Baby boomers’ housing experience may not repeat
Baby boomers still borrowing to buy property
Over the six years to 2009-10 [1], baby boomers (those born between 1945 and 1964) continued to pour money into both owner occupied housing and other property. And they were happy to take on additional debt to do so.
The table below shows the change between 2003-04 and 2009-10 in the percentage of households, by age of reference person, where the homeowner has a mortgage.
You can be better off paying capital gains tax!
Surely, it’s better to defer paying tax
It is not unusual for clients to have sizeable exposures to individual shares that they have held for long periods of time. We generally would encourage them to sell these holdings and invest the proceeds into highly diversified investments to reduce the risk of their portfolios, without a loss of expected return.
However, we often experience considerable resistance to this advice if sale of the shares would result in the crystallisation of significant capital gains and the obligation to pay capital gains tax. Clients reasonably ask “What’s the point of taking an unnecessary action that brings forward the payment of tax?”
The Allure of Gold
Gold as a safe haven
The allure of Gold, as a viable long term investment option, has shot to new heights in the past five years. While this is perhaps understandable given its status as a safe haven, should it be a fundamental component of an investment portfolio?
There is a lot of misunderstanding about gold, its role in the financial system and use within an investment portfolio. We aim to address some of these misunderstandings.
A Brief History of Gold
Gold first became a transferable form of money around 560 B.C. when gold coins (stamped with a seal) were used by merchants to simplify trade. The coins were valued according to their inherent gold content. In 1066, Great Britain developed the British pound (symbolising a pound of sterling silver) and other units of currency based on their inherent metal value. During this period, gold (and silver) represented the main means of exchange (i.e. money).
How does your “Personal Financial Scorecard” look?
A picture paints a thousand words…
Our recent article, “What is “The Value of Financial Planning”?”, introduced a number of key metrics that we monitor to assess clients’ progress toward meeting their financial objectives. Together with some additional important measures, a “Personal Financial Scorecard” can be created for each client.
This Scorecard succinctly captures financial progress and highlights strengths and weaknesses in a client’s current situation. It’s easy to see whether a client is on track to achieve their desired financial future and what steps they need to take to enhance their financial position.
Is residential property a good investment?
The arguments in favour of residential property investment appear overwhelming
Housing prices remained reasonably firm through the worst of the “Global Financial Crisis” and have risen steadily over recent months. Many do-it-yourself investors, badly bruised by the battering taken by domestic and international sharemarkets, are seeing investment in residential property as a “safe” investment alternative.
The arguments in favour of residential property investment appear overwhelming and include:
Click Here To Read More
International shares: To hedge or not to hedge?
Strong Aussie dollar wipes out international share gains …
In our recent article, “Should you hold international shares in your investment portfolio?”, we argued that there are diversification or risk reduction benefits from holding international shares as part of a share portfolio. To keep it manageable, we did not directly address the exchange rate risk that comes with owning shares denominated in another currency.
However, with the Australian dollar (AUD) appreciating 36% against the US dollar (USD) and 25% against the Reserve Bank’s trade weighted basket of currencies over the six months to September 2009, we are concerned that some poor decisions are being made in response.
The past six months has seen strong local currency gains in international shares almost completely offset by exchange rate losses when converted to AUD. This has resulted in some investor disenchantment with international shares. The knee jerk reaction has been to either reduce the international share allocation and/or to choose share funds that are protected against exchange rate movements i.e. hedged.
Click Here To Read More
Should you hold international shares in your investment portfolio?
Invest in international shares for reduced risk …
Many individual investors, particularly do-it-yourselfers, do not hold international shares in their investment portfolios. Why would you, they ask – returns have been poor for almost a decade now.
But the argument for allocating part of your share portfolio to international shares is not based on returns. Returns cannot be reliably predicted – past performance does not provide a guide to future performance.
As part of your portfolio, international shares offer the prospect to reduce risk without affecting expected return i.e. increasing your risk adjusted rate of return. This is partly the “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” idea. But also because global share markets do not go up and down in tandem with the Australian market, international shares can reduce the variability of your share portfolio’s returns.
The risk reduction effect, or diversification benefit, is sometimes called “the only free lunch in finance”. But if this argument for holding international shares is accepted, how much should be allocated to them?
Click Here To Read More
“Timber”: Agribusiness Managers Felled
Diseased from the beginning …
Within a couple of weeks of each other in April and May, the two largest stock exchange listed managers of managed investment schemes (“MIS”), Timbercorp and Great Southern, went under. Most likely, shareholders will end up with nothing while creditors are almost certain to take a substantial haircut.
Timbercorp and Great Southern sold interests in agriculture based (or “agribusiness”) investment projects, particularly forestry plantations, to investors or “growers”.
While the “green” credentials of the projects were highlighted, the primary purchase motivation for investors was the large up-front tax benefits offered. The long term economic viability of the projects was always suspect, even more so now that their ongoing management is under a cloud.
Based on our wealth management principles, we think these projects and the decisions to invest in them were flawed from the start. It is a tragedy that there is now an estimated $6 billion of funds and 61,000 investors (see Footnote) caught up in a disaster that could have been avoided by applying a few tried and tested decision making fundamentals.
Click Here To Read More
