Financial Planning for Postal Workers
Empowering Postal Workers to Build Wealth and Financial Freedom
Changes to your work, the type of super you hold and the years you plan to keep working all connect. We can help you work through them together, from your first year of service to your final day.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Weigh up an exit or retirement offer before its reply date, with the tax, super and cover set side by side
- Find out which type of super you hold, defined benefit or accumulation, before an exit, a switch or extra contributions
- Map the years to preservation age and beyond when your work involves delivering, sorting or lifting parcels
- Compare income protection and other personal cover for illness or injury outside work, which workers compensation generally doesn’t cover
- Set up your own super and cover as a parcel delivery contractor, starting with whether a business may owe you super
- Put part of your pay from the busiest weeks of the parcel year into super, within the indexed concessional cap
- Rework your budget when a delivery round is redesigned and your hours, duties or pay change with it
- Plan the sale of a licensed post office, or your exit from one, with the household and retirement in view
Who We Help
- Posties on motorbike, electric vehicle or walking rounds
- Parcel delivery drivers working from a van in all kinds of traffic
- Mail and parcel processing staff on early, late or night shifts
- Post office counter staff serving customers through the retail day
- Delivery coordinators and team leaders running rounds and the people on them
- Delivery contractors on an ABN delivering parcels under a contract
- Licensed post office licensees running a post office as their own business
- Long-serving staff weighing an offer to leave or retire
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for Postal Workers
Financial Planning & Advice
Through a changing round or any offer to leave, what would you like your money to go towards?
Planning each change with your pay, super and cover in view can help keep decisions in line with the goals you’ve set.
Together, we’ll build a financial plan, or Statement of Advice, around your work, your super and any offer to leave or retire.
Not every offer to leave is a redundancy. The ATO treats a payment as a genuine redundancy when your job is abolished and you’re under Age Pension age, with part of it tax-free up to a limit based on your years of service, while other payments to leave can be taxed as an employment termination payment. An accountant can confirm how any payment you’re offered is taxed.
Together, we’ll work through:
- An offer letter with a reply date, read with you for the payment, the leave owing and the income that follows
- Whether an offer counts as a genuine redundancy or another payment to leave, with an accountant confirming the tax
- Another year or two on the round compared with leaving now, counting what extra service could add to super and leave
- A move to lighter or lower-paid duties, with the change in pay, super and cover worked into the plan before you agree
- A licensed post office you own, with the sale or your exit planned alongside household costs and retirement
- Income that relies on one delivery contract, with savings and cover planned in case the contract isn’t renewed
- Questions about your agreement or entitlements, which sit with HR, Fair Work or any union you belong to
- Your plan revisited when a round is redesigned, your hours change or a new agreement starts
Superannuation
What could knowing your type of super help you plan for life after work?
Reading your statements together can show the type of super you hold and the choices that could help it grow.
We can check with you which type of super you hold, defined benefit or accumulation, before any exit, switch or extra contribution.
An older defined benefit arrangement, closed to new staff, is worked out under its own rules rather than as an account balance, while accumulation super moves with contributions, fees and investment returns. Overtime generally isn’t counted for employer super where your award or agreement clearly identifies ordinary hours. From 1 July 2026 the general concessional cap is $32,500, and caps are indexed.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Any defined benefit on your statement, with what an exit, fewer hours or lighter duties could change read under the scheme’s rules
- Extra contributions from pay earned in the busiest weeks of the parcel year, kept within the concessional cap
- Peak-season overtime, if you work it, which generally earns no employer super where ordinary hours are clearly set
- A parcel run on contract, with the agreement read with you for who is responsible for your super before you sign
- A contract covering your own van and fuel as well as your time, with contributions of your own planned in
- Any higher duties pay for acting in a more senior role, which generally counts towards the super your employer pays
- Cover held through a fund you stop paying into after an exit, and what it would still pay
- Part-time hours, and how fewer paid hours lower the employer super going into your account each year
Personal Insurance & Protection
How would you keep up with the bills if illness or injury stopped you delivering for a while?
Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, so the household bills can keep being paid.
We can compare income protection, TPD and life cover with you for riding, driving and lifting work in all weather.
Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme. An income protection benefit is often based on your earnings in the 12 months before, and can apply to illness or injury outside work. The insurer assesses your duties when you apply and decides the terms.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Riding a motorbike or electric delivery vehicle in traffic, described in full when an application asks about your duties
- Lifting and carrying parcels throughout a shift, and how that physical work may shape the premium and terms offered
- A fall at home or on a sports field that keeps you from your job for a time, and personal cover for the time off
- Any group cover through your fund, compared with personal cover that stays with you if you change employers
- Contract delivery work, where workers compensation may not cover you as it would an employee, leaving personal cover to you
- Any cover started years ago, reviewed against what you earn and owe now, before any offer to leave is accepted
- TPD definitions compared on how each treats someone unable to deliver but still able to do counter or office work
- Weather, uneven footpaths and dogs on a round, all part of the work an insurer may ask about when you apply
Retirement & Aged Care
After your last round, how would you like to spend your days?
Setting a finishing date against your super and savings can give you more say in when and how you finish.
We’ll work out with you the timing of your retirement, from your last few years of work to your first years after.
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. If you’d like to ease out first, fewer hours or lighter duties change both your take-home pay and what goes into your super, and from preservation age a transition to retirement income stream may top up reduced pay, if you’re eligible.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Reaching preservation age while still delivering, with the options it opens set out beside your plans for work
- Part-time hours in your last working years, and what the drop in pay means for the household and your super
- A later move from delivery to counter, processing or coordinating work, with the change in pay and super planned before you apply
- An offer to leave before preservation age, and how long the payment and savings could last until you can reach super
- Age Pension age and your finishing date, considered together since timing can change how a payment to leave is taxed
- Proceeds from selling a licensed post office, if you hold one, planned as part of your retirement income
- Retirement from contract delivery work, with income built from the super and savings you funded yourself
- Your first year after work budgeted around the travel, hobbies or family time you’d like
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
Could a budget built on your regular pay help you plan for the whole parcel year?
Covering everyday costs from regular pay can let any extra from the busy season build savings for the things you choose.
We’ll start with your regular pay and build a budget with you that allows for rounds, hours and seasons that change.
Letter delivery moved to at least every second day for most addresses in 2024, when more of a delivery day was expected to go to parcels, so rounds, hours and duties can change. If you’re an employee, your award or agreement usually sets your ordinary hours. For contractors and licensees, a buffer sized to fixed costs can help through quieter months.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A round redesigned around parcels, with any change in hours or pay worked into the budget before it starts
- Extra hours in the busiest weeks of the year, if you work them, directed to a goal you choose ahead of time
- The months after the Christmas peak, with regular bills set against pay you can count on
- Back pay under a new agreement, given a purpose of its own before your employer pays it
- A buffer for contract delivery income, sized to your fixed costs and the way payments move through the year
- Network payments and retail sales at a licensed post office, with a set amount paid to yourself for the household
- Fuel, vehicle and phone costs on a delivery contract, counted each month before working out what the household can spend
- Wet-weather gear, boots and other work items you buy yourself, if any, included in the monthly budget
Tax & Wealth Strategies
When a big year or a payment to leave comes along, how could planning the tax help your goals?
Timing decisions with tax in view can let more of a payment or a strong year go towards your plans.
Together, we’ll plan the tax side of a payment to leave, a busy year or contract income, alongside an accountant.
Ryker’s financial advisers plan tax and set tax structure and strategy, working alongside your accountant, who prepares and lodges your return. A payment to leave can have parts taxed in different ways, such as unused leave, any tax-free part of a genuine redundancy and an employment termination payment, and an employment termination payment can’t be rolled over into super.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Unused leave and any employment termination payment in an exit package, with an accountant confirming the tax on each part
- An employment termination payment, which can’t be rolled over into super, planned for debt, savings or personal contributions within the caps
- Your last day of work, timed with an accountant’s advice on which financial year a payment to leave falls into
- Part of a busy parcel season’s pay sent to super before tax, where your employer offers salary sacrifice, with an accountant on the tax
- Tax set aside from each contract payment, if you deliver on an ABN, in an amount your accountant confirms
- Selling a licensed post office, with an accountant advising on any capital gains and the timing of the sale
- A final pay with leave, a payout and wages in one year, with the year’s total tax estimated by an accountant
- An employment termination payment paid more than 12 months after you finish, which an accountant can check against the 12-month rule
Delivering on an ABN? Learn more about Financial Planning for Sole Traders
Property Investment Advice
Where could property fit in your plans for the years before and after you finish work?
Weighing repayments against your finishing date can show which property choice suits the years ahead.
We can weigh a home loan, investment property or downsizing against your finishing date, with any loan through a broker.
A lender decides how it assesses a loan that runs past your planned finishing date, 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:
- Extra repayments from a payment to leave, compared with keeping the money as savings or adding to super
- A loan later in your career, where a lender may ask how repayments continue after work, a question for a broker
- Moving to a smaller or cheaper home after work, with the costs of selling and buying counted against what it frees up
- An investment property late in a career, where rent may need to cover more of the repayments once you stop work
- Contract or licence income, which a lender may assess differently from wages, raised with a broker before you apply
- A deposit built from regular pay, with any busy-season extra added when it comes
- An investment loan taken out close to your final working year, with the repayments set against income after work
- Using part of a payment to leave towards a family member’s home deposit, weighed against your own retirement income
Your Round and Your Super, Worked Through Together
Any Offer to Leave
The payment, its tax with an accountant, and your super and cover set out before you reply.
Your Type of Super
Your statement read with you to confirm defined benefit or accumulation before any change.
Illness and Injury Away From Work
Income protection and other cover compared with you, set beside workers compensation.
Super as a Contractor
Your own contributions, and any super a business may have to pay, planned with you.
Busy Weeks Into Super
Part of your peak-season pay planned for super, within the indexed concessional cap.
Your Retirement Date
A finishing date set with you, with fewer hours or lighter duties along the way if you choose.
Selling or Leaving a Post Office
The sale or exit of a licensed post office planned with the household and retirement in view.
A Budget for a Changing Round
Hours, duties and pay rechecked with you each time your round is redesigned.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Delivering the post is work that reaches every street, in sun, wind and rain. Letters, parcels and the small things people have been waiting for all pass through your hands before they reach a front door. We start by listening: to how your working days run, what you value about the job and what you’d like your money to help with. From that first conversation, we build the advice around your own goals.
The work you do each day can go towards the things that matter to you at home: a place of your own, time for family and friends, travel, or more choice about when you slow down. If others count on your income, they belong in the plan too. Whether retirement is close or still years away, we can help you plan for the life you’d like, today and after your last round.
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.
Not necessarily, so it’s worth confirming in writing what kind of payment it is. The ATO treats a payment as a genuine redundancy when your job is abolished and you’re under Age Pension age, and part of it is then tax-free up to a limit based on your years of service. A payment when you leave voluntarily, when a contract ends or when a redundancy comes at or after Age Pension age can be taxed as an employment termination payment, which can’t be rolled over into super. Payments made because your employment ends also generally don’t attract employer super.
An accountant can confirm the tax. We can set the payment out beside your super, cover and budget with you before you reply.
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.
Your super statement is the first place to look. An accumulation account shows a balance that moves with contributions, fees and investment returns. A defined benefit is worked out under the scheme’s own rules, which Moneysmart says usually use your salary and years of service, so a statement may show a benefit estimate rather than a simple balance.
An older defined benefit arrangement in the postal network is closed to new staff, so newer staff generally hold accumulation super. Your fund can confirm which you hold and what any benefit is worth. We can read it with you before an exit, a change of hours or extra contributions.
Whether they do comes down to how the hours are paid. Where an award or agreement clearly identifies your ordinary hours, the ATO says overtime isn’t counted in the earnings your employer must pay super on. Your payslip shows how extra hours were paid, and your employer can confirm how they’re treated.
If a busy season lifts your pay without lifting your super by the same amount, extra contributions are one option. From 1 July 2026 the general concessional cap is $32,500, and caps are indexed. We can plan an amount that suits you, through salary sacrifice where your employer offers it or personal contributions.
Business-for-sale listings are a useful first look at asking prices and what a post office may earn, whether you’re thinking of buying one or selling your own. They’re general, so they may not show how a purchase or a sale fits your household, super and retirement.
Advice looks at that side: how a purchase would be funded and the buffer you’d keep, cover for the household while you run the business, and what a sale could mean for your retirement income. An accountant can review the business figures and the tax, a solicitor the licence and contract terms, and a broker any loan. We can plan the rest with you.
It depends on the contract. On a contract, a business may still have to pay super if you’re paid mainly for your labour. A contract that also pays for your own vehicle may not be mainly for labour, and then the super is yours to plan. Points to check:
- Whether the contract is mainly for your labour, using the ATO’s guidance for contractors.
- Contributions of your own, with an accountant confirming whether any tax deduction applies.
- Income protection and other cover, since workers compensation may not cover you as it would an employee.
We can plan your super and cover with you around the contract you hold.
That depends on whether the injury is work-related, whether you’re employed or on contract, and any cover you hold. The layers:
- Workers compensation, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, for a work-related injury or illness, with the scheme deciding any claim. A contractor may not be covered as an employee would be.
- Income protection, if you hold it, which can pay part of your income after a waiting period, including for illness or injury outside work.
- TPD and life cover, if you hold them, inside or outside super.
We can look over any cover with you and compare options, and the insurer decides any policy claim. Free, confidential support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Yes. We can start from wherever you are, a recent first round, many years of service or a contract of your own.
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 helps to bring any offer letter you’ve received, recent payslips, your super statements, including any defined benefit statement, details of any cover you hold, and any delivery contract or licence papers. We can meet in person or online.
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.
Book An Initial Conversation