Are your insurance needs covered?

The start of a new year is always a good time to check whether your insurance policies are still serving your needs. But this year there is even more reason to review your cover. If your super balance is less than $6000 or you are under 25 and are a new fund member, life insurance … Read more

Super changes add flexibility

Just when you thought you had a grip on the superannuation rules, they change again. This time though, the changes are mostly positive, especially for older super members keen to top up their savings. From 1 July 2020, changes came into effect with the potential to help retirees as well as members suffering financial hardship … Read more

Cash is king in a crisis

Most of us understand the importance of saving for a rainy day, but sometimes it takes a crisis like the current pandemic to make us act on it. With so many jobs lost and the outlook unknown, having a cash buffer means you are more able to manage unexpected expenses or the loss of regular … Read more

Getting retirement plans back on track

After a year when even the best laid plans have been put on hold due to COVID-19, people who were planning to retire soon may be having second thoughts. You may be concerned about a drop in your super balance, insecure work, or an uncertain investment outlook. Whatever your circumstances, a financial tune-up may be … Read more

Outsmart your biases: using investor psychology to your advantage

When it comes to decision making, we don’t always get it right. It is human nature to fall for several behavioural traps when making everyday decisions and also when trying to predict the future. Even the smartest people can succumb to their own biases when forming judgements and making choices. While it’s unrealistic to expect … Read more

Making your savings work harder

With tax cuts and stimulus payments on the way, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is urging us to open our wallets and spend to kick start the national economy. But if your personal balance sheet could do with a kick along, then saving and investing what you can also makes sense. One positive from this COVID-19 induced … Read more

Mind the insurance gap

At a time when many people have been focused on their family’s health and livelihood, having adequate life insurance has never been more important. Yet the gap between what we need and what we have, has been growing. Life insurance is all about ensuring your family can maintain their lifestyle if you were to die … Read more

Turning redundancy into opportunity

As the economy starts to recover from COVID-19 shutdowns, some sectors may take longer than others to return to their normal operating capacity and some companies may never fully recover. That means there is still the chance that some employees could be made redundant. If you are offered redundancy, how can you turn a potentially … Read more

Positives and negatives of gearing

Negatively gearing an investment property is viewed by many Australians as a tax effective way to get ahead. According to Treasury, more than 1.9 million people earned rental income in 2012-13 and of those about 1.3 million reported a net rental loss. So it was no surprise that many people were worried about how they … Read more

Why cashflow will be critical for Australian small caps this reporting season

One of the features of the FY20 reporting season was the excellent cashflow performance of most Australian small cap companies. With the onset of COVID-19, many companies faced a liquidity crunch as revenue dried up and relief on cost saving measures, government programs including JobKeeper and rent relief took a while to kick in. This … Read more

Six key things to know about super in 2021

The super rules change regularly, and this year is no exception. We are waiting on changes currently before the parliament, anticipating some of the changes announced in last year’s budget, and understanding the impact of SuperStream on self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF), as well as the indexation of the Transfer Balance Cap. Currently before the parliament … Read more

Sector by sector: pathways to recovery in Australian commercial real estate

A low interest rate environment and uncertainty present challenges for investors looking for diversified strategies to defend their portfolios in 2021. As a cyclical asset class, Australian real estate has been subjected to the full effects of the pandemic through the past 12 months, but we believe there are still opportunities for those seeking yield … Read more