So, you’re halfway through the year and the new financial year has started. Before you know it, Christmas will be sneaking up on you too. Have you thought about how you could give yourself a Christmas treat and beat rent stress at the same time to actually enjoy the festive season?
Well, we’ve got a cracker of an idea for you! If taking a week off from paying rent this Christmas sounds good to you, read on and we’ll show you how to make it happen.
For those of you who lack the discipline or find it challenging to plan ahead or save an emergency fund for a rainy day, this is a hot tip for you!
If you’re using RentPay to pay rent your way, you might not know that this award-winning rental payment platform also offers a ‘buffer’ feature.
The buffer is essentially a handy savings tool in the app linked with your rent payments. It gives you a way of adding extra funds to your digital RentPay wallet every time you make an automatic deposit.
You can choose how much you want to add to your regular deposits and watch your RentPay buffer grow over time. You can also easily adjust your buffer settings at any time via the app.
As your buffer grows, you’ll be able to get ahead of your rent payments and build a cushion or safety net. The funds in your buffer gives you peace of mind that you’ll still have enough money to pay your rent in times when your income might fluctuate, your cashflow is interrupted, or just in case you hit any financial bumps in the road.
So, if you’re ever short on your shift hours or freelance work, or if life happens and you’re short on your rent – you can avoid rent stress completely by using the funds in your buffer to pay your rent.
To activate the buffer feature, open the RentPay app and click on ‘Savings buffer’. Then adjust the slider to your desired buffer amount. This will add the extra amount you’ve specified to the automated weekly rent payment which is drawn into your RentPay wallet.
Remember that you can always change your Buffer settings at any time, by simply re-adjusting the slider.
Importantly, your buffer funds aren’t locked away so you can withdraw from it whenever you need to.
Now that you know how RentPay’s buffer feature works, we’ll show you how you can use the remaining half of the year to take a week off from paying rent this Christmas. Let’s get into the details.
It’s 1 July 2024 and there are exactly 25 weeks and 2 days until Christmas. To keep it simple, we’ll round down to 25 weeks left to save up using your RentPay buffer for taking the week after Christmas ‘rent-free’.
According to Rent.com.au’s June 2024 Rental Market Snapshot report, the median national rent is $620 per week. So, for demonstration purposes, we’ll use the scenario where you pay $620 weekly in rent. To calculate the amount you’ll need to contribute to your buffer, divide your weekly rent by the remaining 25 weeks: $620 / 25 = $24.80.
This means that each week when you pay your $620 in rent into your RentPay account, you add an extra $24.80 to it, so you need adjust your Buffer setting accordingly to transfer $644.80 into your digital wallet. RentPay will automatically pay your $620 rent payment on time to your real estate agency or property manager, and keep the balance ($24.80) in your RentPay wallet.
As you continue paying $644.80 each week into your RentPay wallet, your Bbuffer balance increases weekly by $24.80. You’ll see the balance in your buffer grow over the 25 weeks as illustrated in the below chart.
By the time Christmas rolls around, you’ll have a week’s rent sitting in your buffer. This means you’ll be able to skip a week of having to transfer rent money into your digital wallet at the end of the year, because the balance you’ve built up in your RentPay buffer has got you covered!
If you want to be even more ambitious, you could set aside $49.60 per week into your Buffer to give you two weeks ‘rent-free’ in your December holiday. Huzzah – it’s that simple!
It just goes to show what a little bit of forward planning can do to reduce rent stress and bring you extra cheer this Christmas. Why don’t you give it a try?
Join the thousands of other renters across Australia using RentPay to make your rent money work harder for you.
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