In our increasingly digital world, protecting financial information from identity crimes is paramount. Identity theft, fraud, and cyberattacks pose significant risks to your financial well-being.

To safeguard your assets and personal information, it’s crucial to be proactive and adopt robust security measures. Here are some essential steps to protect yourself from identity crimes that exploit financial information:

Secure Your Personal Information

Start by safeguarding your personal information. Store important documents, such as passports, Social Security cards, and financial statements, in a secure and locked location. Be cautious about sharing sensitive information online or over the phone, especially with unknown individuals or entities.

Use Strong Passwords and Authentication

Create strong, unique passwords for your online accounts, including financial institutions, email, and social media. Consider using a reputable password manager to generate and store complex passwords securely. Enable two-factor authentication whenever possible to add an extra layer of protection.

Monitor Your Financial Accounts

Regularly review your bank statements, credit card statements, and investment accounts for unauthorised transactions or discrepancies. Early detection of unusual activity can prevent further financial damage.

Protect Your Devices

Ensure your computer, smartphone, and other devices are equipped with up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware software. Regularly update your operating system and applications to patch security vulnerabilities.

Beware of Phishing Scams

Be cautious about unsolicited emails, messages, or phone calls requesting personal or financial information. Phishing scams often impersonate reputable organisations. Verify the authenticity of any communication before sharing sensitive data.

Shred Financial Documents

Dispose of financial documents and statements securely by shredding them before disposal. Dumpster diving is a common method identity thieves use to access personal information.

Use a Secure Wi-Fi Connection

Avoid conducting financial transactions or accessing sensitive accounts over public Wi-Fi networks, as they may not be secure. Instead, use a virtual private network (VPN) or your mobile data connection when accessing financial information on the go.

Educate Yourself

Stay informed about the latest identity theft and fraud schemes. Familiarise yourself with common tactics used by cybercriminals to protect yourself from falling victim to their scams.

Identity crimes that target financial information can have devastating consequences, including significant financial losses and damage to your credit.

By protecting your personal and financial data, you can reduce the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft and ensure your financial well-being remains secure.

Real estate agent fees are one of the main expenses of owning an investment property.

Investors who manage their own property might be able to save thousands per year, but is it worth it?

Depending on your state, agent management fees generally range between 5-12% of your weekly rent income. In Tasmania, 43% of investors are self-managing, with agent fees reaching up to 12% of weekly rent. In New South Wales, agent fees average to be about 7% of rent and less than a quarter of investors choose to self-manage.

Being a self-managing landlord can save you a lot of money, but before rushing to fire your agent, consider whether the obligations of being self-managed will be sustainable for you.

Managing your own rental property takes up a considerable amount of time. You’ll have to deal with repairs and maintenance, cleaning, negotiating, advertising and sourcing tenants, which you’ll have to do quickly not to lose rent.

Property managers also deal with complex issues like disputes and breach notices, which can be stressful. Sometimes tenants also prefer dealing with agents as they are often perceived to be more experienced and knowledgeable in all areas of leasing.

Whether self-managing your property or hiring an agent is right for you also depends on how many investment properties you have and your lifestyle.

If you have multiple properties and work full-time, finding the time to manage them can be challenging. If you go on holiday regularly, you may not want to be disturbed by something that needs repairing in the middle of your trip.

Some self-managing landlords choose not to hire an agent to save on fees and to have more control over their property and interaction with their tenants. You can consider which option is best for you based on your abilities, time and values.

Budgeting is the most important tool in your arsenal when it comes to your business. It is how you organise your company and plan for possible future circumstances.

It forecasts all cash sources and expenditures and can greatly enhance your success by helping you estimate your future needs and plan profits, spending and overall cash flow.

As part of a business plan, a budget can help you decide whether you have enough money to achieve your business goals. Furthermore, a budget can help convince a loan officer that you know your business and have anticipated its needs.

A budget will indicate

1. The cash required for necessary labour and /or materials
2. Total start-up costs
3. Day-to-day maintenance costs
4. Revenues needed to support business operations

After assessing these factors, you can adjust your plans accordingly. If more money is required, you could start by:

• Reducing expenditures: hiring fewer employees, purchasing less expensive furniture, installing energy-efficient appliances etc.
• Expanding sales: selling additional products or services in relation to your business (like coffee with a bookstore for example) conducting an extensive marketing campaign, etc.
• Lowering profit expectations: you company will need time to develop both in branding and strategy. This is obviously the least desirable option but is usually only short-term.

Every business should budget before investing money into assets or signing leases.

To ensure your goals can be reached, or to foresee areas of weakness that must be dealt with, putting all the numbers down on paper first, is safer than actual dollars

For further advice on budgeting as a business, don’t forget to speak with your trusted business advisor – we are always here to help.

For many, a home loan is a purchase already made, a regular expense that will stick with them for up to 30 years (depending on the home loan conditions set out at the time of agreement). But don’t expect to simply set and forget your home loan.

Your circumstances may change, and the home loan you once thought was the perfect deal might not be so anymore. By running a few checks, you can figure out whether or not your home loan is still the right fit for you.

Bonus Features To Your Home Loan – Are They A Trap?

Find out all of the home loan features that your current home loan may have. These features may seem confusing to the untrained eye, but there are benefits and disadvantages to a home loan containing them.

For example, some home loans may come with redraw facilities, which can be a handy home loan feature if you’ve made extra repayments in the past and need to access that cash for an unexpected expense. Other home loans may instead have an offset account, which is a bank account linked to the loan in which any cash in the account is offset daily against the home loan principal.

These features may sound good but can attract additional fees. Compare the benefits of the feature with what you are actually paying overall to see if it’s worth the cost.

Interest Vs Comparison Rates: Do You Understand The Difference?

Interest can seem like the silent assassin to many a home loan, but it’s important to not be lured into a new agreement by a rate that seems (at first glance) to be lower than it actually is. You should consider two rates when re-evaluating the interest payable on your loan – interest rate and comparison rate.

Interest rate is the annual interest cost for borrowing money but does not consider any fees. The comparison rate incorporates the annual interest rate, as well as most upfront and ongoing fees.

It’s a good idea to use comparison rates as your base for looking at alternative home loans, as they provide a clearer picture of how much money you may actually end up paying.

Ask To Reduce Your Home Loan Interest Rate

It might seem that a lower interest rate on the market is the perfect opportunity to switch home loans – but wait! You can also contact your current lender and inform them that you are considering making a switch and (if you have a good credit rating and more than 20% equity in your home) you may be able to negotiate with the lender from a better position, about your interest rate

Want advice on how you could improve your home loan, or about the repayments to your home loan? Speaking with a mortgage broker or a professional lender may be the best path to take, as they have the expertise to assist you.

Investing your money is a great way to grow your wealth, but it can be intimidating to someone starting fresh.

Investing is unique to each person because the time and money that everyone is willing to invest is different. Before you begin investing, you should think about what sort of investing style you would like to adopt, how much money you can afford to invest, and  your risk tolerance.

Investing Style 

There are two main investing styles that you can adopt. The style you choose will depend on the time and effort you’re willing to put in, and the sort of output you expect from your investment.

Passive investing:

This is a hands-off approach focusing on long-term returns. The return from these investments will be stable and predictable.

Active Investing:  

This is a lot more hands-on.

It requires you to choose and conduct the investments yourself. This will require much more of your time because you will need to continually research opportunities.

The return from these investments, although risky, can be quite large. As a beginner, the passive style might be more appealing till you can learn and understand the market well enough to invest more actively.

Budget

It isn’t necessary to invest a large sum of money; it is necessary, however, that you are financially prepared to invest the amount of money you choose. You should be able to set an ‘emergency’ fund aside from the money you are prepared to invest. This is because there will always be some you should not rely on quickly selling your investments to fund an emergency.

Risk Tolerance

The risk involved in an investment is usually proportional to the expected returns (higher returns = high risk; low returns = low risk). You need to balance risks and returns that work for you and the amount of money you are willing to lose. This balance might take some time, and at the start, you might choose to only invest in low-risk investments.

It may be intimidating to start your investing journey, but outlining how much time, effort and money you are willing to commit could help put you in a better frame of mind. Speak to a professional adviser or planner for further assistance with your next prospective steps.