For anyone with a SMSF, that means the government is forcing, yes forcing you to pay less tax by putting more of your pay packet into your super fund. I went through my parents' super fund statements with them last year and like someone above, they would have been better off just having the whole lot in cash sitting in a high interest savings account or term deposit.
Ultimately super is just another tax... It's not your money and the way things are going i dont believe it ever will be. I predict the government will still swipe everything in super (including SMSF) with new draconian regulations which will take away all control and force you to invest in their lamebrained projects... In return the government will guarentee you a certain level of income, i.e. pension mkII ... Mark my words - you cant trust this government as far as you can throw 'em!
It's not just that it's another scam. In my opinion, it's another thing that takes responsibility away from the individual. More moral hazard. "Don't worry about saving any money we've got that under control." The nanny state won't end well, it never does. People would be well advised to observe what happened when the socialist states of the 20th century ran out of money. That's what we basically have today, almost a fully socialist state promising to look after us all, without the capability to do so but blasting out the propaganda on all levels that it does have the capability to do so, ensuring that most people still have enough faith in it and don't question that it's taking vast amounts of money from us through tax from which we see little benefit either on a personal or societal level. When the economy turns many people will learn to their regret that the govt does not have the power they thought it did. And they may get upset.
True dat GP but only in relation to: "Class: 38 Chat room services (telecommunications services); operation of chat rooms; providing internet chatrooms " Anyways, I'm sure noone here would do the dirty on ya
Hey GP, I'm pretty certain you can't have the word "trustee" in your company name. When I set mine up that's what I was told, anyway. I believe it's detailed on the asic site (www.asic.gov.au). +37 (%) for getting out of the system & setting up a SMSF. And it's only been operating since December! Yeeeeeeeeeeeha.
I have nothing but admiration for those SS members who have the guts to set up a SMSF or at least changed to one of their choosing. One thing that does concern me for their sakes is having all your eggs in one basket. A case in point would be having all your super in gold and silver. When you get to the age when your body has enough and you get to pull the plug there will be no garantee that it would be the ideal time to do so. One thing I would like you to think about is what other investments go well in bad economic times. Well I was told that in the great depression of 1929/39, the only business that flourished was the brewing and horse racing industries. No one was retrenched or put on reduced hours in these industries. These may well be ideal share investments to buy when all other shares would be in retreat in the event of another financial meltdown. One thing to remember if you make the wrong call, down blame yourself, if TSHTF at least you throwing the SH.. . Financial Gurus are too clever by half when playing with other peoples money. If they are so smart, Why are they working? People are inclined to forget that when super first became compulsory, the workers of Australia gave up a wage increase in lieu of a 3% super contribution. From that time on, more and more so called experts have got their nose in the trough. How many experts in these funds picked the downturn in 07 and 08?. I believe that saving for your future is good providing you are the manager. Some people don't have the confidence to do so and I believe that a National Super Fund should be available to those who don't wish to manage their own. Contributions could be invested something like this. National Home building 25% National Rail and Roads 15% Government Bonds 20% Australian shares 15% Members backed personal loans security members contribution 10% Gold and silver bullion 10% Cash held in Banks etc 5% I'm sure that someone could come up with a much better idea than this but IMHO it would be much better and safer than what exists today. Anyway best of luck with your super fellow stackers. Regards Errol43
Errol43, you are right, there is a good case for a diversified super strategy. However - & I hope these are not famous last words - I believe in the DYOR approach. I am over exposed in PMs, but not 100%. I monitor the Au/ Ag situation every day, keep up to date with traders who seem to know what they're doing (eg Turd Ferguson, Jim Sinclair, etc) & also spend some time on Zero Hedge & other blogs, going through the comments. Using the same approach, I have little faith in anything from government (3.3% CPI - :lol, brokers, or financial planners. I bet there's just about noone with a retail super fund that follows their money as closely. One of the nice things about PMDS unallocated is that I can switch to cash in an instant, if things look like they are going pear-shaped (whether I have the guts or intelligence is another question, but at least the choice is there). Anyway, that's just the way I see things at the moment. It's a very fast ride & we all know there's crash waiting to happen just around one of those corners, but hopefully we can recognise it when it happens & jump off before too much damage is done. Put it another way - in 5 months I'm 37% up... even if I cash out completely right now, I'm 36.5% ahead of where I would have been sticking with my retail fund. And I believe (DYOR) there's still some time left in this run, & things can go quite a bit higher.
That worked well in a stable world Now just go Cash held in Banks etc 5 % Gold and silver bullion 65 % Agricultural Land 30 %
