Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yor
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.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome to she Is on the Money, the podcast the millennials who want financial freedom. My friends, it is the and I am back not for a podcast, but for an audio book. I have written another book, which I don't think is surprising to anybody who knows me. But this time it's a little bit different. It's about
the power in rewriting your money story. You guys know that I am wildly passionate about money stories, and so I am beyond excited to announce that Money Diaries with She's on the Money was published on the twenty first of May twenty twenty four. So if you want to feel inspired, motivated, and empowered to create the financial life that.
You deserve, this is the book for you.
It is full of page turning stories from real people in our community about their relationships with money, plus some fun activities and quick tips to help transform your own money story. Money Diaries with She's on the Money is the enjoyable, useful financial book that you not only need, but.
You actually want.
This is the one where I would say, actually read this before you read my first book, like I wish I'd written this one first, because it gets you into the mindset of going, I really want to change my money story. So do you actually know what your money story is? What is your personal set of beliefs and experiences and values around money that directly influences how you earn and save and spend and invest. Could this story be holding you back from the financial life that you have been dreaming of.
In this book, you are going to meet.
Twenty five incredible real life money diarists who are digging deep, opening up and sharing their intimate money stories with me to lift the lead on how money really works In our lives so that we can all understand it better. This book has not just been written by me, it has been written by our community. It's honest, it's eye opening, and it's more juicy than you'd ever expect a money
book to be. These inspiring and motivational stories come with a whole heap of guided journaling activities that are going to help you work out your own money story, how it imp hacked your behavior, and how you can change your mindset about money to feel way more in control. Plus, there are obviously going to be a whole heap of money win tips from the savvy She's on the Money community in every single chapter to help you pocket some really easy savings.
Look.
Money Diaries with Shees on the Money is my best book yet, and it's going to help you align your finances with your values and feel proud of your progress and gain confidence on your journey towards financial freedom and to really motivate you. Guess what, You've got a whole chapter to listen to now, so dive in, enjoy it.
And I am not only proud of the book that we've created, but of the twenty five incredible diarists who were so happy to share their stories with us so that you could be in a better position.
So this is a community book.
Guys dive in First Nations remote community to now a CPA. This Money Diarist is a thirty three year old First Nations woman who grew up in a remote Indigenous community and was surrounded by the cycle of welfare dependency, drug and alcohol abuse, send domestic violence. With dreams of creating a different life for herself, she moved to the mainland and pursued a financial education. She's now a Certified Practicing Accountant CPA and proud homeowner. What grade would you give your money habits?
I think I would be a B or a B minus.
Okay, can you tell us a little bit more about your money story.
My money story starts with where I was raised. I'm an Aboriginal woman from an island off the east coast of Brisbane in Queensland. I come from a small Indigenous community that is really quite welfare dependent, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence are pretty rife too. I grew up knowing that I didn't want that, which is hard right because you grow up with families and you grow up with friends who are part of that and will
always live there. But as soon as I could, I knew I wanted to escape and get out of the community to create a different life for myself. On the other hand, I knew I would always come full circle and that depending on what I did and how I went about it, I would bring something back to my family, my sister, her children, and my children when I have them.
Being Aboriginal, you talk about intergenerational wealth and the fact that it's not there, especially in communities that are so heavily welfare dependent, and so regardless of what I earned, I always wanted to be able to return and give back to the people who helped me.
Did you have any role models in your family? How did you know that you wanted to create a different life for yourself.
It definitely comes back to my parents. My dad has his own business, and you know how one of your She's on the Money principles is about saving pennies from little things big things grow well. He was always really focused on how much everything cost, right down to the last cent, which as a child always annoyed me. Whenever we went to Woolli's or Coal's, it'd take forever. He'd be price checking everything, so He was an influence, but I think the biggest role model for me was my mum.
From a very young age, I could see the sacrifices she made for us so we could do the things that we wanted to. She and my dad sacrificed a lot to support us, not just when I was at school, but when I was at university as well. The things they helped me do and the money my mom snuck me without my dad knowing helped so much.
Do you know much about your dad's childhood.
My Aboriginal background is on my mom's side and my dad's side is white. His family were actually Swedish and he grew up in Horsham in Victoria. They were very poor. His meal was basically going out into the country and shooting rabbits. That was often the only way they could eat.
He's quite private about his life growing up. I know that in his teenage years his parents divorced, so that would have brought more strain, going from a duel income to a single income when they were already struggling.
How about your parents.
They met when they were sixteen and married when they were eighteen, so they basically grew up together. My mom came from a welfare dependent family. Her dad passed away when she was sixteen, and he'd been the in come ana. She was one of seven kids and they quickly fell back into the welfare cycle. I've seen the house she grew up in. It was a tiny two bedroom shack and I can't imagine how you could fit all those
kids in there. I know in communities we talk about social housing and overcrowding being an issue, but there are pros and cons. You're very connected with your family in a situation like that, and that's great, because of course there are inequities that come with social housing as well. My mum's mum was part of the stolen generations, and so I think for her it was all about trying to move forward and create a better life for her children.
Her dad had been blackbirded from Vanuatu, which has since been recognized by the Queensland Government as wage theft. So the couple of generations before me were really conscious about building wealth for their families.
Do you think that history impacts you today?
One percent. There's no generalized way that you can articulate how you're different to white Australian or Asian communities. Or other cultures. Either my husband is Tonguan, and that differs from other Polynesian communities. You just grow up knowing that this is how you do things, that it's all about that connection, whether it be a connection to culture, a connection to family, or a connection to community. Basically, what's
yours is mine. The only way I got ahead was because of my family, So if I can show them thanks in some way, then why wouldn't I do that?
That is so beautiful. So tell us a bit more about you. What do you do for work and how much money do you word.
I'm a CPA, a certified Practicing accountant and a senior manager at PwC Indigenous Consulting. We're a separate legal entity to PwC. They own forty nine percent and we own fifty one percent, so we are self determining but obviously affiliated. I'm on a salary of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, so very very blessed to start of UNI. I started off at a smaller indigenous organization. It was a peak body at the time. That's when I started studying to
be a CPA. I worked there for a couple of years, then moved across to where I am now, and I've been here for eight years. I moved up the ranks from the associate grade up to senior manager. There are now only two positions above me, Director and partner, so there's still the ability to take on more responsibility and increase my salary. You have to work really hard at one of the big four consultancy firms. It's competitive and there are so many people that are incredibly hard working
and really high performing. In order to show your worth and prove your value, you do have to work above and beyond. In an indigenous business where around sixty percent of us are Indigenous, really being able to step up and show your value takes hard work.
Do many people in your family have degrees.
I'm one of very few people from our community to go to UNI and get a degree. At the time I went, ten or so years ago, there would have been maybe one in every three of us that went. So it's something I don't take lightly at all, and I'm incredibly grateful for it. Around the time I enrolled, my family bought a little three hundred thousand dollar house on the mainland that we could use when we were
at university. All we had to do was fill the fridge, basically to look after ourselves so I didn't have to stress about rent and all those extras. My mum and dad just wanted me to focus on my studies. I was very lucky that I was able to do that. My husband and I were eventually able to buy that house off my parents. We met in twenty fifteen and pretty much moved in together straight away. My parents offered to sell us the house for one hundred thousand dollars less than the market value.
That's so generous self them, it really was, So we took the opportunity, knowing we'd have to renovate it in the future, and leveraged it to buy an investment property.
At the time, my salary was around fifty thousand dollars. I often think about that and how my salary, as just one indicator, has increased so much since we bought that house eight years ago. So I'm pretty blessed and lucky and very proud of what we've done, because that's meant we've been able to take another step towards building that intergenerational wealth.
Do you ever look at it and go, it's not luck, it's actually bloody hard work.
That's a really interesting point because I think there are a lot of stereotypes about Aboriginal people owning homes and how apparently we get all sorts of help, like a really good interest rate or what have you. When I went through the process of buying this house, the only advantage I received was that I'm a CPA accountant, which positively affected my LMI. The fact that I'm Indigenous played no part in it. In our case, you have to
reel it back to understand how hard we've worked. I've been on a salary all my adult life, but there was a time in our relationship where the amount of hours my partner worked to put us ahead so we could really start paying off some of the loan leverage the equity and add more money to our renovation fund was huge. We lost so many weekends together. So, yeah, you're right, it's not all luck. It's about being able to sit back and acknowledge just how hard you've worked.
All right, guys, you've heard a little bit of the Money Diaries Booklet's go to a really quick break and on the flip side, are we going to dive straight back in? And don't worry, it gets juicier. Now, let's pivot. What are your current big money goals and.
What are you working towards In terms of big money goals. The house that we're renovating is all well and good, but it will ultimately be rented out. We want to take advantage of that because we want to focus on our forever home. We got married recently and we want to be able to settle down and think about having a family. Maybe not seven kids like my mum, just two or three. My longer term goal is I want to be able to help my family. I have a
little nephew, I have a little niece. My sister, if I can be honest, is caught in the welfare cycle and she's a single parent. I want to be able to focus on something like investing in bonds for them.
That's so good. Do you have any investments right now? If so, what are they.
Since we bought our home under market value, we could immediately leverage the equity to buy our investment property. Even though I'm an accountant and I'm pretty aware about this stuff, I'm starting to get a bit nervous that it's about to turn it to a positively geared property. So we have to sit down and think about it soon.
The equity in.
A property refers to how much of it you own versus what the bank owns valued in today's market. For example, if your home is valued at four hundred thousand dollars and you still owe three hundred thousand dollars, your equity is one hundred thousand dollars. Banks may let you use a portion of this as security against another loan, which is what our diarist did here to purchase an investment property.
The financial planning around an investment property involves looking at the ways in which it will pay for itself as well as rental income. This could include keeping a property negatively geared, which essentially means that the costs of holding a property, such as interest repayments, maintenance costs, strata fees, and the like, exceed the income it generates. Investors use this difference to help reduce their taxable income.
And how about debts.
We're really lucky at the moment to just have two main lines of debt, the mortgage on our main property and the mortgage for the investment property. Both are under three hundred thousand dollars, so things are looking pretty good. We've just managed to refinance about one hundred thousand dollars from our owner occupied home to focus on the renovations. Other than that, I have no other personal debts.
What's your best money?
Have it?
Do you think?
I don't know if this is an accountant thing, but I'm not very creative. So when my husband and I sit down and talk about what we want to do in terms of the renovations, for example, because I'm not a creative brain, I just can't think on the spot. So I'll quite often sit on purchases before I buy something.
I think that's a good thing because it means you can really try to understand whether you need something or whether it's just an impulse buy because you've been told that you need to buy it by Black Friday sales or the Instagram algorithm.
What about super and other investments?
I salary sacrifice into superannuation. If I remember correctly, my superbalance at the moment is about one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. I salary sacrifice an extra seven hundred dollars per month overall. That puts me just under the concessional contribution cap. I decided I wanted to reach the cap every year to see how much it can reduce my tax.
Because I'm on one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, the more that we can do to reduce tax, the better, and it doesn't make a huge change to my disposable income. The seven hundred dollars is a buffer that I can pull out if and when we need to.
Since sheese on the money is all about building financial freedom for future you. We love to talk about superannuation. If you're employed, your employer must pay at least eleven percent of your ordinary time earnings into your super account, unless exceptions apply. But if, like many in our community, you're self employed, it's even more important to take ownership of this for yourself if you can afford it. Making extra contributions to your super can boost your retirement savings
and reduce your tax. Even small amounts add up over time, and voluntary contributions can reduce the amount of tax you pay. If you're on a low income, you may be eligible for extra contributions from the government. You can choose to make personal contributions to your super in one of two ways. Concessional which is paid using pre tax dollars, or non
concessional which uses after tax income. Concessional contributions are taxed at fifteen percent up to twenty seven thousand, five hundred per financial year, or higher if unused limits from previous years apply. For those earning over forty five thousand dollars a year, this could mean paying less tax while boosting.
Your retirement savings.
Non Concessional contributions are paid using your after tax income. They can reach up to one hundred and ten thousand dollars in each financial year and may also qualify for a tax deduction. If you're a low to middle income earner and make after tax super contributions, you may be eligible for a matching contribution from the government called a co contribution. The government will work out how much you
are entitled to when you lodge your tax return. If you're eligible, the govern them will pay the co contribution directly to your fund. And what about your worst money habit?
I would say good old luber Etes, which is really depressing because I think the food now area isn't even that good. I'm terrible at meal prepping and I'm terrible at grocery shopping and absolutely hate it. It's probably childhood trauma from my dad checking every single price on every single item.
After everything you've told us, do you still think your money grade is A B or B minus?
When I think about how I've grown up, how I've gone to university and created a career for myself, that I have around five times the average superbalance for Indigenous Australians my age, and that my partner and I will only continue to grow, I can be really grateful for how hard I've worked and what I've done. I'm also really grateful for my parents and the things they've provided along the way to help me achieve everything I have.
So I would probably increase my grade to an A. But like I said in the beginning, there's always going to be different seasons of life where there'll be different financial priorities. I'd like to learn more about shares to be able to invest for my nephew and niece, and the whole conversation around childcare if we have children is another thing. If you put your kids in childcare, that's going to be a huge chunk of your salary and
we'll need to plan for that. So different priorities, different things mean that I always need to learn more.
All right, Welcome back from the book, this is now Podland talking to you.
I am so proud of this book.
Obviously that was only a very small snippet of what is to come. So if you want to pick up the book or the audiobook, I'll read the whole thing to you. But in this book, you're going to meet twenty five incredible real life money diarists who are digging deep and opening up to put you in a better financial position. So if you wanted to align your finances with your values and feel proud of your progress and gain confidence on your journey to financial freedom.
I'm a bit biased, but I think money dies with Sheeese. On the Money is the next book for you, So pick it up from any.
Good book retailer or order it online through book Topia, and please tag me if you're going to share it on social media, because I love seeing you guys putting yourself in a better financial position.
So I'll see you next time.
Guys, have the best day. 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.
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