Melbourne Financial Planners
delivering holistic, goal-orientated strategies to make the most of your money
PURPOSE. PRIORITISE. PLAN. PROFIT.
INNOVATIVE WAYS TO CREATE & GROW YOUR MONEY WISELY
Creating An Income Plan
Here we look at your personal earnings and your investment earnings and we look at strategies to improve your position, to stretch your dollar further.
Strategies such as: income splitting, salary packaging, negative gearing.
We determine the best strategy for your specific circumstances, and what you’re comfortable with, and we implement that.
Making your investment plan.
Here we look at your short-term goals and your long-term goals and again we’re looking at the strategies that are out there to improve your position. So how do we invest your money? In defensive assets; or growth assets; or a combination of both.
We also want to know where we are going to invest. In your name, your spouse’s name, the super fund or family trust? They all have different tax consequences. Do we put all the money in at once or do we dollar cost average? Do we use a savings plan and should we be looking at gearing as part of the process? Again we identify what’s right for you and we implement that.
Mastering your debt plan.
Here we are looking at your personal debt and your investment debt. And again we are looking at the strategies that can improve your situation. Are you accessing the lowest cost debt secured against your home and your investment properties? Or are you accessing higher cost debt through margin loans, personal loans and credit cards? Are you using offset facilities? Do you have a line of credit? Are you paying principal & interest, or interest only? Are your interest rates fixed or variable?
What is your loan to value ratio? How aggressively are you invested at the moment? Maybe it’s too aggressive or maybe it’s not aggressive enough? But let’s explore that. And if you went to the bank today how much money could you borrow from them, given your asset position and your income position.
So we structure your debt in the best way to achieve your objectives and we implement that.
Creating your risk plan.
Here we are looking at your personal risks and your investment risks. So we first need to identify the risks associated with your personal circumstances and then we find ways to mitigate that risk. So, for instance, a loss of income through death or permanent or partial disability, we mitigate through life insurance.
We want to make sure your major assets are insured, your home, your cars your boat.
If you have a lot of debt we need to understand the impact on your cash-flow of a 2% rise in interest rates and if that will be catastrophic then we need to fix those rates. And we want you to be able to sleep at night with the investments you have in place so we do things like risk profiling and educate you as to what can go wrong with your investments as well as what can go right. Again we identify what’s right to you and we implement that.
Your retirement plan.
Here we first need to understand when you want to retire and then what are your income needs in retirement. We can then determine the asset base we need to build to, to provide for those income needs.
To do this we first need to understand what assets do you have within your super fund and what assets are outside your super fund; and with the constantly changing contributions rules, how we get assets and money into your super fund over time in the most tax effective way to achieve your retirement objectives. We look at the types of funds available to you and determine what’s suitable for your needs.
As you approach retirement there are various strategies that you can improve your position. Again we identify what’s right to you and we implement that.
Finalising your estate plan.
Here we are looking at which of your assets go through your Will and which assets won’t go through your will. So first we need to understand how your assets are owned as this will determine how they are treated on your death.
Then we can determine whether you need just a simple will or a more complex Will that may include; testamentary trusts, powers of attorney, guardianships, binding nominations or life tenancies. There’s a lot to discuss here and we’ll identify what’s going to be right for you and we implement that.