Financial Planning for Bricklayers, Plasterers, Tilers and Painters
Helping Bricklayers, Plasterers, Tilers and Painters to Build Wealth and Prosperity
Your pay by the hour, metre or job, the physical work you do, your super and any cover you hold all connect. We’ll help you work through each one, from apprentice to pricing your own jobs.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Explain the super rules for work paid by the job, and plan contributions once an accountant or the ATO confirms what’s owed
- Compare TPD cover definitions for work that relies on your knees, shoulders and back
- Choose income protection waiting and benefit periods that suit pay that rises and falls with output
- Plan wages, super and records for a partner or relative who works in the business
- Review super and personal cover for a partner who does the quotes and books without pay
- Map how savings could carry you to preservation age at 60, and savings and super to Age Pension age at 67
- Plan cashflow, deposits and costs before you start quoting homeowners directly
- Build a cash buffer for late start dates and final payments at the end of a build
Who We Help
- Apprentices learning to lay, plaster, tile or paint
- Bricklayers and blocklayers on houses, units and commercial walls
- Solid and plasterboard plasterers fixing, setting and cornicing on new builds and renovations
- Wall and floor tilers in bathrooms, kitchens and commercial fit-outs
- Painters on new builds, repaints and strata buildings
- Sole traders quoting homeowners directly for renovations and repairs
- Couples and families running a trade business together
- Tradespeople in their 50s planning the years ahead of 60 and 67
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for Bricklayers, Plasterers, Tilers and Painters
Superannuation
Whether you’re paid by the hour, the day or the job, is super being put away for you?
Working through how you’re paid can show which super is yours to arrange, so every job can count towards retirement.
We can explain how being paid by the hour, the day or a quoted price can change who funds your super.
On a contract, a business may still have to pay super if you’re paid mainly for your labour. In the ATO’s own example, a painter contracted to achieve a result is owed no super by the business that hired them, even as a sole trader doing the work themselves. An accountant can confirm how your contracts are treated.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Day-rate or hourly work for one builder, which may count as mainly labour, with your super position confirmed by an accountant
- Quoted prices per square metre or per job, which can make the work a contract for a result, with super then yours to fund
- Wages from a bricklaying, plastering, tiling or painting business, where your employer generally pays super and your fund statement shows each payment
- Old accounts from your apprenticeship and early employers, compared on insurance cover and fees before any are combined into one
- A partner’s own super, if they work in the business unpaid and nothing is being contributed to their account
- Labourers or offsiders you take on for bigger jobs, and the super your business may owe them, set up with an accountant
- A set share of each job’s price put aside for super, so contributions keep going in years you fund them yourself
- Slower months waiting on the next start, when regular contributions can pause and be made up later within that year’s caps
Personal Insurance & Protection
If an injury kept you from painting, tiling or plastering for a while, where would your income come from?
After a waiting period, income protection can pay part of your income, so the weekly bills can still be paid.
We can compare income protection for tradies with you, along with TPD and life cover for laying, plastering, tiling and painting.
Many income protection policies base the benefit on earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, so a slower year on a rate per metre can lower what’s paid. Own-occupation TPD is dearer and usually only available outside super, while any-occupation TPD asks whether you could ever work again in any job suited to your education, training or experience.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Kneeling on floors and against walls for tiling, described in full on an application so the insurer assesses your real duties
- Overhead work on ceilings for plasterers and painters, plus ladders, scaffolds and heights, set out in the duties you disclose
- Repetitive lifting of bricks, blocks and mortar, included in a bricklayer’s duties so the application matches the work
- A loading or exclusion an insurer may offer for an existing condition, weighed against the premium and what stays covered
- Output pay that drops in a slower year, set against a policy that looks back at what you earned before a claim
- Benefit periods of two or five years, or to an age such as 65, compared on cost and on how long each would pay
- A waiting period set against the money you hold back from each job, so savings carry the household until any benefit starts
- Life and TPD sums insured set against business debts, such as an equipment loan or overdraft, as well as any home loan
Retirement & Aged Care
Once you put down the brushes and trowels, how would you like to spend your days?
Mapping the years ahead can help your super and savings give you a regular income once the tools are put away.
We’ll set out the years to preservation age and Age Pension age with you, and how super and savings fit each.
Preservation age is 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964, and super can generally only be accessed once you meet a condition of release, such as ceasing employment at 60 or over. Age Pension age is 67, and eligibility also depends on other rules, including income and assets tests.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Trade sales, estimating or teaching at TAFE later in your career, with each role’s pay set against your savings and super
- The years between 60 and 67, and whether super, savings or part-time work could carry the household until any Age Pension
- Running a crew instead of laying, plastering, tiling or painting yourself, and how business income fits your retirement timing
- A benefit period to an age such as 65, which could pay under the policy’s terms if illness or injury stops work before super is reachable
- Handing your customers and gear to a son or daughter in the trade, with any tax on the transfer confirmed by an accountant
- Two super balances in a couple, if you have a partner, drawn into one retirement plan instead of two separate ones
- Any home loan or business debt still owing at 60 or 67, with repayments planned against income once you finish
- Extra contributions in your 50s, where cashflow allows, kept within that year’s caps and weighed against debt repayments
Financial Planning & Advice
When the business and the household share the same money, how do you plan for both?
Separate budgets for the business and the home can show what each needs, so goals for both can be planned together.
We can build a financial plan, or Statement of Advice, for the household, including anyone who works in the business with you.
If a partner does the quotes and books, or a son or daughter labours on your jobs, their pay, super and cover become part of the household plan. We can coordinate with an accountant on tax and employment obligations, a broker on lending and a general insurance broker on business cover.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A partner’s role in the business, whether paid, unpaid or part-time, and what each option means for their super and cover
- Adult children working on your jobs, with their wages, super and other employer obligations confirmed with an accountant
- Quoting homeowners directly for the first time, set as a point to review cashflow, cover and the household plan
- Licensing and any home warranty cover for direct work, questions for your state or territory regulator, planned into costs with you
- A household that runs on one trade income, with savings for a pause in work and personal cover for illness or injury
- Moving from employee to sole trader, or from subbing to builders to your own clients, with super and cover reviewed at each step
- A trade business a couple runs together, with how it’s owned and structured decided with an accountant and built into one plan
- Beneficiary nominations on your super and cover, reviewed when a partner or family member’s role in the business changes
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
How much of each final payment could go towards your own goals?
A budget built on the money you can count on can set aside part of each final payment for savings and goals.
We’ll build a budget with you around pay that varies by job and season, and the wait for each final payment.
Much of this work follows other stages of a build, so start dates and final payments can move when earlier trades run late. On jobs you quote directly to homeowners, deposit and progress payment rules can apply, and they vary by state or territory.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Start dates and final payments that move with earlier stages of a build, with savings set aside to carry the wait
- Pay by the metre or by the thousand, with fixed bills set against an average month instead of your busiest one
- Deposits on direct homeowner jobs, kept for materials and the job itself, with the rules confirmed by your state or territory regulator
- Money for tax and any GST moved out of each payment on the day it lands, at amounts an accountant sets
- Materials bought up front for a job, such as tiles, paint or plaster, and the gap before the customer pays for them
- Jobs taking longer than quoted, with a buffer so extra days on a fixed price don’t come out of household bills
- Mixers, scaffold hire, tile saws and spray rigs, priced into each quote so the gear is paid for by the work itself
- Payment terms on your quotes, with a buffer for any customer or builder who pays later than agreed
Tax & Wealth Strategies
Is the tax side of your work set up in a way that suits your wider goals?
Planning the tax side around your wider goals can leave more of each job’s earnings for savings and super.
We’ll plan the tax side of your work with you, alongside an accountant’s advice on family wages, personal services income and deductions.
Ryker’s financial advisers plan tax and set tax structure and strategy, working alongside your accountant, who prepares and lodges your return. The ATO says payments to relatives need records, and excessive or unreasonable payments may not be deductible. Personal services income (PSI) rules can also limit deductions for payments to an associate, and an accountant can say whether they apply.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Wages paid to a partner or relative for work they actually do, with duties, hours and pay recorded as the ATO expects
- Personal services income rules, which can limit splitting income with an associate, with an accountant deciding whether they apply to you
- Paying yourself as a sole trader, which the ATO treats as a distribution of profit rather than a wage, planned into your budget
- Knee pads, respirators and the trowels, floats and brushes you buy for work, with what can be claimed confirmed by an accountant
- The order for claiming personal super contributions: your notice of intent, the fund’s acknowledgment, then a return prepared by an accountant
- Super contributions paid for a relative in the business, which the ATO counts with their wages as payments to an associate
- A big year from a run of direct jobs, with tax on it estimated with an accountant before the money is committed elsewhere
- Records of each quote, invoice and payment, kept so an accountant can separate business costs from household spending
Property Investment Advice
Could a first home, an upgrade or an investment property work on pay that varies by job?
Weighing each option against your slower jobs can show whether any could fit, and which would suit you most.
We can weigh a first home, an upgrade or an investment property with you against pay that varies by job.
A lender assesses wage or ABN income its own way, and a broker arranges any loan. Borrowing to invest can magnify losses as well as gains, and the loan must still be repaid if values fall. From 1 July 2027, negative gearing on residential property is limited to new builds, though property held on 12 May 2026 is exempt.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A home deposit built from job payments, with the deposit savings kept apart from money held for tax and slow months
- Your ABN history and how long you’ve traded, which can shape the loans on offer, a question for a broker
- Repayments tested against an average year of output pay, not your busiest, so the loan suits a slower year too
- Doing your own brick, plaster, tile or paint work on an investment property, with your time costed against paid jobs given up
- Body corporate or strata levies on a unit, counted alongside the repayments if you buy an apartment or townhouse
- A home bought close to where most of your jobs are, weighed against a cheaper area with longer travel each day
- An offset account, if your loan has one, holding the buffer for slower months so the money reduces interest while it waits
- Lenders mortgage insurance on a smaller deposit, weighed with a broker against saving for longer to reach a bigger one
Your Trade and Your Future, Worked Through Together
Super on Job Rates
Contributions planned with you around how you’re paid, with any super owed confirmed by an accountant or the ATO.
Cover Definitions That Fit the Work
TPD and income protection terms compared for your duties, with the insurer deciding any offer.
Income Protection Periods
The waiting period and the benefit period chosen with you to suit pay that varies with output.
The Family in the Business
Wages, super and records for relatives in the business planned with you and an accountant.
A Partner’s Own Plan
Super and cover for a partner who helps in the business, planned as part of the household.
Planning for 60 and 67
The years before preservation age and Age Pension age mapped with you, with options at each.
Quoting Homeowners Directly
Cashflow, deposits and costs planned with you before you price your first direct job.
A Buffer for Late Starts
Savings set aside with you for late start dates and final payments at the end of a build.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
The walls, ceilings, floors and finishes you work on are the parts of a building people see and use every day. It’s skilled work, and good work shows long after you’ve packed up for the next job. We’ll get to know how your work comes in and what you’re aiming for, at home and in the trade. Then we can help you put a plan in place that suits the way you earn and the life you’d like.
Your trade can take you in plenty of directions: a home of your own, a crew, clients of your own, a business run with family, or more time for the people and things you enjoy. If a partner, children or anyone else shares in what you earn, they can be part of the plan too. Whatever you’re working towards, we can help you plan for it, with the years ahead in view.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
Great advice starts with understanding the bigger picture. Every stage of life presents new opportunities and challenges, from buying property and changing careers to growing your family, planning for retirement and protecting what matters most. At Ryker, we help connect every piece of your financial world into one clear strategy.
Your
Wealth
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
Frequently Asked Questions
We’re invested in your long-term success. What we do is personal, and we take it personally.
Your financial decisions connect, so we consider the parts of your financial life that are relevant to the advice you need:
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
This is how we help you make decisions today with your longer-term goals in view.
Everybody’s situation is different, so we listen first, understand what matters to you and explain your options clearly before we make a recommendation.
It depends on what the contract is for, and an accountant or the ATO can confirm your position. On a contract, a business may still have to pay super if you’re paid mainly for your labour. The ATO also says a business that contracts someone to achieve a result doesn’t owe them super.
Its own example is a painter hired to paint a shop: the business owes no super, even where a sole trader does all the work themselves.
A price per square metre or per job can point to a contract for a result, but the whole arrangement decides it. We can plan contributions of your own with you, whatever the answer.
Your accountant and financial adviser bring different expertise to the same decisions. Your accountant can advise on tax reporting, structures and consequences; we help you plan how cashflow, debt, super, investments and protection work towards your goals. We can coordinate before important decisions.
What an accountant does
- Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
- Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
- Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
- Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction
What a financial adviser does
- Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
- Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
- Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
- Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
- Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations
Professional roles and authorisations matter. We provide financial advice within our authorisations and work with your accountant for specialist tax advice and lodgements.
Where they work together
- Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
- Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
- Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
- Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.
It depends on how the policy defines total and permanent disability, and the insurer assesses every claim against its terms. The two common definitions:
- Own occupation: you’re unable to work again in the job you did before. This cover is more expensive and usually only available outside super.
- Any occupation: you’re unable to ever work again in any job suited to your education, training or experience. It’s cheaper, but has a higher threshold to claim.
Under an any occupation definition, work such as estimating, supervising or training may be taken into account, depending on your experience. We can compare definitions and costs with you, and the insurer makes the final decision on any application.
There’s no single answer, because it depends on your savings, your debts and anyone who relies on your income. Two settings shape it:
- The benefit period: how long payments continue if you remain unable to work due to illness or injury. Most policies offer two or five years, or up to a specific age such as 65.
- The waiting period: how long you wait before payments start. Most policies offer between 14 days and two years.
Many policies also base the benefit on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, so a slower year on output pay can matter. We can weigh each setting and its cost with you.
It helps to treat your partner’s work as part of the plan, not something on the side. Points to work through with an accountant and with us:
- Pay: the ATO expects payments to relatives to be recorded, including duties and hours, and excessive or unreasonable payments may not be deductible.
- Personal services income rules, which can limit deductions for payments to an associate. An accountant can say whether they apply.
- Their own super, especially if their work in the business is unpaid.
- Cover, since the household may need to replace their work as well as yours if either of you couldn’t do it.
We can plan their super and cover with you as part of one household plan.
A quoting or invoicing app can price a job by the square metre, track what’s owed and show what each job brought in, which helps you run the work.
Advice looks at what that income has to carry beyond the job: super if no one else is paying it, cover if you couldn’t work, the household budget, any partner in the business and the years before 60 and 67.
We can set what the app shows against your wider plan with you.
It’s worth planning for, whatever age work might stop. What shapes the options:
- Preservation age is 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964, and super can generally only be accessed once you meet a condition of release, such as ceasing employment at 60 or over.
- Age Pension age is 67, and eligibility also depends on other rules, including income and assets tests.
- Years between stopping and those ages can be funded from savings, investments outside super or income from another role, such as estimating or training.
- Any income protection or TPD cover you hold, depending on its terms.
We can plan each of these with you, against the age you have in mind.
Yes, from your first year as an apprentice to quoting your own jobs or working alongside family.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first.
It’s worth having to hand: a few invoices or a payslip, a super statement, any insurance documents and, if you’re self-employed, your last two tax returns. A video call works as well as a meeting face to face.
Who We Help
Advice for All Stages of Life
From first job to retirement, we help you build wealth, protect it, and live well.
Starting Out
First jobs, first home, first super, HECS debt, budgeting and more.
Growing Families
First home buyers, new parents, school fees, single incomes, young families and more.
Medical & Health
Doctors, dentists, pharmacists, allied health, nurses and more.
Professional Services & Tech
Lawyers, accountants, brokers, engineers, consultants and more.
Trades & Business Owners
Electricians, plumbers, builders, sole traders, franchisees and more.
Corporate & Executive
Executives, senior managers, directors, board members and more.
Public Sector & Defence
Police, firefighters, paramedics, ADF personnel, teachers and more.
Approaching Retirement
Pre-retirees, transition to retirement, Age Pension, aged care, estate planning and more.
Other Stages
Any income, any stage, career changers, separation, second opinions and more.
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Grow & Protect Your Wealth Today
Whatever’s on your mind, we’re here to help. You’ll speak with an authorised financial adviser who’ll listen first and get to know what matters to you.
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