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Tag: financial advice

Heed the hippy money lesson

One of the many labels you could plonk on my parents is “hippies”. It’s not just their home-grown organic food, the solar-powered house, or their constant rewatching of British 70s sitcom, “The Good Life”. And they’re not dastardly annoying hippies, like Neil from “The Young Ones”. But new-age hippies they certainly are. More than anything, […]

Property wealth = quality assets + debt + time

  Is having a colleague throw something at my head, with a question, advice? “Hey, wanna read this?” That’s sort of advice, isn’t it? Anyway, that something was a book, which sat untouched beside my bed for months. Eventually, on a day off, I read it. It was about property investment. It explained, simply, how […]

Lifting the lid on property in super

      SUMMARY: SMSFs awoke to geared property earlier and in bigger numbers than previously realised. The hunger for geared property inside self-managed super funds is far bigger than previously understood. The Tax Office on Monday made a second consecutive massive annual upward revision of official figures regarding how widespread property gearing in super […]

5 steps for Gen-X to retire well

The great thing about being a Generation Xer is that we’ve still got youth. At least in a relative sense. Sure, I’ve forgotten a few words to some Cold Chisel songs, but not because of dementia. I struggle to keep up with my kids sometimes, but I’m still arthritis-free. And I certainly cringe when I […]

Single scene all about planning

  Exhausting, depressing, scary and life-changing. The crashing end of a long-term relationship can be physically and mentally all-consuming. Contemplating life as a single, or setting off on the search for happiness again, can be daunting. For many, it will be a sliding door they didn’t want opened. Others will splash on some blue face […]

What are the best ways to cut down credit card debt?

      Best ways? Plural? Is there some suggestion that there’s more than one way? Because there isn’t. There is only one way to cut your nasty, insidious, credit card debt. Sorry guys, but it’s called “willpower”. You just need some to draw on. Credit cards, used incorrectly, are cancers on your finances. They […]

Insure and hope you don’t need it

Being diagnosed with a potentially deadly health condition in your 20s holds no positives. Not for the person whose lap it falls on. Not for their partner. Nor their children. Never. When the illness is a slow, progressive, and almost assured, death sentence, the younger the person, the more depressing the story. But sometimes, foresight […]

Want to save money? Act like a business and sell your kids

Big businesses constantly assess their balance sheets. They are always tinkering with what to keep on balance sheet. And what to bugger off it. Often, they will conclude to sell assets, such as property they own outright, and rent instead. Selling property frees up capital for business investment, and introduces a tax-deductible cost in rent. […]

Avoid a super contributions trap

SUMMARY: Getting around the traps to super contributions pre- and post-65. Getting money into super can be confusing, particularly for those at, or getting toward, the end of your working life. Turning 65 is when getting access to your super is easy. But putting money into super becomes more difficult. But not impossible, under the […]

Internet scams and fraud are rife. What can you do to protect yourself?

Oh, I yearn for the good old days, when robbers had to pickpocket you in the street, or sedate your dog before ransacking the home. They’re now so lazy, they pillage our finances from their own home – in Russia, Turkmenistan, or the Congo. So impersonal. I became a victim of internet credit card fraud […]