budget

When should I pay other people to do stuff?

Sometimes, it pays to pay a professional.

Anyone who has ever walked out of a salon with a kick-arse blowdry knows this. Never in my life have I got my hair as good as Millie can. I always book an appointment on a day that I have some major social event, so I don’t waste that hotness.

But there are other important things we should pay for in life. I’m often surprised how people who would spend a hundred bucks on drinks and dinner, will blanch at the idea of spending that to see a health professional.

So, I want to have a conversation about things that might be a really good investment, even though you have to shell out some cash.

Some of these have a material return on investment, while others just have a positive impact on your life. But it’s a version of mindful spending – ‘how am I going to deploy my money in a way that gives me the most happiness?’.

1. A financial adviser – I know, you expected me to say this. And I don’t think everyone needs an adviser at every stage of their lives. But there are some points where it makes a lot of sense. For example:

Getting married – Do not tell me that you can drop upwards of $20k on a wedding but can’t spend a couple of grand on a Statement of Advice. Or, you could be really sensible and spend some of your wishing well money on it.

Getting hitched is a good opportunity to map out a financial future together, and ensure you’re on the same page about it.

Many couples miss this crucial goal-setting convo, and muddle along with different ideas of what they’re trying to achieve. Conflict ensues (every time you bring home new shoes).

Having kiddoes – This is more about getting your insurance sorted. If you’re responsible for tiny humans, you need to think about life, trauma and income protection insurance to protect them. If something happened to you, would your partner have the resources to keep working, cover childcare, educate the kids and pay a mortgage … until the kids are all grown up?

Australians are woefully underinsured for things like this. But you can talk to a financial adviser just for an insurance review (i.e. you don’t get a full financial plan) and the fees are pretty low – under $500 in the network I work for. Sometimes they may even waive them (because they get a commission). Definitely worth looking at.

Becoming a grown up – I know, there is no real test for this point. But I think there is a solid case for sitting down with a professional at some point around your late 20s – early 30s mark. You’ve been working for a few years now, you’ve saved some money (or not) and you want to genuinely get your shit together.

But there are so many options! Speaking to an expert can help you clarify your goals and give you comfort that you’re on the right track. I went through this process at age 29 and even though none of the life plan worked out (the kids, the marriage etc), it was a great, educational process and taught me a lot about goal setting. (Side note – I didn’t actually implement the advice because it was very heavy on investing in equities, and I was worried about the markets. This was early 2008. In all of the good calls I ever made financially, this was the best).

Of course there are other triggers for seeing an adviser – these are just a few. So how do you find a good one? Well, same way you find a good hairdresser, to be honest.

Ask friends and family, look at testimonials, search online. Make sure they are qualified and part of a reputable group that holds an AFSL. Ask about their qualifications, and see if you like them in your first consultation, which is generally free. If the vibe isn’t right, look for someone else. Basically, find someone whom you trust and seems legit.

Then filter their advice with your own thinking and preferences – just the same as if your hairdresser were to say ‘I think you should try a fringe’ and you know you hate having one. That’s what I did, way back in 2008.

I worked with finance clients, I could see the sub-prime crisis brewing, my boss and I discussed how heated the market was – and I held off. Why didn’t my adviser do this? Well, I think people who are ‘in’ the industry often fit the old cliche: when you’ve got a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Just like the sales lady in Kookai is going to tell you that a Kookai dress is the best solution to your birthday outfit quandary, an adviser probably wants to sell you a financial product. It’s up to you to decide if your bum looks big in it.

A Personal Trainer – I know, this blog is about money, not fitness. But I want to address this because a lot of people question spending money on a PT. Is it just an extravagance?

If you get a good one, it’s not. A good PT will push you to your limits (“just killing me enough” is a great description for my coach), correct your technique and create variety that makes your body respond and change.

I question the value of some PTs I see in the gym: having a chat, watching you go through the motions, being your bestie.

If you don’t hate your PT a little, for the hour they’re training you, you should probably find a new one.

I first went to my coach when I’d hit a plateau – I wanted to get leaner and stronger but couldn’t do it alone. Years of powerlifting later, I am both of those things (although annoyingly, my triceps mean I can hardly wear any suit jackets).

I have experienced both elation and disappointment in getting there. I’ve cried with frustration in deadlift sessions, celebrated PBs, competed in events and made my body do stuff I never imagined it could.

For me, that’s worth the money I spend. If you’re plateaued, frustrated with results, finding it hard to stay on track, or ready to push yourself to new places, get a good PT.

The caveat on this is – if you can afford it. i.e. if you’ve paid for all the other things like bills, savings and an emergency fund. And you may need to skip something else, like buying lunches and coffees out, or getting your nails done. You can’t have all the treats, all the time.

Cleaners, removalists, carwashes and any other service provider – I just moved house and paid a removalist to do it all for me. After years of borrowed utes, trucks and a Ukrainian guy off Airtasker whose offsider was his tiny girlfriend, this was a wonderful luxury. I had the money, so I paid for it. Didn’t lift one box – amazing!

Whether you pay for things like a cleaner is down to you. But I would argue you need to consider:

Can I afford it? i.e. have I paid all my bills including my savings? Have I given up a different luxury?
Does it make my life better? i.e. am I using that time I saved wisely, or defusing a relationship pain point (fighting over who cleans the bathroom).

You really need to answer both those questions before you can shell out, guilt-free.

November 12, 2017 5

The lazy girl’s guide to making money

One of the burdens of modern life is choice.

Choosing how to spend your time (Facebook, or read a damn book?). How to spend your working years (I’ve spoken to three friends this week about their career dilemmas). How to spend your emotional energy (obsess over 3% body fat gain, or not?).

And nowhere is this more prevalent than deciding how to spend money. So many things seem pressing or important.

We buy stuff because we are used to the instant gratification of retail therapy.

The pressure to look hot, young, thin and hair-free sees us scooting into salons to address our perceived shortcomings.

And the social groups we move in demand a certain level of spending, on everything from dinners out to expensive hen’s days.

No judgement about any of these things. We are all at the mercy of these forces. (God knows I think far too much about botox on a bad day.)

A very tempting – and understandable – response to this is to minimise the choices we make. In other words, choosing not to choose.

This is not an ideal plan.

You know the 80/20 rule, right? AKA The Pareto Principle. It says you get 80% of your outcomes from 20% of your efforts. (Nice easy summary of it here). Like, 20% of your wardrobe gets worn 80% of the time; 20% of the people in your company do 80% of the work. And so on.

The same applies to your money. Not in an exact ‘whack out your calculator’ way, but in a general sense of doing a few things right can have an outsize impact.

So, here I offer unto you: the lazy girl’s guide to doing the right thing with your money.

Tip 1. Start retirement saving early – The magic of compound interest means the earlier you start, the greater the gains and the less the pain. I know, super is boring and you have to pay of home loans and HECS debts and stuff.

But here are some amazing numbers. Laura is 30 years old and already has $30K in super. She’s earning $75K annually, and putting the standard 9.5% of that into her super. If she works for 30 years, she will end up putting just $213K of her own money into that nest egg.

But she will end up with over $1.1 million!

That’s because most of the money comes from compound returns – the light pink bars in the graph below. This is a simplified version of retirement saving: in reality, her salary will go up and down, and her rate of return will too. But it gives you the picture.

Now, if Laura puts in just a little extra – say 12% of her salary – she will end up with $1,321,429 – an extra $212,000! That’s a lot you can spend on a round the world retirement trip, just by putting away a couple of hundred extra every month.

MoneySmart.gov.au Compound Interest Calculator

On the downside, if Laura takes four years off work to have some kidlets, then she only has 26 years to work that magical compound interest. So, her total nest egg goes down to $791,566. Yep, instead of $1.1 million.

Again, that’s simplified, because the amount would actually depend which years were taken off, and where in the savings cycle she was up to. But it illustrates the reason there is such a huge retirement savings gap between men and women (like, close to 50% I’m sad to say).

So, the action points here:

Add a little extra to your super as early as possible – ask your payroll peeps about salary sacrificing.
If you are off work or going part-time, your spouse/partner can make contributions into your super and may get some tax benefits too. (Nice summary here)
Another option, if you’re on a low or part-time income, is to make an after-tax contribution of up to $1,000 to super and the government will contribute 50% to match it – up to $500. More on that here.
For goodness’ sake, please roll all your super into one account! Paying multiple fees and insurance policies is like standing in the shower tearing up hundred dollar bills. Most funds do it all for you these days, so pick your fave fund and get in contact. The difference at retirement could be tens of thousands of dollars!

Tip 2. Pay down debt faster – This applies to all debts, from credit cards to car loans. But I want to talk about the biggest, hairiest debt: your mortgage.

A quick play on an Extra Repayment Calculator shows that on a $400,000 home loan, paying an additional $250 per month would mean:

You save almost $52,000
You pay off the loan 5 years and 7 months earlier^[i]

Think you can’t afford that extra money? I challenge you to find it.

It’s you and your partner not buying a coffee every day (yep, for realz – $8 x 30 days = $240).
It’s cutting your grocery bill by shopping in bulk or somewhere like Aldi (did you read this post?).
It’s getting your hair done differently so you go every three months instead of every six weeks (I did this and it changed my life).
It’s putting on your big girl pants and not buying shit you don’t need, three times out of four (the fourth time, well, hey, we are all human).

Whether it’s a hundred bucks or a thousand, looking for ways to chuck extra money into your mortgage puts you so far ahead. You can either get out of debt faster, or leverage the equity you build up to invest in another property.

Find a better deal – On the loan mentioned above, you’d save $33,683.69 over the life of the loan, by moving from an interest rate of 4.04% p.a. to a loan at 3.63% p.a. (yes, these loans exist).

Plus, you’d be paying almost $100 less as the minimum repayment each month. That’s money you could either have in your pocket, or ideally, pay off as an additional amount.

Yes, refinancing means a lot of paperwork, but get a good broker and they do the hard work for you. Whatever you do, don’t pay the ‘lazy tax’ by staying in an expensive home loan.

Use your offset or redraw – These work in slightly differently ways but have the same effect: they reduce the amount that your interest is being calculated on.

If you think about it, 4% of $100,000 is much less than 4% of $150,000. So, you want to be paying interest on a smaller principal amount.

Redraw – this lets you access any additional funds you’ve paid above the minimum repayment. Say you’ve paid an extra $5000, you can get it out in an emergency (a real one, or ‘I need a holiday before I kill someone’).

Offset – the balance “offsets” the interest charged on your mortgage. Say you have $10,000 in an offset and $300,000 on your loan, you only pay interest on the equivalent of $290,000.

It’s similar to the redraw but a bit more dangerous because it’s easier to access. Often a redraw takes a day to process, whereas you can have an offset mixed up with all your normal bills and banking.

Even if you don’t have a mortgage, you can apply a lot of this thinking to your saving.

For instance, look for better deals on the interest you get paid – or even look at other types of investments depending on your timeframe and goal. (Check out this post for some tips).

Track your money and expenses so you can find extra savings. And always pay yourself first. Just like you pay your mortgage repayments before everything else, your savings should go into a different account before you even see it, hold it or think about spending it. Ideally in a different bank!

Start early. Pay off debt. Sounds simple huh? It is in theory, but can be hard in execution. If you’re not convinced you can do it, maybe part of the challenge is to tweak your attitude to money.

May I recommend one or two posts I’ve prepared earlier?

Mindful spending – what it is and why it matters:

https://fiercegirlfinance.com.au/2016/08/28/mindful-spending-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters/

What’s holding you back from being Fierce:

https://fiercegirlfinance.com.au/2017/05/01/whats-holding-you-back-from-being-fierce/

That’s it. Now go forth and be fierce.

October 8, 2017 0

Aldi tips, tricks and hacks from a legit expert

In the world of tight-arses, shopping at Aldi is an article of faith.

It’s not just advertising fluff – their prices are genuinely and significantly cheaper.

So, imagine my delight when I moved into my current apartment and found myself living across the road from Aldi.

As an early adopter of the discount supermarket, I have honed my Aldi skills over time.

I am always amazed by people who have never been or don’t shop there regularly. Fools! Do you actually like wasting money?

So here are some tips, fave products and Aldi hacks for all you novices out there. No, this isn’t a sponsored post. I just like being cheap.

Make a cheese platter everyone will think is fancy: the Pickled Onion Club Cheddar is a fave of mine, but they also have a damn good version of the old Blue Castello. Throw on some of their semi-dried tomato and olives and you’re good to go. Pick up some bikkies as well – the rice crackers, water crackers and wafer thins are all great. As a side snack, their Sweet & Salty Popcorn (in the chips aisle) is deliciously addictive.

High-protein overnight oats solve your breakfast issues: There is a cracker of a yogurt, creatively called Hi-Protein Yogurt. Here’s my macro-friendly brekky hack:

In a Tupperware container (or jar) put about half a cup of oats (more or less depending on your carb needs)
Throw in a handful of frozen berries (reasonably priced, from the freezer section), a spoonful of shredded coconut and a dash of cinnamon. If you have a sweet tooth you can add a pinch of stevia
Add enough water or almond milk or juice (whatever you have/like) to just cover the oats
Add two-three big spoonfuls of yogurt. Mix it all up and whack it in the fridge for at least a few hours.
Note: you may need to play around with ratios to get the right consistency. But experiment and see what you think. You can also add other fruit (today I had mango cos it’s on spesh).

Aldi has ‘specials’ but not like the ones you’re used to. Most of its everyday range has the same low prices all the time. It does have ‘7 Day Deals’ in the fresh food section (hence the abovementioned mango). I like seeing what they have and making meals around that.

But the real killer is the ‘Weekly Specials’ section. Novices beware: this is how you make Aldi not really that cheap after all.

The stuff in the middle section is so random and so alluring. Like ‘wow, I didn’t know I needed a Moroccan-style side table’ or ‘I definitely need a set of embellished hand towels’ or ‘I probably could use 1 kilogram of olives’.

There are definitely amazing bargains to be had in this magical section – some people obsess over the snow gear sales.

But this is the line you have to say over and over in your head: IT’S NOT A BARGAIN IF YOU DON’T NEED IT.

Seriously, I say this every time I wander down that aisle, considering my ‘need’ for new placemats or bakeware.

And here is a hot tip: DON’T TAKE YOUR HUSBAND WHEN THE TOOL SPECIALS ARE ON. Seriously, why did I ever own an air compressor? Although I would say the pink ladies’ toolkit I picked up for $15 has been an absolute pearler for Ikea furniture, BBQ repairs and broken taps (ok, I had to get a muscular footballer to do that one).

Aldi wine is the real deal. Seriously, try their wine. The prices are great, and unlike cleanskins, you can take them to people’s houses and they won’t know it’s cheap.

Unless they also shop at Aldi too – in which case they will give you a sly nod as if to say ‘well-played, my friend’.

Their grassfed steak is great value. I often get a couple of Porterhouse steaks from the Highland Park range (aka the slightly fancier, grass fed range). Whack them on the Weber Q, steam some veggies and you have a delicious dinner. And tomorrow’s lunch.

Because nothing makes you feel fancy AF, as when you’re eating steak while other suckers are eating sandwiches.

I’ve yet to come across anything from Aldi that isn’t good quality. They have a really stringent process to become a supplier (because they only have one, house-branded version of every product). So 99% of the time it’s as good as, or better than, stuff from other supermarkets. There is even a section on the website listing things that shoppers have voted as being BETTER than other brands – click here.

You can’t always get everything you want – especially obscure things like cartons of egg white (yeah, it’s a weightlifting thing). So I usually top up at a big chain every few weeks.

And finally, the most important tip for the Aldi newbie…

TAKE YOUR OWN BAGS – I do this anyway because I am a greenie, but at Aldi, you have to pay for the plastic ones. They don’t pack your bags either, so always put your stuff on the conveyor belt the way you want to pack it (heaviest first). Or just chuck it all back into the basket/trolley if you can’t handle the pressure of packing at the checkout (it’s an acquired skill).

If you are really clever you can also find some empty boxes on the shelves or around the entrance and use them instead.

So, that’s it kids. Get in there and get saving!

September 26, 2017 5

You have 300 paydays left. Seriously. So, what’s your plan?

Last week, I ruined everyone’s Friday by dropping this truthbomb.

Seriously, if you’re in your 30s and plan to retire in your 60s, you don’t actually have many paydays left.

It’s easy to work out (if you get paid monthly). Pick your imagined retirement age, minus your age now, and multiply by 12. Because I have aggressive early retirement plans (and am kinda old), it’s an even lower number.

Yep, just over 200 times to wake up and feel rich for three days. 200 times to scour my payslip working out how much leave I have accrued. 200 times to go down Pitt St Mall feeling like a baller.

That’s not really many times at all, in the scheme of things.

And if you’re planning to take time off to raise kids, then you can minus out at least 6 of those paydays, and maybe a lot more.

So, now that we have all had a moment to face reality, let’s talk about what we do with this information.

Running the numbers

Our time in paid employment is a gift. Not just to our smashed-avocado-loving selves of today, but also to our future, chilled-AF party selves. We are all Baddie Winkle, somewhere in the future, drinking with Miley Cyrus.

How do we do we achieve this? We take charge, that’s how. We do a mutha-effing BUDGET! Woot!

Ok I said that in an excited way because I know you’re about to hit snooze. But go with me here.

How to do a Budget that doesn’t hurt your head or induce anxiety

A budget is all about giving you data that makes you better at decision-making. And information is power! So, I recommend a combination of:

MoneySmart’s great online budget planner (click here), which sets out all the costs you have right now. You can choose weekly, monthly or annual for each item, and it averages it all out for you.Then you can run it as a monthly, quarterly or annual budget. It even gives you a pie graph – awesome!
MoneySmart’s TrackMySpend app (in the App store or Google Play) – record everything you spend, and I promise you shit gets real very quickly. You can just do it for a month if you like – but it gives you powerful data.

Once you have this data – a combination of ‘forecast’ and ‘actual’ numbers – you can make informed decisions. In particular:

What does it cost to be me?
These are your fixed costs. A useful way to think about this is to have different versions – the ideal you, the average you and the bad you. Kinda like Kylie Minogue in the awesome video for Did it Again.

My ideal budget is when I don’t buy three pairs of boots at the Wittner sale (they were super cheap) and don’t have Priceline accidents (when you go in for Panadol and come out with three new lipsticks). My average budget is when I actually do those things.

And my bad budget is when I buy stuff I don’t need due to premenstrual angst or emotional turmoil. To be honest that version of me has been tamed these days, so I usually fall into the first two. And my latest budget has Priceline accidents built into it.
What’s a reasonable savings goal?
There is no magic number for this. At least 10% is good, but if you have done your real budget (the average you) and there’s genuinely not enough left over, then do 5% or whatever. If you can do more, then happy days! The key is to do something.
Also, it may not even be real savings at this point – it could be paying down bad debt like a credit card. Or, at the other end of the scale, it may be going straight into an investment like a managed fund or ETF (more on that here). In any case, it’s the money you allocate to being a responsible adult who does sensible things with your future self in mind.

And once you’ve answered these questions, you can feel more in control and less like ‘it’s all too hard’. Simples!

July 19, 2017 2

Bad at saving money? Here’s why – and what to do about it

I got asked today ‘how do you have the discipline to diet?’.

Since I was eating a Bounty at that moment, I’m not sure why. (To be fair, it was a piece of someone else’s Bounty, so there are obviously no calories.)

My response was that it’s easier if you have a reason. In my case, it’s so I can compete in powerlifting in a lower weight class.

It’s the same with money. Another friend asked me, ‘What if you just can’t save?’. To which I answered the same thing: you need a reason.

AKA: a goal.

Goals, I know! So lame and hard and too much like adulting.

I’m not a massive goal-setter myself, but I have forced myself to create some clarity about where I’m going. So then I know how to get there.

Just before you get bored and switch off, let me offer you a gift. We’ll come back to it shortly.

Click here to download your printable A4 worksheet

Why do you need a worksheet?

So we can put the ‘plan’ into financial planning.

I know, a lot of people don’t trust financial planners. There are good and bad ones, just like any other profession. We’ve all had a hairdresser who takes ‘just a trim‘ and turns it into ‘radical hair makeover so you look like a lesbian biker‘. (Don’t get me wrong, I love lesbian bikers – I just don’t necessarily want their haircuts).

However, I’ve been having a conversation with a mate who’s a financial planner, and he messes with my head because he’s all about ‘plans’.

I would ask him ‘should I buy a property to live in or invest in’ and he was all like ‘well, what’s your plan?’.

I don’t know! I’m in my late 30s, divorced, childless. So far, all the ‘plans’ I made 10 years ago haven’t really turned out.

But that doesn’t mean I can get away without one. Without some goals, I don’t know where to put my money or how much to save.

And if you don’t know the destination, how will you know the how to get there?

Sometimes, choosing the destination is the hard bit

People often ask me about what to with their money. I can’t tell them specifically (partly because I’m not licensed so it’s illegal). But I do ask them ‘what’s the goal’?.

Is it saving enough for a property? Is it having enough to travel? Maybe it’s just being a bad-arse with a backpack and a round-the-world ticket (oh hey Betsy, how’s Iceland?).

Tactics are useless without a strategy. And a strategy is nothing without a goal.

If you’re like me though, you find big life planning stuff daunting at best, terrifying at worst. But don’t worry, Fierce Girls, I got ya.

I came up with questions to help you create some clarity. And then I made a fucking worksheet! I know, I am crafty AF.

Doing the worksheet

Now, you can do this and not necessarily come up with a special number. You know, a savings goal or something. That’s a topic for another day.

But you will think critically about the factors that shape your decisions. So the questions in the worksheet are (and you can totally pick the timeframe that applies to you):

Where do you want to be __ years from now?
What things do you want to experience?
How will you spend your time? Who with?
What will you own?
What is a must-do or must-have?
What can you give up or cut back?
What is the ‘why’?

When I did this exercise, I came up with a general plan that I don’t want to be a full-time, salaried employee much past my mid-fifties. I want to write books and hold workshops and coach people and be generally useful. I also want to travel as much as possible.

So that means I have about 15 years to build wealth, take holidays, smash a mortgage and sock away superannuation. Scary huh?

It also means I can give up expensive cars, too many clothes, and general unnecessary ‘stuff’. When I am considering a purchase, my decision tree is something like ‘Could I better spend this money on my trip next year?’ or ‘Wouldn’t I be better to chuck this into my mortgage?’.

Of course I won’t be perfect. But I have a plan and sense of direction. And then everything else is easier from there. Try it yourself!

Next week: The Track Your Spend challenge: finding where your money goes and working out how to save more of it. Yep. I’m gonna make another worksheet. It will be amazing.

July 13, 2017 0

Top 3 tight-arse meals for the week before payday

As a tight-arse from way back, I hate spending money on work lunches.

And as a weightlifter, meal prep and Tupperware containers are 80% of my life. So I can teach you a thing or two about high-protein, low-cost meals.

First of all, let me just recap the numbers on work lunches. Say you buy lunch twice a week and it costs you $12 each time. You work 48 weeks a year, so that’s $1152 a year on burritos and sushi. If you cut that down to once a week, not only does buying lunch become a fun treat, it will save you nearly SIX HUNDRED BUCKS! You could spend that on shoes or investments or savings – whatever.

But I know, you don’t have time to prep lunches because you have kids/drinking sessions/work events/Netflix commitments.

So here are my foolproof ways not to end up in the food court, being fleeced for a bento box … especially if you have too much month at the end of your money.

The Ultimate Pantry-Freezer Lunch: Tuna Special

I thought everyone knew about this, but apparently not. And not everyone knows about the special secret ingredient either. It’s pretty simple:

A tin of tuna (I use the 180g ones, because gainz)
Mixed frozen vegetables (Aldi – $1.79)
Rice (you can use the microwave packets but I think they are wasteful and exy, so I cook a couple of cups of brown, black and red rice on the weekend – lasts a week in the fridge)
Secret ingredients: sesame oil and soy sauce

You chuck a handful of the veg in a container (to defrost during the morning) then add your rice, a tiny splash of sesame oil (seriously, go easy on this stuff, it’s really strong – no more than 1/2 teaspoon), and a small slurp of soy sauce.

At lunch, heat in the microwave for a couple of minutes, add the tuna, heat another minute or so. This will cost you about $2 AND make you feel super healthy and virtuous!

The Ultimate Make-ahead Freezer Lunch: Mince & Veg Extravaganza

I eat this for breakfast every day, but some people think that’s weird. (Those people haven’t been doing squats before work, obvs.) But it’s a great lunchtime option especially if you want a hot meal. It’s based on:

Beef mince (I use 1kg but you could use 500g if you’re a pussy)
1 Onion

Chop the onion and cook it on medium heat. Turn heat up to full and brown the mince. Now add a bunch of spices. I don’t measure anything, but if I did I guess I’d use about 1/2 teaspoon of each:

Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Sweet paprika
Smoked paprika

And whatever else I feel like. Cook them up with the mince for about 1 minute. Then throw in (for 1kg mince):

1 tin whole tomatoes
1 tin crushed/diced tomatoes
Quarter or half a jar of passata

Again, you can play with these quantities. Just depends on how thick or saucy you like it. You can also skip the passata and just add more tomatoes. It’s all very fluid.

Then you add in all the vegetables (especially old, dying ones) in your fridge.You can throw them in a food processor or chop them by hand. I like some combo of:

eggplant (diced)
carrots
zucchini
broccoli (srsly – just chop it into small pieces)
kale or spinach (I often use frozen portions – $1 a pack!)
brussel sprouts (sliced or pulsed in the food processor)
mushroom
capsicum
choko (if you have an aunty or nanna who grows it)

Throw in a good pinch of salt and pepper then simmer for at least half an hour – til everything is soft (the eggplant seems to take the longest). Cool it down a bit (don’t leave it out too long if you don’t like salmonella), put it in little containers and pop in the freezer.

I use the dedicated Tupperware freezer range, but the cheap stuff or even snap lock bags do the trick. Then when you tell yourself you have no food for lunch, grab these little lifesavers and let them defrost all morning. Simples!

Also good for late-night, I’ve-been-at-the-pub dinners.

The Ultimate Lazy Girl’s Low-Carb Frittata

I’m almost embarrassed to tell you about this one, it’s so easy and cheap. It’s our old friend the Frozen Mixed Vegetables and a packet of frozen spinach.

Defrost the veg (in the microwave if you have one, on the bench for an hour if you have allocated the microwave nook to protein powder, like me)
Whisk up some eggs. It depends how big your oven dish is. I have a loaf tin that takes 8 eggs to fill. Just play with what you have. If it’s not non-stick, try lining it with baking paper to avoid egg mess.
Now I add some egg whites from a carton. You buy them from the fridge at the supermarket but they are always in hard-to-find places, and I end up asking.
Add a sprinkle of chilli flakes if you like them, into the eggs.
Lay the veggies out nicely in the dish and pour over the eggs.
Baking time depends on how deep the dish is and how many eggs. My loaf tin takes an hour. A flan or pie dish would be about half that.

Before… … And after

This version gives me enough for a 4 days of eating. Just depends how hungry you are. Have a side salad with it and it feels more satisfying (I’m talking some baby spinach and cherry tomatoes – nothing fancy or hard).

And that’s it my friends! No more excuses for not taking your lunch to work. Also, you will be healthy and feel virtuous – and who can put a price on feeling smug?

photo credit: gborin Hang on little tomato via photopin (license)

May 22, 2017 3

I know you’re bored AF of the Budget, but just read this one thing

Because I am going to give you a useful view on it, probably with some swearing, and then you can go back to drinking that glass of sav blanc.

First question: Is the Super Saver Scheme the BEST THING EVER for first home buyers?

No, not really. But it’s not bad either.

The best thing that could happen for the poor young first home buyer is that we stop immigration, use more contraception and go back to living with three generations in one house. None of which I am actually advocating – but the point is, supply is the biggest issue.

I listened to a story on ABC Radio National this week, about the economics of population growth (that’s the kind of party girl I am). Our population is growing faster than ever, and we have to house everyone. At the same time, the number of people who live in each dwelling has gone down a lot since the 1960s. I found this graph in a delightful RBA research paper on house prices (which I read so you don’t have to).

I live by myself, so I am guilty of driving this trend. But the ethics of resource consumption aside, it’s clear that we have too many people and not enough housing, and this will keep prices high for the foreseeable future.

However, that’s OVERALL. House prices rise and fall in line with the fate of the particular cities and towns they’re in. Townsville, Mackay and Perth are just some of the places that have faced steep falls in prices, as the mining industries propping them up have faltered. Hence why the old property investment game is a bit tricky.

“But what does this all mean for me?”

This is a bit of a diversion to say a couple of things: 1. The government isn’t going to solve house prices for you and 2. if you want to buy a property in Sydney or Melbourne you’re kinda screwed.

Well, not completely. There are other ways to get into the market – they just take longer. For example, the ‘rentvesting’ idea: rent where you like living, buy where you can afford to. My new boss, who is a famous finance guru (cos who else would I do PR for?) reckons you should buy not just one, but two or three properties this way.

The key is, they are in areas where the price is more manageable. Regional towns or smaller capital cities (although probably stay out of Brisbane high-rise apartments for the moment – they went a bit nuts building them and have too many now).

You buy these places, build up the equity in them, and then eventually sell them to buy your dream home. That’s the theory anyway – the execution needs to be pretty spot on, so you don’t end up with some shitty properties languishing for years.

Obviously this is a long-term play – five or ten years even. But you won’t die just because you aren’t living in a house you own. The key is that you’re doing something.

The worst fucking option is renting, moaning and spending your money on shit you don’t need ‘because I can’t afford a property anyway’.

But even doing this requires a deposit. Which brings me back to the initial question: how good is the Super Saver Scheme (SSS)?

Look, it’s better than a slap in the face with a wet fish. Jessica Irvine, whom I love, has a done a great job of breaking down the detail for you here. But I’ll give you the highlights:

It’s a good discipline – once you put that money in there, there’s no pulling it back out for a splurge on a new dress or a fancy holiday you just had to have. It’s either ‘spend it on a property’ or ‘get it when you’re 67’ (see ya bye, money!).
It’ll mean you pay less tax going in – the cash that goes in gets taxed at the super rate of 15% instead of your personal rate of up to 47% (depending on how much you earn). Think about it like this: for every $100 of your pre-tax pay, you get to keep $85 if it goes into the SSS. If you just took it in your take-home pay, you’d keep as little $53 (in theory – progressive tax means it would be a a bit more than that).
…And going out. Anything you earn on the money you save will be taxed at your marginal rate, less 30% when you take it out. If you’re on the 37% rate, you pay just 7 cents. But that’s not bad – if it was bank interest you could pay your personal tax rate – which, as mentioned above, is likely higher.

Of course there are tons more annoying details but if you want a disciplined way to save, and you think you’re getting slugged on your income tax (don’t we all?), it could be a go-er.

“Hey, what about the bank tax? Should I care about it?”

I hear you asking and my answer is, only a little bit. Those banks are not just gonna take the hit to their bottom line, so they will pass it on to either staff, shareholders or customers.

I suspect a bit of each. Interest rates on mortgages and credit cards could rise – if they do, shop around to one of the banks who isn’t paying that tax (remember, it’s only the Big 4 plus Macquarie bank, and odds are you don’t have private banking with the latter).

And although bank-bashing is a national sport, let me just remind you that anyone with superannuation probably is a shareholder in them. The Big Four are called that for a reason – they are the four biggest companies on the ASX. And if your super account is made up of about 40% Aussie shares (most default funds sit somewhere around that level), then you, my friend, own a shitload of bank shares.

So before you gleefully stick the boot into the big greedy banks, remember they are funding your retirement. (Well, not mine – I’m in Australian Ethical and they only invest in Westpac).

So, of course other stuff happened in the Budget, but everyone else has covered that. For a Fierce Girl about town, these are some of the more relevant ones. And now, we may never speak of this again.

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May 15, 2017 4

The Fierce Girl's Guide to Finance

Get your shit together with money

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