Financial Planning for Teachers
Financial Advice Empowering Teachers to Build Wealth and Freedom
Pay steps, extended leave, part-time years and super can all affect one another over a teaching career. We help you bring them into one plan built around what matters to you.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Budget through the four years that fund a deferred salary year
- Weigh up extended leave options as part of your financial plan
- Consider salary sacrifice or spouse contributions while working part-time
- Review a rural incentive package and its conditions, with the tax checked by your accountant
- Understand salary packaging at a public, Catholic or private school
- Review the super fund your contributions go to, and any insurance inside it
- Plan contributions and tax as a leadership salary rises, with your accountant
- Prepare your super, leave and cover for leaving teaching or changing sectors
Who We Help
- Graduate teachers starting out on the first pay steps
- Casual and temporary teachers working from one engagement to the next
- Teachers returning part-time after parental leave
- Rural and remote teachers weighing up an incentive package
- Head teachers and assistant principals stepping into leadership
- Deputy principals and principals planning around a leadership salary
- Educators changing schools from a public school to a Catholic or private one
- Educators considering a change to a career outside the classroom
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for Teachers
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
As your pay steps up over the years, what could each rise help you save for?
A budget that adjusts for step pay, leave and part-time years can help you keep saving through each stage of teaching.
We can plan a budget with you around step pay, leave and the years your income changes.
If you teach in a NSW public school, the deferred salary scheme sets aside part of your net salary for four years and pays it to you during a fifth year of leave. Salary earned in those four years is fully taxed, and withdrawing early forfeits the leave year. We plan the household budget around each stage with you.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A household budget built on the pay step you’re on now, with each increment planned for before it arrives
- Whether a deferred salary year suits your plan, given the four years of lower take-home pay that fund it
- Interest earned on deferred salary, which must be declared, with the tax treatment checked with your accountant
- What withdrawing from the deferred salary scheme early would mean for the leave year and the money set aside
- Casual or temporary work paid at a daily rate, and a buffer planned for the weeks between engagements
- The household budget for a part-time return, with any childcare costs counted after subsidies you’re eligible for
- How unpaid leave of more than five consecutive days may delay a salary increment, if you teach in a NSW public school
- Holiday and travel spending planned across the school year, with savings set aside for it each term
Superannuation
Is the fund you joined as a new teacher still the one that suits you?
Comparing your fund’s fees, investments and cover with the alternatives can mean more of your super is there at retirement.
We’ll check the super you started with, and plan contributions with you through each stage of a teaching career.
Your employer’s contributions go to the fund you chose. If you didn’t choose one, the rules that apply to your employer decide whether they go to an existing fund or to its default fund. Part-time years and unpaid leave can lower what goes into super, and some long-serving teachers are also members of a closed state defined benefit scheme. We review where your super sits and how it’s invested before considering any change.
Together, we’ll work through:
- The super fund your contributions go to, how you came to join it, and whether a change of school or sector changed where contributions are paid
- Default insurance that may come with your super account, and whether the amount matches your household’s needs
- Contributions through part-time years, and how a lower salary may affect the balance you build
- Unpaid leave and its effect on your super, which your fund can confirm for your own account
- Spouse contributions a partner could make while you work part-time, where eligible, and the tax offset rules
- Salary sacrifice into super where your employer offers it, and how it sits within the concessional cap
- Membership of a closed state scheme, and how your scheme’s own rules treat part-time years and unpaid leave
- Super accounts left from casual or earlier jobs, and whether consolidating them is suitable once insurance is checked
Financial Planning & Advice
From the classroom to leadership roles, what would you like your money to support along the way?
Checking the plan at each new role or stretch of leave can show whether income and super still suit your goals.
Together, we can build a financial plan, or Statement of Advice, across pay steps, leadership roles, leave and part-time years.
A teaching career can move through accreditation, promotion, time away and a change of school, and each can affect your income and leave. We bring your income, leave, super, cover and goals into the plan, then review it with you as your role changes.
Together, we’ll work through:
- One plan that allows for pay steps, accreditation and a possible move into leadership over time
- Extended leave as part of the plan, whether taken at full pay, half pay or double pay where your employer allows
- A move from a NSW public school to a private school, given private school service doesn’t count towards public school extended leave
- The decisions a deferred salary year, a part-time return or a rural appointment bring, planned in one place
- Goals for the years after teaching, whether that’s a different career, more time at home or retirement
- Household goals and commitments weighed against your salary, and any partner’s income where relevant
- A career outside teaching, and what leaving the classroom may change in your pay, leave entitlements and insurance
- Plan reviews scheduled around school terms and holidays, so they fit your teaching calendar
Retirement & Aged Care
Looking past your last year of teaching, what would you like to do more of?
Working back from when you’d like to finish can show what super and savings could provide for the retirement you picture.
We’ll plan your finishing age with you, and how leave, part-time work and super can shape your last years of teaching.
If you teach in a NSW public school, an extended leave balance can be taken before you finish or paid out as its cash value when you leave after enough service. Some teachers also move to part-time work before retiring. Access to super generally depends on reaching preservation age and meeting a condition of release, so we plan the order with you.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A finishing age that suits you, and the income you’d need for the years after teaching
- Extended leave taken before your last day or paid out on leaving, with the tax on each checked with your accountant
- Phasing down through part-time work, and how a lower salary may affect super in the final years
- A finishing date chosen around the end of a term or school year, and what it means for final pay and leave
- Choices open to members of a closed defined benefit scheme, with your scheme’s own rules worked through first
- Casual relief teaching after retirement, and how that income may fit alongside super and any Age Pension
- How Centrelink may assess your super and other assets once you reach Age Pension age
- Aged care planning for you or a parent, considered early alongside the rest of the plan
Tax & Wealth Strategies
Are you making the most of your pay, before and after tax?
Planning any salary packaging and leadership pay into your strategy can help a rising salary build your savings and super as well.
We’ll plan how salary packaging, incentives and leadership pay fit your strategy, alongside your accountant’s tax advice.
Salary packaging and its fringe benefits concessions depend on your employer type, so the options at a state school and a non-government school can differ. Rural incentive payments are generally taxable, and some benefits may carry a reportable fringe benefits amount. We work with your accountant on the tax details.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Salary packaging through a state education department, including any vehicle, device or super options offered
- Whether a Catholic or other non-government school offers packaging, and how the school’s employer type may affect the concession
- Your accountant’s view on how a reportable fringe benefits amount may affect income tests such as family payments
- Rural incentive payments, taxed as they’re paid if you teach in a NSW public school, budgeted after tax, with your accountant checking the year-end position
- Leadership salaries and whether Division 293 may apply to your super contributions, checked with your accountant
- Classroom resources and other costs you pay yourself, with records kept so your accountant can confirm which are deductible
- Investment income outside super, and whose name an investment is held in, with your accountant’s advice on tax
- Payment summaries, packaging statements and incentive records kept together for your accountant at tax time
Personal Insurance & Protection
Would your pay keep coming if illness or injury took you out of the classroom for months?
Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, for the costs that continue while you’re away.
We’ll show you what the cover in your super provides, and whether it suits your role and household.
Default cover in super can vary in amount and definition, and its premiums still come out of your balance during unpaid leave. Sick leave can cover a short absence, while income protection may help with a longer one, subject to its definition, waiting period and other requirements. We review what you already hold before recommending anything new.
Together, we’ll work through:
- The life, TPD and income protection cover inside your super account, and the definitions each one uses
- Whether income protection suits you as sick leave builds up, given its definition, waiting period and other requirements
- Cover during unpaid or parental leave, and what any insurance in super would pay in that time
- How a part-time salary may change the income protection benefit a policy would pay
- TPD definitions, which may depend on your occupation and work status, checked on any policy you hold
- Life cover sized after your debts and savings are counted, if anyone relies on your salary
- Whether trauma cover suits you, considered alongside your savings, leave balances and health
- Any policy you already hold outside super, reviewed before anything new is recommended or cancelled
Property Investment Advice
What could owning property look like for you across a teaching career?
Allowing for a school move or a part-time year before you buy can help repayments stay comfortable through each change.
We can work through property decisions with you around a rural appointment, a part-time income or a move between schools.
If you teach in a NSW public school, a rural appointment can come with a rental subsidy, which depends on the school and your housing, or stamp duty relief, which carries residence and service conditions. Some benefits must be repaid if their conditions aren’t met. We plan around those terms with you, and work alongside your broker and accountant on lending and tax.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Stamp duty relief on a home bought near a rural school, and the residence conditions attached to it
- A rental subsidy on a rural appointment, and how the household budget would adjust when the subsidy ends
- Buying in the city while teaching regionally, and whether the arrangement fits your wider plan
- Part-time or casual teaching income and borrowing capacity, assessed with your broker before you commit to a purchase
- Repayment conditions on relocation benefits, checked before you sell, move or leave a rural school early
- Whether an investment property still fits the budget through a deferred salary year or a part-time return
- A home kept and rented out after a move between schools, with the tax position confirmed by your accountant
- Mortgage repayments planned around the pay step you’re on, rather than the salary you expect later
SMSF
Is a self-managed fund worth considering at this point in your teaching career?
Talking through the time, costs and trustee duties can help you settle on super that serves your teaching years and beyond.
We’ll tell you plainly whether a self-managed fund suits you at this stage of your teaching career.
An SMSF can offer control, but it also brings costs, administration, legal duties as a trustee and the time to meet them. Moving from an APRA-regulated fund also means giving up its prudential oversight and the option to complain about the fund to AFCA. If you’re a member of a closed state scheme, whether that benefit can move is set by the scheme’s own rules, so we work through them first.
Together, we’ll work through:
- What a self-managed fund would cost each year to run, compared with the fees on your current account
- Trustee duties such as keeping records, meeting deadlines and setting an investment strategy, alongside your work during term
- The loss of AFCA complaints access and prudential oversight when you leave an APRA-regulated fund
- Whether a closed scheme benefit can be moved at all under the scheme’s own rules, and how any SMSF would sit alongside the scheme
- Investment control you may gain, weighed against the insurance your current super account may provide
- Whether other family members would join the fund, and how each member’s interest would be recorded
- An annual audit by an approved SMSF auditor, and the accounting costs that come with it each year
- Simpler options inside an existing fund, such as investment choice, considered before an SMSF is set up
What We’ll Work Through Together
Your Deferred Salary Year
Plan the four years that fund it and the year of leave it pays for.
Extended Leave Options
Weigh up how and when to take extended leave, or whether to keep the balance.
Part-Time Years and Super
Plan contributions through part-time work, parental leave and any unpaid leave.
A Rural Appointment Package
Review the incentive, subsidies and conditions before you accept a rural or remote school.
Stepping Into Leadership
Plan for a leadership salary, including contributions, tax and cover as your role grows.
Salary Packaging at Your School
Understand what your school offers to package and how its employer type affects the concession.
Changing Schools or Sectors
Check how a move affects your leave, packaging and super before you accept.
Life After the Classroom
Plan income, super and cover for a career change or an earlier finish.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
A teaching career can take many shapes, from a first classroom to a leadership role, a change of school or time away from teaching. Along the way, pay, leave and super can work a little differently from other jobs. We take the time to understand how yours work and what you’d like from the years ahead, then help you build a plan around it, with the rest of your finances in view.
Your work can shape life at home too, whether that involves a partner’s career, children, a parent you help care for or plans of your own outside school. We’ll take the people and plans that matter to you into account, and review your plan with you as your circumstances change. We can help you plan for a life you enjoy now, and work towards the one you’d like after teaching.
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 lowers your take-home pay for four years, then pays you the money set aside during a fifth year of leave, if you teach in a NSW public school. Other states and employers set their own terms.
The NSW scheme is generally open to permanent staff, and a few points are worth knowing before deciding whether to join:
- Salary earned during the four years is fully taxed.
- Interest on the deferred amount needs to be declared.
- Withdrawing early forfeits the leave year.
- The scheme may affect your super, which your fund can confirm.
We can plan the household budget across all five years with you, including the leave year itself.
It depends on what the leave is for and what else is happening in your finances. If you teach in a NSW public school, extended leave can generally be taken at full, half or double pay, and a balance is paid out as its cash value if you leave after enough service.
Half pay stretches the time away, double pay brings the income forward, and keeping the balance holds it for later, including the years before you retire. Each choice can affect your budget and your tax differently, so we look at it alongside the rest of your plan, with the tax checked with your accountant.
Working part-time generally means a lower salary, and the super contributions your employer pays are based on what you earn, so less goes into super during those years.
Depending on your circumstances, salary sacrifice, personal contributions or spouse contributions from a partner may help, where you’re eligible. Super contributions may be taxed at a lower rate than your salary, depending on your income, and money in super generally can’t be reached until you meet a condition of release, such as retiring after preservation age. We can work through both sides with you.
If you’re a member of a closed defined benefit scheme, part-time work may affect your benefit differently, so we work through your scheme’s rules first.
Start with the conditions, because they decide what you keep. If you teach in a NSW public school, a rural package may include an incentive payment, a rental subsidy, stamp duty relief or relocation support, and each one carries its own terms:
- Incentive payments are generally taxable.
- Some benefits may carry a reportable fringe benefits amount.
- Stamp duty relief can depend on living in the home and serving at the school for a set time.
- Some benefits may need to be repaid if you leave before a set period.
We can help you plan around the package before you accept, with the tax checked with your accountant.
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.
A comparison website can be a useful starting point, and it can show you fees and investment options across a range of funds.
Advice looks at how your fund fits with the rest of a teaching career: part-time years, unpaid leave, the insurance attached to your account and any closed state scheme you belong to. A switch can also affect that insurance, so it’s checked before anything changes.
It’s worth using the comparison site first. We can then help you weigh up the wider effect before you move your super.
It depends on the employers involved. If you teach in a NSW public school, service with a private school isn’t recognised for extended leave purposes, and each non-government employer has its own leave arrangements. If you resign after enough service, the value of your extended leave balance is generally paid out.
A move between sectors can also change your salary packaging options and your super arrangements at the same time. We can look at your leave balance, packaging and super together before you accept a new role, so the move fits the rest of your plan.
It depends on the school’s employer type. Packaging concessions are set by the type of employer, and some non-government schools may be eligible to offer packaging with a fringe benefits tax concession, while others may offer different options.
Your school’s payroll team or packaging provider can confirm what’s available to you. We can then look at whether packaging suits your situation, how it may affect income tests such as family payments, and how it fits with your super, with your accountant advising on the tax.
Yes, completely. Tell us where you are in your teaching career, what’s coming up, such as a deferred salary year, a part-time return or a new role, and what you’d like the next few years to look like.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. We’ll explain how we can help and what we’ll need to get started, such as a recent payslip, your super statement and your leave balance. Any advice fees are agreed in writing before advice begins.
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