Ok, so we all know that millennials can never buy a house right? The news says so. The news tells us that millennials are avocado eating layabouts with so much student debt that they don’t know which way is up any more. How could they ever afford a house?

This is all baloney of course, but I have been there.

When I first moved out and rented a place, I got caught in the trap of thinking that I could never have a home of my own. I assumed that prices would always just be unaffordable and...

Ok, so the title of today’s post is a little extreme, but the inspiration comes from something that someone said to me the other day at an event when I told them I help people to become Financially Independent.

As I was explaining that making a budget (looking at what you have been spending in the past, AND what you should be spending in the future) was the first step for most people, he interrupted me and said “but I don’t have enough money to justify having a budget,...

Today I am going to talk about what I think is one of the biggest financial mistakes you can make. That is making long term decisions based on short term circumstances.

What I mean by this is people making (or breaking) really long term financial commitments because of their current situation. Right now. In the moment.

A great example of this is when people are thinking of taking on a large debt, like a mortgage on a new home or a car finance package.

These are long term commitments and they...

When it comes to saving money, most people assume that there has to be some sacrifice. Money saved means money not spent, which in turn means less stuff, less fun and less pleasure, Right?

Wrong!

While sometimes saving money can mean making sacrifices (but if you want to achieve Financial Independence, then these are sacrifices that are often worth making) there are a load of ways that you can save money AND improve your life all at the same time.

That sounds like a win-win to me!

First up on...

I love envelope budgeting. I think it is by far the best budgeting system out there and there are so many reasons why.

For anyone who is scratching their head, envelope budgeting is a budgeting system that uses multiple different ‘envelopes’ to track spending in different categories.

Envelope budgeting was created in the times of cold hard cash and snail mail.

At the end of the month, you would receive your wages, usually in cash, in a little brown envelope from your boss.

People...

Let me be clear – a lot of insurance is a total waste of money. The insurance industry loves to sell us overpriced insurance contracts that are almost impossible to claim on for things that we don’t really need.

With that said, it is also incredibly dangerous to have no insurance at all.

Certain things are worth having insurance for and other aren’t.

Although everyone will have a slightly different set of circumstances, as a general rule of thumb, I only recommend you insure...

Today I am going to look at building Financial Resilience.

Financial Resilience means that you are ready to cope with whatever life throws at you.

Even the best financial plans can be upset by an emergency car repair, a sudden illness or losing your job.

It pays to be prepared for all of these things otherwise you could get caught off guard.

Perhaps a pipe bursts in your house. Perhaps you lose your job or get sick so you can’t work.

The fact of life is that these things happen...

It has been widely publicised that the Baby Boomers are the wealthiest generation in history.

Born just after the war, their stratospheric increase in wealth has been largely attributed to rising property prices and a surging stock market, but is it really that simple?

Yes – there is no doubt that the boomers were helped along by their burgeoning property prices and stock market growth, but I don’t think that this really tells the whole story.

If you don’t own a property or...

Let’s face it saving money can be really tough!

You have to cover all of the bills, try to have some fun and then, hopefully, still have something left over at the end of the month to put away for the future. It’s not always easy.

Even if you do have some spare cash, where do you save it and how should you manage the process?

A regular savings account can be a great way to solve many of your savings issues.

I love my regular savings accounts and I always renew them every year,...

Debt has been described as a menace, as a virus, as a destructive force of evil and indeed it can be all of these things, if you let it.

Debt can also be used in certain ways to your advantage, however these methods are only for the most disciplined.

You have to be honest with yourself here, if you are likely to ‘miss-use’ debt if it is available to you, you are better off paying off all your debt and having none available at all.

But how exactly do you pay off debts. It can be...