Paralympian Madison de Rozario: 'I needed to win at the world championships to pay my rent'

When champion Paralympian wheelchair athlete Madison de Rozario moved from Perth to Sydney to further her racing career, she had to rent like many others.

At 25, de Rozario is one of Australia’s most high profile Paralympians, winning two silver medals at the Rio Paralympics.

She has two world championship gold medals under her belt, from Doha in 2015 and London in 2017.

However, when she was racing, because of her financial situation, she found herself thinking about things she shouldn’t have while going for gold.

“I moved from Perth to Sydney and it was the first time I was paying rent and having to do all those adult things, and I think I hadn’t medalled yet at these world championships, and being in that race one of the thoughts I had mid-race, was if I don’t find my way to the podium, I can’t pay my rent for the next 12 months in Sydney,” she told Channel Nine’s Secrets of the Money Masters.

“That was an awful thing to think about.”

Her financial story and struggles are featured in the new finance series on Nine. Other upcoming episodes feature AFL great Jude Bolton, soccer star Kyah Simon, rugby legend Bernard Foley and Olympic champion swimmer Michael Klim.

Like many of her generation, de Rozario grew up with parents who did everything they could to support her children, and while they didn’t have much, they never went without.

“It’s something my parents kept to themselves,” she said of money. “As a family, we did struggle for a little while there.

“As kids, we definitely had everything we needed and we didn’t ask for much, because we had respect –  [money] wasn’t always easy to come by.

“It was definitely something my parents dealt with and we weren’t privy to.”

Money wasn’t something that was spoken about at the dinner table.

The series sees the athletes paired with Money Masters from Nikko Asset Management, Platinum Asset Management, Orbis Investments, AIA Australia and UBS Asset Management.

They are then given financial advice to make sure they get the best out of their investments and their savings.

For de Rozario, her reason for participating was to get her financial situation on track and work towards buying an apartment in the Sydney suburb of Homebush.

“I would love to just have more direction,” she said.

“I completely admit I have no idea what I’m doing, I have no idea where to start or where to go with this.

“I think if I had more of a plan in place, I knew what I was doing and had confidence in the decisions I was making, I would be really happy with that.”

Secrets of the Money Masters is hosted by financial expert Vanessa Stoykov and produced by OneVue, a fin-tech investment company.

“For the majority of Australians, the dream of owning their own home or the idea of investing wisely seems out of reach,” Stoykov said.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of this series through which we show the genuine struggles most of us experience and the way to gain control over those challenges.”

Missed Madison’s episode. Catch up on Secrets of the Money Masters at 9now.