Blog
Welcome to our Personal Finance Blog
Money bewilders most of us. How to spend it, how to 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.
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.
At Sapience, we're all about The How.
The Cinderella like tale of Munro-v-Munro and how a simple preventable mistake, broke the hearts of his two daughters
To really understand this real-life story, to need to understand two simple legal facts about self-managed super funds:
- The trustee of an SMSF has discretion who to give the balance of your SMSF account to when you pass away.
- To remove this discretion and ‘bind the decision of the trustee to follow your instructions’, you need to sign a legally recognised Binding Nomination Form, making your wishes clear and override the discretion of the trustee.
Sounds simple enough, right?
Who's your super beneficiary?
With superannuation now becoming a compulsory part of life, many people soon find they have significant amounts in their super growing at 9.5% per year - the minimum compulsory amount all employers are required to withhold from your income and deposit into your super account, for your retirement.
In reality, if you passed away today, the value of your super account could be significantly higher because of a ‘hidden’ life insurance component.
Are you still living up to your parent's expectations of your own money?
Below are four questions we ask our clients to help them consider could their adult relationship with money today, be unconsciously influenced by their parent's money attitudes from childhood.
We all like to think we have more control over our decisions in life than perhaps we really do -
- and this is particularly common when it comes to our personal money matters.
It's nothing new — our beliefs usually dictate how we react to life events — but what if you've forgotten your default money belief and are living and deciding on autopilot?
- The advertising industry would call that a win for advertising.
How do you feel about having money?
It's not something many people stop and consider—but there’s definitely patterns connected with personal poverty and financial chaos.
Diabetes in Australia is our fastest-growing chronic condition.
If you're a diabetic and you are wondering if you can get life insurance, you might be pleasantly surprised. For those who are newly diagnosed with diabetes, there’s a lot of misunderstanding surrounding what it means for the future.
Whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, it is still possible to get cover when applying for a full underwritten policy.
Each day 280 Australians develop this disease.
- 56% are males
- 44% are females
The onset of Type 1 Diabetes mellitus (T1DM) occurs most frequently in people under 30 years, however, new research suggests almost half of all people who develop the condition are diagnosed over the age of 30.
The question every blended family wants to be answered is often 'Does a child in a blended family lose their rights to an inheritance if their step-parent dies?
A Contractual Will Agreement might provide the answer to this difficult question.
Many blended Australian families wanting greater certainty in their estate planning choose to make a Mirror Will with their spouse - effectively leaving everything to each other.
Get clear on what's at stake when you borrow with others
Understanding 'joint and severally liability loans' and what it means for you.
You might think when you take out a joint mortgage with someone else you’re only responsible for your ‘half’ or share of the loan.
Think again because this is not the case.
- By signing a mortgage contract with someone else, you’re each agreeing to pay off the whole debt if the other can’t – or won’t – pay it.
