It’s said that you can’t avoid death or taxes. Well, under current superannuation law, accumulated benefits left to a financial dependent are treated as being tax-free. But look a bit closer and you suddenly see a cunning trap set by the Government.

A report just released, ‘Not so super for women’ has certainly highlighted issues surrounding wo- men and their retirements. As the title suggests, our current superannuation system, introduced back in the 1990’s, is failing to provide adequate savings for anyone who has not enjoyed continuous employment.

LIC’s – Listed Investment Companies

The standard way investors achieve exposure to a range of assets by way of a single investment is usually through a managed fund. Unfortunately, fund managers charge like wounded bulls for their ‘expertise’. So the costs of adopting this strategy can sometimes outweigh the benefits. Or at the very least fail to give the value for money you would have liked.

I bet you didn’t know that the famous economist, John Maynard Keynes’ actually suggested that saving money could harm the economy. He called it the ‘Paradox of Thrift” Why? Saved money is not spent money, and it is spent money that ‘oils’ the economic wheels. If money is withheld (saved) from an economy, demand for goods and services diminishes, this lessens output and therefore profits.

As a result of such a good reception to my recent post about my early bank career (The great night safe robbery). I thought I would regale you of an incident, of which I still chuckle about, that occurred during my academic career.

Recently, whilst researching for a new post, I was reminded of an incident that occurred way back in the early days of my banking career. This particular incident still amazes me to this day, so I thought I would include it here. It happened around the late 1970’s.

The search for income is constant for those in retirement and those wishing to retire. Apart from the usual bank deposits, superannuation income streams and share dividends there’s not much more you can do, short of delivering pamphlets door to door!

Today the world is blessed with smartphones and their apps, but anyone who needed to do some ‘on the spot’ calculating in the past had to rely on a range of genuine ‘old school’ methods. Shortcuts were few and far between, but there were a few tricks you could rely on.

“Do you know a good financial planner?” is one question that would certainly keep me well fed. Presuming that is, that I was provided with a ‘hot dinner’ each time it was asked.