Smart money weekly; tax changes, Evergrande effect and Steptember fundraising

Ben Nash

Hey team

Happy Monday.

It’s been a big week in the markets with the news out of China and one of their largest property developers revealing some troubles which sent the market into a spin mid-week. However, things started to settle by Thursday.

Closer to home, rapid vaccine rollout is driving business confidence and economic activity, positive for investors waiting on some further stability to support longer term decision making.

In the property market, we’re starting to hear some whispers bank lending standards could be adjusted to cool the super hot Aussie property market. If you’re looking to take advantage of ultra-low interest rates to make your next property move you might want to get your skates on.

Giving update of the week
I mentioned in my last couple of notes that this month team Pivot have been getting involved in the Steptember challenge to raise money and awareness for cerebral palsy. Huge thank you to all the people that have supported this cause by getting behind our 1-1 Money Breakthrough sessions, so far in September we’ve raised $5k for this amazing cause, and managed to crank out over 1m steps across team Pivot over the month. You can read more about our business giving here.

Upcoming events:
This Thursday I’ll be walking through exactly what financial advice is. We know that many of you have been following along for a while, so this is the jargon-free explainer on financial advice so you can understand if it’s right for you. Coming up, we’re covering everything from financial advice 101 right through to avoiding key money mistakes. Check out the full list below and click through to register:

Event schedule and links to book here:
💰WTF is financial advice?: Thursday 30th September 1.30 pm
💰How a trust can cut your tax bill by $100k+: Thursday 7th October 11:30 am
💰How to be smarter with money: Thursday 14th October 11:30 am – 12:30 pm AEST 
💰
 How to maximise your employer share plan: Wednesday 27th October 12 pm
💰 Avoid key money mistakes: Thursday 4th November 11:30 am – 12:30 pm AEST
💰 How to buy your $3m Bondi dream home: Thursday 18th November 12 pm
💰 What next after making your first million dollars?: Thursday 2nd December 12 pm
💰 Why you need a financial adviser if you make more than $250k p.a: Thursday 13th January 12 pm
💰 How to use property equity to invest when your LVR is below 50%: Tuesday 25th January 12 pm
💰 How to invest if you’re saving more than $5k monthly: Thursday 24th Feb 12 pm
💰 Employer share plan tax hacks and mistakes to avoid: Thursday 10th Feb 12 pm

Money Hack of the week: How to get clarity on your financial goals.
What should you have for dinner? What should you watch next? What is your investment strategy? For every decision we make, there are only a few that could make or break your long-term financial situation. In this episode of How To Be Successful With Money, Kevin chatted to me about the conversations he and his partner, Jenny, had to clarify and align their goals. Check out our full chat here.

In The News: Which Aussie taxpayers and businesses will receive higher returns in 2021?
In 2021, a heap of changes to the tax rates and rules came into effect, with the benefits flowing to more than 10 million Australians. Every dollar of tax saved means more of your income left over for saving, investing, or maybe just your next holiday. The tax rules can be complex and confusing, but given Australia is one of the highest-taxed countries in the world it’s valuable for you to get your tax strategy right. Read more about it here.

Share market wrap
With some big news out of China this week as fears, one of their largest property developers could default on a couple of interest repayments, which exposed some bigger woes for the company internally. This sent Wall St into a spiral and the effects were felt locally on the ASX mid-week.

Key sharemarket numbers:

  • The ASX ‘All Ords’ (top 500 shares in Australia) finished the week -0.6% lower than last Friday, on 7,649.30 points.
  • The US ‘S&P 500’ (Top 500 shares in America) finished the week -0.48% lower than last week (Friday AEDT), at 4,448.98 points.
  • The US ‘Nasdaq’ (Top 2500+ mainly tech shares in America) finished the week -0.7599% lower than last week (Friday AEDT), on 15,052.24 points.
  • The Global FTSE ‘All World’ index (largest 3100 companies in the world) finished the week 1.65% higher than last week (Friday AEDT), at 7,066.61%
  • The S&P Cryptocurrency ‘Mega Cap’ Index (tracking market value of Bitcoin and Ethereum) is currently at -6.06% for the month, down 4,857.37 from last week

Investment story of the week: AGL Energy Ltd (ASX: AGL)
AGL Energy Ltd (ASX: AGL) is involved in both the generation and retailing of electricity and gas for residential and commercial use. AGL is also Australia’s largest private owner, operator and developer of renewable energy assets. Between Monday morning and Thursday afternoon, the share price was 9.31%. This comes after the company’s executives copped a grilling from shareholders at its AGM on Wednesday. In a heated exchange, shareholders voiced their concerns on a number of issues with the company’s response to climate risk. The major takeout was that 55% of shareholders voted in favour of the energy giant setting short and long-term emissions targets in accordance with the Paris Agreement. ESG focused stocks are on our radar, so these types of moves raise eyebrows at our end.

Money mistake of the week: Where are the stock and crypto markets heading?
In the past year, we’ve seen technology stocks underpinning the success of much of the stock and crypto market. But will this last forever? Alex Barrat from Stake says that we’re likely to see more of a focus on materials, finance and real estate once we start to see an increase in interest rates. Check out our full chat here.

Jargon Buster of the Week: Managed Accounts (Via Canstar)
An account owned by a single investor, managed by a professional Money Manager. Typically, these required larger investments but more recently, new technologies have allowed fewer high-net-worth investors to access Managed Accounts.

Podcast from last week:  #134 w. Chris Muddell – How to amplify your sales skills
In this episode, I chat with Chris Muddell from Employsure. He’s a top-performing BDM of over a hundred plus salespeople in that organization. We talk about some of his sales tips and hacks, the routines that he uses to maintain his high performance.

Chris is actually an ex financial planner so we talk a bit about some of the money lessons that he learned over that career and in investing since then, as well as how Chris sets quarterly targets for his kids to help them be better financially. And how his eldest son, who is still very young, has managed to save five figures in investments.

Also, some of the things that he’s done to bring his kids on the money journey to financial security, along with his lovely wife, Chris is one of the first employees at Australia’s fast-growth company, Employsure from 2012 until now, Chris remains working as an active top-performing BDM entering his first sales role in a start-up at the time, Employsure employed less than 15 staff.

In 2021, Employsure has more than 1000 staff and 29,000 clients across ANZ  nearly 9 years later, Chris remains at the top of the sales team of 120+ BDMS Achievements: one of the most decorated sales professionals in the B2SME space has engaged more than 1,200 new business clients and 30,000,000 in revenue  awards include BDM of the Year, Sales Leader of the Year, Service Partner of the Year  achievements include Million Dollar Club, Ambassadors Club, RSM Award, Ed Mallet’s 1st XV, In The Zone, Referral Champion, Managers Choice and more  on track to engage 240 new business clients and $4.8 million dollars in revenue in FY 21/22 Chris sits at #1 new deals for the day, week, and month at the time of writing this (Jul 21)

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Smart Money upside #36
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; household income ~ 110k; total assets ~ 190k;;  savings ~ $4k annually

Frustrations
Savings not improving, not feeling confident when it comes to investing

What they wanted from us / the advice process
Having a financial plan, leverage tax and investment rules to get ahead faster, understand property investing, manage money easier, make sure super is working hard, make sure my expenses and/or loved ones are covered if the unexpected happens

What success looks like for them
Being a homeowner

What money strategy they were following before we went through the planning process
No real plan or direction

What money strategy they chose to pursue from our planning work
Savings plan, Salary Sacrifice Arrangement / First Home Super Saver Scheme, Investing super appropriately – low cost, high growth index investment options, retain existing insurances

Key benefits of going through the process
Feeling confident in financial plan/investment strategy, delivering clarity on financial direction, access to a professional network to assist with tax and small business queries

Value of advice after all advice fees year one: $34,971
Year 20 upside after advice fees: $598,892

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.