Smart money weekly; Property temperature check, Macquarie Bank resilience, property investor regrets

Ben Nash
Hey team,

Happy Monday.

We’ve had a lot of questions and discussions this week both in-house, on the street, and with clients about the property market. With everyone wondering, what on earth is going on?

We saw yet another (expected) interest rate rise that came about this week. If you’ve spent more than a minute reading about this online, you’ve probably already seen a million charts on exactly what this means for your repayments, so I won’t pain you with that. I will share our insights from our network of property buyers. The general sentiment has been; that if you’re looking at buying right now this rate rise will start to temper vendor’s expectations and cool the market. So there will be more opportunities to get in.

Economists are predicting another rate rise again in August (so plan ahead) and this will again create a revised buying landscape, in particular across major metro areas. I don’t predict this playing out equally and you’ll see properties that once felt totally out of reach coming back into consideration as well as solid blue-chip suburbs still holding their own.

In the news: How to take advantage of the $3 trillion sharemarket meltdown
Interest rate rises are causing stress – but in this article, I share some tips for anyone who wants to take advantage of the share market during a meltdown. Read more about it in this news.com.au article.

Upcoming events:
The new financial year has kicked off and we’re straight into a series of events with saving, crypto, and investing. Don’t leave it to the last minute, click through to register and join live:

Event schedule and links to book here:

Share market wrap
The Australian share market ended on Friday with moderate gains after a positive session on Wall Street, while European stocks jumped after the British Prime Minister’s resignation. Shares in New York closed mixed after the June jobs data confirmed that the Federal Reserve has room to lift interest rates higher at its next policy meeting later this month.

Key sharemarket numbers:  

  • The ASX ‘All Ords’ (top 500 shares in Australia) finished the week 0.8% higher than last Friday at 6,809.40 points.
  • The US ‘S&P 500’ (Top 500 shares in America) finished the week 0.53% higher than last week, at 3,845.08 points.
  • The US ‘Nasdaq’ (Top 2500+ mainly tech shares in America) finished the week 1.82 % higher than last week at 11,361.85 points.
  • The Global FTSE ‘All World’ index (largest 3100 companies in the world) finished the week -2.85% lower than last week (Friday AEDT) at 7,107.77 points.
  • The S&P Cryptocurrency ‘Mega Cap’ Index (tracking market value of Bitcoin and Ethereum) is currently at 2,071.44 for the month, up 8.91% for the month to date

Investment story of the week: Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG)
Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) provides banking, financial, advisory, investment, and fund management services across more than 27 countries. Macquarie is one of the largest companies trading on the ASX and Australia’s fifth-largest bank by market capitalisation, but its retail banking services make up just a small percentage of the business. The bank is primarily involved in investment and commercial banking and asset management, with Macquarie now in the top 50 global asset managers handling more than $540 billion in funds under management. The stock has come up about 7% off its low in mid-June, which is impressive resilience considering the rest of the ASX has plunged in that time. Coupled with a strong foundational business and impressive leadership, it’s a business it’s worth a spot on anyone’s bluechip watchlist.

Smart Money upside #77
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; late 30’s with income of approximately $300K. Total assets worth $900k. Saving about $11K annually.

Frustrations

  • Generally finds money overwhelming
  • Has always put money to a side, never thought about it deeply, not a priority
  • Knows that there is a lot of potential, but doesn’t know where to begin

What they wanted from us / the advice process

  • To have a budget and have clarity over finances
  • Be more efficient with finances
  • Clarity on a retirement figure
  • Set a clear plan to have a diversified portfolio in place

What success looks like for them

  • Having a clear financial plan
  • Minimising tax
  • Happy with budgeting and lifestyle
  • Clear strategy around RSUs

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

  • No money management strategy, savings kept inside offset account, retaining employer shares

What money strategy they choose to pursue from our planning work

  • Clear banking structure, diversified share portfolio and super contribution

Key benefits of going through the process

  • Provided clarity over finances and retirement planning
  • Switch to a well-diversified share portfolio
  • Switch to a low-cost super fund with access to a range of quality passive investment options
  • Minimised tax through additional super contributions

Value of advice after all advice fees year one: $43k
Year 20 upside after advice fees: $1.7m

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’ve been diving into a big internal tech project which highlighted to us the importance of digital skills in a rapidly evolving economy, so we wanted to give back to help others build their digital skills. Through our partnership with B1G1 we’ve supported 365 days of digital skills training to aboriginal communities around Australia. 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.

Money hack of the week: Why should you hire a buyers agent?
Where do buyer’s agents add value in the property buying process? If you were to ask Chris Gray, he’d tell you the biggest benefit is the ability to delegate. Instead of trying to become an expert negotiator, bring in a buyers agent to nail the process and get you a better outcome. Check out our full chat here.

Money mistake of the week:  What’s the biggest regret of investors?
What’s your biggest regret in property investing? Chris Gray polled his audience and found that most only had two regrets: either “I didn’t invest” or “I wish I’d bought more.” I had a chat with Chris about the importance of long term investments and setting yourself up for maximum success in the future. Check out our full chat here.

Jargon Buster of the Week: Trader (via Morgan Stanley)
TRADER: A professional who purchases and sells securities for brokers, dealers, and his or her own accounts.

Podcast from last week:  #226 How to build a second income investing
This episode is a recording of a live online event I did on how to build a second income investing. I talked through the investment basics, the power of getting started, how to dive in, how to choose the right strategy and what type of investments are out there.

This is perfect for people who want to understand the building blocks of investing, how to begin with and figure out what they should be investing in.

Helping people with this stuff is our jam, so if you want to chat about how to make your money success easier you can book an intro call with us here.

Be awesome,

Ben

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, regarding your 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. 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, regarding your 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.