Newsletters

Traditionally, the biggest changes to our tax and financial systems are announced on budget night.

Whatever happened to January and February! I can’t believe we’re nearly a quarter of the way through 2023.

It has been far too long since our last newsletter and we have a lot of exciting things to update you on.

On Tuesday the RBA increased the cash rate by 0.5%, that’s 0.75% in two months. A number of economists predicted a rate rise of 0.4% or more, inflation is running high & low unemployment are two of the main factors that have driven a double rate increase.

Overall, the government is not in quite as much debt as it thought it was going to be due to a very strong economy and strong commodity prices. This ‘not as bigger deficit as we first thought’ has been now coined as a ‘fiscal dividend’ which the treasurer has decided to hand out to lots of voters on the eve of what looks like will be a very challenging election for his government.

Geopolitical risks (involving military operations) are always a concern, but the impact on your super and the influence this has on our investment choices are less significant than other concerns.

Happy new year end welcome to our first newsletter of 2022. I had hoped to say that the New Year saw demise of COVID and that life was returning to what we can still remember as normal.

For many people this is an important question. The market has grown generous equity in your current home or other investments but the market is starting to slow, is now a good time to jump in?

We live in a world where our choices are almost limitless. Just a visit to the grocery store shows how many choices we have i.e., white bread, brown bread, multi grain bread, black bread…. with these everyday choices we have become very good at understanding our favourite or the type we need, but what happens when it comes time to decide on something we know very little about?

At the end of August, APRA released the results of its inaugural MySuper Product Performance Test, designed to help Australians more easily compare the performance of their super fund. Of the 80 MySuper products on the market, 76 were assessed by APRA. 13 products were found to have failed the performance benchmark.

It’s been well documented about the high growth we’ve seen in residential property over the past 12 months. Sydney saw an 8.1% increase for the March to June quarter 2021 and a 16.8% rise in the financial year 2020/21.

This financial year the government has introduced quite a lot of changes to super legislation. The below table explains the changes and how they could benefit you.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has mandated changes to income protection insurance to make the industry more sustainable after many insurers were consistently losing money. Some changes have already been made and others will commence from 1 October 2021.

As you are aware, Wollongong is subject to another COVID shutdown order. This order will apply for the next two weeks, and of course spans a very important day in the life of any accountant - the end of the financial year.

What a difference a year makes! Last May, the government didn’t even hand down the budget as the whole economy was shut down, businesses were closed and we were all stuck at home staring down the barrel of economic calamity. When the 2020-21 budget was finally released in October 2020, the final figure was a record deficit of $213.7 billion.

Instead of our usual written newsletter, this month we're bringing you a video from our Lending & Finance Specialist, Chris Smith. Watch below for an update on current interest rates and the home loan deposit schemes annouced in this year's budget.

With the end of the financial year in sight, now is a great time to start thinking about your end of financial year strategies and next years strategies. The following table represents opportunities depending upon your circumstances:

Within our last newsletter, I alluded to a couple of big upcoming announcements. You have probably already noticed the first one – our new brand! We are extremely excited to launch this new brand and see it as an evolution of our story to date.