At the Board meeting today, the RBA decided to increase the cash rate by 0.25%. This brings the official rate to 2.60%. The RBA governor announced that the bank decided to slow the rise a little and consider the outlook for inflation and economic growth in Australia. He also stated the board expects to further [...]
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From 20 September 2022, there are new rates of payment of the Age Pension. Asset limits have been increased for couples and both single and couples classified as non-homeowners. There is no change to the income test. Click here to see the new rates. Changes to the Age Pension
The Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia have lifted rates this afternoon by 0.5%, taking the official rate to 2.35%. This is the fourth consecutive 0.5% increase in rates since June 2022, and a total increase of 2.25% since May 2022. The official statement from the Board can be found here. August 2022 […]
Our share market finished flat for August while overseas, the US and UK exchanges both finished down about 3.6%. The Volatility Index remains above average indicating that we could expect to see higher rates of movement and uncertainty in the share market over the next month. The index had been dropping since June but jumped […]
SGC Changes from 1 July 2022 From 1 July 2022 the employer paid Superannuation Guarantee Contribution (SGC) rate increased by 0.5% to 10.5%. All employees who are paid salary and wages payments will have the additional superannuation contribution paid into their nominated fund from 1 July 2022. The SGC will continue to increase [...]
Happy New Financial Year Everyone In the current times of financial market uncertainty, I thought I’d quickly share some insights to provide some confidence, and with the new financial year commencing there are several legislative changes coming into force today. One in particular that I want to expand on is the change to the work [...]
2017 Draws to an End 2017 started well for foreign markets following the inauguration of Donald Trump, and the US market in particular has continued to outperform all year. Starting around the 21,000 mark, the Dow Jones index is up about 22% this calendar year. This is now the second-best bull run since World War [...]
Annual Reporting Season This week saw the wrap up of the annual reporting season for Australian companies listed on the ASX. The results have been contrary to the upbeat nature of recent business confidence surveys indicating the positive outlook of businesses. More than half of all companies reported profits in line with forecast expectations which [...]
US Markets Up Welcome to the first update for 2017. 2016 certainly ended well for markets with Trump seemingly the saviour of what was a rather flat year both here and overseas. US markets have jumped almost 20% since the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States and recently ended above the 21,000 [...]