4 Good Money Habits You Can Adopt For The New Fin Year

There’s nothing like the new fin year to serve as the perfect opportunity to reassess your finances and level up your game plan to help propel you closer towards your financial goals.

So, to help us do just that, we caught up with Suncorp Bank to round up 4 good money habits that can help you to slay FY22. 

Track Your Spending

First things first—you’re going to need to be honest with yourself, your current financial position and where you eventually want to be. In order to do this, you may need to be well and truly acquainted with where your money is going. While it might feel daunting, to track your spending, it can show you where you’re spending and help inform your budget.

Research* indicates that while Australian spending is now back to pre-COVID levels for both essential and discretionary spending, the items we’re spending our money on have changed dramatically. With this in mind, there’s never been a better time to assess how the last 12 months might have affected the way you spend your income. The reality of the pandemic means that your circumstances could change in an instant, so this serves as an opportunity to review your finances and any new money habits you might have unknowingly adopted.

Auto-Transfer Money Into Buckets

Automatic transfers (whether for bills or savings) can be useful when you're trying to establish good money habits, allowing you to 'set and forget' payments to help you save and stick to your budget. Even better, you can set them to transfer on the same day you're paid so that you may be less tempted to overspend.

While auto-transfers into a savings account might be common practice, you can go a step further by bucketing your money, that is splitting it into various buckets rather than having it all in one account. This is something you can do with Suncorp Bank's Everyday Options Account^. With the Everyday Options Account, you have a main account for your everyday spending, with a debit card access for withdrawing cash and making purchases on the go**. You can then choose to add up to nine sub-accounts to your main account, which you can use to help bucket your money. Each of the sub-accounts can be named according to your needs, for example, you might split your money based on certain goals or expenses, like ‘Coastal Weekend Away’ or ‘Phone Bill’. There is no debit card access with the sub-accounts, but like the main account, there are no monthly account keeping fees, no transaction fees on transfers and you can pay bills directly from your sub-accounts with Direct Debit or BPAY at no additional cost.

Identify Your Spending Triggers

Whether you’re trying to cheer yourself up, cure your boredom, or attempting to impress someone, many of us can fall into the trap of emotional spending at one time or another. Put simply, emotional spending can be described as when you’re trading money for a feeling. And we have to be honest when we say we may have been guilty of this many times before. Identifying the causes of negative spending habits can help you to actively set boundaries and try to develop new habits to combat these.

To do this, be honest with yourself about what your vices are. Whether it’s going out and splurging on rounds of drinks, designer sneakers, or simply just eating out—your triggers can be big, small, or anywhere in between. Once you’ve identified what triggers you, you can set boundaries. For example, if you’ve noticed that when you’re stressed or feeling unhappy you tend to impulse purchase clothes in an online shopping haze, you can set yourself a boundary of waiting 48 hours before ‘adding to cart’. Or, if you've developed a habit of browsing online shopping before bed, opt to watch TV instead, and that way you're completely avoiding the temptation that comes with scrolling online.

Regularly Contribute To An Emergency Fund

After the year that was 2020, the emergency fund needeth no introduction. While a safety net of funds might seem like a ‘nice to have’, the pandemic has arguably taught us that you can never be too prepared for anything that life might throw at you.

Regularly contributing to an emergency fund can be one of the best habits you can develop as it can stop you from going into debt or dipping into your savings when you run into any trouble. Whether your goal is to be able to cover six months of your salary or enough to pay for any unexpected car troubles, it can pay to expect the unexpected. 

When it comes to your personal finance, it’s never too late to start implementing good money habits that can help you to save and smash your financial goals. Click here to discover more about banking with Suncorp Bank and their Everyday Options Account.

This article is brought to you in conjunction with Suncorp Bank and proudly endorsed by Urban List. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who make Urban List possible. Click here for more information on our editorial policy.

*Article dated 4 November 2020, The Sydney Morning Herald: Coronavirus Australia: Spending climbs back to pre-pandemic levels despite cuts to JobKeeper, JobSeeker (smh.com.au)

^The Everyday Options Account is issued by Suncorp-Metway Ltd ABN 66 010 831 722 AFSL No 229882 (“Suncorp Bank”). Eligibility criteria, conditions, fees and charges apply and are available on request. You must hold an Everyday Options main account to open linked savings sub-accounts (add up to nine).** A Suncorp Visa Debit card is required. To be eligible for a Suncorp Bank Visa debit card you must be 16 years of age or older. If not eligible you will receive a Suncorp Bank eftpos card. There is no card access with sub-accounts. Please read the Product Information Document for personal deposit accounts before making any decision about this product. Go to www.suncorp.com.au/everyday for a copy.

Information is intended to be of a general nature only and any advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situations or needs. You should make your own enquiries, consider whether advice is appropriate for you and read the relevant Product Information Document before making any decisions about whether to acquire a product.