11th October 2021

Smart money weekly; get more from your ESS, super retail group and money mindset hacks

Ben Nash

Hey team,

Happy Monday.

In market news, things started to bounce back after a soft couple of weeks with the Evergrande scare and talks around the US debt ceiling. In property news, CoreLogic has announced its estimate of the total value of residential real estate in Australia has hit a new record of $9.1 trillion. This comes after just five months of reaching a record $8 trillion in value.

For those of you reading along and who are taking advantage of employer share schemes, register now for the upcoming event; “How to maximise your employer share plan“. In this session, I’ll deep dive into how you can maximise the amount of money you make from them. It will help you get on the front foot and build a clear game plan about what to do with your employer shares to maximise your asset growth and understand the most painful (and risky) mistakes people make with their employer share plans so you can avoid them. Click here to register.

Giving update of the week
This week we’ve been working with a couple of new clients that are really passionate about sustainable investing, which has led me to think a lot about what’s happening on the planet and how we can have a positive impact. We’ve celebrated the time given by the amazing speakers we’ve had on the show by furthering our contribution to protecting Australia’s rainforests by protecting a further 500 square metres of rainforest to bring our total amount of conserved rainforest to 1,000 square metres. If you want to learn more about how you can have a positive impact on our planet by following the next few weeks on the podcast.  You can check out more information about our giving here.

Upcoming events:
We still have 5 events coming up across 2021, so make sure you register to get percolating on ideas of how you can make your money work smarter for you. Check out the full list below and click through to register:

Money Hack of the week: How to tackle distractions and choice overload.
Physical fitness, financial fitness, now let’s add another to the ranks: MENTAL FITNESS. Elite performance coach Kate McKenna and I recently talked about mental fitness and how you can tackle distractions, fear and the challenges you face. And, like any other form of fitness, practice makes perfect. Check out our full chat here.

Share market wrap
US stocks rose on Wednesday following a report that Congress might reach a short-term agreement to raise the government borrowing limit and prevent a default. Australian shares on Thursday followed a solid lead from Wall Street where investors were granted relief from US debt ceiling concerns, and oil and gas prices eased, sparking a rally across the local market.

Key sharemarket numbers:

  • The ASX ‘All Ords’ (top 500 shares in Australia) finished the week 1.75% higher than last Friday, on 7,617.30 points.
  • The US ‘S&P 500’ (Top 500 shares in America) finished the week 0.98% higher than last week, at 4,391.34 points.
  • The US ‘Nasdaq’ (Top 2500+ mainly tech shares in America) finished the week 0.6% higher than last week, on 14,579.54 points.
  • The S&P Cryptocurrency ‘Mega Cap’ Index (tracking market value of Bitcoin and Ethereum) is currently at 5,764.02 for the month, up 22.97% for the month to date

Investment story of the week: Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL)
Super Retail Group Limited owns and operates a portfolio of retail brands including automotive retailer Supercheap Auto, outdoor and leisure retailers Macpac, BCF and sporting retailer Rebel Sport. Whilst they’ve also enjoyed the post covid run, their share price got an extra boost from a bullish report by UBS. The broker believes this is the time to pick up Super Retail shares as it upgraded the auto and outdoor retail group to “buy” from “neutral”. UBS pointed to several tailwinds to justify the upgrade. Firstly, a survey by UBS found that consumers have record spending intentions. That’s great news for retailers as we head into the all-important Christmas shopping period.

Money mistake of the week: How your mindset can hold you back from better choices.
What’s holding you back from making better money choices? Whether we’re aware of it or not, we have the power to improve our circumstances – or make them worse. In this episode, I chatted to Kym Power to discuss how the subconscious choices we make can lead to bad habits and unhealthy patterns. Check out our full chat here.

Jargon Buster of the Week: Borrowing power (Via Macquarie)
The amount an individual or organisation can borrow, usually calculated using income/revenue, expenses and other debt obligations.

Podcast from last week:  #137 w. Jon Hollenberg – Creating marketing messages that sell

In this episode, I chat to Jon Hollenberg, a founder of digital agency Five by Five, based on the lovely Gold Coast.

He talks about marketing messages and how to get cut through and stand out from the crowd. Some of the things that you need to know to shape a message that stands out and how you can apply that not only to website building but also to internal messages with your teams to support your career, basically.
We also talk about Jon’s money journey, how some good financial decisions helped actually save his marriage. Some of the resources that he drew along on the way and how, as a business owner, he tackled getting on the pathway to wealth creation and his top tips for other business owners looking to do.

Jon is the founder of Five by Five, a Gold Coast based full-service digital agency. With over 20 years of experience within the web industry, Jon is an expert in digital marketing and growth strategies. He leads a global team of 30 distributed around the world implementing results-driven solutions that are beautifully designed, simple to use and most importantly get results. Jon is passionate about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, keeping fit, flexible and having fun!

Smart Money upside #38
Because people don’t often talk about the full ins and outs of their money, it’s hard to learn lessons from hearing what good and bad choices other people make. This story is from one of our clients to help you take your money game to the next level.

Numbers/Background
Couple, early 30’s and early 40’s; household income ~ 200k; total assets ~ 305k; savings ~ $3k annually

Frustrations
Overwhelmed with information, playing catch up with things like superannuation, no system to keep them in check with their finances, generally overwhelmed with finances and options available.

What they wanted from us / the advice process

  • Understand how to get more out of their finances, get clear on retirement strategy.
  • How to set up long term financial security (property, super, tax, investments)

What success looks like for them
To have more investments

What money strategy they were following before we went through the planning process

  • No clear strategy in place, worried about a comfortable retirement.
  • Paralysed by information overwhelm.

What money strategy they choose to pursue from our planning work
Clear banking structure so they are able to save, and then allocate these funds towards a diversified index based investment. Once the funds build, they will buy a property.

Key benefits of going through the process
Putting in place a clear strategy, investing into the appropriate risk profiles, and in line with their ethical mandate. Understanding how the different strategies work and how property will play a big role in their wealth accumulation.

Value of advice after all advice fees year one: $3,008
Year 20 upside after advice fees: $1,06,5341

If this story resonates and you want to chat about how to get these sorts of results, you can book an intro call here.

Be awesome,

Ben

PS: If you want a hand to get on the front foot with your money in 2021, check out our 45-minute one-on-one sessions here. We’re donating 100% of the money raised to charity, so you can up your money game and do something good on the planet at the same time.

Disclaimer:
I know you’re smarter than someone that would need me to write the words that come next, but our compliance peeps are real hard-asses so here we go… This information is not personal advice, poetry, or a map to where Jimmy Hoffa is buried. It may only be regarded as general advice, and definitely shouldn’t be considered something worthy of inclusion for Donna Hay’s next cookbook or the Archibald prize. This is actually just an email communication that has been sent to a bunch of people and doesn’t even have your name on it. Your personal objectives, needs or financial situation have not been considered when preparing this email, but I want you to know that I have spent a lot of time thinking about the Venn diagram intersection of poetry, landscaping, and essential oils – if you’re fascinated by this same phenomenon please reply so we can compare notes. You should consider the appropriateness of any general advice we have given you, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs, and if necessary, seek advice before acting on it. You should also consider other people when getting on and off public transport, smiling more, eating healthy, and listening to your mum when she tells you that you’ve been working too hard. Where the information relates to a financial product, you should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase that financial product. Where the information relates to a hilarious joke I’ve made, you should consider belly laughing deeply. Worth noting also that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance when it comes to investments, and definitely not when it comes to the Wallabies. Financial services guide. All jokes aside and just to be clear, this information may only be regarded as general advice. That is, your personal objectives, needs or financial situations were not considered when preparing it.  You should consider the appropriateness of any general advice we have given you, having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs, and if necessary, seek advice before acting on it. Where the information relates to a financial product, you should obtain and consider the relevant product disclosure statement before making any decision to purchase that financial product. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.