budgeting and finance Archives
preparing the household budget for 2011
Preparing a budget and tracking your actual income and expenses is the first step in empowering you to reduce your expenditure, save money and get control over your personal finances.
the money talk
It’s that time of the year again. Time to draw up a new budget and decide on some goals for the coming year. DH and I recently sat down and had THE TALK. What our financial priorities will be for 2011. Dealing with stark financial realities is never fun. Budgeting and goal setting can be [...]
what is your dream life costing you?
Every now and then I see something that makes me wonder what I’m missing. There seems to be a secret understanding that everyone else gets, and I’m out of the loop. An understanding that you can buy your way to happiness. You see, I watched a video recently by Frank Kern, a popular internet marketing [...]
I’ve cut the lattes and i still have no savings! why the ‘latte factor’ fails
You’ve probably heard of the ‘latte factor’ before. Either from someone touting its virtues or another dismissing it as a waste of time and effort. Who, after all, really wants to give up their double mochaccino with extra whipped cream, right? For the uninitiated, what is the latte factor? The latte factor is a metaphor [...]
smoking: a drag on your finances
I read some depressing statistics about cigarette smoking that revealed the poorer you are the more likely you are to smoke. Not only that, but smokers with lower income smoke more cigarettes per day than the average. In other words, those who can least afford to smoke are the people who smoke the most.1 Why? [...]
the backup plan
Creating a backup plan helps curb spending when temptation comes knocking.
what’s the trend? Understanding your finances with graphs
When it comes to budgeting and spending less, there are good months and there are bad. Some months you nail your budget or even exceed expectations, and others you will fall off the wagon. But if your aim is to reduce your expenses (or in the case below, a particular expense), what is the overall [...]
why you should avoid workplace tax deductions
We all want to pay less tax, so having a long list of work related tax deductions to claim is good right? Maybe. When it comes to work related costs that are potentially tax deductible, the best scenario is one where your employer pays all or most of your work related costs. Why? Because even [...]
sharing financial responsibility in marriage
When one person takes on the responsibilities of the household budget, it is important for your spouse to know some key information about your finances should anything happen to you.
Australian Online resources for money management
I have put together a collection of Australian online resources for managing money. There is a wealth of information (pardon the pun) between these websites: everything from financial counselling, budgeting and saving, to financial planners and investing in the share market.
