When Earning More Still Doesn’t Feel Like Enough

Remember that first bigger payslip? Promotion, new job, whatever it was. You looked at the number and thought, right, this is it. Things are about to get a whole lot easier.

Fast forward a few months. You’re standing at the Woolies checkout staring at the screen, wondering when a couple of bags of groceries turned into a small financial event.

Mortgage has gone out. Rego’s due. Someone’s grown out of their school shoes again. You’re earning more than you were, so how come the bank account looks exactly the same?

Worth asking. And not just the week before payday when everything feels tight.

The extra money quietly moves in somewhere

Here’s the sneaky thing. A pay rise can vanish without you buying a single ridiculous thing.

Friday night takeaway stops feeling like a treat you have to think about. The phone that’s been held together with a cracked case and hope finally gets replaced. The kids start swimming lessons. The internet plan creeps up a few bucks and you don’t even notice.

None of that’s outrageous on its own. Not even close.

But when a bit more comes in every fortnight, a bit more tends to go out. Life just sort of expands to fill whatever space you give it.

So before the next pay rise lands, it’s worth having a look at where the last one ended up. Nothing fancy. A bank statement, half an hour, a cuppa and a bit of curiosity.

Where did the extra go? Was it on stuff you actually wanted? Did any of it genuinely make day-to-day life better?

The bill you knew was coming (and forgot anyway)

There’s something uniquely annoying about car rego. It turns up every single year, on roughly the same date, and still somehow feels like an ambush.

Then there’s the insurance renewal. School costs. Christmas. A dentist visit. And the hot water system picking the worst possible week to cark it.

Most of those aren’t really unexpected. They’re just not weekly. Which makes them dead easy to leave out when you’re working out what you can afford.

One way around it is having a separate spot for all the stuff that doesn’t land every payday. Could be a dedicated bills account. Could be a spreadsheet with reminders that ping your phone. The main thing is just remembering they exist before they show up.

And for the truly random stuff, having a bit of money set aside can be the difference between “ugh, annoying” and a full-blown headache.

One savings account, five different dreams

Say you’re saving for a family holiday. You’re also eyeing off a bathroom reno. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you’d quite like to retire one day without stressing over every power bill.

All totally reasonable. But they’re not the same kind of goal.

The holiday might be next summer. The bathroom could probably wait another three years. Retirement might be decades away, or it might suddenly feel a lot closer than it did five years ago.

Money you’ll need soon needs different thinking to money you won’t touch for ages. How long it’s for, how easily you can get to it, and how much risk makes sense all come into it.

This is also where generic advice off a podcast starts getting a bit thin. The bloke banging on about his investing strategy probably doesn’t have your mortgage, your kids or your situation. Something that sounds amazing through your earbuds on the way to work might not suit you at all.

The super you haven’t looked at since last year

For a lot of Aussies, super is that thing you glance at when the annual statement turns up, then forget about for another twelve months.

Fair enough. It’s not exactly riveting dinner conversation.

But it can end up being a pretty big chunk of your long-term finances, so it’s worth knowing what’s going on with it. Which fund are you actually in? What fees are coming out? What insurance is included, if any? Do the investment settings still make sense for where you’re at?

You don’t have to work those things out by guessing. And switching funds or investment options without understanding what that means isn’t a great idea either.

Central Coast-based Coleman Financial Group offers accounting and mortgage broking services, while financial planning through its Coleman Wealth team covers areas such as superannuation and retirement planning. That can be handy when the mortgage and your longer-term goals are tugging in different directions.

Talk money before you’re stressed about it

Money chats have shocking timing. One of you wants to book a holiday. The other’s staring at the home loan statement.

Or it happens in the car on the way home, right after someone sighs and says, “We really need to get on top of this.”

Nobody’s feeling especially calm in that moment.

Try having the chat when there’s no bill sitting on the bench waiting to be paid. What actually matters over the next twelve months? What’s been quietly worrying each of you? Which expenses would you happily keep, and which ones honestly aren’t worth it anymore?

You won’t agree on everything. Doesn’t matter. At least you’ll both know what you’re working towards.

Better off doesn’t have to mean flashier

A bigger pay packet can be a genuine opportunity. It might give you room to build a bit of a buffer, knock down a debt, plan for later, or just stop panicking every time the car needs new tyres.

It doesn’t have to mean a pricier version of everything you already own.

And if the numbers still aren’t adding up, getting some advice can help you figure out which decisions deserve your attention first. Not every household needs some complicated strategy. Sometimes you just need to see the whole picture laid out clearly.

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That first bigger payslip felt great for a reason. The trick is making sure at least some of that feeling hangs around for longer than a fortnight.