Australians lacking financial diligence
Two thirds of Australians don’t review their financial goals often enough, according to Finder.com.au.
A survey commissioned by the comparison website found that 68 per cent of the 1,032 respondents reviewed their financial goals twice a year or less, while 32 per cent didn’t use any tools or resources to track their progress.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Meanwhile, 49 per cent of credit card holders were unaware of their interest rates and one in 10 mortgage holders didn’t pay attention to interest rate movements, the survey found.
As most borrowers have a variable rate, this means there are potentially 250,000 households who are not taking advantage of lower interest rates by keeping their repayments high, said Finder.com.au spokesperson Michelle Hutchison.
"This survey clearly shows that too many Australians are in a 'set and forget' mode with their financial situation and as a result, are wasting money,” she said. “While most of us have financial goals, many aren't doing enough to achieve them.
"If your lender recently cut your home loan rate by 25 basis points and you have a typical $300,000 mortgage, that would be worth about $50 less in repayments. Add this to your loan each month and you could potentially save about $27,000 in interest and cut a 30-year loan term by two years."
