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5 May 2024
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Welcome to Firstlinks Newsletter Edition 308
Graham Hand
For a PDF version of this week’s newsletter articles, click here.
The ATO has released all the superannuation rates and thresholds that will apply from 1 July 2024. Here's what’s changing and what’s not, and some key considerations and opportunities in the lead up to 30 June and beyond.
Life has radically shifted with my brain cancer, and I don’t know if it will ever be the same again. After decades of writing and a dozen years with Firstlinks, I still want to contribute, but exactly how and when I do that is unclear.
How useful are the retirement savings and spending targets put out by various groups such as ASFA? Not very, and it's reducing the ability of ordinary retirees to fully understand their retirement income options.
Australia will have 3.7 million more people in a decade's time, though the growth won't be evenly distributed. Over 85s will see the fastest growth, while the number of younger people will barely rise.
Investor disgust, consolidation, de-listings, price discounts, activist investors entering - it’s what typically happens at business cycle troughs, and it’s happening to LICs now. That may present a potential opportunity.
The $3 million super tax will capture retired, and soon to retire, public servants and politicians who are members of defined benefit superannuation schemes. Lobbying efforts for exemptions to the tax are intensifying.
Growth investors are using Buffett to justify buying blue chip stocks at almost any price. It’s a recipe for potential disaster, as investors in market darlings like CBA and Cochlear may be about to find out.
With Australia’s population moving through the fastest rate of growth since the 1950s, our cities and towns are naturally densifying. This is a look at the latest trends and how they will impact the property market.
We're nearing the end of the financial year and it's time for SMSFs and other super funds to make the most of the strategies available to them. Here's a 24-point checklist of the most important issues to address.
Nvidia has taken the world by storm and is now the third largest stock on the planet - larger than Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet. Here is the latest take on Nvidia from a fund manager who first invested in the company in 2016.
Despite being richer, surveyed measures of happiness have been flat to falling in Australia. Some suggest we should focus less on GDP and more on broader measures of wellbeing, though there are pros and cons to that approach.
In an era where growth companies dominate and the likes of Nvidia grab all of the attention, dividend paying stocks are flying under the radar. Some of these stocks offer compelling prospective returns.
After more than a decade of pitiful yields, bonds are back offering better prospects for income investors. What are the best ways to take advantage of the market inefficiencies in Australian fixed income?