A surplus for now but stormy seas ahead Treasurer Jim Chalmers bills his 2023 Federal Budget as an economic strategy to help ease cost-of-living pressures. To that end, he has delivered a modest but welcome package of cuts to healthcare, housing and energy costs as well as boosts to welfare payments for single parents and […]
Stay up to date with what’s happened in the Australian economy and markets over the past month. March was marked by banking failures in the US that sent ripples through global sharemarkets. However, the first quarter of 2023 ended on a note of optimism in Australia due to better-than-expected inflation figures and expectations of a […]
Stay up to date with what’s happened in Australian and global markets over the past month. Our July update video takes you through key economic indicators so you can understand how the Australian economy is faring as we recover from the COVID-19 induced recession of 2020. Please get in touch if you’d like assistance with […]
As the new financial year gets underway, there are some big changes to superannuation that could add up to a welcome lift in your retirement savings. Some, like the rise in the Superannuation Guarantee (SG), will happen automatically so you won’t need to lift a finger. Others, like higher contribution caps, may require some planning […]
Luxury inner city apartments marketed as ‘perfect for empty nesters’. TV shows where cool older divorcees live in luxury on the waterfront. The ‘grey nomads’ community selling up and taking off in their camper vans. Even twenty years ago, the idea of downsizing wasn’t really part of our culture. The parental home was something to […]
Building a bridge to recovery In what has been billed as one of the most important budgets since the Great Depression, and the first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic dragged Australia into its first recession in almost 30 years, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the next phase of the journey is to secure Australia’s […]
In a rapidly evolving response to the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Government’s second support package announced over the weekend has flicked the switch to more income support for retirees and workers. Between the first $17.6 billion package announced on March 12, and this latest $66.1 billion package, the emphasis has shifted from stimulus aimed […]
It’s been a long time coming, but up to 630,000 retirees could soon enjoy a small but welcome increase in their Age Pension payments following a cut in deeming rates used for the pension income test.i Under the Age Pension income test, you are ‘deemed’ to earn a certain rate of interest on your savings […]
The Liberal/National Party Coalition has been returned to government, as Australians chose continuity over change and cautious economic management over Labor’s ambitious reform agenda. Although Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s election spending promises were more modest than Labor’s, they will still deliver economic stimulus in the form of personal tax cuts and other initiatives. This is […]
Investors started 2018 full of hope, with the global economy and financial markets in good shape. But by year’s end they were uncertain and a little anxious about what lay ahead. Markets responded with last minute falls across all asset classes. The issues that weighed heavily were the unresolved trade dispute between the US and […]