STAY cool. Gen Xers need to channel Douglas Adams’ advice from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. “DON’T PANIC!” Market fluctuations? Schmucktuations. A Gen Xer’s long-term investment plan, when it comes to The Big Game, needs to accept that a market’s next move is as random as a deck of cards. With shares and property, […]
BLOWING our own trumpets? Most un-Australian. We don’t like bragging. Usually makes us sound like tossers. But that’s what the editor wants, so … I’ve got two answers. One personal, one professional. And, neatly, they’re linked. As a kid, I was always a good saver. Sure, I spent money on lollies and footy cards and […]
It’s natural to feel like an idiot when you make a mistake. But if soon afterwards you feel smarter, it’s because you’ve learned something. Yeah, I’ve stuffed up on occasion. Some of my errors have cost me thousands. Youthful exuberance. But the most annoying are not always the most costly. The cab driver in Santiago, […]
I know the call is coming. I should pre-empt it and call first. Or just raise it during a Sunday night Skype chat with them and the grandkids. It’s the call I should expect, from the Old Folks, when governments go and trample on their financial turf. “My Boy! We only recently got the age […]
SUMMARY: A small number of SMSFs holding cash were relative winners from yesterday’s rate cut. Have you heard of offset accounts? More than one million SMSF members will have winced a little when news of yesterday’s rate cut came through. SMSFs are huge holders of pure cash. Something north of $150 billion of the stuff […]
WHOA! Let’s bugger off this word “budget”, okay? It puts everyone, except Treasury officials, to sleep. Tomorrow night’s federal snorefest – well, I’ll be watching – has virtually no similarities to your own home finances. Pollies can raise taxes. They negotiate with dozens of vested interests in parliament. They quibble over billions of […]
“Cash-a-can, cash-a-can, it’s lots of fun to do!” My first inkling that being a tree-huggin’ hippy could be financially rewarding was via that 70s TV jingle. Every kid I knew would fight over aluminium cans to earn extra pocket money. Trawling around school fetes with a plastic bag was particularly profitable. Later in life, the […]
You want riches? You want to avoid the biggest financial trap in life? Don’t … have … KIDS! They’re money pits – you just shovel cash into them for two decades. I call my first one Leech, the second one Vampire. Occasionally they flash their fangs and glare at me with blood red eyes. That […]
SUMMARY: Get real. There is plenty of low-hanging fruit if governments really want to cut the cost of Australia’s baseline super. Stop with the pussyfooting on superannuation. If governments really want to strip costs out of the system, the recipe is pretty simple. Recent Super Stream changes are no more than the tip of the […]
Property’s popularity is perpetual. And for some damn fine reasons! Well, nearly perpetual – there are times investors rightly shy away. Like all asset classes where bubbles can develop, there are good times to invest in property … and some times when caution is required. Some commentators suggest real estate might have run its race […]
© Bruce Brammall Financial 2009 -2025
Bruce Brammall Financial Pty Ltd as trustee for the Castellan Financial Consulting Unit Trust is an authorised representative of Sentry Advice Pty Ltd (AFSL number 227748). Bruce Brammall Financial Pty Ltd as trustee for the Castellan Financial Consulting Unit Trust is not authorised to provide credit services. All credit and mortgage services referred to on this website are provided by Bruce Brammall Lending Pty Ltd (ACL number 448881). The information contained within the website is of a general nature only. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the material, Bruce Brammall Financial will not bear responsibility or liability for any action taken by any person, persons or organisation on the purported basis of information contained herein. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, no person, persons or organisation should invest monies or take action on reliance of the material contained herein but instead should satisfy themselves independently of the appropriateness of such action.