A fresh start to the new financial year

Author: Suzie Barnaby

 

It’s a new financial year and life is in full swing. As we advance through the year, attempting to stay abreast of work, family, study and other commitments we find ourselves with very little opportunity to stop and review if we are on track to achieve what we set out to at the beginning of the year.

The start of a new financial year is the perfect opportunity to raise our heads from the busyness of life, assess where we are up to and to set some goals for the financial year ahead.

Here are four easy financial assessments that we think will help you do just that.

Cashflow

Now is a good time to review your budget and evaluate how your surplus cashflow is being used. Do you have debt that should be reduced (particularly credit card debt or personal loans)?

Can you increase your mortgage repayments? The current low interest rate environment is the perfect time to be paying down your debt as quickly as possible.

Alternatively, you may want to squirrel away some funds from each pay into an emergency account in case life throws something unexpected your way. Or perhaps you would like to start a travel fund that gives you something to look forward to.

Superannuation

A new financial year may reveal that you may be able to contribute more to super. Making extra contributions to your super can really boost the amount of money you’ll have to live on when you retire.

This could be a good time to gain some clarity on how much you can contribute to super and how to take advantage of the current contribution limits. The ability to make personal concessional contributions allows a lot more flexibility around putting funds into super. It really can be the gift that keeps on giving as these types of contributions are tax deductible, and therefore may lead to a tax refund that can then also be contributed to super.

Insurances

The start of a new financial year is the prime time to review your insurances. If something has changed in your life since you first set your insurances in place it’s worth checking to see if your policies need updating. It’s also worth checking that you have the right amount of Life, TPD, Income Protection and Trauma cover in place.

Investments

Is this the year to start investing outside of super? If you’d like to consider that, start to plan for specific outcomes that you would like to achieve, this will then be your investment roadmap. For example, you may want to save for your children’s education or to build up an investment portfolio so that you can retire earlier. If you are keen to start planning for these bigger goals, we can help to devise an appropriate strategy to help you achieve this

These four considerations are simple to review and will help you to decide on your priorities for the financial year ahead. It’s then just a matter of taking small steps throughout the year so that by the end of this financial year, you are feeling far financially healthier.

 

Find out more

Suzie is a Senior Financial Planner at Morgans Port Macquarie. Suzie’s passion is supporting and educating clients so they can make well-informed decisions in relation to their own financial situation.

If you would like to learn more about assessing your finances, you can contact the Morgans Port Macquarie office on [email protected] or via (02) 6583 1735.

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