Financial Planning

When was the last time you checked to see how your superannuation was performing? Many of us give very little thought to our super until we need it and by then it's often too late. Considering superannuation is your retirement savings and often the biggest investment you have after your home, it's worth taking the time to find out as much as you can about your fund. Are you in the right investment option? Even though your employer contributes money to your fund, you can still choose how you would like your money invested. Most funds offer a variety of investment options but if you don't make a choice your money will be invested in a default option, which may or may not suit your needs. Knowing how comfortable you are with investment risk, as well as how long until retirement are all important...

If medals were handed out for making money, gold would go to property investment according to this year's BRW Rich 200 List. The list ranks property as the single biggest source of wealth among Australia's 200 wealthiest people. Despite all the attention given to mining wealth, the number of mining magnates in the list has dropped from 28 to 22, a sign of the trouble in commodity markets over the past year. By contrast, 55 of the list entrants gained their wealth from property and many of those who didn't make their fortunes in property have stored their wealth by investing in property. "The rise in the number of Rich 200 members to make most of their money from property perhaps also points to volatility in equity markets", reports BRW. "Although the property market has had its own problems, it remains a relatively...

[pullquote-left]House prices across capital cities rose in the three months to June, but it is still cheaper for most Australians to buy a home today than it was a year ago.[/pullquote-left] A national survey of home prices, released on Wednesday, shows the median capital city house price lifted 1.4 per cent in the June quarter, though it remains 3.1 per cent below its level a year ago. Meanwhile, the median price of apartments and other residential dwelling rose 0.4 per cent over the quarter, the Bendigo Bank/Real Estate Institute of Australia Real Estate Market Facts report showed. But those prices were still 0.4 per cent lower for the year. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank executive Dennis Bice said the report suggested the housing market may be gaining momentum. "People have been putting the big decisions, such as up-sizing or downsizing their housing preferences on hold for...

Check the policy before buying any insurance, writes Lesley Parker. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/money/planning/price-isnt-everything-20120821-24j39.html#ixzz24teIWQna The huge growth in ''direct'' selling of insurance, and the high-rotation  television advertising allied with that, has attracted the attention of  financial services regulators. They are keeping an eye on both the quality of the products being sold and  the depth of information consumers are getting. ''Direct life insurance business has been growing at a high rate and is now a  significant proportion of the retail market,'' an executive group member of the  Australian Prudential Regulation Authority,  Ian Laughlin, told a conference  recently. ''We are concerned that the quality of the products and of the business being  written may be poor in some cases. We see examples of expensive products and  high [policy] discontinuance rates.'' The commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission  (ASIC), Peter Kell, says there's nothing intrinsically wrong...

Lower rates are eroding the retirement savings of many Australians,  writes Chris Zappone. The Reserve Bank's recent rate cuts are benefiting young people at the  expense of the old, retirees say. For John Logan, a 66-year-old Melbourne  mainframe computer programmer  preparing for his retirement, a slide in interest rates has eroded the growth of  his term deposits and he is unmoved by complaints of younger mortgage  payers. "I put up with 18 per cent interest rates when I was their age,'' he said. Mr Logan holds little hope that rates rates will be nudged up to protect the  savings and cash holdings in his self-managed super fund. His frustration is felt by a generation of people at or near retirement age  who shifted funds out of shares to avoid the losses seen in the past few years,  only to watch in dismay as the banks...

[blue]Article by Jason Clout - The Age - http://www.theage.com.au/money/calculate-the-essentials-of-protection-20120526-1zbia.html [/blue] Imagine that you had a machine that  pumped out $100 notes. Would you insure  this miracle device? You'd be nuts not to. Well, that is analogous to what the  main breadwinner in a family does, points out Jordan Hawke, executive general  manager at Asteron Life, "yet they often won't insure themselves". Industry research suggests that protecting the family's lifestyle after death  or permanent incapacitation - or even protecting the weekly wage while off work  for a shorter term - has not been a priority for many. And that's because Australians traditionally have been ''more interested in  accumulating wealth than protecting it", Hawke says. <iframe id="dcAd-1-3" src="https://ad-apac.doubleclick.net/adi/onl.age.money/money;cat=money;ctype=article;pos=3;sz=300x250;tile=3;ord=1.9637659E7?" width='300' height='250' scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> < /iVALUE YOURSELF Actuaries at Rice Warner calculate a young couple aged 35 with children needs  $500,000 to provide even the bare minimum...

[blue]Article by Robert Laura, Contributor for Forbes - http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlaura/2012/05/24/how-star-athletes-deal-with-retirement-financial-lessons/ [/blue] [dropcaps]T[/dropcaps]o quote pro golfer Annika Sorenstam, “I didn’t grow up really rich or especially poor but I was taught to respect money.”  She remembers her economic status as a child, noting, “Yes, I had to share my first set up golf clubs with my sister; I got the odd number clubs and my sister (who now works for Annika’s golf academy) took the even ones.” The athletes I interviewed earned millions of dollars playing their sport but none of them came from a wealthy family.  All either mentioned – or implied – that they came from a modest upbringing and that both the life lessons they learned growing up and their time as a pro play significant roles in their financial dealings today. NFL star Desmond Howard grew up in a middle class...

On 8 May 2012, the Federal Government handed down its Budget for 2012/13. It would be fair to say that everyone will be impacted in some way by the measures contained in the Budget itself, or by other recent announcements from the Government that will apply from 1 July 2012. [blue]Click here to download the full 2012 TECHknow Budget Update[/blue] Many of the measures in the Budget had been alluded to in the days leading up to the Budget itself, so there weren’t a lot of hidden surprises. However, one major surprise was the Government’s decision to defer the (re)introduction of a higher concessional contribution threshold for people aged 50 or over to 1 July 2014. Previous announcements has indicated a 1 July 2012 start date. This deferral announcement, along with many other measures released, does highlight the need to establish and have an...