Ever thought, 'Is my landlord allowed to do that?'? Well this Friday, we’re diving into that question every renter has asked at some point. From bond dramas to boundary-pushing behaviour, we’re unpacking your rights as a tenant and how to protect yourself when things get tricky. But that’s not all—this episode is packed with money dilemmas, like navigating financial curveballs right after buying your first home and figuring out what to do when your partner’s business starts impacting your own finances. Plus, we’re celebrating listener wins (a $14 cast iron cookware steal!) and sharing broke tips to make your festive season merry without busting your budget. Tune in for real talk, smart advice, and a big dose of Friday fun!
The book we’ve all been waiting for—The Business Bible—is finally here! This is Victoria's ultimate guide to levelling up your hustle, career, or big biz dreams. Grab your copy here.
Join our She's on the Money community...Instagram and Facebook Group
Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.
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 Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.
Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Yr the Order Kerni Whaltbury 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. Guess that makes personal finance fun, especially on Fridays. It's our favorite day of the week because we get our little team together and celebrate you our incredible She's on the Money community as always, Miss Gott she is going to be sharing our favorite money wins. She's got a few from the community that she's rounded up. Miss becksay ed she's going to be sharing her favorite broke tips. And we're getting to answer a money dilemma, which this week is all about your landlord. Being dodgy with your bond And then Jess, I know you're excited about that one I've got. We've got something that you slid into our DMS about whether you should be worried if your partner has invested in a business with no contracts. This is also a very juicy one.
Yeah, Boiler, Yes, they're both equally juicy.
I love the juicy stuff that you guys slide into our DMS about, like absolutely, But before we get there, my loves how or your weeks really good?
I've started really good?
Weak?
Yes, very good.
No.
I got got an iron infusion just the other day, which is like it was weird.
I won't go into too much detail.
Like you didn't get any staining on your arm?
Give me.
They give me so much anxiety. When I was they were like saying I might have to have an iron infusion, and I'm so scared of like getting a mark on my arm.
Yeah, well, like they said, it's quite rare. It's just that the iron and I could see like the little tube of iron that they put in it's like like very very dark brown, which.
Is so weird. It is so weird to see. Yeah, they put it.
Into yours.
Because love of detail.
It was just a weird experience. But also, like I think the worst part of an iron infusion is that bless bless blessed. I love GPS.
I love my GP.
Yeah, I love her so much, but having to be in conversation for fourteen minutes with someone that fourteen fourteen minutes I just.
Podcast like half an hour.
Yeah, well I googled like it was like meant to be four hours a week, but anyway, they did it really quick, so it's like fourteen minutes at my GP. Somehow, I don't understand that that's a good deal. Do you feel better now you've had what? It takes a couple of weeks to kick in, but at the moment it's probably a percebo, but I feel like you just do feel a little bit better.
Yeah, okay, you know I love a placebo effect though. Yeah, Like if you gave me a smarty and said it was medication and it would help me, I'd probably full for it. I'm all good with it.
The brain is so powerful. Yeah, that's basically my week, honestly, not too much else. Just have an infusion, yes, get into the Christmas spirit too, which I'm sure.
Yes, he was also doing.
Oh my gosh, I feel listening you Christmas carols back four weeks. But if you're not following us on Instagram, we're doing our twelve days of giveaways again was kicked. It's just kicked off. And you guys, there's some really really good stuff that you can win. So if you're not following us on Instagram, you're gonna want to be because every day for the next how many twelve twenty four twenty four days? Every other day we're given away a little.
Price, which is really fun, and we have done this there are a couple of years now and we get so many beautiful brands who are like, no, we'd love to work with you. It's actually so fun. And also I just love giving gifts. It's my love language, and I get a whole.
Month of it, especially at this time of year. We know times are tough, so whether it's something for you or whether you want to give it as a gift to someone yourself. We've picked all of our favorite brands. You'll recognize so many of the names for things.
Yeah, because they're already all over our social media.
Exactly.
I'm paying customer to most of these brands.
Yeah, so get on over there, you guys. It's good.
I love it. I feel like, is it just me or did everyone get in the Christmas spirit early this year? You know what's crazy? We were talking to us, we were talking about it. We were always talking, So it makes sense Christmas.
Stuff coming out before Halloween. You know that I love Christmas, right, Like, I am not one to be a grinch, no, but it meant that we were effectively spending a quarter of the year. It's three months, three months prepping for Christmas. True, that is crazy commercialist and again like not that I can talk. I put my tree up at the start of November, but whatever, I feel like anything beyond two months is really pushing it, you know what I mean?
I felt the same and this is such niche content. But last year, there was this candy cane pillow that I really wanted, right, Remember, I couldn't find anywhere, Jessica. This was important to me, and I thought, this year, I'm going to get it because it's from a store where it releases every year, so like it's it's evergreen candy cane, right. I missed it because it came out at the start of November. Oh no, but like, what are you guys doing? What are you doing?
I started November? I think, is I mean that's Christmas.
It came out in October, and like it was sold out by the start of November. And now it's December and I still don't have a candy. This is the biggest first world problem I've ever had.
Its shaped like it.
Yes, it's shaped like make you one, but I guess it's very hard to do.
Shape is very even want anymore?
Oh yeah, I didn't even need it out of principle.
Gosh, well, have you found made to cheers up a little bit? A cute little review for us?
This week we do this week we've got another five star review to share beck What is it?
Okay?
So this one comes from Laura. She says, Hey, guys, been loving your recent podcast apps and would be interested in hearing your advice on something. I just purchased my first property a few weeks ago, and now my work has made my role redundant. I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm worried about the adjustment being my mortgage and bills combined with unexpected unemployment. Do you have any pointers on my situation or ways to budget when I'm not receiving an income for an uncertain period of time. Thanks so much.
That is so dodgy of a business. This happened to you, Jess redundant right before Christmas.
Not from here, I want to preface this. Yeah, but yeah, I got made. It's interesting around. Someone said in the Money Wins, Money Losses Throat as well this week that they got made redundant. Who is making people redundant at this time of year? I'm sorry, but that's an audacity.
Move on.
Yeah, I remember, I got really stressed and I have the feeling of the mortgage in addition to my normal bills, so I totally Oh, I would have been off the edge of the cliff completely, So I understand how stressful it is. I would just say, if you haven't recently review your budget, if you don't have a budget, go get a need one.
I've got one point on our website one hundred percent. Go to the freebiees page.
It's really handy, but you just need to figure out what is the absolute barest minimum you can spend to live so rent, bills, groceries. Then once you figured that out, can you pay your mortgage? If the answer is yes, I would still cut back on all of your discretionary spending if you can, because you're going to want to buffer because the problem with being made redundant is you don't have the luxury of knowing you've got another job coming. So you could, hopefully, fingers crossed you get one really soon, but if the market's tough, it could be weeks, it could be months. Better to like tighten it up now, I reckon and write it out if you can. If you can't pay those things easy jobs Uber it's delivering Amazon Prime, like those jobs that you don't really need a qualification for that you can just pick up.
In fact, Jessica, this isn't related. But next week I have an episode dropping which are festive side hustles, so things that you can do to earn some extra bank during the holidays, so things like air task and just jobs that you're able to pick up. And to be honest, if you invested the same amount of time that you were working, like let's call it thirty eight hours a week into this, I can almost guarantee that you'd be able to cover a minimum wage job. Like we're not going to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. But by you doing like some uber eats deliveries, by you, you know, hustling on air tasker and doing you know, some courier jobs or whatever you can actually you know, do physically and pick up, you'll be able to make it through. Like it's not ideal because obviously you're probably going to want to do like job interviews and stuff, so it might be a bit of a hustle, but I feel like that's a good plan, like a backup plan to be like, okay, cool, like I've been made redundant, or even just I'm really financially stressed. You could do a little bit of a sprint, like not just you, but people listening who are like, oh ye, I'm really financially stressed, Like you don't have to have lost your job to pick up a few things on the side to get some extra cash in the bank, to get an emergency fund to start next year off. Well, So I want to flip this over to you, because you've been made redundant before and you didn't have any say things when that happened. No, what happened? How did you manage? Tell us all the stories? Please don't say the answer is a loaf of bread.
Honestly, I think that.
So the second I found out I was being re redundant, I started applying for jobs. But because I think I have spent I had spent like twenty eight twenty nine years working in like entry level jobs, and then just just started doing something that I really enjoyed, which is video producing, and I was only doing that for a year, and so I feel like for me, that life of not that that's a bad thing or anything, but I just wasn't enjoying it that much. My life of like going back into hospital was not so far out of reach for me. I was really kind of scared. So I think myself I would advise if I did it all over again, not to be driven by my ego and just be like, I'm going to apply for jobs at the pub or jobs in all of those jobs. Just I don't have to be forever, right, It doesn't have to be forever exactly. It's just even if you have like a few days where you're working behind the bar, just until you every other day you're applying for jobs, maybe going to interviews all these other stuff. Just just do something in between. If you can start tomorrow working as a kitchen hand at a cafe or at a pub or what, then just honestly do it. That's not to say, like when I say I'm driven by my ego, it's not to say that those jobs are necessarily about it.
I feel like once you got to this like dream role of being a video producer, like I don't want to go back, go back to what I was doing before, but exactly so many times and like I saw this when I had my financial advice business, and these things would happen to clients occasionally, and I feel like we fall into this mentality of assuming that that's the trajectory that your entire life is on. Yes, oh, Beck, you've been made redundant. What are you going to do now? And the reality is like, oh, I can find the job that I really want, But like I can feel my time yeah. Like and I feel like if someone had sat you down and said, oh, Beck, like you could just take a job at the pub and it's not forever. I feel like so many times you do feel like you're going backwards, even though that's not the reality, because you're like, oh, I'm going to go quote backwards. It's not back to a worse job. It's just back to what you knew and started doing, maybe less financially, less financially you know, beneficial. I suppose while you're applying for new video producer jobs, Yeah, exactly, we can still get money in the door. And I think that that's one of the most I don't know, I think it's this is you know, probably a lot. And I like that they're asking questions now in reviews, but I'm going to spend a lot of time on them. And I think that's one of the best features of people who are good at money. That's this idea that no job is beneath them, Like this idea that oh, if you know, the proverbial hits a fan, I'll just go work in a warehouse, like Jess, you did the same thing, Becka, I know you do the same thing, and I absolutely would do the same thing to make sure that I could pay my way. Like I'm not the type of person who's like, oh I won't do that, check my child's dirty. Your job's a.
Job, totally.
I think that that mentality is going to make you feel more secure as well, like, oh, well, in that case, I am very privileged to be completely able bodied I can just go grab a job like I'm not hindered by that, and so many people are. And I think that just having a body that means I can go and work in a warehouse is a bloody privilege. So I think that you know, it is probably not what you want to hear, but find something to fill the time, find something to fill the space and your wallet, and then go and find another dream job that doesn't make you redundant next time.
And it's not your fault. I remember when I got made redundant. I just felt really shit about myself. And it's not on you. There's so many factors that go into that. So don't let that get you down or give you imposter syndrome when you're applying for new jobs, because I'm sure you're really great, and.
It's never about your competency. Actually, I've got a question, be what job were you made redundant from video producing? Yeah? And what's your job now?
Digital content producing?
And also, oh okay, so you're still do so you basically upgraded. And it wasn't because you were about it your job that you were made redundant. It was just like the business structure.
Exactly, because the exact same place.
Just with a little bit of a pay riser and a better job. But I think that that's important to put on the table too. As you write yes, like so often you're like maybe it was just like and your brain's awful, Like your brain is the worst thing to you. Your brain's going to be like they can copt it this massive plan to have bulk redundancies at my job because I'm so bout at it, and they just didn't want to tell me that's how my brain would have worked. So I think that we need to just kick that out anyway. I also, while we're here, I was laughing because I got an email notification the other day and I screenshot it to say that for this episode, because it was You've just received a five star review on She's on the Money, and I was like, excellent, Yeah, but what is this. I don't have my Apple review, Like you can't get notifications for that.
It was on Google Google.
And I'm assuming what happened was this person Stephanie. I'm gonna read it out. She was so tiny, but I'm assuming Stephanie just doesn't use Apple and was like, oh, I really want to leave a review, and I love that. So if you're not on Apple, you can also reviews, which I did so anyway, So Stephanie, she left a Google review and it says obsessed, obsessed, obsessed. She's on the money has truly changed my life in a way that I didn't think could happen. Victoria, Jess and the other most beautiful girls, and I absolutely adore listening to them every single morning. Thank you for your tips and tricks. You have helped me move away from after pay zip pay my personal loan and now I'm able to save and I have a little investment too. Just listen to five minutes of any of their podcasts and you'll be hooked. PS. I'm obsessed with Money Diaries. It's so sweet, so sweet, but also like I'm obsessed with Money Diries too, Queen, Like the my favorite episode of the week because you just get the pervydats.
Yeah.
Like, how often are you sitting at brunch back? Can you sitting next to someone and you're like, I wonder what they earn, what do they spend, what's in their bank account? Maybe other people aren't thinking this way at brunch, but I am, And I just think how much of a privilege is it to sit down and somebody genuinely be like, Oh, I'll tell you what tell you what I spent, I'll tell you what's in my super tell you what's in my savings. Oh this is how how I can afford my house be for real.
Those congratulations for getting away from maft paid.
Ye's amazing she moved away from after pay and zippay. But Plana falls into that same thing. Side note too, this is a rogue episode. I do apologize. I saw that multi how I've been on my multi level market I'm like a month ago, and I haven't spoken about this at all since then because I've been trying to keep a lid on it. But it's coming back. It just it's coming back. It's inside of me multi level marketing company money, which we've talked about on he h. They've started offering Klana. It's just like nay. I think they had a little board meeting and they sat around and they said, hello, Jessica, how do we become more toxic? Yeah, like, ah, yes, yes, we're going to get buying now, pay later, perfect perfect perfect, And so now all of the money girlies are like, you can start your business by taking out a klan alone.
Oh I don't like that. That makes me nervous.
I know same only anyway, There'll be more MLM content to come up, But for nowt's talk about something more positive, Miss Jessicricci. What are your money ins and confessions from our community?
All right, I'm going a rapid fire and ladies, because we've been yapping. The first one I've got is from Hannah. She said she put twenty dollars per week away every week since Christmas, and now she's got one thousand dollars to spend this year on all things Christmas related. Just a very smart tip. I know that obviously a bit late now for this Christmas, but once you know we hit twenty twenty five, good lord, start putting your twenty bucks away people. It really up. Next, I've got a money win from Ashley, who said she updated her house and contents insurance and she got higher coverage. But she's saving herself thirty bucks a month because she switched.
Companies money and also was worth looking, wasn't it.
Absolutely? It's that time of year people renegotiate your deals. Next, I've got one from Jess, who said my partner proposed love that I just love love I congratulations are so exciting. She said they were on a trip to Tazzi and they managed to get free flight upgrades, free chocolates, a bottle of shampers, almost god yeah, framed photos for half priced. She said it was such a lovely trip and all of the extra freebies made it really special.
That's really sweet. I love that Tasmanians. They're just really good people, you know. Oh really, yeah, I've only.
Met good ones.
Yes. Next, I've got a money when from Adriana, who said she's just discovered the eighty O app. I don't know how because Victoria raves about it.
It's because I think you guys hear it and you're like these so on cold you tuned out.
We need to get on it.
How you come crawling back, don't you?
There?
You go?
Adrianna says she's been adding her work travel deductions as well as other ones as she spends them. She's already got one thousand dollars introductions that she definitely would have forgotten about by the time next tax time rolled around.
Honey, when se see take my recommendations as gospel guys, we should just be listening.
Next, I've got money in from Kelly, who said a friend generously gave me some school uniforms and wouldn't let me give them any money in return. I feel like I remember my mum's friends doing that for us. If kids go around of it and you're not going to use them again as well, pass come on. The same friend also offered to let her park at her place for free when she travels in lieu of airport parking and parent so nice.
Yeah, is so expensive.
And crazy expensive. And lastly this week I've got a money in from Rhiannon who said she went to the dump shop, which I kind of forgot this shop. So you know how you have your local tips where you you know, a lot of the tips will have stores where anything that's like decent, so a lot of people will clean stuff out in hardish that's still got.
I didn't know that. Here we go.
So if you oh, this is a broke tip, yeah, if the little crossover happening here, like the sweet lives on deck, if you send something like decent quality of the tip, they'll often pull it out and take it put it in the tip shop, which is kind of like an up shop, and things are like crazy cheap.
You're doing putting things in the tip if they don't need to go in the tip.
Oh, I completely agree, you're making me mad. Must be really common. So Rihanna went to her local one and she found three pieces of cast iron cookware.
Oh my gosh money.
They were having a fifty percent off sales, so she got all three pieces of cast iron for fourteen bucks.
Oh my gosh.
That's so Coral iron cookware is like hundreds years. It's really expensive, and it's the kind of thing.
What I asked for for Christmas is that. Yeah, I asked for all one. I've asked for one pot for Christmas. That's so. I was just wondering could I please have a Lucrucia pot? And my husband's like, you want me to buy kitchen stuff? And I'm like, I was like, well, he doesn't. And I also really like that. He was like, are you sure you want me to buy you like a kitchen things for Christmas? And I'm like, One, you're going to probably fall off your chair when you go and purchase it because it's very expensive, and two it's kind of for me, like it's not actually for the kitchen, like and which color did you I actually haven't decided, so I'm tossing up. This is a very big decision. So there's their seasonal color, which is peachy. It's peach and Jess it has a gold lead that it's really cute. But also do I go for something more classic like the ivory and like, you know, you have it because you're going to have it for years. You don't buy a cast iron pot, Yeah, but apparently you do, so totally, I'll just bought just the orange one orange photos because it actually is so much so in then you could have orange pot.
But it's fine, it's really really cool.
Yeah.
But then also that's where I'm my head's at and like, do I pick up color? That's really fun because like anyway, that's a very big oh yeah, pot dilemma, Jessica, what else have you got? That's it?
But Rihanna did say that as she was leaving the tip, she also found two bucks in the ground.
There you go.
See, as we say in the she's on the money team, good things happen to good people. Absolutely exactly right, exactly. I love it now, bet, Yes, jess had a pretty good broke tip.
I know, can you one up her? I'm going to try my best. So this is like Christmas gift related.
She's themed it.
Yes, So this first one comes from Rena, who says that, so this is like, I guess, a bit harder unless you are close by, you know, regional towns or places, you know, when you see those olive trees. Those olive trees are just like along the coast or along the.
Roads, like the one in my launde room that just died because you have to water. And then my husband was like the olive trees looking a little bit dire, and I was.
Like, oh, I know they could live inside.
Maybe they can't. Maybe that's the issue.
Well, I actually did this a few years ago with live and we we just picked all these olives off and you can tell they're ready somehow and I can't remember off the top of it. And then you just chuck them all into like literally like a salt brine, like a salt water situation. You leave there for a few months. So maybe not for this Christmas, but or even like I feel like it's oh yeah, they were delicious, Oh really garlic. It was really really good. So you can brind your own olives that way. Put them in a little like glass jar and put a little they built a ribbon around it.
Cute.
I feel like the olive branches would make really pretty Christmas Day call. You can make res with them, or garland down your table or something would be exp pretty.
The actual railroads, I feel like the railway always has and this is probably more like get too close to the railway. Okay, no, no, no, I'm talking about the nature strip beside the railway. Trees on the railroad, if there are, I'm concerned because the train would run into them, Jess. But they have lots of like natives along the railroads usually, and that's where I get a lot of my like eucalyptus for table decoration. Yeah, yeah, courage to go back to your hunter gatherer days and just gather, you know, yeah, preferably. But yeah, that's why I said, by the railroad, so you're not stealing it from some poor Nona's front yard or something like cover like you can strip non as trees. Yeah, what else have you got apart from olives?
Oh?
Yes, okay, this is in a similar vein.
But Sam says that if you get a bulk, say condiments, gems, olive oils, alcohols, and you get yourself like little jars of I don't know, Mason jars or little like bottles, glass bottles, just and you make a bunch of gifts to give to either like that you know, your teachers, your bosses, anyone. Really it's like you made jam that you didn't have to make the jar exactly, and.
You get like you could take the credit.
You could like this.
Tastes exactly like coddies, and you'd be like, I'm just really good at I don't know what you.
Mean exactly, I'm really really good to make a jam. And even like olive oils, like little olive.
Oil thing, like if you want a data personal touch.
Exactly, put some chili's in there. It could just looks really cool.
And I think, like, I mean, maybe it's because we're olive oil economy. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'm like, if I received a little thing of olive oil, I'll be stoked. So I think it's really cute. I think it's just a really good idea. And then from myself, I found this one on Reddit. There's so many little subredits that are you know, frugal broke, you know all these things. I think, you know, if you're just wanting to have a browse on any old day where you're just feeling like you need some help.
But also they're quite entertaining, like some of the things people are willing to do to save a dollar.
Not for me, what impressive content is impressive? Well, this one that I found is called buy Nothing. It's mainly in the US, but you there are some places in Australia. I feel like it's going to take off in Australia maybe like in the next few years hopefully, but for right now, you just chuck your address in and it will try and find people around you who are either giving away or asking for something. So it's like, you know, for example, I found one today there was like two new Christmas Bugs just give. They're just giving them away.
You know.
It's like it's like a community where people are trying to help each other out during Christmas time, either providing free gifts or asking for free gifts. And yeah, it was really sad. There was a few people there were like, you know, have kids and I literally can't.
Afford to by them anything.
But I also love Yeah they're asking for help exactly exactly, And it's a community where that people are wanting to help people like that, So yeah, I think yeah, buy nothing right now.
Not heaps on there for Australians, but it will have lots of local face takers.
But if more Australians find out whya, this podcast become big. Yeah, you're doing the Lord's work back And that was a good rap, long but good, So let's go to a really quick break on the flip side. We're going to be talking about dodgy landlords, which is just his favorite spice of life. And we're also going to be discussing something you slid into our DMS about this week. We're chatting whether you should be worried if your partner's invested in a business but they're in a contracts so don't go anywhere.
Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma.
Have you got a money dilemma you just can't solve? The Sheese on the Money team is here to help. Every week we tackle your dilemmas, both big and small, to answer your most burning money, career and life questions. To get involved, simply head to our website and leave us a short voice recording and you might just find yourself on the show. Now, let's take a listen to this week's money dilemma.
Hihi's on the money. I have an interesting money dilemma for you. My friend and I have been renting a house together for almost a year and we have just been issued with a notice to leave. We have come to find out through sources other than our real estate that the reason the house is not being renewed is because the house is being demolished. Our landlord has indicated that we will not be receiving our full bond due to supposed damage to the property, and they require the bond to make the repairs. The house itself is quite old and requires a lot of work, hence whit it's being demolished. But we have been really great tenants and have looked after the place as if it were our own. It just feels wrong to be handing money over for this when we know the house will literally be knocked down after we move out. Is it right for our landlord to take money from our bond to supposedly do repairs even when we know the house is being demolished. How can my friend and I approach the situation without losing our money? We would love your thoughts on this. Thank you.
Ah, this is for Jessica makes me angry.
So first things first, keep in mind that laws and regulations vary state by state, so we're talking about VIC. Definitely head to your state tenant's website or the Consumer Fair website to get more information. But first things first, they have to actually tell you exactly what they're repairing. They can't just say, oh, we're keeping a grand because we feel like it. Ask them for an itemized breakdown of what needs to be prepared. Once they provide you that breakdown, you can review it. Hopefully some of those things will come under what's called regular wear and tear.
So in a.
Particularly old house especially, you would expect for there to be wear and tear, for example, cracks in the walls, or carpet that's pilling or pulling up a little bit. There are lots of things that would be considered normal wear and tent and the older the house is, the more you can expect to be wrong with it. The other thing that I would ask for, if you don't have your own copies already, is the photos from when you moved in, so there will always be a documentation of the state of the house at the time of handover. Some of those issues might have predated you, or you know, maybe the carpet had already started pulling up, and you can refer back to them and say, hey, like, actually, that's what it was like when we.
Men didn't want it to get worse. You should have fixed it then.
Correct, Like, you were aware that it was a problem, you continued to rent it out due to the age of the house, blah bah blah.
So having that, I would not want to get on the wrong side of Jessica.
Just don't be trying to do people dirty, like this is why landlords have a bad name. Not all landlords are bad, but some of them are sketchy af It's so true though, So get yourself that list, review it, figure it out from there. Did you know at least in Victoria you can claim your bond back without like actually having to go through your landlord. You can do it through the website the day you move out, and if they want to fight against that, they actually have to give a reason to vcat.
So you go claim your bond. Correct.
My thought would be claim your bond back in full, and then they've got to argue it and if the house is going to be demolished, that's something that I would then bring up in a VCAT hearing and like, I know that sounds really scary, like go to VCT, but honestly, like it's there to well. VCAT is the Victorian Civil Administrative TRIBUTEAL and I'm sure there's an equivalent in whatever state you're in. Sorry, I forgot for a second that they're different everywhere, But I know it sounds.
Scary to VCAT. If you're in New South Wales too, it just is going to be very unproductive and it's actually going to do nothing. It's a long road trip, so don't take Jesse's advice there. But everything else she said golden.
Yeah, So like I know that it sounds scary like going a QURT or whatever, but those systems are in place to protect you. And if they're going to I'm sorry, if they're going to knock the house down, you're not going to be repairing anything like that's ridiculous.
Yeah, are we not calling them out on this? Literally like sorry, sorry, before we go to VCAT, I would be picking up the phone and be like hello, mister real estate man. Through my sources can you just confirm, Am I correct in thinking that this house is going to be demolished?
Yeah?
Oh yes, yes, So why are we fixing things if you're going to rip it down? Yes?
Yes, okay ye tell them, you know, like let them know, I know, and let them know that you're going to put up a fight as well, because I think in my experience, unfortunately a lot of the time property managers and all landlords you know, who have kind of tried to Jimmy dirty, have often had the experience.
When successfully By the way, no you can do Jess dirty. No, no, no no.
If I definitely wrong by all means, but like but also just knows she never does wrong. I don't think people should be punished for renting houses like y're so silly. So I think sometimes just letting them know that you know you're rights and saying, hey, like I actually know that as per tenance Victoria, I am legally entitled to X y Z can often just be like a bit of a subtle way of saying, hey, my dude, lack, I'm going to fight you on this, and it can sometimes make them go, oh, it's not just going to be an easy wah srap.
What would you do, babe.
Honestly, I would do everything just said. But also I just moved out of this one house. It was like going to be demolished, and the wall like it was ugly inside the room, Like the front wall the front of the house is detaching. You could see that straight from someone's bedroom. It was like really really, But we were like, we're not going to get up on back, like we're happy to let let this one go, but it was going to be demolished. We have the whole thing back without even yeah, because they so it's like, that would be so mean to keep that for your renovations. Yeah, so I think that I guess were only concern And I don't know if this makes sense, but if they didn't find out from the landlord, it is possible the landlord will lie about demolishing it, like if they're like trying to keep it a secret like that because they didn't hear from you know, would that be an issue.
Or it could be.
It could absolutely be if whoever told you he was willing to put it in writing though.
Then but that's because guys, I'm an adult. So I called Consumer Affairs to ask myself obvious obviously, I was going to do that, Like I read the PDS, I read the TMD, I read the instruction manual. If it comes in a box, I'm going to call consumer affairs. So we called consumer affairs and they said that to claim anything on the bond, you can request receipts. So not only do they have to justify it and give you a full breakdown of exactly why they need to keep certain amounts, but if they said, oh, Jessica, we need to keep three hundred dollars of your bond for this, you'd be like, okay, cool, where's the quote? Like show me why it's exactly three hundred dollars. You don't just get to guess. And a lot of real estate agents aren't going to let you know that that's how it actually works, because they're going to say, oh, jess we need to keep three hundred dollars and you're going to go, oh, okay. But they can't spend that money, nor can they take that money from you without consent. So if you say no, you actually can't take that out of my bond, sorry, they actually can't take it out. They have to escalate thatcat as jess was talking about before. So I called for you, and they said that if their plan is to demolish the house, they need to call Consumer Affairs themselves and have a conversation with them. So you would go back and say no, actually, like we've heard that the property is going to be demolished, and hopefully they go, yeah, actually, you're right, complete like, oh we didn't oh yeah, complete issue on our end. We completely forgot the real estate agent was just doing their job, or the real estate agent might not have known, because we're just going to assume the best of people, right, Like, let's assume the real estate agent didn't know because this is the landlord's plan and you've heard from their friend Barry at the coffee shop, right, So go to the real estate agent, be like, could you please just check with the landlord because I know that you're doing your job correctly by requesting this to fix this, but I've heard they're knocking it down, so like that would actually be fruitless waste of labor, So could you just check and then if they have pushed back on that, be like okay, cool, So before we move forward, could you please call and get some advice from Consumer Affairs because I called them and they said that you should do that and see what happens and then escalate like Jessica would.
The foundation of at all is you should fight for the money. It's your money. And like again, the bond is there so that if something had gone wrong, if you had a cat and a cat had torn up the carpet, then absolutely the bond should be used to repair.
That, unless they're ripping out the carpet, which case fight that exactly right. It's there to protect the landlord from damage. But if you have looked after the house, which is what you're saying you have, then really they should have no claim on it. And importantly, that bond, while you know it's there to protect the house, and you know there are some definite fair claims on using bond money, yeah, can't be used without your consent yet remember that, so don't forget that. They are going to have to come back to you and say, by the way, you're not going to get three hundred dollars worth of your bond back, at which point you go, no, no, no, that's not the case, because I think so many times real estate agents frame it in a way that says, oh, by the way, yeah, no, no, no, it's not. By the way, you have to ask me for consent to spend that money, because even though it's in trust sitting over there, that's just to give you security that have got the cash, doesn't mean you could just spend it however you want. Also receipts. Also, I could say that that's a really terrible quote. No want another option, because you're technically still spending my money, it's not yours. Yeah, important, stick.
It to the man.
Absolutely, absolutely, you guys. Oh, thank you Cold Consumer Affairs for that one. We had got a DM this week. It's a little bit spicy. Are you ready? I'm very excited. Okay, okay, okay, so high sheese on the money. I love the pod. So my partner invested most of his savings into the startup of a small business with a former colleague, which opened two years ago. The agreement is that they are fifty to fifty owners because they put in equal amounts of money. I have a lot of concerns and it makes me really anxious because there's no formal contract between them. When I ask, he can't tell me the plan for returns on his investment into the business. I also worry because they hardly meet or send formal documentation on how the business is doing. I feel uneducated on what this should look like. But no, it's not good. It's a touchy subject for me to bring up. And in the past he's asked why it's my business, but I feel like it is absolutely my business because we are partners and I have shared financial goals for the future, such as buying our first home together. I would love to know what your thoughts are on this whole situation.
M I don't know about the business side of things, but I just feel like this partner of yours might be gaslighting you a little bit gas lighting here, feeling a little bit too reminiscent of that production gas I just think like, even if it was a friend of yours, even if there's no like shared goals, shared financial goal was like literally building a life together with somebody kind of thing, even if it's just friend and they're like being really really dodgy about something that they're doing a big thing they're doing their life, Like hete this feels weird, Like why are you not telling me anything? You know what I mean.
I've literally done the same thing to Jessica before. In the nicest way. Possible because she has her own side hustle and like has her own influencer business and does a whole heepe of stuff. I've like poked my nose in and be like, OI, when you said that, what did you mean? Do you know why? Because I'm caring about Jess. Yeah, because I want the best for her. And I'm pretty sure you're asking about your partner's business because you're like, hold on, are you going to be screwed over?
Yeah? Like you care about that?
Yeah, Like it's not me going I want some manys. Yeah, Like it's me going. Oi. You know how you said that I probably wouldn't ever let that happen in a contract, or I wouldn't do this, or I wouldn't do that, and like you can take my advice and put it in the bin and that's fine. But if your partner is asking questions, it's usually because they care about you totally.
So for so many reasons. There's so many layers and so many I guess yeah, yeah, yeah, just so many reasons why you probably should be.
In on this whole thing. There just a little bit of information.
You don't need to be on the contract, You don't need to be on the contracts.
You don't need to be part of anything they're doing.
You just want to literally be told something, Yeah.
What is even this? What's anything?
You know?
And it's hard, right because when business goes well, it goes really well. And when business doesn't go well, it gets real salty, real quickly. And that's where you need a fallback plan. So before I start yapping about business stuff, just what would you do?
So there's two elements. I think. Firstly, my thing with money is if you ever intend on having something be enforceable, like if you're putting money into something or lending money to someone and you need that to be enforceable to make sure you can get it back, and agreement should be in place, whether that's a friend, whether that's a business, whether that's some type of loan for something else, Like if you are going, I'm putting money in and I need a guarantee on that in some way, you need to have a contract in place. For a business to run officially, there has to be some kind of like you would need an ABN, you would need to be potentially registered for GST, like has to be some kind of formal documentation. So either your partner's being screwed and he's not being included on any of that, or he is and he's not sharing that with you, And either way, I view that as a problem. The other thing is you are absolutely entitled to know about it, because having a business is going to be either an asset or a liability when you apply for that loan, depending on how that business is performing. That directly impacts your ability to qualify for a loan, assuming you're looking to purchase together. And therefore absolutely beyond the fact that like, your partner should just be sharing stuff like that with you, if you share finances, or if they value your opinion in any way, like in my brain, there's no reason for them not to share that. The whole thing is kind of giving me sketchy vibes. And I don't know if it's because your partner's being sketchy or he's being sketched out by somebody else, but either way, something sketchy is happening.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, one hundred and I guess this comment is coming from me being a business owner. I own two technically three businesses, and all of them generating come and all of them sometimes require some big investments in one way, shape or another. And when that happens, obviously I sit down with my team and we chat about what we need or how that works, and like we brainstorm it. But one thing I do before I make that investment is I talk to my husband. Why Because I feel like I just want to make sure that he knows I'm making a big money move and that he's aware of it. Not because I need permission from my husband to do business, but like he's my partner in life, Like I am paying parts of the mortgage, he's paying parts of the mortgage, and I'm making a decision that could impact my ability to generat income and I want to talk that through. And so many times he's like, why are you telling me this? Or what's going on? Oh? Okay, so you're gonna, you know, hire another person or whatever. I'm often asking him these things not for permission, but more validation I'm on the right path, and I feel like that's a healthy way to go about things, because like if I'm going to go, oh, I'm going to hire another person, I'm telling my husband that my business is taking on you know, another seventy thousand dollars income plus you know, insurances plus tax plus whatever else, Like that's a big liability and I want to make sure that I've got you know, someone's like, oh no, You're like, I've got no qualms about you making like it just makes me feel.
Good and I really could go wrong and like that. I like, if you choose that example, you could hire someone and that could tip you out, like if the company wasn't super profitable, it could tip you over into the negatives, and that then impacts your cash flow, which impacts your ability to pay the mortgage, which impacts Kim exactly.
And I think that that's where I kind of go, oh okay, like I thought everyone did this, But again you might be like butt out. I mean, it's funny. I was actually talking to Britney Saunders the other day. We recorded an episode together, and she and her partner AJ work together and they are like a powerhouse together, Like they are so good. If I brought my husband into my business, I would quit five seconds later. I could not work with my husband. So, like, everyone works very differently, But I do think that open communication about money decisions, especially if you're a business, like a small business owner, specifically, because you know the decisions I make inside my business are so impactful on my everyday life. Like it's not like the business money is my money, but like if I make bad decisions, I can't pull out money because you guys sure as hell are getting paid before I am, and so that makes me a little bit icky. The other thing you touched on already, Jess is sorry, is there not like an ABN registered? Yeah, Like, so to start a business in Australia you need to register in ABN. To register in ABN, you're obviously going to have to pick a business structure. It's clearly not going to be a sole trader because there's not a sole trader. There's two of you. So you would pick a partnership or you'd pick a business entity. So you've probably gone through that you could do it yourself, or you could have seen an account and they would have set it up for you. But where is this documentation at a bare minimum? Because when you set up a business and there's more than one person, even when there's one person involved, you have to identify how many shares you're going to issue. So like some business and you can pick whatever you want. By the way, this is just like a real quick business like crash course. But if you go and register a business in Australia, the government will say how many shares do you want in this business? And like my default is often one hundred and twenty. Why because that's what my accountant said, Because you're going to split them up. So like, if there's two people, we get sixty shares each, and it means that if a third person gets involved, we can like shuffle shares around.
It's a very invisible number.
Yeah yeah, yeah, And like it doesn't change how much it costs to set that up. But that's always just been my base of my businesses, right, But if you just went in you wanted one share in the business, and great norries, But you might be creating a problem for yourself in the future if a business partner like wants to buy in, Because like if I wanted a business partner to buy in, I might go, oh, well, I'll give just five shares, but I keep you know, the one hundred and fifteen. Does that make sense? So like you can split it lots of different ways. But usually if you went into business with one other person, you might have issued two shares or you might have issued one hundred and twenty shares and like have sixty each, Like where's that documentation?
Yeah?
Because that's a bare minimum, Like that's not even like a shareholders agreement, which I don't think should be a choice, but is a choice that's like just registering it. Where's that?
Yeah?
Like that should be a thing. Like can you search the ABN? Like, and I know that your partner said it's not your business, but or does this business have a website? Can you go to that website and see what the ABN is and look that ABN up?
Yeah?
Like I know that that feels a bit pervy, but if you're genuinely worried, I'd be like, sorry, are you saying that you in because like to me being very cynical right now, are you saying that your partner got involved with the business and tipped half of his savings in and somebody else is in control who owns one hundred percent of the shares, but he just gets some dodgy paperwork occasionally on maybe how the business is doing.
Yeah, because I was going to say that, like if it was registered, for example, as a soul trader, like if his friend had set it up as a soult trading companies and the hey, mate, get on board, and your partner's gone, yeah great, I'll give you the money. Let's do this thing.
Yeah great, we've put in the same amount. Like you might not know how that works. Yeah, but you haven't documented anything. You haven't done you know, you haven't restructured the business to be not a sole trader. You haven't restructured the shareholders agreement or any of that sort of stuff. Then, like on paper, it could be quite easy for him to be screwed over. And I mean I know that there's lots of logistics in documenting and yeah simple, but like that's a significant risk, I would think. I agree. I agree. So we did ask the community. Obviously, we said should your partner's business investments be your business too? Seventy six percent of you said yep, we're partners, but twenty four percent of you said no. So very much shocked by that.
Yeah, maybe it's like early days, maybe they're like, oh my partner.
Yeah, maybe it's but like, let's use me as an example. I have a mortgage with my husband, I have a child with my husband. Well, so married, don't feel like that to the famous being de facto these days, but like, yeah, does that change the dynamic, because to me it does, Yeah, definitely, Like I've got responsibilities.
If your financial decisions actually will directly or indirectly affect him exactly exactly.
We also asked, wouldn't worry you if your partner was invested in a business like this?
Surely everyone said yes.
Four percent of you said yes, it feels risky and unstructured. Six percent of you said nah, I trust them in the process.
Okay, you're more optimistic than I am. It means to me being like.
Cool, So was it set up this way? Like yeah, all right, so obviously I feel like we're kind of on the same page with the community. We then said, what's your two cents? First response, get a good accountant if you were just really true, because your accountant can one set that structure up if that was confusing when I was talking about how many shares like issued and stuff. Also, it's really important to talk about that because, like you know, I own all of my businesses one hundred percent, but I haven't always so my mortgage broking business, I had a business partner for a while, but it didn't work out. But the reason it worked out, I suppose in my favor was because I'd set it up properly from the beginning. Yeah, and I also had a shareholder's agreement, which you'll need a lawyer for. But your accountant a quote good accountant will have a good lawyer that sets up shareholders agreements, so you can go through that and structure yourself properly so that you aren't screwed over.
Yeah.
The next person said, going through a divorce, now I can say with confidence that you need to know.
Completely because that then de facto or married, that then impacts potentially the division of assets.
Wild. Somebody else said people need to be able to talk about money without getting touchy. You need more open conversation. We got another person say, I'm a corporate lawyer, and I strongly and she put four exclamation points in brackets strong really strongly suggest they document their arrangement. True. And that might mean that full starters, you're just putting it in an email, yeah, Like, and that could be like, let's pretend you've then had this conversation with your partner, yeah, and your partner's been like, oh, maybe it's not You could start with an email to your business partner being like, hey, you just thought i'd pop this in an email. I just want to document this. Do you want me to take the next steps to registering the business officially, just so that you're starting to create your own pay per trayals, so that if anything falls back on you can be like, no, no, no, Remember this email I sent you where I said this is what we had and you agreed. Yeah, so you've got to be a little bit smart about it. Somebody else said he might be being defensive because he knows he's messed up. Oh that's true.
Oh yeah, but also, don't take it out on the people.
It's kind of I know they're so mean.
Yeah, no, no. But also sometimes if I make a mistake, I get a bit defensive, and then I have to check myself and be like, oh, sorry about that, Sorry, sorry about that. Someone else said, I think it's only her business. If they are getting married and joining finances.
Well, I think they're buying a house together. Sounds like they have shared financial goals.
I don't think.
I don't think marriage for me is the bar not necessarily gets married exactly, We're never going to get.
Married, so marriage is expensive. These days. I feel like so many of my friends are choosing do I get married or do I buy my first house? Yeah, Like there's no Oh, we're going to get married and then we're going to buy a house. It's all kind of like you're choosing the big financial commitment. Yeah. So I feel like and also legally living with someone de facto gives you the same, right.
True, he's be like, I promise I'm cleaning to you. I swear to God.
I feel like I would prefer to try and get out of a marriage than a mortgage.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, I don't know. I don't know, I know anyway.
Someone else said, it's scary.
It doesn't make sense why he wouldn't share the details on how the business is doing. Shouldn't he be proud?
Yeah, and if it's not doing well, like that's what your partner's for, Like you share good and bad, like you help each other through it.
Someone else said, hello, lawyer talking gal and then all in capitals with collaps around it, contracts are there to protect you. Amen that. Someone else said it's completely fine and normal to have separate investments. So those I guess that's a good summary of all the comments that were received. But I think it is a bit of a red flag that he doesn't want to talk about it. But also maybe he's just like stop butting your nose in, Like I don't know. Maybe he just doesn't want input, which is totally okay, but like, hey, I don't want to give you feedback on it, Like can you just make me feel like this isn't scary?
Yeah, communicate It'd be like, oh, I would rather not give your advice in case aertain something in my mind, but I will give you the information, but anything, it's all you, all your parton needs to say if that's the reason, what like why he's not saying yeah?
And then there's me on the flip side. I'm like, so this is what I'm planning on doing, Steve, And then he goes, yeah, okay, but what do you think? And he goes I said, okay, but what do you think? What's your advice? And he's like, you told me you don't want my advice, that's correct. What do you think? I am the worst? I'm the worst? All right, guys. I feel like that was really fun. I feel like that that was a good one, and the previous one about the landlord was really spicy. I feel like we've had a good week of content and someone slipped into their five star review a question. I feel like that just adds to the richness smart leave a five star review with a question and it'll get answered on the show, which is very exciting. But guys, I think that is all we have time for today. But before we go, do you know what happened recently?
Could it be on theme in the business space?
Oh my gosh, it's almost like my fifth book, The Business Bible, came out, which is really really fun. I know that that obviously, you guys might be getting sick of my books at this point, but I'm not. So could you please just let me have this moment to promote the fact that my business book, which is arguably one that I am most proud of because it's just got so many juicy business stories and like helps you in I guess these situations where you know, should I have a contract? Absolutely, you should have a contract. I talk about it in my book. I have business diaries in my book. Anyway, I think that would be a really good Christmas present if anyone's looking for, you know, a Christmas present for a small business gal or guy this Christmas season. I'll put all the information in the show notes, but that's it for me. I just wanted to shamelessly plug my own content.
Absolutely, you should available at all good bookstores and also online. And it's probably on sale right now as well.
It is. You can always find it on sale. And honestly, would you be if She's on the Money girl, if you weren't buying my stuff on sale?
We are here for it.
We so many people are like, oh, I didn't want to buy it on sale. I might, thank you. That's very kind. Please buy it on sale, yes, like I love that. Anyway, have a good week, guys. We will see you bright early on Monday for a money Darry.
Bye, guys Bye.
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 sheirper Pty ltd ABN three two one IS six four nine two seven seven zero eight AFSL four five one two eight nine