MONEY DIARIES: Hustling Hard to Change the Script

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 Money the Podcast. Millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another shop Back Money Diary Monday, where we get to talk to a community member to learn all about them, all about their finances and all about the juicy, juicy details of their life.

Victoria, how you going? What have you got this? Let me tell you?

Our diarist wrote in and said, steep learning curve. I've never really been educated on money. I got out of a smallish debt at twenty one and left a drop kick boyfriend. Yeah, we love that outcome. I feel like I'm trying to change my money story. My parents have always been a little impulsive and have chopped and changed

I love that we got rid of a drop kick boyfriend. We're married, We're doing well. Welcome to the show, money Diarist. Thanks for coming and hanging out for a bit.

Thanks for having me.

Oh my gosh, no, I'm.

Really so Let's start this as we always do, and I'm going to ask can you tell us a little bit about your money story?

Money story? So, growing up, money wasn't really discussed in our house, not that it wasn't allowed, just it didn't really happen. My mum and dad owned a transport business, so money was either there or it wasn't. I found they were either chasing techs or income, so it was never really budgeted very well. But we were never short, like short short of money either.

But it was ebbs and flows with a bit of inconsistency in income.

Right.

Oh yes, very much. So if the checks were coming in, you'd have a really good year. And of course, being transport, the weather play is a big part of that too. If you have a very wet year, it would pull my dad off work, so money would dry up. So I just found it was. Yeah, when it was there, it was like, great, we can do all this stuff. But then when it wasn't there, it would be months of you know, I wouldn't say struggle struggle, but definitely

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, it was pretty big at the time because I was nineteen. I was nursing, and I can remember like taking all my stuff back to mums and having a cup of tea with her and she's like, so, what's happening And I was like, oh, I was just wondering, well, I can move home. She was like yes, I'm like good, I'll unpack my car.

You're like I'm ready. Are you ready because I'm already here pretty much.

So yeah, that was the start I think of me realizing that life doesn't just happen smoothly. You have to figure it out on your own. But I have no worries of looking back there. I was really glad I did that. And I've watched other people and friends kind of fall into traps with bad partners and just be promised that it will change or you know, and it never does.

I read a quote on Instagram the other day actually that it's easier to change the actual man than change amen, Like, yeah, great, just yeat them out, get a new one.

What a dream.

Unfortunately, I think it is sometimes. I mean I've met gentlemen or I should say both females and males that have been bad in past relationships and they change after someone leaves them, but I never find it kind of happens if they stay.

Yeah, it's an interesting concept as well.

And what you were talking about before, just going, oh, they're on sentilling.

And they're earning what I'm earning.

What I'm feeling from the tone of the way you said that actually had nothing to do with the dollar amount, because if they were you know, on senlink and like studying or doing something, it was more about the mindset and the like what they're contributing to the relationship.

Am I right in reading into that a little bit?

Very much? So it was just even stuff around the house, like he just had a mentality of you know, the big things will come, but he wasn't going to get anything or he wasn't contributing around the house. So I've just learned that I want people sort of on the same path as me.

Yeah, of course, I feel like you made the right decision for you. Then I love that.

Thank you. I think I did too.

Or money dores. Next question, I want to know where you are at now, So.

Tell us what do you do for work? How much money do you earn?

Okay, so I currently am We created a company.

Oh, we just created a company, No, biggie.

I took a lot of learning and a lot of discussions with your accountant, but yeah, I've I got into mail contracts and we were working for another contractor and the opportunity come up to go out on our own, so we did, and we just kind of kept growing. So I've got three contracts.

Oh my gosh, the way you said it, you were just so flippant about having just started a business, which is crazy. So many people would never even consider taking the risk, but you were like, ah, we just did it, No biggie.

As I get older and I tell everyone else is too, there's a lot of information on the internet. People shouldn't be as scared as I want. You can get a lot of information on how to do it or get a really good account all right.

I want to know now, though, how much money do you earn? That sounds like an exciting role, but like, let's get into the nitty gritty dollars of it.

Okay, so we're still relatively low, but we have a lot of perks like company cars and things like that. Due to the company. The actual income that we bring in is roughly about one hundred and fifty thousand a year. I also have a house that we bought which we're currently not living in at the moment, so we've decided to rent that out. So that's bringing a little bit in as well.

Very nice.

So far, it's been a different journey. We built a shed to live in with my parents in laws because they are ill at the moment. We'd purchased land up the road. We had built very long twelve months of building a house up the road, we had the equity sitting there, so we borrowed again to build a shed down here. And yeah, we've been living in that while still doing the company.

Amazing is that one hundred and fifty thousand dollars then split between the two of you because you both work in the business.

Yeah, beautiful, very cool.

All right, next question, I want to know what is your big money goal?

Oh, to retire early. Oh I love that financial freedom. That's what's on my board just to be able to, I think, retire and do what I would like when I retire. I watch, you know, my husband's family and my family, and they are at the end of their lives and they're struggling or waiting for money or not being able to do things, and they've worked really hard lives. I don't want to get to the end of mine and be scraping through.

Yeah, no, that makes absolute sense. What are you doing to work towards that?

So we would like to have the rest of our mortgage for the house that I'm currently renting out. We're hoping that we can have that paid out in four years.

Oh four, how good?

I think we have just under three hundred thousand dollars owing on that. So we would like to have that pay or that money at least sitting in an offset account by the end of four years. With my husband's dad being ill, we're kind of stuck here for a minute. So we were discussing either buying another investment property or trying to put the money together so that if anything happens, we could purchase my husband's house that he grew up in and pay his sister out if ever that comes to task.

I love that.

I feel like I know the answer to this next question because you mentioned that you have a property you're leasing out. But I want to know do you have any investments. If so, what are they.

The house up the road. As I recently am on a very steep learning curve thanks to you guys with some shares.

How exciting it's nerve wracking.

I learned through shares is that I wasn't very good at picking my own but I did. I put as all amount into shares his last year and it was going down, so I've recently sold them. I've decided to stay with the six Park benures that I have put into. I put two thousand dollars away in eight Pril four.

We don't pick the time, my friend, We invest when it's right for you guys, because if we're aiming to be in the market for a long period of time, we can't time the market. It's not a good idea, my friend, what are we doing well?

I kind of improving that to the partner at the moment, I think a little Petri five when I was like, I'm just going to put a couple of thousand thousand in the share market.

It's a big decision, but it's one that only you guys can make for you. But I think it's so interesting to know. And I actually want to ask a really per question. Sorry, Jess, it's off the script, but I want to know here what made you want to sell shares when you were down? Was that something that you were like, oh, I just want out, I don't want to do that anymore, or if you were saying they were going down. I got rid of them.

Why I did not have faith in why I chose them? Yell okay, a whim at the moment, and I kind of went on and I was like, I wanted to get Australian ones and I didn't fully understand what they were, and so the faith in them was not there. Whereas having someone else, you know, helped pick the shares. I think that there's probably a lot more information that's gone into that rather than it going oh that one looks pretty.

Yeah, And so your experience with six Park, you've just gone all right. Well, as much as I can pick them myself, I actually want to pro to pick them for me, and I feel a bit more confident with that option.

Is that about right?

That's exactly right?

How cool? All right?

Next question, my friend the opposite, Do you have any.

It's just the mortgage awesome.

I want to be pervy about the mortgage though. Are your rental repayments covering the mortgage repayments at the moment?

What does that look like?

Yes, we get to higher rental income than what the minimum is for repayments.

Oh, money win. That's a very nice outcome.

Yes, we're very lucky because we were slightly scared going into that venture as well, because the risks of someone, you know, ruining a house or something like that. But we've been very lucky in finding an extremely brilliant property manager and so it's just been really smooth. We don't really hear much of anything from up there.

It pick or Next question, do you currently use shopback?

No?

Sorry, you don't have to apologize. We just want to know. We're just pervy. You know, the community talks about it all the time.

They've always got hot tips and tricks, and it's a missed opportunity for me if I'm not asking to be honest.

We did try. My husband's kind of I don't want to call him stingy because I love the fact that he's like it and he's got to be exalted. Yes, he's very savvy, so we found a lot of the time he was finding specials in his own things to buy stuff, so we never really used it.

Yeah, no, that's fair, that makes absolute sense. I want to know, though, if you're not using shop back, what is your best money hack?

My husband fair fast, just the shopping around. I mean things, especially large price things. You really do have to shop around. He's a little bit more strict with it than I am, especially with like purchasing vehicles. He will set aside two months before we need one, and he will go back and forth between dealers and he will drop prices like seven or eight thousand dollars, whereas I like, yeah, he's very amazing. So we have both our little jobs when

It's crazy, isn't it. No one told me it's so rude. What do you mean I have to pay for water? Isn't that a free in the tap?

Or we're even better, we've got tank water, so if it runs out you are stuck in the middle of the shower.

That's actually a bigger cost if you have to get your tank refilled.

Yeah.

Well, funnily enough, I don't think it is. I've done like a spreadsheet with a girlfriend of mine that's on downwater and it's cheaper for the tank if you set it up right.

Oh, I love that for you.

I want to know, though, what is your worst money habiting.

Your own business? We don't get planned holidays as often as a lot of my friends. So I will venture out for little weekends away with the family, and I do splurge a little bit more with that. I think in my head I excuse myself for it because I don't get the really big holidays.

I don't think that's a terrible money habit. I think that that is a very common feeling that is shared by a lot of business owners. To be honest, we don't give ourselves enough time off, but we'll definitely let our employees off very easily. Yes, all right, my friend, last question before we go to a quick break, I want to know what grade would you give yourself if we forced you to give your money habits a grade.

Currently, I would be probably sitting on a B minus.

Why a B minus?

I do still do my little splurges, and I'm still learning. I think I'm at that cusp now where I would like to learn further, and I feel like I'm a little bit late to it. If I do anything with my daughter, I hope that she does this like pre twenties. But yes, at least I'm out and I'm having a go at it now, So I do think it's at least to be.

I love that.

All right, let's go to a quick break and after I want to dive into business and your life and moving out at nineteen guys, don't go anywhere.

Welcome back, guys.

Money, Doris, I wanted to ask you said that your parents owned a business, which is something that you now do as well, which is awesome to see. But you mentioned that they were often chasing checks and anyone who's ever freelanced or owned the business knows that is one of the hardest things, is getting people to pay on time. Is that something that you now find yourself doing or have you been able to put systems in place having seen your parents doing it when you were growing up.

So I'm kind of very lucky because we contract mainly with government bodies such as Australia Posts and things like that, so the income set up for several years at a time. So rather than my dad, which was on like sixty day turnarounds with invoices when I sign into something, we're signing into them with several year agreements, so I know that that money is set up for at least that minimum period and it's going to be coming in regularly.

Oh.

I love that.

That would make me feel so much more secure because chasing invoices is the bane of everybody's existence.

Yeah, I did not want to get into that with I've watched my family and unfortunately sometimes too, they never did get money. Like there was large chunks of money that would go seeuth sometimes and they just never recouped from that.

It's crazy the way it works as well, because I think everyone would be like, well, why didn't they just chase it?

Why didn't they do this? Why didn't they do that?

I think it's just sometimes so much easier to cut your losses and move on then spend time, energy and effort that could be going into generating new revenue chasing an old invoice. So it's not to say you should let it go, but as a small business owner, you only have a certain amount of time and million different competing priorities.

Yeah, and sometimes you will just lose the legal fees trying.

Yeah, exactly. I want to know more about moving out at nineteen. You were telling us before that you were a little bit rebellious. What made you take that step, what made you go you know what, I'm not moving with a family. I'm just stay here. I don't think I would have the confidence.

No, I think I was just naive in the fact that I didn't think I would be able to start afresh in a new town with no friends. So I was like, nope, I'm just staying where I am and I will figure it out. In hindsight, sometimes I wonder should I have just gone and met some new friends. But I think it all turned out in the end.

It's so lucky that you said you were able to rent your property from your parents. Nineteen is obviously a very young age to be taking that step and to be living.

Were you by yourself?

Firstly, No, my ex was with me when we moved out, and one of my dad's friends that also drove. He was coming and staying a couple of days of the week there, so it was good. But I mean it was such a shack for a first house. It was like this little, tiny, old brick house on the middle

How did you find it financially being responsible for yourself. Did your parents give you any leeway in terms of the rent or were you paying full rent, paying full bills doing it all at the age of nineteen.

No, the rent was helped a lot by my parents. They covered most of that until I got into work. Thank god. We were there, I think for six months when my parents moved away. Obviously my ex and dad's mate that was daying there. They paid a little bit of the rent when we moved out after six months, though I think I was just turned twenty, and yes we paid full rent. But by then I had a position at war worse and so I did have money coming in. It was a little bit different.

Talk to me about leaving school early. So I have drawn the conclusion that you left school early because you said earlier that you didn't finish HC.

What led to that decision?

And you know, it's kind of inspiring, going, well, I didn't do HC, and now I'm a business owner and like I'm creating financial freedom. I think it's a narrative that we don't often talk about. So talk to me about that decision and what happened when you made it.

Yeah, So throughout school I was very rebellious. In the early January of the year I left. I got into a car accident in year twelve, and how do I explain? I just didn't like it. I didn't like school. It was getting too much, and so I thought I'd be better off learning what I needed to learn for work outside. I didn't really have anything that I wanted to do that the HC would get for me at that point. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, I guess looking back now, I wish

I think I think I thought I knew everything at seventeen too, Don't worry. I think that's very common. But it's always so interesting to ask like, oh, well, what did that look like for you and how did that work? Because so many people often feel like their careers or their future ability to generate wealth will be completely capped

Yeah. Well, my older sister, as I said, she was the brains of the family, and she left to be an accountant, and she pulled out six months on her last year at UNI.

On her last Yeah, oh, she got the heck step and everything.

Yep, and we were all just like, what the heck, you can't pull out this late?

Who would want to work work in finance? Honestly?

Well, she'd when I got a job in accounts payable and she really liked it, so she was like, I don't think I need to be an accountant now, but she was so close to getting to the end part she I gave that in. So it's really funny because her partner is doing the same thing that I am doing now, but yet obviously only has the one contract. So I think it doesn't matter whether you get a HC or not when it comes to finances. There's lots of avenues that people can go down completely.

The one other thing I wanted to ask you about really quickly, we're going a few steps backwards, but talking about your first boyfriend that you described as a bit of a drop kick and how you know? You were quite young, and I think anyone who's been in love in their teenage years knows that, you know, you can get caught up in so many elements of those early

I think the biggest part, like when I look back at that, was that I knew I could move back home. I do have to admit that something my dad has always repeatedly told me since I was little, that you know, it doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing. There's food in the car, but there's a bed come home like that. And that's something I've always and will continue

You knew it only took a cup of tea with mum to get back in the door and unpawer the car right.

Yeah, yeah, very much surprised my mother that day.

I was just like, surprise, it's me.

I'm back from memory. She actually jumped up and down. I was expecting, honey, I have to explain, like, oh my gosh, I've come back home with my tail between my legs. She was just like, oh, excellent, Yes, when are you coming home? And I said, I'll go get the stuff out of my car and she was like she's grabbing my laundry basket with me.

I wish everybody got to experience that type of love and support, because, as somebody who has that, my parents honestly would beg me do it be like.

Are you sure you don't want to come back home Victoria while I was at.

UNI, like, I just feel like everybody deserves that, and I know that not everybody in our community has that, But you guys, come live with me.

It's all good. I'll take you in.

That was that, and I would love to explain to any females it's a bit what you know. I hear on your podcast regularly as well. Set yourselves up with you a little bit of a kiddie. There's organizations out there that are willing to help and get your set back on the straight and narrow. I think if I didn't have somewhere that day, I could understand why women stay exactly where they are because of money.

That is like the best advice in the world. And that's why we're so passionate about emergency funds. And yeah, it's awesome to hear that at nineteen you had the support network and everything that you needed, that you were confident enough in yourself to be.

Like, hey, actually I deserve better. I can be a rebel, but I know my parents will let me back in the house.

Very much.

Yes, that is so special.

I just quickly want to say, like I've been I'm just I made a few notes here, guys.

Oh go going back.

With my parents, Like the worker thick thing was always throwing down my throat. You know, got to work hard, you have to do all this stuff. I think to a lot of their stuff. They weren't educated. Even today, when I say to my mom about shares, she's starting to come around and hear things, but she was like, oh my god, you can't put money in the share market, Like that's really risky. I don't think anyone for them there was education for them to go seek. So they

I will always, always, always advocate for it because it's just to me, it's so powerful, Like it's powerful beyond belief to know that women are supporting themselves. I think for too long we haven't had access to the education that we arguably deserve. It blows my mind that, you know, even in primary school, we're not talking about having some money at the side, or what it actually means to pay tax or what it means to save. And it just it blows my mind that that's not a common

And three years ago I couldn't do that. And it just blows my mind.

Once we get to be part of that, I'm never leaving, sorry, guys, here to stay. But two, just that there's so much power in education, Like just knowing that that's something you can do. Imagine if you'd known that earlier. Like it's just you know, we never look back on what we've done in a bad way, but we always go, oh, wish I'd known that earlier. But like, how cool is it that we get to teach other women so that they don't say that.

Well, that's true. And that's what I was trying to say earlier too. With the business and that so many people kind of go, oh my gosh, you're running a business. There's so many pro Like the Internet today makes life so much easier for a lot of people. Great, you've got fair work sites, you've got the ato sites that like, there's come hurdles in my time that I couldn't understand, but you generally can google it and there will be ten government websites explaining to you, you know what the

I love that advice as well, because I think it's so important, and like money Smart website, I'm obsessed with it. It's free, it's got no bias because it's not from a product. Guys like, go and educate yourselves. I think a lot of us just assume we need to wait until someone gives us permission to go and learn those things, or tell us we're good enough to go into business if that's what we want.

To do, but we don't need that permission. Go and get it. Get it, queens, I love it.

Yeah, don't be afraid, just jump in and try. Like I said, the income we generate off the company, it's still probably classified a smaller income. I'm assuming, but doing stuff out on your own. I have a company car, a company phone, there's all these different things rather than working as an employee that you can find get as well.

Yeah, well we're going to have a whole hYP of new business owners after that conversation in our community, aren't we money Doros, thank you so much for sharing your story. But Jess, as always, I think that is all we have time for today.

So do you want to wrap the boring but important stuff for us?

Yeah?

Don't forget, guys that the advice sheared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make

See you on Wednesday, guys. Bye,