Managing your expenses & reducing costs

Many Australians are feeling the uncertainty of the current situation and are looking for ways to shore up their financial position, regardless of whether they have been directly affected or not.

Managing your costs and expenses can be an effective way to help you through this time, particularly if your income has been affected.

(If you have lost your job or had your income reduced, please refer to our section on changed job circumstances for information on income support.)

Make a list

Start by building a clear picture of your income and expenses to help you understand your overall position.   For example, make a list of:

    • Savings (if any)
    • Income (from wages, government benefits, income from investments)
    • Lump sum payments (government payments, redundancy etc)
    • Your expenses, including rent or mortgage payments, bills, other loan repayments, health insurance, vehicle, utility and grocery costs, and insurance premiums etc

You can also use our budget planning tool to help you with this.

This will help you understand how long you can sustain your current position and determine the timelines for any actions you need to take.

Non-essential expenses

Look through your list of expenses and consider whether there are any non-essential items that you can live without, at least temporarily.

Seek assistance from providers

Speak to providers such as electricity and gas or phone providers.  They may have options such as payment plans to help get you through this period.

Expenses you might be able to freeze or defer

Consider what expenses you might be able to freeze or defer, such as your mortgage repayments (please see our Mortgage Options section for more information).  Some income protection insurance providers are also offering a premium freeze, where you can stop premiums for up to 12 months.  Please be aware however that you won’t be able to claim during this time. The possible benefit is you can resume when you are ready and don’t need to reapply.

Be careful what you cut out

It may be tempting to cancel health and other insurance policies to cut expenses now, but doing this may have longer term implications, and you may not be able to obtain the same level of cover in the future.  If you are considering cancelling any policies that you have put in place with your adviser, please get in touch so we can help you understand any implications.

This information and any advice in this website is of a general nature only and does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. It does not represent legal, property, tax, credit or personal financial advice and should not be relied on as such. You should obtain advice relevant to your circumstances before making decisions in relation to any matters discussed. You should obtain and consider the Product Disclosure Statement for any product discussed before making a decision to acquire that product. The case studies are hypothetical, for illustration purposes only and are not based on actual returns. You should seek specialist advice from a tax professional to confirm the impact of any advice on your overall personal tax position. Taxation information is based on our interpretation of the relevant laws as applied at the date of this communication. Nothing in this website represents an offer or solicitation in relation to property, securities, investments, financial services or credit in any jurisdiction. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this information, it may not remain current after the date of publication and Infocus  and its related bodies corporate make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness.

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