The No-Regrets Retirement Newsletter

So with winter now well and truly upon us, the outlook for the Australian economy appears just as bleak, with interest rates still rising and little to suggest that will stop anytime soon.

While you will read in my latest economic run down that the local rate of inflation has eased during the past month, there is still significant pressure on the Reserve Bank to push rates higher.

Failure to do so by the Reserve Bank, runs the risk of Australian interest rates falling behind those offered by our trading partners, pushing the Australian dollar lower  and with that prices higher for all imported goods.

I think we all appreciate that times are hard for most Australians at the moment but perhaps those feeling it most are wannabe first home buyers trying to take their first step on the property ladder.

This has prompted many parents to help out financially with the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad, now estimated to be the tenth largest provider of home loans to first home buyers in the country.

While I understand to give children money that will eventually come to them via their inheritance, doing so could put your own financial security at risk so I provide some solutions that could help you that.

Sadly another key risk for many of my clients will be the potential to fall victim to elder abuse. Sadly this is on the rise and a lot of it can be traced back to the misuse of Power of Attorneys.

These powerful legal documents can be a god send in the right hand and can be extremely necessary in some situation but they open to mis-use and can themselves lead to elder abuse.

Much of the difficulties lie in the fact that they are governed by state based laws and there is no central registry for them, something that I hope with time will be resolved.

Looking at financial markets, I see that Medibank Private took another hit this past month, due to the continued fall out following on from the cyber attack they suffered last October.

Nonetheless, I still believe this is a good investment and still worth buying on any dips.

Many clients I know are extremely interested in sustainable investments and so I thought I would provide an explanation of greenwashing - the art of making an investment looks as though it ticks all the sustainable investment boxes. I hope you find it interesting.

Finally, the last week of the financial year is always a tough time for anyone working within the financial services sector and within this practice, this year has been much tougher than most.

I believe I constantly try to encourage clients to make concessional contributions or tax deductible super contributions as soon as their accountant suggest that they should and this should be in May.

I will be writing more about this next year, but I will be insisting that clients let me know of any super contributions they are hoping to make by the end of May and that they are actually made by the second week of June.

This year I've had several clients leave it to the very last moment to make contributions and then have been disappointed when they have not been successful or have faced significant difficulties doing so.

Very few superannuation funds allow such late contributions and while Netwealth has its own cut off times, I think this year they have gone over and beyond trying to help clients make contributions after this cut-off point.

Personally, I think the pressure and tension this creates both within my own business and within Netwealth is completely unreasonable and unwarranted.

As a result, I will not be help clients make contributions to super in the last two week of the financial year.