Depending on who you ask, success can mean a lot of different things. Reaching a sales target. Buying a first home. Travelling first class. Running your own business. For Kelly Podlich, Mortgage Express broker, success is completing a massive 360 km bike ride to raise money for two children’s charities, and being nominated in the annual MFAA Excellence Awards, as a finalist for the Community Champion Award.

As the number of unfilled staffing positions continue to grow in the wake of “The Great Resignation”, across Australia, employers are scrambling to offer up “mega-perks” in a bid to retain existing employees and attract new talent. Everything from “heartbreak leave” and extended parental leave, to wellbeing allowances, free cookery classes and time off for life’s big events; businesses are having to get creative when it comes to enticing and holding onto staff. Here’s a closer look.

As Australia moves into a new way of life post-pandemic and lockdowns become a thing of the past, there’s one area of our lives that continues to be impacted by COVID-19: Housing. Post-pandemic, house prices have continued to rise across Australia, making it harder for first home buyers to enter the market. And rent costs haven’t escaped either, as both houses and units in capital cities and regional areas experience the highest growth rate in rent costs since 2007.

The “Great Resignation”: A term that evolved in late 2020 in response to the millions of US workers suffering pandemic-burnout, who began re-evaluating their work-life balance and quitting their jobs. As this phenomenon heads Downunder, with businesses emerging from economic hibernation already facing labour shortages across a range of industries, we take a closer look at how the pandemic has shifted priorities for workers, who now expect flexible working conditions, higher wages, and better work-life balance as the norm.

As we approach the end of yet another challenging year, and plan to begin a new one, it’s important to acknowledge that none of us have come through the last two years without facing some emotional or mental hardship. With borders opening again, being able to reunite with loved ones, engage in new experiences, and make new and fun memories are things we have to look forward to. This festive season, take time off, have a break, refill your tank. Here’s what some of the team at Mortgage Express are planning.

Most of us don’t like to think too much about death. Yet, it’s the most inevitable part of life. As such, it’s important we plan for end of life. We do this by writing a will, a legal document that outlines our instructions, legacies and bequests. Another way to plan ahead is to create a “Green Box” – a metaphorical storage box that contains all of the important financial documents, instructions, passwords and other vital information about your business and personal affairs.

After another year of COVID-19, lockdowns, social distancing and mask wearing, you’d be forgiven for wanting to splash out this year to spoil the family with a Christmas to remember. But a big Christmas could mean spending more than your budget, or going into debt to pay for it all. Begin the new year without the dread of debt hanging over your head, with these top tips for saving money this Christmas.

Too often the scenario around many dinner tables goes something like this: everyone with a phone in one hand and a fork in the other, totally focused on screens, largely ignoring what’s going on around us. This Christmas, why not commit to doing a digital detox instead? Ditch the phone, ignore the emails, turn off the notifications, and discover how to reconnect with loved ones and create festive memories. Here are four ways to do just that.

Hard to believe it’s almost the end of 2021. As we begin to wind down for the year and head into the festive season, many of us are thinking about taking a holiday, spending time with family, and inevitably, eating too much! To kick off the festive frivolities, the Mortgage Express team would like to share a few of our go-to festive favourites: seasonal recipes that never disappoint.

As one of the lesser-known forms of domestic abuse, economic abuse is no less diminishing. Abusers, who restrict, exploit or sabotage their partner’s access to money and resources such as food, clothing, even a place to live, use economic abuse to limit freedom, strip away autonomy, and damage financial wellbeing. In this article, we’ll look at some of the ways to identify economic abuse, and what to do about it.