Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Money with Alpha. Well, they do say, what are the, the two constants? Death and taxes. And change. Life is all about change, and I feel like 2026 is— oh my goodness, it's the, it's the runaway horse of change. Holy moly. I have to admit, it's been a bit of a— feels like a bit of a bumpy ride so far this year, and I'm probably not alone in that. There's a, there's a lot of areas— some things are good, some things are not so you know, life changes, family changes, people moving away, you know, sort of there's a sense— feels like there's almost a sense of loss that kind of goes with some of this as well. And I can elaborate a bit on that perhaps another time, but for today I wanted to talk about changes in the money space. And as I'm recording this, it's the morning after the National Budget has been released, and having been a former tax accountant, we used to literally have an in-office event where we all would sit together and we would watch the, the the budget being presented. Admittedly, this one, because it had so many changes, there was a lot of leakage of information in the lead-up to it. So I think everybody was prepared for the fact that there would be changes, just perhaps not the extent of some of them. Some, some I think were expected and some were a bit of a surprise. But I think also because of the nature of the political parties and with the current government having a clear majority in Parliament, that it allows them to probably make bigger changes that they've perhaps been wanting to make. And not being an election year, they chose to do it now. Overall, I personally think it's probably good. However, there are things that may change for, for people in that space, especially some ideas and plans that you may have had. So I wanted to talk to that. In this episode and also to just talk generally about how can you plan when there's constant change. Because regardless of whether the tax rules change and there's budgetary changes in terms of like the, you know, a federal budget, even a household budget has constant change. You know, we have tariffs that get announced and then dropped, so our stocks fluctuate quite, you know, abruptly as a result. Our superannuation or retirement savings fluctuate abruptly as a result. Then we have, you know, the of war. So fuel excises are removed to try and, you know, bring the price of fuel down, but it's still higher. Cost of goods after a pandemic. And there's just so many things that have been kind of thrown at our world over the last 6 or so years. So it's been— it might feel like it's— it's— you're just trying to find your center. Because I know I sometimes feel that way. I'm just like, I just— I just need to try and make a plan and have that plan actually work so that I can feel grounded and that the things that I'm doing are actually working in the way I want them to work. Now, parenthood, obviously, you know, you have your plans and things rarely go to plan. So we're kind of used to it from that perspective. However, things that we feel like are in our control often don't, don't feel in control. So that's, that's the point I wanted to really touch on in today's episode is if you're feeling this way, A, you're not alone. And secondly, I wanted to talk about how to create a level of internal stability to the outer world of constant change and things we can't control. So the first thing and this is always, I'm just gonna run through them first and then, then I'll go into a bit more detail. But the first thing is one of the things I often start with is clarity. So being clear on what it is that you want to achieve and what kind of lifestyle you want. That has to be first and foremost. Then secondly, you need to know where your money is. Being able to see it and visualize it and know where it is is important. So number 2 is know where your money is. I'm not even talking about knowing your numbers, just know where your money is. Thirdly in some cases it might be necessary to speak to your accountant. Well, actually, no, if you have investments or whatever, then speak to your accountant. Now, if they don't reach out to you, then you reach out to them because there's some changes here that may impact some of the things that you're doing or planning to do. Fourthly, review— do a bit of your own review in light of, like, become aware of what's in the current federal budget and the changes, because we've, we've relied on certain rules for so long now. You just need to understand a bit more about what they are, and there's a lot of people out there who've summarized them and done a pretty good job of that. So I'll talk to that. And then number 5 is keep moving forward. Don't allow this, this situation of change to allow you to stay stuck. And I know that sometimes sounds easier said than done, but I'll explain, having been through other life changes over the last sort of almost year now— I can't believe it's nearly been a year— that needing to— and life will generally throw, you know, oh, you just have to like keep on going, which of course, you know, we know anyway, but it becomes even more important in the world of change. So the first one is clarity. And when clarity is extremely important, because that is the only thing that you can control, is what you want and the type of lifestyle that you want. Because if you don't have that, then you're at the whim of all sorts of different decisions or all sorts of different influences as well. Because you might be going, oh, you know, all of the messages leading up to now might have been, oh, you need to invest in properties and da da da, and You need to, you know, use the equity in one to do another, and there's rentvesting, and there's— oh my God, so many different sort of pieces of information that get thrown at you of the things that you should be doing. And I really, really don't like that word 'should,' but you can be influenced by that if you don't know what it is that you actually want. And I know I've had to push back on, on this sort of thing, like, myself. My, my dad had a certain idea of how to build wealth, which didn't still even work out for him because he still wasn't really clear on what he wanted and why he wanted it. In his mind, it was all about property. And I'm thinking back, just going, yeah, but I don't want to own 20 houses. I don't want to have, you know, 20 mortgages. I don't want to have— I don't want to be a landlord to that many people. I want people to own their own homes. I don't want to be the one who is sitting there going, oh, I have all these homes and you can live in them and pay me so that I can pay them off and make money off you. Like, I know that's you know, it's not that simplistic. And I'm not judging anybody who does do that. I'm just saying for me, it doesn't sit with my value set and what I wanted to achieve. And also the level of complexity that goes with that just doesn't— I like to— there's a reason why I called my business Money Made Simple. I like things to be simple. I like to be able to just enjoy my life. I don't want to spend all of my youth striving and paying off debt and being so like manically driven because I have this arbitrary— I'm going to call it goal because I don't know what else to call it— destination perhaps that I'm aiming towards. I was like, but I want to enjoy my life on the way. And I'm not one of those people where, oh, it's the journey, not the destination. No, no, I like— don't get me wrong, when I'm— when I travel and I want— I'm going on a holiday, I want to get to the place so I can enjoy the place. So it's, you know, I don't necessarily want the journey to take, you know, all the time, and then I end up with like a day in the place. I— so, but as far as life goes, I want to be able to enjoy my life as I go while I'm still, you know, fit and well enough to be able to do it. We're going skiing in probably about 6 weeks now, I think, from, from the current day. And, and I've had a few injuries over since we went last time, which was almost 2 years ago. And I was like, right, I've hit perimenopause, things aren't working quite the way they used to. Injuries seem to happen a little bit easier and the recovery is a little bit longer. So there's a little bit of hesitation or a certain degree of— anxiety is too strong a word— but a bit of caution around this. So I've started to create the expectations with my family. I know, I realize I'm on a tangent, I'll get back to the point in a moment. That, you know, I might not be on the slope all day for each of the days that we're skiing, just to create that expectation. But my daughter can go with my husband, they can do their thing and I've got an AirTag. I can chuck an AirTag inside my daughter's ski suit. If she happens to, you know, get lost somewhere, I can at least find her. And so I just, I, I just don't want to, I don't want to push it. I just want to enjoy it. The whole experience, being on the mountain, skiing the runs that I feel comfortable skiing and, and just generally soaking it all in. So that, so even when it comes to holidays, I'm, I'm clear and intentional on what kind of a holiday that I want. And and then the decisions that I make. And you have to— and with that clarity, you can then have the conviction that goes with it. So I used to have constant sort of disagreements, I suppose, with my dad because he's like, you should be buying this and do this, this property. I was like, Dad, I don't want all of that. I don't want all the debt. I don't want all the responsibility. I don't want that, that kind of world. And he could never understand it. And I was like, I'm okay with that. I was like, you don't need to understand it because it's my decision, it's my life, and this is what I'm doing. And this is my— I'm actively I'm choosing it. I'm not doing it to be the, you know, the child who's not listening to their parents. I'm not doing it to be the rebel or whatever, you know, sort of stuff that goes with that. This is my me being me consciously. So that level of clarity gives you the conviction then to make decisions and to do things that other people may not understand. And that's okay. As long as you're doing it for you and you understand your why, then that's that's really what you need. And then you don't need to really share with the people who won't understand. You don't need to justify yourself. You don't need to answer for anything. Or, you know, there's— that's the other— that's one of the good things about coming into this sort of new phase of life is you just don't really care. I'm gonna— I don't like swearing, so I'm not going to, you know, especially create any bleeping moments on here, but you just don't give a— you know what. So being clear on what you want to achieve in times of change, and that's not to say that you— what you want to achieve and what the lifestyle that you want doesn't change. So, but you get to control that change. That's when you are making the choice to make a change in your life, whether it's in a relationship or a career or starting a business or changing a business or pivoting or whatever it happens to be. But that then becomes your choice and the clarity that goes with that. So that's the first thing that I really want to emphasize in that the, the pace of change on the outer world is making sure that you are at least clear and can control your inner world and the things that you can control. The second one is knowing, know where your money is. And to a certain extent, it's a little bit of that know your numbers. Although I, that always people would say that to me. I was like, but which ones? Like, there's so many numbers. I literally, I'm speaking at an event tomorrow and I did a bit of financial health check checklist. So if you would like that, just just DM me and I'll just send you the PDF. It's an editable PDF and it's just a little bit of where all— it's a consolidation. It's 2 A4 pages and it's literally just writing down all, or typing, all of the key things in your life. You're like, how much super have you got? Where is your super? What bank accounts have you got? What's your current loan balance? What's your current interest rate? What's your current monthly repayments? What's your minimum monthly repayment so you can see if you're making anything extra? Do you have a will? I'm just trying to think of all the— there's a few questions on there, but it's just things to just like kind of consolidate it all in one place so that you can actually see it. Because without seeing it, it becomes really hard to plan for your money and being able to know, well, what do I even have? Like, what do I have to work with? And on there also it asks you when you want to retire, what's your retirement number, like how much are you aiming for? So you can then compare that to what's in your super. And some of them, there's calculators like this inside my app Prosperous, which is why I did it so that you could actually play around with it and then see how that connects to everything else. But if you just want to write it down, that just as long as you see it, that's, that's the important thing so that you can then go, okay, well, I currently have this. And then maybe I can start thinking about, do I want to, what sort of other investing do I want to do? Might not be in property. And even though things like negative gearing in property have been scaled back going forward. It's mainly available— at the moment it's only available on new build properties, and I think there'll still be some nuances to, to what that actually means as well. So there's still some details that have to, I think, be clarified, because there's a lot of houses you can buy that are old, knock them down and build new ones. Does it include that? That part I think will come as, as the, the real detail gets nutted out and released. But if you have your own home, for example, and the thing that I find the most interesting about these new rules is that they've also removed the what was called pre-CGT or pre-capital gains tax in relation to— there was a discount that was applied if you owned an asset for more than 12 months, you got a 50% 20% discount. That's being removed. It's being replaced by indexation, which is, you know, over time how things have increased which is what it used to be anyway. But then they're also applying a minimum 30% tax. But the big difference is, is that pre-CGT— so assets that were acquired prior to 1984— are now included in that, whereas they were previously exempt. So that would only really apply if a house that's been purchased and turned into a rental property, if it was purchased prior to that and it's still a home and a principal place of residence, there's no capital gains tax on that still. So that, that still has stayed stable, which is, which is good. Otherwise that would, I think that would blow up a lot of, a lot of plans. So it's then being able to understand how you can make some decisions. So this is where number 3 is talking to an accountant. And this is where you need to talk to the right kind of accountant. Having been an accountant myself and seeing that there is very much, there's a lot of compliance when it comes to things like tax returns for businesses. You've got your business activity statements. There's a lot of things that need to be calculated that are just generally compliance, which is complying with legislation, that sort of thing. What this is going to do is increase or create an increased need, at least in the short to medium term, for accountants who can help with strategy. And structure. So understanding how to actually help you achieve what you want to achieve with staying within the boundaries of law, but minimizing your tax as much as possible, but still doing it in a legal way. Because alongside this as well, they've also made changes to the trust rules and taxation. So it makes it harder to asset and income split inside trusts. And I know the ATO has been on top of trusts for a number of years. I still remember even like 20+ years ago when I was an practicing accountants, they were still trying to get around or help trying to plug the holes where people were getting around things with trusts. So it's, it's important to understand, like, to talk to a professional who understands all these, these rules. And it will probably take accountants a good couple of months at least to start to really understand it. But I think if you've got, if you've already got existing property and, and shares and things like that, then some of that is what they call grandfathered, which means the old rules still apply, but going forward, if you wanted to make any changes or additions to anything, then you definitely need to be talking to an accountant to make sure you're doing it in a way that actually complies and makes the most sense for your situation. So there is still an absolute need for that. But again, and if you want to know the names, I have some really— I refer to some really good accountants who are good at this stuff. They're good at the compliance, but they're also really good at the strategy, and they're good at explaining it too. So, and and they're ladies. They're, they're really, really amazing accountants. So yeah, if you, if you would like some names, just again message me and I can, I can share that with you. Number 4 is have a look at some of the budget summaries. And this is, this is obviously for an Australian listener. Make sure that you understand some of the implications. So there's things that are impacting negative gearing, like I, like I said, the things that are impacting the capital gains tax, like when you sell an asset and you make a gain, there's things that are impacting tax on that. There are changes impacting small businesses and they're pretty much all positive too. So, but important to be aware of them. And again, your accountant should know this, that your accountant should become aware of this, but you as the ultimate sort of responsible person for your own business and your own finances need to at least be aware of it so that you can ask your accountant and go, oh, just checking that you know that I can claim this without needing a receipt and that's okay. So that they don't come asking for a receipt for that. You're like, but I don't need one for that anymore because they changed the rules. 'You're like, oh, and then you can't be like, oh, okay, this person's informed. I can't— yeah, all right, but I better make sure I do a better job now.' So it's amazing what happens when people know that the person they're working with is informed. It uplevels them, and it shouldn't have to be that way, but it often seems to be. So so knowing that, understanding that there are changes to NDIS, there have been changes to aged care— I mean, that, that part was already happening outside of the federal budget, but it's still important to be aware of what's going on so you can make plans that are informed informed and that you don't take an action now that you may regret in the future, or you don't do something now and you wish you'd done it now because later on it's too late. So there are some of these rules that aren't coming in until July 2027, so you might want to take some action now, between now and then, so that you can take advantage of the old rules. So, but again, it depends on your situation. So becoming informed about what's going on, and you can even, you could even ask I hesitate to say AI in this one because they can pull things incorrectly. So I would, I would actually go to some of your financial commentators. So you could go things like Mel Brown has done a really good summary of it and just find the individuals who are reputable and actually read their summaries, even just going to news outlets and reading the economics column. And then some of them have done videos. I've already watched a couple myself because a lot of it sounds confusing. So read the summaries from the professionals. This is where I would actually not rely on AI. If anything, you could just ask AI, can you tell me who the professionals are that have done a good budget review? And then go to their sites, but don't rely on AI for the actual information itself. So this is, this part's important because it makes stuff up and you do not want to be working on false information when it comes to this sort of thing. And then number 5 is keep moving forward. One of the things I've learned in the last 12 months, because my father passed in July last year, and I can't believe we're nearly in, you know, it's been about 10 months or so now, like time's just really flown, but you feel very frozen for a good period of time. And that's, well, in my case it was shock because it happened very quickly and suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly. I was overseas as well, which made it even more kind of overwhelming. There's grief and there's processing of emotions that go along with that, the complex relationships that we can sometimes have with parents and loved ones. So there's a certain degree of freezing that happens in my space because I don't like being stuck personally. So I was listening to podcasts, I was reading books, I was like— so I felt this sort of relative amount of responsibility also for what my dad had left. And I'd been managing it for 7 years anyway, so I knew what was what was there. But then I was like, I'm not managing it for him anymore. Now I've got to do it for myself. And it felt a bit scarier, to be honest, because I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't want to get it wrong for him either. But it was a different scenario. I was like caretaking in a way. It was just making sure that he had everything he needed. He was comfortable, that, you know, we could pay for whatever care he needed. Like, it was, it was, it was like a caretaking situation entirely. Whereas now it's like, well, okay, it's a, it has a different purpose now. So what do I, what do I do with this? So there was, there was that frozen period, but then having sort of become a bit more educated and looking at different things in a different way and learning about different types of opportunities, I'm like, okay, I need to start to take some action and incrementally. So I certainly didn't do everything all at once. I parked money into like high-interest bank account for a little while. Some things just rolled over. And it was just a matter of going, okay, I need to just do things little by little. I'm not putting pressure on myself. I'm not going to rush anything. I'm not going to make decisions when I don't feel like I'm capable of making it like a meaningful decision. But I still said to myself, I still actually have to do something. And to be honest, sometimes I even put a reminder in my calendar. Reminder to make decision. And I literally just wrote that in there, make decision. And I knew what that meant. So but. With all of this and with all the change and all the things that are going on in, not just in the federal budget, but in life and the world just keep moving and just doing things little by little because time will pass and it passes way faster than any of us want it to. And you don't want to, you don't want to miss out on something just because you've stayed stuck. And then, you know, 5 years go and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe it's been 5 years and I still haven't done anything about this. So my, my encouragement to you is to do something. Do one thing, even if it's one of the things I've mentioned today. Take one of those other 4 steps and do something with it. So I'll just go over that again. One is be clear on what it is that you want from life with your money and your lifestyle. Know where your money is. Actually have it all sort of written down, have it in front of you. And like I said, I've got, I've got a a 2-page PDF that I can send you. So if you want it, let me know. And then number 3, speak to your accountant if you need to, to talk about the changes that are, that are happening and how that will impact you. I mean, you should be having an end of year discussion anyway. Make sure this is included. And as part of that, become informed about what the changes are in the federal budget. Find a reputable person who will give a summary so that you can go, oh, okay, all right. So you don't have to read through the whole thing. Like, literally, it can be summarized in less than a page, so it's not going to be super duper huge to read and understand. And then number 5 is keep moving. Do something. Do something to help progress you forwards, because that is a muscle that needs to be flexed, and repeated flexing of that will bring you confidence. With momentum comes the confidence, because you'll Set yourself a task to do, you do it, then you can go, wow, I did that. That means I can do stuff. So then you set yourself another task, you do that, and then the confidence will build with that momentum. And before you know it, you've done 10 things and you'd be like, ooh, the important thing then is, is to look backwards as well and go, wow, I did all of these things. I told myself I would, and I did. This is great. Now I'm gonna keep moving forwards. So I'm gonna keep that momentum going. So breathe. I'm going to do that now myself. Have a cup of tea. Make some time in your calendar. It is important. And go somewhere to— if you want to do something with your money, like if, if sitting on the balcony or the patio or in your sunroom or wherever is your happy place in your house, do it there. Just have some quiet. Kids are at school or childcare or out of the house, and then just make some time just for you to do one thing. And future you will thank you for it, but you'll also start to feel a lot calmer about the whole pace of change. And this is something that all of us, including myself, need to do on a regular basis because the pace has become so accelerated over the last sort of of, you know, 6 to 10 years that all of us need to make this space. Otherwise, I think our collective resilience will suffer as a result. So with that, if you ever want to have a chat I do offer clarity chats, and I'm going to be building in a bit of an audit feature to that as well. So it's almost going to be like a clarity audit in relation to your money. So reach out, and we can even go through that 2-page document that created together and I can help you figure out how to fill it in. So yep, you can find me on socials or just respond to, put a comment, send me an email, whatever works. But I will leave you to ponder what your next action step is going to be, and I will catch you at next week's episode.
