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Friday, 15 November 2019
Recently trending How much super is enough?How to include homes in the age pension assets testFour reasons to engage a financial adviserShould you buy CBA PERLS XII Capital Notes?OK Boomer: fessing up that we’ve had it good
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Our annual scorecard for Australian banks shows earnings were hit by remediation costs and slow credit growth, but they are in good health and look attractive versus other listed companies.
Markets are overlooking the obvious risks as traders pass the parcel to the next buyer. Even central bankers believe: “There is something vaguely troubling when the unthinkable becomes routine.”
What once seemed like science fiction is being created by the world’s highest-quality businesses such as Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft. The best investment outcomes are achieved by buying the best companies.
The business environment has favoured massive dominant firms, but the question for the future is whether this is as good as it gets. Is the usual mean-reversion about to start?
The current yield on a share or trust is simply the latest dividend divided by the current share price, an abstract number at a point in time. What really matters is the income delivered in the long run.
There are strong demographic trends in ageing and consumer spending and investing in the right healthcare companies can ride this wave as well as produce better health outcomes for people.
Investing in equities for their dividends and income is not as easy as it sounds. High dividend stocks are more volatile and the dividend is not a sign of quality or value. Take care chasing yield.
Profits results in August 2019 were overall poor, and other factors are in play that influence share prices. It is difficult to jump aboard a profit announcement and make money in the short term.
This week, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told Australia companies to invest in growth rather than return capital or buy back their own shares. There are other reasons to check the merit of buy backs.
Look for a company whose prices are rising faster than inflation without customer churn, while leveraging its existing strong relationships to cross sell or up sell or some mix of both.
In some parts of the market, the case for active management over passive is strong. The less-researched small companies space shows a focus on strong capital, proven management and a clear strategy pays off.
While Australian businesses generally achieve returns below global comparisons, our Best 50 have delivered results well above the accepted world best practice level, and they come from a diversity of industries.
We cannot see into the future, but here are some general guidelines on how much to save in super, and then how much you can spend to enjoy a good retirement. Start as soon as possible.
A reader speaks out about the inequity of ignoring own homes in the assets test for the age pension, plus a proposal on how it could work politically. Take our survey on the merit of the policy.
The value of financial advice is increasingly questioned after the Royal Commission and changes to advice business models, but the case for financial advice for many people remains strong.
CBA's latest PERLS offer is directly offered to hundreds of thousands of investors who already hold CBA shares or other PERLS securities. How does it compare with the rest of the hybrid market?
The pre-Boomer generations faced global wars and depressions, but Australians born after 1946 have enjoyed prosperity. Superannuation, education, strong markets and surging property prices locked in gains.
Specially-selected collections of the best articles
Accredited CPD hours reading Firstlinks
Firstlinks articles are collected in Pandora, Australia's national archive.