Lack of discipline holding back Aussie savings resolutions

A lack of money discipline is denying many Australian households from realising their financial goals in 2015 according to ME Bank’s Saving Intentions and Behaviours Survey, conducted in December 2014 with 1,500 adults nationally.

Around 59% of Australians households do not consistently set a budget, and 41% do not regularly stick to it.

Furthermore, only 38% of Australian households kept written or electronic records of their monthly expenses in the past six months – information that builds realistic and effective budget plans.

“Good savings habits require commitment to detail and discipline,” said ME Bank Head of Deposits and Transactional Banking, Nicolas Emery.

“But it’s easy to resolve: you just need to track the real costs of your household expenses, set a realistic budget and commit to every single detail, consistently.”                                                                                                                   

New Year Savings resolutions

ME Bank recommends consumers consider the following guidelines to get their finances on track in 2015:

# Resolution 1: Track your spending. You can’t save money if you don’t know where it’s going.

# Resolution 2:  Set a budget with a budget-tracking app. Set short, medium and long-term goals and then come up with an actionable, realistic plan for achieving them with the help of a finance-tracking app or online budgeting tool.

# Resolution 3:  Pay off your credit card within the interest-free period and automate bills to be paid off from your credit card or keep a calendar of due dates.

# Resolution 4: Make it automatic. Set a specific percentage of your salary to be automatically deposited into a high-interest online savings account so you’re less inclined to touch it. It’s a foolproof way to make sure your savings stay on track and continue to build over the year.

# Resolution 5: Get clued up. Improving your financial knowledge is critical to healthy savings habits. There are a tonne of tools out there to help improve your financial decision-making, like ME Bank’s Building Financial Confidence online financial education program (www.mebank.com.au/learning).

For help with your New Year financial resolutions, call ME Bank on 13 15 63 or visit mebank.com.au.

Members Equity Bank Limited ABN 56 070 887 679 Australian Credit Licence 229500.