Register to receive our free weekly newsletter including editorials.
8 January 2026
Recently trending
Reader: "I can quickly sort the items that I am interested in, then research them more fully. It is also a regular reminder that I need to do this."
Reader: "Love it, just keep doing what you are doing. It is the right length too, any longer and it might become a bit overwhelming."
Reader: "Is one of very few places an investor can go and not have product rammed down their throat. Love your work!"
Reader: "The BEST in the game because of diversity and not aligned to financial products. Stands above all the noise."
John Pearce, Chief Investment Officer, Unisuper: "Out of the (many many) investmentrelated emails I get, Cuffelinks is one that I always open."
David Goldschmidt, Chartered Accountant: "I find this a really excellent newsletter. The best I get. Keep up the good work!"
Professor Robert Deutsch: "This has got to be the best set of articles on economic and financial matters. Always something worthwhile reading in Firstlinks. Thankyou"
Reader: "It's excellent so please don't pollute the content with boring mainstream financial 'waffle' and adverts for stuff we don't want!"
Reader: "Keep it up - the independence is refreshing and is demonstrated by the variety of well credentialed commentators."
John Egan, Egan Associates: "My heartiest congratulations. Your panel of contributors is very impressive and keep your readers fully informed."
Eleanor Dartnall, AFA Adviser of the Year, 2014: "Our clients love your newsletter. Your articles are avidly read by advisers and they learn a great deal."
Reader: "Great resource. Cuffelinks is STILL the one and only weekly newsletter I regularly read."
Don Stammer, leading Australian economist: "Congratulations to all associated. It deserves the good following it has."
Rob Henshaw: "When I open my computer each day it's the first link I click - a really great read."
Steve: "The best that comes into our world each week. This is the only one that is never, ever canned before fully being reviewed by yours truly."
Reader: " Finding a truly independent and interesting read has been magical for me. Please keep it up and don't change!"
Reader: "Congratulations on a great focussed news source. Australia has a dearth of good quality unbiased financial and wealth management news."
Reader: "An island of professionalism in an ocean of shallow self-interest. Well done!"
Reader: "I subscribe to two newsletters. This is my first read of the week. Thank you. Excellent and please keep up the good work!"
Jonathan Hoyle, CEO, Stanford Brown: "A fabulous publication. The only must-read weekly publication for the Australian wealth management industry."
Ian Silk, CEO, AustralianSuper: "It has become part of my required reading: quality thinking, and (mercifully) to the point."
Scott Pape, author of The Barefoot Investor: "I'm an avid reader of Cuffelinks. Thanks for the wonderful resource you have here, it really is first class."
Reader: "Best innovation I have seen whilst an investor for 25 years. The writers are brilliant. A great publication which I look forward to."
Noel Whittaker, author and financial adviser: "A fabulous weekly newsletter that is packed full of independent financial advice."
Ian Kelly, CFP, BTACS Financial Services: "Probably the best source of commentary and information I have seen over the past 20 years."
Reader: "Carry on as you are - well done. The average investor/SMSF trustee needs all the help they can get."
Andrew Buchan, Partner, HLB Mann Judd: "I have told you a thousand times it's the best newsletter."
While we have run recent Reader Surveys on specific topics, it is many years since we found out more about you and what you like and don't like about Firstlinks.
To mark our 500th edition, as your present to us, we would appreciate your feedback across a range of questions that will help to improve our content. It should take only a few minutes but provide great value to our future planning. The survey can be accessed via this link, the QR code, or completed using the embedded form below.
Always a good read for current issues. Perhaps a reduced emphasis on poor $3m+ individuals.
Always a good read for current issues. Perhaps a reduced emphasis on boomers and more on Gen-X.
Totally agree. Tax-free $6m a couple in superannuation, income of $30,000 each from other sources and pay no tax! I feel good luck to them, enjoy life, no one has yet taken a cent to the afterlife! If there is one!
I have enjoyed it for many years and is one of my prime sources of information
Agree with Raymond. Would you please focus more on those of us living in the real world of super balances.
Calculate using your own inputs: = NPER(7%, ((1 - 15%) * 27500) + -110000, -750000, 3000000) = 11.2 y
well prepared content
Any one who shrugs their shoulders and says in relation to the proposed $3M cap 'well it doesn't apply to me' you are on notice. At a return of 7% pa your asset will double in value every 10 years. That means that if you have $1.5M in super now, in ten years time you will be hitting the un-indexed cap of $3M. If you have 750K in super now you will hit the cap in 20 years. Therefore the valuable commentary, largely by Graham, is very relevant to many people.
That would assume that you're in accumulation phase and not drawing down on your super at all. So if you're 50-55 (depending on whether you're planning to commence a pension at 60 or 65) then you need to have 1.5 mill now. If you're 40-45 then you need to have $750k now. Those certainly aren't impossible figures to have, but we're really talking about the top 10% or so of the population. I don't like the fact that this is in real terms a retrospective change to super, but I also think that someone with 3 mill in super of which 1.7 mill is in pension should be paying a higher tax rate on earnings than 0% on their pension and 15% or the other 1.3 mill, which is an overall tax rate of roughly 5%. If someone wants to argue that they're also missing out on the $21,000 or $26,000 of welfare in the form of age pension (depending on marital status) then sure that's fair, but assuming earnings of 5% on the total super amount of $3,000,000 so $150,000, and tax of $9,750 on the 5% in the $1,300,000 in accumulation phase, plus foregone welfare of $21,000, then you're looking at a total of $30,000 out of $150,000. Not peanuts, but surely a sum of money that someone with 3 mill in super might consider to be reasonable.
leaving aside any withdrawals Anne.
That is the point of the $3m cap. $3m will provide a comfortable retired living. Until you reach that $3m balance, enjoy the tax shelter while your balance grows. After reaching the balance, a discounted tax rate is not required to be paid to you by most other tax payers who have a snowflake in hell of achieving 10% of $3m - particularly women.
"snowflake in hell of achieving 10% of $3m": Minimum real after super tax rate of return, with maximum concessional contributions, required to achieve "10% of $3m": = RATE((67 - 27), (1 - 15%) * -27500, 0, 10% * 3000000) = -7.438% / y (- = loss) Real contributions, with o% real return, required to achieve "10% of $3m: = PMT(0%, (67 - 27), 0, 10% * 3000000) / (1 - 15%) = $-8,823.53 / y (- = contribution) Middle of the road proof: = RATE((67 - 27), (1 - 15%) * -8823.53, 0, 10% * 3000000) = 0.0%
Anne, how about $360k in super? ASFA, March 2022. Average super balance for a 60-64 year-old male is $359,870. At a return of 7% pa a 64 year-old male will hit the cap at the age of 104 years.
Sorry Anne, that should have been 94 years, not 104 years, but I could give you some scary numbers for a 64 year old female on a median (not average) super balance.
"64 year old female on a median (not average) super balance": = (137051 + 180718) / 2 = $158,884.50 https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/how-your-super-balance-compares-with-people-your-age-20220318-p5a5sn Age Pension Asset Test single: = $280,000 Age Pension single home owner full: = 26 f * 1026.50 / f = $26,689.00 / y Plenty live & entertain with spare to save.
Survey done! We all need steady regular cashflow. Besides Peter Thornhill, who else out there is doing good old fashioned dividend growth investing and can capably write about it? Let’s hear them please. As for Super dramas, there are other products and places to keep retirement money. Super is now in the cross hairs of legislation change, so just don’t have all your eggs in that basket.
Good source of information. Have tried to influence/introduce women to your newsletters but find that once brackets, percentages and calculations appear they turn off. Accountant type hyperbole of no interest. Look at the Dixon Fiasco. Perhaps more info to those on balances under $350,000. That is the real world of super, we can only dream of figures in the millionaire bracket.
"dream of figures in the millionaire bracket": Millionaire full Age Pension at deeming rate: = (26 * -1547.6) / 2.25% = -$1,788,337.78 (- = invested) Regrettable only while alive. Mortals: = PV(0%, (87 - 67), 26 * 1547.6, 0) = -$804,752.00 (- = invested)
I appreciate the range of views expressed in Firstlinks publications.
The method of calculating "income" for the proposed $3 million "cap" contains within it the indefensible idea of including unrealized paper gains in the market value of investments which would have the potential effect of penalizing investment in any speculative early stage exploration biotech or "tech" stocks. An example from my own experience is a biotech stock whose market price in the three years has gone from 2 cents to 60 cents and back to 12 cents. Anyone fortunately buying and selling at the the right time would have made real taxable capital gains, but anyone who simply held during this period may have huge paper gains which could now be called "income", at the same time as when the total value of the portfolio was temporarily inflated and exceeded the new "cap". This looks like another unintended consequence of poorly thought out proposal.
I forgot to mention in my comments, more PETER THORNHILL or similar articles please.
The superannuation system has succeeded brilliantly at what it was designed to do: accumulate wealth during working lives. The next challenge is meeting members’ diverse needs in retirement.
Two years ago, I wrote an article suggesting that the odds favoured ASX shares easily outperforming residential property over the next decade. Here’s an update on where things stand today.
I am a professional real estate investor who hears a lot of opinions rather than facts from so-called experts on the topic of property. Here are the largest myths when it comes to Australia’s biggest asset class.
At this time last year, I forecast that 2025 would likely be a positive year given strong economic prospects and disinflation. The outlook for this year is less clear cut and here is what investors should do.
In an interview with Firstlinks, CEO Mark Freeman discusses how speculative ASX stocks have crushed blue chips this year, companies he likes now, and why he’s confident AFIC’s NTA discount will close.
I’ve been comparing property and shares for decades and while both have their place, the differences are stark. When tax, costs, and liquidity are weighed, property looks less compelling than its reputation suggests.
Treasury has released draft legislation for a new version of the controversial $3 million super tax. It's a significant improvement on the original proposal but there are some stings in the tail.
The predictions include dividends will outstrip growth as a source of Australian equity returns, US market performance will be underwhelming, while US government bonds will beat gold.
We're about to add another million people to cities like Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. How many hospitals and other essential infrastructure are needed to cater to a million more people? This breaks down the numbers.
The US dollar’s long-standing role as a ‘shock absorber’ during times of market stress is showing cracks. The ‘Liberation Day’ sell-off was a timely reminder of this, and here's what investors should do about it.
My mother developed dementia before eventually dying in June last year. She was in three aged care homes before finding the right one. Here is what I learned along the way.
China has flooded the world with electric cars and solar panels to offset the economic drag from a weak domestic property market. How long can this go on, and what are the implications for commodities and Australia?
Tesla copped criticism after its shareholders approved a package allowing Musk to earn up to $1 trillion in stock options. If only Australian businesses were more like Tesla.