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News$700k worth of savings tips from the government
$700k worth of savings tips from the government

$700k worth of savings tips from the government

Tags: Energy Information
Last updated by Someone on

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you would have noticed all the talk about energy prices. If you have been off the grid (pun intended), there’s no hiding from your energy bill, which will find you eventually. 

And so will the Federal Government’s latest $700,000 ad campaign!

Launched this month, the Powering Forward Campaign reportedly cost tax-payers $300,000 for 60 seconds of airtime during the AFL & NRL Grand Finals, and as much as $700,000 in fees to a Melbourne ad agency.

There's some useful information buried in there, but it's hidden behind propaganda pushing the government's energy policy credentials.

What do you think of the campaign?

Our take? The website contains some useful info for people wanting to save on power bills, for example it links to the Energy Made Easy comparison site and the Victorian Switchon site to compare offers.

It also contains energy efficiency tips for households, which can be handy.

But all that useful stuff is buried behind the silly “powering forward” slogan and some bumph about the Government’s Snowy Hydro 2.0 and gas reservation policies.

They’re important, but we’d like to see the moneysaving info up front and centre!

Here’s something else you can do to save.

A couple of months back, the Fiftyup Club started our Power-Up Campaign,  which now boasts a staggering 50,000 registrations nationally That tells us that you do want to do something about energy prices even if it’s just to send a message to power companies that enough is enough.

While Australia may rank second in the world for quality-of-life, we rate first in the world for the highest energy prices. Data from the Carbon + Energy Markets' MarkIntell service says we’re ahead of Germany, Denmark and Italy with 4 Australian states in the top ten (click here to see the list).

This despite Australia having every energy resource available in the world including coal, wind, solar, nuclear and sea-water hydro power.

What can you do? It’s as easy as picking up the phone, calling your energy retailer and asking for a better deal. Don’t take no for an answer. The energy market has never been so competitive and you can get results, with many members reporting savings in the hundreds of dollars.

Click here to see the latest Fiftyup Club energy offers, extended for a limited time only


 

 

Originally posted on .

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Bronwyn
Bronwyn from NSW commented:

I've bought an investment property (2 bedroom villa) and my 23 yr old daughter rents it. She pays full rent,ie covering my repayments. The plan is that when I'm ready to retire, if she's in a position too, she will buy it as her first property. Only time will tell whether this works for both of us, she's keen but whether she can raise the necessary money. The other benefit is that she really looks after the place as she sees it as "hopefully hers". 

Paul
Paul from ACT replied to Bronwyn:

Brilliant - did the same thing ourselves. Get a good accountant and it will work to your advantage with negative gearing - we get a good tax refund each year letting us go overseas for holidays, mind you others on this forum disagree !! 

Someone
Someone from NSW replied to Paul:

If you can afford to go on overseas holidays, then you shouldn't be joining this site, to save a few dollars because you don’t need it. Furthermore, I think negative gearing should be abolished because I think that the Government should be giving more tax breaks to first homebuyers and not to people who have investment properties. 

Paul
Paul from ACT commented:

The idea of this site, as I understand it, is to help the over 50s to save money by providing advice, either from fellow members or offers proposed by the organisers - I see this as being pro-active. This "system" (negative gearing) does allow first home owners an opportunity but it is dependent upon a family approach by using their parent's equity to kick start the process, they will eventually own the home/unit when their parents die but in the meantime the kids are not paying "dead rent" and the parents have a tax benefit (holidays) - as I said a win-win for all. If you just sit on your bum and wait for someone to hand it to you instead of going out and grasping it you will end up disappointed and bitter. quod erat demonstrandum ! 

Monty
Monty from QLD commented:

Add Local Government rates which are spiralling out of control and should be means tested for those on fixed incomes. 

Someone
Someone from NSW replied to Monty:

Local Government rates are spiraling because those in local government are spending money on not-well-though-out needless projects as well as giving themselves a handsome pay hike for what amounts to be incompetence. Local Government projects should be voted on by the rate paying community. If the votes indicate approval for the project, then it goes ahead. None of this "keep the community in the dark" while we spend their money. That is devious BS behavior. 

Craig
Craig from NSW commented:

A fair go is want I want. I have paid for everything I own and have never received Government handouts. I am sure many others in this club can say the same and would appreciate this opportunity for a bit of collective buying power. 

Olivia - FiftyUp Club
Olivia - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to Craig:

Great feedback Craig, thank you. I do hope the offers that the FiftyUp Club produces will benefit you! 

Rhonda
Rhonda from NSW commented:

I would like to see Vet's lower their fees for older people whose animals may be their only comfort and source of joy.Of course we also need help in other areas as well, life is a struggle to most after you retire with all the bills etc comeing in. Rhonda from NSW. 

Olivia - FiftyUp Club
Olivia - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to Rhonda:

Thank you for your feedback Rhonda! 

Someone
Someone from NSW replied to Rhonda:

I definitely think vets should give discounts to all pensioners. Also, dentists should lower their fees as well. We are paying too much for simple procedures. It would be lovely if vets opened their doors once every six months to give free treatment to animals of pensioners and low-income earners. We should never let our animals suffer due to lack of funds. 

Jeff
Jeff from NSW commented:

Its about time the hard workers who always pay the tax, get something back 

Lisa - Fifty Up Club
Lisa - Fifty Up Club from NSW replied to Jeff:

Well said Jeff! Hopefully future deals we have running will suit you and the more that sign up to this club the better so spread the word :-D 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

We need a revolution ! It's time for a revolution. Under50s watch out, we 50nUps are on the war path ! 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

If we all boycott the banks by all withdrawing our money on an agreed day and also not take out new insurance policies for a week and further, turn off all of our appliances for over a half a day each week and then don't buy petrol for a week, we can SEND A MESSAGE the these big companies that we DO mean business. Then and only then will they take notice of us. We need to do this as a powerful consumer group. We can bankrupt the banks and insurance companies by this method. Also, we need T-shirts that have the message "Don't mix with we 50nUps" and proudly wear it to financial institutions, grocery stores, petrol stations....in fact everywhere that we want to get our message across. Let's just DO IT as Nike would say :) 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

those of us who volunteer should be given a tax break on our travel to the venues where we do this non-paid but never-the-less highly valuable "work" in giving back to society. If the United States Federal Tax system (IRS) can acknowledge it then the ATO can too ! 

Ian
Ian from NSW commented:

It would be good to see the price of motor vehicle registration and green slips be relative to vehicle usage, rather than the current one size fits all approach. 

Olivia - FiftyUp Club
Olivia - FiftyUp Club from NSW replied to Ian:

Hi Ian, thank you for your feedback! Those areas are the kinds of things the FiftyUp Club will focus on! 

Someone
Someone from NSW commented:

In general were all saying the same thing we won't cheaper electricty and insurance . Iused to be able to pay my bil's , now day's i work twice as hard and i am now working to pay off my every day bill's . It just dons't seem to get any easyer 

David - FiftyUp Club
David - FiftyUp Club from NSW commented:

We're certainly working on insurance and electricity. We hope to have offers available soon. 

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