Mum and Dad, your kids need you to teach them about money Why does no one teach this stuff? This is the comment I hear from every second coaching client I have ever worked with. The principles of smart money management are so simple, yet here in Australia, 1 in 2 people aged 18- 35 experience financial stress of some kind on a weekly basis…. Yes, you heard it right – 1 in 2 people experience financial stress on a weekly basis. We live in one of the wealthiest countries on earth, yet our younger generations are failing to thrive, financially weighed down by unrealistic lifestyle expectations and consumer debt. But the biggest problem is lack of practical education… As of this month, my 3 beautiful kids are now all teenagers! And yes, I am going both bald and grey – but that’s another story! Both my girls have had lessons on basic budgeting in year 9 maths and commerce but to them it was just another topic to be learned, like calculus or trigonometry. Without any practical real-life application, these lessons were useless. Money management skills need to be ‘lived’ not simply taught in a classroom. So, parents, like …
Save hundreds of dollars every month with this 5-step meal plan
Is your grocery spending killing your household budget? Is food eating all your income!! In this blog, I want to share with you the simple 5 step strategy I give to all my clients to help them significantly reduce the monthly grocery spending. Groceries are typically the biggest are of over expenditure When it comes to the household budget, groceries are easily one of the biggest expenses. Typically, the only thing bigger than our grocery spending is our rent or mortgage repayments. But without a purposeful plan what we spend on groceries can easily get out of hand. As a Budget Coach, I am in no doubt that grocery spending is the most common area of over-expenditure. Lack or routine, bad habits and laziness can cost your household budget hundreds of dollars every single month. A simple plan to take control of your grocery spending and your budget So one of the first things I get all of my clients to do when looking for ways to save money is to implement a weekly meal planning process following this simple 5 step process: Step # 1 – Identify 20-30 meals you routinely eat as a family Start by sitting …
How to meal plan to save time and money
If you are a little like me, then it is most likely that you find pleasure in enjoying a good meal. If I had to describe some of my favorite daily habits, it would be eating. I genuinely enjoy eating a well prepared delicious dish any given day. I don’t hold back when it comes to ordering food at a restaurant or getting my grocery shopping done. The setback however, is that I enjoy eating and preparing meals so much that most of the time I tend to overspend paying for expensive dinners at restaurants, or going out of my budget buying ingredients that end up rotting in the pantry.
So you want to save money and get out of debt, have you considered a budget coach?
You want to save money, get rid of the credit card debt and hopefully one day buy a house but you have no idea how to make it happen. You have tried budgeting but weren’t sure you were doing it right and every time you felt like you were starting to save money some unexpected expense would blow your budget out of the water. Oh yeah and then there is the whole ‘will power’ and ‘discipline’ thing, you want to save money, you want to eliminate your debt but it is so hard to resist the temptation to spend. If this is you, then perhaps you should consider taking on a budget coach. What’s the point in spending money on a budget coach, if I am trying to save money? Yes, I know it seems counter intuitive to spend money to save money but let’s be honest, how much money did you save last year? How much debt did you pay off last year…… Hmmm For most people the honest answer is a big fat zero and for others it’s “not as much as I should have”. So if this is you it’s time to invest in your future and get …
How to Budget When You Are Broke
How to Budget When You Are Broke It is such a simple pleasure but every time I get the ice cream out of the freezer I am reminded of the period in our lives when money was so tight the ice cream rarely made it into our shopping trolley. There is nothing fun about being broke, constantly juggling the bills and expenses is a stressful way to live. It is made particularly hard by the guilt you experience when do spend on fun stuff because you know you can’t really afford it! What I want to share with you know is the simple 5 step process I personally use and have used with hundreds of clients to show them how to budget despite starting from a financial position best described as ‘Broke’.
One Cost You Must Consider When Buying a House
One of the great joys of being a budget coach is to journey with my clients as they save for and buy their first home. Buying your first home requires a huge commitment, it may well be the biggest purchase of your life so it is important that you take your time, do your homework and understand all the costs that are truly involved. A quick google search will quickly tell you the costs you must consider when buying a house, you know, the deposit, the real estate agents fees, the legal fees, stamp duty, the banks fees, connection fees, moving cost and so on. But what you will rarely find on this list is the importance of having a decent cash reserve. As a budget coach I strongly recommend that all of my clients include a cash reserve of$20,000 as one of the costs they need to consider when buying a house. Now I am fully aware that no one wants to hear this sort of advice, $20,000 is a huge amount of extra money to find and yes I know you are busting to get your first home but please here are three reasons you need to take …
Your Friends Can’t Afford the Daily Coffees in Their Budget Either
We don’t like to talk about money! We put on our best faces and pretend everything is okay! But inside just below the surface we are hurting, our finances are a mess, but how do you say ‘no’ when you have a budget to stick to?
Saving Money versus Paying Off Debt
I recently had the privilege to run a couple of webinars on ‘The Principles of Money Management’ for a group of young parents. At the end of each of these sessions, we had a wonderful period of question and answers that went for longer than the formal presentation itself did. There were a couple of recurring themes in the questions being asked so I thought it would be worthwhile sharing the answers I gave to these questions via a series of blog articles.
What Other People Spend: A Look Into William & Kate’s Budget
Just about every client will ask me at some point – what do other people spend on (fill in the blank)? We are all curious about what other people spend on things. We like to be able to benchmark ourselves. Over the next few months I thought I would share with you some real life budgets, along with my thoughts as a financial coach.
10 Fun Date Ideas That Won’t Make You Go Broke
Budgeting and going on dates are often a fearful combination of words. Many people think that it’s a “pick one or the other” type of scenario. However, “budgeting” and “dating” can live harmoniously together. And no, it doesn’t have to consist of cleaning up after the kids or getting work done around the house. If you are looking for fun date ideas that will not hurt your budget, why not try some of these creative ideas?