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Notes on planning

What we've learned about budgeting, weddings, mortgages and mapping out ideas, with an app to help when you want one.

WeddingsMoneyProductivity

Weddings

A couple working through their wedding budget together.

Weddings · 5 min read

How much does a wedding actually cost?

Where wedding money actually goes, how we set a budget we could stick to, and the costs that caught us out.

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A couple planning at a laptop, moving on from spreadsheets.

Weddings · 4 min read

Is a spreadsheet the best way to plan a wedding budget?

Why wedding budgets outgrow a spreadsheet, what to track instead, and how to keep the budget, guest list and vendors in one place, from a couple who tried it the hard way first.

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Money

A person reviewing their home loan at a laptop.

Money · 5 min read

How can you pay off your mortgage faster?

Extra repayments, fortnightly payments, offset accounts and lump sums, and what we found when we ran our own numbers before committing.

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A breakdown of a mortgage repayment split into interest and principal.

Money · 6 min read

Understanding your mortgage: what are you actually paying for?

How to read your own home loan, the balance, rate, term and repayment, and use scenarios to see what a change would really do before you make it.

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Two mortgage repayment scenarios compared side by side.

Money · 5 min read

Offset account or extra repayments: which pays off your mortgage faster?

The two levers save interest in a similar way but leave your money in very different places. How we weigh the trade-off, and how to test both on your own loan.

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A mortgage dashboard showing the repayment and payoff timeline.

Money · 5 min read

What happens to your mortgage when interest rates rise?

Why a small rate change moves your repayment and total interest by more than you'd expect, and how to stress-test your loan before it happens.

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Productivity

A hand sketching a branching mind map on paper.

Productivity · 4 min read

How do you make a mind map that actually helps?

What a mind map is, how we make ours, and how it differs from a flowchart or org chart, from two fairly obsessive visual thinkers.

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A project plan laid out as a branching mind map.

Productivity · 4 min read

How do you plan a project with a mind map?

Turning a vague, overwhelming project into themes, tasks and owners you can actually see, using a mind map instead of a wall of to-dos.

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