Blog
March 29, 2017
It’s hardly surprisingly that a personal finance article in Forbes magazine places the classic and straightforward investment practice of dollar-cost averaging high among a list of tips to help millennials become better, more disciplined investors in 2017. Dollar-cost averaging simply involves investing the same amount of money into shares or other securities at regular intervals – whether prices are up or down. Investors practising dollar-cost averaging automatically buy more, say, shares when prices are lower and fewer when prices are higher. In short, purchasing costs are averaged over the total period that an investor keeps on investing, thus the name […]
March 22, 2017
What are the best countries for a comfortable retirement? What countries have the best retirement-income systems? It seems the answers to these questions are rather positive for Australian retirees. The recently-published 2017 Best Countries survey from US News & World Report, BAV Consulting and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania ranks Australia as the world’s second-best country for a comfortable retirement – behind New Zealand and ahead of Switzerland, Canada and Portugal in the top five. Survey respondents aged 45 years and up ranked the best countries for retirement on seven attributes: affordability, favourable tax environment, friendliness, “a […]
March 15, 2017
Typically your forties is a time of established careers, teenage kids and a mortgage that is no longer daunting. There are still plenty of demands on the budget, but by this age there’s a good chance there’s some spare cash that can be put to good use. As you pass the halfway mark of your working life, it’s time to give retirement planning a bit more attention. How much? A 45-year-old today will reach ‘retirement age’ in 22 years. Taking inflation into account a couple will, by then, need an income of around $113,000 per year if they want to […]