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Gareth Daniels is an Authorised Representative, GWM Adviser Services Limited, Australian Financial Services Licensee

Language in general and the ways in which specific words are used is fluid and open to change over time. Think of the way that ‘bad’ and ‘wicked’ have become accepted to mean ‘good’ and ‘cool’. One example that has recently started annoying me is the way that my children (and all their mates) say that two teams are ‘versing’ each other. I always thought that it was ‘versus’ as in Hawthorn versus Geelong. Or that the two teams were playing each other. My wife tells me that I am already sounding like an old man and to get over myself!

You may have come across the term ‘trigger warning’ or that a person has been ‘triggered’. This term actually dates to the early post-traumatic stress studies that came out of WWI. It references the idea that reminders of trauma can trigger a debilitating physical, emotional and mental response. Over the last ten to twenty years it has become more and more common and can be seen in use when discussing substantial issues such as discrimination and racism.

Well I am going to give it yet another use here; what reality is going to trigger you in to action in regard to your relationship with money?

Seemingly innocuous transactions through a ‘have it now pay for it later’ system have begun to create a material negative impact on people’s finances such as their ability to get a home loan.

How Afterpay could impact your chance of getting a home loan READ HERE

The article linked above sights cases of people being turned down for a mortgage as they did not meet the banks servicing criteria because they had a live Afterpay account. The eye opening thing for me is that the women featured in the piece didn’t even need to use the Aftepay service as she had enough money to pay for her items outright. A well-meaning (although misguided) friend encouraged her to do so. Beyond the stated idea about the ease of spreading the payments the truth is that the process tacitly encourages us to spend more.

The article linked below goes further, reporting that research shows that people using this modern lay-by equivalent will also buy more expensive items, possibly ones that they can’t truly afford.

Afterpay, Zip Pay and others cause financial strife for ‘young’ shoppers: ASIC READ HERE

None of us want to be told directly what to do, especially if we know deep down that the thing that seems hard or that we can tell ourselves is unfair is in reality true and correct.

I am constantly reminded that I get better behaviours and choices from my kids when they feel they have reached a decision on their own rather than me simply telling them that they must do something.

I am not belittling the important issues that, when discussed, warrant a true trigger warning. I know that I am making an exaggerated point; I am doing so deliberately.

However, we must listen to the facts that are being presented, and if they are coming to us from multiple sources and conveying corroborating information to us then we ought to listen.

Lending criteria is getting tighter. We must be able to prove accurately that we can service loans. Spending less than you earn is an adage. Paying for something on credit, or through a payment system that’s lets you have it right now even if you can’t afford it right now has never been a successful way to manage your spending habits and it will have a consequence as you move through life.

It’s about a reality check. It doesn’t matter if it’s Afterpay or Zip Pay or a misuse of a basic credit card (insert your preferred method of buy now pay later here). It is recognising that it will have an impact on you. It may stop you from getting a home loan or you may get the loan but not at a competitive rate. It is pushing you further into debt and inducing all the stress that this causes. You may miss out on something that is truly to your benefit such as an important life experience or the ability to take a course that will further your career… whatever piece of information it takes to trigger you, lets take some action as you will be the beneficiary!

Any advice in this publication is of a general nature only and has not been tailored to your personal circumstances. Please seek personal advice prior to acting on this information. The information in this document reflects our understanding of existing legislation, proposed legislation, rulings etc as at the date of issue. In some cases the information has been provided to us by third parties. While it is believed the information is accurate and reliable, this is not guaranteed in any way. Opinions constitute our judgement at the time of issue and are subject to change. Neither, the Licensee or any of the National Australia group of companies, nor their employees or directors give any warranty of accuracy, nor accept any responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. Before making a decision to acquire a financial product, you should obtain and read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) relating to that product. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future returns. The information in this document reflects our understanding of existing legislation, proposed legislation, rulings etc as at the date of issue. In some cases the information has been provided to us by third parties. While it is believed the information is accurate and reliable, this is not guaranteed in any way.

Gareth Daniels is an Authorised Representative, GWM Adviser Services Limited, Australian Financial Services Licensee

Interest rates are staying on hold again.

An interesting article on the 9 News finance webpage https://finance.nine.com.au/2018/12/04/12/05/ross-greenwood-analysis-why-interest-rates-have-been-on-hold-for-28-month provides some commentary and thoughts as to why this might be the case.

It suggests that rates will remain on hold, to a greater extent, until the end of 2020 whilst acknowledging that this is an oddity given certain factors including a well performing economy and low(ish) unemployment.

The reason that the article sights for the RBA not raising rates is falling house prices. It also notes that general rising living costs (fuel, power bills etc) means that households are under pressure to juggle all of their outgoings.

Overall the piece links intertwined economic factors to paint a picture that some uncertainty lies ahead.

Ever the optimist I can’t help but see a common-sense opportunity here…

We know that genuinely having an understanding of where your money goes is an incredibly powerful tool to help you feel confident about your current financial position and to enable you to make informed decisions about how to build for your future.

In the past I have pulled my punches a little in encouraging people to put time and effort into a writing a budget and most importantly sticking to it. I’ve possibly even let them off the hook when they don’t engage with the task but most people dread the exercise. Well no more.

Just do it.

You have to do it.

There is no excuse not to do it.

It isn’t even that hard.

Consider two basic approaches. You can use historic information pulled from your bank and credit card statements to understand where the money has been going or you can consider yourself as a business and set a budget for the year ahead.

The first approach can be a little time consuming, daunting and even painful (count the number of times Dan Murphy’s pops up on your statement and you will know what I mean)! It can allow you to take stock and adjust spending habits. It can even vindicate some of the discretionary spending that you have made as perhaps it wasn’t as bad as you feared! You are allowed to enjoy life, budgeting is not about restricting it’s about being honest with yourself and putting yourself in control.

If you take the second approach you need to do some planning. Take a moment, it may only be a couple of hours, to run through some of your non-negotiable costs such as power, phone and other utilities and ensure you are getting the best deal. Also set yourself a goal of where you would like

your debt to be come the end of the year; don’t simply settle for the minimum repayment that will satisfy the banks thirty year timeline. Again, include the fun stuff too so when you do have that dinner out or go to your friends birthday it can be enjoyed guilt free. Just be very clear on how much money is allocated to go where.

The final component regardless of the approach you take is monitoring and tracking. This can be manual through regular engagement with your online banking or via one of the numerous apps that exist to help you do this efficiently and accurately. As I said early though;

Just do it.

You have to do it.

There is no excuse not to do it.

It isn’t even that hard.

It may be that I am an optimist, I like to not think blindly. There are genuine trials and tribulations in life and significant challenges that are thrown at us. It is fair though to think that we might develop the fortitude, and lean on available support where needed, to give us the capacity to step back and find the opportunity that exists within these challenges.

A great client of mine lives with the mantra “everything is temporary”.

I have no doubt that rates will rise again at some point, when and by how much I am not game to say.

I am happy to say though that practical steps including setting a budget, tracking it and therefore sticking to it will go a long way to enabling you to get ahead on the repayments to your single largest barrier to creating meaningful wealth; your mortgage.

Far from being restrictive, understanding your budget will provide you the chance to make the most of this current opportunity.

These low rates, in the greater scheme of things, may well only be temporary. The cash rate has remained the same for “twenty-eight months straight” (a long time as the article intermates). However, put another way that’s just over 2 years or about one twentieth of your thirty-year loan term. To me low rates mean one thing, time to take control and time to get ahead!

Any advice in this publication is of a general nature only and has not been tailored to your personal circumstances. Please seek personal advice prior to acting on this information. The information in this document reflects our understanding of existing legislation, proposed legislation, rulings etc as at the date of issue. In some cases the information has been provided to us by third parties. While it is believed the information is accurate and reliable, this is not guaranteed in any way. Opinions constitute our judgement at the time of issue and are subject to change. Neither, the Licensee or any of the National Australia group of companies, nor their employees or directors give any warranty of accuracy, nor accept any responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. Before making a decision to acquire a financial product, you should obtain and read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) relating to that product. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future returns. The information in this document reflects our understanding of existing legislation, proposed legislation, rulings etc as at the date of issue. In some cases the information has been provided to us by third parties. While it is believed the information is accurate and reliable, this is not guaranteed in any way.

In the eyes of a 24 year old

Let’s face it; at one stage or another, we have all been advised that rent money is dead money. Sound familiar? Maybe you can relate to one of the following examples:

• ‘Why would you pay all that money so your landlord can pay off their mortgage?’
• ‘Why would you waste all that money when you’ll have nothing to show for it?’
• ‘If you had of been paying a mortgage off instead, you have paid off your most valuable asset.’

Firstly, the definition of an asset is something that pays you.

The definition of a liability is simply something that you are required to pay for.

Let’s take these definitions and apply it to our situation when we own a house.

A house:

• Asks us to put our hand in our pocket to pay for it
• Accrues rates & insurances
• Requires all kinds of maintenance
• Even the government takes their slice of our property thanks to stamp duty – great!

I now ask you, is your house truly an asset?

Circling back to the age-old question in Australia: Is rent money, dead money?

I’ll counter by asking: is interest payable to the bank dead money?

If you were to borrow $400,000 tomorrow at today’s record-low interest rates, and make principle and interest repayments at 4.5% over 30 years, you would repay $729,130, with your initial weekly liability being $467. Not too bad? $211 of which is the interest portion of your loan. Meaning, over the course of your loan, you would pay an approximate $329,626 in interest to the bank. Thank you very much says the CBA CEO. **

So, assuming a 20% deposit, it is costing you $467 per week, or $24,288 per year, to live in a house with a perceived value of roughly $500,000. But is it? At Income Solutions we reasonably assume annual expenses (rates, maintenance, etc.) to average at least 1.5% of the property’s value each year. Therefore, throw around $7,500 on top of your existing $24,284. Roughly, on average, it will cost you a touch over $31,000 per year to run the house you own.

Let’s say I rent the same house at an assumed rent price of $450 per week. This works out to be around $23,400 per year. And that is where my dwelling expenses stop. As a tenant, I have no obligation to pay any maintenance, rates or property management fees. This is the landlord’s responsibility. I simply pay my rent on time, and because my dwelling expenses are so low, I do not make a fuss when my landlord attempts to increase the rent by $20 a week every few years. As I pay on time and look after the place, the landlord is more than happy to keep re-signing me to 2-year lease agreements, providing me some security. Therefore, I pay $450 per week, compared to the landlords $611[1].

This is where renting becomes interesting. I am paying $161 less than the landlord/homeowner per week, so let’s say I use this, add another $50 to equal the $211 the landlord pays in interest in year 1 of the loan[2] and contribute this to a tax-effective income-producing asset, over the same 30-year period.

Basically, the difference between what I pay in rent per week, and the total amount the landlord/homeowner pays to own the home per week.

Assuming an annual return of a conservative 9.5%, (the Australian Share market has averaged a return of around 12.5% over the past 100 years) the power of compounding becomes your friend here, as my $211 weekly investment for 30 years would grow to a modest $2.9 million dollars. Again, this is a conservative figure, and it also assumes I never contribute more than $211 per week over the course of my working life. I’ll be 54 by this stage, and thanks to the Franking Credit system, this $2.9 million can reasonably produce me a cool, highly franked, beautiful income stream of approximately $178,000. Enough to retire, I think.

At the end of the loan period, the homeowner is hoping the value of their property has grown to at least equal to the total amount spent on the property, which in this scenario is around $945,000. If they were 24 when they bought the home, they have finally paid it off at age 54. However, they have had to find more disposable income on top of their weekly $611, which has been swallowed by their house for 30 years, to contribute to some form of financial asset. They may own their house outright, but we know our house does not produce us any income, it actually asks us for a share of ours to service it. There is a potential that they will be examples of the typical ‘asset rich, income poor’ description we sadly see too often in this country.

By renting and spending the same $611 per week, I can own an asset and not a liability. If I would like to own my dream home, I will simply withdraw the $945,000 from my investment and pay for it in cash, no interest paid to the bank. Furthermore, I’ll still have around $2mil producing me highly Franked income.

Rather than paying interest to the bank, I’d rather get paid by the bank.

Now, is rent money dead money?

*All figures are present value.

[1] This includes the P and I repayments, and the averaged costs of $7,500, broken down into a weekly figure.

[2] The interest payable will reduce over the loan term, however, the $467 will remain constant.

https://www.yourmortgage.com.au/calculators/home-loan-repayment/result/

Any advice in this publication is of a general nature only and has not been tailored to your personal circumstances. Please seek personal advice prior to acting on this information. The information in this document reflects our understanding of existing legislation, proposed legislation, rulings etc as at the date of issue. In some cases the information has been provided to us by third parties. While it is believed the information is accurate and reliable, this is not guaranteed in any way.  Opinions constitute our judgement at the time of issue and are subject to change. Neither, the Licensee or any of the National Australia group of companies, nor their employees or directors give any warranty of accuracy, nor accept any responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. Before making a decision to acquire a financial product, you should obtain and read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) relating to that product. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future returns. 

Lee Nickelson is an Authorised Representative, GWM Adviser Services Limited, Australian Financial Services Licensee

To quote Peter Thornhill’s two golden rules of wealth creation:

1. Spend less than you earn
2. Borrow less than you can afford ¹

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?!  Hardly!  One of the most common hurdles I encounter with clients is gaining a full understanding of their spending – I estimate only around 25% of clients have a clear idea of where their money is being spent as most people dislike the idea of a budget.

At a basic level, we have control over 3 facets of our ability to earn and maintain wealth – how long we work for, whether we invest to educate ourselves to increase our earning (income) potential, and…. this is often the hardest to manage… how much we spend.

The benefits of having an idea of expenses in comparison to earnings are clear.  You will gain confidence when future decisions on spending are made (yes, I can afford this holiday), you will be able to prioritise spending more easily (would I rather upgrade the car or pay the mortgage back 3 years faster) and you will avoid buyers’ remorse (geeze I shouldn’t have bought these shoes, I’m worried I can’t afford them).

Where to start?  Best to define the difference between the ‘B’ word (budget) and spending analysis

• A budget is forward looking – an estimate of expenses over a specific period
• Spending analysis is rear looking – it involves tracking what you have spent over a specific period

There are any number of budgeting and spending analysis theories, tools and programs online which can then be overwhelming.  I find a great place to start for my clients is to get them to split their spending between Non-negotiable items and Negotiable items.  What appears in each list may change from client to client (i.e. holidays may become negotiable for some, whilst Foxtel to watch the football may be non-negotiable for others).  Once the Non-negotiable items list is complete, we minus this from net earnings.  This leaves the amount of funds left over to cover the spending items under Negotiable column.

This blue print allows the spending analysis to happen – is there enough left to fund the negotiable column?  Is a rethink required regarding negotiable and non-negotiable items?  Can money be saved on any of the line items (i.e. reviewing your Electricity bill / home insurance provider)?  Am I saving enough off my mortgage to repay it before retirement?

This analysis is also the confronting part – am I borrowing from my future to fund the lifestyle I am living today?
Once the non-negotiable items are agreed and reviewed, it becomes as simple as dividing this figure by your pay cycle and setting aside this amount each period in a separate ‘bills’ account.  Anything left over can be spent with the confidence and knowledge that you will have enough to cover your non-negotiable expenses.

Unsure how to proceed?  I’d be happy to help you review your spending.  Please contact our Melbourne office to set an appointment.

1             Thornhill, P. (2003) Motivated money. Gordon, N.S.W.: Motivated Money.

Any advice in this publication is of a general nature only and has not been tailored to your personal circumstances. Please seek personal advice prior to acting on this information. The information in this document reflects our understanding of existing legislation, proposed legislation, rulings etc as at the date of issue. In some cases the information has been provided to us by third parties. While it is believed the information is accurate and reliable, this is not guaranteed in any way. Opinions constitute our judgement at the time of issue and are subject to change. Neither, the Licensee or any of the National Australia group of companies, nor their employees or directors give any warranty of accuracy, nor accept any responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. Before making a decision to acquire a financial product, you should obtain and read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) relating to that product.

Elise Ryan is an authorised Representative, GWM Adviser Services Limited, Australian Financial Services Licensee

We like to focus on their education, and we run five different seminars each month

• Common Sense Investing
• Common Sense Estate Planning
• Pivot – Your Future Starts Now
• Kickstart!
• Income Solutions for Women

We have built a well-researched process for clients when they are

The best investment you will ever make is in yourself, and we believe this investment is not only financially focused. At Income Solutions we encourage our clients to invest in education, health and fitness, career and following your goals.

A big focus when talking to our clients is around their goals, what they want to achieve, and we work with them to build a strategy to help them achieve it. We try and make it easy, we know your goals don’t come to you in meeting with your advisor, for this reason we built the my.solutions application. This enables you to log in 24/7, even when you are on holidays, sipping cocktails by the pool and dreaming of what your future will look like, you can log into my.solutions, pop in your goals, and your advisor will be notified immediately. This allows your advisor to consider strategies before your meeting and help you get the most out of your appointments.

Any advice in this publication is of a general nature only and has not been tailored to your personal circumstances. Please seek personal advice prior to acting on this information. The information in this document reflects our understanding of existing legislation, proposed legislation, rulings etc as at the date of issue. In some cases the information has been provided to us by third parties. While it is believed the information is accurate and reliable, this is not guaranteed in any way.  Opinions constitute our judgement at the time of issue and are subject to change. Neither, the Licensee or any of the National Australia group of companies, nor their employees or directors give any warranty of accuracy, nor accept any responsibility for errors or omissions in this document.