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Friday, 28 February 2020
Recently trending Are you caught in the ‘retirement trap’?The power of letting winners runTony Togher on why cash isn’t just cashNAB hybrid: one says buy, one says sell, you decideWatch your SMSF’s annual return this year
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With more people living longer, retirement expectations are being reshaped and redefined. Now is the time to consider the financial and cultural solutions for making the most out of the gift of a longer life.
In the final Leaders' Debate, the Prime Minister asked why Labor wishes to deny a tax deduction for additional personal concessional contributions, reinstating the old 10% rule. What's the logic of this complex rule?
The main focus in retirement planning should be on the entire return from a portfolio, not just the income generated, and this might help some people in managing changes due to Labor's franking credit proposal.
With almost one thousand people entering retirement in Australia every day, they face different challenges to managing an investment portfolio in the accumulation stage.
The current system is complex and inequitable, and those most affected by aged care anomalies are often least able to understand the consequences.
Retirement is not a steady state of more time for holidays and family. Planning must allow for the onset of part-disability and disability, and costs can rise significantly in the final 'frailty' years.
The financial concerns of those in or close to retirement are focussed on health and housing. Lower interest rates, rising healthcare costs and lifespan uncertainty legitimately compound those concerns.
Australian retirees' access to dividend imputation refunds justifies a bias towards Australian equities in retirement, and the loss of refunds will have significant portfolio and income implications.
The National Seniors Australia (NSA) survey reveals that retirees want access to regular and stable income, even at the expense of lower returns. The need to preserve capital reduces tolerance of losses.
Preferences revealed by actual investing behaviour are often different to preferences stated in surveys. Financial planners and super funds should use newer analyses that helps understand the discrepancies.
Life expectancies have increased dramatically since the nineties, but the uncertainty is forcing retirees to live too frugally. The super industry is switching its attention to the drawdown phase to find better solutions.
The 2018 Budget has opened the possibility that the Pension Loans Scheme will become a more popular part of retirement income planning.
Our retirement savings system is supposed to encourage financial independence but there is a ‘Retirement Trap’ due to the reduction of age pension entitlements as assets and income rise.
Handling extreme winners is a complex task. Conventional wisdom such as “you never go broke taking a profit” often leaves a lot of money on the table as strong growth stocks continue to run.
An active manager of cash and fixed interest funds can achieve higher returns than the cash rate through a selection of other securities while managing both liquidity and income for clients.
Differences of opinion make a market, and hybrid specialists disagree on the likelihood that NAB will call one of its hybrids early. It makes a major difference to the expected return on NABHA.
The best way to preserve your SMSF’s favoured status is to make sure the fund’s annual return reaches the ATO on time. There are new rules this year that every SMSF trustee should know.
Investors worried about an overvalued sharemarket and low interest rates on term deposits and bonds are focusing on alternatives. What are they and how are they used by leading asset allocators?