A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by a friend who wanted some advice on how he could get his wife interested – and more importantly involved – in the household budget. While they were doing okay financially, my friend knew they could be doing a whole lot better. Sure – they paid the bills on time and paid off their credit card every month, but despite a healthy income there was never a lot left over. With the prospect of starting a family on the horizon, my friend was keen to establish a budget and to start managing their money in a purposeful way. But to his great disappointment, his enthusiasm to establish a budget wasn’t exactly shared by his wife. As a budget coach this wasn’t a surprise to me; not because I know his wife, but because this is a very common issue! It is rare in a relationship that both partners share the same enthusiasm for budgeting. But that doesn’t mean you can make it work. So here are three strategies I recommend using to help get your spouse or partner on board with the household budget:
Instead of New Year’s Resolutions, Focus on Habits and Behaviours
For the past month I have been saying to the kids each morning, “I wonder what we were doing this time last year?” For the McGilvray family, this time last year marked the last day of a magical white Christmas holiday in the UK and Europe. The holiday had been years in the planning and a well-earned reward for finally having our home loan paid off!
How to Teach Children How to Manage Their Money
There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to teaching our children about money. The strategies we use to teach our children need to be age appropriate and very, very relevant to the issues they face in everyday life. The purpose of this series of articles is to pass on practical skills and activities that will assist parents to take a proactive role in equipping their children with the skills on how to manage money.
Money Management: Is Your Spending Out Of Whack With Your Priorities?
I love this image because it we all know people whose consistently waste money on stuff they don’t need and then cry poor when it comes to paying for the things they really do need.
Are Spending Habits Robbing You of What’s Important?
How much have you spent this week? Do you know? Okay, so have a think back, what have you spent money on today? How about this week? How much has it added up to? Do you know? If you are like most people, you haven’t really thought about how much you have spent over the last few days. Your first thought is probably – not much, I haven’t really been anywhere to spend money. But what about the bought lunches, morning coffees, take away and parking?
The Three Styles of Money Management.
Not too many people consciously think about their style of money management. For most people, day to day “money management” just happens without any real purpose or planning. Unfortunately, it is a proven fact that in the absence of ‘purpose’, people will almost always drift towards the negative mindsets and habits held by mainstream society. This is particularly true of the way we manage money and our finances…
4 Ways to Ensure You Have Enough Money for Retirement
A 2012 Study conducted by fund manager Challenger identified that the average Australian is retiring with just $60,000 in superannuation. Now many of the people retiring today have not had the lifelong benefit of employer superannuation which only became compulsory in 1992, however $60,000 is still a depressingly low figure. While most of us will have the benefit of compulsory employer contributions to help bolster our retirement savings you can be absolutely certain that employer contributions alone will not be enough to give you a comfortable retirement.
The Power of the Debt Snowball
In this age of easy credit most of us have at one point or another experienced what it is like to be in debt. Whether it is a mortgage, student loan or high interest consumer debt you will appreciate the fact that paying off your debt is always so much harder than acquiring it. At Grandma’s Jars we are passionate about helping people free themselves from the burden of debt. We know how hard it can be to overcome debt, but we also know that with the right structure even the toughest debts can be conquered. In this blog we will outline the three steps towards eliminating debt using the ‘Debt Snowball Strategy’, a strategy that we have been successfully using with our clients for over 15 years. Step 1: Identify Your Debts It might sound obvious but the first step to overcoming debt is to have a thorough understanding of what you actually owe. Start by writing down who you owe and the total balance owed. Once you have done this, add the details, such as: the interest rate the minimum repayment required your current actual payment amount how long the loan has left to run if it …
When Do You Need a Budget?
As a budget coach, I think the answer to this is always. It is an unfortunate misconception that most people seem to think that they only need to budget when money is tight. But this view of budgeting seriously understates the powerful impact a good budget will have on a person’s long term wealth. In my role as a portfolio manager, I have managed multi-million dollar portfolios. It is rarely the people with the high paying jobs that have the greatest wealth but rather those that have earned modest incomes, budgeted well, and consistently grown their savings that end up the wealthiest. Having a high income is never enough, it is what you do with what you earn that has the biggest impact on your long term wealth. It is too easy to forget that what we are doing when we go to work is trading our most valuable resource, ‘time’, in return for money. Your average Australian earns $60,000, or $45,000 after tax and superannuation. This means every dollar you earn costs you 2.33 minutes of your life. Every time you spend $206 you will need to add another 88 minutes of work to make it back. In …