What's the deal with housing prices?

For all of you who are sick of the sound of my writing, you're in for a treat today.

Property is always one of the hottest topics for us Australians, and one of my fave economists Dr Shane Oliver (Felix Stephen is still my number one) has written a terrific - and very reader friendly - article about the current state of play for housing.

It's not overly long and there's some pretty pictures.  Just click here for a copy.

And if you'd like to hear more of what I have to say on the matter, click here for a recording of my most recent "You & Your Money" radio segment on 98.1FM Radio Eastern.

Talk soon,
Caren

What to consider when someone wants to borrow money from you.

It's a topic I have blogged about before, but it's an important one.  A friend of mine was recently burned when a friend of his loaned some money for a business venture that failed and was unable to pay him back.  As you can imagine the friendship has seriously soured.  I wish he'd chatted to me before he'd generously loaned the money rather than afterward.

A number of years ago one of my clients came to me to ask my advice about loaning a significant amount of money to her daughter.  The first question I asked was whether there was any chance that her daughter might not pay her back, to which she replied "oh there is every change she won't pay me back."

I knew her financial position and knew that she couldn't afford that risk so told her to explain to her daughter that she wasn't in a position to help out.

But there are cases where we are in a position to help and at the end of the day, the only person who can decide if you want to loan a friend or family member money is you, but I do have some tips.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Will you suffer financially if the loan isn't repaid?  If the answer is yes then my recommendation is to walk away.  You don't want to put yourself into financial hardship because of somebody else's money problems.

2. Will your relationship be damaged beyond repair if the loan isn't repaid?  If the answer is yes then, again, I recommend walking away.  You don't want to lose your relationship AND your money.  In the very few times I've loaned money,  I have gone into the arrangement with the attitude that if I never saw the money again, I would live with it.  If I can't feel that way then I just don't do it.

3. How formal do you want the arrangement to be?  If someone asks to borrow money from you, particularly if it's what you consider to be a sizeable amount, then you have the right to expect a formalised written agreement.  The written agreement should state the amount borrowed, any interest that may apply, payment terms (how much and how often), and the date the loan should be finalised.

I'd recommend having the agreement drawn up by a solicitor and I personally believe that the person borrowing the money should foot the cost of the fees.

4. Will you charge interest?  And if so, at what rate?  Often loans between friends or family members are no interest or low interest and this is of course up to you.  You may wish to apply a market rate of interest, particularly if you believe there's a reasonable chance that you might not get your money back.  Perhaps it's unlikely that person will be able to get a loan from a bank or other lending institution and would be more than happy to pay the market rate to obtain the capital.

You do need to be aware that legally you have to declare all interest to the ATO, even if it's a loan between friends or family.

5. If it's not a formal written agreement, what are your terms?  Even if you decide not to formalise the agreement, I do think you need to be clear on the terms.  Your terms might include a structured amount to be credited to your account each month or a lump sum to be paid at the end of a certain period.

6. And once you've decided the terms, what happens if the terms aren't met?  At what point are you going to start jumping up and down or at least give a little nudge?  That's probably something you should also agree upon from the start.  And if the loan is never repaid - what are you going to do?  If an agreement is in place, are you going to take legal action?

Probably the best advice I can offer is to be totally up-front right from the start.  You may feel a little awkward, but if someone has had the courage to ask you for a loan, then setting the terms should definitely be your prerogative and should be expected.  Some ideas for approaching this might include:

"This is a lot of money to me and while I'm happy to loan it to you, I will need it to be repaid in monthly instalments by July.  Is that going to work for you?"

"I won't need the money for the next twelve months, but after that I really do have plans for it.  Will you be able to pay me back by September next year?  And will you do that as a lump sum or regular payments?"

"I'm happy to loan you some money, but I have to be honest, I've seen some relationships turn really sour when money is involved and I would hate that to happen to us.  Would you be agreeable to formalising the arrangement so that we don't have to worry about any of that?"

"If you happen to miss a payment, do you want me to give you a reminder straight away or give you a few days in case it's just slipped your mind?"

At the end of the day it comes down to personal circumstances and your relationship with the person needing a loan.  Just make sure you consider the risks involved and what you need from the arrangement.

If you'd like to hear more of what I have to say on the matter, click here for a recording of my most recent "You & Your Money" radio segment on 98.1FM Radio Eastern.

Talk soon,
Caren

Women and Super

Last Friday was International Women’s Day, so I thought it was appropriate to reference something I read in the Herald Sun from 6 March (there was no one in the lunch room to “quiz me” so I had to actually read the paper…). According to the article, a recent Canstar research report claims that stay-at-home mums miss out on $160,000 - $290,000 in superannuation savings.

Yikes, that’s a lot of money!

I’m definitely not suggesting that women who choose to stay at home with their children should now rush back to work to improve their super balance, but it does mean that somewhere along the lines you may need to address the “hole” and make sensible financial decisions to get back on track.

But what is “on track”?

Last week I mentioned that a typical rule of thumb is that you’ll probably need about 60%-80% of the annual income you earned before retirement to maintain a similar standard of living.

And if you like your statistics, the Association of Super Funds Australia (ASFA) release national figures each quarter benchmarking what most Australians need to spend to achieve a modest or a comfortable retirement.

According to the latest the ASFA Retirement Standard figures, a couple looking to achieve a comfortable retirement needs to spend $56,339 a year, while those seeking a ‘modest’ retirement lifestyle need to spend $32,555 a year. The figures for a single person are $22,585 and $41,186 respectively.

Of course, everyone’s different, but these figures can be a helpful guideline when you’re working out whether you’re likely to have a “super hole” (yep, double entendre deliberate) to fill in retirement - male or female!

Click here if you’d like to read a copy of the Herald Sun article, and click here for full details of the ASFA Retirement Standard including assumptions and their definitions of modest and comfortable.

Talk soon,

C

Some perspective around the “fiscal cliff”

Dad and I often laugh about some of the “extreme” terms that are coined by the media. One of our favourites is “fiscal cliff”, I mean blimey, how scary does that sound?! For me that term conjures up an image of Barrack Obama hanging one-handed from the edge of a cliff with Republican Treasurer, Tony Parker, prying at his fingers.

Don’t get me wrong, the situation in the US is serious, but as always, we need to keep perspective.

With all the doom and gloom, there’s also been a lot of good news coming out of the States and so I feel a little bit of balance is called for… Below are some good news stories that you could have been excused for missing amongst all the negative noise.

• Whilst there’s been a lot of media coverage on the fact that that the US economy contracted slightly in the December quarter, it would seem this is mostly related to disruptions caused by Hurricane Sandy and a drop in defence spending. So far nothing concrete to indicate they’re heading back into recession. 
• The pace of growth in private final demand actually picked up from 2% in the September quarter to 3% in the December quarter, and basically what this means is that underlying growth is fine, which is a positive sign.
• US corporates are in a financially very strong position with approximately $1.7 trillion dollars in cash sitting offshore. More than 70% of listed US companies reported greater than forecasted earnings expectations last quarter and 65% reported greater than forecasted revenue expectations.
• Business investment is looking stronger, construction spending is on the rise, consumer sentiment is up and jobs growth has been fair.
• The Republican Party (who control the House of Representatives) have agreed to cooperate with Obama’s recent debt ceiling proposal, albeit with conditions, which is a positive step. As I mentioned on my radio program last year, I couldn’t ever imagine the Republican Party would want to be seen as the reason the US went back into recession and for this reason would ultimately always agree to raising the debt ceiling. However, last year that they left their cooperation until the 11th hour and the argey bargey caused some real confidence damage. And if I can just hark back to last week’s blog post, you’ll recall the impact investor confidence has on sharemarket performance in the current climate.
• Obama has proposed a “sequester” on automatic budget cuts and tax increases which would have otherwise come into play this year, and this should hopefully have a positive effect on confidence and economic recovery.
• The International Monetarty Fund (IMF) have conceded that some of their fiscal austerity measures have been harsher than necessary, and will take a more moderate approach going forward.
• The US banking system may not be completely “fixed” but is greatly improved, and definitely well ahead of Europe.
• The US has access now to abundant cheap energy in the form of gas, and by 2017 is set to overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the largest single producer of oil in the world.
• The US housing crisis appeared to bottom late last year, and US households are reducing debt at around US $500bn per annum.

Without question, the US still have a massive task ahead to fully recover from the financial mess they got themselves into - a task made even more difficult by the political instability of a Government with no clear majority.

It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity because frankly that’s what’s thrust upon us every day, but at the end of the day, the question we really want answered is – how does this effect us? And you can only get this answer and perspective with a balanced view of what’s going on. Hopefully I’ve helped provide a little bit of that today.

What should investors be doing in 2013?

Today’s my first day back in the office since Christmas, and I’m pondering two important issues:

1. Why did I come back on a Thursday instead of just giving myself an extra two days break?

2. What was I thinking coming back on my birthday???!!!!

Interestingly, the financial world didn’t stand still while I was away. In fact it was quite busy!

Have you taken a look at our sharemarket lately? It’s trotting along quite nicely and putting a smile on the faces of lots of Aussie investors.

You may recall me griping last year about the US market’s record breaking returns compared to Australia’s lacklustre efforts, well it seems I was heard. I didn’t realise I had that much influence. I suspected, but wasn’t sure…

At its all-time peak in November 2007, the ASX All Ordinaries index reached 6,854 points. During the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) it fell as low as 3,091 points (a fall of 55%) on 10 March 2009. Yesterday it closed at 4,940, almost at that elusive 5,000, and a 59% recovery since the bottom…

This news also bodes well for the economy in general, because sharemarket recovery is usually one of the first signs of pending economic improvement.

Now, I’m often accused of being a bit of a Pollyanna by my family and friends, but when it comes to the sharemarket I’m realistic. There are fundamentals that even someone as optimistic as I am can’t ignore.

A few of the most important include:

• NO ONE can 100% accurately predict future sharemarket performance;

• The sharemarket IS NOT rational;

• Risk is an inherent part of sharemarket investment, and if it wasn’t, there’d be no point investing because that’s where the reward stems from;

• From inception, the sharemarket has ALWAYS returned to a higher point than its original peak, but no one can predict how long it will take;

• Sharemarket investment is a long-term commitment, and when you experience something as unexpected and unprecedented as the Global Financial Crisis, it may be longer than you originally anticipated.

There’s also no doubt that we’re living in an era where investor psychology is impacting the performance of the sharemarket more greatly than we’ve ever experienced. This is largely due to the almost instantaneous access investors have to information via the internet and media.

Unfortunately this information is not always understood or interpreted correctly and therefore the market is prone to over-react to what is, or is perceived to be, bad news. This isn’t going to change anytime soon, so we need to be prepared for market volatility even when it’s illogical.

I read an entertaining article in the Age last week by Marcus Padley who claimed that his new year's resolution was to stop occasionally and ask, "Is what I am reading, watching, listening to or doing, necessary, worthwhile or a waste of my time?" It made me laugh out loud, but I digress…

My point is that while our favourite economist, Felix Stephen, is forecasting a 7 year bull run from the end of this year (he’s also forecasting a correction and high volatility by this April), markets are quite literally unpredictable.

I would love to tell you that this recent market rally will continue, but I can’t. No one can. What I can tell you is that the investment philosophy of “set and forget” which worked in the early noughties has become somewhat redundant in this current environment.

So what do I think investors should be doing in 2013? I’m glad you asked.

1. Getting financial and market information from your Financial Adviser not the media. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t take an interest in current affairs, but also make sure you get perspective that’s relevant to your personal circumstances, and without the scaremongering;

2. If you’re not reviewing your investment portfolio you should be; and if it hasn’t been formally reviewed in the past few years then it’s definitely time because changes almost certainly need to be made to reflect the current environment.

3. Don’t rely on “set and forget”, this just isn’t a sensible strategy in this post-GFC climate. One of The Hendrie Group’s primary focuses since the GFC has been sourcing strategies that include tactical decisions, and this should be a priority for investors.

4. If you’re thinking about retirement in the next few years then you should be getting advice NOW. Don’t wait until it’s too late to implement really effective strategies that might add thousands or tens of thousands to your retirement nest egg.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my birthday musings.

Talk soon,
Caren

Should you loan money to friends or family?

A number of years ago one of my clients came to me to ask my advice about loaning a significant amount of money to her daughter. The first question I asked was whether there was any chance that her daughter might not pay her back, to which she replied “oh there is every chance she won’t pay me back.”

I knew her financial position and knew that she couldn’t afford that risk, so told her to explain to her daughter that she wasn’t in a position to help out.

But there are cases where we are in a position to help, and at the end of the day, the only person who can decide if you want to loan a friend or family member money is you, but I do have some tips.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Will you suffer financially, if the loan isn’t repaid. If the answer is yes, then my recommendation is to walk  away. You don’t want to put yourself into financial hardship because of somebody else’s money problems.

2. Will your relationship be damaged beyond repair if the loan isn’t repaid. If the answer is yes, then again, I recommend walking away. You don’t want to lose your relationship AND your money.

In the very few times I’ve loaned money, I have gone into the arrangement with the attitude that if I never saw the money again, I would live with it. If I can’t feel that way, then I just don’t do it.

3. How formal do you want the arrangement to be? If someone asks to borrow money from you, particularly if it’s what you consider to be a sizeable amount, then you have the right to expect a formalised written agreement. The written agreement should state the amount borrowed, any interest that may apply, payment terms (how much and how often), and the date the loan should be finalised.

I’d recommend having the agreement drawn up by a solicitor, and I personally believe that the person borrowing money should foot the cost of any fees.

4. Will you charge interest? And if so, at what rate?

Often loans between friends or family members are no interest, or low interest, and this is of course up to you. You may wish to apply a market rate of interest, particularly if you believe there’s a reasonable chance that you might not get your money back. Perhaps it’s unlikely that person will be able to get a loan from a bank or other lending institution, and would be more than happy to pay the market rate to obtain the capital

You do need to be aware that legally you have to declare all interest to the ATO, even if it’s a loan between friends or family.

5. If it’s not a formal written agreement, what are your terms? Even if you decide not to formalise the agreement, I do think you need to be clear on the terms. You terms might include a structured amount to be credited to your account each month, or a lump sum to be paid at the end of a certain period.

6. And once you’ve decided the terms, what happens if the terms aren’t met? At what point are you going
to start jumping up and down, or at least giving a little nudge? That’s probably something you should also agree upon from the start. And if the loan is never repaid – what are you going to do? If an agreement is in place, are you going to take legal action?

Probably the best advice I can offer is to be totally up-front right from the start. You may feel a little awkward, but if someone has had the courage to ask you for a loan, then setting the terms should definitely be your prerogative and should be expected. Some ideas for approaching this might include:

“This is a lot of money to me, and while I’m happy to loan it to you, I will need it to be repaid in monthly installments by July. Is that going to work for you?”

“I won’t need the money for the next twelve months, but after that I really do have plans for it. Will you be able to pay me back by September next year? And will you do that as a lump sum, or regular payments.”

“I’m happy to loan you some money, but I have to be honest I’ve seen some relationships turn really sour when money is involved, and I would hate that to happen to us. Would you be agreeable to formalising the arrangement so that we don’t have to worry about any of that?”

“If you happen to miss a payment, do you want me to give you a reminder straight away, or give you a few days in case it’s just slipped your mind?”

At the end of the day it comes down to personal circumstances and your relationship with the person needing a loan. Just make sure you consider the risks involved and what you need from the arrangement.

Talk soon,

C

A lesson in finance from Tulips

If you’ve read all the guff about me in my profile, you’ll know I have a background in literature and history (yeah, small career swerve!). One of my favourite novels is Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd. Great title eh? It was borrowed from a Thomas Gray poem (Elegy in a Country Churchyard).

Given my background, you can imagine how excited I was upon first entering the finance industry, to attend a lecture “Tulip Mania and the Madness of Crowds.” And I wasn’t disappointed. The protagonist of the story was the humble tulip, and I’m still not sure whether the moral of the story was supposed to be the role of supply and demand in economics, or the stupidity of the human race.

In the early 17th century, the Dutch literally went mad for tulips and demand ultimately outstripped supply. If I remember rightly, someone brought (stole?) some back from Turkey and didn’t want to share. Of course we know what happens when someone tells you that you can’t have something – you want it even more right? So began the manic trade of tulips.

There are stories of farmer’s mortgaging their farms just to get hold of a couple of tulip bulbs. Tulip traders made a fortune, and there was even a future’s market for these much sought after flowers!!

Obviously they became waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over-priced, and what has to happen then? Yep, you guessed it, a market correction! It started with some astute businessmen deciding that they would sell out and take some profits. This proved to be a prudent move given that new tulip varieties were being introduced, and thereby increasing the supply. Then a few more sold out of their “tulip position”, then a few more, and suddenly people started to panic, and the tulip market went into freefall.

To put things in perspective, tulip prices fell more than 90% in a matter of weeks. It’s impossible to accurately convert this to current monetary value, however popular consensus puts the comparison at something like $80,000 per bulb to less than a dollar per bulb.

You have to wonder at what point it occurred to some people that they had spent their life savings on flowers! OUCH.

More than one historian has linked this tulip phenomenon to the onset of the Great Depression in the Netherlands, not to mention “the madness of crowds”…

If you’ve seen the Wall Street sequel, you’ll recall Gordon Gekko showing Jake a painting and comparing Tulip Mania to the GFC. Not a bad analogy. When it comes to the sharemarket, crowd behaviour is both fascinating and frustrating. And unfortunately sometimes it is just plain mad. Think back to Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and more recently, Egypt. The way the market reacted was not in proportion to the relative potential market impact. And don’t forget our friend “Fat Fingers” who shook the US market by accidentally entering a trade in billions instead of millions.

I often tell my clients that if we took emotion out of the market, it would be extremely rational. However, it’s risk that drives reward so if there was no emotion there’d be little opportunity to make money. I guess we can’t have our proverbial cake.

The best advice I can give is to make sure you take a leaf out of Hardy’s book (pun intended), and stay far from the madding crowd when it comes to investment decisions. Make your decisions based on fact and fundamentals, and with professional guidance from your Financial Planner.

Talk soon,
C

This Christmas will be different!

It’s unfortunate that Christmas is often called the ‘silly season’. It doesn’t have to be silly, there are things we can do to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand, and that it’s fun and festive. So continuing on with the resolutions theme, perhaps we can implement some Christmas savings ideas for 2011.

We tend to forget that money is just like other aspects of our life, it requires careful planning and commitment to achieve true success. You wouldn’t go on a camping trip without planning, so why should your Christmas spending be any different? You need a plan!

First off you need a Christmas budget (sorry FIDO doesn’t have an online version). Make a list of the people you need to buy Christmas presents for, and an amount you expect to spend beside each name. I also try and actually think of an appropriate gift at this point – it makes it sooooooo much easier when you actually hit the shops.

When buying gifts, try and do it in a planned, controlled manner without getting too emotional about the purchases. Not leaving it to the last minute, and making a list before you reach the shops, could help guard you against impulse buying. When you’re desperate, you can end up spending a lot more than you intended.

Make sure you also think about:
• Decorations;
• Christmas get-togethers;
• Christmas lunch/dinner;
• Cards;
• Kris Kringle;
• Shopping Centre wishing trees.

And don’t forget the Christmas break, whether it’s camping, a resort, or just staying at home and taking the kids to the movies – it all costs money.

So how do you ensure the money is there come December?

I was talking to a client recently that has a Christmas Club account. The best thing about Christmas Club accounts is that they enforce discipline. You only have a short window of opportunity when you can access the funds to ensure that the money is there for Christmas.

The drawback to these types of facilities is that they don’t pay a very high rate of interest, so if you have confidence in your own discipline then you could choose a higher interest bearing account instead.

Alternatively you may even want to implement a longer term strategy that you can draw-down from each year.

These days there are also food hamper plans. These allow you to stagger the cost of food and gifts for Christmas over the year rather than in one big hit at the end of the year. I’d certainly advocate doing your homework to make sure you’re not paying a large premium for the convenience and payment plan.

I’d be very interested in hearing from anyone that has used these services, to find out whether they found them to be worthwhile. Just add a comment below or email me at askCaren@hendrie.com.au.

Don’t wait until the end of the year to start spending. You can start preparing for next Christmas at the January sales! Christmas wrapping paper, decorations, toys, games and much more are often up to 50% off. Or at least take advantage of sales throughout the year – if you see something on special that you know would make a great gift for someone, grab it or put it on lay by.

I always do this. In fact one year I bought all the presents for my nieces and nephews in July (12 in total) and put them on a “Christmas lay by”. By doing this I didn’t have to pick them up until as late as Christmas Eve, so it even solved the problem of where to store them.

With hindsight this was a great idea, because not only was I able to buy presents that were on sale, but I was also able to stagger my Christmas spending. My only caution is to keep a list detailing the present and the person you’re buying it for, otherwise it can be very confusing when you eventually collect that lay-by.

Have you thought about introducing a family Kris Kringle? In my family, the brothers, sisters, brother’s-in-law, and sister’s-in-law all put their names in a hat and rather than buying for everyone, we buy a really nice gift for one person each. Of course this didn’t work out so well for my sister this year when my brother in Byron Bay decided he wasn’t coming down until February…

A quick warning about credit cards….. ‘Plastic money’ makes spending very easy. So much so, that many people are left with a ‘spending hangover’ (thanks to my friend Vivienne James, author of The Woman’s Money Book”, for that term). Use your credit card wisely (remember it’s the most expensive loan you’re likely to ever have). Then get rid of the credit card debt as quickly as possible because it’s high interest and not tax deductible.

So if you found the Christmas finances tough this year, don’t ignore the situation – put a plan in place for this year. After all, if you don’t do something different, you’ll find yourself in the same position every Christmas. Try even one idea, and let me know how you go.

Talk soon,

Caren

Happy 2011!

So what were your New Year’s resolutions? Get fit? Give up smoking? Lose weight? Spend more time with the family? Work harder?

Did you make any financial resolutions?

The new year is a great time to take stock and make some decisions about your finances. Let me start you off with a few examples:

Create a Budget (or update the one you have).

This is the most basic step to getting your finances in order. It’s pretty tough to save money if you don’t have an accurate picture of what you’re spending. Creating a budget allows you to prioritise your spending and determine the patterns. Furthermore, you can work out where you don’t actually need to spend money.

It’s important to make your budget realistic so that you can stick to it. I suggest http://www.infochoice.com.au/distributions/asic/calculators/budgetplanner/index.asp This is a very comprehensive online budget tool. If you don’t already have a budget, it’s a great place to start.

If you do have a budget, then make sure you re-visit it each year in order to ensure it remains up-to-date and appropriate.

Get your credit card under control.

Eliminating debt is one of the most important aspects of any financial plan. Credit cards are probably the most expensive loan you’ll ever have (unless you’re planning a visit to a loan shark a la Sopranos style, in which case nothing I can say will help you).

Credit cards are very convenient, but you shouldn’t be spending more than you earn where you can help it.

Try to pay out your balance once a month – or at least make a decent payment.

Once you have that credit card under control – keep it that way!

Commit to investing:

There are many good reasons for investing, some include:

• provide for retirement;

• retire early;
• children’s education costs;
• sheer pleasure of knowing your money is working for you.

Make this year the year that you stop saying “I need to get around to seeing a financial planner” – do it, we don’t bite.

Perhaps you could make a commitment to save at least $100 per month into a regular investment plan.

Or if you have a lump sum of cash sitting in the bank that you know you don’t need for a few years, explore your longer term options

Invest your tax refund before you spend it! Instead of banking your refund along with the grocery and bills money this year, consider an investment that you can allow to grow over the next few years.

Protect what you have.

If you earn more than $40,000 and don’t have income protection insurance then you need to have enough income producing assets behind you to replace that income in the event you are unable to work due to illness or injury.

If you’re not in such a fortunate position, then you need income protection insurance. Simple as that. If you don’t have it, this could be your most important and valuable resolution.

Review Current investment strategy and portfolio.

The Australian Securities and Investment Committee (ASIC) recommends that all investors review their portfolio at least once a year. In fact, they have made it a legal requirement for all Financial Planners to offer an annual review service to their clients.

Investment is not a “set and forget” exercise. The reason reviews are so important, is because you can factor in changes to the market, economy, and your lifestyle.

Set financial goals and time frame:

It’s always easiest to save money when you have a specific goal – retirement, house deposit, paying off the mortgage, a holiday etc etc. It's important to work out what you want to achieve, and how long you have to achieve it.

A short-term strategy is just as important as a long-term strategy – but they are different. Don’t assume that what you’re doing is the most suitable just because it’s the way you’ve always done it.

Write down your short-term and long-term goals, as well as what needs to happen so that you can achieve those goals.

Learn more about the sharemarket.

Accepting that the value of your investment may go up or down over the short-term could greatly improve the potential for your money to grow over the long-term. Don’t be scared off by the last few years – learn from them.

Get good advice.

Engage professional advice to steer you through the investment maze. Like any professional service, check the financial adviser’s experience, qualifications, fees and services. Knowing your goals is one thing, but finding the best investment strategy to help you reach them can be difficult without guidance.

And yes, I would love it if you chose me and my terrific team to be the ones to help you!


Ok, I hope that gives you some ideas for this year’s financial resolutions. If you have any others, I would love to hear them! Just add a comment below or email me at askCaren@hendrie.com.au

Talk soon,

Caren