About the Author – Wayne Wanders, The Wealth Navigator

Wayne Wanders

The Wealth Navigator

Wayne Wanders, the Wealth Navigator, is committed to getting Australians off the treadmill of working hard all their life, just to retire poor.  All so that hard working Australians can have the life they want, and more importantly, deserve.

Whilst Wayne has been a chartered accountant for over 30 years, Wayne is not your normal accountant.  His philosophy of “why think outside of the square when you can just make the square bigger”, gives Wayne an open mind and the ability to dig deeper into challenges.

Some say Wayne’s true talent is in seeing things that others do not.  As Wayne makes the invisible, visible, you could call Wayne a forensic accountant.

It was this thinking that made Wayne realise that the retirement system in Australia is flawed.  And that most Australians are on the treadmill to work hard and retire poor, heading straight for what Wayne calls the Poverty Trap.

So Wayne made it his mission to use his personal experience and knowledge to help hard working Australians avoid the Poverty Trap by:

• Raising awareness of the flaws in the current retirement system;
• Helping people accept responsibility for their own financial future;
• Helping people understand where they are financially today and where they want to be in the future;
• Showing people in plain English, actionable ways to get from where they are today to where they want to be in the future; and,
• Acting as their accountability partner, giving them guidance and motivation to achieve their goals.

All so that they can avoid the Poverty Trap.

Why Wayne Wrote the Book

Wayne, has a proven track record as a chartered accountant and business advisor for over 30 years.

In that time Wayne has worked with a large number of businesses including being the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for two Australian businesses publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

Wayne has also worked with many small businesses as their Virtual CFO whilst they could not afford to employ a full time CFO.

Wayne has spent a lot of time setting up new businesses and helping businesses facing closure.

The trouble with trying to help companies stay solvent is sometimes they don’t want to make the necessary changes. A saying comes to mind, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”.

At the same time, they had to take their son out of the local public school as he was being bullied by the teacher of all people.

So not only did Wayne and Diana have minimal money, they still had all the bills to pay.  The home loan, the school fees, you name it, the bills did not stop.  They went further into debt to pay the bills.

Eventually, Wayne found new work and started to earn money again.

It was at this time Wayne vowed to never be in that position again.  Wayne and Diana made a decision to learn from what they were forced to endure and make a change so it would never happen again.

So yes, it did happen, factors outside Wayne’s control meant some of the businesses he was working with collapsed owing him, and many others, money.  It was at a time when the economy was down and no one was really starting new businesses.

Here was Wayne, someone who was used to a good income, suddenly with minimal work and as a result, no money.

At that time, Wayne’s wife Diana was not working because she was looking after their two young children.  But now, they had no choice.  Diana had to go back to work.

Diana was working at the markets.  Her hours were sometimes 3 am to 11 am.  Imagine what their house was like.  Everyone had to walk around the house on eggshells as Diana was going to bed as early as 7 pm some nights.

So Wayne (and Diana) accepted responsibility and took action to get the future they wanted.

One of the first things they achieved from this action was that Diana no longer had to work those stupid hours – and boy didn’t the family see the difference from this.

This freed her time up to look after their children, her elderly mother and Wayne’s disabled brother – all important things that were being neglected.

From there this action lead to Wayne and Diana:

• Paying off their home loan in full – what a great day that was.
• Having their own financial protection – a large emergency fund should they need it.
• Having money to invest in themselves and their future to generate income from many sources. Should one source go, they have other money coming in.

Wayne thought that what he had done was common sense and most people were doing it.

That was till Wayne spent some time over the last five or so years, reviewing the projected retirement incomes of hundreds of typical Australian families.   What Wayne saw astounded him.

Time and time again, Wayne saw people, who based on what they were currently doing, would retire on less than 25 percent of what they wanted.  Here were people who:

• Thought because of superannuation that they would be alright when the time came to retire.
• Were starting to financially assist their parents and thinking that they would not be the same burden on their kids.
• Did not realise that their current lifestyle was seriously impacting on their retirement lifestyle.  Wayne saw many people whose mortgage was so large it would not be repaid by the time they wanted to retire.

This experience made Wayne realise that most people are on the treadmill to work hard and retire poor.  This is what Wayne now calls the Poverty Trap.

Sadly, Wayne also realised most people did not understand they were heading straight for the Poverty Trap.  And if they did, they did not know how to avoid it.

This is when Wayne made it his mission to use his personal experience and knowledge to help others, through his book “Avoid the Poverty Trap”.

Do you and your family a favour and start now.

Wayne Wanders

The Wealth Navigator

wayne@waynewanders.com.au