MONEY DIARIES: Well On Her Way to 100k!

Hello.

My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr the

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 money diaries where I get to talk to one of our incredible She's on the Money community members all about their story. It's my favorite thing in the entire world. Let's jump straight into it, because this week we got a message and it went

Oh? It sounds so weird hearing it back?

Is it inspiring? Hearing it back?

Like?

Does it make you proud?

It does? I've realized how far I've come, So it's good.

You're a queen, I love it. Let's start off where we usually start, money direst I want to know if we asked you to give yourself a money grade, what would you grade your habits from A through to F.

I would probably give myself a B minus.

Oh, a B minus. I want to learn more about that. Obviously, we're going to dive into it. My favorite question, though, let's dive straight in. Can you tell me a little bit more about your money story.

I spent most of my childhood with my mum. My parents divorced when I was just before too. She'd never obviously had the best luck in a relationship. She got herself in a few sticky situations. The longest one was about seven years and yeah, he was very abusive physically, mentally, financially. That was one of the reasons why my mum didn't

Time hours while at school pretty much. Yeah, oh my gosh, did that burn you out or really impact your ability to get I guess a good quality education.

I was doing VCAL because at that time I was doing a school based apprenticeship, so I was only at school most days, four times a week. Not really Like, I'm someone who's always been very driven, and I work better mentally when I'm busy.

Yeah, fair, same so I'm someone who can't sit still. Yeah, same, literally same, Like that's why you know, you guys can't see this because we're recording, but like I move around the studio so much while we're talking, like I just can't sit still. I feel like it's a certain personality type because I know you've probably got girlfriends that say the same thing. They're like, how on earth do you work seventy to eighty hours a week? And we'll get into it.

But friends think I'm nuts exactly.

And some people who thrive on it, and some people who can do it for a short period of time and then get burnt out. There's so many different people in the world, and we all, you know, thrive in different ways. So I'm so interested to hear how you do it right? Tell me more, tell me more.

So just before my eighteenth birthday, I had to leave Dad's wasn't really feeling safe. So I lived with Nan up until I was eighteen and had left school at a study year twelve to start my apprenticeship full time, and I saved up money and I moved out on my own, in my little unit that I've been in for the past three years.

Ah, how good. So you moved out with your nan and now you're living in your own little unit. How did you get to the point where you were able to afford your own unit? Was it something that you'd been saving for ages or I don't know, I just feel like going into your own unit. At that age, that's a lot. I had to share house for ages, and I could only afford like seven hundred bucks a month rent, Like, what are you doing? How are you doing it?

It was tough because at that time I was a second year apprentice and had no other income. I got a little help from Centerlink Youth Allowance because obviously I wasn't living with a parent at that age, so I got exempt from that, so I was able to use that. It was a lot. I didn't save a lot at the start because I obviously didn't have a lot after I paid my rent, which was like two hundred and ten dollars a week at the time.

That's a lot at that age.

Yeah, it was scary. Yeah, I needed to do it. And I love my name I'm I really do. But yeah, I don't know how to describe it. I felt nurtured in a way that I hadn't been nurtured in a very long time. So I was very suffocating.

That's fair, but that's also I don't know. They were probably trying their best, right. Do you still have a good relationship with them?

Oh yeah, one hundred percent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're angels. I loved it for it.

This is all a bit too much. I need my own space.

Yeah, Like it was all out of love and I love them dearly for it.

But yeah, sometimes that can be a little bit too much. I totally resonate with that, all right. I want to know a bit more about work. So when it comes to work, we know that you work as a chef and you're also a supervisor at coals, but can you talk me through what that is, what your jobs are and how much money you earn?

Okay, so full type chef, I owned sixty five a year. It's roughly one thousand take home a week. I do, depending on the week, fifteen to twenty five hours at coals in the evening as a service manager supervisor, which most weeks is about three hundred and fifty, and then I do DoorDash on my two days off from my cheffing job, which I can get around three hundred after tax per week.

How good is that? You're killing it?

Yeah, I can't sit still.

I was about to say, but does it kill you? You're getting burnt down. I feel like that's a lot of hours that you're spending not on yourself.

Yes, though there are some weeks where I do struggle, but at the end of the day, I know what I'm doing it for. So that's a massive drive.

So talk to me. Obviously, that's the next question. What's the big money goal? Obviously we're saving one hundred thousand dollars in two years and you're doing really well. My producer let a sneaky go and said, save fifty seven thousand dollars so far. How are you doing that? Because that is crazy? But also, why are we doing that.

So there's a few bigger ones. The biggest one's a house, obviously, with the market at the moment more scared than what I was at the start. But I have about thirty five saved in that, which have a long way to go still. I am saving for a new car because obviously with the door Dash, I'm very much adding kes onto my car.

Yeah, that's fair. That's something that I think a lot of people don't consider when they take on door Dash or Uber or any type of delivery service. Right.

Yeah, the case add up so quickly. So I'm putting about one hundred and fifty into that each week because I'm hoping I won't have to take out alone when I buy the car that I'm in now, like I didn't have to for my first car. I am also doing a little savings with my partner, which I put about two hundred and fifty in a week. Yeah, and then all my little ones, and I'm investing.

And talk to me about that. You can't just drop on and I do a little bit of investing and not share with me. I'm literally Victoria, like I am obsessed with investing. You can't say, oh, I do a little bit of investing. Talk me through that. What does that look like?

So at the moment, it's just in com sick, just into the ets. I've got about twelve thousand in that at the moment. Obviously, my super which is sitting at about fifteen thousand. I pay a little extra tax a week two just to be safe. And I also have an emergency fund of ten thousand, which I kind of see as an investment for myself.

So you're telling me you already have an emergency fund saved, you're saving for your first home, you're saving for a new car, you actually contribute every single week to savings with your partner, and you still think you're a B minus. Like, we'll talk about this later, my friend, But I am confused. One of the most overwhelming things I think from our community is talking about investing, but not just talking about

So I have a couple of their preset ets. Yes, I started out in Rais and Cheersias, but I feel like with everything going on, I wasn't concentrating enough and doing enough reading into it. So I thought, if I pick an ETF that I really like, I look into that a bit more, and I've just been investing in that. I tried to put two hundred away a week.

That's a lot. Yeah, that didn't work out most weeks.

It does. Occasionally it doesn't. But if I can't hit that, I just have the goal of five hundred a month.

So we did some months before. You said you get about one thousand dollars a week from being a chef. You said about three point fifty from coals and then maybe three hundred ish from door dash. You're then going and spending you know, two fifty a week, putting that into your savings with your partner. Obviously you're saving for a house, a new car. Are you a budgeting queen? Because like, I don't know how I would do what you're doing, Like that is a lot of money.

Yeah, I don't leave a lot for myself.

I was about to say, tell me your budgeting strategy, how does that work? Because this is very impressive you are twenty, you want and I can't quite believe it. I'm like, how did you do it?

I kind of just have a thing set up on my notes on my phone that I get my paycheck. I think I do it every three months roughly, and I write down everything and how much I'm earning, and then I break it up and then readjust it every three months when I need to, because obviously things change. But yeah, I don't leave a lot for myself.

And why don't you leave a lot for yourself? Is that because your bigger goals are more important to you? Is that just because sometimes we fall short? Is that they talk me through what that means for your lifestyle.

I'm too driven and I'm too stubborn, and I feel selfish and angry at myself if I spend too much money each week.

No, no, that's bad. Like I know I'm not saying spends more, but I think that money shouldn't really have any level of judgment associated with it. And that sounds like maybe you're being a little bit harsh on yourself.

Probably it's the general vibe with me.

All right, let's go to a really quick break and on the flip side, I want to talk more about debt, but also I feel like you've got some really good money habits to share with us, So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, let's dive straight back into it, because I am arguably very impressed. I cannot believe at twenty one, you know how to do this. I want to step

I guess just seeing the plane she goes through and knowing that if she had had the money there, she would have been able to leave earlier than what she did. It's probably the biggest thing. I just I don't never want to be put in that position. Yeah, I don't really know how to describe it.

No, it's really really wholesome. So what were your first steps? Because you started working at fifteen? Was the driver behind that to get some independence or was it to get some cash? Or was it to help the family? Or like, how did that start? Wanted a car very common reason to get a first job.

Yeah, yeah, so saving for a car I ended up having to actually lend I think it was thirteen thousand dollars to mom to get her out of trouble.

And did you have that saved at that age?

Yeah, I think it was about sixteen sixteen and a half yard. Well she didn't ask, but it started like two hundred dollars per week, two hundred dollars the other week. So I was getting most of my paycheck.

Yeah, wow, And how at you know, fifteen sixteen did you feel about that?

I was scared. I was scared I was going to get it back. But at the same time, you know, like the word bankruptcy was thrown around, and I couldn't imagine mum having to go through all of that, and she still had my little sister, So yeah, I wanted to help her, and I guess her car didn't seem that important. No.

Absolutely, I feel like I'm so proud of you that you were in a position where you could help your mum. Is that something that you think has really driven you to go? All right, well, now I've seen that circumstance. I need to be fiercely independent.

Yeah, one hundred percent. I'm stubbornly independent. I think get a noise by boyfriends sometime, but.

That's not the worst position to be. And so talk me through your emergency fund. You said before, Look, I've got ten grand sitting in an emergency fund. How did you pick ten thousand dollars and at what age did you start establishing that.

I started establishing at probably the age of nineteen, roughly. I worked it out at the time that it was about five to six months worth of my expenses. So like for some reason everything went wrong and I didn't have a job, I was covered. I finished saving that about I think just before I started this big savings chunk, So it was about twenty Just yeah, so.

You had ten grand just casually in an emergency fund at the age of twenty.

Yeah, just casually sitting there at the age.

Of twenty, I was trying to work out how I could take on more personal debt, was it really Yeah, I don't recommend it. I was also spending every single dollar that I earned. In fact, I was really really good at going out every weekend and being like, I've got fifty bucks. Well, we're not coming home with five bucks, are we. That's for drinks exactly, exactly in this economy,

I don't have any debt. I've never had any debt at this point.

Yes, So talk me through the idea of potentially taking on some debt. How does that make you feel? Is that something that you know you want to do? Is that something where you're like, look, I really need to do door dash? So maybe getting a new car is an essential expense for me.

The only time I really want to take debt on at this point in my life life is to buy the house. I feel like a car is something I can budget for each week. I guess to say, it's if I was paying off alone, like I'm making it an obligation that I have to put that away, So paying the loan off before I get the loan very fair.

So talk me through your experience with debt. So you know, having grown up and money obviously was a point of contention in your relationships. I know that you lent money to your mum, but was that because she was in debt or was that because she just didn't have an income? Or like, where does this aversion to taking on debt come from?

My mum being her very loving and trusting self, paid off her partner at the time stebts No, and he left. So then mum was couldn't get on top of everything. And yeah, so she was working full time, but yeah, she just couldn't get on top of it all.

Oh so she just sounds like the most wholesome human in the entire world. She trusts people too much and does the best thing for everybody else, but not herself.

Yes, that is my mom.

Oh my heart. It breaks me when we just don't have the level of financial education that we deserve to find ourselves, not in these positions like she did not deserve that. People have taken advantage of her because of her kindness, and now she's the one that's on the back foot, and that's not how the world should work. Like it lowers my mind. Growing up, I feel like you've probably learned to be very frugal, and it sounds like, ah, you do have some pretty good money saving tips, so

Strict with my budgeting, I think is probably the biggest thing. Like I lift by my budget, and if for some reason i feel shoot one week at Cole's, I'll do extra DoorDash to make up for it. Like I'm stubborn in the fact that I don't want to budge from that set budget each week.

And when you say you're strict with budgeting, can you talk me through what that might mean? So a lot of people think that maybe strict with budgeting means you like write down every single expense, or being strict with budgeting might be really constricting yourself to a certain amount that you spend every week. How do you go about that?

So I have my thin it's about one hundred and fifty dollars a week to spend on things that I want or need and I don't go over that.

So is that food and fuel? And like, talk me through what that actually is made up of?

Food? Fuel and if I want to do anything? One hundred and fifty Yeah, that's.

Like some normal people's entire grocery budget. Are you like a wizard grocery budget?

Oh?

Like, talk me through. What are we buying at coals?

Oh? Well, my partner and I do hello for us, so we split that fifty to fifty.

Yep, stunning. But we don't just eat dinner for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So what are we eating for breakfast? What are we eating for lunch?

Like?

I need to know because this is wild, Like you're spending one hundred and fifty dollars a week and that's my entire grocery budget. It's not coming from a judgmental place. This is coming from a like, Hey, I think I can learn from you. Please teach me your tips and tricks because I think you're a wizard.

I don't eat breakfast most mornings.

Neither do I. So that's pretty good money saving hack terrible, diet tip terrible. But this is a money podcast, not a diet podcast, so makes sense.

Definitely shouldn't be on it. If that's the case. With lunch, I'm lucky at my shiftop we can make a toasty, so I have a toasty for lunch.

That's a good hack. Become a chef, Yeah, I like it. How good? So you usually have like food at work and stuff, and obviously that would bring it down. Genius, absolutely genius when it comes to stuff like fun though, what to you is like fun? And what is something that you just don't let yourself budget for? And are you going to enable yourself a bit more freedom in the future or do you just think this is what makes you most comfortable.

I definitely want to give myself a bit more freedom, I think, especially since stating my boyfriend, I've kind of had to learn that I have to sometimes be a bit more lenient and go out for dinner and go out for breakfasts more and stuff like that. I'm hoping once you speak two years saving things is over, I can allow myself to put back a little bit on working and hopefully find some hobbies.

Yeah, no, that would be epic. When it comes to this one hundred thousand dollars savings goal. Like, let's pretend you hit the hundred thousand and we are wham bam, thank you madam. It is sitting in the bank. What happens on that day? Are we then buying a house? If so, what does that look like or how does that work?

I hopefully have a house, depending on the market. I have yet to see it breakers so hopefully find out what I can and borrow and stuff. I would like to keep one or two nights a week at Cole's just to give me that little bit of a buffer and I guess outlet to do something and then yeah, just chill it home, watch TV. I'm pretty boring.

It's all mine. Don't worry. Don't worry. My idea of a really good night is one wine on the couch and then I get to be in bed early after a really good shower, like ten out of ten. Like, very excited about that. So talk to me about this one hundred thousand dollars savings goal. That is a massive goal, and you're going to need some pretty good money habits

Well, depending if I have enough money for a deposit, hopefully I will drop back significantly. I will stop doing door dash. I will just do hopefully one or two nights a wee hit Coles on top of my cheffing job. I just like having that little bit extra just if anything pops up, everything's okay, Just letting myself just be a bit more free and not so strict with my seventy eight hours a local week.

Yeah, that's a lot, a lot, Like that is double what normal people are actually doing, especially in such physically demanding jobs. So like if someone says, oh, I work seventy to eighty hours in a desk job, I kind of go, oh okay, Like I used to do that too,

But definitely pretty busy during services. I don't know. I've never really had much of a self care kind of I guess routine really just coming home at the end of the day, having a nice share and getting into bed.

Yeah fair is my underrated self care?

Yeah?

Underrated? Does a cost anything? Which which you love? So I think that's it. There's honestly nothing better than a good shower, though, Like, if anyone wants to argue that my dms are open, but I want to know, let's flip this on its head. I don't know if you've got one, but I want to know, what do you think your worst money habit is one thing I struggle with.

My budget is sticky to a budget when it comes to gift giving. Yeah, okay, I'm terrible at it.

You are your mother's daughter. You are too generous my friend. Yeah, so tell me about what that looks like, Like, how do you feel when that happens? And what are you usually spending too much on? Is it because you're not planned enough or is it just because you get too excited like I do about giving gifts to people.

Yeah, I get too excited. I have little sub savers I put money into each week, which covers like birthdays and Christmases and everything. But yeah, I can't stick to it. I'll see something and if it's way over budget, but I know that they'll love it, so I'll still get it.

Love love. I can resonate with that. But at the same time, I feel like that might be some level of self care for you, because I know that I feel really good when I give gifts. I know that can sound really lame to some people. And if that does sound lame to you, that's because gift giving is not your love language, and that is totally fine. But for me, I just feel so good when I'm able to help other people or give them something that I

I think just achieving the goals. I feel like they're very ambitious, and I get worried it's going to be a point where I can't do it. So I just think at the end of that, just being able to say Okay, I did that, and doing a bit more research into a broker probably next big thing that I think I need to do.

Oh if you don't even need to research it, I've got a recommendation, Zella Money, go talk to Kate or Nikki or Jack or Kristen like the girls are wizards. I'm biased because it's actually my business, but that's what I do when I'm not podcasting and getting to talk to our community. I am literally running a mortgage broking business, so I'm a little bit biased.

I'll definitely have to look into it, all right.

Well, thank you so much. Unfortunately that is all we had time for today. Money diarist, I cannot tell you how much it means to me that you have spent your time having a chat with me, even though we had a few technical difficulties, and you have shared such a beautiful story with our community that I know so many people are going to learn from. Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.

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