3 Good Reasons Why Stock Investors Should Learn About Options Today

At the time of writing this post, the All Ordinaries has rebounded about 30% from the March 2009 lows. Some individual stocks have even done better than that. Rio Tinto went up 80% from $43 in March 09 to $77 in June 09. The rally has taken a pause after touching 4000 and we really [...]

Compare apples with apples

I read with amusement an article I found on the website of a SMSF services company that compared the fees they charged for doing SMSF administration with the management fees charge by large Super Funds and of course concluded that it was cheaper to have an SMSF. The writer of the article is assuming the [...]

Buy safely and profit from your mistakes

I just learned a new investment strategy that has completely changed the way I would buy stocks in a bear market. I wished I had known about it last year when I started buying stocks with a view of holding for the long-term. In my May 6 blog post, I talked about buying XLF, a [...]

Start a SMSF for the right reasons

With the poor returns last year from most super funds, a number of people I talked to recently have shown interest in starting their own SMSF, when they hear that I have one. Most of the questions I get are related to fund administration and cost e.g. how to start a fund, how much does [...]

How safe are government bonds?

I watched The Ascent of Money last night and what I learned from Niall Ferguson (aka  British econ-god) about the bond market was pretty scary. Government bonds are supposed to be among the safest investments which was why they skyrocketed in late 2008 when there was panic in the stock market. Niall went back into [...]

Early results for FY 2009

As the 2009 financial year draws to a close, I have begun the process of collating and summarising our various investments in preparation for submissions to the accountants. Our self-managed super fund seems to have done well. Not counting the new contributions for the year, the fund has increased by about 15% before tax. Unfortunately, [...]

Generate your own dividends

Many people buy stocks for their dividends which is a pretty sound strategy for SMSFs, especially if your plan is for your super fund to provide you with income when you are retired. In the Australian market, bank stocks were a favourite among dividend seeking investors. Many financial planners were advocating buying bank stocks in [...]

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