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.
We all have to face the statistical realities of life. But did you know there are statistical realities for business too?
The problem for business owners and professional partnerships is the concentration of people increases the risks they face and this needs to be managed.
- There are some statistics in life that you simply need to know so you can make better choices.
Most people wouldn't dream of traveling overseas without Travel Insurance to protect their luggage and their health. Nobody wants to be stranded overseas with no luggage or worse, in a foreign hospital hoping the local doctors have the right skills and medication (and sanitation standards) that are not going to put you at greater risk.
Not running with Scissors and Credit Cards
As a kid, I clearly remember the repeated warning about the dangers of running with scissors.
What I didn't hear was the dangers of running off with a credit card, and I wonder which one has caused me more damage in my life so far?
Can you relate?
Are you feeling sandwiched between looking after your adult children and elderly parents?
Maybe you find yourself facing financial demands from both your own young family and your older family? You're not alone.
Welcome to the life of the Sandwiched Generation.
Confessions of a 13 year old iced-doughnut-fuelled loan shark.
People ask me when was the first time I thought about money matters in a more structured and deliberate way?
I must confess it was a childhood experience that led me astray and taught me the 7 early financial lessons of the schoolyard.
How we think about our money dictates so many of our responses to it - and most of them are subconscious and invisible.
Now, this is not some pretend self-help article about 'positive thinking with positively no actual doing' where you're told to sit and 'think yourself rich'.
If that worked, the tax department wouldn't need to get people to pay their taxes; you could just 'think about' it for them instead.
We all have to learn how to use financial tools to our advantage to get ahead in our financial life.
Learning how to use key financial tools is one of the habits of wealthy people… not learning how to use those same financial tools, are often the habits of people who don’t get ahead.
Do you get paid Super on your overtime? Well, the answer is usually no, but also that depends.
Your superannuation is your forced savings for your retirement, so it’s important to understand these two key features:
- How much Super are you being paid?
- How is it actually calculated when it comes to commissions, bonuses, overtime and back pay?
When is an inheritance tax not called inheritance tax?
When it's a super death payment tax of course!
Like to know more? Well, you should because this tax problem has special meaning for people with super, and adult children of people with super.
If you plan on leaving your superannuation to your now adult kids when you pass away, there's a strong possibility your super death benefit payout will be hit with tax.
Want to know if you'll be financially comfortable in retirement?
Well, first you need to have a standard of what's comfortable and what's, well ... a modest standard of living.
Thankfully, an annual assessment run by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASAF) can help you start thinking about what you want to achieve in your retirement.
Then we can help you get there.
- When can you get money out of Super early on compassionate grounds?
- Claim a tax deduction for making a personal contribution into your Super
- How to compare home loans
- Breaking a lease on a rental property because of Domestic Violence
- Tips for when you’re looking to buy strata residential property
- What do you have to do as an Executor of a Will?
- 8 Things couples can do to talk about money better
