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.
Budgeting for Big Picture People
It's not the amount, it’s the percentages that count
There are some numbers in life you should always remember. Your PIN numbers, your spouse's birthday, (maybe your mother-in-law's birthday), the number of children you have, their birthdays, and quite possibly the annual date for the football grand final.
The new problem of liking working from home (WFH)
When it comes to building robots that look uncannily similar to humans in facial appearance, the end result usually makes even the most stoic of people uncomfortable, and simply creeps us out. Our sense of being uniquely human is core to our understanding of self, our personal autonomy and our sense of innate value.
Robots purposely made to look a little too human, seem to violate that sensibility.
Understanding the psychology of making good decisions
Ask many men ‘how they are feeling’ and they'll tell you ‘how they are thinking’ - because they don't understand the question.
The problem we face traditionally as men is, ‘How you think determines how you make decisions, so what determines how you think has a more direct and measurable impact upon your business then you may first, well, ‘Think’.
So how do we improve the quality and speed of the decisions we’re making every day, while decreasing decision overload? How do we know if we’re building the right service or product? – Such questions fundamentally come down to the quality of our decisions.
Surprise: Small Businesses are not just small corporations
Modern Small Businesses are not miniature versions of big business or large corporate organisations. And using the 'C word' in small business never gets you very far in the right direction.
Trying to apply the dysfunctional processes and slow responding mindsets of corporates to a Modern Small Business doesn’t work.
So how relevant is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Small Businesses?
Following your north-star in a very crowded world
Do you ever get the feeling that time is speeding up?
The major transitions in human history have been driven by the need to domesticate cattle and plants, the large-scale mechanisation of jobs; and now the immediate dissemination of information around the world upon demand.
With the arrival of each new age, the speed of change has left us wondering, where is this all going?
What's your defense against the dark arts, in business?
Ever had a bad day at the office? Ever had a tough week?
Maybe the last 2 years in business haven’t been what you hoped for.
Perhaps Harry Potter and his mates can relate.
Growth
We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and everyone should be really excellent. Because this is our life. ― Steve Jobs
Six Significant Changes Small Business Owners will face from 1 July 2023
The Australian Small Business and Family Ombudsman, Bruce Billington, has reported six (6) important changes owners and managers of small entities need to be across by 1st July 2023.
“It is essential that small-business owners and managers understand these changes. They should check their payroll and accounting systems have been updated and they should talk to trusted advisers like accountants and bookkeepers. It is important to get this right... there are significant changes that cannot be put aside” - Bruce Billson, Australian Small Business and Family Ombudsman.
Some of the changes 1 July 2023 will bring small businesses include:
Instant Asset Write-offs | Energy Incentives | Super Guaratyee changes | New Minimum Award Wages | Single Touch Payroll | Paid Parental Leave
1. Instant asset write-off
- From 1 July the instant asset write-off threshold for eligible small businesses would be $20,000 on a per-asset basis for 12 months.
- From 1 July assets valued at more than $20,000 that could not be immediately deducted, could be placed into the small-business simplified depreciation pool and depreciated at 15 per cent in the first income year and 30 per cent each following year.
2. Small-business energy incentive
A tax incentive worth up to $20,000 would be available for small businesses next financial year to provide an additional 20 per cent depreciation for eligible assets that support electrification and the more efficient use of energy by small businesses.
- The scheme would provide businesses with an annual turnover of less than $50 million incentive to save on energy bills by making investments such as electrifying their heating and cooling systems, upgrading to more efficient fridges, or even induction cooktops.
While the scheme was still pending passing through Parliament, eligible assets or upgrades would need to be first used or installed ready for use between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.
3. Super guarantee
From 1 July the super guarantee rate would increase from 10.5 per cent to 11 per cent for all employees eligible to receive superannuation.
Small-business owners will need to use the new rate to calculate super on payment made to employers on or after 1 July, even if some or all of the pay period was for work done before 1 July.
4. National minimum wage and award rate
From the first full pay period on or after 1 July, the national minimum wage will increase to $23.23 per hour and award rates of pay would be increased by 5.75 per cent.
5. Single touch payroll
Small businesses are alerted to the requirement to have finalised their employees' single touch payroll data by 14 July.
- The ATO reports employers are required to report pay-as-you-go withholding information every time they pay employees through single touch payroll with the amounts reported to be used as pre-fill information in activity statements from 1 July.
6. Paid parental leave scheme
For employees whose baby was born or placed in their care on or after 1 July, the scheme would change with the 18 weeks of paid parental leave entitlement combined with the dad and partner entitlement of two weeks’ pay.
- The change would mean partnered couples will be able to claim up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave between them, while parents who were single at the time of their claim could access the full 20 weeks.
New ATO Checklist for Trust Distributions
Recent court cases extending the obligations of trustees to consider beneficiaries (see Re Owies Family Trust [2020] VSC 716) making managing a family trust considerably more complex.
- New Directors Penalty Notices (DPN's)
- High Court Rules on SMSF Binding Death Benefit Nominations
- Age for Super Downsizer Scheme to drop to 55
- New rules about when to pay Super
- Stapled Super and New Employees
- Government Director ID requirements now law
- APRA moves to end new Agreed Value Income Protection insurance
