Five ways to give your money a job

Most people know if you want to build wealth you’ve got to save money. But what often gets forgotten is not only do you need to save money, you also need to give each one of your dollars a job.

You see, earning money is just the first step. Once you start putting your dollars into action, they can start making you money without you having to do anything. This is the much sort after but commonly misunderstood concept of passive income.

So how do you put your money to work? Here are five ways you can start giving your saved dollars a job today.

OFFSET ACCOUNT/HOME LOAN

A great place to put your money to work is by putting it in an offset account or onto your home loan.

Too often I see people with money sitting in a bank account earning little or no interest when they could simply transfer it over to their offset account and make money on their money.

For example, let’s say you have $1,000 sitting in a bank account earning no interest.

If you transfer that over to your offset account (and your interest rate is 6%), each year you’ll now pay $60 less in interest.

Remember this compounds, so that’s $60 in year 1, $63.60 in year 2 etc.

You might say, “but $60 isn’t much, why bother?”

Well every year, the person who moved their money can go out for breakfast for free whereas the other can’t. It may be small but small things add up.

CREDIT CARD

On the topic of debt, another great place to put your money to work is by paying off your credit card.

I regularly see people paying interest on their credit card whilst they have the money to pay it off.

Why? Because they like the idea that they have some savings set aside. But savings without a job is not helping you build wealth.

As above, let’s assume your credit card interest rate is 20% and you have $1,000 owing.

By transferring money over, you are saving yourself $200 per year. By leaving it in savings, you’re getting nothing.

SUPER CONTRIBUTIONS

If you’ve got your debt under control, super contributions can be a great way of putting your money to work.

Not only can your super contributions earn you money from investment returns, but they can double up and give you tax discounts.

Again using our example above of $1,000. If you earn $150k and pay 39% (including the Medicare Levy). You immediately get a return of $240 in tax savings.

Assuming an 8% return, this could then generate a further $80 over the year (which is also taxed at a lower rate).

In the right circumstances, super can be a great job for your money.

INVESTING

If you like the idea of investing but don’t want your money locked away until you retire, investing can be a great way of putting your money to work.

As above with the super contributions, assuming an 8% return on $1,000, that’s $80 a year in your pocket.

HIGH INTEREST BANK ACCOUNT

Finally, another great way of putting your money to work is by putting it a high interest bank account

Particularly with interest rates so high, there are some great returns to be had by simply moving your money from a normal bank account into a high interest bank account.

Assuming a 5% return (which is very possible right now), that’s $50 extra a year simply for a little bit of admin.

SUMMARY

Whilst these all might be small amounts, consistently doing this can add up to big dollars overtime.

If you’re saving money but aren’t focused on putting your money to work, then you are missing out on big opportunities.

If you’re saving money but aren’t sure where your money should be best put to work based on your goals, then reach out. We help professional families everyday assign their money jobs to grow their wealth.