Seems that whenever the tabloids tell us how we should be managing our super, invariably they will demand that anyone within 10 years of retirement must adopt a very conservative position so they won't lose their shirts when the economy crashes.
My position has always been that even at 75 now, I need to be able to finance my retirement for at least 10 more years, and potentially a lot longer, so my pension is invested via REST in as high yielding categories as possible.
So far we took a fairly big hit in the GFC which was fully recovered about a year later. More recent downturns barely caused a ripple.
Interesting to look at the returns
These are for financial year to date
Bonds 1.75%
Cash 0.5%
Property 1.95%
Capital stable 5.46%
High growth 12.06%
Shares 13.75%
Overseas Shares 12.57%
Worth taking some risks I reckon - provided it is a sure thing
There could be a lot of businesses going bankrupt later this year. Recently on the radio they said in 2020 basically no businesses went bankrupt.
This year we will get the normal amount from this year, plus the number which would have gone last year, & the additional casualties from Covid issues.
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Makes perfect sense if you look at a graph of share returns OldBloke. Constant upward trend over tens of years. Sit it out and you can't lose.
The ones who lose out are the ones who panic and eventually change their holdings into cash at the bottom of the dip and consolidate their losses
I lost money in shares once $10000, when St. Gearge gave not only us, but 7000 other investors bad advice, losing 375 million 4 months after it was invested. I then said never again BUT, John Howard, had talked up uranium and building Nuclear reactors, and I rushed out and bought 10,000 shares of a companies stocks at 5 cents each, sold them when they hit $7.96, and made a pretty big packet, then along came the tax man, and he made a pretty big packet, and that was my last ever foray into buying shares.
The easiest way to make money on shares is to get your own broker, and read every newspaper, every online news forum, and wait for someone important to say something, that may mean a stock will go up. Since that last foray, I have missed out on many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of profit, as I still do follow the markets, have seen some really good investments that, I should have invested in, that would have not cost me more then $1000 at the most for shares of value between 1.5 cents each up to 10 cents each, but they have sold upto $7.00 each. Making good money is when you buy the cheapest shares , at the right time, and sell when you are happy with the price. Everyone can do it. The thing is the tax man has his hand out, for his share, but he sure as hell wont help you if you lose.
We now manage our own investments. We did have the services of a Financial Adviser. However, the Adviser was taking a piece of the cake as well as the Financial Investment firms the Adviser elected to invest in on our behalf.
We have enjoyed far greater returns under our management. Given that the Sharemarket has rebounded virtually to where it was pre Co-Vid.
Our lifestyle is virtually controlled by the benefits of the dividend that we achieve.
At the start of each Financial year, we do an Asset Valuation of our investments and decide if we need to make any changes.
But the key to the Sharemarket investments is to stay in the market for the long term.
Friends often ask me for advice. So I tell them that I want to maintain our friendship and to do that I say.
THE BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU IS .... "DON'T ASK ME FOR ADVISE." It works ... they are still my friends.
However, the Market is the most unforgiving and unpredictable investment in the world. Much worse than the weather.
The funds like vanguard, and many sensible super funds don't really gamble on the stock market because they invest on such a diverse selection of stocks that the risk becomes very small and there is no risk at all if investors are happy to ride it out during the occasional dips
As for a self managed fund. Don't have the time or energy to bother, especially given the very real risk of doing worse than a good industry fund.
Truly spectacular losses are those where people entrust their life savings to apparently reputable investment funds that crash and burn due to mismanagement or corrupt conduct.
(and of course collectively speaking, the financial advisor industry has, over the last 40 years, probably cost their customers more than any GFC)
-- Edited by Tony LEE on Saturday 13th of February 2021 02:09:51 PM