12/05/2026
Tonight I didn’t watch the Federal Budget.
Not because I’m not interested. Quite the opposite. As an accountant, advisor and business turnaround specialist, budgets usually come with a strange mix of professional curiosity and impending dread.
But lately I’ve realised something important — constantly consuming bad economic news, political theatre, business distress and financial anxiety isn’t particularly healthy when your day job already involves helping people through crisis.
There’s a point where staying “informed” starts becoming emotional self-harm.
Tomorrow morning the analysis will still be there. LinkedIn will be overflowing with hot takes. The media will tell us who “won” and “lost”. And accountants across Australia will once again become unpaid interpreters of government policy for stressed business owners.
On top of that, many accountants and bookkeepers are already being besieged by the ongoing Xero reprocessing and payroll reimbursement chaos — fielding frustrated client calls, trying to reconcile discrepancies, and wearing the emotional load for issues they didn’t create.
Sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is step away from the noise for a night.
Go fishing. Read a book. Sit quietly. Talk to your family. Watch something completely unrelated to tax policy and fiscal deficits.
The economy will still be there in the morning.
And if we’re honest, burnt out advisors aren’t much use to the people relying on us anyway.
