Home
Search
thewest.com.au
LifestyleChevron Right Icon

Retirement Investments

Changing landscapeCommentsPremiumFinancial advice in a post-royal commission world

With the huge number of former Commonwealth Bank clients now seeking advice in a non-institutionalised world from a diminishing pool of advisers, what can they expect to find?

Raymond Pecotic

Plan aheadCommentsPremium5 things to ask and do before tapping into your SMSF

Planning for retirement and transitioning your self-managed super fund into retirement phase can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.

Tracey Scotchbrook

Investors bewareCommentsPremiumMind fine print when chasing higher savings returns

The Federal Court’s finding that LaTrobe Financial engaged in misleading marketing serves as a timely reminder to check the fine print before investing your money in supposedly low-risk investments.

Nick Bruining

Gift that keeps on givingCommentsPremiumMany happy returns with the gift of investments

Stuck for a gift idea for your adult children this year? Give the gift that keeps on giving with their own investment portfolio. Here’s how to get started ...

Fran Hughes

Responsible returnsCommentsPremiumIn our $3.4tr superannuation pool, it pays to be good

Experts say super funds that are doing responsible investment well are seeing their funds grow, leaving laggards at risk of losing market share.

Matthew Burgess

Amended returnsCommentsPremiumGremlins in machine of ATO’s auto franking credit refunds

Big cracks have appeared in a program designed to make franking credit refunds easier for seniors.

Nick Bruining

Game changesCommentsPremiumTime to right the wrongs on the other side of 50

If you’re over 50 and funding your retirement hasn’t been a priority, that needs to change. And if you don’t think superannuation should be playing a huge part in that, you’ve got rocks in your head.

Bruce Brammall

opinion
opinion
Extinction event?CommentsPremium
opinion
Fossil fuels, ESG and investing opportunities post-COP26

The discussion revolves around environmental, social, and governance, green energy, decarbonisation and fossil fuels. You may ask: ‘Why go there?’ Because I sniff an opportunity.

Peter Warnes

Rules changeCommentsPremiumWhy your financial adviser may be trying to cut and run

YOUR MONEY: It’s become a brutal reality of the changing face of financial advice, but beware of becoming a statistic of the great purge.

Nick Bruining

opinion
opinion
A mighty disincentive CommentsPremium
opinion
Gina just might be right about retirement and the pension

We could do a lot worse than tapping into our seniors to fill a skills shortage. But why would they want to when under the current rules they face a tax rate which is the equivalent of at least 50 per cent.

Nick Bruining

Rent-for-life collapseCommentsPremiumSterling First failure referred for criminal prosecutions

More than 100 mainly pensioners lost their life savings in the 2019 collapse of the rent-for-life scheme

Sean Smith

Budget pressurePremiumCost of funding your ‘comfortable’ retirement just went up

Seniors are digging deeper into their nest eggs to fund the rising cost of everyday living, according to a new study which has recorded the highest annual increase in retiree budgets in more than a decade.

Daniel Newell

opinion
opinion
Big foreCommentsPremium
opinion
You know there’s a crypto bubble when CBA comes to play

CBA has joined crypto floggers by using conventional business language to lend credibility to speculative punts on the value of transactions inside databases with cool-sounding names.

Neale Prior

Big dividePremiumRetail v sophisticated? It’s a matter of protection

The needle on who can become a sophisticated investor had barely moved in 30 years. But while the number of those who can has boomed, they are missing out on protections afforded to retail investors.

Nick Bruining

opinion
opinion
Guess who?Premium
opinion
Advice industry rules fit only for those who made them

YOUR MONEY: ‘Financial advice, as an industry, is being choked to death. Deliberately not quite enough to kill it, sort of like Homer Simpson strangling Bart.’

Bruce Brammall

Weigh the optionsPremiumThe tax hack that uses super to pay off the mortgage

Ploughing as much as you can into the home loan may seem like the most sensible approach, but is it the most efficient way of clearing that mortgage? There is another more tax-effective option.

Raymond Pecotic

No morePremiumWhy are so many retirees headed for the SMSF exit?

Financial planners are reporting an increase in the number of seniors looking to close down their self-managed super funds.

Nick Bruining

Money smartPremiumWhy salary sacrificing is not always a super strategy

A slight change in strategy now could not only save you the tax, but could also add cold hard cash to your nest egg, thanks to free money from the Government.

Nick Bruining

opinion
opinion
Process changePremium
opinion
New rules to undo bad financial advice

The new system looks to be a significant improvement on the old but in the legal world there is a big difference between how things are meant to work and how they actually operate.

David Huggins

Super legacyPremiumBusting open retirement piggy bank once you’re gone

It is probably the largest liquid asset many of us will own, but few of us understand what happens to our superannuation funds when we die. Here’s how it work ...

Nick Bruining

Super legacyPremiumBusting open retirement piggy bank once you’re gone

It is probably the largest liquid asset many of us will own, but few of us understand what happens to our superannuation funds when we die. Here’s how it work ...

Nick Bruining

Timing everythingPremiumShould you catch the falling iron ore knife?

With the big and rapid iron ore price decline, investors are right to wonder if there’s a bargain here among the miners?

Mathew Hodge

Gushing guffPremiumBeware of humbug in glowing claims about crypto returns

The only potential profits in crypto are price increases. The risks of huge capital losses for those holding it are very real. Here’s why you need to beware the hype about its comparison to shares.

Neale Prior

Tread carefullyPremiumIs a SMSF right move in red hot property market?

Like all borrowing strategies, the gearing double-edged sword means that while it magnifies gains, it can also magnify losses.

Raymond Pecotic