Strategy

The Pension Loans Scheme enables retirees in Australia to ‘liquidate’ their assets by getting a voluntary, non-taxable, fortnightly government loan using their residential homes as security.1 These loan payments can supplement other retirement income they may have, such as the age pension and superannuation entitlements. The Pension Loans Scheme is essentially a government reverse mortgage scheme.

We continue our series on the government benefits all retirees should know about. There are a variety of government benefits that you can potentially access in retirement. It’s important to be aware of them and to claim all your entitlements.

There are a variety of government benefits that you can potentially access in retirement. It’s important to be aware of them and to claim all your entitlements.

There are a number of trends that will affect when you’ll be able to retire in Australia, as well as how you’ll spend your retirement. We’re living in a period of rapid economic, social, and demographic change that is affecting us now and it will continue to affect us well into the future. It seems change is the only constant in these turbulent times.

While lacking the sex appeal of direct equities and the familiarity of property, annuities can play an integral role in solving the funding issues faced by many retirees today.

While growth assets like shares go through bouts of short-term underperformance versus bonds & cash, they provide superior long-term returns. It makes sense that superannuation has a high exposure to them.

When deciding to skew your return focus in favour of growth or income, it is critical to look at your tax environment.

How can the loss of productivity from an ageing population be reversed? Japan is setting the blueprint for other nations with its ambitious technology policies, providing a case study for The Future of Work.

The world of investing can be confusing and scary at times. But fortunately, the basics of investing are timeless and some investors (often the best) have a knack of encapsulating these in a sentence or two that is insightful and easy to understand. In recent years I’ve written several insights highlighting investment quotes I find particularly useful. Here are some more.

These five great charts help illuminate key aspects of investing for income (or cash flow): there are alternatives to bank deposits for income; the gap between yields on different assets provides a guide to relative value; shares can provide stronger growth in income with less volatility than bank deposits; a high and sustainable income yield from an investment provides security; and yield is a guide to future returns.

Portfolio construction is a dynamic concept that should vary from person to person to match their investment preferences and goals. For the average Australian, most of their investment wealth will be held within superannuation that more often than not will be split primarily between stocks and bonds.

As a trader one of the worst things one can do when in the midst of difficult dry spell is to be distracted by what others are making.

As one of the top three retirement killers, it consistently surprises me how widely misunderstood and underestimated the impact of volatility is.

First and foremost, without financial security, decisions are made by others. Your lifestyle in retirement may be decided by the age pension. Your ability to assist others could be a direct concession on your own quality of life.

There are many financial ratios that, when combined, can display the real financial circumstances of a company. Like tools in the garden shed, each has their specific use.