Financial Planning

What is Financial Planning ?

Financial planning is the process of identifying the goals you want to achieve in life and devising a plan for your finances to help you achieve them. Your aim might be to buy your own house, or to help pay for your children’s higher education. Whatever your goal, financial planning can help you reach it.

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How can a financial planner help you?

A financial planner can help with the management of your finances to ensure you are on the right track to meet your financial goals. They will assess your current financial situation and discuss the objectives you want to reach and the time frame that can be achieved. By evaluating your situation, your financial planner will be able to develop and implement a plan to help you reach your goals. They will also review your plan as it develops to change and update it as necessary.

Your goal at 25 may be to retire to a tropical island by the time you are 60 – but by 35 it may be to fund your children through higher education or help them to buy their first home. A financial planner can help you make the right decisions to keep you on track for achieving your goals – such as starting to save for your pension, or putting aside money for school and university fees – and they’ll also advise you on the things you might not immediately think of like life insurance or investments to grow your capital.

Financial planning can leave you with the peace of mind that your finances are under control, and help you achieve your financial objectives.

Questions you might want to ask a financial planner…

• How can I make sure my family and my home are protected?
• If I start to save for a pension, what will happen if I can’t afford to keep up payments for a while?
• What is the best way to put aside money now for my children to benefit from once they are grown up?

Thanks to better health care we are living longer. This means that some Australians will spend more time in retirement than in the work force. You’ll need money to fund your retirement – and a fair bit of it. The good news is that there are actions you can take while you are working, as you are easing into your retirement and when you are fully retired that may assist you to reach your retirement savings goals and help make your money last you through retirement.

Transitioning into retirement

You no longer have to retire on the day you turn 65. The day you stop working is now in your hands.

By using a Transition To Retirement strategy you can take control of your retirement date, prolong your retirement or use it to turn a redundancy into a time of opportunity.

Managing your retirement

Reaching your retirement is a significant milestone, and it’s important you live the life you want to.

There are still many ways to make the most of this stage of your life and you might have a few questions.

• Where should I invest my money?
  Should you leave it in super or start an income stream? Take the annuity or pension? How good are Retirement savings accounts?
• Make your money last Do you have the right asset mix? And have you structured your finances to maximise government benefits? And what’s the best way to manage your debt?
• Do I pay tax in retirement? It depends on how the money went into your super, how you take money out and how old you are. We look at ways to minimise the tax impact.
• How much can I withdraw from super? What are the minimums and maximums you need to be aware of.
• Preparing for residential care
  Looking for aged care can be difficult and there’s lots to consider. Being aware means being prepared.
• Estate planning
  Good estate planning isn’t just about making a will. It’s a good way to take stock of your finances.

“Before doing anything about your retirement planning … Get a FREE no obligation consultation