How do you plan when nothing stays still?

Death, taxes, and change. These are (like it or not) the three guarantees in life.

And 2026? Holy moly. It's been the runaway horse of change.

I'm writing this the morning after the Australian Federal Budget was released, and well, lots of change.  I'm an ex-tax accountant, so the Budget was always central to my work, and this year has brought the biggest change in a long time.  It can feel very destabilising.

If I'm completely honest, this whole year has felt destabilising for me - family stuff. A very close friend moving away. A sense of loss in places I didn't really expect (and this is after feeling loss in 2025 when my father died suddenly).

Stock markets doing that thing where they jump every time someone announces a tariff and then drops it the next day. Super balances doing the same thing. Fuel prices that just won't settle. Cost of living. And on top of all of that, the government has just rewritten a chunk of the rules we've been planning our financial lives around for years.

So if you're sitting there going, "I just want to make a plan and have it actually work,". Me too, most days.

But I want to talk about something bigger than the Budget. The bigger question is, how do you plan when change is the only constant? Because this isn't going to slow down. I don't think any of us really believes it will.

There is the temptation to avoid and tell yourself that you "just can't right now".  You may have tried a budget and it didn't work. You open your banking app and your chest goes tight. You've avoided this for years, so surely it's too late now.

It's not too late.  You run a business. You manage a household. You make a hundred decisions a day that involve numbers. The issue isn't capability. The issue is that nobody's ever shown you a system that fits you. And you've been working hard around that gap for years.

So with that as a backdrop, here are the 5-steps I use myself, and use with my clients, when change is making everything feel wobbly.

1. Get clear

Clarity is the only thing you can fully control. So that's where we start.

What does your actual life look like, the one you want? Not the one you think you should have.

I used to have these regular discussions with my dad, who was convinced wealth meant property. Lots of it. And I'd say, Dad, I don't want 20 houses. I don't want 20 mortgages. I don't want to be a landlord to that many people. I just don't want it. He never really got it, and that was fine, because once I had the clarity, I had the conviction, and once you've got conviction, you don't have to justify yourself to anyone.

This is the first thing I'd push you on. Sit somewhere quiet, grab a cup of tea (or coffee, or hot chocolate). Sunroom, patio, wherever your spot is. And answer the question: what kind of life do I actually want? Because everything else flows from that, including the money stuff.

2. Know where your money is.

People say "know your numbers" and I always thought, which numbers? There are so many.

My Prosperess app guides you through seeing the important numbers, but if you just want something you can write/type onto, I made a 2-page Financial Health Check PDF - send me a message if you would like it and I'll send it to you.

When you can see where your money is and know what the important numbers are, money seems much simpler.  Often it's the perception that's more important than the reality.  If money feels simpler and easier, it will be.

3. Talk to the right kind of accountant.

If you've got investments, property, a trust, or a business, you need to be talking to your accountant about the Federal Budget that was just released. And if they don't reach out to you, you reach out to them.

There are two arms to this conversation - the tax compliance side (the things you need to disclose and put into your tax return to make sure you're complying with the current tax rules).  Then there is the strategy/structure side.  Not all accountants are good at both (or even like both).  At the moment it's important to cover off on both of these, as the Budget changes will impact future/retirement planning from a tax perspective.

If you have a Financial Planner, make sure they are connected in with your accountant, as both are important professionals that need to be aligned on your goals and plans.

The Budget just made strategy more valuable than ever. Negative gearing is only on new builds going forward. The CGT discount is gone, replaced with indexation plus a 30% minimum tax. Trust rules are tighter. This is going to affect plans people have been counting on for years.

If you don't have a strategic accountant, I refer to a few really good ones, who actually explain things in language you can understand. DM me if you want names.

4. Get informed. From actual humans.

With all the changes that are happening, and coming, it's important to be informed.  But, I caution against asking AI.  I've seen too many times that when it comes to facts, they make things up, or they refer to sources that aren't reputable.  Look for financial commentators - the news outlets or the Australian Financial Review.  Your accountant and/or financial planner.

Being informed allows you to have better conversations and then make better decisions that suit your circumstances.

It's important to do this before making any changes to what you're doing.  Timing is important, but having the right information is also important.

5. Keep moving. Even slowly.

This last one that has come up for me in the last year.

When my dad passed in July last year, I froze. For months. I'd been managing his money for seven years, and suddenly I was managing it for me, and that somehow felt scarier. Previously I'd been the caretaker, making sure he had enough money for care and whatever needs he might need.

Now the money has a different purpose - it needs to grow.

What I learned is that frozen and careful are not the same thing. Careful makes a decision slowly. Frozen avoids the decision entirely.

So, I started leaving myself calendar reminders that just said "make decision." And I'd sit down, look at one thing, and either make the decision or work out what I needed to know before I could.

Smal actions, repeated, builds momentum, which in turn builds confidence, not the other way round. We tend to wait until we feel confident to take the action. It's actually backwards. You take the action, you see you survived it, and the confidence comes after.

One thing this week

If you take one thing from this, pick one of those five steps. Just one. Do it this week.

You're not bad with money. You're not incapable. You're not too late. And it's not as complicated as you might believe.

You just haven't had someone walk you through it, in plain English, on your own terms, with a system that actually fits the life you want.

That's the gap I work in. If you want a hand, book a Clarity Chat with me. I've just built a Clarity Audit into it so we can go through that 2-page PDF so you can map your money picture.  If you'd like to book in for an obligation-free chat, message me for the link.