Smart money weekly; property market dip, international travel driving markets & cost of living surges

Ben Nash

Hey team,

Happy Monday.

In some good news this week, international borders are set to fully reopen on Feb 21. Positive news across a number of fronts, from education, employment, property and last but not least the hundreds of thousands of Aussies (myself included) hanging out to jump on a plan for some adventure. More tourists, international students, new talent and increasing population – all money-making factors.

Broadly speaking we’ve been quite isolated for an extended period, the results of this uplift will take a while to filter through although we did see an immediate uplift in travel stocks on the ASX this week. Flight Centre shot up over 17% and Webjet up over 16%.

Smart Money upside #55
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
Individual; early 60’s, income ~$180k, total assets ~1.4m, saving ~$20k annually

Frustrations
Too much lazy cash.

What they wanted from us / the advice process
Ensure super money is working hard, have a plan and navigate the possibilities of an investment property.

What success looks like for them
Money to be dealt with in an organised, planned and efficient way. No leakage, with a clear plan around finances. Minimising the effort – being as efficient time and money-wise. Don’t want want to think too much/stress about my finances and focus on being comfortable.

What money strategy they were following before we went through the planning process
Savings in cash has an investment property and sporadic investments with no strategy.

What money strategy they chose to pursue from our planning work
Structured banking accounts, superannuation contributions and diversified share portfolio.

Key benefits of going through the process
Support from an adviser who can keep create an efficient financial plan that allows for maximising financial potential and allow me to focus on business and life enjoyment.

Value of advice after all advice fees year one: – $27,747
Year 20 upside after advice fees: $5,059,211

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

Giving update of the week
This week we wanted to celebrate our amazing Philippines based team and the great work the future generation of entrepreneurs are doing in the ‘peens’ to grow their economy. So we celebrated by providing a month’s worth of social entrepreneurship education to students in the Philippines. This is all part of our ongoing commitment to make a difference in the lives of our clients and simultaneously make an impact on our world through our partnership with B1G1 (Buy 1 Give 1). You can check out more information about our giving here.

Upcoming events:
Two down and two to go with our employer share plan series. Jump onto my YouTube channel to grab the recordings if you missed it. If you can’t make the time for the upcoming events, still register and the recording will be emailed you to straight after the session. Check out the full list of events that are coming up and click through to register:

Money Hack of the week: What does the future hold for property?
Will the property market survive the next few years? We believe so. In fact, we’re confident that after some tweaks, it’s only going to get stronger. In this episode, Aaron Christie-David and I discuss the long-term market viability and how the pandemic has, in a way, strengthened the future of property ownership. Check out our full chat here.

Share market wrap
On Friday, the ASX dropped on the prospect of a 2022 rate hike and after Wall Street lost ground as US inflation hit a 40-year high. Bitcoin also took a dip off the back of this news.

Key sharemarket numbers:

  • The ASX ‘All Ords’ (top 500 shares in Australia) finished the week 1.40% lower than last Friday, on 7,515.80 points.
  • The US ‘S&P 500’ (Top 500 shares in America) finished the week 0.48% lower than last week, at 4,504.08 points.
  • The US ‘Nasdaq’ (Top 2500+ mainly tech shares in America) finished the week 1.65% lower than last week, at 14,185.64 points.
  • The Global FTSE ‘All World’ index (largest 3100 companies in the world) finished the week 1.95% lower than last week (Friday AEDT), at 7,672.40
  • The S&P Cryptocurrency ‘Mega Cap’ Index (tracking market value of Bitcoin and Ethereum) is currently at 4,789.22 for the month, up 15.06% for the month to date

Investment story of the week: Tali Digital (ASX: TD1)
Tali Digital is a micro-cap medical technology company, focused on the development of game-based training programs to assess and treat childhood attention difficulties. Its programs have been proven through scientifically validated clinical trials to improve attention capabilities by strengthening underlying attentional processes One of its most prominent programs is ‘TALi TRAIN’; a ground-breaking game-based training program that has been proven, through scientifically validated clinical trials, to improve attention by strengthening underlying attentional processes. The product is the first of its kind to apply gaming technology to intervention for young children with attention deficits. The share price is up approximately 25% in 2022, and with its first of kind product, there are promising signs for TD1 moving forward.

Money mistake of the week: How focusing on money is holding you back.
Does your relationship with money need a bit of counselling? Sarah Davidson and I sat down to chat about how focusing solely on money can narrow your mindset and prevent you from performing at your best. Check out our full chat here.

In the news: What the expected drop in property prices means for the property market this year
Although house prices are expected to drop by as much as 11 per cent in 2023 following predicted interest rate rises this year, some first home buyers may be better off jumping into the market now. I joined Kylie and Larry on The Morning Show to explain if makes sense to act immediately or wait for the predicted drop. Watch the full segment here.

Jargon Buster of the Week: Annual fee (Via Mozo)
An annual fee is a somewhat annoying maintenance fee that many credit card providers charge cardholders each year. The annual fee supposedly covers the cost of maintaining your credit card, but depending on the type of card you have the fee can range from $20 to almost $400 a year for some of the snazzier platinum cards out there. What’s more, some credit cards don’t have an annual fee at all, so it pays to do your homework here.

Podcast from last week: #155 September Investment & Property Market Update
In this session, I cover the September monthly market update, covering some of the things that are happening with the share markets and property markets around the world.

The COVID wobbles, filtering through big tech stocks at the moment, what’s going on with the potential changes to mortgage assessment rates and what that could mean for growth in the property market.

Some of the economic data that we’re seeing in Australia and what that actually means for ordinary humans and investors, as well as some tips and hacks that we’ve been seeing work and not work for people in the last month.

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.