Your Money: Blog Alman Partners

Looking for some loose change?

Happy Financial Year to All. Now that we are into the 2018/19 financial year, this means that the recent approval from the Senate of the seven-year Personal Income Tax Plan comes into effect, and you may find yourself with some loose change in your pocket! The first step of this plan is to provide small tax relief to low and middle-income earners.

Let’s talk numbers

I get it, numbers – not everyone’s cup of tea, especially when there are too many of them being thrown about. But sometimes numbers help – numbers are facts, they are not open to misinterpretation – the context in which they are used of course can be (misinterpreted) but not the numbers themselves. As Pythagoras, the great mathematician said – “Number is the within of all things!”

Banks should exit the Financial Planning business

What an extraordinary week at the Banking Royal Commission. AMP’s reputation has been shredded when the head of advice Jack Regan admitted that the financial services giant blatantly lied to ASIC 20 times and that they continued to charge advice fees for orphaned clients. Then it was CBA’s turn when the commissioner accused them of being the “Gold Medalist” of taking fees for no service. I could go on, however, I am sure most of you are following the story. No wonder the general public have reduced faith in the financial planning industry.

Rainy Day Investing

Australia, earth’s driest continent, experienced national rainfall in 2017 that was 8% above the historical average. The year was the 30^th wettest on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.¹ But the story is more complicated than that.

Punching Well Above Our Weight

Imagine a mid-size Mackay based financial advice firm operating on the global stage. For clients of Alman Partners, this is a reality. As members of the Global Association of Independent Advisers (GAIA), our firm is at the forefront of Global Best Practice.

7 Keys To Help You Navigate Volatile Markets

Everyone has an opinion about what caused this latest bout of volatility in markets, coming after a long period of relative calm. But the key point for long-term investors is that markets are volatile by nature. Stocks go up and down as information and expectations change. Sometimes, this happens very gradually. Other times it happens more suddenly.

Should You Buy Bitcoin? Ask a Different Question First

I received these two messages within three minutes of each other recently:

Reading the Tea Leaves

Investors at year-end are inclined to reflect on the 12 months gone and muse on what the coming year might bring. Aware of this appetite for speculation, the media tends to feed it with forecasts. These articles can be fun to read, but are even more so a year later.

AP Bear Photo of the Year 2017 Award

With an overwhelming response from our clients this year, the

Chasing Alpha: Fools Gold!

As an investor you are constantly inundated with information: Where is the market heading, top 5 buys, top 5 sells etc. This clamour will increase in pitch as we approach the end of the year with predictions for which way the market is headed next year, it will roll in to it elections, status of large projects, weather predictions etc. and yet somehow there will still be several unanticipated events – some government falling, attack or sanction by the UN / USA and everything will be abuzz and different to the predictions anyway. This will all be exciting and exhilarating stuff, calling out to all investors to keep watching the latest updates. We have been saying for many years, it makes sense for the media to turn finance and investing into entertainment, to get more eyeballs and therefore advertising big bucks for them. Clearly, it is a self-serving purpose and they are not really doing you any favour.