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16 October 2025
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Shareholder activism, setting a financial plan, putting the 'self' into Self-Managed Super Fund, understanding residential aged care and mortality risk.
It is unfortunate that super funds and financial planners spend far more time considering investment risk than mortality risk. In future, retirement savings must last much longer, and a study of mortality risk shows how long.
Anyone who has tried to understand the costs of residential aged care knows how complex it is. Here are tips to navigate the aged care minefield.
A dedicated shareholder activist is an investor who actively seeks out companies with the intention of engaging directly with the board and management to address flawed strategies.
We cannot afford to ‘make things up as we go along’. We need a plan that addresses short, medium and long term goals, and we need to take action to address those goals now, not later.
Everyone is different so you need to design your SMSF for yourself and your dependents. That’s the importance of 'self' in self managed super.
LICs are continuing to struggle with large discounts and frustrated investors are wondering whether it’s worth holding onto them. This explains why the next 6-12 months will be make or break for many LICs.
Younger Australians think they’ll need $100k a year in retirement - nearly double what current retirees spend. Expectations are rising fast, but are they realistic or just another case of lifestyle inflation?
This week, I got the news that my mother has dementia. It came shortly after my father received the same diagnosis. This is a meditation on getting old and my regrets in not getting my parents’ affairs in order sooner.
Retirement can be daunting for Australians facing financial uncertainty. Understand your goals, longevity challenges, inflation impacts, market risks, and components of retirement income with these crucial charts.
Five mega trends point to risks of a more inflation prone and lower growth environment. This, along with rich market valuations, should constrain medium term superannuation returns to around 5% per annum.
With rising home prices and falling affordability, political leaders preach reform. But asset disclosures show many are heavily invested in property - raising doubts about whose interests housing policy really protects.