Wilson Luna, Your Family Your Money:

Wilson Luna is an author and runs the money-saving website http://www.yourfamilyyourmoney.com. He has helped thousands of people with ideas on debt and saving a dollar. His book, 30 Day Challenge shows people how to save $30,000 in 30 days. We got to ask some of the big questions about savings just for you.

Hi Wilson, while you are quite well known with people who love to budget, maybe you can just give us a recap on your and your wife’s experiences?
We have been in the money game for most of our lives. Mainly from the point of view of providing advice. One thing we realised over time was the fact that the people who could afford the advice didn’t really need it and the people who couldn’t afford it, really needed it. We decided we needed to fill this gap for people who generally can’t afford it, so we founded Your Family Your Money, which is an independent consumer advocacy group committed to helping Australian families become financially independent.

We do this through our educational website, live workshops and book series; one of our first books was a book known as a foundation book. This is the hardcore principles of budgeting. This book was called, Real Money Advice for Families, and it gives you the four stages of running any successful home budget.

Some of the feedback we received about the book was that people liked it, but what they needed right away was some quick savings advice. This was to kick start people’s momentum. We’ve discovered that once people get the momentum going, it is so much easier to stay on par.

So we came up with one question to answer in our next book. “What’s the most powerful way to help families save $30,000 for just 30 days effort?” Our next book, 30 Day Challenge was written to answer this question.

Now, I need to be clear about what this means. There are 30 days of changes you need to make in your life; however it takes a full year to save the whole $30,000. While in the first 30 days we show you how to change something each day, you need to keep this behaviour up for a whole year. Also this book is written for a family earning from around $80,000 and up.

Throughout this book we show you an example family we call the Models. They have two kids, a dog and they are truly your typical Australian family. This family— the Models – go on to save the full $30,000.

We tackle all sorts of areas like shopping, financial products, utilities, general household goods and a lot more. The book is not set out in chapters. It is set out day-by-day for the full 30 days. And while a book is great, we also give you tools on our website to help you every single day with that particular day’s money-saving tasks. The internet tools are like your own online coach. People love these online tools as they are interactive, rather than just talking at you.

There’s also an online tracker that’s designed to keep you motivated about saving. You can write down each saving and see it grow. Also online at our website, you can talk to our community; other people who are in the same position as you. Or even people who are further ahead in the Challenge and can give you advice on what step you are up to.

Wilson, were you always good with money or was there a moment when you changed?
It’s funny, because I come from a very poor background. I lived for three and half years in a caravan park because I couldn’t afford not too. At the time I was making nearly no money and I wanted a way out. So I went for education; I got a degree in Accounting and Applied Finance.

I found my way out of my money problems early on. I spent all my time trying to better my money situation. And to be honest, it wasn’t that hard. I thought, well, how can I help other people do the same thing? So I became a financial adviser, and this became very successful in its own right.

But I was helping people turn millions into multimillions. Instead of helping Mum and Dad go from a tough situation into financial independence which is really what I was committed to.

The only way to help Mums and Dads is through the series of books and online education, because it is cost effective to do it that way. That was my biggest life changing moment. While we try and educate Mums and Dads, we never write the books from a ‘we know better standpoint’. We always survey as many people as possible to find out what people would like to learn about. For example, for our first book we surveyed over 2000 families; this was to get the right mix of what to write about. This surveying allows us to connect more closely to what families want to read about.

You have helped a lot of people out of debt and their money problems. Can you tell us a story which has stayed in your mind?
We helped out a family where both parents came from previous marriages. She brought two children to the new marriage and he brought one. Both partners were in their mid thirties. They were renting and they just didn’t see how they could ever afford to start buying a house.

They approached us just a few years ago. The couple were stuck in the rat race with no way to get out.

She was self employed in her own right. However from a business perspective, she was charging an hourly rate, but there are only so many hours in the day and this limited her wage. He was in a job which he was not happy with, but he was scared to change or look for anything new.

We worked with this couple for over three years. We started tweaking this and that with their spending and income. Basically, we started changing their relationship with money. This is the secret; you need to feel differently about money to start making changes. A lot of people believe you need to work a lot more to get a lot more. However, this is only one way of doing things.

Fast forward to today and they have two thirds paid off their house. They’re on the central coast so it’s not Sydney house prices, but it still cost quite a bit! All their kids are in the schools they want them to go to. He is now in a job he loves, and she is making two and half times what she did in her business. All because they got a different interpretation on money. This is what makes us tick; seeing the end result.

You will never get rich overnight. Becoming wealthy is a process and you have to work at it. It’s like a good marriage; you have to work at it.

If you could go back to your 21^st birthday what advice would you tell yourself about money?
Probably to get a better understanding of compounding interest. People worry about what they make on a day-to-day basis. However, they don’t realise that time is the biggest factor in making money with compounding interest. You need to get into the habit of saving and use compound interest.

Plus the other one is never to think that where you’re starting from is where you will end up. Most people who come to us say they are broke or they have debt. They will all say, “It’s different for me.” There is no reason why you can’t become a multimillionaire, no matter what the starting point of your journey was.

Millions of people have done it before you and there is no reason why you can’t. I call it the GPS system. There are three things you need in your life to be good with money.

1.You need to know where you are going.

Most successful people know where they are going. Ask a successful person where they are going and they can paint a picture for you will heaps of clarity. They know what their goals are. Yet if you ask most people where they are going, they say I wouldn’t mind being here or being there. You need total clarity with your goals.

2.Know where you are starting from.

Too many of us live in the ‘impress the Joneses’ society. Where we are doing everything to impress them. But not only are we b...s....ing them, but we are also b...s....ing ourselves at the same time. You need to be able to look in the mirror and say to yourself this is exactly where I am financially.

3.Get Help!

This is for the journey in between where you are starting and where you want to go. Everybody thinks they have to do it on their own. However, there are people who have travelled this road before and they can save you hundreds of mistakes.

Do you talk to a lot of couples who don’t talk about money prior to getting married, and then money becomes a big issue?
Huge issue! There are three sides to money; emotional, financial and investment. This question has a lot more to do with the emotional side. For example, I came from a different money upbringing than my wife did. So when we got together everything was everywhere, because all our ideas about money were from a different background. So when you join up as a couple you need to have a really good chat about money, expectations, and where you’re going. This is the one thing which is breaking up couples more and more and it is unnecessary.

Had they talked it out at the beginning, a lot of the mistakes and arguments that happened in the marriage could have been avoided. We are big believers that there has to be at least a monthly meeting about money with the whole family. Because there is this really unhealthy habit that a lot of couples get into where one person takes on all the accountablity of the money. The problem with this is when something goes wrong it’s their fault. But when something goes right, it is everybody’s win.

If you are under the same roof, everybody should be flying in the same direction with regard to money issues.

Everyone makes mistakes with money. What mistakes have you made?
OK, I have made millions of mistakes. I have probably made more than most. But the big mistake is trusting other people with your money. It’s great to get other people’s advice. However, the accountability should always stay with “you.”

You need professionals to give you an opinion. However you need to make the ultimate decision; don’t outsource the responsibility of it.

My number two mistake is probably that in the past I have believed it is possible to get rich overnight. I have fallen for this a few times. Let me tell you, you can’t – unless you win the lotto.

The global financial crisis hit in 2008, did you notice a change in people’s behaviour? And if you did, do you think they have changed back?
It’s funny because we just wrote an article on this and have some up to date stats. Females are still wary because of the global financial crisis and have reduced their spending, and we’re seeing an impact in current retail figures that shows how low consumer confidence is at the moment.

One of the good indicators is savings are up – they have jumped for the first time in a long time. People are beginning to put a buffer zone in place, because they are concerned that the world might go back into a recession.

It seems women are more concerned than men. Plus women tend to take care of the day-to-day finances. But our research shows men take care of the longer term decisions.

What is your opinion on credit cards?
Short answer, I don’t like them. My advice to my members is to always get a debit card rather than a credit card. You can do exactly the same thing but at least you’re not spending money which is not yours. The only advantage to a credit card is you have 55 days to pay it back. However, if you’re the kind of person who will go to the 56th day, then you are going to lose. If you have any issues at all paying back debt, I would never advise the use of credit cards. Cut them up and get rid of them. If you don’t have the money, you shouldn’t be buying stuff.

Maybe you could give us a brief rundown of each book you have written?
Sure, there are four in total:

1. The first one is Real Money Advice for Families. This book consists of four stages to take you from debt to being financially secure.
2. In the 30 Day Challenge we show you how to potentially save $30,000 over 30 days. There are over 130 odd tips in it, plus little systems to save you thousands.
3. Real Money Advice for Divorce, as you can guess is about divorce. There were no divorce books out there which dealt with money in the Australian market, and our members all said this was an area they needed to know about. We surveyed people and came up with this great guide. In fact over 120 divorce services around Australia recommend this book to their clients.
4. The last book we wrote is dear to our hearts. We can try and teach this generation as much as we can about money, but the generation we want to change is the one which is still growing. So we wrote, Real Money Advice for Your Kids. This allows parents to teach their children about money and help them avoid any mistakes they have made with money. We are conditioned by our parents. Most habits we run with in our life are because we heard it verbally from our parents or we modelled ourselves on them. This book allows parents to put good conditioning into their kids. So by the time those kids get to 18, I suggest they will be successful with money, because they won’t know any different.

If you could wave a magic wand and teach everybody in the world just one fact about money or home budgeting, what fact would you teach them?
Cut up the credit cards, they are one of the biggest poisons to your home budget.

Where can people purchase the books right now?
Online at www.yourfamilyyourmoney.com or at any good bookshop.

Any other things you would like to add?
Something we talk about in Real Money Advice for Your Kids, which really helps with children is when you go shopping with the kids always pay for everything in cash. This shows the child you need to translate some value from your end. Today most kids don’t get to see real money, so a lot of kids think you walk into a shop and grab what you want. In my era, it was not like this, we saw physical cash being handed over.

Are there any new books coming out?
We are in process of writing a book for newlyweds.