Tips & Ideas for Saving Your Money, Time and Resources – Top Money Saving Ideas for Australians

Consider non bank deposits. Non big 4 Australian banks generally provide better rates for your term deposits and savings accounts. Use sites like www.moneymanager.com.au to quickly compare rates and products. Online saver accounts also offer higher rates and are fee free.
Do not pay account keeping fees. There are many transaction accounts these days that are fee free. Use one of these accounts rather than ones that charge you $3 or $5 per month, which build up over time. There are many community banks, credit unions, foreign banks and building societies that offer such accounts with other fee free services. NAB has also recently announced fee free transaction accounts and removal of some penalty fees.

Maintain minimum account balances. Many transaction accounts are fee free if a minimum level balance is maintained in the account. Alternatively switch to another bank as discussed in the above point.
Utilise ATMS within your bank network. Additional fees are charged for using another bank’s ATM machine. Financial institutions charge each other interchange fees for other banks’s customers using their services. Quite often your own bank may add another charge on top of this cost.
Take advantage of pensioner and student discounts. Most financial institutions offer special accounts, fee free transactions and other deals for pensioners and students. Some require the customer to provide evidence each year to retain the discounts.

Save on fees with internet and phone banking. Financial institutions incur less overheads with internet and phone banking and pass these on to customers through low or zero fee unlimited transactions.
Utilise your savings to pay off most expensive debts. Although savings earn interest income, the interest expense you pay on loans are a lot higher, hence is generally advisable to pay off loans first, unless you want to negative gear. Prioritise paying down loans with the most expensive rates first: credit cards, then personal finance, then margin lending and finally mortgage.

Improve your credit rating. Improving your credit ratings could lead to banks offering better rates on loans and be more willing to waive your other bank fees. Credit rating could be improved by limiting and spacing out applications for new credit cards, loans and post-pay mobile phone plans, limiting moving house, paying bills on time, avoid defaulting or skipping on loans repayments or paying late, cancelling unused credit cards and loan facilities, and avoid exceeding card limits. You are able to order your own credit record for free on www.mycreditfile.com.au if you are happy to wait a couple of weeks, or pay extra for a speedy delivery.
You will not get rich by saving alone, you must invest. Saving is all about living smarter to spend less and get value for your money. Investing is the next step where you make your money work for you and accumulate.

Salary sacrifice into super. As at 2009, Australians under 50 years of age can salary sacrifice up to $25,000 per year into super and only be taxed 15% on this, while 50 and over employees can contribute $50,000. This is a great way to save and invest using pre-tax money. A tax offset of up to $3,000 can also be claimed for spouse super contributions, where the spouse is on low or zero income.
Diversify your investments. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Financial markets are cyclical and can be volatile. By diversifying in different classes of assets such as direct shares, fixed interest cash, managed funds, property, as well as within asset classes like local vs. international funds, you help to spread your risks and returns.

Start saving and investing early. The more time you spend in the market, the more time you have to grow and capitalise on your investments.
Consider negative gearing for younger investors and during a bull market. Negative gearing is when your expenses exceed income for an investment asset. Negative gearing can offer tax benefits as the temporary “loss” can be offset against your other income. Also negative gearing can help you grow your wealth in a rising market through higher capital value. Negative gearing is most commonly used for investing in property as well as shares through margin lending.

Capital Gains tax concessions. For recently purchased assets such as shares and investment property, hold on to them for at least 12 months, and only 50% of your profit will be taxed, otherwise the entire amount is taxed. Assets purchased before 19th September 1985 are not subjected to capital gains, and there are other rules for assets purchased before 1st October 1999. Your main residence property is also not capital gains taxable. There is also a six year rule, where you can purchase a property and live in it, then move out and rent it out for less than 6 years, and not have to pay capital gains tax when you sell it, as you can choose to treat the property as your main residence for up to 6 years after you cease to live in it. Please refer to ATO website for more details as CGT is a very complicated area and legislations change frequently.
Find lost and unclaimed money and super. If you have previously changed jobs frequently, moved house and switched banks, you may have some lost and unclaimed money or super floating around. Search on these sites to find them www.fido.gov.auandwww.unclaimedsuper.com.au.