Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i Money Magazine

There’s an entire community dedicated to FIRE – financial independence, retire early. In some ways you could say that they act and live like a cult, quietly going about their business of sticking to insanely high saving and abnormally low spending. It’s a movement that is gaining momentum but it’s not for the faint-hearted. As Susan Hely points out in this month’s cover story, those working towards early financial independence typically save 60% to 80% of their salary. Of course, our seven case studies would strongly disagree about FIRE not being for the faint-hearted. Pat, who plans to retire at 35, actually flips the notion of how most of us live on its head when he tells Susan that “I would consider the way in which most people live their…

SUSAN HELY Susan, a senior writer at Money for more than 10 years, says: “When I was eight my father encouraged me to save my pocket money. I had two boxes, one for travel and the other for old age. I’m still fearful of being old and poor but having watched my own mother live an unnecessarily frugal life I want to enjoy my old age.” ALEX DUNNIN Alex is director of research at Rainmaker Information, publisher of SelectingSuper. Alex says: “My fear is not for me but for younger people. Don’t let yourself be frightened by things like home prices and changing technology. Sure, there are big challenges but also huge opportunities. If you don’t seize them, someone else will. It may as well be you.” JOHN ADDIS John…

Australian businesses must notify their consumers when a data hack, security threat or leak has occurred at their organisation, now that the Notifiable Data Breaches amendment has become law. Until now, organisations have been able to keep security threats a secret. Now they will be under a legal obligation to disclose all breaches to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner within 30 days. It’s a huge win for consumers but it is still not enough. Businesses should be doing more to secure their customer data. In my opinion the new law is not stern enough and is simply paying lip service to the problem. It is vague and a lot of it is still open to interpretation for the businesses. It remains to be seen whether businesses get their…

You often hear the scary statistics about how many start-ups fail in the first three years. If you’re thinking about taking a risk and going out on your own, then it’s important to give yourself the best chance of success. Author Jamie Pride is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with more than 20 years’ experience in start-ups. He identifies the 10 main reasons why start-ups fail, looks at the myths surrounding start-ups and outlines the “Hollywood Method” for success, which is based on the formula Hollywood uses to make movies that are hits around the world. 10 readers can win a copy. In 25 words or less, tell us what you think the secret to a successful start-up is? Send entries to Book of the Month, Money, GPO Box 4088…

If you have bought something from an international site, withdrawn money at an overseas ATM or made a purchase in another country, then you will have been hit with an overseas transaction fee. Almost half (49%) of all Australians have been charged an overseas transaction fee in the past 12 months, according to research by HSBC. With HSBC’s new Everyday Global account you can avoid these fees. The account lets you bank in 10 currencies with no overseas charges and fee-free ATM withdrawals around the world, and no minimum monthly deposits or transactions. It’s like an everyday account and travel money in one. ING’s Orange Everyday account is a similar product, offering fee-free international transactions provided you deposit at least $1000 a month from an external source and make five…

I investors are reaping the benefits of rising dividends, with pleasant surprises in the latest reporting season from Star Entertainment, Alumina, ASX, Wool-worths, BlueScope Steel and Perpetual. Dividends paid by Australian companies were up 9.7% – to $53.3 billion – in the 2017 calendar year from the year before, according to Janus Henderson’s global dividend index. One of the main reasons for the jump was the strong performance of the mining companies, with rapid improvement in their profits and balance sheets. “Between them, BHP and Rio Tinto added $2.9 billion, accounting for two-thirds of all Australia’s dividend growth,” says Henderson. Among the high-paying Australian banks, which account for more than half of all Australian dividends, only the Commonwealth increased its year-on-year payout slightly. Henderson says that no Australian company in…

As towns go, Cooma distinguishes itself in several ways. It’s the gateway to the Snowy Mountains ski fields, the base for the nearby Snowy hydro-electric scheme and it lies one hour south of Canberra along a straight, smooth highway. Farming is big. So, too, is online shopping. We’re not talking about isolated country folk eager to buy the latest gear from Amazon or Net-a-Porter. We’re talking their own home-grown internet star, Birdsnest, selling its fashion to the world. It seems incredible that one of Australia’s major online retail successes hails from sheep country and employs nearly 150 townsfolk. Just one person, its buyer and production manager in Sydney, lives elsewhere. Birdsnest is one of the largest employers in a town with a population of some 6700, and it plans substantial…

Tom*, 32 AIM: retire at 42 to 48 INCOME NEEDED: $45,000 a year INVESTMENT STRATEGY: buy a commercial property for work; half a dozen small-cap shares; listed investment companies such as Barrack St Investments and Cadence Capital. Benchmarking your own spending with the average in your age category can be telling. This is what Tom has done and recorded on his blog on wealthfromthirty.com. Tom found out that a 35-year-old (or younger) living on their own spends an average of $42,640 a year, from numbers compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. “In terms of income, the median disposable income for under-35-year-olds living alone is $50,388. “Australia is a wonderful country but, damn, is it expensive at the moment! According to consumer surveys it is 20% more expensive than Vienna,…

RETIRED AT 51 INCOME: $18,000 a year INVESTMENT STRATEGY: owning her own home; employer share plan; maximising her superannuation. Joanna’s first step towards early retirement was to set down a five-year plan. “I decided what I really wanted my life to look like in five years. I wanted to own a house and a car and to have won awards for my craftwork.” Joanna mapped out where she wanted to live based on public transport and narrowed down her search to part of one suburb. “I bought a cheap, unrenovated house in the inner city. It was a dump and I lived in it and gradually fixed it up as I had extra money.” She lived for years with cracked walls and an original kitchen and bathroom. “I fixed one…

Rings and wristbands are just the tip of the iceberg. For instance, Visa released three contactless pre-paid devices for spectators and athletes at the 2018 winter Olympics in South Korea. These included gloves, commemorative stickers and badges. Closer to home, Inamo trialled its Visa WaveShades (prepaid Wayfarer-style sunnies) at last year’s St Jerome’s Laneway music festival. Likewise, organisers at last year’s Byron Bay Bluesfest replaced drink tickets with radio frequency identification (RFID) wristbands, and Splendour in the Grass introduced Visa payWave terminals at all bar tents. In the UK, Barclaycard and Lyle & Scott released a contactless payment jacket for £150 ($267) featuring a chip in the sleeve. And in 2015 the UK animal charity Blue Cross launched a contactless dog jacket, allowing anybody willing to donate to simply tap…

The world’s first co-ownership platform, Kohab, was launched last month amid claims it could be the answer to Australia’s home loan affordability issue. It’s a big call given people have always been able to buy property jointly. One could argue that it’s more of a marketing initiative – a very clever one at that – than a solution to home unaffordability. Even Darren Clark, co-founder of Kohab, told 9Finance in March that “Kohab facilitates something that has existed for a while but there hasn’t been a public forum, a process, an education that makes sure you’re doing the right thing”. Essentially Kohab is an online marketplace that matches people who want to co-own a property, either to live in or rent out as an investment, or for lifestyle reasons, where…

YES PROFESSOR JOHN BUCHANAN Chair of discipline, business analytics, University of Sydney The hours and days of work regarded as necessary for a decent standard of living have varied profoundly over time and across countries. From the early 1800s until the late 1970s, the required number of working hours to earn a decent income fell as productivity rose. Today more attention is devoted to the “flexibility” – not reduction – of working time. As a society we have lost the basic vision of earlier generations. In the past, society believed that as we became more productive we should spend less time working and more time with family and doing what we enjoy. The challenge is not to go back to an assumed past golden age. Times have changed. We need…

Having worked in London’s fintech sector in the mid-2000s, John Gargan, 41, is no stranger to disruptors. He worked for foreign exchange startup FairFX, now a listed international payment service provider. It allows customers to make low-cost, multi-currency transfers through digital and mobile platforms. “It was my first experience of a disruptor in the fintech space,” he says. “The whole premise is about giving fair exchange rates to the UK public and UK companies. They’ve done really well. It’s a shame I missed out on getting shares.” The company listed after Gargan, a sales manager, left it to return to Australia. But he’s maintained a keen interest in the area. He found out about Xinja through a fintech email subscription service and investigated it further. “We lag behind the UK…

1. Future plans to tamper with negative gearing, and what that would do to investors’ ability to fund acquisitions and the impact on property prices resulting from a flood of rentals coming to market. 2. Future plans to ensure access to super is split between lump-sum cash and a guaranteed fixed-income stream to avoid retirees blowing the lot. 3. Signs of a new up-cycle for commodity prices due to synchronised global growth. 4. Major reliance on net overseas migration to maintain Australia’s robust population growth at around 1.6% or 380,000 people annually. 5. The eventual flow-on effect from auto industry closures on Melbourne’s burgeoning employment market. 6. Reliance on net overseas migration to sustain demand for new builds, especially apartments. 7. Lower energy prices encouraging renewed investment in manufacturing. 8.…

Sole traders are often so stretched juggling cash flow and business pressures that super is the last thing on their mind. It is not compulsory for sole traders to pay themselves super but neglecting it comes with risks. Many sole traders hope to fund their retirement from the sale of their business. However, in reality there is no guarantee they will find a buyer. Max Newnham, an accountant and certified financial planner at TaxBiz, says many sole traders face a Catch-22 situation: “To pay proper attention to super they have to have the cash flow to make the contribution. In a lot of cases, the cash flow isn’t there. If they stay in that stage, where it doesn’t really pay a proper salary and enough to put money into super,…

A quarter of the year is over. Yes, the first three months of 2018 have gone and most investors are probably asking what they have actually accomplished over the period. New Year’s resolutions are all very well and good but if you don’t put them into practice what value do they serve? Well, a new quarter is a time of fresh beginnings. A time when you can indeed determine how well your portfolio is serving you; whether loans need to be refinanced; whether new opportunities should be explored. Traditionally, April is a good month for the Australian sharemarket. In the past six years, the sharemarket has fallen only once. Go back 30 years and you’ll discover that the All Ordinaries has fallen only eight times in April. Go back 70…

Despite more than eight years of economic growth in the US, retailers there have been going out of business at a rate normally reserved for very deep recessions. Until now the e-commerce apocalypse that has decimated retailers has largely been concentrated in apparel, which has also suffered from a growing share of spending on recreation such as restaurants and travel. It seems the growing earnings power of millennials is simply driving more sales online. Amazon’s sales have grown almost tenfold in the past decade, from $US15 billion ($19 billion) in 2007 to $US178 billion in 2017. Amazon was also responsible for about 44% of all US e-commerce sales in 2017, or about 4% of total retail sales, according to One Click Retail, a market researcher. In less than five years,…

Ryan Serhant Ryan Serhant is an American real estate broker. He is one of the real estate agents featured on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York and will star in the upcoming spin-off Sell It Like Serhant. What was your first job? Technically it was as a contractor’s labourer for a kitchen and bathroom remodelling company in North Andover, in Massachusetts. I was in high school. It was my summer job. I did a lot of demo, flooring and even some roofing! What’s the best money advice you’ve ever received? Don’t buy what you can’t afford. What’s the best investment decision you’ve made? I invest back into my business every day. Most salespeople don’t do that but you have to spend money to make money. What’s the worst? Knock on…

To call cryptocurrencies a hot topic would be an understatement. Bitcoin prices soared 6000% between 2015 and 2017 although at the time of writing they have more than halved from their highs. But cryptocurrencies are here to stay, according to everyday Australians at least. The recent explosion in interest prompted Investment Trends to investigate how investors truly view the role of digital currencies. While our large-scale online survey is ongoing, thousands have already shared their thoughts. Preliminary results reveal a positive sentiment. There is strong belief in the power of blockchain technology to facilitate greater ease in payments and transactions but not without a greater degree of regulatory oversight. While many Australians believe that cryptocurrencies are currently overvalued, most agree that they will grow in importance over time. While bubbles…

It’s a shame for good food to go to waste. Ian Price, CEO of Y Waste, has been quoted as saying that in Australia retailers throw away over 3 million tonnes of processed/edible food every year, 80% of which is thrown out because it’s simply not sold. This relatively new app is a win-win for restaurant and cafe owners as well as consumers because it allows consumers to buy food that would otherwise go to waste for a discounted price. You can search for food that is available near you and it could be a good way to pick up a cheap dinner after work. Obviously, as it is “surplus” food, you can’t pick from the menu and you’ll have to settle for what is available at the time. Food…

It might surprise you to hear that just because a product is out of warranty doesn’t mean you don’t have a case to take it back for repair or replacement if it breaks down. “Many consumers often assume that the so-called warranties they are offered by a retailer are their only protection. This is not true, as consumer guarantee rights are separate from any warranty that comes with a product,” says ACCC acting chair Michael Schaper. “The length of time these rights apply is also unrelated to the manufacturer’s warranty period. “For example, if you buy a new TV that breaks down after the manufacturer’s warranty expires, you may still be entitled to a remedy under your consumer guarantee rights, including a repair, replacement or refund.” Simply take the product…

Advances in robotics, automation and artificial intelligence (RAAI) are evolving rapidly and investors are weighing up whether to include RAAI companies in their portfolios. Their scope crosses almost all areas of life and we are just at the beginning, with the industry set to grow from $200 billion today to trillions by 2025. But selecting a single company to invest in can be fraught with risk. One way to reduce the risk, while still gaining the exposure, is to consider a diversified robotics and AI fund. There is one listed on the ASX, the ETFS ROBO Global Robotics and Automation ETF (ASX ROBO), which invests in about 80 companies across the sector in equal weights, providing good diversification in an industry where backing a winner is very difficult. Kris Walesby,…

My wife, aged 54, and I, 57, recently relocated to a bayside suburb of Brisbane from the Blue Mountains. This move was both for a lifestyle change and to realise the capital gain from the difference in house prices. We purchased a home for $900,000 and we have no debts. I am seeking employment and expect to earn $65,000-$70,000 a year and my wife would continue to stay at home and care for her disabled brother. We have combined super of $150,000 and have about $600,000 in cash sitting in a bank earning only 2.8%. We are seeking advice on the best way to invest the cash for retirement. One plan is to invest most of it in super and maybe $100,000 in Australian shares. Our original thoughts were to…

In all the excitement around celebrating a same-sex marriage, probably the last thing on your mind is safeguarding your wealth as a couple. But if you haven’t already discussed finances with your partner, it is always a good idea to clear the air. There are a number of legal documents to draw up that will help protect each person’s assets – and the dependants – in case of any unforeseen events. Having a marriage certificate makes it easier for same-sex couples to explain their relationship to a super fund, lawyer or doctor. Without a certificate, you can spend more time and often more money providing documentation about the de facto relationship, such as how long it had been going. De facto relationships aren’t as clear-cut as you would expect, says…

IS THAT LIKELY? Former prime minister Tony Abbott upset many Coalition members when he called for lower immigration recently. But he is not a lone voice. Entrepreneur Dick Smith has been campaigning for cuts, even taking out ads in mainstream media. And in a survey last year by the Australian Population Research Institute, 54% of respondents wanted a reduction in our migrant intake and a whopping 74% believed Australia does not need more people. Immigration has emerged as a hot political issue in part due to the extraordinary growth in recent years. Since 1990 our population has grown from 17 million to almost 25 million, or around 50% ,with much of that growth coming from immigration. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, net overseas migration grew by 27% to…

Building a property portfolio to pay for their retirement dreams is the aim of lots of Australians. Many have more faith in bricks and mortar than in shares, a mindset reinforced when the sharemarket experiences a period of volatility, as it has recently. In reality, a diversified portfolio that blends property, shares, fixed income and other assets is usually the safest way to steadily accumulate wealth. When it comes to your property portfolio it’s easy to kickstart it by simply keeping your first home when you upgrade. But if this is your strategy make sure you’re not hanging onto your old property for emotional reasons. It also has to stack up financially. Andrew Zbik, a financial planner at Omniwealth, has crunched the numbers and found keeping the original family home…

I’ll try to explain something that may sound heretical to many investors – perhaps even contradictory to what I have thought about investment for a long time. The idea that patience is a virtue, that you must take a long-term approach to investing, I’m coming to think is wrong. Now don’t for a moment get the impression I want you all to turn into day traders. Nothing of the sort. But the more I watch markets, the more I see violent swings in stocks that otherwise should be reasonable performers over the long term, the more I think you should take profits when you see them – or swallow a loss when you have to. The reason is not only the volatility of the markets, which I think is only…

I read with interest your article “Loyal borrowers pay a high price” (March issue). While I’m usually the money-savvy partner in our marriage, my husband had been nagging for years to haggle for a better rate or switch our CBA home loan. In recent years I have ditched loyalty on most of our utilities as well as our insurance – and I’ve saved thousands. For whatever reason, I always had it in my head that it was too hard or our loan was too small to bother (we had less than $50,000 owing at the time). When we were in the market for a small investment property, I finally had the courage to find a new lender and chose UBank purely for the lowest rate, which was 3.89%. CBA’s best…

It’s Saturday afternoon and you’re celebrating the purchase of your dream car. You were able to stitch up the financing on the spot. Along with it you bought some insurances – one for tyres and rims, one to extend the warranty and something called CCI. They were all rolled into the loan. You can see the problem: months spent choosing the car, a morning spent on Canstar’s website checking car loan interest rates and zero minutes spent researching CCI. CCI is consumer credit insurance. Most of it is sold when you take out a car loan, personal loan or credit card. It is sold by car dealerships, banks, credit unions and building societies. It is bought without thought by consumers caught up in the excitement of getting “approval” for the…

Woolworths has scrapped the expiry date on gift cards from March 31. This comes just after the NSW government introduced a mandatory minimum expiry period of three years for gift cards and gift vouchers sold to consumers in NSW. Let’s hope other retailers follow suit. The Victorian government has launched HomesVic – a pilot shared-equity scheme for first-home buyers. HomesVic will take a proportional beneficial interest of up to 25% in the property. It is available to those with incomes of up to $75,000 for singles, or up to $95,000 for couples or families. Buyers will need at least 5% deposit from genuine savings and will have to pay for “acquisition costs” such as stamp duty. Call 1800 290 780 for more info. A number of new exchange traded funds…

The instant asset write-off has been a boon for small businesses across Australia, but with the tax break set to become much less generous from July 1, 2018 there’s limited time left to take advantage of it. As a reminder, the law allows businesses to obtain an immediate tax deduction for the whole cost of capital items purchased for use in their business provided the cost of the asset is less than $20,000. That could include computer equipment, office furniture, plant and machinery or even a new car. Only small businesses can claim the deduction. So to qualify, your business needs to have an aggregate annual turnover of less than $10 million. Only assets valued at $20,000 or less qualify for the instant deduction. So if the value of the…

There are plenty of good things about Australia’s superannuation system but there’s still a lot of room for improvement. Women suffer in particular and the rise of the gig economy also poses a threat to retirement incomes. A new report, Super Ideas: Securing Australia’s Retirement Income System, from the John Curtin Research Centre and Vision Super offers seven key recommendations to enhance super for everyone. The recommendations are: • Incrementally increase the super guarantee (SG) rate from 9.5% to 15% by the end of the next decade. • Remove the $450 monthly threshold for paying staff super, or introduce a pro-rata model. • Working women (and men) should by law be paid the full SG for the first six months of paid parental leave. • A zero-tolerance approach towards employer…

This reporting season was never going to be pretty for QBE, Australia’s largest insurer and one of the top 20 in the world. QBE operates in 37 countries and many of them were affected by unusually large natural catastrophes: hurricanes in the US, earthquakes in Mexico, wildfires in California and cyclone Debbie in Australia. QBE is still tallying the final cost but so far it has recorded catastrophe losses of $US1.2 billion in 2017 compared with $US439 million in 2016. Gross written premium (an insurer’s measure of revenue) rose a paltry 1% to $US14.2 billion, with all regions posting lacklustre numbers. QBE’s local operations increased premiums by 6% but lower volumes meant that overall gross written premium was down 1% after adjusting for currency swings. QBE’s Latin American division had…

With assets of $2.9 million, Bindi is ... On track for retirement sooner rather than later Q My husband, 47, and I, 40, have three investment properties: one in Sydney (worth $950,000), another in Melbourne ($600,000) and the third in Brisbane ($600,000). They provide 3.3%, 3.8% and 3.6% rental yield. Our loans amount to $972,000 with an offset account of $972,000, therefore there is no interest payable. Combined we have $340,000 in super, shares worth $5500 and savings of $400,000. We move with work, therefore currently rent. Our annual expenditure is $140,000 and savings $100,000. Our goal is to have $140,000 passive income after tax. We want to spend more time with our two school-aged kids. Our risk profile is low to medium. Both parents are on pensions and do…

If you believe retirement only happens when you reach your 60s – and you want to retire earlier – then read on. There is a growing band of retirees in Australia and overseas who are hitting retirement in their 30s or 40s. No, they aren’t rich kids living on an inheritance or technology whizzes who have sold an app. They are followers of the FIRE movement – that stands for “financial independence, retire early” – who rigorously save, invest sensibly and enjoy a modest, agreeable life. It is the opposite of working flat out throughout your life, piling on debt, living beyond your means and consuming voraciously. While most Australians rely on compulsory superannuation and its 9.5% contribution rate (capped at $25,000 a year) to fund their retirement, FIREs don’t…

Jason*, 45 AIM: retire in the next few years INCOME NEEDED: $58,000 in stage 1, $80,000 in stage 2 INVESTMENT STRATEGY: diversified asset allocation held across Vanguard funds plus shares; gold, Acorns; Bitcoin. Jason is close to having enough money to retire. He admits he wasn’t always driven to retiring early. “In my 20s I considered it completely normal to spend a part of every weekend in a shopping mall, buying books, DVDs, electronics, clothes. It was a habit, pure and simple,” he says. Looking back on those years of spending, he says he thinks about the stress and lack of flexibility as the invisible cords that a high-consumption lifestyle represents. They are “tying people to stressful jobs they don’t like, or to work longer than they prefer”. Jason took…

THE EXPERTS Harrison Astbury, telco specialist, Canstar Blue Kenny McGilvary, communications manager, WhistleOut Natalie Pennisi, spokeswoman, iSelect “Make sure you tell your service provider that you want to keep your number when transferring across to the NBN” Q Do I have to connect to the NBN? The short answer is no, not right away. In most cases, you have 18 months to switch before your old broadband connection is switched off, be it ADSL or cable. Your current provider in most cases will provide an “NBN transition” service, which basically means you don’t have to lift a finger. Still, it can pay to look at the type of wi-fi router/ modem you have – if it’s more than a few years old it could be time for an upgrade. HARRISON…

NAME: Stewart Harrington BUSINESS: Owner of Metcalfe Automotive Centre, Northmead, NSW QUESTION: What accounting software could I use that has payroll built into the functionality? I acquired Metcalfe, a Repco-authorised service centre, in 2010 after working for the previous owner as a motor mechanic for three years. We use an accounting software package favoured by motor mechanics. The subscription is $1400 annually, which includes some phone support. However, the software doesn’t offer a payroll function integrated as part of the package, which means my bookkeeper spends two to three hours a week manually calculating, recording and paying salaries for my staff of nine. Moreover, we can’t create individual PDF versions of some financial reports such as debtor statements to email to our clients. These reports must be printed out manually,…

So you open a letter to find that you’ve been done for speeding or running a red light. That comes with a hefty fine and loss of points. After you’ve let out a few expletives you may start wondering what you can do to get out of it. The first thing you should do is to make sure you are the one actually responsible. In NSW about 1260 fines are issued by mistake each year, which is 0.2% of total fines, according to an article on news.com.au. It could be something as simple as your number plate being similar to the offending car and the fine being sent to you by mistake. You can take a look at the camera image online to make sure it was your car. The…

Add an interest rate upcycle to unprecedented household debt, then toss in wage compression, declining property prices and gyrating sharemarkets and it’s easy to see why uncertainty reigns over what’s in store for 2018. In an attempt to make sense of market dynamics, Money has identified the key themes likely to impact investors and consumers this year, plus another 10 drivers to watch closely. Global growth The greatest level of synchronised global growth in almost a decade bodes well for sharemarkets, including Australia’s. Based on IMF figures, global and Australian GDP will reach 3.9% and 3.1% respectively. Add low interest rates – which make for a very low cost of capital – to accelerated profit growth for global corporations in general and the sharemarket is again shaping up as a…

QUESTION Hi, this may be a silly question. Is a self-managed super fund for us? We have about $460,000 in super and a couple of neutrally geared investment properties, on which we owe $420,000. We own our house outright, with no kids. My wife is salary sacrificing about $18,000 a year into super while I’m at about $5000. What are the advantages/disadvantages over our normal funds? What are the yearly costs of an SMSF for people in our situation? Duane SAM SAYS Duane, there’s never a silly question when it comes to your money. And well done on your retirement savings – you’re doing great! There’s certainly plenty of talk about self-managed super funds, and their popularity has grown substantially over the past decade – in fact, they are now…

Many self-employed people find they have little in the way of savings when they retire because they haven’t paid themselves super throughout the life of their business. Relying on the sale of the business to fund your retirement may not go according to plan. For that reason, you should do what you can to make contributions. You can make payments to your fund through “personal super contributions”. To claim a tax deduction, you’ll need to fill out a notice of intent form, which you can get from your super fund or the tax office. Remember to stay within the contribution caps. Concessional (before-tax) contributions are restricted to $25,000 a year. Non-concessional (after-tax) contributions are capped at $100,000 a year. If you are under 65 you can bring forward up to…

After setting out to write interesting, profitable research on Australian listed stocks, this month marks the 20th anniversary of Intelligent Investor. I’m going to try to distill the past two decades into 20 brief lessons. Here goes: 1 You will never stop losing money. Everyone starts ignorant, which means you will lose money. Your aim should be to reduce your losses, not eliminate them entirely. It’s the averages that matter, not the losses on individual stocks. You will be wrong. Don’t beat yourself up. Learn the lessons and move on. 2 The game is to stay in it. Never take a bet big enough to take you out of the game. Diversify your portfolio and fight over-confidence. The most successful strategy for you is not necessarily the highest returning or…

I have been conducting education courses for active investors and beginners. The beginner's course is called “An Introduction to Finance and the Stockmarket”, and I have found myself in front of an audience that includes a number of asset-less 20-year-olds trying to play catch-up with the older, seemingly luckier but certainly richer generation. It is irritating to them that seemingly less gifted people than themselves fluked 40 golden years of extraordinary property and stockmarket appreciation. Golden years that, since the GFC, are by no means guaranteed to repeat. The older generation, like myself, took out a mortgage the moment they could afford to. The advice at the time from our parents’ generation was to get on the first rung of the property market as soon as possible. Of course, this…