Articles

Realise Your Dream

The Realise Your Dream blogs are written by Peter Kelly and Mark Teale.

Peter provides technical advice to financial advisers and accountants on superannuation, retirement planning and estate planning. He also has extensive knowledge in all aspects of self-managed superannuation funds and is a regular presenter at conferences, seminars and workshops. He is Manager; Technical Advice with Centrepoint Alliance Limited.

Mark has a great deal of experience, having worked for the Department of Social Security and Centrelink as a Financial Information Service Officer and Regional Manager for close to 25 years and for the last 15 years, he has worked for Centrepoint Alliance as Research, Paraplanning and Product Manager. He now works alongside PK as a Manager; Technical Advice part of the Centrepoint Technical team.

Naturally, his specialties lay in the areas of Aged Care, Centrelink and Veteran's Affairs and pushing people to realise that you are never too old to set yourself a challenge yourself.

19 February, 2020

Centrelink and Waiting Periods?

When testing your eligibility for a payment from Centrelink you need to remember that, depending on your circumstances and the benefit that you are applying for, you may have to serve a waiting period before the payment commences. There are several different waiting periods that can apply, but I thought...

13 February, 2020

When life throws a curved ball

At the end of January 2020, my youngest son got married. They had a great wedding at a delightful venue in Toowoomba, about 100 kms west of Brisbane. The bride and her party were absolutely stunning. The groom and his groomsmen didn’t look all that shabby either. The wedding was...

05 February, 2020

10 things to consider when looking at aged care

In October 2018 the government established a Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. It commenced hearings in January 2019, provided an Interim report in October 2019, and is scheduled to provide its final report in November 2020. During the last 12 months the media has reported on several...

11 December, 2019

A Christmas Present from Treasury

In September 2019, the federal government announced a review into Australia’s Retirement Income System. In the shadow of this announcement, commentators began stressing the financial predicament Australia faces with an ageing population. In fact, for 2019/20 the cost to the Government for funding the age pension, aged care, and other...

04 December, 2019

A couple of important changes to super

One of the things Mark and I try to achieve with this blog is to keep readers informed about changes in the superannuation, social security and aged care space. Which brings me to today’s blog…. As most readers are aware, Australian employers are obliged to make minimum contributions to superannuation...

27 November, 2019

How much money do I waste? The amount is frightening.

Peter and I have often written about how much you need in retirement to live a comfortable life. There are numerous reports which outline in quite specific detail how much you need, a regular reference source for PK and I is the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia ASFA) Retirement...