You just might not realize that you are. You might be part of the new wave of women; the unaware investors that are suddenly realising their focus is slightly changing and they are becoming more financially aware. Through a few very small changes, your future life can be greatly changed.

If you have cash in the bank, any cash at all over a few hundred, there is no reason why you can’t get a high interest savings account to piggy back off your normal savings account and receive extra income. You can set up these accounts entirely online with about 5 minutes of work. To find a comparison site that has all the costs etc associated with these accounts go to www.infochoice.com.au>savings accounts. Or if you are really lazy go to www.ingdirect.com.au>savings maximiser. They usually have a pretty competitive rate.

If you are paying rent at the moment for the first time in many years because interest rates are so low, it might be cheaper to get a mortgage than it is to rent. Assuming you can save a deposit and you can afford to fix your loan ( as there can be big downsides if you break a fixed loan). Then now this could be worth looking into.

If you want to compare renting vs owning go to www.mfaa.com.au>help for consumers>basic loan repayments>loan calculators. Or if you are really lazy go to my mortgage company and they will tell you www.modelmortgages.com.au >enquiry

If you have a mortgage, then again you have invested in property, most of my clients improve their properties by adding value to the properties then getting them re-valued and then buying more properties. They strategically add value by working out what bells and whistles the property can get that are inexpensive relative to the value they add and would give a better future rental. They simply ask the valuer when they purchase the properties how much value their ideas would add approximately. They then carry out these usually minor renovations and buy more investment properties. They don’t buy more than every two years and don’t leverage(don’t put down a small deposit relative to the value of the new property they are buying) very highly so their risks remain relatively low. I have witnessed amazing turn around in fortunes without great risk. The clients that made the most profit did the most research. It really was that simple. If you want to be lazy, you may or may not get lucky but property research is probably not a good place to cut corners.

Two excellent free research tools are www.realestate.com.au and www.domain.com.au. An excellent paid research place is www.residex.com.au – they supply real estate agents with unbiased information. I recently interviewed John Lindeman, head of research and he had some very interesting research he has recently discovered about which niche demographics investors are currently looking at. Superannuation is a major amount of money, 9% of your income, yet according to the governments “Understanding Money Report”, around 25% of women don’t have any.

Now if you are still really not that interested there are a few basics that are good to know; you own your super and have a right to decide your superfund. Most super funds are managed by managers charging large fees for their work and most funds do not outperform the average of the share market funds(ie index funds). You can opt to put your money into a low risk index fund within most super funds rather than the more expensive option.

If you are more sophisticated and have the ability to invest in property and don’t mind commercial property, then it is costly to set up but you can then choose to borrow money and buy a commercial office, for example. With self managed superannuation many professionals such as dentists and doctors are now choosing to buy their own rooms this way.

Think about it, you know the magic of compound interest, if you leave cash siting around with high fees eating into it what will it be worth later? Not that much, if you either buy an index fund with low fees for the next 20 years until retirement or buy a commercial property that has a loan (so you get more than proportional return like you might with a house) what would be worth more?

• a) managed fund being eroded by fees without a great return in the first place
• b) index fund with low fees- not leveraged
• c) commercial property with leverage earnings

So what many people are now doing is putting their money into index fund until they have enough for a deposit for a commercial property and costs.

If you take away nothing else from this today; simply look and see what your superfund is invested in and how much money they are charging you for their work. You might not have access to this money but it does not mean that it is not yours.

None of these methods might be right for you. Your circumstances will determine what is right for you but being more aware of what you are doing will help you. It’s these small simple things that can help; knowing about high interest accounts, understanding how to make the home you live in worth more, understanding how investment property works and having the ability and courage to really understand where and how your super, (almost ten per cent of your whole income) is invested. Also deciding according to your goals and plans for yourself- are your investments in superannuation where you want them?

So just simple knowledge and a growing awareness that you really are already an investor is all it takes. Women’s groups have already started forming to address these problems. You can start yourself by simply taking the first step yourself today in learning more about finance.

Happy investing.

By Virginia Graham a finance broker from www.modelmortgags.com.au Ps. I have no vested interest in any company that I have mentioned except for my own mortgage broking company as disclosed.

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