Money Magazine December 2018

December is traditionally a very busy month but after all the events that have unfolded this year I say “bring on the silly season”. We saw our prime minister change – again. We were shocked by some of the revelations to come out of the royal commission into misconduct in the banking, super and financial services industry. The interim report confirmed that a culture of greed, compounded by inaction from regulators, was to blame. We felt the pain (either directly or indirectly via our super funds) when the sharemarket shed $50 billion in one day. The S&P/ASX 200 Index has been pedalling hard but is nowhere near its August high of 6352. We continued to be held down by sluggish wages, an unprecedented amount of personal debt and a softening…

Hotspots in the west I love reading Money and have gained a lot of valuable knowledge and insight but every time real estate is mentioned, particularly good investment suburbs and regional hotspots, Western Australia is never even mentioned. I would love to know where our good regional investments and hotspots are. Carilyn Ed’s note: Look out for our February Top 50 Share Buys and Property Hotspots. Our property expert Terry Ryder will no doubt have a few picks in WA. This year he noted Joondalup as one of the standout precincts in WA. You’ll be able to read more in February as to how this tip panned out. See also page 96 in this issue for Peter Koulizos’s tip. Unfair Medicare slug My son recently changed jobs. He was on…

I have taken your advice and stopped being lazy about the interest rate on my investment property. I have had a residential investment loan, capital and interest, since December 2013. The interest rate was 5.17% and I thought it was a bit high, so I walked into my local bank after going online and checking other institutions’ interest rates and asked what they could do. They immediately dropped the rate to 4.54%. (Not the cheapest but not the dearest, either.) How easy was that to save some money? I was guilty of inertia and just couldn’t be bothered but am now a much happier and wiser investor, thanks to your magazine. I thought it would be too hard and time consuming to change but, hey, everyone should have a go!…

EFFIE ZAHOS Money editor Effie says: “Being there for my daughter at 9am on Friday December 14 to remind her that no matter what ATAR she gets on this day, no number should ever define you. Exploring the ‘Pearl of the Andaman’ one of Thailand’s most iconic islands with my family and taking cooking lessons with a local in their own home.” MARIA BEKIARIS Maria, Money’s deputy editor, says: “Day trips to explore some of the fabulous beaches up and down the NSW coast, visits to the local pools with the kids and their friends, watching them enjoy their downtime after a busy year at school. And just getting to enjoy quality time with family and friends.” SUSAN HELY Susan, a senior writer at Money for more than 10 years,…

OK, here we go again. This is close to the 20th crack at my views on investing in the year ahead of us. Now that I think about it, 2019 will be Money magazine’s 20th birthday – who would have thought a magazine about money would go for two decades! First, I’ll cheer up our legal team no end by disclosing that my crystal ball is horribly flawed and I don’t really have the first clue about short-term investment trends anyway. I am not too bad at the long term. This is mainly because I am not very clever, and I am painfully aware that as I still work for a living my predictions can’t be much good anyway. So for the long term I rely on common sense. Fortunately, this…

Today there are more than 3 million people, including 739,000 children, living in poverty in Australia. This is one in eight adults and nearly one in five children. In a wealthy country such as our own, this is an unacceptable situation. The majority of people living in poverty receive a social security payment, such as Newstart, Youth Allowance or a family payment. Our social security payments are so low that they trap people in poverty – it’s incredibly difficult to get a job when you’re worrying about how to put food on the table or to make sure you have a roof over your head. The rate of Newstart has not increased in real terms in 24 years, while the cost of the basics of life have gone up. The…