If you find budgeting laborious and hard to stick to, it might just be that your not matching your budgeting methods to your personality and lifestyle. “You mean I have to track every dollar? Every week? On a spreadsheet?!” “Um, why would I want to carry cash around in an envelope?!” “But I want to… Read more »
It’s time to stop ‘getting around to’ pulling in your spending and make some simple changes to save money right now. This minute. According to Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report, Australians are the richest people in the world. But it sure doesn’t seem like that. While superannuation and property values have had good gains, slow… Read more »
To start investing, you need cash. And to get cash, you need a budgeting strategy that makes it as easy as possible to stash your cash away. Enter the three pots saving method. Let’s face it, saving can be tricky, especially when there are so many other financial demands in life – your rent or… Read more »
Becoming a master of delayed gratification means you can buy as many marshmallows as you want, forever. Delayed gratification is basically your ability to resist the allure of an instant reward and hold out for a potentially greater reward in the future. It was first explored in the famous 1972 Stanford marshmallow experiment by psychologist… Read more »
Why is it that you’re constantly getting into financial trouble even though you try so hard? Could you somehow be self-sabotaging your finances? No, you’re not intrinsically bad with money. But you might be unintentionally self-sabotaging your finances. All the budgets, savings plans, investment advice and frugal tips in the world aren’t going to help… Read more »
The gender pay gap currently stands at 14.2 per cent. It has a knock-on affect for women across every stage of life. Each year Equal Pay Day is marked on the calendar. It’s the date that represents the number of extra days a year that women need to work to earn the same average annual… Read more »
An offset account is a widely sought after feature of home loans in Australia. But what is it? How does it work? And is it really worth paying extra for? What is an offset account? An offset account is a transaction account linked to your home loan. Instead of paying interest, the balance is ‘offset’… Read more »
You know the pattern: your income goes up (yay), but so does your spending (boo). It’s called lifestyle inflation or lifestyle creep, and it’s keeping you from building your wealth. Do you also have a bit of a laugh when you look back at your first salary? Mine was $18k a year, which even then… Read more »
The FIRE movement says you’ll retire in your 30s, but you have to work super hard to make that happen. FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early and the goal is to budget, save and invest aggressively so you can retire as quickly as possible. “Aggressively” means exactly that: you’ll need to save at least… Read more »
Just when you thought the banks couldn’t get any stingier, they are. Savings interest rates have been reduced again. Australia’s biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank (CBA), has cut its savings rates by up to 0.07 per cent. The Reserve Bank hasn’t changed official interest rates since November last year, but the CBA (and the other big… Read more »
