Financial Adviser Serving Macleod
We provide retirement-focused financial advice for Macleod households, covering superannuation, retirement planning, investments, cash flow and personal insurance.
Our office is at The Watermans in Bundoora, just north of Macleod. We can meet you at home, by secure video, or at our Bundoora office. Your first consultation is free.
- Retirement-focused advice
- Home, secure video or office appointments
- First consultation free
- No obligation
How we help Macleod clients
Retirement planning is different from the financial decisions you make while you are working.
For Macleod households approaching retirement, we bring your superannuation, investments, spending, insurance and potential Age Pension entitlement into a single plan — and show you what it actually supports.
- Retirement-focused adviceWe specialise in helping people in their fifties and sixties move from building wealth to living on it.
- Based in Bundoora, serving MacleodOur office is at The Watermans, about ten minutes' drive from Macleod. We work with clients across Macleod.
- Clear, evidence-based adviceWe explain the reasoning behind our recommendations, model different scenarios and show you the numbers before you make major decisions.
What changes when you retire
Three things reverse at retirement. None are obvious while you are still earning.
Almost all the financial advice you meet across a working life is about building up: contribute regularly, stay invested, ignore the noise. It is sound advice, and it stops being enough the day you start drawing money out.
Markets falling early on
While you are contributing, a fall can even help — you buy in at lower prices.
Once you are withdrawing, money taken out during a downturn never participates in the recovery.
The tax position changes
Through your working life the concessions are on the way in.
In retirement the focus shifts toward how income is generated and how withdrawals are structured.
Your assets get counted
Everything you hold becomes relevant to what the government will and will not pay you.
The family home is generally exempt, though homeowners and non-homeowners face different thresholds.
Macleod: two generations of retirement
Macleod is a suburb of professionals. About a third of working residents are professionals, and more than usual work in hospitals and universities. Two in five adults hold a degree, against under three in ten across Victoria.
It also has an older side. People aged 85 and over make up about one in twenty-five residents — nearly double the Victorian rate. More residents than average give unpaid care to someone who is older or unwell.
For some households, that means planning your own retirement while helping a parent with theirs.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
Your retirement, and a parent’s aged care
Aged care home fees depend on a person’s income and assets, and the rules changed on 1 November 2025. Details are on the My Aged Care site.
A parent’s home can count towards those fees, up to a capped amount, unless a partner or certain family members still live there. The rules are on the My Aged Care means assessment page.
If you help pay for a parent’s care, or a parent moves in with you, it can change your own plan — what you can spend, when you can stop work, and what the Age Pension might pay you later.
We show what helping a parent would mean for your own retirement before you commit. These moves are hard to undo.
What Macleod households worry about
These come up again and again at this stage. None of them require you to have anything sorted out beforehand.
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Mum or Dad may need more care soon. We don't know what it will cost us.
We show what different levels of help would mean for your own plan — so you can decide how much you can give without putting your retirement at risk.
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I salary package through the hospital. Does that change my retirement plan?
It can. Packaging changes your take-home pay and what you spend today, and spending is what every retirement projection rests on. We build it into the numbers. Find every account in your name through myGov.
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I have an older defined benefit or university super account. What do I do with it?
Defined benefit accounts work differently from ordinary super, and moving or closing one is usually hard to undo. We check yours before anything moves.
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I have super in three or four places and no idea which is any good.
We check the fees, performance, holdings and insurance in each one, and only combine them where it genuinely helps.
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I want to stop at sixty-two but I don't know if we can afford it.
We answer that with a number, not a reassurance — modelled against a poor first few years, not just an average one.
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I don’t know who to trust. Everyone seems to be selling something.
Fair. What you can check: our licence on the ASIC register, a fee in writing before any work begins, and no product recommended in a first meeting.
What we do
What we advise on
We provide retirement-focused financial advice for people in their fifties and sixties across Melbourne, covering superannuation, investments, cash flow and personal insurance.
The practice is built around one transition — the shift from building wealth to living on it. That is a different problem from the one you have been solving for thirty years, and it is the only problem we work on.
Superannuation & retirement planning
What you hold, what it costs, and whether it supports the retirement you have in mind
Investment Advice
Portfolios built from your withdrawal timetable rather than a risk questionnaire
Life Insurance Advice
What still needs protecting now, and whether cover belongs inside super or outside it
Cash flow & budgeting
What you actually spend, which is what every retirement projection rests on
Hear From Our Clients
"My husband and I have been with Plan My Wealth since our retirement and have found all those we have had dealings with to be professional and friendly. They make us feel welcome and take the time to explain what we see as complex processes to make it easy to understand and follow. Great team."
"Highly recommend Manny, he was very knowledgeable and took time to explain everything so I could understand, he made me feel like a valued client rather than just a number."
"Working with Manny has been an excellent experience. He's professional, friendly, and takes the time to make complex financial matters easy to understand. His guidance has given me real confidence in managing my finances. I highly recommend him to anyone looking to take control of their financial future."
Financial advice for Macleod
If you are approaching retirement and are unsure whether your current arrangements will provide the retirement you want, the first step is understanding where you stand. No cost. No obligation. Just an honest conversation about your position and whether advice could be useful.
Macleod is about ten minutes from our Bundoora office.
Areas we serve near Macleod
Macleod sits in the City of Banyule, just south of our Bundoora office. We work across it and every suburb around it.
You do not have to travel to us
Wherever you are in Melbourne's north, we can meet three ways.
At your home
We can come to you. For many people approaching retirement it is the simplest option, particularly when the paperwork is already there.
By secure video
Everything runs through cloud-based systems, so a video meeting covers the same planning and modelling as an in-person one.
At the Bundoora office
The Watermans, Level 2, 1/3 Janefield Drive, with parking on site. There if you want it, never required.
Not seeing your suburb? See every area we serve.
Questions answered
Frequently
Asked Questions
Questions Macleod households ask most often, and a few about how we work. If yours is not here, ask us — the answer usually takes a minute.
Are you actually based in Macleod?
No. Our office is at The Watermans, Level 2, 1/3 Janefield Drive, Bundoora — just north of Macleod, about ten minutes' drive away. We can meet at your home, by secure video, or at the office.
We would rather say that plainly than imply otherwise.
Do I have to travel to your Bundoora office?
No. We can meet at your home in Macleod, by secure video, or at the office — whichever suits you.
We own our Macleod home outright. Is there anything left to plan?
Usually more than people expect. Finishing the mortgage answers one question and opens several others — how much you can afford to spend, when you can stop, how your super should be invested now, and what the Age Pension might add.
The earlier you understand your position, the more options you generally have.
We may need to help pay for a parent's aged care. How does that affect us?
It can affect what you can spend and when you can stop work. Aged care fees are based on the parent's own income and assets, and their home can count in some cases. The rules are on the My Aged Care site.
We show what different levels of help would mean for your own retirement, so you can decide with the numbers in front of you.
Should we downsize from the family home?
That is two questions — whether the move suits you, and whether it improves your financial position. They do not always agree.
Financially, the things to weigh are what the sale would net after costs, where the proceeds would sit, what that does to your Age Pension, and whether any of it can go into super. Downsizer contribution rules are on the ATO site.
Can we help our children buy a home without hurting our pension?
Often, yes — but the way you help matters. Centrelink allows gifts of up to $10,000 a financial year and $30,000 over five financial years. Anything above that can be counted as your asset for five years. Loans are treated differently from gifts.
We check what any help does to your pension and your own retirement before money moves. Current rules are on the Services Australia site.
Does our Macleod home count toward the Age Pension?
While you live in it, your home is generally exempt from the assets test regardless of its value. It can still affect the overall outcome, because homeowners and non-homeowners are assessed against different thresholds.
Current thresholds are published by Services Australia.
Do you work with people in Watsonia, Greensborough, Rosanna and Bundoora?
What happens after I get in touch?
We will get back to you within one business day to arrange a time. The first meeting runs about an hour and can take place at your home, at the office, or by video.
If advice would be useful, we send you a written scope and a fixed fee afterwards. Nothing to sign on the day.
What does financial advice cost?
The first meeting is free and carries no obligation. If advice would be useful, we send you a written scope of work and a fixed fee afterwards, and you decide whether to proceed.
Fees are set by the complexity of the work rather than the size of your balance. Our fee arrangements are set out in our Financial Services Guide.
I have several old super accounts. Should I combine them?
Not automatically. Combining accounts can remove duplicate fees and simplify your finances, but closing an account can also cancel insurance held inside it.
We assess each fund first and check the insurance before recommending whether anything should move. You can see every account in your name through myGov.
When can I access my superannuation?
Access depends on your preservation age and whether a condition of release has been met. For many people reaching preservation age, retirement is one of the relevant conditions.
Age Pension age is separate and is currently 67.
How do I confirm an adviser is properly licensed?
Search the ASIC Financial Advisers Register by name or authorised representative number. It shows qualifications, licensee and advice history, and it is free to use.
Manny Tran’s authorised representative number is 423115.