Welcome to the very first Savings Guide Newsletter!
Designed specifically to offer you the latest tips to help you save money and get your finances working for you, not against you.

Newsletter Contents:

• Tip of the week
• Win $20 for writing an article, $200 to give away!
• Top 5 must read articles
• Special Offer of the Month
• Updates to Savings Guide Australia

Now onto our very first Newsletter!

1. Tip of the week

Making your lunch at home can save you nearly $10 per day, combine that with not buying coffee over the course of the day and that is a saving of around $20 per day. This could potentially save you $5000 over the course of a year! Imagine what you could do with $5000!

2. Win $20 for writing an article, $200 to give away!

Now for the exciting news! Fancy yourself a bit of a knowledgeable money saver? Why not write a few articles to help others!

Savings Guide is offering $200 worth of cash for for the top 10 articles submitted. That is $20 per article, with entries set to unlimited. This means that if you were to write the top 10 best articles, you could pocket the $200 cash all to yourself!

More information below;

• Articles must be 400 words in length minimum.
• Articles must be on Saving Money and have a specific topic. Eg; How you save money on petrol, cleaning products, baby costs etc.
• The contest will be drawn on the 10th December and entries will be assessed.
• Cash will be sent via Australia Post directly into your pocket.
• Articles once submitted are the property of Savings Guide Australia and will be posted on the website pending editorial guidelines.

3. Top 5 must read articles

1. How to Save Money on CTP Greenslips.
2. Voluntary Superannuation Contributions to help you save money for your retirement.
3. How ANZ’s new Money Saving Platform can help you control your finances.
4. First Home Savers Guide to buying a house.
5. What is the best way to Save Cash?

4. Special Offer of the Month

Macquarie Bank are offering a great high interest savings account to help you reach your financial goals, they have a competitive interest rate and will help you earn high interest on your nest egg! View this offer here

5. Updates to Savings Guide Australia

The team at Savings Guide are very excited to announce that the SavingsGuide.com.au website will be going under a redesign very shortly with one of Australia’s top web design companies - making a more accessible and easy to use Money Saving website, which as always will continue to be 100% free. We will also be upgrading this newsletter to a stylish and more frequent send, allowing you to get more out of each issue!

Thanks for signing up to our new little newsletter, we hope this first issue gives you some good tips and look forward to hearing from you if you have any suggestions or thoughts on the newsletter and Savings Guide as a whole.

Until next time,

Savings Guide Australia

The technology is already in use by US bank West Bank and this will be the first time the technology has been made available outside the US.

From next month, Australians will be able to open a SmartyPig account. In addition to offering a competitive interest rate, key features of the unique savings account include:

• Family and friends will be able to securely contribute to people’s savings goal through the Australian SmartyPig website or via social networks like Facebook and MySpace.
• The account will be set up to help customers save for a specific goal and track their progress, providing electronic updates as they reach major milestones.
• Customers will receive cash boosts from retail partners as they reach savings goals with retail partnerships to be announced in coming weeks.

ANZ Managing Director Retail Products John Harries said: “Being the first bank in Australia to introduce a savings product that takes advantage of the next wave of technology, Web 2.0 and social networking, is part of ANZ’s strategy to lead on technology solutions and provide more convenient banking for our customers.
“We know that young people have unique needs when it comes to their finances. They look for simple, efficient and secure ways to manage their money, and are more likely to bank online as they are very comfortable with technology.

“Partnering with companies like SmartyPig who can innovate and get to market rapidly helps us extend our point of difference,” Mr Harries said.

SmartyPig CMO and co-founder Jon Gaskell said: “This is our first foray into international territory, and ANZ is a terrific partner to extend the model overseas.

ANZ has a clear strategy regarding the introduction of distinct propositions to reach a very important, very socially plugged-in demographic. We could not be more excited to be part of this extraordinary initiative.”

For more information, visit Smarty Pig’s US site http://www.smartypig.com/

Over the course of any given day, we may put some saving money tips directly onto Twitter for those wanting to know how to save money in all scenarios.

Why use Twitter to follow SavingsGuide.com.au?

This simple to follow video shows what twitter is and how you can use it to keep upto date.

View SavingsGuide.com.au’s Twitter Page

To view our twitter updates, please go directly to our Twitter page.

SavingsGuide.com.au @ Twitter

Today we will look at how to write your savings plan for 2009 so that you not only have a set of pre determined goals, but you also have the strategy in

place to continue saving money and maximising your net worth over the course of the new year.

Step 1

Establish what money is going out of your account

You will need to sit down and write down all your outgoing costs, these include but not limited to things such as;

• Car loan repayments
• Insurance payments
• Mobile Bills
• Mortgage Repayments
• Child Care Fees
• School Fees
• Credit Card Repayments
• General Cost of living

along with any other large ticket items that you must pay on a monthly basis.

Once you have listed all these, find the total cost of each per month so that you know what your after costs monthly income is. I suggest using the budget spreadsheet I previously spoke of.

Step 2

Find out how much both you and your partner earn

Calculate your monthly incoming cash flow + any money you make from side business or once off work. Doing this will allow you to find the total monthly income you or your family earn and set the scene for calculating incoming minus outgoing costs.

Step 3

List 5 financial goals you want to achieve

This can include;

1. Paying off your credit cards
2. Increasing mortgage repayments to know time off your mortgage.
3. Saving a certain percentage of your salary each month.
4. Increasing your super contributions.
5. Having left over money each month for spending.

Step 4

Find out how much money you have left monthly

Use this step to establish how much money you have each month leftover after paying all the items in Step 1.

The figure you get will allow you to understand how much money you have to play with in your savings plan.

Step 5

Setting the plan in place

The leftover money from step 4 can now be divided by your 5 goals, with the percentages according to your saving desires.

For me I have around $750 per month leftover that allows me to put $100 on my credit card, $300 into my nest egg, $100 extra into my super account + $250 left over each month for money that I can use on what I like, with the hope of not using it at all so I can further add it to my nest egg.

What will this plan achieve?

It may sound simple, but look at what this will do for me by the end of 2009:

1. $1200 paid to my credit card (that means I have paid it off + accounted for using it again over the year)
2. $3600 added to my nest egg, which is cooking away at 6% interest in my high interest account (add $216 in interest earned to this)
3. $1200 extra contributed to my superannuation, as retiring will cost alot one day!
4. $3000 in extra cash for me to use, and fingers crossed that I haven’t used it, resulting in an extra $2-3K added to my nest egg.

My next savings plan

It would be good practice and very helpful to develop a plan like this each year. As a result, I will be re-evaluating this savings plan as of 2010 in which hopefully I am earning more and can increase my numbers. Increasing year on year will help you reach your goals a lot faster and you will really start to see your savings start to grow, while your debts get lower.

Having a goal and a purpose greatly helps you to save money, so i thoroughly suggest adapting information similar to this to your own needs in the hope of finding a savings plan that is right for you.

Important Note

It is crucial to do the figures in step 1 and 2 properly, as it is best to find how much you can COMFORTABLY save rather then just skim by on. $100 in the nest egg is better then $300 that constantly gets redrawn at the end of each month because you are needing money!

VOIP is a great way to save money on phone bills and can really help you reduce the monthly bills you owe to the big providers such as Optus and Telstra. Imagine this, setup VOIP and you can almost be gaurenteed to save atleast $50-$100 a month, that is roughly $1200 a year in savings for a simple add on to your existing broadband connection!

What is VOIP?

VOIP is short for ‘Voice over internet protocol’ a smart way of saying ‘a simple telephone that runs through your broadband internet’.

The reason that VOIP is becoming more popular is that you can use it 100% like a normal home phone, you have your own number, dedicated line and to top it all off, the call rates are nearly 1/8th of the price of normal home lines!

VOIP acts as a normal telephone, and does not require you to sit in front of the computer to make a call. You also get a unique phone number, no different to having a landline with Optus or Telstra.

Benefits of VOIP

• Reduce your phone bill
• Package VOIP with your broadband to save money
• 15cent calls as opposed to 40cent calls

Tips to Save Money on VOIP

When searching for VOIP providers, remember to find a provider that offers bundled options with your broadband, as that means you can save on your monthly internet bill while saving money on phone calls.

Use VOIP for all local calls and mobile calls, you will cut your monthly phone usage bill down by around 70% within the first month.

Do you use VOIP?

If not, howcome? I would like to know why most people still don’t use this service even after understanding just how much money it can help you save.

It will monitor your money from upto 9000 financial institutions globally, ranging from banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, share trading platforms and more. You do not have to have an account with ANZ, instead it retrieves this data for you and displays it in one secure place.

What does ANZ Money Manager do?

The system allows you to monitor your assets and liabilities easily, examples of which include a single location to view your;

• Superannuation balance
• Credit card balance
• Total savings
• Online Investments
• Loans and Mortgages
• Everyday Banking Accounts
• Rewards/Loyalty Programs (Airlines, Hotel, Car Rental, etc)
• Insurance
• Your home or other investment properties
• Other assets such as Jewellery, Antiques, Art and more.

Budgeting

You also have the ability to monitor purchases on your cards and accounts and itemise the spending into categories to build a history of where your money goes. For example, every time you make a purchase, it is automatically recorded and categorised for you - just like having your own bookkeeper!

Money Alerts

One of the best features of this platform, is that you can see Money Alerts. This means that you can enter dates and times when bills are due, credit cards are due and more. Imagine that, not only is it a personal bookkeeper, it is a personal assistant with managing all aspects of financial time management.

Is Money Manager safe?

The short answer is yes, like most online banking facilities, this platform is protected using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL), which creates an encrypted connection between your browser and the ANZ Money Manager servers. This information is kept encrypted at all times. Once your username and password for each individual account has been entered, you will not be able to view them again - they will be kept permanently encrypted.

Personal experiences

I am about to sign up for an account, as I often wonder where my money goes and enjoy seeing my finances rounded into a whole figure to understand how I am tracking/budgeting for the long run.

I intend to use the ANZ Money Manager for the following setup;

1. View my debt in total
2. View my savings in total
3. View my superannuation in total
4. Budgeting to understand where I spend money.

Monitoring the above will allow me to understand my money coming in, versus my money going out. The first rule of saving money is to understand this rule and this platform will allow that to happen much easier.

What do you think?

1. I would like to know what other people think about the platform?
2. How has it helped you save money and monitor your finances?

How to sign up

Head over to ANZMoneyManager.com to view this platform in more detail and easily sign up.

Save Money on Car Insurance

With Pay As You Drive, if you drive less, you pay less. Up to 60% less than traditional comprehensive car insurance is what is currently advertised!

Pay as you drive insurance if for people who:

Each dollar you add to your superannuation will grow x10 over the life time or your balance or more, so adding money frequently and early will greatly increase the ammount of money you will have for retirement.

Australian’s are increasingly finding that they do not have enough money to retire, and those that do are stuck with a mere $30,000 a year, barely enough for food and 1 outing a month! Read about how much you need to retire to better understand it.

What is a Voluntary Super Contribution?

By law, Australian employers need to pay a minimum of 9% super into you designated super account. A voluntary super contribution is a percentage over that ammount of that you define as a voluntary contribution after tax. Eg; If i decided to add another 6% of my net pay, I would have a super contribution of 15% (6% voluntary and 9% compulsary).

Benefits of Voluntary Super Contributions

1. Your super account will sky rocket and you will likely end up with a lot more then the next person come retirement.
2. You will have a retirement that will be enjoyable, no skimming on day to day stuff.
3. Every dollar you add, will grow heavily of its lifetime in the account.

Tips on making Voluntary Super Contributions

I have a great tip on ways to save for your retirement using contributions and your super! Here is how the formula works;

1. Write down your age.
2. Divide it by 2.
3. The number you get is the percentage you should be adding to your super.

This works great because when you are in your early twenties and not earning as much, you can add only a small percentage of voluntary contributions. Eg; a 22 year old would only pay 11% super, 2% out of his or her own pocket.

Following this method will not only greatly grow your super each year, it will continue to rise the cash flow of money you send into the account as you start to earn more. Think about its power to grow your super!

Today I will share with you how I save for tax each year, and the best way to not have a tax bill that sneaks up on you leaving you out of pocket and broke!

Tips on Saving Money for Tax

• Every cent you earn, save 30% of it into your high interest account or savings account that it hard to touch, eg; not easy to withdraw the money.
• Add $250 per quarter into your tax account, that way by the end of the year you will have another $1000 in that account, even if you dont use it you can save it.

Earn Interest on your Tax Money

Did you know that your tax savings can earn money for you? Although the interest you earn is taxable at the full rate of your return, it still adds a few extra dollars to the final balance at the end of the year.

PAYG Tax Payments

The ATO is known to make ABN holders and small businesses start paying PAYG (Pay as you go) tax installments once you make over $70,000 or so, which means per quarter they will demand around $1400 or more in tax installments, even if you arent on par to earn that much - as it is based off last years tax return. This means you may have to sacrifice a bit more then 30% of your earnings to the tax man, eg; just pay the tax bill and see it as a form of savings as you will likely get a refund at the end of the year.

Things to avoid when saving for tax

Here are the golden rules of saving for tax payments;

1. Do not withdraw the tax money.
2. The ‘I will pay the tax back next pay cheque’ never works.
3. Be religious with your payments, be strong and stick to 30%.
4. Do not check how much money is in the account. Just add to it over the year and let it surprise you at the end of the year.
5. Use a tax accountant so that you can lodge your return much later then the rest of society. Read my old article on the benefits of having a tax accountant.

Cost of running a car

A reader of this site, Kimberly, recently informed me that the average cost of running a small car per year is $8000 (Source: RACV). That means the cost of running a car is nearly ten thousand dollars for 12months! Imagine if you could reclaim even $5000 of that by using public transport for 2-3 days a week when commuting to work? Surely that would be worth it! $5000 Invested into a high interest bank account would turn into nearly $6000 by just sitting there over the course of 12months.

Some of the costs of running a car include:

• Tyres ($300+)
• Registration costs ($300+)
• CTP Greenslips ($300+)
  
• Petrol (around $60 per tank currently for a small Honda Civic 2001)
• Oil/Maintainance/+ More ($200+)
• Parking Costs

Save $75 per week using public transport

Whether you are in Sydney or Melbourne or any other state in Australia, we have some of the worlds best public transport infrastructures, though we may not believe it!

For Sydney Siders, the cost of catching a train to the city and back from within the metro region is about $40 for an adult per week, very similar to that of Melbourne prices.

Buy a weekly ticket on Monday morning and use the return ticket for one week back and forwards and you will easily save $75 on petrol, parking and other associated costs. Very easy way to save money really, so I suggest you calculate your year on year savings and start smiling at how much money you will be saving.

Why use public transport to save?

• Minimise petrol use.
• Cut down on parking costs.
• It tends to be faster then driving and traffic.
• You can sell you car, the largest depreciating asset you own!
• Helps cut down green house gases for us enviro happy people!

Fairfax (The Age and SMH) recently did an article called ‘The Great Public Transport Challenge’ in which 4 commuters tested the fastest way to get to work in the CBD using different transport methods. Turns out buses and trains and bikes are the best way to get to work!

Further Reading

• The Age - Great Transport Challenge