PORTFOLIO POINT: How did your SMSF’s performance measure up at June 30? Look away now if you didn’t have any international exposure. You missed the action. Again. The moaning about the “stock market” has been so intense for so many months (April through July), that I’d made some assumptions about how bad super returns would […]
Electric shock therapy. Cattle prods and electrodes. What? Whaddya mean it’s not legal anymore? It was standard parental behaviour in the 70s! If you want to teach a teenager not to speed when they learn to drive, take them to a trauma accident unit. If you want to teach teenagers how not to mistreat money, […]
PORTFOLIO POINT: Death taxes expanded! A new Tax Office position on super pensions has major repercussions for super and estate planning. It was bound to happen. I’d choose an important topic for a series of columns – super and estate planning – where the rules haven’t changed dramatically for a long time, and … bingo, […]
Does a bear you-know-what in the woods? Or, in the words of Frank Spencer from Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, has “the cat done a whoopsie in my beret”? Yes, of course property’s still a good investment. Property will always be a good investment. That said, not all property, and not every year in a […]
One of life’s great, yet simple and indulgent, pleasures, is a good ham and cheese toasted sandwich. A slice of cured, honeyed pig, some tasty cheese, perhaps with butter, preferably honoured with some good bread (or bad bread – it’s actually the least important ingredient). Then cooked until it starts dribbling heavenly, yellow rivers of […]
PORTFOLIO POINT: You’ve fallen off your perch. Who’s getting your super? Part two of my series on death benefit nominations. At the time of retirement, superannuation is likely to be the second largest asset of most people, suggest the statistics. The home is likely to be your biggest asset, unless you’ve developed a reasonable asset […]
You should pray for a little intervention from Pixar in your life. (You know, the makers of favourite kiddie movies, including Toy Story and Finding Nemo.) You want a giant cartoon character hand to magically appear, firmly slap the asker across the chops, then disappear. Your inquisitor would be so flummoxed by what had just […]
PORTFOLIO POINT: The government seems to be coming around to the idea that some changes are needed to concessional contributions limits. And here’s one worth considering. The way things are going, it could just get all too hard to get money into super. If people are limited to $25,000 a year, there is a good […]
Love it or hate it, the great message I got out of Forrest Gump was: “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something”. But even more importantly … “Run, Forrest! Run!” If you’re starting your own business, expect steep learning curves. And you won’t have time for a casual stroll. You’ll have to […]
KERRRRUUNNCH! “What was that?” I hear you ask. That was the sound of a severe cash crunch. Perhaps you’ve heard that sound before yourself. Don’t panic. It was definitely mine, not yours. But it was no gentle “snap, crackle, pop” like DebtGirl’s cereal. It was rudely loud. It woke my neighbours. Again. (I have been […]
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