Top 5 reasons to have legal representation

Most people don’t think they need a lawyer until they find themselves in a situation where legal advice is crucial. However, upon closer examination, there are numerous instances in life where seeking the expertise of a lawyer can make all the difference between resolving a problem successfully and suffering a loss. Let’s explore the top five reasons why having a lawyer to advise you is essential.

5 reasons:

Ensuring Legally Binding Outcomes

Knowing Your Rights and Entitlements

Saving Money in the Long Run

Avoiding Penalties and Fines

Having Reliable Legal Representation

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Oliver’s insights Australian home prices up on supply shortfall, but at risk from high rates

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The big surprise in the Australian housing market last year was how quickly home prices fell with RBA rate hikes. But the big surprise this year is how they rebounded when most including myself were looking for further falls. October CoreLogic data showed another 0.9% rise in national home prices, leaving them just 0.5% below their April 2022 record.

Key points

– Australian home prices rose again in October, with the supply shortfall on the back of record immigration dominating. Prices are now on track for a 9% gain this year.

– While the supply shortfall is likely to continue there is a high risk that the impact of high interest rates will start to get the upper hand next year particularly if the RBA hikes again and unemployment rises by more than expected.

– Price gains are expected to slow to 5% next year, but the risk of another leg down in prices next year is high.

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Budget-Friendly Home Renovation Ideas

We can’t really fault you for getting all worked up, as there’s nothing quite as exciting as embarking on a home renovation project to refresh the look of your space. However, some home renovations can get notoriously expensive and time-consuming, depending on the extent of the work required.

Here are five budget-friendly home renovation ideas you can start doing today.

1. Get new kitchen countertops

2. Paint your walls white

3. Install new lighting fixtures

4. Update your flooring

5. Replace old faucets, fixtures and fittings

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Oliver's Insights - Five constraints on medium term investment returns

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Key points

- Five megatrends suggest higher medium term inflation pressures & lower economic growth than pre-pandemic.

- These are: a move away from economic rationalist policies; the reversal of globalisation; rising geopolitical tensions; climate change and decarbonisation; as well as slowing and aging populations. A productivity boost from artificial intelligence should provide some partial offset though.

- But taken together this will likely constrain medium term superannuation returns, potentially to around 5.5% pa.


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Oliver's Insights - The threat of higher oil and petrol prices flowing from the war in Israel

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Key points:

  • The war in Israel has added to the upside risks to oil prices and downside risks to shares in the near term.

  • If Iran stays out of conflict & a major supply disruption is avoided the impact on shares should ultimately be minimal.

  • If alternatively, oil prices do have a renewed surge it’s more likely to be deflationary as it will act as a “tax on spending”. So central banks, including the RBA, should look through it.

  • The rise in petrol prices has already added $12 a week to the average household fuel bill in Australia since May.

Read full article here.

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Oliver's Insights - 1987 vs now - Rising bond yields (& war in Israel) and the risks for shares

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Key points:

  • The rise in bond yields has left shares offering a low risk premium over bonds leaving them at risk of more softness.

  • The conflict in Israel has added to the risk, although the threat should be minimal if Iran is not drawn in avoiding a severe impact on oil supplies.

  • These are parallels with the run up in bond yields prior to the 1987 crash but relative valuations are less threatening.

  • Still falling inflation should take pressure off central banks next year, which should in turn be positive for shares.

Read full article here.

4 Important Questions to Ask Your General Insurance Adviser

Due to the wide variety of general insurance policies, you can find a policy for each of your needs. However, the wide variety can also confuse, especially if you are a newbie in insurance matters.

Luckily, you can get the guidance you need from your general insurance adviser.

Ask these questions to get the information you need when comparing available options.

1. What Type of General Insurance Can You Advise Me to Buy?

2. How Can I Protect My Interests When Buying Insurance?

3. Does My Insurance Policy Cover Exclusions?

4. Can I Make Changes to My Policy in the Future?

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Oliver's Insights – For what it’s worth: why what you pay for an investment is a key driver of its return…and how do valuations look now?

The key points are as follows:

  • Starting point valuations – like yields and price to earnings ratios – are key drivers of medium-term investment returns.

  • For growth assets it’s often more complicated, with the level of interest rates playing a big role.

  • At present, valuation starting points for term deposits and bonds have improved. For shares they suggest constrained return potential from US shares but are better for Australia.

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Saving Money

Are you looking to build up your savings for the future but don’t know how or where to start? Check out these money-saving tips you can apply today.

Top 10 money saving tips

1. Record all expenses.

2. Plan your meals.

3. Save water and electricity.

4. Declutter and sell.

5. Skip the credit card.

6. Make coffee at home.

7. Create a grocery list and stick with it.

8. Bring your own bottle of water.

9. Purchase what you can in bulk.

10. Invest in timeless fashion.

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Oliver’s insights – Three reasons to err on the side of optimism as an investor

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Introduction

The “news” as presented to us has always had a negative bent, but one could be forgiven for thinking that it’s become even more negative with constant stories of disasters, conflict, wrongdoing, grievance and loss. Consistent with this it seems that the worry list for investors is more threatening and confusing. This was an issue prior to coronavirus – with trade wars, social polarisation, tensions with China, worries about job loss from automation and ever-present predictions of a new financial crisis. Since the pandemic higher public debt, inflation, geopolitical tensions and rising alarm about climate change have added to the worries. These risks can’t be ignored, but it’s very easy to slip into a pessimistic perspective regarding the outlook. However, when it comes to investing the historical track record shows that succumbing too much to pessimism doesn’t pay.

Key points

– The natural human tendency to focus on bad news, the increased availability of information and the rise of social media are magnifying perceptions around worries and making it easier to be pessimistic.

– However, to succeed as an investor it makes sense to err on the side of cautious optimism: otherwise, there is no point in investing; growth assets like shares have trended up over the long term; and trying to get the timing right of the 2 or 3 years out of 10 when they fall can be very hard.

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AE Newsletter - August 2023 - Insurance, Finance, Lifestyle

5 key considerations when looking at insurance for professional services:

1. Professional Indemnity Insurance

2. Cyber Insurance

3. General Property Insurance

4. Building and Contents Insurance

5. Business Interruption Insurance

Retirement Planning Tips:

1. Tailor Your Strategy to Your Time Horizon

2. Eliminate Debt as a Priority

3. Invest in Your Health

4. Overreliance on Social Security

5. Neglecting Inflation Consideration

6. Failing to Budget for Medical Expenses

Read full article here.

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Oliver's Insights - China's slowdown and structural challenges and implications for Australia

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Key points

- China’s economy is slowing not helped by a property collapse and longer-term structural constraints around poor demographics and threats to productivity growth.

- China needs to save less and spend more, and this requires significant fiscal stimulus. So far policy stimulus has been tepid, but a more forceful response is likely.

- Chinese shares are cheap but short-term risks are high.

- The risks around China’s outlook mean Australia can’t rely on the China/commodity boom indefinitely.

Read full article here

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Oliver's Insights – Why the need to lift productivity and why it might be hard

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Introduction

Outgoing Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has highlighted Australia’s weak productivity growth and noted that boosting it “should be the issue that dominates economic discussion”. So why is boosting productivity so important? And why is it seen as so hard to do? It’s worth having another look at it given its importance to our economy and investment markets.

Key points

- The last 20 years have seen a slump in productivity growth in Australia from over 2% pa to less than 1% pa. This has curtailed growth in living standards and real wages. It will adversely affect asset class returns if allowed to persist.

- Policies to boost productivity growth include: labour market reforms; more skills training; more infrastructure spending; increased housing supply; deregulation; and tax reform.

- Unfortunately, the political pendulum has moved against many of the policies necessary to boost productivity.

Read full article here.

Oliver's Insights – Recession versus goldilocks

Over the last 18 months, there has been much talk of recession globally and more recently in Australia. But, despite mild technical recessions (ie, two consecutive quarters of falling GDP in a row) in the US and Europe in the last 18 months, growth has generally been more resilient than expected and now with inflation falling many have started to give up on recession with increasing talk of Goldilocks (ie, where growth is okay and inflation is falling). So, have we dodged the recession bullet? 

Key points:

  • Rapid monetary tightening points to a high risk of recession and, given lags in the way it impacts the economy, just because it hasn’t happened yet does not mean it won’t.

  • However, a combination of falling inflation, a lack of excesses beyond inflation, excess household saving, the possibility of rolling sectoral recessions & strong population growth (in Australia) mean we could still avoid recession.

  • We remain of the view that shares will do well on a 12-month horizon, but the risks around recession and higher bond yields mean that the risk of a correction is high.

Read full article

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Oliver's Insights - The confusing economic picture - Why you need to know the difference between leading and lagging economic indicators

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Key points

  • For nearly 30 years Australia had benign economic cycles so the current environment may be a bit of a shock for many.

  • Still low unemployment and still high inflation despite slowing economic growth are not that unusual because they both normally lag big swings in the economic cycle.

  • The RBA and other central banks need to tread carefully and allow for the lags from the rapid rise in interest rates to work through - lest they end up pushing unemployment for higher than they need to in order to return inflation to target.

Read full article here

Oliver's Insights – Seven key charts for investors to keep an eye on – where are they now?

The article link below updates seven key charts worth watching in assessing the investment outlook. The key points are as follows:

  • Shares are at risk of a short term pull back and volatility will likely remain high on central bank and recession risks.

  • However, we remain reasonably upbeat on a 12-month view as falling inflation takes pressure off interest rates.

  • Seven key charts worth keeping an eye on remain: global business conditions PMIs; inflation and our Inflation Indicators; unemployment and underemployment; inflation expectations; earnings revisions; the gap between earnings yields and bond yields; and the US dollar. So far so good.

Read full article here

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2023 tax returns + Suspicious website alert + How CFDs work

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Lodge online with myTax

You can lodge your return using myTax, the ATO's free online tax return. You need a myGov account linked to the ATO to lodge online. Returns lodged this way are usually processed within two weeks.

Lodging with myTax is easy and free. Most information from employers, banks, government agencies and health funds will be automatically included in your tax return by late July. You just check the information is correct, enter any income that isn't included, add any deductions you have, and then submit. MyTax will then calculate your tax for you.

The ATO has 'how-to' videos to help you lodge online using myTax.

Click here to read the full article.

Alert: Suspicious website – Do not deal with www.cambridgeassetmanagement.com

The operators of www.cambridgeassetmanagement.com are promoting various investment plans in leveraged financial products on the website. The operators do not have an Australian financial services (AFS) licence and are not authorised to operate a financial services business in Australia.

Key points

  • ASIC is alerting investors about suspicious ‘investment opportunities’ offered on www.cambridgeassetmanagement.com. The website is allegedly run by a Hong Kong entity, Cambridge Asset Management, that is operating out of Hong Kong.

  • The operators of the website are not licensed to provide financial services in Australia. That means Australian consumers are not protected.

  • ASIC is not associated with the operators of www.cambridgeassetmanagement.com and will never ask you to pay tax to withdraw your investment funds

Click here to read the full article.

Contracts for difference (CFDs)

CFDs let you speculate on short-term market movements. Like foreign exchange rates, share prices, stock market index levels, cryptocurrency rates or other underlying assets. Most people lose money trading CFDs.

Click here to read the full article.

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Oliver's Insights - 15 common sense tips to help manage your finances

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  1. Shop around

  2. Don’t take on too much debt

  3. Allow that interest rates go up and down

  4. Contact your bank if struggling with a mortgage

  5. Seek advice regarding fixed versus variable rates

  6. Allow for rainy days

  7. Credit cards are great, but they deserve respect

  8. Use your mortgage for longer term debt

  9. Start saving and investing early

  10. Plan for asset prices to go through rough patches

  11. See big financial events in their long-term context

  12. Know your risk tolerance

  13. Make the most of the Mum and Dad bank

  14. Be wary of what you hear at parties

  15. There is no free lunch

Read full article here