# Blog ### Welcome to our Personal Finance Blog ![Pic of Senior Advisor Drew Browne](https://mail.sapience.com.au/images/author-pic/ceo-drew-browne-round.png) Money bewilders most of us. How to spend it, save it, invest it, and how to best protect the person who makes it. These questions we all face daily — a puzzle we all attempt to understand and solve just about every day. Yet despite money's centrality to our lives and businesses, it's something we all grapple with, and mostly in private. - Money is the 'Lord Voldemort' of topics — feared by most and mentioned by a few. It's oddly uncomfortable to discuss socially and rarely even with our partners, parents, and children. Perhaps that's because managing our money and life's risks inevitably involves the fusion of both the emotional and practical aspects of our decision-making processes. **The most difficult of questions are those with both economic and emotional answers**. At Sapience, we're all about **The How**. Our educational **Personal Finance Blog** is for people who want to grow and remain wealthy. And while the journey toward wealth is clearly marked, you still have to be looking in the right direction. ### Explore Our Blog by Speciality Select a speciality below to view our curated specialist insights and practical strategies. [🧠 Evolutionary Finance](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/evolutionary-finance) [🌳 Family, Legacy & Aging](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/family-legacy-aging) [⚖️ Estate Law & Succession Planning](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/estate-law-succession) [🛡️ Specialist Risk & Insurance](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/specialist-risk-insurance) [🤝 Small Business Risk & Partnership](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/small-business-risk-partnership) [🌍 Social Leadership & Conscious Business](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/social-leadership-conscious-business) [🏠 Wealth Builders & Home Finance](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/wealth-builders-home-finance) [📰 Sapience General Archive](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/sapience-general-archive) ![Not made by AI sapience financial](https://mail.sapience.com.au/images/icons/not-made-by-AI-sapience-financial-black.png) --- [ ![cup of coffee beside a stack of receipts](https://mail.sapience.com.au/images/blog/intro-how-to-split-expenses-as-a-couple-sapience-financial.jpg) ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/how-to-split-expenses-as-a-couple "How to split expenses as a Couple") ## [ How to split expenses as a Couple ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/how-to-split-expenses-as-a-couple) --- ### How do you split expenses fairly as a couple? ### What to do when you want to share bills as a couple but you each earn very different amounts of income If one partner is making $105,000 a year, while the other is making $37,500 a year, how do couples approach sharing the costs of living together equally? - [ budgeting ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/budgeting) - [ percentage based budgeting ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/percentage-based-budgeting) - [ money habits ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/money-habits) - [ saving and investing ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/saving-and-investing) - [ case studies ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/case-studies) - [ 🏠 Wealth Builders & Home Finance ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/wealth-builders-home-finance) [ Read more … ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/how-to-split-expenses-as-a-couple) [ ![house with red wall](https://mail.sapience.com.au/images/blog-assets/intro-sell-the-family-home-and-contribute-to-your-super-fund-sapience-financial.jpg) ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/sell-the-family-home-and-contribute-to-your-super-fund "Downsize your home and put the profit into your super") ## [ Downsize your home and put the profit into your super ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/sell-the-family-home-and-contribute-to-your-super-fund) --- ### A new type of super contribution has been announced and it’s called the *downsizer superannuation contribution* (DSC) ### Putting money into your super fund or paying down your home mortgage has always been a difficult choice for many Australians. - [ downsizer contributions ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/downsizer-contributions) - [ superannuation ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/superannuation) - [ 🏠 Wealth Builders & Home Finance ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/wealth-builders-home-finance) [ Read more … ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/sell-the-family-home-and-contribute-to-your-super-fund) [ ![man laying on floor in a gym](https://mail.sapience.com.au/images/blog-assets/intro-who-is-your-person-responsible-sapience-financial.jpg) ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/who-is-your-person-responsible "Who can make emergency medical decisions for you?") ## [ Who can make emergency medical decisions for you? ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/who-is-your-person-responsible) --- ### Who can make emergency medical decisions for you when you can’t? Most adults are presumed to have the mental capacity to give consent themselves. But what happens when you can’t make decisions for yourself? The person next in line to make decisions for you is referred to as the *person responsible* and it might not be your next of kin. - [ modern estate planning ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/modern-estate-planning) - [ ⚖️ Estate Law & Succession Planning ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/estate-law-succession) [ Read more … ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/who-is-your-person-responsible) [ ![two men at same sex wedding](https://mail.sapience.com.au/images/blog-assets/intro-financial-advice-for-same-sex-couples-sapience-financial.jpg) ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/financial-advice-for-same-sex-couples "Financial Advice for Same-Sex Couples") ## [ Financial Advice for Same-Sex Couples ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/financial-advice-for-same-sex-couples) --- ### Equality and freedom from discrimination are fundamental human rights that belong to all people, regardless of who they love or how they identify ### The road to anywhere meaningful does seem to take a while and this has been true for many in Australia's LGBTQIA+ Community. - [ family provision ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/family-provision) - [ family protection ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/family-protection) - [ downloads ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/downloads) - [ pride in advice ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/pride-in-advice) - [ ⚖️ Estate Law & Succession Planning ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/estate-law-succession) - [ 🛡️ Specialist Risk & Insurance ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/specialist-risk-insurance) - [ 📰 Sapience General Archive ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/sapience-general-archive) [ Read more … ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/financial-advice-for-same-sex-couples) [ ![book cover](https://mail.sapience.com.au/images/blog-assets/intro-the-better-business-book-sapience-financial.jpg) ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/the-better-business-book "The Better Business Book Vol 3 (now also on Kindle )") ## [ The Better Business Book Vol 3 (now also on Kindle ) ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/the-better-business-book) --- ### Start your year with The Better Business Book, available now on Kindle too. ### 100 Business Lessons To Live By If you’re like me, you probably have 100’s of business and professional self-development books. Some of them you’ve read, some of them you’ve half-read and well, some are hiding under your bed stashed away in the future reading storage box of shame, to read one day. \*sigh\* Busy people know sometimes life gets in the way. - [ small business ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/small-business) - [ 📰 Sapience General Archive ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/sapience-general-archive) [ Read more … ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/the-better-business-book) [ ![Santa Clause with cookie](https://mail.sapience.com.au/images/blog-assets/intro-christmas-trivia-sapience-financial.jpg) ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/christmas-trivia "Test your Christmas Trivia Skills!") ## [ Test your Christmas Trivia Skills! ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/christmas-trivia) --- ### Christmas Trivia Cheat Sheet (optimised for discrete reading on your phone during a Christmas Trivia Battle) ### It's beginning to look a lot like that time of year when you're sometimes stuck for conversation starters and trivia answers at the Christmas BBQ with family and friends. ### Here's 25 of the best Christmas Trivia questions and answers to have up your sleeve. - [ fun stuff ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/all-tags/fun-stuff) - [ 📰 Sapience General Archive ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/insights/sapience-general-archive) [ Read more … ](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/christmas-trivia) 1. [ Prostate cancer surgery and its disturbing new link to business risk](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/prostate-cancer-surgery-and-its-new-link-to-business-risk) 2. [ Life is a lot like a game of Snakes & Ladders](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/snakes-and-ladders) 3. [ A better way to lend money to family members](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/a-better-way-to-lend-money-to-family-members) 4. [ Take the mystery out of applying for a mortgage](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/take-the-mystery-out-of-applying-for-a-mortgage) 5. [ Caring for someone with special or additional needs](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/caring-for-someone-with-special-or-additional-needs) 6. [ Saying what's right](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/doing-whats-right) 7. [ Why you can’t leave your superannuation to your parents, even if you wanted to](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/why-you-cant-leave-your-superannuation-to-your-parents) ### [ Modern Small Business Leadership](https://mail.sapience.com.au/blog/modern-small-business) Page 32 of 49