Imagine what things would change in your life if you could go back in time and have a conversation with your younger self? What would you both chat about? Family, friends, relationships, finances, health, dreams and goals?

Imagine having the ability to take advantage of every massive opportunity that came your way whilst also dodging some of the unnecessary hardships. Wouldn’t your life be monumentally better? Some might argue to the contrary that life is instead shaped by our mistakes rather than our successes. We would probably all admit that we wouldn’t be the people we are without the mistakes. Yet, we would also admit that we wish we could have at least avoided a few of them here and there.

As this website is devoted to helping people rocket ahead in their personal finance journey, I always like to give one or two constructive tips in each post that can be applied directly to your current financial situation. Rather than unproductively navel gazing, can we glean any life lessons from looking back to the past?

Looking back on our past gives us a profound insight into how we can create a brighter future for ourselves and our family. As we look back we can analyse the great opportunities that we pounced upon, as well as those that we missed. We can learn from those moments of fortune as we try to replicate more of those situations. We can also seek to avoid those misfortunate situations as we try to insulate ourselves from repeating those errors.

7 Examples of Looking Back to Look Forward

1. Calculate how much you’ve paid off on your mortgage in the past five years. This paints a picture of where your money has been going. Could you manage to pay an extra $100 per week off the principal? What would your home loan look like in 10 years time from making this decision today?
2. Comb through your wardrobe and look at the graveyard of ever changing fashion. Next time you’re out clothes shopping, maybe this memory might help you to gain some perspective when you see the latest clothing fad.
3. Look at the cars you’ve owned over the past decade. How much would you estimate car expenditure has cost your family? Ever buy new? Could you drive a more modest vehicle and use the saved money to put towards income producing investments?
4. Think of the missed investment opportunities. They’re the ‘If onlys’ you talk about with your mates. They’re the Apples, the Costcos, the Alibabas and the Facebook investments that you’ve missed out on. To learn from past events, keep an eye out for the future world-changing ideas that are right in front of you.
5. Work out how much you have saved for your retirement. Consider salary sacrificing an additional $20 a week to change the living standard you will experience in the future. Don’t forget that compound interest is a powerful friend!
6. Reminisce about the memorable take out/restaurant meals that you’ve had. What was it that made these experiences so great? Compare that to the weekly ‘eat outs’ that barely even induced a smile. Perhaps look towards reducing the amount of incidental eat outs and instead save them for special circumstances where you do something eat some unique and special with amazing people you care about.
7. How much have you spent on electronic contraptions over the years? I’m talking televisions, CDs, DVDs, set top boxes, laptops, mobile phones, tablets etcetera. They all need continual upgrading. Could your life be as equally pleasant with the absence of one or two devices? What would this save you per year?

We each have (if we’re lucky), an average of 82 years on this earth nowadays. Time ticks by incredibly quickly and I’m beginning to understand this more the older I get. We all make mistakes, but they really are only mistakes if we choose not to learn from them. Have a think about where all your big wins might come from in the next 10 years and position yourself to take full advantage of them in the years ahead.

Hi SA readers,

This is a post I put up on my blog with a few Aussiecentric pricings. Hope there's still some relevance for global readers.



Watching the Porsche 911 Carrera S thundering up the hill towards Mount Dandenong left me drooling. All that raw power, the chrome, the leather, the roar of the engine.

Over the years I have come to realise that my passion for cars and motorbikes fluctuate incessantly. In fact with each and every wind change my top 10 list of favourite cars and bikes seem to alter drastically.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have driven a few nice sports cars from Subaru WRXs, to Mitsubishi EVOs to Alfa Romeo Spiders. While the first 20 minutes of driving tends to get my heart racing, I’ve got to admit that things soon settle down and my mind wanders to thoughts about the next vehicle. There’s always another car, another motorbike, another shiny object to capture my attention… albeit temporarily. Coming to this realisation has saved me a fortune over the years.

This kind of self-awareness wasn’t always there however. Like Paul Kelly’s famous song “I’ve done all the dumb things.” I’ve owned new or newish cars, and recoiled in horror as they seemingly plummet in value with each hour that you drive them. Our lovely ‘automatic rain sensing windscreen’ sounded like a great idea until the stone chip required a $1200 piece of glass imbedded with rain sensing microchips. I’ve grimaced as kids fling open car doors with careless abandon and as shoppers underestimate the width of their shopping trolleys. I’ve also owned a few four wheelers and had a great time bouncing around the Australian bush. A fun frolic in a river, followed by a total engine rebuild taught me a lesson that fourbys can be costly!

Car expenses can add up to be a gargantuan expense from your yearly expenditure. As Aussies we love the feeling of driving around in something that makes us feel cool or gives us a bit off social currency. Whether we intuitively judge a person’s financial status or coolness by the car they drive, is up to us to personally answer. For me, I will admit that it subconsciously plays a part. However, visit Europe or Asia where touch parking can be a common practice, and the fascination with shiny vehicles can quickly lose its lustre.

But how much does a new car cost to run really? What if we were to choose something modest? Cars definitely have their purpose, but understand that they can leave a huge hole in your pocket. Did you realise is that driving a new humble Mazda 6 can cost you as much as $12,030.78 per year? Yikes!!

$12 grand to drive a car that doesn’t catapult you from 0-100 in any special time. $12 grand for a car that isn’t particularly regarded as head turner. $12 grand for a car that you may have thought was a actually a very rational economic choice. In some ways it is too. Were it a Toyota Landcruiser the annual costs are purportedly over $19k per year. Drive two new cars and you could expect this cost to potentially double. Is anyone else hearing alarm bells blasting in their minds? Fine if you are earning truckloads of cash but for the average Aussie earning $74,724 before tax this could make a massive dint in your pocket.

Vehicle expenses can hit you financially in both obvious and subtle ways. I’ve tried to list a few.
• Depreciation- What is a $30,000 car worth in 5 years? More than likely just a third of the cost. Then there’s the expense of losing the income opportunity that the money could have been deployed towards.
• Financing- A $30,000 loan fully financed at 12% means an additional $18,000 goes down the gurgler over a 5 year period.
• Registration- This would most likely between $500-$850 each year in Australia.
• Insurance- Depending on your rating and the level of cover, estimate $600+ per year.
• Servicing- The RACQ report would conservatively hint that the costs would be around $800+ if you drove 15,000 kilometres per year.
• Fuel- No way of avoiding this one unless you buy electric or have a Flintstones powered vehicle. Obviously the best way to lower your fuel bill would be to drive less, or to choose a more economical vehicle. At today’s prices, driving an average 15,000 kilometres per year, each litre per 100km of economy saved equates to roughly $180 back in your pocket.
• Tyres- Ones again, conservatively allow for $225 per year for when a replacement is due.
If you’re interested in reading the RACQ recently for yourself click here.

See: http://www.racq.com.au/cars-and-driving/cars/owning-and-maintaining-a-car/car-running-costs

This post is not to persuade every reader out of buying new vehicles or lavish cars. I would, however, advocate that each person ensure that car expenses only make up just a small proportion of your annual income. Earn $150k and want to buy a $30k car in cash? No problem. Earn an average of $50k and it could be much more financially harder for you.

To ensure you’re getting a good deal and moving onwards and upwards, add up how much your car costs you each year. Add up the registration, the repair bills, the interest, the insurance and the depreciation. Do a comparison on another more modest vehicle and weigh up the difference. If you could reduce your expenditure by $4-$7k each year, what could you potentially do with it?