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Tag: Share market

What’s better? Tipping money into super or paying off a mortgage?

  Better questions. Who would you rather sleep with? Ladies, Brad Pitt or Matthew McConaughey? Lads, Jennifer Love Hewitt or Heather Locklear? If you’re straight, perhaps you answered a screaming “BOTH!”. If you’re gay or bi, you might have answered two, possibly more. If you’re a Gen Xer and answered one or less … then […]

Is all debt bad? What’s the difference between good and bad debt?

            All bad? Hell no! Stupid question! Are you bat-crazy, like Kanye West? Or just out-of-your-mind, like Charlie Sheen? Seriously? How can all debt be bad? If you’re not convinced, ask yourself the following simple question: “Who could buy their first home without debt?” A tiny fraction of 1 per […]

Which financial professionals do you need in your life?

Hire professionals? Why would a Gen Xer do that? We’re smart enough to do it ourselves. Plus, our careers and kids aren’t terribly time-taxing. We don’t need social lives, or to spend time with our partners. Thpppt! Crazy. Gen Xers need financial professionals, or need their heads read. Outsource the jobs you hate, won’t find […]

What expenses are the easiest to save money on?

Is that the sound of a chainsaw firing up on a Monday morning? Love it! “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap was an American executive legendary for downsizing by sacking staff. Kerry Packer hired him and briefly bought him to Australia. In his honour, I’ll take a chainsaw to my expenses … slash people costs. Personal trainer? Sacked. […]

What is the best piece of financial advice you were ever given?

I’m a melting pot of thousands of ideas that I’ve heard over the years. Singling out one? Whoa. Tough. I learn the most while reading. So the best “advice” I’ve ever received has usually come via books, or the media. And I’ve read some truly crappy advice during that time also. Some so inately offending my […]

‘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 […]

All markets move up and down so what is the best way to manage the fluctuations?

  STAY cool. Gen Xers need to channel Douglas Adams’ advice from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. “DON’T PANIC!” Market fluctuations? Schmucktuations. A Gen Xer’s long-term investment plan, when it comes to The Big Game, needs to accept that a market’s next move is as random as a deck of cards. With shares and property, […]

Even the experts can make mistakes. What’s the silliest financial blunder you’ve made?

It’s natural to feel like an idiot when you make a mistake. But if soon afterwards you feel smarter, it’s because you’ve learned something. Yeah, I’ve stuffed up on occasion. Some of my errors have cost me thousands. Youthful exuberance. But the most annoying are not always the most costly. The cab driver in Santiago, […]

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 […]

It’s composting awareness week! What eco practices can we all do to save money as well?

“Cash-a-can, cash-a-can, it’s lots of fun to do!” My first inkling that being a tree-huggin’ hippy could be financially rewarding was via that 70s TV jingle. Every kid I knew would fight over aluminium cans to earn extra pocket money. Trawling around school fetes with a plastic bag was particularly profitable. Later in life, the […]