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.
Do you still have Adult Children living at home?
It might be cultural, it might be essential, but it shouldn't put your ability to retire at risk.
If you have Adult Children still living at home with you while you’re getting ready to retire, have you ever thought about how much money that costs and the effect it will have on your retirement savings?
Supporting the siblings of people living with a disability or chronic health condition
Today there are 2.1 million Australians of working age (15 – 64 years) who are living with a chronic illness or have a disability; from mild to profound.
So it's fair to assume there are also a lot of siblings of those same people living with a disability or chronic illness.
- We often forget that for every person with a disability, there’s probably a sibling or extended family member helping support them or who act as the financial backup for that person too.
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 many of our responses to it
- Master the dark arts of using an Offset Account to reduce your mortgage
- Do you get paid Super on your overtime?
- Is defacto inheritance tax hiding in your Super payout?
- What does a Comfortable Retirement actually cost?
- When can you get money out of Super early on compassionate grounds?
- Claim a tax deduction for making a personal contribution into your Super
