Key Points
- Colette has gone from living the high life in the US to looking after her ill husband while on NDIS support.
- She says her experience has given her perspective.
I was 30 when I finally landed the job that hit all of my goals.
I was writing, I was doing voice over work and I was getting to be on camera. I was earning a very nice salary.
I wasn’t a superstar but I was the person that a federal government department chose to interview and present information programs to its staff. I was also the voice people who called welfare services heard giving them information when putting in their employment forms.
My apologies.
I was also in love.
Colette in the Silicon Valley
So, I was in love with this goofy guy who was going off to do a PhD in Economics at Stanford University in the US.
He asked me if I could imagine being in the US and I said “Yes”.
He asked me to marry him. I said “Yes”.
So, in August 1993 I said goodbye to my high paying public service job and headed to California and Stanford University, which is in Palo Alto, part of ‘Silicon Valley’.
I simply had no idea what real life with no income of my own would be like.Dr Colette F Keen
My visa didn’t allow me to work. In retrospect, I must have been completely out of my mind.
When I arrived in San Francisco, I had about $4000 to my name and a promise from my father of $1000 a month for the first year. I realise how fortunate I was to receive that. My dad is a hero. My husband earned around US$8,000 a year as a teaching assistant.
I simply had no idea what real life with no income of my own would be like.
I went from throwing away money to literally searching in the cushions for cents. At one point we were evicted from the scummiest place you can ever imagine – urine in the elevators being the best of the worst.
Then our luck changed.
Colette and her friends.
We stood in line at the immigration department in San Jose at 4am and I received a working visa for five years. Finally, when we got to a counter, I was told I was missing a photocopy and would have to line up again. My husband went into full romantic movie mode and jumped benches to get to a photocopier.
I went from having eight cents to a number similar with a lot of zeros after it.Dr Colette F Keen
After a year of literally being down to cents, eight at one point, there was hope.
My first job was working as a personal assistant for a movie star, who’s name I can't disclose, though I did get to work with Robin Williams and he was as lovely as everyone says.
On an average day Jeff Bezos would be sending fax ideas about Amazon or Steve Jobs would be calling to talk with one of the ‘big wigs’.Dr Colette F Keen
I then got a job in Silicon Valley as a financial supervisory analyst. I went from having eight cents to a number similar with a lot of zeros after it. After wondering if we would make the rent, let alone eat, we were rich.
I was working for a bank that had decided it wanted to be the centre of Silicon Valley IPOs (initial Public Offerings). On an average day Jeff Bezos would be sending fax ideas about Amazon, or Steve Jobs would be calling to talk with one of the ‘big wigs’ or complaining about Apple. We took Yahoo and many others public.
Colette in the 80's.
We enjoyed luxury weekend trips to 5-star resorts. There was a lot of first class travel.
We had box seats to all the big concerts and took friends on luxury ski trips. The bank thought nothing of flying individuals via Concorde, as it was quicker and therefore more efficient.
Then one morning in 2015 my beloved husband did not wake up.Dr Colette F Keen
At the end of 1999 my husband finished his PhD and was offered a job in Atlanta, Georgia. As he was no longer a student, I immediately lost my work permit.
The Stanford student adviser had told us that once we had a child who was 21 we could get a green card, which would allow us to live and work permanently in the US. We now have a 21-year-old, but the US no longer held the same attraction.
Moving to Atlanta was a drop in income. A drop in lifestyle. There were no more box seats or first class everything, but we were okay.
In 2004 we moved back to Australia. Everything was grand, although we were now in our 40’s had no money and no Super.
Colette's husband.
The doctors suggested I put him in a home and forget about him. I thought stuff them. While he cannot speak, is paralysed on the right side and has many other complications, he still makes me laugh. He is still the husband that I love.
Though things are grim and, at times I am in the depths of despair, we can still laugh.Dr Colette F Keen
Now we survive through NDIS funding and some limited part time work when I can get it. The $140 a fortnight I get from the government as a Carer also helps pay the bills. My 94-year father, who lives with us, gives us a hand where he can.
We have two beautiful children who have earned their way through school and into university with scholarships. One wants to be an environmental economist like his father, the other a neuroscientist so he can help others going through what we have gone through.
Colette and her family.
I am now better at dealing with getting down to eight cents in the bank at the end of the month, so that financial training has come into some use, but I sure wish I’d bought Amazon shares back in 1997.
Most importantly though, while things are grim and, at times I am in the depths of despair, we can still laugh and understand that life is unpredictable.
Looking back at the ups and downs I've had with finances and the position I'm in now, my advice to others would be to put your money into super and save if you can. In saying that it's still important to have fun. Life is dull if you don’t enjoy it.
