The Latest News and Views from Ascent Wealth Management

Seasons greetings !

Well we're nearly through another year, one that I personally will be glad to see the back of !

As you've probably seen, markets have been quite volatile of late with some big falls in recent times all but cancelling the 12 month return until the end of November.   Economist, Bob Cuneen, provides some interesting perpective in the video below.

Next, the current volatility (like all volatility) is quite concerning to many.  While it really is just a normal (and expected) part of the investment cycle, retirees particularly can do some preplanning to reduce the impact.  "Bucketing" of some cash within your pension is discussed in this next article- it is a good way of reducing the need to draw on growth investments while prices are down, leaving more units to go back up when the price recovers.

Next I have a look at how a little planning can go some way to addressing the gender gap.  We all know that due to many circumstances, women have reduced opportunity to build their super.  Thankfully, there have been some policy responses to this question that I discuss in the next article.

In the same vein, there is a lot that everyone (men and women) can do to boost their super.  Again the government have been very supportive of this goal in introducing measures such as the ability to "catch up" on years where the contributions cap hasn't been fully utilised.  Also there is now the ability for employees to top up their existing SGC and Salary Sacrifice contributions ( if these don't reach the $25,000 concessional cap), with personal contributions that are tax deductible.  This possibly introduces new options for funding insurances and getting a benefit, as well as getting more funds into the retirement savings environment.

We all know we have it pretty good in many ways here in Australia.  Latest research proves this with our retirement income system rating as among the best in the world.  Better is yet to come as governments on both sides are putting their mind to how the system can be improved by better balancing their support with our increasing ability to self fund.

Lastly, holiday time brings with it thoughts of travel and the truly beautiful places we are fortunate enough to have here in Australia.  I am learning about many of these through the stories and photos shared by you when we see you following your travel.  Here's a few more to investigate (some of you may have seen most of these !)

Katrina and I wish all of you all the best for Christmas and the New Year.  We hope you and your families enjoy some special time together.

Our office will be closing at 5pm on Fridy 21st December.  We will start again for 2019, bright and early on Monday 7th January!