Spring is a great time to give your finances a once over to see how those goals you set back in January are tracking. Reviewing your financial situation, starting afresh this spring and making sure you aren’t spending more money than you need to.

Below are a few tips to help organise and freshen up your finances:

Start with a Budget: if you haven’t tracked your spending for a while, it is likely that your income and expenses have changed. There is potential for you to save money by simply making a few small adjustments.

Automatic payments: everyone has been guilty of not paying a bill on time and this often incurs additional fees. Automatic payments could be extremely beneficial and scheduling a direct debit is one way to avoid these extra fees especially for regular payments like utilities.

Check your bank statements: running your eyes over your monthly bank statements for mystery charges. By doing this you may come across charges that are not yours or old subscriptions that you may have forgotten about.

Eliminate non-essential items: small inexpensive items add up over a month. If you didn’t purchase that morning coffee or afternoon snack every day you could save yourself over $1,000 a year. Look for cheaper alternatives – if you can’t leave the house in the morning without your coffee, purchase an eco-coffee cup and start making your coffee at home to take to work.

Protect what you can’t afford to lose: If something is important and you can’t afford to lose it – it needs to be protected. Your income is imperative to your financial freedom, you need to ensure it’s adequately protected.

You work hard for your money, so make it work for you. Creating a budget and monitoring your expenses doesn’t mean you miss out on all the fun stuff. It’s about knowing where your money is going so you stay in control.

If you struggle to stick to your budget or your financial situation is becoming a bit overwhelming, JBS has a program that can help give your finances that spring clean feeling. Contact us today to discuss how Cash Coach can help you.

The start of the new financial year provides the opportunity to reflect on your current salary and what this means for the future.

It is important to reflect on your future earnings potential as your income is the lifeblood to your dreams. Your income allows you (and your family) to enjoy the lifestyle you desire today and the lifestyle you want in the future, and this future income is likely to run into the millions. So it only makes sense to allocate appropriate time to reflect on what this means for you.

Many people we deal with at JBS have a demanding lifestyle, and through helping these people we have observed a lack of personal financial protection. A lack of insurance coverage to protect their most important financial asset, their ability to earn an income in the future. It takes a lot of effort to raise children, meet the family’s demands, work full time, play sport, live life and so on, so we can excuse these people of sometimes being a little ignorant to their personal protection needs.

However, that doesn’t excuse the need for appropriate financial protection.

The following table shows the potential earnings to age 65 for a person based on different levels of income per year.

*Salary increased by 3% per year

See where you fit on that table, and think about if injury or illness suddenly prevented you from following your passion and doing what you loved, what would the financial impact be?

You have a large earnings potential if everything goes to plan, and this earnings potential should be protected adequately at all times.

Think about the last time you reflected on your future income earnings, and what steps need to be addressed to ensure it continues in the future. Can you really afford the ramifications and the impact of your income not continuing?

– Glenn Malkiewicz –

Albert Einstein once said “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” Who are we to argue?

Compound interest is when interest is earning interest not just the original capital. I.e. you invest $100 at an interest rate of 5%. After year one you have $105. After year two however, not only does your original $100 earn another 5% interest, but the extra $5 is also earning 5% interest so that at the end of year 2, the money has grown to $110.25. Yay an extra 25 cents. Where compounding really gets interesting is when you extend it over long periods of time.

Let’s take two examples. Example 1 is a 25 year old who has a decent income and is able to put away $100 a week into an investment that generates 6% p.a.

In the second example, however, the person tends to spend all of their money on fun stuff, living life to the fullest until the age of 45 where they decide to start saving for retirement. They are on quite a bit more income than the first person who is only 25 and instead of being able to save $100 a week, they can save $400 a week.

Person 1 ends up with approximately $861,457 at age 65 after contributing $213,200 over the 40 years.

Person 2 ends up with slightly less at approximately $835,851 at age 65 however they have astoundingly put in $436,800. Over twice as much as person 1. Imagine what person 1 would have been able to do with the extra $224,600 that they didn’t need to contribute over the last 20 years? Me personally, I’m thinking holidays.

While returns are important when investing, the single most important thing that can grow your wealth the most is time. Compound interest makes this possible, and so when is the right time to start saving? No matter how old you are, the right time to start saving is right now.

PS. Compounding also works in reverse when you borrow money. Having to pay interest on interest deteriorates wealth just as quickly as earning interest on interest creates wealth.

– Liam Rutty –

How you manage your cash flow will be the biggest influence in achieving your lifestyle and financial goals.

Let me repeat that:  Without a budget you are unlikely to achieve the things you want from life.

You probably know you need to sit down and go over your monthly expenditure but you never get around to it.  Meanwhile, you’re not sure exactly where your money’s going each month.  If you take a hands-off approach when it comes to budgeting, your finances and lifestyle are likely to be negatively impacted.

If you’re a procrastinator or just plain lazy, here are a few easy tips for taking charge of your cash:

1. Track your Spending
Whether you’re trying to pay down debt, save for a dream holiday or house, or boost your savings, having a budget is a vital part of the plan.

Making your budget work is all about knowing exactly what you’ve got coming in and going out each month.  If you’re not living on a budget then you won’t have a clear idea of what’s going on.  Figuring out where your hard-earned dollars are going is the first thing you need to tackle before you attempt a budget.

If you don’t want the hassle of tracking your spending, JBS can do that for you.

2. Keep it Simple
Warren Buffet once said ‘Simplicity is the greatest form of sophistication’.  Whilst he was referring to investing, the same principal can apply to budgeting.

Making a budget isn’t rocket science.  You firstly need to know where your money is coming from and where it is going.  If you’ve got money left over at the end of the month then you’re already off to a good start.  If not, then you’ll need to do some additional fine tuning to look for things you can cut back on.

Once you’ve got a sense of what your budget should look like you’ll need to set up a system for allocating your money.

This is where JBS steps in.  We work with you to create a budget that is simplistic in nature, however aligned to your future goals and objectives.  We ensure you have enough money to spend on yourself today so you’re happy, but there is money left over each month to work towards your future goals.

3.  Put your Budget on Auto-Pilot
The majority of attempts to budget fail because meaningful and permanent change comes from a change in behaviour not simply reporting spending patterns.  We know this, and we believe effective cash flow management contains 2 key elements:

1. A redesigned banking structure that changes a person’s behaviour – This may include setting up multiple bank accounts and arranging automatic direct debits that puts you in a better position to achieve your short and longer terms goals.  Essentially you put your savings on autopilot.

2. Regular reporting to track your progress and to make adjustments along the way.  Each month JBS provides a report outlining your monthly spending, what went well, what needs improving, and how you are tracking towards your goal.

This report helps ensure you are accountable to the plan we set you now and in the future, maximising your probability of achieving your goals.  All you need to do is follow the plan we set you, the rest is on autopilot.

4.  Start Small
Learning to stick to a budget isn’t something that happens overnight.  Our JBS Cash Coach program however can help you set a budget which is aligned to your goals, and keep you accountable to your plan.

For you, all it takes is 5 – 10 minutes each week.

Sitting down with JBS to prepare a budget may seem like a hassle but it’s a smart investment that has long-term benefits.

Taking the first step is usually the hardest part but the sooner you stop dragging your feet, the bigger the payoff will be.

– Glenn Malkiewicz-

Many young Australians are continually facing more and more financial challenges and hurdles as they enter adulthood.  Many are trying to save to buy their first home, travel the world, buy their first car, paying off their HECS debt, or all of the above.

As parents there are few little things that you can do to help teach your children about finances, which will go a long way for them in the future.  One of the most important is to teach your children how to do a budget or how best to save their money.

It can even be a worthwhile exercise including your children when it comes time to doing the family budget, this way they’ll learn that nothing comes for free and the things that they enjoy (such as their flashy smart phone) costs money, even if it’s paid for by the bank of mum and dad.

When you give your children their pocket money a good exercise can be to sit down with them and see if there’s something they wish to buy or spend their money on.  Once this has been determined you can then help them set a goal and savings plan. Teaching this at a young age can help them become disciplined with their money and set them up for the future when they need to save for the bigger things (such as their first home).

When it comes time to buying their first car or home they’ll most likely need to borrow money to help them (especially in the case of the home), so it’s worthwhile teaching them about debt and how it works. It may sound silly but introducing them to how debt works will help them understand that when the time comes they’re not just going to be given free money, but they’ll have an obligation to pay that money back plus interest.  You’re older children may understand this but the younger ones may not quite grasp this.

At JBS we have wide range of services to help clients achieve financial freedom. For the younger clients we have a Cash Coach program to help with savings and budgeting and a Retire Right program which is tailored towards our older clients to help with the transition from working life. These services help our clients overcome their biggest financial challenges and achieve their goals.  We even offer services to our clients children to help them on their journey.

– Peter Folk –

We’ve just passed the first quarter of the year and it’s also this time of the year that you may begin to see some of your New Year’s resolutions start to lose momentum. More specifically we’ll look at your savings goal and tips on how to ensure you maintain the momentum and consistently save throughout the year. Often the beginning of the year is when you look to commence a New Year’s resolution. One common New Year’s resolution is to come up with a savings goal. The issue however is that the momentum starts to slow down after a couple of months into the year. Here are some tips, which may assist you in ensuring you maintain the momentum and consistently save each month.

Use technology as it’s readily available now
One of the most common factors that prevent consistent savings is the tedious process of having to keep track of all the income and expenses from day to day. Having to remember what that $50 you withdrew the other week was for, or remembering to retain all the receipts from last month, so you can register the amounts can become very tiresome, very quickly. Luckily we now have technology to assist us in keeping track of all your income and expenses and programs which are able to link all your bank accounts and credits cards.  This means after the initial set up of the accounts, all you have to do is spend between 5 – 10 minutes each week checking your income and expenses online. You can even download an app to your phone, so you could categorise your expense and review your cash flow anywhere. Having a simple method of tracking your income and expenses will assist you in consistently reaching your savings goals.

Simplify expenses and income details
Another common mistake we see is having too many categories in your budget. In your expenses section you may have a category for fruit and veg, then another category for groceries and perhaps even another category for meat. Ultimately you could just bundle all these expenses together into groceries and reduce the amount of categories under expenses. Furthermore, consistently recording certain expenses the same each month / week is also crucial. This means do not record the costs of your fruit and veg as groceries one week and then the next week record it as shopping.  The same applies to your income. If you have income derived from several jobs, you could simply categorize all the income as salary, instead of recording each income individually. Having fewer categories will make it easier for you to analyse and compare your income and expenses from time to time.

Turn your savings goal into your lifestyle
One of the most important reasons why you should stick to your savings goal is that once you’ve consistently saved for a period of time, you will automatically change your daily spending habits. When you initially start to review your expenditure, it will feel very daunting and painful knowing you can’t buy that new phone that’s been released as it means you won’t reach your savings goal for the month. However over time you’ll find it becomes easier and easier to manage all your spending. This means that eventually you won’t even think of the savings plan as a painful task but rather something you just do naturally. The trick is to stay consistent each month.

Never lose sight of your original goal (Have a Cash Coach on your side)
Whether it’s to purchase a new car, your first home, or save for the next family holiday, we generally start a savings plan with a specific goal in mind. The issue arises when motivation starts to lack and our vision of the original goal starts to blur. There is also the issue of temptation, knowing that there’s now a certain amount saved up, it’s very tempting to make impulse purchases on things we don’t need. The important tip to remember is to never lose sight of your original goal and keep yourself disciplined and accountable in order to reach that goal. This may mean you get your partner, family member or friend to keep you accountable. Even better is to have a financial adviser in your corner. Similar to having a personal trainer at the gym, having a financial adviser on your side means you receive that additional support in order to achieve your savings goals.

Here at JBS we have a Cash Coach program, which assist clients in tracking their income and spending every day. More importantly JBS acts as a coach and will evaluate your performance each month, to ensure you’re still on track to meet your goal. If you’re thinking about starting a savings plan or just need someone in your corner to help you save, JBS can assist.

– Andy Lay –

There’s something about starting a new year that brings with it a tonne of motivation. That fresh start where you can re-set, clean-up, and where energy levels are high and excitement at its peak. Where our passion for giving those dreams of ours a really good shot is reignited and our visions of living bigger and better are at the forefront of our thinking.

However, we get to March and the motivation starts to taper off and by April most goals have been abandoned or forgotten about. Research shows, in the end only about 8% of people stick with their good intentions.

So what do this 8% do differently? Are they just more willing to invest wholeheartedly to work towards their goals? Maybe, but experts say it has more to do with how they set themselves up for success. Specifically, they use January to re-set themselves and clean up any messes from the previous year, then invest the time and effort into effective goal planning.

So with the new year having now kicked off, here’s a list of the best results-driven tactics to ensure you are part of that 8% and make 2017 your best year yet:
Get Super Clear

Vague or generalised goals such as ‘save more’ won’t serve you. They need to be specific and well defined so that they can be measured.

–  What?

–  When?

–  And How?

Specific goals such as ‘pay off credit cards by March’ are easier to measure. By then mapping out the action steps required it is then easier to achieve the goal than not.

But there’s also the why? Connecting emotion with your goals will help you remember why they were important in the first place and will reignite your passion for reaching them when things get difficult.

Write it Down

Study after study has shown that those who write down their goals accomplish significantly more than those who don’t. Why? Putting pen to paper forces you to clarify what you want, it motivates you to take action and it makes it easier for you to see your progress and celebrate your successes.

Get Support & Accountability

We’ve all heard the importance of being around the right people, especially when chasing our goals.  When you’re in pursuit of a dream, there are many elements that can resist your path and block your forward motion.  Surrounding yourself with people that are genuinely cheering for you will help you disengage from this resistance and keep you moving forward.

That’s where JBS fits in. We believe (and know!) that the biggest influence of you achieving your financial and lifestyle goals is firstly to have clarity on what your goals are, then aligning your cash flow to help you achieve those goals. Fortunately for you we have a program designed to help you achieve this.

The JBS Cash Coach program is tailored to you, your needs, your goals, and the actions you need to take to achieve those goals.  We take the time to understand you, then design solutions to help you achieve your goals. We help you create a spending and savings plan that is aligned to your goals, and keep you accountable and motivated on a monthly basis to maximise the probability of achieving your goals so you can have the lifestyle you are entitled too in 2017 and into the future.

The early part of 2017 is the perfect time de-clutter your life of the excess build up from last year, clean up, clear your head, set motivating goals, and get moving towards those goals.

The JBS Cash Coach program will help you get the most out of 2017 but only if you take action. Make time and join the best support network around (aka JBS Cash Coach).

Buying your first home has never felt harder and it’s clear that people could use a helping hand.  Australian’s typically approach their finances with a ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude, and have quite a reactive, last minute approach when facing up to life-changing events such as home ownership.  

We understand Australians have a high emotional drive for property ownership and we see the importance to satisfy this driver to create life satisfaction.

Here are some tips to help make it happen:

Tip 1 – Determine / Cut Down your Expenses:  Saving the house deposit is going to involve some sacrifice.  Try cutting down on a little luxury each week.  It all adds up.  As a first step, determine what your living expenses are so you are happy, whilst also ensuring there is money left over to save.

Tip 2 – Start Now:  It doesn’t matter if you don’t know exactly where you will buy.  It’s going to take some time to save for a house deposit, so start a regular savings plan now and sort the finer details later.

Tip 3 – Stash your Cash somewhere Sensible:  Investing short term in the share market is not usually a good option.  Whilst an online savings account doesn’t pay much in interest, it is most likely the right place to save for your house deposit.

Tip 4 – Avoid Paying Rent:  One of the hardest parts about saving for a deposit is saving cash whilst also renting.  Living with your parents is not always an option, however if this is possible it will supercharge your savings.

Tip 5 – Save like you’re paying a mortgage:  Many people say they find it hard to save because they’re renting and still have all the other expenses as well.  If you have to rent, then as a minimum you should be saving the difference between your rent and expected mortgage repayments.

Tip 6 – Don’t forget Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI):  If you can save 15% – 20% of the purchase price you will generally avoid paying LMI.  The aim should be to avoid LMI because the insurance isn’t actually for you, it’s to protect the lender.

Tip 7 – Allow for Other Extra Costs:  Costs such as Stamp Duty and conveyancing add up and need to be factored in.  The Stamp Duty amount will depend on the purchase price and the State in which you purchase, whilst conveyancing costs will range somewhere between $800 – $2,500.

How JBS can Assist

We believe the biggest influence on you achieving your financial and lifestyle goals is how you best utilise your cash flow.

This has driven us to develop the JBS Cash Coach program which aims to assist the Generation X & Y demographic, and anyone else requiring advice / coaching / mentoring / tracking / accountability regarding their cash flow and financial goals, such as purchasing a first home / debt reduction / retirement planning etc.

We assist clients to develop great money management skills.  This puts you back into the driving seat, using high impact track and reporting technology teamed with expert advice.  We help clients get their finances back on track, so they can achieve their goal.

We have helped around 10 clients this year purchase their first home, and this was achieved through the JBS Cash Coach program.

If this is something of interest and you are looking for accountability and ongoing advice around achieving your savings goals / house purchase please give JBS a call.

Please refer to this brochure for further details.