Personal Financial Planning
If you’ve got big financial goals but don’t know where to start, working with an experienced personal financial planner can be a helpful step to get things accelerating in the right direction. Often, making the most of our finances is about making smart, informed choices with the money you have, regardless of how much or how little that is.
At Aurora Wealth, we are passionate about helping you create the best financial plan for your unique situation. We bring years of experience and dedication, and are always excited to see our clients strive for and reach their goals.
What is a personal financial planner?
A personal financial planner’s job is to help you achieve your financial goals. This could mean anything from budgeting, to reducing debt, to knowing where and how to invest your money.
A good personal financial planner can work with you no matter what stage of life you’re at – whether you’re in your first fulltime job and want to learn to use your money wisely, or whether you’re ready to plan the retirement of your dreams.
When you work with a qualified personal financial planner, you’ll be able to work collaboratively on creating a financial plan. This plan is all about giving you the power to take control of your finances so that you’re well-set up for the future.
Why choose Aurora Wealth?
We get that talking about finance can sometimes be quite overwhelming and can feel a bit like an exclusive, jargon-filled club. It’s our aim to make you feel comfortable talking about your finances, setting goals and being able to confidently work towards achieving them.
Getting on top of your finances can be tricky if you don’t have a solid understanding on how and where to start. There’s a lot of financial advice out there and some is better than others. We believe financial planning is a very personal experience, and there’s no one size fits all solution. Working with a personal financial planner such as Aurora Wealth helps you filter out the noise and only focus on what works for you.
Your Personal Financial Plan
Your personal financial plan is like a GPS for your finances.
Imagine getting in the car and trying to figure out how to get somewhere you have never been. You might be able to get close, maybe in the right suburb, or a nearby street, but you will probably need the GPS to get you the rest of the way.
It’s similar with your finances and planning for your future. Going with the flow or leaving it to chance might get you there. But what if it doesn’t, and what if you don’t notice until it’s too late? Better to have some direction and know how to control the outcome.
Everyone’s situation is different, and as such, their financial plan should be different too. Your financial plan will be tailored to your personal circumstances, the goals you have set for yourself and your family, and will give you easy to follow steps to your financial freedom.
Like many things in life, the sooner you start, the easier it will be, and the more likely you will succeed. Leaving things to the last minute will usually just create unwanted pressure and stress.
Taxation
No one really likes to pay tax. But the good news is, if you’re paying tax, there a good chance you are either earning a good amount of income or you’ve had a win on an investment – so it’s better than the alternative.
Despite that, it is worth looking into ways to minimise the tax you pay.
We will be able to help you answer questions like:
- Am I paying the right amount of tax?
- Should I consider salary packaging my next car?
- How does salary packaging work?
- What expenses can I claim on my tax return?
- Is a family trust right for me?
- How will salary sacrificing to super effect my tax?
- Should I have private health insurance, and how will it impact on the tax I pay?
- What is negative gearing and how does it work?
Finding the most tax efficient use of your money means more money in your pocket. What you put away could be used to start saving for your first home, reducing your debts or investing for your future.
Budgeting
At one point or another, you may have tried coming up with a budget. Some succeed, although most inevitably fail. Often, this is because we over complicate the process, setting up spreadsheets and tracking everything down to the last cent. It becomes a chore, and then eventually gets thrown in the too hard basket. To be successful, it should be simple to implement and allow some freedom to live your life without too much guilt.
If you are contemplating putting together a budget, either for the first time, or trying again, you’ve probably run into the following questions:
- Where should I focus my attention? Repaying debt? Saving for a home? Can I do both?
- How much do I need to save and how long will it take for me to achieve my goal?
- Can I automate everything, so it is easy to manage?
- How will I pay for my children’s education?
- Why do I struggle to save money?
- I earn good income, but where does all that money go?
- What is the best way to start saving for a holiday, home, or investment property?
- I feel like I’m not getting anywhere – how do I make a budget and start planning for my future?
Understanding your cashflow will form the foundation of your financial success. We can help you understand where your money’s going, get on top of your finances and set up a simple plan to start saving for that first home, dream holiday or your future.
Debt Reduction
Not all debt is bad debt. Understanding when the right time might be to take out a loan, or what you can borrow money for, could kickstart your finances. Some debt though, is bad debt and the sooner you can pay it off and start saving interest, the sooner you can put that money towards something you’ve always dreamed about.
To get you on the right track, we will help you answer all the following questions so you can start saving interest:
- How do I save a deposit in order to get a home loan?
- Where to go to find a loan, and how much you can borrow?
- Should I make additional repayments to my mortgage?
- Should I take a fixed or variable interest rate?
- What is an offset account, and should I have an offset account?
- When is the right time to borrow for an investment property?
- How do I access the equity in my home?
- What is redraw and how do I know if I have it?
- Should I get a lease to purchase my next car?
- How do I, and should I, refinance my other debts into my home loan?
- How do I payoff my credit card debt sooner?
- Should I pay more than the minimum payment on my credit card?
Bad debt can cripple your finances. Just ask anyone who is stuck with multiple credit cards maxed out. Good debt, on the other hand, could have you in your first home, buying your first investment property, or building a property portfolio. Understanding how to navigate this is the key.
Investing
At some point in your life, you might be in the fortunate position where you are starting to think about investing. You might have heard about or discussed different options with family and friends. You may be considering investments like property and crypto, and we can help you consider alternatives like shares, managed funds or term deposits.
If you have never invested before, and started with a quick Google search, you might be overwhelmed by all the choices out there. We will help you understand your options, assist with choosing what is right and answer any questions you may have like:
- What is negative gearing?
- How much do I need to start investing in shares?
- Should I invest a lump sum? Or should I use it to pay off debt first?
- When is the best time to invest?
- How does investing in shares differ from investing in property?
- What are the risks of shares compared to investment property?
- What shares should I invest in?
- Will I lose all my money if I invest in shares?
- Will I have to pay tax on my investment?
Investing does not have to be complicated. We will help you understand whether to get into investing, where to start and which option is best to set you up for the future.
What to expect at your first appointment
If you’re interested in chatting with the personal financial planning team Aurora Wealth, it’s easy to get in touch and to get things in motion.
Firstly, you can either give us a call or book a discovery meeting where we can discuss your current situation and what you want your future to look like. This gives you a chance to meet us, explain what you’d like some help with and learn a little more about Aurora Wealth and how we help our clients achieve financial freedom.
From here, we can continue the process by booking in a full-length 1-hour meeting. These meetings are available to anyone Australia-wide and can be conducted either in person at our office in Narre Warren, VIC, or over video platforms such as Zoom or Skype. In this detailed meeting, we’ll dive deeper into your situation and come up with a tailored personal financial plan to get you on your way to achieving your goals.
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