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It's Pay Day! The ABC's new column where we ask Australians the money questions we don't like to talk about. We aim to demystify personal finance and normalise conversations about what we earn and how we save it — or spend it.
Leila McDougall is not your average farmer. She's a filmmaker (her first film, Just a Farmer, premiered earlier this year), fashion designer, mother, teacher — and even a former beauty queen. But above all she's passionate about supporting farmers and raising awareness about mental health risks in rural communities.
For Pay Day, she shares the generational debt that comes with farming, her regret over being too proud to ask for help as a university student, and why she would tell her younger self to start saving as soon as possible.
How would you describe your financial situation right now?
It's pretty average at the moment, probably on the below-average mark. Being on the farm we have quite a lot of debt, and then we tried to recoup more funds for our film and pay back some people who invested in it as well.
How was money spoken about in your house growing up?
I guess we spoke about it quite openly and I'm probably from quite a traditional family where if you don't have the money, you don't buy it.
My parents never had credit cards, and I've never had a credit card in my life. If the money's not in the bank, I don't buy it. And I always learned that if you want something, you save up for it because debt is bad — that's how I was brought up.
We were always taught to pay our debts. If you owe someone money, it's a common courtesy to pay them back before you pay yourself.
About how much of your income goes towards your rent or mortgage each week?
That's a tough one when talking about farming because farming debt is generational debt — so we're paying off debt which is part of our wage. You could say right now our mortgage is 50 per cent (or more) of our income.
We've had our farming debt carry over generations, and over the years you have to buy each other out, you have relatives coming in who want their share and so sometimes you're going into debt to pay them out and so on.
That debt can be so significant it takes one generation to pay it all. And there is a lot of stress that comes with it, with most family businesses you inherit profit – but with farming you inherit debt.
And then you marry into debt as well. No one really tells you about that when it comes to farming!
What has been your biggest financial disaster?
Back when I was at university I got one of those cash loans to pay for all my books. And the interest rates on that are huge and you have a very specific period to pay it back in.
So I had to work my arse off to pay it back because you end up paying three times the amount you borrowed. I was only working three shifts a week around study so it took longer than expected to pay back a $2,000 loan.
In retrospect, I do wish I had just saved up for it or asked my parents for help. I was being very proud at the time! I was out on my own and determined to do it myself.
Have you ever kept a secret about money?
My dad used to have a cash drawer when we were younger for when he did cash jobs, so when I didn't have enough money to put petrol in my car I would sneak $15 out of dad's drawer so I could drive off!
How many bank accounts do you have? How do you organise your money?
I've got three bank accounts. I'm on a joint account with my dad for expenses, and I still have the bank account that my parents signed me up for when I was in kindergarten — I still use it for everyday spending.
And I've still got an account that my mum started when I was younger, and we both put money in that occasionally, just for emergencies.
LoadingWhat's your biggest source of money anxiety?
Owing debt at the moment — the unknown of that and the stress it brings if you don't make the payments. And thinking about the impact it might have long-term.
It's on top of knowing we are going into a drier season, the driest potentially since 2016, which will bleed into spring/summer.
With the prices of stock at the moment being dramatically reduced, our output costs are much, much lower than our costs. Which makes it difficult — and quite a few farmers are in that position too.
We have the added pressure of the film we made and the investors in that need to make their money back. They understand if they don't, but I really want to make sure they do. I hate letting people down.
What's the biggest lie you tell yourself about money?
I probably tell myself too much that money isn't real. I mean, you can't take it with you. I guess it's not a lie.
But I always think if you can use money to help people — if you've got it, then why not?
What's your biggest financial achievement?
I guess it would be the film, and securing quite big investments and funding and convincing people that putting significant amounts of money into the project was worthwhile.
Because it's not easy to part with money, and the amount that people contributed to the film was in the hundreds of thousands. So to know that people would do that means, 'Wow, okay, maybe I am doing the right thing', and people do believe in it.
Because if you don't believe in it yourself, it's so hard to convince other people to — and I believe so much in everything that the film represents.
If you could tell 18-year-old you one thing about money, what would it be?
Start saving as soon as you're spending money — don't just go and spend it on useless stuff.
You realistically could own a house by 25 if you were good with money and you worked your butt off.
You can find out more about Leila and her debut film, Just a Farmer, here.