Can resilience and determination truly overcome life's toughest challenges? This milestone *WOO!* 10th episode of Raising Rich takes a deep dive into the harrowing aftermath of Jo's boating accident on the Murray River. If you haven't heard it yet, listen to episode 8!
Jo shares the relentless journey of recovery, from physical therapy sessions to legal battles that stretched across state lines. We open up about the complex web of pain, both physical and emotional, and the unyielding pursuit of justice and compensation.
As we turn the page, we celebrate the rollercoaster journey of purchasing and renovating our dream home in Glen Waverley. From the cutthroat real estate market to leveraging every connection for a successful renovation, we share the highs and lows of making this dream a reality.
The episode also explores the emotional intricacies of navigating a relationship that teetered on the edge of commitment, raising questions about love, stability, and the future. Tune in for a heartfelt and compelling episode that underscores the power of perseverance in the face of life's greatest challenges.
Follow our mother daughter journey towards financial freedom!
Can resilience and determination truly overcome life's toughest challenges? This milestone *WOO!* 10th episode of Raising Rich takes a deep dive into the harrowing aftermath of Jo's boating accident on the Murray River. If you haven't heard it yet, listen to episode 8!
Jo shares the relentless journey of recovery, from physical therapy sessions to legal battles that stretched across state lines. We open up about the complex web of pain, both physical and emotional, and the unyielding pursuit of justice and compensation.
As we turn the page, we celebrate the rollercoaster journey of purchasing and renovating our dream home in Glen Waverley. From the cutthroat real estate market to leveraging every connection for a successful renovation, we share the highs and lows of making this dream a reality.
The episode also explores the emotional intricacies of navigating a relationship that teetered on the edge of commitment, raising questions about love, stability, and the future. Tune in for a heartfelt and compelling episode that underscores the power of perseverance in the face of life's greatest challenges.
Follow our mother daughter journey towards financial freedom!
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Speaker 2:
It really helps us to connect with the right women, and if you would like to share your story, you can connect with us on facebook, instagram, or on Facebook, instagram or TikTok, just search for richrippleeffect. Is it time for?
Speaker 1:
a wine, yet oh mum, oh what.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to our double digit episode. How exciting, mum. We've done 10,. Well, this is number 10 for us number 10 1 0.
Speaker 1:
It is welcome to the couch. Here we go strap in.
Speaker 2:
So this is all about a major payout, major and if you listen to episode 8, you would kind of understand why this is coming up. If you haven't, definitely go back, have a listen. It's a very crazy story that happened to my mum, where she had a near-death experience. If you've had a near-death experience, please give us a call on this hotline.
Speaker 1:
I probably wouldn't call it a near-death experience, but a serious accident. I wouldn't say near-death.
Speaker 2:
You were at the bottom of a river yes, singing that you were okay to die.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I was a little bit cooked. So this has been going on. For the past couple of years I have been, after the accident, had physio, chiro, psychological counseling, because the accident really took a toll on my mental health and but also my physical health and, with my arm not being able to move all that much, it caused a lot of pain in my back and the muscles kind of froze all down one side. It caused me a lot of headaches. So, yeah, in came all the physio and the chiro. But during that time I had also looked at claiming compensation from the driver of the boat, as I mentioned in the episode. They were friends of mine or they were acquaintances, people who I had gone to school with, that I just happened to meet at that time, and his friends were driving the boat. They did say to me they had insurance and that they understood that I would be making a claim against them and they were fine with that. It essentially only cost the driver $100 because that was his excess.
Speaker 1:
So over a couple of years I had to consult with many people and I consulted with a few lawyers and, as it turns out, because the murray river is the border of victoria and new south wales. It actually came under new south wales law, okay. So that meant that I had to engage a lawyer who was well versed in new south wales law yeah, which meant I had to travel to sy, who was well-versed in New South Wales law yeah, which meant I had to travel to Sydney a couple of times to meet with the lawyers etc. And go from there. So they obviously sent down people to see how my life was travelling with my, my nemo fish arm, and the conclusion was that I certainly did have a case because I have a permanent impairment. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:
So in the fin yes, being the fin um, doing everyday things like I'm opening jars yeah, I actually can't open up. I don't have enough strength because the tricep was mangled. Yeah, I literally have to stab every can um, release the seal and then I'm able to open it. Thankfully, wine is a screw top, so I'm still all good with that one. I'm very happy with that. And just everyday things like lifting heavy things is very tricky to do, yeah, so they have to assess all of that and decide if I have a case, and aside from your arm, has there been anything else?
Speaker 1:
well, as I said, like the headaches were there. Um, I do have. The left side is much weaker than the right side because I've tried crossfit and yoga and all those sorts of things and you know things like downward facing dog. When you've got one arm that can't straighten at all and it's quite weak, it reduces my capacity to be able to perform those particular exercises correctly Everyday movements and just yeah, everyday movements, exercises, correctly, everyday movement and just yeah, everyday movements.
Speaker 1:
So I mean, I I have um at one stage, believe it or not. You know I was heavily involved in crossfit and you know I'm lifting dumbbells and barbells above my head was fine, but I was always a bit lopsided. Yeah and I, yeah, and I was doing pushups at one stage and the arm collapsed and I landed on my left breast and over the next couple of days the breast went hard and because I've got implants, because it started to even change shape, I'd actually popped the implant. Yeah, but I remember that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so yeah had to have those out and replaced um, but that, yeah, that was part of having the manky elbow and so, yeah, there's lots of things. I mean I've now learned to live with it and most people don't notice it and unless I point it out, yeah, and say you know, don't you notice when I'm standing there one arm's like? That's another like sort of bent, and the other one's fine, but no, most people don't notice it. And I do overcompensate with the right hand. I mean, luckily I'm right-handed so it hasn't been too bad.
Speaker 1:
I've been able to find exercises that are good for my back and help me strengthen my back and stop the headaches, etc. So it's it's all manageable and all under control. I would like to get the pins and plates out one day from there. After you know the, the lawyers consulted me, etc. I had to travel to sydney, yeah, to do a preliminary trial I think that's what it's called, yeah, whereby I sit in one room with my lawyers and they, when I say they, their insurance companies, sit in one room with my lawyers and they, when I say they, their insurance companies, sit in another room.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and so I'm with a QC Now. I don't know one lower than a QC. Essentially he was $10,000 an hour.
Speaker 2:
Oh my Lord yeah.
Speaker 1:
So I didn't choose him. My lawyers said he is the best and you will get your payout because you know I wanted compensation for the fact that I was physically impaired and I was going to foreseeably have a lifetime of issues. Yeah, so met with him, had a discussion. We're meeting in the side rooms. He goes off, meets with the other people in the other room. They come back and they make an offer to me and the offer is something stupid like $71,242.96. Oh yes, how do you get the 96 cents, babe? To which I laughed and said, really like you can't come up with a round figure.
Speaker 1:
So I obviously said no because I was in a no win, no fee. So I was actually already about a hundred thousand dollars behind from all the prior meetings. Right on, okay, so essentially, even to make my money back for the day. You know it had to be over a hundred thousand dollars that they were offering. Yeah, so I say no. Then the people they negotiate again and they come back with 189 000 and I think oh, that sounds a bit better you know 89 000.
Speaker 1:
What am I going to do with that? You know, calculating the physio and the chiro and um, the osteo. And as I'm older, I'm thinking how am I going to be lifting my grandchildren in and out of car seats? Yeah, like, what does my life look like? So I said no. So it goes back and forward, back and forward. They call me in.
Speaker 1:
So the insurance company call me in for an interview, yeah, and they ask me you know what are the things that I'm having trouble with? And I explain that to them and and I do go into saying it's not just now like I'm young, now I'm 42, 43, I'm physically fit. What am I going to be like when I'm elderly? And if I fall on my left arm, how, how am I going to stop myself from, you know, hitting my head because there's no strength? How am I going to do everyday things? I can't drive a manual car anymore. I'm always going to have to drive an automatic. Yeah, that's going to cost me money, etc. Etc. So I put my case forward, I go back into my room and the lawyer comes back and says that they were extremely worried because I am highly articulate, I am able to discuss, you know my future and what that looks like, and I'm very convincing, mind you. I was nervous.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, oh, it's always nerve racking being in the situation like that there's like a power play. Involved absolutely, absolutely. But they did fuck with the wrong bitch to share.
Speaker 1:
Um, they've decided that they were a little worried and the thing is they can only offer up to a certain amount. Yeah, once it goes over that amount, it actually has to go to the high court, and there had never been a case in the high court about a biscuit or a donut so essentially when things go to a high court, you're kind of setting the standard yes, to come in the future, right absolutely, absolutely, and those cases are recorded for lawyers to learn the law.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so I was one step away, so they came back with a figure of five hundred and thirty nine thousand dollars.
Speaker 2:
To which you said no deal.
Speaker 1:
I said deal.
Speaker 2:
I did.
Speaker 1:
I did, I did, I said deal. So it was quite a large sum.
Speaker 2:
So did it go to the high court? No, you were one step away from it potentially going Correct. Did you think about that though, Were you like?
Speaker 1:
well, maybe I should, you know.
Speaker 2:
I just just maybe.
Speaker 1:
I want to set the tone for the future yes, I could have, but going to the high court if I lost. Yeah, all that, no win, no fee, I would still owe. Fair enough, so that would have been a huge gamble. Yeah, um, prior to leaving that meeting, I had to sign over to my lawyers their fee straight away. Yeah, so the fee that they claimed was around 260 odd thousand dollars.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, like no, it's freaking not yeah, so that was, that was quite devastating, but at the same time, well, I wouldn't have got any money anyway, so it was a large lump sum.
Speaker 1:
I don't remember the exact figures, yeah, but it I. I do know that it was a large lump sum, that I had to sign over to them prior to leaving sydney, but it was also very surreal. I remember going straight to the bathroom and thinking to myself oh my god, this is over. It's finally over. Was it worth it? Was the money worth it? Will it be suffice for the rest of my life? Because I just didn't know what the future held. So, anyway, I go back to Melbourne and I'm still dating MrB and he's pretty excited because he knows how tough it's been for me From there.
Speaker 1:
The beautiful thing is I had been looking at properties in another suburb that I had always had my eye on, and it was a suburb that I knew that was growing. It was a suburb I knew I couldn't afford, but it was also a suburb that you just know when you resell, you make money. Yeah, so I'd been watching this suburb for, I think, close to four or five years, even when I originally purchased this house that I was living in when my dad gave me the gift. I obviously was looking in that, that suburb where I wanted to live and could not afford to get in there.
Speaker 2:
And which suburb are we talking about?
Speaker 1:
We're talking about Glen Waverley, yeah, in there. And which suburb are we talking about? We're talking about glenn waverly. Yeah, glenn waverly, um yeah, is a very uh. Well, it's an area that is highly sought after, because there were a couple of schools in that area that were very high up in the school achievement zone, and so a lot of people were always wanting to get into that area. So I had been watching that area. I'd been looking at a few houses, and my house that I was living in had also increased in value. My brother had helped build this beautiful big veranda with the spa that god stole it on it. Well, I was looking to purchase a new house because I now had enough money to use the equity to buy a home, and from your payout as well. Now that I got my payout because it was almost immediate I was very excited and started looking. But then the excitement turned to a bit of sadness because, even though I got a good payout, I had to pay back medicare. So medicare in australia is our health care system.
Speaker 2:
essentially, that's operated mainly by the government well yeah, by the government, well yeah by the government.
Speaker 1:
Well, it is operated by the government Because my operations that I had and the care that I had at the Alfred Hospital, it cost approximately $70,000. I had to pay that back why? Well, apparently that's just how it works If you get a payout because of an accident, the government doesn't need to have paid for your operation. Okay, so I had to pay that out of. You know, I got the 530 odd or whatever it was pay the lawyers then I had to pay money back to medicare.
Speaker 1:
Oh no, but here's the kicker, the and? To this day I still don't understand. So, being a single parent, when I had the accident I was on a part single parent pension. Yeah, I still had my four jobs, but I was entitled to a single parent pension. I hadn't quite started teaching yet. I'd had the accident while I was still at uni, so I was still getting the benefits from the government to support a single mum to change their career. Apparently they classed that. So our government, our Centrelink payments, classed that as earnings. So technically I had earned that money from the time of the accident. So therefore, any money that I got from Centrelink I had to pay back. So there went another chunk of the money. Yeah, so essentially, you know, 530 odd thousand whittles down to not a lot. Yeah, I think it was still, uh, maybe 160 or 180. So it's still a a chunk of money. Do you wish you went to the high chords?
Speaker 1:
now I just, I don't know, I, I, I wish I had have questioned more why center link got to take the money because technically I wasn't working. Yeah, you know, um, I just, I really don't understand that. But anyway, I was able to still have some money, enough money to go and purchase a house in Glen Waverley. And I spied this house that had gone to auction and it hadn't sold. Then they put it up for private sale and it still hadn't sold and to me it was the perfect house. It was on a good size block, it was four bedrooms, two bathrooms. It was as old as hell.
Speaker 1:
It was from the 70s. It had archways, it had like a little bar, it had four layers of lino, you know all that really nice renovation stuff. I thankfully put in an offer that was below the price and the gentleman said no, but we just kept pushing. I just kept my agent. Just I said keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. Eventually I won and was able to purchase the house. Yay, so that was like a dream come true. I felt like I had made it. Yeah, I have made it. I am now living in glen waverley and my kids get to go to a fancy school.
Speaker 1:
It wasn't really that fancy it wasn't, but it was just on the school of achievement list. We're all set. I've purchased this house and mr b is in construction, so he offers to gather his tradies and renovate the house for me. So in the time that I purchased the house, just to clarify renovate for free?
Speaker 2:
no, okay no, of course not. I just was curious.
Speaker 1:
He's paying for a lot of other oh yes, I guess, yes, he, yeah, he was your relationship was still fresh at this point, I guess so um, was it?
Speaker 1:
it might have been a year in, yeah perhaps yeah um he, he offers to use all his trades, so the house it sells. It comes to me, I become the owner and in the meantime the house that I'm living in is up for sale and it sells. But the person who purchases my house wants a really long settlement. Perfect, it means we can stay in that house while we renovate the new home. Mr b gathers all his trades. He gets the whole place renovated in four months. Of course it costs me the regular price plus, you know, whatever gst or however it works, but obviously he gets me good prices because all of these people work for him in general.
Speaker 1:
So that was something that was. I was extremely grateful to him for it was a lovely home. In the end he did a really good job, or his trades did an amazing job, and I couldn't be any more grateful. He was also a huge advocate of you and I rekindling and repairing our relationship. He was really vocal on that and in fact, because our relationship was so strained, I encouraged him to come with me. In a lot of the first meetings that you and I had getting back to getting our relationship back on track. You know, I encouraged him to come along.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and that was pretty much the very first time that I had met Mr B as well, was the first time I had seen you in quite some time. You guys came in and came to the restaurant that I was working at and hanging out, and eventually it got to a stage where our relationship had been rebuilt to a point where I could move back in and come back home, yeah, you did and I I missed most of the renovation.
Speaker 2:
Don't get me wrong. It was nice to move into a lovely, fresh new house that wasn't in Boronia, but you know, it was close to my high school as well, which I was wrapping up, I think I I actually think I'd finished high school at that point and I was, uh, studying at a local education place nearby and it just kind of became the party house for me personally, because you and mr b were always out doing your own thing majority of the time. My siblings were at their dad's or with you and and Mr B and yeah, I was just kind of I felt like I was living by myself, living the dream, living the dream, living the dream, and it looked like you were living the dream too.
Speaker 1:
It did look like that, didn't it? But that actually wasn't the case. We had had a lovely saturday evening out and on the sunday it was mother's day and I was working at the football club. Oh, really yeah. And I had that night seen on his phone, you know, the phone that he always takes into the bathroom and, of course, when he doesn't, I'm on there scrolling like searching I found a message to a woman that said wishing you a fabulous mother's day tomorrow and a kiss after it, and I thought, wow, that's a bit strange.
Speaker 1:
And the next message to him was oh so, what are you, what have you been doing?
Speaker 2:
and he messaged back saying oh, I'm just uh renovating a house out in the eastern suburbs for a client was there a part of you that thought that it was his ex-wife that he was messaging, because they had a child together?
Speaker 1:
no, because it was a different name like I knew her name and this name was a different name. The next day at the football club, I'm working away and, bless me, I have another major accident that afternoon yes, the council were coming to check on our deep fryers and the cleanliness of the kitchen on the monday.
Speaker 1:
So this is sunday afternoon. I decide I have to clean out the fryers, make sure everything's beautiful and clean for the football club. I'm cleaning, I open up the deep fryer so we're talking big vats of oil and I open up the deep fryer door at the bottom and I knock the hose. Now the hose is like a fire hydrant, it's not a little like garden hose.
Speaker 2:
No, it's not a garden hose.
Speaker 1:
It's a fire size of a fire hydrant. I knock it and the boiling hot oil gushes out. And it gushes with that much force it knocks me off my feet and I slide into the burning hot oil. I ran to the showers and I obviously turned the showers on. I remember thinking how much pain I was in, but because the two kids my two, yours, two siblings were there, I pretended that I was fine. I didn't call an ambulance, I simply wet some tea towels. I left my son at the football club. I said you know, can you please try and clean this up, like I managed to actually close off the valve with a, with a stick, somehow I left my son there to, you know, mop it up, because by that time it had cooled, etc.
Speaker 1:
I had jumped in the car with wet tea towels on my arms and took the baby. Um, the little one she was. She must have been 11 or 12. We jumped into the car. I have tea towels hanging on my arms that are wet. I've wet the tea towels, put them on my arms to try and cool my arms. She has had to steer whilst I'm driving with my arms out the window.
Speaker 1:
I didn't want to cause a scene and cause call an ambulance. I was highly embarrassed, like what an idiot. Like, realistically, I got to the hospital, went inside and went into shock, like shaking. You know, yeah, um, they take me in, they go to cut my jeans off. My jeans are literally stuck to my skin.
Speaker 1:
At that point I say to my son please call Mr B, please call Mr B, get him, get him over here, get him to help me. I don't know what to do. Get him to come pick you up. You know, I don't know what to do. Anyway, my son is trying to call him and he's not answering, of course. So I then I'm in hospital for a couple of days and I say to him you know where were you? And he said to me he was at his ex-wife's house because it was Mother's Day and he had built a house for his mum and dad that were behind the ex-wife's house, so he was obviously spending time there.
Speaker 1:
So I actually I accepted that I got home and I was resting and I had, when I had viewed his phone, taken this woman's number down and I rang her, yeah, and I said I am mr b's girlfriend. Who are you? And her response was oh no, we've been friends, we're just friends. We've been friends for like 30 years. And I was like, oh okay, she has rang him immediately. He's in my house in my lounge room. I've rung from my bedroom. Yeah, he's come in screaming what have you done? What have you done? How dare you? And he took off and he left me. He left me for days just with the burns. I was I covered head to toe in second and third degree burns.
Speaker 1:
So now I'm left in this situation once again. He's done this beautiful renovation for me. I'm thinking that our life is moving ahead. I feel like he had settled. We were really happy. We were in like a routine. We did spend an extra night together each week, so it wasn't just one night during the week and once on the weekend, it was twice on the weekend. So I really felt like we were just in a committed relationship. And yet here I am again being left thinking what the fuck is going on. I wholeheartedly believe we're fine. He's done this renovation, that like who would do that?
Speaker 2:
yeah, for someone yeah, and I think also a part of you also being like you're a single mom, you also have three children that are off with their dad, sometime off with their friends, sometime doing this, that and friends sometime doing this, that and the other, so that routine element of it. You already do have such a busy life anyway, so you probably don't notice how his behavior is because you're not always together either.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so I've had this fantastic payout. I bought my dream house. It's been fully renovated. I've got the man of my dreams, who has once again proven that perhaps I'm not the only person in his life. That's the end of that episode. What a clip hanger to end on oh well, we have to wait for the next one, everyone, yes, the next one is the continuation of the very unusual relationship of money with Mr B, and does he actually become monogamous?
Speaker 2:
Hey Mamas, hey mamas, welcome to the raising rich podcast with your favorite mother-daughter duo, joe and lane.
Speaker 1:
join us as we take you on the roller coaster ride that has been my mom's life with money 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.