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20 August 2025
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The vast sum of money in super will dwarf the size of the ASX and our GDP in coming years yet allocation is not subject to any regulatory control. Where should super policy be housed and how should assets be invested?
Superannuation has become a bit of a political football and there's noise around further changes to the system. While super isn't perfect, more changes could add further complexity to a system that's served us well.
With 700 Australians retiring every day, retirement income solutions are more important than ever. Why do millions of retirees eligible for a more tax-efficient pension account hold money in accumulation?
Retirees worry about running out of money, and living solely on the age pension is viewed differently from spending their own money. But in retirement, many report adjusting well to what they have.
Super is reducing reliance on the age pension for the majority of people entering retirement. Most newly-retired Australians are not accessing the age pension at all, and only 25% of 66-year-olds are drawing a full age pension.
With the availability of large pools of retirees, the law of large numbers will start to see a predictable distribution of lifespans around the mean, allowing for longevity risk products. An important development.
The creator of the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals, Bill Bengen, has written a new book outlining fresh strategies to outlive your money, including holding fewer stocks in early retirement before increasing allocations.
Are franking credits factored into share prices? The data suggests they're probably not, and there are certain types of stocks that offer higher franking credits as well as the prospect for higher returns.
ASFA’s latest estimates reveal that home-owning couples need at least $690,000 in super for a ‘comfortable’ retirement, yet only around 30% of people meet these thresholds, and the shortfall may deepen.
The role of family and community as foundations of a healthy society have been allowed to weaken. This has brought about Australia's spiritual decline and a thirst for dopamine that explains our high debt levels.
Despite the perception that successful investors nimbly navigate each zig and zag in the market, the evidence suggests otherwise. This approach can help an investor avoid self-harming their returns.
It wasn't long ago that investors were asking if US exceptionalism could continue. They now appear to be diversifying away from dollar assets and shifting to a more active US equity allocation.
This is a primer on high yield bonds - their risk and returns compared to investment grade securities, diversification benefits, and strategies for selecting high yield investments for enhanced portfolio yields.