Are you looking out for your personal finances?
If you treat your money as endless like water from a tap then it will flow through your fingers just as quickly as it hits your bank account.
The only person who's truly going to look out for your money is you, and perhaps your spouse if you have one.
There are people in every area of life who want to take your money, perhaps unethically. Sometimes they're going to do their best for you and sometimes they won't.
Think about everything we heard in the royal commission – the big banks of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ), and AMP Limited (ASX: AMP), were not doing the best by their customers.
Insurance businesses were also shown to be selling some junk policies which weren't good for those who took them up.
There are lots of property spruikers out there who are only interested in earning commissions, instead of actually identifying good opportunities for the property conference attendees. People who bought those new apartments that were spruiked in 2017 could be seriously underwater now.
Investment scams are rife with investors drawn to different (unconventional) ideas to create returns, scams are particularly active this year due to a bit of a resurgence of cryptocurrencies.
Are they promising or guaranteeing returns? Do they make outlandish claims that don't really make sense? Do they charge a lot in fees for something that can be found for free on the internet? Do they show net returns anywhere?
Money permeates all areas of our life and it's important we take an active interest in managing it. From budgeting, to searching for a good deal, to making sure we're not getting scammed – I think it's important to spend a bit of time thinking about our finances at least once a quarter.
If you don't actively try to manage your money then you're probably not noticing a lot of spending and your net wealth may not be going up. I think tracking your net wealth over time is one of the best motivators and clearest way to see if what you're doing is working or not.
