0:05

Hello and welcome to It All Adds

0:07

Up the podcast where we chat about money,

0:09

how to get it, how to spend it and how

0:11

to invest it. I'm senior economics

0:14

writer Jess Irvine.

0:15

And I'm money editor Dom Powell. And today

0:17

we're talking about the great world of side

0:19

hustles.

0:20

It makes me tired just thinking about it. I see.

0:22

Well, exactly. We already do enough work, you know,

0:24

real hustling. Who's

0:27

who has time for hustling any? Well, apparently a lot of people,

0:29

they're very popular things to do. You see a lot of people

0:31

these days with a little side hobbies and other little

0:33

ways to to earn a bit of money on the side. Yes.

0:35

If you ever had a side hustle, something you'd categorize

0:38

as a side hustle.

0:38

Yeah, I have had many I'm excited

0:41

about this topic because just the idea that

0:43

you can make money in your spare time only

0:45

recently occurred to me and

0:48

in ways that you wouldn't necessarily I

0:50

haven't set up an online business or anything, but in terms

0:52

of selling stuff on Facebook Marketplace,

0:55

renting out my car space, I've done a few of

0:57

those things. I made about 300

0:59

bucks a month, I think, by renting out my car

1:01

space, just pretty good street instead,

1:04

you know, and I'm not particularly I'm not in the CBD

1:06

or anything. I just thought, Oh, that's easy. Money doesn't

1:08

matter to me if I park on the street. Hmm. Yeah.

1:10

What about you, dummy? You're a hustler.

1:12

Look, I think, like, if I'd thought

1:14

about it, like, I wouldn't categorize myself

1:17

as, like, someone with the side hustle. But, like, in the past,

1:19

I've definitely done little things, like, beside

1:21

that, that have. That have saved. They have made

1:23

me money. Like, this is like super nerdy,

1:26

which is like, really made us like, baring all.

1:28

But I

1:32

used to be really into playing like trading

1:34

card games, Like you go and Magic The

1:36

Gathering. I still play them a bit these days, but

1:38

I used to like buy and sell like trading

1:40

cards. I'd like speculate on them, like I'd buy them

1:43

at like, you know, $0.50 and be like, Oh, they've gone

1:45

out to a dollar and I'd sell them for like a dollar and all that sort

1:47

of stuff. If it was, it was fun.

1:49

Wow. I've never even heard of those. Yes.

1:51

Yeah, It was like I didn't make like,

1:53

I probably made like maybe, you know, a

1:55

couple hundred bucks a month, like, I wasn't doing

1:57

big bucks or anything like that. But this is back when I

1:59

was like 17 or something like

2:01

that. But yeah, I've had some I've had some side

2:03

hustles.

2:04

I guess that's really cool. And if it aligns

2:06

with, you know, your personal interests and you enjoy

2:08

it, I think that's yeah, I think that's perfect.

2:10

Exactly. My, my real

2:12

big thing, which sort of bordered

2:14

on an addiction, was when I discovered

2:17

Facebook Marketplace a couple of years

2:19

ago. And I just it just blew my

2:21

mind that you could connect with

2:23

potential buyers. Like I could just

2:26

post anything and I'm a seller and

2:28

you just, you know, if you can navigate the

2:30

wild world of is this still available, which

2:32

is the message you get through Facebook

2:34

marketplace, you know, if you need to connect with anyone

2:36

as a as a buyer and seller

2:39

and you know and you meet some wild and wonderful

2:41

people that I was like, I can I can

2:43

sell anything. And yeah, you know, we'll get

2:45

to some of the things I've sold. But like I sold,

2:48

I went on holidays to the Highlands

2:50

and I found some really big pine

2:52

cones that had fallen from a tree and there was heaps

2:54

of them and I took about eight of them home

2:57

and then I found a wicker basket on

2:59

the side of the road. It was in good condition and

3:02

I sort of styled it, you know, these

3:04

pine cones in this lovely wicker basket, and

3:06

I sold them for 45 bucks.

3:08

That's so there you go. That's, that's an

3:10

entrepreneur and mindset.

3:11

The crazy money bit of arbitrage.

3:14

I think before we get into the

3:16

whole thing, I'm going to get on my soapbox for

3:18

a bit. And some would say that a podcast is a soapbox

3:20

anyway, so I'm getting on a soapbox. So then a soapbox,

3:22

but.

3:23

I'm not going to interrupt you. Go for it.

3:25

Is that I do have like I have like a slight

3:27

inherent issue with like the whole concept of

3:29

side hustles. Like, I feel like they've been really glamorized

3:32

in like recent years, you know, the whole

3:34

idea of like, working a second effectively, like

3:36

a second job to, you know,

3:38

make enough money to get by, like, turned

3:40

in to be sort of all like, you know, you can

3:42

go and work with Uber and it's this whole

3:44

sort of issue with the gig economy, which I think is just

3:46

sort of like an unhealthy part

3:48

of our society. Like

3:51

it's sort of inherently capitalistic,

3:53

all that sort of stuff. I have a I have a problem.

3:55

And I think there's also like a bit of like a

3:58

privilege issue here where it's like calling

4:00

a second job a side hustle, which is like the glamorized

4:03

version of it, rather than just a second job, which you need to

4:05

work to get by. Like, that's sort of doesn't

4:07

sit right sometimes with me. But anyway,

4:09

I recognize a lot of people do it and really enjoy the

4:11

side hustle. So it's I know it's not always bad, but

4:14

I do want to recognize that there is like a

4:16

little bit of a perception

4:18

issue here.

4:19

Yeah. I mean, the rise of insecure

4:22

work. Yes, 100% a thing.

4:24

And sort of whether it's, you know, a

4:26

good thing that we have like new technologies,

4:29

we can jump on and do an Airtasker

4:31

and sort of do these and connect to work

4:33

opportunities that might use our good

4:35

skills that we have. That's that might

4:38

be good. But is it a sign that, you know, you just don't

4:40

have a full time job that with an

4:42

employer who's committed to you and your career

4:44

progression and paying you a fair wage? And

4:46

we know, of course, the wages in

4:48

Australia being backsliding, not keeping

4:50

up with inflation for a number of years.

4:52

So is it a sign of desperation that people

4:55

are sort of having to now go outside of their

4:57

pay job, still do the the full time

4:59

work, but then also hustle on the side

5:01

just to keep? The rising cost of

5:03

living. That is a predicament a lot of people

5:05

are in. That doesn't sound very fun to

5:08

me.

5:08

No. But at the same time, I think there's a lot of people out

5:10

there who just genuinely enjoy monetizing their hobbies

5:12

and things like that. So I think there's there's many bits of

5:14

ways that you can sort of swing it.

5:16

So exactly. And I think it's at least thinking

5:19

through some of the things like we're going to go through a list

5:21

of potential side hustles for you if you're interested,

5:24

just because it might spark some ideas. And,

5:26

you know, I mean, and to preface everything

5:28

by saying that to make sure that you're being paid

5:30

a fair salary in your full time job,

5:32

you know, do ask for those pay rises.

5:34

I think it was that our second episode that we did that

5:37

was, you know, you can side hustle yourself

5:39

or you can ask for a pay rise that

5:41

might give you the equivalent if you're lucky,

5:43

and if you could negotiate anyway.

5:46

But that's yeah, Before we get into the side hustles, I

5:48

do say make sure you get paid.

5:50

Represented, compensated fairly from your from

5:52

your main place of employment.

5:54

And if you're not, maybe you should spend your spare

5:56

time looking at job ads and getting

5:58

a new job where you might be paid more. You

6:00

know, if you're not happy with what's happening

6:02

in the in the day job.

6:03

Indeed. But I suppose how do you how do you define

6:06

a side hustle? I mean, I feel like that's sort of in the name, right?

6:08

It's something you just do a little bit extra on the side,

6:10

right?

6:11

Yeah, something on the side. Just

6:13

a bit of extra cash in the pocket

6:15

outside of a traditional job. Although,

6:18

you know, if you really into your side hustles, they can

6:20

grow into small businesses.

6:21

Absolutely.

6:21

That might be a future career for you.

6:24

So but I'm open to the idea of doing

6:26

some things on the side.

6:27

Yeah. And I think we all do

6:29

at some point in our life, do a little bit of extra

6:32

something on the side, like, you know, even if it

6:34

may not be something that you think as it would be

6:36

a side hustle, but maybe you've just made a little bit of cash doing,

6:38

you know, whatever. You

6:40

sold some pinecones in a basket.

6:43

On the pine cone, retail.

6:44

Pinecone. Right. So this is just as the job

6:47

title after a journalist and an economist who's also

6:49

a pine cone retailer.

6:50

Add that to the business cards. So

6:52

we thought you can basically divide

6:54

side hustles into two

6:57

broad types of categories

6:59

which we'll sketch out for you. This

7:02

is my methodology, Tom. I hope you're on board with

7:04

it. You can either sell, sell your

7:06

skills and time or

7:08

sell your stuff or rent your stuff. So

7:10

sell your skills, sell your stuff. And

7:12

I thought we might start with sort of listing

7:15

out for people. If you're interested in getting

7:17

a side hustle, selling your skills,

7:20

you know, and your labor on

7:22

the side, what are some of the the best

7:24

ones. 30, Right?

7:25

Yeah. Well, I was like, you know, as we've sort

7:27

of just mentioned before, there's been a massive rise over the past

7:29

sort of decade, I guess, in terms of these gig

7:31

economy companies like Uber, Ubereats,

7:34

DoorDash, Menulog, know,

7:36

Deliveroo, RPA, Deliveroo, you

7:38

were too good for this Earth, or at least too good for Australia,

7:40

apparently, and Airtasker and all those sort

7:43

of things where you can go and, you know, deliver

7:45

food to people or pick people up and or, you

7:47

know, deliver someone's couch

7:49

to them or help them nail some

7:52

nails into a wall. I don't know how handyman

7:54

work, but that sort of stuff like

7:56

the you know, there's lots of there's lots of like sort of things where

7:58

you can sell you sell your skills in that sense.

8:01

Yeah. And some of those are sort of what

8:03

you would consider lower skills, like you just your

8:05

skills that you can drive a car and you have some spare

8:08

time and you're willing to do that. But I think

8:10

Airtasker is fascinating, like the sorts

8:12

of things, the jobs that can be posted

8:14

on there. And again, it is that sort of wonders of

8:16

technology and being able to connect us. And if you've got

8:18

something to sell, just doing it in a more

8:20

direct way. So yeah,

8:23

Itasca as well, you know, but that

8:25

can work for you too. You know, you're great

8:27

at sort of, I don't know, what are you great

8:29

at?

8:29

What am I going I'm great at? You

8:33

know, being a being a good

8:35

friend.

8:35

Not being a good friend.

8:36

No, I I'm as a one of my hobbies

8:38

is photography, which is something

8:40

I do on the side. But like, I. I would

8:43

never be able to I don't think I would

8:45

be able to actually monetize that. Like, I

8:47

don't think I'm good.

8:47

I can you could probably go on Airtasker and

8:49

say, I'll be your friend for the day. That's

8:51

it. A hundred bucks, you know, that's

8:54

what I'm a great, caring, warm person.

8:57

There are lonely people out.

8:58

There, but I wouldn't $100. I'm not doing

9:00

that for a whole day. $400. Okay. Yeah, I'm

9:02

going to need more. I'm going to be more conversation than that.

9:05

Well, you can you know, you can

9:07

test the market.

9:08

Inside of this to get to like all of this, to get

9:10

into like the realm of like, escort, like, you know,

9:13

So I think, well, maybe,

9:15

maybe, maybe we get a little too close to the sun here.

9:18

Keep it legal. Yeah, that would be

9:20

advice. Yeah, but I love that, you

9:22

know, monetizing your hobbies, whether it's, you

9:24

know, you're great at drawing or sketching,

9:28

and particularly with photography, you can sell

9:30

prints. And I like to talk about the sort of difference

9:32

between side hustle and passive income.

9:35

If it's something that, you know, you, you

9:37

are producing great artwork and you

9:39

can sell reprints of,

9:41

you know, one that you've done the work once

9:43

you've taken the gorgeous photo, but you're selling

9:46

prints of it, that's almost it. You know,

9:48

there's delivery costs or whatever, but it's a more passive

9:50

thing where you've not taking a new

9:52

picture every time. I think that's

9:54

a great idea. And, you know, people get on

9:57

mentioned Airtasker, you know eBay

9:59

you can sell arts and crafts

10:01

Etsy everyone can have an. See store.

10:03

Now that seems to make it really

10:05

easy. And moving into the world of like

10:07

digital products, you know,

10:09

which is a little bit more passive, as

10:11

we say. You know, particularly on Etsy

10:14

is one where you can sell, you know, get paid

10:16

for like you're the specialist in this. So

10:18

you write a small, you know,

10:20

ten page PDF on get started on

10:22

whatever it is, which is sort of like

10:24

an alternative to traditional book publishing.

10:27

And then once you've done it, every download is,

10:30

you know, passive income for you.

10:32

And as you know, I'm into a

10:34

bit of budgeting and lots of people sell

10:36

templates and spreadsheets. You know, here's my net

10:38

worth tracker. I can make quite sizable

10:41

passive incomes from having produced that

10:43

intellectual property and just

10:45

pop it online and see if it flies.

10:46

Well, you can write a book called Money with Jess, and you can sell

10:49

that in every good bookstore.

10:51

I haven't told you this, but last night I won

10:53

an award. Oh, yeah.

10:55

Congratulation.

10:56

Thank you. Book of the Year by the

10:58

Australian Business Awards. So,

11:01

yeah. There you go.

11:02

Let's see if you. If your side hustle is

11:04

good enough, you can win an award for it. You.

11:06

Exactly. I'm really proud of that,

11:08

actually. Yeah. You should

11:10

decide.

11:13

And lastly, I guess, like, you know, you can sort of

11:16

take yourself back to when you were when

11:18

you were younger and, you know, when everyone used to be a babysitter

11:20

or dogs today. And that's something you can do these days

11:22

as well. You know, you can put an ad on a local

11:24

noticeboard or on your local Facebook

11:28

community group, a good common network or whatever they are

11:30

these days where you can offer, you

11:32

know, babysitting, house, sitting, pet sitting,

11:34

lawn mowing city guides,

11:36

or another very popular one for

11:38

that that people do quite a bit. So these

11:41

are these are all all options that are

11:43

a good way to get a little bit of extra cash in the pocket.

11:45

Yeah. My first job was lawn mowing lawns

11:47

and we just and my brother also

11:49

used to mow lawns and we got in the publishing

11:52

business and just did some flyers and dropped

11:54

them around letterboxes in the local neighborhood.

11:56

That is still a legit option.

11:58

My first job was the paper on which my parents used to help

12:01

me with because it was in a rural area

12:03

and it was way too big for me to do by myself.

12:05

Oh, well, did you split the money?

12:07

They gave me all the money. It was right. It was a great

12:09

gig, to be honest. I got I was fantastic.

12:11

Anyway, but on

12:13

top of. Well, I suppose as an aside

12:15

to selling your skills, you can also sell your

12:17

stuff. So you can be like Jess and you can

12:19

sell a basket of pecans. Is there any

12:21

have you sold anything else like that? Jess, Is

12:23

that your best come up?

12:25

Sold a lot. Like I kept

12:27

a spreadsheet of my transactions

12:29

and there was one year it was pre-COVID. COVID

12:32

put the brakes on my Facebook marketplace

12:34

reselling business. But I had so

12:37

done in the order of 150 to.

12:39

220 hours.

12:40

In the course of a year. In addition to the

12:42

pine cones. My one of my favorite ones is I

12:45

bought some fake grass for $100.

12:47

It was offcuts from like a tradie

12:49

who'd been laying it on a commercial site. And

12:52

I used it to lay down

12:54

just out on my balcony, my patio. So

12:56

I bought it for $100. I used half of

12:58

it, and then I sold the remnant for $100.

13:00

So it was essentially free. That's great that

13:03

I got that. And then my best one I

13:05

did, veering to some interesting territory of

13:07

of morality issues in terms

13:09

of I would also look and

13:11

get free stuff on Facebook marketplace because

13:13

sometimes people just move or they just want something gone

13:15

from their house. So you grab it if

13:17

it's good. And then I would sort of have it in my house

13:20

for a little bit. I mean, this was how I dealt

13:22

with the morality of it, because it was like a painting

13:24

this big Balinese batik painting

13:27

or was like a fabric thing in

13:29

a nice gold frame and a lady just wanted it gone

13:31

from. So I went and grabbed it. I had it for a while,

13:34

decided it was too big and I thought

13:36

it for 150 bucks.

13:36

They go.

13:37

To.

13:38

Someone's.

13:39

Trash, a bit of arbitrage.

13:40

Versus treasure.

13:41

Some people think that's probably a bit dodgy, but

13:44

you know, everything has an innate value and

13:47

people people perceive that in different ways. And,

13:49

you know, I did make a profit.

13:52

And that's and that's what it's all about because it all adds up, which

13:54

is the name of the podcast. But I think

13:57

in that sort of vein, like sort of selling

13:59

like, you know, secondhand books, furniture,

14:01

all that sort of stuff is, is really, really popular these

14:03

days. And one thing that's become massive, I

14:05

think, in the past couple of years is like reselling vintage

14:07

goods. Like, I see I feel like every

14:09

week there's a new like Melbourne Instagram

14:11

account, which is like, you know, selling random

14:14

stuff like a little, you know, porcelain tiger

14:16

or something like that. And people just go and find these in like

14:18

UPS shops and garage sales and then just resell

14:20

them. And it's like they're making quite a lot of money

14:22

off this. Like these people sell them for a few hundred bucks and

14:24

I'm sure they got them for a lot less than that.

14:26

So yeah, people can develop like a neat knowledge

14:28

and go into the op shop and see the bone

14:31

shine or whatever it is, and it doesn't mean anything

14:33

to me. But there are brands, you know, and particularly

14:35

with clothing, the luxury high end brands,

14:37

and they'll sort of score the the

14:39

one and then pop it on like an eBay store

14:41

and resell it. So you got it. You got

14:43

some postage costs involved in

14:45

that. But if you've got an eye for,

14:48

you know, vintage goods, that's

14:50

something to consider. Another

14:52

way of sort of moving. If you're into clothes

14:55

and you've got the luxury brands, there's

14:57

a lot of consignment sellers as well.

14:59

You just kind of Google consignment

15:01

seller in your area. And so particularly

15:03

if you have sort of lived in a opulent

15:06

manner, but now you're finding your pennies,

15:08

you can sort of get rid of some of that stuff

15:10

and not just check it out by using consignment

15:12

sales. Yeah.

15:13

And then there's also sort of things like these

15:15

sort of falls into the similar bucket to

15:18

the Uber and Menulog and all that sort

15:20

of stuff. But like renting out your car

15:22

or your car space just mentioned

15:24

that. You mentioned that you had done that, rented

15:27

out your car space for a while.

15:28

Yeah. And a neighbour had just said dropped

15:30

a flyer saying they needed a space. That's all. I got

15:32

that. But you can, you can post your

15:34

car space on Facebook marketplace, you

15:37

know, with a dollar amount. And there's another

15:39

site called Park Hound where you

15:41

can advertise car spaces for

15:43

lease and then you can also just rent out your car.

15:45

There used to be something called car next

15:47

door, which I think is now Uber Fareshare

15:50

and this other one's called Drive My Car,

15:52

an American one called Turo 2ur0,

15:55

which is just about to launch in Australia. So when

15:57

you're not using your car, you have to

15:59

go to the office. These days they make

16:01

us do that. You can, you know, your

16:03

car's just sitting at home, you can

16:05

let somebody else use it. And you know, there's apps

16:08

that sort of arrange it all. You have to sort of

16:10

think about insurances as well and make

16:12

sure you're properly. Covered. But, you know, thinking

16:14

of what assets you have lying around and

16:17

sort of making turning them from dormant assets

16:19

into income producing.

16:20

And I think like, you know, on the very, very far

16:23

end of the scale for that, if you if you are lucky enough

16:25

to own a home that for whatever reason,

16:27

you're not using to live in. I mean, you could always put it

16:29

on something like Airbnb, but like I feel like that's

16:31

sort of like, you know, if you're in that position, you

16:33

probably don't need a side hustle check, which she.

16:36

Could check it for. But as someone who

16:38

does have that privilege, another one, if you're reducing

16:41

holiday costs, is to look at home swaps or

16:43

home exchange websites.

16:44

Trying to sell me a time such as this.

16:47

Yeah, we should swap homes. I can come

16:49

to Melbourne and Sydney and have

16:51

holidays for free.

16:52

In Melbourne and Sydney. Two great

16:54

holiday destinations. Yes.

16:56

It's a bit limited. But

16:58

yeah, you know, a spare room if you've got one,

17:00

you know, can become an income producer

17:02

for you if you need it, if

17:04

you're not.

17:05

And I think an important thing to think about is

17:07

like not every side hustle has to be something like new.

17:09

Like you don't have to be like creating, you

17:11

know, you have to sit down and be like, Right, what can I do?

17:13

Like, what can I sell? Or, you know,

17:15

you can just be something that you do already or

17:18

have already like, you know, a lot of people talk

17:20

about this like monetizing their hobbies. Like, you know,

17:22

as I mentioned, I do photography. Maybe one day I want to sell

17:24

prints that would be, you know, quote unquote,

17:26

a side hustle sort of thing. So don't

17:28

like if you are interested in doing it, don't stress yourself out about

17:30

like having to come up with something. It can

17:32

just be something you kind of do already.

17:34

Yeah. And but also to be aware

17:36

of tax implications so that

17:38

the ATO is on to us all side, hustling

17:41

ourselves in our spare time. And

17:43

you know, if it becomes a significant source

17:46

of income. So maybe you just like making

17:48

little papier maché things or something and

17:50

it's just your passion that you want people to own

17:52

your paper maché creations, that's

17:54

one thing. But if you go setting up a market, stall,

17:57

your advertising, you have a business name,

17:59

then you might be getting yourself into the territory of

18:01

being a small business and that being something you

18:03

might need to get an ABN with.

18:05

So do just, you know, maybe talk to your accountant

18:08

if you have one, or just, you know, be mindful that

18:10

income that you earn from side hustles can

18:13

in some cases definitely be taxes.

18:15

Yes. And sometimes it can be the case that you might

18:17

earn so much from a side hustle that it boosts your income

18:20

up over a tax bracket that could

18:22

sort of eradicate the sort of benefit you get

18:24

from the side hustle in the first place. Right. In terms

18:26

of the amount that you would end up getting taxed. So it's something you

18:28

have to sort of think about.

18:29

Not be diminishing it. Yeah, Yeah.

18:31

But, you know, sometimes I think

18:33

what the ATO doesn't like. Okay.

18:34

Oh, bold words. Oh,

18:37

you're going to have, you know, of Chris Jordan busting

18:39

it all around in the second time.

18:42

I sort of figure if you all sort of selling a

18:44

few of your photographs.

18:45

Yeah, I mean I've never declared any of

18:48

my side hustle quote, income

18:50

to the ATO. So they go.

18:52

And I think I did interview the ATO tax

18:54

time and I asked them about my Facebook marketplace stuff

18:57

and it was not a business that I was running.

18:59

I just happened to have sold some things and bought

19:01

them some things and there was any resulting

19:03

profit or loss was not taxable. And I

19:05

said, So maybe if I became

19:07

just surviving Marketplace reseller extraordinaire.

19:10

Papa.

19:10

John's Inc, it

19:12

would have been a thing. Yeah. So I hope

19:15

there's some ideas there. If people are

19:17

sort of needing to rustle up a little bit

19:19

of extra cash these days.

19:21

You know, some of the sites we've mentioned, you

19:23

know, give it a Google. You can just Google side hustles.

19:26

But yeah, if you have some extra time and

19:29

you don't actually need that for relaxation or seeing

19:31

your family. Exactly. To look after yourselves,

19:33

everyone, and make sure, of course, that you're getting

19:35

the pay the pay that you deserve. And your main

19:37

job would be my take out.

19:39

Yeah. And I think the thing is like also it's good to keep

19:41

in mind that like, a side hustle shouldn't distract you

19:43

from your main job, nor should it be like additional

19:45

stress in your life, right? Like, don't do it if it's

19:47

going to make you feel crap and like,

19:49

you know, stress you out and make you worried. Like, just

19:51

only do it if it sparks joy. You know,

19:54

as Marie Kondo once.

19:55

Said, and if it doesn't, and if your

19:57

job doesn't spark joy, maybe

19:59

spend the time looking at job that since did. Indeed.

20:02

So onto our listener question of the week,

20:04

which is from Mallika. Hi,

20:06

Jess and Dominic. We recently

20:08

bought a house and when negotiating interest

20:10

rates with the bank, it would be helpful

20:12

if you could provide some tips, especially on how to

20:14

structure the home loan. The fixed

20:16

interest rates are currently much higher than

20:18

the variable rates, and considering

20:21

the cash rate hikes have slowed down a bit.

20:23

Does it make sense to still opt for

20:26

a fixed rate? What do you think?

20:27

Still tough? I don't know. It

20:30

is one of those sort of situational

20:33

things. If I was doing a home

20:35

loan right now, I would probably be sticking

20:37

with a variable rate because

20:39

there is the sort of view that the cash

20:42

rate will stop rising

20:44

soon and could start dropping

20:46

next year. And the great thing about being

20:48

on a variable rate is that if you stay

20:50

on it and you see the cash rates start to drop and

20:52

those fixed rates start to go down, you

20:55

can then make the switch pretty much whenever

20:57

you want. You're free to free to do that. So

21:00

I think it's sort of good at the moment

21:02

to keep your powder dry because you're right, there

21:04

are some fixed rates out there that are really high.

21:06

And if you're going to be on that for, you know,

21:08

a year or two years and then the interest

21:10

rates start to drop, then you're going to feel a bit shit. So

21:13

I think that's that's probably what I would say. But what do.

21:15

You. Yeah, I've always taken the view that

21:17

fixing is sort of a gamble. You're trying

21:19

to figure out where interest rates are going

21:21

and the banks got a lot of very clever people to try

21:23

and figure that out, that they'll probably win on

21:26

the deal. We've just come off a really historically

21:28

unusual period where fixed rates

21:30

were lower than variable rates, and

21:32

that was incredibly unusual. It was to do

21:34

with the pandemic. And so this

21:37

idea of fixing is sort of become very popular because

21:39

you could fix it these 1.8, 1.84%.

21:42

But traditionally it is the other way

21:45

that fixed interest rates are higher

21:47

than variable interest rates. And that's because

21:49

you're paying for a bit of certainty because,

21:51

you know, you just feel like you need the certainty

21:54

of knowing what the repayments will be each month

21:56

for a fixed period. And traditionally you do pay

21:58

a premium for that. So

22:00

I think we're back into the more normal

22:02

world where that's the case. And then whether

22:05

you fixed or whether you variable,

22:07

that's sort of a personal preference as to whether you

22:09

can stand the uncertainty of you don't

22:12

really know exactly what the repayments are going to be

22:14

or whether you want to pay for the certainty to

22:16

have it in. And anything else is gambling and sort

22:18

of trying to time the market or figure

22:21

out which one. You can also do a little bit of both.

22:23

This is I didn't know this that you could sort of have

22:25

half of your loan fixed for

22:27

some certainty, half of it variable. You

22:30

can structure that in any percentage split

22:32

you want. Yes. So just explore all those

22:34

options.

22:35

Absolutely. And just what is

22:37

your budget tip for this week?

22:38

Yeah, this is from my friend Meredith.

22:40

Hi, Meredith. She told me about this on

22:42

the weekend. If you want a cheap holiday,

22:44

particularly if you like, a bit of camping,

22:46

a bit of van camping glamping,

22:49

There are some new apps to try

22:51

in Australia. So if

22:54

if you do want to grab a camper van

22:56

and go around Australia, you know, there

22:58

are big retail brands that

23:00

are quite expensive, but there's now an app

23:02

called Camp Le Phi where

23:04

you can, you know, camper van owners.

23:07

You know, it's again, it's sort of a side hustle for them.

23:09

They pop on their camper van. They're not using

23:11

at the moment or it's a motorhome or a caravan.

23:14

And then people can, you know, rent that out

23:16

from from the owner and presumably

23:18

is cheaper. I haven't used it yet.

23:20

But then so just sort of paying the retail

23:22

price and then you can combine

23:24

that with another app called Hip Camp,

23:27

which is another online marketplace

23:29

where people who have properties, rural

23:32

properties, can advertise, lease

23:34

out their space. So maybe you go, you get

23:36

the camper van on camp,

23:38

the FI, and then you find

23:40

a spot to go park in the wilderness,

23:42

which is just somebody who's got a property they're not

23:44

using. So you can combine the two

23:47

and have a lovely holiday. So I'm

23:49

very much an aspiring

23:51

camper van Holiday just.

23:53

Yeah, I'm like, I like it like unhealthily obsessed

23:56

with like people on, you know, like Tik Tok on Instagram.

23:58

Who are those like Van Life sort.

24:00

Of a nurse.

24:01

Like I, I can spend, I can spend hours watching

24:04

that sort of stuff with. It's like, I don't think I could live that way.

24:06

I don't think I could live in like a tiny van, but like

24:08

watching the when the fact that I can and I've got like,

24:10

you know, spices hidden underneath

24:12

the stove or something like that, it's

24:14

yeah. And it's all like, perfectly like

24:16

bento box sort of, you know, shoved

24:19

into place. That sort of stuff fascinates me. So

24:21

maybe I'll go and go and, you know, live my best

24:24

van. Life fantasy, if you.

24:25

Like my life. Yeah. Give it a try. And then if

24:27

it's not you.

24:28

If I, if I call into the podcast next week

24:30

from a van, you'll know.

24:31

I'll, I'll praise that and admire that in

24:34

you. Yeah.

24:35

As we should.

24:36

Yes, we should celebrate. You know,

24:39

it's good to talk to you again next week.

24:40

Yes. Thanks everyone for joining us. Say, let it.

24:49

This episode of It All Adds Up was produced by Julia

24:52

Carr, Cat Soul. The information discussed

24:54

is general in nature and does not take into account

24:56

your personal financial situation, goals

24:58

or objectives. You should always do your

25:00

own research or get professional advice before

25:02

making any major financial decisions. If

25:05

you like today's episode, hit follow a new podcast

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in text or audio form. AT

25:14

It all adds up at 9:00 PM today.

25:17

Thanks for listening.