With COVID-19 lockdown restrictions starting to ease, now is the time to start ticking some important money saving items off your to-do list before you get really busy outdoors again.
Superannuation, saving money and removing temptations around spending are three of areas where simple changes can help us save and get our finances in order.
Superannuation is one of those things where small money saving actions pay big rewards.
The easy things you can do right now are:
- Make sure your superannuation fund has your correct contact details – and set up online access. It’s easy for a fund to lose track of your address over the years and then you miss out on receiving statements and other important info. Plus, if you have online access you can easily check your account balance and insurance levels (more on that below).
- Check if you have lost super. You can visit the Government website here, and there are options to do it online or call up.
- Roll over multiple accounts into one. If you know you have multiple super accounts and have been putting this off, DO IT NOW. Contact your main fund and they will likely do it for you (because they want your money). Paying fees on multiple funds is like paying for memberships with multiple gyms – a waste of money. In fact, it’s estimated to cost an average of $50,000 by retirement.
- Review your Life & TPD Insurance. It usually comes as part of the super deal without you asking. That’s fine if you want it, but you should still check if it’s the right amount.
Drive a hard bargain with your service providers
Some things you can review are:
- Energy company
- Internet provider
- Health insurance (just be sure the coverage is comparable)
- Home and car insurance
- Mortgage (for an average owner-occupier, your interest rate should start with a 2)
Look on comparison sites like Canstar and Finder and get quotes. Then you can ask your current provider to match or beat it.
You could always just move to a new provider, but I find that requires more paperwork (which I hate), so I avoid it if I can.
Also, be sure to read online reviews before changing providers, because there is a strong element of ‘better the devil you know’ in this situation.
Review subscriptions and remove temptations
It’s easy for the little costs to add up. A streaming service here, an App Store purchase there. So, scanning your bank statements for these ‘small’ payments is a great idea.
Then it’s time to unsubscribe from the newsletters from retailers.
Just like not having chocolate in the house stops you from eating it, not receiving suggestions about things to buy is a marvellous way not to buy things.
I unsubscribed from shopping emails in a fit of ‘new year good intentions’ – and wrote about it here.
Using a tool called unroll.me, I scraped a list of all my subscriptions then canceled a bunch of them. Now I never have to know about sales for stuff I don’t need. Genius.
Just see how you go
So ladies, if you don’t want to do any of these, you don’t have to. Maybe just diarise it and see if you feel like it a month from now? And if you still don’t want to? Then don’t.
Right now, the main thing is staying safe, staying sane and not shouting at kids/pets/parents/police if we can avoid it. Everything else is a bonus.
This Financy article was provided by Belinda White, who is on a mission to help women fall in love with finance. Her blog, Fierce Girl Finance, makes investment topics funny, relatable and easy to understand. Her promise? No jargon, no men in suits and lots of Beyonce.
