Getting Serious

• Budgeting
  • Introduction To Budgeting
  • Getting Serious
• Insurance
• Debt Reduction
• Savings
• Before You Invest
• Investments
• Retirement Planning
• Estate Planning

Calculators

• KiwiSaver Account Calculator for Employees
• Residential Property Investment Calculator

Useful Resources

• KiwiSaver Tools and Information
• Follow the Secrets to Wealth
• Get the newsletter direct to your inbox each month
• Independent life insurance information

• Introduction to the tempest
• Have the tempest work for you

Have the tempest work for you

A trick is that by doing your budget on a weekly basis, you not only know exactly where your money is going, but you're also in a very good position to determine which expenses can be reduced. Importantly, you're able to differentiate between necessary expenses and those which can be realistically reduced, or cut completely.

The "tempest" is implemented over a period of time. For example, you might choose to target one item in your budget per week or month. How this might work can be demonstrated by the following example.

You decide to target your electricity bill and want to reduce it by 10%. The suggestion here is to seek out relevant information such as:

• Ringing your current supplier and confirming that you are on the correct plan,
• Take time to review all the websites of all the electricity suppliers to identify smart ways that you can reduce your usage, and
• Review the Consumer Institute's website for their comparison of the various supplier's plans and charges.

How you tackle other expense categories will only be limited by your motivation.