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Category: Articles

Fix your returns

PORTFOLIO POINT: Looking around for less volatile alternatives to equities in your SMSF? Your solution could be fixed interest. But how do you get yourself some? Have equities been providing you with less joy than a naked romp in a prickle field? Are you suffering from volatility fatigue? Are you one bad day from selling […]

It can be tough managing finances if you’re single. What are some good tips?

Jeez, I don’t know about that. That’s like me saying: “Getting hitched was awesome. I’ll never have to cook again”. (Duck the frying pan that’s flying my way … NOW!) Couples have twice the bad spending habits to keep under control, will eat out more and might do something silly like get married, where the […]

Super reform dangers

PORTFOLIO POINT: The proposed ban on risk insurance commissions in super might be ditched. But it’s not that simple for SMSFs and it shouldn’t stop trustees in any case. Here’s what you need to know. Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten dropped a bombshell in financial planning circles in April when he updated the government’s plans for […]

All generations have financial stereotypes. Which is the most incorrect one about yours?

That we’re apathetic, aimless, ambitionless, slackers. Generation X – Tales for an Accelerated Culture was the 1991 book by Canadian Douglas Coupland, which kicked the whole thing off. It was followed by “Slacker”, a movie about a day in the life of a bunch of deadbeat 20-somethings. The term “Generation X” caught on. And we […]

SMSFs: Don’t buy the property spiel

PORTFOLIO POINT: My geared property rule for SMSFs trustees – if you’re not doing it outside super, don’t do it inside your SMSF. With stock markets swan diving back into the pool of schizophrenia in recent weeks, expect the sales pitch volume for other asset classes to be turned up. The “safety of cash”, the […]

Aussies are travelling more. What are your top financial tips for travellers?

Will anyone be in Australia to fill out the Census this week? You should be reading this by smart phone or an internet cafe … somewhere the sun’s shining and it’s permanently cocktail hour. With Australia’s dollar in the stratosphere, there’s never been a better time. Between 1996 and 2006, I spent a year backpacking. […]

How super were your returns?

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 […]

The best ways to teach teenagers to appreciate the value of money?

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, […]

Step lively on super pensions

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, […]

Property prices have been flat/negative. Is real estate still a good investment?

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 […]