The Keys to High Performance

What makes a high performer? Why do some people achieve greatness and others get left floundering behind.

When I was working with elite athletes at the AIS and in America, special forces soldiers, some high profile people in the entertainment industry and more recently with high performers in corporate organizations, I noticed some clear characteristics that set high performers apart. The good news is that it is not all about talent, ability and potential, it’s more to do with how they execute on a daily basis.

The most common characteristic that sets high performers apart is their ability to focus deeply on the tasks that they perform in a day. However as a society we are losing our ability to focus. It seems like the whole world has ADHD. There are three main reasons for this.

1. Attention deficit habit (ADH). ADH is a condition where the habits in our day are sapping our ability to focus. For example most people leave their email open and every time it alerts us to a new email we stop what we are doing and we go off and check it. Also we leave our phone on constantly during the day even when we are writing a report or meeting with someone. These habits actually set ourselves up to be distracted and train us to have poor focus.

2. Information Obesity – This is the result of shifting from a physical economy to a digital economy. We are overloaded with information and we have so much information coming at us we don’t have to focus on one thing for too long before something else will come and take our attention away. A recent report released by Proud Foot consulting said that information overload was responsible for a 10% decrease in productivity.

3. Multi-tasking - The greatest enemy of focus is this idea of multitasking, multitasking suggests that you can focus on many things at once. Reality is multi tasking is a very inefficient process and in reality all you are doing is focusing poorly on a number of tasks rather than focusing well on one thing.

New research tells us that the average employee in an office environment is interrupted 11 times in an hour. Sounds a lot but when you think about it most people are constantly responding to their email alert, answering the phone, having people come into their office, suddenly remembering things that they should have done and dealing with noise from open plan offices. What’s the fall out of all these interruptions?

The fall out is a massive reduction in productivity and creativity. A study by Basex found that office distractions take up 2.1 hours of the average day (28%) with workers taking an average of 5 minutes to recover from a distraction and re-focus on the original task. In fact a recent study conducted by The Institute of Psychiatry at King’s college London, compared the cognitive ability of people who had been multi tasking and people who had just smoked marijuana. Who came out on top? The drug affected workers.

The reason why is that multitasking is incredibly stressful on the brain, it impairs short term memory and concentration. The result is that the brain is left in an impaired state. This message is important for the leaders of the business. Due to distractions and interruptions people rarely get the time to think creatively and come up with innovative ideas. We need to minise distractions and start to focus again.

A recent study by my company Dr Adam Fraser Pty Ltd showed that the top 10 distractions were:

1. Emails – office alert and volume of emails

2. People – office colleagues

3. Phone – office and mobile

4. Distracting thoughts – thinking of the next thing to do

5. Noise - in open plan offices

6. Clients expecting instant responses

7. Personal Issues playing on your mind

8. Un-necessary meetings

9. Mixed priorities from management

10.Fatigue

So what is the solution how do we improve our focus? Well there are three simple techniques we can use to have the focus of a high performer.

1. Control Your Environment. Set up your external world to support focus, turn off the email, turn the phone off, and educate your staff on when you are not to be interrupted. Push back on the environment, don’t be a slave to your environment.

Strategies to minimise distractions:

* Turn off the email alert
* Check your email at certain points of the day, for example every hour or every two hours. ·
* During important tasks when you need to focus block all distractions or remove yourself from the office environment.
* Communicate to people around you that at certain points of the day you are not to be disrupted.
* If the noise around you is too great look at using ear plugs at certain points of the day.
* Have a clear plan of what you want to do; this will stop you bouncing from task to task.
* Practice being “present” this is where you calm those racing thoughts and only think of one task.

2. Formal Practice. An example of a formal practice is meditation. Years ago I thought that meditation was tree hugging, hippie stuff, however a huge amount of evidence shows that meditation has a beneficial impact on our cognitive ability. In its purest form meditation is about calming the mind and focusing on one task, this ability will translate into work.

3. Be Present. During the day practice focusing your attention on what ever is in front of you. Lose yourself in what ever you are doing. If you are writing a report focus entirely on that report without thinking of the other things you need to do later in the day. Likewise if you are having a conversation with someone totally immerse yourself in that conversation don’t let your mind drift. So often we have conversations and we are not really present.

Business is built on relationships, the greatest complement you can give another person is your undivided attention. However we all have a highly tuned BS detector, and we know when people are not truly engaged with us. Some people believe that being present is the key to team building. Companies spend millions of dollars a year getting people to build better relationships within an organization.

They usually spend this money on personality profiling, isn’t the first step getting them to engage and be present with each other? In addition some psychologist are now talking about the concept that people are creating fewer and fewer memories. The reason for this is that memories are created in the present and the fact that most people are either obsessing about the past or worrying about the future means that they are not laying down current memories. How sad!

This is the first step towards high performance. Go forth and focus!!!

Written by Dr Adam Fraser

Consider this: It wasn’t until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. If you’re a business owner that hasn’t embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it’s due time to hop onboard.

“When you’ve got 300 million people on Facebook, that’s a huge business watering hole,” says Lon Safko, social media expert and co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, of the site’s global reach. “The profile is like an index to your company.”

While Facebook has become the most popular social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking jobs, employees, or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace, I believe has been left for those who paved the way such as Facebook, etc. but I doubt very much that it will make a return. It seems only good for bands at the moment.

The user profile is generally what distinguishes social networking sites from other social media platforms. It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can’t.

But what, exactly, are the methods that businesses should use to effectively leverage the burgeoning userbase of these sites as a tool to grow their companies? This post will detail what to do – and what not to do – in order to maintain a viable presence in the realm of social networking.

Developing a Social Networking Strategy

Before opening an account and becoming active, it’s important to consider what each site offers and how you can benefit from their resources. Figure out which tools are best for your demographic. Without a fully developed plan for your social networking activity, you could end up meandering throughout the sites and wasting a lot of time.

Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself when forming your social networking strategy:
1.    What are the needs of my business? Hopefully, you’re not putting your company name on a social networking account just to send messages back and forth to former high school classmates, so there has to be an impetus. Figure out what your needs are. Are you short-staffed? Is your advertising budget running thin?

2.    What am I using the site for? After you’ve established your needs, consider the primary goal of your social networking strategy. Do you want to recruit employees for a certain department? Do you want to market a new line of products? Do you want to connect to more people in your industry?

3.    Whose attention am I trying to get? Okay, so you want to market that new line of products, for example. You still need to know your target audience for that product, and with more than 300 million users on Facebook, you’ll need to narrow your focus.

Got those answered? Good. Now, consider these questions:
1.    Which sites do I want to take on? If you have enough staffing power to handle multiple social networking sites, that’s great. If not, it’s important to focus on one or two, or you could spread yourself too thin and fall victim to the “gaping void” perception, where you end up going days without activity. Your followers will notice.

2.    Who’s going to manage my page? Would your social networking activity fall under a current employee’s responsibilities, or do you need to bring on new talent? If you ever find yourself without the staffing resources to manage your page, don’t stick your head in the sand, says Safko. “Find some interns,” he advises. “In most cases, they’ll do it for free.”

3.    Who has access to my page? What type of trust level do you have established at your company? Will all of your employees have access to the social network account, or a select few? Take the time to assess the skills and character of those who can log into your page, or you may run into unsavory situations down the road – especially when dealing with former workers.

4.    Who’s going to be the personality of my page? Does your company already have a public representative that usually handles speeches, press, etc.? It may be beneficial to rein in that person as the voice of your social networking site. Just remember that people buy from other people, not from other companies. Try to pick someone, even yourself, to represent your brand. Many people do it successfully, such as Richard Branson, Mark Bouris, etc. But be careful, because some do it bad.

In the end, just enjoy the relationship between you and the customer because that’s how you will pick up their loyalty, by delivering quality and reliability.

Have you had experience with successfully generating business from social networking? Let me know below.

Paul

Every business has a Unique Proposition that other companies in the same space can’t offer, but how do you make the details of this offering available to the masses?

There is only so much money you can throw at advertising and marketing companies to make your business stand out from the rest. And in many cases, it is very hard to measure the success of each campaign.

With the advancement of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc, etc. More and more people are jumping online to digest their information and in recent surveys, they suggest that almost 80% of people are researching their purchase before they actually buy it!

Even if you are sceptical toward online advertising and social media (Which I am, by means of attracting new business vis Social Media), you have to acknowledge the need for an online presence. But how?

Google Adwords seem to be a waste of time, Facebook advertising doesn’t seem to attract much attention unless you are selling a ‘cool product’. But have you considered a Merchant Account?

What is a Merchant? Well, many times on blogs and websites, you will see advertising, and this site is no different to any other in that respect. In that advertising, if the reader clicks on it and either signs up, or contacts the advertiser, the person hosting that ad will be paid accordingly.

The advertiser is the merchant. They pay a fee each time the ad is clicked. After some research I have been doing for the past few months, I have come to the conclusion that there are only a handful of Australian Only accounts that can be targeted this way. In my opinion, Commission Monster is the best and offers a variety of support and your campaigns can be tracked and measured very well.

If you run a small business, that can be promoted online, especially within Australia, you need to consider trialing this service. I would love to hear some stories about how you have been successful with your online advertising. Please share below.

As a parent you have an important role to play in teaching your kids about money. This can be a challenge as you may feel torn between giving them what you can but at the same time wanting them to be responsible with money. The best place to start is with you. By being better with money yourself you are teaching your kids to be better with their money.

Where did you learn your money attitudes and habits from? Our parents usually influence how we deal with money – even if we decide not to do what they did! You can set a good example for your kids by following some good, basic money management habits yourself, and reinforcing the lessons your kids are taught in school.

Get into the habit and take control of your money!

Write down what comes in and where your money goes each fortnight.

Are you spending more than you earn? Which items in your budget would you

describe as essentials and which would you describe as extras? Is there any

room to make changes?

Setting goals gives you something to work towards with any savings you have

found from your budget plan. Make your goals realistic. No matter how big or

small the goal is, the key is to work out how much you need to save and how

long it will take to get there. Talk to your kids about the family’s goals and help

them to identify their own goals too.

The secret to successful saving is to start now, no matter how small the

amount is. And don’t forget to look at your super. Superannuation is a

form of saving for your retirement and the sooner you take charge of

it the better off you will be. One of the consultants at PDFinancial Group can help you determine how much you need in retirement and explain some options.

Pocket money is often the subject of much debate among parents. You might find that the kids raise it with you before you’ve decided which way to go.

Think about your values and what you want to achieve with pocket money, decide on your approach, and explain your reasons to the kids. Pocket money can teach children the basics of budgeting. It can help children to learn about prioritizing their spending, which is the key to successful budgeting. They have a finite amount of money which they have to manage. It can also be used to introduce the idea of saving. Here are a few thoughts to help you manage the pocket money issue:

Decide on your goals for what you want to achieve with giving pocket money.

Be clear about what you expect your kids to do with the money. For example, do they need to use it for their canteen lunch at school? (Is it to be used for treats of their choice?)

Decide if you will pay a regular amount each week or whether you will only pay if certain jobs are done, like setting the table or making their bed.

Start early - talk to your children about money and help them to establish some good habits from an early age.

Show kids the value of money by explaining what $2 can buy.

Let them watch you pay for things – allow your child to hand over the money or press the OK button on the EFTPOS machine.

If you are giving pocket money, give a combination of notes and coins. This helps to familiarise kids with the different denominations and can assist in teaching them how to allocate money.

Teach kids how to compare prices and shop around. Use things that they like as examples.

Include your kids in conversations about the family budget and bills. (depending on how old they are of course)

Show older children what bills look like and how you plan to pay them. This is especially good for teenagers, considering the amount of money they spend on mobile phone bills!

Get your kids into the savings habit by helping them start a savings account. A good saver is HSBC saver with a high interest rate.

Assist them to identify their goals and how they are going to reach them. Be realistic – make sure they can reach their goals.

To make it fun, encourage small children to draw pictures of what they want to save for. This, along with any tricks you have picked up along the way should set your kids up to have good savings habits.

Paul Davies

It seems that people who are healthy are more likely to have higher incomes and better job prospects, according to a report.
The AMP.NATSEM report “Healthy, Wealthy and Wise?” found people who were unhealthy earned less than half of the average income of healthy people. The unhealthy also had poor participation in the workforce, with one in every two unhealthy working-age people not working, compared to one in five working-aged people who had good health. So, it definitely shows that being healthy will increase your overall lifestyle.

Surprisingly, unhealthy workers were more likely to be in casual work rather than full-time positions, meaning most lost access to the sick pay benefits that full-time workers had. These are also the people who would probably need it most aswell.

The average income of healthy people rose from $41,000 in 2001/02 to $54,000 in 2006/07 while those with “persistent poor health” found their incomes fell from $24,000 to $22,000 in the same period.

Investing time and effort in good health is worth the effort in terms of having a job and a good income. Staying fit and healthy generally requires strong discipline in terms of eating habits and exercise. Also applying that same discipline to money management will provide financial benefits down the track. It’s a ‘lifestyle’ decision.

Contrast to our physical health, being a ‘Fat’ nation, the report found Australians were in good financial shape, experiencing the fourth highest level of quality of life in the world, but many were unprepared for life-changing circumstances such as unexpected illness or injury.

Could you afford to pay the rent, a mortgage, personal loans, food bills or school fees with weeks or months without an income, or even with a reduced income if you couldn’t work? Many people would not.

A report by Dunn & Bradstreet found four out of 10 Australians, could only last for up to one month if they lost their job. This is concerning, considering that only 1 in 5 Australians have some form of income protection insurance in place to combat this. Premiums are affordable & tax deductible, so it’s not a large committment to protect yourself from the unknown.

A fact is that 1 in 3 people will have 3 months off in their working life. Would you be able to survive?

Some simple steps to safeguarding yourself if you got into this situation are:

*GETTING rid of debts in the right order, such as non-deductable debts and high interest bearing debts such as credit cards;

* MAKING sure all insurances, including income protection, were adequate and up-to-date; and

* NOT spending more than you earn.

For more information and quotes on Income Protection insurance, visit www.protectmywealth.com.au

PD

Yes, I know the title to this post may seem like an oxymoron. I read an article recently stating that 2% of businesses have been bankrupted by the Tax Office because of overdue tax bills. This shouldn’t be the case!

I see it alot with small businesses owing money to the tax department. Some thousands, some hundreds of thousands, and it gets me thinking sometimes, Why? I realise that cashflow is the all important thing that small business struggles with. I experience it myself, but I have the necessary strategies in place that enable me not to lose sleep over it. I have to admit it has taken a few hard lessons and seeing others learn them aswell, to actually put something in place.

If you have the capacity to borrow money to fund cashflow, such as factor finance and business loans, you need to make Tax payments part of the budget! Superannuation is another one you need to budget for incidentally.

It surprises me that so many business owners don’t put money aside for tax payment at the end of the quarter, or year when they come knocking.

Over the last few years, I’ve started two High Interest Savings accounts specifically for my tax payments. I use all the time available to me to pay the Tax Office. Don’t get me wrong, I dislike the ATO as much as anyone. The longer they can keep their grubby little hands off my money, the better.

This way, I get to earn as much interest as possible on the tax money I owe. And at the time they need the funds for payroll tax, GST, Capital gains, income tax, and whatever other tax they overzealous tax chiefs in the government can muster up, I actually have the funds to pay them!

This keeps them off my back and out of my business where they belong. You don’t need to be worrying about the Tax Office when running a business. you need to be concentrating on generating income and growing your asset!

All you need is a small amount, Eg; $1,000 for the first deposit. Then work out what your approximate tax was last year and reduce it to monthly amounts to be paid into the account by bPay or direct debit. I do it automatic transfer online each month. That way, I have all the control.

Apart from using it for the tax man, it can be used for many things such as a planned holiday, emergency fund, or just teaching your kids how to save. Set yourself a target, and then move some out into a more strategised investment such as shares or property investment.

Whatever ther reason, Australians need to start saving again, so the next time we have a recession, you will be in a much better position to take it on.

PD

Yesterday, I covered off how to actually pick a planner. Hopefully, when looking around, you will be lucky enough to find one local in your area. This post today is to cover off who you shouldn’t pick as a planner.

There are thousands of planners and advisers in the market today. The industry itself has a bad reputation for some reason, but I think it’s unfairly earned. Many years ago, the industry had many rogue traders, but were since traded out by the government through strict licensing regimes called Policy Statement 146 (PS146). This requires anyone advising on money and insurance to have the appropriate diplomas called ‘Diploma of Financial Planning’ which takes much study and complex tests to complete.

There are expetions to the rule in many cases, and I believe there is one when talking about this area. Banks! Yes, they are a bunch of Bankers.

Banks have been immune to many of the rules and regulations set on the financial services industry that has kept it clean for the past few years.

One of the rules is that ‘independent’ advisers MUST offer independent advice to clients from several financial institutions, making it unbiased of course. Bank employees are influenced by the banks products, limiting their choice in advice to you.

When choosing a planner, make sure you look into their product offering, which can be obtained by asking them for their Financial Services Guide (FSG), and that will give you an idea of what they can offer.

If you are in a small town and the only planner available is bank staff, then you may want to also ring another town or city and discuss over the phone so you can compare.

No more than 3 planners will be enough for you to get a feel of what is acceptable. And above all else, make sure you feel comfortable with the person, but remember, they are qualified and if you take their advice, FOLLOW IT. They don’t say it for nothing.
Good luck. I would love to hear any stories from you about success stories of visiting a financial planner. If you haven’t visited one and would like contact to one, please Contact Me and I will give you a list of some you can interview.
PD

You’ll need to be clear about your options and comfortable with your decisions, but how do you know when to ask for help, where to get it and whether to trust it?

Everyone’s financial situation is different and it’s important to decide what’s right for you. This is where you need to decide whether to take George’s advice over the fence, or your friend’s experience from work as a given to what will happen to you. Or you can choose to look at your options for paying for a professional financial planner to look at your scenario.

There will be times when it pays to get professional financial advice. You may have saved up or received a windfall that makes investing an option, or you might be thinking about putting a retirement savings plan into action. If you’re nearing retirement, it can be even more important to make sure your finances are in the best possible shape so you’ve got a better chance of having the kind of retirement you’d like.

You go to a professional when you are sick or not sure of what is wrong with you, then why wouldn’t you go to a professional to get your money healthy? It’s like an old cliché, but it’s true! So many people seek advice from friends and family, who, in many cases, have gone through major issues to get their money where it is today! Save yourself a lot of time and effort, and at least pick up the phone and call your nearest financial planner just to have a chat.

Generally, it wont cost anything to just sit down and talk to someone, so what have you got to lose? But how do you choose which financial planner will suit you? This article will hopefully help you.

When we decided to change our accountant again a few years ago, I was determined not to make the same mistake as the last accountants had put us through. We were going through a different transition in the business and personally, with more children and an expanding business, we needed more technical advice than what we were receiving. So, basically, we outgrew our old accountant. They were unable to give us the most efficient tax advice that we needed.

So, we set out to talk to friends and family (not about our circumstance, but about their experiences) about their accountant. The best possible way to get an idea of a service, whether it’s an accountant, or a gardener, is to ask friends first, and then interview them yourself!

So, we found someone who was strongly recommended by someone in a similar situation to us (always a good thing to compare apples with apples) and interviewed them. Within the first 20 minutes, I knew these guys were the ones for us. Young, vibrant, smart and freely gave simple advice on direction and asked many questions. That showed me they were interested in ME, not their own bottom line.

I found that I related well to them, and felt incredibly comfortable. I also asked many questions, such as the obvious like fees and experience, which all answers were returned with confidence and satisfied my criteria.

The same goes for financial planners. I am a financial planner, but I specialise in personal insurance. However, I know how the industry works. I’ll cover off more about that in the next post tomorrow.

1)    You need to feel comfortable.
2)    You need to ask questions that are answered, not talked around
3)    Do they give you an idea of what you get for your fees? (reviews & resources available)
4)    Do they offer advice outside of managed funds? (This will also depend on how much money you have.
5)    Do they charge commission and/or fee for service? (A choice is good if you don’t want to fork out large amounts upfront)
6)    Do they have a network of advisers in all the areas you are interested in? (Eg; shares, property, etc)
7)    Ask for testimonials

If they tick all of these boxes, then you should be on your way to developing a strong relationship with your financial planner.

But how much do you pay for a financial planner?
It all depends on how much work they are going to do and how much you are willing to accept for the work they are going to do. If there is a lot of messing around with super funds and tax advice, then the cost could be as much as 3-4% of your total investment. However, if you have funds over $150,000 - $200,000, then I wouldn’t pay that much. Try to keep the fees around 3% if possible. This is always negotiable with your planner.

I firmly believe everyone should at least talk to an adviser or planner just to see what they can do. One good thing is they can set up a plan for you to follow. If you don’t already have one, this is a start.

PD

So, what exactly are bonds?

Companies typically have two ways of raising cash when they need to expand their businesses or need it for a mind-boggling number of needs. One is by going public and diluting their ownership of the company to investors who would all pay a morsel (share price) and claim ownership: stocks. Another way of raising money is the age old method of borrowing: bonds.

Companies can borrow from the investors themselves and when each of the investors lends out even a small amount like $1000 it quickly rolls into a huge sum of money which the company can use for its expansion or other needs. Usually the federal government also borrows money from the investing public (these are the government bonds) for its own use. All of this money is returned to the public in a periodic manner with interest paid on the sum borrowed.

So typically, a bond is nothing but a loan that you hand out to companies or the government itself. The loan is paid back to you (an investor) within a scheduled time and at a specific, pre-determined interest rate (also known as coupon rate). The borrower (the company or the government) would have agreed in writing to pay back the borrowed amount (called as face value, in bond parlance) at a fixed date into the future which is when your bond matures ( the amount would have been paid back to you in full with Interest) and this date is called as the maturity date.

Since you always know how much you are owed exactly, these investment vehicles are less risky, more stable and hence they pay less compared to stocks. They are often called as fixed-income securities or debt-market instruments to reflect on the fact that they are predictable, more stable, pay less but don’t fluctuate wildly.

Between the two important investment vehicles — debt (Bonds) and equity (Stocks), there is this major difference. When you pick stocks, you claim ownership of the company, complete with voting rights and the works - you make money when the company you invested in makes money. When you buy bonds, you become a creditor to the company and in principle, when push comes to shove and when companies have to liquidate for some reason, the creditors are given the first preference and the bond investors are paid up first.

Over the past few years, the example given above has been pushed to the maximum and has caused what we now know as the Global Financial Crises - Link to a great video to show how it happened

PD

Personal finances tips:

1. Before you can start to save you should always work out your spending habits and how much money you have left at the end of each month. Click here to help you create a realistic budget that could save you thousands!
2. If starting a budget is too difficult or daunting, start by keeping a diary. Commit to carrying around a notepad in which you record all your purchases. This should include everything from your insurance bills to your morning coffee. Each entry only needs a date, a description and a dollar value. After a month, review your records and this can form the basis of your budget. Once you can see exactly where you are spending all your money, it will be easy for you to identify which purchases you could easily trim off to save a little every month.

Paying off your bills, loans and credit cards:

3. Do a credit card check - Go to www.creditcardfinder.com.au to find out if there are better offers.
4. Avoid late fees and penalties when you forget to pay your bills on time by setting up a direct debit through your bank account.
5. If you make fortnightly mortgage repayments instead of monthly repayments you can make an extra monthly payment each year. With one extra annual payment, you could dramatically reduce the repayment time of your mortgage!
6. Given variable interest rates have fallen considerably in the past year, if you keep paying the higher repayment you’ll wipe years off your loan.
7. Check out an offset account in conjunction with your mortgage repayment and use that account to pay bills instead of your every day savings account which only earns a minimal interest rate. Talk to your mortgage adviser to work out how you can pay additional funds into your mortgage.

Make the most of tax time:

8. Organise all your receipts (in a shoe box) so you can claim your full allowable deductions during tax time.
9. If you have school-age children, keep all your receipts as you may be able to claim the Education Tax Refund.
10. If you add to your super from before-tax money (ie. make a concessional contribution) you could reduce your annual tax bill!

Insurance and superannuation tips:

11. Go to www.iselect.com.au to choose the best health fund for you and your family.
12. Insure your home, not the land. Although your home and its contents are at risk from fire, theft, windstorms and other perils the land your house sits on, is not.
13. Stop smoking today. Besides the cost and it being bad for your health, smoking accidents account for more than 23,000 residential fires every year and you will pay higher premiums on your insurance as well. In addition, some insurers offer reduced premiums if no-one in the home smokes.
14. Life insurance can be cheaper through your super fund.
15. If your total income is less than $60,342, and you make a $1,000 after-tax contribution to super by 30 June this year, the government could give you up to $1,500. This amount will soon reduce to $1,000 after 30 June this year, so it’s worth considering!

Household related savings tips:

16. Sign up to Skype and get free phone and video calls over the internet.
17. Check out www.partykids.com.au for kids party ideas.
18. Find a bulk-billing doctor.
19. For supplements and medicines, check out www.esupplements.com.au
20. Porridge is cheaper and more filling than cereal. It’s also more comforting during winter!
21. Plan meals for the week.
22. Don’t buy lunch at work – take your own. You can save hundreds of dollars doing this.

Gas, electricity and water savings tips:

23. Switch off your hot water and all electrical appliances when on holidays.
24. A fan-forced oven uses less energy than a conventional oven.
25. Just before you go to bed or when you go out, turn off all lights and any power points for unnecessary appliances eg. TV, stereo units.
26. Use energy-saving light bulbs or use a utility broker at www.goswitch.com.au
27. Front-loading washing machines use less energy and water than top-loading automatics.
28. A half-filled dishwasher uses the same amount of energy as a full load, so fill it to capacity before each wash cycle.
29. Fit an AAA-rated low-flow showerhead.
30. Keep a bucket in your bathroom and use it to collect the water while waiting for the shower to warm up. You can then use the water collected to water your garden.
31. Take four-minute showers or less.
32. Fix leaking taps straight away. If you have to wait for a plumber, place a pot plant under it to reduce water wastage.

Transport and auto savings tips:

34. Use supermarket petrol discount coupons.
35. Fill up on Tuesday or early Wednesday.
36. Avoid hard acceleration and braking when driving. Slower speeds give better fuel economy and also save lives!
37. If you regularly use public transport, buy a weekly, monthly or quarterly ticket.

General shopping tips:

38. Write a grocery list before shopping and stick to it.
39. Over-60s, where possible, ask for a seniors discount and call Senior Shopper offers on 1300 366 265 to find the best deals.
40. Buy in bulk from the growers or farmers markets.
41. Buy birthday and Christmas presents early. Mid-season, end of financial year and mid-year clearance sales are now on.

Holidays and travel tips:

42. Camping is the best budget holiday.
43. For $1 a day, you can get a bargain one-way driving holiday at www.drivenow.com.au.
44. Book discounted flights with Jetstar on their Friday Frenzy between 4-8pm. Virgin Blue also have “red-hot” deals.
45. Online booking sites like www.bestflights.com.au and www.lastminute.com.au are perfect for spur-of-the-moment deals.

Entertainment and lifestyle tips:

46. Go to the movies on “cheap Tuesdays”.
47. Cut-back on your alcohol intake. A month of not drinking any alcohol will save money and can also improve your health.
48. You can buy discounted wines and other alcoholic drinks at www.winemakers.com.au, www.graysonline.com.au, www.charitywineservice.com.au or www.winemarket.com.au
49. Shave your head and save hundreds a year on haircutting fees. You can also raise much needed funds for the Leukaemia Foundation by signing up to the World’s Greatest Shave campaign!