Superannuation

By Graeme Colley, July 2019 (on behalf of firstlinks) There are a lot of rules and regulations when it comes to superannuation and running your SMSF. Fund investments are for the sole purpose of providing benefits for the members or their dependants for superannuation purposes and not for personal reasons. Here are some common mistakes and…

By Colin Lewis, July 2019 The new financial year brings new opportunities for some people to top-up their superannuation. Catch-up pre-tax concessional contributions (CCs) If you didn’t utilise the full $25,000 CCs cap in 2018/19 then the unused amount may now be contributed this financial year provided the total amount you had in the super…

By Geoff Walker, June 2019 (on behalf of firstlinks) The $64,000 question from the recent Federal election is, “Why did Labor lose?”. Many well-informed retirees will say we should be talking about the $67,000 question. Some of you may ask, “Why bother with this debunking now Labor has lost the election?” The answer is that many people…

By Colin Lewis, June 2019 With the Reserve Bank recently cutting the official cash rate to a historic low of 1.25 percent and the likelihood of further cuts to come, investors are seeing their returns eroded. For retirees with investable assets sitting in cash, term deposits and fixed interest securities, lower returns mean less income…

By Colin Lewis May 2019 Often, it’s not until you’re about to lose something that you really appreciate what you’ve got. Whether or not wage earners recognised this with their voluntary concessional (pre-tax) superannuation contributions is another thing. For most employees, their contributions come mainly via the 9.5 percent compulsory Superannuation Guarantee (SG) paid by…

By Colin Lewis, April, 2019 With the upcoming election, it’s worth revisiting Labor’s proposed changes to superannuation. Firstly, Labor wants to reduce the non-concessional contributions cap to $75,000 a year (currently $100,000).  This would reduce the maximum three-year bring-forward to $225,000 (currently $300,000). Building your retirement nest egg in super would become harder under Labor. …

By Colin Lewis, March 2019 A transition to retirement income stream (TRIS) provides access to your superannuation whilst still working once you reach preservation age. TRISs were introduced by the Howard Government back in 2005 to help people ‘transition into retirement’ by allowing them to use their preserved super to supplement their reduced income resulting…

By Colin Lewis February 2019 The Australian superannuation system is designed around saving for retirement. The ‘sole purpose test’ – a cornerstone of super law that drives this position – ensures that a super fund is maintained for the purpose of providing benefits to members upon their retirement, or attaining age 65, or for beneficiaries if a…

By Colin Lewis January 2019 Superannuation is complex with lots of rules which constantly change and it’s inflexible with your money locked up generally until retirement. Sounds unattractive, but it is the most tax effective investment vehicle for long-term wealth creation.  In accumulation phase, income including capital gains is taxed at only 15 percent.  A…