Aviation career and finance imperatives

Planning to mitigate the practical impacts, the associated anxiety and strain of financial pressure is something the MGD Wealth team has done since 2001, specifically for those in the aviation industry. If 2001 sounds familiar, it’s because MGD personnel first started working with pilots, engineers, and flight attendants when Ansett collapsed. Since the COVID crisis struck, the organisation has also stepped in to provide a series of seminars and webinars for the broader aviation community

Charlie Vincent leads the MGD expat tax team and his advice is “do some planning and get your affairs in order so the ATO doesn’t come out of the woods and bite you”.
“Leaving your financial success to chance is a high-risk strategy,” says Richard Marsden, MGD’s International and Executive Director. “Whether you are self-directed or have an adviser, adopting a rigorous, goals-based strategic framework can clarify your current financial situation and help to navigate your financial course.”

MGD’s quick 7-step financial plan checklist

1. Fully identify your short-, medium- and long-term goals and objectives;
2. Identify cash flows, savings capacity, and income needs;
3. Categorise and evaluate your current personal balance sheet;
4. Model scenarios to establish time frames for objectives such as debt repayment, affordability of school fees, timing of retirement, and financial adequacy at and 5. through retirement;
5. Identify risks or obstacles to success;
6. Put in place effective strategies to grow your personal balance sheet and manage life and investment risks; and
7. Document an estate plan.

At time when so much feels out of our individual control, formulating a factual, risk-mitigating and planning based approach to your financial situation will go some way to alleviating the uncertainty of a prolonged downturn in aviation and the ensuing impact on career prospects.

Aviation is a community in its own right. Understanding that community means speaking the same language and relating to its unique perspective. That applies just a much to affiliated services such as Finance, Recruitment and Training as it does to those providing the direct transportation services.

Financial uncertainty is number one on the top five causes of stress list, so get the right advice for your individual circumstances, work with a trusted industry-specific provider and perform your own due diligence.

“It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for,” says Robert Kiyosaki, founder of Rich Dad.