THE Australian dollar’s astronomical run is threatening to put a brake on the economic recovery, with many of Newcastle’s exporters, especially mining companies fearing further rises.

Every time the dollar increases in value against the US dollar and other major currencies, Australian exports become more expensive for customers and less competitive in global markets.

Once known as the Aussie battler, the dollar has risen over 50 per cent in the past year from lows of US60c, and is heading towards parity with the greenback.

Driving the gains are the wide interest rate differential from Australia to the rest of the world, the general decline in the value of the US dollar and the strength of commodity prices, because about 70 per cent of Australia’s exports are commodity-related.

In economics this is called the resources curse — you have a strong currency because of demand for your resources, but that makes it harder for businesses to compete globally.

 Enjoy this article by Mark Dutton, Chief Investment Officer – Australia & NZ, AXA Read the rest of this entry »

Could it be true?

There is nothing like a lack of money to help bring families closer together and appreciate the basics of life more.
Newcastle has not been immune to the GFC nor have financial advisers!

I found the results of the study interesting and was pleased to read that GEN Yers were the generation that made the biggest change to their lifestyle.

GEN Xers would counter by saying that their credit card ways were a large contributor to the GFC !!!

Enjoy the article  Read the rest of this entry »

This is a debate which has been raging for many years. My question is, why can’t it be an ‘AND’ conversation?

They have different characteristics such as level of income paid (some shares don’t pay any income), tenants, franked dividends, depreciation, increased ability to borrow with property etc etc.

One key thing to be aware of is that they tend to ‘boom’ at different times in the economic cycle http://genxadvisers.com.au/economic-time-clock/

So why not have both in your investment or retirement portfolio?

There is also many types of shares and property: residential, commercial, industrial, resources, industrials, small caps etc.

Today I wanted to focus on some recent results being released on residential property.

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How the world changed in the first decade of the century

I read this article last week by well known commentator on Australia’s demographic trends, Bernard Salt.

The first thing that hit me was that in just under 9 weeks a Decade will end !!!

I know that it is clichéd, but how quick did it go?? Life just seems to do that to us all!

We started the “Norties” with the Y2K hype that was followed by the surreal events of September 11, 2001 and have ended it with the GFC and the death of Michael Jackson at only 50.

Australia has prospered and is positioned to continue doing so.

Are you positioned to prosper over the NEXT decade?

For Bernards’ opinion on what will be the social, cultural & business trends for the new decade see his column in The Australian at http://tinyurl.com/ylxk2l3