Financial Autonomy

Nearly every client I work with who has children give some thought to how they might help them out in adulthood. For those with young or teenage children, the thoughts are often around assisting them into the property market via a lump sum gift to bolster their potential deposit. For clients whose children are beyond this milestone, considerations around early inheritances commonly crop up. Where parents perhaps in their 70s or beyond can see that they comfortably have their retirement needs met, they are often thinking about distributing some of their wealth amongst their family today rather than leaving it all for when they're gone. But dealing with this intergenerational wealth transfer comes with some potential problems for both the giver and the recipient. In this episode, I'm going to share with you a few of those challenges that I've seen. Perhaps these examples will help you in navigating this potentially tricky area.   [Disclaimer]

In this week's episode, I break down how some of our clients have used the incredibly generous capital gains tax exemption for primary residences.   [Disclaimer]

One of the most common reasons clients engage us through the Financial Autonomy programme is a realisation that all their hard work is not translating into financial wealth and security. It generally seems to be that people in this predicament have put all their energy and focus into developing their careers and therefore just haven’t had the headspace to focus on their personal finances. I guess it’s similar to the carpenter who’s house is falling down or the mechanic who’s car chuggs along, smoke pumping out of the exhaust. Now of course everyone’s circumstances are different, and therefore the plans that we develop are unique. However in this week’s episode I thought I might share with you some of the key things we recommend to help solve this problem for our clients. We want to ensure that their prime working years result in personal wealth, which provides financial security and therefore the choices in life that are of course the overall goal here at Financial Autonomy.   [Disclaimer]

This week I chat with Kerry Ware. Kerry and her husband Scott decided to separate when their boys were teenagers. They worked through an amicable separation of the family business and co-operated to ensure the boys lives suffered minimal disruption. Then tragically, Scott was killed in an accident. In this interview Kerry shares some of the challenges faced by women who find themselves single in middle life and how she coped with the tragedy that befell her family.   [Disclaimer]

In this episode, I discuss how the investment world has become safer in our modern era.   [Disclaimer]

You're busy with your career and personal life. You don't need your wealth creation plan to suck up hours of each week. So how can you best put your earnings capacity to work to secure choices for you down the road, without the plan adding to your already full schedule? This week I’m sharing 7 ideas to help you build wealth efficiently.   [Disclaimer]

The entire Financial Autonomy framework was built by reverse engineering how my most successful clients achieved their success. In that vein, today I wanted to share with you two ways in which I've seen moderately wealthy people really take a step forward, with approaches that perhaps go against the conventional wisdom. Maybe you can't use them yourself right now, but an awareness of their application might still assist you as you develop your personal Financial Autonomy plan.   [Disclaimer]

This week I chat with Chris Panteli on his transition from fish and chip shop owner to blogger. Chris shares a tonne here on what he's learned, mistakes he's made, and blogging can make you money. Check out Chris's blog at www.lifeupswing.com [Disclaimer]

The financial world is full of acronyms. In today's episode we're going to decipher as many of these as we can find. What's TLA you ask? It stands from Three Letter Acronym and came out of an inside joke in my CBA days (Commonwealth Bank of Australia) pointing t the fact that every major initiative had to be quickly abbreviated to a TLA, causing internal communications to resemble some weird coded language with the odd English word included to give you a clue as to what was going on. Anyhow, today is about helping you make sense of the financial world. Likely, most of these you already know, but I'm hoping that there's one or two in here that you go "huh, I'd always wondered what that meant". Oh, and we're not restricting ourselves to only three-letter acronyms, despite the episode title, we got some two and some four-letter ones too. Hope you enjoy.   [Disclaimer]

This week I speak with Scott O'Neill, director from Rethink Investing, buyers agent for commercial property.   [Disclaimer]

When it comes to stock market investment, buying is easy, selling is hard. It's interesting how there's always so much talk about exciting new opportunities and yet rarely is the exit plan discussed. Well, let's address this common investment strategy oversight and help you decide when it's time to sell your shares.   [Disclaimer]

If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, and certainly if you've read my book, you'll be aware that we adhere to a framework in helping people gain choice. A core element of that framework is the three pathways. The entire Financial Autonomy framework, and in particular these three pathways, are the product of my 20 odd years as a practising financial planner. I've observed how hundreds of Australians have accumulated wealth, and the various ways in which they've used that wealth to impact their lives. The Financial Autonomy framework isn't some theoretical idea that popped out of the ether. I sometimes refer to which of the pathways a particular podcast episode relates during the introduction. I do this in the foolish assumption that everyone listening has read the Financial Autonomy book or at least checked out our website and knows what it is I'm talking about. But of course there will be many listening who have only recently stumbled across the podcast, so let's take a moment in this episode

In this week's episode, Paul goes through the different asset classes and how they can be used to create an investment portfolio that is right for you.   [Disclaimer]

This week I chat with Deferit Co-founder Mat Blas. We discuss the start-up scene in Australia, and Mat's first-hand experience in getting a disruptive new business off the ground. www.deferit.com   [Disclaimer]

Receiving an inheritance can often come with plenty of baggage attached. The most obvious is that someone has had to die, usually someone very close to you, for you to be the beneficiary of this financial gift. But the challenges don’t end there. Many of the clients I work with engage us following the receipt of an inheritance. We often have discussions around an awareness that a close relative worked hard to build this wealth and as the recipient, there’s a weight on the shoulders to not blow it, to not be frivolous. For many people, an inheritance is the first time they have had to make decisions about what to do with large sums of money. Until now all they’ve had to do is manage their cash flow, pay off the mortgage, perhaps check their super statement once a year, and that’s about it. Now they’re being asked to make decisions on hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s not surprising that people often get stuck in a state of inertia. Whilst grateful for the gift they have received, the pressure to not screw

In this episode, we talk with Emily Wallace about trends in the property market in Australia. She gives very useful insights into how we as investors, homeowners, or people looking to get into the market may want to position ourselves.   [Disclaimer]

After 10 consecutive months of gains, the Australian share market declined in September, heralding a period of volatility that continues today. There is never a single catalyst driving markets, instead, there's a confluence of views that tend to drive either positive or negative momentum. But in this most recent period of volatility, there has been one factor receiving the bulk of the finger-pointing, and that is the bond market. To be specific, it is rising yields and falling bond prices. So this week I wanted to discuss why it is that bond markets can have such a strong influence on the stock market. What it is that drives bond market shifts. And do some crystal ball gazing as to how this relationship might unfold in the months and years ahead.   [Disclaimer]

In this episode, I chat with Jillian Johnsrud, host of the Every Day Courage podcast and author of a new book Fire the Haters. The focus of our discussion is the evolution of FIRE. Jillian and her husband retired early and Jillian shares her experiences. Find Jillian on Twitter and Insta: @jillianjohnsrud www.jillianjohnsrud.com/book www.jillianjohnsrud.com/mini   [Disclaimer]

A lot has changed in the investment universe over the past 5 years or so, and the SMSF landscape has been particularly impacted. In this episode, Paul discusses the usefulness of self-managed super funds in the current climate. When are they appropriate? When can they be less than ideal? Why are they becoming less common? All this and more will be covered.   [Disclaimer]

This week Paul talks to Glen James of the My Millennial Money podcast. Glen has recently released a book - Sort Your Money Out & Get Invested (check it out here), a comprehensive guide to all things money management in Glen's uniquely engaging style.   We discuss the Investor vs Saver mindset Glen's "Money House" concept Money Hacks and plenty more. A great fun episode that you're sure to enjoy. [Disclaimer]