Retirement planning: more than a financial exercise
By Wealth Foundations The non-financial aspects of retirement planning may be critical In our work with clients, our primary focus is the effective accumulation of wealth over the period to a nominated retirement date (or desired date for financial independence) and then the drawdown of that wealth to meet a desired retirement lifestyle. It is…
Borrowing to buy property within Super: Buyer Beware!
By Wealth Foundations Just because you can doesn’t mean your should Borrowing to buy property within a Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF) has been promoted by many within the advice industry as an exclusive opportunity you should seriously consider. And, while there can be occasions where this strategy makes sense, as a general rule the…
Cash Vs Shares – Which Is Best?
By Wealth Foundations Most investors should hold a combination of defensive and growth assets In our last article, we explained why we don’t think that the past five years of poor share market investment performance provides sufficient evidence that the investment world has changed i.e. we don’t yet believe there has been a paradigm shift….
Should I borrow to invest or dump money into super?
By Wealth Foundations I don’t want to lock my money into super Two alternative strategies that many investors consider are: • borrowing to invest (i.e. entering into a gearing strategy), outside super; and • increasing pre-tax contributions to super and investing in the superannuation environment. Which is best? The comparison is not straightforward, but is…
Accountants Are Not Always People You Can Trust
Something seems out of whack when you can buy a new push bike for your child for the same price it costs an accountant to leave ‘please call me back’ messages on your voicemail. Push bike versus empty voicemail messages? Hmmm…which offers more value? Something seems out of whack when an accountant can bill indiscriminately…
You may be quietly lining up to lose on your superannuation
By Mark McGovern, Queensland University of Technology Silence surrounds significant changes to your superannuation. While the changes affect many, experienced staff in universities and similar institutions are particularly vulnerable. The halving of the contribution cap for those over 50 to $25,000 and the relatively more significant role of superannuation arrangements in university remunerations mean that…
What will you spend in retirement?
By Wealth Foundations It is often said that 25 times your desired retirement spending is a good rough guide to how much investment wealth you need to accumulate to be able to support your desired retirement lifestyle indefinitely or for financial independence. Of course, the usefulness of this proposition depends on having some idea of…
The Retirement Timing Fallacy
Wealth Foundations There have been numerous studies done over recent times about the cost of retiring at the wrong time. As investors, we need to manage the balancing act of taking on enough risk to maintain our purchasing power, but not too much that it jeopardises our affairs. Over the long term, we expect to…
DIY Super: Gain From Sharemarket Losses
Losing money on shares doesn’t have to be the end of the world – in fact, there are times when capital losses are actually more lucrative than capital gains. How is that? Take the instance of an in-specie transfer of shares into a super fund. This occurs when a person transfers their shares from their…
How much money do you need to comfortably retire?
We’re all getting used to spending more and receiving less as prices for food, utilities and housing keep jacking up. While this is bearable for those with rising incomes, it isn’t bearable for retirees who have a finite amount of money to live on. If you sit down with a financial planner to discuss your…
