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.
What happens when business owners use their own money in the business?
Most small to medium business owners will tell you they went into business to provide for their family, in greater flexibility, time, increased resources, and leaving a legacy.
Like most long term plans, building a self sustaining business takes time; time to mature, time to stabilise in the market, and time to return the capital invested.
To achieve this, the majority of business owners use debt and overdraft facilities as ongoing business tools.
And these types of financial tools can quickly work against you and your family if you're unprepared.
Lets not do this year again
This year, 2020 has been a year where the confidence of many people has been tested.
In Australia it started in January 2020 with;
- unseasonably extreme bushfires that burnt over 46 million acres (or 186,000 square kilometres) with devastating effects on life; and then
- major flooding over Queensland and NSW that saw a years worth of rain delivered in just a few days, with devastating effects; and then
- the global coronavirus pandemic; (first declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January 2020, and then a Pandemic in March 2020).
As we close out 2020, it's fair to say, ‘it's been a tough year’.
Living with depression or an anxiety disorder shouldn’t stop you from getting your life insurances sorted.
As if living with a mental illness, like anxiety or depression, wasn’t difficult enough - getting your life insurance sorted when you're living with these conditions can seem overwhelming too.
Thankfully good mental health is now becoming part of the regular conversations for many Australians.
Here are tips to help navigate the application process.
How to leave an inheritance to your Grandchildren, but not your adult children?
The reasons why you may wish to leave an inheritance directly to a grandchild and not your adult children are as wide and varied as the motivation to do so.
Just leaving money via your Will for a grandchild to be held in trust until they reach 21 is fraught with risks; from a challenge to your Will to concerns of the effects of addiction, divorce, and financial mismanagement.
Are you part of the 30% of Australians who have remarried and now have adult children from a past relationship?
It's a common fact of modern life, people live longer and have more relationships. It's not uncommon for many parents today to be part of a blended family and to each have older (and often soon-to-be adult) children from a former relationship.
And when it comes to making a Will, how can you be sure you're kids are not cut out of their inheritance by your new partner?
Here's a strategy that might be worth learning more about.
What you can't give away in your Will and why?
To give something away, you need to legally own it first.
You'd think this would be kind of straightforward, well think again.
Now I'm not talking about the neighbour's cat who has lived with you as your adopted fur-child for the past two years or the trailer your adult son still parks at your home for temporary safekeeping, 5 years ago.
I'm talking about bigger value items we sometimes own with others and often believe we can simply give them away in our Will. (And if you don't have a Will we'd love to help you out with that too.)
A problem arises when we share ownership of assets with another party.
Most Australians report preferring to talk to their parents about sex, rather than money
When it comes to the reality of talking with our parents about money and aging, there is never really a right time. But there is probably a better time - and this is what you can do about that.
If you're part of the Sandwich Generation, there's a good chance you’ll become part of the growing number of adult children who will have to get involved with their parents' financial lives as they age.
One day you’ll be ready to retire (whatever that may look like)
The idea is then you can slow down (or stop) working and spend more time doing the things you enjoy. But what are your options when it comes time to access your super?
How will you be using your superannuation balance? Lump-sum or regular income stream - or a combination of both?
Until then, many of us are also taking an active interest in our elderly parent's financial position in their retirement. Many of us are either the paperwork or financial backup, so it pays to have an idea of what they’re working with too.
Investing in turbulent times seems to be a constant feature of investing - and perhaps this is part of the new normal
The last few months have proven a tough time for many investors and super fund members as share market volatility continues to wreak havoc on the expected performance of many investment portfolios.
In light of this, we thought it a helpful idea to take a look at four behavioural mindsets that can paralyse investor's thinking when they need to be the most level-headed.
- Understand the Risks and Responsibilities of Small Business Owners and Directors
- Its enough to make you want to wash your mind out
- The changing face of work and how it will affect us all
- Growing a side business while working a full time job?
- Are you feeling like your life and business have been Kidnapped by the Covid-19 Virus?
- Under 25 and have less than $6,000 in your super?
- Friends, Flatmates or Defactos and how to tell them apart
