Oliver's Insights – Peak Australian home ownership - rising prosperity (and smashed avocado) versus housing affordability

Key points

- Based on a Report by Bernard Salt, Australia’s home ownership rate peaked at 73% in 1966 as the home was then seen as synonymous with wealth and security.

- Since then, the trend has been down, influenced by a combination of demographic trends, rising prosperity and changed perceptions of wealth.

- A significant deterioration in housing affordability over the last thirty years has also likely been a key driver of declining home ownership. This risks threatening social cohesion.

- The key to improving housing affordability and help home ownership is to boost supply & encourage decentralisation.

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Oliver's Insights – Commercial property returns under threat

Introduction

Over the last 10 and 20 years, returns from Australian unlisted commercial property have averaged 9% pa. This in part reflected the search for decent income bearing investments by investors in response to falling interest rates & bond yields that pushed up property values faster than justified by rents. However, it’s now vulnerable from the rise in bond yields over the last two years and reduced space demand flowing from “work from home” for office property and online retail for retail property.

Key points

- Australian unlisted commercial property returns have been very strong over the last two decades thanks largely to the “search for attractive yields” by investors.

- With the back up in bond yields, this driver is reversing leaving retail and particularly office property vulnerable to significant capital loss in the face of reduced space demand.

- Key to watch will be bond yields, whether the economy avoids recession and where “work from home” settles

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Financial Stability

Financial stability is crucial if you want a comfortable and fulfilling retirement. Ensuring your financial health will help you avoid the stress and uncertainty that come with retiring prematurely.

The Key to the Ideal Retirement

1. You have peace of mind.

2. You can maintain your standard of living.

3. You will manage healthcare expenses.

4. You reduce the possibility of stressing your family.

5. You’re prepared for longevity and inflation.

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Oliver's Insights – Australian home prices

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Australian home prices - Prices look to have bottomed as the supply shortfall dominates, but watch rates and unemployment

Key points

- Australian home prices rose again in April & along with other indicators suggest the home price downturn is over.

- A surge in demand on the back of high immigration and constrained supply appear to be dominating the negative impact of higher interest rates

- As such we have revised up our property price forecasts to flat to up slightly for this year with a 5% rise next year.

- However, the risk of another down leg in prices is high as interest rate hikes continue to impact.

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Turn up your scams radar + Manage living costs + Make a balance transfer work for you

Protect yourself from scams

Use this four-step guide to turn up your SCAM radar so you can spot a scammer and protect yourself. By keeping up to date with the latest scam trends, you can stay one step ahead of scammers

Step 1: STOP
Step 2: CHECK
Step 3: ACT
Step 4: MONEYSMART

Read full article here.

Manage the cost of living

Having a plan will help you feel more prepared when your living expenses increase. There's also support and services available if you're feeling overwhelmed.
Practical steps to help you manage living costs and keep on top of bills.

  • Make a plan

  • Get help if you need it

Read full article here.

Benefits of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) is a government-funded program in Australia that provides eligible seniors with access to a range of healthcare services and concessions. 

The program is designed to assist seniors in managing the costs of healthcare and living expenses by providing discounts on prescription medicines, medical services, and utility bills. 

Benefits:
- Access to discounted prescription medicines
- Medical services
- Discounts on public transport
- Savings on utility bills
- Free or discounted rates on dental, hearing and eye care services

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How parents can prepare for the cost of education in Australia

Education is a vital investment in your child’s future, but it can also be a significant financial burden for those who are unprepared.

Key Points :
- Estimate your child’s educational expenses.
- Make a budget and save.
- Pay off debt ASAP.
- Consider investing.
- Practise money-saving tips with your children.

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Oliver's Insights – Five charts on investing to keep in mind in rough times like now

Key points

- Successful investing can be really difficult in times like now with immense uncertainty around inflation, interest rates, issues in global banks and recession risks impacting the outlook for investment markets.

- This makes it all the more important to stay focussed on the basic principles of successful investing.

- These five charts focus on critical aspects of investing that are insightful in times of market stress: the power of compound interest; don’t get blown off by cyclical swings; the roller coaster of investor emotion; the wall of worry; & market timing is hard.

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Compare mortgage rates + Solar investment scam + Greenwashing

How much will your mortgage repayments be?

  • Use our calculator to compare different rates

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Scam alert: United Solar Investments

  • United Solar Investment promotes a suspicious scheme which claims to allow Australian consumers to purchase an interest in solar panel systems. The scheme is being promoted as a ‘financing of photovoltaic solar power generation’ offering unrealistic returns of up to 20% and unlimited referral commissions.

Click here to read full article.

Investing without the greenwashing 

Find out what ESG investing is and how it works. So you can choose investments that match your goals and values.

What ESG means

  • ESG investing is when a fund considers sustainability (including environmental, social and governance factors) to inform their investment strategy.

  • There is a growing demand for ESG investing, also known as sustainable (or sustainability-related), responsible or ethical investing.

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Oliver's insights - seven key charts for investors to keep an eye on

Key points

  • We are reasonably upbeat on the outlook for investment markets this year, but it won’t be smooth sailing and after a strong start to the year share markets are vulnerable to a further pull back in the short term given ongoing issues around inflation, interest rates, recession and geopolitics.

  • Seven key charts worth keeping an eye on remain: global business conditions PMIs; US inflation and our Pipeline Inflation Indicator; unemployment & underemployment; inflation expectations; earnings revisions; the gap between earnings yields and bond yields; and the US dollar.

Read full article here

Scam alert: Fake bill and loan discounts

  • ASIC is alerting investors about an impersonation scam using email and cold calling tactics

  • Scammers are making fake offers of 30% discounts on bills and loan repayments

  • Unless you are dealing directly with the service provider, discount billing and upfront payment offers are often scams.

Scammers are using free email services to falsely impersonate a registered company to make fake discount offers on bills and loan repayments. Discount offers from third parties are often fake, especially when they make the offers by cold calling you.

Click here to read more.

What motivates people to become financial planners?

What motivates people to become financial planners?

A key challenge facing the Profession is the recruitment of the next generation of planners. Central to recruiting more professionals is understanding what motivates individuals to become planners in the first place.  In a recent article titled “Factors influencing the Motivation to Pursue a Career in Financial Planning” published by the Financial Planning Research Journal, Michelle Cull, Csilla Skultety and Ryan Kumar from Western Sydney University undertook research to understand the answer to this question.

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Importance of General Life Insurance

Risks such as accidents, calamities and medical emergencies can change your life, leaving you with debt and losses.

For example, if a fire damages your home, you must use your savings to rebuild or seek help from friends and family if the house isn’t insured.

Such uncertainties are why you must protect yourself and your property with general insurance. General insurance policies protect you from losses if a risk covered by your policy happens.

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Oliver's Insights – Seven reasons why Australian shares are likely to outperform global shares over the medium term

Key points

- The underperformance of Australian versus global shares since 2009 reflects a combination of tighter monetary policy, the strong $A into 2011, the slump in commodity prices, property crash phobia and classic mean reversion.

- Australia’s performance is much better if dividends are allowed for, but it has still underperformed since 2009.

- With the prior outperformance in the 2000s resources boom now reversed there is good reason to expect Australian shares to outperform over the next 5-10 years.

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