A couple of weeks ago I closed one bank account and opened another at a different bank. I realised the first bank stopped giving me what they called ‘bonus’ interest and reverted me back to 0.05% interest which everyone knows is nothing! Luckily I keep my eye on my accounts as these things happen. The impact is that I’m not loyal to any particular bank instead I proactively move to a better deal.
I set up my bank accounts in a way where I don’t pay any bank fees or charges. To my surprise I discovered that many people regularly pay bank fees and charges. It turns out lots of people pay hundreds of dollars annually to have a bank account. Small regular charges annoy me so I try hard to arrange things to avoid them. Every time I open a new account at a different bank I’m sent a new credit card. I don’t activate them. I have only one credit card, that is, I keep using my original credit card. A simple measure like this helps keep me out of trouble. There are 15.9 million active credit cards in Australia. For our adult population this means there’s many people out there using two or more credit cards which can lead to danger and many end up with money troubles. Another piece of advice I recently came across to keep you financially healthy was to not use services such as AfterPay or Zippay. Instead go back to using good old fashioned cash. The principle being don’t buy it if you haven’t got the cash to pay for it. That does involve having to go back to the old ways and find an ATM!
Get help if you find you’ve landed in money troubles. Scott Pape who calls himself ‘The Barefoot Investor’ has a column in a Sunday newspaper that I like to read. Scott’s first book was also called ‘The Barefoot Investor’. Scott offers great advice on how to manage your money well and become financially independent. Find out about Scott at barefootinvestor.com
Living well on a shoestring 