Financial Planning for Personal Trainers, Fitness Instructors and Yoga Teachers

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.

Each place can be different. If you’re employed there, that employer generally pays super for you. On a contract, a business may still have to pay if more than half the contract’s value is for your labour, you’re not paid for a specified result and you can’t delegate the work. Having an ABN doesn’t settle it, and a contract through your own company, trust or partnership means the business doesn’t have to pay.

An accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand at each place. We can then plan your own contributions with you, and look at whether several funds still suit you.

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.

Fair Work says the Fitness Award covers employers in the fitness industry, such as fitness centres, fitness services or classes and group fitness organisations, and it lists personal trainers and fitness class teachers among its examples. It also covers labour hire businesses placing staff in the industry.

It doesn’t apply where another award covers the employer, such as the Local Government, Registered Clubs or Hospitality awards. For a yoga, Pilates or other studio, Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool is the place to check. Whichever applies, we plan with you from the pay you receive.

The fee is a fixed cost, so it helps to plan around it, including a week when fewer clients book. Then plan for the rest of the set-up:

• A buffer for quieter weeks and time off, as Moneysmart notes you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave if you’re self-employed
• Your own super, unless a business has to pay it for you
• Cover through your super, if you have it, checked before you leave a payroll
• Records and tax money set aside, with an accountant
• Public liability, which a general insurance broker can explain

The agreement itself is worth a solicitor’s read. We can compare the offer with your current set-up, using your own figures.

Money paid upfront is for sessions you haven’t delivered yet, so it can help to hold it apart from your everyday account until you’ve run them. A few points to plan:

• Tax, and any GST question on package income, with an accountant
• A buffer, so your budget doesn’t rely on new packages selling
• A simple record of sessions paid for and sessions delivered

How you set it up is your decision. We can build it into your budget with you, so package money and spending money stay separate.

For employees, the ATO’s guide for fitness industry employees says gym fees, conventional clothing worn at the gym and supplements such as protein shakes are private expenses. The same guide lets employees claim equipment used to perform their duties, such as exercise mats, for the work-related part.

If you’re self-employed, business costs and the ATO’s personal services income rules are questions for an accountant. An accountant can confirm your position either way, and we can plan with you around what’s left once tax is worked out.

A business coach can help you grow the training side: pricing, marketing, client numbers and how your week runs. That’s valuable work.

A financial adviser looks at the household side of the same income: super, personal insurance, savings goals, tax planning with an accountant and what your work could fund over time. The two can sit side by side, and we can plan with you around the business you’re building.

A studio can bring a lease, fit-out and running costs before the first class. Points to plan:

• The lease, which a solicitor can read with you
• Fit-out costs, and any finance, which a broker can arrange
• The structure, with an accountant
• What you’d live on in the first months
• Life and TPD amounts weighed against new debts

Any cover you hold is worth reading before anything changes. We can work out the studio’s costs with you, using your own figures, and the insurer decides on any application.

Yes. Planning can start with the mix of work you’d like later: how many sessions or classes to keep, and whether programming, online coaching or managing others could become a stage of its own. Years of casual and part-time pay can shape your balance, and if you’re self-employed, contributions may be yours to plan unless a business has to pay super for you.

We’d build the plan on super and savings, with a studio sale, if you own one, counted as extra on top. You can read more about our retirement advice.

We’re a national service, so you can meet with us by phone or video from anywhere in Australia. We also have offices in three cities:

• Sydney: offices in Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Ingleburn and Narellan, servicing areas including the City of Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and all surrounding suburbs.
• Melbourne: our St Kilda Road office, servicing areas including the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip, Boroondara, Monash, Casey, Wyndham and all surrounding suburbs.
• Brisbane: our Eagle Street office, servicing areas including Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and all surrounding suburbs.

Yes. Whether you’ve just finished your qualification, run classes on a timetable or own a studio, a first conversation starts with how you work today.

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.

Bring what’s easy to find: a payslip or your last tax return, each super statement, insurance documents if you hold cover, and the terms of a gym arrangement if you’re in one. You can meet with us by video or phone, or face to face at one of our offices.