Scott Francis

CITIWARRANTS 18.7406 WOW SELF FUND INSTAL (S/L) 21 (WOWSO2) Overview. Read detailed company information including current share prices, financial summary, directors, announcements, dividends & news. Find out more at Intelligent Investor

Discover how starting with a 33/33/33 blueprint can help you find the perfect portfolio mix for you. Find out more at InvestSMART

Should you reinvest your dividends or take them as cash? We take a deep dive into the pros and cons. Find out more at InvestSMART

There are two personal finance strategies Aussies most commonly use to build wealth - paying off their mortgage early by making extra repayments and, as they get close to retirement, making extra contributions to top up their superannuation. A…

For many Aussies, their income at retirement will likely come from a mix of superannuation and the age pension. The key is trying to get the balance right and one way to do this is to work out the sweet spot. This is the point where your super is at…

For a long time, managed funds in Australia paid attractive upfront and trailing commissions to those advisors who recommended them to investors. Perhaps partly because of this, managed funds became broadly used investment vehicles in Australia. You…

As a teacher, I am often telling my students that the one thing that will make them sound older sooner than they should will be their ability to ruminate on a time when they exchanged coloured pieces of paper (cash) for goods and services. With the…

Woolworths recently announced a dividend of 47 cents per share, payable on April 11, that will be ‘fully franked’. So, an investor who owns 1,000 shares will receive $470 in cash and, as an additional benefit, $201.43 in franking credits. But what…

The stage 3 tax cuts have generated more than their fair share of headlines this year. They are due to kick in from 1 July and, the good news is they will put a little more money into the pockets of many Aussies. The challenge will be to make the…

When interest rate increases are announced, the focus is naturally on what that means for homeowners. The impact of rate the rate increases on investors with cash and fixed interest holdings has been less commonly discussed, but for those who are…

It goes without saying that January is the time of the year for resolutions. From a personal finance perspective resolutions can be diverse, from a saving plan through to resolutions around higher levels of charitable giving. This article considers a…

Two recent developments in the world of investing: 1. The return of cash accounts now paying reasonable interest rates, and 2. The rise of 'micro-investing'. Mean there are opportunities to expose young investors to the reality, good and bad, of…

Your first financial moment of truth may have been when you first started earning an income, perhaps as a teenager, did you save any of it? Or did you use it to borrow extra money? Equally, when you started earning a full-time salary, was some of it…

When investors switch between asset classes (marketing timing), they do not do this very well. Equally, when they choose to sell one company and replace it with another in their portfolio, they also tend not to do very well. A strategy of choosing an…

The recent history of interest rates (the RBA target cash rate) in Australia makes for interesting reading – right up until the Melbourne Cup interest rate rise earlier this month that took the target cash rate to 4.35%. Not that long ago, the 4th of…

He also has a key financial measure, the Sharpe ratio, named after him. The Sharpe ratio compares the excess return on an investment with the volatility of an investment – a way of looking at the link between return and volatility. The Profound…

One of the great Warren Buffett quotes encourages us when thinking about buying shares: “to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.” This is not easy to do. When people are fearful, so are the headlines and…

IMPORTANT: This information is general financial product advice only and you should consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), Financial Services Guide (FSG), Target Market Determination (TMD) or seek professional advice before making…

Earlier this month we looked at a rough budget for spending that set out the lifestyle that people who had accumulated different levels of assets could look forward to in retirement. The budget was based on the ASFA (Association of Super Funds of…

IMPORTANT: This information is general financial product advice only and you should consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), Financial Services Guide (FSG), Target Market Determination (TMD) or seek professional advice before making…