Overview The Federal Government has announced that it is no longer able to deliver on its $1.5 billion projected budget surplus in 2013-14. Instead it will deliver a deficit of $18 billion in 2013-14 and look to return the budget to a surplus position by 2015-16 – of $0.8 billion. GDP growth is forecast to
Data compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the current Australian population heading towards 23 million (jn fact it is 22,699,750 at the time of writing). The most populous state ? New South Wales (with 7.27 million people), followed by Victoria (5.58 million), then Queensland (4.45 million). The median age of an Australian is
It's been said that cash is the riskiest asset class. But how could this be ? Isn't cash the most liquid asset. Is it not the most stable asset ? Is it not the one asset class that most likely will not have a negative return? There's a featured article ("Risk and the 401k investor: How Plan
An illuminating article in the Australian Financial Review (23/7/11) talks about how the big banks etc. (and the financial planners aligned to them) "funnel most of their client's money into their own products". The article points out that: according to Roy Morgan Research, AMP aligned planners are directing more than 80% of their clients' superannuation
A Harvest Special Report. Factors that impact retirement planning for women It is estimated that by 2019, women, on average, will have super investments half that of men*. Data from 2004, showed that 30% of women had no superannuation and that 50% of women had $8,000 or less. To compound this, women tend to live