Starting Term 4 with your financial future in mind.

Hi Principals,

Firstly, a very warm thank you for having Frontier at your annual conference this year.

Richard and I had a fantastic time catching up with so many of you. Some were familiar faces we’ve built close relationships with over the years, while others we had the pleasure of meeting for the first time.

After speaking with so many principals at the conference, I thought I’d use this opportunity to go a little deeper into what financial planning with Frontier can actually look like in real life. Rather than simply telling you what we do, I’ve pulled together a couple of real client examples to show you.

Case Study 1: Can we afford to retire at 65?

For privacy, we’ll call this couple Cindy and Mark.

Cindy and Mark, aged 62 and 63, are both working full-time. They’ve worked hard throughout their careers, focused on paying down their mortgage, and are now starting to seriously think about retirement.

Their lifestyle costs around $10,000 per month and, like many people approaching retirement, they had one big question: “Have we accumulated enough to retire at 65, maintain the lifestyle we enjoy and still have the freedom to travel?” This was where having a financial plan really helped and they finally had something they hadn’t had before: confidence.

Instead of wondering whether they had “enough”, they could see how the wealth they had spent their working lives building could translate into the retirement and lifestyle they wanted. But we also identified opportunities to put them in an even stronger position before retirement. Despite earning good incomes, Cindy and Mark had relatively few deductions and generally received only around $400 back at tax time.

We reviewed their previous unused super contribution amounts and implemented a strategy to better utilise their available contribution opportunities. By restructuring funds and making a deductible super contribution, they were able to reduce their tax by $14,689 (money in their pocket!)

We then reviewed their existing super investments and made adjustments to better align their portfolio with their objectives, while also identifying approximately $6,000 in combined fee savings.

Finally, we reviewed their personal insurance arrangements and, with some relatively small changes, identified a further $1,675 in annual savings.

The result?

We identified and delivered more than $20,000 of value in the first year alone.

And that’s where good financial planning can become really powerful.

Case Study 2: Is my investment property still working for me?

For our second example, we’ll call our principal Matthew.

Matthew had held an investment property for a number of years and had been using negative gearing while working full-time. But as retirement moved closer, he had an important question: “Is this property still the right strategy for me, and when should I consider selling it?”

This became part of a much broader conversation about how the assets he had accumulated outside superannuation could help fund his retirement.

Matthew ultimately decided to sell the property, resulting in a capital gain of approximately $75,000.

As part of his broader retirement strategy, we established a transition-to-retirement pension and used funds drawn from super to help reduce his debt. We also reviewed his super contribution strategy alongside the property sale to help manage the tax consequences. The overall strategy resulted in approximately $25,000 in tax savings and a further $8,000 in interest savings.

But, just like Cindy and Mark, the real value wasn’t simply the dollar amount saved. It was understanding how all the moving pieces could work together to support the retirement he wanted.

These are real situations faced by real people we’ve had the privilege of working with.

And there are plenty more. The thing about financial planning is that you often don’t know what opportunities are available until you start asking the questions.

Let’s chat and see what opportunities might be available to put you in a stronger position.

Book a complimentary meeting with me and let’s start mapping out the life you envisage, and what it could take to get you there. 

Book an Appointment

Warm regards,

 Melina Pisani

Frontier Financial Group