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.
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.
Are you a business owner (or the significant other of a business owner)?
Most business owners are optimistic folks who look forward to a bright future, even under adversity. I suppose they need to have this remarkable ability given the risks they take and the challenges they face.
That said, we have found there are 5 Key risks that all business owners need to be aware of and take action on to protect themselves and their families, from their business.
This simple concept, is often quickly dismissed with the question, 'Why would I ever need to protect myself from my business?"
If you don't know the answer to this question, you definitely need to read this article.
How to split an inheritance without splitting your family
We're all entertained by the stories of contested Wills, Disinherited Heirs and Trust Fund Children who have never worked for a living, amongst the celebrity rich and infamous. It seems you cannot even walk past a supermarket register today, without another Shock, Scandal, and Gold-digger headline prompting you to pick up one of the trashy glossy tabloid magazines.
Sure, creating division among family and friends makes for great Hollywood storylines, but for the rest of us, it's something we actively seek to avoid.
If your relationship has run its course and you're heading for a split, so might your Super too
With Superannuation becoming an increasingly significant asset in the property pool for separating Australian couples, superannuation splitting laws now allow super to be treated like property and divided when a relationship breaks down.
The Australian Family Law Act now recognises Super assets held by a couple as part of the family assets, and as such super can now, be split and divided between the separating parties, (including defacto spouses) as part of a Family Law Court property settlement in three different ways.
Is there a big difference between Small Business Exit plans, and Succession Planning?
Absolutely!
But first, a Personal Note from Drew Browne
When I was first starting out as a new small business owner, it seemed I was forever needing to fend off salespeople who would tell me that their latest sales product, was an essential requirement above all others, for my new small business.
When it came to Succession Planning for Business, I recall a high-pressure salesman feeling very proud of himself when he insisted, "...before you even start a business, you need to have your succession plan in place first to exit the business.
'I still cringe whenever I hear the words, 'succession planning', uttered'.
There is a cost to Staying Open For Business, and that's a core risk to manage.
The Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the more recent COVID-19 Global Pandemic, and now inflation and rates heading north of 8%, have brought many things into the front of small business minds.
In response to financial crisis events, many business owners (and their families) had to find new ways to cut costs, deliver greater value and reduce margins and overheads, in response to tightening credit, slowing business spending, the growing inconsistent cashflow and the near runaway state of inflation, of the economy.
We all had to identify and reconsider what we believed were essential and non-essential costs to our respective businesses. But how do you decide what's truly essential and what's a 'nice to have'?
When it comes to small business, there are four business pillars that provide essential life support to an ongoing and profitable business.
And the first one is surprisingly often unknown to many small business owners and their accountants — the ability to insure 100% of all your fixed overhead costs, with Fixed Business Expenses insurance.
Dementia and Head Traumas are becoming a more common part of Australian life
So what happens if you lose the mental capacity to make your own medical decisions?
Who is legally empowered to make those on your behalf, and what happens if you haven't got the required legal documents in place should that occur?
Thankfully there is a process where you can decide ahead of time who you want to make significant medical decisions for you, should that ever need to occur.
But like all important decisions, you need to make them well before you need them.
- What's the backup plan for you, if your business partner died tonight?
- Getting more money into your super when selling your family home
- The Average Lifetime Cost of Care for the Top Five Major Health Conditions
- New National Secure Document Storage Service
- The Curse of a Post Office Will Kit
- When to arrange Intended Parent and IVF Surrogate Life Insurances chart
- Is it time to upgrade how you see Retirement?