Kerry Ashbrook, Founder of Life You Choose

"My Dad was the bread winner and the hardest working man I’ve ever known, but growing up, money was always tight. I grew up travelling around Australia, living in caravan parks and the occasional construction camp. Constantly moving, meant countless schools. At fourteen I had enough and left school but eventually I went back. At fifteen, Mum and Dad were on the move again, so I moved in with my brother.

By sixteen, I left school for the last time, was working at a supermarket and living on my own in a caravan park. I look back now and am so grateful that I survived those years, relatively unscathed.

Early on I decided I needed financial security, specifically a home. I had watched my parents lose their home and I knew it was up to me to make it happen. My parents grew up in a time when a roof over your head and food on the table meant you were ok. The lessons passed on to me were pay your rent, bills and food and if you were lucky you would have something left.

My parents gave me unconditional love and the self-belief that I could do or be anything I put my mind to. In my early 20s I increased my super contribution; I could see how life was on the pension. I bought my first home in my 20s, I looked at the difference between renting or buying (interest rates were 9.5%) and if I moved further out (Sunshine) I could afford a mortgage. Why pay off someone else’s house when I could pay off my own? While I was just about hyperventilating signing the mortgage documents, I kept telling myself it would be fine. If money got tight, I could get housemates and eat cans of spaghetti. It would all be worth it, and it was.

I did become the single mother that everybody probably predicted I would, by that time, I was in my thirties and financially in a really good place. I had already bought three houses and went on to buy more. My parents were successful on every measure that truly counts, they were loved and adored, but I wished so much more for them, especially in their later years. Fortunately, at times when they and I, needed it the most, I was able to do more.

Money has given me choices, choices I am so grateful to have had. The choice to take my parents overseas, twice. The choice to buy a home for us all to be in, for Dad’s final days. The choice to have time off when I had my son. I have also watched people I love, not able to have these choices, when they so desperately needed them.

Money is still taboo, but women need to talk about money. We need to understand the cards that are stacked against us. We are now seeing the results for women who have been fighting the system ahead of us, fighting to work, for equal pay, to have childcare, flexible work and super, only to find at the end they are now left to struggle, financially dependent and vulnerable. We have to change this.

This is why I now teach financial literacy, how small changes every day can make a big difference. I want all women to have financial independence to live the life they would truly choose. We have to continue to fight to change the system, but we also have to learn to make different money choices."