March 18, 2026 • 4 mins
Findr Money Expert Sarah Megginson joins the show following the second rate rise!
"We were one person away from not having an increase"
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Money lady and gentlemen. I'm a special guest.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I love there.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Sarah Meghanson, money expert at Finder and also author of
a new book that's about to come out soon called
How to Raise Rich Kids.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Well you can't raise them rich right now because it's too.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Expensive, true story. And in fact, I was just listening
to your news and they said, we've got records spending
over eighty billion dollars being spent online. So it's such
a weird time where there's the costs of living crisis,
but we're all spending more than us. Yeah, some people
probably don't want to give away the habit. I think
there's habitual stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Around buying online now that there is for dopamine and
all that sort of.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Stuff that's one hundred percent and it's a dopamine hit
that feels like winning. It's so easy to spend now.
You can spend money you don't have on things you
don't need. We find our pay later and credit cards
and we kick the can down the road. In terms
of looking at what that debt is going to do
to us long term, think about us like we are
all of a certain age where when we started shopping
(01:03):
In our teams and twenties, you had to have the
money to buy it. You maybe had a credit card,
or you put something on layby if you didn't have
the money. And now it can be eleven pm on
a Tuesday night and you're scrolling Instagram and you buy something.
You've got no money in the bank, but you can
pop it on buy and now pay later. It's just
it's so much easier to spend.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, is that why our interest rates are going up again?
Because the headline everywhere is that mortgages set to saw
by at least two thousand, eight hundred dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Usually you see those numbers attached to the average mortgage.
So in Australia right now the average mortgage is around
seven hundred thousand. On a seven hundred thousand dollars mortgage,
zero point two five percent increase is going to be
around that amount per year. Four weeks ago there was
a zero percent chance or so the markets were predicting
a zero percent chance of a rate increase, and then
(01:53):
it moved up to twenty percent. Then the war started
and inflation figures came out and by a few days
ago it was up over seventy percent and ACUI up.
We've had this slightly surprised rate increase and it wasn't inanimus.
That was the interesting thing the board that decides is
that the RBA is there's nine people on the board
(02:15):
and five of them voted yes for a rate increase,
four of them voted no. So we we were one
person away from not having this increase. Maybe not the
news people want to hear that we were forecast for
May anyway, weren't we We were, so this brought it forward.
And so now the question is have we brought it
forward or has it been another one? And it really
(02:36):
depends on what the data shows over the next two
months as to whether we'll get another rate increase. If
inflation continues to thow, we might, but it's such a
hard thing to predict because the data lagged a little bit.
But we're obviously going to have more spending on fuel.
I don't know if you know anyone's noticed, but that's
crazy expensive now and if people are not if people
(03:00):
are continuing to spend, and the hard thing is that
spending is going on our essentials, It's going on groceries
and fuel and housing. So it's not like we can't
spend that money. But then you have the story like
with just in your news of we're spent eighty billion
dollars online on things we perhaps don't need. So it
really depends on our spending habit.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So what should we do just quickly, Sarah, should we
stop spending because then like our businesses need our money,
we need to support exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I know it's an absolute nightmare, isn't it, Because as
Gaillie was saying before, it is a little bit of
a dopamine hit. Like I know myself when I've just
spent a ton of money on bills, you actually feel
like you deserve a little treat, So you want to
spend money on something nice for once. But in terms
of what you should do is it's the time to
be super realistic and if you are struggling with your
(03:51):
mortgage or if this increase is going to put you
back into a position where you're going to struggle, talk
to you bank now, and there's a lot of things
you can do. You might be able to refinance, you
might be able to move to interest only for a
short period, but you want to get ahead of it
before it becomes a problem because once you start falling
behind in your payments, the options become a little bit
less as the fewer options. So you want to have
(04:13):
that conversation as soon as possible, and just look at
your spending all your bills. I mean obviously on bias
because I work at Finder we're as financial comparison such,
but so many people are spending more on the everyday
bills than they need to be. So you know, you
can switch your internet or your mobile phone, those types
of things and save money every single month. So your
(04:33):
mortgage you might be giving you pain, but you can
take some savings in other areas well.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Thank you so much, you are the expert. We can't
wait for you for how to raise heads.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
We'll try.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Ceremnations and
Money lady and gentlemen. I'm a special guest.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I love there.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Sarah Meghanson, money expert at Finder and also author of
a new book that's about to come out soon called
How to Raise Rich Kids.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Well you can't raise them rich right now because it's too.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Expensive, true story. And in fact, I was just listening
to your news and they said, we've got records spending
over eighty billion dollars being spent online. So it's such
a weird time where there's the costs of living crisis,
but we're all spending more than us. Yeah, some people
probably don't want to give away the habit. I think
there's habitual stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Around buying online now that there is for dopamine and
all that sort of.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Stuff that's one hundred percent and it's a dopamine hit
that feels like winning. It's so easy to spend now.
You can spend money you don't have on things you
don't need. We find our pay later and credit cards
and we kick the can down the road. In terms
of looking at what that debt is going to do
to us long term, think about us like we are
all of a certain age where when we started shopping
(01:03):
In our teams and twenties, you had to have the
money to buy it. You maybe had a credit card,
or you put something on layby if you didn't have
the money. And now it can be eleven pm on
a Tuesday night and you're scrolling Instagram and you buy something.
You've got no money in the bank, but you can
pop it on buy and now pay later. It's just
it's so much easier to spend.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, is that why our interest rates are going up again?
Because the headline everywhere is that mortgages set to saw
by at least two thousand, eight hundred dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Usually you see those numbers attached to the average mortgage.
So in Australia right now the average mortgage is around
seven hundred thousand. On a seven hundred thousand dollars mortgage,
zero point two five percent increase is going to be
around that amount per year. Four weeks ago there was
a zero percent chance or so the markets were predicting
a zero percent chance of a rate increase, and then
(01:53):
it moved up to twenty percent. Then the war started
and inflation figures came out and by a few days
ago it was up over seventy percent and ACUI up.
We've had this slightly surprised rate increase and it wasn't inanimus.
That was the interesting thing the board that decides is
that the RBA is there's nine people on the board
(02:15):
and five of them voted yes for a rate increase,
four of them voted no. So we we were one
person away from not having this increase. Maybe not the
news people want to hear that we were forecast for
May anyway, weren't we We were, so this brought it forward.
And so now the question is have we brought it
forward or has it been another one? And it really
(02:36):
depends on what the data shows over the next two
months as to whether we'll get another rate increase. If
inflation continues to thow, we might, but it's such a
hard thing to predict because the data lagged a little bit.
But we're obviously going to have more spending on fuel.
I don't know if you know anyone's noticed, but that's
crazy expensive now and if people are not if people
(03:00):
are continuing to spend, and the hard thing is that
spending is going on our essentials, It's going on groceries
and fuel and housing. So it's not like we can't
spend that money. But then you have the story like
with just in your news of we're spent eighty billion
dollars online on things we perhaps don't need. So it
really depends on our spending habit.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So what should we do just quickly, Sarah, should we
stop spending because then like our businesses need our money,
we need to support exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I know it's an absolute nightmare, isn't it, Because as
Gaillie was saying before, it is a little bit of
a dopamine hit. Like I know myself when I've just
spent a ton of money on bills, you actually feel
like you deserve a little treat, So you want to
spend money on something nice for once. But in terms
of what you should do is it's the time to
be super realistic and if you are struggling with your
(03:51):
mortgage or if this increase is going to put you
back into a position where you're going to struggle, talk
to you bank now, and there's a lot of things
you can do. You might be able to refinance, you
might be able to move to interest only for a
short period, but you want to get ahead of it
before it becomes a problem because once you start falling
behind in your payments, the options become a little bit
less as the fewer options. So you want to have
(04:13):
that conversation as soon as possible, and just look at
your spending all your bills. I mean obviously on bias
because I work at Finder we're as financial comparison such,
but so many people are spending more on the everyday
bills than they need to be. So you know, you
can switch your internet or your mobile phone, those types
of things and save money every single month. So your
(04:33):
mortgage you might be giving you pain, but you can
take some savings in other areas well.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Thank you so much, you are the expert. We can't
wait for you for how to raise heads.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
We'll try.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Ceremnations and
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