Financial Planning for Growing Families
We Help Growing Families Build Prosperity and Freedom
As your family grows, the home you choose, time away from work, everyday costs and the protection you need all affect one another. We help you see how those decisions fit together and plan for what matters most.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Protect your family’s income with cover that fits your situation
- Keep on top of the mortgage and day-to-day living costs
- Save towards a home deposit without putting life on hold
- Build savings for your children’s education and school fees
- Plan for super contributions through parental leave and career breaks
- Review the insurance already sitting inside your super
- Adjust the household budget when one income pauses
- Coordinate wills and guardianship with your solicitor, and review beneficiary nominations
Who We Help
- Dual-income families with competing priorities to balance
- New and expecting parents planning for the change ahead
- Young families wanting structure and a sense of security
- Families living on one income for now, by choice or by circumstance
- Parents planning for school fees and the savings that go with them
- Blended families managing two households and what passes to each child
- Couples navigating career breaks or another change in how life works
- Families supporting three generations with children at home and parents nearby
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for a Growing Family
Personal Insurance & Protection
We’ll work out what protection your family may need if an income stops or circumstances change.
With a mortgage and young children, we look at what it would take to keep the household running if something happened to either parent. We also check the cover already held inside super before recommending changes.
Together, we’ll work through:
- What the household would need if either parent died, became seriously ill or couldn’t work
- The mortgage, and whether you would want it cleared outright or simply serviced
- Cover for a parent doing unpaid care and household work, based on what support the family would need
- Childcare and schooling costs to consider when setting the amount of cover
- Whether income protection is available and suitable for each working parent, including part-time work
- Existing cover in both super funds, considered before any new cover is recommended
- Who may receive a benefit, and how nominations, ownership and guardianship arrangements interact
- When to review cover as children, housing and incomes change
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
We can establish what your household needs each month through the years when costs rise fastest.
Childcare, housing costs and a period on one income can arrive close together. We help you understand the household’s essential costs, plan for larger bills and see how a return to work may change cashflow after childcare costs and any subsidy.
Together, we’ll work through:
- What the household needs each month through the years when costs climb fastest
- The cost of childcare against income from returning to work, after any applicable subsidy
- A plan for the months when one parent’s income changes during leave
- Annual bills set aside for through the year, so they’re easier to manage when due
- Where the school and activity costs sit, and how far ahead they are funded
- An account setup that gives both partners visibility and works for their household
- A practical buffer for the unexpected costs of family life
- What a second car, a bigger house or a third child would actually cost
Financial Planning & Advice
We’ll build one plan that holds the decisions a young family makes together.
The home you choose affects cashflow and what you can put towards other goals. Time away from work changes the picture again, and the protection you need should reflect both. We bring those decisions into one plan and revisit it as life changes.
Together, we’ll work through:
- One plan holding the house, the leave, the cover and the super together
- The order in which to make decisions about housing, leave, cover and super
- What is affordable now against what is affordable once childcare ends
- Wills, guardianship and powers of attorney to discuss with your solicitor
- How much of the plan should assume both incomes continue, and how much should not
- Which changes call for a review of the family plan, and what each one affects
- When to bring your solicitor in for the wills and the guardianship
- How and when to review the plan as family life changes
Property Investment Advice
We can help you weigh up whether keeping your first home as an investment fits your wider plan.
When a family needs more space, selling the first home or keeping it as an investment can affect cashflow, borrowing, tax and family payments. We look at the choices together and work alongside your broker and accountant where needed.
Together, we’ll work through:
- The likely cashflow and long-term implications of selling or keeping the first home
- The main residence tax rules to discuss with your accountant before a decision
- How rental income and losses may affect tax and family payments, with your accountant’s input
- Whether two loans would remain manageable during parental leave or reduced hours
- Ownership of a new property and its implications, alongside your broker, accountant and solicitor
- The possible capital gains consequences if your first home becomes a rental
- Any land tax implications if the first home becomes an investment property
- A larger mortgage and a smaller household income, modelled together rather than apart
Superannuation
We’ll show you how time away from work may affect super and what options you may have to rebuild it.
Career breaks and part-time work can affect super over time. We can review contributions, cover and the options available to each partner, then consider what’s affordable alongside the family’s other goals.
Together, we’ll work through:
- The potential impact of a career break on super contributions and future projections
- Contribution splitting, moving part of one partner’s contributions to the other
- Whether spouse contributions are suitable and any tax offset is available while one income is reduced
- Whether unused concessional cap amounts may be available in a later year
- The cover inside each fund, and whether it still fits a household with children
- Beneficiary nominations reviewed after major family changes, alongside your will and your solicitor’s advice
- Which fund each of you holds, and whether consolidating suits your situation
- How the balances compare between you, and whether evening them up is worth doing
Tax & Wealth Strategies
We’ll help you understand how investment, super and tax decisions fit together as family income changes.
Where partners earn different amounts or one steps back from work, investment ownership and contributions can affect the household’s overall position. We work with your accountant on tax implications and consider how any income-tested family payments may be affected.
Together, we’ll work through:
- How investment ownership and contributions may affect the household’s after-tax position
- Whose name an investment sits in, and what that decides while one income is lower
- Whether income-tested family payments or childcare support may change as income changes
- Whether income changes affect private health insurance costs or rebates
- Ways to set money aside for education, and the costs, risks and tax considerations of each
- Capital gains on an asset bought before the children arrived
- Tax questions to work through with your accountant when working hours change
- What to hand your accountant each year, and when they need it
Retirement & Aged Care
We can show you what contributions made during the family years are worth later.
Choices made during the family years can affect retirement later, even when retirement feels far away. We can model how contributions and career breaks may change the picture, while keeping today’s priorities in view. Supporting ageing parents may also become part of the plan.
Together, we’ll work through:
- What contributions made during the family years are worth by the time you stop
- How a career break changes the projection, and what recovers it
- How to balance extra mortgage repayments and super contributions, if money is available
- The retirement age each of you is planning on, and whether they match
- What the plan assumes about the years after the children leave home
- How ageing parents might change the picture for one or both of you
- A projection you can actually see, rather than a feeling about the future
- When a retirement plan is worth revisiting, given how much changes in these years
SMSF
We can help you decide whether an SMSF has a worthwhile role in your family’s plan.
An SMSF can offer control and flexibility for some families, but it also brings costs, administration and trustee responsibilities. We compare it with other super options and consider whether its benefits justify those obligations in your circumstances.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Whether a fund would add anything for a household still building two balances
- The fixed costs against two balances still building through the family years
- What the trustee work would ask of you in a decade with very little time
- Whether a property or a specific asset is the actual reason for considering one
- Insurance that may be affected by a rollover, checked before anything changes
- Who would run the fund if one of you could not, with children depending on it
- Whether the appeal is genuine control, or simply frustration with a current fund
- The change that would need to happen before this became the right move
What We’ll Work Through Together
Planning for One Income
See how leave or reduced hours could affect the mortgage, childcare and everyday costs.
Protection as Your Family Grows
Review debts, income needs, unpaid care and cover already held.
A Home That Fits the Whole Plan
Consider repayments alongside childcare, leave and other family costs.
Childcare Costs in Context
Understand likely out-of-pocket costs after any applicable subsidy.
Planning for School Costs
Set a savings approach for the education choices you’re considering.
Super Through Career Changes
Consider contributions and other options when work patterns change.
Super Beneficiaries
Review nominations and how they fit with your broader estate plan.
Which Debt to Pay First
The mortgage, the car and the card, in an order that suits your situation.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
These are the years you’ll look back on. They can also be some of the busiest and most expensive, and it can be hard to think much beyond the week you’re in. We’re here to help with that. We’ll listen to what you want for your family, then help you build a plan that fits the life you’re living now. We can work through each decision with you, in an order that makes sense for your family.
A home that feels secure. School years you can plan for. Savings that help the future feel like something to look forward to. Those are the things worth planning for, and we can help you take practical steps towards them, together. As your family grows and changes, we can review the plan with you, so it keeps reflecting the life you have now and the one you’re all working towards.
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.
There’s no single figure that suits every family. We consider several parts of the picture:
- The mortgage, if you’d want it cleared outright.
- The income that would be lost, and for how many years.
- Childcare and schooling still ahead of you.
- The cost of care and household work a surviving parent may need help to replace.
We also review existing cover, savings and other resources before recommending an amount. We can work through the calculation with you rather than rely on a simple salary multiple.
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.
Time away from paid work or reduced hours may mean less super is contributed, although entitlements and employer arrangements vary. We can model the potential effect and discuss options for later.
Depending on your circumstances, options may include:
- Contribution splitting may allow part of eligible concessional contributions to be transferred to a spouse’s account.
- Spouse contributions can carry a tax offset, depending on income.
- Unused concessional cap amounts may be available to use later if the eligibility rules are met.
The right approach depends on the household budget, contribution rules and your other priorities. We can help you plan before leave starts and revisit it as work changes.
It depends on your rate, your timeframe and how much flexibility you need, and it’s rarely all one or the other.
Extra mortgage repayments reduce interest, while super contributions may bring tax benefits and long-term investment growth. Access, risk, loan features and contribution rules differ, so we compare the choices in your circumstances.
With young children, access to cash may be particularly valuable. We can model the trade-offs and help you decide how much flexibility to keep while planning for later.
An online calculator can provide a starting estimate, but it may use broad assumptions.
Advice looks at your debts, dependants, income, unpaid care, existing cover and how a benefit may be paid.
The number matters, and so does what sits behind it. We help you understand both.
Wills and guardianship arrangements are worth discussing with a solicitor. We can help coordinate the financial pieces.
Wills, guardianship for children and enduring powers of attorney are the documents most often postponed, and the cost of not having them lands on the people least able to deal with it.
We review super nominations and insurance ownership, then work with your solicitor so those financial arrangements are considered alongside your will and other estate documents.
If education costs are on the horizon, it helps to estimate them early. The amount and timing will depend on the choices your family makes.
Two things make it manageable:
- Estimate likely fees and extras over the relevant years, rather than only the first invoice.
- Start funding it before the first year, so it’s partly saved rather than entirely paid out of cashflow.
Where the money is held can also affect tax, access and investment risk, so we consider the options with you.
No preparation is needed. Tell us what’s changing for your family and what you’re most concerned about. We can start there.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. We’ll explain what happens next and what to have on hand.
We’ll help you put the pieces in an order that makes sense for your family.
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.
Reviews
Testimonials from Our Clients
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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