Who wants to be a millionaire?

EDDIE McGuire asks this question often. I suspect the question is largely rhetorical because I can’t think of too many of us who would answer no!

But it may surprise you to learn that most of us are millionaires.

If the average Australian wage is $37,000 per year and an average worker spends 45 years in the workforce, that person would have earned $1.67 million in their lifetime.

So where is that money when we come to retirement?

It is probably fair to say that very few of us understand fully the concepts involved in generating and then keeping that money in our hands.

There are undoubtedly, unavoidable expenses offsetting that income such as tax and other living expenses.

But given the necessary resources about the whole system of finance, surely we should be keeping considerably more than we are today.

Our savings ratios in Australia are amongst the lowest in the world.

Knowledge of the concepts involved in saving money and investing it should take us quite a way to increasing that ratio.

Ed Murphy was a secondary school teacher and administrator for more than 30 years.

He is an experienced investor in the share, fund and property markets.

This experience and knowledge is seen very clearly in his book Money Sense. While not being targeted necessarily at the younger market, it is a very simply written book with the concepts of money being very easily expressed by Mr Murphy.

He provides in this book an overview that each of us needs to make sense of all the details. As Mr Murphy sees it “The book begins from a simple premise – life is about choice. Money Sense will tell you about your choices, and their consequences.”

The book is well written with excellent anecdotes and examples of issues that have tended to perplex all of us at various times.

It is also very simply written and takes the mystique out of the finance world and allows each of us to understand the concepts fully.