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James Coyle
James has over 35 years experience in financial services with particular expertise in two of the key components of retirement finance - Superannuation and the Age Pension. He is passionate about providing the guidance and support that can help older Australians enjoy their best possible retirement. He lives in regional Victoria surrounded by dogs and chooks.
Does your company service the Gold Coast? My husband and I have some important superannuation decisions to make and how it affects our Centrelink payments.
Thanks for reaching out for further assistance Bronwyn. We are a digital company that can service the entire nation. We will send you an email separate to this comment with further details on how we can assist.
I read a fair bit of the ‘investment press’ which advances ‘funds’ or ‘plans’ or ‘super’ as THE way retirees might keep afloat in retirement. I’ve never subscribed, willingly, to any. I’ve never seen why it’s deemed essential to have an ‘expert’ lose your money for you. I’m quite capable of losing my money all on my own AND i don’t have to pay a fee for the privelege of somebody else doing so.
If an investment philosophy is relevant, then mine goes something like this:
1.NO ‘funds”experts’ ‘plans’ or decisions taken for me.
2. As early as possible, ditch the ‘super’. YOUR money is YOUR money and YOU need every cent of it. Don’t pay ‘experts’
3.Ditch property. Been there, done that, never again. There’s too much money ‘hanging out there’ in one or maybe two baskets. Between government inroads, (CGT, Land tax) tenants and a wobbly market, for me, there’s not a lot of attraction any more. Gone are the days when a bit of a real estate flutter was a licence to print money.
4. Shares, in Australian securities are the only viable option. There is gold, of course, but that’s a bit akin to real estate. There are also other assets and I’d like to be one of those with the ability to sort the wheat from the chaff. Back to shares.
5. Which shares? I’ve been asked that many times. Mind, too, that I’m not a millionaire and never will be. I don’t even consider shares which aren’t paying a dividend. I’m a sticker, NOT a ‘trader’. I’m not keen enough to want to spend the hours needed for share trading. By trading I mean buying and selling within a relatively short time. Sticking is my term for the long term and taking your dividends.
6. With the present pestilences, some shares have taken a pounding. such as A2 milk. I thought the time might be ripe to buy: they were below $5, down from $30-plus. I could stand corrected on those amounts. BUT A2 milk have NEVER paid a dividend and aren’t likely to. Maybe a small trade’? How Small? At $60 a time brokers’ fees and CGT., the numbers have to be above certain level to be worthwhile. Strike off A2 milk.
7.Watch the ‘news’, such as it is. Use google and the ASX. Watch the prices, of course, but don’t quiver and quake when you see a holding or two take a nose dive. Often, companies will maintain their dividends through what seem to be very tough times. I had a mate give me the ‘I told you so’ line re Telstra, but HIS news was out of date and Tesltra’s dividends have remained at 8c. a share since goodness knows when. I took some pleasure in pointing out, with some primary-school arithmetic. the error of his assertion.
8. You DO NOT need financial ‘advice’, if you can do some simple arithmetic. Mathematics aren’t necessary. You DO NOT need a pricey broker. The discount brokers will do the job just as well: maybe they won’t offer ‘advice’, but that ‘advice’ comes at a pretty fancy price and might not be better than yours.
9.Your shares are IMMEDIATELY redeemable for cash, at any time, save weekends, at very short notice: just a phone call away. Try that with any of the ‘funds’ or ‘super’. Maybe you won’t make a profit on a quick sale, BUT you won’t have an advisor taking his cut from the sale, as is often the case when people retire and want their savings – which have probably been invested in shares anyway – oh, they’ll get money, but the ‘advisor’s’ fees will have been deducted. How many ‘booms and busts’ has the share market been through and superannuants’ remunerations are reduced, often by very large amounts, after which reduction, the ‘advisor’ takes his cut?
10. Have a go. The process is only a phone call away. Your crystal ball is as good as mine, or as good as ‘advisors’. There are plenty of discount brokers who will gladly take your orders. Keep dividends in mind and compare one with another.