Adding to your future….
Where are you on the Financial Success Hierarchy? Have you completed all the levels? Are you on your way? No one is born knowing about money. We are very likely to have picked up our biases and beliefs from how others behaved around us when we were growing up. These ingrained “truths” can sabotage us in many ways and we may not achieve the financial futures that we could and should. Overcoming your blocks around
Being originally from England, I am not unhappy with the use of double negatives (did you see what I did there?). I have since learned however, that as well as enabling the mastery of understatement, a double negative can also be used as a very effective decision making tool. It is quite easy to identify the benefits of something by looking at how things will be better if you do it or buy it. If
I usually try to keep my ranting on my blog to a minimum, but I have been so saddened by the story of the 71 year old lady from WA who is faced with losing her home to a high risk investment strategy that was probably never appropriate for her (ABC report here). Over a number of years, on a nurse’s wage, she has amassed 11 investment properties (in addition to her home), owes over
Have you been putting off sorting out your personal finances? If you have, you are not alone. It is not always acknowledged in financial planning that our relationship with money is laden with family baggage, regrets for missed opportunities and worries for the future. Denying the psychological and behavioural aspects of how we feel and make decisions about our finances is missing half the experience. Like watching an action movie without the background music. As
We all know that a puppy is not just for Christmas; By taking the cute little bundle into your life, you are making a commitment to a long term relationship. Your reward for this being years of faithful companionship (and hopefully some fun along the way as well). A lot of people only consider enlisting the help of a financial planner when they have an urgent need. Redundancy, divorce and bereavement are all crisis situations
With recent announcements from the major banks that they are raising interest rates on investment property mortgages, I think it is timely to talk about geared investments. In simple terms, a geared investment is one where some or all of the funds being invested are borrowed. The investor pays the interest on the loan with the intent that the investment return will be greater than the interest paid on the borrowings. The equation may also
If only it was possible to predict the future. Whether it be the lottery, the stock market or even which career to choose, we could always be certain of picking the winner. Unfortunately life isn’t like that and we can only make decisions based on the information that is available at the time. Some investment advisers may try to give the impression that they have expert or inside knowledge of what is going to happen;
It is that time of year again! Superannuation fund providers are preparing and sending out their annual statements. When yours arrives, here are a few things to check before filing it away. 1. Did you get more than one statement? If you have multiple superannuation accounts, it really is worth considering consolidating them. This will usually enable you to save on administration fees as well as making it easier to keep
I acquired the graphic accompanying this piece from some on-line learning I have just done on the topic of behavioural finance. The image is brilliant in its simplicity, even though its underlying message is a complex one. Your adviser stands between you and “The Big Mistake”. But what does that mean? The obvious Big Financial Mistake is the catastrophic one; the major investment that goes bad, out of control spending and spiraling debts, or being
I was horrified to see in a recent report (you can read here) that 44% of Self Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSFs) have not returned a profit for their members over the last 7 years (on average). This means that even without allowing for the effect of inflation, those people’s retirement savings have gone backwards during that time. An SMSF can be extremely effective; you have control over your money in terms of how it is