Blog
Welcome to our Personal Finance Blog
Money bewilders most of us. How to spend it, save it, invest it, and how to best protect the person who makes it.
These questions we all face daily — a puzzle we all attempt to understand and solve just about every day. Yet despite money's centrality to our lives and businesses, it's something we all grapple with, and mostly in private.
- Money is the 'Lord Voldemort' of topics — feared by most and mentioned by a few. It's oddly uncomfortable to discuss socially and rarely even with our partners, parents, and children.
Perhaps that's because managing our money and life's risks inevitably involves the fusion of both the emotional and practical aspects of our decision-making processes. The most difficult of questions are those with both economic and emotional answers.
At Sapience, we're all about The How.
Our educational Personal Finance Blog is for people who want to grow and remain wealthy. And while the journey toward wealth is clearly marked, you still have to be looking in the right direction.
The Grudge Diagnostic
When you open a Life and Disability Insurance renewal invoice, you're not just fighting a price increase, you're actually fighting millions of years of evolutionary programming.
Your brain is wired to reject this bill because it offers no immediate and tangible reward. So before you act on that feeling, use the Diagnostic to check which mental bias is running the show.
The Robot That Takes Your Money (And Why You Should Let It)
Why auto-renewals on our Life and Disability Insurances can trigger our 'Loss Aversion' and how to hack your own brain
Love Makes a Family, But the Law Requires Blood
In the fabric of our modern Australian society, the blended family is a common and cherished thread. We build lives, forge bonds, and raise children not merely by biology, but by years of shared breakfasts, school pickups, and mutual affection. For our LGBT community, chosen family is often the strongest bond of all.
We live by the truth that love makes a family.
But there is a cold, hard reality we must face: The law requires blood.
You aren't Intestate (yet). But you are almost certainly "Atestate."
By Drew Browne
We have a gaping hole in the English language, and it is costing Australian families their fortunes.
In the legal and financial world, we have a clear word for what happens when you die without a Will. You are "Intestate." It comes from Latin (intestatus), and it is a messy, expensive, bureaucratic nightmare for the people you leave behind.
The Two Games of Money: Why Your Best Strength is Your Greatest Blind Spot
You're an optimist and a builder, you're wired to chase opportunities and grow your wealth - and who doesn't like that. But what if that very superpower is the crippling blind spot that stops you from protecting everything you've built? Getting wealthy is one thing, staying wealthy is another game all together
Your Biggest Retirement Asset Isn't Your Super. Are You Protecting It?
Here is a warning from The Grattan Institute 2025 report - Renting in Retirement report: Why Rent Assistance Needs to Rise.
"Most retirees who rent, live in poverty, including more than three and four single women, and this problem is set to get worse… few Australians who rent are saving enough to cover the cost of renting in retirement. As a result, today’s low income renters are likely to become tomorrow struggling renters in retirement…’ - Grattan Institute.
- The $19,800 Fine SMSF Trustees Must Avoid
- Don't Let the Law Define Your Family: A Guide to Wills for Step-Parents and Beyond
- The Millionaire Myth and How to Create an Immediate Inheritance for the People You Love (No Lottery Win Required)
- Forget the Will for a Moment. Let's Talk About Who Makes Decisions When You Can't
- The Double-Income Tightrope: What's Your Plan B for the Mortgage?
- AI and the Future of Professional Advice
- Beyond the Diagnosis: Chronic illness and life insurance policies you can no longer afford
