From hitting rock bottom with bankruptcy to reaching the amazing milestone of six-figure success. We’re opening up our financial diary to show you every up and down along the way.
In this episode, we get real about the tough talks on money problems with children, why being honest beats hiding the truth, and the life lessons learned from facing financial challenges head-on.
We’ll take you through what it’s like dealing with bankruptcy in Australia – the hard choices you have to make and how it all leads to personal growth and finding your financial footing again.
But it’s not all about money. We're getting personal too, talking about battling mental health issues and how, even in the darkest times, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. This episode is packed with stories of unexpected friendships, the strength found in community, and the amazing support that comes when people come together.
Tune in to hear all about not just making money, but making the most out of life – through all its challenges and joys, and the incredible bonds that keep us going.
Follow our mother daughter journey towards financial freedom!
From hitting rock bottom with bankruptcy to reaching the amazing milestone of six-figure success. We’re opening up our financial diary to show you every up and down along the way.
In this episode, we get real about the tough talks on money problems with children, why being honest beats hiding the truth, and the life lessons learned from facing financial challenges head-on.
We’ll take you through what it’s like dealing with bankruptcy in Australia – the hard choices you have to make and how it all leads to personal growth and finding your financial footing again.
But it’s not all about money. We're getting personal too, talking about battling mental health issues and how, even in the darkest times, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. This episode is packed with stories of unexpected friendships, the strength found in community, and the amazing support that comes when people come together.
Tune in to hear all about not just making money, but making the most out of life – through all its challenges and joys, and the incredible bonds that keep us going.
Follow our mother daughter journey towards financial freedom!
Hey Mamas, welcome to the Raising Rich Podcast with your favourite mother-daughter duo, Jo and Lane. Join us as we take you on the rollercoaster ride that has been my mum's life with money.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'll be opening up about the taboo topic of money from bankruptcy to a six-figure income and all the heartache in between. So if you're a single mama out there trying to figure it all out, then this podcast is for you. Join us for all the ups and all the downs on Raising Rich.
Speaker 1:Howdy, hello, welcome, welcome to the couch again. Welcome Welcome to the couch again.
Speaker 2:Comfy couch, comfy our couch, our comfy couch, comfy our couch.
Speaker 1:Is that like come bum, fuck ya, you'd hate to be tuning in for the first time. What is come bum. Fuck ya. Sorry, it's episode six of this 20 or so part series Raising Rich. How are you feeling it's a journey and I'm happy to be reflective.
Speaker 2:actually, I'm not sad or disappointed or anything. I think, especially being a school teacher, we know that life is about experiences and we learn from experiences and you'll hear as you go along in the journey. You know, by the time we hit episode 20 to 23 or towards the end, I'm just a different person. I've grown into who I am. I would have liked to have known who I am a lot earlier, don't we all?
Speaker 1:But hindsight is 20-20, right, isn't it it? You know, I'm also learning a lot from this experience with you. There are bits and pieces of your life that I just wasn't privy to at that point because I was so young. So it's been a nice little learning journey for me too.
Speaker 2:But there's some things that children shouldn't be privy to.
Speaker 1:Absolutely I agree with that. You know when is the right age to start telling children about finances and money loss, and you know financial abuse and things like that. It's very challenging, I think, for a parent. And I think also, even though you've experienced it and you're going through the motions, at that point in time you don't express that to your kids because you want to, as you say, protect them. But would you ever? You know what I mean. Like I'm now grown up and I'm still learning about bits and pieces of this story that I thought I kind of had pieced together. You know what I mean, so I'm not saying that I'm missing out or resentful for not knowing at the time. I think that we all do the best that we can with what we know at that point, yeah, in our lives, yeah, um, but yeah, it's just been interesting to chat about.
Speaker 2:I yeah, I think that I did try to teach you about some certain finances, you remembering the shopping basket yeah.
Speaker 2:Boronia, yeah, we do teach our children some things and we do shelter them from others. But I now think you, being an adult, you know you can hear my story and perhaps take on those experiences and understand why I made some of the choices that I made. And you know, how much you decide to disclose to your children is entirely up to you. I'm not going to tell you how to parent and I certainly I don't think I would have shared some of this with you as a child. No for sure. This episode is, as we discussed all in the previous episode, about being bankrupt and what that meant for us.
Speaker 2:So in Australia you can declare bankruptcy and there's different stages. Well, there was back when I declared bankruptcy. You could declare bankruptcy depending on the amount of debt that you owed. So I kind of gathered up the major debts and worked out that I could.
Speaker 1:Roughly how much was that debt off the top of your head?
Speaker 2:I can't remember. I think I had to declare under 120,000. It might've been under 200,000, but essentially I was right on the border and I knew that I didn't want to declare bankruptcy for seven years. So the choice was three years if you had under a certain amount of debt, or seven years if it was over that amount. So I went for the lesser and I thought you know if I could still continue to pay some of those people off?
Speaker 2:then, then I would do so. So the bankruptcy application you actually have to apply it or not. You can't just say I'm cooked and I got no money, sorry mate keep knocking at my door but got nothing for you um, you do have to apply and then all of your debtors get notified that you cannot pay them.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, but interestingly enough, oh, they still tried to find you.
Speaker 2:They still tried to find you. They still tried to find you. I bet they did, but you actually have legal representation, which is free. Well, it was back then. I can't, I'm not speaking for now and I'm not telling anybody to declare bankruptcy. I'm just I'm sharing my story with you. At that time, I did have someone who represented me. They, I would just direct any letters or any people who came knocking at the door or anyone calling that they would, um, be directed to that person, or I would just say to that person you know, these people are still hassling me, yeah, and they can get in. They can actually get a fine for doing that because once you've declared bankruptcy, you are protected. Yeah, okay. So I'm not sure if it's the same now. I know in America, if you declare bankruptcy and you've still got your student loans, you actually still have to pay them, of course, which is a bit sad. I believe that American student loans are really huge in comparison to ours. I still think ours are quite large, but I didn't have any student loans.
Speaker 1:I have a question. Yes, you said that in australia, if you want to declare bankruptcy, you're the one that has to physically apply for it. What was like the key moment for you making that decision? I understand that, yeah, you can't make your repayments and this, that and the other, but what was? Was there a moment of you sitting there being like, oh my gosh, this is something that I now have to do. And how willing were you to actually do that? Because, you know, bankruptcy isn't necessarily a terrible bad thing, but I think that we make it out to be necessarily a terrible bad thing, but I think that we make it out to be yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I went and got myself a job, um, in the real estate agent that I was telling you about that I? Cried to yes, driving to work every single day. So I got myself that little job very relatable, very relatable people cry to and from work all the time.
Speaker 2:thankfully I'm not doing that now, but I got that job and I, I, I guess I do want to be a good citizen and I did want to pay those debts, but they were so huge for a single parent that there just became a time I sincerely and honestly tried to pay these debts $20 a week, $30 a week and I was getting assistance from the government as a single parent and your dad was paying child support. But I wasn't getting child support from my other children's father at that time and things were extremely difficult going through situations with him and I just couldn't keep working and paying these debts. So I did get to that point where I thought this is my only choice and back then I had a view of bankruptcy as something really terrible. Like you just should not be doing that at all. Ever Don't do it. But that you know.
Speaker 2:Education gives knowledge and as a teacher, I probably should have investigated it a lot earlier. I wasn't a teacher at that time. I'd gone to uni, I dropped out, I was the UDO, remember, and then the what, the PDO or something. I just didn't have enough knowledge and had I have had more knowledge, I would have done it a lot earlier. I really would have, because it was like the weight of the world was off my shoulders. Then it was like I can start fresh. I've got no more debt. All I have to do is pay the rent. I'd owned my car and I just had to provide you guys with a stable home and provide you with things that you needed for school and going on excursions, doing things that I felt were important, like swimming lessons, and and I was able to do that if I applied for bankruptcy. So that was. I was about four months in of being a separated wife, renting a home as a single mum, trying to pay those debts where I went. You know what I have to give in. I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1:I actually kind of remember in high school and this kind of this memory only just came to me then when you were talking about still paying for, like excursions and things like that. I remember you didn't want to pay for a particular school excursion because you just did not have. It was only 20 bucks. We were going to Queen Victoria Market for the day and it was for my commerce class and I told my teacher I'm like I'm really sorry, but actually I can't afford to go. My mom doesn't have $20 to send me and he ended up paying for me um to go, failed that class anyway, 20 bucks, but no, I just I remember that um very clearly and yeah my dad.
Speaker 2:Dad did pay for a lot of things for you guys. He paid for swimming, he paid for camp, he paid for excursions. If you know, if I made it known to him that I couldn't afford something, he always made sure of that. And I guess your brother, my middle child he actually acknowledged that on his 21st speech because he was at that age where excursions were really important and he was a boy and his friends were doing all of that sort of thing and he knew that my dad made sure that you guys didn't miss out on any of that, you know.
Speaker 2:So again, my dad is my knight in shining armour. I mean, remember when I told you I was a UDO, a university dropout, and he was like, well, go get a job now. He still has always jumped in and been my saviour and you'll actually hear about that huge moment in the next episode. He just keeps saving me and there comes a point in time where he just probably shouldn't anymore and he doesn't anymore, like that's just. I guess he he not only saved me financially, but you'll hear that he did save my life.
Speaker 1:But I think that that's for another episode. Like we're very much digressing, We'll reel it back, because you know we're talking about the fact that you've had to declare bankruptcy. Yep, we're at that point now where you can't really afford a whole lot. In the last episode we were talking about where your mum was at, so my nan in her mental health journey, your sister when you declared bankruptcy. Where was that at? For them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so nan had then gone. My mama bear had gone into a facility. So she was at a facility for aged people even though she was only a very young spring chicken she was all of 60 years old. She'd been diagnosed with early onset dementia just before that, but she'd been unwell since she was about 52. And yeah, so she was placed into a nursing home for the elderly. It wasn't until a year or so later that she got into a place for dementia specific patients and there were some younger people there, but not so much. My sister was still battling breast cancer. She'd had um a couple of years remission, but unfortunately it had returned at that time. So you know I've declared bankruptcy, my mum's gone into a nursing home and my sister's now being diagnosed with the breast cancer coming back stage four um.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of stuff going on and, to top it off, I am working four jobs, yeah and this is, I think, a memory or a period of my life that I will always remember was just how much you were working like Like you weren't. You weren't doing the regular Monday to Friday vibe at all. It was working at Safeway. It was being the property manager, I believe. Still, you were working at the local footy club on weekends and nighttime. You were also being a dance teacher, it was a lot.
Speaker 2:Yes, so Monday, tuesdayuesday, wednesday, friday I worked at a real estate agent pretty much nine till five. Then tuesday, thursday, saturday mornings I was teaching ballroom dancing and, um, on a tuesday night you would look after the two younger ones. On a Thursday night you guys would all go to your dad's. So Thursday night I could work. Thursday during the day I would see my sister and then I would trottle off to Safeway for a couple of hours and then I would go and teach ballroom dancing. And then on a Sunday well, saturday afternoon I would go and do the shopping for the football club. And then Sundays we would be at the football club and I would work in the canteen and just serving hot dogs chips and I would do their fish and chip night on a Friday night, every second Friday night as well.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that was, that was full on. But you know what, like I enjoyed working at the real estate agent because, as I told you, I did those affirmations and I did end up working and enjoying it and they were very lovely. Like I said, when I had meltdowns and I'm talking, I couldn't speak meltdowns, I'm just driving back down the mountain to my dad, racing to my dad. Dad, life's so hard. But then teaching ballroom dancing, I met this one man and we were purely just friends, but he was as sad as I was. He had lost his marriage, lost his house, and we kind of just, we made each other accountable of having to go. Yeah, and we would just bring each other. You're going tonight.
Speaker 2:You have to go so we would go, we would have a dance together and I met lots of other people and that that was a time in my life where people would see me as really happy on the outside, but inside I was crushed and goes towards that saying of you really don't know what's going on in a person's life, and when people commit suicide, you're often shocked because you, you don't see it coming.
Speaker 2:And all I want to say to people who are really struggling right now is that life does get better. So find the help that you need, because and I'm not sad for me right now I'm so not sad, but I'm sad for you because please don't think that the world is a better place without you, because it's truly not like I could have missed out on so much, but that's, you know that's. I'll talk about that a bit later, but I'm just saying that you can. You can find yourself in a really dark hole and there, there, there is a way to get out of it, to dig yourself out of it, but I forgot what I was talking about. I'm so sorry. Girls like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know we're talking about my mom and my sister and meeting these beautiful people. Being a dance teacher, one of those women has become my absolute best friend.
Speaker 2:Shout out to her we love you we love you so much and you know, and it's not even a funny thing, but her and I share so many similarities but she's the most beautiful person and she makes me a better person. And so you know, working all of these jobs, being a dance teacher, meeting those fabulous people probably only Safeway I didn't really love. I'm going to say, cleaning shopping baskets was not my jam. I'd be sitting there with the sanitiser cloth thinking, fuck this shit. I'd be like trying to talk myself into. Think of the money, think of the money. Think of the money. While you guys are at school, I'm thinking what freaking money? It's like 20 bucks an hour. This is so shit. What am I doing? And then, of course, was the footy club.
Speaker 1:I just I mean there are so many dads that were there that were just gross. I know that sounds bad, but I think, coming from that lens of again, like for people who haven't seen us physically, from that lens of again, like for people who haven't seen us physically, my mom is a very attractive woman, especially for her age. We look nothing alike, right, I'm beautiful in my way. I get that. That's fine, that's not a problem. But when you're 13 years old, 14 years old, 15 years old, and your mom works at the local footy club where all the boys that you kind of either you know, know from around town or have a little bit of a crush on or whatever, and they're coming up to you buying their dim sims with their drawers on the floor, staring at your mom, going, oh my god, she's so hot, your mom's so hot, and then their dad's on top of that as well, it was just, uh, a moment in my life that I didn't really enjoy and I was there making.
Speaker 2:I was there, making money, I know, making money, I know.
Speaker 1:But it's just like oh, couldn't you find a different way to make money? Jesus, mum, you know you're already working four jobs, oh my gosh, yes, look, no.
Speaker 2:Some things crossed my mind Like I really was trading time for money, but in my eyes, I felt like I was doing the right thing by my children because I could go out and buy you things. You know, I want to share a story with you about when I was teaching ballroom dancing and my youngest daughter had started dancing and I couldn't afford the shoes. I really ballroom dance shoes were quite expensive at the time. Well, they still are.
Speaker 2:And rightfully so. They're beautifully made. They have special soles so that you're not slipping all over the floor, and my little chicken had started dancing and she had a floor show coming up and she needed ballroom dance shoes and I couldn't afford them. So I did the next best thing that a mum could do and I trottled off to Kmart. Now.
Speaker 1:Good old Kmart. We love Kmart in Australia.
Speaker 2:We love Kmart. Kmart maybe is a bit like Walmart perhaps.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:But Kmart, you are the bomb, you just have everything. And I, although you don't have boring bad shoes, I'm just going to say that I went and bought like a little pair of black shoes for her that I thought, yep, they'll do, they'll be fine. So I'm proud as punch. I've bought her these brand new shoes. Never worn them, she pops them on.
Speaker 2:We go to the concert, she runs out on the dance floor and slips over. She slips over and starts bawling her eyes out and stands there and cries. And her dance teacher I still love her to this day. She just grabbed her hand and said come on, I'm going to dance with you and I'm going to hold your hand so you don't slip over again. And the first thing she said when she got off the dance floor, she said mommy, I slipped over and I knew she had. And I said oh really, I didn't notice, I didn't see you. And she kept saying to me but I slipped over because I didn't have the right shoes. And that mortified me and it also motivated me to make sure that the next time she had a dancing concert she would have the right shoes.
Speaker 2:And so for me, working the four jobs and trading that time back then seemed worth it. That seemed my priority. That, yeah, I felt like, was my priority. I was once again broke, but as a parent, my job was to provide for you, and if that meant that I was out of the home making money so that you guys could have what you wanted or what you needed, you could. And you know, I'm going to share another moment with you I would always try and save a little bit of extra money every couple of weeks, so that say, every six weeks we could go out and do a little bit of a shopping spree.
Speaker 2:And there was this jacket on sale at Osmosis. So Osmosis is like a surf store here in Melbourne, like Rip Curl, and they had this gorgeous jacket and it was originally $200 and it was dropped down to $40. So I bought it for my son and he was so wrapped he peeled the $40 price tag off and he left the $200 tag on that jacket for weeks. He would not let me wash that jacket because when he took it off at school he would hang it so that the price tag showed. I don't know, I'm not sure where that came from, because he never really grew up. When I was comfortable financially, he was very, very young when his dad and I had the three houses, so maybe it was just his experiences at school or I'm not sure entirely where it came from, but he was so proud to have that jacket that that perhaps cost a potential $200. That was just um a moment that I wanted to share.
Speaker 2:Moving forward from there, I decided I didn't want to work four jobs anymore. Yeah, who would? I made an application, uh, to go to university. To well, actually to go back. Yeah, round two, round two and be a school teacher. From the moment I was in I remember being grade two, so I would have been seven or eight Everyone had ever said to me when they had asked what did you want to be when you grew up? I just said I wanted to be a schoolteacher. I had not had nice experiences with my teachers growing up and I felt like and I hadn't had good experience at school, I was super smart, school was boring. I was just like hell with it. Go on.
Speaker 1:I wish I had that problem. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Comprehension questions again that I get 10 out of 10 of again. I was so good at times table racing because I was just smart and I knew myself as smart. I saw myself as smart. But I wanted to change that and I wanted children to feel like if they were smart, they were challenged. If they weren't smart or they didn't feel smart, that they would feel smart because I would pump up their tires, like until they popped, basically. So I went back to uni and here is where the $50 for every A that I received paid off.
Speaker 1:So thank you, dad, for every A that I received paid off.
Speaker 2:So thank you, dad. When I went to uni because I was a single parent and I will say I had looked at going back to uni while I was married but there was no government assistance so we just couldn't afford to drop down to one wage and because I'd been sick with the pregnancies, we were kind of behind the eight ball. I didn't have any superannuation so realistically it wasn't viable for me to go back to uni. Yeah, being a single parent, well, the government wants to get you off benefits, yeah. So what's the best way to get somebody off benefits? Give them a career. So I was able to apply through the government for a pension or study support. Yeah, okay. And I got study support as a single parent and also because the university that I wanted to go to was quite a distance. So I got a travel allowance.
Speaker 2:And within the first six months, because I received high distinctions on all four of my subjects, I was offered a scholarship, and that scholarship meant that they would pay for all of my degree, providing that I got high distinctions for everything all the time, and I made sure I did. And then I got offered a scholarship as a single parent, so they had another scholarship on offer that I was recognized for, and then I also received like the principal award or the vice chancellor award, and I was able to do a master's degree where they also paid for me. So I was very lucky in that my degree actually didn't cost me anything and I was able to still work. I was able to get money from the government to support me as well. So even though I lived on a budget then, it was an amazing journey and I'm very thankful to the government. I'm thankful to my dad for pushing me to achieve those A pluses all the time, because it just made me more motivated.
Speaker 2:But then I had a very serious accident, yeah, and that changed a lot of things for me. So we are going to get into that in the next episode.
Speaker 1:So thanks for joining us for this one, all about my journey of bankruptcy and, yeah, I'm going to chat to you a little bit more about the accident coming up and if you guys have any questions about this journey, anything that you want us to answer or my mum to answer, feel free to send us a DM. We're on Instagram with the Instagram handle at richrippleeffect and you can send us a DM there. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Especially if you are just not feeling yourself right now. I I'm so super open and I absolutely would love to help or listen, whatever you need. You can always DM us at any time. I'm really I'd be happy, I'd be privileged, I'd be honored to hold your hand just to have a chat if you need it. We're all about that connection. We'll see you in the next episode, woo. We're all about that connection. We'll see you in the next episode, woo. Thanks for listening to this episode of Raising Rich. If any of today's episode has resonated with you, we'd love for you to share it with another mama. It really helps us to connect with the right women.
Speaker 1:And if you would like to share your story, you can connect with us on Facebook, instagram or TikTok. Just search for richrippleeffect Is it time for a wine.
Speaker 2:Yet oh mum, oh what.