Have you spent money this year and wished you didn’t because you haven’t used the that THING you bought yet? (don’t tell anyone it was the exercise bike that you had good intentions to use and now collects dust and takes up good room your Xbox could!)
or
for the ladies, it’s perhaps the space you could have put that home coffee machine but if you invite friends over to save money from buying coffee at a coffee shop they might not leave your house!? So you are still meeting at the coffee shop.
This week’s theme is about #FINANCE GOALS
We focus on this in our goalsetting workshops because it’s a crucial part of life, we need money to pay for the goals in our life, whether they be a trip overseas to study or a house to grow a family or that once a day take away almond cappuccino (in your keep cup from the hipster barista, right?! Wink!). We need to be on top of our money and in the black!
We have some 3 top finance tips for you to help do that:
#1 It’s not how much you make, it’s how much goes in the piggy bank.
Somebody who is saving 20% of their income at $60,000 will become financially independent faster than somebody who is saving 6% of their $120,000 income. In the chart below, you can see the difference that savings rate makes over 5 years if invested in the stock market.
How much can you force yourself to save!? 20%?
Below are 2 tips on how to do that.
- Budgeting: Keep a close eye on how much is going out.
-
Rent things instead of buying them: This could be a Goget car or a Car Next Door. This is potentially a cheaper option than keeping a car that you may not use Mon-Fri going to the office. There is so much you can rent now, from holiday houses, to tools to dogs for your office to improve the culture. Tap into the sharing society.
#2 Learn to play the game!
ASX has an awesome game that will allow you to play with pretend money and buy and sell shares without.
Here’s the link: https://game.asx.com.au/game/info/public/about-the-game
Set a calendar reminder – next game starts 21st Feb 2019 and goes for 15 weeks!
Here are the gains from doing it:
- Gain knowledge of the sharemarket
- Experience how to buy and sell shares
- Test your investment strategies
- Create a league and beat your mates
- And maybe win some great prizes (Yep! They actually have a $2k prize for the winner! And more)
Learning about investing in a safe way (without any risk except losing your pride if you don’t make the right moves in the game) is the best way to start with investing.
Investing can be something that’s a short term game (you have to watch the sharemarket daily and be ready to buy/sell quickly) or it can be a long term game (buy and forget for 5-10 years).
#3 Turnover: The stuff you don’t use and sell it!
Less cleaning, more money and get it at the highest value poss.
Have you heard of the minimalists? They are a movement of people that live with just the items they really value and use a lot in their life. They are onto something here. This means, less dusting, cleaning and storage room required for ‘clutter’.
When most items depreciate, why not sell them at the highest value you can get for them and have more space for the things you really do value.
If you leave them to sit for another 5 years, they may not be worth selling.
GO forth and save big! You will thank yourself in years to come.
GO forth and sell, declutter, rent, save.
Spend more time watching your savings go up than the dust collect on the furniture you don’t use.
Note: we aren’t endorsed by any companies we mention, we only recommend them from our own personal experience and what we have learnt to be more suitable for majority of people and user friendly.