Made Redundant Twice… And Built a Profitable Business Anyway

0:00My name is Natasha Bamblet. I'm a proud first nation's woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. T. Glignan Ganya. Neyana Kakayali in Binawaka. Neyana Ganya in Bina Yakarumja. Duminya Gumiga, Duminya Ithawaka, Nidawaman Daman Imalan. Momobangara Bama in Nyanwaka. Ganya Yakarumja. Wutuna Rana. Hellay, beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's on the money podcast, acknowledges culture, country, community and connections. Bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the money. The podcast lets you be pervy about other people's money stories for educational purposes, of course. Welcome back to another one of our money diaries,

1:01brought to you by our friends at Skywealth, where we get to talk with one of our incredible She's on the money community members all about their journey. Let's jump straight into it because this week, I got a message and it sounded exactly like this. Hi, She's on the money. I'm a 32-year-old mom of two boys and a wife to an amazing, equal parent husband. My money story starts young, growing up in a restaurant environment and essentially working since childhood. I've gone through an intense healing journey in adulthood and it's only been accelerated since having children and finding your amazing resources during my first mat leave. 2025 has been a doozy, from a debilitating neck injury that left me bed bound for a month to saying yes to everything and seeing all of the cards unfold. We're now about to hard launch our business, the first ever Car Boot Baby Change Station. Money diaries to welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. So it's like I manifest this not to be creepy, but also I need that product.

2:02Like I'm a bit embarrassed, but I have a came out change map in my boot because I refuse to change my kids in the public toilets. Like being there. No, thank you. Yeah, I've used every system under the sun and then spent way too much money on it and just said, effort, I'll make it myself. And you did. And now you're about to hard launch your business, which maybe people might find via she's on the money very soon. But I want to talk to you about your money story. So before we dive straight in, my favorite question to ask. And I always ask everyone this first. If I was to ask you to give your money, have it's a grade from A through to F. What grade would you give them? I think I am going to just claim the A. You're going to claim an A. I love it. Yeah, just go straight for the A. Okay, I love it. I love it. Let's dive straight in. So we're in A. Tell me a bit more about your money story. I think just growing up in a restaurant environment, it really does shape how I do things. So efficiency and process was drilled into me so young,

3:06as well as how to work to survive and afford the things that you can have. So that's always just been a principle of mind since childhood. And I've kind of just maintained that. And it's a classic kind of small town girl moving into a big city and being self-sufficient. That I kind of followed that trajectory. So I obviously worked in my parents' restaurant as a child. They paid me. Don't worry. I also picked up another second one. Even if they didn't, I'd be like, whatever that's your parents' restaurant. And I feel like every friend that I've had that's lived in like a restaurant environment, like you have to have a good work ethic. You can't not because everything's so fast paced, especially when you're little. Like if your parents owns your restaurant, they would have been like, chop chop money, diarist, get it together. We've got to do this and this and this. Absolutely. And just being in scenarios where adults aren't even in. Like I was running a full restaurant floor by myself. It's like a 14-year-old. You mean 14 years and nine months because that would be legal, yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

4:07You haven't been doing that since you were nine. No, no, no. No, but you know, I did run the occasional like docket to the kitchen and you know, brought out the prawn chips for the customers, all that typical cute girl-aged and stuff. And yeah, it kind of just worked my way through school as well. I had a part-time job at a juice bar. Just an extra cash. All in the effort to kind of have that nest egg to move out. And then I was fortunate enough to be accepted into a good uni where again, I just kind of paid my own way. I'd received the youth allowance from the government which supplemented. Oh, good. Part of the income as well. So again, thankful for our government resources that enable more rural kids to get that formal education. And I worked with a lot of CD pubs before learning a job as a cocktail server at the private game rooms in the casino. Oh, that would have been so interesting. A lot. Yes, it was so interesting, I think. That's where I had my big first awakening

5:09about how money moves in the world when you're getting paid like a minimum wage job but also a lot of it is supplemented by tips. So that side of things is the true trope of you can generate a lot of money from tips working as a cocktail server. Mm, totally. And as you mentioned before, you grew up in a rural kind of area. You've mentioned that you're Asian. I feel like that culture shock would have been a lot as well. Exactly. So going from an environment where you have to work to get paid to see people like $300,000 that's on a table and just literally throw their money and so much wealth around the room. And until you're like, here's your drink and then, you know, get a dollar tip in return. Like, that was just bizarre to me. Thanks, babe. Yeah, it's a lot, isn't it? And as somebody who, you know, I didn't grow up in the same environment but I did grow up not with wealth and then coming into I worked in the financial advice space

6:10in the high net wealth space. And it was really confronting being like, wait, you don't care about this? Like, here I am trying to, you know, save another $100 because I want this really important thing to me and you kind of just flushed it down the toilet. What do you mean you don't have the same value with money? Absolutely. And also learning that wealthy people, I guess to an extent, they shouldn't have been looked up to, you know, morality kind of. Oh, absolutely not. Like, there was a guy who showed me his bank account and like put his phone in my face said, can you read those numbers on the screen? And I was like, it's $400,000 and he goes, that's my bank account. And wouldn't you like have that in your bank account? And I was like, if you drink, sir. What the hell? Also, low case, sir. If you've only got $400 grand in the bank, what are you doing in the high rollers area? Sorry. Someone over there just bought $100 grand set down. Yes. Yeah, very just, I guess the coming of age of just being in the city kind of working my way through,

7:12getting my first office job, it was like a $40,000 grad job. I thought that was a win suddenly. You know, I had this stable income, paid six days, paid annually, which was a foreign content to be. And working my way up until I landed like a fancy corporate. That sounds so similar to me. And you would have thought, this is living. This is the most amount of money I will ever earn. I'm basically rich. Absolutely. And all that kind of came to her head last year with my neck injury. I had a bulge disc in my neck, which left me beddone for a month and good news. And those remains. I know. I am okay. It's an ongoing maintenance being. It's just old age. So check your posture. This is everyone's reminder to check your posture. It's old age, she says, at the ripe old age of 32. I feel old. Anyway, so I had a lot of time with my thoughts in bed. And I was like, thank God, I have this fancy corporate job that is paying my sick leave. And while I'm recovering,

8:12I can work from my bed. And my partner has this flexible, fancy corporate job too. That's allowing him to be flexible and manage out two small children. Oh, a neck injury in bed with two small kids. Oh, that's nightmare material. He did it all. And just a general shout out to the millennial dad who had actually just been equal partners in life. And it's freeing up so much mental availability. Oh, I love it. Women now and she's up. And yeah, so we had a few big financial decisions to make last year as well off the back of recovering from that neck injury. We had our eye on an investment property that we thought was out of our league. We were also needing to pay the first big invoice for our business. And that starts to add up real quick. Like you go, wait, I have to pay that too. Oh, wait, I have to wait. We're the hosting. Oh, I have to pay this. That we just starts coming in, doesn't it? Yeah, so within the same week, we had to say, go for it with the investment property.

9:13We're like, we have to scrape all of our money together to pull the deposit together. We also need spare change to pay the invoice for the business. All that came in a week. And we felt really good about it. And then the week after I was made redundant from said, no, you're getting kicked while you're literally down. Yeah, funny how that happens. I don't know if that's funny. That's not what I would call it. But like, you know what, I can see that you're going to call it funny. We'll go with that because, oh, Tromba. Yeah, so thankfully that also came with a nice 20k estimated payout. So we were seeing that as a blessing in disguise because we also needed that capital. And just so that we wouldn't be running down and like zero dollars, I like to have padding in my finance. Yes, yeah, yeah, a buffer. Exactly. Good girl. That's what we like to hear. But, you know, the universe blessed me again. And they found me a new job within the same company

10:13with a 20k payout. So you got paid 20 grand to stay at the company. Yeah, he's a pay rise. He's 20 grand, have a nice day. Can't they just tell you that all at once? I know. They just work it out in the background so that we don't have to stress. Like, oh, yeah, I'm glad that that happened for you. Yeah, fast forward to today, like we've now launched our business at the start of the year. Stop it, congrats. Also coinciding with the second redundant to you. No. Finally, on the original payout. But you didn't get a payout for the second redundancy because you wouldn't have been there long enough, hey. No. Yeah, same company, but there was only like a six month, which is rough. Oh, my God. So do you have a role now or are we focusing 100% on this business? We are currently unemployed, which has given me lots of head space to go all in with this business. Maybe this is exactly what the universe has been sending you. I've been hoping so, but I do need to start looking for a big girl job soon, but I'm hoping, yeah, we can kind of take our time with that

11:15and go all in with this business while we've kind of got the free time. Absolutely. So tell me a bit more about this business, not necessarily like, oh, sell it to me, but when you start a business, how does it go from Victoria? I had a lot of time to think I was on my back and I decided to go all in. A lot of people are like, oh, Victoria, I can't come up with a good idea or I can't even start or I have a good idea and I don't know how to make tracks with it. How did you go from laying in bed going, I should make a baby change station for boots of cars to actually doing it. Yeah, so the idea has actually been a few years old because my children are three and five. So there was a lot of kind of mental ideation going on. The toilet change now, ideally. Yeah, but we still have the organisers in our boot to one of those things. Yeah, of course. So yeah, it was kind of one of those back on the porch discussions with my husband being like, I realistically in 10 years' time, we're not going to double our income.

12:15We're going to hear this ceiling in these fancy corporate jobs. It's going to be more competitive, more ruthless. I don't really like the job now. And I don't want my managers job. Am I going to be doing this in 10 years? Like, is that what life looks like? Exactly. So that started planting the seed of what will we do to pay ourselves then? My background was in corporate marketing where we do a lot of brand launches and you product development. Oh, she's on the front for it. We had that experience of identifying gaps and challenges that everyday people are having. One of them was obviously the car boot baby change station when the amount of car boot natty changes we did, especially our second baby who just always went in the car. Why is the car seat? It was really cool. We hit the postation. Like, we put the kid in the car. Oh, if you're consternated, no worries. I'll go put you in the car seat. And then I just know what's going to happen. I love it. Exactly. And with my second maternity leave, I was so much more confident and happy about.

13:15So I was in the car. Yes, you were dealing with that in public. But, you know, it just gave me this confidence and connection. I mean, it turned from being, because I had those systems organized with like, it may make shift caddies in my, anything that I could to make the process easier. So I didn't mind it. I used those few minutes as like little opportunities for connection. Like, of course, you shout yourself, like, get on with the day. Yup. And that really just whitened everything up. And so I thought, there's probably something in that. And I had one of those over this car seat organizers, the chief ones that were terrible and went through so many. Yeah, because they just reek, like, they're really bad. Of course. Yeah. And so I just said, I know how this process works. Like, I know that I can, yeah, commission a third party to kind of spec up the design and do the manufacturing side of things wherein well-paying jobs. So all this was kind of a few years ago. Yeah. And that's just how long that process takes. Yeah, of course.

14:16You know, inventing something new and it all came to her last year. It's so exciting. Where we have to say, yes, we need to financially commit to this. Oh, yeah. Like, you can only kick the can so far down the road before you have to put your money where your mouth is to see if it's actually going to work. Exactly. And so we did that. And then everything started unraveling off that. But it's been like a really fun trajectory. It's, I think, a lot of people are so attached to their work and their identity is tied to work, whereas I learned to kind of separate that. My priorities are elsewhere and trying to set up my family for financial success and do something meaningful with our time and it's still better values now children other than you really need to work hard to survive. Because I think you need to work hard to an extent, but you also just need to work smart. Yeah. And I think that that's a really big piece that a lot of us just don't understand. Or it's really disappointing, right? Like I meet so many people in their, you know, 50s and 60s who are only just discovering

15:18she's on the money and they're like, I wish I knew this earlier. I do too. But you kind of go, it's not about working hard because these people that are coming, they're like, Victoria, I've worked so hard my entire life. They're doing all this over time. Like they are some of the most intelligent women I've ever met. But backtracking, it's not about being the smartest or the hardest worker. It's about zooming out, a bit looking at strategy. Like you've said, I'm listening and all going, ah, this woman's really switched on because you said, you know, it was just a porch conversation with my husband. Who's sitting on their porch with their husband going? What does 10 years from now look like? Oh, our income's not going to double in this corporate job. What could we do to support ourselves? These are the conversations I want people to be having. These are the conversations that are going to put you in the best possible position. Because yes, you could get your very fancy corporate job. But where's the ceiling on that? What does that look like? Is that going to support the lifestyle that you want? And I think that that's where we need to start talking to ourselves a little bit bluntly.

16:19Like, hey, money, Darius, is this what you want for the rest of your life? Is this going to create the lifestyle that you want for your children? And you've ultimately gone, no, it's not. What am I going to do about that? And look at you moving mountains to make it happen. Oh, we're trying. We're trying. Yeah, like there were just so many, I look back at the powerful women in corporate life. And they just seemed so well put together. And they had so many houses. And I was like, I'm going to get that. But then once you're there and you're like, oh, in this cost of living, I'm like, I can barely afford rent and daycare fees that alone have an extra life investment. Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it? Yeah. So it's just taking you into consideration that as well and just wet things and moving. Yeah, absolutely. So tell me, what do you do for work before you just got made redundant again? And what were you earning? So I was a brand marketing manager. The salary was 120 days with a 15%. Very nice bonus. Yeah, short time incentive bonus. Oh, very cool. And what did like incentive bonuses

17:22kind of come out in the wash as each year? It went down every year at that company. Maybe that's why we ended up being made redundant, who knows, not because you didn't do it. But I feel like that industry is struggling at the moment. Yeah, it's not something like, I can look at things objectively. When you're in those positions, you see something. So you can't deny the fact that some things are going to move. And you as a middle management are probably first on the top of all, OK, I can't take that personally. Oh, no, it's never personal. But it does feel personal when you get made redundant. You're as effective of how logically you are. Like you always go, I wish. Like it wasn't so personal. But at the end of the day, I think it's really healthy to like your job enough to be like, I wish they kept me. Yeah, of course, I cried for a day, and then started looking for new jobs. So I started making other plans. So good girl. Give yourself a little bit of time. Be like, I'm crying today. Tomorrow, we pull our socks up. Yeah, I think the biggest bonus I received was four years ago. And that was $10,000. Oh, very nice.

18:22Last year, it was $3,000, so it's still better than nothing, obviously. But I was never one to kind of budget the bonus in my lifestyle. Anyway, the bonus was just exactly what it is. Totally extra. And now that you've got these business, what kind of profit are you guys generating? So we have no profit because we invested about 50, 60K into the upfront costs and inventory. We do have a small operational cost. We've only been operating for three months. Every driver used about $12,000 a month. OK, queen. And then operating profit of about $2,000 a month, I believe. Sorry, and your business is only three months old. And you already have an operating profit? Yes. Ah, that's so exciting. I know that you're looking at this being like, they're just not going to pay a mortgage, is it? But from little things, big things grow. And that's a really great traction. Thank you. Yeah, we've been surprised.

19:23We're like, we set a stretch goal of like, if we sell 50 in the first six months, that's a win. Yeah, totally. That would also be working full time as well. And that would just be the side hustle for this year. So I've been really grateful and pleased to be able to spend my full-time energy on this and seeing that it works, seeing that my skill set can make something work. There's been this, ooh, it's moment. Absolutely it can. And look at you go. Like, I don't think people understand how challenging that is to kick off a business and have a profit to begin with, like, Queen, what are you doing? That's crazy, I love it. So talk to me, what are your big money goals as a couple? Like, what are we currently working towards? So we have a second home. I don't think it's an investment property because in the long term, we plan to be there, but it is 100 acres of rainforest in the Mid-North Coast. And we want to build that up to be a homestead eventually

20:26and basically retire there, build it up, restore it. At the moment, it's our school holiday, called the Bush House, so we go there. Yeah, but the plan is to be there like every school holidays and just fix it up every now and again. And yeah, eventually kind of just be there. And I want to harvest the wood and make baby cut and give them away for free. You stop that. That is so awesome. Yeah, we want to be, you know, being that homestead lifestyle, but not in, like, a tridwife way. OK, so we're no ballerina. OK. FU to the system in that way. So tell me a bit more about how you came to have that property because that is very cool. Yes, so that came about, again, the affordability crisis. We live in Sydney, the two bedroom apartment, below a solid for 1.2 million. And like, no. And whatever deposit we had, we couldn't even afford anything. So that's where we kind of, you know, said goodbye

21:28to having that nice terrace. And sorry, he was like, I kind of dropped that I would have because we had these corporate jobs. We could pay for anything. Yeah, absolutely. We just said, why do we want to live here? Why do we want to own multi-million dollar property here when we can't afford it? And that kind of just kicked off for this big, you know, 10 years down the track, what do we want to be? So, and how do we want our children to grow up as well? So that's where the Bush House idea kind of came from. We started looking for acreage and maybe some farmland. And we just found this perfect, perfect one. We tied a cabin on a running creek through it. Stop it. That's tyranny. It came to us. Yeah, it went off the market for a bit. Then it came back. We realized that we could potentially buy it. Inspector that, got pre-approval, got it. And like, that was one of the big decisions that we had to make. The week before I was made to fund it. Oh, stop it. That would have been so stressful. Yeah. All right, well, let's go to a really quick break.

22:29And on the flip side, I want to ask you a little bit more about how much you paid for that property, about investments, about debt, and then we're going to talk about insurance as well. So guys, don't go anywhere. All right, my need are as we are back. And we were talking before about these dreamy sounding property that you guys own. But you were like, I don't know if it's an investment or not. So tell me a bit more about the property. When you purchased it, how much did you purchase it for? It was $400,000. What? It's got a creek running through it. And it's got a cap for only $400 grand. Yep. And that's why it stood out to us so much amongst all the listing. Crazy. Within that criteria, that were about 700 to a million in that area and for that size, this was a gem. And we really started to seek it off the market. But it formed our criteria for what other properties we should be looking for and none can close.

23:29And then it came back on the market. And we got it. Yeah. And do you know what? That would have been the most validating thing ever. Because when it went off the market, you were probably like, do you know what? We should have bought that. And then when it came back, you were like, well, now we're pretty clear that we did really want that. Exactly. Oh, like I know that that would have been frustrating, but also I'm really glad that happened. Because then you've got even more clarity about being so sure about what you want. Exactly. And like in that brief moment of time, being like, maybe we, if we just save a bit harder than we could get something more expensive. Get an apartment and then work our way up. And so was that bought in 2025? Is that right? Correct. So we've had that for nearly a year now we're approaching. That's really exciting. And are you investing in any other ways? No, to pay for that, we cashed in a lot of our shares. So we didn't realize what really was sitting on. You know, I found Cheersy's thanks to you. I invested in a couple of ETFs and a really obscure one, WWE, wrestling.

24:30Oh, okay. Totally obscure. What made you want to invest in that? What was your theory behind that? Because we are big wrestling fans. Okay, I did not see that coming. So you get into the rabbit hole of how that business works. It is really fascinating because it's, firstly it's an industry where gender equality is actually true to form. Like the women's league probably rivals the men's. The way that it's run and how the current chairman was a wrestler. Yeah, okay. So a lot of their executive team come from wrestling, work their way up through the business and then making the right decision. Yeah, they've got their hands on the tools. They got acquired by TKO, which is like the UFC one. Yeah. So we invested about 10K into it and we got 25 back. Okay, money queen. Yeah. So that was a really weird work out in our favor. We cashed it out in good timing because they were the corporate sponsors of the Trump inauguration. Oh. And they just didn't sit well with us.

25:30So we kind of just sort of like, let's quit while we're ahead. Yeah. This is contributing to the deposit. Future wealth of our family, yeah. Yeah. And so now we just have the shares that my husband has from his company. I like your thought processes though, around like, no, we're really big fans and you clearly looked into it. You're like, look who's on the board. Look who's running it. I was like, okay. I love talking about these. It's a good rabbit hole if you want to get into it. Oh, I don't know if you know me well enough, but I love a rabbit hole. So tell me about your other investments because you said, oh, we don't really, but you would have superannuation and you've got a whole business. Tell me about your super. So far, I did check the other day. We're at 110,000 individually at 32. Yeah, and I think my husband has about 150 in his super. You are doing well. You are far above the average. Have you been contributing more over time? I guess it's just from working since day one. Since you were a child, yeah. Yeah, and then just our stable corporate jobs that have been contributing.

26:35I think it was a higher and average contribution, but like 1% or something. But yeah, and we also have, yeah, insurance is coming out of that just automatically. That's really cool. Well, just for a little bit of context for you, the average 30-year-old has about 70,000. Oh, wow. So you're doing well. And if you pay attention to it, it will continue to do well, which we love to see. Right. And then your business investment, obviously, that's going to be a big one. And I see a lot of small business owners, and they often feel really guilty. They're like, oh my gosh, Victoria, I'm not investing in shares. Like you're always talking about shares is and like what you do, your biggest investment in life. And I would say my best investment in life was my business. So I can see why people would feel bad because they're absorbing all this content where I'm saying, oh my gosh, investing in the share market is a really great idea. Like maybe you should consider it. And on the flip side, for a very long time, I've poured most of my money into my business. Like reinvesting in my business, reinvesting in the people in my business

27:38has had the best return for me. So tell me a bit more about your business and where you want to see it. Like have you got big goals and aspirations for it? Obviously, it is a very cool concept. But like, is it, oh yeah, we just want to have our own website and sell it through that forever? Or I want to be seen in Target, and I want to be in Maya, and I want to be in David Jones, or what's the strategy? The strategy is to hopefully expand it into just a bigger kind of parenting organizational, I guess, resource and support system. We want to be a village for parents who want to get their crap together, but just don't know how, because it's so overwhelming in those first few months. Where you believe anything that gets told to you by anyone with some kind of authority, you don't know what to buy, you're testing a lot of things. But our brand is really more about simplifying all that, so that everything just comes more naturally and easily to new mothers,

28:38and just remove the chaos in decision-making. I think decision fatigue is so overlooked. And when you suddenly don't have that decision fatigue, you actually don't know how well you're doing, because you've prevented the chaos before it even started. So I'm a big believer in strategy upfront to save future sanity. That's a lot, right? Like, I didn't realize how all-consuming it was when I had my first baby, and now I've had my second baby, it's like you're on autopilot in a way, and I'm like, oh, those are the wipes that I need. Like, this is the stuff that I like, this is the formula that I enjoy, whereas I remember with Harvey, every single decision I was Googling. I was like, right, well, what are the best baby wipes? And you go down a rabbit hole of being like, oh, my gosh, did you know that has XYZ in it? And this isn't just pure water. And oh, my gosh, the density of the wipe. Like, that is exhausting. That is just like, can another mum just tell me which one's the right one to get?

29:39Please, and it not be a sponsored ad of an influencer telling me, oh, these are the wipes that I use on my child. And the next week, they're using a different one. Like, just tell me what your favorites are, mum. Exactly. And the purpose of the brand is to not tell you exactly what to buy, but it's to give you a framework because you have your own preferences. Your family life is so different. You might have a baby and a toddler with three kids. It's only a finite amount of kids you can have. So there's only so many times you can, you know, test and repeat what you know and what you don't know. So I guess with the brand, it's giving you mum's or parents a framework so that they can kind of fill it in. And hopefully that would just be a lot more easy to, you know, do those carpet knaffy changes or anything mess-wise. I could then expand, be going to like, life organisation. And yeah, big parenting organisation strategies. I can just help you do life easier. And tell me about debts that you hold. I know that you've purchased a house last year, so that was $400,000.

30:40What kind of debt are you carrying on that property? Currently, only $300,000 than that one. Oh, okay. So we put down 20% and then we pay a higher repayment fee than what we have to just so we can help get ahead. So yeah, about $300,000 going on that one. How good. And what are the debts do you have if any? 20,000 in a hex debt. So hopefully that should be scrubbed within a few years, for people working full time, or hopefully I can generate enough income to just wipe it. Yep, but that's not really a priority to wipe away at the moment. Totally understandable. I've got a credit card with an $8,000 limit. That we use for all expenses and pay off every month. And that's about it. Husband has no hex debt. Good job. So tell me a bit more about the credit card. Does that run you into any problems? Do you find that you tap a little bit happier because of it? Or like, what does that look like? No, no. We've been one of those point-toddest credit card people. Love. We look after the credit card a lot.

31:40It's purely a point to get. And we scrubbed off every month. Oh, I love that. And is that how you've always functioned with credit cards? I get the vibe that you're pretty financially responsible. Yeah, I've had a credit card since I was 18, just to purely manage my own personal cash flow. Because sometimes you need a bit of extra hope when you're like a poor uni student. So that was always there as an emergency for me. Yeah. And making sure that, yeah, that was paid off pretty promptly. Or just having really small limits. Like, I think that credit card was like $3,000. Yeah, that sounds logical. But I did the same thing. Got my first credit card at 18. And my emergency was clothes and shoes. And I was really good at it. Like, of all people, like I could max out a credit card pretty quickly. I'm not proud of that. But that's why I asked. I'm like, oh, what did that journey look like? You've just been a responsible girl either whole time. Now, talk to me. You obviously have two young kids. Do you have personal insurances? Have you set them up? What does that look like in your life? So we do have personal insurance.

32:41I have TPD. And that gets withdrawn from super automatically. I have life insurance that also is an automatic withdrawal from Subaru. And I did have income protection as well. I don't know if I need to update that or not. I love to see it. And is that something that you've actively gone and sought out? Or is that something that was default in your Subaru? Or like, what did that journey look like? I know that was a podcast from you a few years ago. As a prompt reminder. And I looked into it and I was like, well, we should probably get this. And then we did it with a few clicks. So now that's just an automatic thing in our Subaru. Stop it. I love that. Now, to talk to me, I feel like you've probably got some pretty good money habits. What do you think is your best money habit? Probably I only shop when it's an extra 30% off sale items. And I bat shop so that they're all like essential items, essentially, or items that will last me years to come. So I figured if they're selling them for that price, then...

33:43That's what they were. Yeah, like just take it extra 30% off. Like, why is it retailing at 300? And I can get it for... Wait, that's crazy. That is crazy. I'm always so suspicious of brands that do that. And I've been a little bit... I don't know if the word is cheeky. But you know when you kind of just know that a brand goes on sale. I'm like, well, I'm never going to purchase you for full price. I'm sorry, you've done that to yourself. Like, I've never paid full price for bonds. And I'm sorry, I just, I couldn't. Yeah. I just know that you go 40% off way too often. Yeah, and then sometimes it's taken extra 30% off of the 40%. Exactly. And like, I don't know about you. But being a young mom of two, I go through so many bonds onesies, so many bonds singlets. Like, they just endless. And I swear that they disappear in this house. They're like socks. Exactly. Or... That they just disappear. Yeah, or the amount of, like, puke or poo. Or just any mess that gets on them. Like, if it doesn't come off in one wash me out,

34:44I'm very bad like that. It's not probably a bad money habit if I, like, I can't be bothered during this five times. So, mine's the flu. Like, I will launder everything. I'm a psycho at it. But, and I've said this to daycare, if it is poop and it happened at daycare, you just put it in the bin. You just put the singlet in the bin. I do not put it in a plastic bag for me to open it at home and have to deal with, like, if there is nothing worse, nothing. Yeah, the whole bag in the bin. Bye, bye. Sorry, don't send that home. It's a nice present, thank you. Oh, and on the flip side, what's your worst money habit? Is it throwing away onesies? Little treats. So, I am a sucker for, like, a ward of, like, $10 to $15 purchases from cafes, from little bakeries. My reasoning being, I like to support small businesses. I need a treat, so. You deserve a treat, too. Yeah. Like, I rationalize, like, if it's a small amount, I can get away with it.

35:44No, I like that, but that's, like, not a bad money habit. That's a use-supporting small business. That's very wholesome. Exactly. We're actually really good people, you know? Yeah. Community outreach. Exactly. You are doing charity work, basically. So, now that we've had a really good chat and I've loved this chat, what do you think it would take for you to go from the A that you said you were, which I agree, like, you sound like an A, but what would make you an A plus? I don't know what an A plus looks like. Like, a U and A plus? No, no, absolutely not. If I had something to visualize what A plus was. Am I an A plus? No, like, I'm a do-as-I say, not as I do, kind of, girly. Like, am I always good with money? No, do I pretend to always be good with money? No, but I am fantastic at systems and putting them in place to make sure that I can reach the goals that I want to. But I'm sorry, I'm a sweet treat's girly. Like, I often purchase things that I shouldn't and I often blow the budget. Like, gift giving is my love language. I think an A plus is where you're really happy

36:46with your own situation. I don't think an A plus is a person or an example because, you know, I know that I'm not an A plus in my heart of hearts because I could do better. Like, I could do better. I could have my finger on the poles. Like, there are a few things financially at the moment that I'm going, you know what, I haven't checked my phone plan in a while. Like, and I really short. Like, I think an A plus is someone that's like, nah, I'm on top of this. Whether they're earning 30 grand or 300 grand, it doesn't actually matter. It's just like, no, I feel really confident. I'm on top of this. Like, my money habits are like, you know, top notch. I'm doing absolutely everything in my power to be the best that I can be, whereas I'm not right now. I love the honesty though. Well, in that case, I guess my version of A plus would be sitting on my balcony at my bush house, owning it. Yeah, the exact owning it out, right? All right. I own this land, like, I think that would be how I would give myself an A plus. All right, well, we're working towards it.

37:47And I don't think that that's out of reach. Like, that's going to happen at some point. Thank you so much for sharing so much with me. Oh, I'm so excited. I just, I hope that we get to cross paths in person at some point. So I just, I reckon that would be good friends. Well, thank you so much for your time and sharing your journey with the Sheets on the Money community. I just know they're going to love getting to know you as much as I have. It's been a privilege. Thank you. When people are having me, it is a manifestation come true. So just a bit those emails, girls. Yeah, literally just do it. And like, come hang out. The advice shared on Sheets on the Money is generally nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. Sheets 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 PDF, TMD, and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and Sheets on the Money are authorized representatives of Money Shope,

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