Category: Financial Consulting
Expert insights, practical strategies, and market updates to help you make informed financial decisions for your future.
Dental clinics have started marketing super as a payment plan, and applications have more than doubled in two years. Compassionate release exists for genuine hardship, but the bar is high, the ATO rejects 30% of applications, and Phil’s maths shows a $40,000 withdrawal can cost $390,000 by retirement.
The average super balance in Australia is now $182,781, but the median is just $63,339. See the latest ATO figures for every age group, how your balance compares and what the numbers actually mean for your retirement.
You can retire whenever you want. That is the short answer, and it surprises people every week. A lot of Australians treat 67 as “retirement age”, but 67 is only the Age Pension age. Your actual retirement date is your call, and for most people the real question is how to fund the gap between stopping work and the Age Pension starting.
That gap, typically from around 60 to 67, is the most dangerous stretch in most retirement plans. We recorded a podcast episode on exactly this, because the strategies that soften it are legal, well established and almost nobody has heard of them.
Why your super doubles fastest late in life, the rule of 72, and how inflation quietly compounds against you. Real examples from Australian advisers.
67 is the Age Pension age, not the retirement age. From 60, JobSeeker’s requirements can be met entirely through volunteering, super in accumulation is invisible to Centrelink, and one couple gained four years of part Age Pension just by splitting contributions. The gap years from 60 to 67 reward structure. Here’s how.
Australians lost $2.18 billion to scams in 2025, according to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s latest Targeting Scams report, and investment scams alone accounted for $837.7 million of it. Those are the reported numbers. The real figure is higher, because plenty of people feel too embarrassed to report it and never tell anyone.
We recorded a full episode of the Wealthlab podcast on this, partly because scams keep getting more sophisticated and partly because it has happened to us. Someone cloned our Instagram account, copied every photo we had ever posted, called it a community page and started inviting our own followers to join. Scott’s wife spotted it before we did. If it can happen to two advisers in Melbourne, it can happen to anyone.
A YouTube channel sent in by a client looked like genuine financial guidance from a retired accountant. It was entirely AI-generated. Here’s how to spot AI financial advice, what ASIC says about it, and how to check whether the person giving you guidance is real and licensed.
Three big SMSF rule changes hit Australians in 2026, including the residential property borrowing ban. Here’s what changed, who’s affected, and what to do.
ASIC just secured a record $300 million Federal Court penalty over CFD trading misconduct. Here’s what CFDs actually are, why 95 to 99 per cent of retail traders lose money, and how to protect yourself and your family.
Are Australian property prices falling in 2026? The short answer is no, in most of the country. Here’s what the actual data shows, why the doom-and-gloom headlines are misleading, and what the slowdown means if you own property near retirement.
A lot of confusion in retirement planning comes from conflating these two ages. They are separate rules, set by different parts of government, and they don’t move together.
The rent isn’t halved and neither is the power bill. Here’s what living alone really costs per month in Australia, and what it does to retirement.
Why your super doubles fastest late in life, the rule of 72, and how inflation quietly compounds against you. Real examples from Australian advisers.
67 is the Age Pension age, not the retirement age. From 60, JobSeeker’s requirements can be met entirely through volunteering, super in accumulation is invisible to Centrelink, and one couple gained four years of part Age Pension just by splitting contributions. The gap years from 60 to 67 reward structure. Here’s how.
On 23 June 2026, the federal government agreed to ban self-managed super funds from using new limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) to buy residential property. The Bill passed both houses of Parliament in under 48 hours, received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026, and the ban commences on 10 August 2026.
If your SMSF already holds residential property under an LRBA, nothing changes. If you were planning to set one up, the window has effectively closed. And if you were relying on this strategy as a core part of your retirement plan, it is worth understanding what happened, what the numbers actually show, and what still works.
A YouTube channel sent in by a client looked like genuine financial guidance from a retired accountant. It was entirely AI-generated. Here’s how to spot AI financial advice, what ASIC says about it, and how to check whether the person giving you guidance is real and licensed.
Three big SMSF rule changes hit Australians in 2026, including the residential property borrowing ban. Here’s what changed, who’s affected, and what to do.
ASIC just secured a record $300 million Federal Court penalty over CFD trading misconduct. Here’s what CFDs actually are, why 95 to 99 per cent of retail traders lose money, and how to protect yourself and your family.
The same dollar loses up to 47 cents as salary or 15 cents inside super. That gap is the whole deal. The 2026-27 caps and rules explained, plus the case study where timing and catch-up contributions turned a $98,000 CGT bill into $11,000.
In 2026 alone, super caps rose, deeming changed twice, Division 296 started and SMSF borrowing was banned. An AI trained last year missed all of it, and it won’t tell you. Where chatbots genuinely help with retirement research, and where the confident answers go wrong.
Phil and I explored effective “legal loopholes” from clarifying deeming rates to explaining why drawings from an account-based pension are generally not assessed as income by Centrelink, and including practical options such as structured gifting to avoid the five-year deprivation rule.
A “boring” super video just changed everything. In under two weeks: 53K views, 6.2K watch hours, and 1,100 new subscribers. Turns out Aussies love learning how to retire smarter. This month: gold’s record climb, the ASX’s quiet optimism, and what rising living costs mean for your super plan.
Our recent episode got more than 500x views so we thought we share this with you as a reminder that small, smart moves in super can lead to big wins especially in today’s market.
Retiring in Australia? Discover the 2025 superannuation secrets when you can access your super, how much you need, and how the Age Pension fits in.
Book a 15-minute chat to see if we’re a match for your retirement goals.
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6 quick questions about your retirement situation. Get an instant educational snapshot showing common strengths and gaps for Australians in a similar position.
