Odyssey Smart Money

Andrew is a 52 year old barrister, he owns his own chambers with a gross turnover of $400,000pa. Andrew and his wife Jane are recent ‘emptynesters’ with their youngest son recently leaving for university. With more spare time, shifting priorities and no further private school fee obligations, they would like to get a handle on their expenditure with a view to the future.

With personal assets of over $3m (family home, cash and superannuation) and debts of $420,000 (personal debt against home), Jane and Andrew feel they are in a strong financial position but do find themselves short of cash from time to time. It is their intention to provide the funds required for a deposit of $100,000 to each of their children so they can purchase their first property within 5 years.

Andrew and Jane’s main concern is being able to save sufficient funds to provide a deposit for each of their children without significantly impacting their lifestyle.

Having spent a large portion of their time managing the household and raising their family over the years, they have had little time to dedicate to gaining control of and managing their cash flow.

Odyssey Smart Money assisted Jane and Andrew to develop a clear plan that would allow them to gain clarity over their financial position while working towards achieving both their short and long term goals.

In order to achieve their goals we put a plan in place that incorporated the following: .

1.

We assisted Jane and Andrew to gain visibility over their financial position by having all accounts, irrespective of institution, uploaded onto one platform

2. With all financial information now available in one location, the Odyssey Smart Money team were able to assist Jane and Andrew understand their current spending patterns, the accounts being used for various types of expenditure and how this could be managed in a more fee and interest rate friendly manner 3.

Given the increased visibility of their situation, the Odyssey Smart Money team were able to implement a structured approach to budgeting by completing an Odyssey Smart Money Plan

4.

After helping Jane and Andrew gain visibility and control over their financial situation, they were able to realise the main financial institution they currently use does not adequately cater for their longer term saving and debt needs, making the choice to move easier Odyssey Smart Money assisted Jane and Andrew to develop a clear plan that would allow them to gain clarity over their financial position while working towards achieving both their short and long term goals.

5.

Via continuous support of the OSM Team and ongoing monitoring/adjustment of the budget against actual expenditure, Jane and Andrew were able to realise they were in a position to achieve their savings goal without impacting their lifestyle faster then they had originally anticipated, allowing them time to focus on the more enjoyable aspects of life

Jane & Andrew's Smart Money Plan We are Jane & Andrew’s personal financial coach and our aim is to help them take control of their money. By tracking their situation in real-time and with pro-active smart money management, we were able to help them gain an understanding of exactly how much is coming in and going out, what excess capacity they do have and what needs to be considered to ensure they enjoy their current and desired lifestyle long into the future.

With the help of cutting edge smart money technology, Moneysoft, Jane & Andrew can see exactly what they are spending and saving, across all of their bank accounts, irrespective of institution.

We took the following steps to set up Jane & Andrew’s Smart Money Plan and to track their performance on a daily basis:

Step 1 - Adding Accounts Moneysoft can acces over 200 different accounts. By viewing all of Jane & Andrew's financial information in one location, we gain useful insights and can make better-informed financial decisions to reach her goals sooner. Adding the accounts was a very quick process, as Jane and Andrew could add them with her online banking login details.

With Jane and Andrew now aware of their holistic financial position, via getting visibility over their finances and monitoring their expenditure, we can now work towards achieving their other goals.

Jane & Andrew’s main goal for the next five years is to assist the 3 children’s entry into the property market, given current market conditions they are planning to provide $100,000 towards the deposit of each child, requiring $300,000 without dramatically impacting their current and desired lifestyle.

Step 2 - Setting Goals & Expense Calendar Irrespective of what stage in life you are, knowing where you are and where you would like to end up is the first step in creating a path to achieve those goals. OSM assists Jane & Andrew remain accountable for contributing to their savings goal while also allowing them to visually monitor their ongoing progress through Moneysoft.

The next step in assisting Jane & Andrew achieve their goals is to develop an expense plan they can use to guide them on the path to smart money management. As they have very little experience working with expense planning, the OSM team has worked with Jane & Andrew to help them determine what part of their current expenditure they believe is fixed and what areas are more flexible.

Given the recent change in the dynamics of the household both Jane and Andrew found the support provided by the OSM team greatly assisted them determine the re-structured nature of their fixed and flexible expenditure.

Step 3 - Develop an Expense Plan A good expense plan is one that is realistic, consistent and achievable.

While many people feel they have some understanding of how and where their money goes from month to month, it is surprising just how quickly smart money management can be left behind as the daily pressures of work and life take priority.

Many people believe setting an expense plan is the most difficult element of smart money management.

What many do not realise however is that is that an expense plan that is not monitored is not a plan, merely a dream.

Step 4 - Track your finances Fundamental to smart money management is not only having an expense plan but tracking your expenditure against that plan. With the support of the OSM team, Jane & Andrew now have the ability to establish an expense plan and monitor her performance against that plan.

With each of Jane and Andrew’s main concerns now being addressed, or in the process of being so, they have the ability to focus on what is important to them while ensuring that with ongoing support of the OSM team they manage to stay on track to achieve their longer term goals.

Step 5 - Report on your progress The OSM team will assist Jane & Andrew achieve both their short and longer term goals by providing ongoing support and reporting. The accountability and focus they both feel they achieve by receiving monthly and quarterly reviews are assisting them in achieving their goals in a more realistic and efficient manner.