If you watch the pennies the pounds take care of themselves

Many years ago I was working for a really good manager and one day we were talking about money and personal finance. Chris taught me one very simple rule - “If you watch the pennies the pounds take care of themselves.” I’ll translate for the current currency - “If you watch your cents the dollars take care of themselves.”

When I first heard about this saying many years ago when I worked in a corporate office, it was pretty self-explanatory.  Applied to one’s personal life, basically it means that if you pay attention to the smaller financial issues in your life, then the larger ones will take care of themselves.

What I also take it to mean is that managing your money is more of a mindset and a frame of mind than anything else.  If you watch how you spend your money during your weekly trip to the grocery store, then the big things in life (lowering your mortgage payment, buying a new car, etc) should be no-brainers.  You simply adopt the same attitude to the former as you do the latter.

It also reminds me of one of the ways that I used to look at money and how it came in and went out of my life.  Back then, I would utter the phrase, “It’s only money” all the time.  You know, spend $10 a week on lottery tickets and rarely win?  So what? It’s only money.  Have an area of your life where you could save significantly but are too lazy/busy/whatever to actually implement the change?  No worries-it’s only money.

I had a client whose only goal was to go on a decent holiday. I asked to see this client’s budget and a list of everything they spend their money on, no matter how small the item. This client’s budget was tight, there was not a lot of disposable income. I found one thing that was not on the client’s budget and was not budgeted for.  The client was a smoker and so was their partner. At that time, a pack of cigarettes was around $30 a pack and they were smoking two packs a day, $60 a day, $420 a week, $1,680 a month, $21,840 a year in cigarettes. When the client saw how much they were spending on smokes every year they were speechless. I suggested to the clients, “Cut your smoking in half and enjoy your holiday”

My own personal, “If you watch the pennies the pounds take care of themselves” was coffee. I really needed that first long black in the morning to get the pistons firing. I was spending anywhere from $3.50 to $7.00, depending on the number of cups I would have per day, $2,555.00 a year on coffee. Now I was not going to give up coffee, that would be ludicrous! To save some money I bought an inexpensive expresso coffee machine, a coffee grinder and some beans for around $170.00 and now I just have to buy a bag of coffee beans every few months and I am saving around $2,400.00 a year in coffee and the coffee I make is so much better that what I could ever get in a cafe.

“If you watch the pennies the pounds take care of themselves,” I am sure there are small items in your household budget you can do away with or adjust to help you save money.

See what possibilities exist for you to take the next step and align your life so you feel like that same old routine is broken into more excitement and passion. Book yourself in for a free 30-minute consultation session where we will both get to see if you are ready for the next step.

Visit www.butterflylifecoaching.com or call +61 0407 460486 so we can help you.

Butterfly Transition Life Coaching

“Like a butterfly transform yourself into something great and powerful.”

It's Your Money

With the constant increase in the cost of living and the lack of pay increases, it’s just getting tighter and tighter on the household budget. Saying that, it seems looking for a better deal on home loans, health insurance, car insurance, mobile phones and even pay TV seems to go into the too hard basket or we are just brand loyal and don’t want to switch? Let me tell you about brand loyalty - the loyalty only swings one way and if you think these companies care about you, then you deserve to be gouged. If these brands really cared about you, they would give you a good deal without you asking for it. Here are some of my prime and personal example of finding a better deal.

The Bank -  I was with the same bank for over twenty years, I had all my accounts, including my mortgage and credit card with them. After doing some research I made the hard choice to swap banks and lose the brand loyalty mindset. With my new bank I was getting an extra 1% on my interest rate, which was worth around $100 per month, ($1,200 PA).  I was paying $5 a month per account, $180 a year in bank fees just to have the privilege of banking with them. With my new bank there were no monthly bank fees.

Plastic Money – I decided to bundle my credit card with the new mortgage and I saved $345 on the annual renewal fee. As you can see, by me swapping banks my annual saving was around $1,725, not bad, and on a side note, did my previous bank call to see why I was changing banks or try to win me back? Of course not. 

The Savings Bug- Looking at what I saved by switching banks, I got the savings bug and started looking at other areas in my household budget where I could save money. I had all my insurance policies clear in my cross hairs.

Insurance - Like most people when the insurance renewal came, I just paid it until one day I decided to go to the company’s website and do a requote, and guess what? I got a cheaper price.  How do you justify that same insurance company, same policy but cheaper price, other than making me royally mad? I started to shop around and found a similar car insurance policy cheaper by $500 per year. I kept going and found better deals on pet insurance and a few other polices as well.

Telco’s - No savings are too small, by bundling my pay TV and broadband and some pressure I put on my Telco provider, I made a saving of $20 a month, ($240 annually). Making a phone call to my mobile phone provider and asking for a better deal found me getting a better phone plan with a higher GB allowance and $10 cheaper per month - multiply that by two and it comes to another $240 in annual savings.

It’s your Money!! - You work too hard and you have earned every dollar, so why allow companies who are not loyal to you to keep your hard-earned cash? As you can see, in one year I found close to $3,000 savings in my household budget. It’s my money, and every year now I go through this exercise. I have a spreadsheet that is separated by monthly, quarterly and annual bills/payments, this gets looked at every year.  The following year after reviewing my spreadsheet I found another $600 savings, not has big as the first savings but still something.

I understand it can be time consuming and cumbersome to look at switching banks and insurers. I’m not going to lie, there is some work involved in swapping providers, and in particular with moving banks, however a good provider will help you through the process. My suggestion is take one bill at a time and see if you can find something better.

There is so much competition out there, all competing for your business. Do your research and look at the small print before agreeing to anything.

I am not a financial advisor or claim to be one, I just took the time to look for a better deal. Remember, “It’s Your Money”.

See what possibilities exist for you to take the next step and align your life so you feel like that same old routine is broken into more excitement and passion. Book yourself in for a free 30-minute consultation session where we will both get to see if you are ready for the next step.

Visit www.butterflylifecoaching.com or call +61 0407 460486 so we can help you.

Butterfly Transition Life Coaching

“Like a butterfly transform yourself into something great and powerful.”