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Australia’s First Home Buyers Are Clueless

The best financial advice I ever received was, “earn more”.

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First Home Buyers Are Clueless

In a survey of 1,000 Australians, ME Bank found:

“… first home buyers are clueless when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of property buying, with a concerning 61% of first home buyers failing a basic property buying literacy quiz, compared to only 27% of owner occupiers and a quarter of investors.” – ME Bank

Nearly 9/10 respondents didn’t know that LMI covers the bank and not them or there is no cooling off period at auction. Nearly 8/10 didn’t know a deposit was needed on auction day and 6/10 didn’t know what an offset account is.

And it wasn’t just would-be buyers.

More than 6/10 owner occupiers and investors were unsure of the key things that contribute to higher interest. Meaning, they could be saving on interest.

ME Bank had some great tips for buyers: do some research, crunch the numbers and seek independent advice (e.g. from an accountant) to understand how things work.

Earn More, Keep Less?

Outside of property, the 2017 ASX Australian Investor Study showed less than 30% of us understood what the risk-reward trade-off means and even fewer know what diversification means.

I find these surveys concerning but also surprising because most of us spend 40 hours per week, plus travel, trying to earn a dollar — and we split 30% of our keep with the ATO.

But investing just a few hours in your financial literacy can literally pay dividends many times over for many years.

Yes, I’m a share market investor with years of experience. So that’s all well and good for me to say, right?

But you needn’t go to university to study finance to save yourself or your family some serious money over many years.

All you need is a basic understanding of finance and motivation to learn. It seems like a daunting task, but it’s worth it.

It can be as simple as listening to a finance podcast, reading a book, subscribing to (and reading) a newsletter or getting advice on how to do it.

Think you know what you’re talking about?

If you’re game, why not try our share market basics quiz?

Click here to take the quiz (3 minutes)

Cheers to our financial futures!

Owen Raszkiewicz is Lead Adviser of Rask Invest

$50,000 per year in passive income from shares? Yes, please!

With interest rates UP, now could be one of the best times to start earning passive income from a portfolio. Imagine earning 4%, 5% — or more — in dividend passive income from the best shares, LICs, or ETFs… it’s like magic.

So how do the best investors do it?

Chief Investment Officer Owen Rask has just released his brand new passive income report. Owen has outlined 10 of his favourite ETFs and shares to watch, his rules for passive income investing, why he would buy ETFs before LICs and more.

You can INSTANTLY access Owen’s report for FREE by CLICKING HERE NOW and creating a 100% FREE Rask Account.

(Psst. By creating a free Rask account, you’ll also get access to 15+ online courses, 1,000+ podcasts, invites to events, a weekly value investing newsletter and more!)

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Information warning: The information on this website is published by The Rask Group Pty Ltd (ABN: 36 622 810 995) is limited to factual information or (at most) general financial advice only. That means, the information and advice does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not specific to you, your needs, goals or objectives. Because of that, you should consider if the advice is appropriate to you and your needs, before acting on the information. If you don’t know what your needs are, you should consult a trusted and licensed financial adviser who can provide you with personal financial product advice. In addition, you should obtain and read the product disclosure statement (PDS) before making a decision to acquire a financial product. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Financial Services Guide before using this website. The Rask Group Pty Ltd is a Corporate Authorised Representative (#1280930) of AFSL #383169.

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