When We Can Help

This is where life gets serious and you’re in the thick of it. Your career is paramount in achieving your lifestyle and financial goals. These are often the years where setting yourselves up for the future is your focus. It’s often the time when many may go it alone and start their own business.

It’s also the stage in life when you’re the most time poor; busy raising a family, putting in the extra hours so you can advance at work so you can pay off the mortgage on the family home, pay school fees or maybe simply saving for the annual family holiday. You and your family’s security is your top priority. You need to know your well laid plans don’t get upset by illness or even family tragedy.  Protection of your family’s health and financial position is your greatest concern.

At this stage of your life your Mint adviser can assist you with decisions relating to:

• Maintaining your Lifestyle
• Wealth Creation
• Tax management
• Utilising an inheritance
• Retirement Planning
• Funding Education
• Business Planning
• Estate Planning

At this stage of life you are probably adjusting to the kids not being around as much. They have left home and for the first time in years you may have your home to yourself.  For many you are in the optimum earning stage of life and your capacity to save has never been greater.

You stopped paying school fees years ago and your money is your own.  You are probably also close to being debt free for the first time in 25 years.  You can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It’s time to start accumulating wealth to ensure the lifestyle you have always dreamt of becomes a reality.

At this stage you need more comprehensive advice. You need to make the most of your existing assets and extra cashflow.  Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• Wealth Creation
• Tax effective retirement savings advice
• Asset Protection
• Tax management
• Debt elimination
• Helping your children set-up their financial future
• Retirement Planning
• Estate Planning
• Business exit strategies

It’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labour and enjoy your life. We can help provide the right solutions to ensure that any benefits you are entitled to are maximised. This way you can get on with the more important things in your life.

Now that you are retired, many people at this stage want to think about giving something back; maybe helping out with the grandkids’ school fees or ensuring your own retirement is safe by helping fund insurances for the kids. Or perhaps you are interested in philanthropy? Whatever it is you would like, we are able to guide you in these areas.

When the time comes, we can also help pave the way to your next stage of life – when it’s time to move from your family home into either a lifestyle village or a care facility. Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• Asset Protection & Preservation of your capital
• Centrelink maximisation strategies and correspondence
• Lifestyle funding/cashflow management
• Age Care planning
• Inheritance tax mitigation
• Gifting to family
• Estate Planning

If you’re 55 you might be thinking you’d like to retire soon.  Then again retirement might be the last thing on your mind right now.  Or perhaps you’re somewhere in the middle, thinking you’d like to cut down on your hours a bit but not give up work altogether.  You may want to know if you can afford to retire, when can you retire, how much do you need to retire and how/when can you access your superannuation.

Using the “Transition to Retirement” rules, people approaching retirement can give their retirement nest egg a boast by saving substantial amounts of tax.  If you are aged 55 or older and still working, this strategy can be extremely lucrative and well worth exploring.

If you’d like to cut down on your working hours, we can also introduce you to some great techniques you can use – like transition to retirement strategies – that let you cut back on your hours without cutting back on your lifestyle.  And even if you’d like to stay in the workforce for another decade or more, we can show you ways to make the most of your working life so by the time you retire your nest egg is a more substantial one.

Your time is committed to your business or career. You require a sophisticated adviser who will understand your personal requirements. Your adviser will provide you with a service designed to accommodate your busy lifestyle and advice on such things as:

1. Cash flow management
2. Investment solutions
3. Asset protection
4. Business succession and superannuation advice
5. Strategies to tax effectively grow your wealth outside of your business
6. Asset Protection/Insurance advice

We will be a sounding board for major decisions you are faced with, and will work closely with other trusted advisers such as your accountant, solicitor etc. to ensure that you and your business are utilising the best structures to maximise your after tax position and protect your assets.

Most people who have bought a home spend several years and sometimes decades paying off their home.  They work hard for many years striving to pay off the mortgage, and for many with a mortgage thinking about paying it off is a constant in their lives.

If you have paid-off your house or you are close to it, congratulations!

While many people dream about making that last mortgage payment and the feeling of satisfaction that will come with that achievement.  Not many think about what’s next?  What should I do with the spare $,000’s a month I no longer have to put into the mortgage? Well, the good news is that now life can get even better.

There are plenty of options available.  Some options are about maximising your financial situation for retirement; and some are about maximising your enjoyment of life now.  Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• Wealth Creation
• Tax effective investment and retirement savings advice
• Asset Protection
• Tax management
• Helping your children set-up their financial future
• Retirement Planning
• Estate Planning

Debt is a fact of life, everyone has some form of debt.  But what happens when your debt levels are too high and becoming difficult to manage?  How do you regain control of your money?

It requires determination, time and a good debt management plan.  A Mint adviser can help you take control of your situation by developing a debt management plan which aims at reducing your debts and fasttracks the repayment of your non-tax deductible debt.

Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• prioritising the repayment of your debts
• assessing whether debt consolidation or refinancing is an appropriate option for you
• ensuring that you have the right insurances in place
• assisting with budgeting and cashflow planning

Discussing your financial situation with a Mint adviser can help you define your aspirations as a couple.  You and your partner will need to consider a number of financial planning issues to ensure you both have a happy financial life together.

Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• Maintaining your Lifestyle
• Understanding your current situation
• Identifying your individual and mutual financial and lifestyle goals
• Determining your current income needs
• Purchasing a home
• Wealth Creation

Buying a property is both exciting and nerve-wracking.  It is a major decision that takes planning and research, and careful budgeting.  It’s also one of the largest purchase decisions that most Australians will make in their lives.  So you want to ensure that you make the right purchase decision.

Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• Are you ready to buy?
• How much can you afford?
• What is your borrowing capacity, what is your exact budget?
• Finding the right property
• Steps to buying a property
• Understanding your current situation
• Identifying your financial and savings (home deposit) goals
• Commencing a home savings plan
• Protecting your income and  the asset which is essential when you have debt

Deciding to start a family is a very exciting time, but it can also be filled with anxiety and uncertainty because it’s basically a dive into the unknown.  Some things to come to terms with prior to commencing a family include can you continue to meet livening expenses whilst on maternity leave? Can you afford a children? Do you need a larger home? How do you protect your family?

One of the keys to running your household successfully is making good financial decisions for your family.  It’s about determining how much financial help you’re willing and able to offer your children as they progress along their own life journey.

Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• Understanding your current situation
• Identifying your family and lifestyle goals
• Determining your current and future income needs
• Identifying any other Centrelink entitlements
• Starting a savings plan
• Funding Education
• Protecting your income and assets through personal insurance.
• Estate Planning considerations

Starting a new job is exciting but can be overwhelming. Your Mint adviser can help the experience be less daunting and provide valuable advice to maximise your after tax savings.

Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• How best to save tax with salary packaging
• Setting up a superannuation account for your employer contributions
• Maintaining the lifestyle you want and showing you how to protect it
• Debt management, including the quickest way to pay-off your government HELP debt
• Creating a short and long-term savings plan
• Assessing whether you are eligible for any government benefits e.g. superannuation co-contribution, family tax benefit etc

For many Australians, starting a business is about doing better for yourself than if you worked for someone else. You might start a business by yourself, with a partner or through a franchise. Being your own boss gives you much more control over your life. However, it’s essential that you have the right support. You’ll need to consider a variety of things such as the day to day management of your business, marketing and of course ensuring you have the right staff in place.

An important element to self-employment is putting in place a Financial Plan. Managing money can be a daunting prospect in the best of times.  It becomes even more important when you start working for yourself.

Your Mint adviser can assist with decisions relating to:

• Understanding your current situation
• Identifying your financial goals
• Ensuring you have the right business structures in place, like trusts
• Ensuring you have the right agreements in place
• Key person insurance and business expenses insurance
• Business succession planning