Income Solutions

What is the education tax refund?

The education tax refund has been instigated by the Australian Government to assist with the growing costs of educating primary and secondary school children. It allows parents, carers and independent students to claim money back on a multitude of items such as:

• Laptops
• Educational software
• Textbooks and stationery
• Some uniform items

In some instances you may get 50% of your money back if you have kept all your reciepts.

How much can I claim?

The refund is capped at ...

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Income Solutions is excited to host “An Evening with Raelene Boyle”

Raelene is recognised as one of Australia’s greatest track and field athletes, winning Seven Commonwealth Gold and three Olympic Silver medals. Raelene was unlucky to miss out on the ultimate accolade – Olympic Gold.

Raelene was just beaten for Gold at the Munich Olympics in 1972 by East German Renate Stecher, a woman later caught up in the drug controversy surrounding all East German ...

Christmas is fast approaching and the year is coming to an end.

The Income Solutions team would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.

Our offices will be closed from Friday the 23rd of December until Monday the 9th of January 2012.

All the best,

Despite the debt crisis in Europe at the moment and all the economic uncertainty it has caused, I would like to turn your focus for now to America. Recent figures have emerged stating that businesses in the US in the non-financial sectors are currently sitting on $3 trillion of inactive cash. To put this into perspective, China is sitting on $3.2 trillion in stagnant cash. China is currently the leading emerging economy of the world.

Since the financial ...

Income Solutions Financial Planning would like to thank everyone that entered our Facebook competition!

The competition had many entries and the lucky winner was David Fursland. He won an iPad2 and collected it last week.

In the coming weeks we are going to launch another Facebook competition so stay tuned to our website and Facebook page.

Whilst we are always being told about our poor general health and the increasing level of obesity amongst Australians the fact is that we are all living longer.

Most of us look forward to this long retirement; a period in our lives that is finally all about us. Work commitments have finished and children have flown the nest. Things that may have been put off due to a lack of time are now doable – but how ...

By adopting some simple features available within home loans you are able to ensure that your money is working hard for you, allowing you to build towards financial freedom faster.
As interest is calculated on many home loans on the daily balance, you can save on interest by reducing the average daily loan balance. This can be done by:

1. Increasing the repayment frequency
2. Increasing your repayment amount
3. Crediting your entire salary into a 100% offset account
4. Paying the majority of ...

FEAR – it is what newspapers and the media industry understand that the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind.
The Financial Review on Tuesday 13 September explicitly showed how they prey on this emotion to further their own causes. The front page ran with the headline ‘Frustrated investors sell off blue chip stocks’; again from the same edition, the Market Wrap section ran with the headline ‘Shares plunge on Europe fears’; it continued in the Profit Wrap 2011 ...

1. Understand basic financial concepts
It’s hard to have a chance at real financial success unless you’ve mastered some basic financial concepts. The first step to understand the basics is to attend one of our Monthly Information Evenings. Register to attend the next one on Tuesday 27th of September in Melbourne and Tuesday the 11th of October in Geelong.
2. Take your superannuation seriously
Many people in Australia are complacent when it comes to their super. ...

Five things to look for in and Adviser

Following from my previous blog, once you have decided there is merit in seeking professional advice, consider some key points when selecting your adviser:

1 – Qualifications: What study has your adviser undertaken to ensure that they have sufficient knowledge to be advising you in the areas that they claim to be able to help you? An Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning (ADFS) should be a minimum. Also look for the Certified ...