MONEY DIARIES: The Ones That Shook Us in 2022!

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's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our shop back Money diaries. Wait a minute, we're not just looking at one on today's episode, but we're talking about the diaries that shook us in twenty twenty two. Today and I've wrangled on air the woman who wrangles us sound producer and a Lisa, Hello and welcome to my show.

Oh my goodness, Victoria Devine, Hello, the silent voice here an Lisa, just rocking it with you. On an episode today.

I love it.

I'm so excited.

I literally made you do this episode. So I need to take responsibility for this.

Why for those of you who don't know, Analisa actually has her own entire radio show and has done for literal years. So like, if anyone's actually equipped to be speaking in front of a microphone, it's not me, nod.

It's because we love our Money Diaries. They have my favorite episodes, they are our community's favorite episodes. Steep dives a great Friday drinks are great. But I know that you love each and every episode. But I literally twisted your arm to make you pick not top one because they're all amazing, but the ones.

That's impactful, I think, Yeah, I think I was not happy about it. And that's why you're here, because you were like, I don't even have to convince yes, I'm gonna sit you down with No, don't worry about availability like you will do this for me.

No.

But it makes sense because I talk to these women. I go through the emails and I like talk to them, and I get this tremendous privilege of getting to meet I feel luckier than you because I get to spend more time with them.

Even I actually get really envious because often before our money diaries, Analisa will be like, oh my gosh, Emily, you're gonna love her and gives me like this beautiful rundown. And then Emily comes on and she might be a little bit nervous or whatever, and Analyst it's like, oh, I don't worry, remember X Y and ZDA. And I'm like, why do you know so much about our diarist already?

But VD, you know, low grade, actually high grade gives me tremendous anxiety. Is anyone asking me my favorite list of anything, whether it be restaurants, food, like music, can you feel like I don't get judged. I can't pick, but I love an end of your list from other people.

Yeah, no, I'm obsessed with them.

And honestly, when I say each and every single week, oh my god, Money Diaries is my favorite time of the week, Like it literally is. Money Diaries can be so emotional as well, like even just recording them. Sometimes we get off a diary and I just like cry, or I'm just so happy that I have to go for a walk because I can't concentrate on the next thing I'm going to do.

Or we spend like twenty minutes.

Working out a way that this thing could be solved for one of our Money diarists, and I just I feel like you deserve to know how much more time, energy and effort goes into them than any other segment. Of our podcast because and Alisa, you spend a lot of your week as well doing research for deep dives, and I feel like that's just not nearly as nourishing as working out what is going to work on Money Diaries

It's so true, Victoria, But like I feel like I get this education you talked about tears before too, because I feel like every time I speak to someone on the phone, I end up just like Tiery, and I feel like they're my best friend, and I'm always so excited for you to meet them, and also hearing how each one like no joke go. My life was one way before I found this podcast and then I learned.

It breaks me and this.

Bit like has changed has shook me. So now we're going to tell you about how you shook us. Well, actually I don't even know who you've chosen, Victoria, So.

So do you want to get into it, Ana Lisa.

Oh yeah, all right, here is the first one.

So I grew up in a single parent family and money was kind of always tight for us. Like we're talking black and gold food and homemade clothes and stuff, like I never went hungry. There was always a roof over my head and food in the pantry. We just didn't have anything more than the basics. And once I kind of left home, it led me to to not

Oh my gosh, I'm so proud of you and we've only just met.

Can you tell me.

A little bit about what your attitude towards money is now, Like obviously, growing up it was quite tight, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with black and gold. I still buy that every day, but it does become kind of a stigma in your life, right, Like you kind of look at it and go, oh, that means that I can't afford you know, the CSR sugar. And I know that that is, you know, something that I've spoken to friends about who have been through situations like that.

But what do you see money as?

Now?

I see money as it's not the scarce resource that I used to think it was. I think I've got my head screwed on straight finally. And to me, it's a means to enjoy myself, Like it's the real that I get for putting in so much hard work. Like I have a day job and you know, a couple of side hustles, so I put in a lot of hours and so the money's the reward from that. So I like to enjoy it. Like when I go out, I like to kind of splurge every now and then. And I don't think that's a bad thing because I'm

Now, so Analisa, I'm assuming you remember this one.

Now, My gosh, I'm seriously I'm sitting here with goosebumps. Of course I remember this one.

So I now follow her on Instagram. I love her.

I'm obviously not going to share her on Instagram. I don't even know if I should tell you that I'm following her on Instagram. But I follow thousands of people because I have no self control and like cut dress company, follow cute person followed, Like that's why if you go on my profile, you'll be like, she follows thousands. You know those people and alsa that have like minimal follows, they're like really selective.

Not me.

But I'm really grateful to have followed her because I feel like I have an ongoing connection with her, even though we don't speak all that often. This phoenix rising from the ashes is what this episode was called. And she survived and emotionally and physically abusive relationship. She's the one that ended up in one hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of debt on credit cards that she didn't know was existing, and she paid it off like she

Before that, andr X was controlling to the level of not allowing her bus passes or something. I think I'm remembering from this story too, and there's no good level of financial control. But like the phoenix rising from the ashes is the perfect metaphor for what this incredible woman.

Yeah, she changed everything about her life and is now living her best life. I mean, it did take her seven years to get out of debt, so this was not an overnight turnaround in you know, a financial circumstance and Anlisa had ended up costing her two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to get out of all of the debt that she was in. But she's now debt free,

Like augh, I also remember that she liked to spend cash so that she could watch, like feel the very real feeling of the money.

Yeah, she envelopes like money envelopes and I'm just like you do you boo? That is absolutely working. But to me, this was one of the ones that jumped out immediately. It was a tale of incredible strength and survival and honestly so into the spreadsheets that she has, and she's a boss. I think we can all learn a lot from her. And this is just Quintessentially, she's on the money.

It is this.

Story of a powerful woman overcoming absolutely everything and getting back on her financial stability train.

And I just that's a good place to.

Start for me, mate, I'm with you all the way.

I love it. Do you want to hear the next one?

Oh?

Yeah?

So growing up I had two like really hard working parents. They both did shift work. We had a nice home, and me and my siblings we all got to do like dancing and like gymnastics, whatever we wanted to do asides from that we didn't really have much else, but like that we had more than enough.

Really.

My parents would often like talk about money in front of us, But I just remember always hearing we're so broke, we're so broke, We're so broke. And in hindsight, I don't think my parents were ever so broke. They just yeah, I'm not sure where they put their money. They were pretty good with it though, to be honest, Like looking at them now, they've you know, they've got a house paid off, and they've got a good chunk of souper and stuff like that. So that's what money was like growing up for me.

Yeah, So talk to me about how when you were fifteen you found yourself in government housing? Like how did you go from this beautiful lifestyle that you just explained to going, all, right, now I'm in government housing because of a turbulent home life.

Like what happened my friend?

Yeah, So they were like they're good, they're great, hard workers, and I have a great relationship with them now. But as a teenager, my mum had lots of physical and mental health issues and it was very, very turbulent, and I got kicked out of home. My older sister left my other sister ended up getting kicked out as well, and it was all sorts of fun. So it was It's weird because we kind of came from like a decent home, but it was real. We had a really rough,

That's a really interesting juxtaposition. How did you deal with that? Because I feel like, going from a lifestyle that you just explained to going to government housing and having to have your own income and then obviously deciding at a team to drop out, that's a very big shift.

How did you deal with that?

Were you okay, Well, I've always been like really independent. Looking back, I probably did go through like moments of like depression and stuff like that, but at the time I didn't really understand my own feelings and I didn't recognize like what depression was. But like, looking back, I probably definitely experienced it as a teenager.

But I was always really independent.

I had a part time job, so I just picked up extra shifts there. I was happy to work and that sort of thing. So I had a lot of good like friends as well at the time, so that.

Was really good.

Yeah, I love that all right, Next question, my friend, I think we already got here. But what do you do for work? And the juicy part, how much money do you earn?

So I do OnlyFans and I do in person like sex works. I'm an escort. It varies a lot. So I averaged between five and ten K a week, but that's because I have like I have two kids. I don't really work too hard. If I wanted to work harder, I could definitely.

What do you mean you don't work too hard?

You're like, oh, five and ten k a week, but I don't work hard. I'm like, what I know that's beyond most people's wildest dreams.

Yeah, I'm pretty lazy. I only really work like I do one booking a day roughly, but that's all I really need to do. And like I've got such a busy home life. It's a perfect like balance. There has been times where I've worked a lot harder and you know, made double or triple that in a week, but generally speaking, between five and ten k.

All right, and a Lisa, I'm a bit biased here. This is also a friend of mine that I dragged on the show because I was like, we need your story, we need.

It, like I just need it. On the show. It's very different to the last story I shared with you.

Fascinating this one and again another one that I went into Well not I have friends who are sex workers too, haven't sort of asked too much about their finances. But there were so many us of this story that were fascinating to me. And I loved meeting her on the phone too.

She's one just a bubbly, bright human that you just enjoy interacting with. But I just also love that we're talking about this journey of she grew up in public housing, she was disadvantaged, and now she's making ten grand a week as a sex worker. And we're not talking about sex work as a bad thing, like we're talking about sex She wanted to do this, she knew, she wanted to grow up to do this, she knows she's good

What struck me so much too about her story was the level of responsibility and work ethic. And I know she was saying as well that she works harder some

I can't imagine having to go to work and do something so physically demanding, so not just sex, Like I couldn't do a trade, I couldn't do something like even waitressing. I used to be a waitress. I just don't have it in me anymore to be so physically present and have a job that is so physically demanding. So props to literally anyone who does that, because I just I can't, Like I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and I'm like, oh, I'm going to change my day around so that it suits my life.

I just can't do it.

I did.

Your life seems incredibly busy and very very full on.

Let me I walk into recordings.

I'm like, yep, so we're not doing that one today because I'm Alie on the floor and you're.

Like, I don't care, Okay, right the bus.

But I just I think it's so important to talk about sex work because sex work is also something that you know, obviously our diarist was a full service sex worker, and that's cool, but there's just so many different ways, shapes and forms that people engage with in the sex work industry, from you know, selling their nudes all the way through to full service sex workers. Like I remember talking to a woman and if you're listening to this, I cannot, for the life of me remember your Instagram name.

And absolutely outrageous the prejudice that exists with the banking system and even how she was talking about going overseas and all that.

Stuff, and that she literally can't travel to some countries because ten years get in insane, insane, And I mean this story as well, was a good one about really understanding that just because you make bank and you're making ten K week does not mean that you know how to manage money. Because this money darist has got a little bit to learn. And we've been working on it, I promise since that episode. But I just think it's

Well, I cannot wait, Victoria Devine to hear what is coming up next. But I am the producer here, so shall I just just take us to Shall I take.

Us to a break and then we'll come straight that that it will see there, all right, Anna Lisa to recap we're doing the diarists that shook us in twenty two, twenty two, and we have two more for you.

I made you, Victoria, pick a couple, but not the best, not the favorites, just ones that like, we went in with some sort of an idea about something we thought we'd learned, and we came out with a whole bunch of other stuff.

We absolutely did, And I just don't have favorites, but I want to say that this was one of my favorites.

Again.

It was so powerful, so moving, so inspiring. Here it is.

Yeah, absolutely, I've had a bit of a thought about this growing up. I'm one of five kids, and we grew up in a very small rural town in the South Island population less than a thousand people and one and come family. So Dad worked and he worked very hard. Money was extremely stressful growing up.

It was never talked.

About and there were always many arguments about it, to the point where I think all of us kids there was just so much stress around it. And I knew that in order to live a life how I wanted, I needed to get a good career. So back then I would say very stressful, pessimistic about money. But now that's obviously change over the last sort of good five years.

Oh, I'm glad, Like, I'm glad that you got to pick it up as early as that, because you do hear about people in our frontline roles that just get so burnt out. But I also just don't think, you know, this is maybe another stereotype jest that we need to break, But I just feel like people in those roles care so much about other people that when it comes to caring for themselves, they just don't reach out for the

Yeah, yeah, and you're absolutely right, like and normalize it by talking about it. I talk very openly to any of my colleagues that working with, because all of us need help at some stage.

All of us do.

And yeah, like I talked to my family about it. Whereas you know, growing up, mental health was another thing that was never talked about. It was everything was sweet under the rugue. It's just not helpful.

Analisa, Oh my goodness, these ones that you're like, you are just a better human than I will be. Like me, she's a better human the both of us combined, like, it's just not going to happen.

We put the whole She's on the Money team together and we're like cool. Still not good.

For those of you who caught on this was the episode.

She's an egg donor and an inspiration and ah, I can't like literally a better human than I'll ever be. She gives so much to everyone around her. She was a maudie, mother of two and an emergency services worker of course she was, and an egg donor, which was so so special. And she told us An Lisa that she was the first in her family to get a degree at all. And she'd been working on the money story that she grew up with and she's been changing

Just and she started that journey because her brother is in the same sex relationship and she was like.

I hope someone dies for him one day.

Yeah, he should have those opportunities as well if he wants to be a father. And she heard a call out on the news or a new story or something, and now.

I can't remember how she found it, but she heard a call out for a Moldy couple or one of the people in the couple was moldy, and they would love to find somebody that could help them, you know, embrace their culture because like that to me is something I hadn't thought about, Anna, Lisa, Like, I just think that this space is so special and we live in a world where, you know, I had clients when I was a financial advisor that had surrogate children and like

People like it doesn't matter.

I'm going through this, like I feel like crap, my hormones are up up the creek, I'm bloated, I'm this, I'm that, Like this is awful, but like it's so I can achieve my dream of having a baby. And like, people go through this because they want to have babies, and I totally get it. But she did it for somebody else to have babies. So it wasn't just like, oh, I don't ended my time or my energy or my effort.

Like I say, better people than me.

I think it was.

Just fascinating, Like I think the whole story of understanding.

How when where? Why? Like, what does this look like? What does that end up? Like?

Like just a special human doing special things and she's in our community?

How wellcky we top.

Not ten out of ten? Would would record again?

Would you like me to introduce you to our last but not least absolutely Victoria.

I cannot wait to visit whatever you've got up next.

Here you go.

So I feel like I have a bit of a anxious attachment to money, said like a true psych but this manifests an almost a scarcity mindset when it comes to money, and that's probably heavily related to my childhood. So for context, I am a twenty two year old first gen immigrant from Sri Lanka and growing up my

Lisa, Oh my goodness, this was.

A recent one, and to be honest, I just couldn't get it out of my brain when we were pulling this together. I just feel like that episode was so

Quirky woman after your own heart, Victoria Devine.

Analisa, she's managing a full time job and working three casual jobs to make sure that her parents and her are okay, and she still feels like she's not doing enough well.

I think that title of this one, carrying the pressure and bridging two worlds, it's like, I really remember from this young lady, that this young lady that she she was way more sure than me. Let's put it. Let's put it that way, you.

And me combined.

It's like such love and duty to her family and obviously concern for her family still living in Sri Lanka, but still also like wanting to be a twenty two year old and feeling guilty about just wanting to live where she's at. You know, it's so tough.

It's a lot, and I mean I appreciated it. We've had a few immigrant community members on our podcast before, and I think there've been really special stories. This one really stood out to me though, because she genuinely was so hard working but didn't feel like she was doing enough didn't feel like it was good enough, and I was just like, holy moly, like you are above and beyond.

It's just it was such a backwards process.

And you know, I think we should be sharing stories like this and more stories like this next year because it's so impactful, so moving, but also so real, Like this stuff is happening in our world and we are so so privileged to in Australia and I have an overlaying level of privilege that I grew up here and I'm white and I'm female in twenty twenty two, like, I just I feel like having this platform is a I have a responsibility to share stories like this with

One hundred percent. Like we know that there are listeners to She's on the Money from all over the world and in Australia, people with all sorts of different backgrounds, and that's what makes the community so special. And I just gosh, you learn so much more when you hear someone's first hand experiences about what's going on day to day.

Yeah, absolutely, And I think this makes me frustrated, right, And I don't do it because I'm I try to be a reserved, a nice humansa. But I think having such a special job, because I do think I have a special job. Yeah, it looks like real fancy sometimes and I get to go to some fancy events and I get to podcast all day, like it's so fun. But my favorite part is really connecting with our community

We're stronger together, mate.

Oh it's so lame, isn't it.

Like it's true though, Like how much more connected do we feel when we hear another money diary and we can resonate with a tiny point of it and go wow, or we can you know, empathize with something that we're like, oh my god, I didn't know about this, because there are so many things in the world that we don't have time to shine lights on. But with She's on the money, I think that there's a lot to still

Victoria to Vine, we were talking about tears before. You're getting me choked up.

Stop it, we'll go, We'll go through.

Thank you for being along on the journey. She's on the money. Thank you for allowing us to share this. Thank you for being there, being present and wanting to share your stories with us, because without you, we can't do this. And I'm just I'm so grateful that we're all friends. What a way to wrap the last money diary of the year. Victoria, see you, are you glad I made you do this? I'm glad you made me do this. I'm very very happy with it.

But we do remind you, though, that we love each and every one of you and legitimately every story that comes through.

Is just so special.

And you know what an underlying theme of all of the four that I have picked today is that talking to each and every single one of these people, I think if we'd ask them and oh, do you reckon like your diary would make it to the wrap, that would say, oh no, absolutely not, like absolutely not, Like they all just don't think that their stories are that inventive, like we had four different dirests on We had the

But I think everyone's.

Going to agree with me that these all deserve to absolutely be here.

But slide into my DMS. Let's chat. Tell me about your favorite money diary and why.

And we cannot wait to share so many more stories in twenty twenty three.

We have so many of them lined up. I cannot wait to share them more with you.

Thank you so much, Victoria for having me on.

Of course, we'll see you in twenty twenty three. Guns bye.

The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria, Divine and She's on the Money are