Author Topic: Australian Investing Thread  (Read 2590560 times)

FFA

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3200 on: June 29, 2017, 04:42:11 AM »
Is anyone putting more into super this year because of all the lower contribution limits next year? I need to change the Australian Investment Order advice because of the limits.
No change for me, deborah

I do not have that big a pot of cash LOL. Banks keep jacking up my rates so I'm starting to pay off my pile of investment debt.

Honestly $125k a year (concessional and non-concessional caps) is plenty much for most people. If you have more than that lying around to contribute you probably don't need the benefit of the super system anyway.

That was the conclusion I came to. As well as being only 40, and the markets being quite high lately.

JuicyCrab

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3201 on: June 29, 2017, 09:07:14 PM »
Hey guys,

Just had a little bub, and now with the new knowledge of MMM I want to start an investment fund for her education/housing/whatever the hell happens to our country in 25 years time.

So the investment horizon is 25 years, $25-$50 invested weekly, share market index funds (international + local).

What are you guys using for the purpose of funds invested for your child? I was thinking either mixing it in with my current shares and tracking it via a spreadsheet OR the AMP growth bond product designed for this exact purpose.

https://www.amp.com.au/personal/investments/products/investments/growth-bond

Thoughts?

terrier56

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3202 on: June 29, 2017, 09:21:46 PM »
Hey guys,

Just had a look at the dividend estimate for VAS. It looks low. Like I expect this kind of thing for the April div. but another 50c/unit sting a little. Does anyone know why this might be?
If it carries into the future then we are looking like a 2-3% yield which is un-Australian, to say the least haha.

HowMuchCanAKoalaBear

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3203 on: June 29, 2017, 11:23:29 PM »
VAS distributions were 1.02 0.93 0.54 and 0.50 So $3 over an average $70 share price gives a yield of 4.28% Pretty normal mate.

Actually checking the reinvesting prices over the year average would be $73 per shares so a yield of 4.1% Last year was 4.2% from memory.

Koala out.

« Last Edit: June 29, 2017, 11:30:19 PM by HowMuchCanAKoalaBear »

tim_oz

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3204 on: June 30, 2017, 04:44:10 AM »
also 3 of the 4 big banks skew their dividend payout period, ie. july & dec, which tends to make this a lower dividend paying quarter.
but as koala says, it averages to 4.1% or around 5.5% grossed up with the average 80% franking VAS achieves.

tim.

marty998

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3205 on: June 30, 2017, 07:49:45 PM »
Yes was just about to post this. 50c is fine, don't mind not being taxed on extra income if I can help it.

VHY is estimating a whopper of $1.71. Must be all the rebalancing in June triggering cap gains over this year.

Paging Rob_S.

HowMuchCanAKoalaBear

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3206 on: June 30, 2017, 10:56:06 PM »
VAS mytax prefill?  Last year the statements came around 20th of july it hadn't prefilled by then so I entered it by hand on the 20th this was the last info I was waiting for.

Does anyone know if it does prefill into Mytax?

thanks. Koala.

deborah

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3207 on: June 30, 2017, 11:31:09 PM »
Investment companies have until the end of October to send stuff to the tax office for pre-filling - see https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Lodging-your-tax-return/Lodge-online/Pre-filling-your-online-tax-return/ , so don't count on it being there before September. It certainly won't be there in July.

Rob_S

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3208 on: July 01, 2017, 05:28:46 AM »
Yes was just about to post this. 50c is fine, don't mind not being taxed on extra income if I can help it.

VHY is estimating a whopper of $1.71. Must be all the rebalancing in June triggering cap gains over this year.

Paging Rob_S.

I saw the 1.71 dividend and had the oddest feeling. I keep a spreadsheet ... its not much really... of the number of shares we own plus the last four quarters dividends along with franking. 1.71 was a lot more than I expected. I plugged it into the spreadsheet and ... well.. based on the last 4 dividends we comfortably cover our expenses. Before this dividend we had enough to cover our expenses as long as the govt kicked in some family tax benefits. Now we can support ourselves even if these benefits get the chop.

This sort of spike in dividends happened last time (2015?) VHY sold down the banks to buy RIO/Woodside/BHP, probably not the best idea in hindsight but thats what you get from a rules based ETF. I agree this quarters spike is cap gains again with a sell down of banks to buy QANTAS?!?!... Cap gains wont really hurt us as the shares are in my wifes name and she's a stay at home mum these days with no other income besides dividends. If the shares were in my name the cap gains would bite and I get why many investors, after initially being excited by the yield end up ruling out VHY for that reason.

I still plan to wait 6 more months and see if the dividends hold before doing anything rash on the work front. We will be buying LICs from here on in to stabilise the dividend stream. MLT, ARG and BKI are on the radar. I know - shock horror - I said I would stick to VHY and here I am moving on to LICs. I might post my thoughts on this to my journal. Then its time to build the cash buffer and figure out if I want to hang on for one more year and collect the long service payout...

I'm pretty excited. The VHY plan looks to have worked. So far.

ianvestor

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3209 on: July 01, 2017, 11:02:25 AM »
I'm unlucky enough to be shareholder in Contango Microcap, a small LIC targeting small cap companies.  When I pushed a lot of my money into indexes I thought I'd put a small amount into an active investment manager just for larfs, and I thought one area where it might be interesting would be the small cap space.

Anyhoo, someone way back asked what the difference was between ETFs and LICs?

LICs are generally an active managed fund overseen by a fund manager. Which may be internal or outsourced. One key issue is that the active management of LIC's can make them subject to governance risk.  Fist fights and powerplays between the investment managers, unhappy shareholders, fighting for control over funds under management.

By comparison, you'd think the remit of an index is pretty straightforward (i.e. Replicate the index. ) and the relatively low fees they charge wouldn't make active management sustainable.

So this is what's happening at CTN at the moment.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/extraordinary-battle-under-way-at-contango-microcap-20170302-gup7ot.html

The price is depressed at the moment due to underperformance, but no doubt also due to the current uncertainty.  It may resolve itself eventually but I'm wishing I'd just shoved the whole thing into a index.

Hunter Hall is another weird one.

http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/financial-services/hunter-hall-lic-saga-a-lesson-for-listed-invested-companies-everywhere-20170308-gutnrj

I am new to this forum and still need to spend some time going over some old posts here on the Australian thread. Was surprised to see the level of activity hence I joined. I found this topic above of interest since I spend quite a bit of time looking into some of the LICs. I would also stress that with these two (CTN & HHV), one should do plenty of research into their corporate governance. Both have undergone change in recent times and are not shy in asking for shareholders to stump up new cash for new options, rights, placement issues etc

If I was forced to place money with a microcap manager I would probably be more comfortable with the latest Wilson offering (WMI) which has traded just a cent or two above the issue price thus far. I'd prefer alternative offshore LICs to HHV I would say also. Just an opinion though which could well be wrong, but thought I would share. :)

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3210 on: July 02, 2017, 01:08:46 AM »
Happy new financial year everyone! Super Concessional contributions cap drops to $25k for every one this year. I will adjusting my salary sacrificing when I go to work on Monday although I'm thinking about frontloading this year.


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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3211 on: July 02, 2017, 01:30:14 AM »
My superfund is offline this weekend so will have to find out tomorrow how much I went over the cap. Think I will leave as is and up other areas instead.

marty998

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3212 on: July 02, 2017, 03:26:21 PM »
Fairfax Media shares are going to get hammered today with TPG withdrawing its proposed takeover offer.

misterhorsey

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3213 on: July 02, 2017, 10:36:20 PM »
I'm unlucky enough to be shareholder in Contango Microcap, a small LIC targeting small cap companies.  When I pushed a lot of my money into indexes I thought I'd put a small amount into an active investment manager just for larfs, and I thought one area where it might be interesting would be the small cap space.

Anyhoo, someone way back asked what the difference was between ETFs and LICs?

LICs are generally an active managed fund overseen by a fund manager. Which may be internal or outsourced. One key issue is that the active management of LIC's can make them subject to governance risk.  Fist fights and powerplays between the investment managers, unhappy shareholders, fighting for control over funds under management.

By comparison, you'd think the remit of an index is pretty straightforward (i.e. Replicate the index. ) and the relatively low fees they charge wouldn't make active management sustainable.

So this is what's happening at CTN at the moment.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/extraordinary-battle-under-way-at-contango-microcap-20170302-gup7ot.html

The price is depressed at the moment due to underperformance, but no doubt also due to the current uncertainty.  It may resolve itself eventually but I'm wishing I'd just shoved the whole thing into a index.

Hunter Hall is another weird one.

http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/financial-services/hunter-hall-lic-saga-a-lesson-for-listed-invested-companies-everywhere-20170308-gutnrj

...I found this topic above of interest since I spend quite a bit of time looking into some of the LICs. I would also stress that with these two (CTN & HHV), one should do plenty of research into their corporate governance. Both have undergone change in recent times and are not shy in asking for shareholders to stump up new cash for new options, rights, placement issues etc

Hey ianvestor

I don't follow this thread as much as I used to but then popped in today and saw that you've quoted a previous post of mine.

I've quoted your note about doing research into corporate governance.  I think it's good advice.  However, no amount of research can uncover the future intentions of management, or significant shareholders, that may or may not be in control at the time you are considering making an investment - as well as the decisions they may make about the investment of funds.

So I would advise caution and knowing the limits of the ability of your own research.

I think the investors in Hunter Hall got blind sided.  They would have got into it as an ethical fund. With an environmental screen  Whatshisface gets cold feet and sells it to Soul Patts for a bargain, Soul Patts who are a key shareholder in New Hope Coal. Surely he could have found a buyer that had interests more in line with the mission of the fund he originally set up??? Very weird.

I got into CTN before any of the recent governance issues came to a head.  It's died down a little. However, their price continues to underperform in the short term. While I think it's partly due to governance disputes, their price isn't too far away from the value of their Net Tangible Assets, so I think it's mainly down to bad stock picking. For example,  the manager taking overweight positions (relative to the market) in frothy dumb punts - i.e. Slater and Gordon used to amount to about 3% of the fund. I doubt they would have had time to sell out so about 3% of the value of the fund would have disappeared in a few days.

Of course, if all goes well you go with an LIC that is able to outperform the market, year in and year out........

From my own experience with CTN, once reinvestment is taken into account, I've broken even - for now.  However, I would have been better off had I put it into VAS or VGS.  Then again, I've only held CTN since 2014 and 3 years is too short a time to really measure the performance of investments - but seeing a Board and the Board's management get rolled by hostile directors and shareholders does not inspire confidence!!!



Dropbear

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3214 on: July 03, 2017, 01:16:17 AM »
Hi Dropbear,
1 -you could try calling Vanguard to see if they might waive it. Your parents might also consider co-mingling the funds within their own investments to minimize fees, just keep a separate spreadsheet to tally what is set aside for the nephews education.
2 - Many have posted before Vanguard will accept 100k minimum, I don't have first hand experience myself but seems to be the case, so on both accounts give Vanguard a bell....

I asked Vanguard, and they replied that they'll accept the latter wholesale investment for an existing customer below the $500k minimum, but not the former retail fund below the $5k minimum... in case anyone else is interested in these products also.

Does anyone know or recommend any cost-effective broad market investment options for small initial amounts like $500, please?  Stockspot, for example, would be ok if we were making regular small contributions to quickly bring the balance up to outweigh the monthly fees, as we'd only be making irregular or annual contributions, the monthly fees would be too much for the small income-producing capital to bear.

Thanks for your suggestions, FFA!

deborah

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3215 on: July 03, 2017, 01:31:36 AM »
I know nothing about this, but Noel Whittaker did an interesting article recently about "Acorns" - http://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/noel-whittaker-gives-his-verdict-on-microinvestment-app-acorns-20170608-gwnfil.html

ianvestor

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3216 on: July 03, 2017, 02:55:31 AM »


So I would advise caution and knowing the limits of the ability of your own research.

I think the investors in Hunter Hall got blind sided.  They would have got into it as an ethical fund. With an environmental screen  Whatshisface gets cold feet and sells it to Soul Patts for a bargain, Soul Patts who are a key shareholder in New Hope Coal. Surely he could have found a buyer that had interests more in line with the mission of the fund he originally set up??? Very weird.

I got into CTN before any of the recent governance issues came to a head.  It's died down a little. However, their price continues to underperform in the short term. While I think it's partly due to governance disputes, their price isn't too far away from the value of their Net Tangible Assets, so I think it's mainly down to bad stock picking. For example,  the manager taking overweight positions (relative to the market) in frothy dumb punts - i.e. Slater and Gordon used to amount to about 3% of the fund. I doubt they would have had time to sell out so about 3% of the value of the fund would have disappeared in a few days.

Of course, if all goes well you go with an LIC that is able to outperform the market, year in and year out........

From my own experience with CTN, once reinvestment is taken into account, I've broken even - for now.  However, I would have been better off had I put it into VAS or VGS.  Then again, I've only held CTN since 2014 and 3 years is too short a time to really measure the performance of investments - but seeing a Board and the Board's management get rolled by hostile directors and shareholders does not inspire confidence!!!

Hey misterhorsey,

Yes agree research has its limitations for sure. I certainly don't suggest the departure of Peter Hall or this years boardroom battles with CTN were predictable. So much change has occurred in these cases that were beyond any research to predict.

I guess my point was to beware of governance issues. I could point to weakness with how CTN and HHV treated shareholders from not too long after listing around 2004. Some of this persisted later on, but I suppose I am using hindsight when referring to this.

Agree totally though the stock picking is a major reason in both cases for the shares to be weak over the last year, more so than governance issues.

Just thought I would comment on this situation as many investors are not aware of some of the capital raising games some LICs play whilst stating it is beneficial for the shareholder base. These two have been offenders in the past of dilutive capital raisings prior to 2014 I think from memory so I was more referring to those rather than more  recent events.

misterhorsey

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3217 on: July 03, 2017, 07:23:43 AM »
Yes agree research has its limitations for sure. I certainly don't suggest the departure of Peter Hall or this years boardroom battles with CTN were predictable. So much change has occurred in these cases that were beyond any research to predict.

I guess my point was to beware of governance issues. I could point to weakness with how CTN and HHV treated shareholders from not too long after listing around 2004. Some of this persisted later on, but I suppose I am using hindsight when referring to this.

Agree totally though the stock picking is a major reason in both cases for the shares to be weak over the last year, more so than governance issues.

Just thought I would comment on this situation as many investors are not aware of some of the capital raising games some LICs play whilst stating it is beneficial for the shareholder base. These two have been offenders in the past of dilutive capital raisings prior to 2014 I think from memory so I was more referring to those rather than more  recent events.


Yes, in agreement with you ianvestors. And good to warn others.

My investment in CTN was like most of my previous investments in my direct holdings, namely, poorly researched!  I wasn't aware of the capital raisings at the time I bought in.  Just the impressive past performance figures made me think it might be worth spicing up my portfolio with a bit of small cap. Although now I wish I hadn't.

CTN is currently conducting a buy back of shares. I don't know why. You'd think if they had spare cash they would invest it?  In, um, like, shares? Small cap, maybe?

Even if there are reasons to do it to increase shareholder value (by addressing pass dilutions, or increasing earnings per share) due to recent previous shenanigans I don't trust them!

But I've kind of stopped following them too closely. Just waiting for a bit of a recovery in the ETF price whereupon I will cash out and move it over to VGS methinks!


FFA

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3218 on: July 03, 2017, 07:28:57 AM »
Hi Dropbear,
1 -you could try calling Vanguard to see if they might waive it. Your parents might also consider co-mingling the funds within their own investments to minimize fees, just keep a separate spreadsheet to tally what is set aside for the nephews education.
2 - Many have posted before Vanguard will accept 100k minimum, I don't have first hand experience myself but seems to be the case, so on both accounts give Vanguard a bell....

I asked Vanguard, and they replied that they'll accept the latter wholesale investment for an existing customer below the $500k minimum, but not the former retail fund below the $5k minimum... in case anyone else is interested in these products also.

Does anyone know or recommend any cost-effective broad market investment options for small initial amounts like $500, please?  Stockspot, for example, would be ok if we were making regular small contributions to quickly bring the balance up to outweigh the monthly fees, as we'd only be making irregular or annual contributions, the monthly fees would be too much for the small income-producing capital to bear.

Thanks for your suggestions, FFA!

$500 you might be able to buy an ETF. Commsec recently cut their brokerage to $10 below $1,000. However that doesn't solve the problem of the $100 annual contributions thereafter. Sorry dropbear I'm not sure the answer usually these kind of amounts go into saving accounts to accumulate an investable size. Definitely screen any options carefully to make sure the fees don't suck the account empty. As per my earlier post, I suggest your parents or even yourself could just invest the funds along with your own money and keep a separate tab of how much is set aside for the nephew. That's what I'd do anyway...

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3219 on: July 03, 2017, 02:49:05 PM »
Wondering what others do when buying a parcel of shares around the ex dividend date? (In this case for VGS). Buy before and get the dividend? Buy just after when the price has fallen? Or try not to buy around that time?

deborah

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3220 on: July 03, 2017, 03:15:33 PM »
Ex dividend, since I don't want the income.

BattlaP

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3221 on: July 03, 2017, 03:45:11 PM »
Hi Dropbear,
1 -you could try calling Vanguard to see if they might waive it. Your parents might also consider co-mingling the funds within their own investments to minimize fees, just keep a separate spreadsheet to tally what is set aside for the nephews education.
2 - Many have posted before Vanguard will accept 100k minimum, I don't have first hand experience myself but seems to be the case, so on both accounts give Vanguard a bell....

I asked Vanguard, and they replied that they'll accept the latter wholesale investment for an existing customer below the $500k minimum, but not the former retail fund below the $5k minimum... in case anyone else is interested in these products also.

Does anyone know or recommend any cost-effective broad market investment options for small initial amounts like $500, please?  Stockspot, for example, would be ok if we were making regular small contributions to quickly bring the balance up to outweigh the monthly fees, as we'd only be making irregular or annual contributions, the monthly fees would be too much for the small income-producing capital to bear.

Thanks for your suggestions, FFA!

Hey mate, I'm in exactly the same boat as you, investing for a newborn. I'm just holding it in cash until I have the $5000 for a minimum. If you want short-term returns in the interim I'd just use a couple term deposits to meet inflation, who knows what the market will do. I'm not going to worry about the first year or two too much, she's got a whole lifetime of compound interest ahead of her.

mjr

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3222 on: July 03, 2017, 04:14:09 PM »
Wondering what others do when buying a parcel of shares around the ex dividend date? (In this case for VGS). Buy before and get the dividend? Buy just after when the price has fallen? Or try not to buy around that time?

Depends on your tax situation. Say you're on the top tax bracket and you buy the day before ex-dividend. The next day the share price drops by the dividend amount and you pay half that straight to the ATO.

That's worst case,  but I tend to buy just after ex-dividend, all other things being equal.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2017, 07:24:59 PM by mjr »

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3223 on: July 03, 2017, 05:14:25 PM »
Thanks so much for quick response Deborah and mjr. Makes a lot of sense.

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3224 on: July 05, 2017, 03:31:06 AM »
Ex dividend, since I don't want the income.
+1 We're doing this too.

steveo

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3225 on: July 05, 2017, 04:53:57 AM »
Wondering what others do when buying a parcel of shares around the ex dividend date? (In this case for VGS). Buy before and get the dividend? Buy just after when the price has fallen? Or try not to buy around that time?

When I have 10 grand I buy.

marty998

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3226 on: July 05, 2017, 03:52:20 PM »
Did the ATO website crash?

Amazing how people can get their taxes done in the 1st week of July.... must have very simple affairs.

I'm waiting for VAS statement, Health Insurance statement, and I need a little time to tally up my rental deductions... figure out depreciation on a couple of new items (add to a low value pool).

Should be lodging by early August.

Rowellen

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3227 on: July 05, 2017, 04:10:39 PM »
Did the ATO website crash?

Amazing how people can get their taxes done in the 1st week of July.... must have very simple affairs.

I'm waiting for VAS statement, Health Insurance statement, and I need a little time to tally up my rental deductions... figure out depreciation on a couple of new items (add to a low value pool).

Should be lodging by early August.

They've been having trouble for months. I got text messages and emails from them yesterday saying it was down (I'm a tax agent) but I haven't got anything yet to say it's back. I tried to log on to the ABR yesterday and that was down too.

Rowellen

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3228 on: July 05, 2017, 05:09:06 PM »
Apparently they're back online now.

steveo

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3229 on: July 05, 2017, 05:43:26 PM »
I don't do my taxes for a couple of months. By that point it's all pre-filled and I just click a couple of buttons.

GT

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3230 on: July 05, 2017, 06:46:34 PM »
I don't do my taxes for a couple of months. By that point it's all pre-filled and I just click a couple of buttons.

How is it prefilled?

We generally do ours in October, if not the year afterwards.  Never had any great necessity to do our taxes as we've not had anything in place to generate massive returns to make it worthwhile rushing.

deborah

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3231 on: July 05, 2017, 07:41:10 PM »
I don't do my taxes for a couple of months. By that point it's all pre-filled and I just click a couple of buttons.

How is it prefilled?

We generally do ours in October, if not the year afterwards.  Never had any great necessity to do our taxes as we've not had anything in place to generate massive returns to make it worthwhile rushing.
All the investment places send information to the tax office, so they pre-fill your MyTax with that information (you can load it down). Check it and send it back. Easy peesy!

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3232 on: July 06, 2017, 03:23:11 AM »
I don't do my taxes for a couple of months. By that point it's all pre-filled and I just click a couple of buttons.

How is it prefilled?

We generally do ours in October, if not the year afterwards.  Never had any great necessity to do our taxes as we've not had anything in place to generate massive returns to make it worthwhile rushing.

Do you use a tax agent or do it yourself? Not sure how you can do it yourself after October....

I hate myTax. I want them to bring back eTax.

Anatidae V

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3233 on: July 06, 2017, 03:31:39 AM »
I don't do my taxes for a couple of months. By that point it's all pre-filled and I just click a couple of buttons.

How is it prefilled?

We generally do ours in October, if not the year afterwards.  Never had any great necessity to do our taxes as we've not had anything in place to generate massive returns to make it worthwhile rushing.
All the investment places send information to the tax office, so they pre-fill your MyTax with that information (you can load it down). Check it and send it back. Easy peesy!
Yup. We add the expense of a tax accountant because otherwise DH drags his feet and drives me batty - now he's someone else's problem.

steveo

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3234 on: July 06, 2017, 04:28:20 AM »
I don't do my taxes for a couple of months. By that point it's all pre-filled and I just click a couple of buttons.

How is it prefilled?

We generally do ours in October, if not the year afterwards.  Never had any great necessity to do our taxes as we've not had anything in place to generate massive returns to make it worthwhile rushing.

Do you use a tax agent or do it yourself? Not sure how you can do it yourself after October....

I hate myTax. I want them to bring back eTax.

I used myTax last year and it was all prefilled. I just put in $200 expenses and clicked some buttons. It was over. I don't use a tax agent. I must do it prior to October but I leave it till a late time.

GT

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3235 on: July 06, 2017, 05:26:27 AM »
I don't do my taxes for a couple of months. By that point it's all pre-filled and I just click a couple of buttons.

How is it prefilled?

We generally do ours in October, if not the year afterwards.  Never had any great necessity to do our taxes as we've not had anything in place to generate massive returns to make it worthwhile rushing.

Do you use a tax agent or do it yourself? Not sure how you can do it yourself after October....

I hate myTax. I want them to bring back eTax.

I used myTax last year and it was all prefilled. I just put in $200 expenses and clicked some buttons. It was over. I don't use a tax agent. I must do it prior to October but I leave it till a late time.

Tax agent, as there's been years where we've just not done our tax and had to do multiple years in one go.  Again, due to not being able to make any claims apart from the absolute basics of laundry for work clothes, makes our taxes easy.  This year again will be easy, we both have our PAYG statements, just waiting on the health insurance letter and we're done with all our paperwork.  Next year will be different, with the sale of the house, me not working for a period of time, and the profit from the house somehow generating some cash for us before we delve back into the housing market.

marty998

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3236 on: July 06, 2017, 03:28:43 PM »
Tax agent, as there's been years where we've just not done our tax and had to do multiple years in one go.  Again, due to not being able to make any claims apart from the absolute basics of laundry for work clothes, makes our taxes easy.  This year again will be easy, we both have our PAYG statements, just waiting on the health insurance letter and we're done with all our paperwork.  Next year will be different, with the sale of the house, me not working for a period of time, and the profit from the house somehow generating some cash for us before we delve back into the housing market.

I'm with NIB, and just go online and download my letter as it usually takes them a few weeks to send it out. I did my return on myTax on Monday morning. Nothing was pre-filled, but I only had to put in my group certificate info and health insurance rebate info -- took about five minutes. I'm not normally in a rush to do it, but was expecting a decent return this year, so the money is better in my bank account than the governments!

This involves remembering yet another username and password. I have filled out a book with them and the book is so large that I can't find the password I need when the time comes!

Rowellen

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3237 on: July 06, 2017, 04:13:06 PM »
MBP emailed mine on the first.

But I now have some VAS so I still have to wait. I'll be leaving my DH's until later as he'll have a large than normal bill, then be hit with PAYG instalments.

BattlaP

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3238 on: July 06, 2017, 06:35:27 PM »
Dividends in my vanguard managed funds were stupidly large this month.. on the order of 6% for my wholesale High Growth Lifestrategy. I guess it was from all the rebalancing they did, removing Australian property etc. Anyway gave me a nice boost to # of units with auto reinvestment even though the total value just dropped straight back to where it was the day afterwards.

On the downside they were significant enough to probably affect my taxes next year.

misterhorsey

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3239 on: July 06, 2017, 07:51:56 PM »
Dividends in my vanguard managed funds were stupidly large this month.. on the order of 6% for my wholesale High Growth Lifestrategy. I guess it was from all the rebalancing they did, removing Australian property etc. Anyway gave me a nice boost to # of units with auto reinvestment even though the total value just dropped straight back to where it was the day afterwards.

On the downside they were significant enough to probably affect my taxes next year.

I'm in the same fund.  I think you may find that even though the statement is emailed to you on 1 July 2017, it actually covers the distribution in the previous financial year (up to 30 June 2016). So they won't affect your taxes next year, but will impact your taxes in the financial year just past.

This is my one complaint about vanguard wholesale fund, and retail too probably.  The distribution usually includes some capital gains, but they can't figure out the amount of CGT until 30 June (according to the vanguard rep I spoke to), meaning that if you have a range of investments it's impossible to strategically manage them.  For example, I have a few direct share investments that are showing a bit of a loss, and if I'm going to have capital gains from a fund it would be good to crystallise those losses, but until I know how much CGT I'm up for, you don't know how much to sell.

I appreciate this is bit of a niche concern for most people.

The simple solution is to sell everything and just put all the proceeds into funds. But unfortunately legacy investment choices can incur capital gains tax implications so it's not so easy to do this.

seranade

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3240 on: July 06, 2017, 09:00:07 PM »
Hey all,

Not sure if this is the right thread to ask:

I am an expat living in Australia and am looking for a low-fee online stock brokerage company. My goal is to:

- invest about $1000/month (or hold off, and invest quarterly lump-sums)
- be able to invest in international stocks (US, Canada, Europe, Asia etc)
- would like to convert to US dollars if needed (cheaply)
- have a decent user interface (I'm a newbie, so simple is good)
- mainly invest in index/etf funds
- the goal is to buy and hold with my investments (long term)

Any suggestions as to what brokerage is appreciated, and if anyone knows of the tax implications of having US money invested, I'd love to hear more about it.

A side note, I am with CommonWealth, and it looks like their fees are pretty high in comparison.

Also, not sure if it's beneficial to invest in my Super, since I am an expat, and don't know the implications of if I decide to stay/leave Australia.

Thanks.

nnls

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3241 on: July 06, 2017, 09:31:17 PM »
Hey all,

Not sure if this is the right thread to ask:

I am an expat living in Australia and am looking for a low-fee online stock brokerage company. My goal is to:

- invest about $1000/month (or hold off, and invest quarterly lump-sums)
- be able to invest in international stocks (US, Canada, Europe, Asia etc)
- would like to convert to US dollars if needed (cheaply)
- have a decent user interface (I'm a newbie, so simple is good)
- mainly invest in index/etf funds
- the goal is to buy and hold with my investments (long term)

Any suggestions as to what brokerage is appreciated, and if anyone knows of the tax implications of having US money invested, I'd love to hear more about it.

A side note, I am with CommonWealth, and it looks like their fees are pretty high in comparison.

Also, not sure if it's beneficial to invest in my Super, since I am an expat, and don't know the implications of if I decide to stay/leave Australia.

Thanks.

I am with CMC for brokerage, they are pretty cheap and easy to use. not too sure about, I use it to invest in vanguard index funds and haven't had any issues

For leaving Australia see here  Departing Australia superannuation payment

and here I’m leaving Australia: Can I access my super?

Quote
Temporary residents are treated differently under the super rules in terms of accessing super benefits early, although you need to check with the ATO how the rules specifically apply to your circumstances.

If an individual has held a temporary visa under the Migration Act 1958 (except for visas under subclasses 405 and 410), then such an individual is eligible to apply for a ‘Departing Australia Superannuation Payment’ (DASP) when leaving Australia.

In most cases, a superannuation fund must transfer the temporary resident’s super benefits to the ATO if the individual has not claimed the benefits within 6 months of departing Australia, or within 6 months of the expiry or cancellation of the visa, whichever event is later.

A temporary resident doesn’t have to claim his or her super benefits upon leaving the country or, at a later stage. It’s possible to leave the benefits in Australia until retirement, but if the super benefits are transferred to the ATO, the money is not invested on the individual’s behalf. What this means is that the super benefit does not receive investment earnings or pay insurance premiums.

Instead, since 1 July 2013, the super benefit receives a form of ‘interest’. The ‘interest’ will be paid at a rate equivalent to the rate of inflation – Consumer Price Index (CPI) on all superannuation accounts reclaimed from the ATO. I that super account had remained with the super fund, then you could have expected investment earnings (and sometimes investment losses) less fees.


lush

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3242 on: July 07, 2017, 09:22:42 PM »
Hi Everyone,  great thread! Here is my situation:

•   I earn $230k per year.  My partner earns about $80k
•   I own an Investment property with no loan owing (meaning loan still there but filled up the offset account to have zero interest payments)
•   Me and my partner have $116k in VAS & $965k Vanguard Balanced Fund
•   I pay about between $20 – 30K in additional tax due to Vanguard distributions & rent return.  Partner pays about another $10k in taxes.
•   Question: we are thinking of taking out a loan to invest more in VAS in order to offset the tax we are paying – what are people’s thoughts on that? We think it makes sense, however not really sure how much longer either one of us wants to continue to work for. My partner wants to work part-time, and depending on the day I am having at work most days so do I, ….so worried that by taking out a loan we might be making the wrong choice by getting into “debt”.

Cheers.

mjr

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3243 on: July 07, 2017, 10:05:49 PM »
If you buy more VAS, your interest costs of somewhere between 5 and 7% will be offset markedly by VAS's dividends of 4%, leaving you with a tax reduction of  0.5% - 1.5% of the loan amount on the top marginal rate.
Negatively gear shares if you think there's enough capital growth upside to warrant the risk of gearing, but I wouldn't be doing it "to reduce tax".

deborah

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3244 on: July 07, 2017, 11:28:46 PM »
Why? You could use your offset money to buy shares VAS, giving you a negatively geared investment property rather than negatively geared shares. But, as mjr says, you don't need to. Maybe you should just FIRE instead. Have you done your numbers?

misterhorsey

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3245 on: July 07, 2017, 11:31:58 PM »
I've thought about doing the same in the past. Motivated by tax 'benefits'.

I'd suggest doing a bit of modelling via spreadsheet to see how you'd feel about the outcome of your investment with the changes to key variables (interest rates, capital growth, dividends).

The margin loan calculators on the bank websites are skewed towards the glass overflowing.  I seem to recall one default % growth was set at 10% per annum!  Which doesn't really give you a realistic picture of how investments will perform over time.

My view was that the small % increase from gearing wasn't worth the stress of potential downside of margin calls - or prolonged underperformance.

I too was also thinking of quitting work for a bit (which I have).  Having a reliable source of cashflow would buffer the risks of the investment underperforming for a while.  So the idea of continuing working to service a margin loan? Not for me.

These are just a few of my considerations. Others on this forum seem to have some success with gearing. Your own risk appetite will guide you.


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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3246 on: July 08, 2017, 03:03:01 AM »
Prob the best tax break is to max out super contributions. Have you done that?

deborah

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3247 on: July 08, 2017, 03:10:23 AM »
There are several ways to get a tax advantaged return on money. Buy a PPOR. Superannuation. Negative gearing. Spending money to save money.

From where I think you are on the journey, negative gearing appears not to be a useful tool for you. And you appear to have maxed out the others except the spending money to save money category. This can take many forms. I did a few things to my home that made it somewhat more energy efficient, and then had an energy assessment done, and spent money on the things that they pointed out. The result was 50% less utility bills. That meant that my retirement expenditure went down substantially. This did not include anything like PV panels. You can apply this thinking to other parts of your budget - list it in expense order, and see what you can come up with to reduce (or eliminate) each major ongoing expense permanently. You may find that such things give you the best return on investment.

chasingthegoodlife

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3248 on: July 08, 2017, 03:10:19 PM »
I love that advice Deborah - very interesting way of looking at things, especially if FIRE is looming.

LonerMatt

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Re: Australian Investing Thread
« Reply #3249 on: July 08, 2017, 04:04:07 PM »
How do you know how much of dividends is franked?

Asking for tax purposes.