I did this before I moved into my first property...

home or even better, moving into your new home. I want to talk to you about the things that you should do before you move so that you are completely organized, prepared, and in control at all times of your money, and that you move correctly with a great sense of release. You can continue on making great progress with your own financial goals and dreams, and you have an underlying sense of security and faith in yourself. So let us begin.

Welcome back everyone to Sugar Mommas five lay As I said, today, we're gonna be talking about how to prepare financially for moving out of home or actually moving into your new home when you have moved on from becoming a renter to actually being a mortgage holder. So these are the things that I recommend you do beforehand so that you

are completely prepared. And just a quick reminder to everyone that this episode, as is all of my episodes, they are general in nature and never product personal investment or strategic advice at any time. So what do I recommend all right? Number one, you must do a budget before you move out. You need to understand what your real

living expenses are and what you can afford. Now, what I recommend you do if you're moving out from home or you're moving from a being a renter into your own home is do a lot of time understanding what the new expenses include. I've had so many people through the Budget and cashuw Academy reach out to me and share with me that they sort of fell apart financially when they realized the ongoing expenses and just the consistent

ongoing expenses of becoming a home owner. You know, when a dishwasher broke, instead of calling the landlord or the property manager, they had to pay for it themselves, and it was a huge shock to them and it was quite hard to overcome financially and did a bit of

damage to their budget. So know this in advance, and know that you have to include in your newer budget expenses that you don't necessarily experience right now, and if you're wondering what they could be a great place to start is to obviously jump online, but also speak to

family and friends. Family and friends that are you've already moved out of home and are now paying rent and understand that you have to pay for cleaning products and toilet paper, and internet and energy and sometimes gas, and home and contents insurance and sometimes fox cell. Speak to those people as they can give you a list of things that shocked them when they moved out of home

for the first time. And for renters that are about to move into their first home as a homeowner, speak to people who have a mortgage and are living in their home and ask them what expenses did you find

caught you by surprise? Wear and tear, new carpet, maybe damage to the home, things that need to be replaced, new fridges and freezers, the strata, the home and contents, insurance, water bills, council rates, all those things that you may have just not known about innocently because you were renting or you had the comfort luxury of living at home.

So do a new budget includes all of these expenses and of course round everything up to them when there is ten dollars twenty dollars, fifty dollars, one hundred dollars, or even one thousand dollars, so you have some safe buffers in place, because even though you're doing as much as you possibly can to make sure that your budget is very accurate, there could quite possibly be something that catches you buy surprise that is particularly unique for the

home or the property that you are about to move into. Next thing I recommend you do, and this is probably the number one most important tip of this episode, and that is dress rehearsal, practice practice the new budget before you move. So if you are living at home, practice paying rent, have the equivalent coming out of your everyday account is what you would pay for rent, and have that rent money go into a separate, dedicated savings account

so it feels real. This will be a quick eye opener to see if you are really ready and can financially afford to move out of home. And of course there are people in situations who have to move out

of home. It's not a choice, but this may then help you give you a great guide as to how much you can afford in rent, and it will also be quite an eye open to see all of the new expenses that come from moving out of home and how they quickly add up and perhaps where you need to maybe cut down on other lifestyle expenses that you

were previously enjoying. By practicing before you get out there and do it will mean that you are so much more resilient, so much more prepared, and a lot calmer when it comes through handling any sort of sudden shocks or surprises. And the longer you can do this, the better.

And the great thing about doing this is that you're going to force you to save up some extra money as well, because that special separate savings account that you've established for the pretend rent money or the new mortgage repayments can build up and then you can use that as emergency money, or use that to make a lumps on payment onto your home loan if you've got your

redoor facility switched on. So if you are renting and you're paying, say three hundred dollars a week, and then you know that you're becoming a homeowner and you're going to be paying, for example, three hundred and fifty dollars per week, make sure you put a regular savings plan of fifty dollars per week or whatever the equivalent is, so that you can understand and feel what that true expense is before you make any major investment decisions, commitments,

or financial decisions. And if you find this is too much and you've done something too early or too soon,

you've got the benefit of knowing this in advance. So perhaps you delay moving out of home, or you find something that's more cost effective, or you find a home, or perhaps you decide, instead of moving into the place that I've just purchased, I'm actually going to rent it out for six months to buy me some breathing space so I can get back on top of my emergency money or any other debts, or I can give myself more time to help prepare for the new outgoing expenses

that come from owning a property. The dress rehearsal is something you will not regret. Number three furniture. Moving out of home is so exciting and one of the nicest things about moving out of home is it's such an exciting chapter of your life because you're really starting to take control and design your life and our home. Where we go home, we sleep, we feel safe, we switch off, we relax, where we reach out to our batteries. It's a very sacred space. So a lot of us naturally

want to style and decorate our home. Now, buying furniture can be incredibly expensive, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. So understanding that where you can source furniture in a financially savvy way is so worthwhile. And I will also say knowing where you should splurge and where you should save is also worthwhile. Of course, we have gum true, we have Facebook Marketplace, We have so many accounts on Instagram selling furniture or even beautiful designer pieces of furniture

at the fracture of the prices. So make sure you try and save some money where you can and know what you're prepared to buy. We love to save some money and have you know that beautiful dining table your dreams or that beautiful comfortable soul through your dreams versus where you actually do need to buy something brand new. For example, for me personally, I'd never buy a pre loved mattress. I value a good night's sleep. I want a really good quality mattress where I can feel comfortable,

my muscles can rest and recharge. So for me, I will happily buy a prelove sofa or dining table or coffee table. If it means I can have money enough money set aside, then invest in a good quality mattress. So use this time to research and explore. And if you ever want to know where I sauce beautiful furniture at a fraction of price, send me a DM on Instagram and I'll link all the accounts for you. Number four D clutter. So moving is a great opportunity to

go through your stuff. Well you kind of have to go through your stuff to pack it up, But go through your clutter and go, Okay, what actually can I get rid of and what can I actually sell and make some extra money. And of course that money that you raise can go towards your emergency savings account and help make sure that you are far more prepared and

financially resilient in moving. Or perhaps that money can go towards making a few mortgage repayments into your property before you even moved in, so you're really ahead of the game. But sit down and go through the things that you can sell. And the one bit of advice I can give you right now is someone who has a few things listed online at the moment is selling sometimes takes

a while. You don't want to be in a position where you have to dramatically and drastically drop your prices just to quickly get things sold because they're not moving fast enough. Understand it may take time. So the quicker you can list things, the better. And remember, one man's trash is another man's treasure. And the more we can sell to the circular economy, the less we are putting in landfill. So feel good financially, but also feel good

from an environmental point of view. Number five bills. I know I've already touched on the importance of the new bills that are going to be creeping in your life when it comes to renting and being a mortgage homeowner. But can I share with you a brilliant hack bills, and that is to be ahead, be ahead of those bills.

So what I share with people in my budget and cash Flow Academy is a really clever hack where you take those irregular bills such as the quarterly bills, and pay them not only monthly, but one month in advance, so that when that bill comes in it's zero dollars. Owing. For example, our water bill averages around about three hundred and sixty dollars per quarter. So not only do I pay one hundred and twenty dollars per month using the biller code, because Sydney Water is a quarterly bill, I

have paid it one month in advance. Now, initially this is a little bit harder to do. It's a bit of a stretch because you're having to almost pay two months upfront. But once you've done it, it's brilliant. It's great, and I don't need to think about it. I just automatically do this every single month. That money when I get paid, goes to Sydney Water, and I do the

same thing with my other quarterly bills. I've also got the same thing going with my energy bills and my gas bills, but they come out on a monthly basis because my energy and gas provider allows this. But you don't have to wait until that quarterly or bi annual or annual bill comes in. You can actually pay it monthly and even a month in an advance, so that

you never actually owe any money. And this can be really good for your credit score as well, because it means that it's highly unlikely that you're going to miss repayment. Because you're creating consistency in your budget and cash flow, you're less likely to forget about a bill accidentally, and of course it makes it so much easier to stick to your budget because you don't have those that volatility or that irregular expense that can sometimes catch us by

surprise because we're not properly prepared for it. So treat your bills by paying them upfront and being ahead and break them down in the same cycle as you get paid, such as monthly. Tip Number six is removal US. Now, removal less can be incredibly expensive and there is a wide range of different services and therefore different costs, So do your research in advance. You do not want to be having to pay a fortune to a removal ust because you didn't book it in time and everyone's booked out.

Understand there are certain days of the weeks where they charge a premium. So if by doing this you can actually try and strategically time your move to be a lot more cost effective. Also, understand on what you can do is to be creative when it comes to that move.

What can you do yourself? Can you swap cars with someone for the day, or can you lean on a friend to help you, or can you go and rent a ute or a van for the day to help move items safely without them getting damaged or injuring yourself in order to save some money. And of course when you look at those removalus, look at it the way

that they're charged. They charge a flat fee per day or do they charge by the hour, whichever way you go, try and look at it as a way of saving money, because the more you can do yourself, they say over a weekend or getting up earlier in the morning and doing as many trips as you can, you're going to save a lot of money. And also it means you can just leave those bulky heavy lifting items to them

because they are the experts. But there are lots of different options, and I have to say I'm saying it's not necessarily as a financial tip, but more of as an environmental one. Some removalists now have reusable boxes, so you don't need to go and buy cardboard boxes, which end up being they do guess get recycled, but sometimes

they do get wasted and not properly recycled. Some of these removal us have these big green boxes which they drop off to your house two weeks beforehand to allow you to plan and prepare to make that move happen efficiently and waste as little money as possible. So being organized is well worth your time. And then tip number seven. This is really important if you want to stay in control and be organized at all times, and that is the moment you can make sure you go and update

all of your details. Update you're addressed EE, with your superannuation company, with your insurance company, make sure your bank is sending your statements assuming you're getting them in the mail to your new correct address. Not only is this going to help make sure that you stay organized and informed as to where your money is, it's also going

to help reduce the risk of identity theft. You want to make sure that you can stay on top of and track everything that involves your financial situation, whether it be a savings account, an investment portfolio, of superannuation portfolio. You need to make sure that that information goes directly

to you at your correct address. This is why there is one point four billion dollars sitting with ACID right now in their unclaimed money fund, and most of those situations are where people have forgotten to update their contact details, so be organized. Write a list of all the people you need to get in contact with and update those details to the correct details as soon as you possibly can.

This will also make you feel so much better about yourself because you'll know exactly where your money is, how much you've got, where it's invested, what policies you've got in place to protect you. And this sense of clarity will also help give you a greater sense of purpose and direction well into the future. So that is it for today's episode. Please feel free to send this episode to anyone you know that is thinking of moving out of home, or anyone that is renting right now and

is wanting to become a homeowner. This will help give them so much more financial resilience, stability, and peace of mind. I cannot stress enough the importance of that practice that

dress rehearsal in making that transition happen. It's something that I did personally for myself, and it allowed me to really understand what my new expenses were going to really look like as a homeowner, and that practiced dress rehearsal money yes that got saved up, and in fact I was able to make my first mortgage payment before I'd even moved into the property, so it actually saved me tens of thousands of dollars in interest and valuable time,

which is something we all like saving. Alright, everyone, thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Until next Monday, Stay motivated, stay empowered, and never stop seeking new ways to achieve your financial goals and dreams. This is Sugar Mamma's fire.