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22 May 2022
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While good financial health is desirable, it’s often an imprecise concept. A simple universal framework comprising five indicators with benchmarks enables an objective assessment of personal financial health.
Women comprise less than one-fifth of all active online investors in Australia and while the gap is closing, the financial services sector has more work ahead to empower women from all walks of life.
We often focus on the implications for financial security of being unable to save enough for a comfortable retirement, but mental wellbeing is as important. Financial advice can help.
Our sincere thanks for the amazing personal stories of how wealth was built by hard work or where some were not as fortunate. Another 600 readers have taken part in the survey since the last update.
While every generation has its unique opportunities, the majority of Firstlinks readers agree that Boomers have had a better run than others. But the real highlights here are in the comments.
Most parents are worried about the financial future of their children. Three tips for helping with education and housing needs: start now, share your knowledge and invest in growth assets.
Knowing what investors want should be fundamental to conversations with financial planners and advisers, and it's not mainly about maximising returns. Set the right planning parameters.
Serious illness is something we think will happen to somebody else and insurance, like making a will, is easy to put off. It’s only when the problems start that we realise it’s too late to do anything about it.
Important changes to aged care costs come into effect on 1 July 2014. They highlight the importance of having the financial flexibility to make the system work in your favour.
In the financial and economic world, we use medians and averages to assess our position and make decisions about the future. But as each individual is different, aggregated statistics aren't always useful.
Every successful fund manager suffers periods of underperformance, and investors who jump from fund to fund chasing results are likely to do badly. Selecting a manager is a long-term decision but what else?
In almost 1,000 responses, our readers differ in voting intentions versus polling of the general population, but they have little doubt who will win and there is widespread disappointment with our politics.
Conservative investors who want the greater capital security of bonds can now lock in 5% but they should stay at the higher end of credit quality. Rises in rates and defaults mean it's not as easy as it looks.
In the last decade, ETFs have become a mainstay of many portfolios, with broad market access to most asset types, as well as a wide array of sectors and themes. Is there a favourite of a CEO who oversees 30 funds?
Believe it or not, betting agencies are in the business of making money, not predicting outcomes. Is there anything we can learn from the current odds on the election results?
Single-member SMSFs face challenges where the eventual beneficiaries (or support team in the event of incapacity) will be the member’s adult children. Even worse, what happens if one or more of the children live overseas?