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8 October 2025
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With term deposit rates falling, bonds holding up but with risks attached, and stocks yielding comparatively paltry sums, finding decent income is becoming harder. Here’s a guide to the best places to hunt for yield.
With fixed term deposit rates declining and bank hybrids being phased out, what are the best options for investors seeking income? This goes through the choices, and the opportunities and risks involved.
With the RBA having lifted interest rates by 4.25% over 18 months, many investors now see cash as an attractive investment option. That ignores the silent tax of inflation, which makes other assets better investment alternatives.
Australian banks are the Pilbara of the global financial system, with irreplaceable assets that are among the world's best. Current bank hybrid prices offer favourable rewards with limited risk for investors.
As the global economy slows, private debt can be an attractive option for income investors. It provides reduced capital volatility and reliable income, as well as risk-adjusted returns that are linked to inflation.
Major bank transaction accounts are paying poor rates on cash at exactly the time when many SMSF trustees are holding more cash than usual due to tough bond and equity markets. Here are some rules and opportunities.
Banks are awash with cash and are turning away deposits while reducing rates. Retirees who rely on their savings for income should not expect a respite until at best 2024 and are encouraged to turn to risky assets.
Australian bank liquidity regulations are continuing to tighten, adversely affecting access to cash and the ability of SMSFs to earn the same returns from bank deposits as individuals.
The government guarantee on deposits has finally been legislated and based on information released by APRA you'd be forgiven for assuming that superannuation bank deposits would be covered. Not necessarily.
The nation's savings are in superannuation and the nation's funding needs are in the banks. Yet the regulators and the new liquidity rules make it even more difficult for the two to get together, with another free kick to SMSFs.
* APRA has told deposit-takers they must implement a Single Customer View regime before 1 January 2014, to prevent multiple coverage under the government guarantee.
* Better and cheaper availability of wholesale funding for major banks will reduce retail term deposits rates, as CBA takes its foot off the gas.
This AI cycle feels less like a revolution and more like a rerun. Just like fibre in 2000, shale in 2014, and cannabis in 2019, the technology or product is real but the capital cycle will be brutal. Investors beware.
An explosion in low-skilled migration to Australia has depressed wages, killed productivity, and cut rental vacancy rates to near decades-lows. It’s time both sides of politics addressed the issue.
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.
Australian housing’s 50-year boom was driven by falling rates and rising borrowing power — not rent or yield. With those drivers exhausted, future returns must reconcile with economic fundamentals. Are we ready?
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.