Wealth Creation Blogs Worth Sharing.

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...