Wealth Creation Blogs Worth Sharing.

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...

Super Choice – how can employers help their employees? Since 1 July 2005, most employers have been required to give their employees a choice of fund for their superannuation guarantee contributions. It is only if the employee fails to choose, or chooses a fund which cannot be used by the employer, that the employer will be able to choose the fund. Prior to this, employees essentially didn’t have a choice and they were basically stuck with the fund their employer chose for them. In the past decade since “Super Choice” was introduced, there has been a great deal of competition in the superannuation market given that employees can choose where to put their money. A competitive market is good for consumers with an almost limitless choice of highly developed options for employees to choose from. So, what does this mean for employers? Well, in the early stages of this change it was essentially an administrative burden as large companies with large numbers of staff were faced with p...

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...

Quite often the Mum’s out there take time off from their professional careers to help raise the family. Of course, this is also the case for many Dad’s out there. As this weekend is Mother’s Day, the focus should be on Mum. Being properly insured whilst working is one thing, but what about when you’re taking time off to be at home? Many insurance companies recognise the importance of “stay at home Mums” (or Dads) and essentially treat the role as a recognised occupation. And so they should. It’s one of the hardest occupations we can undertake. Being insured while you’re at home is important. Why? What if you become disable, or worse? What happens financially for you and your family then? These are things that should be considered in an insurance review. A consequence of having time off may be that returning to work may mean starting a new job with a new employer. In fact this can happen to anyone over the course of their career. One of the outcomes is a number 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 ¨ ...

So by now we all know that Australian and global investment markets have fallen significantly, it’s on the news, in the papers and I’ve been publishing recent posts about it on LinkedIn. What’s causing it?   Truth is, it doesn’t really matter.  Oil prices are down, there’s talk of China slowing, commodity prices are down and so forth.  Historically there is always something occurring on the world stage that can cause negativity in markets.  Investors start to worry, they sell their investments at low prices, lock in losses only to have someone come along, buy them up and enjoy the gains as things recover. Warren Buffet, the world’s most famous stock market investor famously said, “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient”. And we can see this today.  As I write this, global stock markets suffered a large decline over night, with the expectation being that the Australian market would follow this morni...

It’s no secret that investment markets are being punished at the moment and we’re all seeing the balance of our super funds dropping.  Not a nice feeling? Welcome to the world of investor psychology.  Investor behaviour is for the most part counter intuitive, when markets are up we’re all happy and many of us want to invest more.  When markets are down, it’s doom and gloom and some even sell out. But if you think about it, that doesn’t really make sense.  In reality, the risk of markets falling is greater when they’re at their highs and the likelihood of them going up is greater when they’re at their lows. For most of our super funds, the longer the market stays down the better.  Most of us can’t access our super for a very long time so a depressed market is actually good.  There should be regular contributions going in to your super fund from your employer and at the moment these contributions are buying into very cheap assets. BHP, t...