Make Money Simple Again on Today Show!

This time on Channel 9’s Today Show, Ben introduces his and Bryce’s brand new book, Make Money Simple Again!  Knowing that plenty of mums and dads out there are struggling with their money habits, trapping surplus and putting their “money to work”, this book is the designed to make this easy.

 

Peter Stefanovic: The time now for The Weekend Property! We now how hard buying a property can be.

Alison Langdon: I thought something was going to happen there 🙂 We are on top of it this morning, we are so quick!

Peter: Now buying a property can be daunting whether it’s a four-bedroom house or a small unit, the first step is saving up for a deposit.

Alison: From household budgets to money management systems many Australians struggle to save. Property Expert, Ben Kingsley has co-written a new book called, Make Money Simple Again with the tips and tricks to achieve financial peace in less than 10 minutes a month. Ben joins us this morning. It’s nice to actually have you in   the studio this time!

Ben: Yes, good to be here!

Alison: Now look, household debt in Australia is a massive issue. We’ve got one of the highest levels. I think it’s second only to Switzerland. So clearly we are no good at saving. Why is that?

Ben: Well I think the budgeting of the past is no longer possible because we’ve got a digital, cashless economy. So what’s happening is, we might have set up some spreadsheets but we’ve got instant access to our money. And when we do that, we’re tapping and going and we’re transferring and wiring money. So we’ve got no discipline in terms of how to organise and manage our money.

Peter: Could you say that differently? I mean are we no good at saving or are we spending too much? Are we overreaching with our debt?

Ben: We certainly are! With the plastic economy that we’ve got, we’ve got access to credit so our grandparents are the best money managers we’ve seen in history. Because they used    to get their pay slips and they used to manage cash. And they used to put it into jars. If you didn’t have that money, you couldn’t overspend. So from that point of view that’s the way we need to get back to but the reality is, is we now do have digital money and digital banking. So we’ve got to organise your money back into those jars but we call them virtual jars. You have your primary offset account or your high interest savings account. You get all your money going into there and then you organise your money and if you can do that you can trap more surplus and you can stop the overspending.

Alison: So what you really need to be doing though, is just keeping an eye on what you’re spending and to be aware of what’s coming in and what’s going out.

Ben: Yeah but most people can’t do that Ali, in terms of what they’re actually doing is… They might have expense items but what they’re not doing is organising their money. So as an example, we’ve got a Seven-Day Float model. So you organise your money and then you work out what you’re going to spend for that seven days. Now you wire that money to your living and lifestyle account and you pay yourself on a Thursday, just like our grandparents used to do. And if you come to the next Tuesday and you’ve only got $10 left, you’ve got to make that work. You’ve got to open the pantry, you’ve got to make a meal out of that because what we normally do is just go into another shop. And it’s that slippage… that money that’s slipping out. It’s not allowing us to trap surplus and pay our debt down.

Peter: So how do you reign in that discretion spending?

Ben: Yeah, so the best way to do it is look at your money and say, you’ve got essential and discretionary spending. For every expense item, you need to look at and say… Even when you go grocery shopping, you might have the staples that you have to buy. But ultimately they’re still, you know in my case, it’s the dark chocolate and almonds. That’s the sort of   discretionary spending so if you can work through your expense items and trap that and then keep to that habit and make sure you’re looking after that money. And the rest of it takes care of itself. You just start getting into a routine, you’re checking on a monthly basis and you can see that surplus being trap.

Alison: So realistically, how long would you expect it to take a normal family to save for a deposit for a home?

Ben: Yes, so if we’re sort of talking about double household income and we’re earning say $100,000. A good rule of thumb is to try and trap 20% of that. That means that over a course of three to four or five years, you’re going to have $60,000, $80,000 or $100,000. Now that is a good amount of money to be able to put a deposit down on a property to move forward alright then thanks for coming.

Peter: Alright Ben, thanks for coming in. You’ve got the new book. If you want some more tips and tricks folks, right there. Make Money Simple Again.

Alison: And all it takes is 10 minutes a month. Thanks Ben.

 

CLICK HERE to Get a FREE CHAPTER of Make Money Simple Again