MONEY DIARIES: She's Got The F.I.R.E

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 on the Money the podcast Millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our Money Daries episodes where I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down with one of our She's on the Money community members and learning 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, She's on the Money.

At twenty eight, after ten years of travel, fun work and a bunch of health issues, I decided to change careers. I was broke starting over and owned nothing at thirty eight. I've kicked off a twelve year plan to retire by fifty. Money, Darrist, retire by fifty and you only started recently?

What the hecking?

How it's the plan that started this year? Like, I'm hyper focused on it, on both things in life.

Well, we need to know how you're going to do it, because that's an epic plan. And also who doesn't want to retire at fifty? Like I think everyone listening is going to go, yup. I want your advice?

What are you doing? Tell us?

So let's dive straight in money, Darist. So I asked you to give your money habits a grade from A three to F What would you give yourself?

I think that I'm a solid B plus.

A B plus and you're still planning on retiring early, Like this is giving me hope for me? All right, let's dive in further. My favorite question, as always is money, Darrist. Can you tell us a little bit more about your money story.

I come from a real working class family. I'm the youngest four kids. My parents met later in life, and my mum tells the story that when they got married, they had five hundred dollars in the bank account, and I feel like that's really how my life has translated as well. I don't know how they did it exactly, but all of us kids just had this work ethic from a very young age. We all started working as

Oh good, great first job.

Well it was a long first job. I worked there for ten years.

Oh epic, yeap, so I work.

They're all through high school and all through university. I was the first one in my family to go to university.

Oh congrats, how exciting.

Thank you. It had its own challenges, though, because I was the first one. I felt like I also lacked a lot of direction.

You were like, I don't know what I meant to be doing here. What do you mean I have to self plan my studying. No one around me has ever done this. What the hecking?

It's not like school, is it.

No?

And I was working full time at the same time, I was having a good time. I was partying, I was making memories with friends, doing all the things you should do.

Oh, you were doing everything. You were busy. Busy, Yeah, I was busy.

I always had a focus, you know. I was always good at saving for something that I wanted, So you know, obviously the first target for everyone in a car go to schoolies.

Oh yes, so did all that.

And then when I was twenty one, I did an around the world trip with some friends. I took eight weeks off work and we went around the world and it was just like such an eye opening experience for me.

Do you remember what that cost you? Because that is wild. Eight weeks would have been spin.

Off considering I'm thirty eight, though, you have to like it probably was something like eight thousand dollars back then. I remember the airfare was seventeen hundred dollars.

That must be nice.

Yeah, it was fun. I still spent everything that I had in my bank account and came back home.

I feel like that's a ride of passage, though, like, if you're going to do that, you have to spend everything and come home with like twenty two cents and start from scratch, like there's no in between.

Negative two thousand dollars more likely.

Yeah, there you go.

Yes, I came home and I started saving again, and I thought, you know, that was so much fun. I am going to go live in London like everyone else who's twenty one and wants to move over to the ease and have those fun couple of years. So I remember this one. I saved up forty thousand dollars or what. Full disclosure. I was living with my family on and

Forty thousand dollars in a year is epic, Like if I moved back in with my parents and saved forty grand I'd be over the moon. Like that's halfway to a home deposit. In fact, in some situations that's a whole home deposit.

Yeah, and in retrospect, probably money better spent.

No, we don't regret past things. That's not on the cards here.

I have no regrets in life.

I really don't good.

And so I took a year off and I backpacked for a year, and I spent every cent of that forty thousand dollars and I ended up in London on someone so far who I'd met in Europe, and I ended up staying there for two years. Really fun, you know, did all the things you're supposed to do, traveled whenever I could, worked.

Five jobs, oh my gosh.

Did whatever I had to do to get the money flowing in, and take weekend trips to Malta, to Italy wherever I could go.

All right, it must be nice.

What's really fun? I definitely am pushing all the young people in my life. I'm like, just drop what you're doing and.

Just going I love that so much.

I didn't get to do that right of passage, and like, while I don't regret it because I feel like I've ended up where I need to be. Also, like in the US, when I hear about other people's adventures, I'm like, I'm not that cool, like and you know what, I'm actually so type A that I don't think I could have ever done any type of travel that wasn't like

Each So you know, I'm a twin and my twin sister didn't come with me, and it was the first time we'd ever spent time apart, and it was a real shock, and she didn't come. I tried to talk her into coming. I tried to get her to stay when she came and visited, and it just wasn't her thing. And she doesn't regret it at all either. She knows that we had a great time.

Yeah, she's more like me, like if there's no control, like I'm out, Like I can't deal with that, and that's very her.

So yeah, like everyone has what they want to do on their list, like she did things differently and we read united it obviously, of course, relationships stronger than ever.

I love this. So then more happened.

So I did come home for a little bit in between, and I felt really like a fish out of water. I didn't know what I wanted out of life. I didn't know where I wanted to live. A lot of my friends were scattered around the world. I've lost contact with a lot of friends. So I decided to go back Epathees and I went to Canada, free year.

Oh, Canada's beautiful, good choice.

Yeah, And it was really difficult actually to find a job in Canada. It's a slower pace. It takes real time to like get a proper job and put in roots there. So I kind of felt like I was capable of more, and I'm like, what am I doing? Like I've had this degree from when I was nineteen, I've done absolutely nothing with it, and so at that point I was quite unwell as well. So I decided to come home and just sort of focus on what

About doing something that's fair.

So I looked into my options and I always had an interest in accounting and finance, and I was always sort of focused on.

That very sexy topic I've heard.

Yeah, so I decided to do my masters. I came home, I rolled in masters. I took back an old job. So at the time in between, I was working as a travel agent.

Oh, that would have been perfect.

You had traveled so much, so you would have had so many good recommendations and known how to book and get stuff done, like you would have been a perfect travel agent.

I ended up working for a really successful travel agent who had her own office, so she was so busy she couldn't keep up with her own workload. So she paid me a casual rate to just come sit at her house into a hall her work for her, which was perfect. It took all the stress of the job out of it, and I had an hourly rate coming in and I could go study and not stress about work.

Oh how good.

And you still got to like flourish in an area that you like knew really well.

I love that.

Yeah, it's really fun. So I got my masters, and I by the time i'd done all of that, I was turning thirty, and I was starting to feel the pressure, like I don't own anything, I'm still broke. I'm probably going to have to take a grad position. And start from the bottom up. So that was all a bit terrifying. So I took a grad position and I was back to fifty K.

You took a grad position in what give us some context?

So I did actually originally take a grad position in Big four accounting. Yeah, it was not for me.

It's not for me either. Bad.

I was thirty, I'd been working for fifteen years. I was definitely not in the same headspace ll life what for word as.

Your peers just we were in the same chapter of that book.

No, And also I wasn't really willing to work eighty hours a week in a job to work my way to the top when I had been doing that my entire life.

What do you mean, But that's so expected, don't you sell your soul?

Yeah?

Exactly, And I wasn't so And you should be grateful to them.

Should I tell way too many people that I quit their job after five months, they probably a like want me to sign something to say I never worked there.

They're like, please stop talking trash about us, And you were like, can't stop, word stop.

Sorry, Yeah, it's horrible.

I actually made a couple of really great friends. And this is the thing. Everything that I've done in life. I've taken a friend with me, no regrets, like everything's been great. So I ended up calling the travel company that I used to work for as an agent and said, I've just finished my accounting degree, my master's I'm going to do my CPA, like you got anything for me? And so they acquired me. Oh how cool, which was much better, much more on my speed talking about travel,

I love that. So tell me about today. What do you do for work? How much money are you earning?

So I work as a financial controller.

Your big dog job.

Yes, I've been working for about four years since a financial controller and my current salary is one hundred and thirty thousand plus.

Super very nice.

Yeah, and I also have a side job, a side hustle.

I suppose that work ethic hasn't stopped, has it.

No, So I earn about fifteen thousand a year from that.

What do you do? Is it online? Is it out? What type of role is that?

So I bought a private business with a few friends and we run the business together. I obviously don't work in the business full time. Two of my colleagues work full time in the business, and two of us have full time jobs and do this on the side. So it's a business that I worked in for many years and we have a real passion for it and we want to find a business to buy. And it took some time, but we found one and we bought it in December of last year. So I'm a minor stakeholder.

How cool is that? And then you've got an income coming from that.

Yeah. So obviously the end goal for me, I think would be to step full time into that business. Yeah, but it's got a lot of growth to happen before that can support another salary.

Yeah, of course.

Oh my gosh, how exciting is that. So let's get back to your big money goals. I know you said earlier when you wrote in your planning on retiring at fifty and you've got a twelve year plan. Would you say that's your big money goal? Yes, So tell me more about that. How does that work? How do you know it's going to take twelve years? How did you work it all out?

So I guess because I've been working for so long, I just kind of had this picture in my head of working to sixty seven and going that is not fun. Most people get to sixty seven they're either unwell or they can't travel, they can't do the things they want to do, and it just gave me really sad, to be honest, and I thought, fifty is a great age. You're still young, you can still travel, you can spend time with friends and family. So I just have it in my head that fifties the day I'm going to

Great.

Yeah, So at the moment, I'm thinking I need about six hundred thousand in my share portfolio. To do that, I've got to invest about four to five hundred dollars a week into the portfolio from now until fifty.

Yep.

And I think I've used conservative numbers. Maybe not. Maybe it's going to go up and down.

And we want to be conservative because I'd like to underpromise and then over deliver instead of being absolutely stumped.

Yeah, and look, the reality is is I'll get to fifty and I'll be like, oh for more years and then maybe I'll you know, buy something, or you know, reality will set in.

Okay, it might change, or you might go, you know, I'm not ready to stop working. I actually want to do you know, some part time stuff and maybe you travel for six months of the year and then come back to work and like balance it. Differently, I feel like the word retirement sucks because people just assume it's old and it's boring and you sit at home and

Do I want to work. Yeah.

No, Like, imagine being in the situation where you're like, I don't have to go to work anymore, in no worries, like.

What Yeah, And that's what I'm aiming for, is flexibility. That's the one thing that really lacks in you know, a nine to five.

How much did you calculate that you need in your superannuation?

So I was hoping to get about the same amount in my super, about six hundred and fifty thousand, because I figure it'll keep compounding after fifty a sort of. I think I wanted it to have over a million by the time I was sixty seven, which I think it will. I'd probably have to see someone at some point to kind of sound boarded out and make sure that my numbers are right. But at the moment, this is the back of the napkin kind of calculation.

No.

I like it because if you've got six hundred thousand dollars in each of those, by the time you reach that goal of sixty seven, you would probably have about one point two million in super and that will give you an income of about sixty thousand dollars, which is pretty sexy if you've already paid off your house, because then you don't have mortgage or payments, and then from then on in it will depend on whether you're drawing down that sixty thousand dollars at which point the compounding

Yeah, if I live a pretty lean life, so sixty thousand to me is a pretty good number to eight for. But the reality is is, like you probably want to go on really nice holidays. You probably want to try and do some business class airfairs, maybe.

So yeah, when I was a financial plannarias to talk to people about that, and it's very serious because I think if you sit down and you know, I said to you, all right, well, your situation right now, you're earning one thirty plus super like you're saving and investing, so you know, let's strip it back and pretend that you were on you know, eighty thousand dollars a year.

Would that be enough?

And you go, well, yeah, eighty thousand, that would be great if I didn't have a mortgage. But the reality of retirement is you have a lot more free time, and when you have free time, you spend more money. You're not going to work every day and packing your lunch and it's all good. Like if you're home twenty four seven eating lunch at home, you're probably not that enthusiastic about You're probably planning more holidays, You're probably going out for more coffees. Like, we actually have a bit

So it's different for everybody. But I'm always like.

No, you probably want to retire with a hire income than the one you earn right now, even though you probably don't want to hear that.

I know. And that's the thing I'm battling with because my sister's quite often like, you know, you need to enjoy life too, and I definitely do. But she's like, go and spend some of your money, enjoy it, and I'm like, I am. I'm still traveling, I'm still going out for dinner, like I'm not holding back on anything. I'm a fine line between the hardcore fire and still living my life. Yeah.

I think I've said this on the podcast before, and that's fire. So for those of you playing along at the home who haven't heard about fire, it's financial independence retire early. It's kind of a movement where a lot of people will prioritize saving and investing above and beyond lifestyle, so they'll save and invest like eighty percent of their income and that works so well. Like it's crazy the people that can do it, I applaud.

I'm not that person.

Like, I think it's been made very clear, like I'm a lifestyle girly, Like I don't think that I have enough delayed gratification to put it off You, my friend, probably way better at it than me, and you'll reap the benefits. But you know the marshmallow experiment with the kids, Like I ate the marshmallow straight up, Like I just ate it already, Like I didn't wait for two marshmallows to be put on my plate ten minutes later, like I have no chill, and I will be buying myself

I love it.

I feel like I've got a couple of friends doing fire as well, and I mean when they do, I'm like, well, I'll just pay for the coffee. Yeah, Like I want them to achieve that, but like we're still going out for coffee.

Yeah. Like I would never say no if a good friend said, do you want to meet me for lunch? I would never say no, no because of money. Never no.

I love that.

I feel like there needs to be some level of balance because at the end of the day, you were saying before, basically, old age is a privilege. Denied to many, right, like, not everybody gets to go and live that life, and if we're just working towards it and don't live life in the interim, like I don't.

Know, maybe I'm justifying my spending.

No, you're totally fine. You have to enjoy your life and you have to be happy, and that's my philosophy really exactly.

All right, let's go to a really quick break on the flip side. I want to know more about your investments. I know that you've got a little holiday house we haven't touched on yet. I want to know about your debts and your best and worst money habits, because I feel like we have heaps to learn from you.

So guys, don't go anywhere.

All right, money dirice, We are back and you are investing every single month you mentioned before it's like five hundred dollars a week.

Is that correct?

Yeah, So I salary sacrificed two hundred and fifty a week into my super and then I do four hundred a week into the share portfolio.

Who is she?

That's crazy? So tell me about your investments. How did you pick them, how are you managing them? Where did the sauce start?

This has been kicked off this year, so it was after my thirty eighth birthday I started, So we're probably five months in.

That's okay.

So I've really picked some random stuff to begin with, like anyone does. I just bought a few stocks that I was familiar with, some single stop. I also have some money invested in a business I used to work it, so all up in shares. I've got fifty thousand dollars.

Oh my gosh, she's well on the way.

Twenty five is tied up in the private business we're running, and then twenty five thousand is just ETF so random bank of ones. What everyone does. I think at some point I think once that gets to maybe fifty thousand, I probably should get some advice and make sure it's fall in the right thing, because I just hear you know, vas figihg, and I'm.

Like, okay, correct, Yeah, I feel like so many people do that. They go, this is tried and true and tested, let's start here.

Yes, So it's already had its ups and down, so I'm like kind of more comfortable with how it's going now at the moment. It's half between Cheresey's and race because I just didn't know which one was the right one. Yeah, So at some point someone's going to say to me, no, put it all hair and have it in one spot and do this, and that's what I'll do. But for now it's just started. So that's got about yeah, twenty five thousand.

And it's how good. That's so exciting.

In my super I've got one hundred and fifty thousand.

Oh very nice.

Yeah, I did have a few years away.

I'm sorry, that's still so high. Like you're a baby, you're still thirty eight and you've got one fifty and super.

Yes.

Please.

Also worth saying though, in the peak of COVID it was sixty five thousand dollars, so I don't know what that says about the share market, but like obviously it can come pretty quickly.

I think, yeah, and that would be compounding. I don't want to scare anybody, but it's been a few years since COVID nineteen. In fact, it's been five years. Like that's actually wild, so compounding. And then also the markets were down during COVID, so like, I'm not surprised. I've been watching mine slowly, slowly get up and up, and I feel like it's it's had.

A good run.

So maybe it's time if you haven't looked at your super to go and look at it and put it in the right fund for you and the right risk profile to make sure you're in the best possible position.

Yeah, so make sure that's alling growth and you.

Know, doing what I wanted to do smart.

And I have at the moment one hundred and fifty thousand in cash.

Oh okay, big dog.

It's in my offset for now because part of my strategy to pay the house off in ten years, So I kind of want to keep a big chunk in the offset, but I also like having that flexibility there that I should probably put fifty thousand of it into the share portfolio. Just a bit nervous to do that.

I don't know why, because it's a big chunk of money, and it's very normal to be nervous about making big financial decisions on big chunks of money when it has your future at risk. I don't know if I'm overstepping here at all, But with everything that you've said, it sounds like you're well on the way to achieving this.

But I know you said, oh, maybe when.

I get to like fifty thousand in ETFs, I'll get some advice, my friend, I'd be talking to a financial advisor. Now you've got more than enough cash. You've got more than enough super like you are well on the way. Like I feel like when people are planning on retiring early, even when you're you know, just in a position where you do have a bit of cash and you want

So for me, I'd be like, yeah, actually, let me set you.

Up with one of my financial advisor friends after the show if you're keen and we can get that ball rolling.

Yeah, that's probably what I thought you would say. So, yeah, that's the cash, and then I have my home, and then I have an investment property that I own with my brother in.

Law, which is very cool. So that's all your investments. I want to know about this property thing. So how did you come to own an investment property with someone else?

So my brother in law has always had an apartment at the coast that we've stayed in all the time, and he did make a comment recently about me being a freeloader. Yeah, I shouldn't say recently. This is about three years ago.

That's recent. Let's go with that.

He had to sell that property because they bought their dream house in twenty twenty one and they had to make a few decisions and they decided to sell it, and he instantly regretted it, and he said, we need to buy something at the coast. And he goes, if we buy something, you're buying with us because you're there all the time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you go to buy two.

Yeah. So we actually called up a guy that lived in the building complex that he owned in previously, and he owned five units in the building, and we said, we want one. Yeah. He goes, give me X amount and it's yours, and so we took it.

Oh my gosh, how good. That regret was real strong?

Hey, oh so strong. I kind of say it's my investment property because on paper it's all in my name.

Yeah.

Because they bought the dream house, they couldn't actually buy it.

Yeah, they couldn't get the finance for it immediately. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah. We have a very trusting relationship and we contribute equally to everything. It's just in my name. So I'm kind of tapped out in terms of property, like I.

Was gonna say, you'd be tapped out in terms of borrowing capacity now, yes, yeah.

Which is the only downside. But obviously it's a family holiday house. We have so many good memories there. We have a really good time every time we go.

But also it's a good investment, it sounds like, and it's a good investment.

So we maid five hundred and seventy thousand for it, and they just sold two in the building, but they're all completely identical and they sold for seven twenty.

Oh very nice.

Yeah, so it's been a good investment.

Yeah.

Great, And what is the mortgage on that sitting at.

That sitting at four hundred and seventy five.

Thousand, Okay, so you're sitting pretty on that. I feel like, even though it ties you up for borrowing capacity for a short period of time, it's actually not the end of the world because it's a good investment anyway, And what would have you done with borrowing capacity by a property to be in exactly the same position. And it's probably gotten you ahead in terms of cash flow as well, because you're only technically paying for half. Yes, so that's not bad at all. And then so that's at four

Yeah, so it's worth about five hundred and fifty thousand, and the mortgage is four hundred and fifty ten thousand.

Oh, she's got that down a fair bit.

Yeah, I recently sold a property to buy this one. It was a little bit of a down size, which is why I have the excess cat.

Yeah.

But yeah, it was a lifestyle choice. It's a much better location the inner city, close to restaurants and shopping, and it's just really great vibe.

I love that.

And I mean, if you're at four fifteen and then you said before that you've got one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in your offset, that means what you're only paying your mortgage at two hundred and sixty five thousand.

That would make you feel very good.

And I mean, at the end of the day, like I love trucking, net wealth of like clients and also myself, and I'm sure you're doing the same, like, once I work all of that out with your shares and your superannuation, like you're basically broken even, Like that's very sexy.

I like this for us.

Yeah, but that's sort of it for investments right now.

Oh, that's it.

We've just spent the last ten minutes talking about all your investments and where you're going. My friend, you are doing so well, love it so much. You've obviously got the four hundred and fifteen thousand in your current home, and then you've got what the four seventy five leftover, but obviously it's only half of that. Technically, what other debts are you in? If you have any?

None?

None, slay. I love this.

There's no car, there's no zip pay, there's no after pay. Tell me a bit more about your journey with debt. Is that something you've ever worked with or is that something that you've ever had?

Yes, so there's probably two stories. I probably shouldn't tell you.

No, I want to know.

I want to know, Like everyone knows that I ended up in forty grand of personal debt.

It's no secret.

Like, I don't think we should judge past us on the decisions that we made when we just didn't have the information that we deserved, right, very true.

So I've always used consumer debt, but I feel like I've used it to my advantage. Well, I mean debatable. It got to a point where in COVID, obviously, when I realized I was living paycheck to paycheck and we're facing the fact that we might lose our jobs. All these things were happening. That to me was the turning point where I was like, Okay, let's start listening to

Yeah.

Yeah. When I came home to do my Masters, I was in a bit of a bad car accident and I had no money and I had to buy a new car, and I wanted a brand new car because I was really freaked out about security and stuff. So I bought a fourteen thousand dollar card. Yeah, on my credit card.

On your credit card?

Yeah, And then I balanced, transferred it to a credit card that had interest free for twelve months, and I paid that off over twelve month.

Oh my gosh, she's a genius. She got the car interest free.

Okay, I mean I can't condone this because I feel like it's a slippery slope, right Like, if I did that, I know that I'd get in trouble. But you did that and it worked out you And that's why we're like, she's on the money because we can learn. But one of the most important things that we can do is learn what would work for us and what wouldn't. And I know that wouldn't work for me, but I'm low key a little bit jealous that it worked out for you.

Yeah, So that was the first Probably people were calling me an idiot, but it all worked out well.

Obviously You're like, yeah, idiot, but did you pay interest on your car loan?

That's what I thought.

That was my comeback every single time. Thank you, Victoria. And so then when I got hyper focused on buying a property, I actually had a broker laugh in my face and tell me to come back in six months when I actually had money.

Excuse me, you clearly didn't come to Zella money because we would never No, I broke a laughed in your face. That broker doesn't deserve their job by I know.

I obviously didn't use that broker. So I went directly to my bank, where i'd been banking for twenty years and I had a great relationship there. So I went there and I said, be honest with me, and they said the most you can borrow was two hundred and forty thousand okay, And I went, okay, good to know. Yeah, So I went and got a personal loan for twenty thousand dollars. And I came back three months later and said,

Oh my god, you're giving me so much anxiety.

It was a lot of anxiety.

Like I don't mean to be rued, but you clearly didn't have a financial advisor. I did not like, we would not have let you do this.

I just wanted to be living in a house. Well it was an apartment, let's be real, yep. And I just wanted to be independent. I didn't want to rely on anyone. I didn't want to borrow money. It's probably worth saying that I've never in my life borrowed money yep, from my parents from a bank. Ever, so I borrowed that money and it was on a seven year loan. And then I got the mortgage obvious sleep and at the same time, I was still traveling, so I still

I think, Okay, so you actually smashed it out, so you've kind of proven to yourself you're able to save in this capacity before.

Yeah. Great.

And then I started focusing on the mortgage. And it was at that point that I decided, Okay, I'm in a great spot. Now I'm going to upgrade. So I sold that apartment for three hundred thousand.

Oh my gosh, yeah, which is great money. When yeah, it was really good.

That was during COVID, so I was twenty twenty one, and then I bought my next place, which was the biggest spend so far that I'd ever made. But it was the dream place and it was beautiful and it was in a nice suburb. So I bought that and I had no doubt at that point. So it took me about a year or a year and a half during COVID to really just get rid of all of that, sell everything, and then start again. It was kind of my pattern is just starting over.

I like it.

But I'm also so impressed that that worked out for you, because if that had gone backwards, you would have been in a pickle, my friend.

And you know, I would have got laughed out of any bank. Like at the time, I wanted to make an investment at work, and I just had to scraunch the money together because there was no way I was getting any more lending from anyone like I was at my CAP. I was still not on the best salary then, and yeah, I just had to focus on clearing them all and improving the credit score, doing all those things.

And you did it.

Yeah, I did it.

Oh my god, I'm so glad.

I asked about debts even tho way, I was like, I know she doesn't really have any other debts, because that's the story I got.

Yes, Actually, I also had a very large HEX set. It was fifteen five thousand dollars when I finished my Masters, And I'm so dirty right now because I paid it off last year.

Yeah, but I think that I might.

Get a credit anyway, because I did have a seventeen thousand dollars debt at June first last year. Right, but I paid it off and now everyone's getting a credit.

Wait, what date did you pay off your HEX.

I think it was November last year, was my last payment?

Right, Okay, you will probably get an indexation refund. Then I was about to say, I've had a few people message me and they go, am I going to get a refund because I paid off my HEX step because I didn't want to get indexed. I'm like, no, no, no, they're giving refunds to the people that were index Like, you're not going to get a refund. But if you then were paying from the first of July to November the index rate of it was seven point one percent, that will probably be refunded to you.

But it will be refunded via your.

Tax return, which is fine.

I mean free money, like money you didn't think was going to come your way. I mean it's nice, So thank you very much. I'm looking forward to that because I was one of the people that didn't pay off anymore if my HEX decks. I looked at my HEX and I said, look, seven point one percent is really high.

Yeah, And you know, I would also say to someone like I would not have paid off that HEX set if it weren't for the fact that I bought my current place last year because it was affecting my borrowing power. I was in mortgage prison, and that's the only reason I paid it off, Like, honestly, just let it come out of your pay like there's no point paying it before.

You mortgage, yeah, unless you've got a good reason. But I also feel like, do the maths work it out? Chat to a broker, because I have had people come through Zella money before and they have paid off their hecks because they thought that's what we would want them to do, And in reality, we would have much preferred to have that thirty thousand dollars as a bigger deposit because now they had to go back to the drawing board and save for you know, six more months to

Or personal loans.

So good to talk to someone before you make a big decision like that, because it is a big decision about a lot of money, right.

Yeah, And it hurt, like to pay seventeen thousand.

Yeah, all at once.

Yeah, And they don't even send you like a thank you note, like what the hecking? Like I just gave you seventeen grand, like you could at least buy me a coffee?

Yeah, I know, and the brokers are like, can you print out a statement proving it? I don't believe you.

Oh excuse me. I'm so glad you didn't use those brokers straight into the bin? All right, money dirist, I want to know. I feel like we've got heaps to learn from you. What's your best money haveit?

I think that when I have a goal in my mind, I'm very good at putting money towards it.

I think so too, like I have learned a lot in this last half an hour. I feel like when you want to achieve something, we're doing it, but we're like doing it twice for sure.

I don't know how I got that. It's obviously something I'm focusing on a lot more because I did get to that point where I got a little bit unraveled. But obviously I was able to grow my salary, which was handy.

And sometimes we've got to get a little bit unraveled, so we know what that feels like so that we don't do it again, for sure.

But yeah, that would probably be fairly good money have it. I'm a little bit too generous.

I think sometimes that's not a bad thing. I think that's a kind thing, like not the end of the world. Would you say that's your worst money have it?

Yeah, because I'm on the cusp of, you know, fiercely saving but then also wanting to live my life. I am a bit of a splurge spender, and especially when it comes to health, like, I will try anything once, like I will try every specialist. I will try the new treatments. I love a good steam room, I love a sauna.

Oh who doesn't a little bit lucks?

I mean, you have a high income at the end of the day, and you don't have any kids, and you already have a mortgage.

I feel like you deserve the.

Facial you know, yes, thank you, You definitely deserve it. So you're a bit of a splurge spender. Has that gotten in the way of your saving?

Sometimes? Yeah, for sure? And it's usually a trip. Like usually someone goes, oh, like, do you want to maybe go to Fiji for a week, And I'll be like.

Okay, shure, Well yes, obviously I want to go to Fiji for a week. Who you are asking?

I know, And I will definitely prioritize things like that over a goal that can change that I'm flexible with for sure.

Fair all right, at the start of this episode, you told me that you think you're a B plus. Like, I'm going to argue with you, because I think you're way better than a B plus, Like you are killing it. But reflecting on everything that we've spoken about, do you think that you are still at a B plus? If so, tell me why If not, what is it going to take to get to that A plus?

What does that look like?

In my head, It's okay to be a B plus because the A plus means that I'm having to sacrifice a little bit more, which I don't think I'm willing to do. I'm okay with being a bit spendy here and there if it means, you know, life is more enjoyable, a little bit fun along the way. So I think I'm comfortable being a B plus. Maybe if the years, you know, get a bit easy, yeah, I'll save a little bit more and try and own a bit more money. Maybe. I don't know.

Nah, I disagree.

I think you're more of an A, and you're an A because of that mindset, because you're so aware that you want to still live life and find that balance.

Yeah it does affect your credit score.

Yeah, look it does. And it's definitely a do as I say, not as I do kind of thing. We're just sharing this so that you can learn from our money direst not necessarily replicate her behavior. But I mean, you do you with the right tools and resources, right for sure? Money direst It has been an absolute pleasure having a chat with you. Unfortunately, that is all we have time for today, but thank you for letting me share your story with the community.

They are going to love it.

And your friend that bullied you into coming on the show, I thank her because this.

Was so so worth it.

She'll appreciate that.

I love that.

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