Financial planning involves analysing your current financial position and identifying your short-term and long-term needs and goals.
Who needs this?
Anyone who wants to realise their financial goals with confidence.
Your needs and goals will change with differing circumstances throughout the stages of your life.
This is why you need a skilled adviser who you can easily communicate with and is invested in your long term vision and goals.
At Monash Group Financial Planners we provide you with the tools to reach your financial objectives through professional financial advice, with more than 40 years’ experience helping people.
Superannuation Strategies
In many cases your superannuation account will be your largest asset after your home; because of this it’s important to decide where it is invested to maximise your investment.
You are able to choose which superannuation fund your compulsory superannuation guarantee payments are made into, and this is known as ‘Choice of Super Fund’.
Read – ‘3 Important facts about Insurance in Super’
Self-managed Super Funds
If you want greater control of your superannuation, a Self-Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF) may be the answer.
SMSF’s allow you to invest in a broad range of assets such as direct shares or property. You may not be able to do this within your current superannuation fund.
However, with the increased control comes an increased level of responsibilities. If you are a member of a SMSF then you must also be a trustee. A SMSF is not for everyone and you should carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages.
Speak to a professional adviser before you make a decision to establish a SMSF.
Read – ‘SMSF Pension and Exit Strategy’
Retirement Planning
A transition to retirement strategy (TTR) involves the commencement of a transition to retirement pension and salary sacrifice of your income at the same time.
If you have reached your super preservation age (55+ years of age, dependant on year of birth), a transition to retirement (TTR) strategy allows you to continue to work while drawing down a percentage of your super benefits.
Not only can this strategy help boost your super, it can also help minimise the amount of tax you pay.
Wealth Accumulation Strategies
These may include:
Debt Recycling
A debt recycling gearing strategy converts non tax-deductible debt into tax-deductible debt.
This makes your debt more tax-effective enabling you to maximise the repayment of your non tax-deductible debt.
Home Equity Gearing
Home equity gearing is where you borrow money against an existing property, usually your home, to invest into growth assets directly such as into shares, property or through managed funds.
The advantage of using your existing property as security is that the interest rate will usually be less than for alternative types of gearing.
Margin Lending
Margin Lending is where you borrow money against your existing cash, shares or managed funds to invest into shares or managed funds.
Margin lending is usually used by those investors who do not have equity in an existing property.
The interest rate on a margin loan is generally higher than a home mortgage.
Overview of Gearing
The purchase of managed funds, property or shares using borrowed monies remains one of the most effective ways to accumulate wealth over the longer term.
It allows you to make a larger investment than would otherwise be possible.
Gearing can be an effective strategy if the income and capital growth on the geared investments are larger than the costs of funding the geared investment, after taking into account any tax that may be payable.
Regular Savings Plan
A regular savings plan is a great way to build wealth over time. By saving regularly and earning interest on your savings, even the smallest amounts can grow substantially.
By investing an amount each month, you will be well on your way to developing substantial savings, and this introduces you to the world of investing.
Regular savings plans enable you to invest your surplus income (the minimum amount is usually $100 per month) while allowing you to access your funds if required.
Information on this site may be regarded as general advice. That is, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not taken into account when preparing this information. Accordingly, you should consider the appropriateness of any general advice we have given you, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on it. Where the information relates to a particular financial product, you should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase that financial product.