Young and broke? There’s another way When you’re young it can seem like you’ll always be living from paycheck to paycheck with nothing left for the good things in life. According to guest contributor, James Trethewie Financial Planner AFP®, making a few changes to your money habits and attitude can make all the difference to your lifestyle, now and in the future. 1. Do away with debts If you’re not great at sticking to a …
What’s debt consolidation and do I need it? Stuck with a post-Christmas spending hangover? Debt consolidation could be a solution, but tread carefully: there are no easy fixes. Debt consolidation involves taking all your monthly debts – for example, from your credit cards, store cards, mortgage, car and other loans and so on – and rolling them into a single low interest rate loan. If you are rolling all your debt, including high interest rate …
What you need to know about buy now, pay later services Take your product home, pay for it within the specified timeframe, get charged 0% interest. What could go wrong? Branded the modern-day layby, ‘buy now, pay later’ services essentially offer the same thing, except you get the product up front—the outfit, the watch, even certain domestic flights within Australia. If you haven’t heard of buy now, pay later services, or are keen to know …
What the rise of the $A means for global investors The recent rise of the Australian dollar has been surprising but not confounding for experts who believe the its natural level is closer to US70 cents. Indeed, it’s the weakness of the US dollar that’s pushed the Australian dollar higher relative to the benchmark currency in recent weeks even though US economic growth and a resurgent commodities segment had most market watchers expecting the Australian …
What high household debt means for investors “High house-hold debt is Australia’s Achilles heel,” says AMP Capital Head of Investment Strategy and Economics and Chief Economist, Shane Oliver. “I’ve been thinking this for many years now and yet it seems to keep going higher.” Latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics puts total household liabilities at $2.466 trillion, or 199.7 percent of disposable income, putting it among the highest in the world. Australians have …
Add some extra cash to your New Year We all dream of an unexpected windfall, and there may be no better way to kick start 2018 than with some extra cash to your name. With a bit of digging around, it can be possible to find some forgotten funds you’re entitled to. A treasure trove of forgotten cash To begin with, many state government treasuries are filled with a trove of refunds and overpayments, unpresented …
New year, new financial resolutions The dawn of a new year is the perfect time to hit reset and correct course when it comes to your money. You may have already given thought to some health-related wellness goals for 2018, but what about your financial wellness? AMP research has revealed that a quarter of Australian workers have difficulty in making ends meet, with the most common triggers for financial stress found to be bad debt, …
Digital payment options could see you spend more this Christmas With the festive season just weeks away, Australians are gearing up for the annual peak spending period, and the growth of digital payment options could be widening the gap between what we regard as our spending limit and the balance of our bank account. The disconnect between cards and cash Credit cards make spending (and overspending) very easy, and a new breed of “digital wallets” …
08 November 2017 4 steps to help protect portfolios against political risk When Australia’s High Court ruled deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce ineligible to sit in Parliament because of his dual New Zealand citizenship, the decision briefly sent tremors through equity and currency markets. It was a clear reminder that political risk matters to markets. We face troubling political and geopolitical risk across the world: Trump, Brexit and, above all, the risk of nuclear confrontation …
Be the boss of your cash If, like many others, your life and money feels a bit like a juggling act – paying bills here and there… and “Uh oh, forgot about the council rates, guess that one’s going on the credit card”. You may be thinking that having some extra cash would solve a lot of your problems. Well, often changing how you spend the money you have now, can help you start to …
