Your biggest financial worry right now

My long-suffering editor, Wally, loves to joke that you can tell the financial pulse of the nation from a glimpse at my inbox. After all … thousands of people of all ages, from all across the country, write to me about what’s stressing them out.

So, after doing this for almost two decades, I can tell you exactly what worries Australians the most:

Whatever the media is banging on about at that moment.

It’s true. Right now the ‘threat’ of rising interest rates is at fever pitch. It’s been spurred on by some experts predicting that interest rates will hit 3.5% by next year. To put that in context … that would be thirteen additional hikes in almost as many months.

Personally, I find that hard to believe.

However, the surging inflation that is happening around the world will require much higher interest rates going forward … yet I have no idea how high they will go, or when.

My main point is that higher interest rates were entirely predictable — heck, I’ve been talking about them for years! In January 1990 the cash rate was 17.5%, and they limboed it all the way down to 0.1%.

Where did we think they’d go next?!

Now I am not saying that interest rates will get back to 17.5%.

Yet the one takeout from the last few years is that the world is a risky and unpredictable place. Weird stuff happens when you least expect it. Bad stuff happens if you haven’t prepared for it.

So what can you do?

Well, if you’ve been following the Barefoot Steps, the answer is: you’re already doing it! You’re aggressively paying down debt, building up a cash buffer, and investing long term into shares via your low-cost, tax-effective super fund.
In other words, focus on what you can control. More Date Nights, less TV news.

Tread Your Own Path!