Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
the Order Kernye Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello, and you're welcome to She's on Money the Podcast Millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to my favorite episode of the entire week of Money Diaries, where I get the absolute pleasure of talking to one of our She's on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got an email and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, Victoria.
I went from major consumer debt to owning three properties and was inspired by Victoria to follow my passion in finance and I am now in my professional year to become a financial advisor. I did try to post on the Facebook page and was told I should share my money story here. You absolutely should, my friend, congratulations, I'm so excited. Welcome to the industry that I'm no longer a part of.
I think, yes, now, I was a little bit disappointed when I heard that you're moving out.
Oh sorry, I still hang around, I promise.
My game plan originally was like, if I go to you know, forums and whatnot for advisors, that I can run into Victoria and beat her. Oh I go still you do okay, great?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm so excited about it. It's funny because obviously I'm no longer a licensed financial advisor and I stepped back to focus more on that she's on the money community. Obviously, doing one on one client work took a lot out of me and a lot out of my day. Adored it, but obviously loved doing community stuff. But deep down, I'm a nerd babe, like I really want to like if there is a forum, if there is a advisor conference that I'm allowed into,
I'm like, hey, hi, it's me. And I've obviously got a heap of financial advisor friends, so he usually just tag along with them. I'm like, oh, would you look at that? I work for sky Wealth today. Oh that's crazy. I've come along as an associate, which is really really fun, but you will still see me there because at heart, I really miss it. Oh that's great, So let's learn
a little bit more about you. I am super excited about this because going from being in consumer debt to having three houses slay, but then also to love finance so much that you're like, you know what, this was so fun that I wanted to help other people do that. I'm just really excited. So let's start the episode as I always do, Money Diarist, If I was to ask you to give yourself a grade from A three to F, what would you say your money grade is?
Oh, at this point in time, I would say B plus because I have gone a long way, but I still have a fair way to go as well. So I'm not where I want to be, but I'm on the track to being where I want to be.
Yes, and please let's learn more about it, Money Diarist. My favorite question, can you tell me a little bit more about your money story?
So a bit of backstory is that me and my husband had our first child, and we had just gotten married, and we did purchase our first hope, so we did already have that. I had just had my second in early twenty twenty. Great when COVID hit. Oh yeah, yeah, and we were in over thirty thousand dollars worth of consumer debt at that point in time. We had after pay,
zip pay, credit cards, personal loans, you name it. One night when I was up late, you know, feeding the baby, and that I come across your podcast and I got hooked.
Hello friend, I'm a three am kind of gal, you know.
Yes, definitely, And I got absolutely hooked on it. And because I was on maternity leave, so we only had obviously my husband's wage and then part of the paid rental, so it wasn't obviously too much. Yeah, we managed to pay within that year of my maternity leave just over thirty grand worth of consumer debt.
Oh no you didn't. Yeah, like while only only what that is epic? I want to know a little bit more. First thing, so how did you get into consumer debt with things just like getting out of hand, like obviously having two kids, getting married, buying your first house in quick succession. I don't know if you know this is expensive and also stressful, but how did you end up in that debt? And then I guess tell me a bit more about this getting out of debt thing, because that's impressive.
So yeah, like I said, we had bought our house and then just after we brought it up like owner occupied, one month later, my husband proposed to me for you. Yeah. Then from there everything we ended up getting a personal line to finish paying out the rest of the wedding. The wedding was part of it, and then you know, you see all those cute little instagram and like Etsy stores, so I bought all the wedding stuff on there and used after pay.
It adds up pay.
Yeah, it was a lot of materialistic things. I think going back, a lot of the consumer debt we had were because of materialistic items. I think the only other consumer debt which part of the personal loan, which I try not to incorporate, is the soul panel alone.
Yeah that's a bit different though. Hey, yeah, yeah, that's not items for a wedding, that's an investment into you not having an electricity bill in the future.
Yes, it's been so great, and then obviously with my impending baby coming, I decided to spend it up and add on the zippay and the credit card, and that it had got to the point where we were just spending, spending, spending and not actually realizing it just.
Kind of got out of control. That is fair. But the important question here is how on earth while you were on maternity leave did you get out of that debt? Because that's crazy for anyone to get out of thirty thousand dollars worth of credit card debt in one year, but like to do that on a single income with paid parental leave, which we all know like is honestly the bare minimum, it's minimum wage. How how.
So, obviously I set out a plan. I fell in love with Excel.
Spreadsheets, woman after my own heart.
Oh, I should hear all the girls at work they laugh about it. And then I found out, like, you know, what was my biggest debt, what was my smallest debt, what had the highest interest? I you know, went through and I compared what was what what would be the best way? So obviously I think I started with like the after pays because they were the smallest, went onto the set pays, and then just slowly did it from there.
You did an episode on junk insurance. Yeah, I got on the phone, I called, and I think we ended up getting about five or six grand and no you didn't, yeah back, So that really.
Helped money win.
It was a great money win.
So well, you don't know what you don't know, right, And the second you hear something like that, you're like, wait, hold on, are you telling me? And then you check and you're like, excuse me, how has this been happening to me? And it's not because you're silly, it's just you thought you were doing the right thing and then it just tax on and tax on. But I'm so glad you chased it up because you know, obviously a lot of people don't it's worth it, though, Hey, it definitely is.
And like I said, that's what helped us pay a big chunk of each of the other things. And then obviously I set out a budget. That was the biggest thing. Was like, well, we need to know, you know what we're doing. And it was good because we had that year as well break from daycare. You so content. I was on attorney leap and my first child went to kindy, so it's.
Nice once they go to Kindy. I've spoken about it before, but I was horrified and how much daycare is going to cost us. That is not going to be the best season of my life, but I think it's a necessary one working.
Yes, well, my second child finished daycare at Christmas time, so we're in Kendy and we're out.
You're out, You're out the other side. Yes, I'm so pervy, especially about this debt reduction thing, because I've obviously been in a very similar position, so I really empathized with you know, how overwhelming it can be and how it keeps you up at night and it makes you feel sick and you just don't know what to do. But once you start smashing it down. You said before, I started with the small debts and after pay, do you feel like starting with the small stuff really motivated you
because you were like, wow, tick, that's gone. Next thing, Like, do you feel like it kind of compounded over time? How committed you were to debt reduction or like what was the feeling along the journey?
Yes, I found you know, because the smallest ones were like the first ones to go. That gave me my boost, that confidence to go, I can do this, Like we've gotten rid of the after pain now let's get rid of my husband's sid pay Let's just keep going, let's do this like and I realized as I kept paying one off, in kind of spending that money that we used to pay it off, I would just chuck that
onto the next step. Yeah, which helped, you know, So that money I pretended that we didn't have, which was absolutely great, and that's what helped us well to pay down though.
So yeah, the momentum just keeps going. And then you I don't know when it was happening to me. I just consistently felt lighter every time something else was gone. I was like, yep, feeling lighter, feeling better, like this is so good, and you kind of forget how bad it was, and then you realize, oh my gosh, I've created this entirely new lifestyle for myself.
Yes, I had to go back because I knew. I posted on the Facebook page about it, So I had to go back. And it was July twenty twenty and reading what I had put up and how much I was, you know, going through again and going, oh my god, I have come this far. I can't believe it.
So gosh, I love it. I'm so proud of you all right, I have to ask the next question because I need to know now. Obviously you've got two kids who have passed kindy money, we're no longer paying daycare. But what do you do for work? How much money do you earn currently?
I am doing a few roles. I love to just not stop. So I am currently a mortgage broker. Oh, exciting, yes, and then I'm also completing my provisional year to become a financial advisor or exciting yes, So I'm in the learning phase at the moment. I still do need to have a mentor for my mortgage broking until I think
about Easter. Yeah, and then I'll be fully accredited. So what I earn at the moment is sixty five thousand per year, not including super and then a small amount of commission on the side.
Yeah. Exciting, and especially because you're in your I guess provisional year as a broker, that's pretty good. So tell me about the commission side of things, because I like to be really clear when talking to people, especially in broking, because they go, isn't it dodgy to get commissioned? Absolutely not?
But how does that work in your role? Is that per loan settled, or is that you know across the board, like do you get a certain amount of commission based on what the business or like how does that come about?
So the business gets paid a commission for each line that's drawn, and then they pay me a smaller commission on that. So at the moment, it is ten percent of all loans and any new business that I bring because I'm currently in a financial advisors any new business that I bring in is an extra six percent on top of that.
Oh that's nice, That's not bad at all. I'm going to be really pervy. So mortgage brokers, I don't know if you know this, guys, but actually own a mortgage broking company called Zella Money. But do you get ten percent of the upfront fee? So when you see a mortgage broker, when the loan settles, the bank pays the mortgage broker a fee, right, And that fee doesn't mean that you're paying more to see a mortgage broker. In fact, it's exactly the same whether you go direct or not.
You just get a whole hep more help using a broker. They get an upfront fee, but they also get a trail. Are you getting any trail or just upfront.
I'm getting upfront and trail. Oh, yes it is.
See, that's what I wanted to know. We do that with our team as well, because I think it's the fairest way to do it. Like, you didn't come this far to only come this far. Your income should go up each and every single year. What do you think over the next few years your income is going to look like?
Oh, I am hoping it is going to go up. I know statistically when I did my training with mortgages and that that statistically, on average mortgage brokers and one hundred and fifty thousand per year financial advisors, I should say are about one hundred to one hundred and thirty roughly. It depends on obviously where you're situated where regional.
Yeah, regional is much harder.
Yeah. So I am hoping to probably hit that hundreds eventually, or.
You'll get there in no time. If your business is giving you upfront plus comms and a really good base, like I think you are going to be just fine. And once the ball starts rolling straight off after you've finish your provisional year, oh, you're going to be fine. I say that because I live really see it in my own business every single day. Great, I love it. I can't wait. You have to tell me when you
crack the six figures. I want to know. Now you've obviously gotten out of heap of debt, what is your big money goal? What are you currently looking forward to?
Because my husband and we obviously share everything. We have the same mindset, which is great when it comes to money. I'm the finance minister, as he calls it, so I handle all that. Our next big money goal, we do want to get to one hundred thousand in investing, so that's our next big one.
How far away is that?
Oh, We've got a few little things in the pipeline until we've only got about ten thousand at the moment.
So hey, that's ten percent of the way there. That's not bad.
Yeah, So we're hoping just over the next six years or so to do that slowly and then just leave it, you know, let it grow, let it build.
So it's obvious you're going to be a good financial advisor or is setting very clean, clear goals that are attainable. Let's go to a really quick break because on the other side, I have a lot to ask about because in your letter in you said, I own three houses, and that's a flex we have not dove into yet, So guys, don't go anywhere, all right, money darist. We are back, and I'm assuming you don't have three primary residences. So I'm going to need to know, my friend, do
you have any investments? If so, what are they?
Yeah, I have two investment properties and then obviously the ten thousand shares that I have at the moment.
So tell me about how that happened, because that's pretty big deal to have two investment properties plus your primary residence plus ten grand in shares, Like that's wild. That is something that a lot of people dream of. How did you go from being in thirty thousand dollars worth of credit card debt and consumer debt all the way through to owning your own homes, multiple of them.
So, like I said, after I went on attorneys, I knew I loved finance. You you know, help me see that passion actually started at the bank because I wasn't sure what avenue I wanted to take at that point in time, and working at the bank doing lending and that I kind of fell in love with that lending side a bit, and we had you know, paid out our consumer debt.
We had a little bit of money in the bank and originally we were actually going to do a house of land package, so it had signed on for that in early twenty twenty one, and then they turned around and said to us it's going to be another two to three year wait pretty much. So I hadn't even been titled then, and I thought to myself, I thought, well, what are we going to do with this money. It's just sitting there. We should try and do something with it. And yeah, we ended up buying a little unit. We
only paid two hundred thousand for it. That was our budget. We didn't want to spend too much. Yeah, two hundred thousand in regional Queensland. So it's only about a five minute drive from us, and we have had wonderful tenants in there. It's been amazing up until the end of this year. And then my husband's grandparents moved from Tasmania. Now living in that.
Oh how wholesome. I love that so much. So are you renting it out to them or is that something so they're paying for it?
Yes?
Yeah?
And what kind of rental yield are you getting on a two hundred thousand dollar investment.
At this point in time, we're only charging them three hundred dollars per week.
Hey, that's pretty good for a two hundred thousand dollar investment. Like that's not bad at all. Like I would definitely buy a two hundred thousand dollar apartment if I could rent it out three hundred bucks a week, like money win. What were you renting it out before when they weren't family?
Well, it was still three hundred, but originally the real estate was going to increase it to about three twenty three thirty, and we thought, oh, keep you know, we'll leave it at three because we're already positively gear and.
That that's very sexy. I like that. Tell me what do you owe on that property currently?
I owe about one hundred and sixty thousand on it being at the bank. I've got lender's mortgage insurance weight.
Oh it must be nice.
Yeah, we just put the base amount ten percent. I think it was to put towards it.
I love that, all right, But that's your first investment property. Yes, what's the second one, my friend? And when did you purchase that?
So that one we purchased in mid twenty twenty two, and we purchased this up in Airly or Cannon bayo.
Very fancy area. She's a bougie goal.
Yes, because our overall plan is to because we're so negatively geared with the first one, we wanted to go a bit more negatively geared, you know, more so neutrally gear it. So we purchased that one, yeah, back in mid twenty twenty two for two hundred and thirty six thousand. We are currently renting it at four hundred dollars per week.
Oh, very nice. So it's so interesting hearing these stories because obviously we have these conversations in our community all the time about property being completely unobtainable.
Right.
People are saying, I can never get into my first home. I can never get into my first you know, investment property. It's all too expensive because I think all of them are looking in inner city Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane and you just go, world has changed, unfortunately, and as much as we don't like it and we would love to buy inner city, not everyone can afford a eight hundred thousand dollar apartment and looking at it, going wow,
look at these investments. Two hundred and thirty six thousand dollars on a property that is now paying you out four hundred bucks a week. There are properties in Melbourne right now that are renting for four hundred dollars a week that I guarantee are seven or eight hundred thousand dollars to purchase. Where did you get this knowledge to
purchase in these areas? Like, obviously you're pretty savvy at finance nowadays, but how did you make these decisions and know that they were right for you and your family when it came to purchasing investment property?
Well, with the first one, we did want one and where we were close to, just because we like the area and we knew that even if we did move away that we can always have that one as an investment. I used to work as a property MANA.
So oh, you've got heats of experience that you didn't tell us about.
Yes, so being a property manager obviously also helped in knowing the ins and outs pretty much of that. And then with Airly or Cannon Bale, I should say five bit of outside Airly, but I still class it because same same my husband and I we eventually want to like when we have we're a bit more cash flow positive, we want to renovate it. Eventually and then actually just use it mainly as a holiday home or it must
be nice eventually down the track. So that is why you know, Airly appealed to us, because you know it's not too far from where we are, and you know we could do weekend trips and that eventually.
And I mean, looking at that, I've obviously been really pervy because if anything, I am a snoop And I've just calculated your rental yield on both of your properties, which you obviously have done before. But for those listening, the two hundred and thirty six thousand dollars property in early renting out at four hundred dollars a week gives you an average rental yield of eight points to eight percent.
That's sexy. And then even though you're like, oh, we just you know, charged the grandparents three hundred dollars a week, like that's you know what we feel comfortable with purchase price of two hundred grand, you're sitting at a seven point eight two percent rental yield. Like those are numbers
that inner city Melbourne people would dream of. Because if we flip it right, four hundred bucks a week, as I said, that's probably gonna get you like a studio, one bedroom apartment in like Hawthorne in Melbourne, like a little bit further out. You're not gonna look at, you know, anything less than that. Like, I think a lot of people listening are gonna be like Victoria, four hundred bucks a week is a good deal. Seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars is about average for those areas for an apartment. Yeah, that rental yield is two point seven eight percent. I'm so excited that you're killing it, but also like slightly envious that I haven't done this myself.
Oh thank you.
She's an investing queen. So what's the next steps when it comes to property? Obviously you're pretty good at it, You've got this grounding property management, so you feel pretty confident in picking. You obviously have not gone beyond your means when purchasing property. But what next? Is there more properties on the horizon? Like where are we going? What are we doing?
Sounds like my husband, I don't know.
Sorry, I always want to have a plan. I love a future, I love strategy, I love getting ahead. But also, as I said, I'm a snoop, I'm going to need to know me being.
A mortgage broker. I know what we can afford to buy now, because I just like to know that we do have, you know, available equity in our current home or in the first investment, so we could potentially get another investment property. My husband is looking over at Wa and Bundery. Oh you but that's going into States, so that's a bit more research for me to go into. But at this point in time, we've got a bit more in the works before I would want to probably look into that.
So yeah, that's very very fair. I think. I think it's really interesting when you talk to people about their investments, right, and I know that Early is a fair bit away from where you currently live. However, you are in Queensland, so it kind of makes sense that you know that market, you know what's going on there. You know, it's not too much of a step. Whereas for someone like me who's living in Melbourne buying in Early that fuels really scary, like and I'm not saying that I wouldn't do it.
With the right research and the right support and all of that, I might even consider it, but it's one of those things that you go it makes sense that you're buying where you know and then over time you might spread your wings a little bit more and go, actually, what about something here here or here? Yeah, we do have one more, but we don't have another investment.
Sorry, sorry, one more. Watch our first investment. It's a unit and it's next to another unit. We have said to the people residing there they are elderly.
Oh yeah, and we have told them we'd love to own it pretty much.
You're like, oh, hey, if you guys ever go to a retirement home or look to sell it, come see us first, because honestly, that's all we'd want. If we got that third one, we'd be happy.
That's really call. And it's in a location that you know. And obviously, let's be honest, even if you bought it at market rates, that rental yields looking pretty good.
Definitely definitely, Oh my gosh, I love it.
All right, let's talk about debt. Obviously, we understand a little bit about the properties that you have. Tell me now about any debt that you have, like even on your current property that you're living in.
So our owner occupied, we owe two hundred and thirty thousand, and it is worth about four hundred and fifty you'rey nice, Yes, and the first investment property. We owe one hundred and sixty and last my check that was about two hundred and thirty five thousand. I do a net worth every month, So do you have a spreadsheet for your networth calculator? I do have a spreadsheet.
I'm currently building one out for the She's on the Money community because I'm obsessed with like tracking networth every month and I love updating it. My teammate really excited about that. But that's coming. I'll send you a copy. Don't worry.
Oh, that's amazing.
It'll be very esthetic, it'll be very pretty. But it'll be like a dashboard of keeping track of your net worth.
I'll have to transfer it all over because I think I'm from like December twenty one.
Oh, but you've got heaps, so maybe yours is literally perfect for you. It honestly doesn't even matter how you do it. But if you're doing it, how motivating is it? Where you can see it?
It's going back?
Oh, I get so excited.
Yes, sorry, back onto dead before I forget. And our second one, it is worth about two hundred and sixty five thousand, and we owe two hundred and forty two. We did use the equity from our owner occupied to buy that. So there's not really that much equity in there at the moment, but there will be eventually.
But that makes a lot of sense though. So if you're looking at that going, oh, what percentage of it to your own I'd be like, oh, like not much yet. But you've literally owned it since twenty twenty two, so you're doing really well, like you're at the start of the journey. I don't know if you guys know better mortgages a thirty year can comment. I mean in Latin mortgage literally means till death, which makes you sound a
little bit negative if you tell clients that. So as someone who owns a mortgage breaking practice to a mortgage breaker, probably don't explain the meaning of mortgage to them. It gets a little bit dire. But you go, wow, you've
got thirty years to paid off. But I think it's really interesting, especially talking to you right now at this point in I guess your wealth journey, you've put all your ducks in a row, Like obviously you're making about eight percent on both of those properties, Like that's clearly going to pay off over time, because if you look at the interest rates At the moment, you're not paying
eight percent on your properties yet. So even if you didn't lift a finger or do the renovations that you've got planned or buy another one, like over time, they're just going to tick away. And let's say they extinguish themselves after twenty five years, which I would probably expect them to. Given what you're earning and you know what it's worth, you're then going to have what four hundred plus three hundred dollars a week, every single week coming
in as passive income. Like that's a money win. We're setting ourselves up for success here. I love this.
Thank you. We do have a little bit more debt, but I will explain a bit more why we do currently have a car loan. I know it's consumer debt, but the reason why we did have the cash for the car, but we decided let's put it into renovations, which built our equity up and that's how we purchased the next investment property.
She's got a plan and that's what we like to see. If you say I've got a car loan and be like, oh, what did you buy and then you explained to me, oh, look it actually financially made more sense to do ABC and D. Also, we have two small kids, so we probably really needed the new car to transport them around. I don't care. I just want people to make well educated decisions. I don't mind if you've got a car loan, as long as you're on the track to understanding exactly
why when we're in how. What upsets me is when people are like, oh, got a car loan at eighteen, and I just didn't realize how if it was, or what that meant, or that it would actually cost me four hundred dollars a week. Like that stuff is heartbreaking when people don't have the education. I'm sorry. You just told me about your two investment properties, and you're building equity in your current house, and now you've got a car loan? Do I care that much about that? Not really?
Well, we currently owe now thirty eight thousand. We're very far advanced, so we are on track to pay it off by September this year.
No, you're not hold on your thirty eight thousand dollars and you reckon you're paying it off by September.
It's going to be a push.
Who is she?
So?
My original plan was Christmas, but I reckon, I can bring it forward focus a bit more now that there's yes, no more daycare, or that I reckon, I can smash to September. Oh my gosh, can you please check in and in September we can do it like where are they now?
Episode? Because I just shook that you have the capacity to do that. Tell me, pervy detail, What does your husband earn?
So my husband is a truck driver. His wage goes up a bit more like up and downs. Last year was about one hundred and seven thousand for the year.
But that's pretty good, Like that's a solid income. But then you look at it and go, all right, well you did that or Matt leave like that one oh seven plus what minimum wage, which would be about I don't know, thirty ish max thousand a year from that to kill it. I love it. That's your entire income paying off a debt. I'm just I'm genuinely shook. I'm so proud of you. That makes me want to like hug you you through the screen. We need to know though this stuff doesn't just happen. What is your best
money habit? What can you share with us that we can go all right, it's the start of the year. We're going to need some motivation and we want to copy this money derest because she seems to have her head screwed on.
I did actually reach out to a few friends and go, what do you think you know it's my best money having. Oh I love these and they all agreed, so I'll go. We have a big freezer in our house, like and there's a massive chess freezer. You get charged the same amount whether it's full or empty. So what we do every four to six months we do massive meat shops.
We buy in bulk, so we buy from the meat works, which is a lot cheaper, and then we cut it all up, we cry back it, we put it in the freezer, and then I actually do a freezer inventory, which everyone laughs about.
I'm obsessed. How do you keep that is like on the freezer? Is there a book on your fridge?
Like?
How do we do this?
Currently? It's in my phone at the moment. From there, we do monthly meal plans. Because my husband's a trucked over. It can change a bit, but it's always good because you think about for the month, then you know the weekend's coming up that you've got, you know, to go out to dinner or something on and then from there it's a big more one sorry or no, I'm loving this, And then from there I do weekly shots. But what
I do is I shop online. I try and look at what the specials are on Monday as soon as I come out at five o'clock.
Now I'm obsessed with you. I have heard of this before and the dedication are you kidding?
And then I obviously on the Wednesday morning when all the specials come out, I rego through if there's anything gone on sale.
So you get both sales. She's a genist.
I do a click and collect for like a Thursday Friday, and that will last us, yeah, through pretty much, and you possibly on the weekend we drop in and grab a blow for bread. But I find shopping online, doing click and collect has saved us so much money because we don't go through the aisles and go, oh I want this, Oh maybe this will be good. It's just to me going, okay, this is our budget, this is what we're going to spend, and that's it.
Oh sorry, gosh, I'm obsessed. You can't tell us all this and not tell us what you spend though, that's a bit rude. What do you spend on groceries?
So we aim for every week to be under two hundred dollars.
Under two hundred dollars. And you've got two kids, yes, oh my gosh, have you got any pets?
We have one dog?
And is that included in your weekly food truck? You've got two kids, a dog, a truck drive, a husband, and we all know they eat a lot yourself, and it's less than two hundred bucks a week. That is just no meat. That's still crazy. You and I both know that's crazy. Like I'm spending way more than that, and I just have one husband.
At the moment. Maybe in a little bit when we're a bit more cash flow positive, but at the moment, I have a goal. This is what I want to do. This is all we can spend.
I'm not a food prepper, so like I just I don't have the mental capacity. I think it is very adhd lead. I don't like having a meal plan where it says on Thursday you have to have tacos because the second I see that, I go, well, I don't want that and I want something different. So I am the worst when it comes to meal planning. But tell me how you pick your I guess recipes and is that something that you're like no, no, no, like we're
fine with it, we don't mind. Or are they more complex like buy in bulk, you know, make curried sausages that last six weeks? Like what kind of meals are we making here?
I currently own a Thermo Mix, which I think is amazing. I bought that at the start of my health Jenny that I had.
Oh, of course you've had a good weight loss journey as well. In addition to everything else, she's just like this little queen glowing up her life.
Oh thank you. So from there it's all kind of entwined because on my weight loss journey, I realized, you know, what's in jars and everything like that. So we make a lot of stuff from scratch. Yes, we still use jars for certain things, but no, I go through each day and like you know, we do a lot of rice and passa dishes, a lot of veggies, trying to get veggies into the kids. I am a part of it's called the Skinny Mixes, which is Thermo mix, but
it's healthy. So like the easy mac and cheese that are on there has four hidden vegetables in it and the kids absolutely adore it.
So cool. I would adore that too.
It is really really good surprisingly, like you think, oh, it's got sweet potato, zichini, carrot and another vegetable that I can't think of, and you think, oh that's a bit weird, and Mac and Jo work it is so good. It works.
Yeah, oh how good it is that?
And I enjoy cooking as well, so I enjoy baking and whatnot. So that's something a pastime that I enjoy.
So I love that it works for you. I wish I could be more like that. I just know with my habits that is so unobtainable, Like it just makes me envious. If I'm being honest, I want to know, now, what is your worst money habit?
It's not groceries, no, No, My worst money habit is when I'm at work or when my husband is away and I'll be you know, I haven't pulled out the food for dinner, so I know he's away. I will do uber eats or get takeaway. So that is something that I'm working on. I have a goal set this year or smart goal, so I've even got a little visual calendar that way, I am going to tick off every day at work saying I didn't bring anything to lunch, I don't have leftovers, I'm going to have noodles. I'm
not going to get takeaway. So I went through last year's you know statements for the year, and just seeing how much I spent for the year, I wasn't happy and I was like, no, I need to get this under control.
So, yeah, is that something that you do every year, like go through all of your annual lives spending and go, well, actually, once I add it up, I'm not all that happy with that.
Yes, I did it, not last year the year before with buy alcohol. So we did do a lot of renovations that year, so we bought a lot of trade's alcohol. But just seeing the amount there, I was like, oh, sorry. Then we focused last year of you know, and we cut it down by half, I think, which is really really good.
I love looking at things on that bigger scale. It works really well for me because you know, here and there. Let's be honest, I think we can all justify a new Breats on a Friday night, like it's so easy.
You go, oh, it was forty bucks, Like at the end of the day, like it's fine, but when you extrapolate that out and go, oh, actually, that habit's costing me a lot of money, And I didn't really realize it'd be also powerful to be able to step back and go, no, I'm going to change that, and you can actually see the tangible change, like it's just it's so helpful. So I feel like your worst money habit is actually going to become a pretty good one because
you're so aware of it. Money, Darist, I'm genuinely so impressed, Like you have, you know, so much tenacity, but also just such a plan to go from being in you know, thirty plus thousand dollars worth of consumer debt to owning three properties and talking about another one, and you know you've gone on this massive finance journey. You're a mortgage broker, but now you're becoming a financial advisor. And I'm just
genuinely like what the hecking? Like this woman doesn't just have it all together financially, she's also doing like meat shops every four to six months and really getting it, Like who is that organized with two small children? But then they also think they're only a B plus, So let's have a look at this probably will have to argue with you here. I do apologize, But do you really think that you're still a B plus when all of that gets laid out on the table.
I just know I still have a way to go. Like I do understand, I know the car loan. I think that's my biggest thing that's holding me back. Once that's paid off, That's why I'm so aggressive, like aggressively it. Once that's paid off, I think I'll feel a lot better. I'll be a lot more free. Sorry, because I don't like consumer debt, and you know the way that it worked. It worked for us, but I'm like, just get rid of it.
Now, fair. So what would it take to get you to that AA plus just being consumer debt free? Or is there anything else that you're like, No, I'd really want to do XYZ Like I feel like so many of us have our own ideas of what an A actually looks like because there's no real definition, right, it's just how we feel about it.
I think what the carline is paid off, I think I would be happy to move to an A maybe A minus mate.
And that's easy because you're going to smash it out by September. How good is that?
All?
Right money dice. Unfortunately, that is all we have time for today. But I have adored this. This has been such a fun conversation but also a conversation where I'm like, what the heck how does she do this? And it just proves you don't have to earn millions to be a multiple property owner. It's so exciting meeting somebody who's like, no, no, no, we have a pretty standard income. Like you know, at some point I love to crack six figures, and you know,
have a two hundred thousand dollar household income. But even without that, you still have properties and they're all really yielding well and they're working well, and over your wealth journey, I just know you're gonna smash it. Like it just makes me so excited. So congratulations, but also thank you for sharing that with my community. I think they're gonna love it.
Thank you so much for the opportunity I've been It's been amazing being on with you.
Oh my gosh, No, of course, 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.
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