Are you guilty of making dumb decisions with your money? 🤔💸 

In today’s bonus snippet, we dive into some of the dumb things even smart people do with their money. 

Join us as we explore some of these common financial mistakes and learn how to avoid these traps. Tune in for some laughs, self-reflection, and valuable insights on how to smarten up your money habits.  

For more tips on making better financial decisions, listen to the full episode here: Episode 72 | Dumb Things People Do with Their Money!  

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Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money – What Next?  

Now that you know the top three dumb things people tend to do with their money, it’s the perfect time to take a closer look at your finances and make your cash work harder for you. 

If you haven’t yet heard about our simple 7-step MoneySMARTS system, claim your FREE copy of our bestselling book Make Money Simple Again now.  

Discover how to trap more of your income AND guarantee a surplus in your bank account every single month! 

Similar Episodes to TPC Gold | Dumb Things Smart People Do with Money

• Ep 003 | Four Pillars of Mastery – Cash Flow Management 
• Ep 053 | The MoneySMARTS System 
• Ep 322 | When Wild Money Management Finally Gets Tamed! – Chat with Kellie 

Transcript

Ben Kingsley
Well, we’re just going to talk about dumb decisions with money.  

Bryce Holdaway
Dumb things people do with money.  

Ben Kingsley
There it is, there’s the topic. 

Bryce Holdaway
Dumb things people do with money. Hey folks, we’re a property investment podcast largely, but if anyone has been listening to our podcast series, they’ll know that we place as much emphasis on the minutiae of detail of cash flow management as we do on buying investment properties. So all of our regular listeners will know that. So today we’re talking about pillar three or “C” (for) cashflow management. So mate, we’re going to kick off a few things and we’re going to see if any of our listeners can relate to some of these dumb things that people do with money. 

Ben Kingsley
Our listeners wouldn’t do these things, but it’s up to them to then pass that on to their friends and educate their friends on how to do that.  

Bryce Holdaway
So folks, if we say anything offensive, we’re not talking to you. We’re talking to your friends.  

Ben Kingsley
But if you’re starting to go red in the cheeks and something, well, then maybe that’s the one you need to jot down to take a look at.  

Bryce Holdaway
I’ve got to say to our listeners as well, I’ve done a heap of these dumb things myself. Important thing is I’ve corrected the ship and I’ve got back on track. But over the journey, some of these dumb things, I’m actually just talking to a mirror right now.  

Ben Kingsley
It is all education and ultimately these are our observations in terms of what they look like. 

Bryce Holdaway
So kick it off, mate.  

Ben Kingsley
Okay, well there’s a piece of paper in front of me. (Number one is) too many separate individual accounts. So when people come in, they fill out their online fact find. And then basically, you know, we go and have a look at all of their financial situation. And I’m looking at six or seven bank accounts and I go, “Why?” And they’re (going): “Well, you know, I’ve got a credit union…that’s sort of the slush fund…that’s the emergency buffer money. So I’ve got $1,000 in there and $500 in the ING saver account.” And I’m like, well, wait a minute, don’t you have an offset account? Like, what’s that lazy money over there doing? Get it back in. Tidy it up and get back to MoneySMARTS. So that one for me, you got something on that one? 

Bryce Holdaway
Yeah, bank fees on each and every one of those accounts is adding up. MoneySMARTS, if someone’s just listening to this podcast for the very first time today, we’ve talked about it a number of times. But MoneySMARTS for us is, you know, we’ve got a genius in the office here Ben, Michael Pope, who you’ve said it before, he is that fastidious and that…what’s the right word?  

Ben Kingsley
Well, he has measured every dollar that he has spent since the age of 19. Now, I’m not giving away his age, but he’s got grey hair. So, he’s been able to put three boys through private school, technically, when it was impossible. So, using these little tricks around, you know, paying in advance or paying utility bills, so I don’t want to jump ahead, but he’s just done a lot. So this guy knows everything about money management. We’ve got another former colleague here at work, him and his wife are amazing money managers and are very diligent about how they look after their money as well. So that is part of wealth creation. You’ve got to manage your money well and you’ve got to take yourself on that journey.  

Bryce Holdaway
Yeah, so he says that MoneySMARTS is simply interest rate optimization. Yeah, and so you’ve heard of tax optimization when you’re doing all these whatever strategies you put in place. This is optimizing interest rates, costs and pricing within your family household structure. So too many separate individual accounts. They should all be brought down to your loan account, your offset account, a visa debit and a –  

Ben Kingsley
Yeah, so the lifestyle account. The credit card gives us the interest free period. And that allows us to use the bank’s money for a period of time whilst our money’s saving interest on our mortgage. And that’s what we’re about.  

Bryce Holdaway
You see lots of situations where husband and wife have separate banking as well.  

Ben Kingsley
Yep, yep, I don’t quite get it if you’re in a union. Yeah, and they come in, and I’ve even had people come in, one party comes in and says, “I want to invest in property. My wife’s not so interested or my wife wants to do it.” I mean, I’ve had plenty of times where the wife actually comes in and says, “I want to get my husband involved in this, how can we do that?” Because the reality is if you’re not both on the same page, we would advise not to invest in property because it will cause so much anguish inside the family unit that you’ve got to both be on the same page. In fact, one of our questions when people come in is: “Are you here under sufferance?” We ask that between the two parties. The body language normally tells us, but when we’re interviewing people in terms of taking them on this journey and understanding their opportunity and potential, it’s amazing to know that if one of the parties isn’t fully on board, then ultimately it’s not going to work for them. And part of going on that education journey around cashflow management and borrowing power and doing a plan, is to actually understand your cash flow movements and that’s why we use our wealth simulator because it measures cash flow movements for 40 years by month. So people get a little bit more confidence that they’re able to do it because they put all of their expenditure in there, they put all their future plans in there, and then they can see that there is an opportunity there and they’re not going to break the bank – which is the biggest fear for most people. So it comes down to fear and obviously procrastination as well. 

Bryce Holdaway
Very good, so too many separate individual accounts is a dumb thing that we see people do with money. Number two, not wanting to change to a better loan structure simply because they’re used to their internet banking. They know their password, they’ve had it for 10 years, they know what the format looks like, they feel comfortable, and the change really worries them – despite the fact that the loan structure will save them thousands. The interest rate could save them hundreds and hundreds, purely because they like their internet banking portal, and they don’t want to change it.  

Ben Kingsley
Look, we’ve just updated our server and given everyone new computers and we’re going through it; some things I’ve never seen. Trust me, technology change sometimes gets me mad. So, I’ve had a couple of meltdown moments this week. 

Bryce Holdaway
No, I haven’t noticed.  

Ben Kingsley
I don’t know whether you noticed what we’re recording on today. That’s because one of our drivers has dropped off the server and we can’t work out why. So we’ve got the IT people trying to fix that. 

Bryce Holdaway
Back to basics. This is just recording on a smartphone today, folks.  

Ben Kingsley
So the reality is we don’t like change. So naturally it’s not easy for us to make that change. I mean, I know when they change the internet banking setups on the different banks, and they try and make it more dynamic and more digitally friendly and for the young people. I remember opening up one particular bank, it’s a new app. So the old app was great; I could understand, navigate, and they put this new app and I didn’t even know how to open it. I didn’t even know how to transfer. And then someone says, “just swipe”. And it’s like, so I’m automatically meant to know that? Like it wasn’t intuitive at all. So that is the challenge you obviously have around this, but it comes back to the point of, when you do make the change, you’re going to have a month of anguish. And that’s what I’ve sent out to all the staff today. I’ve said, give it a month and we should be able to iron out all the bugs and we’re going to be okay. That’s life.  

Bryce Holdaway
So that’s your message to the folks who don’t want to change their internet banking. Do it, give it a month, you’ll be settled in.  

Ben Kingsley
You’ll eventually work it out. You’ll write complaints like I normally do to the banking, to say, you know, like, this is ridiculous, it’s not self-explanatory, it’s not intuitive. You know, I’m not an IT geek, so, you know, make it for the common people. And then I saw them make a lot of changes because obviously I wasn’t the only one.  

Bryce Holdaway
Yeah, so keep your eye on the big prize here. We want to save money to trap more surplus so we can invest more. So that’s why we’re doing it. We’re not wanting to make your life feel anxious because you’ve got a different format.  

Ben Kingsley
So true.  

Bryce Holdaway
Another one, thinking credit card money is actually their own money.  

Ben Kingsley
Hope you liked that short TPC Gold, folks. Now everything we said in this episode is general advice only. Make sure to consult a professional expert before making any investment decisions. If you’re looking for an investment-savvy mortgage broker, check out Empower Wealth. They are an award-winning team and have saved $4,000,000 in interest just last financial year alone. And remember, knowledge is empowering, but only if you act on it. Bye for now.