Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr
the Order Kerney Whalbury 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 welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to my favorite episode of the week, Money Diaries, where I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down with one of our beautiful she'es on the Money community members and talking all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week the team got a message and it sounded exactly
like this. Hi, Victoria. Growing up, I lived on a farm during the drought where money was tight and was always told things were too expensive. It made me really anxious as a kid and anxious about money. Now, I'm a farmer and I have investments in shares and farming and multiple side hustles that we make between one hundred and two hundred thousand dollars extra per year from. I'm in a same sex relationship, and I'm currently going through the surrogacy process to have a baby. Money Diaris, I'm
so excited to talk to you. Welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
Oh my gosh, I think you're the first guy that we've had on the pod. How great is this?
Well, I'm on it to be the first, hopefully one of many.
It's not because I don't want them, it's because no one's written.
In Well, I'm a big fan.
We can only share the stories that people want to share with us, you know. Oh my gosh, I'm really really excited because there's just so much in your story that I want to unpack, Like that is a lot, and you've condensed it into a very short paragraph and it just leaves a lot of questions. So, as always, let's start the podcast in exactly the same way I always do. Money Doris, I want to know what great would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F.
I've given this a lot of thought, and I think now with the investments I've taken in my own education with finance and everything, that I'll be comfortable to give myself an A and A.
Oh.
I love this. I'm probably not going to fight you at the end, and last week I did fight somebody, so like, this is a really good turnaround from me. I want to know now, you've obviously given us a really good summary of wave from where you are now, but let's dive in a little bit deeper. I want to know more about your money story. Can you please share whatever you're comfortable with?
Yes. So I think it all stems back from my parents put up when I was about five, and not that I really remember money before then, but after that, I remember Mum she went to Tafe and got educated and started from basically nothing, and I remember, you know, she rented for ages and then she could afford a house and brought a first house and it was such a big milestone. And I remember seeing that, and I think that's a big sort of role model sort of
mentality that I grew up with. But in my teenage years, both parents remarried and I would live sort of in between Mum and dad each week. But through my teenage years we went through a decade long drought, which was a really really long one for us. And with farming, droughts happened, and things happen and you sort of prepare for it. But ten years is a long time to you know, have minimal income or you know that sort of thing. So that a way sort of made me
a little bit anxious about money, I guess. And I was always an anxious kid growing up. I never you know, did school sports or went on school camps or anything like that. Sort of struggled through that, and then I think from all that, even into my adulthood eighteen through to twenty three, Yeah, I couldn't even go into like
shops or rarely do the grocery shop. I could do little ones, but there was a couple of times I would get the trolley full and then ditch it through the dog frudial and run out there because I couldn't go through the checkout, which is a little bit embarrassing. That's not embarrassing, but it's all part of the journey.
And I think that I'm grateful for all those hurdles that I went through along the way, and I think it sort of molds you into the person that you are and how I am with money now, and I'm really thankful for that. Like I always think, oh, what would life be like with my parents back together again? But I think, you know, they weren't happy, and it's probably the best thing that happened long term, because I wouldn't be where I am today or were my family today.
So but yeah, and then after that, we lost our house to a fire, Oh my god, and that was our family farm home and that was a massive thing. And I had no control of my anxiety or depression at that stage, and that was real rock bottom. But then with the rebuild of the house, my dad and my grandparents gave me the task of being in charge of the rebuild and I was like, no way I could do that.
How old were you?
I was about twenty three at this stage.
All right here, I am thinking a twelve year old has been tasked, not rebuilt. Sometimes we do require a little bit of additional context.
Sorry, but yeah, So that was a big thing because like, no way I could walk into shops and pick out stuff like because I couldn't even do my own shopping, let alone walking into a tile shop or anything like that. But they really pushed me. I'm glad that they did because that's what really taught me how to sort of control my anxiety and understand those different feelings I was having. And I got some help from the doctor and that
was a big turning point. But I think, in a nutshell, that's sort of yeah, my money journey.
Oh, I love it. There's so many questions. Tell me about life today. Obviously we're not leaving trolleys of food in the dog food aisle anymore. I'm assuming, but like, tell me, you're obviously a farmer, you have investments and shares, and you're in a beautiful relationship, and you're going through the surrogacy process. But tell me a little bit more about that part of your life because that's really exciting.
It is really exciting. It's amazing to think how far I've come. Men, I've run a mental health organization and that sort of pushed my boundaries a bit more. And then I met my partner now husband.
Congrats, thank you.
He really brings the best out enemy and has really helped me flourish, and we lean on each other because you know, we both have our things that we struggle with, but we sort of lean on each other in those times and you know, get through it and we're better off with each other. So it's absolutely amazing. And yeah, now we're about to have a baby.
I'm so excited for you.
Gone through that whole surrogacy thing. It's been about two years in the making. We found a surrogate about twelve months ago, which happens to be my partner's cousin. So that was amazing and very very thankful that, you know, we found someone so close that could be out. Sorry, and they both got sisters and they both offered their eggs as well, so we've got full blood babies.
No you don't. That makes me so happy.
Oh makes me want to cry.
Now, when's baby coming?
So we're just going through quarantine. Now, we've got the embryos frozen, so we've done that whole process and now yeah, we've got to wait three months and then we can get them tested again and then we can put them in. So set to put them in in December. Oh, fingers crossed.
That's so exciting. You could have a twenty twenty four. Baby like me.
Let's hope.
So, oh we can make our babies be friends. I love this. This is the best thing in the entire world. I have a lot of questions. Let's get back on track, because I'm sure that they will hop up as we go. Now, you mentioned obviously you're a farmer, but you also have investments and shares in I guess in the share market, but also in farming. Tell me what you do for work, but also how much money you want.
Yeah, so me and my partner have the exact same job, which is on the family farm, and forty four thousand each hits our bank account, and then we've got yes super intacs on top of that. So that's our main job and we're just basically farm hams. But we also do all the marketing for the farm, and I'm sort of in charge of the finances and all the budgets and stuff with his mum, so that's really cool. And then we have a few like little side hustles as well.
We purchased a farm, which we had to go over the top to try and buy it because buying a farm is a massive thing and the bank's not really easy to get the money.
How much does the farm cost? Obviously I'm just being pervy, but like we need to know. I've never bought a farm.
Yeah, this one costs us about eight hundred thousand, so it's not as.
Bad as I thought. But that's a lot given you both having comes to forty four thousand dollars like that would have been a stretch.
Hey it was, but there was a really really ran down farm and it's about four hundred acres, so.
Oh my gosh, that cost per square meter is very sexy.
Yeah, that's right. So yeah, we do that. And then on that farm that we brought, we have calves, so we have like cows and calves and those cars. This year we'll get about forty thousand. Last year we've got about sixty, but that's because the price fluctuations that they are now, so they've come down so we'll get less for them. And then we do some like photography and videography work.
Oh cool, I did not expect that that is left field.
It is, but in the studstock industry, like with the sheep and cattle and stuff, we film and take photos and you know, then they can sell them online. And it's all about the genetics and that type of thing.
So niche but obviously lucrative.
Yeah. So we will make between eighty and one hundred k from that this year. And then we have oh there's more, Yeah, there's one more. You'll love this one, trust me, I'm ready. We have stud border collies.
Oh my gosh, I do love this one.
So we have border Collie work dogs. Each year. We'll probably have like one leader. Occasionally we'll have two depending on what's happened. But we get about you know, twenty k from that per year.
Oh my gosh, dogs are so expensive.
Better, we'll make between two hundred and three hundred for the year.
I love this. That just built and built and built. You went from telling me, yeah, we have an income each of forty four thousand dollars and I'm like, oh, that's pretty good. Like, you know, being on a farm, it's always going to be a little bit lower. Usually family run businesses. By the way, we bought a farm. By the way, we make forty thousand dollars from cars. By the way, we also have a photography and videography business where we make like one hundred grand. Also, we
breed dogs. We do everything.
By the way, that farm income is quite low, but we get a lot of bonuses with that, like because we're doing so much off farm work as well, so it's flexible and you know, we get a little bit of fuel here and there on the farm.
Yeah, it all works out. You have the same job as your partner. Did you meet your partner at work? Is that how you fell in love? Tell me more about it.
Oh, I run a mental health organization.
Because you weren't busy already, So yeah, that makes sense.
And through that actually running to him, So that's where that all stemmed from. And then I started helping them out with their marketing because I had a camera, and then from there they offered me a.
Job and a husband, it seems, yes.
And I left my family farm to come over here, which was a huge thing. But I wouldn't change it for the world, because laugh is about happiness, isn't it.
Oh, one hundred percent, even though it was.
A big thing moving from my family farm, but I've come to this family and he's absolutely amazing, and I love working here.
Oh my gosh, I love this so much. This is like one of my favorite stories ever. One because I like dogs, but two I just love love like the best I want to know. Now, you have obviously some big money commitments and some great income coming in, but what are your big money goals at the moment? What are you currently working towards?
Yeah, so number one's that baby. So doing sorrogacy isn't cheap.
I was going to ask. I was like, I hope this comes up in the money goals.
Yeah. Yeah, so that's our short term one. So we've spent about twenty three thousand on that so far.
Can we break that down actually, because I feel like in Australia I know a little bit about it because I have a number of friends who have gone through the surrogacy journey same as you, Like same sex couples, like you just don't have an option to have a genetically yours baby unless you use that route.
Right.
Twenty three thousand dollars though, is so much money, especially given you're not allowed to pay your surrogate in Australia. So where's that twenty three coming from? What's that made up of?
Yeah, so that's a lot of like blood tests and stuff at the start, and then my sister donated the eggs, so that whole process is in that as well. That's pretty much everything twenty three k up until embryo is frozen. We've still got to pay for the surrogate for that sort of side of things, so we've allowed about thirty but I'm not actually sure if that's going to blow over or not.
Well you never know, right.
Yeah, it's so black and white, and you don't know how many times you got to do it, and yeah, there's so many what ifs. So we've got spare they're ready just in case, because yeah, I love it, nothing standing in the way. But from that, the next thing is we're actually starting to build a house as well, and this is on the farm and we want to pay that off as much as possible. Yeah, and then our huge money goal that we always dream of is
having our investment portfolio. But with that investment portfolio, help people with it, so help friends and family in times of need.
You're like the best human I've ever met.
I've got a couple of cousins that are going through some IVF stuff at the moment, and I think one of them's up to about nine or ten goes at it, and it's just the financial burden on that on top of distress. But I'd love to be able to help people out with things like that. Yeah, so that's our ultimate goal.
Oh my gosh, I love this. You have such clarity on your goals, baby, build house, investment portfolio, but one that helps others. Like who are you apart from the best human ever? Like, oh, I'm so envious. I actually have heaps of questions, But let's go to a really quick break and we'll get to them on the flip side. All right, money, Diris, we are back, and I am so excited to I guess learn more about you, learn more about your family and what you're doing. It's time
to talk about our investments. We left the other half of the episode with you saying I want to create the investment portfolio that helps other people, and we already know from what you wrote in You said I have investments in shares and farming. Talk to me about those investments. How are they broken up? How did you get into them?
Yeah, so I've currently got about seventy thousand in shares. We've pulled a lot of money out of that because we're about to build a house and stuff, and we pulled money out of it to buy the farm as well. So that's that and how I got into buying shares for the first time through my teenage years because of the drought, and ever think any birthday money or I did some wool classing or whatever, I would save all that money. And I turned eighteen I had ten grand, which is huge.
That heaps of money, especially for such a young age.
It was amazing. I didn't spend a thing though, And I went down and caught up with one of my friends that's a financial advisor. He's offered me a free little chat and teaching me about the stock market. Oh, I love that, And that's where it started from. And then from there we've got two farms as well. So now we've managed to buy a couple. On the first one, there's no debt on that at the moment, and on the second farm, we've got about five hundred and fifty
k worth of debt. Do you want to know how much they're worth?
Of course I do. I'm pervy. Technically you're anonymous to everybody else. I'm going to ask the questions that I was totally inappropriate to ask somebody that you're sitting next to on a bus, like, yeah, how much debt have you got? Babe?
Yeah? So on the one of the farms, it's one point thirty nine meal and the other one's one point two to four.
So slay, I need to stop saying slave, but I'm not going to it's unrelatable.
But it's been a lot of hard work and time like on top of that for it to grow in value. So it's not just capital we've put in. It's just growing over time of course.
So tell me how old you are now? Because you had your first ten thousand dollars and you started investing at eighteen. Where are we now?
I just turned thirty.
No you didn't. You've done all of that and you've just turned thirty in a bin straight in the unrelatable content?
Yeah exactly, I said unrelatable in.
A nice way though, Like how cool is this? Like I love this story. I love that you're a farmer and you know you've written in and said, hey, I'm a farmer, have investments in shares and farming. Also, I'm in a same sex relationship and I'm going through this surrega see journey. I just don't think a lot of people would have expected that. Like, it's not a twist,
it's not a turn. It's like your journey. But it's more I think we have this preconceived idea of what farming looks like and you've obviously thrown that on its head and you're like, oh, well, by the way, I also, you know, have calves, and I also have dogs, and I've found all of these additional revenue streams to add to my life so that I can create the LIFEI deserve because there are a lot of farmers having come from I grew up in Tasmania and my family owned farm.
So my grandparents always had a Border Collie, which is why I was like, ah, I love this. They're always really inspirational names, like a Bob the dog. I feel like that's very farm But growing up there, you kind of just have this preconceived idea that yep, you earn forty four thousand dollars if you live on a family fump.
That's it, though, Like that's all you do. You know, you might be given a paddock and you could do your own sheep or something and that's like a couple of thousand dollars extra year, but it's definitely not like forty thousand dollars from calves or you know, picking up another photography and videography business. You grew up in farming, So how did you get this? I guess work life balance, but also this I guess motivation to do all of these additional things. Is this what your parents did? Like
where does this come from? My friend?
No, definitely not, Like especially my dad and my grandparents. They're like, you know, you work on the farm, you don't have time for anything else, Like it's big hours. But because of the drought and everything, I really wanted to be able to sort of help the farm if things got bad again. And that's sort of where my savings sort of come into play, because if I could build off some off farm income, I might be able to bail the farm out if we got into some
real issues. And I was really scared that would lose our farm, like especially our own farm, because that's you know, where I grew up, my parents grew up, my grandpa grew up. So it's a big thing for our family. And if I can financially back that if I ever had to, that sort of was always my goal. So that's why. Yeah, it's always in the back of my mind to make money elsewhere, and it's really important to have that work life balance, and it is really tricky
not to get burnt out. And that is something that I've really really focused on because I used to get burnt out a lot and it wasn't until meeting my husband now that he sat me down one day and he goes, you need to just stop and you need to make sure you look after yourself because you can't get burned out every week because you work really hard and you get a lot done, but then you're out for like fourd hour is because you're bedridden or in
hospital or whatever it may be. So it's in a learning curve.
But yeah, so, yeah, he sounds like a good egg. I think I like him. I think we can keep him.
Yeah, I found my Steve.
Yeah, you found justice. Does he make your tea and toast on the weekends?
He does? Yeah?
Oh yeah, all right, well you definitely have found your Steve. That's amazing. I love it. All right, tell me a little bit more. I guess about debt. So you mentioned before that you have five point fifty in debt on one of your farms, and obviously that's valued at a lot more. Is there any other debt sitting around that you haven't shared, Like, do you have any hex step from studying anything or you know, anything else sitting there that I am unaware of at this point.
No, it's just that debt. But with the house build, that debt will blow up a little bit to about a meal.
Houses are expensive, they are, and.
They've really gone up in the last sort of twelve months with everything going on as well. So what we initially got a quote on has blown out even more. So I've got some cash, they're ready to go in that.
And is this how obviously a million dollars is a lot of money. Is this kind of like your family home forever? Or is this like a house that you're like, all right, we'll build this on the farm and maybe we won't live here forever, or what does that actually look like? What's the future of I guess in a way asking about your career as well as your home.
So yeah, we are building it on the farm, so you can't really just sell a house on a farm. So it's there forever kind of thing. So that's why we're sort of spending the money.
Now.
We've done all the hard yards to get to this point, and we've you know, ticked all the boxes, We've budgeted forever to get to this point now, and our stars are a line to have this baby, and we want to have a nice house to bring a baby home to. So we've worked really hard to get to this point, and yeah, it's out forever home. So we're making sure we spend the money where it's needed and make sure it's good.
Yeah, that's why I was asking, because I was like, if you're building a home on the family farm, you can't exactly sell that. Who else lives on the family farm. Obviously there's probably another house that you're currently living in, but who else lives there? What does that look like long term?
So the house that we're living in now is just like a little cottage on the farm, me and my husband, and then there is a couple of other houses on the farm as well, Like his parents live in the main farmhouse and then one of the sisters is in the other one. But there's six kids in his family, so.
Oh I love that.
Yeah, it's such a beautiful family. But they like live in the local town and around, so everyone's like still here, so yeah it's pretty cool. But yeah, so we're just in that little cottage at the moment, which is really lucky to live there because we don't have to pay rent or anything.
Yeah that's a money win.
Yeah, it is a money win. But we just have to pay the electricity bill and that's it.
How often do you get to do family dinners because I feel like that's a big farm thing. Obviously they happen in the main farmhouse. So how often is that happening.
Or I'd say at least once a week we'll have a little catch up here. But even like lunchtime's here, it's such a buzz because with six kids, you can imagine how many grandkids and that are here as well.
So that's the best. And they're going to get another one soon.
Yeah, So they're always here helping us on the farm. And on the days that they don't have childcare or at kindy or whatever, they're all out here. So lunchtime is definitely a buzz around here, and it's amazing.
I love it. I have so many questions, but I actually want to ask about childcare. You said earlier that you and your partner essentially work and earn the same amount of income because you both work on the family farm. What is the plan when you have a newborn? How are we looking after this newborn when it comes to care and distribution of care, because a farm, like I don't know if you know this, but they don't stop. So what's the plan.
Yeah, well, this has actually been a lot of discussion lately and a lot to think about. There is a childcare in town which is ten minutes away. Oh easy, Yeah it is, but it's really hard to get into because it's a really small town and there's only certain amount of kids and that that they can handle. So as soon as we know that we're pregnant, we have to put our name on the list apparently, so that's.
What I did. It's actually terrifying. They were like, do you know what you're having? And I was like, no, let's call it baby Divine. Can byby Divine be on the list for August next year, and they were like, yeah, no worries, it's crazy.
It is. It is, so yeah, we'll do that and whatever days we get, we'll get. Besides that, on the farm here, we're lucky that we have his parents. They're happy to help out and sometimes like if I'm doing the financials, like the budgets and like all that sort of stuff, I can sort of hopefully look after a baby and do that at the same time in the house. I don't know.
I think I'm going to be able to do it at the same time. Every other parent right now is rolling their eyes at us, just like we don't have kids yet. But we'll see how it goes, you know, yollow the way it's going to work out.
Right, It's going to work out, surely.
I love it all right. I want to know next. I feel like you have some very good money habits to share with us. So what do you think is your best money habit?
Probably our best is living below our means and like we've never really been big spenders or anything like that, but yeah, just keeping ourselves in check with all that. And with that, I think communication is a really important thing in our relationship. And we're very clear in our goals and we talk about money all the time. Like we have a bath, we talk about money. It's weird, I don't know, but it just works.
It sounds like my house. It's so fine, Like I totally get that. Okay, So I just did this cool thing with our budget and was like, oh, do you want to talk about a dinner? And I'll be like yeah, and he'll be like, that wasn't me asking if you want to talk about it at dinner. I was asking if that was your plan make haha, yes, sit down.
So I think communication is one of our good traits.
I love that flip it though, what's your worst or our worst?
Is probably the bakery. I always end up at the bakery.
What are we buying at the bakery?
Like a little veggie pie that's so amazing or a spinoche sausage roll?
I agree.
Yeah. So, like we're always doing filming jobs and stuff, so we're on the road a lot, going to other farms, and we happen to drive past it all the time. So just pop in and.
Oh, no, look there's the bakery again.
I didn't know if you know this, but as a country kid, if you drive past the kfcne don't stop in for some salty chips. It's illegal. So I think food's probably are downfall, but it's in our budget. We make sure we commod eate for it, and it's not stressful at all. But it's just one of those things that we could cut back if we could.
But I think we all deserve a little treaty treat and also we laid down the law before. It's actually illegal not to stop, so I'm not going to jail. You're like, you're going to have a baby sooner. I'm going to have a baby soon. Like we can't be living that convic life, Like it's just not going to work. So I love it. Oh my gosh. The next question I always ask money Dice, now that we've talked, like, do you think that your money grade at the start
of this episode is reflective? I already know the answer, but I'm going to ask, anyway, do you think it's reflective? But also what do you think it would take to get from an A to an A plus?
I think it is, And like I said before, like all their education and stuff, it's not easy getting to that point, and it's been a long journey to get there, and like no one should compare themselves to each other and that type of thing. I'm happy with that, But to get to an eight plus probably have all those goals ticked off and we can be helping people much as possible, And I think once we get to that, we can put that plus sign on there.
I love that. I feel like that is obviously written in the stars, though, like it's not just written in the stars, it's written in your financial plan, like you're going to get there. Like you were so clear on your I guess money goals and what you were working towards. When I asked, you were like, oh, yep, there's actually three clear ones. And I was like okay, Slagh, Like
I love this. I'm so excited. Sadly, that's all we've got time for today, but like I have adored this chat learning a little bit more about you about your journey. Thank you so much for being so open about it, not just about your income, but just what that surrogacy journey looks like in costs. And it can be so hard in Australia because obviously it's not paid, so you do have to find someone who is arguably incredibly generous and charitable, who is willing to give something like that up.
Like it's crazy to think in twenty twenty three, like we can't find quote easier way to do it. But like I adore that a same sex couple can have a genetically related baby with some body who's already in their family, Like oh, it just makes my heart so happy.
Yeah, oh it's amazing. It's just with hearing you say all that, because it's just incredible and I can't believe it's actually happening.
Please message me like I want to be updated. I've nominated myself as Baby Updates, but that is so exciting. Thank you so much, money Dires. This has been an absolute pleasure.
Thanks for having me, Victoria.
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