Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
the Order Kernye 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's on the Money the podcast Millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries where I get the absolute privilege of talking to one of our Shees on the Money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it, because this week I got a message and it went like this. Hi Ve, I was married at eighteen, I owned two properties by twenty and had two babies by twenty one. I'm now working full time to support my
family while studying part time. I would love to share the experience of going from a two income household to one with the community money diarists, I would also love for you to share that story. Welcome to the show, and thank you for wanting to share.
Thank you for having me.
I am so excited about this. I feel like married at eighteen two, properties at twenty two, babies at twenty one, like what the hecking like? That is a very condensed timeframe that I need to know a lot about. But before we get there, let's jump straight in moneyed diarist. Before we start, what grade would you give your money habits if I asked you to give them a grade from A through to F.
I've been thinking a little bit on this question, and I've been going back and forward with a couple of different grades. I'd say I'd probably place myself around the B minus, but it could fluctuate a little bit depending on how sitting myself on the day.
Well, we're about to learn a lot more about this, so I'm excited. Let's jump to my favorite question ever, moneyed Diarist, Can you please tell me a little bit more about your money story?
Yeah? Absolutely so. I would say that I grew up in a fairly like middle income earning household. We weren't super rich, but my parents also made sure that we had everything that we needed and we were still able to enjoy like the occasional family holiday, and it wasn't down to the dollar. So it was always a pretty comfortable relationship with money I had when I was growing up. I would definitely say that when I was younger, I wasn't a very good saver. I'm still learning out to
be a good saver, relatable if it's spend happy. So my parents always sort of trying to teach us how to save a bit of our money not spend it all in one place, which very few teenagers will listen to that advice.
Sometimes we just have to learn on our own. Sometimes I have to make my own mistake absolutely to learn that maybe that's not what we should be doing.
Definitely, So that was always a little bit of that. And then probably about three months out of high school, two three months, I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, and so that was a bit scary.
That's a lot. So how old were you.
I was seventeen at the time.
Oh she's just a baby having a baby.
Yeah, So I was, yeah, just crushed out of high school. Me and my partner which now husband, had been together a little bit over a year at the time, and.
You guys are still together. Yes, I love this so much.
Yeah. So we started dating in grade eleven, so we've been together for it'll be six years this year and married for three years this year. So yeah, that was a bit hectic. So I had my daughter when I was eighteen, and we didn't move out of home until I was seven eight months pregnant. I was still living with my parents at the time.
I would have milked out for all of it was worth, honestly, I would have done exactly the same thing.
And so we got a little one bedroom apartment we moved into when I was like eight months pregnant. I was working in the family business at the time as a trainee, so I was long training ages. They were not very good.
Oh my gosh, as someone who's also like eight months pregnant right now, moving and eight months pregnant like hoofed, no, thank you, it was a lot.
But we had so many people helping us out, which was amazing. We both have pretty big families, and so, yeah, we had my daughter. I was a trainee at the time and my husband was just working like casually in hospitalities.
So what were you with training in.
I worked well, I worked at a mortgage brokerage, so I was doing a business admin traineeship at the time. And yeah, so things with my birth my daughter didn't really go as planned. There were quite a few complications after I had her, so I wasn't able to drive or six months after I had my daughter.
Oh my gosh, youre you okay now?
Yes, everything's all good now. But so I wasn't able to drive for six months after I had my daughter, which was definitely a challenge.
Six months, Yes, like a low key, like complete side note, I am terrified that I'll end up with a c section, purely because I don't want to not drive for six weeks. Yeah, I'm like that feels like I'll be trapped. So six months would have been terrifying.
Six months it was very difficult. But thankfully where we'd moved, we were super super close to my parents' house, were only like a few streets away, so nice. With all the complications that happened with my birth, I wasn't really comfortable at saying at home by myself just with the baby while my husband was at work, so my husband would drop me off at my parents' house while he went to work because he started a full time job two weeks after we had our daughter.
Oh my gosh, you really do do what you got to do.
Hey.
Yeah, So I was at my parents' house every day with my daughter, and I was like, well, she's just a newborn, she's just sleeping. I'm kind of bored. So I went back to work two weeks after I'd had my daughter.
Oh my gosh, no, what are you doing? Also low key, your parents probably loved having you and her around. Oh yeah, often it was.
We were the first grand baby on my side and my husband's side of the family, so it was absolutely spoiled. D Yeah. So I didn't really take maternity leave after having my daughter. I was just working from home at my parents' place. Then pretty much into like a drive again, or I would go into the office with my family because we all worked at the same place. And then
so yeah, that was that. And then come into the end of twenty twenty, so I'd had my daughter in September and December, we were like, look, we're not going to be in this rental property forever. We'd only signed the six month lease at the time, and we were like, the rental market isn't great. The real estate market. I kind of knew what was going on, and I was like,
the housing market is going to be going up. If we don't take advantage of it now, we're never going to be able to And we were obviously in the privileged position that my family was able to give up loan US money to be able to purchase a house. So we found the one house in our area that was within our price range. It was an off the plan and.
You were like, oh, buy this one because this is the only.
The only option. Yeah, it was an off the plan, and we were like, we need to have a contract signed by the end of the year so we can get all of these grants and everything. So it was very on the whim, signed it like a week or two up. We decided that's what we were doing, and then that was built by June of twenty twenty one. We moved in June twenty twenty one and that was our first house. So we were there for a year year and a half. But the property market, as I said,
went up really really quickly. So we bought our house and within like six to twelve months, it had gone up by like at least one hundred thousand dollars in value.
Oh my gosh, money, win, that's some nice equity.
It wasn't nice equity. So I was like, look, we could take out some of this equity and look and see if there's any investment properties so that we'd be interested in buying. I was like, we're on a roll. Why stop now. So we were able to take out some equity and find a little studio property that was super cheap and already had attendant in it and everything, and we purchased that at the start of twenty twenty one. And then that could have sort of just blotted along.
There wasn't really anything to do with that. And then I found out that I was pregnant with my son in December of twenty twenty two, and it was just a little bit of a whirlwind. So we'd had both the houses and we were like, look, what is the plan. So we sort of sat down, looked at our finances, looked at everything, and we were like, we can make
it work staying in our house. But at that point, both my husband and I were studying, and so we decided probably not the best financial decision unless we want to be counting pennies. And so again we were in the privileged position that my grandmother had heats of room at her house. And so I had my son in August twenty twenty three again and say getting maternityly because I was just like, I'm too bored to sit at home with a newborn.
I'll just go crazy as someone who's about to have a baby. And honestly, your work ethic sounds like mine. Sometimes people were like, oh my gosh, that's so admirable, and I'm like, no, I would go up the wall if you didn't let me work, like I will go crazy, Like I need to do this. I can't imagine, and like I'm lucky that I've been around so many newborns and I know they do sleep a lot, Like what am I going to do in that period of time? I know people say you need sleep, but I'm like
I don't sleep at the best of times. So don't know how this is going to work. Was going back like in hindsight at two weeks was that too early? Were you like no, no, no, I just all worked out and I like balanced it, or like what did that actually look like I think was my daughter.
It was okay because I was just working from home and there were so many people in the house that was able to help. Even when my daughter was like awake, I was breastfeeding with all the complications, so it was pretty easy. I could like get someone else to feed her if I was busy doing something. So with my daughter, that was good. With my son, I definitely think I pushed myself a little bit too hard. I was working
up until the day that I got in juice. I went to work on the Friday morning, worked a half day, and then went to the hospital on a Friday afternoon to get in juice.
I feel like that will be me. I regret nothing already.
Yeah, and then I was planning on just going back to work on Monday, but I was still in the hospital on Monday. No, I was still in the hospital on Monday. I got discharged Monday, and she's so warning. I was working on my laptop with my son. He's like three days crazy.
But I think that people think I'm going to be bad. I'm not going to be that bad, Like that's bad.
I'm like, I think that was like, it was definitely pushing it. I mean, I still feel like it was the right decision for me at the time. I don't think i'd necessarily change it, but I definitely think like future children, now that we would have like three or more kids, I would definitely take the time to just
take my fair share of praternity leaves. But following yeah, fair, but yeah no, I think looking back on it, in hindsight, it definitely was what I would do even if I went back, and I might get myself another week or two, but I just think I would have been too bored.
Yeah fair, Fair, So you've had your second son, you started in mortgage breaking, what are you now studying? Like, where are we at today?
So at the moment, I'm studying. I'm doing a double degree in business and psychology. I've just started this last summer semester. I'm finishing my first semester at the moment, so I've just gone back into it. But yeah, I'm just doing that part time and I'm no longer working in mortgage brokerage. So in October we moved in with my grandma and we put our previous house we were living in also up on the market. And then in
November I started my new job. So I'm working in a government agency now in like debt, and so that is Monday to Friday, like eight thirty to four point thirty. So, timmy just kind of revolves around that at the moment.
How cool. And you said that you now have a one income household. Does that mean that your partner is not working?
Yes, so my partner is now a full time stay at home dad, okay you He's also going back to full time UNI in a couple of weeks. So when we moved, because it was just such a big shift, we figured we take the kids out of day care for a little bit and just let them settle with one change at a time. So just get them a
couple months to settle into the new environment. So both of the kids will be going into daycare in the next two weeks the sum of February, and my husband will be going back into UNI menpav, So that'll be in daycare three days a week and then with him the other two.
Yeah cool, I love this for you, all right. So that makes me want to go back into the structured questions that I always bring to the table, but get completely sidetracked on what does that mean you earn if you work for a government agency in debt, what are you earning?
So at the moment, I'm on sixty seven, five hundred and seventy seven dollars a year. That's not very specific, Yeah, very very broad, and my super I completely got checked. But it's like fourteen fifteen per cent super on top.
Of that, very very real. Nice. And you've bought and sold properties, You've had babies, you've already gotten married. But what are your big money goals at the moment? What are you and your partner working towards.
Well, we'll dive into it like a little bit later as well. At the moment, we're just trying to pay off most of our personal debt, so we are actually in debates in the moment about selling one of our investment properties to be able to just wipe house late and be pretty free. Well we're still on one income, but that's still in the debating stage. But yeah, at the moment, we're just focusing on paying down the debt.
And we've got quite a few big family holidays planned over the next few years which will be quite expensive, so we're saving for those as well.
Oh exciting though, Yeah, how fun? All right? Let's go to a really quick break. And on the flip side, you mentioned some personal debt. I want to dive into that. I also want to know all the pervy details about what mortgages you still have and what you owe and how all of that works. So guys don't go anywhere, all right, money Direct do We are back and we are going to start with investment. I wantn't know. Obviously you've got investment properties, but do you have any investments?
If so, what are they? Please share?
Yeah? Of course, so yeah, obviously we have our to investment properties. So did you want my values of them?
Oh?
I want as much detail as you'll let us have. Like, have you ever listened to a money diary and been like, damn, I wish you didn't tell me how much she owed on that?
No, No, that's totally fine. So our first property we ever bought, which was our owner occupied homes for a while, is probably worse between like five hundred and five to fifty at the moment, and we've got owing on that about four hundred and fifteen thousands.
Hey, that's pretty good. It's still sitting on some nice equity.
Yeah, it's not bad. And then our second property we bought for eighty six thousand dollars.
No, you didn't eighty six thousand dollars.
Yeah. Hell, it was a little studio up in like North Queensland, so we bought it for eighty six and it's probably like between one hundred and thirty do one hundred and fifty thousand now.
No, it's not. How good is that?
Yeah? And that one we've got about seventy eight thousand dollars owing on it.
That's a nice position to be in.
Yeah, so there's some good equity in both of them. And then obviously I've got my Super. So my super's sitting just over sixteen thousand at the moment.
How old are you now today, I'm twenty one. Yeah, so you're still a child and you've got sixteen thousand dollars in Super. You've got two properties. You've got some nice equity on it. Like how at twenty one I was drunk. I definitely wasn't thinking about this.
Yeah, So my goal is I'm hoping to get to twenty five thousand dollars and Super by the end of the.
YEA, yeah you will, don't worry.
I know that I'll get to twenty but I'm hoping I'll only get to twenty five. I have sat down and worked out the numbers exactly, and then I've also got a chare Zia's account has just over six hundred dollars in it at the moment.
How did you get involved with chare Zias? I can like, what did you pick? How did you pick it? What did all that look like? Well, I heard about Chazea's on the show Well Revolutionary.
Previously, all my investing information had come from all of the men in my life, so it was use this super detailed app and you have to write down this twenty seven word secret password and do all of this thing. And I was like, that's that's too much for me, No, thank you. So yeah, I heard about chair Zia's on the podcast and I just downloaded it, and I don't know, I kind of bigger all of the money that I'm
putting in it at the moment. Obviously the goal is for that to make money in the future, but at the moment, I'm only putting in little amounts. I'm really just sort of playing around seeing what I like. So I've got kind of a mixture of like more safe things. So I've got some like ETFs and all that kind of stuff, and then I'll just put in like a few dollars here and then to companies that I'm just interested in following and seeing how they track over the years.
And do you find it easy or hard or like, obviously, I feel like people are overwhelmed, right, People are so overwhelmed when they're like, oh, an investing app. Absolutely not, but like it is easy whishasis or hard.
Or yeah, chases are super super user friendly and so obviously at the moment, I haven't been putting any extra money into it really, but whenever, I just hop on every now and then, and if I've gotten paid a little dividends from one of my investments, so I'll just put it back in to it, right rude.
Yeah, I love that you're learning about it all as well, in like a way that you're like, no, this makes sense, like I like it and I get to have a play like yeah, ah, I love it all. Right, let's flip the conversation, because I want to know about debt. Before the break, you said, Oh, my partner and I we're gonna be paying down some personal debt, So tell me about your debt. You told us about the mortgages.
So we know that on your first property you have about four hundred and fifteen thousand, oh ing at about seventy on the other one, But what's this personal debt? Tell us?
So at the moment, I've got a car loan. So shortly before I had my son, we had had two cars and we sold. I had a little car, we'd sold that, and we were just like, look, we only are gonna need one car when we move on with my grandmother, so we'll just keep my husband's car. And we kind of just assumed at the time it would be big enough. And then we got my son's carsiet and the double cram and I was like, there is
no way that this car. Absolutely not. So we kind of had to perch the car and I was like, we don't really have car money, but our sun is due in three weeks. That's the we option we have. So we had to get a car loan. So that one's sitting about twenty thousand now, and we ended up actually just keeping my husband's car because like a bit off track, but my grandmother lives on an island.
On an island, yes.
So we have my husband's car on the island and we use that as just like our island car because it's owned outright, there's no debt against it or anything. So my car on like the mainland has the carloon against it. And then we've got a credit card as well. That's six thousand, and that's mostly massed out at the moment with moving costs and baby costs.
Yes, and baby costs are a lot, a lot so much. Wait, so you've moved to an island. You failed to disclose that part before. That sounds bougie. The fact that you have an island car and a mainland car. How do you get from the mainland to the island, Like you just drive home and then go for a little swim, Like what are we doing?
So there's a ferry and a barge. So the faerry is like walk on passengers only, and that operates from sort of like five six in the morning up until ten thirty at night, and it's like an every half hour basis, so it's pretty regular. And then the barge just operates really during the day, so it's yeah, that's pretty early around six. That only operates till about like three or four, and that's you can drive your car onto,
but you can also walk on if you'd like. So you have to go from the mainland park in the little car park that everyone parks in, and then get onto the ferry, take the ferry home to the island and then you can like drive up to the house from there.
Oh my gosh, so you've kind of got a curfew at home. What if you have a party or something on the mainland, what do you do at the moment?
Really, like, if we have anything that we know are not going to make the last very home, We'll just plan to stay with my family yep that night and I'll just go to work and then we'll go home the next day. But we aren't exactly packed out with social events for two kids, so it's not a massive problem. But we me and my husband are definitely both concert enthusiasts. Yeah, so we definitely have the occasional concert that we kind of have to ship the family over to my parents' house to say it.
That's all right? How cool?
Yeah?
I love that. That is not what I expected. When you're like, yep, we moved, are we kept the other car? And I was like, oh, fair enough, Like I wonder why and you told us that it was because you live on in Ireland and that makes the most sense. I couldn't have guessed. So tell me a bit more about that, Carlon. How much is it and how long is it going to take you to pay off?
That one?
Is?
It's setting at about twenty thousand now. I think we originally sent it as a seven year loone term just so you can have them minim repayments, because we can definitely pay it off faster, but I don't want to have it too short and then be stratched for cash and be worried about a higher repayment. So that one, I mean, we only got it later in the year last year, so it's still got some time on it,
but it's costs. I think the four nilely repayments for about one hundred and ninety bucks, so it's not too bad.
All right. Now, I want to know what do you think your best money habit is? Like, you don't own two houses before twenty one and have babies and get married without some good money habits. I know you say, oh, like we sometimes make mistakes. I'm like, yeah, but not really. Hey, so what are your best money habits?
Okay, I say my best money habit is. I don't like paying full price for anything. Neither do I worry sounds a little bit strange, but I will like search every corners the internet like a discount co food or like wait for its gone stale, or wait for the shot back hash back to be like increased, and try to add up to all these little discounts to be
able to like purchase something like. I'll always when everyone's like, oh, shot back kind of seems like, oh, well, you get like a dollar there, a dollar here, I'm like.
It adds up.
It adds up. When I look back at my lifetime earnings one shot back, I'm like, who am I? I'm so good.
You're a money saving queen, that's what you are.
Yeah. My shot back lifetime earnings is just over a thousand dollars.
Yeah, that's one thousand dollars you didn't have before you used shot back and it was free money. Like, yeah, can't complain.
Yeah. And I think I've ever been using shot back for like a year or two, so I'm like, she's using it.
Well, I like it. You're a fan. Now, flip the narrative, what is your worst money habit?
I would say my worst money habit is. I'm jeff a bits then Pappy. When it comes to gifting. Gift thing is definitely my love language. And when you have a husband and two kids, you will get trapped down the rabbit holes. I'm like, oh, my daughter would think that would be so cute. I should get that for her, And it's just spirals. So it got me into a bit of a sticky situation for a while with after pay because I was just putting everything after pay. But I paid off and closed my off pay today.
Oh my god, No you didn't. Yeah, oh congarats yeah, And.
I was like, oh, it was just such a weight off my shoulders because I've been in after pay cycle for like eight year or so. So I was like, wow, you go.
Yeah, And it's so easy to just rely on, isn't it. Like it's a slippery slope. Like once you realize how then this isn't me saying it's good, but like once you realize how easy it can be to use, you're like, oh, well that's easy then yeah, And then you slip down the slope and realize, oh, this is actually enabling me to spend money I shouldn't be spending. You don't really want to get rid of it, do you.
Yeah?
Oh, I'm so proud of you, and I can't believe you did that today. How well timed is that?
Yep?
Oh my gosh, that's actually I reckon a very perfect place to leave it. But before we go, you've just told me all this cool stuff, like I cannot believe what you've achieved, and you are still, in my eyes as a nearly middle aged someone in their thirties. Obviously that's me being dramatic, but you're twenty one. So to me,
I'm like, you are younger than my little sister. That doesn't make sense because my little sister in my head, although she's like twenty nine, she's like, I don't know, at least eighteen in my head that's where she's living. But you're a literal young young adult and you've smashed it all out your own two properties. When you said I have some personal debt, I was like, ooh, what is it? And then you said it was a Carlo and I was like, okay, well, you know that's still
technically an asset. Yes, it's a depreciating one. So we're like, we don't want to see it in too good of a life, but at the same time, for your personal situation, that made sense. You're saving, you're investing, You worked in mortgage broking, like you now have a government agency job in debt. Like what's it going to take to get you from a B minus to maybe even just an A or N A plus? Like what would that actually look like?
I think for me, I'd like to be able to one. I feel like, once I've paid out my car loan and then I've got a credit card, I don't think I'm going to close the credit card because I'm using it for points and stuff. But once I'm not using money that I don't have all that kind of stuff and have paid out my personal debt, I think that's definitely a good place to start.
I like that.
Yeah, So I'm like, I think I just I want to get a little bit better at living below my means and not getting as crazy about trying to keep up the joneses, which can be difficult when all of your friends like out partying and going on holidays and you're like, oh, I'm homeless, stupid.
Yeah, but it's such a different circumstance because you wait till you're like thirty nine forty and they're still at home looking after you're the kids, and you're like, we are having our best lives right now.
Yeah, but yeah, I think once we've wiped out our personal debt and we're just a little bit more comfortable spot well and not having to out all of our dollars, I'd like to be able to just go out, go to the shops, do my stuff and not have to be checking my bag out to make sure there's enough money in there. I think that's where I'd like to be, and investing a bit more regularly, which obviously is sort of on the back burner, but.
All of that is so doable, Like there's nothing that's completely out of reach. That makes me so excited. So I'll just like check in with you in a couple of years and be like, where are you at now? It's you, babes, I'm at a plus. Clearly, I love it money, Doris. Thank you so much for sharing this.
This has been super interesting. I'm very very proud of what you've achieved and how far you've come, and like all of this stuff that you're doing, but also just this idea that you're like, no, no, no, I actually know what it's going to take to get me to an A plus like that. Clarity is so powerful. But thank you for sharing with a community. I've loved this. It's been a fun chat, and I think our community are going to love it just as much as I did.
Thank you so much having me also assignment before I finish that my bank, your friend is so bad that I literally told you I'm twenty one and I own twenty two.
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 authorized representatives of Money sherper P T y L t D A B N three two one six four nine two seven seven zero eight a F S L four five one two eight nine