March 2022 - Credit Connection

Creating some daily budget habits could mean the difference between achieving your dreams of debt freedom and being stuck in the hamster wheel of financial stress. We have some motivational daily budget habits that will make you a financial wizard to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Organisation Mastery!

Much like your desk and your house, keeping your finances organised will keep your mental health around finances so much better. Opening your bills when they come in, organising them into digital folders in your email, or taking a picture of physical bills to upload to a digital folder so that you know where they are at any time will keep you on top of them.

If you are not paying them immediately, then scheduling them to be paid in your bank or setting up a reminder in your digital calendar means you never miss a payment and incur those annoying late fees.

Pack light!

Having cash in the wallet is the “free pass” to spend it for some. Ensuring that any extra cash you have is stored in a secure location at home and not being carried around means that it’ll be there when you need it, not just when the inner-emotional-spender-monster sticks its head out.

Business Class!

Speaking of the inner-emotional-spender-monster, you wouldn’t make impulse purchases if you were given the work credit card because you would get in trouble for misusing company funds. If you treat your personal finances like it was your business account, it will be harder to “misuse” your finances. It might sound like a silly habit but treating your finances with professionalism means that they will work for you.

Practising these daily budget habits and more obvious ones like bringing your lunch to work instead of buying it from a local café will ensure that you have command over your personal finances and a clearer picture of how long it’ll take you to achieve your debt-free goals.

If you would like to discuss whipping your mortgage into shape to help you on this journey further, help is just a single click away. This click right here will put you in contact with one of the fantastic Credit Connection experts that will help you cut years and thousands off your mortgage.

Bite-sized budget help is also available with our “Tuesday Tips” with our founder, Sally-Ann, available right now on our official YouTube Channel.

Unfortunately, time management is not a fancy way of saying time travel, but it results from getting into some effective routines. Routines make everything more manageable, and there is a comfort to a routine that you don’t get with “shooting off the cuff”.

While there can be beauty in chaos, you don’t want that chaos around your career or finances. There aren’t many instances in our lives that can be improved with a vital understanding of time management. Having a managed, stress-free schedule can make a massive difference for your finances. A lot of similarities can be drawn between managing money and time. For example – you are always wondering where it went!

Time Management means you MAKE more money (per hour)

Effective time management is an essential skill for any successful human being. Successfully managing one of these aspects allows us to transfer our resources into the other. Daily, we face a multitude of time pressures. Time management is about taking control of your available time – before it takes control of you!

We are streamlining your life!

Many people fall into the trap of completing tasks as they pop up… or focusing on doing the simple tasks first because they’re easier. Unfortunately, this can lead to overlooked time-sensitive or urgent tasks, creating far more work pressure than required. The most effective method for overcoming this is to determine your priorities. It’s simpler than you think, especially if you follow our advice and create a daily to-do list.

Being able to prioritise stretches everything further. By prioritising tasks, you intend to accomplish your tasks in order of their hierarchical importance. Prioritising and completing tasks that matter more also creates a better sense of personal success. Having a clear focus on your time and money goals will make it easier to stay on track. A focus on goals will also help you prioritise what matters most.

The A-B-Cs of time management!

For a straightforward way to prioritise your tasks, try thinking about each of them on three priority levels: A – is the most urgent, B – is relatively time-bound, and C – is something you can postpone tomorrow without any adverse effect.

The Difference Between Priorities and Goals

Think of goals as part of the ‘bigger picture’; tangible milestones you’re trying to achieve (e.g. saving for a house deposit). Priorities are what you’ll need to say yes or no to reach that goal.

For example, to pay off your mortgage faster, your priorities need to be making your money work harder for you.

Get that Routine happening!

Remember what we said early about how routines can destress your life? This is where comfort and order come in.

Having a routine will cut down the amount of time spent on decision making each day. Albert Einstein owned several variations of the same grey suit he wore every day. He reasoned he could use the extra brainpower and time for more beneficial purposes instead of deciding what to wear.

We recommend creating a simple to-do list that you can follow each morning and afternoon.

Example Routine/To-Do List

Morning

Turn on the computer and make a coffee
Check email and respond to urgent ones
Review to-do list – adding non-urgent emails
Review lesson plans for the day

Afternoon

Send emails as needed
Tidy any mess from the day
Write a to-do list for tomorrow
Prepare materials for the next day’s work

Don’t Freak Out!

If you don’t meet all your time management goals straight away, don’t expend energy on stress. Building resilience is all about making ongoing progress in time management. If you’ve done your best, there is simply no point in adding stress to your to-do list for tomorrow.

No matter how hard you work to manage your time, there are still only 24 hours in a day to get it all done. Spend a while observing your day-to-day work as objectively possible to identify areas where improvements can be made if you feel you need to.

If your mortgage is an area that you know some improvements can be made, our team at Credit Connection would love to help you with that. Booking time here for a no-risk no-obligation meeting with our team can show you how you can save years off your mortgage.

Talk about REAL time management.

“Money plan” is a buzz phrase made up by the financial industry, though they LOVE to use it. A basic money plan is whatever you are doing to ensure that your money is working for you.

Throughout your lifetime, you will always be saving up for something… whether it’s a bag, car or a house, these wants and needs all start as a goal.

By making a plan and setting goals is the most crucial step to achieving improved financial health. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” isn’t a saying for nothing.

Everyone! Be SMART!

To give yourself the best chance of sticking to your financial goals, they must be S.M.A.R.T – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Once you have your SMART goal in mind, you can create a plan for how you’ll achieve it.

For example, if you want to pay off your $5000 credit card debt by the end of the year, work out how much you can allocate to your goal each day/week or month. By breaking your goals into smaller, more manageable pieces, you will find the difficulty factor you have given to them decreases rapidly!

Specific: I will pay off my credit card balance of $5000 before the end of 2021

Measurable: The current balance is $5000; I will make monthly payments of $420 until paid off.

Achievable: I have 12 months of 2021 to pay the total, I know that I make X amount per week, and I can use any extra from my tax return in July to cover any extra interest or make another payment.

Realistic: I’d love to pay it all off tomorrow, but that isn’t realistic. Based on my budget and discussions with my local financial adviser, I can pay $550 per month but have left a buffer for extra savings or unexpected expenses.

Time-bound: I will have it paid off by December 31 of this year.

Achieving Your Goals

Setting tangible and realistic goals and following them up, and tracking your progress are fundamental practices to achieving desired success in anything.

Financial goals can be broken into short-term, mid-term, and long-term sub-categories. Figuring out which sub-category your financial goal falls under is the first step to setting up your goal. The next step is to determine how much money you need for it. Then, create a budget to regulate a percentage of your income to go towards a saving account for the financial goal. Now, you might have more than one goal, so you must prioritise each of your financial goals.

It is easy to enjoy spending money… it is used as a luxury and obscures any future foresight. This is why financial goals are so important. Setting financial goals will help you figure out what you are trying to achieve. You will better be able to define your success!

Celebrate the wins!

Achieve a goal? Excellent! The money plan worked now. It’s about enjoying the fruits of your labour! The celebration can be making the purchase that you were saving for, enjoying closing that loan or debt off, or simply having a celebratory meal out with friends and family. Just make sure to celebrate those wins.

If your mortgage is the enormous debt you need help with, our expert team has slashed years off mortgages for over a decade. Contact our team today for a risk-free-no-obligation meeting to see how we can help you.

Broker is one of those words that if you don’t know what it is, you might think it has something to do with going broke. Of course, that’s not what it means, and if a broker is used correctly, it can mean the opposite of “broke” financially.

Quality mortgage brokers have many years of experience negotiating home loans for a range of clients – from the simplest to the most complex. These loan advisors know of many ways to help you fast-forward through your loan process, including seeking out and negotiating the most suitable loan rates, appropriate structures, the proper leverage and flexible terms to fit your situation.

Unfortunately for home buyers, there is a long-standing stigma surrounding all mortgage brokers – that they are money hungry snakes, no better than a shady used car salesperson.

However, thousands of our happy clients currently smashing their home loan goals will tell you that the tag is false and unjustified.

Financial Advice is Designed to Help You:

Develop a range of strategies to help achieve your financial goals
Identify your short-, medium- and long-term financial goals
Implement systems to help you manage your money better
Maximise your superannuation
Minimise your tax liabilities
Ensure you are adequately insured
Develop a suitable investment plan for your life stage
Plan for your retirement
How do you choose the right mortgage broker or financial planner for your circumstances?

Understanding and implementing these strategies can seem overwhelming. Luckily, there are several tools you can use to compare advisers in Brisbane and beyond… as well as several steps you can take to ensure you are making the right choice.

First, you need to identify your financial advice needs, and this will give you the scope to choose a qualified financial solutions provider to advise in that field.

Once you have chosen a financial adviser, the next step is to ensure you can provide them with accurate information about all aspects of your financial situation. Be prepared with your financial goals, financial statements, assets and liabilities, and other finance-related information. Be open and honest about your current situation, as failing to do so could result in incomplete or incorrect advice for what you require.

Make sure you feel comfortable with the adviser. You do not want to feel pressured into making any decisions.

Follow the above advice, do as much research as possible, and be as open and honest as possible. You should find a reputable financial adviser fit for your needs.

Broker power!

The pros of using a mortgage broker are plentiful. They will collect your income evidence and the other documents you need to provide as part of your application and take care of the whole process from application to settlement… as well as everything in between.

Mortgage brokers tend to be powerful negotiators who can help you, and they can get you more critical positions and lower interest rates than your bank offers. Brokers also contact credit officers to provide further evidence they may need to assess your application. To ensure a smooth application process, they contact your solicitor, valuers, builder, and even real estate agents. They are your number one contact during the whole procedure – keeping you updated throughout the entire process!

One of the most common reasons people approached a bank instead of going to a mortgage broker was that they already had accounts. So, convenience is the most common reason people go to a bank directly. Still, it doesn’t necessarily ensure that you’ll get a smooth loan application process or the best deal/interest rate.

Banks are large companies, and communication between departments is a big problem. There can be delays with your property valuation. The credit assessor can misinterpret your payslips because they don’t understand your income. The bank may question prior loans you’ve applied for, and your file can be handed over to someone else without clear communication. They sometimes even lose entire mortgage applications. These are just some examples of what can go wrong if you go to a bank.

Mortgage brokers can be perceived as scary and untrustworthy people due to the poor practices of a minority. However, if you seek out the help of a quality mortgage broker, you’ll find the importance of one quickly.

At Credit Connection, we have highly credited brokers who are 100% devoted to getting the best deals for their clients! If you want to get started on the pathway to Less Debt More Life, book a risk-free no-obligation meeting with one of our team today! You can do that here.

Personal Finance advice is everywhere. One of the reasons you might be reading this blog right now is that you believe that we know a thing or two about personal finance since it is a significant part of our business. And you would be correct, ten points to Gryffindor!

While it’s essential to get expert advice for your financial situation, we thought it would be fun to share some of the financial rules that our team follows in their lives.

Invest in the long game!

There are so many ways to invest your money these days. We’ve talked about a few of the most popular investment apps on the market in a previous blog. However, investing is not a magic wand. If you put $100 into an investment, it will not turn into $1000 overnight.

Investing takes time, and there are going to be some weeks that you lose money and then times you gain. Adding as much to your investments as you can ensure that your dividends will make it all worth it in the end.

Just like a lot of new skills, investing takes time and patience. Learning how to be patient with your investments will mean tremendous success.

You might as well diversify those investments.

We do a lot about investments because they are an integral part of any successful personal finance plan; diversifying your investments will also mean great success.

If you invest everything in one fund and it tanks, that could mean the loss of your investment. However, if you spread that investment among many funds, then if one falls, you’ll be protected and have a better chance of the other funds covering any shortcomings from another fund.

All about earning power!

While the idea of investing is getting that hot new stock that will triple your cash overnight, the reality is that kind of sharp market gain is mostly unheard of. Investing in “slow and steady” funds will generate more than some “rocket” funds in the same investment period.

Don’t skip on health!

Relax, we’re not going to be talking about insurance. That’s a whole blog on its own. We are talking about your overall personal health and how it’ll affect your finances. If you’re not healthy, that could affect your earning ability and visits to the doctor and prescriptions or treatments required are going to take away from savings and investments.

Many people cut gym memberships and healthier, high-quality foods from their budgets to save money. However, spending on those things now, and using them, means that you’ll be healthier in the long run, and those investments into your health will pay off on your earning potential in the future.

This also translates into your mental health. Keeping the mind and body healthy will keep your finances just as healthy.

These are just a few of the rules that we live by regarding our finances, and we understand that everyone’s situation is different.

If there are any other topics around finance that you would like help with. You can talk to one of our experts today to get an insight and the plan to ensure you’re on the path to less debt more life.

Less Debt More Life™

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