MONEY DIARIES: From Debt Demons to Living the Dream

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 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

Congrats, thank you. How exciting.

I want to know a little bit more about the engagement though, because I love love. How long have you been engaged?

About a year and a half now.

So not even that long. Are we planning a wedding or not yet? What's the plan?

Absolutely? We are so. At first we weren't sure how we were going to pull it off. But since I've got my money somewhat on track, we are planning on eloping next year.

Oh my gosh, I love that. And I just got a little glimpse of your gorgeous pair ring. Yes please, let's do a money diary, though, and let's start it the way I always do money diarist. What grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F.

At the moment, I would give myself a C. That has actually come a long way. Just a few months ago, I probably would have been like an F minus.

An F minus it's not being harsh on yourself at all.

But it's still just at a c because I know that I've got a long way to go, but.

You're on the way and you're excited about it, and I'm excited about it, So let's learn more about it. Tell me a bit more about your money story.

Okay, So as a kid, I grew up in a pretty comfortable household. My parents have always been amazing with money. However, I did not inherit that gene. They've always been very low income owners but been really really good at saving. And I'm also an only child, so I never felt like I was missing out on anything. When I got my pocket money and stuff, I could never save it, Like I would be out at the shops the next day buying potato scallops most of the time.

But I mean, I'm going to start a fight with you later about the sea, but we can also start a fight between calling it a potato scollop or a potato cake two if you want, but oh no, Victoria also like an elite purchase. I had one on the weekend and I hadn't had one in a couple of years, and I was like, why have I done this to myself? This is the best thing I've ever eaten in my whole life. Yeah, I need one, just so good anyway, tell me more.

I feel like I wasn't really allowed to talk about money, so it wasn't something I worried about. But it also I wasn't really learning anything either, Like I would ask questions sometimes about mortgages and saving and things to do with money, but it just wasn't allowed to be talked about.

So why do you think that's the case, Because you mentioned before the appearance were good at money, but then didn't want to talk about it. So is it just like a taboo topic or was it something where maybe they weren't as comfortable with it, Like I don't know.

We sort of don't really talk about anything deep or serious in my house, so I think that it must have just been considered one of those types of taboo topics I guess, right.

Yeah.

Yeah, It's always interesting asking because sometimes people would respond and be like, well, they were really good with money, but I think they tried really really hard with it and didn't want to, you know, worry me or something that's really hard. If it's like we didn't really share much in the way of deep conversation and money was considered that that's just so challenging, But I'm assuming lots of people are resonating with it and being like, oh my god, me too.

I moved out when I was seventeen, which was quite young but really good for my mental health. I pretty much got through that. I was able to access Centerlink like Huge Study or whatever it was called. And I also had a bit of an inheritance from my grand who passed away when I was younger, so my parents had actually invested that and so there was quite a bit more there and they allowed me to access that

Basically it happens to the best of us.

Yeah, And around that time I got into a pretty serious relationship, not the one I'm in now. And at the end of that, like just as I staid working full time in my graduate role. I actually lent him ten thousand dollars and I never saw that money again. No, yeah, so lesson.

Learnt you know what, that's actually a cheap get out of jail free card of that relationship. It cost you ten grand to be like, you're not my verse in.

Yeah, so he said he was still going to pay me back and then disappeared off the face of the earth after we broke up. So after that, I feel like my relationship with money just got even worse because that was ten thousand dollars that my grand had left me and it was gone and I knew I wasn't getting it back, and I just sort of went into this really like all or nothing mindset and started to spend everything.

Yeah wow.

And that was when, because I had just got my first full time job, I thought it would be a good idea to apply for a credit card. I thought I wouldn't need like good credit. But I've learned from the podcast that that's not actually how it worked.

But you didn't learn about financial literacy growing up. But I feel like that's a fair thing to kind of deduce. If you've heard it around, you're like, actually, that could really help me. I'm trying to set my financial future up, and I feel like that gets so many of us right, you go, I'm here just doing the right thing for me, like you only know what you know.

M Yeah, And I've since learned that I'm not the type of personality that can have a credit card.

You were me both, baby.

Yeah, So I got that, got a couple of credit cards. And then luckily around that time, my parents did want to talk about money a bit more, and they actually set me up in a really really lucky position where they actually purchased a house and I actually owe my mortgage to them.

Oh wow, how nice. Thank you for not talking about it, but then maybe doing a little flippy flip, like not the worst thing.

So that put me in a really really good position. And I was only twenty two at the time, so I had like some money that I gave as a deposit to them. Yeah, but that's been so lucky because I don't have any interest on that at all.

Okay, so that's the sexiest loan I've ever heard of. If your parents are like, look, we really want to do that again, you can go. My friend Victoria is interested.

Yeah, so I'm super lucky in that regard, and I think because of that, I'm not in as bad a position as I would have been otherwise. Yeah right, yeah, So again, once I had the house, I thought, well, I don't have to save anymore. I've got my house, I'm in the property market, et cetera, et cetera. So any savings I did have still started going back out the window again. Yeah, and I had a couple of thousand dollars left. And then the hot water system in my new house died.

Oh no, and they're so expensive.

Yeah, I spent my last dollars fixing that.

No.

Yeah, that was sort of just it for me at that point. It put me on a really bad trajectory of spending absolutely everything that I earned. At one point, I decided to get a bit better. I took out a ten thousand dollar personal loan to consolidate credit cards and buy now, pay laters and all that. Ye, however, I paid off those things, didn't close the accounts. Yeah, okay, yeah, you can see where this is going.

It's one after the other with debt, right Like, I just feel like it just spirals out of control. You didn't get your first credit card because you were like, do you know what I want to do? I want to go into debt. That sounds so sexy. You got it because you were doing the right thing, or you thought you were doing the right thing, and then you're probably consolidating because you're like, you know what I'm going to do. I'm gonna get my shit together, and you

Yeah. Absolutely, and that's such a big thing that I've had to try and change about my mindset. Yeah, so very quickly, unsurprisingly, those by an hour pay laters and the credit cards all went back up maxed out and I still owed ten thousand dollars, and yeah, things started to get a bit messy at that stage, and it's

To my name, and that's so stressful.

Yeah, and like I'm in a very lucky position where I'm a pretty high income earner. My mortgage is not very expensive.

Very nice. I'm going to ask you about that in a hot second.

And yeah, my mortgage is not expensive. And I was still getting to the end of every fortnight broke. Yeah, wow, getting my card declined over like twenty cent purchases and stuff like that.

So that just feels like you're being kicked while you're down right, Like it just feels like trash. And you get this mindset where you're like, I'm just not good at money, and it's not the reality, right, Like you just didn't have the tools and resources you needed to manage money. And now I'm looking at your little story that you've written in and we don't know enough about it yet, but you've flipped it. Right. So you were in a relationship. Now tell me about this new relationship.

Yeah? So we actually met on a dating app, one that not many people have heard of, called her, which is for like same sex relationships.

Yeah cool, I met my partner on a dating app. So I'm the biggest fan of them.

Oh, nice. I reckon we should be their spokesperson.

But anyway, but yeah, look I can imagine you look really cute together. And also when you're talking about her, you're like smiling and grinning. So yeah, like ten out of ten.

Yeah, she's the best. We fell in love super quickly and moved in together and got engaged pretty early on. It was about nine months in. But we're like two and a half years into our relationship now, and when we get married, it would have been about four years.

So I always laugh because all of my girlfriends in same sex relationships are so similar, Like we're just like you guys go from zero to a million zero point two seconds.

Yeah, there's a stereotype forever.

Reason you were actually living up to it, Like I love it, Like you know, we shouldn't stereotype, but if you guys could stop living up to that stereotype, you're just like, you know what, we're chicks.

We know when we know exactly. So obviously started this beautiful relationship and then you know you're still in debt. So how did that go? Was that something that you hit at the start of a relationship or was it something that you spoke about or like how did this pan out.

We spoke about it pretty early on. So when we met, I was in about thirty thousand dollars worth of consumer debt. Yeah, and that's not including I still have my car on an ovaded lease system, which that actually works for me, so I'm happy with that. But yeah, the thirty thousand wasn't even including that. And I did tell her pretty early on, and actually being with her started just baby

Can't go and play with them.

Yeah.

Oh that's really sweet. That she's willing to do that for you too. I feel like that's a common thing. I've done it for a girlfriend, like, and we're not even in a relationship. She's like, just take it off me, like change the password, and I'm like, okay, no worries.

Yeah, And whenever I explain it, I'm like, it's not like a financially controlling relationship at all, but it might sound weird to some people.

Some people would not be comfortable with it, and that is totally fine, But like money works differently for everybody, right, Like it's like before you were saying like I can't be trusted with a credit card, and I'm like, look neither, because I've tried it and I was not so good at it. But other people are like, oh, I'm so good at racking up points and I get all these business class flights and I'm like how because like I just go into debt.

Yeah, me too. So she's always been amazing about that. And then we got to last year, and this is where things went really bad but then started to get good. So probably about midway through last year, I actually went through a really serious mental health breakdown, which meant that I couldn't work for I think it was just under two months.

Yeah.

Wow, that's a significant period of time you Okay, now, yeah good.

I wasn't getting paid and it was just such a kick up the bum basically because I had nothing and we actually had to live off my partner's savings. And she's a low incommerer, like she's a student, she works casually sometimes, but it was just like she earns probably less than a quarter of what I earn, and she was the one that had their savings and she was the one that was.

Able to keep us afloat what a queen.

Yeah she is. So I'm so so grateful to that, but it kind of showed me how am I here? I've been working full time in this role for six years at that point, yeah, and I just have nothing to show for it.

Obviously. Mental health is so closely tied to finances, right, Yeah? Did that worse in it as well? Because you were realizing like, oh shit, like, not only am I doing this? I feel like that could have really made it even worse, knowing that your partner, who's on a quarter of what you're doing, is support you, just like what am I doing with my life?

Yeah? And for me, until that point, money had always been linked pretty closely to poor mental health. For me, I'm pretty impulsive, and I would have a tendency to cope with things by just buying so much stuff. Yeah, so yeah, I guess as I started to go through the recovery process from that really difficult time, I knew about She's on the Money, and I had listened to a couple of episodes years ago, but it obviously just wasn't the right time for me.

I had a really annoying voice when I first started, so like, I get.

It well, I was just about to say I actually started listening right from the beginning. So I'm lucky. I'm not up to date yet. I listened to so many episodes, but I'm still like in twenty twenty one, No.

I love that. I feel like I have tried to overwhelm the community with content, Like we went from you know, in like in twenty nineteen twenty twenty, having like one episode a week and that being really easy to digest, me being like, let's tour about charge it, Let's do three episodes a week. Yeah, I would like catching up.

But I love it. I love that there's so much content.

I love that you're here. I love that this is helping and a part of your journey. So yeah, you binged cheese on the money, You're now in a better mental place.

Yeah, much better. Yeah. And at first when I started listening, I was obviously sort of motivated, but not heapes. And it took me about maybe three episodes and I was hooked and I was just ready to change everything.

Yes, that's my favorite type of feed that.

Yeah.

So that's what I've done. And that was only a few months ago, so I've still got a long way to go here we are. My partner knows how obsessed with the podcast I am. So whenever I'm struggling with something financial or when she is, we have a bit of a motto in our household now where we say WWVD.

No, what would be do? Like sometimes not the right thing.

So well it's more about what you would say.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I like that. What my community knows is that I'm a do as I say, not as I do, kind of gal. Like I don't want you thinking that I'm perfect to finance, but like, if you're struggling, here's what you should do. But I empathize if you don't do that, Like I get it.

Well, yeah, it's been really helpful because it's also been like if I've slipped up a bit, she'll be like, well, Victoria would say that it's fine, and you know, you just keep building up from here. You don't have to blow all your money, all right.

She's my new best friend. I love her, No, no, no, I love her too.

Everyone I introduce her to loves her more than they love me.

So what, I think that's a really good trait in a partner, and I'm sure she says exactly the same thing about you. I feel like the ultimate relationship, like the pinnacle of a relationship is when each person thinks they're getting the better deal, like where you both are like so hyped about each other and you both think no, no, no on batting, Like I just feel like that works so well. Money, Diaris, tell me a bit more about

So I'm a special education teacher and I'm currently on about one hundred and fourteen thousand dollars a year. Oh, very nice, which I believe is the second highest pay step in my state. Yeap, I think I started on sixty something and have.

Worked your way up to there. What a queen. I love this, and a special ed teacher like, you're such a nice human, and then you go, oh and I'm a special ed teacher and I'm like, of course, your bloody is like, you're just too nice. All right, tell me, I guess a bit more about your money goals. You've gone through a lot in the last twelve months. You have said as well, look, I'm engaged, my future looks so bright. What are your big money goals right now?

So?

I have some really nice clear ones, which is a really nice place to be in.

That's very sexy. I love this. What are they?

Well, the first one is I'm on track to be completely out of consumer debt by November this year.

Yeap, oh my gosh. And then you said you were getting married next year, so you're going to be debt free. Yeah, oh, okay, that's really nice.

I didn't want to get married until I was debt free. That was really important to me. I doore around the same time. So about September this year, we will actually have enough saved to pay for everything wedding related, even though we're not getting married for about another year after that, but we'll be able to pay for everything for the wedding and honeymoon around September.

That'll take so much pressure off, Like, that'll be really nice.

Yeah, that's a big goal. After that, our goal as a family is to save towards having kids. Yeah, which is super exciting And obviously babies are expensive anyway, but being in a same sex relationship, we might rack up some fees trying to get the baby.

Yeah, it turns out you need to do a bit more work and it's a lot financial.

But yeah, which is rude if you ask me.

But anyway, I think it is really rude, Like, yeah, but do you know what that's going to cost you, like or have you done anything in the process towards that.

So we know it's going to cost a lot. But basically the planet this stage is to get all the debts cleared and the wedding savings out of the way and then start speaking with doctors and things like that to make a clear plan.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I've got a girlfriend in a same sex relationship and she's going through that at the moment, and I didn't realize how much was involved. I'm dumb, so like, I just thought, you just kind of trot down to the sperm bank and go, these are my criteria. Could I please have something to help me create a baby.

Yeah, so that's a bit overwhelming.

But that's okay, one step at a time.

We're super set on that goal. Lastly after that, so within the next ten years, but I'm not exactly sure on timeframes. We would like to purchase a bigger house. My house is sort of falling apart and very tiny, so we would like to move.

Yeah, and you're gonna have babies, so we need a bigger house.

Yeah, move somewhere that's more suitable for a family, and hopefully do that before we at least have a second child, if that's in the cards for us. Yeah.

Oh, how exciting. You guys are going to be invest parents. I love that so much. All right, let's go to a really quick break, because I at the moment could talk about babies for literally ever. And on the flip side, let's talk about investments. Let's talk about what debt you have left and your best and worst money habits. So guys don't go anywhere, all right, money dist We are back, and I want to know. Obviously you're in debt, but that doesn't stop you from being able to progress your

Yeah? So at the moment, my only investment is my super YEP, and my supers sitting at about fifty three thousand dollars at the moment.

Okay, that's pretty good.

Yeah, once my debts are paid off alongside saving, I'm pretty determined to get into investing a bit more. And my plan is at the moment, my round ups go towards an account that pays off my debt. But I would like to start by having my round ups go to micro investing, learn a bit more about that, and then branch out bigger. I had no idea about investing before the podcast, even though my parents did it, and

For when I'm ready, She's ready.

So I'm super excited about that.

I love that, and you're going to be debt free in November, and I kind of love that you're putting it off. I know that some people want to do it at the same time and like to be honest each to their own. It's what engages you and keeps you excited about money, right, But haying off debt is an investment in itself because you probably have a not so sexy interest rate on that, and the more dollars that you're sending towards that, the more you're saving, the

And that's exactly how I like to look at it, because at the moment, a huge, huge chunk of my pay eighth fortnite goes to that debt, and in my mind now I'm like, oh, I can be investing this soon exactly.

And I feel like sometimes when we look at these big amounts coming out of our income each month or each week or fortnite or however you get paid, it can be really disheartening because you're like, it feels like I'm just tipping it down the drain, like I'm wasting so much money. But with a very simple mindset shift, we can become really excited about this because it is

Haha.

Money Diarist debt, how much debt are we still in? What does that look like? And can you tell me a little bit about your plan to become debt free? Why November? Like, how have you calculated this out?

Okay, so, firstly, the amount of debt I'm in still got about seven thousand dollars of consumer debt. I have a hex help debt of about twenty one thousand remaining. Yeah, I'm a bit crazy and I'm about to start online UNI alongside work.

So no, that's okay, that's exciting, that's constructive.

Yeah, exciting, But that one's not going to go down anytime soon. And I owe on my mortgage about three hundred and twenty one thousand dollars and I also have my novated lease, but I'm not sure exactly how to calculate how much that is. But that takes a few hundred out of my pretax page.

Fornight, with your mortgage, you said three hundred and twenty one thousand dollars left. Do you know what the property's worth?

The best sort of estimate I could find was about six point fifty.

Oh, very nice. So you are sitting pretty at the moment. That is not a bad position to be and when you're twenty seven. Yeah, I love this so much. All right, So tell me now, what do you think your best money habit is?

My best money habit is definitely. I've made a spreadsheet for my budget and it's all color coordinated and automated and pretty, and it tells me exactly where every single dollar of what I'm getting paid, exactly where that's going.

That's hot. I don't know if you know this, but I do like a spreadsheet.

Yeah, I have fully been meaning to do like your cash Flow master Class, so I'm hoping that when I eventually get around to that, I'll do it even better.

Now I'm going to gift it to you now, if you want to do it, you're doing it. I will send you a log in after this, honestly as a spreadsheet early. I think you're gonna love it, but I will gift you the Budgeting cash Flow master Class of rebrand it to the money master Class.

Sorry, you can tell that I've been listening to the old episodes.

Then it is fine. I still can't remember what I've rebranded it too, Like the girls often listen to our episodes and they're like, Victoria's stopped calling at the budget and Cashley master Class. We changed it to be simpler, and I'm like, yeah, but I'm stuck in the past. So no, I'll give that to you. I'll send you a log in. I think that you will love it, and you're obviously on the right trajectory, so I think that this will hopefully turbocharge. It will turn that C

More so, that tells me where everything's going, and it prioritizes paying down my debts first of all, and then prioritizes savings. So obviously last year I realized very quickly that I need an emergency fund. So that's slowly building away in the background. Oh good, Which that's another money goal that I forgot to mention. I really want my emergency fund to sit at about fifteen thousand dollars, which sounds high, but after having that time off work and

Yeah, but if you go down that route again, you'll be feeling so much better about it because you know you can support yourself through this and what you actually need during these times money, It doesn't need to be the stressor if you set yourself up properly and hopefully that means that there'll be less time out of the workforce. There'll be less time that you're struggling. Like, that's a money win to me.

Yeah. And along with my budget spreadsheet, I have lots of different accounts set up because that's what works for me. I have a bill's account where obviously everything goes for bills, and I have a groceries account that both my partner and I use for groceries. I have an account for my pets.

Oh you didn't mention you had pets. What pets have you got? Come on?

Oh, I've got a dog called Toast, Oh high Toast, a cat called Vegi might No you don't. This is so cute, another cat called Sea, and because I just love matching names, I have a fish and a water snail called Gomez and thing.

Oh my gosh, adore, adore. I love this so much. So you're a pet girly as well. I knew we'd be best friends when we started this. I was like, we are absolutely best friends.

Yeah, I love my pets.

I don't know. If you follow me on social media, it's same. I am a crazy pet lady. Those are very good money habits. But let's bring the tone back down. What's your worst money habit.

So this has changed a lot, and it's still something I'm working on and getting better at. But I am very, very impulsive. That's who I am as a person.

Unfortunately, now we like impulsive people. They're fun. We just need to be good at managing our money.

Yeah. Look, most of my pets were bought impulsively, so.

And we love them and they weren't bad decisions, so is not really a bad habit.

Yeah. True. I'm really trying to change that. I've been trying to take photos of things, make wish lists, etc. But I can still be swayed very easily, especially when it comes to food. That's something that I find really difficult because I hate cooking and luckily my partner likes cooking. But it's still very easy to just accidentally get takeaway a lot.

Yeah. Yeah.

And along with that, sometimes that means that I take money from my savings accounts. Then I have like a list of what I owe to my savings and I do pay it back, but that just puts me in a bit of a negative sort of frame of mind because it feels like more debt. I've come a long

Oh, I love this. Do you follow Emma Edwards on social media? So she has the username the broke Generation.

Yes I do. Yeah. I found her straight after I set that goal, which was weird.

Yeah, she just finished a whole year of not buying any fashion and I just found it so inspirational because I couldn't ever do that, and I think that if you're planning on doing that, please make sure you're following Emma. But she's also a friend of the show, so I was like, go hit her up. She's a bloody legend. I love that. So let's just do a little quick recap, right the Sue wrote in, and you know, you've turned your life around. We've learned so much about it. You've

I think I still don't feel like I'm a high grade, but maybe I could push it to like a B minus.

I think that that might be fair.

But in order to get an A plus for me, that would involve having an emergency fund, being out of consumer debt, and starting to invest.

So you're going to be an A plus at the end of the year, I'm hoping. So like you've got the goals, You've set them up there happening.

Yeah, And I feel pretty good about that because I think I'm not going to be like loaded at the end of the year. But as long as I'm on the right track.

It's still a baby. We're not going to be loaded asap.

True, And as long as I don't have access to any lines of credit, I will feel pretty damn good.

Yeah. And I think that my favorite thing is your positivity, Like you're just like, no, I'm on this, I'm working towards it, Like I think it's fair if you're like, yeah, I'm in heaps of debt, but I'm not doing anything about it, like I've got my head in the sands, like I'm not working towards this. Like I just think anyone who is going through, you know, the situations like you're going through, who's actively working towards it like immediate a my eyes. I'm like, you are good at money,

Yeah, something I forgot, but I think it's important to mention is I'll also feel like an a plus once I have insurance sort it out. I wish that I had found the podcast a long time ago, because it's actually quite hard getting insurance with my history. But once I've spoken to like an insurance advisor or broker, I don't know the difference you.

Need to go talk to fell it Sky Wealth and have a chat with him.

Yeah. So once I've done that, I'll feel better. And just for anyone listening, like, please listen to Victoria and get those insurances sorted early, because I don't like to have regrets, but that's something that will impact me.

And I mean it's hard, right, like, especially with mental health, Like you don't feel motivated to go and get your life sorted out because you're like, what's the point. But getting it sorted out sooner rather than later means you won't end up with an exclusion. And unfortunately, if you've been through some mental health challenges as you've alluded to, and you've sought mental health treatment, it's very likely that that will be an exclusion. However, it's still worth it

Thank you so much, Thank you so much for having me.

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