Interest rate announcement - May 2017 Today the Reserve Bank of Australia met to review the official cash rate. After last cutting rates in August 2016, the RBA have again decided to leave rates on hold at 1.50% this month. Nonetheless, we have seen some lenders starting to increase their variable and fixed interest rates
The biggest changes to superannuation in over 10 years start coming into effect from 1 July 2017. As we approach the end of the financial year, you should take a moment to go through the following updates to ensure you’re ready for the coming changes and to avoid getting caught out. Reduced Concessional Contributions Caps
2016 Review: some surprising events but ok overall 2016 will undoubtedly be remembered as a year of unexpected outcomes, particularly in a political context. The sudden rise of “populist politics” delivered a number of surprising vote outcomes around the world including the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States and
Despite being consistently written off as having little or no chance of defeating his opponent, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump won the recent US Presidential Election and will succeed Barack Obama in late January 2017 to become the 45th President of the United States. In this article, we take a look at what impact Trump’s presidency
The current low interest rate environment has led many income focused investors to look for assets which produce a higher level of yield than cash. Often these investors have chosen Australian shares which pay strong dividends and have franking credits attached. However, the events of the past month have been a timely reminder that dividends
We currently assess the Sydney property market to be at the high end of fair value. We expect that it may have peaked during 2015, and if there is a price drop in 2016 that it will be modest. We anticipate the price drop to be in the vicinity of 5%. Our view on
Welcome to the New Year, we look forward to guiding you through the investment market in 2016. 2015 in review At home the broader Australian market (S&P ASX300) finished just 2.8% up for the calender year, trading between 5982 in late April to 4918 in late September. All major commodities continued to fall throughout the
Key Australian and Global Economic Indicators as at November 2015
Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) takes into consideration not only the financial returns of a company but the social impact it makes. This can involve various levels of social responsibility from sustainability themed investing, negative screening (avoiding certain types of companies, for example, alcohol, gaming and tobacco) to best practice in relation to environmental, social
A large number of Australia’s population are approaching retirement age and looking for an income stream to fund their retirement. By law retirees aged between 65 and 74 need to drawdown a minimum of 5% of the value of their pension investments each year. Unfortunately, a conservative investment portfolio will generally provide a return below
