Australians' Biggest Money Mistakes

ok, I believe you stats don't lie
don't get married it's dangerous

 

Yes. Cannot be extrapolated unless it was based on a random, weighted survey with a low relative standard error and a high enough 'confidence level' for the answers.

Who did they ask - people who went bankrupt, people at their weekend dinner party...?

Also, are we talking about things that actually had a negative effect or things that we think might have an effect? And how were they measured? Gut feel?

 

It leads to kids, loss of control of finances, time out of the workforce and an even chance of divorce.

 

this is one of the reasons I have a charge card instead, the other 2 being that it doesnt affect serviceability (since it needs to be paid off every month) and the excellent points it collects.

eg I'm generally pretty disciplined but when I went to America a couple of years ago I allocated a pretty large budget for the trip. coming back and paying nearly 30k to Amex a month later; even though budgeted for, was a nice slap in the face that I wouldn't have got if a credit card.

 

Allowing partners to control the finances; I cannot being to estimate how many times over my life I have seen tradies who hand over every cent to their wives to manage.

Not saying the wives are dodgy; I'm saying the tradies are probably out of control (or would be without the wife) and ignorant of money management.

Massive weddings is another one; you can have a great day for about $10k maximum; and that is including going beserk with the dress. My SIL got married in a pub; her and hubby, a celebrant and a shout for the bar....$300?

As for gambling....gamblers are always in front.

I'm guilty of only one (so far) - the children.

 

The points collected would have been nice though if you collect them. We have I think a 10k limit and pay as many of our bills on the amex as we can to get the point, and we always pay it back in full like a week before the due date. Always.

 

with a charge card there's no specific limit. apparently they have one on their end but they don't tell you what it is, ive put 30k on and haven't been cut off, would be interesting to know how far they let u go.

 

haha...that's interesting...yeah would love to know what their 'limit' is and how they come up with it..

 

I just use a credit card that is automatically paid off by the bank every month.

I'm not exactly sure what a 'charge card' is?

 

What are Credit and Charge Cards | AMEX Australia

 

Better still, link it to your offset account to be paid in full automatically by the due date without you having to worry about settling it. Maybe, occasionally manually putting in partial payment to top up the credit card if it appears to be reaching its limit.

 

I'll tell the wife, she handles all of that stuff..

 

works the same in terms of where it can be used etc. main difference is that you are required to pay it off in full each month unlike credit cards which require just a minimum payment and the balance can be rolled forward.

has a big positive effect on servicability, ultimate banks will apply your max CC limit in the servicability calcs even if you have a habit of paying it off each month. in the case of charge cards the so called limit is not taken into account. the impact on servicability of a 10/15k limit could be up to 50k from what I've read, there are others here who would be more qualified to quantify the actual impact.

 

Interesting!

 

To be fair, there's a hell of a lot of people, particularly women with the way the legal system and society is structured, who's best financial decision was to get married and then divorced!

Oh no doubt but for every person who just got really unlucky and lost their jobs and had to sell before they could make a gain there is probably 99 who lost their money on bad and uninformed decisions. You could spend 3 hours on this forum doing research and pretty much rule out making any of those mistakes and, imo at least, not doing the research before you invest in anything is just plain stupid!

 

Agree.
But its not always about research it can also be inexperience.
I know investors who got caught when Perth market crashed, greed gets in the way of logic, its actually common, people over extending and buy in in peak. It will happen in Syd/Melb market that's why you also get fire sales.

 

Greed and fear - the two biggest emotions that agents play with on both sides of the negotiation (fear of missing out) (greed for more $$)

 

Greed is a negative trait

This is what "The Wolf of Wall Street" has to say

Ambition is Good
While Belfort says greed is not good, he does say “ambition is good, passion is good. Passion prospers. My goal is to give more than I get, that’s a sustainable form of success.” Belfort says he “got greedy”

 

'investing in a pyramid scheme'

so many stupid people getting sucked into 'multi level marketing' companies, which are essentially pyramid schemes