Speaker 1: She's on the Money. She's on the Money.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 2: and millennials who want financial freedom. Paying tax, as Victoria
Speaker 2: define often says, is a privilege here in Australia. But
Speaker 2: despite its importance and its necessity, I think we'd all
Speaker 2: probably be lying if we said it we didn't grown
Speaker 2: a little bit each week when the tax man does
Speaker 2: dip his little fingers into our hard earned cash and
Speaker 2: take a good portion away, am I right?
Speaker 3: Feet? All right, well that's not exactly how it works,
Speaker 3: but yes, carry on.
Speaker 2: But what if there was a legal, ridgi ditch way
Speaker 2: of decreasing the amount of tax we pay by packaging
Speaker 2: our salaries?
Speaker 3: That is a ridgidtchway of decreasing the amount of tax
Speaker 3: you pay.
Speaker 2: And it's a real thing, So it's called salary packaging.
Speaker 2: Makes sense and joining me to get to the bottom
Speaker 2: of it all is financial advisor Victoria Divine Victoria. Let's
Speaker 2: dive in head first. Salary packaging is a very hot
Speaker 2: topic in our community and I do have a lot
Speaker 2: of questions to get to today. But to start us off,
Speaker 2: what actually is it?
Speaker 3: I like this topic because it has been requested so
Speaker 3: many times the community literally goes wild for salary packaging
Speaker 3: questions and what they can and can't package. But also
Speaker 3: I think it's important to point out that if this
Speaker 3: isn't available to you, that's okay. Like often this is
Speaker 3: only available to government workers and healthcare workers and certain professions.
Speaker 3: So if it's available to you, well done. In this
Speaker 3: episode is for you, if not interesting to know about.
Speaker 3: But also it definitely isn't something that every single employer does.
Speaker 3: But if you don't have salary packaging and you would
Speaker 3: love to have it, every employer in Australia is gonna
Speaker 3: hate me. Now have a chat to your employer and
Speaker 3: just see if they can do anything about it. If
Speaker 3: that is something that is of value to you. So
Speaker 3: to jump straight in, which I think is the only
Speaker 3: way to jump in, you can't dive backwards. But salary
Speaker 3: packaging is often known as salary sacrificing and it's basically
Speaker 3: a way of paying less tax by receiving a portion
Speaker 3: of your pre tax income in the form of different
Speaker 3: benefits like devices or cars or superannuation contributions. As we
Speaker 3: know in Australia, the lower your income, the less tax
Speaker 3: you pay, which is a bit of a money win,
Speaker 3: but kind of in a backwards way. And salary packaging
Speaker 3: is a way of legally paying less tax while still
Speaker 3: being on the same salary as you were before. But
Speaker 3: instead of only income, you've lowered your income plus benefits,
Speaker 3: which is kind of cool. The typical way that we
Speaker 3: think about our expenses would be to pay for them
Speaker 3: once we receive our income into our bank accounts and
Speaker 3: once tax has been removed from that income. But salary
Speaker 3: packaging actually means that you can cover some of your
Speaker 3: expenses like your more Google, your rent, or a new
Speaker 3: car if you listen to that episode a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago by using your pre tax income, which may
Speaker 3: leave you with more disposable income each week to work with,
Speaker 3: which it kind of sounds like a dream.
Speaker 2: It does sound like a dream. So how does this
Speaker 2: actually work with your employer? Do you just sit down
Speaker 2: and have the chat with them? Or is it only
Speaker 2: some workplaces off books?
Speaker 3: Mate, I want salary packaging and they can get it. No,
Speaker 3: that's absolutely not how it happens. Most larger workplaces will
Speaker 3: work with you to establish a salary packaging plan as
Speaker 3: long as it works for both parties and you can
Speaker 3: easily check with your employer by having a conversation with
Speaker 3: your HR department, but smaller businesses might not offer this,
Speaker 3: so honestly, it's best case scenario like check see if
Speaker 3: they do. But it is a bit of a hussle
Speaker 3: and it can be a bit of a muck around
Speaker 3: for smaller businesses, So please don't slave if your employer
Speaker 3: if they don't offer it, and I feel like it's
Speaker 3: completely reasonable to not if it is fantastic. It's a
Speaker 3: benefit of your employment. So all businesses are different and
Speaker 3: some may only offer some benefits. So some might say, yep, cool,
Speaker 3: you can make additional super contributions, but you're not allowed
Speaker 3: to salary package a car or your phone or your
Speaker 3: laptop or whatever. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: it's actually an arrangement agreed upon by you and your
Speaker 3: employee generally before you start working, so it's not usually
Speaker 3: set out halfway through your employment. But you know, we
Speaker 3: can always renegotiate. We've listened to the Renegotiate your Salary
Speaker 3: podcasts before, and if you haven't, go back and listened
Speaker 3: to them. But once it's established, a set amount of
Speaker 3: your pre tax salary will be taken and then allocated
Speaker 3: to your chosen benefit for the course of whatever time
Speaker 3: period that you've both agreed to. Now, you don't necessarily
Speaker 3: have to do it before starting a new workplace. It's
Speaker 3: just best practice. But once you've established that package and
Speaker 3: what it can look like, the benefits will come from
Speaker 3: all future work rather than you're getting to claim and
Speaker 3: a crude leave payment, etc.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that's if you've already started working at a
Speaker 2: place and you're like, Oh, salary packaging sounds nifty. I've
Speaker 2: got four weeks leave. I want to turn that into
Speaker 2: a car. That's not a vibe.
Speaker 3: That's not a vibe, that's not a thing that's entitlement starting. Okay,
Speaker 3: different story.
Speaker 2: So is this a thing that is accessible only for
Speaker 2: full timers or can part timers and casuals get involved?
Speaker 3: So, part timers can and casuals can certain circumstances, but
Speaker 3: they're honestly the best way to work out whether this
Speaker 3: is applicable to you.
Speaker 4: So talk to your employer or your HR department. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because it's going to be different for everyone, Absolutely it is.
Speaker 4: So you mentioned cars and devices before, What exactly can
Speaker 4: we ask for them?
Speaker 2: What can we package? Oh?
Speaker 3: My gosh, there are so many things you can package.
Speaker 3: You can literally package so much stuff. One super great,
Speaker 3: we're investing for our future too, aged care and disability
Speaker 3: costs for loved ones, so obviously not for you because
Speaker 3: you're currently working, car parking, childcare, clothing. You can get
Speaker 3: your income protection insurance, my friends. You can get financial advice,
Speaker 3: wild groceries, health insurance, premiums. You can organize holiday accommodation,
Speaker 3: and then you hire laptops, rates, rents, mortgage like literally
Speaker 3: your utilities bills. There are so many things you can
Speaker 3: salary package. But again I've just listed off this very
Speaker 3: attractive list. They're not all available to everybody. It's just
Speaker 3: different industries and sectors.
Speaker 2: Speaking of different industries and sectors, I read that the
Speaker 2: healthcare sector, maybe government sectors get a better deal. Here,
Speaker 2: can you flesh that out for me?
Speaker 3: We do get a pretty good deal. Workers in nonprofits
Speaker 3: slash charity and people who work in the public health system,
Speaker 3: they typically receive the best salary packaging benefits available, which
Speaker 3: is very nice, and they actually include things like paying
Speaker 3: your rent and packaging your rent and credit card expenses
Speaker 3: and mortgages and more. And the reason that that is
Speaker 3: actually available. Apart from being like a really nifty thing
Speaker 3: to do, is obviously that the government wants to make
Speaker 3: it really attractive to work in these spaces, so they
Speaker 3: give a whole heap of other benefits, which at the
Speaker 3: end of the day does make it even more attractive
Speaker 3: to work there.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. So in your line of biz, Vickid, do many
Speaker 2: of your clients opt for salary packaging?
Speaker 3: Com of them do. Yeah, It's actually very common, depends
Speaker 3: on what it is. So I've got a lot of
Speaker 3: clients who do work in healthcare. I've got doctors and nurses,
Speaker 3: or a few doctors and nurses, and some of them
Speaker 3: salary package. I've got some people who salary package their rent,
Speaker 3: some people whose salary package just like a food and
Speaker 3: beverage card. But there's certain rules and regulations, so I
Speaker 3: know that a couple of them can't get groceries, but
Speaker 3: they can go dine out at a restaurant. So it's
Speaker 3: going to be completely dependent on your rules and regulations
Speaker 3: for your industry and your salary packaging program. So I
Speaker 3: do apologize that I can't give you specifics. I wish
Speaker 3: I could, but alas I cannot. That's why this is
Speaker 3: a general advice podcast, Georgia. But also it's going to
Speaker 3: be just dependent on your employer as to what you
Speaker 3: can access or not. But the best thing is to
Speaker 3: literally just ask them and see how much advantage you
Speaker 3: can take of it. Essentially, like IRF, it is available
Speaker 3: to you and you can salary sacrifice your rent and
Speaker 3: you're not. My question is why on earth are you not?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because that kind of makes a lot of sense. Definitely,
Speaker 2: if you're paying rent anyway.
Speaker 3: I would actually prefer this and just say, hey, cool,
Speaker 3: I get that it sounds really attractive and rah rah,
Speaker 3: but I would only be salary sacrificing sure thing costs,
Speaker 3: so like rent and you know, food and beverage costs,
Speaker 3: because I have seen a couple of people go, oh, like,
Speaker 3: I put heaps on a food and beverage card and
Speaker 3: now I spend more going out for dinner because they
Speaker 3: can only spend it. Yeah, And therefore it's actually not
Speaker 3: a good financial decision for them, But it sounded like
Speaker 3: a good idea at the time because obviously it's a
Speaker 3: tax effective and they feel like because at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, if I gave you like a card
Speaker 3: George and said, hey, each each week there's two hundred
Speaker 3: bucks on here and you have to spend it out,
Speaker 3: you'd feel like it's free money as opposed to you
Speaker 3: definitely come. And I think the mentality around that just
Speaker 3: needs to settle a little bit, because we need to
Speaker 3: be making the right financial decisions for us, not just going,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I can salary package and get thirty
Speaker 3: percent off of all whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that, yeah, it's not always the
Speaker 3: best financial decision. But if you're salary packaging, sure thing costs,
Speaker 3: like you're actually paying your mortgage or your rent, or
Speaker 3: your bills or things that actually have to happen. Great.
Speaker 3: I also see people slip down a little bit of
Speaker 3: a slippery slope when they're like, oh, salary package a
Speaker 3: brand new car, and then they get a more expensive
Speaker 3: car because they feel like they're getting more value. And
Speaker 3: that's also a slippery slope that I don't want you
Speaker 3: guys to slide down.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, no sliding down there. But as I mentioned
Speaker 2: at the top, you often say that paying tax is
Speaker 2: a privilege and the more tax we pay it's kind
Speaker 2: of a good thing. Can you explain that logic again
Speaker 2: for anyone who's new to the show.
Speaker 3: And honestly, it just makes us feel good.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, it's probably not the most common mindset that exists,
Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, it is the baseline,
Speaker 3: and it is not something that was surprised to you.
Speaker 3: You didn't go and get a job and then find
Speaker 3: out later that you had to pay tax. This has
Speaker 3: always been the standard, and I think that we need
Speaker 3: to start seeing our take home pay as our take
Speaker 3: home pay and instead of going, oh, well, I earn
Speaker 3: sixty five thousand dollars, it's like, well, I get that
Speaker 3: you earn that, but that is not how much you
Speaker 3: take home. And I think we really need to reset
Speaker 3: this frame of mind that that's what you were owed,
Speaker 3: because it feels a little bit entitled. And I know
Speaker 3: that I'm probably being quite opinionated and potentially rubbing people
Speaker 3: the wrong way, but I feel incredibly lucky to live
Speaker 3: in Australia, like we have so many privileges that are
Speaker 3: afforded to not many people across the rest of the world.
Speaker 3: We live in this beautiful country. We have beautiful services
Speaker 3: and incredible health care that we have access to for free.
Speaker 3: We have roads that are safe to drive on, we
Speaker 3: have police, they'll look after us. Like, I know that
Speaker 3: a lot of people are going to be like, oh, tax,
Speaker 3: like it's stooged. Yeah, Like I get that frame of mind,
Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, tax isn't going anywhere.
Speaker 3: And I think what we need to do is shift
Speaker 3: our mindsets to one of being grateful rather than being
Speaker 3: expectant that you know, people owe you something like we
Speaker 3: are so lucky to live in this country and to
Speaker 3: have such a beautiful lifestyle. And at the same time,
Speaker 3: a lot of us might have experienced poverty or disadvantage
Speaker 3: or you know, so much growing up, but not ever
Speaker 3: in comparison to what happens overseas, like there is no
Speaker 3: support system in a lot of other countries. And I
Speaker 3: think that, you know, I just feel very lucky to
Speaker 3: be paying taxes. And the more tax you pay, back
Speaker 3: to your question, Georgia, just means the more you're earning.
Speaker 3: Now that's something you should be grateful for too, Like
Speaker 3: the higher your taxable income, the better your lifestyle arguably,
Speaker 3: and the more money that's actually coming into your back pocket.
Speaker 3: And I think that the tax system tries to be
Speaker 3: really fair, and I know that there are a lot
Speaker 3: of things that a lot of people don't agree with.
Speaker 3: And please don't get me wrong, there are a lot
Speaker 3: of things that I don't love about it. But I
Speaker 3: do think that we, you know, live in a country
Speaker 3: where we just need to be really grateful for it.
Speaker 3: And I think that if we can shift our mindset,
Speaker 3: it actually helps us better than anybody else. Like we're
Speaker 3: not here going, oh my gosh, at O, I'm so grateful,
Speaker 3: Like no one's going to say that, but I just
Speaker 3: feel very lucky to be in a situation where I
Speaker 3: do earn money and I can give back to my
Speaker 3: community and my society.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it, isn't We're just lucky, do you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: No, that's a very good reminder. Now we will be
Speaker 2: back after a very short break to chat super fringe
Speaker 2: benefit tax and also the potential pitfalls of salary packaging,
Speaker 2: my friends, So please don't go anywhere so much to
Speaker 2: hello again, friends, We are back.
Speaker 3: Surprise, it's us, surprise.
Speaker 2: If you guys are loving the podcast today.
Speaker 3: Which obviously you should be obviously.
Speaker 2: Very welcome, don't forget that the podcast isn't the only
Speaker 2: place you can find us. We're also on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube,
Speaker 2: tiktop got a newsletter. How many people are in the
Speaker 2: Facebook group now?
Speaker 3: One hundred and fifty thousand people?
Speaker 2: Yeah, out of town.
Speaker 3: It's insane.
Speaker 2: Hey, Lucky, I feel like it was like two months
Speaker 2: ago that you did that little photo shoot with one hundred.
Speaker 3: Useless, fruitless photo shoot. Yeah, because it didn't get to
Speaker 3: reducta like redundant put it in the bin.
Speaker 2: Was cute though, it was cute. So join us there, guys,
Speaker 2: if you're not, they're all ready. But moving back into
Speaker 2: the show the chattin salary packaging today, So superinuation at
Speaker 2: its importance is something we do talk about a lot
Speaker 2: at cheese on the money because we are all about
Speaker 2: putting future you first tweet, So how can we use
Speaker 2: salary packaging to our benefit in that sense?
Speaker 3: All right, So salary sacrificing into super it's a mouthful,
Speaker 3: just get out.
Speaker 2: But it is.
Speaker 3: Definitely something to consider if you are trying to reduce
Speaker 3: your taxable income at the same time as trying to
Speaker 3: increase your retirement income. Genius, right, but also obviously only
Speaker 3: if this works for you personally. An example of how
Speaker 3: this works would be let's just say, for example, you
Speaker 3: earn seventy thousand dollars per year before tax. You could
Speaker 3: opt to put ten thousand dollars of that into SUPER
Speaker 3: and you'll then only pay income tax on sixty thousand
Speaker 3: dollars huge, which means your income would be reduced to
Speaker 3: sixty thousand dollars. But the benefit is you're paying less
Speaker 3: tax than your Super contributions are still taxed at fifteen
Speaker 3: percent instead of thirty two point five percent, which the
Speaker 3: average income earner would be paying anyway, which I think
Speaker 3: is hardly attractive. So to preface that, any contribution you
Speaker 3: make to superanuation up to that twenty five thousand dollars
Speaker 3: supernuation cap is going to be taxed at fifteen percent,
Speaker 3: so you can actually claim that later. So say you
Speaker 3: got that, And this is just me going on a
Speaker 3: sidetrack just to make sure that there's no confusion. So
Speaker 3: say you got extra money in your account and you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: actually I wish i'd put that into Super. You can.
Speaker 3: You can just transfer it over and a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago, and this isn't sponsored. Again, we're talking about
Speaker 3: bpay and being able to be pay additional super contributions
Speaker 3: into your superannuation fund which is kind of handy, but
Speaker 3: you can then claim it at tax time and get
Speaker 3: that difference between that fifteen percent and that thirty two
Speaker 3: points five percent back. Oh, so that's what happens at
Speaker 3: tax time, so that you end up in a good
Speaker 3: financial position, which is a bit of a money win.
Speaker 2: I think, huge money win. What's the twenty five thousand
Speaker 2: dollar cap? Is that per year?
Speaker 3: So that per year? Look, I will go into it
Speaker 3: in more detail on more super specific episodes, which I
Speaker 3: know you guys have been asking for, so let's get
Speaker 3: to them at some point. But essentially, you can contribute
Speaker 3: up to twenty five thousand dollars per year and make
Speaker 3: use of that fifteen percent tax guarantee. Do you do that?
Speaker 3: I don't do that.
Speaker 2: Why don't you contribute that twenty five k to Superman.
Speaker 3: Because I'm poor? No, that's absolutely not the answer. So
Speaker 3: the reason I don't is because, one don't. I just
Speaker 3: don't have that free cash flow at this point in
Speaker 3: my life. Yeah, I wish I did, but also at
Speaker 3: the moment, my focus is on creating an investment portfolio
Speaker 3: outside superannuation because I want to retire before sixty five.
Speaker 3: So as much as we talk about Super being really
Speaker 3: really great and it is honestly the closest thing that
Speaker 3: we have in Australia to a tax haven, which is
Speaker 3: a money win, and it is really great. I don't
Speaker 3: want to put my money in there, ye, because I
Speaker 3: can't access it until I'm sixty five. So I'm definitely
Speaker 3: contributing to Super, but at the rate that my income
Speaker 3: is at, which is relatively low at this point in time.
Speaker 3: If I'm brutally honest, because I keep putting all my
Speaker 3: money back into shees On Money to watch it grow. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but I think it's really important to note that I
Speaker 3: don't do that. But that's a personal choice and I'm
Speaker 3: happy to share that purely because I want you guys
Speaker 3: to know that even though these super attractive benefits exist,
Speaker 3: not everyone is making use of them for whatever reason
Speaker 3: that makes the most sense to them.
Speaker 2: Gotcha, that makes sense.
Speaker 3: But if you want to be contributing more to Super,
Speaker 3: and you see that as a really great way, like
Speaker 3: salary sacrificing is a fantastic way to make use of that,
Speaker 3: it is definitely something I want you to know. I
Speaker 3: want you to know you have access to so that
Speaker 3: if it does work for you, you can use it,
Speaker 3: because I would hate to think that you get to,
Speaker 3: you know, twenty or thirty years down the track and
Speaker 3: you be like, oh my gosh, I didn't even know
Speaker 3: I could do that. I wish I could have done that,
Speaker 3: and then I would be silly for not having shared
Speaker 3: it with you. Exactly now.
Speaker 2: Fringe Benefit tax b is something that bt BT. It
Speaker 2: came up a lot on my Google searches, as.
Speaker 3: Is it because you were googling fringe benefit tax.
Speaker 2: I was googling salary packaging right quite a few times.
Speaker 2: So what what is FBT? So?
Speaker 3: Fringe benefit tax is paid by employers on some benefits
Speaker 3: that they provide to their employees, so it's completely separate
Speaker 3: from your personal income tax, and the amount the employer
Speaker 3: will need to pay is calculated on the taxable value
Speaker 3: of the fringe benefit, So they need to pay a
Speaker 3: tax on the benefit that you get, which is why
Speaker 3: a lot of employeers are like, oh, I don't really
Speaker 3: know if I gotcha. I'm that keen on this benefit
Speaker 3: because it doesn't benefit me as well as you. But
Speaker 3: businesses who are providing fringe benefits can usually claim an
Speaker 3: income tax deduction on the cost and their FBT that
Speaker 3: they pay, so usually they can also claim GST credits too,
Speaker 3: so I'm not saying it doesn't equal out in the end,
Speaker 3: but there's just more drama associated with it in a way. Okay, Now,
Speaker 3: according to the atiers website, which I just had to
Speaker 3: look up because obviously I don't know what FET is
Speaker 3: off the top of my head, but like, let's get
Speaker 3: super specific, but examples of fringe benefits include allowing an
Speaker 3: employee to use a work car for private purposes, giving
Speaker 3: an employee a discounted loan, paying an employees gym membership,
Speaker 3: providing entertainment by way of free tickets to concerts or
Speaker 3: music festivals, et cetera, which would be nice, Sorry, Gar,
Speaker 3: haven't haven't hit that up for you, or reimbursing expenses
Speaker 3: incurred by employees, such as school fees, or giving benefits
Speaker 3: under a salary sacrifice arrangement with an employee. So that
Speaker 3: would just cover everything else.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The following things which are not fringe benefits though, are
Speaker 3: salaries and wages, share purchases under approved employee share acquisition schemes,
Speaker 3: employee contributions to complying super funds, employment termination payments, payments
Speaker 3: for the amount deemed to be dividends under div seven A,
Speaker 3: which you guys are just going to go seven A. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's division and seven A, which is a law.
Speaker 3: But we're not going to get into that because I
Speaker 3: just don't think you guys actually care too much. Like,
Speaker 3: I've found this stuff, and now you know what I
Speaker 3: want you to take from this. If you want to
Speaker 3: sound smart, you'd be like, Okay, well a fringe benefit tax.
Speaker 3: It's not division seven A, Victoria. And if you say
Speaker 3: that to an accountant, they'll be like, oh, she knows,
Speaker 3: she must be serious accounting. Okay, So question for your
Speaker 3: v Yeah, I love questions.
Speaker 2: From an employer perspective. Yes, it's salary packaging a little
Speaker 2: bit of a nightmare, or is it a good way
Speaker 2: of like paying your employees less? Sort of like what's
Speaker 2: the vibe?
Speaker 3: Look, I think it's a good thing, and I think
Speaker 3: it's one of the things that can actually help make
Speaker 3: you a place of employment a little bit more attractive.
Speaker 3: Is there's more benefits involved, and often they don't actually
Speaker 3: take up too much more time or energy or money
Speaker 3: to implement. But in saying that, everybody's different, and some
Speaker 3: people might not see the value of them, but also
Speaker 3: some people might not be able to implement them as
Speaker 3: as others, So it's going to be different for everybody.
Speaker 2: Gotcha, so be What about from a personal perspective, from
Speaker 2: an employee's perspective, what are the downpolls of salary packaging?
Speaker 2: Because I feel like if it was flawless, we'd all
Speaker 2: be doing it and we'd all know what it was
Speaker 2: before this int this episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I feel like a lot of people do
Speaker 3: think it is this flawless plan to create wealth and
Speaker 3: get a better car. And I think the main limitation
Speaker 3: of salary sacrificing that I really want you guys to
Speaker 3: remember is that first salary sacrificing can sometimes we us
Speaker 3: into upgrading things that we don't need to upgrade. So
Speaker 3: we were talking about this before, like do you really
Speaker 3: need a new car or do you just like the
Speaker 3: idea that you can get a new car? Yeah, And
Speaker 3: sometimes understanding if it's actually worth lowering our salary for
Speaker 3: a new car if we bought one two years ago
Speaker 3: might not work. But then I think you need to
Speaker 3: remember as well that these benefits aren't free. It's not
Speaker 3: oh hey cool, I can add this to my income
Speaker 3: and my income will increase, and that's not it at all.
Speaker 3: You're still ending up paying for them. You're just making
Speaker 3: a sacrifice, so you're choosing that benefit over having extra
Speaker 3: cash in your account each week or month or yeah.
Speaker 3: And secondly, I want you to be really pragmatic and
Speaker 3: how negative this might sound, and obviously I'm negative Nancy
Speaker 3: on this podcast, but I want us all to be
Speaker 3: able to stay afloat if things changed and we lost
Speaker 3: our jobs or took a pay cut. So would you
Speaker 3: still be able to make those repayments on that car
Speaker 3: if you didn't have an income anymore? And I think
Speaker 3: that we need to prioritize future US right, Like if
Speaker 3: you're looking at salary packaging and you're like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: I'd love to salary package you know, some food and beverage,
Speaker 3: Like great, fantastic, But can you tell me if you
Speaker 3: have an emergency account first? Like, can we make sure
Speaker 3: that future US is financially stable and okay before we
Speaker 3: make decisions that are a little bit more swayed to lifestyle,
Speaker 3: Because if you do not have your emergency account set
Speaker 3: up yet, I'd be doing that and then I'd be
Speaker 3: considering any benefits that we can add.
Speaker 2: To that, gotcha. So according to the big woman, Vicki hoseelf.
Speaker 3: That's such a beautiful name. Honestly, growing up, I was
Speaker 3: always like, one day people are going to refer to
Speaker 3: me as.
Speaker 2: Vicki d Has anyone ever called you that until this point? Ah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no it was. It was gross. I used to
Speaker 3: crack it and then I've just given up. I'll just
Speaker 3: laid down, let it it. Let you guys walk all
Speaker 3: over me.
Speaker 2: Ah love you girl. So according to you, then Victoria
Speaker 2: Devine is salary packaging as good as it sounds, and
Speaker 2: is it something we should be looking at.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, have a look at it. Make sure it
Speaker 3: works for you. If your place of employment offers it
Speaker 3: and you're not making use of it, have a look
Speaker 3: at that. Like it's kind of a no brainer for
Speaker 3: the things that are fixed costs that you are paying.
Speaker 3: And I mean, if you can get your rent on
Speaker 3: salary packaging money, weird. Yeah, But if you're looking at
Speaker 3: it for a new car that maybe you don't need,
Speaker 3: or you're looking at it to add a whole heap
Speaker 3: of money to a food and beverage car that you
Speaker 3: can't buy groceries with and can only go out to
Speaker 3: restaurants like I would have a look at it, saying
Speaker 3: it's a bad idea. I would just make sure that
Speaker 3: you're making the right money decision for your life.
Speaker 2: Beautiful. So, if we do want to look at salary packaging,
Speaker 2: where do we start.
Speaker 3: You start by annoying your employer. I'm saying, hey, maybe
Speaker 3: I was just wondering what are my options here. Obviously
Speaker 3: go to HR if you've got a HR department, because
Speaker 3: they are in charge of all of the salary packaging plans,
Speaker 3: and then just wigh up the pros and cons. Don't
Speaker 3: opt for it if you don't need the benefit or
Speaker 3: would need the money more than that, And if you're
Speaker 3: still not sure, have a chat with your accountant or
Speaker 3: a financial advisor for a little bit more tailored information.
Speaker 2: Simply stunning, all right, So, to wrap up today's show,
Speaker 2: salary packaging is basically a really neat way of paying
Speaker 2: less tax by opting to take some of our salary
Speaker 2: in the form of benefits. Is Indeed, not all workplaces
Speaker 2: will offer it, but lots of the larger corporations will,
Speaker 2: So it's definitely worth chatting to your place of employment
Speaker 2: to see what could be possible for you if you're
Speaker 2: thinking it could be an option. And finally, it can
Speaker 2: be a really great way of bumping up your super
Speaker 2: if that's your thing. But Vickid, sorry, that just slid out.
Speaker 2: I think that is all we have time for today.
Speaker 3: I would like you to refer to me as Victoria
Speaker 3: Catherine Devine Catherine Kathy on Kathy Day. All right, I
Speaker 3: wish I'd never said that. So we're just gonna head off.
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Speaker 1: Bye,