2016 Review and Outlook for 2017

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

Generating income from investments

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

Interest rates outlook

Our interest rates outlook over the next 12 months is for the official RBA cash rate to remain steady at 2.0%. Many market commentators expect the RBA will reduce the official cash rate by 0.25%, and it could be as soon as May 2016. If the RBA does reduce rates by 0.25% we expect

The latest Sydney property market news

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

Staying calm during a volatile market

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

Investing for income in retirement

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

Australian share market latest news

The Australian share market has experienced a very difficult period since March 2015. We have summarised some of the key impacts on Australian shares, looking at the macro level and micro level factors that are playing a part. Macro level factors Earnings growth: Over the next two years there is an expectation that the Australian