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Category: Newsletters

‘Cash is king’ is dead

  SUMMARY: Cash is dead. And it’s time SMSFs woke up to the real cost of their love affair with the folding stuff. There’s always an exception to the rule. Sir Isaac Newton and his “what goes up must come down” law can occasionally be proved wrong. For example, Australian self-managed super funds and their […]

SMSF property investors: Rate cut winners

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 […]

Low-cost super: It’s not that hard

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 […]

Exploiting low rates 2: Good numbers for gearing

SUMMARY: It’s the perfect cocktail for SMSF property investors. Two parts rising asset prices and one part low-interest rates. So, the bookies were wrong. An interest rate cut was odds-on favourite early yesterday afternoon. But nothing. Another month at least. Possibly longer. Every interest rate cut – for years, actually – has only been icing […]

A superannuation slap?

SUMMARY: A superannuation slap? Stand by for broken promises on super, probably in property. Given a choice between being slapped in the face and not being slapped in the face, I’ll take the latter. As I’m sure you would. Particularly if you weren’t aware that a slap was on the menu. (Seems to have been […]

TTR: The secret to not having to work longer

SUMMARY: You don’t have to work longer. Just be smarter with your super. Have a transition-to-retirement pension in your sights. Yet another government manifesto says the nation’s workers are going to have to get used to the idea of working longer. The Intergenerational Report (IGR) last week punted on how much longer we’re going to […]

Wealthy will never be trapped in super

SUMMARY: Eat the rich. Super tax concessions don’t cost the $33 billion that is purported. And the aspiring wealthy would find another way. There’s a simple solution to the problem of superannuation tax breaks costing the public too much. Just tax the wealthy’s super harder. Tax ’em more on the way in. Tax ’em more […]

Federal Budget: Can super tax concessions be saved?

  SUMMARY: Pressure is building for major change on retirement incomes. Which bitter pill will we be asked to swallow? We must be in Budget kite-flying season again. That time when ideas are run up flagpoles to gauge public reaction. The public purse, we are told, is empty. It needs restocking. And one area judged […]

Property in a DIY fund can be a monstrous investment

SUMMARY: Low interest rate warning for SMSFs and potential property investment. Just when you thought the bonfire was fizzling out, the Reserve Bank throws on a little fuel. The Reserve Bank’s surprise interest rate cut last week will, no doubt, have property players frothing at the mouth. Or, perhaps, knocking the top off a frothy […]

Avoiding super estate problems

SUMMARY: Who gets your super when you die? You might be surprised that your wishes won’t necessarily be followed. The perfect plan for your superannuation would see it to last you until the day you die. But what happens if you pass away first? If you die and there’s superannuation still left, who is going […]