Happy New Year!

Welcome to the 2016/2017 financial year. No doubt you’re all enjoying your new cars and computers that you rushed out and bought before June 30. Or like most people, you probably didn’t realise that July 1st marks the start of the new financial year. Don’t’ worry, this is not going to be one of those “let’s look back over the last 12 months” articles where we remember which celebrities are no longer, or who won major sporting events (although go the Maroons!). But I think it important to give some brief consideration to how our local investment markets have performed and how this has translated to our super funds. Believe it or not, it’s been a fairly stagnant year as I write this. Our local markets are set to finish pretty much where they started 12 months ago. A little hard to believe given the recent Brexit debacle where we were all told it was the end of the world financially. So what should we expect from the next 12 months? Well, nobody knows. However, there is one certainty. Markets will go up and markets will go down. Consider this. The Australian equities market is still approximately 25% below where it was 8 years ago so there’s plenty of upside just to get back to where it was. In terms of your superannuation, you need to consider your time horizon, i.e. how long will it be invested for before you can access it. For a 35 year old, they face another 30 years before they can access their super at age 65. Not only that, once they do retire at 65, they’re not going to take their super and spend it in one go. They’re going to use it to produce an income in retirement - say up to another 30 years. So in reality, that’s a time horizon of 60 years. Now that’s a long term investment! So you can imagine how setting your super up now to achieve stronger year on year gains will make a massive difference to the end result. Over the next few weeks, you’ll be receiving your annual statement from your super fund. For those of you who use industry funds, this is likely the only communication you’ll receive from them for another 12 months. For Hindsight clients, you also enjoy daily access to your account balance and transactions. Read through your statement and have a look at your returns for the year and use the beginning of the new financial year as a prompt to review your superannuation to consider the following: • Are you happy with your returns? •Is your superannuation invested appropriate to your situation? •Are your insurances appropriate? You may be under insured or over insured. •Is all your superannuation consolidated into the one fund? •Are you happy with the level of service and communication from your adviser? If you answered “no” to any or many of the questions, it might be time for us to meet. A new financial year brings new opportunity. Don’t forget our Bronco ticket draw! Book your consult with me to have the chance to win tickets to the July 22 game. The Statement of Advice prepared for you by Hindsight Wealth is a confidential, comprehensive document detailing our recommendation for your Super and insurance options to consider for where you are in life now and what you want to achieve. We’re pleased to be able to complete this work for you at no cost. Be curious. Be informed. Be ready for the future you.

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