0:00

Hello and welcome to It All Adds Up

0:02

the podcast where we chat about money, how

0:04

to get it, how to spend it, and how to invest

0:06

it. I'm senior economics writer Jess

0:09

Irvine, and you're listening to our summer

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series, where we're replaying some of our

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hottest hits to help you get in shipshape

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financial form for 2023.

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It all adds Up will resume normal programming

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in February with a brand new season

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full of money saving tips and insights.

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So until then, sit back, relax

0:27

and enjoy. Hello

0:37

and welcome to It All Adds Up the podcast

0:39

where we chat about money, how to get it,

0:41

how to spend it and how to invest it. I'm

0:44

senior economics writer Jess Irvine.

0:46

And I'm money editor, Dumb Pal. And this week we've

0:48

got some tips to try and help you beat the cost of Living

0:50

Crunch.

0:51

Yeah, everyone is feeling the pinch

0:53

right now. We know, of course, that interest

0:55

rates have risen at their fastest pace

0:58

since the 1990s, which

1:00

increases the pressure on home owners. But

1:02

the rental market dollar is little better, with

1:04

double digit rises in rents in both Sydney

1:06

and Melbourne over the past year. And of

1:08

course we know at the same time general inflation

1:11

is just rampant and expected to get worse

1:13

before it gets better.

1:15

Yeah, it's a really peachy sort of outlook we're painting

1:17

here, but we're not battling at least with

1:19

a $12 lettuce any. Those,

1:21

those days are over, but the

1:23

cost of your weekly shop is still rising because the cost

1:25

of everything is is rising. And every

1:28

other expense, it seems, is also going

1:30

up. You've got petrol, energy

1:32

bills, insurance. They're all

1:34

rising. So I guess the

1:36

question is what can we do about it, really?

1:38

I came up with an innovative solution, which is you

1:40

could migrate to China because we had all

1:42

our foreign correspondents report back on inflation

1:44

from across the world, and China is

1:47

keeping its inflation under control. But

1:49

they are still living under lockdown and the economy

1:51

is not doing very well. Yeah, And also, like,

1:53

you know, part of the reason why inflation is so high

1:55

is because the jobless rate is low. And, you know, we've

1:57

we've got a fairly strong resurgent

1:59

economy. So it's like, do you want your good news

2:02

or bad news? The bad news,

2:04

however, is that it's just getting super

2:06

expensive to live, isn't it?

2:08

It is.

2:08

So dumb. Let's help

2:10

people. I think this is good. We're just going

2:12

to do like a snazzy, quick six tips

2:14

that you can sort of apply today and, you

2:16

know, maybe give you some of that relief that

2:19

that you're looking for because it can all seem a little

2:21

bit overwhelming. So, Dom,

2:23

you're going to kick us off. What's what's your best

2:25

tip or your first tip, anyway, for dealing

2:27

with the rising cost of living?

2:29

My first tip is if you're struggling with the cost

2:31

of living, the best way to not

2:33

struggle with the cost of living is to increase

2:35

the amount of income you have. So you should, if you

2:37

have a job, go and ask

2:39

your boss for a pay rise. We talked about

2:42

this in our second episode, I believe.

2:44

So if you want sort of sort of really in-depth tips

2:46

on how to do that, go back and listen to that,

2:48

that episode. But it is the

2:50

number one way to sort of increase your

2:52

income is to to ask for a pay

2:54

rise. You know, obviously, this isn't applicable

2:57

to everyone if you're on sort of jobseeker

2:59

or a pension or something like that, you obviously can't

3:01

ask for for a pay rise. But with

3:04

the cost of living, you know, it is you're perfectly

3:06

within your rights to go and go and say, hi,

3:08

I'm struggling with this or, you know,

3:10

my, my productions increased or I'm gone.

3:12

Additional responsibilities. I'd like to be paid more.

3:15

And it is you know,

3:17

the least you can do is ask. And if it works, it works.

3:19

If it doesn't, it doesn't.

3:20

Yeah. Thank you for having this is the first tip because we

3:22

spend so much time, like how can we trim our expenses

3:25

and save on takeaway coffee? But if you can

3:27

go get your pay yourself a pay rise that's worth

3:29

a couple of thousand dollars a year, that's really

3:31

good. And just go in armed knowing that unemployment

3:34

is still at its lowest in about

3:36

half a century. Like that is what's

3:38

creating the pressure in part is

3:40

that, you know, if you if your current

3:42

boss can't stump up the cash, it's

3:44

never been easier for 50 years or so to

3:46

go and get another job. So

3:49

it doesn't work for everyone. And you've got to make sure

3:51

it's the stars are aligned and you don't just

3:53

walk into the office one day and say, I'm done

3:56

without a job to go to. But

3:58

it's definitely a time to be testing

4:00

the waters and looking around.

4:01

Yeah, absolutely. And especially if you're in one of those

4:03

in-demand jobs, like, you know, one of my mates

4:05

is a Kota, and he recently looked for

4:07

a job and he got about four job offers. So,

4:10

you know, it's it's one of those things that if you're in the in

4:12

the right field, you really have a lot of bargaining power

4:14

and you should be swinging that weight around

4:17

as much as you can.

4:18

Yeah. And even at that lower end, like sort of more

4:20

the retail, hospitality, food services,

4:23

there's still real staff shortages there because

4:25

migrations for students are not quite back

4:27

where they were. So across the spectrum,

4:29

it's a good time to throw your weight around

4:31

a little bit.

4:32

Absolutely. But if you can't get yourself

4:34

a pay rise, just what should you try instead? What's

4:36

your tip?

4:37

Yeah, well, moving on, I guess, to the expenses

4:39

side of thing. And here's my tip. The biggest

4:42

thing, I think most people could just go and have a little

4:44

look at their figures today will be to

4:46

have a look at the cost of private

4:48

health insurance. So we know it's just gone

4:51

up massively. You know, even before

4:53

the cost of living crisis, we were feeling the pinch

4:55

on those premiums. And I share all

4:57

my figures on Instagram. The money was Jessica

4:59

and I always putting there my monthly health

5:01

insurance. I pay a premium of 80.49

5:04

per month and people are always like, How do you get

5:07

it that cheap? That seems pretty low and it is

5:09

just for one individual. But how

5:11

much do you pay in premiums still?

5:13

Well, I don't have private health insurer.

5:15

Well, that's one way to say, oh, no.

5:18

Yeah, well, tell me, because, you know, the

5:20

major question for people is how much

5:22

they earn. Because if you earn over certain amounts,

5:25

it's $90,000 for singles,

5:27

$180,000 for couples. If you don't

5:29

have private health insurance, you're going to get slugged with a

5:31

medicare levy. So. Charge, which starts at 1%

5:34

of your income, goes up to 1.5. So

5:36

are you over that 90,000?

5:38

Look, I am over the 90,000 barrier,

5:40

but like I, I

5:43

don't know. It's for me, this one of these

5:45

sort of things where it's like the it's either

5:47

this 1% that sort of comes out of my tax.

5:49

Right. The sort of thing that I don't really notice

5:51

that much or it's like a straight. $90

5:54

every month that comes out of my account. So I was like,

5:56

it's sort of like a mental thing for me, I guess. So that makes

5:58

sense.

5:58

Oh yeah. But we'll do the

6:00

numbers after this will take

6:02

you aside because you can get like an annual

6:05

basic level private health insurance policy,

6:07

just basic level hospital. And all

6:09

you need is hospital. People think, oh, to avoid

6:11

the surcharge, I need extras as well. You

6:13

don't. You just need that basic

6:15

hospital. And so I'm paying like less

6:18

than $1,000 a year for

6:20

my premiums. Whereas you will find, depending

6:22

on your income, you'll be charged even more than that

6:24

in tax. So you might about feel

6:26

like it's painful being debited from your account,

6:29

but it's going to hit you at tax time. John.

6:31

I'm all right. So, I mean, just

6:33

for everyone to to check where you're at with your

6:35

income, do you have a policy?

6:37

I literally just ring up insurers and say, hey,

6:40

dude, this is a tax dodge for me. I'm

6:42

trying to avoid paying the Medicare levy surcharge.

6:44

I don't want your bells and whistles. What is the cheapest

6:46

policy you can give me? Which means

6:48

I will avoid the surcharge. And

6:50

then another thing I do to make it cheaper,

6:53

you know, I'm on the basic level, the silver and gold,

6:55

but, you know, I'm a healthy, relatively healthy young

6:57

person. And for me, I'm willing to take the risk

7:00

that I might incur some out of pocket costs or,

7:02

you know, I will fall back on the public system

7:04

if I if I don't have that maximum level of cover

7:07

for some things. And the other thing is

7:09

I pay the maximum excess. So you check

7:11

what your excess is set at. It

7:13

increased recently that use for singles,

7:15

it can be set to $750

7:18

and that's how much you agree to pay out of pocket

7:20

in the event that you do need to make a claim. So

7:22

you know it's going to hit you, but it makes the premiums much

7:25

cheaper. And they those excesses

7:27

went up. The government mandates what they must be.

7:29

They went up a few years ago. So if you haven't reviewed

7:32

it for a couple of years to check where your excess

7:34

is at, check that you're not being covered for, you know,

7:36

pregnancy or something that you don't need anymore.

7:38

And really, I think people spend thousands

7:41

of dollars per year private health insurance.

7:43

It's worth having a look at your policy, bringing

7:45

around just checking that you're not sort

7:47

of paying for something that you don't get value from.

7:49

But I'll go and I'll go and tally the numbers and see

7:52

if it's something that that's worth.

7:53

Yeah, I'll help you will report,

7:55

will report back. So,

7:57

Don, what's your next tip for Cost

7:59

of living Relief?

8:00

My next tip is looking at all

8:03

the concessions and rebates that you

8:05

may be eligible for from

8:07

either the federal or state government.

8:09

And I think the easiest way to do

8:11

this is going on to good

8:13

old fashioned Google and just typing in eligible

8:16

concessions Victoria, New South Wales,

8:18

Queensland, whatever state you live in. And

8:21

as far as I can tell, I think all or at least

8:23

most of the state and territory governments

8:25

have a website where you can go on

8:27

and they've just got the full list of

8:29

all the concessions and rebates that

8:31

you could possibly be eligible for. New

8:34

South Wales either has a little calculator you can do where

8:36

you can type in all your details. I mean it will

8:38

literally just give you a list of everything that you may

8:41

be able to claim. Obviously, like there's

8:43

some big major ones which if you haven't claimed yet, you should

8:45

absolutely get on to like the $250

8:47

energy rebate for Victorians.

8:50

I would assume or hope by now

8:52

that most of our listeners have, if you're Victorian,

8:54

have claimed that $250 because it is just $200

8:57

in your bank account, all you have to do

8:59

is go and compare your energy providers.

9:02

It's so easy. So that's definitely something

9:04

you should do. But there's all these other things you can get, like can

9:06

get energy and gas rebates, you can get

9:08

public transport concessions, you can get relief

9:11

for toll roads like the payments you make

9:13

on toll roads. If you use a certain you know,

9:15

if your toll bill goes over a certain amount each

9:18

week, like there's a lot of things out there that I think

9:20

people don't realise that they could be saving money on

9:22

from the government, you know, and pretty low

9:24

effort, pretty easy to do. You just have to be eligible

9:26

and apply and you can get quite

9:28

significant savings. So I think that's a really good thing for

9:31

people to look at, especially if you're sort of really doing

9:33

it tough. There are a lot of things that the government will help you

9:35

out with in that sort of sphere.

9:38

Yeah, the New South Wales Government has sort of gone nuts

9:40

on that. You know, you go to the website is sort of

9:42

up to a hundred or something, you know, you're not eligible

9:44

for all of them. But we were voucherizing it every

9:46

day. You know, there's vouchers for parents is vouchers

9:48

for active kids, is vouchers. The stays

9:51

ones have expired and some of the restaurant

9:53

ones are not there. But there's still vouchers

9:55

for creative kids, you know, whatever it is.

9:58

And you're right, there's a landing page sort

10:00

of for each state government if

10:02

you're in other states as well, to sort of try

10:04

and corral you into those resources. Definitely worth

10:06

a Google.

10:07

Yeah. And I think in Melbourne, we've still got the mid-week

10:09

money or whatever it is that the Government

10:11

put in where you can get some cashback if you eat out

10:14

in the city during the week, like I've done

10:16

that a couple of times is pretty good. Yeah, you know,

10:18

it's a nice, it's a nice little chunk

10:20

of cash back. But moving on,

10:23

just what's your next tip for beating this

10:25

cost of living crunch?

10:26

Yeah, look, we touched on it a little bit there, so

10:29

my top tip, shop around on

10:31

your energy bill. I'm sorry to only

10:34

deliver really bad news for people in this episode,

10:36

but electricity prices,

10:38

the wholesale cost of electricity

10:40

on futures markets at least, is pointing

10:42

to perhaps a 30 to

10:45

35% hike in prices again

10:47

next year after they've already gone up significantly

10:50

this year. So it's really, really

10:52

important that people do stay on top of their energy

10:55

bills, gas, electricity and

10:57

do shop them around. And again, the government has

10:59

actually made our lives a little bit easier. There's

11:01

a separate site for Victoria where you can go

11:03

and get that energy bonus.

11:06

You go to the compare energy

11:08

recovered or a new website

11:10

and you collect your $250.

11:13

Do not go to jail, you know, Monopoly

11:15

style. But you can also punch

11:17

in some of your details and it will spit out

11:19

a list for you of the cheapest energy providers.

11:22

And we've seen a lot of movement in the market.

11:24

There's little guys who are sort of being knocked out by

11:26

rising wholesale prices. All

11:29

pricing is being revisited constantly.

11:31

So you've got to stay on top of who's

11:33

providing your power. For everyone else who's

11:35

not in Victoria, the site is energy made

11:37

easy, looked after you again,

11:40

does the same thing. You just pop in some

11:42

of your usage rights, your address and

11:44

it will help you sort of see whether your current

11:46

provider is sitting at the top and you do need

11:48

to look at the details. I think it's sort of you get

11:50

the daily usage charge and the

11:53

per kilowatt hour charges and you have

11:55

to compare and make sure that they're really

11:57

saying what they say they are and that

11:59

those prices are cheaper than your current plan. But,

12:02

you know, everyone's energy bills for

12:04

winter are kind of hitting about

12:06

now as we come out of winter. So,

12:09

yes, likely if you haven't already had that bill

12:11

shock, it's coming and it's only going to get

12:13

worse. So that's the bad news.

12:15

The good news is this website.

12:17

I am I recently sort of switched

12:19

over my energy retailer because I

12:21

was with one that was quite fancy where

12:24

they would just give you the flat

12:26

wholesale rate. You would pay. No, you pay

12:28

subscription per month and you just get the wholesale

12:30

price of energy, which was amazing

12:32

when energy was so cheap and it my energy

12:34

bills were super, super low. And

12:37

now that wholesale energy prices are

12:39

way up, I had to get away from them,

12:41

unfortunately, because it just got so expensive.

12:43

So I recently did a bit of a renegotiation

12:45

switch around and it has

12:48

ended up saving me quite a lot of money per month. But

12:50

I was on the other end of the spectrum where I was getting sort

12:52

of directly slugged by wholesale

12:55

energy prices. Yeah.

12:55

Ouch. I've switched about twice

12:57

in the last few years and the thing

12:59

to know is, look, it's super easy. You just go

13:01

to the new retailer and say, I want you. And they

13:03

say, Great. Don't worry, I'll break up

13:05

with the old guy for you. And there's like, there's literally nothing

13:08

you have to do to tell your old provider

13:10

that you're leaving. You just hand all the power

13:12

over and, you know, it sort of gets disconnected

13:14

one day and connected straight away and

13:16

my lots of never gone off. Yeah.

13:18

And there's all if you know anyone else on

13:20

that provider, make sure you go and go

13:23

to them and say what's your referral code? Because you'll

13:25

both get sometimes 50, 60 bucks

13:27

off your first energy bill, which is great. So

13:29

make sure you always use those referral codes because

13:32

they're the gold for, you know, just

13:34

switch when you switch.

13:35

Yeah, that seems to be more common these days. The worst,

13:37

worst sharing with your friends and having that

13:39

chat. Okay, Dom. Tip number

13:41

five. What's your next tip?

13:44

Well, this is sort of a classic, but it's

13:46

always worth thinking about, which is just cutting out

13:48

any non essential expenses.

13:50

And my number one thing for this is

13:53

streaming services, because there are just so many

13:55

streaming services. It seems to be a new

13:57

one every week. And I

13:59

think the thing is a lot of people get sort of sucked into it

14:01

where they get all this service says this

14:03

show, and I'm going to get a free trial for

14:05

it. And then they get the free trial and then they sort of just

14:07

fall into paying for it a month. And then

14:10

you might end up with sort of, you know, four

14:12

or five streaming services where you might only

14:14

really be using watching one show or

14:16

no shows on one of them. So it's really worth

14:18

sitting down and looking at something like that.

14:21

You know, I've really sort of tried to pare back

14:23

the number of streaming services and

14:25

it's great because there are actually some really good free

14:27

ones out there at the moment, like ABC iView.

14:30

It's great. It's completely free. SBS

14:32

on demand, also completely free. They both got some really

14:35

good stuff these days. And if you have a

14:37

library card, also a great thing to have, you

14:39

can get onto a streaming service called Kanopy,

14:42

which sort of has like a mixture of like

14:44

new releases, some new releases

14:46

and a lot of sort of older sort of, you know,

14:49

very sort of cinematic film.

14:51

Buffy sort of films. So if you're into

14:53

that sort of stuff, that's, that's worth looking

14:55

into.

14:55

Oh, I haven't heard of that. How do you spell that one?

14:57

Ken Kanopy But it's that they

15:00

spell it with a K instead of a.

15:01

Star, because I'm aware of like Borrow Box and

15:03

Libby apps that you can access the

15:05

library books from your library, but you can also

15:07

access this sort of visual catalogs through

15:09

the P. Okay. Recording that down

15:12

and.

15:13

There's also other things like any sort of I

15:15

suppose sort of applies or any digital services like

15:17

my I was paying $10

15:19

a month for data on my Google

15:21

plan just for like storage. And

15:23

I realized that I didn't need that much. So I cut it down

15:25

to $2 a month and you know, that's a savings.

15:28

And that also applies to things like mobile

15:30

phone bills, like, you know, you can really

15:32

get stuck into, especially if you're on a prepaid

15:34

bill, you can get stuck into thinking that, you

15:37

know, you just have to pay this much for data and

15:39

that's what you get. But there's all there's

15:41

always new people in the market, all those new providers

15:43

out there trying to offer like super

15:45

low cost cut, right. You

15:47

know, plans which might suit you better

15:50

and could save you, you know, 15, 20 bucks

15:52

a month, if you're lucky.

15:52

Yeah, a great website I use for that is whistle

15:54

outcome dot are you a seems

15:56

to be good on the sort of mobile and the internet

15:59

plans.

16:00

Yeah and I think it's the easiest way to do something like

16:02

this to look at these sort of you know perhaps

16:05

expenses that aren't particularly necessary just to

16:07

go to your banking app or you banking website download

16:10

your last month of transactions

16:12

and just go through it with print it out and go through it with a highlighter,

16:14

which will make just very a highlight.

16:17

Of you speaking my language.

16:19

I know. I'm sorry I'm stepping on your tongue here. I

16:21

shouldn't be.

16:22

You did everything going on and I do everything with

16:24

paper. But yeah, well, look, sometimes.

16:27

Sometimes it's time.

16:28

It's you just. You've got to go back to basics and

16:30

really sit down, because otherwise I feel like you can sort

16:32

of they all just sort of blend into one and become

16:34

a bit much in your brain.

16:35

Hundred per cent and yeah, I mean if people don't

16:37

know, I record everything by hand, I

16:39

list out every dollar that I spend on

16:41

my spending tracker and just that it

16:43

becomes a more mindful thing to sort of have

16:46

to reflect back on the choices that you're making,

16:48

not to shame yourself about them, but just to go, Oh,

16:50

did I? Oh, when I spent ubereats

16:52

and it was $46 last night, that was

16:54

about the same as, you know, all those just reviewing,

16:57

being aware of where the money is going.

17:00

Yeah, I love it.

17:03

To take us home with your with the last tip.

17:05

So you will. What's your last one?

17:06

Just speaking of Uber eats,

17:08

and I suspect this is sort of a bit

17:10

of a a pinch point or

17:12

a sort of a hole in many people's

17:14

budget is the sort of quick, easy convenience

17:17

food. I'm an economics

17:19

writer, but I do write a lot about food shopping, which

17:21

is is the not just because I need

17:23

to eat, we all do. But food is actually

17:25

the second biggest expense for

17:28

Australian household budgets after

17:30

the mortgage or rent. So there's housing,

17:32

there's food and then this transport. So honing

17:35

down on your food bill, being aware

17:37

of where the money is going there and in particular

17:39

not sort of spending on eating

17:41

out as much. So preparing the fresh simple

17:44

foods at home is is is a strategy

17:47

to get into and a lot of people have or are already

17:49

pretty good at this. You know just reduce

17:51

waste shop your pantry go

17:53

meatless meal plan you know don't

17:55

be sort of wasting food is is basically

17:57

the the best way to go with that

18:00

but then there are some other strategies. You

18:02

know I love shopping around

18:04

with my grocery shopping. I go

18:06

to Aldi, I go to Costco.

18:08

I still do also go to Woolies in Coles,

18:11

you know, IGA, wherever it is. I think,

18:13

you know, getting out of a rut of whatever

18:15

you're used to doing and sort of becoming

18:18

a little bit more of a savvy shopper between

18:20

the different supermarkets. And so basically

18:23

focusing on your food bill is, is my final

18:25

tip here. But one other

18:27

little neat trick I discovered recently, because when

18:29

I went to Aldi and Costco and I took my spreadsheet

18:31

and I figured out how much everything costs, everything

18:34

was about 10% cheaper at Aldi

18:36

than the sort of two major retailers. And Costco

18:38

was about the same. But then it is also

18:40

possible to get a 10% discount, particularly

18:43

I know at Woolworths you can pay 59

18:46

points per year for an everyday

18:48

extra subscription or

18:50

membership. So it's $59 your out

18:52

of pocket, but it gets you 10%

18:55

off one shop per month at

18:57

both Woolies and Big W. So

18:59

you go in, you drop $200, that's

19:02

about a fortnightly shop for me, 10%

19:04

off you saving $20. It doesn't take

19:07

long before you earn back the $59.

19:09

So it's sort of a way to get yourself a 10%

19:12

discount anyway, which would get

19:14

you back to where you were with Aldi.

19:16

So, you know, that's the initial outlay, but that's

19:19

the way to save. And I have actually heard

19:21

a sneaky rumour, I haven't figured it out first, but

19:23

you can if you do the online shop first

19:26

for Woolies, you get the 10% off and then

19:28

you can maybe also use the 10% off

19:30

when you go in-store. I'm not sure if

19:32

that's a loophole. Oh, I shouldn't stack.

19:34

And stack in discounts over.

19:35

Bubbly onto it now, but I'm going to try that out

19:37

later this month because I've already done it online.

19:40

So. Yeah, look. And finally,

19:42

just on food, you know, having said

19:44

prepare fresh, healthy meals, we're all busy.

19:47

We run out of time. I actually find that having

19:49

a few ready meals or a frozen pizza

19:51

or something for those nights when you just

19:53

you're going to go to Uber Eats if you don't. So

19:55

like having some ready meals on hand. You

19:58

know, it's it's more expensive than preparing

20:00

it yourself but if it avoids

20:02

you going down the path of Uber eats

20:04

on those nights, then that can be

20:07

a real money saver.

20:09

Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the

20:11

things like sort of in this vein that I've been to, like

20:13

I, I live by myself. You know, I,

20:15

my food shop is I can't really

20:17

afford to do like a big food shop because

20:19

otherwise, like if I buy less of fruits and vegetables, I

20:21

just sort of go off by the time I eat them. So I have

20:23

to be sort of a little bit bits and pieces around

20:25

my shopping habits. But I've been

20:28

going to sort of the local especially

20:30

be live in the in in sort of, you know, most

20:33

most parts of Melbourne. My sort of shopping centres in

20:35

Melbourne will have big supermarkets then

20:37

also like a little fruit and veggie sort of local

20:39

grocer place. Those

20:42

places I find can be

20:44

quite a lot cheaper then then you big to supermarkets

20:47

if you have sort of you know, and they've got really

20:50

high quality produce too. So I get pretty much all

20:52

my fruit and vegetable from my local little greengrocer

20:54

and it's quite a bit cheaper. So that's

20:56

something I think I would recommend as well. If people are looking

20:58

to save a bit of money specifically on vegetables.

21:01

Yeah. Oh, interesting. I would assume it would. You know,

21:03

the bigger guys would have bigger buying power,

21:05

but maybe you're getting

21:07

the wholesale price from the little guy. Yeah,

21:09

I'm not quite sure.

21:10

I think I think the the little guys

21:12

go directly to the markets and buy it straight

21:15

from the sort of the, you know, off the back of the truck sort of thing.

21:17

So I think yeah, they, they save a bit of money

21:19

that way. I don't know, I don't know why it's cheaper

21:21

necessarily and it's

21:23

not like hugely cheaper like I'm not saving massive

21:25

amounts of, of money, but it is definitely

21:27

it is definitely noticeably cheaper.

21:29

Yeah. Excellent. Well shall we quickly recap

21:31

then, the six tips. Yes. Number one,

21:34

ask for a pay rise. Number two, get

21:36

out your private health insurance statement and and

21:38

review your cover number three,

21:40

vehicle, your local state government and concessions

21:43

to see what you're eligible for.

21:45

Number four, shop around on your energy bill.

21:47

Number five, make sure you cut out any non-essential

21:49

expenses. We're talking streaming services. We're talking,

21:52

you know, access dollar on your mobile phone bills, all

21:54

things like that. And then number six,

21:56

sit down and focus on your food bill and see if

21:58

there's any way that you can save a little bit of money each

22:00

week by shopping around.

22:02

Great. So we we hope that helps you.

22:04

It doesn't obviously undo the effect

22:06

of rising prices, but really, it's the

22:08

time to get a little bit more active and follow some

22:10

of those strategies, at least that

22:13

we're suggesting you can undo a little bit

22:15

of the rising price pressure that's out there.

22:17

So onto our listener question

22:19

of the week, and thank you for all your questions.

22:22

We're getting some great ones through. Do

22:24

keep emailing us at it all adds up

22:26

at Nine.com.au Air. We love getting

22:28

your questions. And this week's question

22:30

is from Nicky. Can you share

22:32

a simple set and forget investment for

22:35

kids where we can invest to put towards

22:37

like their first car or first apartment?

22:40

So Dom, are there any simple solutions

22:42

for people investing for their kids?

22:44

I've said it once and I'll say it again. This is there's

22:46

a scene in the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie

22:48

where they talk about exactly this, and he buys

22:51

the Chipmunks bonds for

22:53

their first Christmas. Anyway, that's

22:56

that's sort of a by the by I'm not saying that you

22:58

should buy your kids bonds, but that is that is possibly

23:00

an option. So you could like you could

23:02

invest on behalf of your

23:05

child. You could put money aside in

23:08

bonds or stable sort of index

23:10

ETFs or, you know, really long term investment,

23:12

especially if you're not thinking that good thinking, they're not going to sort of

23:14

tap into this investment for, you know, a number of

23:16

years. And that's certainly

23:19

a strategy, but obviously

23:21

that has tax implications.

23:22

ROGERS Yeah, I presume Alvin

23:25

and the Chipmunks didn't go into the capital

23:27

gains tax implications of the beneficiary

23:30

holders of the bond.

23:31

The movie would have been much better if they had

23:34

to be on.

23:34

I agree. But

23:37

yeah, with all those things, like there are like

23:39

investment bonds, if you Google that, there's

23:41

different tax treatment for that. If

23:44

you're doing things like ETFs or micro

23:46

investing apps, you've got to look at,

23:48

you know, there's actually it's not minors

23:51

under 18 and allowed to own shares

23:53

in their own names, or at least on some readings

23:55

of a law they can't. So you would actually

23:57

be still the owner of the asset

24:00

and the decision maker, perhaps, although

24:02

if the kids earn some of the income, perhaps

24:05

they can get a different tax treatment. There's

24:07

this hugely complicated tax system

24:09

surrounding investing on behalf

24:12

of your kids, which I'm still trying to get my head

24:14

around. So, I mean, I'm sort of focusing

24:16

on just, you know, increasing my wealth so that

24:18

I'm not a drain on on him when

24:20

when I retire so that I'm covered and

24:23

holding assets in my name. But I would love

24:25

to have a simple solution to allow my

24:27

eight year old to sort of go invest in

24:29

the share market. But you can't It's really

24:31

not as they make it hard.

24:34

Yeah, and I think this is why you see a lot of banks

24:36

offering accounts for kids that

24:38

have very high interest rates because I think, you

24:41

know, putting money into a

24:43

account in a child's name

24:45

that has a high interest rate is like is a simple

24:48

saving that is probably one of

24:50

the easiest ways you can do it. You're not going to

24:52

get huge returns because, you know, even though interest

24:54

rates are going up, they're not going up massively.

24:56

But it is probably the sort of easiest,

24:59

least tax implication sort of way

25:01

to invest on behalf of your kid.

25:03

Yeah, there is this amazing thing called interest

25:06

again, where you can earn interest by putting your money

25:08

in the bank who you like because you couldn't do

25:10

that for a few years. So I'm sort of leaning towards,

25:12

you know, just explaining the benefits

25:14

of savings in terms of getting interest and compounding

25:17

interest just on a bank account being something

25:19

you can do for your kids again. And we would mention or

25:21

I could mention the the 4% rate was

25:23

the Bank of Queensland, right? Actually

25:25

only for 15 to 35 year olds,

25:28

I think it was. But yeah, we are starting

25:30

to see those savings rates nudge

25:32

above 4%, so that would probably be the simplest

25:34

way. Then I'm not sure if the interest

25:36

would be declared on the kids tax

25:38

return or on your tax returns. So again,

25:41

the tax implications. Yeah, well

25:43

we're talking to a tax your accountant

25:46

about anyway. Unfortunately, it's not so, so

25:48

simple that the kids you know because they don't know their

25:50

income they'll be on low thresholds for

25:52

tax you know that whether you can

25:54

keep the income and then I'm all yours who

25:57

knows? I will keep I'm meaning

25:59

to write a column on this. So stay

26:02

stay tuned.

26:03

And just take us home. Just what

26:05

is your budget tip of the week?

26:07

My budget tip. I've been teasing this. If you

26:09

listen to the teaser for this entire

26:12

podcast, go back. I did mention

26:14

a toilet paper related

26:16

budget saving tip, which I thought we

26:18

can't keep the people in suspense, but.

26:20

I've been very excited to hear it.

26:23

This one. I got this from a money savings

26:26

expert from the UK. There's a whole Facebook

26:28

group, so I can't claim credit, but it's

26:31

a tip to help you slow your roll down.

26:33

So are you a scrunchie

26:35

or a folder?

26:37

The very personal questions coming out towards

26:39

the end of the podcast. Here I am

26:41

a scrunched, scrunched

26:43

toilet paper. I'm hoping you're talking about toilet paper.

26:46

I am. I don't know

26:48

what other context I could apply to, but in

26:50

this instant, yes, it's crunchier. Okay. Well, I mean,

26:52

what is input? Because you know, a folder type.

26:54

I'm also scrunch to a folder type people.

26:57

You know, maybe you're just Yeah, I

26:59

imagine these sorts of people would just

27:01

be tearing off your one. Two two modest

27:04

pieces of toilet paper, folding them

27:06

gently in their hands and applying gentle pressure. You

27:08

know, like it's a whole strategic thing. Other people,

27:10

you just, you know, you're reaching for the roll and

27:12

you just watch it, you know, spin

27:15

the dice, roll that. You know, it's kind

27:17

of satisfying anyway. It's a way to waste money. We

27:19

want to save money on toilet paper. This is where I'm heading.

27:21

A trick is you can actually get that before

27:23

you put it on the hold it. Get your toilet paper, rolls

27:25

everyone, and smooch them. Give them a good

27:28

old crush and crush that sealant, the

27:30

cardboard cylinder inside the roll.

27:32

And this is probably good for kids. If it's your kids

27:34

who are actually the ones spinning the wheel of fortune

27:37

and using the the toilet paper. And

27:40

that will just slow your all. It literally slows

27:42

your off because it

27:44

doesn't go around.

27:45

It's just it just it's a bit lumpy.

27:47

It created some friction in your

27:49

toilet. Interesting. I've this

27:51

has gone on much longer than it needed to go. No,

27:53

I mean it's a good tip. And you know,

27:55

there's there's people out there who

27:57

showed up in roles. We're

28:00

not so very far out from the COVID, you

28:02

know, toilet paper related shortages. And,

28:04

you know, I'm still conscious of my

28:06

toilet paper use. And yes, it's

28:08

one way you can cut costs.

28:10

Yes. Or you can become one of those dirty

28:12

folders. I never understood those sort of people.

28:14

I don't understand why.

28:16

What you're not if you're not scrunching your toilet

28:18

paper, you're not living.

28:19

You've got too much time on your hands.

28:20

Absolutely.

28:21

Getting it in the get out.

28:23

And on that note, we'll leave you this week.

28:25

Please email us any other questions you

28:27

may have for this week and

28:29

let us know if you're a folder or a scrunch. We

28:31

will not publish that data, but it's

28:33

always interesting to find out. But thanks for joining

28:35

us. Thanks for listening and we'll see you again next week.

28:37

It's been fun.

28:38

Thanks to this

28:43

episode of It All Adds Up was produced by Chee

28:45

Wong. The information discussed

28:47

is general in nature and does not take into account

28:49

your personal financial situation, goals

28:51

or objectives. You should always do your own

28:53

research or get professional advice before making

28:55

any major financial decisions. If

28:58

you like today's episode, hit follow a new podcast

29:00

app, leave a review and recommend it to all your

29:02

friends. You can also submit your listener questions

29:05

in text or audio form at.

29:07

It all adds up at 9:00 PM today.

29:10

Thanks for listening.