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Category: Articles

Houses, units, funds or trusts: What is your preferred way of investing in real estate and why?

                          OUCH! Cupid’s arrow, right in my soft spot. Ain’t nothing quite like property to get me all steamy. My first true investment love was property. Oh, when the light finally dawned for me, I was besotted. Since then, it’s been an ongoing, […]

Watch out: You’re now a sophisticated SMSF

SUMMARY: ASIC lowers the bar. Now more than half of all SMSF trustees will be considered sophisticated. Self-managed super fund trustees are used to fending for themselves and, reasonably successfully, fighting off the sharks. But following a stunning week in news that affects you, it’s clear that you’re going to have become even better at […]

Poseidon BOOM! Financial lessons you can learn from your parents

Cue Bryan Adams: “It was the summer of ’69”. Dad was a journalist. Mum was a nurse. They’d been married a year. Awww, shucks. Super special times for them, I’m guessing, given I wasn’t on the scene yet. It was a time of “Free love”, the Vietnam War and … a nickel mining boom. My […]

Using super for a home is dumb because it will just cost more

Don’t you hate it when someone you respect comes out and just says, like, the dumbest thing ever? Something so idiotic that the credibility they’d built up with you over years, magically goes “poof!” Damnit! I hate that. Senator Nick Xenophon is someone with whom I’ve not always agreed, but who I’ve normally respected. But […]

Super wealthy in the firing line

SUMMARY: Proposals to limit mega-SMSFs are becoming more frequent and getting smarter. There was a belief before the last election that an incoming Coalition government would be a reversal of fortune for superannuation – the tide might start to come in again. This was particularly hoped for in regards to concessional contributions limits, which had […]

Money can be funny. What is the most humorous financial situation you have seen or experienced?

ABBA was far more cluey when they sang that “Money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world” than the cheesy lyric suggested. People spend infinitely more time stressing about money than they do laughing about it. My guess is a ratio of 99 to 1 per cent. Billionaires stress about money – […]

Saving SMSFs from the spruikers

SUMMARY: Super and property – more ideas surface to stop the shonks, while Senator Xenophon needs to pull his head in. In any arena, most people play by the rules and will always be safe. Others have no interest in the rules. They’re just crooks and will be caught. There’s always a grey area. Two […]

Borrowing to invest is more attractive when interest rates are low. Is now a good time to do it?

“Get your cheap investment debt here!” When said like that, it almost sounds alluring, like “shoe sale”, or “golf club clearance”. But the cost of borrowing money for investment isn’t the most important factor in whether you should or not. It’s well down the list of the “rules for gearing”. First: You only ever gear […]

I’m from Mars, you’re clearly a Venusian — let’s compromise

Mrs DebtMan claims I only agreed to wedlock because I would gain a second income with which to negative gear. A scurrilous accusation. If true – and I confess to no such thing – then it would have been wretchedly short-term thinking on my behalf. Sure, two incomes might have given me the ability to […]

Deferred annuities: A timely review

SUMMARY: Finally, we’re going to get serious about super retirement income-stream products. It’s been a concern of the industry for a long time. When it comes to turning on an income stream from your super, the options have been way too limited. This is part innovation. But it is also partly to do with the […]