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Sunday, 25 October 2020
Recently trending Have the rules of retirement investing changed?One last hurrah for the 60/40 portfolio?YourSuper will save $17.9 billion! Surely you’re joshing18 Aussie names for your watchlistClaiming a tax deduction for super contributions
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On the surface, a diversified fund looks the same as an SMSF with the same asset allocations. But to fund retirement, a member must sell units in the fund, whereas the cash balance is used in an SMSF.
For all its widespread use in investing, growth/defensive remains undefined with a large degree of subjectivity. A Working Group is seeking an industry standard with measures for each asset class.
Based on a long investing career, the author sets out his beliefs without attempting to justify them here. Readers can agree or disagree. It's his guide for friends and family with an actionable variation for risk appetite.
Going back to June 2019, investors would have questioned the logic of diversifying away from outperforming growth assets. But when markets feel at their best, it is paramount to keep a perspective on long-term goals.
As uncertainty intensifies around geopolitics and markets, gold has rallied strongly in 2020. While most investors think of gold for price growth, does it deliver defensive features to a diversified portfolio?
An investment in gold without hedging the currency risk of the USD price can deliver portfolio diversification and protection, with the AUD price often rising when equity markets are falling.
Investing is a field where experience matters, but we all operate with a set of beliefs. Staying on top of market research gives useful lessons for investors and challenges common assumptions.
Although equities are widely-held by Australian investors, there is a strong domestic bias that gives many portfolios high sector concentrations. Better diversification requires a global focus.
Although SMSFs are the largest segment of the $3 trillion super industry, the data on asset allocation is poor. There are signs the ATO is finally looking to fix its data collection.
Investors should construct an ‘optimal portfolio’ that broadly falls on the efficient frontier. A ‘high growth’ balanced portfolio can deliver higher returns with lower risk than equities alone.
Hybrids deliver returns comparable with equities over the long term with less volatility, which makes the risk-adjusted return and lack of correlation to equities an attractive characteristic in a diversified portfolio.
To avoid retreating from making investment decisions during uncertainty, investors are compelled to rely on 'rules of thumb' to guide them in decision-making. Here are many of the more popular commonly-used rules.
In retirement, we still want to reduce stock volatility while generating cash flows. The two needs have not changed, but the reward expected in the old days from interest payments has gone. What should we do?
The 60/40 diversified portfolio has been the mainstay of the superannuation industry for decades. But it is built on a fundamental principle of defensive bond returns, and its time is nigh.
In Budget 2020, Josh Frydenberg announced a performance comparison tool and fund stapling to save Australians $17.9 billion over 10 years. But too many moving parts make results highly cyclical.
A Morningstar stock screener reveals a cross-section of companies with competitive advantages that are trading at material discounts to estimated value. This is a list of 18 highly-rated names worth watching.
The timing of lodging a notice of intent to claim a tax deduction on super contributions and making partial rollovers or withdrawals can make a big difference to the amount allowed to be claimed.
Budgets are forecasts, and more than most, Josh Frydenberg and Treasury waved a wet finger in the air in compiling the 2020 version. How many companies will now employ a new apprentice for $100 a week subsidy? Which back-of-the-envelope showed 3.5 million businesses would use the instant asset write off? And the $17.9 billion for super savings based on the YourSuper proposal is wishful thinking.