MONEY DIARIES: The Savvy Saver

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 are millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where I get the absolute pleasure of sitting down with one of our Shees on the Money community members to learn all about their money story. Let's jump into it, because this week I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, Victoria, I love your podcast. I have been a long term listener for a few years and thought my story may encourage

Hi, thanks for having me.

Oh, I'm so excited about this for you. Congrats on the purchase by the away.

Yeah, we're very happy.

Oh my gosh, I love it. All right, let's start as we always do money dives. I want to know what grade would you give your money habits on a scale from A through to F if I asked you to give them a grade?

Ooh, I think I would give myself a bit of a generous aimnus.

All right, that seems very good. I can't wait to learn more. My favorite question of all time, can you please tell me a little bit more about your money story?

My partner and I.

We've been together for about five years, and essentially when we got together, we basically had the dream of owning a family home that had a big, beautiful backyard. My partner, he's from the country, so that's what he always grew up with, and we always wanted to have a dog, essentially, and so when we met each other, the saving stream was on. We basically tried to save up as much as possible, and we first started out, we lived with a family member. We slept on a king single for about a year.

Oh my gosh, together together. Don't recommend No, I.

Can't see how that would be a recommended option.

But it was just basically, we did a lot to say basically, you do what you got to do exactly, and it was just the best option for us at the time. From there, I cracked it and we moved out into a rental during COVID, and from there we were able to purchase our first property.

Which was a villa.

Now I would love to say that it was all savvy savings, but it definitely wasn't.

My partner, he actually took one for the team.

We basically have family members that work for banking and they basically told us that if you work for the bank and as long as you have been with the bank for one month, you could pay a ten percent deposit on a property and you don't have to pay ALAMAI.

Yeah, my partner.

At the time, he was working casually and so he needed full time income anyway, and so he sold his soul to work for a call center at one of the big banks.

I don't know if that's selling his soul or being a genius.

He's a genius. But he absolutely hated it.

So he did definitely take one for the tea. Then if it was a role he wasn't passionate about.

Definitely, I mean no hate, Like some people do love that role. I have friends who love that role. But for him, it just wasn't.

A good fit.

Yeah, fair, And he.

Basically did that for about five months and then left. However, we bought a property almost exactly a month after he started, and then from there we were in the property for about a year where we made the very scary decision do we stay in this property or do we take

Oh my gosh, you're going to have to tell me though, like we need the pervy details. You can't say we bought a villa, then we sold it. Now we have a dream property. Like this is sheese on the money. So how much did you pay for your villa? What did you sell it for?

So for the villa, we bought a two bedroom, one bathroom villa in a reasonably nice suburb, and then we bought that for about eight hundred and we put a eighty thousand dollars deposit, so ten percent exactly. We basically changed up the floors, we ripped out carpet, just put down those laminate fallboards, painted the place, and then sold it a year later, I think it was thirteen months later for a million and fifty.

Oh my gosh, you're a queen.

Yeah, so that was actually a record for the suburb, for the villa.

We were just lucky.

No, no, no, you worked for that. That's not just lucky. You bought a villa, You slipped a villa. You saw the potential, Like, I don't know what about that was luck? My friend.

Thanks. I must admit it was very scary, very daunting.

But the mindset we had was that, yes, the villa's going up in value, but a house will got greater in value. And so for us it was the case of we moved out a few suburbs to basically buy the house. Yeah, so we would never have been able to buy a house in the suburbs we had the villerins, so we just moved out that little bit further and for us, it's just ticked every box and we couldn't be happier.

Oh my gosh. So you flipped it and then you mentioned before thirteen months. Now I know why you said thirteen months, But why is thirteen months important when selling a house.

Well, because you have to be in the house for at least a year so that you don't have to pay capital gainstacks, because it's not clue an investment.

The second you said thirteen months, I was like, This woman is savvy. She is all over it. Like the factor that you even knew to get your partner into a job where you were working for a bank so that you could do the ten percent deposit with no LMI. I was like, these guys have their brains switched on. No wonder out the gate. You're like a minus easy. There's only a very small amount of room to grow.

So we were actually incredibly lucky. So the bank that we are with with our mortgage, we basically were able to port our loan from the past property. So basically we had about half of our mortgage is fixed and so that is fixed that a two percent interest rate until twenty twenty five.

Literally get wrecked.

Yeah, because we were able to jo for that across and so not many banks do it, but the bank wherewith does, So it was very lucky for us. So I feel really good because when we bought our property, it was literally about six months later from when we sold our property, and so things had turned a little bit. It was just after the peak in property prices in Sydney, and essentially we just had the mindset of, all right, we got twenty percent deposit.

We either do it now or we wait and see what happens.

I just had a gut feeling that Sydney prices never really stay down for long.

No, they don't.

And I knew immigration was going to open again.

I knew things were going to happen, and so I'm very lucky that my partner said go for it. I trust you, and we just found the right property and it all basically just fell into place.

Oh my gosh, I love this so much. And now you're in more than a million dollars worth of debt. Tell me what that feels like.

Yeah, it's a million and fifty. Honestly, it is scary. However, I think we came at it with a very good mindset where we budgeted very well, knowing what each of our salaries are, and we.

Basically planned for worst case scenario.

Ye great, So I work in sales where a lot of my income is commission, and so we didn't count any of that commission when buying the property. And we ensured that we had quite a significant buffer per month to put straight into savings for things like car regio or council rates or something like that. We made sure we had a certain amount of money to buffer all of that, including Christmas presents, birthdays.

You don't know what could come?

Ye?

Great, I feel like that is, you know, a perfect time to ask my next question, because you said we really thought about our salaries. Tell me what those salaries are, how much do you earn? And what is your job?

So as a whole, my partner here is on about just under seventy And for myself it does fluctuate again because I work in sales, and I work in sales in the health industry, and so last year I took home about one hundred and sixty.

Oh my gosh, how did you get into sales in the health industry? And tell me a bit more about the actual breakdown of your role because obviously some of that is going to be made up of commission.

Yes, So I got into it basically straight out of UNI. I didn't know what I wanted to do, So I actually got into one of the lower pharmaceutical sales. Hated it left that eighty months later and just got really lucky with this role that came up. But it just seemed to be the perfect fit for me, and ever since, there's just been climbing as demand for the job. It's great because I'll never lose a job because everyone needs health, right.

I love that smart woman.

And so if we.

Break down my salary, it's about one hundred and seven, which is my base, and then I get a fifteen K car allowance, and then the remainder is commission where if you hit one hundred percent of target per quarter you get about ten thousand.

That is very exciting. I feel like that would motivate me a lot. Do you find yourself, especially working in sales, really motivated by that big goal, like every quarter being like if I do this and I, you know, really slogged it at work, I'm going to smash it. Or you maybe not as motivated by that.

My personality, I'm very goal orientated, So sales was the perfect role for me. I love having something to work towards, and essentially, again even in my personal life, that's how we are where we are now. It's because I have a goal and essentially I like to budget and work out the parameters to achieve it.

So I find it motivating.

I love it all right, Well, tell me a bit more about your big money goals. You've got the house, you've bought the dream house, you're in a million dollars worth of debt. What are your other goals and what are we working towards at the moment.

So there's a few things I'm working towards, but probably one of the big things I'm working towards is a wedding. My partner and I would love to get married at the next few year, but also we're trying to get ourselves set up for kids. Yeah, childcare is incredibly expensive. Maternity leave is also quite expensive, and so we want to make sure we have a big enough buffer that we're not in financial strains when that time comes.

I adore this. I have a question, Are you engaged at the moment?

No?

No, no, no, not a bad question. I was talking about marriage with my partner and we moved in together and we bought a house way before we got married. And I always find it an interesting conversation because the other day I was talking to a girlfriend and she was like, Oh, I wish I was getting married soon. And I was like, oh, like, do you talk about it? And she's like, no, I'd never mention it. I don't want him to think that I'm putting any pressure on.

And oh, we're exactly the same. Yeah, we have a house. So it's all about honest communication, openness. We talk about it quite a lot. And for us, even though we want to get married right now, financially, we know it's not the right time and so it doesn't change anything marriage. We're committed to each other. And again, we've got a house, we've got a dog, we've got it all. So for us, it's just when we're financially ready, that's when we'll do it.

I love that conversation. I also want to ask a really perfect question because you mentioned that your partner earns just under seventy grand but you're in like one sixty. Who's paying for the ring?

We have a joint account. We've each got our own accounts and we each put a specific amount of money into that account per month. So we've had the discussion that when it does come time, the money is just going to come from the joint account. Of what's going to be the surprise is when he asks me, not the fact that we're getting engaged.

Yeah, no, I love this. Also, like nice for him to have a sure thing like yea, he knows you're going to say yes, Like surely that will make you nervous. I was talking to my now husband about that, and I was like, why were you so nervous when you proposed? Like you knew that I was going to say yeah, Like you knew this is what I wanted. And he was just like I don't even know, Like what if you changed your mind?

But what happens if you don't like the ring? I think that's the biggest nerdiness.

To be honest, I didn't even care. I was just so happy to get a ring, and now I love my ring. But I just couldn't care less. Like I remember a couple of friends chatting to me and being like, well, if I don't get this ring, like I won't be happy. I was like, May I would have a tinfoil ring and I would be so happy with that, Like it really did not worry me.

Do you know what that makes me think of? What Taylor Swift paper rings?

Oh?

Yeah, no, I would have taken a paper ring.

Easy.

Easy.

I've already asked for a necklace with his initials to go around my neck because I'm swifty at heart. But that is okay, even if he says that's really lame. Who even does that you're in your thirties. I'm like, it's not the point, it's not, it's not the point. Talk to me a little bit more about I guess weddings and planning that. Obviously, you seem from my perspective

Yeah, definitely, so each to their own. My partner and I we don't think there's great value in having a very expensive wedding because it's one day of your life. And so for us, my parents have offered to give us finances for a.

Portion of the wedding.

Oh how nice.

We don't want to really put up more than about ten thousand, Oh my god, and then my parents will put up about thirty and.

For us, that's plenty for a wedding.

Oh my gosh, that's so much money.

Yes, but technically that's less than the average.

Yeah. I remember having these conversations prior to getting engaged. We would talk about what a wedding would cost, what type of wedding my partner wanted versus me, and I would have honestly been very happy. All I cared about was good food. So I was like, I don't care if we go to a registry and then we go to a beautiful restaurant and have like a very fancy dinner with like our favorite friends, like call it ten or fifteen of them. Like, that's, in my head, the

I would love to Elope hire a photographer because that's what's important to me, is just photos, because that's how you're going to remember it in so many years.

But he wants a big party.

We both thought, well, let's compromise. Let's just do the big party. Why not, Like you only get married once, but we want to do it country style, so we want it to be super relaxed, good music, and just everyone just get drunk.

Yep. Great, ten out of ten. Everyone at that wedding is going to have a brilliant time. I can't wait to hear about it. All right, let's go to a quick break and we'll get back into the money questions right after this. All right, money diarist, We are back, and I am adoring the conversation that we are having. But I want to know, do you have any investments? If so, what are they? If not, do you have plans to invest?

Yeah?

So when it comes to investments together.

My partner and I we have about ten thousand in stocks and that's about it.

And then super, how.

Did you decide where to invest your ten thousand dollars in shares?

So very honestly, I don't have an interest in the stock market, That's fair. I left it to my partner. Whatever he wanted to invest in or what he felt passionate about, I just let him do it, and I trusted him.

Love that for you, all right? I want to know now we know about your one million and fifty thousand dollars mortgage, bud, do you have any other debts? If so, what are they.

The only other debt we have is my partner's hexteded and that's about twenty five thousand.

Do you have a plan to smash that out? Or are we leaving that as is in just ticking away or is there a plan in place at all?

We have a plan in place.

This financial year, right before they added the interest to it, we smashed out about ten thousand, and so we're going to basically keep smashing out hopefully roughly that same amount each year until it's gone.

Do you have a spreadsheet? Do you track all this? I feel like it'd be the sexies spreadsheet I've seen in my life.

I like nothing, Absolutely no.

I'm going to fix that. I will give you my budgeting a cash flow master class, and you can go and do that, and I feel like you'll be even more in control. Maybe that's what it's going to take you from an as twinter a plus. But I want to know now because I feel like you've got a number of them. What is your best money habit?

Best money habit budgeting? As soon as money comes into account.

But you don't even track it, what are you doing? How do you budget without a spreadsheet?

I'm so confused all in my head.

We figure it out, like we sit down together, we write everything up and basically we go from there. So we have a certain amount of accounts. You know, money for the groceries goes into X, Y and Z, money for et cetera. Bills goes into X, Y and Z, and we don't then don't touch our savings and we've got the offset, so any additional money just goes straight there.

I love that. So how do you split expenses between you and your partner? Given you have different incomes?

So for us income it doesn't matter. So we basically split based on what we earn. So because I earn a significantly more, I pay more and I'm more than happy to do that because he pays for things and other ways.

I love this because obviously, if you've listened to my podcasts and know the show and very much about percentage based equity in a relationship, because obviously there's going to be a very significant difference between someone earning about seventy grand and someone earning about one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. You're going to have so much more financial freedom than he does to make decisions and go on holidays and you even just eat out or grab an extra coffee.

I guess for us, my partner and I basically when we got together, probably about a year and time we just knew we'd be together long term.

It was very organic.

I'm a very upfront person, so I'll just say it and I'll just wear my heart in my sleeve, and my partner He's incredibly supportive, and he loves the fact that I earned so much. He's like, you're a girl boss.

I love it.

I would too. It's actually epic, and.

So for us, it was just a case of all right, what do we both feel comfortable with and what do we both agree is fair, and that's how we did it.

I love that you got to have that open, honest conversation. I don't want to stereotype here, but I feel like often men cannot be that comfortable with having a conversation when the female is the breadwinner, because obviously they could feel inferior. They shouldn't because it's got absolutely nothing to do with that and money doesn't define you. But I just think that that conversation is interesting to ask questions about because sometimes it comes up that it was harder

Yeah, he's incredibly supportive.

You mentioned earlier in the episode that you know, you've got a house and you've got a dog, But the reality is you can only say that because you've got a dog like two days ago. Right, So this snoring that maybe people could hear in the background. Who's that.

Yeah, so this is our new little puppy, a new addition to the family.

And she's just napping on your lap and I get to see her. It's so sweet. But if anybody hears any little puppy snores, that's where they're coming from, because we don't want to put her in another room. Money, darist, I have another question for you. I want to know. We did what your best money habit was, which was budgeting, But what's your worst money habit.

I think it's, you know, a two started coin.

I think the worst money habit I have is that sometimes I can budget too much, and so I don't let myself just enjoy things sometimes. So for instance, like I'll go out to a club or something with some friends and my partner, and in my head, I've got a budget of I'm only spending this amount, and so then I don't let myself have an extra drink here and there. And this is where my partner comes in and he's very much like, Babe, it's gonna be okay, Like we're fine.

You can have another drink, we can stay out another hour. You're having a really good time going.

Exactly the worst.

So budgeting for me, it's great I do it, but it can also be my own worst enemy.

All right, money dirist. At the start of this episode, you said I'm an A mins. Can you talk me through why you think you're an A minus? And then if after our conversation, would you change it or would you keep it as is?

Yeah?

So the reason why I said a minus is because, yes, we've accomplished so much, but you know, we still do have a significant amount of debt. There's still things we're working to achieve, and there's always things to learn. You know, I don't know everything. There's definitely things I would like to learn regarding you know, tax back, more about investing

Could be doing.

I couldn't agree with you more Like, as much as you're saying there's more I'm like, you're killing it. Like you have such a good income, you've got to create such good financial security long term. You've got a puppy, You've bought your dream house, Like, oh my gosh, I'm just so excited about it. I wish we had so much more time to chat, but unfortunately that is all we had time for today, Money Diarist, it has been

Thank you.

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