Today, thousands of families around Australia are receiving their very last instalment of the Schoolkids’ Bonus. These twice-yearly payments of $215 for each child in primary school and $428 for each child in secondary school are being phased out as a result of a pre-election decision by both sides of politics. It can be hard for families to adjust when payments cease. As when fortnightly Parenting Payments come to an end with the youngest child in the family turning six. Or when a child becomes too old for you to receive Family Tax Benefit. It’s easy to become so dependent […]
A Solution to your Resolution
It’s that time of year. You made your new year’s resolutions a matter of weeks ago, and now you’ve reached that make-or-break stage. Have they passed their expiry date, or are they still fresh? If the latter, you’re in with a chance. If they’ve gone stale on you, this might be the point at which you part company with them, for another year at least. Unless, of course, you’re prepared to look at – and address – the reasons why your resolutions have faded so quickly. In my experience, when it comes to setting a budget for the new year, the […]
It’s All In The Timing
Christmas and New Year is a period of relaxation and reflection for many people. Time away from work is a chance to take stock of the journey thus far and to take control of the road ahead. This sometimes involves making the decision to go it alone by starting a business in the coming year. As a Small Business Specialist and Bank Manager, I saw many businesses come and stay, and others come and go. There are a number of ingredients that go into a making a winning new business but, in my experience, the most important of these is […]
Santa’s Christmas Stock
We’re all familiar with Santa’s Christmas stocking. As discerning consumers, though, it would do no harm to make ourselves aware of the temptations of his Christmas stock too! The items I am referring to are of the bulkier variety – the ones that are too big to fit into such a humble garment of clothing; those unofficial ‘presents to self’, as opposed to the gifts we buy for other people. If we were to delay the purchase of Christmas presents for friends and family until the January sales on the basis of increased value for money we would, quite rightly, […]
The D Word
Words have the power to inspire. They also have the power to inspire fear. Like anything in life, it all depends on which way you choose to look at it. One word that tends to get a bad press is ‘discipline’. If you look no further than the process of discipline, enthusiasm will be in short supply. If, though, you focus on the wonderful outcomes that discipline gives rise to, it’s difficult not to be inspired. The Oxford English Dictionary defines discipline as ‘controlled behaviour’. Bringing discipline to bear on your money by controlling your day-to-day financial behaviour in the framework of a personal […]
Money Machine
I recently watched a documentary about the fascinating life of Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company and the inventor of modern mass production. Little more than a century ago, Americans lead relatively primitive lives – having to spend much of their time and energy just getting from A to B by horse and cart. Henry Ford changed all that by making it possible for many of them to purchase their first car, in the form of the Model T Ford. This was the vehicle which, in effect, liberated Americans and enabled them to fulfil their true potential, […]