Last updated: May 22, 2015



New money tricks for old dogs

Dementia aged care old people nurse

When it comes to money management, there may be a lot the older generations can learn from their younger counterparts. Thinkstock Source: Supplied

THE OLD phrase 'teaching an old dog new tricks' also applies to personal finances, writes Sophie Elsworth

Putting a young head on old shoulders can pay huge dividends when it comes to managing money.

Too often it's thought that the younger ones should learn from their older and wiser counterparts, but experts say there is a lot that the grey-haired generations can learn from those much younger.


MoneySmart's senior executive leader, Miles Larbey, says one of the first tricks of the trade that older generations can learn from the younger ones is how to embrace technology when handling their money and finances.

"Many older Australians are very tech-savvy but there are others that are less confident about using some of the new technology than younger Australians who have effectively grown up with this,'' he says.

"This includes using internet banking, which can be quick and convenient, and younger people are very comfortable with that.

"Another thing they can learn is how to make the use of mobile phone apps.

"MoneySmart has it's Track Your Spend app, which lets you have your personal budget on the go and younger Australians can show the older ones how to use these effectively."

AMP financial planner Dianne Charman says it is critical that the older generations feel safe when handling their money online.

"We can learn from the younger generation and they can teach us that it is a safe measure to bank online by using things such as PIN numbers, which makes it secure,'' she says.


Charman says bank loyalty is not as prevalent among the younger generations as it is with their peers, and long gone are the days when you stuck with the one bank for life.

"The banks need to work harder now to have that continued relationship with a customer,'' she says.

"I think the younger generations have challenged the perception of what a bank is and what kind of services they want from a bank.

"They never go into a bank, they don't have to deposit their pay cheque in the bank and so they've help pushed along the innovative side of the banks." founder Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon, agrees that "loyalty is for losers'' when it comes to having a lifetime with the one financial institution.

"Forget a nostalgic linkto a particular bank or financial institution forged decades ago in a one-on-one with the nice manager,'' she says.

"If you live your entire financial life with one provider - think accounts, mortgage, credit cards, insurance, maybe some investments - you are losing money, and potentially lots of it.''


Pedersen-McKinnon says there is not one individual institution that offers the best deals on every financial product.

She says customers are far better off cherry-picking their financial products from a range of financial institutions.

Pedersen-McKinnon encourages older Australians to follow the lead of the younger ones and not stay wedded to a single financial product with the one bank.

"We give gen Y a lot of grief for lack of staying power but older generations should also get nimble when it comes to money.

"Better offers come out all the time on everything from phone plans to life insurance and unless you take them up, money is leaching out of your pocket.

"The investor of the online savings account in the 90s saw many Australians stick with it when there are now far higher-paying products."


Innocent Australians are constantly falling victim to scams, whether it be card skimming, credit card scams, phony fraud alerts or false requests for information.

MoneySmart's Larbey says this is where the younger ones can step in and teach the older ones a few tricks.

"People can receive scam-based emails or text messages and for the younger people who have grown up with using email and mobiles, it's second nature to ignore or hit delete when they get these messages,'' he says. "That is something they can really help older generations to do - not click on any links that come in an email or a text message and ignore and delete them."


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