Creating wealth and prosperity is extra hard work, and here’s why

Welcome to a New Year, and a New Decade 2020

Have you felt the fashionable pull to publicly commit to a New Year Resolution?

Has your social news feed been flooded with images of bottles of Champaign, Wealth and high Fashion photos that only makes you feel isolated, or even bad about yourself?

Welcome to the annual New Year advertising splurge designed to separate you from what's left of your money, before you can really think about it.

Welcome to a new year (and a new decade). Remember old habits don't usually take us to new places.

Hopefully this the year you’ve decided to set some family goals and get a little more proactive on achieving some saving goals. One of the challenges of a busy life can be we keep our ideas and hopes about our personal money goals locked in our head, rather than writing them down where we can see them, talk about them and maybe even ask about our progress to achieve them.

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?

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 older family? You're not alone.

Welcome to the life of the Sandwiched Generation.

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?

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 ASFA can help you start your thinking about what you want to achieve in your retirement.

Then we can help you get there.

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.

Life Insurance and Super each have one thing in common...

If you don't legally decide today who you want to get your money tomorrow, someone else will make that decision for you - and you might not like the result.

Simply put, you can nominate in writing who you want to receive any future payout with a Beneficiary Nomination or Binding Death Nomination (depending upon what you choose).

The arrival of a new child, either by birth, adoption or some other happy moment brings life-changing times to someone's life.

Baby proofing a home can feel like a never-ending job constantly scanning the horizon looking for risks to manage. From putting soft pads on hard corners of tables, using soft door guards to keep little fingers from getting caught and moving everything below waist height that's bright, shiny and reachable.

The Cinderella like tale of Munro v Munro and how a simple preventable mistake, broke the hearts of his two daughters

To really understand this real-life story, to need to understand two simple legal facts about self-managed super funds:

• The trustee of an SMSF has discretion who to give the balance of your SMSF account to when you pass away.
• To remove this discretion and ‘bind the decision of the trustee to follow your instructions’, you need to sign a legally recognised Binding Nomination Form, making your wishes clear and override the discretion of the trustee.

Sounds simple enough, right?