Working my way up from receptionist to Marketing Manager - not being afraid to upskill, demand a decent salary and changing companies to get better pay.

Then - saving, renting in Sydney and investing in affordable property markets (Toowoomba, Crestmead QLD), renovate to hold, learning how to buy shares, buying ETF’s and investing in a managed fund.

My husband and I did not grow up rich and have taught ourselves this along the way.

I was harassed at work numerous times and learning about my rights has become extremely important. After a 10 year career in marketing and being harassed in 3 workplaces (can you believe it), I have decided that I’ve had enough and I sued my last employer and am currently on workers compensation because they gave me anxiety. My lawyer is negotiating a lump sum payout which could be my best decision yet as my entire future salary could be negotiated (that is 26 years of salary).

Please understand - the government funds legal fees for workers comp and I settled out of court for the other case. My lawyer cost $2k to negotiate that I drop a Fair Work and Anti-Discrimination case and they gave me $28k so it was worth my while.

Workers Compensation is not necessarily fun and the insurers are not great to deal with. I am legitimately too sick to return to work, but I want to share this story for other people to know that there are options out there if you are struggling and to seek legal advice if you need workers comp because you could be up for a huge payout and the insurers won’t tell you that.

Once the case is closed I can start to think about what is next career wise (I will need to retrain and find something less stressful).

I am grateful that I have my own financial buffer, which gave me the balls to stand up to my employer and walk away from my career into the unknown.