New financial year. New financial attitude

1. Use that budget you made

You’ve probably made budgets before — but do you stick to them?

Don’t look at your budget as a deprivation, but as a tool to help you get what you want. Set it up so it’s easy to use. For instance, create direct debits from your savings account to automatically pay your regular bills.

Make sure you budget for entertainment purposes too, like dining out or going to the cinema. And don’t be afraid to tweak it as your circumstances change.

2. Do your paperwork each week

The worst thing about tax time is dealing with the paperwork. So if your attitude is ‘I’ll get to it later’, change it to ‘There’s no time like the present’.

Spend a short amount of time each week organising your paperwork. Set up a spreadsheet to record and add up your deductions, and buy some folders to store your receipts, or scan and store them electronically. (Make sure you back up your files though, just in case).

3. Boost your super every payday

Not sure how much super you’ll need? Worried you won’t have enough?

Don't get anxious — get proactive. For instance, you should consider reviewing whether it is beneficial to ask your employer to salary sacrifice into your super from your pre-tax income. This may be an effective way to boost your super and with compound interest, it can really add up over time.

What’s more, as it comes from your pre-tax salary, it could also help reduce your assessable income, which means you could pay less tax. And anything you earn on your super savings only gets taxed at 15%, making it potentially more tax effective than investing outside super.

Ask for help

A financial adviser can help you with every area of your finances — from creating a budget to investing tax effectively. Getting on track could be as easy as making a phone call.