah, so I would, you know, get enough in my bank account to go traveling, go traveling, deplete it and then come back and start from scratch. Yeah okay, And so that is what I'm

I mean, it sounds pretty cool. Like I think you could convince me. I think we could all do those things. But if that's your worst money, have it. Like you're a very interesting person, Like that is very very cool. We've talked a lot. I feel like you are absolutely killing it and also living your best life at the same time, Like marine pilotage sounds slay, Like that sounds so cool. But then also getting to work in an NFP in the environmental sector like that would nourish you.

Yeah, definitely just needs to prioritize the investing. So if I can achieve my money goal of buying a property this year, and once that's accomplished, move on to the next thing, whether that's property or a different investment, that's definitely what I would need to take me to.

That is so cool. I love that because we know what's going to happen, Like you are getting into property, and you will be able to leverage that one into the next one. Even just knowing that you've got a bigger deposit than you need for your first property is going to be so constructive. Like, I am obsessed and I can't wait to see where you go money, Darist. Unfortunately, that is all we have time for today. But I have loved getting to know you, getting to know a

Yeah, no worries, thank you so much for having me.

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