Money Tips 71 to 80 Explained (#MoneyTips)

Probably past time for the eighth set of 10 money tips to gain an explanation. I have posted my money tips to Twitter (using the hash tag #MoneyTips) and found that some of them were very hard to keep within that magic but annoying 140 character limit (can you tell I started this before twitter changed to allow longer tweets?). So far, I have managed it, however sometimes a little of the meaning seems to get lost, and occasionally I wanted to add a little more explanation. This is where I do it.

I hope you enjoy the next 10 tips below – and remember to tweet @RememberToWater with hashtag #MoneyTips if you have any of your own tips you want to share with the world.

Money Tips 71 to 80:

Middle of the road tips. No real order (as always). And of course, along with past and some future ones, are all listed on the Money Tips Explained page if you are after more.

71. Food with friends doesn’t have to cost a lot. Eat at a friend’s house.
    • So I thought this one was quite timely to publish now with the COVID-19 restrictions being lifted enough to allow for this again, while restaurants are still closed for dine-in. I have now started having a number of nice dinners with friends recently – some as simple and cheep as BBQ sausages!
72. Make use of attraction (e.g. zoo) year passes when you have children.
    • Another one that has been slightly foiled by COVID-19, but thankfully almost all of the annual passes I have got extended by the length of time they have been shut. The main benefit here is easy to see – at most places the cost of a yearly pass is about 2 to 3 times a day pass. If you plan to visit more than 3 times (for some of my passes, I would visit 10 to 20 times) then an annual pass not only saves money, but can also increase your chance of visiting them.
73. If you see a discount code box when shopping online, do a quick search first.
    • I could list a bunch of sites or browser plugins here, but there are many blogs with lists and many different options (including the site itself sometimes). So go find yourself some coupons before you pay.
    • Ok, if you are looking for a list here are a few to get you started. They all not all coupon sites (in fact most aren’t) but these are some of the larger ones:
      • OzBargin – https://www.ozbargain.com.au/
      • Honey – https://www.joinhoney.com/
      • Cashrewards – https://www.cashrewards.com.au/
74. Keep an eye on Gumtree & Facebook Marketplace for free items near you.
    • While free can mean very low quality or garbage, it doesn’t have to. Just be aware that if an item is both free and reasonable quality it will normally go fast. Another benefit of free items is that it can allow you to try something out before buying it or more of it.
    • Of course these are also good locations for low cost second hand items, and while I have many good bargains, some of the free items I have found are the reason I keep an occasional eye out.
75. When buying shares start simple and work your way up.
    • Different people will take this different ways, and it depends on your experience level. The rationale behind this is how much I seem to learn from every decision and action I take. Even simple things like receiving a dividend statement, or selling shares are new when you start out. So learn as you go and make sure you are not turned off by trying to do too much at once.
76. Check your super balance at least once a year to check everything is ok.
    • There are a number of things you should check for, a few of them are:
      • That your contributions are still going in.
      • That your balance hasn’t been transferred out.
      • That the investment option(s) are still right for you.
      • That any insurance you have is still acceptable.
      • That the fees you pay are acceptable to you.
    • MoneySmart also has some advice on choosing a super fund.
77. Younger people can get away with riskier investments if held long term.
    • If you are starting to get old like I am, you will look back at the ASX200 (XJO) around the time of the GFC and think, If I had bought shared just before the crash, I would only just have got back above where I started before this COVID-19 crash – does long term really work?
    • However, what you should really be looking at is the ASX200 Total Return Index (or Accumulation Index for the older among us) – XNT. Using this measure, you were back in the black just before the end of 2013 and never dropped below that again.
78. You don’t have to get a tax accountant to do your taxes – myTax is free.
    • What used to be called eTax (and is now called myTax) is the governments free tax lodgement software. It may have started off as eTax and caused people to want to sandpaper their eyes off, but it has improved a lot over the years.
    • NB: This is not to be confused with the eTax Accountants website that seems to be just trading on the old name recognition of the previous government software – look for .gov.au in the website address.
79. Find a nice relaxing place to walk or run and invest the gym membership fee.
    • I have never seen as many people exercising as I have during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is so good to see my local streets full of people walking, riding, running, scootering, and even inline skating (remember those?). What makes this better is that it is all free! So take that $1000 to $1500 and stick it on your loan, in the bank, or into another investment.
80. Choose the risk level of your Super based on time till retirement.
    • This one may seem obvious when you see it – the closer you are to retirement (or in retirement) the less risk you want to be taking (note I didn’t say no risk). I have come across one super fund who has a demographic investment option. You choose your age bracket, and they invest appropriately for that age. Even if your fund doesn’t have that as an option, you can manually choose how high risk vs conservative you want your investment to be.

So that is another 10 down, and only 20 left. I hope you enjoyed them. Let me know in the comments below if you disagree with any. I am always open to having my mind changed – just give me a good reason.