start of something extraordinary

Three lenders cut some of their variable interest rates in the past week. Unsurprisingly, they did not include the major banks, but financial comparison website RateCity says it is “the start of something extraordinary”.

IMB cut one home loan by 0.05 percentage points, BMC Mortgage cut several loans by 0.10 percentage points and Holiday Coast Credit Union cut several loans by 0.20 percentage points.

RateCity said it was the first time it had recorded three lenders cutting variable home loan rates out-of-cycle.

"While there have been several rate increases out-of-cycle, we've never seen lenders drop variable home loan rates while the cash rate remains stable,” said RateCity spokesperson Michelle Hutchison.

"Lenders have room to move after keeping on average 0.42 percentage points of the Reserve Bank's 1.75 percentage point cut to the cash rate since November 2011 from variable home loan borrowers. If these three lenders can afford to cut variable rates out-of-cycle, other lenders - including the major banks - have no excuse to sit on their hands."

Hutchison said borrowers needed to take control of their home loan instead of waiting for a discount from their lender.

"This is the start of something extraordinary as it's likely to shake up the home loan market,” Hutchison said. “It opens the door for borrowers to expect better deals and more discounts without needing to wait for the Reserve Bank to lower the cash rate.

"But it will be up to borrowers to keep your lender in line with the competition: find out what interest rate you're paying, compare your home loan to the rest of the market and demand a discount from your lender or switch to a better deal.”

She said a 0.20 percentage point discount - for instance, for a $300,000 home loan dropping from 5.9% to 5.7% - could mean a saving of $456 per year or $13,680 over 30 years.

What you could buy with the gender pay gap

When President Obama mentioned the US gender pay gap during his State of the Union address last week, he declared his commitment to the Paycheck Fairness Act that would ensure women earn "a living equal to their efforts".

So far, it seems he's only referring to a pipe dream. According tonumbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 U.S women who worked full-time earned just 80.9% of the salaries of their male counterparts.

That adds up to approximately $10,784 in lost salary each year according to The National Partnership for Women and Families. It's a number that's dipped one full percentage point since 2011 and takes any progress in closing the American gender pay gap back all the way back to 2005.

Forbes has calculated the pay gap and come up with a few ideas on how women might spend the extra money based on their locations- and it isn't just a bit of pocketchange.

The $10,784 could see women afford:

• 1.7 years worth of groceries in Washington
• Mortgage and utilities for 4 months in New York
• Rent for 14 months in Wisconsin
• Family health insurance premiums for 3.7 years in Connecticut
• College tuition for three semesters at a State University in New York
• Nearly $800,000 in retirement savings (based on an assumed 25-year career)

In Australia, our numbers don't fare much better. The national gender pay gap hovers at around 17.5 %, and a report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in January found the Graduate gender pay gap had doubled since 2011, now sitting at $5000 per annum.

As of August 2012, the average full-time working woman took home $252.80 less per week than a male who also worked full-time. That's extra cash that could pay a week's rent in Sydney, or a few trips to the supermarket.

There's still a way to go until we reach gender pay equity. Until then, we can always dream.

Super!

Sadly, the 17.5% gender pay gap combined with breaks from the workforce associated with maternity leave means women are at a considerable disadvantage to men when it comes to the funds they have to retire on. A 2012 Suncorp-ASFA Super Attitudes Survey found women hold just 37% of Australia's total super account balances.

In line with International Women's Day, ASFA is encouraging women to start thinking about super. It's a big job given 81% of us "are not currently engaged" with our super, according to ASFA/Suncorp research. A new independent website called Super Guru, which provides information and tools to get the most out of their superannuation, should help.

According to Vamos, women need to accumulate $250,000 in super by the time they retire, in order to supplement the pension (giving them a total of $500,000). That's a lot of money to earn when you factor in career breaks, a slow start on salary and numerous debts associated with education, property and raising children. Indeed, for most of us it's almost impossible without making voluntary super contributions on top of compulsory savings.

For women planning to take two years out of the workforce while raising children, Vamos recommends they contribute an extra 1% over the course of their working life. She adds that while it'd be sensible for school-leavers to start making voluntary contributions – and she makes such contributions on behalf of her own daughters as a "Christmas present" each year – the reality is that most women will wait until they've finished university and joined the workforce in a full-time and secure capacity before making such contributions. All women, at least by the age of 25, should be considering their super.

So what can you do right now? Here's what ASFA recommends:

1. Roll you super accounts into one. You need to know your tax file number.
2. Get excited about your super. Check your account balance and insurance arrangements regularly, remembering that it's your money and you have the right to know how it's performing.
3. Build it up. Make voluntary contributions and pay an additional 1% if you've had/are considering having children.

Dominant driver of economy

The Resources Revolution is the dominant driver of the economy – and likely to remain so for many years. Cities and towns with export ports have a head start in generating growth.

Export ports are one of the nation’s greatest growth industries. Projects under way or in planning for new ports or expansions of existing ones total $82 billion

Cloud storage

The general public's often poor understanding of complicated privacy settings and terms and conditions that stretch a mile long in legal gobbledygook means there are many embarrassing incidents where people have believed what they posted or shared was private, to then realise nothing is private as their comment or action goes viral around the world.

I wonder how many people know what it says in the iTunes terms and conditions, or how many people read it, before they click I agree. How many businesses understand the various cloud and storage providers' terms and conditions as we willingly dump our commercial information into their online storage systems?

It's a valid concern.

In August 2012, it was reported that Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple with Steve Jobs, opened up about his concerns, referring to the cloud:

It's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years.

With the cloud, you don't own anything. You already signed it away.

I want to feel that I own things. A lot of people feel, 'Oh, everything is really on my computer', but I say the more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we're going to have control over it.

The white elephant in the room needs facing, by companies but importantly by us individually, to take back control of our data and our lives.

Is fear holding you back?

Fear keeps many of us from getting what we want, especially in matters of money. It's true for me and it's true for you. 

Be honest with yourself and count the number of times fear has prevented you from taking action, and in the process cost you a lost financial opportunity. 

In the matter of property investment fear holds many investors back, in business growing your business to the next level can be too fearful.Some fear taking on more debt, others fear failure and some even have a fear of success (will my friends still like me?). 

Learn to harness your fears and rather than focus on the negatives, use fear to force yourself into positive action. For example, rather than allowing fear of debt to stop you taking on the commitment of buying a property you use the fear of not moving forward with your investments to motivate you

Use the fear of being stuck in an unfulfilling job for the rest of your life, without the financial independence that you are craving, to motivate yourself to take on the commitment of an investment property or start a new business or expand and grow your business.

Just like a river, fear can be bridged. 

The river of fear is only as deep and as wide as you allow it to be. And once you've crossed that river of fear and experienced the success on the other side, you usually look back and wonder why you were ever afraid. 

But here's the catch. The only people who actually realise this are those who have crossed the river and stand on the other side. 

Money and success lives on the other side of fear.