Services - Financial Items

Various Financial and Investment Support Items

There is a range of information available for those who wish to consider improving their knowledge on pensions and investing:

In the budget of May 2011 the Government announced that for the 2001-12 year the minimum pension rate will be 75% of the normal rate and for 2013-13 onwards it will be 100% of the normal rate

Daryl Dixon's Canberra Times Article on the 2011 Budget impact on super fund members

Commsec analysis of the 2011 Federal Budget

Selling Small Parcels of Shares, or for those without a Broker and with Issuer Sponsored Stock

Several brokers or companies offer facilties to sell shares or small parcels of shares. However they usually require shares to be Issurer Sponsored and not Broker Sponsored (ie HIN). Also they usually require them to be personally held and not in the name of a trust or joint holding. Sales must usuaually be at market price. E-Trade and St George charge $49.50 per sale. Unsure about Link. There are others but they will charge a minimum brokerage of $100.

A cheaper way is to sign up with a broker such as Commsec or Bell Direct and then get trades at $19.95 or $15. However you will need to setup an account by filling in forms and proving ID, and then transferring your Issuer Sponsored stock to Broker Sponsored meaning you will get a new HIN. It takes time; maybe 1-2 weeks all up. You will also need to provide a bank account to which trades could be settled. Thus for quick cheap sales the following are sensible.

Etrade Visitor Trade Centre

St George Visitor Trade Centre

Link Market Services Share Sale Centre

Seniors

Federal Government Seniors General Information

About Seniors. Click on their Retirement Planning tab for some financial advice

Some Free Investment Newsletters

So you wish to invest money in the stockmarket or bonds. Check out The Bull and the Business Spectator. Both offer free weekly or daily newsletters delivered by email. Also Peter Switzer offers a newsletter. Want to follow the charts then try Big Charts. Yep it does provide Oz data. You need to enter au: wes to get data for Wesfarmers as an example only. Another newsletter is Morning Money which is published daily by Port Phillip Publishing of Melb and edited by Kris Sayce. Also MacroBusiness SuperBlog has a fee daily email, See below

Useful Blogs and Sites on Finance and Investment Issues

SlipstreamTrader Update Murray Dawes technical analysis on ASX200 on You Tube

MacroBusiness Superblog A good blog with a daily email options

Christopher Joye's Aussie Macro Moments Blog has some good comments and links to issues related to finance, economics, policy, real estate, and investment strategy. He also writes for Business Spectator.

Steve Keen's DebtWatch is another interesting blog on the world's financial issues. He also writes for Business Spectator.

Peter Switzer's site. Quite useful information and also a free newsletter.

Aussie Stock Forums. Useful free forums on sticks and the stock market.

Investment Tools and Software

Investment Tools. Try Investopedia for a range of tools and tutorials. For example here are 7 tools of the trade

InvestmentTools.com has a range of useful data on indices, links, investment calculators, etc.

Free Accounting Software. GNUCash. This is an alternative to MYOB, Quicken, etc. An open source developed accounting package that runs in Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Its designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible. GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. This is the Tutorial and Concepts Guide which provides a useful overview.

Library of SMSF Articles. From All Things Considered

ATO, APRA, ASIC and Centrelink Advice

MONEYSMART for general financial advice. A useful ASIC site

For information on SMSF funds.

For general information on personal superannuation.

For information for tax professionals. Useful for SMSF Trustees.

ATO Tax Rulings relevant to SMSFs.

APRA Superannuation Information. Includes list of super funds.

Aust Government's Super Fund Lookup. This contains publicly available information about superannuation funds that have an ABN. It includes funds regulated by the Tax Office and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

ATO's Ruling on Enduring Power of Attorney for SMSFs, SMSFR 2010/2

Centrelink's Financial Information Service (FIS)

The FIS is an education and information service available to everyone in the community. FIS helps people to make informed decisions about investment and financial issues for their current and future financial needs. FIS is independent, free and confidential and provides services through seminars, and by phone and appointment. Ted Tregillgas has kindly obtained some pamphlets which give more information on FIS programs between July and December 2010 and these will be available at Fridays meetings. For more information, click on the Centrelink FIS page, or read the brochure online

Centrelink. The aged pension

Centrelink income test for an account based pension Article from Money Management on how an Account Based Pension's income is assessed by Centrelinek to determine entitlement ot a pension

Is the Income Derived from Solar Panels on Your Roof Taxable?

This article seems to outline the situation well as does this article and this one at Solar Questions. There is no specific tax legislation on this issue. Note this is not tax advice. However, there are some ATO private rulings available that give directions on specific cases. Generally small installations that do not make the owner any significant profits after paying their power bills will probably be tax free. Larger installations, put in for the purpose of making a profit might be a different story. A tax agent and the ATO should be consulted in such cases. GST is only receivable and then remitted to the ATO if you are registered for GST with an ABN and your GST annual turnover exceeds $75,000

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