Banking and Budgets

*Please note, websites update site addresses, policies and procedures regularly, which will break links on the page below and/or provide out-of-date information.  If links break or policies and procedures change, you may need to contact the service provider to assist with navigation and further information. Please notify D.M.W. Productions Australia HERE to inform us of broken links or out of date information, and we will rectify our site as soon as possible.

CREATING BANK ACCOUNTS FOR EVERY BILL

Tired of trying to do maths in your head, trying to work out you budget for the week after pay-day??

Tired of never having the money saved for on-going bills because you forgot, or didn't save enough??

Best practice for your own banking is to create enough bank accounts and let the bank automation do the work.

Go to your bank and have them set up 10, 15 or 20 accounts to your name. They're free. You may as well use them.

It annoys bank tellers for the inconvenience, but home and personal loan lenders drool over your financial efficiency just looking at them. When every account is split, every transaction to do with a specific living expense is laid out clearly for the lenders, and they can evaluate your ability to pay back a loan with ease.

---

SET UP YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS SIMILARLY

---

'MONEY IN' ACCOUNT

Send all your income directly into the "Money In" account. Automated transfers should distribute from this account to all others the day after your pay-day.

---

'DAILY ALLOWANCE' ACCOUNT

Money is transferred to the "Daily allowance" account on the day after pay-day. An allowance is transferred from the "Daily allowance" account everyday to the "Money Out" account.

---

'MONEY OUT' ACCOUNT

Your "Money Out" account should be the only one connected to an EFTPOS card. If anything is to be paid by card that is not an automated direct debit, transfer into the 'Money Out' account first.

As your primary EFTPOS, it is good practice to hold as little amount of money in it as often as possible. This will prevent or minimise online scammers or card thieves from getting much, if any, of your money.

Money should be transferred everyday automatically from the "Daily allowance" account to prevent you from having to constantly do it yourself. You would only be monitoring your "Money Out" account for sufficient funds if you intend on spending more than your allocated daily allowance.

---

OTHER ACCOUNTS

Set up bank transfers to distribute funds on the day after pay-day. This is to prevent attempted transfers from occurring and failing when pay-days are delayed by public holidays.

---

'HOME LOAN' ACCOUNT

If you don't have a home loan, car loan or personal loan, create an account anyway and save up for your house deposit, or save to buy a car outright. Or do both!

---

'LOANS AND DEBTS' ACCOUNT

The automated bank transfers you have set up will likely transfer in the early hours of the morning.

On the day after your pay-day, transfer ALL remaining funds from your "Money In" into your "Loans and debts" account.

If you have a home or personal loan, you will have an account that you should be transferring on-going money to.

If you have some other debt, you should set up an account for it, which you should be transferring on-going money to.

If you have a HECS debt, you will have an account through the ATO (Australian Tax Office),

which you should be transferring on-going money to.

This "Loans and debts" account is here to assist you to keep track of any extra money you have earned, and allows you to control which loan or debt gets that extra.

Want to prioritise paying down a debt before your home loan? Send the extra to them.

Want to prioritise your home loan to pay it down earlier to decrease the massive interest accumulating? Send it to your loan.

Want to pay down both in equal shares? Send half what's in the "Loans and debts" account to one and half to the other.

Want to send money later instead of the day after pay-day? Leave the money in the "Loans and debts" account, free from self-tampering, and deal with it later.

---

SETTING UP YOUR BUDGET

Click to download your own budget sheet to personalise.

Banking and Budgets.xlsx

Download XLSX • 91KB

---

DIRECT DEBITS

Set up as many of your ongoing bills as direct debits (e.g. car registration, licence, private health, gym membership, etc...). Set them up so that specific bills are withdrawn from your designated accounts (i.e. private health from your 'Health insurance' account, water from your 'Water, electricity, gas, council rates' account).

---

IF DIRECT DEBITS AREN'T AVAILABLE

Some expenses like petrol won't have direct debits. Like paying for petrol.

The money, though, is set aside ready to go.

When you know the cost of your fuel, just transfer the amount from your 'Petrol' account to your 'Money out' account, so you can pay by card.

Similarly, when you're buying clothes, linen or tools. Just transfer some funds from your 'Clothing' account to your 'Money out' account before getting to the checkout.

Depending on how much you set aside for your daily allowance, you may already have enough in the 'Money out' account.

---

YOU'RE ALL GOOD TO GO!

Now it's all set up: sit back, relax and let the automations pay your bills.

The only thing you ever need to worry about after this is when bills increase each year. You'll just have to adjust the transfers when you're notified.

---

DON'T FORGET!

If you do have money left over in your 'Money in' account on the day after pay-day, send it to your 'Loans and debts' account, then you can make a decision there as to which bill you want to pay down, or whether you keep the money in there for a rainy day when another random debt comes knocking. They always do!