How Ally is balancing investing, buying her first home and having a baby

**Jess** (0:00)
You are literally 38 weeks pregnant and about to have a baby, so...

**Ally** (0:03)
I always say you can have everything, but you can't have everything all at once. I'm an overthinker, personality-wise, going around in circles for months upon months and obsessing over all the info before even making a 50-cent investment. I had to mentally just get around, okay, if I lose it, I lose it.

**Jess** (0:29)
Welcome back to Get Started Investing, a show that helps you make the most of your money. This is How I Got Started. It's a series where I get to sit down with a community member to hear the highs and lows of their journey to investing. These are real stories and we hope they're going to give you the confidence that investing is for anyone. Today, I'm joined by Ally. She is a 28-year-old marketer living in the Blue Mountains. When I first came across Ally online, it genuinely felt like I was looking a few chapters ahead in my own journey. She recently bought her first home as I'm just about to settle on mine. She swapped city living for the Blue Mountains while I'm about to swap the beach for the bush.
While kids is something that I may be thinking about over the next few years, Ally is literally weeks away from becoming a mom for the first time. So today isn't just about how Ally got started investing. It's also a chance for me to ask someone who's a few steps ahead of me what she's learned along the way. This is how Ally got started.
Ally, welcome to Get Started Investing.

**Ally** (1:24)
Thank you so much for having me.

**Jess** (1:25)
Yeah. I'm very glad you made it. Bit of context for the listeners. We have been trying to sort out a conversation. You are literally 38 weeks pregnant and about to have a baby. So we wanted to make sure we got it in though. So I'm very glad you made it today. I was texting you over the weekend, how are you doing?

**Ally** (1:41)
Me too.

**Jess** (1:42)
I was like, I don't want her to have the baby, but I do.

**Ally** (1:45)
Literally, now I can have the baby after this. I'm like, I'm relaxed, I'm good to go.

**Jess** (1:49)
You're good to go. Well, yeah, really glad to have you. So we start every interview with the same question. If Money was a friend, what kind of friend would you be to it?

**Ally** (1:58)
I think, honestly, I would be a good friend, but I want to be a great friend. I really, yeah, I feel I don't want to bash the friendship because I think we're doing really well together.
But I feel like Money is always a little bit ahead, like one step ahead of me. So I really want to be that great friend. I feel like I'm still just getting started. That's why.

**Jess** (2:22)
I feel like that comes from your story. What I've read of it is that constant learning mindset you have. I feel like you feel like you can always keep learning more.

**Ally** (2:32)
You can always do more.

**Jess** (2:33)
Yeah.

**Ally** (2:34)
I always want to do more. I feel like.

**Jess** (2:36)
But you're doing well.

**Ally** (2:37)
Thank you.

**Jess** (2:37)
That's what I get out of that.

**Ally** (2:38)
So we're good friends.

**Jess** (2:39)
We're good friends.

**Ally** (2:40)
We're going to be besties though. We will soon.

**Jess** (2:42)
We're on the way.

**Ally** (2:43)
Yeah.

**Jess** (2:44)
Love it. Now, before we rewind, I want you to paint us a picture of life today. Like, what does life look like for Ally?

**Ally** (2:51)
Yeah. Life is kind of a whirlwind, but in a good way.
So I am 28 No, I'm 29 Actually, I just had my birthday.

**Jess** (3:00)
Happy birthday.

**Ally** (3:01)
Thank you. I'm 29 I live just outside of Sydney with my husband and my cat, and soon to be baby very soon.
So, yep, very exciting. I work full-time in marketing and I commute into my job. It's a hybrid kind of office situation. So I come in a few days a week. We live a very normal life in our house, starting a family, all the things.

**Jess** (3:30)
So I love that because the internet can be a really bad place, but I found it can be an amazing place to connect with like-minded people. So that's where I found you and I click the follow button because you always talk about living this normal life. And I feel like I relate a lot. And I think when we started talking, I was like, I can sometimes feel like my life's really boring, but you promote that living that normal life is really nice.