5 Financial

Most people sign with us, then wonder what's actually happening on the other side of the email thread.

Here's the honest version.

First, you meet the people. Not just your adviser. We introduce your team and walk you through what’s coming, step by step.

Then we ask a lot of questions. This is the fact-finding. Your income. Your goals. Your worries. The things you haven't said out loud to anyone yet. We also lock in your next two meetings.

Then we go digging. We contact your super fund, your insurer, your investment providers. We gather up what you already have, so you don't have to hunt through ten years of paperwork to find it.

Your goals meeting. We show you what we've found. You tell us what actually matters to you. Then we chase down anything still missing.

Then we put the spreadsheets to work. Cashflow analysis. Super comparisons. Insurance needs analysis. Product research. A proper look at what your future actually looks like. E.g. what stopping at 60 means compared with working two more years.

Then we build your financial blueprint. We bring all the pieces together your investments, super, debt, and plenty more into one plan built around what matters to you.

We filter through more than 300 different strategies, working out which ones fit your situation and throwing out the ones that don't. Often it's the things we talk you out of that can make a huge difference.

And we build in protection, so the things that matter most to you are looked after if life doesn't go to plan.

This is where the whole picture comes together. Your adviser builds your strategy with support from our advice team, including our tax and mortgage specialists, and input from other advisers, including our Head of Advice, Jason Petersen, where it's needed.

Then we sit down and explain it. We walk you through it until it makes sense, and we keep going until it does.

Here's the part that surprises people. A lot of them arrive at that meeting nervous. Many walk out calmer. Nothing in their life changed that day. Someone just explained it, and there was finally a plan.

Once you're happy with the plan and ready to go, we get to work putting it into action.

National home values fell 0.7% in July. It's the largest monthly drop since December 2022.

Every headline about it is written for someone. The trouble is, it's never clear who. Falling prices mean something completely different depending on whether you own, are trying to buy, are renting, or are comfortably out of the market altogether.

So Matt Collier, Partner & Finance Broker at 5 Financial, wrote it up all four ways:
www.5financial.com.au/post/falling-house-prices-mortgage-broker-rhodes

General advice only. It doesn't take your objectives or circumstances into account.

This is part of our weekly financial term series, where we take one finance word and explain it properly.

If you're thinking about selling something and want to understand what it means for your taxes, our tax & advisory team is always happy to help.

This photo is 11 years old.

That's Jason on the right, and John and Robyn beside him.

Plenty has changed since. We've been through market falls, recoveries, rule changes and a leadership handover. But some things we've deliberately never let go of.

We still answer the phone ourselves. We still sit down with people properly. Our advisers are salaried, so nobody here has a reason to recommend anything other than what they believe is right for you. And we still only take on clients we're confident we can genuinely help.

Nearly four decades of financial planning, and the thing clients stay for hasn't shifted once. Someone you can trust.

Thank you John and Robyn, for letting us share this one.

"Reinvest the dividends, and let the portfolio do the compounding for you."

Here's the simple version: when a company you own shares in makes a profit, it can choose to share some of that with you. That's called a dividend. It's not guaranteed though; a company can raise it, lower it, or stop it altogether depending on how business is going, so it's worth understanding rather than relying on.

Your income has gone up over the years. Has your savings rate?

If the honest answer is "not really," you're in very good company. It's called lifestyle creep, and it's sneaky.

The trouble is when money leaves without ever being weighed against the things you say matter most. The answer is a plan that tells you what your money is for.

Two loans can look the same on paper until you check the APR.

Here's the thing most people don't realise: the interest rate you see advertised isn't always the full cost. APR includes that rate plus any extra fees the lender charges, so it's the number that shows you what you'll pay over a year.

A clearer way to compare two loans side by side.

Yesterday the whole team swapped the office for a full day of learning and connecting: our Team Development Day!

We kicked off with a session on working smarter and living better, then a workshop showing us just how much AI can do in the workplace. We wrapped up with a session on health and wellbeing, a great way to end the day.

A big thank you to everyone who made it such a great day for our team.