UBank have released a short film which they hope will change the way people think about the ‘Australian Dream’ and the way people think about buying a home.
Many Australians are financially stressed and are feeling that way due to the pressure of large mortgages. While UBank want to help people buy their own home, they also want us to question the ‘Australian Dream’. They want us to ask ‘Whose dream is it? Is this making us happy? Is this the life we want to be living?’ ‘Do we all need a quarter acre block with the hills hoist in the backyard?’
The video features six terminally ill individuals who are sharing their advice on what’s important in life. Since being diagnosed with a terminal illness, their views on life have shifted and their perspectives have changed. The advice they share is incredibly powerful and confronting, reminding us that a big mortgage doesn’t mean a better life.
{You can see full interviews with those who appear in the video at UBank Home Truths. I highly recommend watching their stories in full as well. It will make you cry, it will give you a massive dose of perspective and help you work out what is important to you.}
The video resonated completely with my experience over the last couple of years. I do feel so fortunate that for me to come to this realisation it only took a dose of burn out. I reached burn out because I was working too many hours and felt that I didn’t have the time or energy to enjoy my family. An insane situation to get myself into when family is the most important thing to me.
I had to reconsider how I was going to approach my work. I needed to work for the second income for our family, but by changing the way I worked and being more productive in my work hours, it meant I could work less hours and spend more time with my family.
I also made the decision to decline revenue generating opportunities if I felt the investment of my time would be too costly. This meant a reduction in income in the short term until longer term projects mature. I am fortunate that we had that level of flexibility in the family budget – cutting back on discretionary items (holidays, eating out, clothes, etc) and still live comfortably without financial pressure.
The underlying driver for me with my change towards work was that I didn’t want to reach the point where the kids started leaving home and I was thinking “I wish I had spent more time with them.”
Listening to the life lessons of these individuals in the UBank film feels like a privelege. They are sharing something they have learnt that has come with an incredibly high price tag. I feel we are lucky to be the beneficiaries of their wisdom; we can act now so we too don’t have the same regrets.
While everyone will benefit from watching this film, I think it is particularly important for parents. If we push ourselves by borrowing more, working more, stressing more it impacts our families. It doesn’t create the life we want or make us happy. I highly recommend watching the video below {if you are reading via email and cannot see the video below, please click here}.
UBank worked closely with Palliative Care Australia (PCA) throughout the creation of this film and they provided support for both the message of the film and in helping to identify the individuals who feature in the film.
UBank want Australians to ‘Borrow less. Live more’, an approach I think is so important. It is an approach that requires us to make tough decisions at the beginning, to allow us to achieve the family life we want.
My recovery from burnout required me to make decisions which at the time were very hard for me, but now I know they were some of the best decisions I have ever made. My life lesson from the experience was that I want to be fully present for those small moments in family life that give me so much joy, not wish those moments away because I am too preoccupied with work or “busyness”.