MONEY DIARIES: The Life and Finances of an Undercover Cop

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She's on the Money, She's on the Money.

Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast Millennials who Want Financial Freedom. Welcome back to another one of our shop back Money Diary mondays, where we get to chat to a community member to learn about them, their money, their life, all the fun bits in between.

Victoria, Hey, you going, I'm very excited about this one.

It's a good one.

You keep saying that you and Analie keeping.

A very very good one.

Okay, Well you say that at the beginning of every single money diary. I'm beginning to not like, there's no reason to not trust you, but I'm starting to.

Go you're starting to not trust me though, No, not a.

Lack of trust. I'd just be like, Oh, she really thinks everything is great.

Easy to please. No, this one's a little bit like a movie. Let me tell you all about it like a movie. Yeah so Awdira said. After working as a covert operative or undercover police officer, I was burnt out and I took seven months leave without pay. While I was working, I started my own business, creating a yearly planner for women, focusing on goal setting, budgeting, and never ever forgetting how brilliant and capable you truly are.

What a career pivot? Who just goes ohs and under cover cop? Now I want to make planners.

I know right. For my seven months off, I bought a van and traveled around Australia whilst running my business and since returning to work, I sold my business last year for a profit. I have now started a new business which is teaching women how to find a balance and access in all areas of their lass. I am about to take long service leave six months and I hope that I can properly follow my passion and not have to return to work. It's been a tough few years as a police officer.

What money diarist, Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

I told you I told you. I told you before we started actually recording. You got on zoom and I was like, you look like you'd be heaps of fun.

And you are, Oh, thank you.

How does that work? Oh my gosh, money dives. I have so many questions, but Jess is going to kill me if I don't leave them to the appropriate time to ask them. So let's jump straight in money diarist. I want to know a little bit about your money story.

Yeah, well, I think that sort of like that background gives a really good indicator about, you know, where my passions lie. Money sort of only really became a focus for me once I joined the police. Before that, I really was a bit of a gypsy. I pretty much spent all my money on travel, and then once I sort of got my confirmation and join the police service, it really just became about, Okay, what am I going

You're a cop now, Yeah, I feel like adult decisions are what cops should be making. I just feel like that's a lot of responsibility. But at the end of the day, you are people with careers who have incomes who need to budget and cash flow as well. I'm shurek. I'm so excited to learn more. All right, So we know that you were what was it, an undercover operative? Is that right?

Yeah? So that's just been a small chunk or small portion of my experience within the police service. So I'm just back in general duties now, just doing the regular So.

You're still a cop, and then you also have a business on the side, Yes, I do, right, that makes sense.

I like to keep myself busy.

Oh my gosh. All right, so that leads into the question of what do you do for work officially and how much money do you earn?

So, yeah, police officer, full time, I earn My last year's taxil income was one hundred and two, so just over one hundred and everything relating to my business now, I don't pay myself a wage at the moment. It is relatively new, so it's kind of all just going back into keeping that going and growing it to the point where I would love to be able to pay myself and make it my full time thing.

That is genuinely so cool. It's interesting as well because I have a friend who is also a cop with a side business. They do lots of night shift, they do a whole heap of work, and then they come home and they run this business. And to be honest, I hadn't really thought about that type of career as the type of career that would enable you to have a side hustle or a side business. How open is the police force to you, you know, running a business in your own time.

I think it's as long as it's not a conflict of interest and it's not bringing them into you know, disrepute. It's nothing that could be frowned upon. So I guess like only fans is ruled out to say that.

But I was like, is this appropriate? No only fans for you? No killer content?

Right, I'm sure. I listened to one of your episodes where you spoke to someone.

Who makes BANGK on only fan Yes.

And I was like, so tempting. No. I love what I do, so at the moment that's my biggest focus.

Yeah, airpic all right. I want to know what is your big money goal.

I want to have my home loan, my mortgage paid off in the next five years. Oh that is a lofty goal. How are we tracking? I'm halfway who so. Yeah, So I bought my apartment in twenty sixteen and have just gone absolutely ham. I bought it for four point fifty and I've paid just over two twenty five. Wow.

Congratulations, that's epic. Thank you, that is so epic. Al right, next question, do you have any investments? If so, what are they?

I do so that unit has technically become an investment for me. I'm currently renting it out and I also started my investment journey with six Park last year.

Oh my gosh, are you doing like straight six Park? Or do she's on the money? Six Park?

She's on the money.

Yes, Queen so esthetic.

We'll see you at our investor update this week.

Yeah, when are you coming to the investor update?

I got the email, but I haven't registered or anything yet. I need to get.

Onto Chop Chop.

I'm running investor updates. We need to be there. We are educated investors. I love that. That's so exciting. All right, now to flip it. You did say you still have some of your mortgage, so we know you have some debt. But do you have debt? If so, how much that's it?

So? I've recently paid off my car. The rest of my car loan, but that was using offset from my home loan, so that sort of bumped back up a little bit. But that technically makes my mortgage my only debt.

Yeah, very cool, Very cool. Next question is, my friend, do you use shop back?

I don't. I don't, and purely because I don't really shop. I'm such off your mortgage.

Yeah, Like, if you're paying that much off your mortgage, you don't have money to spend on shopping. I'm telling you that right now. To be that aggressive, which is very impressive, doesn't leave a lot of wigger room in the budget, does it.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't really online shop, and if I do ever treat myself, it's always with some sort of discount code that I've found somewhere. You know it get with me twenty or thirty percent off anyway. So it's very rare that I have a paid full price for something.

That's a really good money habit, And that leads into our next question, which is what's your best money habit.

I would say it's my budgeting and everything sort of associated with that. I'm always constantly checking in making sure that I'm sort of living within my means and I have that extra money to put away for emergencies and my savings and you know, moving forward with my money. I think my biggest, I guess goal is to really be financially free and financially independent and not have to sort of rely on a job so I can follow my passions. So that has been like a real driver for me.

I love that. That's actually is so exciting. And it always feel really bad bringing up the next question because I feel like I'm taking the whole conversation down a notch. But it's part of the show, you know, We've just got to do what we've got to do. The next question is what's your worst money have it in comparison?

I found this one hard, but I think if you were to ask anyone that knows me, though, maybe say it's that I'm a tied us.

Now that's a good money have it. We stand tied us is in this community.

Yeah. I just always look at everything and go is that value for money? And is my money best spent here? So I guess I question everything before I spend money on it, which can be annoying for the people around me perhaps, but it's also the reason why I've been as good with my money as I am.

Yeah, I feel like it's about balance too. Like if you're like asking the question of is this value for money, that to me is quite different too. I just don't want to spend money, Like I think that that's a very different mindset, and arguably your mindset is much healthier than I just don't want to spend and that can be really negative and that can impact lots of things.

Yeah, I do definitely still splurge, Like, I don't feel like I've missed out in the last six years that I've owned my house. I've still traveled, I still have weekends away.

You know.

If there's something that I want, I still make sure I can get it. But I'm just really conscious about how I go about that.

You're going to need to teach us your ways, because I assumed that meant that you had forgone everything, and now you're telling me that you still have a killer life and you've fad off that much of your mortgage. Kind of rude if you're asking.

Me, I wouldn't go that far. I feel like I've learnt so much from you guys that it's just like I'm the result of listening to the podcast, and.

We will take on this. We will take it. Jess and I are smiling ear to ear. We will take that and run with it. So last question before we get to deep dive into asking you some really fun questions is what grade would you give your money habits if we forced you to give yourself a grade.

I love this question because every time I listen to it, I feel like the women that are answering are always really hard on themselves. I know I'm going to say an aus, and that's purely because I think I would really love to be more confident when it comes to shares and things like that. That's probably where my improvement lies. I would say, oh, I love this.

All right, let's go to a really quick break, and when we get back, I'm asking you all about being an undercover cop. All right, money diarist, we are diving straight back in. I'm very excited to ask you about your business and about your journey and about how you've paid off so much of your mortgage. But you cannot lead a money diary entry with like, Hey, I was an undercover cop and expect she's on the money to

Yeah, So essentially it's just a course that's run. There's really not a lot of information out there about it. It is quite secretive and for obvious reasons. But it was something that I kind of I'm always looking for a challenge and I you know, I like to do things differently. I always wanted to be an actress growing up, so I was like, you know, if I'm going to be a police officer, maybe I can inject the two together.

Oh my gosh, is it too much to ask for some interesting stories around what that actually looked like? Because I think so many times we see on movies and as just said this, this is a bit like a movie. At the start, you just see what an undercover cop looks like and you just pretend to be a gangster. I'm pretty sure that's what your job description is. Is that accurate?

Yeah? Sort of. I mean I guess I can't go into.

Two no no, no, no, absolutely because.

You don't want to give away like methodology or anything like that. But it was definitely, you know, fun to play different characters and the people that you meet are probably, you know, people that you don't want to be spending time normally. So it really took a lot of self control and you know, you have to remain really calm in some really intense and stressful situations. So it taught me a lot about myself and you know what I'm

Just like breading through this money direst resume, Jess would be like was fake gangster cool. I love that light. I want to know more about your business though. Small business is something I I'm so incredibly passionate about. You said, you built up a business and sold it. How who? When?

Where?

What? Why?

How? Like?

How does that happen?

I'm someone that's always been obsessed with everything planning related, so I think, like the freedom that you can give yourself and the things that you can achieve when you sit down and plan for things is pretty incredible. There's a lot of power in it. So I've always been a planner, but every plan I'd ever bought was either really functional and ugly or really beautiful but not so functional. So I wanted to create one that I loved and had all of the things included in it, so you know,

We're all about that, clearly. I love to see, Yeah, women's putting it in obviously exactly what she's on the money stands for. I want to talk about that first business that you built up and sold, because I think that's something that we don't talk about quite so much when we're talking about small business, is the fact that you can build something up and then make the choice to step away from it and that can actually still

How I found a buyer a few people when I had sort of made the decision. Running especially a product based business and working shift work as an emergency services worker is like it's a tough gig. It's really exhausting, and it just got to a point where it was hard, but I had to make the decision for my own

Go for you know, something that you felt like it was undervaluing it, because that's like basically your baby. Like you've built up this thing and you've put all your time and energy and effort into it. You're like, I'm not just going to give it to someone who's not going to give it what it needs to continue to grow. That's probably why you made the decision to, you know, say all right, it's going to close, Like I don't know anyone who can carry this on in the way

Yeah, really lucky.

My next question, my friend, is you mentioned shift work. We have a lot of people in our community who workship work and are probably listening to this going. How is this money Diarist not completely burnt? Out, like, how are you managing doing shift work in addition to running a new business and getting things up and running? Like shift work knocks you for six It's not just like, oh, well, you just work overnight and you sleep during the day,

Honestly, planning, I know, like without like plugging it anymore than I can, Like I honestly I plan everything so much, and I've figured out and I've learned a lot about myself and when I'm most productive and when I need to rest. So obviously, on the days that I do night work, there's very little done. And then I know the days where I'm going to have a lot of

How did all that planning go when you were traveling around Australia in a van? Because I'm imagining if you're driving around in a van, as much as you can kind of plan your stops or plan what you want to see, things would probably come up that just kind of throw you for a loop that you weren't anticipating.

How did you juggle.

That while running the business while also dealing with any unanticipated little surprises that came up along the journey.

Yeah, to be honest, the planning went to shit.

The best policy around.

Yeah, it was really hard, Like, especially traveling solo, you really have to do all of the research and all of the driving is being done and the van actually just exploded in the middle of no in the Northern Territory. Yeah,

Be didn't care up like I would have been, like, we are going home.

I spent some time in Sydney, so yeah, I was adamant that I was going to make the most of that time off, so I sort of pivoted. But the van was no longer after that, So yeah, we had to change plans.

We pivot, we change big plan. I know your plan quote went to shit, but I feel like you made a different plan and then that worked for you.

Yeah, how did.

It work with internet when you were on the road?

Yeah, how do we do this? Can we just pounds on the road?

Sounds like a dream being able to travel and work that. I'm sure a lot of people have heard and gone, oh my god, I'd love to do that. How what was the like the actuality of it? Was it really hard when you're you know, really deep in NTY and you just have no reception.

Or yeah, you kind of have to just go go with it. So hard to know when you'll have reception and when you won't. So I just made the most of it. It also meant that, you know, one of my big things is not being on your phone as much as possible. So I did a lot of reading and I did a lot of relaxing, which isn't the worst thing either, but I just honestly just had to adapt with whatever I was confronted with on any given day.

So that's really cool. Was they like, what was your ultimate high point and your ultimate low point of that trip?

Maybe her van exploding Jessica, Oh yeah.

Yeah, there is that chestnut, because definitely the low.

I actually met some friends on the road whilst I was traveling who were the first people that I called when the van did shit itself? And they said, where are Alice Springs right now? Fly to us, jump in the back of our van. So I did that.

Oh my gosh, how cool.

We did the top toe. There was three of us in there, toy to high Ace. So we did Alice Springs and we drove all the way to Ularu and it was just a really incredible experience and just something that I'm I'll always be grateful for that they sort of let me tack on to the end of their trip.

That's really cool. I love that the worst thing that could possibly happen ended up resulting into one of your greatest memories. How cool. Is that.

Yeah. I mean I'm really actually proud that it was something that it could have ruined my trip and I could have just thrown my hands in the air and said, well, I guess that means I've got to go back to work and I've got to go home with my tail between my legs. But I was adamant that I was just going to roll with it. I said that before I left for the trip, whatever happens, I'm just gonna go with the flow. So that was the theme of the trip and probably what got me through.

See that was the plan.

Don't get me wrong, there were definitely tears.

Yeah, I would have tried a lot, as I said before, like I would have just been like, I am going home.

I am that person, Like I gave myself ten minutes.

Oh my gosh.

I love that your long service leave that you have coming up, but obviously stepping away from relatively set rigid schedule with I know that you're working night and you can be on and off when you're a cop, so maybe not super rigid, but having that really regular income and then going on on service leave to pursue this business,

Yeah, so I've got a really healthy offset account and at the moment, so I'm taking long service leave at half pay, so I'm still getting paid even if it is only like a small amount, but I've worked out at the very least my bills and things like that can be covered. I'm making extra mortgage repayments at the moment, which may probably have to stop, but as I said, that is being rented out and that covers principle and

That's yeah, really really amazing.

I have a door talking to you and learning more about you, know, what your new job is and how that's going to work. Like the idea that you exist to empower people to just like live their best lives. That's cool because I think that we have just learned that you're basically living your best life. Like you look so young. Can I be pervy and ask how old are you?

I'm actually thirty five?

No you're not, No you're not. She looks twenty eight.

Guys, I don't know what water you're drinking, but I would like some of it.

Whatever you're doing, because having been an undercover cop but built and sold a business to now having a brand new business and having traveled all around Australia, like, I feel like you have lived your best life, and I feel like if anyone is going to teach other women how to live theirs, like you're pretty good. You're walking the walk, you're talking the talk, and I know that you are going to be wildly successful. So thank you so much for joining.

Us, Thank you for having me.

Oh always, Jess, would you like to take it away and wrap the show for us.

Absolutely don't get guys that the advice shared on Shees on the Money is generally nature and just not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make

See you on Wednesday, guys.

Bye,