Case Studies

Tim and Melinda

Financial Management

Tim is 45 and is a partner in an accounting firm. His spouse, Melinda, is 42 and works as a speech therapist. They have three children aged between 11 and 16. Melinda works on average three days per week. Their children attend private schools. While their combined household income is well above average, they have considerable outgoings for mortgage expenses and education costs.  They have a reasonable amount of credit card debt built up. Tim has some life insurance cover through his self-managed superannuation fund. Melinda has some insurance cover through her industry superannuation fund. Tim’s accounting firm runs a group income protection policy for partners and this is paid for by the business. Tim and Melinda wanted a 10-year plan that would show them where they would be placed financially after their kids had finished school and wanted recommendations to improve their position.

The solutions for Tim and Melinda included:

• Removing credit card debt using the redraw facility on their mortgage account to reduce interest costs
• Planning a 10-year program to repay their mortgage with accelerated repayments
• Funding school fees
• Adjusting their insurances so they had adequate protection through the 10 year period
• Investing their super in portfolios that better suited their desired risk level
• Increasing super contributions where cash flow permitted.
• Getting their estate planning sorted out as they didn’t have wills.