Lifestyle Solutions Financial Planning

26/01/2022

G’day everyone. Hope your all going okay with the heat that’s finally decided to hit us.

Well it’s been a while since it happened, but Investment markets have the jitters.

This has caused Sharp declines in International & Australian Sharemarkets the last few days…and this will probably keep going. Up and down, up and down…as bad news is offset by good news, and vice versa.

But you are all well invested, and there are no causes for concerns.

For those of you in the saving/accumulation cycles, all this means is that your Investments are now on “special”, so if your contributing, continue to do so. The Top Investors around the world certainly are.

For those of you living off your investments, this is why we have advised you to have different investments options and types, and different Asset class Investment options. The Investment options that have dropped in Value, we don’t touch, and they will definitely come back in value. The investment options that are the defensive ones, are the ones that have minimal impact from these Market drops and are the ones to use for income needs. Some of your funds have probably even had increases.

But try not to be concerned about the overall $$$ decrease. Have a look at the different Investment options you have? You will see some have barely dropped. And the ones that have dropped, your amount of units is still the same. So when the value of the Unit increases again (which it will), it will go back to where it was as a whole value. Because you have not accessed the Investment option that has suffered the drop 😊

And of course, for any queries or concerns? Just reach out 😊

24/11/2021

Lenders are about to move on Fixed rates for your Mortgages, and that direction is up.

If you were thinking about fixing, or have a fixed term that just ended, look at what the options are?

Remember, whatever amount you fix...The amount of Interest that you would pay in that Term, will get paid to the bank by you regardless. So if you try and get out of the Fixed term, or sell your home. The bank still gets their missed interest from you

Only fix, if you are staying where you are and there is no chance of you needing to break the term of the loan!!!

02/09/2021

Spring is here! Two things that might be on your mind are extra income if your retired, or extra wealth if your working. These two calculators might give you some ideas, and help.

https://www.centrelink.gov.au/apps/custonline_plsc/calculator

https://moneysmart.gov.au/budgeting/compound-interest-calculator

Our compound interest calculator shows you how compound interest can increase your savings.

05/08/2021

Lockdowns cause terrible impacts to people, and one of those is financially. So if you are worried about the financial impacts? Just reach out.

30/07/2021

An article that puts across many of the issues we have been facing, and talking to our clients about

Australians have been left with less financial guidance after the banking royal commission imposed a massive compliance burden on advisers, prompting them to leave the industry “in droves”, a parliamentary hearing has been told.

15/07/2021

Did you know that as much as various media, consumer groups and politicians try and blame Financial Advisers for everything. It was estimated that over a million Australians received Financial Advice last Financial year.

That must mean a lot of complaints to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). But no...AFCA just confirmed they only received 550 legitimate complaints against Financial Advice last year, and 40% of those were against AMP, the Big banks and Aware Super.

Considering the complexity and very personal nature of what we are dealing with....that is a Phenomenal stat.

Just saying :)

24/06/2021

Now that Banks have left Financial Advice, there are some excellent influences coming out now...

1. Only 1.4% of all Australian Financial Complaints Authority [AFCA] complaints were about Financial Advisers last year, the rest are against Institutions. That is incredibly low for us, considering the complexity of what we are advising on.
2. The ASIC 627 Paper ‘What Consumers think about their Advisers’ found 89% of Consumers trust their Advisers from an 2500 independent survey. ASIC said that it was a very high percentage, and showed the quality of Advisers working now.
3. The latest ROY MORGAN IMAGE OF PROFESSIONS 2021 SURVEY, Financial Advisers were rated twice as high as Federal Politicians (albeit not a great comparison, but I thought it was funny, considering it is politicians trying to blame us for their policy failings most of the time)

We have always been here to help, and it's nice to see it's not just our clients who are saying this about us now, the media is too.

30/04/2021

I'm just gonna put this here...1990 this was from. Wow.

24/03/2021

As well as saving for your children's education, help with their first car....without your help, they will never be able to buy a house at this rate. These price rises are happening now!

ANZ is tipping sharp property price growth this year amid low interest rates, pent-up demand and a fear of missing out. But the bank warns some first-home hopefuls could be left behind.

15/02/2021

Do you have a valid up to date Will?

Did you know that if you die without a Will, the state's appointed trustee's (State Trustee's in Vic) can charge your estate 5.5% of the total Estate Value to finalise your Estate!

30/01/2021

Law firms are heavily advertising to contact them to see if you can claim insurances within your Super if you become disabled, injured or can't work?

Don't do this. Just contact the Super fund, and lodge a claim if you have one...

All your doing if you use a law firm is lose 10-20% of your benefit in their fee's.

There are certainly occasions when you may need a Law Firm, but that is in exceptional circumstances only. Not every circumstance...

When it comes to Law Firms, the worst things we have seen are:
- A Law Firm taking 20,000 from someone's $100,000 insurance claim (law Firm wasn't needed at all for the claim, and they would have spent 4 hours max on the claim, and that remaining $80K, was all the person had to their name)
- A major law firm represented a large amount of people in a large litigation against a bank. They then convinced their clients to accept a 25 million settlement. The Law firms fee? 20 million dollars...

Solicitors are necessary in many instances, but not to fill in a few forms...

10/11/2020

We've been getting heaps of queries from people on forex trading... Must be a weird result of lockdown? people are being direct marketed about how safe and easy it is, and then ask us.

Easy it may be...safe it is not. This is high risk stuff. Beware and be careful...

REFER TO THE MONEYSMART LINK BELOW

How foreign exchange trading works and the risks involved with investing in them.