With Christmas and the holidays just around the corner, it’s important to understand how to use your credit card wisely.
For some, the best way to use it is to not use it all.
Especially for a lot of you who get yourselves in financial trouble because you spend more than you earn.
Understanding how your card works is key to managing it effectively.
Some have up to a 55 day interest-free period. Which means from day 1 of your credit card cycle you could have 55 days of so-called free money & spending without costing you a cent.
This is where some of you may get into trouble because when your statement arrives you’ve realised you’ve overspent and have no way of paying the amount racked up back to the zero balance.
So here’s where the bank loves you because now they’re going to slog you anywhere from 19 – 22% interest.
Here are 6 tips that will make you more mindful for when using your credit card:
1. Keep track of your spending. If you’re not good at this then go get yourself a visa debit card which uses your money not the banks and stops you getting into financial trouble.
2. Pay your card on time. This may seem obvious but for a lot of people they forget to pay the balance or minimum payment by the due date and this ends up costing them more. This is where the bank slogs you around $15 for not paying on time.
3. Pay off your outstanding balance as quickly as possible. Banks love when you don’t pay the balance owing in full off because they can then start charging you interest on the amount racked up anywhere from 19 – 22%.
By getting into the habit of sweeping off what you’ve spent on your credit card every month – will save you thousands of dollars. You see every year you don’t pay off your balance sees you going further into debt.
For example; here’s a really frightening statistic that I got one client to read on the back of their credit card statement to shock them into how NOT paying the balance off in full is costing them. In this example, the balance owed was $5000 and the client was paying just the minimum monthly repayment around $95. This client if they didn’t get their butt into gear and pay the card off in full they would be paying it off in 72 years and owing over $25k in interest charges!
4. Check your statement monthly to make ensure there are no transactions that you didn’t authorise. Today there is too much internet fraud with online purchasing that starts with a $5 or $10 amount then next you know someone has swiped you for a couple of thousand dollars. This is how they do it small and slowly and go unsuspecting. So check your card statement regularly to ensure there are no unsuspecting amounts on there.
5. If you’re buying on the internet be aware of a fee called the “foreign transaction fee” which is a fee that occurs when you buy something from the internet and it’s in a different currency like US because your bank will convert this cost back into your currency for example; Aussie dollars and you’ll be slogged a foreign transaction fee.
This doesn’t seem like a lot but today the trend is to buy online and these amounts add up if they’re not in your country’s currency. So an option to get around this is to look at a credit card that has “no foreign transaction fees” attached to the card. For me, a lot of the monthly operating expenses in my business are from the US and because of this, I have a credit card that doesn’t charge the additional foreign transaction fee which saves me hundreds of dollars per month. Look at your bank or financial institution to see whether they offer this type of credit card, and lastly
6. Don’t buy items you really can’t afford with no way in hell of paying them back by the end of the month. This is not good money management and is seeing your hard-earned dollars going to others and not you. You work hard for every dollar you get so make it count and if you really want that particular item save up for it – because it makes it all the worthwhile knowing you actually own it not the bank!
That’s it for my 6 tips on how to better manage your credit card. If you’re looking for more training and education in how to work money to your advantage then check out a money program that’s super affordable and will get you back in the black.
How To Keto Your Money is a 21-day kick start program designed to get your money back in shape. Find out more HERE
Any questions leave me a comment and if you enjoyed this please also let me know.
Until next time here’s to your financial health, wealth and happiness.
You may have noticed or “may not” that I’ve been off the air and haven’t posted or shared anything for a while.
There’s a couple of reasons for that and I’ll share with you ONE now and the other I’ll save for another time in a more intimate group via a live training call on how to move forward when you’re feeling emotionally, mentally and financially stuck.. soon.
So make sure you keep an eye out and join me for this special live training.
So one of the reasons I’ve been a little quiet is because I’ve felt there’s been so much noise on social media loads of talk, new stuff coming on our feed – some good and some I feel not so good.
So I decided to stop and just think about what are people looking for?
What am I looking for?
The answers were obvious.
Firstly. we all want the same things in life to live free from stress and worry, whether it be about money, relationships, work or other stuff.
A life that when we come to the end of our days we can say YES we had a good time and we lived the best possible life for us, one with loads of fun and a life with meaning.
And secondly, what I discovered was that 80% of life is about the stuff that’s going on between our ears the constant conversation we’re having in our head, where the 20% is about the doing – the know-how.
You see I use to think it was the other way round.
80% – knowledge, know-how and just doing it, while the
20% – is about mindset and getting that right.
I realised that in order for my clients to be truly successful in all areas of life I have to help them unravel what’s going on upstairs. What thoughts, beliefs and misconceptions they were constantly thinking about themselves and their life.
You see most of my clients were sabotaging their long term happiness because of the beliefs they were carrying around about themselves – self-sabotaging thoughts.
As I started to work more closely with them I discovered their limiting beliefs were holding them back from living the life they truly desired.
So I had to change things up and flip things on their head “so to speak” by focussing on breaking down these limiting beliefs and re-building new thoughts about themselves to create a realistic transformation.
Because what I discovered was that it wasn’t as easy as I thought to just to get their money in order, I had to get their mind thinking different thoughts, because most didn’t feel good about themselves or even like who they are.
So I’ve decided to change things up a bit and spend time equally talking about mindset and financial, with more emphasis on looking to improve some of the crappy beliefs we carry around about ourselves.
For example; when you truly love yourself and are at peace with who you are and how your life is you find that you don’t talk about people, bitch about them or compare yourself to them.
You also find you have less interest in gossiping and spend more on what makes you happy.
If you don’t believe me then I challenge you to stop and listen to the thoughts you have in your head and hear the words you’re speaking.
Are you talking about someone all the time, sticking your nose in where it’s not wanted or are you an active listener and participating in conversations without judgement and criticism?
When we take our focus off others and focus on our own life – we’re able to help not only ourself live a better life but others around us, because we’re not getting involved in their dramas.
What we’re doing is freeing the often negative, exhaustive thoughts that are constantly swirling around in our head when we’re not involved in gossip, criticism or judgement.
So it’s all about the 80/20.
80% – Mindset, thoughts, beliefs & how we feel.
20% – Know-how, knowledge & education.
In order to build both financial and emotional muscle, learn to let go and focus on yourself and your happiness first.
For more support and help to do this join my monthly coaching or access, any of my ONLINE PROGRAMS to live the life you’ve always dreamed.
Until next time…….here’s to your financial health, wealth & happiness.
Let’s talk about how your thoughts, views and what you possibly heard when growing up is seeing you still miserable and poor!
Your attitude combined with who taught you about money – has shaped the way you live today whether you are experiencing financial stress or have money behind you and living a stress-free life.
I want you to answer this question?
Who was your role model, who did you learn your money management skills from while growing up?
Did your parents or grandparents ever talk to you about money?
Having conversations around the dinner table while growing up about money is equally as important as the “Birds n Bees” talk that most of us are given at a certain age – if you know what I mean.
They say talking about money is taboo but I disagree. If you don’t start talking about money how are you ever going to learn about managing it more effectively?
Whether you grew up talking about how to save and use money wisely or not has shaped your perception today on how you live your life and what kind of a lifestyle you have created for yourself.
You will either have money in the bank or spend every dollar you earn.
You see 80% of us are managing our money out of sheer habit with no real understanding why and this has adverse effects down the track if you haven’t got a grasp on how to work it well. As it can either make or break the quality of our life in years to come.
I was having this very conversation with my Mum a while back and she was commenting that money was never talked about. There was never the education around this subject like she said is starting to happen today.
“Mum went on to say that it’s not until you retire that you start to feel the pressure or relief of how you worked your money. She stressed that saving is not a thing for today’s generation and she wished they knew the real power of this as she said it’s going to make a huge difference to the quality of someone’s life at the end of their working life”.
We are sadly creatures of habit. We do the same things over and over again often expecting to get different results but of course, we’re going to get the same results if we don’t change our thinking or our habits.
If you have decided you want a better life, then you have to look at what your belief is around money.
What did you hear growing up about money?
I’m guessing a few of these saying probably popped up and has created in some part a belief system to which you manage your money today.
Money doesn’t grow on trees.
It takes money to make money.
Some people, without a doubt, have more dollars than sense
He who has the gold makes the rules
A good name is better than riches.
Health is better than wealth.
Money is the root of all evil
You can’t take it with you when you die – now that’s spoken like a true spender lol! and the last common saying you may have heard is …AND
Money isn’t everything
Another contributing factor to what you may have heard about money is through sources like:
TV and regular news bulletins – which the media is great at giving you the grim view about financial markets and money today. They thrive off the negative stories.
How many times do you hear positive news stories about everyday people making it big (yes we hear about the lotto win stories) but over time we know that if those winning the lotto haven’t got a handle on how to manage money then in a few short years they will be back to where they started before winning.
Another popular source for hearing about money is when catching up with friends, especially from those friends that consider themselves a wiz at investing.
Offering you their 2 cents worth of knowledge on how they made a fair bit of money on xyz stock or a particular investment, but never how much they lost during the process. I challenge you to ask them how much they have lost up to that point!
There are so many areas to hear and learn about financial education.
A word of caution though to check where you’re getting your information from to see if it’s from a reliable source.
AND always trust your gut instinct because if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.
The subconscious is such a powerful thing that what you think about all day long is what you attract and this applies especially to your lack or abundant thinking about money.
When we keep saying to ourself ….oh we have no money… we’re poor…. we’re never going to get ahead then that’s what you’re going to keep getting.
But when you say to yourself, ok I’ve got this I’m going to keep putting money away and not touch it. I’m going to use cash for a while to curb my spending. I’m going to get there and we’re going to be debt free in no time then you will.
Keeping a positive mindset is one thing but actually doing the thing that’s going to free you up financially is another and both go hand in hand.
So what could you do today to change the way you think about money?
Motivational sayings are especially good when you feel a negative or disbelieving thought come up.
Having a massive belief in yourself that you’re going to make it is another way to change things.
Watch how things start to improve when you combine a positive mindset with activity and action.
Three facts about money I’m going to leave with you are:
Having good money habits takes enormous pressure and stress off you worrying about how you can afford to live day to day.
Having an awesome mindset can move you from poor money habits to good money habits, and
Lastly, anyone can change their belief around money if you decide to choose to, regardless of how you grew up and where you came from.
If you’re looking for more help and guidance in managing your money and getting your money back into great financial shape – then check out my ONLINE PROGRAMS that I’ve created to teach people this very thing – how to move them into awesome financial health.
Also available is my monthly coaching program that helps you to stay on track while you achieve your financial goals.
Look forward to seeing you in one of my programs.
Until next time…….here’s to your financial health, wealth & happiness.
2 years ago my Grandmother passed away. She was one of the best money managers I’ve seen. She passed her skill down to my Mum who then passed this onto me as I was growing up.
Grandma was very careful with her money as she grew up during the era of the Great Depression. Grandma saw the suffering that went with it – no jobs, no food and barely enough of anything to get by on.
So, when she got married and had a family of her own she continued on with the scarcity mentality and saved any penny she got.
Gramps was the sole breadwinner in the family and back then didn’t earn a lot. Gramps would often say that Grandma was great with managing their money.
So on Thursday’s which happened to be Gramps’ payday – she would divide up the money 3 ways.
First, she would pull money for savings, then put aside money for bills and lastly give Gramps his allocated spending for the week. If she didn’t do this Gramps would have spent the lot – as he was a very generous person and loved to give to charities and those less fortunate.
Grandma use to tell him often that charity first begins at home! Wise lady and well before her time.
Grandma had several spots within the house that she used to stash the cash around. Let’s just say she had the most expensive potatoes I ever knew ☺
While she was careful with their money she also made sure they enjoyed it too. Taking trips that had been planned and saved up for.
They retired wealthy by today’s standards and lucky they did as they eventually had to move into age care, which costs a small fortune to get in.
The point of this story is that no matter what you earn you can retire wealthy if you learn how to save and use your money wisely.
But there’s got to be a balance in life.
Saving and hoarding away money is great – but you must enjoy it along the way.
Today we’re seeing more of the extreme with some of us having no savings and loads of spending going on.
I think we’ve gone too far from our grandparents’ age – to the new age of live for today and don’t worry about tomorrow.
The harsh reality is that tomorrow is just around the corner and creeps up on you before you realise.
While you may not think too much about the future, it will be here before you know it.
If you haven’t planned for it – life will get a little uncomfortable for you.
As you get older the things that your money is used for changes.
For eg; when you are in your 20’s you’re about having a good time, meeting someone special and travelling.
When you reach your 30’s it’s about settling down with that special person, buying a house and starting a family – for the majority of people.
Then you hit your 40’s and by then if you’ve had children they are well-entrenched into the school system and you have hopefully chunked off a sizeable amount of your mortgage, whilst watching your savings and investments grow.
Then years down the track you’re retired and money that you receive from the pension or your own retirement savings is used to pay medical costs and pharmaceuticals to keep away the aches and pains from a well-lived life.
Starting to get the picture?
Well, this scenario has now been completely turned on its arse because when you hit your 40’s there are no savings or very little for most.
You’re up to your eyeballs in mortgage payments and possibly other debt and family life may not have turned out as expected. As you’re either getting divorced or having some financial stress because of the state of your financial affairs.
It’s time to get the balance back people!
Here are Grandma’s Tips :
1. Firstly, stop spending everything you earn. Yes, it’s easier said than done I agree considering you’re in the habit of spend spend spend. But you’ve got to start somewhere.
2. Put away a small portion of what you earn away before you use it to spend and pay your bills. I recommend putting away a minimum of 10% into an account that you can’t touch. An account with no account keeping fees and one that 10% of your pay automatically goes into this account on payday. An account that is separate from your current banking. There are a few around so do your research, set up an automatic deposit and watch your savings grow.
3. Do a budget to work out where every dollar is going. This is going to be an eye-opener for a lot of you because half of you don’t even know where your money is going or what it’s being spent on. Start writing down or using an excel spreadsheet to record where you’re spending. Keep receipts, check your bank statements and record everything from the big stuff that you’re spending or paying out on the little things like a cup of coffee. Once it’s down on paper take a good look at what’s going out compared to what’s coming in.
4. Next start using cash. So when you head to the grocery store you’ll soon learn that there’s a lot of things being bought at the checkout that you could probably rein in more. When heading out for dinner take some cash to pay for your meal, if you don’t you’ll soon learn that your meal is costing you more than you realise. What you probably thought was a $50 dinner & drinks out ends up costing you closer to $100.
5. And the last thing is to save up for purchases. Don’t put stuff on your credit card that is going to be out of date before you’ve even paid them off. Save up for the non-essentials and go without for just a little longer until you have the cash to pay for it. My guess is that by the time you’ve saved up you’ve probably lost interest in the thing or gadget that was going to clutter up your house anyway.
The moral of the story is to…..work hard, save hard and learn more how to manage your money smarter. Invest some time and resources in getting some sound financial education that could see you, in the long run, retiring with money instead of being broke and living off social welfare benefits.
Don’t believe me then do the math and see how much you’re spending. Keep going the way you are – not changing your spending habits and you’re going to very unhappy, miserable and without a dollar to your name at the end of your working days.
Learn how to live a life without financial stress by obtaining awesome financial knowledge & education.
How To Keto Your Money is a program that was created with you and anyone in mind who longs to get back in the black and out of the red.
You can find out more by heading over to “How To Keto Your Money” I guarantee it will be the best few dollars you will ever spend!
Also available for additional support and coaching is joining my monthly coaching program for a fraction of the cost of normal coaching at $37 per month.
You can find out more on the monthly coaching HERE.
Until next time here’s to your financial health, wealth & happiness.
The words wealthy and rich are words that tend to make some of us cringe and bring up feelings that all wealthy people are “up” themselves and rotten sods, which is not always the case.
When people think about wealth it often triggers poverty thinking and brings up fears, conditioning and unhealthy thoughts.
It makes people so uncomfortable that what happens is their behaviour makes them look for ways to make themselves feel better, about being poor.
Here in Australia, we love pulling those down that do better than us. We get jealous and our personalities turn very quickly when we’re in the company of wealthy people.
The tall poppy syndrome sadly is still strong in Australia. For those that don’t know what the tall poppy syndrome is? Well, it describes aspects of a culture where people of “perceived” high status are resented, attacked, cut down or criticised because they have been classified as superior to their peers.
New research has found its keeping many Australians – especially women – from pursuing their dreams and holding people back from reaching their true potential.
Dr Fiona Wood AM asked kids (when visiting schools after she won Australian of the Year in 2004)….
“How often have you done less than your best so that others around you didn’t feel uncomfortable?”
She cringed and felt upset to hear that they all gave an example of this and some felt proud of it.
She went onto to say in an interview, that there’s absolutely no mileage in the world to be AVERAGE...no matter what job you do.
You’ve got to understand yourself, so you can match your work ethic with your full potential.
You need to make your own decisions, stand up and be proud of what you’re doing.
Negative energy is a black hole and if you want to go wasting your precious time here on earth being part of it – then go ahead and jump in the black hole.
The opinion from others of you is theirs – you don’t have to own it.
The key is to keep learning, refining and up-skilling so that each day whatever you want gets easier to achieve.
One day at a time and one foot in front of the other is all you can do somedays.
Working hard and keeping your eye on the prize or the goal and never giving up, is the way to winning and living your life full, happy and with loads of wealthy potential.
People who don’t make decisions are wasting their human potential to do, be and create something great in their life.
I believe we all have that something special in us and it’s time to knock the tall poppy syndrome on its feet, ignore it and don’t let this stop you.
We live in a world where anything we dream is possible.
Prove naysayers wrong and don’t engage in pointless negativity & criticism.
We have to start somewhere when it comes to managing our money better and that starts with building financial muscle. Once you have the foundations in place, it’s a lot easier and faster to build on your wealth.
My course “How To Keto Your Money” is the building block for building on your financial foundations. Once you’ve got the foundations set up, I will then show you how to start automatically building on your wealth, so you can retire wealthy and live a life with more freedom.
Find out more by clicking here…How To Keto Your Money and I’ll look forward to helping you achieve your full financial potential.
In a world where tech advances have in many cases, made life easier than our parents and grandparents time. Why is it that for some of us, we are less content and happy with what we have – than previous generations?
I was scrolling on LinkedIn the other night or should I say morning and thought how so many of us are all vying for a piece of the pie. The pie that enables us to pay our bills, grow our business and build on long term wealth.
It was the early hours at 2 am that I sat at my desk wondering why.
I was supposed to be sleeping but wasn’t because my brain was overloaded with thoughts on how I can impact and help so many people who, on the surface appear to be doing well, but are not and are struggling financially.
Struggling to get ahead, trying to make ends meet and longing for more financial freedom.
Now I’m not talking about the kind of freedom that few achieve from massive wealth like Tony Robbins, Bill Gates or the Richards Branson’s of the world!
I’m talking about the financial freedom you get from not having to worry about mortgage repayments or even having a mortgage at all.
It’s the freedom of never having to worry about how you’re going to make your money stretch further and the freedom of not having to worry about money on a day to day basis.
That’s the kind of financial freedom I believe most are striving for.
There are many possible reasons why so many are financially struggling…
Here’s my top 3:
The obvious one is spending more than is earned.
From extensive personal debt that never seems to get paid off, and
Keeping up with those more fortunate or “keeping up with the Joneses” as the old saying goes.
Spending big on personal debt, whether trying to keep up with others or not and thinking you’ve got it covered at the end of the month (when you don’t) is a disaster resulting in crippling interest repayments.
I do feel we’ve lost some of the basic money management skills and fundamentals in how to work money to our advantage.
We don’t plan and save money. We think the good times are going to keep rolling on.
The problem with this mentality is that when an unexpected interruption comes along, whether it be a relationship breakdown, loss of income or our health is under pressure, we’re just not prepared and this has an enormous impact on our financial wellbeing.
Without the foundations in place when things go pear-shaped, as they do from time to time. Not having a money safety net to catch you and take the pressure off while you get back on your feet, can become very stressful.
There’s no denying it that people are doing it tough today.
I speak regularly with individuals, businesses owners, tradies and other professionals who are all looking for the same thing.
They want to get ahead, take the pressure off worrying about money coming in and just have more fun in life.
What I’m hearing and seeing is that under the surface people are really struggling.
They’re either doing it really tough feeling overwhelmed and struggling or frustrated and in pure survival mode.
The one thing I do know is that when you have the money foundations set right – it takes enormous pressure off.
Sadly, money stress continues to be the No 1 factor amongst our peers, our friends and our family.
The way to alleviate this stress is to look at financial education and getting the basics down and then building from there.
The start in my opinion to any healthy financial position is first looking at what I call “cash essentials”.
Cash Essentials is about ensuring you are saving and putting an amount every time you get paid or paid for work you do in separate a savings account.
Putting a minimum of 10% into a savings account away from your everyday banking is a forced discipline and if you put this on autopilot the amount you’ve set gets deducted and transferred into this saving account.
It may not feel like much at the start but when you factor in how quickly this can compound and grow you’ll be amazed at what you will have a few short years.
I’m still surprised today that so many do not have a regular savings plan set up.
That’s the first and crucial step to building financial muscle. The second is looking at what you’re spending.
It’s all too easier today to overspend and credit cards were designed that way to help you spend money you probably don’t have.
While we are becoming more and more a cashless society, there is a way you can get back control and that’s by switching from a credit card to a debit card. The debit card acts the same way but you’re only spending what you have and not what you don’t have on credit.
This is an awesome way to ensure you don’t overspend for those tempted to keep pulling out the plastic and losing control over their spending.
These suggestions are just a couple of basics that can be put in place today. However, in the end, it’s up to you and only you if want to live a financially free life.
It’s funny how we always find the money when it’s something we want and this is why we are a nation of spenders and not savers now.
If you’re serious about becoming financially free there’s an awesome resource available at “How to Keto Your Money” a 21-day kick start money program design to get you and your money is shape as quickly as possible.
