It is important to understand your personal cash flow. Consider tracking your monthly spending, taking into account your regular bills, living expenses, and saving goals. This helps you understand your financial habits, enabling you to create a healthy budget and ensure your money is going towards the things that are important to you. Go through your bank statement and check there are no unexpected charges slipping through from forgotten subscription services or unauthorised transactions.
Financial fitness is a colloquial term referring to your financial habits and comprehension. People with good financial fitness have healthy habits that give them confidence in achieving their goals, both short and long-term. Here are some ways you can build your financial fitness.
1. Managing your everyday finances
2. Future proof your finances
Try and have a ‘safety net’ of allocated funds and insurance policies to financially cover yourself from unpredictable emergencies that life can throw at you. Knowing you have an emergency fund for unforeseen events such as unplanned travel and family emergencies, or that you may be covered by insurance in the event of unexpected damage to your home or contents may offer you comfort.
3. Building towards long-term goals
Whether your long-term goals are buying a home, starting a family, upgrading or buying a new car, or becoming financially independent, you should start preparing for these goals well ahead of time. Make sure you factor them into your budget with an understanding of the estimated time it will take you to reach these milestones. Budgeting is the blueprint to financial fitness. Like any exercise, budgeting gets easier the more consistently you do it, until it becomes second nature.
A cornerstone of financial fitness is an awareness of what your insurance policy covers and how it may cover you against insured events. Here are our top tips on reviewing your insurance policy to help you determine whether it matches your lifestyle, needs and financial situation.
Home insurance fitness test
We recommend that you take the time to review your insurance policies at least annually to make sure they still meet your needs, and you are getting the level of insurance coverage for you. Ensure that you are familiar with the cover in your Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and any terms and conditions that may apply. Your insurer may also have some additional resources such as comparison pages to help you understand the cover you have at a glance. Comparing your cover to pages such as the Allianz Compare Home Insurance page may be helpful in understanding what features and benefits are available at Allianz.
Make sure you are leveraging discount offers and deals that are available where possible, such as bundled discounts. For example, at Allianz a discount of up to 10%1,2 is applied to your premium when you combine Building cover with Contents cover on the one Home Insurance policy, including for optional Motor Burnout or optional Accidental Damage cover if selected.
Ensure you have the right level of home insurance cover
It is important to have an accurate figure to cover the costs of rebuilding your home and replacing your belongings as you might have to pay the difference out of pocket if you are insured for less than the actual replacement value. Tools such as Home Insurance Calculators can be used to roughly estimate how much it would cost to replace your home and/or contents. Being aware of your insurance policies and the cover they provide is a great step towards financial stability. As your circumstances change, ensure that your Home Insurance is updated to suit your needs.
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Disclaimer
This article has been prepared by Allianz Australia Insurance Limited ABN 15 000 122 850 AFSL234708 (“Allianz”). In some cases, information has been provided to us by third parties and while that information is believed to be accurate and reliable, its accuracy is not guaranteed in any way.
Any opinions expressed constitute our views at the time of issue and are subject to change. Neither Allianz, nor its employees or directors give any warranty of accuracy or accept responsibility for any loss or liability incurred by you in respect of any error, omission or misrepresentation in this article.
1 Minimum premiums may apply
Any discounts may be subject to rounding and only apply to the extent that any minimum premium isn't reached. If you’re eligible for more than one discount, Allianz applies them in a predetermined order. This means the effect of applying any subsequent discount will be reduced. For example, the aggregate effect of applying two discounts consecutively means that you won't see the full benefit of both these discounts.
Discounts don't apply to taxes or government charges.
2 Combined Discounts
A discount of up to 10% is applied to your premium when you combine Buildings and Contents on one Home Insurance policy, including for the following optional covers if selected: Motor Burnout and Accidental Damage cover. The combined discount doesn't apply to Landlord policies, Flood, Portable Contents, or Domestic Workers Compensation optional covers (if available and selected).
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Allianz acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live and work across Australia. We pay our respect to First Nations Elders past and present.
Any advice here does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation or needs. Terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions apply. Before making a decision about this insurance, consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS)/Policy Wording and Supplementary PDS (if applicable). Where applicable, the PDS/Policy Wording, Supplementary PDS and Target Market Determination (TMD) for this insurance are available on this website. We do not provide any form of advice if you call us to enquire about or purchase a product.
Allianz Australia Insurance Limited ABN 15 000 122 850 AFS Licence No. 234708 is the insurer of any general insurance products offered, and Allianz Australia Life Insurance Limited ABN 27 076 033 782 AFS Licence No. 296559 is the insurer of any life insurance products offered. Each entity is responsible for any statements and representations made about its products, on this website.