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Category: Your Money Gen X

“Building a nest egg is vital, but is there a better alternative to superannuation instead of locking your money away until age 60?”

Milli Vanilli had two problems. Their names were Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan. Both were singing frauds. Similarly, super has two major downsides for Gen X. The first is access: We can’t touch it until we’re at least 60 (anyone born after June 30, 1964). The second is legislative risk: Governments tinker with super just […]

“Budgeting is one of the most boring words in the English language. Can we make budgeting sexy?”

You want boring? Kevin Costner’s The Postman. You want sexy? Rolling around in big piles of cash in your underwear, like Allison Dine (Anna Hutchison) in Underbelly. Bucks and budgets are intertwined, like yin and yang. Being loaded can be very sexy. How else do you explain the phenomenon of rich, crinkly, old men attracting […]

Winning the lottery is many people’s idea of a financial plan. If you do strike it lucky, what should you do with it?

Show no emotion. For God’s sake, zip it! Stuff the ticket back in your pocket and continue to stare at the TV or newspaper like nothing happened. Calmly, get the car keys. Start driving. When far enough from home, with the stereo turned up to “ear bleed”, you can safely scream. Next, chuck a sickie. […]

“How should people react if a family member or friend asks to borrow money, and how much is too much?”

“Danger, Will Robinson!” Like Lost in Space’s Robot, complete with arms flailing. Money is a top-three cause of the demise of relationships that include sex and can just as quickly end friendships where there’s no hanky panky. (And then there’s “friends with benefits”. Tell me, do they ever end well?) Friend/family loans that morph into […]

“Talking about death and money can be tricky. How do you bring up the subject of estate planning and who gets what in the will?”

Don’t fret. Learn to throw your voice like a ventriloquist and then, at the reading of the will, pretend to be God and declare everything was left to you. If you don’t think you could pull that off, listen up. The “normal” thing to happen when someone dies is to leave everything to your partner, […]

“”Risk and investing go hand in hand. How can people work out what sort of risks they are prepared to take in the pursuit of wealth?”

Who are you more like? Actor Rob Lowe, a pioneer of celebrity sex tapes? Or Pretty In Pink’s Molly Ringwald, who moved to France to marry a Frenchman? Both risks were career suicide, though they didn’t know it at the time. Rob’s underage ménage-a-trois video cost him a decade. And has anyone found Molly yet? […]

“Managed funds have had a tough couple of years as global markets tumbled. Do they still have a place for investors, and what is it?”

You want a tough couple of years? When Cold Chisel split – that was a tough decade for an 80s Australian teenager. The rough patch for managed funds only reflects the difficulty in all investment markets. It hasn’t been a bed of roses for anyone in direct equities or property anywhere on the planet. Managed […]

Government incentives for first home buyers will be watered down from the end of this month. What does it all mean for property investors?

Woo-hoo! The end of the “boost” portion of the first home buyers’ grants can’t come soon enough. Like the last mouthful of an unpleasant dinner when you know there’s a great dessert to come. Cash incentives to buy are a false economy for home buyers – they will pay more for their property. Therefore, the […]

“Interest rates are set to start rising, some say sooner rather than later. How should people respond to this?”

Ford Prefect from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy said it best: “Don’t panic! Don’t panic!” Household debt levels tend to rise through your 20s and 30s – home, investment and business loans, plus lifestyle debt – then peak in your 40s before debt is reduced going into retirement. Therefore, rising interest rates will disproportionately negatively […]

“Australia has so far avoided a recession. What does this mean, and does it really matter if we have a recession or not?”

If you’ve ever been on one of those Hollywood-hippy, vitamin-enriched, strict fruit and vegetable juice diets, then you’ll know why Australia could do with a recession. For the rest of you Gen Xers (including me – no way I’d drink that gunk), think about an ocean swim with a hangover. It’s about cleansing. A recession […]