Investment Advice
Investment Advice: Simpler Than The Industry Needs You To Believe.
If you have money to invest outside super, you do not need a bespoke portfolio, a platform or someone watching it for 1% a year. You need a small number of good, cheap investments in the right name, and the discipline to leave them alone. I tell you exactly which, once.
$330, credited against your advice fee. If you do not need advice, I will tell you.
Four consultations a week.
What Good Investing Looks Like
- Low cost.Fees are the one part of investing you control completely.
- Broadly spread.Thousands of companies, not a handful of someone's best ideas.
- In the right name.Yours, your partner's, super or a trust. This is where most of the tax is won or lost.
- Boring.If your portfolio is exciting, something is probably wrong with it.
Complexity Is Job Security
A portfolio of twenty funds on a platform looks sophisticated. Mostly it is harder to evaluate, harder to leave and more expensive to hold. A portfolio you cannot evaluate is a portfolio you cannot leave.
I favour index ETFs outside super for the same reason I favour low-cost industry funds inside it: the numbers, not a payment.
What Investment Advice Covers
- How much to invest, and how much to keep in cash
- Super or outside super, and why
- Which ETFs, in what proportions
- Whose name to hold them in
- What to do with shares, managed funds or investment bonds you already hold
- When and how to rebalance, in plain steps you can do yourself
One-Off Advice Versus An Ongoing Adviser
Most advisers charge you every year. I charge you once.
| Comparison | An Ongoing Adviser | One-Off Advice |
|---|---|---|
| The fee | About 1% of your balance, every year | From $6,600, once ($8,800 if complex) |
| On $800,000, over ten years | About $110,000 | From $6,600 |
| Where your money sits | Often in a product the adviser manages | In your own name, in a low-cost fund |
| Who pays the adviser | Your balance, automatically | You, once, by invoice |
| If you do nothing | The fee keeps coming out | There is nothing to cancel |
Illustration only: 1% a year of a balance that starts at $800,000 and grows 7% a year. Real fees and returns vary.
What Does An Extra 1% A Year Cost You?
Fees you do not need, or returns you are not getting. Put in your own numbers.
Higher fees, weaker returns, or both. Compare your fund's fees and returns with a low-cost alternative to find yours.
- With the extra cost
- $1,603,568
- Without it
- $1,934,842
Illustration only. Assumes 7% a year before the extra cost, no contributions or withdrawals, no tax and no inflation. Not a forecast and not personal advice.
Do I need a financial adviser to invest?
No. Plenty of people do it well themselves. Advice helps when the amount is large, when tax and ownership are not obvious, or when you want to be sure before you commit.
Do you manage portfolios?
No. I tell you what to buy and how. The investments sit in your own name with a low-cost broker, and you do not pay me to watch them.
What do you recommend investing in?
It depends on you. In general, a small number of low-cost, broadly diversified index ETFs.
I already have a share portfolio. Can you review it?
Yes, as part of a Statement of Advice. I look at what you hold, what it costs, the tax on changing it and whether it is worth changing.
Should I invest or put more into super?
That is the most common question I get, and the answer depends on your age, tax rate and when you need the money. It is part of the advice.
General advice only. It does not take your objectives, financial situation or needs into account. Consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it.
Book A Consultation
If you do not need advice, you find out for $330, not $6,600.
- 45 minutes with the adviser himself, not a junior
- A fixed quote on the call, if advice is warranted
- The $330 is credited in full if you proceed
Why $330 and not free? A free first meeting is usually paid for later, through ongoing fees. I would rather you paid once for my time and owed me nothing.
Pay $330 now. A consultation, not an advice session. Reschedule up to 48 hours before.