A few years back, I attended an executive course run by University of Nebraska, Omaha. It took place just prior to the annual general meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, also in Omaha Nebraska. The focus of the course was to explore a range of fundamental valuation techniques and hear from key executives within Berkshire Hathaway.

It seems like a simple enough question. If you had a balance investment option in your super, would you choose a 7% or 12% return? Yet, before you decide it’s a no-brainer, it’s worth probing a little deeper into what could cause this 5% variance, as the reporting returns are not standardised.

Around $2.5 billion has reportedly flowed into the industry super fund Hostplus in recent times. This influx of funds has largely been on the back of media commentators promoting Hostplus, in particular its Hostplus Index Balanced Fund.

In this 20th Episode of AJ Radio we challenge some paradigms of investing and retirement. As the financial world is no always logical, we raise some interesting questions when thinking of the amount of funding for your retirement and if higher returns for investments are better.

When it comes to retirement most people believe more is best, but is this always the case? Have the Centrelink changes that came into effect last year distorted reality; has the $350k super fund become the new $900k – without all the extra effort of squirrelling away so much for retirement?

In 1934 there were 3 stages of a lifecycle – a child, an adult, and simply being old! At that time, the average life expectancy was only 63 years old.

Superannuation and retirement have always gone hand in hand. Yet recent budget announcements around taxation, contribution caps and other proposed changes have caused a stir and understandably, some Australians may be reconsidering the merits of superannuation.

How can you minimise the impact of new Age Pension asset tests in coming years?

Presently, an average of around one thousand Australians retire each week. In six years’ time, this is projected to increase to an average of about five thousand Australians retiring each week.

Every day when we turn on the TV, radio, or read the newspaper, we are told whether the share market in Australia has increased or decreased. The Australian stock market is often referred to as the ASX 200, which is the 200 largest companies listed on the stock exchange in Australia.

As most people in Australia know, the Federal Budget was announced last week and as usual, the media has been all over the proposed changes. One of the most contentious issues concerns superannuation and the impact some of the proposed changes will have on retirees.

How do you catch up if you haven’t contributed to your superannuation for a while?

Perhaps you’re self-employed, have taken time off to start a family, or are just enjoying some time off work to travel the world. Whatever the reason, it’s likely that as a result, your superannuation might be a little light on. The question is does it matter if you miss a few years of contributing?

The accumulation of wealth, and what people perceive as being wealthy, has fascinated me over the decades. Below I have provided you with 2 very stereotypical examples and as you read each one, I would like you to pick which person is the wealthier?

So lets start….

Should I be thinking about downsizing the home prior to retirement or hold off and take advantage of any future potential increase in value?

For a lot of people the family home represents a large portion of the households wealth. However unlike a normal investment, this asset provides both financial benefits and also can hold strong emotional ties.

I was recently reading the Wall Street Journey and noticed an interesting statistic….70% of inherited wealth is lost by the second generation and 90% by the third.

How much you should really draw as an income from your superannuation?

When you hit retirement age, you have the ability to access your superannuation and draw an annual income stream. Once you are fully retired, you have the ability to select how much you want to take from your superannuation—and making the right decision is critical.

If you suffer from a love affair with property like many Australians, then you will often ponder the above two choices when deliberating how to build wealth long-term with this asset class.

I was recently went around the corner from my office to eat at an Italian restaurant. It was one of those restaurants where the entire menu is in Italian. Now my Italian is sketchy at the best of times, but what was a little more tricky was the menu items. Normally when you look at a menu you can quickly identify a couple fail safe options, this place however had me stumped.

When looking at an investment opportunity the most common question asked is “Will I be paying too much for this investment? Is this share over valued?” There are no shortage of books or information on how to determine the answer to this question

I was recently flying back on a REX commercial prop plane from the regional town of Mt Gambier (close to the boarder of South Australia) after visiting some of our clients.

Australia is set to claim the mantle as the nation with the oldest retirement age in the developed world following Joe Hockey’s federal budget announcement on 13th May 2014.