The Australian Government provides a money-management site that is useful to people around the world. Understanding Money encourages readers to adopt a three-point approach to their finances:
- Prepare a budget plan - work out how much you earn and what you spend it on, to help you see where you could make changes.
- Set some financial goals - they don’t have to be big, but they’ll help you see what you could gain by being better with your money.
- Get into the savings habit - once you’ve set some goals, try to save regularly and as much as you can to meet your goals.
Understanding Money includes a free, downloadable budget planner in Excel format; a financial health check with links to financial literacy resources; and a free, downloadable money handbook in PDF format. Though some of the details (such as the types of retirement programs) are Australia-specific, the concepts are applicable to anyone, anywhere.
[Australian Government: Understanding money]
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oooh thanks for this link! I’ve been reading your blog over the last year (and love it) and often wish I could find some beginners’ investment advice relevant to the investment options available in Australia… this government site explains some basic investment things for me and gives a lot of further links.. just what I need right now
Thanks!
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Yes, this is an excellent website which I recommend to all to look at, it’s especially good since you can download the book that they distribute in printed form for all those who are overseas.
Certainly a very good step towards the government improving financial literacy in the community, but as always there’s plenty more that could be done and should be done.
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It is great that governments set up this sort of website. All they need to do now is move the same sort of info into schools and colleges.
New Zealand also has a very good site along these lines: http://www.sorted.org.nz/
Again, some of the specific are relevant only to kiwis, but the more general advice is universal.
(nb: in New Zealand, to be “sorted” means to be ready, or equipped.)
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That’s a really good looking spreadsheet, and very easy to understand.
Thanks for the link!
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Another good post, JD. I’ve always believed in “paying yourself first” (saving), but it is on of the most difficult habits to keep and too easy to break. The US saves much less of its income, even though other countries have higher costs of living. It is so amazing that other people in other countries can save so much more than us.
The only thing that worked for me, was to start small and keep committed each week: Make the savings deposit first, not last.
Another thing that helped me was to try to add my pay raise to the savings for as long as I could, until higher prices kicked in and raised costs.
Try whatever works, but pay yourself first.
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