I’m armed with two packaging quotes she’s
emailed me for a new car, a rival quote from my car dealer, a
payslip, statements from my two super schemes. I start by admitting my
ignorance about money systems and processes. She says nothing. I tell her
that on reflection I think it better to package super than a car, but
ask her to lead me through the quotes anyway.
The quotes include operating
costs—fuel, maintenance, tyres, rego—and the big one, novated lease cost: $10+k
per annum. I ask what novated means. She hasn’t a clue. The dictionary is no
help; the closest word is novation,
the replacement of an old contract with a new one.
Maryanne guides me through a
forest of figures, agrees with the bank’s advice that I’m better off
to redraw on my home loan to buy a car, admits I’m better off to salary package
into super direct from my employer rather than through her company. I agree
with her that I shouldn't just accept her or the bank’s opinion, but get an independent opinion too.
She leaves me more confused
than ever. Tonight I reconsider the figures, work the calculator. The
figures don’t add up. One column contains a grand mistake, easily made, huge
nonetheless, obvious even to a financial nuf-nuf like me.
I conclude that neither the
bank nor the salary packager is going to save me money. What they really offer is expertise
and convenience: they buy the car, pay the associated costs, set up the salary
package, organise the transition to retirement pension. I'd be paying for the
convenience. At considerable cost. They serve themselves, not me.
I decide to set these things up
myself. The cost will be a month’s running around and some inconvenience. But I will pay no
novated lease cost, no administrative fee, no service fee to the bank’s financial
planner.
I’ve always done it—whatever it is—myself. Why would I think of doing
it any other way?
Rock on.
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