Let’s first agree that the single tax is real, and expensive. In fact, a 2023 study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies says the impact it’s between $13,494-$14,820 p.y. more expensive for single people when it comes to housing alone!

This means you’ve got to be extra on top of your spending. When bills don’t get halved, you need to make sure you know where every dollar is allocated, shop for the best deals and rates so you have surplus to use for your financial goals.

Get Income Protection – When you’re flying solo it can be scary and daunting to realise that you don’t have someone to fall back on when times get tough. So, if you don’t have enough funds to self insure (meaning you could live off your investment income) you probs need to make damn sure you have good quality Income Protection to save your butt in a medically related crisis. Yes, annoyingly another bill – but to pay a few percent of my annual income (which is normally tax deductible btw) to have most of my income protected until retirement = worth it. Get an insurance specialist to help you out (we can refer you to a good one if you need it).

Find a tribe – All the financial admin weighing heavy on your shoulders can get overwhelming fast. Find a friend and have regular ‘do it dinners’ and get through you money action items, figure out if there are costs you could share between you. Or, you can join our Evergreen Money Club where we do monthly financial accountability sessions (#justsaying).

Estate Planning – is more important than you probably realise – There are very strict rules on who can be your Super Beneficiary (which most single people get wrong and the Super fund won’t check it until they need to), if something happened to you documenting who can make medical and financial decisions for you can become complicated and messy and if the unthinkable were to happen and you didnt have a Will it can be hard for Probate to know who you wanted to get your assets (remember you have money in your Super and maybe some insurances, so your wealth position is probably bigger than you think!).

Talk about Money – It's easy to think that everyone is nailing it with money and you feel like some metaphorical money boat left without you. But, in my experience, most people feel the same. Ask your friends (especially your single ones) how they are managing their money. What hacks have they got for you that you could implement? What’s something they regret doing financially and why? The more we normalise talking about money with the people around us the more you will learn and the better off you will be, promise.

Let’s get onto your investing question... The answer is simple, choice & flexibility.

If you go with a third-party platform you have a wider investment menu (often called an investment universe, like we are investing astronauts looking to discover all of the star companies to invest in, honestly, who names these things I am really not sure). Having briefly looked at the Vanguard Investor Platform it looks like they have 69 investment options, which honestly is a lot... but if you want access other fund managers ETFs or to invest outside of the ASX300 directly (it appears you can only buy those) then you would need to open another investment platform to do so. Beyond direct ASX 300 you go to Vanguard directly, to get Vanguard... which I guess makes sense, you don’t get the option of Adidas when you go into a Nike store... but if you went to Rebel, you can expect to find all the brands for you to buy. Look at my attempt of a sporting (clothing) analogy for something finance related... Just in time to watch our League all-stars take on Arsenal tonight.

Consider the minimum investable amount each of the platforms have and if that's going to work for you. Vanguard looks like it has a minimum of $200 (per fortnight, month or quarter) but others may have lower minimums (some you can literally round up by 5 cents or invest from as little as $5), but, they may have higher admin and trade fees, so look into that too.

Whilst it doesn’t appear that their management fee is any lower than on other platforms, it looks like they don’t charge brokerage on their Vanguard ETFs (they do charge brokerage fees on direct trades though), so if you’re only buying their pre-mixed ETF options and you aren’t considering any alternative investments it might be cheaper overall – do your numbers!

Good luck!

Jess

Have a money dilemma?

Money dilemmas can be a nightmare! They can leave you up all night ruminating about what to do, have you feeling alone and isolated or just plain ol' stuck. So, we are here to help. I am going to tackle one a week and give you my unbiased, no BS general thoughts on how to tackle your conundrum. We would love for you to send yours (or someone you know) in. 

Obvs all of this is general advice only... especially important to note any and all of the comments above do not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information provided and the nature of the relevant financial product having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.