Hello! My name is Amy 🙋🏻♀️. My channel is a space where I share all things personal finance, investing (shares/property), money tips, career and everything in between. My mission is to help everyday people gain more control of their finances through accessible financial resources and content and to feel less alone when it comes to conversations about money, career & everything that comes with it.
I'm currently a Risk Manager by day and a certified Chartered Accountant (CA). I previously worked at one of the Big 4 Accounting Firms in Audit, and have worked with some of the largest banks/insurance companies in Australia.
As for me, my goal is to become work optional + achieve financial freedom one day, so I can have the freedom to do what I want, when I want, build generational wealth and lastly, work on passion projects to help others 🤓.
Follow my journey by hitting that subscribe button! ✨
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Please stop repeating yourself constantly (you say big four dozens of times), the content is good but not the execution .
I noticed this too upon rewatching this video - improvements areas to be made for future videos! 🙏
Nice video Amy. I think starting out in the big4 is a great ‘default’ route for most uni leavers. The pros you mentioned were spot on. Cons were too 😂. Most people work there for 2-3 years and move onto bigger and better things. You really have to hang around to senior manager/associate director before the pay and bonuses are good. At that point you’re just looking at your director case and having a crack at partner.
Thank you! For those who can stay I commend them though, it isn’t easy for sure! 🥲 But honestly moving out to bigger and better things is one of the best moves - you get valued more too! ⚡️
hi! thanks for sharing your input! for the degree and career in accounting, what type of work do you do every day? is there alote of math involved? if there is what type of math is involved? what type of math is used daily in accounting? what is the environment of the different settings like? where do accountants work? can you find both full time and part time work? what if you cant work full time and can only work part time? is it possible to work part time as well?
The math is quite simple. Going part time would be challenging in the bigger firms in terms of progressing your career. Quite often part time people end up working on their day off to catch up…
@@MomijiTMO thank you for sharing!!
What about the other firms other than the big four? What about the local firms in your own county? Are they hiring part time as well? Or is it only full time in all accounting firms
@@jamiemathew7869 I’m in Australia so it might be different for your country. If you want to work at a mid tier or bigger firm, it’s going to be harder to apply as a part time. It would be easier to start off full time and work out how you can drop down to 4 or 3 days later. You have to think about it from the employers perspective - we have a headcount budget. Even if someone is 0.8FTE it’s not like we can find anyone to be the other 0.2 and it takes a long time to train staff (1.5 years before we get a return / people start moving towards senior consultant grades)
All good 🙏. In terms of full time vs part time work - part time is usually hard to land unless you’ve worked for a place for a while to arrange for a part time basis!
Buy a house. Look at the haves versus have nots in the housing market.
Yeah renting the room from your parent and buy investment property is the best option... even better if your parent just ask you to pay for utility bill that you use..
Yesss living at home can definitely help save more esp when costs are very low and using these funds to buy investment properties 🙌.
Problems with renting... 1 You're at the mercy of the landlord. If they want to sell then YOU'RE OUT, if they want to increase the rent (and every year they do), then start digging deeper into your hip pocket. 2 You will NEVER own it. 3 Most landlords restrict pets so if you want 10 dogs and 15 cats then you're outta luck. I currently own my own home outright (no mortgage), and it's the best feeling that renters will never have.
That’s great you own your home outright 👏 . The problems you mentioned for renting have been discussed in my video aside from the pet restrictions. As a renter - the landlords we’ve rented to live in has not restricted us from having pets. As a landlord myself - I don’t restrict pets either. This is situational and depends on the type of property/where it’s located/commonality of having pets in that surburb and local council laws as well. In addition, rents go up but so do interest rates which ultimately impacts home loan repayments. There was a report by the Real Estate Institute of Australia which found the average household spends just under 48% of their income on home repayments. This is a staggering an amount compared to renting which is 30-33% of their income across Australia. Of course you don’t own the place you rent, but the additional funds and money you save can be invested into the share market or put towards buying an investment property. This way you are still building wealth and passive income streams so you don’t have to keep working “forever” or to retirement age. Whether people rent or buy is dependant on many factors and sometimes it’s not always a choice for many people as well, particularly where you live in a HCOL city (high cost of living city).
I own my house outright. Paid off mortgage but didn’t buy in a large city. I would never have rented. Once old and not working I wouldn’t have been able to rent
Congrats on paying off your mortgage! Renting isn’t for everyone and it doesn’t mean it has to be forever - for us it is part of a wider plan / strategy and it works for us during this stage of our life. We are building out our asset / investment portfolio as part of our renting strategy (moving back home isn’t really an option). The goal is to achieve financial freedom so don’t have to work forever and when the day comes we will look to buy our own home with our investment returns and our own funds as required.
I rented during my first 10 years in Australia. Recently purchased my first home. I have to say it is the best feeling ever. I never had to stress about rent increase or eviction anymore. I rented 3 bedrooms in my 4 bedroom house and all my mortgage and some of my bills is taken care off. Now all my income can be saved and no longer needed to be portioned or saved for a home deposit anymore.
Thanks for sharing your experience and congrats on buying your first home - it is a milestone in itself 👏. We all come from different walks of life and the decision to rent vs buy is one that will change over time too! 🙏
Renting ftw for flexibility. Invest in crypto on the side
The flexibility is a key one for us too! I don’t invest into crypto anymore because I don’t have that level of risk tolerance but it is another form of asset / investment for many too!
I really appreciate these tips are coming from someone with an accounting background. I often have to google and double-check info from vids, so this is great!
Glad you found it useful 🙏. I’m all about the numbers and Google sheets! I’m glad there’s also an abundant of calculators online now to figure out all these costs before buying an investment property!
Wow, that's really insightful! Thank you for sharing, I have always been curious.
Thank you! It’s good to reflect back on my career journey for sure 🙏.
Can I just add that as a renter, even if u are flexible to move, there is quite a bit of cost for moving. Removalist can be $1k+ or $200-300 per hr. End of lease cleaning can be between $250-$500 depends on u r willing to clean. New place will probably need a light clean, some furniture may no longer fit (shopping), labour required to unpack, need to take days off work that eats into your holiday leave budget. It can quickly add up. And the biggest risk right now is rent is going up anywhere from 10% to 30%. So even if you've found the perfect neighbourhood for your kid's school, you will be eating insane rental increase if you have no other options. Don't buy a house for investment if you don't want the risks that comes with it, buy it because you like it. The mental toll to pack everything, and unpack sometimes is not worth the $$ saved from delaying a house purchase.
You raise some good points for renting downfalls and I don’t disagree with these costs you mentioned when you vacant a place 🙏. There’s always going to be downfalls with renting (I know I only mentioned 2 but of course there’s plenty more). As mentioned in the video, whether people rent or buy, it’s dependent on the personal and financial circumstances of the individual or families. Another point is not everyone can afford to buy a home / PPOR - the upfront costs are a lot more and take much longer to save up for. Renting for many is the only option as well. I agree rents are rising but so are housing prices. Also to your last point - buying a house for investment is different to buying a house to live in as a home. I purchased my first investment property because the numbers made sense and the data drove me to buy in that state and suburb.
@@withtheaims Fair comments. Recently I've seen too many examples where the rent increase is almost hitting that loan repayment mark. Especially if you're living with a partner, then combining that income makes both PPOR and IP instantly within reach. It's a good time to invest, congrats on your IP! I think with the wealthiest gen (boomers) soon to pass down their assets, there will be another influx of people with purchasing power. With that I have a question. Would you choose: A.) all out dream home/masion (by cashing in your IP/other investments etc.) or B.) live very modestly (wayyy below your means) but have passive IP income when you older and retire early with the financial bandwidth to travel frequently and comfrotably
@@Jaiysful If the price of monthly rent is below the loan repayment mark, you should definitely rent. If you're not saving considerably on your monthly costs by purchasing, then you're losing money on the deal. In the math she does above, the initial payment of $300K out of pocket amounts to $24K a year in lost revenue that would typically be earned from an index fund in an average year. This likely exceeds the amount that would go towards principle in the first year of your new mortgage, and doesn't even include repairs, which is estimated to be 1-4% of the house's value, or between $13-52K per year in the example above. And sure, moving sucks, and is expensive. but it also sucks for landlords- a single month of vacancy will wipeout a year or two of profit- and what happens if the next tenant sucks and doesn't pay rent or trashes the place? You can sue them, but you'll still be stuck with legal fees, and what if they don't have the money to recover? Because of this, rents typically go up after vacancies, and people that have been in the same apartment for a long time will end up paying considerably less in rent than their new neighbors- landlords want to encourage good tenants to stick around (not universally true, but generally true). Additionally, although moving may cost you thousands of dollars for renting, if you own, moving will cost you log factors more- typically about 10% of the value of your home. That's $140K in the example above. So if you make more money and want to move to a nicer neighborhood, or expand your family, or worse, have employment issues that require moving, these just became exponentially more complicated than if you had been renting. Depending on where you live, purchasing doesn't even necessarily give you the security of locking in a reasonable payment for the long term: The UK doesn't have fixed mortgage interest rates, so when rates ballooned from 1% to 7%, some people saw their monthly cost of ownership go up by 2-3 times. This is far worse than renters saw, and honestly just isn't affordable for most people. They're going to be forced to sell at a considerable loss because they can no longer afford their payments, and they'll still have all those pesky moving costs. I own my home. I love my home. I don't discourage people from buying a home if they want a place of their own that they can do with as they please and they can afford it. That freedom is worth the cost to me, even though I would be in a better financial situation had I chosen to rent instead of buy. Homes are about the worst investment you could make, other than crypto or cars.
@@CliftonHamilton anecdotally I was in an apartment for 3yrs and on the 3rd year I got rental increase of approx 28% because landlords interest rate has gone up. So it looks like theres a pecking order when landlord refuse to eat the cost of higher interest rate, it gets passed into tenants. And that's a natural move since high interest rate also means people are less likely to afford a home purchase. So you can't really dodge the rising cost just because you're renting.
You make some good points. A pro for renting is that money paid on interest on your home loan is dead money so that interest adds up to hundreds of thousands on the lifetime of the home loan. How much depends on the interest rates and how quickly you put extra money into the loan. The down side of renting is that inflation and increased costs for repairs/strata are baked into the rental price. Add to that lack of supply and crowds at rental property inspections being stressful especially when you have kids.
Agreed and both points are very valid. For the 1st point - this is especially in the case if the home loan or loan on the PPOR is interest only given the principal isn’t being paid off. For the 2nd point - I don’t disagree, it’s definitely tougher when family is involved. Australia needs to build more dwellings in general to solve parts of this problem. Whether it’s renting or buying there’s always going to be two sides to it especially in this type of environment. Renting isn’t for everyone nor is buying, it’s important to factor in your own personal circumstance, financial situation and job stability 🙏.
I own 3 properties but still rent. I also take advantage of claiming working from home for tax as well. Best way go imho
Thanks for sharing and love to hear others are also rent-vesting too! 👏👏
I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on renting vs buying a home, let me know in the comments below! 🤓
The only accurate information i have watched so far in all the topics you have covered! Keep up the good work!! 🎉
Thank you for your kind words 🙏.
Thanks for this! It’s really helpful for me to guide my kids as they’re choosing their undergrad studies and future paths. You’re so articulate and inspiring! 😊
Love that you are guiding your kids now - very inspiring also 👏. Although I wish I had more guidance and mentoring on the future paths growing up on my career options (outside of corporate as well), I’m grateful my older siblings were able to pave the way for me to get started! No path is ever perfect, sometimes we just need to take the leap of faith to try 👌. Thank you for leaving a comment! 😌
I appreciate how you shared your journey of learning to listen to yourself and identify your true drivers and pleasures. It’s clear you were a hardworking student and high-performing professional to reach the Big 4. I’m glad to see you thriving and finding time for yourself now. I will be happy to learn more about your journey. Greetings from France! 😊
Live at home with the parents till you are 30 years old and save every penny and invest it. Congrats on buying your first home before your 30s! I started a little late, but still managed to get there in the end.
That’s also a great strategy if your parents will allow you to live with them still 👌! I moved out with my partner at age 26 (I’m 29 now) and sometimes I wish I had lived at home for a bit longer to save more but moving out gave me the space to grow more as a person and build more passion projects on the side! Priceless! Starting late is totally okay - it is better than not never starting or not doing anything to do more with your money. An achievement is an achievement, no matter when it was achieved! 🙏
@withtheaims yes always good to save a couple more years under the parents roof. I moved overseas at 27 and didn't have a bank account there, so all the money I earned was sent to my home account, and I lived off a location allowance given by the company. As everything else was paid for, even rent and transport it really helped me realise how fast you can accumulate savings if you just don't have the money on hand to spend! Those few years overseas really helped me catch up on the late start to learning to save and invest.
@@outdoor75 Great job on not transferring the money over to spend especially being overseas! Such a great way to accumulate more savings not being able to readily access it and having enough to use 🙌. Goes to show sometimes we really don’t need much!
How could you afford? Hahaha! I have a full time job and it will take me 10 years of to save for deposit.
I didn’t think I could either but here we are with my first investment property! My income has increased from $90k to $160-$180k (inc super, bonus etc) package over the last 4 years so it’s helped alot in saving more every month! Another thing was I saved a lot of my income towards the property, around 30-40% each time I got paid - went straight to an investment property savings fund. I tried my best to not spend unintentionally if I didn’t have to as well! 🙌 You can do it too!
I’ve also provided a link for y’all to download a simple beginners version of this net worth tracker for FREE! Make sure you check out the caption section of this video! If you need it in ANOTHER CURRENCY, shoot me an email or contact me via Instagram - happy to customise it for you! Happy tracking 🙏.
This was really useful! Thanks for the downloadable 👌
Thank you! Glad you found it useful 🙏
Love it... How about the dividend income?
Thank you! I’ll be releasing a dividend tutorial in the near future 🙏 stay tuned!
Hi, The tutorial was fine, however how do you go when googlefinance does not recognise an ETF ticker Code, eg ASX:GOLD ? It would appear google Finance is also not as accurate as it could be, eg price history on ASX:ALX
Hi Michael! Correct - Google finance won’t have all the ETFs but it will generally have most. I would suggest for these ones (hopefully not many) to manually update the “market price per share”. “ASX:ALX” is available in Google finance so this one should work!
Hi Amy! Is your IG account compromised? I received messages from you on IG but it sounded like a red flag 😂
Hi David - Please check the username spelling etc as I only have one account which is moneywithaims 🙏 there’s a lot of imposter accounts on Instagram so please be careful!
How to change currency in chart
Hi there! Please refer to my share portfolio tracker video and refer to time stamps on how to change currencies in Google Sheets.
Seems like a very nice program, Only I use Linux Mint for an OS. will it work for me, Thanks
Hopefully it works for you!
Great breakdown in Google Sheets!
Thanks Mizko! 😬
Love these tips Amy!!!
Just discovered your channel. Great tutorial! 👍
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Bryan 👌
Love it and a good base to work off from. Thanks for the great work and you are getting better and better with each video
Thanks YY! Glad you enjoyed it. Yay so glad to hear the videos are getting better 😃
What a great tutorial!
Thanks Mizko!
Great video! I use to manually color each row.
Thanks Mizko - Now you can call yourself an alternating colour super-star!