Further Detail

The Economy has changed

Life for many Australians has changed dramatically over the last 30 years, with technology, scarcity of time, increasing financial pressures and uncertainty of employment it has bought with it a new level of stress and anxiety.

Where we once lived in a savings based economy we now live in a debt or credit based economy.

This brings with it a whole new range of challenges most of which many Australians struggle to cope with today.

This has caused a situation where the decisions they make concerning financial matters are more critical than that of their ancestors i.e. a financial mistake or failure of some kind can effectively ruin a person’s life for many years if not their entire life!

Today in Australia the vast majority of people are –

• working as hard as they can,
• earning as much as they can,
• working as long as they can,
• being as careful as they can
• investing as wisely as they can ...

Yet to succeed or indeed even survive financially in our modern society is becoming more difficult every day for most people.

What is the problem?

There have been thousands of success and wealth seminars, millions of books purchased, tapes and videos listened to and watched and yet only 5% of the population are financially self supporting at the age of 65.

By January of 2008 long term credit card and consumer debt in Australia had blown out to over $80Billion!

Personal bankruptcies have quadrupled and business bankruptcies have doubled over the last 8 years.

This has happened in spite of the fact that we are more knowledgeable and educated on these matters than ever before.

It is incredible that in spite of the lowest interest rates in 30 years and possibly the most stable economy of that era, many, if not most, Australians are uncomfortable or struggling one way or another financially.

The dramatic changes people face.

Although we live in an age of technology, it is interesting to note that people still want, need and desire personal and professional assistance.

The modern economy runs on borrowed money. Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with that as it increases growth, creates wealth and affords lifestyle choices which would never be possible otherwise.

However, this brings with it obvious challenges and dangers of living our lives in this manner.

Typically this can cause many people to become “trapped” in the system. It is also known commonly as the “treadmill syndrome”

• typically, people may buy a home
• take out a loan for 25 years
• then they will purchase a motor car or maybe 2
• they may then take a business loan or a loan for a holiday
• they may even become involved in an investment plan and this may be funded through borrowings also to take advantage of gearing etc.
• they then may buy a new fridge, computer, washing machine or household furniture on so called "interest free"

and before long their monthly commitments are putting a great deal of pressure on and in many cases, exceeding their income capacity.

The average home loan in Australia is now refinanced less than every 3 years! Interestingly in an era of information technology, the average person still finds it very difficult to make the right decisions.

In fact, it can be argued that there is simply too much information available making it confusing for the consumer. In financial matters of course these decisions are critical.

The solution

Is there a solution to this?

The answer is yes – despite the challenges and dangers of surviving and succeeding in a modern economic system, it has bought with it greater opportunity to create wealth and security than ever before.

There has been a great deal of importance placed on (and quite correctly so) creating wealth, preparing for retirement and increasing income.

However, it has become obvious and apparent that merely increasing income or acquiring more money, for many people, is not sufficient. The foundation of wealth is sound money management.

If people have an overall holistic plan and view and develop the habits and disciplines required to make it all come together in the long term they can survive and succeed financially.

It has been proven over the last 10-15 years that the pursuit of increased income or rapid wealth creation - without giving careful consideration to the personal, consumer and general living aspects of life - is generally doomed to failure.

The answer is in education, professional non-biased service and assistance and the development of sound planning followed by the establishment of habits and disciplines over a period of time.

The Qwest MAPProgram concept addresses this desperate need perfectly.