Financial Planning for Telco Field Technicians and Tower Riggers

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.

They may, and an ABN doesn’t settle it. The ATO treats a contractor as an employee for super if more than half the contract’s value is for their labour, they’re not paid to achieve a set result and they can’t delegate the work. A contract with your own company, trust or partnership means the hirer doesn’t have to pay.

A van, test gear or materials in your price can change the sum, as payments for those aren’t labour. Per-job pay doesn’t answer the question by itself, and an accountant or the ATO can confirm where you stand. We can plan your super with you around what’s paid in and what you’d like to add.

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 can depend on your employer’s main business, your duties and any agreement, rather than your job title. One award covers businesses such as telecommunications carriers and labour hire for that industry, and leaves out a business whose main function is installing or maintaining telecommunications equipment and lines, unless it also operates them. A separate award covers electrical, electronics and communications contractors and their employees in its classifications.

Two people doing similar work can be on different awards. Where your job falls, including any rigging work, is a question for Fair Work, where the national award system applies. We can plan with you from the pay you receive.

Start from what a full year of records shows, rather than your strongest or weakest week. Invoices and payslips can show a level of income you can rely on most of the time, and your bills and repayments can be set against that.

From there, a share of each payment can go to tax, with an accountant estimating the amount, and to a buffer for slower stretches. Anything above that can go towards goals of your own. We can work this out with you from your own figures.

It helps to look at this before anything changes. Points to plan:

• A buffer for the time until your next contract or job
• Repayments on a van, test gear or home, if you have them, set against a lower income
• Other work you could take on, and what it would take to start
• Any cover you hold, including insurance through your super

Income protection is generally for illness or injury rather than losing a job, so this is planned through your savings and budget. We can go over the numbers with you from your own invoices or payslips.

That’s your decision, and we can set the two side by side with you. Points to compare:

• Any paid leave on wages, and Moneysmart’s note that self-employed people don’t have paid holidays or sick leave
• Who pays your super on each
• Your costs for a van, tools, test gear, phone and insurance
• Insurance through your super, which Moneysmart suggests checking first

Fair Work says having an ABN or issuing invoices doesn’t automatically make someone a contractor, and a lawyer can confirm how that applies to you. An accountant can work through the tax, and we can plan the money side with you.

Public liability, tools and van cover sit with a general insurance broker, who can explain each policy and whether it pays anything if you’re the one hurt.

Our part is personal: what you’d want coming in if you couldn’t work, what you’d want left behind, and how super and savings fit in. Cover options come from the insurers willing to consider your work, and the insurer decides on any application.

Start with how your pay would change. A move can replace per-job income or overtime with a different rate, so it’s worth setting the two side by side. Points to plan:

• Your budget and super on the new pay
• Any training or registration the role asks for, with the body that issues it
• Any cover you hold: how it describes your work, and how a TPD or income protection definition may read the new duties

We can cost the move with you before you accept.

Yes. We’d start with how long you’d like to stay in the field, whether that’s climbing, pits or premises work, and whether supervising, auditing or training comes before you stop. If you’re self-employed, your super may be yours to plan unless a business has to pay it.

The plan starts with super and savings, with any van, gear or small firm as an addition, as a sale isn’t certain. 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. We can start from where things are now, as a trainee, on wages with a telco or on a first subcontract.

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 you have: pay records or invoices, a fund statement, policies you hold and details of a van loan. We can meet in person or online.