MONEY DIARIES: She's A Secret Hustler!

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 are millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where I get the absolute opportunity to talk to one of our incredible She's on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week I got a message and it sounded a lot like this. Hi, Victoria. I grew up sharing a bedroom with my mum and two siblings.

Yes, well that's been insane hearing it back.

You're twenty one and own three properties and have a baby andremou I have so many questions. I'm very excited about this though. So let's start the show as we always do, before you dive into who you are and what you're about, because I definitely am going to take this show right there. I want to know first things first, what would you grade your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F.

So I had a big think about this after listening to a lot of money stories and a lot of people grading themselves because you very you know, adamant on how you grade yourselves. So for me, I would grade myself an A midas.

Ooh, and she's really good at money. This episode is going to be leased. I cannot wait, Money Darist, I'm very excited. Let's just jump straight in. Can you tell me a bit more about your money story? And I guess your journey in general.

Yeah, so I grew up with divorce parents. My parents divorce when I was quite young. My mum she had a stable job, had a government job, you know, but pretty much lived paycheck to paycheck. So we actually ended up pretty much when I was in high school living in my auntie's house. We were all in like one bedroom, kind of like a built in garage situation. It was

You're crazy. Yeah, And like when you think about these things in hindsight, like I remember looking back on like how I managed UNI and work, and I was working a full time job and doing full time UNI, and now I cannot think of how I actually managed that and had a social life. Do you look back and go, that's insane.

I didn't have a social life, So I think that was the main thing in high school. That's helpful. Yeah, that really cut out. You know. Instead of partying on Saturday nights, I was working on Saturday nights.

So it you know, what kind of jobs did you have?

So I mainly did. I always did two. So I would always do like a retail and a hospitality job because I would get bored of one.

I did the same thing and I would get bored of them. But also you can like double back them. Yeah, so like you would like work through retail one during the day in the hospital one at night. I thought I was hacking the system exactly.

You could like get the penalty rates on the certain days whichever's going to be better. That's what I did.

Yeah, I always worked Sundays in retail because it was double time and a half. Of course I want that Sunday Sunday exactly.

And I was under eighteen, so I worked in like an RSL, which in Queensland where I am, you had to get paid at eighteen year old rate because you're serving you're dealing with alcohol.

Perfect oo stunning.

I love that good hack for people.

So you're working two jobs in high school, thirty hours a week. Then what happened?

Then I I'd always been told to go to university, so I was quite an academic student. I got a good op. I got into the degree I wanted to get into, which was a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Business or a double degree. That's what my mum wanted me to do. That was the kind of career path she had had in terms of going to UNI getting a job. I pretty much got into that and I hated it. It was horrible. I really didn't

The idea that you've gone through UNI and COVID it was happening at the same time and you're now out of UNI and I'm married, didn't have a baby, blows my mind.

Oh, it was such like I just yeah, I did not like it at all. But I'm not a person that gives up. So I kind of had this epiphany when I was eighteen. So I turned eighteen and twenty twenty when I had a heap of cash because I had worked and didn't really spend any money. I was at the time kind of living at home, kind of not living at home. And that's when I decided, Oh, I might just buy my first property. I didn't want to tell anyone.

Oh I might just buy my first house. Yeah that makes sense.

Yeah, might just by it, didn't actually tell anyone, didn't tell my mom, didn't tell any single person. No one knew I'd bought this property at all. Yeah, you didn't even.

Tell your mom. You were like, oh, by the way, didn't.

Tell my mom. At that point in time, i'd moved out and then COVID hit, so I lost all my jobs with hospitality, so I had moved back, I know. So it was a bit stressful ward moved back into my parents' place.

But no one knew you had a mortgage.

No, Yeah, And then I had bought a place, like probably it was in the middle of the years. I bought a place around like June twenty twenty, and no one knew at all. It was kind of a big

Why did you want to keep that a secret? Why did you not want to tell anybody? Because like feel like that's the exact opposite of everyone in our community. Like once you've gotten to that point of being able to buy a house, like we are celebrating my friend, like we want to tell everybody that we've achieved this massive goal. And you're like, oh, by the way, absolutely not not even going to tell my mom.

The funny thing is when I say didn't tell anyone, I didn't tell anyone personal. So my mom didn't believe in buying properties and things that she believed in spend your money when you have it, when you're young, have fun. It's not really my mentality. But I actually and I went back and looked at this morning. I actually did a post on She's and the money, and like got a heap of reaction. It was like five thousand people reacted.

You told me, but you didn't tell your mom. Yeah, I love you, You're my favorite. That's amazing. So you told my community, call the community of it. But you were like, I forgot my mom. Yeah, well maybe if she was in the group she would know.

Maybe she could have found out that way, but she didn't.

It's amazing. I love that. That is actually so funny. How did the conversation about the rates letter go? Did you try and be like, I don't know what that's formum? Or did you go oh, by the way, I'm also a baller.

I kind of was like, well, why did you open my mail?

Yeah, that's what I've done too. Yeah.

I kind of went to the backpedal and I was like, why did you open my mouth? Like that's such an invasion of privacy. Didn't really work.

No, I wouldn't have had a bar of that either.

No, it didn't work, but that was okay. She got over it. She's like, you know, just can't believe you spent your money that way, which is just so ridiculous in my mind.

But yeah, it makes sense as to why you didn't tell her then, Yes, yes, I.

Just knew there would be a lot of a lot of judgments behind that.

And you just don't need that at that point in your life. I fully respect that. So then what happened then?

So I bought that the middle of twenty twenty, and at that time, so I was doing my law degree. Hated it, but I don't. I don't give up things, and so I wasn't going to drop out of it. Didn't anything else. And the guy I bought it off, so the real estate agent, I asked him. I was like, oh, you know, like how much money did you earn from this? And he told me his commission. I was like, oh, it's.

Like wow, stayed at sudents, break it in. Obviously we're going to get to what you spend with the people who don't know how much real estate agents make. It's a lot, yes, but I was like wow, okay.

And so he literally was just like, well, you're eighteen. You must be doing something right, because no eighteen year old in their right mind, unless they're motivated. I have the work ethic can save up this much money? True, do you want to come work for me?

And I didn't.

Yeah. Yeah. My friends asked me, like how you did it, and I just said I don't know.

Neither do I, Babe, neither do I.

So yeah, he kind of chased me up for every month, told me, you know, you should come join. I was still doing my degree at the time, didn't really know what to do. I'd fast track the degree to I've done like a year and a half, two years in one year.

Again, of course you do, am I not surprised you did, yep.

So then I decided, Look, I'll started in January. I'll do a year in real estate, and if I don't like it, I'll go back to UNI. And nothing's happened. It's all good. I haven't lost a year technically, or if it does go I'll continue. And that's kind of what I did. I went into that, which obviously will be the next question.

But you're still in real estate, aren't you.

I am still in real estate.

Yes, And that's not because I know and I've asked. It's actually a grand assumption on my behalf, because if you're telling me you have this work ethic like you would thrive in real estate.

Yeah.

It is a very hard industry, which.

I'm going to guess again, is why you're able to purchase more than one problem?

Yes, yes, yeah, it's not just because I could like pick up a property at like ten dollars unfortunately.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, carry on, carry on. So you're in real estate.

Yes, in real estate. And then I had kind of a crazy two years. I guess. I started in real estate in started twenty twenty one, I you know, did really well. I actually ended up dropping the law degree, but I continued the business degree in secret because my boss told me I couldn't do UNI if I was doing the job.

You did a secret degree. Yes, you're buying house doing secret degrees.

Lots of secrets. So I finished. I did, kept doing that degree in the background, worked really hard, worked my butt off, absolutely loved it, and decided that I was definitely not going to go back and study law. I did not want to be a lawyer, and real estate was, I guess, the thing to do.

And how old are you at this point?

At that point, so started twenty twenty one, I was going into being nineteen. And that's also when I met my now husband, was right at the start of that year too, So everything happened.

How did you meet by a hinge?

I one hundred percent rate it.

I love this. I met my husband on Tinder, so absolutely no no app judgment, guys.

I love the apps. Oh so much easier to choose people on the apps.

Literally, I just went and picked up a husband. It was fantastic.

No one has time for these weird dates.

I'm not going to go to a bar, and you know what, the type of person I wanted to meet, they were not just vibing at the mark, like if you say, oh, there's a dude down at the bar, like you could go chat to here. I don't want that type of person.

Yeah, I don't think the type of person I'm going for like not really my thing.

No thanks, babe, I want someone booked and business.

I need sometime, we need to like schedule.

So you met your husband at the start of the year, and then.

And then by December twenty twenty one we were engaged.

So of that moved quickly, moved really quick.

But even quicker is that we were then married in ninety days. So we had a ninety day engagement and married.

Did he need a visa or something? Is Is there a catch? No catch?

No catch? My dream venue had a cancelation and it's normally like a two year wait, and I was like, screw it, We'll just do it.

Oh that's so wholesome. So how was planning a wedding in ninety days because I had an entire year and I still nearly die.

I would one hundred percent recommend it.

Oh you'd recommend it. Oh of course she would. She does secret degrees by secret properties. Since she'd recommend planning your wedding in ninety days because.

You didn't have much choice, so it was just whoever was available, you booked. You didn't have to overlook it lock.

It in yet. Yeah, yeah, all right, I can see why. You know, I feel like the wedding planning got easier as the pressure increased, because.

Otherwise you kind of just you let it go, kind of dragged on a bit, and you really didn't do much until the last three months anyway.

So tell me, was there a lot of judgment as a nineteen now twenty year old getting married so quickly, Because like, I'm very much a believer of when you know, you know, like creepily enough. On my first date, I knew I was going to marry my husband and my husband will say exactly the same thing. And if you had told me even a week before meeting Steve that that would be the outcome, I'd be like, that's insane, that is nuts, that is not what real life is, Like,

Yes, I mean probably a lot of people said stuff and didn't tell me.

You know, oh yeah gossip great, we love that, yeah.

Which is fine. My mum wasn't the most supportive. She loves my husband, she does, but just the whole very quickly, very young. She wasn't the engagement she was okay with, but it was the fact that we got married so quickly was a bit like, oh okay, not that happy. Whilst my husband's parents they actually had the same kind of timeline, so when they met was quite young. They got married with and about about the you know, twelve to twenty four months. Mark had kids quite quickly too, so Gay knew.

Oh okay, and how old is your husband? So it can be real real pervy.

He is, So I'm yeah twenty one now, so he's twenty five?

Yeah, okay, Like there's not massive age differences or anything like that.

Not a massive age difference, but you're definitely got to go for the more mature guys twenty one probably wouldn't.

Have all agree. Steeve's older than I am, and I wouldn't change it because I think that we're both on the same mental level.

Now, yes, yes, same mental level.

So you're married. You now have a daughter?

Yes, she is just turned four months old. So I had her, Yeah, in August of this year.

Oh my gosh, congratulations mom, that's so exciting.

Yes, it's a lot, but you know, wouldn't change up the world.

So now tell me about work life balance. So you're still working in Really we'll get to the pay part, but like, how did you manage becoming a young mum as well as like work and life and having a husband and all of that other fun stuff.

Yes, well, I work like a commission based job, so I run my own kind of business. It's all about how much I work, how much I own. So I'm a big workaholic. If anyone couldn't tell didn't say that coming, No, No, I actually pretty much as I was giving birth, I sold two properties and at auctions at night.

Why is none of this. Surprisingly, yeah, and it would be nice commissions.

Yeah, it was really good. You know, a great day gay birth got some commissions. Couldn't think of anything better.

But yeah, you got paid to give birth. I love this for you.

Win win, But yeah, I gave birth on a Thursday. By the Sunday we were back home, I was I really wanted to get back home because I couldn't take any calls while in the hospital because people just kept interrupting me.

That's not why I like, I'm not just excited to get my new daughter home and like, you know, have that nest in the phase and that like, you know, a little newborn bubble they talk about. You were like, get my laptop and my phone back in my hand asap.

Literally on my last day, they were like trying to do something and I was trying to type up an appraisal, and I was like, oh, can you just wait, you know, five minutes. I just got to send this email. Then we'll be good and you can do whatever you have to do.

That will be me. And you know what, I regret nothing.

You don't because they're sleeping most of the time anyway, you're not really missing out on much. But yeah, I was back working on Monday. I was at home for two weeks, and then I was back in the office Monday today. From two weeks on.

Can I be really pervy? Because yes, as somebody who is now seven months pregnant and due to give birth really soon, my plan is to take at this point in time, six to eight weeks of maternity leave, right, So everyone thinks that that is.

Like everything's're crazy?

True little they think I'm insane. My business partner, Kate in Zella Money, she took two weeks. I'm not saying that this is normal, and I'm not saying that this is something that we should be rewarding, because I think that, you know, having that time is so special and I totally get it. But I am, arguably, and I'm maybe speaking for you here as well, I'm a psychopath. Like I know that I will be more grounded, a better mum, a better everything if you let me do my thing

Look, I think people make and it really does depend. I'm a lot younger, so I will admit young pregnancys and births. I do think it easier than when you are older. It's just it's how you know natural is So for me it was, you know, natural birth. I had the epiduit, which is the best thing ever. And I didn't have any tearing, which is very surprising.

Or it must be nice. Side note for those of you following along. I did a birth with Beth course a couple of weeks ago with my husband, and I was like, I know so much of this. I listened to so many podcasts and they were like, eighty five percent of women tear during childbirth, and I was like, sorry, sorry, that's not a statistic. I was ready for yeap so to not tear at all. We're gonna have to take this conversation offline. I need all your chips, all your tricks. I want that.

I know. So that was a big thing because obviously that means that recovery it is a lot easy. It is way easier. Like I think it was more of you know, once I got out of hospital. To be honest, I wasn't really It was kind of like a period after that for the next maybe week or so. So by the two.

Week mar so you had it relatively easily.

I did, so I will have met birth. Everything was quite on the easier side, which meant recovery. I was, you know, I was ready to go as soon as we got out of the hospital. I probably could have, you know, gone and done things like I think I was, you know, walking and things like that, going for walks and that as soon as we were back.

You sound like Kate. She was also quite young when she had her babies, so that makes sense. I just I also want to just pinpoint it here and say that we're definitely not trying to glorify that that's any type of expectation. It's just so perfect. When you hear someone who has done I'm like, wait, what story how because it's not the norm, and like, you know, so many women are like, oh, twelve months wasn't enough for

I'd never heard of people actually going back so quickly or so quickly by choice. Yes, some people have to go back because of financial reasons. Mine was by choice. Yeah.

See, mine will be choice as well. And I think that that changes the game completely.

It does. But I couldn't be a stay at home on full time my personality. I'd like some days I have to because chulk I things like that, and oh, I go, oh, I give it up for all the stay at home moms.

So now tell me. I want to ask a pervy question. You obviously do real estate for work, but what's your job title? And how much money do you earn?

Yep?

So I am like a real estate sales agent. So I sell the properties roughly. So last year I roughly did between about three hundred and fifty thousand to four hundred thousand.

And that's your take home total salary.

That's my take home yep, before tax and things like that. Yeah.

Absolutely, do you know what I feel like when people start hearing that, they're like, maybe I could have done two weeks of matt Leeve if I had that income. Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. Have a lot of friends in real estate. Can you break it down a little bit though, So you said before you kind of have like a commissions based role. What does that mean? And how much do you get paid? Like, do you get paid when you sell one property? Do

Yeah, So when you first start, so back in twenty twenty one, you start on minimum wage. So I was on literal minimum wage, and you're on like a retainer. So it's called a debit credit and you pay back every time you sell something. A split happens, So depending on what your split is, but normally your franchise takes percentage and then your actual office like principal, takes percentage and then you get a cut. That cut will then cover your retainer to begin with, and then you get

Cuts every property you sell. So what does a retainer look like? Is that thirty thousand dollars? Is it fifty?

At the point when just minimum wage? So when I was in twenty twenty one, when I was the minimum wage, I think it was like forty five thousand or something.

And then you essentially need to sell enough properties to cover that forty five thousand dollars to pay back your business that has hired you, and then anything above that is cream. You said that there's a split, so obviously between the franchise and the office owner and you. What kind of percentage were you taking home at that point?

Yeah, so it would be out of one hundred percent, eight percent would be taken to the franchise and then forty percent would be taken to the owner and sixty percent would be taken to me.

That is a I split. Hey, I should have become a real estate agent.

So it's really good.

And per sale, let's, you know, break it down even further because I know what it is. What kind of percentage of the property price is a I guess a sale work.

Typically in Queensland you charge anywhere from about two point five percent to three point five percent of the sale price.

Right, and then that amount is what that commission is made up of. And that's actually standard. Like we're not saying, oh my gosh, that's so much. We're more like contextualizing it so that you guys can understand exactly what that means. Because I'm so pervy. When I started to learn about real estate, I was like, sorry, what now, Like that makes it insane. So what you're telling me is in twenty twenty one, when you started, you were on forty

Yes, and it's you know, I will have to put it out there. Not everyone does earn that much. You know. What people don't realize in real estate is that I think it. The statistic is eighty five percent of real estate agents actually earn less than eighty thousand dollars a year or something along those lines.

So no, no, no, that's very accurate.

Yeah, so's it's one of those things where yes, I do earn a lot of money, but it's not something where it's industry wide that everyone earns that much money.

Yeah, that's not normal. But what is cool is that it's completely in your control. So when you were explaining it before, you were like, oh, I had a fifty thousand dollars in savings at eighteen, and then this real estate agent was talking to me and said I'd be good in it. I was like, of course she's going to be good at it. She's a hustler. Look at

A lot? I get to the office early, so me and my husband kind of have different shifts. We call it looking after my daughter. So I get to go into work I would say early, So I get into work at seven am. I then leave the office at four pm to be home by five pm to take over for my daughter. But then I, you know, continue working until I'm pretty much done. My husband normally gets home around seven pm, and that's when I kind of

Yeah. I love that, and I think it provides really good context because to earn the salary that you earn requires significant sacrifice in different areas of life, and I really wanted to draw that out instead of being like, yeah, oh my gosh, there's taol any one and earns so

So I've kind of got two. One is like the dream home in terms of just that big, beautiful home that people drive up to and go, Wow, she's really rich.

Oh you want a big, really rich house. Yeah, Like all right, can I come over? Are you're going to have like a big, really rich pool with a big, really rich spark?

Definitely? Like that's just something where and it sounds so materialistic, but I just want to show how much, you know, I work so hard. I want something to show. So that's one thing, like the massive, big house. And other thing is just buying more investment properties and just setting myself up because that's how I typically invest my money.

Have you thought about where that? I guess I want to call it showiness because it's the easiest word to use. Their Have you thought about where that's coming from or like, why that's so important to you? Do you think it comes from the way you grew up and like you know, obviously living in essentially a reconfigured garage with your you know, siblings and your mum. Like, is this something that you go, No,

Yeah, it's kind of approves. You know. I had a lot of people doubting me going into real estate and doubting kind of the choice I made, that I won't be able to succeed, and I had that, you know, throughout a lot of my life. So I think for me, that is going, wow, I did make it, and to prove everyone wrong pretty much and to prove to myself that it was the right choice.

I love it because I feel like you're also investing on the flip side, so it's not just putting money into a house to look really important. But let's talk about that. I have so many questions. Let's go to a really quick break and on the flip side, I'm going to break all of that down. All right, money diarist, we are back you mentioned in your intro email that you own three properties. The next question for you is do you have any investments? If so, what are they? Please start listing them off.

I do. So I have two investment properties. I wrote them all down this morning. Side have them all? Do you also want to know, like how much I own? How much they were?

Of course I do perfect.

So I've got two investment properties. One investment property was my first one I bought. I bought that on my own when I was eighteen.

The secret property, the secret property.

So I currently owned that one two hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars and it's worth about four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

That's very nice. Got some equity there. And then did you use your equity to go into the second one? I didn't actually, so, oh it must be nice.

I had somehow. I convinced my boyfriend, so my husband now after knowing each other for four months, to buy a property with me, which is a property we moved into, which is now investment property. And I convinced him to put in fifty thousand and meet to be only put in thirty thousand dollars for this property.

I wonder who wears the pants in that relationship. Yeah, interesting question to address at a later date.

Yeah, I don't know how that I've the highest song of that, but I did. And then we bought this second property that I only bought out together, and that one currently has a loan of three hundred and sixty eight thousand and it's worth about six hundred thousand.

Oh, very very nice. Yeah, Now, is there a lot of strategy going into picking these properties? Obviously when you were eighteen, you had absolutely no real estate knowledge. How did you know that that was a property you wanted to buy or would be, you know, a good asset, Because if you're telling me that you purchased a property it's worth four fifty and you only have like a two hundred and fifty eight thousand dollar alone on it, like we would all say, that's a pretty good position

To be honest with that one? I was probably just lucky. I bought that in twenty twenty when the prices hadn't skyrocketed. I bought it in an area where I could afford, Like, I bought it for three hundred thousand, and I bought it because I was working near there at the time, but I actually didn't live in it. I ended up moving, so I didn't even end up living in that one. But yeah, that one was purely just down to I

Great. So now you've got the second property with your now husband, it's worth six hundred grand. What is the third property? Tell us about that one.

The third property is the one we currently live in. So that's the definitely the bigger one where the interest rates hurts. So that one we only bought last year. We did use the equity from the second property we purchased, and that one currently has a loan of nine hundred and seventy seven thousands. We borrowed the full loan. We didn't put any cash into it, and the property is currently worth about one point one Oh.

Very nice. So you're sitting on what five hundred and fifty ish maybe six hundred thousand dollars worth of equity at twenty one Yeah, roughly must be nice must be nice unrelatable. So at twenty one I was probably drunk in a bar on Brunswick Street with like ten dollars maximum in my pocket, and then the year later I got a forty five thousand dollar personal loan, so like, we could not be more different, but I love this.

For you slightly different, yeap.

Do you have any other investments or is it just property?

I do?

So of course she does, guys, of course she does.

I've got about fifty thousand dollars in shares.

Yeah, of course you do. I'm genuinely so impressed.

I don't really know much about the shares. My husband wanted to do something because I was more the property person. Have they gone well, probably not that much. I looked at this morning and I texted him and I said, hey, I've gone down. What is this?

Hey, I'm going to be on this podcast and I wanted to ask some questions. And now I'm a bit like what.

Yeah, I'm like okay, like and you snow just waited. I was like, yeah, yeah, shared, you waited out yep, got it. And then just my super as well. So my super I don't really pay attention to it much because I'm a contractor now, which is really bad.

I was about to say, are you paying yourself super at this point in time?

No, but that's because I currently have forty five thousand.

I don't care if you've got forty five thousand. I'm looking at all your other assets. I know you can afford I know.

I yeah, yes, I can't. I just haven't. I haven't gotten it sorted yet in terms of I have only become a contractor within the last under This is my first financial as a contractor, and I actually haven't even paid myself yet technically, so I'm still it's in the background. We'll work it out.

All right, all right, I'll allow that. Tell me, what does your husband do. He's a lawyer, of course he is. You married a lawyer, you smart woman.

I know you go to pick him. You know he's a tax lawyer, so no suspensis, of course he is.

All right. I feel like we have so much to learn from you. Obviously, I want to ask about debt next, but we've actually just gone through all of your mortgages, so we won't repeat them. But do you have any other forms of debt?

The only other debt I have is my hex so I paid off most of it before indexation. So I've only got about three thousand dollars.

Left, okay, And what's your plan for that three grand? Is it just going to tick away? Is it going to get smashed down?

Like?

What are we doing?

It will have to be paid off in this financial Yeah, just du to my earnings.

It's going to be so easy, very very nice. I hope people aren't like comparing themselves and being like twenty one in absolutely screw you know what, She's the outlier, She's the weird one. It's not us.

I'm the psycho, not everyone else.

But tell me what are your best money habits? Like I want more than one from you because I just feel like you are a wealth of knowledge.

So my big one is not living above your means. So I obviously earn a decent amount of income, and especially in real estate, a lot of people blow a lot of money.

Yeah, what car do you drive?

I do drive an Audi Q three.

Yeah, you're like, I live above my means. I'm gonna ask about her car. Now. I know what you do. If you're in real estate, it's not a push.

Like, it's not it's not a rolls roy you know, it's it's a nice car.

I mean, it's still an Oudiq three. That's a very very nice car.

It is a nice car, and I didn't get on a loan, so I was very good about that. But just in terms of like we we don't go out to nice, fancy dinners. My kind of nice thing to go out to is like a nice like a breakfast, So yeah, we don't go and spend I don't buy designer items. I don't buy you know, really nice shoes and really nice clothes like it. I don't spend a lot of money in that materialistic kind of way. As per se. I always do things in terms of like an investment.

You know what? I think it's important, And at the end of the day, I do laugh because, as I said before, I have a number of friends in real estate. I literally have a property podcast, so I've made heaps more friends in real estate and they all have beautiful cars. But one thing that I thought was really funny about that is that you do actually park in front of their house, and inherently clients are going to look at you and go, oh, you're young already, you're female already.

It is.

People always ask they go and wears your car, and like I was just embarrassed because had the high on DI I thirty and I was like, oh, you know, I'd park down the street. I wouldn't even park in front of the.

House, and like, that's not an embarrassing car. But you in real estate, often when someone is selling a high value item like their house, yes, they want proof that you have money as well, so that you're making you're a good financial decision to them. It's very strange. It was the same in the wealth space. Like, thankfully I didn't often drive out to clients' houses because as a financial advisor, most of them would actually come to me.

It's a perception, but it as well. It made me more confident too, turning up in the nicer car, Like it is all about perception.

I couldn't agree more, even though I don't like that that's the case. Yes, so you're not living beyond your means, but you do to have a nice car. What other brilliant money tips and tricks have you got for us?

I buy a lot of things online and so I always wait for sale. I will never buy anything full price. You will never see me buy anything full price, even like Wooly's shopping, I go on to like that. I do it all online. So I go into like the special section and they've got the half price section. And I'll shop that first shop, build my recipes around whatever was half price. Do you put a pay full price for groceries?

Why pay full price when you don't have to?

Exactly, not at all.

It's how you stay rich.

Literally, it's you know people, and I always get made fun of is, Oh, why don't you spend so much money? Why I need it? Well, if I keep spending it all, I'm not gonna have the money.

I'm sorry. I'm financially confident and comfortable, thank you sir.

Yes, but that's really my main things. It's just, yeah, not doing silly spends like I enjoy myself sometimes and my husband definitely balances me out, thank goodness. Otherwise I'd probably still be eating you know, like past every night with sausages because I didn't even couldn't afford mints at the time either. But every now and again we might buy a steak or salmon. So it's you know, really living it up in the world.

That's a bit fancy. I like it. Now, let's bring it down a little bit. What's your worst money habit?

Just kind of contradictionyok, to what I said, But my worst money habit is I get a lot of anxiety spending money in terms of if we went out to a nice dinner, I can't look at the bill, I can't look at the menu with prices because it makes me so anxious spending that money. So it came to a point where like we wouldn't go out and we would have not arguments because we don't argue, but you know,

Where is that coming from? I feel like I know where that's coming from, But do you know where?

It's definitely coming from? My childhood and not having a lot of money. And that's I yes, I fear in the back of my mind in terms of what if that happens. You know, what if my commission based job I stopped selling? What if I run out of money? You know, that's it's such a big I guess fear in my mind where it's not a reality. It's probably not going to happen, but it could. And that's kind of where that anxiety definitely can can see. That is.

And do you have I guess have you sat down and been like, Okay, well I'm a bit anxious about money. I have a really good emergency fund and build those things up. Is that something that you know obviously because we're a bit more anxious, Are those things maybe healthier than the average bears?

Yes, it would definitely be healthier than the average person. And yet I kind of just combat it by, you know, letting my although we have complete joint finance, it's letting him pay for dinner because in my mind it's not coming from me. I'm not seeing the bill and things like that, because I still do want to enjoy in it. I do think it's become easier now having my daughter, because then I'm like, oh, I'm doing it for her, so it's not for me. We're going to this place for her.

Yeah, okay, all right, Still something that I think you probably should work on, Yes, because that would be helpful. I can tell it brings a lot of anxiety, and I think it's actually a really good I guess insight as well that just because you earn heaps of money doesn't automatically mean that you're super happy, super free, super you know, confident with money. It just means that maybe you have more to worry about because you've obviously bitten off a lot. Like, at the end of the day,

It's never going to be.

You can't tell yourself that at three am, can you.

No, it's not going to let me go to sleep.

No, exactly. All right, Well, at the start of this episode, you told us that your money habits were in a mis and far out yep, Okay, Like, I'm not going to disagree with you, but what would it take to get to that?

A plus for me, I would like to learn a little bit more about investing in other avenues, so whether that's in businesses or the share market, or a little bit more about that rather than putting all my eggs in property because that's what I'm comfortable with and that's what I know, and kind of getting over that anxiety spending and just having a little bit more per se fun in terms of I work really really hard and I can't just you know, work to live. I do have to just live a little as well.

Yeah, I love that. I genuinely love that, and I think it's so important. And you've got so much time to make that happen as well.

I do, Like you're still a baby. I've got a little bit of time to make sure that all kind of creases out by the time I'm ready to retire and live life a little bit more as well.

Oh my gosh, what like tomorrow? Because like that that wouldn't surprise me.

Honestly, I think I'm want to be the person who will never be able to retire. I'm just so afraid of that.

Yeah, same, don't worry like if you said that you can't work anymore? But what is my purpose in life?

What do I do every day?

What do I do every day? Like I just gardening? No, I can't do gardening? What do you mean? So No, I completely understand that, but oh my gosh, sadly we have run out of time. Thank you so much for sharing that with us and being so open and so transparent and putting up with all of my I guess pervy questions from money to maternity, Like I just there was a lot there, and I'm really grateful for the insights. And I know that everyone listening to this is going to be equally as grateful.

No, thank you so much.

The advice shared 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 an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice.

Tailored towards your needs.

Victoria Divine and She's On of Money are authorized representatives of money, sirper P T Y L T D A b N three two one six four nine two seven seven zero eight A F s L four five one two eight nine