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22 February 2025
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Unique and challenging ideas on retirement spending, broadening your 'sphere of risk', the tax you pay, Nassim Taleb and a fat-tail world, bond yield affecting equities.
How do you determine annual spending for retirement, endowments or charities over a long horizon when investment income and the market value of assets fluctuate substantially from year-to-year?
Your retirement could quickly become very different if an accident to your children left you caring for your grandchildren. Consider some strategies to manage your 'sphere of risk'.
There's an ongoing debate about income inequality and personal income tax. Looking at the numbers, 45% of Australian adults pay no personal income tax, while 1.5% of adults pay 26% of income tax.
Nassim Taleb argues we live in a fat-tail world where extreme events are common, while our ability to predict them is nil. Superannuation funds should run extreme stress tests and manage the results.
It is the direction of interest rates rather than the absolute level of interest rates that seems to be a substantive driver of equity returns. Prior to the 1970s, rising interest rates meant poor future equity market returns.
While encouraging people to draw down on their accumulated wealth in retirement might be good public policy, several million retirees disagree because they are purposefully conserving that capital. It’s time for a different approach.
This examines the performance of key asset classes and sub-sectors in 2024 and over longer timeframes, and the lessons that can be drawn for constructing an investment portfolio for the next decade.
The CIO of Australia’s fourth largest super fund by assets, John Pearce, suggests the odds favour a flat year for markets, with the possibility of a correction of 10% or more. However, he’ll use any dip as a buying opportunity.
Getting regular, growing income from stocks is tougher with the dividend yield on the ASX nearing 25-year lows. Here are some conventional and not-so-conventional ideas for investors wanting to build a dividend portfolio.
Australians are used to hearing dire warnings that they don't have enough saved for a comfortable retirement. Yet most people need to save a lot less than you might think — as long as they meet an important condition.
It’s well documented that many retirees draw down the minimum amount required and die with much of their super balances untouched. This explores the reasons why and some potential solutions to address the issue.