Etfs

At a time when investment returns and pay rises are typically subdued, a temptation is for investors, including retirees, to take greater risks outside their tolerance to risk in an effort to keep up investment returns.

A special report in The Economist magazine this month refers to the flow of data from information technology as the “world’s most valuable resource”. Whether you agree or not with this tag, the rising financial and social influence of the world’s heavyweight IT corporations is undeniable.

Superannuation is supposed to be all about providing income in retirement.

Hardly a day seems to pass without the media publishing articles about how many more investors are turning to index funds to gain low-cost diversification for their portfolios.

Just think for a while about what fundamental characteristics that you and many other investors would want and need from an investment product. This should help you focus on what really matters when choosing a product.

Unfortunately, many of us learn the principles of sound saving and investment practices the hard way through trial and error. And often these lessons are finally learnt, if ever, by the time we are in the countdown to retirement.

A self-managed super statistic that doesn’t seem to change much over the years is the strong preference of new SMSFs for individual trustees rather than a corporate trustee.

Can the past outperformance by an actively-managed investment fund provide a guide to the likeliness of its outperformance in the future?

Many investors may not realise that Australia’s super and non-super personal investment markets are almost equal in value.

If you’re feeling a little unnerved about your bond portfolio at the moment, you are likely not alone.

Sticking to a disciplined strategy of regularly rebalancing a portfolio back to its target asset allocation can often seem counter-intuitive.

Just think of what your portfolio might look like if you never followed one of the principles of sound investment practice – that is to regularly rebalance your portfolio back to its strategic or target asset allocation.

More than three decades ago, The Financial Analysts Journal in the US published a seminal research paper – Determinants of portfolio performance by Brinson, Hood and Beebower – concluding that a broadly diversified portfolio’s strategic asset allocation is the primary driver of its return variability over time.

How did you create your investment portfolio? Was it a carefully thought out, highly planned and disciplined process? Or was it what a new Vanguard research paper terms a “piecemeal” approach?

It is an exciting time when you are starting a new job.

The marriage and divorce statistics for 2015 sadly suggest that 43 per cent of Australian marriages may end in divorce. Significantly, this number-crunching does not include separations of de facto couples.

The imminent arrival of a limit on super tax-free pension accounts together with lower contribution caps is likely to have the unintended and positive consequence of bringing more couples closer together when it comes to their investment strategies.

New SMSF trustees face something of a double challenge in 2017-2018: Coming to terms with the long-standing fundamentals of having your own fund together with the biggest changes to super in a decade.

What are the best countries for a comfortable retirement? What countries have the best retirement-income systems? It seems the answers to these questions are rather positive for Australian retirees.

It’s hardly surprisingly that a personal finance article in Forbes magazine places the classic and straightforward investment practice of dollar-cost averaging high among a list of tips to help millennials become better, more disciplined investors in 2017.

What are the best countries for a comfortable retirement? What countries have the best retirement-income systems? It seems the answers to these questions are rather positive for Australian retirees.

Much of the discussion about the attributes of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focuses on their low cost, simplicity, transparency and practicality in gaining a desired degree of exposure to chosen markets for a diversified portfolio.

More of us are equipped for all-terrain motoring but how ready are you for all-terrain investing?

It seems almost an understatement to say that the self-managed super sector holds a lion’s share of superannuation’s retiree market in dollar terms.

Are you among the estimated two million-plus super fund members who will join the ranks of retired members over the next 15 years? If so, you are a potential beneficiary of intensifying competition among super funds to provide your super retirement income.

One of the personal finance myths is that many retirees take their super as a lump sum and spend the money on overseas holidays.

You could be forgiven for thinking that active fund managers have been having a hard time of it lately.

Understandably, trustees of new self-managed super funds are typically full of enthusiasm about what can be achieved. It’s largely why many would go the self-managed route in the first place.

The Australian superannuation system has many fine qualities, but if you were asked to rate it on the basis of trust – on a score of 1 to 10 – what would you give it?

One of the greatest advantages young investors have is time. The more time you have, the more the power of compounding can work for you.

Who tends to be more satisfied with their financial situations – individuals due to retire in the next 10 years, or those who retired over the past 10 years?

Frank Sinatra’s My Way probably hasn’t been among the karaoke top 100 for years. Yet its signature lyrics, "regrets, I’ve had a few", will certainly resonate with all of us – including recent retirees.

The Reserve Bank’s decision this week to once again leave the official cash rate at a record low of 1.5 per cent is likely to encourage prudent homebuyers to keep building up or at least maintain their mortgage buffers if possible.

It wouldn’t be surprising if saving and investing are far from the minds of many younger people working in the burgeoning "gig economy".

Unfortunately, many people would reach their mid-fifties and conclude that their savings are not on track to finance a satisfactory lifestyle in retirement. Fortunately, worthwhile steps can often be taken to boost their nest-eggs in the countdown to retiring.

The New Year has ushered in a boom for US equities, with the sharemarket there invigorated by a new President spruiking a pro-business agenda.

An astute way to begin a new year is to take a close look at your personal finances – including your super and non-super investment portfolios and your retirement-saving strategies – and to think about what improvements should be made.

The United States Federal Reserve has announced a 25-basis-point increase to the federal funds rate – a key driver of prevailing interest rates in the US and other countries. It’s the first such move since the Fed’s long-awaited "liftoff" in December 2015, and only the second rise in more than a decade.

It’s that time of year again – our inboxes are now being deluged with a variety of weird and wonderful predictions for sharemarkets and economies in the coming year.

By Bill McNabb, chairman and chief executive officer, The Vanguard Group, Inc.