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25 April 2024
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Chris Cuffe's views on risk, the paradox of living longer, the need for super funds to provide individual reporting, how to manage for real returns, and an interview with Ken Henry on opportunities for Australian businesses.
Risk means different things to different people, and there is a misallocation of resources, energy and intellect across the superannuation industry (and investment industry more broadly) to address risk.
Living longer does not necessarily translate into financial freedom. The hope is that you can work longer and therefore have more savings for your retirement, but people have less income-earning years.
There is a significant leadership opportunity for super funds to manage real return risk, where the inflation risk represents a potential erosion of retirement outcomes.
Super funds should provide a calculation of a member’s actual average return over their period of membership based on their own personal cash flow of contributions and fees experienced.
The Australian businesses likely to succeed in the Asian century are those that provide goods or services to the 3.2 billion middle-class consumers living in Asia within 15 years.
The ATO has released all the superannuation rates and thresholds that will apply from 1 July 2024. Here's what’s changing and what’s not, and some key considerations and opportunities in the lead up to 30 June and beyond.
Life has radically shifted with my brain cancer, and I don’t know if it will ever be the same again. After decades of writing and a dozen years with Firstlinks, I still want to contribute, but exactly how and when I do that is unclear.
Australia will have 3.7 million more people in a decade's time, though the growth won't be evenly distributed. Over 85s will see the fastest growth, while the number of younger people will barely rise.
Being rich is having a high-paying job and accumulating fancy houses and cars, while being wealthy is owning assets that provide passive income, as well as freedom and flexibility. Knowing the difference can reframe your life.
Investor disgust, consolidation, de-listings, price discounts, activist investors entering - it’s what typically happens at business cycle troughs, and it’s happening to LICs now. That may present a potential opportunity.
The $3 million super tax will capture retired, and soon to retire, public servants and politicians who are members of defined benefit superannuation schemes. Lobbying efforts for exemptions to the tax are intensifying.