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The Money Guide provides you with free tips to help you make clear, informed financial decisions on your journey to a better lifestyle. This site is proudly brought to you by Certified Financial Planner professional, Matt Hern.
The best way to use this site is through search. Just type in whatever money matter is on your mind that led you to visiting this site.

By Matt Hern on January 18, 2012
Make money when you upgrade your mobile phone and gadgets. In this article I reveal how I just made some money from a 5 year old phone and how you can too.
Category: Earning

By Matt Hern on November 16, 2011
In September 2001 I lost over 100,000 frequent flyer points when Ansett Australia collapsed. I had been accumulating reward points with the intent of funding an overseas flight. To that end I’d even paid for a domestic flight rather than use some of my points. What a waste! Back then it was a common complaint [...]
Category: Saving
By Brett Davies on November 11, 2011
This article was originally published in the LawCentral Bulletin 390 on 7th November 2011 and is republished with permission of the author, Brett Davies. Question Hi Brett. I’m a recent university graduate. I’ve been lucky enough to land a graduate job earning a decent wage. The problem is, with rents so high and house prices [...]
Category: Property
By Matt Hern on November 8, 2011
And after you’ve finished checking your breasts check if you have protection from the financial consequences of a serious illness like breast cancer. The key tool is trauma insurance, which pays you a lump sum on diagnosis. You can use the lump sum to: Help fund out-of-pocket costs for medical treatment Give your partner time off [...]
Category: Personal Insurance
By Matt Hern on November 1, 2011
MoneySmart, the financial literacy website produced by Australian Government regulator ASIC have produced this brief video to explain how compound interest works. Compound interest is an essential base concept to understand before investing. So if you don’t understand it then I recommend you spend one minute watching this video. Then please share in the comments [...]
Category: Growing
By Matt Hern on October 18, 2011
This week is National Identity Fraud Awareness Week. Last year I wrote a detailed article on how to protect yourself from identity theft. The article also shares the story of how my sister was defrauded of $2,000. This year the Australian Federal Police have published an excellent survey to test how well you protect yourself against identity [...]
Category: Fraud prevention
By Matt Hern on October 14, 2011
A couple of months ago I met Kate at a 40th birthday party. Kate had tunnel vision – metaphorically speaking – and her tunnel vision was costing her abut $5,000 by her own estimate. The problem was, Kate was blissfully ignorant to her condition. That was, until she met me.
Category: Getting Advice

By Matt Hern on October 12, 2011
“Perhaps the developed world is about to experience massive structural change”, mused my mate as we discussed the global financial situation recently.
In truth no-one knows what will happen.
The great news is that the actions which prepare you to survive a massive change also position you to thrive if instead a boom arrives. So irrespective of your personal forecast it is worth implementing these suggestions.
Category: Planning, Protecting

By Matt Hern on September 19, 2011
“One day I want to be a millionaire!” I recall that being an often expressed goal around the traps twenty years ago. Back then the median gross annual income was just $17,056* so the millionaire goal was quite a stretch. It was also before the explosion of free information on the internet. Since then there’s [...]
Category: Planning
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Retirement lifestyle costs quick estimator
By Matt Hern on November 15, 2011
The ASFA Retirement Standard for the September 2011 quarter has just been released and reveals that “in general, a couple looking to achieve a comfortable retirement needs to spend $55,316 a year, while those seeking a ‘modest’ retirement lifestyle need to spend $31,767 a year.” One of the most useful elements of this quarter’s update [...]
Category: Planning