Your Family's Financial Future, Built on Personalised Advice
Isn’t it refreshing to find a professional who, firstly, understands your situation and secondly, respects it?
We were introduced to Lyn through a friend after our previous financial advice became stale. Lyn’s advice was clear and concise – it brought transparency, further understanding of our investments and strength.
If you are after a Financial Adviser who is personal, professional and has your interests at heart and not their own, Lyn Eddy Financial is the perfect choice.
Goal Setting
Often, one of the most difficult issues for clients to address is their immediate, medium term and long term goals and objectives. In the busy-ness of everyday life, clients rarely have the time to really focus on identifying and prioritising their goals.
Ensuring that her clients and her are “on the same page” is the first step. It is not uncommon for a couple to have different (and unspoken) ideas. For example, one partner may wish to pay off the home loan or renovate the home, while the other partner could be focussed on buying a bigger boat or jet ski.
By spending time with the clients and allowing each of them to honestly and openly discuss their priorities, usually a common and agreeable set of goals can be established. Once the goals have been identified and quantified, Lyn then is able to work towards developing the right strategy for the clients to reliably achieve these objectives together.
Budgeting
Most clients have the potential to allocate funds for their future, but sometimes never achieve it. Usually it is because they do not have a definite plan to work with. Identifying the basic household living expenses is always the starting point.
The next step is to identify items of non-essential spending (but nice to have) while the third step is to identify items that definitely fall into the “luxury” category.
Lyn’s clients complete a questionnaire regarding what they are currently spending on each of these categories. This helps develop a budget framework.
At the completion of the questionnaire, most clients identify that there is a household surplus or “profit”. Often they are not able to explain where the surplus funds have gone. Again, this is because of a lack of a plan (financial commitment).
Debt Reduction & Debt Recycling
For some clients, paying off their home loans, credit cards, personal loans and car loans is their main focus. Lyn Eddy is able to show them how to identify the difference between “good debt” and “bad debt”.
Good debt has some important characteristics:
- The underlying asset will produce an income
- The underlying asset will grow in value over time
- The interest charged on the debt can be claimed as a tax deduction
Some advisers also describe a home loan as being in this category. While it does not have all the characteristics of bad debt, at least the value of the underlying asset (the family home) will rise over the long term.
Debt recycling helps use good debt to invest and the income generated to pay off the bad debt. This concept of using borrowed funds to invest is also known as a gearing or leveraging. Most people are happy to use this strategy when buying an investment property but some clients are unaware that it can also be used to buy more “liquid” investments such as managed funds and shares.
Savings Plans & Wealth Accumulation
When clients have identified their monthly surplus cashflow, Lyn Eddy Financial is able to demonstrate how they can begin a regular investment strategy. This can be done with as little as $2,000 initially and then $100 per month on a regular basis.
Lyn Eddy’s most successful client began her regular investment at the age of 18 with the main objective of buying her own home. After implementing the strategy developed and monitored by Lyn, at the age of 29 she was able to purchase her home needing only to borrow a modest amount.
The client did not have any secret strategies or a magic silver bullet; she simply began the strategy and adhered to it over the years; increasing her regular investment and level of commitment as her wages and the investment value increased over time. Lyn still says she is her most successful client; not because she has the highest account balance, but because she follows her plan and remains so committed and focussed on her financial and lifestyle goals.
I first met Lyn Eddy in 1998 when I was 18 & working casually. I started my investment with $2000, adding to this monthly, & at age 29 bought my house, having only half the cost to borrow. I continued to invest & reduce my home loan until it was fully repaid when I was 40. Thanks to Lyn, I have achieved my main goal & am now focussed on my next goal of retiring early, by retaining Lyn’s services to continue to invest.
Superannuation
Most clients become more focussed on their superannuation, as they get closer to retirement age. Indeed, often, clients start to take more notice of their superannuation as the balance increases to near their annual salary. The mindset at this time, is usually to reflect on how they have had to work an entire year to earn that amount of money and then reflect that this is now what their super fund is worth.
The appropriateness of any of these strategies is entirely dependent on the clients’ individual circumstances such as:
- Timeframe to retirement
- Current level of personal debt
- Current income and tax position
- Current available cashflow
- Retirement income expectations
- Experience with investing
Lyn's guidance and expertise as our Financial Planner for the past eight years has positively influenced our financial direction and provided security for our financial future. Lyn has always been available by phone, email, or face-to-face to assist us with any line of enquiry, however large or small!
When you appoint a professional to represent your business, manage your life savings and respect your hard working contributions, you are relying on their integrity and honesty to further expand your assets and keep them working for you in the best way possible.
We feel Lyn's management and focus has been tailored to our individual situation and we couldn't be happier with the service she provides for us.
Pre & Post Retirement Planning
As Lyn’s clients move from the early stages of their financial evolution such as paying off their mortgages and raising and educating their children, their goals become aligned with a life of leisure and travel after their working life.
Of course, any financial plan needs to be flexible enough to allow for life’s unexpected situations. Lyn always encourages her clients to contact her if an unexpected event occurs which can potentially impact their financial position.
Discussing the role of Centrelink for her clients is also an important component of retirement planning for Lyn. Some clients prefer not to ever need to claim a pension from Centrelink, while others see this as a viable source of regular income in retirement. It may be that some clients will have a variety of incomes in retirement including:
- Regular monthly account based pension or annuity payments
- Interest on money in bank accounts and term deposits
- Dividends from shares and distributions from managed funds
- Age pension from Centrelink or DVA pension
- Income from part-time or casual employment (becoming more popular since the GFC)
Lyn Eddy has been our adviser since 1999 & has worked tirelessly for us during that time. She has an extensive background in the financial industry & thanks to her expertise in borrowing & investing, we have retired well before 65 years of age. Lyn has always kept us informed of any market changes & ensured regular reviews of our financial strategies with changes when relevant. She always puts her client’s interests foremost, looking for the greatest gain with minimal risk.
Personal & Business Insurances (Risk Management)
Lyn’s clients will need different levels and types of insurances during their lifetimes.
For example, when their children are young and their level of debt is relatively high (compared to the value of their assets), they will typically need a higher amount of death, total and permanent disability, business expenses and critical illness insurances. Income protection insurance is also a vital component of how clients can manage the risk of not being able to earn their income due to illness or injury.
However, as the clients move from this stage of life to where their children become financially independent and their level of debt reduces, Lyn regularly reviews their personal insurance needs accordingly.
Estate Planning
As part of the holistic approach to her client’s overall financial position, Lyn Eddy ensures that her clients are aware of the importance of having the appropriate documents in place. These would typically involve the following:
- Wills
- Enduring Powers of Attorney
- Advanced Health Directives
- Testamentary Trusts
While Lyn Eddy Financial does not provide specific advice in this regard, Lyn can recommend specialist legal advice.
Financial Advice
The desire to establish her own financial advice business was borne from a feeling of professional frustration that, working on others’ terms, she was not able to provide the personalised service and individual attention that she felt her loyal clients deserved. Lyn provides a “one stop” financial service with the introduction of an inhouse mortgage and finance service.
Lyn Eddy is able to see clients at her rooms or visit clients at their homes, workplaces or other convenient locations for their initial discussions and ongoing review meetings. Lyn is able to advise individuals, families, trusts, superannuation funds, Aged Care, estates and business owners.
Most new clients to Lyn Eddy Financial have been referred by one of her existing clients, or various professional associates such as an Accountancy firm, lawyers, mortgage brokers in Qld and NSW and a Queensland-based general insurance broker.
By networking with these other associated professionals, Lyn provides a truly holistic approach to confidently meeting her clients financial and lifestyle needs.
Lyn Eddy happily operates her own financial advice business, after working at the highest level in three financial planning businesses over the past 20 years.
Her experience is comprehensive; it includes ten years as a Senior Planner/Manager and director of a boutique Australian Financial Services Licensee (AFSL), several years as a salaried adviser with Australia’s largest financial planning group (AMP Financial Planning) and three years with a small Brisbane-based self-licensed financial planning business.
Lyn’s experience also draws on her Fellow Chartered Financial Practitioner qualification (FChFP) and Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning (Adv DipFP). Lyn is an Associate Member of the Financial Planning Association (AFP), a member of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). Lyn also has a Certificate IV in Financial Services (Mortgages/Finance Broking). Lyn is also an accredited Aged Care Professional.
