Being financially savvy in 2019

A new year comes with a suite of resolutions and, for some, a conscious effort in stepping up with their financial savviness.  There are so many sites, books and podcasts which provide a wealth of knowledge, but where do you begin and how do you choose what information and resources are right for you?

To help you along your financial journey in 2019, Henley breaks down the financial recommended resources for 2019 to give you a handy financial head start.

Podcast heaven

There are many podcasts out there featuring very experienced and well known Australian money experts and commentators. One of the financial gurus is Ross Greenwood with his podcasts Work.Life.Money and Money News.  There is also The Money Cafe hosted by journalists Alan Kohler and James Kirby. There is also a suite of new podcasts gaining a steady following including The Richards Report, hosted by ex AFL great and now Director of Business Development at Six Park, Ted Richards.  This podcast covers basic modern investing and features guests including former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and entrepreneur Susan Oliver.

Read about it

If podcasts are not your thing, consider reading any of the top financial planning books available on Amazon.  From Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, Cait Flanders’s The Year of Less to the ever popular The Barefoot Investor – The only money guide you’ll ever need by Scott Pape.

Watch and learn

Instead of binge watching the latest on Netflix, consider switching over to Sky News and checking out their various Money shows including Your Money Live and  Your Money with Finance guru Peter Switzer.

All the morning shows such as Today and Sunrise, have regular segments broadcasted around the same time each day on all money matters.

Get on the twittersphere

For small bites of golden financial advice, get on Twitter and start following some of Australia’s top finance experts.  Effie Zahos, Editor of Money Magazine (@effiezahos), has also published two books and is a regular commentator on TV.  Sophie Elsworth (@sophieelsworth), is the Personal Finance Writer at News Corp with more than 16 years’ experience in journalism.  Sophie’s tweets cover a range of personal finance topics including savings, budgeting, homes loans and superannuation.  Another finance twitter favourite is Noel Whittaker (@NoelWhittaker), who is known as Australia’s ‘financial wizard of Oz’.  Noel also retweets other tweets from another notable financial commentators, so you are receiving a broad range of tweets from the one source.

Words of advice

There is no real fast track strategy to get you financially locked and loaded, but some further tips to get you started including:

• Get planning and create a budget. Whether it is joining forces with a financial planner or doing your own research, start crafting your wealth creation goals against the realistic budget you have.
• Look at your income and current spending habits, and start living within your means. Things like eating in more and slashing your twice-weekly Uber eats, are simple ways in reducing spending.
• Be more diligent in saving a percentage of your income towards the bigger purchases such as a holiday or a house deposit.
• Being more resourceful or creative in finding other streams of income. Whether it is decluttering your home and selling unwanted items on Gumtree or working a weekend job, those small wins, can accumulate to a great victory within a short span of time.
• Police your credit card usage. You will be surprised to see how easy and how frequent we ‘tap and go’ which then amounts to a healthy credit card debt every month.  Perhaps consider storing your credit card away and only use the cash you have for the necessities you need.