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 SavingAdvice community,

For years I have used a home job Excel spreadsheet that I custom made myself. It has done a great job of tracking my expenses and I refer to it with great frequency. It has been one of the primary reasons for my savings over the years.

Excel, has one issue however- it is challenging to update your payments on the hop. I have mitigated this issue by having a Google Keep record of transactions which both my wife and I can add to.

I am, however, interested in Dollar Tree Pro's ability to detect via geolocation the shops you have visited and being able to sync your transactions automatically. $99 USD per year, however is expensive for a highly budget conscious person such as myself.

YNAB is only $60 and I like the look of the interface. The only downer for me is that I want to be involved in a forum that I like. I have a few sour grapes in that I opened a journal on their site and posted thoughts and learnings only to get 13 Spam points within 3 days because I used links to verify my findings and people, as a pack, assumed it was dodgy. As I said, sour grapes but I'm happy to move on if it is really worth it.

Mint is free which is a huge plus!

I am familiar with Excel and I like the ability to incorporate all the expenditure of my investments. I also like being able to calculate with near precision the amount of tax I need to pay or the return I am expected to receive.

Dollar Tree and YNAB offer trials but I don't particularly want to upload a month of data onto a subscription that I won't use.

I have also looked at YouTube reviews but they are often given by people with affiliate codes. Not an issue but I sometimes question the objectivity of the information.

Any advice would be appreciated SA community.

Hope you've all had a spectacular weekend.

Hayley and I have one month till the birth of our beautiful baby girl and I have recently resigned from one of my work places, thereby kissing farewell to 2 days salary. The craziness continues.
In the past 6 months we have purchased an investment property of around $400,000 and placed an additional $140,000 in a managed investment. We have almost paid off our home but used the equity in our home to finance the loans.
The rental property we purchased came with a delightful tenant (since evicted) who enjoyed avoiding rent payments, boxing holes in doors and taking various illegal substances. In the past month and budgeting ahead into next month, the property has required around $11,000 in repairs and upkeep to make it tenable again.
It gets better, the 3 days of employment that I do have is as a teacher, which is not renowned as being one of the highest earning jobs.
Why in God’s great earth did we decide as a family to drop down to 3 days a week? I’ll give you a few reasons:
1. To spend more family time together. I’d rather live frugally and have time with my kids during these formative years.
2. It gives me a chance to put my money where my mouth is and see if I can save and invest successfully enough to subsist, or better yet, thrive!
3. We have saved and saved for years and know we can do it! Years of budgets proves it even if the knees are a little wobbly.
I realise this might seem silly to some. As I said, we have saved for years though and would have a debt to equity ratio of approximately 1.5.
I have elected to reinvest the returns from the managed fund which is nearly $11,000 in net profits since the beginning of the year.
My wife also earn $8,000 as an editor and we have no personal loans, credit card debt or car loans.
In addition to this we are paying principal and interest off of our remaining home loan and envisage paying off an additional $10,000. We’ll see in a year’s time if this is achievable.
I do have a fall back, I can get contract work as an emergency teacher if the situation becomes dire.
Please if you are going to comment I’d appreciate keeping it positive and I’d love hear any well wishes. I’ll certainly be reading SavingAdvice.com a lot more carefully.

How would you feel if you were told you had to move house next week?

Aside from the potential nerves you might experience about moving somewhere new, how would you feel about packing and moving all of your belongings?

For most of us living in developed nations, we would feel utterly overwhelmed and fearful by such a situation.

Over the last century, manufacturing has become comparatively cheaper. We can buy a lot more things with a lot less money (relative to the inflationary factor). Think about the toys you had as a kid and compare them with that of a child of today. Contrast this with what your grandparents used to have when they were children.

The average house size has more than doubled since the 1950’s while the average family size has progressively decreased. The business of extensions, sheds, storage facilities is a huge and booming business. We have so much stuff nowadays and we need a place to store it.

When you declutter, you gain a new perspective over each and every item that you purchase. You spend less time looking after your ‘stuff’, more time enjoying what you have, and you don’t spend time wishing you had more things.

Here are 3 tips to help you declutter:

#1 Wardrobe- Sift through your wardrobe and take out all the clothes you would never wear again. Next do another sift with the filter ‘Would you wear it today?’ I understand that there are seasons and we can change sizes at times, but… with all that taken into account, would you wear it again? Some items might be considered high value jackets. eBay or Gumtree might give you a few extra dollars for those if you wanted. Otherwise take those items to the nearest thrift store to donate.

#2 High Value Items- What do you really use and what is just sitting there collecting dust? Some items we have sitting around have cost us a huge amount of money yet we cling to them while they devalue and decay. Caravans, motorbikes, unused furniture, boats, musical instruments, appliances, kayaks, televisions, computers, even an unnecessary car. You may not want to part with them, but think of the dollars you will retrieve and the space that will be cleared.

#3 Paperwork, cards, souvenirs, memories- Don’t clear out what is really precious but consider doing a cull on what mementos are excessive. When Hayley and I were first married I had instantly inherited boxes of trinkets and souvenirs. Just to give you a taste of the items she had collected, boxes of roller skating trophies, stuffed toys and even a container of cat fur from her deceased childhood pet. Gross! Most things you can just get rid of, some you should keep and others you should photograph and then say goodbye to. It might not save you money, but it will save you space. With saved space, who knows? Maybe you could live in a smaller dwelling?

If you apply some of these tips, hopefully you’ll have a few extra dollars in your pocket, you’ll save money with your new formed spending habits, you’ll feel liberated of possessions and your home will be neater.

Many, many more tips to come so stay tuned!