Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
the Order Kerni 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.
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She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome to She's on the the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries. What I get the absolute pleasure of talking to one of our incredible She's on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got a message and it went like this, Hi V, I'd like to share my property story as in amongst my friendship group, my partner and I are definitely on the more risky side
of things. We bought our one point five million dollar home in our dream suburb, then rented it because we couldn't afford to live in it. Earlier this year, my partner took a fifty thousand dollar pay cut, and like everyone else, our repayments are increasing. We're about to move in, and I want to share my story of calculated risk taking with the community. Money Diarist, I'm so excited about this.
That's a really good summary.
Actually, I mean, it's not bad, is it. You wrote it, so I'm pretty proud of it.
About that.
I'm really excited to hear about your story because I feel like, in this day and age, with the property prices increasing in the way that they are, one point five million dollars is kind of becoming the norm for a family home, and it's also becoming really overwhelming. Like to me, that sounds like just so so so much money. But let's get into it. Are you ready? Yes, I'm ready?
All right, Money Diarist. The first question I always start with is if I asked you to grade yourself and your money habits on a scale of eighth through to f, what would you grade yourself?
I think I would grade myself a B.
Plus B plus. She's got a one point five million dollar home guys, and she's a B plus. Alright, alright, I'll sit down. My favorite question as always, let's dive straight into it, money diarist, Can you tell me a little bit more about your money story.
So I suppose, like everyone, my money story would go back all the way to childhood. So I had a pretty unconventional childhood. My biological parents they split up when I was around four years old, and my mom remarried at that time, and she sort of quit her career and joined my stepdad in a property development business, which, like many of the property development businesses out that went pretty much barely up. Everything was in her name and
she declared bankruptcy. She had to pull money out of super for financial hardship reasons, and we didn't really have a stable family home. We always lived in the same area, but we had to move around a lot four or five times to different rentals. Then my mum had to go back to work and she completely changed careers at that point. And my stepdad, he's a bit unconventional. He
never really believed in an honest day's work. Since then, has been trying to sort of make it in quotes, in sort of like get rich quick schemes and basically their situation hasn't really improved. My mum still doesn't really have any assets. Her rent to this day is going up one hundred and eighty dollars a week. So I guess that's where my money story begins because I never
want to be in that situation. I want to create something for the future, assets for the future, and yeah, I never want to be left with nothing.
Oh wow, when you started to say, oh, my stepdad and my mum started this property development company, like my mind was going one way and it completely went the opposet. Do you think that this narrative has really, I guess driven you to want to be in property just because of the stability and the security, or has it made you want to shy away? Like what's your thoughts on property, especially after going through that in childhood.
Yeah, so in terms of property, most of the people I know have bought a home before I did. It was never really my goal to get a property as soon as possible or anything like that. But I think there was that instability of the business that they were in that has sort of made me a bit shy towards debt. But there was also the fact that my
family home when I was young is just gone. That makes me want to secure something like that, to buy something like that so that, you know, if I ever had a kid, I don't have to move my kid around to lots of various rentals and suffer the consequences, you know.
Yeah, wow, all right, let's fast forward. You now have a partner. Can you tell me a little bit about that? How did you meet your partner? How did you decide property was the plan? What's going on there?
I want to know meeting my partner. So I met my partner on a dating app, same Bay then not the same as your one. I met my partner on Plenty of Fish.
Oh how exciting? And then did you just know you just matched and you knew or like, what's the story? Come on, we need the juicy gas.
So we started messaging for a few weeks on Plenty of Fish and then we had our first date. It wasn't the sort of date where you just want to have dinner and then part ways and then leave and see you next time. We wanted to, you know, keep going for a walk, and we wanted to find coffee and all that. So it was sort of the one.
Where we stretched it out.
Yes, we stretched it out and he dropped me home. And then I think at first he was a bit more keen than I was, and he started meeting me for lunches when I worked in the city, and then it went really fast from there, basically. But we we tried to keep it traditional, so to speak, and we waited a whole year before moving in together. But as soon as that one year mark crossed.
It was a free for all.
Yeah, and then you know a few years later, now we've got the dog in the house.
So how exciting. I love this so much for you. It's actually really really fun to hear about. I guess how people met and what's going on. And I think it's so much more common these days to be like, oh, yeah, I met my partner on the dating website. I mean, I met my partner years ago, and I remember at the time being so embarrassed that I'd met him on a dating website. Now I couldn't care less, but at the time I remember being like, what am I going to tell my parents that I was on a dating website?
Like, oh, I don't know, yeah, I mean that's the thing I never would have met my partner if I didn't go on this dating website because we lived on different sides of town at the time, we don't run in the same circle. So yeah, it was a really good thing that we both went on this dating app.
I love it all right, Tell me a little bit more about you. What do you do for work and how much money do you earn?
Yes, so I'm an accountant, a manager level, and I worked from home full time and I earn one hundred and nine thousand plus.
Super very nice. And what are you currently working towards? Obviously you've already bought your one point five million dollar dream home in your dream suburb. What's next?
So we're not married yet, we're not engaged yet either. I think that's what I would like to come next, and then maybe a little bit down the tracks and children. But we as a couple, we want to sort out our finances first. So yeah, at the moment, it's a little bit hard to try and put aside money for a wedding and a ring. I mean, I know the guy is supposed to buy the ring, but in reality, if he buys the ring, then it comes out of
our shared full of money. You know. At the end of the day, so it's still something that both of us have to think about. But yeah, I mean I think like big, big term, long term goals I'd want, you know, like the white picket fence, life with the dog and the house and the two holidays a year, one's overseas and all that. That's what I want.
I love that. And what is your partner's take on this? Is he totally on board with the marriage engagement ring side of things or is this something that you're like, you know what, I'd really like this, But he has no idea.
No, we talk about it all the time. We talk about it all the time. He's on the same page.
Oh good, how exciting. All right, let's go to a really quick break because I have heaps more questions and we'll get to them in a hot minute. All right, money, darist, we are back, and I want to know you've bought a one point five million dollar property, but do you have any investments?
I do, so, I have about fifteen thousand dollars worth of shares and ETFs and I've got my super balance which is currently eighty three thousand.
Ooh, very nice.
And that's really it for investments. We cleared most of our investments to pay for the property last year.
Very very fair. Tell me a bit more about the fifteen thousand dollars you have in shares. How did you pick the shares and ets that you hold, and like what was your kind of like gateway into investing.
So my gateway into investing was probably just talking about it a little bit. So my dad, my biological dad, which he did move overseas when I was little, but he came back to have a relationship with his daughters when I was fifteen. Anyway, he has always had an interest in the share market, so he would talk to me about it a little bit. Obviously. With my job, because I've worked in tax I am fortunate enough to
see what portfolios other people have. So I can see, you know, ooh, this client has CSL that they bought way back in the heyday. How do I do something like that? I can see both the smart and the not so smart on paper decisions that clients have made. Just in my everyday job. A lot of the shares as well, I bought during COVID during the low side, so I picked say a bank, a retail, a tech just trying to sort of diversify my portfolio a little bit.
Plus the ETFs I have in you know, I shares those listed ones, Yes, those ones just traditionally for me, they've seemed pretty pretty conservative safe. Yeah, just something you can just buy and then leave.
Very cool. And you mentioned before that you bought some shares during I guess the low point during COVID. Did this contribute your house deposit? Is this something you've said before, like, oh, we sold down some of our shares, Like, is this what contributed to your house deposit? Or tell me how you got to have a house deposit for a one point five million dollar house.
So it's a combination of things. So the house purchase was actually one point four seven five as per the contract, but then we had to pay around sixty five thousand of stamp duty.
Yep, ill ill, Yes, I know, ill.
But our loan was for one point two seven five, So that leaves about two hundred and sixty five thousand in cash that we had to cough up. Yeah.
Wow.
So that was funded by a combination of things. So one thing I had is back in I think May twenty nineteen, I started putting money into Colonial first State. I was putting in one thousand each month pretty much up until January twenty twenty two, and then I pulled all that out and sold it for the house. There was also shares that I had purchased during COVID during the low period, so I've kept some, but I've also
sold some. Plus there is just general cash savings. So one thing we did is we negotiated for a ninety day settlement so that wis mark give us three.
Months to a bit more flexibility.
Yes, well to live very, very cheaply and save all the cash we could. The other thing was that my partner also had about one hundred and twenty thousand in Colonial first State, plus he sold some bitcoin that he had bought back in I think twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen.
That's mainly where the cash came from. So obviously my partner contributed more off the cash, but my borrowing capacity accounts for most of the loan because he has already got two properties, right, So he's got two properties, the one that we live in currently which is owner occupied, and then another investment property he bought both of those.
That's a good catch. That's a good man to find on plenty of fish. I like that.
You know. What happened is on our first date, I asked him where are you living? Are you renting somewhere? Because you know, that's what I was doing.
I was renting, Yeah, or do you live with your parents? Which one is there?
And then he said, actually, I'm living in my own home.
So I was like, wow, that's sexy. Ten out of ten.
And then a few weeks later I met some of his friends and then it just sort of popped up that he owned another property and I was thinking, what, how do you own two and I don't own any?
Yeah, the pressure is real. Yes, that's actually really cool though that he was so financially stable when starting to date, because I feel like that's not common.
It's not common. But his stad is a financial planner.
Oh what a Janiet.
He didn't grow up with very much either.
Yeah, okay, so it's just a really big priority to him.
Yes, he has that, you know that money motivation, you.
Know, absolutely, So talk to me about the next question I want to ask is really about debt. So you've taken on a one point two seven five million dollar loan. How does that play into your cash flow? And with current interest rates, how are you feeling about that, especially because you're about to move into it.
Yes, So what we did is we got our loan for the house, and it was at a quite a low interest rate, and we fixed it for twelve months. So the fixed period.
Has ended, and now it's painful.
Yes. So our repayments were five thousand, six hundred and fifteen and now they are going up to seven thousand, six hundred and eighty six.
Wowe. And how is that going to work into the cash flow system each month?
So, because we rented it for the first you know, I think it's twelve to fifteen months, we have saved a buffer. So we have about sixty thousand in cash now so that we can cover the difference, the two thousand dollars difference each month. And I am also sort of hoping for or banking on a salary increase this month. It does normally happen in August, it should be the
you know, the seven percent yeah, that I'm expecting. And then what will happen is we'll move into our home and our dream suburb, and then the home that we're currently living in we will try and rent out. It won't be the same level of rent, No of course, yeap, just because we're moving into a better area, but it'll still help.
Yeah. Absolutely. I'm feeling like you guys are so financially literate to be like, all right, well we had shares, we had this, we sold this, and then we've got some cash over here. And my partner here had two properties and you know, we leased it out for twelve to fifteen months, and now we've got a sixty thousand dollar cash buffer. How did you do that? Because to say, oh, in twelve to sixteen months, we've organized a sixty thousand
dollar cash buffer our money was it? No, I'm not because that's so much money, so.
I should discloser. Our rent was nine hundred a week, so there's that. And then we also save each month, so I get paid monthly and I've been saving twenty five hundred a month.
How good is that?
Yeah? And then my partner's also been saving a little bit each month. But we weren't actually looking for a house to buy until just by chance, my partner saw that there was a property for sale in one of the streets that I used to live in that was a very good suburb. I love it, and I think it was on sale for maybe one point three five, and he looked at it and just conched the numbers one day and said, you know, if we rented it, we could afford a place like that and then we
could eventually move in. So that's pretty much where it started.
Ah exciting. And then where did you purchase close to where you used to live and where you grew up?
So we didn't actually purchase in that area. So the area that I'm talking about was when I first moved out of home. I moved into a suburb in Brisbane that's quite in city. Yeah, and that's where he saw the other house that was for sale, But we were priced out of there very quickly. The market moved so quickly at that time, and you know, houses that could have been like one point four we're going for like
one point seven and so crazy. We had a look at another inner city suburb that looks and has like a great sort of neighborhood feel, but it's still in a city, and that's where we bought in the end.
Yeah, wow, all right, Well tell me about how you purchased your property. Was it off market? Were you just straight sale? Did you purchase it at an option?
Like?
Was it most stressful thing in the entire world or was it super easy? Like I want to know more about that, because if you're going to spend one point five million dollars, like I feel like you're already nervous.
Yep, you're right about that. So we were looking for houses that we're in a good area that we could rent. So that means we couldn't buy some bomb in a good area because then we'd have to spend money fixing it up, which we don't have the cash for. So I did see this property one day and I saw it was listed, and then a couple of days after there was going to be the first open home. It was like a Champagne viewing something like that.
That's so fancy. Yeah, it sounds fancy, right, it sounds so fancy. They're like, can we have all your money?
And so it's a three bedroom, two bathroom, and two garage or two castpays. Sorry. It was after work one day and I told my partner to go to the open home just have a look. It looks like it's out of our price range, but just have a look. And he had a look, showed up to the Champagne viewing with his sneakers and his you know, very old white T shirt. And then he came home and he said,
it's perfect. It's exactly what we're looking for. And so we called the agent that night and made a verbal offer for a little bit under the one point four seven five. I think we offered one point four to five, and then the agent said, look, I'll talk to the sellers and then i'll give you a call first thing in the morning.
And so you didn't sleep at all that night.
We were just crunching numbers the whole line, how far we could stretch, and one point four seven five was our max. And so the agent called me in the morning and that was my offer, one point four seven five. To try and secure it. I said, we'll do a ten percent deposit, but we need a ninety day settlement. And then it was kind of underwhelming in a way because a few hours later we got the docu sign for the contract, just a docu sign like no call.
No champagne, nothing, just like sign here, babe.
Yeah, sign your babe, And so we both did sign there and then a couple of hours later we got completed docu sign back via.
Email and that was it. That was the wholesales process.
And then half an hour later the agent called and said, congratulations. You guys were super aggressive, but clearly it worked. That was it.
Oh my gosh. And you were like, we didn't even realize, Like you didn't call me, you didn't communicate this to me. You just sent a DOCU sign and I thought it might have been a mistake, but I signed it anyway.
So I didn't actually see the house.
Oh my gosh. You hadn't seen it at this point. You just had to trust your partner.
But I did go and see the house because there was another scheduled open home the weekend following.
Even though you'd signed the contract.
Yes, so I think the agent just kept it open as is for BioResearch opportunities.
Jeez, Louise, I would have been like, get out, this is now my house.
Well, there was no one else there because it was already marked as under contract. Yeah, but I showed up and I took a friend with me, and I said, this is actually my house. I just bought it.
So funny. Yeah, real estate confuses me because like I have no I like, if you are in the market to buy a property, and imagine if somebody else saw that house, like that was your dream property. I'm sure someone else would have looked at it and been like, oh, my gosh, that's also my dream property. Mugine turning up and then being told, oh, well, this one's actually three years old. We're just doing some research. I would have seen off my head. I would have been so annoyed.
We'd be like, don't waste my time, because when it comes to property as well, like often they're only open and like on a Saturday from like eleven to twelve, and you've got to work out which properties you're going to see. I would have been very salty about that situation. But I'm so glad that you got it. That's literally the best. I feel like that's a dreamy story. Like that's just too easy, my friend.
I think I'm making it sound easy.
But it would have been very stressful.
In the background. There's a lot of spreadsheets. You know, we've even to look for the house we wanted. We've got a spreadsheet with all the different factors that we were looking for, like does it have a wide frontage, what are the schools? Like, how many bedrooms and bathrooms?
No?
I love that that's so smart.
Is there a dog? Park nearby, is it in the flood zone? Everything?
No, that's really really important, like literally so important. On our podcast, the Property Playbook, I teach that all the time. I'm like, document it, go and do your research, understand what you're looking for, because I'm sure money daris that that was why you were so easily able to say, oh no, no, no, we'll buy this one, and you hadn't even seen it.
So I became quite knowledgeable with just the kinds of properties out there. I learned what a character home is, what a pre war versus post war is, so I knew which ones to avoid, which ones would need lots of fix ups and counsel approvals and all that.
How good? All right, tell me a bit more about you. I want to know what is your best money habit.
So I think my best money habit would be I don't like to buy anything at full price. I will always wait for the.
Sale that's fair. I like that. That's a very good money habit.
Yes, but just on a monthly basis. What we do is we do have our own everyday accounts and savings accounts and things like that, but we've also got a joint everyday account and we each tip in five hundred and fifty dollars for the month, which we use to spend on internet subscriptions and food. And basically, if there's something extra that we have to pay for that month, like a gift or something, it will come out of
that pool as well. But if we find that we don't have enough money left over for the essentials, we will tip more in to compensate for that extra thing. But if we find out we've got extra cash at the end of the month, then that's sort of like a bonus, and we'll either decide to save it or use it to go out for a nice dinner or something all cute.
I like that. I feel like that means that you're kind of sticking within budget but still living your best life trying to.
So we do live on the cheap in some respects, so we do place limitations on ourself, Like we might go out for brunch on a Sunday, which is probably one of our worst or one of my worst money habits. I just love going out for brunch and sitting in the sun with my dog and a coffee and whatnot. But we limit ourselves to of thirty five dollars, so nothing more.
I like that. Does that mean you just order coffee, because then you stay and age like you can't get much for thirty five dollars.
No, so you can get a basic mane. Yeah, say, eggs and sour dough.
Is this thirty five dollars each? Or is this thirty five dollars total?
Total?
Oh my gosh, I feel like every time I'm going for brunch and this is absolutely showing my privilege. My friend, it's between fifty and sixty dollars easy, okay, so teach me your ways. Two coffees might be ten bucks minimum, No.
Six dollars, six dollars each, so.
Oh okay, twelve dollars twelve dollars for coffee.
For coffee, plus you can get in some places you can get a maine which is like scrambled eggs and sour dough for like fifteen.
Okay, all right, and then you.
Can get a banana bread or almond croissan.
Oh and you share it.
Yeah?
Oh, I love that. That's actually quite smart. I'm probably not going to do that because I am greedy when it clings to brunch and I want my own plate. And if I see French toast on the menu, I'm not sharing that, So you have a lot more willpower than I ever will possess. But I think I think that's really smart because that actually makes it so much more budget friendly, Like thirty five dollars is soo much more palatable than fifty bucks or sixty bucks.
So the thirty five dollars rule, I don't want to call it a rule, but it.
Is a rule, kind of a rule.
It's kind of right.
Just call it what it is, my friend, it's anonymous.
So the thirty five dollars rule came from when we went out for dinner one time and we only spent thirty five dollars total.
How where are you going out for dinner? Like, I feel like this shouldn't have been about property, It should have been about your food hacks.
So we bought two ramens.
Yeah, okay, two.
Ramens, which are what seventeen fifty is that right? Yeah?
Maybe in Brisbane? In Melbourne they're at least twenty five dollars each.
Now we look for things around that price, and it's it's normally going to be Asian food. If you go and get you know, Vietnamese fur, or you get some Malaysian noodles. Or something like that, and that's how you don't exceed that thirty five limit.
But does this become kind of fun because I feel like, to you, this might not be limiting at all. It's kind of like fun to kind of like game the menu and work out what you're getting and how that might work. I feel like it's fun.
It is fun. You have to go outside the CBD to find these places, but often that's where you can find the authentic foods as well.
Yeah, one hundred percent, And like Asian food is much better when it's more authentic. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. Oh my gosh, I kind of love the thirty five dollars rule. I now need to know because like you told me that brunch was your worst money habit, but then you told me it was like a money hack. What is your worst money habit?
Well, what I said before about only buying things on sale, Yeah, sometimes I will buy something that I don't need just because it is on sale.
Yeah. Okay, So like.
The other day I bought because we're moving into our new house, I bought a marble coffee table.
And stunning it was, but it was probably on sale. You're basically making money by buying that marble coffee table.
Right, so it was on sale, but we don't need it. We don't need new furniture. We've obviously got furniture, but it was in sale.
So yeah, that's fair. That's fair. And a marble coffee table, that's an investment. I'm just trying to enable you, to make you feel better about this decision, my friend. But I totally get that. When I moved, I was basically like, new furniture. Absolutely. Do I already own a couch? Yes? Do we need a new one? I think so it's
really toxic. Oh my gosh. All right, now that we've had a good chat, I feel like I know so much more about you, And oh my gosh, I wish we'd learned about the money Hack for Brunch earlier because I feel like that's such a good deal. Like I'm going to try that one day and see what we can do.
Yeah.
Absolutely, But at the very start of this episode, you told me that you're a B plus and I'm just feeling like you're pretty good at money, Like you're a tax accountant. You've done all of this really cool stuff. You've bought your dream home, like you've managed to save up a sixty thousand dollar buffer, Like you've got really really good clarity around your joint account with your partner and how much needs to go into that, like you're even hacking brunch. Do you think that you're still a
B plus? And if you are, what's it going to take to get to an A plus?
Look? I do still think I'm a B plus because there is so much more that I could do, like for starters, maybe.
Not buy Marble coffee table.
Correct, Yeah, But also was it the best decision to sell the majority of my investments that I thought were going to be long term investments to buy a owner occupied property. Maybe that's not the best. I could be doing more by starting to do the regular monthly investment plan. Again, it's just probably going to be very tight right now. I did start putting in two hundred dollars a month,
you know, it used to be a thousand. I started putting in two hundred dollars a month, But then obviously we came off our fixed rate, and so I thought, maybe it's not the best idea. There's still lots of things, lots of things that I could do to improve, So I yeah, I think a B plus is fair all right, I'll.
Let you have the B plus only because I can see that you're really thinking about it. But oh my gosh, I just think you're doing so well. And I'm so glad that we got to share this story with our community. Like I'm so glad that you wrote in and you were talking about I guess taking calculated risk and it all just it all makes sense. And to create the life that you want to live. Your absolutely doing that, and I'm just I'm in awe. I think it's so cool.
So one, congratulations, that's very exciting, but true, thank you for sharing this story with the community. I know so many people are going to be listening along and then come Saturday, they're all going to be having thirty five dollar brunches like this is a money win for everybody.
Well, I hope some people can relate to the you know, the property story too, because totally yeah, just in the news and you know, my peers and all that, I read stories about a couple that is struggling because they're on a similar income to us and their mortgage is only eight hundred thousand, and that's the sort of thing that makes me feel bad because I can't I can't relate completely to that. But I'm also not complaining because I chose.
This, so no, I love it. I love it, and I feel like you've set yourself up to be successful regardless, like you're really forward planning what that means to have a buffer, Like I think it's just so intelligent. So thank you. I feel like lots of people are going to get lots out of this story, but unfortunately that is all we have time for today. So I'm just super grateful that I got to have you on the show.
Thank you, Thank you so much, Victoria.
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