Differentiating between our needs vs wants | Key UBank Changes That You Need To Know
Hey friends,
I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekends (except those living in WA & QLD!) Now I’ve been a gamer for the majority of my life, with the main platforms I played on being either PC or PlayStation.
Growing up I played games like MapleStory, Runescape, Dota, Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, etc. and there’s probably plenty I’m leaving off the list. But over the past two years, I don’t think I’ve played any games at all simply due to a lack of time juggling everything in my life.
I haven’t had the urge to play any games either… But with the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I wanted to play that game so badly because Final Fantasy VII was a childhood game of mine. But it was on PS5 exclusively and I didn’t have one and I couldn’t justify purchasing the console just to play one game, especially considering the price!
Now last night I was over at my friend’s house for dinner who had a PS5 and I was mentioning to him how I’ve been wanting to play a game that was exclusively on PS5. And he ended up letting me borrow his PS5 since he hasn’t had the time to play it for the past 6 months anyway. Another friend at the dinner already had the game and had finished playing it, so I could borrow the game as well!
What I’m getting at with this story is understanding our needs versus our wants. This was definitely a want for me as I didn’t need to play the game. It wouldn’t have been the most financially savvy move to buy a PS5 just to play one game, even though I definitely could afford it. And in this scenario, by not acting on my wants I was able to save hundreds of dollars by borrowing it from my friends!
Knowing the difference between wants and needs can help with managing your finances and I just wanted to reemphasize this point given the current cost of living crisis in Australia.
The line between the two can be blurry, and it’s made even more confusing by the fact that what’s classified as a need vs. a want isn’t the same for everyone.
💵 UBank Interest Rate Changes
UBank has always been one of the high-interest savings accounts that I’ve been using and recommending to my family, friends, and viewers. However, they recently announced some changes that I’m not too excited about.
New external payments from Save accounts will no longer be available.
This includes direct debits, PayTo, BPay, and BSB & account payments from Save. I’m quite disappointed about this feature change because I had a lot of my direct debits set up to my Save account which saved me the hassle of me moving my funds around constantly.
I'm guessing they don't want people to leave money parked in a Save account earning interest and have direct debits etc. straight out of that account. If you have to move your money to a bills account or spend account because you may need to use it, then it saves them from having to pay interest on that money.New bonus interest tiers
They are introducing different tiers with corresponding interest rates. The tiers mean that different amounts of your savings will earn different rates depending on which tier they’re in. They haven’t even announced what the interest rates will be but I can’t imagine it being better than what it currently is.
Tier 1: $0-$100k
Tier 2: $100k - $250K
Tier 3: $250K +Increasing the amount you need to deposit to qualify for bonus interest from $200 to $500.
This might make it slightly more inconvenient for some people out there, but overall this wasn’t the worst change.
So what does this mean? Depending on the new bonus interest rate tiers I might be tempted to switch bank accounts, which is a shame because the UI and app for UBank have been a great experience. But at the end of the day, what’s most important to me is the interest rate that I’m earning.
Now If you’re looking to change banks due to these changes and wondered which bank offers the highest interest rates, then check out this account leaderboard which lists out all the banks and ranks them by the interest rate offered - Accounts Leaderboard
The other bank that I currently use is ING, however, I might consider moving across to RaboBank Premium Saver given that the only requirement to earn the bonus interest rate is to increase your balance by $200 each month.
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