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Category: Articles

Trust issues with Shorten’s plan

      “Frothing at the mouth”: a description of someone white hot with rage, ranting feverishly over what is usually not much of an issue. This is something I occasionally do. Sometimes for fun. Sometimes right here in this column. But mostly over topics that would bore most. Most recently, I did it last […]

Rates are rising – get set for battle

  If you’re a long-term property investor with a mortgage, how pissed off are you right now? Put me down for “seriously pissed off”. I just received notification from my bank to say the interest rates on my investment loans are being hiked by about 50 basis points. Half a freakin’ per cent! That’s two […]

Did your SMSF smash the average?

    SUMMARY: Playing it safe gave no help for returns in 2017. It was all about risk. Did you get your SMSF to beat 7.93%? Every streak must come to an end. And for FY2017, that meant a year where being too defensive was a serious drag on your portfolio. It was a year […]

Making a mega super fund

        SUMMARY: What’s the biggest super fund that can now be built? Around $9.3m … and here’s how that is done. Want to build the biggest super fund possible? Do you want to have a self-managed super fund that smashes the $1.6m transfer balance cap and keeps growing, with millions taxed at only […]

Back your mortality with some bucks

    Death has been on my mind. A little more than usual, lately. I don’t deal with death well. Not a big fan. I’m not good at dealing with the death of others. I don’t like thinking about the possibility of my own. Though I’m not stupid. I have prepared for it somewhat. My […]

Four strategies under the new super rules

      SUMMARY: Four strategies for SMSFs to consider immediately, now that super’s big changes have arrived. We’ve been talking about it forever, but it has finally arrived. Superannuation’s less-generous future is now on us. A future of lower contribution limits and of lower tax-free pensions and even taxed pensions. A time when it […]

Pension hazard ahead: Act now

                SUMMARY: It’s not too late for transition-to-retirement pensions to be updated to tax-free account-based pensionss. Here’s how. For a year, it has felt like we’ve been madly running a race that finishes on 30 June at midnight. For many, that was the case. A year-long marathon, with a sprint finish. […]

SMSFs cop it on some new angles

      SUMMARY: Limited-recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) are under fire on two fronts, as government continues to struggle with post-July super legislation. If you can believe it, with just 9 days to go, we were still seeing the rules being written for superannuation post 1 July. I’m not kidding. In the last week of parliament […]

Super does the time warp again

    Teeth will gnash and grind … but for many, this month marks the end of an era for superannuation. An era when super was simple and generous. And, possibly, the greatest tax dodge of all time. People had accounts with mega-millions in it. Individuals with more millions than you could fathom could ever be […]

Getting ready for super catch-ups

      SUMMARY: Time to have a proper look at the five-year catch-up provisions – and how to make the most of them. It’s been a long-time coming for super members to get some sort of averaging provisions for tax-deductible contributions. The self-employed often struggle with annual “use them or lose them” concessional contribution […]