WITH money a key source of anxiety and strain for many people and a leading cause of divorce in Australia, financial planner Julia Schortinghuis created the Good Money Habits podcast during COVID-19 lockdown last year to assist people with their finances.
Speaking at the 'We are rural women' event in Dowerin last Wednesday, Ms Schortinghuis provided some tips and tricks on how to manage their finances better and discussed statistics that show Western Australian women have half the savings of men.
She also said one in three WA women would retire with no superannuation and despite some improvements, the gender pay gap sat at 24 per cent.
Stating that farm succession planning is her most challenging work, Ms Schortinghuis said it was vital that women understood the basics of their finances such as online banking, what they owned and how they owned it, what their ongoing living costs were and whether or not they would be protected in the event that they or their partner were to become disabled, unable to work or died.
"When I work with clients, I will only ever work with a couple and there are some bare bones that I need you to know so that if something did happen, we wouldn't have to be getting over those big hurdles in times of grief or through unexpected life events," Ms Schortinghuis said.
With financial abuse amplified in the regions, she said a statistic not commonly as known was that eight out of 10 women who suffered domestic violence or abuse had also been the subject of financial or economic abuse.
Ms Schortinghuis said compliance and regulation had led to an increase in the cost of financial planning services, making it out of reach for everyday Australians.
"The average starting cost to be profitable to deliver advice in Australia today starts at $3500, so I decided when coronavirus hit the world it was time to start the Good Money Habits podcast," she said.
As part of the podcast series Ms Schortinghuis, who has 20 years of experience in financial planning, asked her listeners to identify their values and objectives, so they can make sure their financial habits are aligned with those values.
"Where you spend your money says a lot about what you value and if there's a misalignment it's going to be very hard to stick to your goals along the way," she said.
With financial stability identified as the main foundation upon which other values such as health, relationships and community can thrive, Ms Schortinghuis said once that piece of the puzzle was in place, it supported people to achieve their other goals.
Gaining advice and tips from other financial experts on topics such as divorce, aged care, cash-flow for small businesses, kids relationships with money and money and the mind/ body connection are also discussed in the podcast.
"One of the big mistakes we often find is that people tend to think too short-term - three months out, six months out or one year, whereas with your finances I encourage you to think about short, medium and long-term goals," Ms Schortinghuis said.
"In the short-term, in the next year what are you going to aim to achieve?
"Is it paying off a credit card or finding more money to pay your mortgage faster?
"The medium term - two to five years is the middle block and the long-term includes things such as superannuation, for example."
- You can subscribe to the Good Money Habits podcast on the Apple website: https://podcasts.apple.com/ au/podcast/the-good-money-habits-podcast/id1507104479
