In this hip pocket money news, how women might be affected in next week’s federal budget and should you be listening to market noise, North Korea, Europe and Trump-economics?
What we’re hearing on the May Budget?
Women will reportedly lose out in next week’s budget if the federal government lowers the HECS repayment threshold.
According to the Australian newspaper, about 90,000 more graduates would be forced to pay student debts off sooner, if the threshold for doing so were reduced from $54,869 to potentially $50,000 or less.
There is also speculation that university fees could be increased as the government tries to find savings.
Both potential changes are likely to affect more women than men because females make up the bulk of university graduates and lower paid workers.
What we’ll be looking for at Financy HQ, is whether there’s likely to be anything in the budget for women that will actually bring real working life benefits.
What we’d like to see are policy measures that improve childcare support funding and superannuation enhancements that help women save more for retirement.
Financy more on the budget and HECS?
How are you coping with the market noise?
From North Korea, US President Donald Trump to European elections and Brexit – all of these things are affecting share markets right now.
It’s also likely that they are affecting how you feel about investing your money.
Given there’s so much information hitting the daily news, we’ve asked Twelve Wealth‘s Cathryn Gross how we can all better digest and manage this market noise.
“I find it best to ignore the noise and make sure my clients always have enough cash in their investment portfolios to fund their more immediate needs, that way they are not forced to sell out of their investments at the worst of times.
“The worst of times are often the time to buy more not sell,” she says.
What can you do to protect yourself?
“Diversify, Diversify, Diversify and make sure investment are fit for your goals.
Over 40 years most of the worlds markets have returned 6 to 7.5 per cent on diversified balanced portfolios over a rolling 10 year period.
“It is hard to see why the next 10 years will be much different to the last 40 years, so think long term and don’t constantly try and pick the winners, you will find yourself chasing your tail,” says Cathryn.
