A team of financial advisers have worked their way through the grade-two listed building in Bethnal Green spending an hour with residents to demonstrate the difference that this can make to an individual's financial situation.
So far the financial advisers have analysed the outgoings of 20 residents, resulting in cumulative savings of £12,523, or £737 per person over the next 12 months if residents heed the advice given. In one instance, a resident could stand to save as much as £2,425.
The advisers project that when they finish this initiative they will have saved residents of the building £61,653 by spending just one hour with each resident evaluating their outgoings.
Launched today, AXA's My Budget Day campaign is aiming to help the nation overcome financial apathy by encouraging people to take the simple step of dedicating an hour every month to reviewing their finances. The campaign centres on a suite of online financial planning tools (www.axa.co.uk/mybudgetday) which have been developed to help people manage their finances better through the impending recession, and beyond.
Keeling House, often referred to as a monument to the economic boom of the 1990s, is home to 64 households of young, urban and culturally diverse residents. The building was selected by AXA as the residents face financial challenges typical of the average Briton.
Common areas of saving were:
Utilities - advisers projected average savings of £315 per person over the next 12 months by switching to more cost effective providers
Credit card borrowing - residents could cut the cost of borrowing over the next 12 months by an average of £142.
Advisers also found that residents could improve their financial situation by salary sacrifice national insurance enhancements and moving savings to higher paying accounts.
AXA's Steve Folkard commented: "The residents of Keeling House face problems that are typical of many in the current economic climate so what we set out to do was show that the average person can make a real and tangible difference to their financial situation by spending just an hour taking stock of their finances. This is the essence of the My Budget Day campaign. It is simple advice and we've made the process even easier for people by developing a range of online tools that provide straightforward stepping stones to financial control."
