If you think back to your first memories around money ask yourself what were they? Were they good or bad experiences and how do you feel as you relive those thoughts?

I often meet with people who believe "I am just no good with money", or in a couple-dynamic one person is the financial controller while the other partner is just along for the ride. Either of these patterns can be dangerous as money skills are like any other learnt behaviour and they can be improved.

Ask yourself a number of questions around your money habits and attitudes. What person, emotion or situation do you most identify with your behaviours? Do you hear your mother, father or other significant person's voice in your head encouraging or threatening you? Can you recall comments from your past that reinforced certain behaviours or money habits? Are those messages still guiding your behaviours? Are they valid?

If you share financial decisions with another person who routinely sabotages your good intentions or disagrees with your money decisions, what supports or strategies are available to you to handle the situation more effectively? One key here is communication. We all come from a different place when it comes to life and in particular money.

It is possibly these opposites that spark our initial attraction, however having a healthy money life together is important to strengthen your relationship. Doing this in a safe non-judgemental way is also important to ensure each individual can have his or her say. It is not always going to be easy. I suggest, as a start, be honest with yourself and your partner and don't be afraid to seek assistance if you need to up-skill in a particular area.

So as you start to sort out your winter clothes it maybe a good time to review your financial plans and strategies or your money habits and attitudes so that you can move forward in your plans for the future. If it seems a little hard at first there is help out there and you are not alone.

Possible change number 1 - increase the tax on superannuation pensions from 0%. The implications for people if this occurred would be the removal of the tax-free pensions. The arguments for this occurring would be the need for the Government to find more tax revenue and adding tax to a tax free position is a good way to achieve this. The arguments against this would be that this measure would take the focus away from trying to boost the retirement savings of Australian's and result in an added pain for those pre-retirees who have watched their superannuation balances diminish over the last 12 - 18 months. My thoughts here are that this measure will not take place this year. However if you are close to retirement and wanted to hedge your bets you could consider the option of starting a Transition To Retirement (TTR) income stream. Conditions apply but any changes would most likely be from a set date meaning current pensioners would not be affected.

Possible change number 2 - Abolishment of Franking Credits within superannuation. The benefit of the superannuation environment (tax of 15% or 0%) and the use of franking credits that can be refunded add an increased value to superannuation fund returns of all types. Again the removal of this would be a tax saving to the Government. However, it would add further downside to the overall performance of superannuation funds and move away from the Governments vision to make retirement savings our personal responsibility. There are not many options here to try and manage this if it were to happen. I feel the chance of this occurring is highly unlikely but will watch eagerly.

Possible change number 3 - Abolishment of Commissions on Superannuation Accounts. Now this is one area which I feel needs to be addressed. I often meet with clients who are paying large ongoing commissions to a financial professional that they have not seen for many years. Now I agree that a fee for work completed is fair. However it is my personal view that commissions where no work is being performed is unethical. I would hope that this measure is introduced to protect retail investors. As a check you should call your superannuation fund and confirm if you are paying any fees or commissions and how much these are. Information is also available on the ASIC consumer website www.fido.gov.au.

If you have any concerns with your current superannuation setup contact Money Mechanics for a super check up.

The last 18 months however has caused a lot of pain for some leveraged investors as the market downturn has been magnified through gearing strategies.

What you should be looking at as we run towards the end of the financial year and potentially the end of your prepaid interest period on your loans is the offering of your lending provider.

I have recently reviewed a number of providers in the market and the product solution for margin loans or protected lending is similar, however the contracts differ remarkably.

What should you be looking for?

1. Interest Rate - The interest rates vary from one provider offering 8.4% to other providers offering 6.49% this is a remarkable difference for your funding requirements and the cheaper rate will assist in bringing down your breakeven point.

2. Refund provisions for prepaid interest - Last year saw many portfolios decline in value and where investors had prepaid loans we saw the loan balance came down accordingly. Some providers refund the prepaid amount to investors if the loan balance is paid off while other contracts forfeit this amount.

3. Minimum Loan Balance - some providers with margin loan facilities have a minimum loan amount of $20,000. This is the amount interest is charged on regardless of the loan balance. For example if you have a $5,000 loan amount interest would be charged as though you have a $20,000 loan. This could cause the interest rate to be magnified significantly.

As with any loan or debt agreement it is important that you understand what you are signing and getting into. Check your provider and shop around, not all providers are the same and some offer a more flexible solution. If in doubt contact Money Mechanics for a debt health check.

Although it is possible that Australia might avoid consecutive quarterly declines in real output, by any other benchmark it is probable that Australia will this year experience its first recession since the early 1990s. Aggregate real income will fall and unemployment will rise to at least 6% by the end of the year. Nonetheless, there are good reasons to expect that the economic downturn in Australia will be shallower than in most other comparable countries.

Australia's banking system is in better shape than those of the United States and many European countries. Australia's housing market, though no less 'overvalued' by some criteria than those of the US and some European countries, has not experienced the dramatic price declines that have occurred elsewhere - and seems unlikely to do so given the physical shortage of housing here and the remarkably low rate of defaults among Australian home buyers in the face of (until recently) higher interest rates than in most other countries.

Although Australia's experience to date has been considerably less dire than that of most other western economies, the response of economic policy has been no less impressive. Official interest rates have now been cut by 41/4 percentage points since last September; and in contrast to the experience of most other countries, the bulk of this has been passed on, to varying degrees, to endborrowers. And there will be more on this score: the official cash rate is likely to come down at least a further 1/2 percentage point, to 21/2%.

There has also been a dramatic turn-about in fiscal policy, with the Federal Government injecting the equivalent of over 21/2% of GDP into the economy by way of additional net spending in 2008/09, and a further 13/4% of GDP in 2009/10. The results of the government's initial fiscal measures - the cash handouts to pensioners, carers and low income families in the weeks immediately before Christmas - appear to indicate that they can be effective in providing a temporary support to household spending; while the infrastructure spending in the most recent stimulus package will directly add to economic activity and employment.

Although these measures, together with the substantial erosion of tax revenues as a result of the global and domestic economic downturn, will push the budget into significant deficit for the first time in over a decade, the relatively strong fiscal position which the government inherited from its predecessor means that the debt which will be incurred as a result will be quite modest by both historical and international standards. On the latest projections, Australian Government net debt will reach just over 5% of GDP, well below the previous peak (in the mid-1990s) of 18.5% of GDP and dwarfed by the OECD average of 45% of GDP.Indeed, if necessary, the government could run larger deficits than currently envisaged and remain in a much stronger financial position than most other western governments.

History shows that the bottoms of bear markets such as investors have endured over the past eighteen months can persist for some time, with previous lows being revisited and retested on numerous occasions before any sustained recovery gets under way.

However, history also teaches that it is almost impossible to pick the onset of a sustained upturn in the sharemarket. For investors who have suffered so much over the past eighteen months, missing that upturn when it comes would compound their misery.