The Secrets of How to Save Money
Does your day to day living plan regularly include thoughts on how to save money? Have you made any firm financial plans for your retirement? Have you ever given thoughtful consideration to the quality of life you will have in retirement? Did you know that the single aged pension payment in Australia is $285 a week? And for couples it’s $238 per week each? 
How long would any of us last on that kind of money? I would suggest it would take some serious rationalisation for most of us with our spending habits and how to save money if we ended up in that situation at retirement. Just a thought!.........Maybe it’s worthwhile starting a program of personal money management now, rather than waiting until we have to settle for the above incomes when we can no longer work. Why save money? Not so long ago a woman called us at our office and she and her husband were interested in the possibility of purchasing an investment property. Then, as we do, through the normal preliminary conversations we have with prospective clients the discussion eventually centred on their financial profile and as she described their situation I was becoming progressively intrigued and impressed with what this woman and her husband had achieved. Because, these days it’s seldom you hear of the type of frugal behaviour she was describing to me. But, as you will read, she really knew the secrets of how to save money. This couple were in their mid thirties and they had four children, she deliberately chose not to work, because she wanted to be a full time mother to the children. But, her husband did and his gross annual taxable income was approximately $60,000 per annum. Not huge, if measured by today’s standards. The value of their house was a little over $500,000 and they had a mortgage balance of $120,000. They had no other loans and no credit card debt. “Amazing, you’re very good at managing money, how were you able to handle your finances so well?” was the question I asked. Some of what she told me was they regularly used money worksheets, or a budget planner and they reviewed the household budget regularly to see what was necessary and what wasn’t. And if it was necessary were there more economical ways on how to save money. One of the examples she sited, was all of the other school kids she knew had 12 pairs of shoes, while hers were able to get by with 3 pairs each. She recounted many other money saving ideas and many of them can be found at Best Money saving Tips However, in the interest of brevity, they had started out with a mortgage of just under $340,000 and their initial financial goal was to look for money saving ideas and then, achieve rapid mortgage reduction. There’s an old ‘axiom’ that holds true today, more than ever……’It takes a smart person to make money…….and an even smarter person to hang on to it’. What’s happened to most of us in this modern life is the standard of living in today’s world has increased exponentially over the past few decades. Back in 1959 if you had a house, car, refrigerator, washing machine and a black and white TV you were well up there with everyone else on your street. Savings on net earnings back then were 5%. Today, ……well,…. you have to have a bigger house, two cars, dishwasher, microwave, DVD player, computer, internet, a dryer on top of the washing machine, mobile phone etc., etc., etc. We get bombarded with advertising every where we look, peer pressure is every where urging us to spend, spend, spend. If we get a pay increase, do we save it? No! Before we know it, there’s demand’s on that too and it’s gone in the blink of an eye. Today, credit card debt in this country is now well over 45 billion dollars and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for many to pay off debt. But, for a moment let’s go back to the couple we were talking about a moment ago. These are money savvy people who know what managing money is all about, because they’ve put themselves into the position of developing equity by focusing on reducing their mortgage balance. There plan has been one to pay off debt and not incur unnecessary debt and then channel all their available cash resources into the mortgage reduction. Now, only in their mid thirties with four school kids they’ve put themselves in position to start property investing and begin wealth creation for the whole family’s future. Can you emulate this example? Can you learn the secrets of how to save money? Yes you can! Will it be difficult for some? Absolutely! Because, we all develop comfort zones, especially when it comes to our life styles and the creature comforts we’ve engendered over a life time.
For most, the options are ‘pay the price now, or pay the price later’. If you’re motivated to start personal money management and doing something about it you will need a plan and we’re more than happy to assist you to get started. First, you need to be aware of where your money is going by developing what psychologists call a 'Focused Awareness'. You can do this by employing our free budget planner as it will give you a clear picture of all the different categories where you spend money. From there you can hone and polish your how to save money talents with money saving tips and clever budgeting tips Then, when you’re feeling confident you can review and start implementing a savings and investment plan. More information:
Best Money Saving Tips Return from The Secrets of How to Save Money to Smart Money Management www.Discover-Financial-Freedom.com
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