Brief analysis of the 2018 Budget announcements affecting key financial planning areas of personal tax, superannuation, and life & disability insurances.
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Budget 2018
Multiple Offset Accounts
An offset account can be a great way to reduce your home loan interest and get a better effective return on your savings. But historically very few lenders allowed more than one. Recently it has become easier to get multiple offset accounts linked to the same loan. This opens up some great savings and budgeting options.
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Dealing with Stockmarket Volatility
After a couple of years of relatively smooth returns stockmarkets have recently become more volatile. There have been days with sharp downward movements that attracted lots of media attention. Should you be worried?
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Investment Markets Review – 2017
We look at the key trends in investment markets during 2017 and their impact on longer term diversified portfolio returns.
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Who is “Magellan”?
A number of clients have been asking this in recent times, following Magellan’s high profile advertising campaigns. We provide some more background and our views.
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An alternative to investment property
Borrowing to buy an investment property has long been a powerful way to create wealth, thanks to the combined effects of leverage and favourable tax treatment. However many investors are now concerned about risks associated with the property market.
Fortunately there is an alternative which can provide similar tax and leverage benefits, and potentially much higher returns than a slowing property market.
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Salary Sacrifice changes
There have been changes to the superannuation salary sacrifice environment since July 2017. For some people there is a new and potentially better way to save tax. Those with ongoing salary sacrifice arrangements in place may need to review them however.
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Safe as Houses?
Most of us have grown up familiar with the phrase “safe as houses”. However with unusually high real estate returns over recent years, many independent economists are now suggesting houses may not be quite so safe anymore.
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Federal Budget Analysis – May 2017
The Federal Budget was handed down on 9 May. We analyse the main changes to personal tax, superannuation, banking, and some new superannuation based housing affordability schemes.
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What’s going on with home loan interest rates?
Interest rates seem to have gone a bit crazy in recent months. What’s driving this and what can you do to reduce your costs?
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