Money management articles & tips

The Cost of Spending

One of the fundamental principles of Empower Wealth’s Money Planning philosophy is that you should get your money to work as hard as possible for you.  In our previous newsletter, we looked at one approach to get your money working for you, by using an Offset Account to reduce the amount of Interest that you have to pay on your Mortgage. This a...

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The Cost of Interest

What is the largest single amount of money you expect to part with in your life?  For most families, a family home will probably be the largest single purchase they will make in their lives.  But while the actual purchase price you pay for a house may be the biggest amount of money you spend in a single lump sum, there is likely to be another cos...

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Someone Took a Calculated Risk

Question: How many generations can you trace your family back to? 2, 3 or 4 maybe..... Now looking at your family’s wealth base how many of you can easily see the millions of dollars within the family estates in property, cash, shares etc? What....... your family doesn’t have all those tens of millions in the family estate? (Don’t worry I�...

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From Action to Measurement

In last month’s newsletter ( available from our website ), we outlined two key steps needed to take your Money Plan and put it into action - getting your existing money working as hard as possible for you, and taking control of your spending. These two steps can be achieved by implementing the Account Structures and cash flow strategies that form...

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From Strategy to Action

In previous newsletters, we have discussed the three stages in Money Planning: knowing where you are now - developing a picture of your current Financial Position, deciding where you want to be (and when) - thinking about how much passive income you will need to allow you to be financially independent, and deciding on the best way to get fr...

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From Plan to Strategy

In previous newsletters, we have discussed the first two stages in Money Planning - knowing where you are now and deciding where you want to be (and when).  The next step in the process is to develop some ideas about different strategies you may adopt to get from your current situation to your desired future state and the pros and cons of each pos...

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If You Can Measure It, You Can Manage It

You have heard me talk about treating your household as a business.  Those of you who are new to our newsletter, let me revisit this point. Your household, which could be you, you and your partner etc, generates income for the work you and potentially other members of your household do, just like a business generates income.  In fact if a hous...

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Money Choices

In this month’s comment I’m putting my focus on discretionary and lifestyle spending decision with a goal of just making people contemplate a little harder before making such decisions or continuing with the money choices they currently make... Smoking: Based on research conducted by Galaxy for Pfizer in 2009, the average smoker spends $2,50...

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A Great Time to Start is NOW

As we begin the new Financial Year, most people can expect to receive some key information regarding their financial situation - employees will be receiving their PAYG Payment Summaries (Group Certificates) for the year and most people will also be receiving statements from their Superannuation Fund(s) which will give an insight into the wealth bas...

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How do you Get Started?

In the previous Newsletter, we looked at the first step in Money Planning  -  knowing where you are now  -  and outlined the sort of information that you would need to collect to be able to prepare a picture of your current financial position. But that’s only the beginning - your financial position will be constantly changing over time, and ...

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Where to Get Started?

As we have highlighted in recent newsletters, Money Planning is a critical factor in achieving your goals and dreams, and the earlier you get started, the better the outcome is likely to be. So, where to begin? Like any other form of planning you may do in life, Money Planning involves the three basic steps of knowing where you are now, knowing w...

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When should you start investing?

One of the decisions that will typically flow from undertaking Money Planning is a decision to get your money and your equity working for you, generally through some form of investment.  One of the most important factors in the returns to be achieved from investing is time.  No matter what investment you choose, the longer you can hold it, the mo...

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$350 Surplus Cash per week could equate to Millions

This month we focus on how you can use surplus cash of $350 per week to potentially control an investment property worth $450,000. It’s all in the numbers….let’s take a look. Surplus Household cash $350 per week after expenses, commitments etc. Purchase Price $450,000 Estimated Purchase Costs $22,500 (5%) includes stamp duty, set up c...

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