Mike King writes an article for The Motley Fool where he notices how the SMSF sector has laid the big industry funds dead on their tracks. King says that the industry funds have access to expert opinions of research analysts, investment banking analysts, and easy access to various investments. So, it is only natural that they should do better than the SMSFs, given their advantageous placement.
Author: Alan Preston Archives
APRA Reduces Lending Limits
James Mitchell and Miranda Brownlee write an article for the website Mortgage Business wherein they say that the stiffer APRA lending guidelines have resulted in a decrease in SMSF lenders, thus hitting the trustees hard. Banks are still willing to lend but lending limits imposed by the prudential regulator has changed the scene.
SMSFs Suffer Losses Worth $40bn Since 31st March
Michael Roddan has written an article for the Australian Business Review wherein he talks about a Credit Suisse research that puts a loss of $40bn on the shoulders of SMSF in the 6 months leading to September 30. In what might be the biggest loss for the SMSFs yet since 2011, they have lost $19 billion in the three months leading to June 30 and a further $21 billion in the next 3 months.
10 Ways To Stay Happily Busy During Retirement
Kudos to you for having toiled all your life! Being a part of one workforce or another and wearing yourself out over long decades, you certainly deserve good rest. Strangely, however, those who have just retired feel a very strong urge to be in the hunt. They do not want to slump on their couches yet.
Somehow, there is an overwhelming desire to be busy with some activity. Here then is a list of activities, 10 of them, you can engage yourself with after calling it quits. A couple of them seem obvious enough yet you may never have thought about them. Read along.
SMSFs Not Diversifying in Overseas Assets
An article on the website Professional Planner says that the SMSFs have put in a large volume of their funds into Australian cash investments despite a dip in the interest rates. This has been at the expense of ignoring foreign assets which had come into their own due to the depreciating Aussie dollar. The move may prove costly.
In the second Quarter, SMSFs have put in only about 1% in overseas shares whereas they have invested $862 million cumulatively in overseas property and offshore managed investments. Both these figures are disheartening.
The SMSFs are not diversifying in overseas assets too well and this is creating problems of two types. First, they are losing out on great returns which the overseas investments may provide and second, they are missing out on maximising the depreciation of the Aussie dollar.
You can read the original article here.
All SMSFs Have a Similar Looking Portfolio
Kate Cowling writes a piece for the website www.afr.com wherein she says that portfolio picks for different SMSF investors remain more or less the same. Nearly all of them show a disposition towards keeping half of their portfolio in equities; with the baby-boomers showing just a little lesser appetite for stocks.
