Michael O'Hara

Michael O'Hara is a Financial Planner operating out of a boutique advisory service in East Perth, Western Australia.

A Christmas Poll

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Inflation suggests that the cost of living rises (nearly) every year. Following the impact of the Global Financial Crisis, some areas of the economy are flat, some have gone backwards and others are approaching previous high points. We are interested in how it is impacting the average person. Here is a quick poll for you…

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Bank Interest Rate Rises

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There has been much discussion in media about the Australian banks’ reactions to the Reserve Bank’s increase in the official cash rate to 3.75% on the 2nd December. The broad thrust of comment is that Westpac is being ‘unfair’ in raising their interest rates further than the level of the official rate rise. The other…

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Be gentle on ‘Industry Funds’ – they know not what they do.

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The front page of todays Australian Financial Review (AFR) includes an article titled “Unlisted assets drag down super fund returns”. In it, the returns of ‘Industry Funds’* is suggested as showing falling returns into a recovering market. This is entirely expected, and should not be a reason to argue against the ‘Industry Fund’ attraction to…

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Superannuation remains Largely Unexplained

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Todays Australian Financial Review (p3) carries an artile titled “Super funds warned” in which Jeremy Cooper (“chairman of the federal government’s review of the $1.2 trillion superannuation industry”) suggests that Australian super funds need to increase returns and gain greater scale to increase opportunities. The example given is “Two Canadian pension funds with a combined…

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