Financial Planning for Vets and Vet Nurses
Empowering Vets and Vet Nurses to Build Wealth and Financial Freedom
Whether you’re a vet or a vet nurse, on-call nights, any HELP debt, physical work with animals and any buy-in can shape your money. We help you build one plan around how your hours are paid.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Build a vet’s household budget around on-call periods, extra hours and any time off instead of pay
- Put a vet nurse’s overtime and weekend penalty pay towards savings and goals you choose
- Compare income protection for hands-on work with animals, with a waiting period your savings can carry
- Plan HELP debt repayments from a veterinary science degree alongside your other goals as your income changes
- Set super contributions through part-time, casual or locum years at a level you can sustain
- Plan a first home on a vet nurse’s wage or one clinic income, in a country town or a city
- Weigh a buy-in to a practice against a home and savings, with a broker arranging any finance
- Fund a move out of clinical work or nursing, with a buffer, cover and super planned before you go
Who We Help
- Graduate vets starting out with on-call duty in a first role
- Vet nurses paid overtime and weekend penalty rates
- Mixed and rural practice vets with farm calls, long drives and busy calving seasons
- Emergency vets and vet nurses in after-hours hospitals working nights and weekends
- Part-time vets and vet nurses including those back from parental leave
- Locum vets moving between practices on short contracts
- Vets offered a buy-in by the principal of a country or city practice
- Vets and vet nurses leaving clinical work for industry, government, research or a new career
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for Vets and Vet Nurses
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
When after-hours work can change what you’re paid, how do you plan a month’s spending?
Ordinary pay set aside for bills can let any extra earned after hours add to savings for travel, a home or study.
We can plan a budget with you from how any after-hours work is paid, as extra time or as extra pay.
If the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award covers you, a vet’s extra hours beyond 38 a week, outside on-call time, are paid at the ordinary time rate or taken as time off by agreement. Its overtime rates and weekend and public holiday penalty rates cover vet nurses but not vets. The Fair Work Ombudsman can confirm what applies to you.
Together, we’ll work through:
- On-call payments, which the award sets differently for vets and vet nurses, counted as pay that changes from week to week
- Weekend and public holiday penalties on a vet nurse’s payslip, set aside each pay for a goal such as a deposit or a buffer
- Time off instead of pay for a vet’s extra hours, which adds rest rather than income, so bills sit on base pay
- A vet’s allowance agreed in writing instead of extra-hours pay, which under the award can’t total less than that pay over a calendar year
- Calving and other busy seasons in mixed practice, when extra hours climb, planned for so the household budget stays steady
- A vehicle provided in a rural package, or your own car used for farm calls, with running costs in the budget
- Paid study leave under the award, a week for each completed year as a full-time vet, pro rata part-time, for CPD
- Registration and professional body fees, set aside monthly so the yearly bill doesn’t land on one pay
Personal Insurance & Protection
What would help with the bills if you were hurt or unwell and away from the clinic for a while?
Income protection can pay part of your income after a waiting period, while you’re away from the animals in your care.
We’ll go through income protection, life cover and TPD with you for work that’s physical as well as skilled.
Income protection usually bases the benefit on your earnings in the 12 months before an illness or injury, which varying overtime or penalty pay can change. Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, if you’re eligible. Free, confidential support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Bites, scratches, kicks and crush injuries from large animals, and how a policy defines being unable to do your usual duties
- Back and shoulder strain from lifting and restraining animals, raised when you compare how long each policy pays a benefit
- How many weeks you could manage without pay after an injury, used to choose how soon payments begin
- Overtime and penalty rates in a vet nurse’s pay, and how a policy counts them in the prior 12 months’ earnings
- Cover held through super, reviewed before a career break for what it would pay while you’re away
- An injury away from the clinic, such as at home or on holiday, which workers compensation generally won’t pay for but a policy may
- Lump-sum life and TPD amounts for a vet repaying a loan for a practice share, or a vet nurse paying a mortgage on one wage
- Your duties described in full on any application, from surgery to handling cattle, as the insurer sets the terms and decides claims
Superannuation
However your clinic hours change, how could you keep contributing to your super?
Tracing contributions from each clinic and change in hours can show any gaps, and how your super could catch up.
We can look at your super with you across full-time, part-time, casual and locum years, and the contributions planned in each.
From 1 July 2026 the general concessional cap is $32,500, and caps are indexed. On a contract, a business may still have to pay super if you’re paid mainly for your labour. If you move between practices, we can look at whether combining accounts suits you, as cover held in an account that’s closed can end.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Part-time years in vet nursing, with any extra contributions set at an amount a smaller pay can carry
- Casual shifts across more than one clinic, with super from each employer tracked on your fund statements
- A locum year on an ABN, with your own contributions set aside from each invoice if no practice is paying super on top
- Super for a vet weighing a buy-in, with contributions reviewed so retirement doesn’t rest on a share of the practice alone
- Accounts left in default funds at earlier clinics, found through myGov and compared before any are combined
- A move to a new practice or a corporate group, with the default fund on offer compared with any fund you already hold
- Part of a vet nurse’s overtime directed to super before tax, if the clinic allows it and the cap leaves room
- The years until you can access super, however many they are, which shape the investment option you choose in your fund today
Financial Planning & Advice
If your career or location changes, what would it mean for your finances?
Costing a new role or move ahead of time can help you choose the change that suits your finances and your life.
Together, we’ll set out the money side of a career change, a rural move or a change in the days you work.
A move out of clinical work can change your pay, any paid leave, who pays your super and any cover held through an employer. Moving to a country practice can change housing costs and a partner’s work, if you have one. We can cost each option with you before you decide, and build a buffer for the change.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A move from private practice into government, a university or industry, roles outside the veterinary award, with new pay terms compared
- Leaving vet nursing for another career, with retraining costs and a stretch on lower pay saved for ahead
- A savings buffer sized to the months a career change could take, built before you hand in notice
- A move to a country practice, with housing, a partner’s work if you have one and travel weighed together
- If your practice is sold to a corporate group, a review of any new contract’s pay, super and leave against your plans
- Fewer clinic days for a season of life, such as caring for children or family, costed before you change your hours
- Locum work for a year between permanent roles, with gaps between bookings and travel budgeted ahead
- Internships or residency programs, with the pay, any relocation and the years of training planned into the budget
Tax & Wealth Strategies
In a busy year at the clinic, how could tax be planned alongside the goals you have for the extra?
Planning tax through the year can help the extra from a busy year go into your savings and super.
We’ll work out the tax side of your plan with you, alongside an accountant who advises on the detail.
Ryker’s financial advisers plan tax and set tax structure and strategy, working alongside your accountant, who prepares and lodges your return. If you have a HELP debt, compulsory repayments apply in any year your repayment income is above the minimum repayment threshold.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Any HELP debt from a long veterinary degree, with compulsory repayments estimated each year alongside your other goals
- The rural HELP debt reduction program, which as at October 2026 covers eligible medical and nurse practitioners and doesn’t list vets
- Running costs of your own car on farm calls, with an accountant confirming what you can claim and the records needed
- A practice vehicle offered with a rural role, with an accountant explaining the tax treatment before you accept
- CPD course, travel and conference costs that a practice doesn’t pay, listed for an accountant to advise on
- Registration, professional body and protective equipment costs, raised with an accountant before the year ends
- Locum income on an ABN, with tax set aside from each invoice in an amount an accountant helps you estimate
- Tax on a share in a practice, if you buy in or sell, advised on by an accountant before you agree terms
Property Investment Advice
Country town or city, which home suits your income and the life you want?
Testing a country home and a city home against your budget can show which suits your income and your lifestyle.
We can weigh up a home in a country town or a city with you, and how any buy-in would fit.
Lenders decide how they assess a vet nurse’s wage, a vet’s salary or overtime that varies, and a broker arranges any home or practice loan. We look at the deposit, the repayments and the cover you’d want in place with each loan before you apply, in whichever order suits your plans.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A first home on a vet nurse’s wage, with a deposit plan and repayments set at a level one pay can carry
- A house in a country town near a rural practice, compared with renting while you decide whether to stay
- On-call and extra-hours payments shown on your payslips, which a broker may ask about before you apply
- Any buy-in to a practice, weighed with a broker for how a practice loan and a home loan would sit together
- Moving between a city clinic and a country practice, with selling or leasing a home weighed before you go
- Housing offered with a rural role, if the package includes it, weighed against buying when you plan to stay longer
- A deposit saved from a vet nurse’s penalty-rate weeks, kept in a separate account so it isn’t spent on everyday bills
- Mortgage repayments set from the income you can reasonably rely on, with any extra-hours pay from calving season planned separately
Retirement & Aged Care
When you’re ready to stop working with animals, how would you like life to look?
Mapping your step back from hands-on work can set out, year by year, the income your super and savings may provide.
We’ll explain how stepping back from hands-on work, and any practice sale, could shape your retirement plan.
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. For gains accruing after 1 July 2027, indexation and a 30% minimum tax generally replace the 50% CGT discount, while the small business CGT concessions remain, so an accountant can advise if you sell part of a practice.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Years of lifting, restraining and on-call nights, and the age you’d like to step back from hands-on work
- A later move to lighter duties, part-time locum work or a non-clinical role, counted as income in the retirement budget
- Super built through any part-time or lower-paid years, with contributions reviewed in the decade before you stop
- Any share in a practice, with an accountant advising on the tax and timing of a sale before you agree to one
- Retirement savings spread beyond one practice, so your plans don’t rely on a single buyer or sale price
- The Age Pension, worked into the plan where you may qualify, with Services Australia assessing your eligibility
- Your super’s death benefit nomination, reviewed whenever a partner, children or a practice share changes who relies on you
- A hobby farm, travel or time with animals of your own in retirement, costed into the income you’ll need
Your Veterinary Career, Worked Through Together
On-Call Weeks in the Budget
A budget that allows for on-call periods, extra hours and any time off in lieu.
Penalty Rates Put to Work
A vet nurse’s overtime and weekend pay directed to savings and goals you choose.
Cover for Hands-On Work
Income protection and life cover compared for physical work with animals, with the insurer setting terms.
A HELP Balance Planned
HELP repayments from a veterinary degree planned alongside your other goals.
Super Through Part-Time Years
Contributions set at a level part-time, casual or locum pay can support.
A Home on a Clinic Wage
A deposit and repayments planned around one clinic income, with a broker on the loan.
A Buy-In Weighed
Any practice share offered set beside your home, savings and cover, with a broker on finance.
A Career Change Costed
A move out of clinical work or nursing planned with a buffer, super and cover in view.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Working with animals often means nights on call, early starts and work that’s physical as well as skilled. Whether you’re a vet or a vet nurse, we start by listening to what you want from your work and the life around it. Then, step by step, we help you build a plan for your pay, super and cover that fits the hours you actually work, and the goals you’re working towards outside them.
A plan works well when it suits the weeks you really have. We’ll shape it around the people and places that matter to you, from a first home near the practice to the travel, time off or animals of your own you’re saving for. As your work changes, from a first role to fewer days, a buy-in or a new direction, we’ll review it together so the plan keeps pace with your life.
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 depends on the award or agreement that covers you. Under the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award, if it covers you:
- A vet’s hours beyond 38 a week, outside on-call time, are paid at the ordinary time rate, or taken as time off hour for hour if the vet agrees.
- A vet and employer can agree in writing to an allowance instead, and the allowance with any other extra-hours payments can’t be less than that pay over a calendar year.
- The overtime rates and the weekend and public holiday penalty rates are for employees other than vets, so they apply to vet nurses.
The Fair Work Ombudsman can confirm what applies to you. We can build your budget around how your hours are paid.
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, subject to the policy’s terms. Income protection is generally designed to pay part of your income if an illness or injury stops you working. Points to check:
- How the policy defines being unable to work, and whether it looks at your usual duties.
- Any exclusion an insurer adds, for example for a past injury or condition.
- The waiting period, which most policies offer from 14 days to two years.
- How the benefit is worked out, usually from your earnings in the 12 months before.
Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, if you’re eligible. We can compare policies with you, and the insurer makes the final decision on any claim.
Not through the rural health program, as at 24 October 2026. The HELP Debt Reduction Program for Rural Health Practitioners reduces HELP debt for eligible medical practitioners and nurse practitioners living and providing general practice services in rural, remote and very remote areas. Vets aren’t listed.
The Department of Education runs the program and can confirm any change. If you have a HELP debt, compulsory repayments apply in any year your repayment income is above the minimum repayment threshold. We can plan them with you alongside a move to the country and your other goals.
The Fair Work Ombudsman’s Pay and Conditions Tool can calculate the minimum pay rates, penalties and allowances that apply under an award. That helps you check the minimum pay for your role, if an award covers you.
Advice starts from there: what your pay, including any on-call payments, overtime or allowance, means for your budget, super, cover, any HELP debt and the goals you’re saving for. We don’t work out award entitlements.
Using both can help. Bring your figures and we can build the plan with you around them.
It depends on the deposit, the price, any other income in the household and how a lender assesses your pay, which a broker can explain. Points worth working through:
- A deposit target and how long it could take to save.
- Overtime and penalty pay, and how much of it a lender may count.
- Repayments set from the income you can reasonably rely on.
- Cover reviewed before you sign, so a claim could help with repayments.
- A home in a country town compared with a city, if your work allows either.
We can plan the deposit and repayments with you and work alongside a broker you choose.
Yes. Whether you’re a vet or a vet nurse, the financial side of a change can be set out before you decide. Points to work through:
- What a new role pays, and whether it includes paid leave and employer super.
- Any retraining costs, and a stretch on lower pay while you study.
- A savings buffer for the months a change can take.
- Any cover held through an employer or super, reviewed before you leave a role.
- Super left in an old fund, and whether combining accounts suits you.
We can cost each option with you, so you can compare them side by side.
Yes. Whether you’re a graduate vet in a first role, a vet nurse saving for a first home or years into practice, we begin with your situation as it is now.
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.
Useful things to bring: a recent payslip, any allowance or extra-hours agreement, your latest super statement and your HELP balance from myGov if you have one. We can meet in person or by video.
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