November 2015
Office News
Welcome baby Harlow
Paul and Cheryle-Leigh, along with Sapphire and Charlie, have welcomed a new addition to their family, Harlow Millie Pratt born 14th August 2015.
Welcome baby Ocklan
Cameron and Dee have welcomed a new addition to their family, Ocklan Ethan Whyte born 25th August 2015.
Wedding News
A Big Congratulations to Stuart Kendall who married the lovely Julia in September. The sun was definitely shining for these newlyweds in the picturesque country side at the Ripplebrook Cottages as they said "I do".
2015 Baw Baw Big Blokes BBQ
Pursuit Advisers are proud to be a Major Sponsor of the 2015 Baw Baw Big Blokes BBQ. This annual event is held to raise much needed awareness and Funds for Prostate cancer. Pursuit Advisers were able to raise in excess of $3,000 for this great cause.
Have you spoken to Dale yet?
After joining Pursuit Advisers in September, Dale Smith has been working hard in our lending division to help our clients find the best finance and loan solutions. As a qualified Mortgage Broker who has worked within banking and finance institutions in a range of client service roles, Dale is here to help.
If you need a loan to purchase; a vehicle, business equipment, a home, a commercial property, or an investment property then please contact our office for a chat with Dale. He is also available to review your existing loans to ensure they are competitive and best for your needs.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
With Christmas just around the corner (believe it or not), we would like to take this opportunity to let you know of our business hours over the Holiday Season. Our office will close at 5pm on Tuesday 22nd December and will be re-opening at 9am on Monday 4th January.
Business and Tax
Pursuit Advisers is warning the public to be aware of a phone scam that is again circulating where fraudsters are intimidating people into paying a fake tax debt over the phone. The aggressive scam attempts to force people to pay a fake tax debt over the phone by threatening arrest if they don't comply. Generally the Australian Taxation Office will send an SMS or letter to remind you that a payment is due. If the ATO don't get a response from this, they would then likely call to discuss a payment arrangement, whereas scammers will generally act in a threatening manner in a phone call – we have heard of examples where they advise that the client has a court case against them and are about to go to jail. If people receive a call from the ATO and are concerned about providing their personal information over the phone, they should ask for the caller's name and phone them back through the ATO's switchboard on 13 28 69. If people think they may have fallen victim to a phone scam, contact the ATO on 13 28 61 (8.00am–6.00pm, Monday to Friday).
Lending
It is time to have your Home loan reviewed and ensure your needs are matched with the best lending product.
Interest Rate Options
Variable – Great rates and a big variety Self-Managed Superannuation
Fixed – Fixed terms between 1 – 15 years
Split – Combination of variable and fixed
100% Offset Accounts -smart way of reducing your interest
Packages
Discount on your interest rates both fixed and variable
Fee free transaction accounts
Credit Card annual fee waived
Competition
Lenders are competing for your business with offers such as:
Cash backs offers
Interest rate discounts for the life of the loan
Refinance rebates
250,000 Velocity Frequent Flyer points
At Pursuit Lending we do the leg work for you. We analyse your current and future needs and select the product that best suits you. We deal with the Lenders on your behalf and the best thing is we don't charge you for the service as the Lenders will pay us for your services.
Contact our Lending Consultant, Dale Smith on 0439757995 or email dale@pursuitadvisers.com.au
Self-Managed Superannuation
Are you interested in learning more about Self Managed Super Funds (SMSF)? Do you have a SMSF and need some strategic or investment advice?
Our Super and Financial Planning divisions specialise in providing advice to SMSF clients so if you need some assistance please contact our office.
Financial Planning - Market update
Turn down the noise.
Whilst it is easy to say "it's only a paper loss until you sell it" in reality when there is a downturn in the market people panic and with news headlines like "super funds lose billions" who could blame them.
However in reality, to be invested in shares in the first place, you should have time on your side to ride it out. As those who are dealing with a Financial Planner would be aware, we always look to ensure that a minimum of 5 year's worth of living expenses and known capital expenditure is put aside in defensive type assets to make sure that we don't have to sell when prices are low.
Therefore once you have worked out a strategy that is right for you, it's important to 'turn down the noise' on the information flow surrounding investment markets. We are now seeing an explosion in the volume and ease of access to information and opinions surrounding economies, investment markets and individual investments. This is great in a way but there is little evidence that it's helping investors make better decisions and hence earn better returns. We seem to lurch from worrying about one crisis to another.
Just like every year now it seems, this year is seeing the usual long list with worries about soft US growth earlier this year, Fed tightening, Greece, China, Korean tensions, the emerging world, US budget funding, etc. And as "bad news sells" the negative commentary around this noise gets the loudest airing. The "perma bears" have had a field day since the GFC in simply rolling their predictions of global meltdown from the US (which was supposed to have a debt driven or hyperinflation meltdown), to Europe (where the Euro was supposed to blow itself apart) to now China. The combination of too much information has turned investing into a daily soap opera – as we go from worrying about one thing after another. This is all leading to heightened uncertainty and shorter investment horizons which in turn can add to the risk that you can be thrown off well thought out investment strategies. The key is to turn down the volume on all the noise. This also involves keeping your investment strategy relatively simple – lots of time can be wasted on fretting over individual shares or managed funds – which is just a distraction from making sure you have the right asset mix as it's your asset allocation that will mainly drive the return you will get.