Nearly three in five Australians are worried they won’t have enough money for their retirement years, according to a new global study from ING. The finance giant surveyed nearly 15,000 residents of Australia, the United States, and Europe. Australians aren’t alone in their concerns, with more than half of the people in nearly every country surveyed stating they worry about their financial futures. The Netherlands bucked the trend. Just 40 percent of people surveyed in this country worry about funding their golden years.

Perhaps the Dutch are so positive about their financial outlook because they plan to delay their retirement the longest. The average Dutch person plans to retire at nearly 67 years of age. In Australia, most of us plan to leave the workforce at 64.4, just shy of the official retirement age.

ING also surveyed people around the world after retirement to reveal the realities of life after leaving the workforce. Forty-four percent of Australian retirees say they don’t enjoy the same standard of living they had while they were in the workforce. That puts our retirees behind those in several other countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, and Italy.

Here at Chase Edwards we want to rid Australians of their money worries. We don’t want you to spend your working life stressed about whether you’ll have enough money for a comfortable retirement. We also don’t want you working longer than you want to, or struggling to make ends meet once you leave the workforce. We’d love to help you discover financial freedom and put you on the right track to enjoying the retirement you deserve, when you want it. It all starts with a financial health check. We’ll assess your finances now and determine how you’re placed to achieve your financial goal. This is a free, no obligation service, so what do you have to lose? Call us on 1300 854 833 to organise yours.

Have you ever wondered why some people enjoy the high life while others live pay cheque to pay cheque? Is it education, a willingness to take risks, or perhaps simply luck that attracts wealth? Wonder no more. Sarah Stanley Fallaw, research director for the Affluent Market Institute, recently surveyed more than 600 American millionaires to learn the secrets of success. She says anyone can follow in their footsteps, no matter their age or income.

She identified six common behaviors which lead to greater wealth. These so-called “wealth factors” are:

• Frugality, a commitment to spending less and saving more
• Confidence in financial management, household leadership, and investment decisions
• Responsibility for financial outcomes, rather than believing in luck
• Planning and goal setting for the financial future
• Focus on completing tasks, without distractions
• Social indifference, no desire or the willpower to resist purchasing the latest things.

Many people feel financial freedom means spending big, but several of the millionaires surveyed said they feel true freedom comes when you spend below your means, without succumbing to the pressure to live large as society might expect.

“Spending above your means, spending instead of saving for retirement, spending in anticipation of becoming wealthy makes you a slave to the pay cheque, even with a stellar level of income,” Ms. Stanley Fallaw wrote in her report, “The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth.”

Her findings support those of Chris Hogan, the author of “Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth – and How You Can Too.” He interviewed several millionaires for his book and said it’s no coincidence most are self-made.

“[Millionaires] don’t count on anyone else to make them rich, and they don’t blame anyone else if they fall short,” Hogan wrote, echoing Ms. Stanley Fallaw’s findings about responsibility. “They focus on things they can control and align their daily habits to the goals they have set for themselves.”

Because they focus on achieving their goals, as Ms. Stanley Fallaw asserted, Mr. Hogan found 97 percent of millionaires almost always achieve the financial goals they set for themselves.

Do you possess the wealth factors? What areas do you need to work on? Improving your money habits isn’t easy, but Chase Edwards can help. Our friendly money experts can help you set realistic money goals and support you as you achieve them. Call us on 1300 854 833 to learn more about how we can help you improve your finances and grow your wealth.

A senate inquiry has revealed shocking stories about the debt young Australians incur through buy now, pay later companies like Afterpay and Zip Money. These providers market themselves as a financially-savvy alternative to credit card companies, as users can pay their purchases off over time with interest-free instalments. However, they’ve been accused of targeting vulnerable Aussies without the means of repaying their debts.

One of those Australians is Renny O’Dwyer, a 19-year-old university student making just $300 a week from Centrelink payments and her part-time job. Despite earning less than a fifth of the average Australian weekly wage, Afterpay allowed her to rack up debts of $3110.

“When I shop, it’s quite an addictive thing — you get adrenaline when you purchase things,” she told the ABC’s PM program. “I would more often than not just keep using it, and for things that I wouldn’t necessarily buy.”

Ms O’Dwyer says half of her weekly earnings are now consumed by Afterpay repayments. She believes the financial provider and other companies like it are dangerous for anyone who isn’t financially literate.

“You know, you’re just out of high school, you’re a uni student, you don’t have a full-time job — you’ve never had that kind of experience where there’s expenses to life,” she told the ABC.

Her assertions are supported by a recent Australian Securities and Investment Commission report, which found one in six customers who use Afterpay are in financial trouble. More than half of these people are aged between 18 and 32.

Despite the findings, Afterpay co-founder and chief executive Nick Molnar insists his company is financially responsible.

“Afterpay is not in the business of offering a $20,000, or even a $5000 loan,” he told the hearing. “We’re not a line of credit, payments are attached to a discrete product or service, which means we can never be used for a gambling-type service.”

He added that Afterpay users cannot continue accumulating more debt through the service if their payments are outstanding. He also noted the average Afterpay user owes just $208, far less than the average credit card debt of $4200.

However, while people typically have smaller debts using Afterpay and other buy now, pay later services, that doesn’t diminish the stress some users feel repaying their purchases. If you’re a stressed out Afterpay customer or simply feel your debt and spending is out of control, call Chase Edwards on 1300 854 833. We can help you pay down your debt and regain control of your finances much faster than you might think. Discover a smarter, less stressful way of managing your money today.

Australians are embracing clean eating and upping their step counts to improve their physical health, but a new study shows many should focus on boosting their financial health too. The recently released Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Melbourne Institute Financial Wellbeing Scales found just a third of Australians have high financial wellbeing.

A quarter of respondents said they struggle managing their money. The same amount of Aussies say their poor money management negatively impacts their enjoyment of life. A troubling 37 percent of Australians said they wouldn’t have the necessary funds to handle an unexpected expense. Twenty-nine percent said they never or rarely have any money left over at the end of each month. That’s also the same amount of Australians who feel their finances often or always control their lives.

9Finance editor Ross Greenwood told Nine’s morning program, Today, that he worries about the impact poor financial management has on Australians and their families.

“If you’ve got a situation where people are just not happy, that mental health comes into this, that’s a very significant issue,” he explained. “We’ve always known that people who don’t have control of their finances, other problems happen in their lives. Marriages bust up, there can be substance abuse. So really it is about that control.”

He also said the research showed high incomes were no guarantee of financial success.

“It’s not how much money you’ve got or how much you earn, it’s the way you manage it that determines if you’re happy or not,” he noted. “What they’ve shown is that people … who earn lower incomes but who manage their finances better, have got a budget, feel like they’re saving money, feel like they’re going forward, are actually doing better than people who feel like they’re out of control with their finances even though they might earn even more money.”

Here at Chase Edwards, we believe money shouldn’t control your life; you should. That’s why we offer free, no obligation financial health checks to all Australians. Call us on 1300 854 833 to organise your financial check-up and get on the path to better financial wellbeing today.

Most of us start the new year declaring this one will be different. We say we’ll work out, eat better, and give up our vices. But despite our best intentions, studies show just 8 percent of us ever stick to our New Year’s resolutions. While many resolutions fall by the wayside, it seems many Australians have followed through on their 2018 goals to cut the credit. Official figures from the Reserve Bank show the number of Australians with credit cards has fallen by a record 4.3 percent over the last 12 months. Today just 16 million Australians hold credit cards, down from an estimated 17.4 million when credit cards were the most popular.

As Australians close their credit card accounts, they’re turning to other payment methods that don’t put them into debt. For example, debit card transactions have increased by 12 percent. Millennials are a key demographic fuelling this growth, CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“The rise of tap and go forms of payment and the general concern about debt since the global financial crisis have fed into that [increase in debit card usage],” he explained.

He added that Australian households are also increasingly more likely to use their mortgage’s redraw facilities for purchases than go into credit card debt.

“People are more cautious about the costs of credit cards and credit card debt,” he added. “And the rewards offered by credit card providers have been pared back a little.”

With 18.5 percent of credit card users struggling with debt, according to recent reports from ASIC, resolving to free yourself from the plastic in 2019 makes sense. The debt experts at Chase Edwards can help. We can suggest strategies for paying down your credit card balance faster than you’d imagined so you can cancel those credit card accounts and stop paying interest sooner. Call us on 1300 854 833 to discover how we can help you escape the debt cycle this year.

More than a thousand Australian retailers are letting shoppers enjoy their purchases now, and pay for them later through Afterpay. The service splits up payments over a period of up to eight weeks, giving an interest-free, budget-friendly choice for online and in-store shopping that’s hard to resist over the Christmas spending season. But is it too good to be true? The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says yes, and it’s calling for a Senate inquiry into the service.

ASIC is concerned that because Afterpay isn’t regulated by the National Credit Act, it doesn’t need to consider the income and existing debts of its members. Members simply need to declare they’re at least 18 years old to rack up as large an Afterpay bill as they like. This means Afterpay can potentially offer loans to its members when they are unlikely to be able to repay them.

While Afterpay doesn’t charge the exorbitant interest rates of pay day lenders, it does impose late fees of $10 for outstanding payments and an additional $7 if payment is not made within seven days.

To Afterpay’s credit, it does not allow its members to make additional Afterpay purchases if their payments are outstanding. Its late fees are capped at $68. It also has a website page about responsible spending with links to more information about ASIC TrackMySPEND, Choice budgeting software, and the National Debt Helpline. However, these steps may not be enough to deter cash-strapped Australians determined to have the best Christmas at any cost.

“The stark reality is that these schemes profit when Australians are unable to pay on time and are forced to pay late fees,” declared Choice. “It is imperative to have legal safeguards in place to prevent these schemes from preying on those who can’t repay on time and unfairly profiting from this perverse incentive.”

Afterpay denies Choice’s claims and insists its late fees do not cover its losses on dishonoured payments, declaring it would have been $9.3 million richer last year if all Australians paid on time.

Afterpay can be a great tool for easing the financial pressure of Christmas, but only if you use it responsibly. Keep track of your spending and ensure your cumulative payments won’t leave you with a festive financial hangover. Or better yet, save a Christmas nest egg so you have the money you need to treat yourself and your loved ones over the silly season. It might be too late to generate any serious savings for this Christmas, but you can always prepare for next year. Call Chase Edwards on 1300 854 833 to start talking about strategies that can help you gain the financial freedom you need to avoid services like Afterpay.

 

We don’t mean to alarm you, but Christmas is less than seven weeks away. It’s a time for giving, for catching up with family and friends, and of course, spending. But how much of a hole will the festive season put in your bank account? According to new research from My Budget, the average Australian will spend $890 on the silly season. However, the finance company says many Aussie households will spend much more.

“Christmas is probably the most expensive time of the year for most families,” My Budget director and founder Tammy Barton told 9 News. “It can be anywhere from between $890 to up to $1500 dollars.”

Ms Barton recommends planning your Christmas spending now and buying festive purchases ahead of time to avoid a budget blowout. Leave your Christmas shopping to the last minute and you’re much more likely to overspend.

“Buying presents last minute generally means you spend more because you haven’t planned, you haven’t been able to buy things on sale, so that’s probably one of the biggest risks,” she explained.

She also suggests families who feel the financial pinch during the festive season implement some cost-cutting measures. These might include only buying presents for children or implementing a Secret Santa system, rather than splurging on individual gifts for all friends or family members. Choosing less expensive meats and vegetarian dishes for your Christmas meals can help you reduce the cost of your festive feast. You could even ask your guests to bring a plate. Don’t forget about local restaurant options; you might find they’re cheaper than hosting your own family gathering.

The idea of putting your Christmas bill on credit might sound appealing, but Ms. Barton cautions against this.

“You’re going to be stuck paying that in January and February,” she reminded plastic lovers. “The best Christmas is an affordable Christmas.”

Don’t worry about how you’ll afford another Christmas. Calling Chase Edwards on 1300 854 833 is your first step on the path to financial freedom. We’ll help you learn how to grow your wealth so you have enough money to handle big spending seasons like Christmas and unexpected expenses. Making the call today is the best gift you can give yourself this holiday season.

More Australians are working past the age of 70 than ever before, but many members of Generation Y say they’ll opt out of the workforce early. The Financially Independent, Retire Early (FIRE) movement popularised by American millennials has reached Australia, and plenty of young people are jumping on board. Nearly half of Australians aged between 18 and 34 plan to retire before 50 and 83 per cent say they’ll exit the workforce by the age of 60.

Young people say they want enough money to retire early because they’d rather spend time indulging their own passions than working in a career for life. Many are also disillusioned with the future of healthcare and state-funded pensions, so feel they’d better grow a substantial nest egg to take care of themselves.

Some Baby Boomers might say young Australians are being unrealistic, but FIRE devotees know what it takes to opt out of the workforce early. Twenty-eight per cent of millennials planned to retire with between $2 million and $5 million in the bank while one fifth felt they’d need more than $5 million to fund their retirement.

Members of the FIRE movement stick to strict budgets and do everything they can to cut costs, including walking to work instead of paying for petrol or public transport, living with their parents, and buying clothes at op shops. Many also work on side hustles to supplement their main income. Investments are also popular, with more than half of Australians 18 to 34 investing in ASX-listed companies. Twenty-seven per cent have investment properties, and just as many have invested in cryptocurrency.

“The FIRE movement is currently in vogue, but for many young Australians being financially savvy has been instilled in them for a long time,” Matt Leibowitz, CEO and co-founder of investment platform Stake, told Business Insider.

“It goes way beyond being frugal. It’s about a new breed of independent and clued-up individuals who simply won’t settle for anything less than independence, choice, and autonomy to live by their own terms.”

If you want to exit the workforce early, Chase Edwards can help. Call us on 1300 854 833 to organise your free financial health check. We’ll assess your finances and let you know whether you’re on track for early retirement and how we can help you get there. This is a totally free service offered to you, without any obligations, so what have you got to lose? Call us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve the early retirement you’re dreaming of.

Ghosts and ghouls might send shivers up our spines around Halloween, but something terrifies Australians much more: credit scores! New research from financial comparison site finder.com.au has found one in seven Australians are too scared to check their credit score.

Most fear their score will be so low it would disqualify them from getting a mortgage, a personal loan, or a rental lease. Many worry simply checking their credit score would make it worse. One in 10 said they avoided learning about their credit score because they would be embarrassed if their partners knew their scores were low.

Financial experts urge the nearly two-thirds of Australian adults who don’t know what their credit score is to summon the courage and get the facts.

“Checking your credit score isn’t something which should be feared,” confirmed finder.com.au spokesperson Bessie Hassan speaking to news.com.au. “In fact, you should be more worried if you don’t know what your credit score is.”

She also dispelled a common myth, noting that simply checking your credit score has no negative impact.

“What can however impact your credit score is not checking it and then applying for credit you won’t be approved for because you do not have a good enough score,” she explained.

Several other bad money habits can also dent your credit score. Carrying a lot of debt or having a lot of credit cards, even if they’re not maxed out, harms your credit score. So does making several inquiries about new credit cards in a short period of time.

Knowledge is power, so don’t let fear hold you back from making smarter financial decisions this Halloween season. Even the lowest credit score can be increased. Knowing your credit score tells you whether you need to modify your financial behaviour to improve your credit health. Check your credit score for free using the national credit reporting bodies listed on the government’s Equifax Australia website, then call Chase Edwards on 1300 854 833. Our financial experts can help you put plans in place to reduce your debts and improve other elements of your financial health to increase your credit health.

What does it take to become a self-made millionaire? The right opportunities or investment strategies perhaps? According to Ramit Sethi, a self-made millionaire and the author of “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” the right mindset is key.

He says humans typically fall into one of two categories concerning money. There are those of us with a scarcity mindset, who believe money is something to be protected and saved. Then there are those of us with a growth mindset, who see money as a tool that can be used to create even more wealth. It’s these people, who look for smarter ways to use their money, that he says typically become the wealthiest.

Rather than looking for discounts and ways they can reduce their spending, he says the wealthiest people typically spend their time pursuing ways to make more money, “whether it’s through a side business, whether it’s through negotiating salary, whether it’s through investing early on and taking advantage of compound interest over time.”

While many of us feel time-poor, he challenges the idea that we don’t have time to make more money.

“You’ve got time after work. Don’t tell me you don’t have time, the average American watches five hours of TV a day,” he told CNBC. “Start a side business, go full time if you want. But think about how much you can grow and earn versus how much you can cut and protect, and that is how you start crafting your own rich life.”

That’s not to say that reducing spending can’t be a valuable exercise. It’s smart to cancel subscriptions you’re not using and eat in more often. However, Sethi reminds us that “There’s a limit to how much you can cut but there is no limit to how much you can earn.”

“If you want to be scarcity driven, then you’re going to spend the rest your life saying ‘Don’t take away what I have because there’s no way I can change it,'” he says. Instead, he suggests changing your mindset and telling yourself, “I can always grow, I can always learn, and I can always make myself more valuable to the market and create more value for myself.”

Resolving to make better use of your money and grow your wealth is the easy part. Executing your plan is much more challenging. Thankfully, you don’t have to do it alone. Simply call Chase Edwards on 1300 854 833 to learn more about how our money experts can create strategies to make your money work better for you.