The Hunt for Dividend Income in 2020 With interest rates at historic lows and likely to stay that way for some time, retirees and other investors who depend on income from their investments are on the lookout for a decent yield. Income from all the usual sources, such as term deposits and other fixed interest investments, have slowed to trickle. Which is why many investors are turning to Australian shares for their reliable dividend income and relatively high dividend yields. The aver...

Like it or not, we live in interesting times. More than a decade after the Global Financial Crisis, the global economy is facing fresh headwinds creating uncertainty for policy makers and investors alike. This time around it's not a debt crisis, although debt levels are extremely high, but geopolitical instability. The ongoing US-China trade war and Brexit confusion in Europe have increased market uncertainty and volatility and put a spoke in the wheel of global growth. The Internatio...

What a difference a year makes. In recent months, Australian shares hit a record high, the Aussie dollar dipped to levels not seen since the GFC and interest rates were cut to historic lows. Towards the end of 2018, shares were in the doldrums and while experts agreed the Aussie dollar would go lower most tipped the next move in interest rates would be up. All of which goes to show that when it comes to predicting financial markets, the only sure thing is uncertainty. There's no avoidin...

Positives and negatives of gearing Negatively gearing an investment property is viewed by many Australians as a tax effective way to get ahead. According to Treasury, more than 1.9 million people earned rental income in 2012-13 and of those about 1.3 million reported a net rental loss. So it was no surprise that many people were worried about how they would be affected if Labor had won the May 2019 federal election and negative gearing was phased out as they had proposed. With the Coali...

With the uncertainty of the federal election now out of the way, we can look forward to some significant reforms to Australia's existing tax system. The Morrison Government went into the election with a comprehensive suite of tax proposals and these are now likely to pass swiftly through Parliament, as the Opposition has indicated it will support the legislation. So just what are the changes we are likely to see when it comes to both our personal tax and the taxes that apply to small ...