Wealth Creation Blogs Worth Sharing.

It is not long now till the end of the financial year.  Now is the time to think about what opportunities and strategies are available to improve your financial position. If you’re planning on contributing to super, you may be eligible for a tax deduction for the current financial year provided you do so prior to June 30.  If you hold investments such as a rental property or managed funds and have used investment debt to purchase them, you may choose to pre pay the next 12 month’s interest.  This may allow you to bring forward those deductions and use them this year.  This could prove to be a wise strategy if you don’t have sufficient deductions for the year - particularly if you find yourself in the highest tax bracket.   No one likes paying tax, however if you’re paying tax it means you’re earning money which is a positive thing.  It’s paying “unnecessary” tax that we should avoid.  Don’t let these next weeks left of June simply ...

A complimentary review of your super and insurances is the first step we take with you at Hindsightwealth.  Put it on your new year resolution  "to - do" list. Andrew O’Brien and Hindsight Group Pty Ltd t/as Hindsight Wealth Pty Ltd (ABN 88 168 442 528) are Authorised Representatives of Affinia Financial Advisers Limited ABN 13085335397 & AFS Licence No 237857. The material contains general advice only and the consumer should consider the PDS and whether the product is appropriate prior to making a decision to buy.

Growth, growth and more growth is what we are about at Hindsight Wealth. If your super performance doesn't quite look like the graph above, perhaps it's time to do something about it? The last 12 months really should serve as an excellent test for your super fund. Investment markets around the world continue to perform strongly. 2017 is continuing to be a very positive year for domestic and international investment markets, and this should have translated to strong returns on your super fund. You should consider structuring your super fund to take advantage of this by investing in a personalised portfolio that is appropriate to your investor profile with your funds spread across all the different asset classes.  At the time of writing, the local All Ordinaries Index (a measure of the broader Australian stock market) is sitting just over 6100 points. An increase of some 14% from its level 12 months ago.  Whilst markets have been performing ...

I have had a few clients of late take me up on my offer of a  “Uber Ride &Chat” meeting.   It’s all designed to make your time and our meeting more valuable, hassle free and easy to review your latest super statement & insurances.  How it works.  Let’s make a time to meet at the Hindsightwealth Hamilton office. I’ll arrange and pay for in advance, your Uber ride from Brisbane CBD return. I will text you and screen shot the Uber confirmed pick up time, location and your Uber Driver detail. They will deliver you safely to Hamilton. Let me know your coffee or tea preference when we make our appointment – it will be ready waiting for your arrival. Lunch is on me.  A client opted for a lunch time meeting and needed it capped to 1 hour. No problem at all. In fact, we have a café close by that delivers great sandwiches which I can arrange for you if you choose to visit over lunch. Should we need to meet again  – need...

Many of you are keen to meet and chat about your latest Super Statement which is terrific!  However, it’s finding that time to come out to our Hamilton Office. If you are Brisbane CBD located, I’ll cover your return Uber ride to visit us Portside to kick start your Super Statement review.  If you would like to “ Uber Ride & Chat ”, let’s make a diary date soon. I also hear what people who work in the mines or FIFO are saying in regional Queensland.  It perhaps can be the last thing you want to do after a hitch with so many family, social and personal “to – do” lists to conquer. I visit regional hubs throughout the year and will always let you know when I am in town.  If there are a few of you, with or without your significant other, who would like to block out some time to discuss your latest super Statement, I’ll happily book a flight and meeting space for us to catch up. At the outset, it might be you are keen to find out how I ...

For those of you currently working in the resources industry, you would no doubt understand that the potential downside is the punishing rosters and long periods away from home that can take a toll on your family and personal life. Sure, the money is good for the most part, but it comes at a cost. Unfortunately, many marriages suffer irreparably and many industry workers find themselves having to “start again” after relationship breakdown and divorce.  It can be an extremely difficult time and apart from the emotional strain, there’s the stress of having to rebuild financially.  Quite often, you may find yourself in a situation where you’re left with minimal assets and essentially must start again. In this situation, it’s critical to make sure you have your superannuation structured and invested correctly. If you’ve come through a divorce with your superannuation intact, it may end up being your biggest asset. You really need to get it working for you. The othe...

As of July 1st this year, Queensland’s largest and Australia’s second largest super fund, QSuper, will no longer be the only choice for Queensland’s largest employer, the Queensland Government. The below is an excerpt from an email recently sent to all Queensland Government employees: Colleagues, From July 2017 you will be able to choose your superannuation provider. This change aligns superannuation arrangements in the Queensland public sector to those that have applied to public servants in nearly all other states and the Commonwealth for some time. So why is this such a big deal? Basically, it means that Queensland’s largest collective of employees now has access to Super Choice, a benefit that non-government employees have had access to for years. The Queensland Government has over 215,000 full-time equivalent employees, to put that in perspective, Townsville is one of Australia’s largest urban centres with a population of around 190,000. Whilst some public servants...

For those of you currently employed on a salary, your employer pays your superannuation fund 9.5% of your earnings payable each quarter. This is known as the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contribution. Some employers choose to pay monthly. However, most pay quarterly and today (October 28th) is the payment due date for the July -September quarterly payment. Have you been paid your contribution? It’s important to keep track of these payments. It’s your money and it will play a big part in your retirement. The other thing to consider is where this money is invested. Most Australian’s have some level of exposure to the local stock market via their superannuation. Over the last week or so, our stock market has declined by around 4%. What this means is that when your SG payment is made (hopefully by today), it will be invested within your super fund. With stock markets being down a bit, your super fund will be purchasing assets at a cheaper price. Is this important? Try...

Over the last 12 months I’ve published a number of posts specifically for those of you working in the resources industry. As more and more of you connect with me on LinkedIn, it’s becoming increasingly clear, people in the resource industry need to review their Superannuation and Insurance. It’s a positive opportunity to “get your financial self and your future self - sorted.” In the last 12 months there has been little improvement in the resource industry. We’ve seen an improvement in the spot price of coal, in particular coking coal, however this has yet to translate into a meaningful and sustained increase in activity. How do I know this? My client base is a high percentage of resource industry people - just like you, and I speak with them regularly. Also, as a Site Senior Executive (SSE) I keep up to date with contractors, suppliers, exploration/mining managers and other SSEs. What I’m hearing is, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re not likely to see a return...

In November last year I published a post called Time to Risk Assess your Super and Insurance and since that time (almost 12 months) the relevance of that post certainly hasn't decreased, in fact I think it’s increased. In the last year there has been little improvement in the resource industry. Redundancies continue, and to make things worse, industry super funds continue to provide very poor returns despite solid gains on local equity markets. We have little control over the state of the resources industry. However, we can control where our super is invested and how our insurance is structured. Be curious. Check your recent statement from your super fund which you should have received over the last few weeks. If you’re not happy with the returns, don’t ignore it. Do something about it. After all, it’s your money. My time as a Site Senior Executive (SSE) in the Queensland Resources Industry has taught me many things. The most powerful is that of the simple r...

I’ve posted recently about the positive start investment markets have made for the year. This in turn has had a positive impact on my client’s super funds with balances enjoying healthy gains. As I’ve said before, we shouldn’t get too excited about short term gains. Superannuation is very much a long term investment. However, what the last few months does demonstrate is the need to have your superannuation invested appropriate to your time horizon and risk profile. Understanding the numbers is important. For instance, if you are just starting out in your career and have a relatively modest super balance of $20,000, even a solid annual return of 10% will only yield in increase of $2,000 in your balance. By contrast, if you have a higher balance of say $100,000 then the same percentage return yields a $10,000 increase. Obviously this isn’t a complicated concept. However it highlights the need to manage your super correctly from the very start. Get your super performing ea...

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On January 13 this year I wrote a post The markets are down! What’s going to happen to my super? What do I do? And here we are a little over 2 months later and the contrast could not be greater.  Welcome to the world of investing! So what do all these numbers mean and how does it impact on my super? Well, for the majority of people, their superannuation has some level of exposure to Australian stock markets.  To get an idea of how the market is performing, you can simply follow one of the indices such as the All Ordinaries Index or ASX 200.  Without getting too technical, these are a basic measure of how the majority of the companies on the Australian stock exchange perform on average on any given day.  Normally reported on the news at night you’ll hear statements like” the All Ords went up half a percent today” . On Feb 12 this year the All Ordinaries sat at around 4800 points.  It’s currently sitting at 5240 points which means an increase of...

Keeping track of your superannuation can be difficult.  Especially when you consider the average time Australians are currently spending in a job is just over 3 years.  So in a 50 year working life, on average you’ll have around 17 jobs.   That’s a lot of super funds to keep track of.   Each one of your funds could be charging you fees and each of them could have insurance built into them.  It may not sound important, but it really is.  You could be paying more than you have to and you could be paying for insurance elsewhere when you already have it. Worse still, if something happens to you and you need to claim on that insurance, you may not know where to find it.  As part of the rollover consolidation process that I undertake with clients, a free “super search” is conducted based on your tax file number.   Various searching services have been around for a while, however, they usually charge a fee, take a long time and req...

Many of you may have noticed on your recent superannuation statement that an amount has been deducted for tax. Superannuation tax can be a little confusing, many people in fact believe that they pay no tax in their super.  Unfortunately this isn’t true. Each year your employer pays 9.5% of your salary into your nominated super fund in order to meet their Superannuation Guarantee obligations.  For every dollar that your employer pays into your fund, 15% of it is taken as contributions tax.  It’s worse if you earn over $300k per year when the tax paid jumps up to 30%. If you’re a savvy investor, you’ll have your super invested in funds that earn income throughout the year.  Be it interest, rent, dividends and so forth.  These earnings don’t escape tax. They are in fact also taxed at 15%. Of course these tax rates are well below most people’s personal tax rates.  So having your money in super does mean you’re paying a lower rate.  The trade off...

I’ve posted plenty of information recently in relation to superannuation and there’s no doubt that it can be a little confusing.  I thought it might be useful to put together a quick checklist that you can run through in 5 minutes and identify whether or not your super is on track. Do you know where your super is?  Yes ¨     No ¨ Is your employer paying you your superannuation guarantee payments?  Yes ¨       No ¨ The current rate is 9.5% of your income payable quarterly on 28 Oct, 28 Jan, 28 Apr & 28 July. You should have just received a payment, did you? Can you log in on line and check your current balance?  Yes ¨    No ¨ Is your superannuation invested appropriately based on your time horizon and investor profile?  Yes ¨      No ¨ Do you receive regular communication from an adviser to help with your investment decisions?   Yes ¨    No ¨ ...