Humble Goode Financial | Blog

Mark, Director of Personal Finance Morningstar Australia, answers a reader question about investing outside of super. Mark answers a reader question about investing outside of super. 

The regulations implementing the Legacy Pension Reforms have now been registered and are effective on and from 7 December 2024. This means that the five year commutation window has now commenced and will cease on 6 December 2029.

Estate planning goes beyond just preparing a will – it's about wealth and assets being protected, preserved, and passed down to your loved ones the way you intended.

Three things to consider when planning for an early retirement. Few of us go through our entire careers without at least thinking about the prospects of retiring early. Perhaps it is after a difficult period at work. Perhaps after a special vacation.

Addressing retirees' fears of running out of money is essential for enhancing their quality of life. One of the biggest fears for retirees is running out of money during retirement and the impact this may have on their quality of life. With this in mind, many retirees only draw down the minimum of their account-based pension and lack the confidence to spend their retirement savings. They later regret being overly frugal in their early years of retirement. This is called ‘Regret Risk’.

Superannuation remains a highly tax-effective way for most Australians to save for retirement, offering concessional tax treatment of contributions and favourable tax rates on earnings within the structure. However, the proposed superannuation Division 296 tax on earnings of balances above $3 million1 requires careful consideration when developing financial planning strategies.

Until recently, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) stated that the average yearly self-managed super fund (SMSF) running cost was $13,900—a figure hotly contested by practitioners.

I recently wrote an article on how much you need to save to have a comfortable retirement. I thought I would turn this around and look at the return side of things. This is my attempt to figure out what return is required to have a comfortable retirement at different savings levels.

Most Australians don’t realise they are being charged up to six different types of fees on their superannuation. These fees can be opaque and hard to compare across different funds and investment options.

Using the family home to fund aged care can be a complicated decision, with many interdependent factors to consider.

From 20 September 2024, the maximum rate of the Age Pension has increased by $28.10 (single rate) and $42.40 (combined rate) per fortnightly instalment period. The Age Pension is increased each 20 March and 20 September.

There are four steps which must be completed to successfully claim a tax deduction for your personal superannuation contributions. If one or more steps are missing or not completed, the Commissioner of Taxation has no discretion to overlook those missing or incomplete steps.

If a pension commences as a non-reversionary pension can that pension be made reversionary without stopping and restarting the pension? The answer is a simple and definite “Yes” if the pension is an account style pension (such as account based pensions and transition to retirement pensions) and the governing rules expressly permit pensions to be varied.

Whether considering options for yourself or deciding how best to help someone close to you, residential aged care can be a complex area requiring careful thought. The uncertainty surrounding where to move, how much it will cost and where the money will come from can be overwhelming and stressful.

New research finds that customers with a guaranteed lifetime income product often have an easier time transitioning into retirement and have a better quality of life once doing so.

It is not possible to backdate the commencement of a pension. However, if the trustee and the member have informally agreed that a pension would commence from a particular date in a financial year (typically, 1 July for obvious reasons) and, in fact, pension payments are made in that financial year and the aggregate of the pension payments

There's been little debate on how spending changes as people progress through retirement. Yet, it's a critical issue as it can have a significant impact on the level of savings required at the point of retirement.

We are constantly comparing ourselves to others but savvy investors focus on progress against goals. Why does my car have a four-letter word instead of four interlocked rings on its nose? What can I do to lower the first two digits of my postcode to 20, 30 or 40? Social comparison is how we evaluate ourselves against others.

FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. I was critical of certain elements of the movement while supporting the overall goal. Offering a criticism without an alternative doesn’t help anyone.

The intergenerational wealth transfer will see many assets bequeathed. Most of these assets won’t be cash. Share portfolios are a common way that beneficiaries will receive assets – especially when the owner is an income investor that is living off dividends without drawing down on the capital of the portfolio.