What is Stopping You from being Financially Free?

Since starting in the Financial Planning profession and working as a client relationship manager, there has been a lot of learnings. You can learn a lot about the technical side of Superannuation, Estate planning, Retirement, Investing, Trust structures, Business/Companies, Budgeting and Cashflow projections…

All are really valid and great to know, however, there is no point learning all of that if you don’t understand how money and your everyday to day behaviour is interconnected. Locked together in a constant battle of wills, discipline and decision making that over a lifetime can lead to Financial Freedom and a great retirement or can lead to living off the age pension and counting your pennies everyday.

Everyone of course wants the Financial Freedom and the ability to do whatever you want, but not everyone is going to get there…

Therefore, today I want to share with you the top tips to attaining financial freedom and being able to significantly change your life at the same time!

And also explain why you have not attained Financial Freedom yet….

Understand the Past to Create the Future You DESIRE!

The key to unlocking your potential, as corny as it sounds, is to understanding your past and what behaviours you picked up from your upbringing. Most psychologists today are learning more and more about how our upbringing and the way our parents treated us truly affects how we behave when it comes to money decisions, and life in general.

The understanding of a psychologist who studies the evolutionary theory, is that we are born with 50% of our behaviours already embedded in our DNA. Therefore, we have no control over some aspects of our life, which makes it even more important for you to understand your strengths and weaknesses.

25-30% of our behaviours come from our upbringing, between the ages of 0-6 years old, where our brains were the most malleable or think of our brains as sponges that were prone to taking in everything from our environment.

The other 20-25% comes from our peers and social groups, where we try to fit in and mould into a group that we can connect with and find purpose.

If we were to take the idea of evolutionary psychology and put it into effect, it makes it even more important for you to understand how your parents view money and whether you are a spender or saver.

Hence, you need to really look back at your upbringing, ask your parents or look back into the past and ask yourself, what is money to me?

Do I save up every penny? Or do I spend most of my money? (If you are like the 80-85% of us, you are a spender, so don’t feel bad if you are)

Did my parents complain about money or see it as “Bad”? Do I?

Were my parents comfortable with debt or were they always stressed about the mortgage? Do you find yourself also becoming stressed?

What was your first money memory? Was it of piggy banks and saving to buy your first toy? Or were you given everything?

There is no right or wrong answers here, you should not feel guilty about your upbringing or blame your parents for the way you are now, although there is partial responsibility on their part.

What you need to do is start to understand your past, and start to understand that you can make life easier by setting up a plan based on your behaviours and how you view money now. The key is to become aware of your own behaviours, to stop and reflect, which is difficult at first, but like anything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

Having a VISION of what your FUTURE is like and bring your PARTNER along for the journey!

It may sound a bit corny again, but truly having a vision of what your future looks like, even tastes, smells, sounds and feels like, is going to make it way more likely for you to succeed.

Once you have an understanding of your past, you need to set your eyes to the future, and you need to truly envision what it will be like in 1, 3, 5, 10 or even 20 years.

For most people, you don’t think all that often in the future tense, biologically, we are more adept at surviving in the here and now, therefore most of us will always be thinking in past or present tense. But, for true financial freedom, there is a necessity to think about the future.

Therefore, to buck the trend, to “escape the rat race,” you need to do what most people are not.

One of my favourite exercises to do which will help you to envision your future is to ask yourself, “what is a day in the life [insert your own name here] in 12 months time?”

**Remember, there are no right or wrong answers, it needs to be reasonable, but let your imagination take effect here. What does your morning look like? What are you doing throughout the day? Who are you with? Where are you going and where do you live?

Take at least 15 minutes to type or write this down, my preference is to write as you are more likely again to achieve this if you physically write it down. You are taking it from your minds eye to a physical manifestation in written form.

The key to this is to do it multiple times, to live it in your minds eye and to describe it as accurately as possible. You will find it difficult at the beginning, however with practise, it will become easier and easier. Or, if you are not a visionary and it is not a strength of yours, ask your partner to help you and to build a vision together.

If you do not have a partner, discuss it with friends or family, someone you can truly open up to and let it all out.

Create a SYSTEM and have the DISCIPLINE to stick to it!

Once you have an understanding of your behaviours and what you actually you want to achieve, you can look to breaking it down into manageable steps to getting you to that overall vision.

The best way to do this is to find someone who has done what you want to achieve previously, which I can guarantee there is someone out there who has achieved your vision of life.

Otherwise, talk to a professional, someone who lives and breathes helping people to live their goals and vision of the future everyday.

Either of these people will be able to help you formulate a system, however if you want to do it yourself, you can always look to creating your own systems.

You can do this by simply doing what I call reverse engineering, where you make your vision and create a goal around that vision. An example is you may want to be financially free and for you to do that you need to earn at least $90,000 per annum.

How do you get to $90,000 per annum from a mix of passive and active income streams? Where will it come from essentially?

Investments? Property? A business? A YouTube/podcast channel?

There are multiple ways you can do it, it all depends on your vision and understanding yourself, how you behave and what your strengths are!

Once you have the vehicle (investments/business, property etc.), you can step out goals to work on everyday to help you bring your vision to life.

That system may mean that you set up your bank accounts correctly, automating your savings so when your pay goes in, your savings goes out to another account, maybe even at a different bank.

The system could be simply you sit down every two weeks to revise your budget and spending, understanding where you money is going. Or getting your partner to do it, because they may be better at it then you.

Once you have set up a system, you just need to keep doing it, week in, week out. Having the discipline to make sure that it is on track by reviewing it and setting little milestones in which you can celebrate once you hit them.

A great way to make sure that you are keeping on track is to talk to someone, a partner or professional, who will keep you accountable. The power of telling someone you are going to do something is significant in helping you to living the vision you wrote down, just having someone to be there when it gets tough or discipline wanes. It is very underrated in our current society anyhow.

If Financial Freedom comes down to only three things, why don’t you have it in the first place?

Because most people get stuck in the day to day, they forget about their dreams and visions they had as a child growing up, they forget about being curious and don’t have time to reflect.

They grow content and settle for what they have, which is fine, if you are happy and living the life you want to live, but most people are not!

The other reason is simply because financial freedom takes TIME!

You need to have PATIENCE, and do what my wife calls “building your empire.” We live in such a fast pace society that we forget we have 90-100 years of life in us, not everything is going to come to you straight away and sometimes takes years if not decades of work and perseverance.

Hopefully this has effected you in a way that you will stop and think a little bit about your own life and where that is going.

But until next time,

Take Back Control

Why Budget??

Why do we budget? Why plan or project out your income and expenses?

You would think it is a simple answer, to be better prepared and have some certainty around your finances, to not get yourself into debt when a big expense comes up.

However, you can also budget for multiple other reasons as well, such as trying to get ahead with savings or investing, opening up a business and even planning for your first child.

The reason budgeting is a “buzz” word right now, especially on TV shows like “The Morning Sunrise” or the “Today Show” is because we have all seen that the Reserve Bank of Australia has been increasing rates and people are starting to feel a slight pinch in their hip pocket.

Not to mention, inflation has been increasing prices of our foods and other general expenses, and our wages have remained relatively low.

Therefore, to project the next month of finances, or even twelve months for those who are a bit more advanced, would be pretty handy given everything that is happening.

Meaning that you will not fall short when at the grocery store, a day before pay day, wouldn’t that be nice? To not have to delve into your savings and to keep building your wealth, rather than chipping away at it and becoming even more depressed as your savings account dwindles.

You would rather see those savings increase wouldn’t you? You have travel plans or plans to invest in the future? You want to start a family and give your kids the best start in life? You need money to do all of that and more, therefore you have a reason to create a budget.

I remember learning pretty quickly that if I want to achieve my dreams and goals, the success of achieving them come down to how much cash I have sitting in the bank and how much I earned.

Therefore, I learnt pretty early on that I needed to create a budget, and to focus on the carrot, not the stick. Focus on the reward at the end of the day, rather than any dollar figures or massive expenses coming up.

You are more likely to stick to and achieve your budget if you work towards something, rather than just create a budget for the sake of it.

Therefore, the reason you should create a budget is because of a deeper reason, a massive goal that is going to take some effort and work to make happen.

No matter what it is, you will generally find that there is a dollar figure that will help you attain that goal as well, no matter how big or small it is.

You could start budgeting for a simple weekend get away with your partner, or to pay off a debt, like a car loan.

You need to imagine how it will feel to get away or to have no more debt or responsibility to pay back that loan, use that feeling as fuel to project out your finances and make it work.

The reason why I am going through this is because I want to focus on really pounding it into you that budgeting is not for doom and gloom, in fact, budgeting is for thinking bigger and for hoping for the future.

We budget so that way, we can live a life that we have a little certainty over and can give us a little bit more purpose around our work and of course around making extra money.

Budgeting is not hard either, it can be made simple, which is why I am going to be giving you a very simple way to budget in my next blog, where I will show you how I have budgeted to save for our first house, a few cars, a wedding, a second home and a Europe trip/multiple other holidays over the course of the last seven years.

All of which would not have happened unless I learned how to budget and stuck to it (which is always the hardest part), so make sure to look out for my next blog article and until next time,

Take Back Control

The Sexiest Money Topic: Part Two (Must Read for 25-60 year olds)

The investment that is Superannuation is probably the biggest investment you will have your whole life, other than your house. Therefore, it is really important to get it right, especially from a young age!

Within this article, it will be explained why investing in Super can be tax efficient for you, how contributions to superannuation works and I will run through a few hypotheticals that will hopefully make it easier for you to understand.

First and foremost, let’s run through how and why Superannuation is so tax efficient if you were wanting to invest in Super.

Have you ever thought about investing money in the Sharemarket? Well, what if I told you that you were already investing in the markets, you are already investing in real estate, you are already investing in term deposits and bonds. All these instruments that can help you gain wealth, but you probably have no idea what that all means. Which is ok, there is nothing really wrong with that, all you need to know is that your Superannuation fund manager is taking 10.5% of your income every year and investing it based on the investment mix you have chosen or they have. (Check out my part one blog here to learn more.)

Now you know that you are already investing, why invest in super, rather than in the Sharemarket? Put simply, investing in superannuation is more tax efficient.

The government has made it more tax efficient, so that people truly save for their retirement, as the social welfare system is the biggest government expenditure there is, therefore super was created to take the pressure off of the government budget. Hence, you will find that what you invest in super is only taxed at 15% (As long as your fund is compliant), rather than your marginal tax rate.

What does this mean?

If you earn $100,000, you get $10,500 in superannuation guarantee from your employer, which goes straight to your super fund. The tax rate on a $100,000 per annum income is 32.5% of every dollar over $45,000, which is 17.5% more than the 15% of income earned in superannuation.

If you were to invest $10,500 every year in the sharemarket, instead of super, any income earned from your shares in your portfolio (basket of companies) would be taxed at a higher rate. Let’s say your income from your portfolio is $500 per year, $162.5 of that would be taxed, whereas in your super fund, only $75 would be taxed.

That means investing in your superannuation fund means that you will actually save $87.5. Now as your investments increase, of course that figure would increase significantly as well.

There are many other ways in which your super fund can help you to minimise tax, one way is using concessional contributions.

Understanding how contributions to super works can be tricky, as there are so many laws and regulations, however you need to know the basics so you can utilise the system to your advantage, to set you up completely for when you retire.

So, what are the different types of contributions?

We have two main ways you can contribute to your super, outside of your employer transferring your super guarantee to your fund. You can do concessional contributions and non-concessional contributions to your superfund at any time.

Essentially, concessional contributions are when you can contribute up to $27,500 per year, which can be claimed as a tax deduction from your income. Now, your super guarantee is already included within this $27,500 figure, therefore, as long as you do not claim over this cap, you can reduce your income and therefore reduce your tax.

Using the $100,000 example again, of which $10,500 is already contributed through your employer. Therefore, you can contribute up to $17,000 more into your super, and when you submit an intention to claim from your super fund, you can reduce your income and therefore reduce your tax. (Do not forget that what you contribute to super, you will most likely not see until you retire.)

Your income has gone from $100,000 to 83,000, by claiming the contribution and therefore, you would be saving $5,865.

(after tax savings outside super: $24,967-$19,102 = $5865) [1]

Not to mention, the $17,000 is only taxed at 15%, which means your superannuation would be taxed $2,550 from the $17,000 contributed over the year, but that still means that you would be making an overall saving of $3,315 for the entire year (inclusive of super tax).

Now, there are also non-concessional contributions, whereby you are not claiming the contributions for tax purposes, however you are just looking to invest within super. The contributions are after tax, therefore, they have already been taxed and will not be taxed again within your superfund, other than on the income your contributions make.

All income from your investments, again, is only taxed at 15%, which I explained above, so we won’t go there again. But just to solidify why investing in super is better than outside of it, let’s run through some scenario’s together, a few hypotheticals so you can truly understand it.

We will run some scenarios for a 25 year old, a 45 year old and a 60 year old, to hopefully give everyone some great context on the tax efficiencies and how the contributions work for you!

25 year old, a comparison of investing outside of Super v.s investing in Super?

Let’s look at a new scenario and a new person, we will name her Sally, and Sally earns $65,000 per annum as an employee. Which means her Super Guarantee, of which her employer pays to her superfund is $6,825 per year.

Now Sally lives at home and doesn’t actually have many expenses, she socialises with friends, has a boyfriend and they are saving for a house currently. (Potentially could look at the First Home Super Saver Scheme, I would talk to an advisor about this before doing so though.)

Sally has $10,000 she would like to invest, but she is unsure of where to put the money. (The $10,000 is not apart of her house deposit that she is saving with her boyfriend currently, she wants to invest it for longer term savings.)

Sally is tossing up on whether to invest the $10,000 into an index fund or to contribute to her super. Let’s say for an example, the index fund has a 30 year average return of 7% per annum and her super fund has returns of 7.8% per annum, but fees of 0.8%, making the real returns exactly the same as the index fund.

Sally wants to invest the $10,000 for 30 years.

Option 1) Sally Invests into the index fund

Over 30 years, thanks to the beauty of compound interest, her return will be $66,123, minus any costs for buying the units in the fund. Giving her a total of $76,123 at the end of 30 years.

However, all the income she receives year after year is taxed at her marginal tax rate. Let’s just say she receives $300 per year from her investment, to make it super simple. $97.5 of the $300 is taxed every year, meaning that she gets taxed $2,925.

Now, I have tried to make this super simple to understand, as it can get really complicated when adding in income every year to add on top of returns. So lets just see what the total return would be if we add the $202.5 of income after tax to her returns outside of super.

Sally is sitting at a total return of $95,204.

Option 2) Sally invests in her superannuation

Now, we have already done the math, the only difference is Sally gets taxed at 15% within her super on any income, rather than the 32.5% through the marginal tax rate.

So only $45 of the $300 is taxed, now lets see how big of a difference that makes over 30 years…

Sally would have a total of $100,210 within her super fund, meaning she would have saved on tax and made returns because of it. Of course, the figures are well and truly off when it comes to the earnings, you would see the increase in income each year make a much bigger difference over 30 years. But I wanted to show you using nice simple numbers.

45 year old, coming up to retirement and unsure of how much you may need for retirement? Let’s dig in to what you should be aiming for…

First and foremost, how much do you need to retire, the numbers are all over the shop, but according to two main associations, you would need roughly $70,000 by age 67 years for couples and singles to live a modest lifestyle. Based on couples having living expenses of $39,788 per year or singles having living expenses of $27,754 per year. [2]

Of course, if you would like to live a very comfortable lifestyle, you would need $640,000 for couples and $545,000 for singles, according to the Association of Super Funds Australia. Which is a major difference from the $70,000 you need for a modest life.

The Super Consumers Australia have a bit of a different amount, whereby to live comfortably, you only need $62,000 per year in expenses for a couple. Which means you only need to save $409,000 for a couple to live fairly well, if aged 57 or below. [3]

Of course, these numbers do change yearly, therefore it pays to seek out advice where you can to make certain that you have a solid plan for retirement and everything will be fine.

60 year old, retiring in the next year to five years, what are the ways in which you can contribute to top up your super?

There are few ways in which you can truly top up your super before you retire, to make sure that you have more than enough to get you through the next 20-30, maybe even 40 years!

One of those ways is using the bring forward rules, whereby you can bring forward up to five years of concessional contributions or up to three years worth of non-concessional contributions.

The bring forward rules are complex in nature and I would truly suggest that you talk to a professional financial adviser about these rules and how you can top up your super before retirement.

Another way is the down-sizer contribution, whereby you can use the sale proceeds of a house to top up your superannuation as well. [4]

Again, before deciding to go down this track, I would highly suggest talking to an advisor before doing anything.

And finally, you can also complete co-contributions to a spouse, whereby you can contribute to your partner, who may have less super and this could make you eligible for some tax offsets.

I did not want to go into too much detail, as the closer you get to retirement, the more important it is to see a Financial Advisor and truly get a good grasp on your financial future as you move into the unknown that is retirement.

Due to regulations and laws are always changing, I would highly advise anyone to make sure they speak to a professional first before making any decisions or actions. Hence, I always suggest that you should always look out for a trusted Financial Advisor who can create a sound financial plan for your future, and for the future of your family. Someone who can be in your corner when deciding on the big decisions in life, such as marriage, kids, first home, second home, retiring etc.

I truly hope this has helped you to understand super a little bit more and why it is so much advantageous to invest in super that outside of it, when looking at tax.

For the third and final part to our superannuation blog, the next article is going to be on Self-Managed Super funds and a few more scenarios to help you truly wrap it all and understand Superannuation.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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[1] - https://www.ato.gov.au/rates/individual-income-tax-rates/

[2] - https://www.superannuation.asn.au/resources/retirement-standard

[3] - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d2828f4ce1ef00001f592bb/t/62d4b629b09b0b30b6fd9410/1658107438289/Consultative%2BReport%2BRetirement%2BSavings%2BTargets.pdf

[4] - https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/super/growing-your-super/adding-to-your-super/downsizing-contributions-into-superannuation/

Disclaimer:

The information on the Take Back Control Website is intended to be general in nature and is not personal financial product advice. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information provided and the nature of the relevant financial product having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. In particular, you should seek independent financial advice and read the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or other offer document prior to making an investment decision in relation to a financial product (including a decision about whether to acquire or continue to hold).

The Sexiest Money Topic- Part One (Must read for 18-45 year olds)

Here we are, finally at the moment where we get to spend a bit of time together on what some would say is the most “boring” part of your life. Some of you may not ever even look at this until the age of 50 years old, it is just not on your radar or priority, which is ok, but you should make it so!

The most important aspect of your financial life is your superannuation and retirement, and if not planned well, can leave you with tens of thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars less for when you do retire.

Therefore, today I am going to try and simplify superannuation for you, so that you don’t get all perplexed and overwhelmed by the staggering amount of information that you need to know when it comes to your super.

Firstly, the most important aspect of superannuation that is a need to know would be the Superannuation Guarantee or SG for short.

To understand the SG, you need to know what superannuation is first. In all essence, a super fund is a fund that manages your money and invests it based on the return you are looking for and the risk appetite you have. It is simply a vehicle to help you save and achieve higher returns to set you up for retirement, which the government put in place due to the strain on the budget for the pension system.

The government also created the SG scheme, for this very reason, whereby as of this financial year, 10.5% of your before tax take home salary goes towards your superannuation.

In fact, that rate of SG will be going up 0.5% every financial year until it hits 12% in the 2025-26 FY. For an example, if you currently earn $60,000, you are actually earning $66,500 every year, whereby your employer is contributing $6,500 (10.5%) to your superannuation.

Hence, you should be checking your super account at least every six months to make sure that you have been getting your SG from your employer, and if you are a sole trader or self-employed, you should be setting aside some of your pay every week to go towards super, which can come with nice tax incentives. (I will go through tax incentives in part two of the series)

**If your employer has not been contributing to your superannuation, you are entitled to get that back from them, with interest as well. You can call the Australian Taxation Office, who will not only help you to get your super that you are entitled to, but will also calculate the returns that you would have got in the time that your employer had not paid super as well.

Secondly, you need to have some understanding of the different types of super funds/products.

The two main super funds would be an accumulation fund, which is the most common type of fund these days, and a defined benefit fund. The difference, one is simply where you accumulate funds over your working life which is invested to grow a lump sum to draw down from at retirement, and that is the accumulation fund.

The other, the defined benefit fund, which is generally only used in the public/corporate sector of employment, is a fund whereby a formula is used, based on your average salary over the last few years before you retire, the funds you and your employer put in and the number of years you worked for an employer. Most of these funds are closed off now, due to the success of accumulation funds.

Understanding that your fund is most likely an accumulation fund is quite important, if you are unsure, it is best to speak to your employer of super fund. If you do have an accumulation fund, your employer is most likely contributing to your super through the funds My Super product.

The My Super product for most super funds is a low cost, lower risk, diversified option, however as of late we have seen that some funds My Super option has been underperforming compared to their balanced/growth options. That is why knowing the options that your super fund has available for investment, as well as the returns your fund is getting is really important. Which leads us to the third and final thing your need to know… [1]

Thirdly, you need to decide on the fund that is right for you, and knowing what funds have performed best over the long term, whether they have low fees or high and potentially whether they are ethical when it comes to their investing.

The best way to do this is to seek financial advice from a trusted advisor, they will be able to work out your objectives and create a plan that will suit for your retirement or the investment mix that suits your circumstances. Your Super fund actually gives you two free planning sessions, one of those sessions is to allow you to create an investment mix that is right for you or to get your ready for retirement, and the other is for insurance within the fund. Just call your super fund to ask for these added extras.

Another way is to utilise the “YourSuper Comparison tool,” which has been made to compare your superfund to others that are potentially performing better over the short, medium and long term.

You can check out the “YourSuper Comparison tool” here. [2]

You can of course do your own research, however, based on all the products out there, it would take hours of research and trawling through length product disclosure statements. If you have the time to spend 10-30 hours doing that, go for it, but I know most people would opt for the two options above.

Now you are equipped to ride the super train, you have everything you need to at least decide on a fund and understand that superannuation can be made simple. Of course, as you get older, understanding the complexities of superannuation is more important when entering that pre-retirement phase between the age of 45-55 years old.

Therefore, in the next article, I will be explaining the tax incentives you can get out of super, the different ways you can contribute to your own super and most importantly how you can save on tax within superannuation!

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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[1] - https://moneysmart.gov.au/how-super-works/types-of-super-funds

[2]- https://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/YourSuper-comparison-tool/

Disclaimer:

The information on the Take Back Control Website is intended to be general in nature and is not personal financial product advice. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information provided and the nature of the relevant financial product having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. In particular, you should seek independent financial advice and read the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or other offer document prior to making an investment decision in relation to a financial product (including a decision about whether to acquire or continue to hold).

The Sexiest Money Topic Ever Discussed… Superannuation: Intro

Yeah, Superannuation is not the sexiest of topics…

But, it is probably one of the most important topics and the vehicle to get you to retirement, and most importantly, through your retirement!

Therefore, I am going to brave the boring world of superannuation and educate you on the most important aspects of Super that is a need to know if you want to;

• Live the life you want to live in retirement (I know it is 30 years away for some of you, but I can guarantee what you do now will change your life forever when you retire)

• Minimise the tax you pay right NOW!! (Probably the main reason you should read this blog, if you don’t want to think about 30 years down the track.)

• Minimise tax on investment income.

• Feel secure when you stop working, not having to worry about paying down bills or buying gifts for loved ones, because you know you can afford to!

• Go on holidays and see the world, or if not for you, be able to do WHAT YOU WANT with little restriction on finances!

If all of the above sounds pretty amazing, or even one point of the above, you need to read the next three blog articles over the next three weeks!

We are going to go on a journey to discuss the most important investment vehicle you will ever have!

In part one, we are going to go through what Super is and do a quick intro on the types of Super accounts there are, just a beginners guide to Super and where you could potentially find some really good comparison sites for super products and what to look for in a fund!

Part two is where we start to look at the juicier stuff, whereby I will run through different contributions and how you can maximise the full affect of contributions to minimise tax and how you could potentially get free money from the government or ATO.

Who doesn’t love FREE MONEY?

Part three, we are going to go on a bit more of a detailed and deep dive, mainly into the world of Self-managed Super funds and also a few hypothetical scenarios to wrap it all up!

I know Super is boring, I know it is something you would rather not think about, but it is still your money and it is going to be the driver of your retirement, therefore the earlier you learn and understand it, the better your retirement will be!

So buckle up, or leave the seat-belts off, because we are about to partake on a journey that is not really bumpy or fun like a rollercoaster, but that is what your Super should be!!

Boring and discipline is what accounts for most success, therefore, your Super should be just that, boring and disciplined.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

The Number One Secret to Becoming Financially Secure…

Getting Ahead of the Curve: Part 1

Pay Yourself FIRST!

To actually pay yourself first, it requires a few things, the first being a mental shift, a shift in consciousness or a shift in perspective. If this blog can help you to have a light bulb moment, a flick of the switch whereby you take action and start paying yourself first, my job would be part way complete.

A mentor once told me, “the reason you are still broke is because you are paying everyone else first, you are paying your bills, you are paying the local cafe, you are paying the supermarkets all first. You need to shift your mindset from paying everyone else first, to paying yourself first!”

When it comes to finances, you have to think of yourself, you and your partner, your family, as a corporation or business.

That is the another bit of advise I was given by my mentor a long time ago, which has helped me to truly get ahead and I hope will be able to help you to follow in my footsteps by truly taking the first step to becoming financially secure and potentially even wealthy!

That one bit of advise was what gave me my light bulb moment, because in business the number one rule to being an owner is to pay yourself first. However, it takes a lot of strong will and discipline to keep paying yourself first week in, week out.

I use the athlete analogy quite often, as I am a personal trainer, CrossFit Coach and love sport, but it is probably the best analogy to use as well, because athletes have such great discipline. Much more than the general population, like you or I.

Athletes need to be disciplined in their training schedules, their eating habits, the lifestyles they live, especially seeing as they are in the spotlight and looked up to as role models. The sacrifices they make, for the love of their sport, it is truly inspirational. That discipline is but an iota of what you and I need, because all you have to think about is sitting down every week, fortnight or month, depending on how you get paid, and transferring a small percentage of what you get paid into a savings account you do not touch. Which probably takes 15 minutes, whereas athletes commit to 40-100 hours a week, cooking, eating, training, sleeping and doing everything right.

But, just like an athlete, you can have speed bumps in the plan and process, where an athlete may get injured, you may have things happen that you were not expecting…

What happens when you get those unexpected speeding fines? Or you are seeing fuel prices soar?

Food is getting more expensive, inflation is going up and will only go higher, so how do you keep to paying yourself first, when you need more money to live and get the necessities?

You will need this discipline to stop yourself from reaching into the account you should be leaving alone, and the best thing to do here is to have a strong reason WHY you should not touch that account.

Having a goal for saving is just another tool in your arsenal to help you remain strong willed and disciplined.

Having a goal or reason to pay yourself first will be the only thing that will keep you going when times get tough. It could be as simple as saving for that holiday to Fiji or it could be more complex, such as achieving financial freedom and retiring when you are 45 years old.

Having that goal is great, but it needs to be anchored to strong emotions, that are linked to pain and pleasure. For an example, you may want to retire by 45 years old, but you need to have a really strong reason as to why you want to retire by that age. Is it because you truly dislike your job? Do you want to be able to spend more time with family? Do you want to give back to your community and you believe retiring early will give you the time and money to do so?

Your goal is of your own making, if you need help with regards to creating your own vision of your life, check out my first ever blog!

Other than strong will and discipline, you also need a sound plan, a process that you follow, week in, week out. Only a strong process will keep you from falling back into old habits.

Going back to treating yourself, your family, as a business, what do all good businesses have, all successful businesses anyhow? They have a strong process and systems to keep the business running.

Which is what you will need, and I am going to share with you the process I use every fortnight and month to be able to keep paying ourselves first (My wife and I, plus our dog too, he is apart of the family).

1. The hardest part is starting, and you need to figure out how much you would like to save/pay yourself first, as well as how much you need to live. That is why creating a budget to start is a great way to understand where you are at, to take the next step forward in your finances. You can follow my budget process right here, just click that link and follow it step by step.

2. Once you have complete your budget, you need to agree upon a number that you will save each week, fortnight or month that you can commit to for the whole year. (This number will vary on your circumstances, hence why it is necessary to complete a budget.)

3. You need to carve out 5-20 minutes each week or fortnight to commit to paying yourself first. Simply, once you get paid, take out the amount that you have agreed upon, with yourself, your partner or family, and transfer it to an account that you will not take from. Or you can invest it, but I will go through this later on.

4. It is best to also have another savings account, whereby you can commit a small proportion to big expenses that may come up out of nowhere. I call it an emergency savings account, where any fines or big expenses that pop up out of the blue get paid from this account.

5. Repeat the process and review your budget every year, as life gets more expensive, or your wage increases, the number you can pay yourself first will change!

If you can continue to complete these 5 steps, paying yourself first will be full proof, now of course, some of these steps may not suit your situation, or you may not like numbers. That is where having someone else look over your circumstances and budget might be a good idea.

The last step comes down to figuring out how to achieve your goal, which comes down to understanding the investment vehicles, and the complexities of risk.

Understanding the markets and understanding where your money should go to get the best outcome for you is truly a minefield, that is when having a great Financial Advisor by your side would help significantly. They know the ins and outs of the markets, they have been taught the complexities of financial products and have the processes to help you achieve your goals.

I will delve into how to look out for a great financial advisor in a new blog after this series, so look out for that.

However, I will also be going through the investments vehicles you can use to help you achieve your goals and dreams in part III of Getting Ahead of the Curve.

But next week, I will be taking you through what to expect of your tax this year and some truly simple ways in which you are entitled to minimise that tax bill or receive more of a refund from the tax you have paid in Part II.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

How To Get Ahead With Your Money by doing these 3 things!

One of the main reasons I started Take Back Control was to help people navigate the intricate and complex money system that we use in Australia. Through studying Financial Planning, I am in a very privileged position to have knowledge on all things money, including how to navigate the laws and systems, the history of money and how you can use the system as well as history to set yourself apart from the rest.

Hence, I wanted to bring you a series of blogs where I will delve deeper into the three things that will get you ahead of the pack.

Of course, there are many more things that you need to do, but these three things I believe are the most important to helping you feel secure with your finances. Not only feeling secure, but feeling confident that no matter what happens, you will feel like you are almost invincible, even if there was a recession, or you lost your job, or the markets are all crashing, like they are currently.

Therefore, lets get into a quick introduction on what the three things you should be mindful of to set yourself apart from everyone else when it comes to money and being financially comfortable or financially killing it, depending on your goals!

1. Pay Yourself First!

The first one is actually the easiest one, however requires a strong will, discipline and a different mindset to most people. Generally when it comes to coaching people for fitness, this would be the difference between your everyday general population person training in a gym and say an athlete who has trained all their life to be in the top 1-3% of people. Therefore, for you to to enter into even the top 5-10% of Australians who are well and truly wealthy, or if that is not your goal and you just want to feel financially secure and enter into the top 30% of Australians, you need to work on this one principle…

PAY YOURSELF FIRST!

I am going to delve into this a lot more in my next blog, but the principle is very simple, when you get paid, rather that waiting until the end of the pay cycle whether that is weekly, fortnightly or monthly, you take out a set amount from your pay that you will save or invest.

Watch out for my next blog on how I do this for my own finances right now.

2. Sort Out Your Tax

Our tax system can be very complex, but it can also be very simple, if you can understand the ins and outs of it. If you can understand the ins and outs, you can make the system work for you, where you can save a lot of money on tax by doing a few simple things to minimise your tax bill at the end of the year.

In two weeks I will be creating a blog that will run you through the ins and outs, so make sure you look out for that!

Because it could save you thousands of dollars that you are entitled to through the Australian tax system. You head me right, you are ENTITLED to these tax minimising strategies!

3. Choose the Investment Vehicle that is Right For YOU.

And finally, to truly set yourself apart from majority of Australians, from the majority of people in the world…

To truly set yourself up for Financial Freedom and to make your life a lot easier for when you look to retire or semi-retire…

You need to make sure that you choose the right investment vehicle for you.

There are quite a few ways that you can invest, which is buying up assets in the hope of future monetary return.

1. Bonds, which is simply you giving a government or company a loan, in which they need to pay you back with interest.

2. Equities or shares, in which you buy a small portion (or large, depending on the company) of the business/company.

3. Exchange Traded Funds, which is you buying into a bucket of companies/stocks.

4. Real Estate (one of the favourites for Australians the last thirty years), in which you buy housing, land, industrial/factories, retail outlets, storage or Real-estate Investment trusts etc.

5. Commodities, whereby you buy up a portion of necessities, such as timber, steel, iron ore, oil, gold, silver etc.

6. And finally the latest trend, Cryptocurrencies, where you can buy digital coins, digital land etc.

As you can see, there is just too much to go through in one blog, therefore this is just a short intro into my “Getting Ahead Series.”

I hope you can look out for the first blog, which will be complete next week.

Until next time,

Take Back Control

How to Take Control of Your Money: Budgeting Series Pt One

The only way you can Take Control of your money habits and spending/saving behaviours is to first understand what you are doing right now and have done in the past.

The best way to do this is to look at the numbers over the last three to six months, because numbers never lie, when memory and previous experience can be muddled.

I have found over the last ten years owning a sole trader business and having to do all the books myself, that you will be surprised, even ten years in, with your actions when it comes to spending.

Step 1: Do an audit of all your accounts.

The most important aspect of planning for a budget is to understand what you are doing right now and in the past, therefore, doing a full scale audit is really important.

Although it is the most important part, it is also the most boring for most people and why most people will always struggle when it comes to budgeting.

1. To complete an audit, you need to gather up the last three to six months of bank statements from all accounts, including your partners if you have one (always work with a budget as a team, which means there is no “I” in team").

2. Create the categories for each month of where you will be inputting the spend, an example of this would be groceries, take-out, mortgage/rent, kids schooling, self-education… The list can be as long as you make it, but I will provide a list I use of my own which is super comprehensive at the end of this article that you can look out for.

3. Understand how you work, do you need a highlighter to cross off all the transactions you have inputted? Do you need multiple highlighters for each category? Are you like me and would rather input as you go through each line of transactions? By being able to understand what works for you, it will be quicker and more efficient!

4. Input all transactions, no matter how tiny they are, it is imperative that you do this, even if it is just a $1 chocolate bar from the supermarket.

5. Lastly, you need to make sure each category is tallied up, in this I use excel. Which has functions such as Sum that will calculate all the totals up for you. Excel makes life a lot easier and quicker to create a budget and to track your spending, I would highly recommend it!

Step 2: Decide on what you want to do with the information now gathered!!

Almost as important as step one is working out what to do with the information you have organised. Have you got a surplus of cash/savings at the end of each month? Do you spend more money than you make?

Or do you just break-even?

Step two is where you can have all the fun, or it could be where you need to have tough conversations with either yourself or your partner. If you have just broken even, are you content with that?

Do you want to build up a cash reserve for emergencies? Do you want to save for a house? Having a child? Retirement?

Do you just want to be able to get away and see the world?

I can guarantee you, everything you ever dreamed of doing, all of it comes down to money and being able to use money wisely. If you have a goal you want to achieve, if you have something you want to do, you will need to have cash to do it. That is why, it is a great idea to talk to a coach or a Financial planner, who can help you with drawing out what you truly want, how to make your life better.

You can talk to friends and family, however, having someone who is not bias is an extremely important asset to have, someone who only has your best interest at heart.

One thing I have learnt, as much as you love friends and family, they do not always have your best interest at heart. Not out of malice or evil intent, in fact it is because they love you that they can sometimes offer bad advice.

Step 3: Now you have decided what you want, set REALISTIC goals!!

Setting realistic goals is paramount to budgeting success, you cannot maintain a budget if you blow it every month. You will just get disheartened and will dread reviewing your numbers every month. (Step four by the way.)

To do this, you need to look at creating a SMARTER goal (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely, Evaluate and Review) surrounding lifestyle, finance, education, career and relationships. I would suggest choosing one category to work on first, do not overwhelm yourself. Stick to one thing only until you get better at it!

Of course, you may not achieve said goals all the time, however just by purely setting the goals, you will at least be moving towards the life you want.

Step 4: Commit to reviewing your budget and goals every month!

Once you start on this path of Taking Back Control of your money, the most important aspect of the journey is to continue it. Between the age of 25 to 28 years old, our spending habits and savings rate has changed dramatically. We are constantly changing our budget and our numbers, therefore, you need to know them to be able to change them and keep up with the consistent changes.

If you are not good with finances, that is ok, you can ask your partner to do it, like I do for my wife. However, you need to make sure that you are open and transparent with the financial decisions. Otherwise, you could always hire a professional to help you with regards to this as well, such as a Financial Planner or coach.

Step 5: Take Action

Lastly, but definitely not least, YOU NEED TO TAKE ACTION!

There is no way around it, you need to put in the work if you want to reap rewards, you can outsource if it is not your strong point, but you will still need to do some groundwork.

I hope that the above will help you on your journey to taking back control of your finances,

Please see below the budget planner, and if you would like a copy, just submit your details below,

Until next time,

Take Back Control

Submit Your Details below to get access to a FREE Budget Planner, Fully Editable like the one you see above!

43% of Marriages End in Divorce According to New Statistics (2021)

Which is actually better than the divorce rate 20 years ago, according to Ibis World [1], where the divorce rate was closer to 50% based on divorce rate to marriages.

However, that percentage still seems extremely high to me, that means 2 in 5, almost 1 in 2 marriages, end in tears and messy finances.

And do you want to know what the number one reason for divorce in Australia is?

You probably already know, but it comes down to money most of the time, from partners lying about their finances to not being able to create the lifestyle that was promised and changing values surrounding money.

Therefore, one way to help bring that divorce rate down significantly would be to do what you reckon?

If you thought, well its simple, you just need to acquire more money…

You would be right to some degree, however, when it comes to money, having more doesn’t mean that you are happy.

In fact, a recent study completed by the Purdue university [2], using the Gallup World poll data, suggests that earning more money up to a certain degree can indeed bring more happiness, if the money is spent the right way. Mainly by buying back more time to spend with family and loved ones, as well as giving back to the community you live in.

Therefore, having more money is definitely going to help decrease the statistic, however it is also how you use your money, how you communicate with your partner about it and also will come down to how much time you spend earning said income.

So first of all, how much money is needed to be happy/content in your relationship and also yourself?

Well according to two different studies, from Princeton (2010) and Purdue Universities (2018), the bottom line is US$75,000 or AUD$100,634 per year.

That is the amount needed to be earned each year to at least be happy, to live the life you want, afford everything you need and to be able to service all of your debts as well, plus have some surplus cash to do with what you like.

If you are not earning that much personally, but you are married or in a De Facto relationship, don’t stress, because that corelates to household income as well. Therefore, between you and your partner, if you earn at least this much between you, based on the studies above, you should be content with your life.

Of course, that brings me to the next issue when it comes to money in relationships, which also is probably the number one reason why money is the killer of most marriages.

And that comes down to how you spend said money and communicate that spend with your partner!

1 in 4 (23%) have lied to a significant partner about their money spending habits [3], with the main reason of lying to said partner being debt (50% of respondents blamed debt for lying).

There are a few things that my wife and I do that I would like to share with you, which has definitely helped improve our relationship.

1. We have a night every one to two months where we go through our finances/budget and talk about where we are heading honestly and openly.

2. We have no hidden accounts, the only account I have which my wife doesn’t have access to is a business account. However, if she wanted to see it, all she has to do is ask.

3. We have a few standards, if we are wanting to make a purchase above $200, we need to talk with our partner about it first. Especially, if the purchase is a want, rather than a necessity.

Has that stopped us from having disagreements every now and again? No, of course not. We still have areas where we don’t agree, because we are fundamentally two different people.

An example of this would be our use of surplus cash, I love experiencing things and seeking adventure, we both do in fact. However, I am more risk-oriented, therefore I am fine with having less cash on hand, my wife is not though.

My wife is the opposite and has been taught to save and have cash in reserve, which is a great lesson to be taught. That is why we discuss the use of our money and where it goes, we disagree on some elements, but that is where compromise is needed.

Once we have agreed on the compromise of how to use said surplus cash, we need to stick by it. Which is what the monthly, to two monthly “date nights,” as termed by the ‘Barefoot Investor’ Mr. Scott Pape, are for.

To keep each other accountable and to make sure that we are moving in the same direction and spending the money in the right way.

The subject of relationships and being able to build better connections through open and transparent communication is a big one, and all it takes is for one person in the relationship to prioritise it and bring up any frustrations/concerns.

I truly hope that the above has been able to help someone in their own relationship, to help make your connection last!

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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1. https://www.ibisworld.com/au/bed/number-of-divorces/30/

2. https://www.renolon.com/can-money-buy-happiness-statistics/#:~:text=A%20study%20done%20by%20Princeton,after%20earning%20beyond%2080000%20USD.

3. https://www.finder.com.au/marriage-and-divorce-statistics-2021

Did You Know that You are an Investor Already?

Most people know that they get paid superannuation, however most people do not go beyond that. They don’t see it as their money, until they get to the age of 40-50 years old, which is a HUGE mistake!

Your superannuation is YOUR Money and it is really important you understand what you are doing with your money. It can be the difference of between an extra $50,000-200,000, or more even depending on your earnings, at retirement. Which I am sure would go a long way to being able to travel the world when you retire, if that is what you want to do.

Your Superannuation is your first investment, which started as soon as you got a job. As Living in Australia and working in Australia means legally your employer must pay your superannuation guarantee.

The minimum superannuation pay for each eligible employee is 10% of their ordinary time earnings (OTE). However, it's scheduled to progressively increase to 12% by 2025. - ATO (1)

Which means 10% of your income will go towards your super every year, so if you earn $100,000 before tax, you will have roughly $10,000 contributed to your superannuation. The best part, all super contributions made up to $27,500 is taxed at a smaller rate than your wages that get paid to your bank account.

Any contributions that are made are taxed at 15%, which is a lot less than the average 32-37% of your income that gets taxed, depending on how much you earn.

You not only save money by having super, but you also can make a lot of money from the returns your fund will get for managing your money.

Of course, you want to make sure that you have the right fund and the government has even provided a great website that will compare your current fund with up to four other funds that may get you better results down the track based on previous performance.

Check out the Your Super Comparison Tool here

The above comparison tool is great, however it does have some short-comings, which are due to the fact that it doesn’t filter funds based on ESG (Environmental Social Governance), therefore you don’t know where your money is going and if its ethical. As well as the fact it only compares based off of the previous 7 years of annual returns and the annual fees.

Which, in hindsight, if you are 20 or 30 years old, you want your money in a fund that has been able to perform well for much more than just seven years.

However, the tool is a great start to seeing whether your fund is performing well or not and can give you some good insight into how other funds are performing.

The main reason as to why you should not just choose the fund that is the best-performing from the Your-Super-Tool comes down to the fact that every person’s circumstances are very different and depending on your age, you may not want the highest performing fund. Generally speaking, the higher the annual returns, the more volatile the returns can be.

If you have only six years left to retirement and you are in a very aggressive fund, that may affect you significantly if the markets were to have a down-turn.

Hence why it is always best to speak to a professional advisor and work with one to set-up your superannuation.

I believe it is especially important for when you are younger as well, when you get to about 21-29 years old, you should be essentially starting your professional/trade career.

Which means your super contributions will be much higher from your employer than it was previously. There are a whole range of things that you need to figure out due to your increased super contributions that will possibly make you a lot more money than the general fund that your super fund will put you in.

Not to mention there is insurance within super as well, whereby that eats away at your retirement savings, but it may be the only way you can afford to get life insurance, TPD (Total Permanent Disability) and Income protection. Therefore, you want to know what insurance is going to suit you the best and how you may need it to change when you have a baby, build a house etc.

But it is all really hard to figure out all by yourself, which is why using an accredited Financial Planner is the way to go!!

There are so many things that can go wrong if you choose the wrong fund, but there are a few tools at least to get you started.

I hope this has helped and that brings us to the end of our beginner investors guide.

If you have found this guide valuable, I would love it if you shared all ten blogs with friends and family. The more the merrier, as I want to see each and every one of you learn to Take Back Control of your Life-Health-Wealth !

Until next time,

Take Back Control

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References:

1. https://www.ato.gov.au/business/super-for-employers/paying-super-contributions/how-much-super-to-pay/

What is Investing?

I wanted to start off the blog with something that is trending and quite exciting right now, with major asset classes booming at all time highs, I feel like this would be a great place to begin our journey.

To be honest, even though it is not where I started, I wish it had been, because if I had started investing earlier, I would be a lot wealthier. Of course, with the power of hindsight, we would all change something, so it is best not to dwell on it. That is why I want to start with teaching you a little bit about investing, what it is and just why I wish I had started investing when I was 13 years old!

First of all, the definition of investing is “the act of allocating resources, usually money, with the expectation of generating an income or profit.”- [1]

I like the definition taken from Investopedia, which is a great tool to use if you really want to learn about investing in a lot more detail than what we will be covering in the article today. Now, what does that mean?

Well first of all it is probably best to understand a little bit about Money and also a little bit about the different assets in which you can allocate your money to and why we should do this.

Over the years, I have come up with my own definition of money, which we use as a tool to find a middle-ground between buyers and sellers.

Money is the subjective tool we use to find value in the products and services we wish to attain or buy. It is nothing more than a concept we created to make buying and selling easier, a middle-ground that everyone can accept.

Much like salt, sugar and gold, we used these as mediums of exchange to barter and trade in the past, however it meant that for those that had more knowledge, they could rip more people off. Not to say this doesn’t still happen, but we have a much better system that creates a fair market and opportunity for all.

Thanks to the improvement of this money system, we live in a much more sophisticated and intricate world of economics and globalism, where supply and demand, as well as the overall market, is what sets the prices. I will not bore you with the details here, but just understand, that you as a buyer and seller in the market is needed for prices to be set.

Which is correct for all markets, from food, to real-estate to bonds and shares. Now that you understand, money is nothing more than a tool to make buying and selling easier from person to person, we can delve into the world of investing.

Based on the definition of investing, you need to be able to park your money somewhere, in the hope that the money you invest will make you more money and that newly earned money will also make you more money. (Therefore, $1 becomes $2, that $2 becomes $4 etc.)

That is the beauty of what Albert Einstein called “the 8th Wonder of the World,” yes I am talking about compound interest/earnings.

I won’t get into the details of compounding today, however, compounding is the main reason I would have started investing earlier if I could have.

Now, all this talk of investing is great, but where do you invest your money?

Well, there are plenty of different assets classes to choose from, but today, I will go through the five main asset classes.

Firstly, what is an asset?

“An asset is a resource with economic value that an individual, corporation, or country owns or controls with the expectation that it will provide a future benefit.” [2]

Again, I like the definition from Investopedia, which explains an asset perfectly, it is essentially a resource, like an investment property, a painting, an NFT (non-fungible token), shares in a company/business, etc. That you hold/own in the hope of future economic benefit.

So what are these five main asset classes I was talking about?

1. Shares/equities

2. Bonds/coupons

3. Commodities

4. Cash

5. Real-estate

Of course, you could put Crypto in there, but I guess that would fall under commodities, as crypto is very similar to gold, however it could also fall under cash, but we won’t go through that today.

These five different asset classes have been proven to, over the last three hundred years, to make returns consistently. Of course, the asset classes have markets of their own, and these markets go up or down (cycles), but for the majority of the time, they have increased over time.

We can prove this through what we call the S+P/ASX 200, which use to be the Australian All ordinaries index from 1980, before it was replaced with the ASX 200 in 2000. Essentially, the ASX 200 is what we all an index, which is just a group of the top 200 companies in Australia when it comes to their Market capitalisation. Don’t worry too much if you don’t know what this means, just remember that the ASX 200 is a group of the biggest 200 companies in Australia.

Now, if we look all the way back to the year 1938 and the ASX 200 was roughly around 50 basis points, which means you could own 1 unit of the ASX 200 for $50 in 1938. [3]

Now, fast forward to today and the ASX 200 is currently, at the time of writing this article, 7272.7 (bps).

That means $1000 invested in the ASX 200 (Share market) in 1938 would be worth $144,454 today, which does not include dividends paid from investing in the index either.

That sounds pretty sweet, doesn’t it, invest $1000 and make an extra $144,454 on top of your $1,000. That is what investing is about, it is looking to sacrifice in the now, for the hope of future financial returns.

I don’t believe I will have to explain the reason as to why we should be investing, the numbers speak for themselves, but I just wanted you to understand a little bit about investing and the history of it, as I have found this quite helpful in my own investing journey.

I will be going through how to invest, and also what the reason will be to invest in a future article, so please make sure that you subscribe to the blog and our newsletter by clicking the subscribe button.

If you do have any investing questions, or are looking to start your investing journey, I would love to know what your questions are or how you are starting through the comments below;

But until next time,

Take Back Control.

If you have found this Blog valuable, I would love it if you shared it with friends and family. The more the merrier, as I want to see each and every one of you learn to Take Back Control of your Life-Health-Wealth !

_________________________________

References:

[1]- Investopedia- viewed 12/10/21- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/investing.asp

[2] Investopedia- viewed 12/10/21- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/asset.asp

[3] Market History - viewed 12/10/21 - https://www.marketindex.com.au/history