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Welcome to Bruce Brammall Financial

How super is your return?

PORTFOLIO POINT: How well did you do your job as SMSF investment manager last year? You needed to beat 14.81%. Unless you were still bunkered down in the ultra-defensive end of the investment world, the financial year ended 30 June should have been a good one for you. A ripper of a year for Australian […]

Is age discrimination an issue in Australia’s financial services sector? Who is affected, and can it be stopped?

Is this where I get to go mental over the endless targeting of us young’uns by our shameful older politicians? That selfish, silver-spooned, born-to-rule, earth-pillaging Boomer generation running the country now? (You want ageist? Try that!) Well, I’m not going to. And I don’t think that of Boomers anyway. Discrimination is “unjust or prejudicial treatment”. […]

Multiple funds the answer to taking pension while working

PORTFOLIO POINT: Can your SMSF give you simultaneous pension and accumulation funds? Yes, here’s how. It’s an area many SMSF trustees don’t understand well – even those who might have been operating SMSFs for long periods. Trustees understand that their SMSF is there to eventually pay a pension. Therefore, at some stage, it must convert […]

Confusion can reign when working out how your superannuation is invested. What are simple ways to decide where it goes?

Amazing, isn’t it? Governments force Australians to put large wads of their salaries into super. And then refuse to help them understand why. Or how. Or what. (And then they change the rules every fortnight, so no-one knows what’s going on. But that’s a bitch session for another day.) There’s never been a public education […]

Powering up the pension

PORTFOLIO POINT: Many pensioners are facing massive increases in the minimum super pensions they draw this year. Here’s how you can deal with it. Hands up if you want more income? It sounds like a rhetorical question, with the logical answer being everyone. Not so. Many readers will be forced to take dramatic rises in […]

Everyone likes a good mystery. What are three money mysteries that still baffle you?

For curly money questions, I seek higher authorities – Professor Google, Rosmerta and Warren Buffett. But still, the internet, the Celtic goddess of wealth and the Oracle of Omaha simply can’t answer everything. What perpetually mystifies me? Taxes, over-spending and financial arrogance. Tax. Seriously! Governments globally are incredible at imposing taxes. But they’re even better […]

There’s gain, pain and hanging on for later. But it’s worth it

Legendary 80s Sydney pub rock band The Radiators sang: “You don’t get nothin’ for nothin’, but you always get what you deserve … a bit of pain never hurt”. Sure, The Radiators weren’t lyrical geniuses. Far, far from it. But what they and their mullets were singing about is still pertinent now. Win a bit. […]

Happy new financial year! What are three money resolutions that everybody should make?

Aww, come on! Can’t we bask in the rosy glow of last year for a little bit? A year ago, the sharemarket was below 4200 points, property prices were still declining and interest rates were higher. There’s three reasons to cheer FY13! It turned out pretty darn good, I reckon. But, you’re right, navel gazing […]

Why non-concessional contributions pay

PORTFOLIO POINT: Non-concessional contributions have a mighty powerful impact on your super balance for those who make them. You can’t point to too many areas of superannuation that have contained any semblance of stability in recent years. But for all the huffing and puffing, changes to the law and threats to do so, politics and […]