Do you use Google Docs in your business or home? I do. We also utilise Google Docs internally. What is Google Docs? More than letters and words. Google Docs brings your documents to life with smart editing and styling tools to help you easily format text and paragraphs. It’s Google’s version of Word.

If you do use Google Docs, Smart Online has issued a warning to users about a reported phishing scam involving a fake invitation to share a Google Docs document.

The way the scam works is that a user receives a legitimate-looking email that looks like it’s from a trusted person inviting them to share a document on Google Docs.

The users who click on the link are then directed to permission screens. These permission screens then activate a malicious service to access their email account, contacts and other sensitive information, if permission is granted by clicking on the button. If a user grants permission, the malicious service can impersonate the user when sending messages on to other Google email users.

Users may also face the risk of having information and messages from their email accounts compromised.

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How does it work?

The scam reportedly targets Google personal and corporate email accounts.

Google Docs has released a statement via their Twitter account saying:

“we have taken action to protect users against an email impersonating Google Docs, and have disabled offending accounts.”

“We’ve removed the fake pages, pushed updates through Safe Browsing, and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again.”

If you’ve clicked the link, your account may have already sent spam messages to the people in your address book. But you can revoke future access through Google’s “Connected Apps and Sites” page; where it will appear as “Google Docs”.

 

Spoofing occurs when emails are altered to appear to have come from a different source and is a method attackers commonly use to gain users’ trust and increase the likelihood of a successful attack.

Here is the whole process captured on video:

Phishing (or malware) Google Doc links that appear to come from people you may know are going around. DELETE THE EMAIL. DON’T CLICK. pic.twitter.com/fSZcS7ljhu

— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) May 3, 2017

 

How to stay safe

If you are unsure of the legitimacy of any message you receive, you should avoid clicking on any links or opening any attachments. You should check with the purported sender using contact details sourced from legitimate sources (not from the suspect message itself).

If you have clicked on the link or inadvertently granted permission to the malicious service, you should immediately revoke that permission using the steps recommended by Google Docs.

You should also check your account details to confirm that nothing has been changed and as an extra precaution, change your Google passwords immediately.

Content from the post was originally published on Smart Online.

The winning streak continued in April, despite a war footing in Syria and North Korea, and the first round of the French elections which soundly booted the two mainstream contestants and set up a run-off between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron.

The ASX200 accumulation index gained 1.03% during April. The bigger gains were in the banks, while miners were off about 2.2%. The positive result masked a few shockers during the month, like Telstra down 8.7% and upstart competitor Vocus which lost 22.4%.

Over in the A-REITs (listed property trusts), the gain was 2.61%. This was helped by falling interest rates, with the Australian ten-year government bond starting the month at 2.70%, sliding to 2.47% mid-month before settling at 2.56% at month end. The prices of listed property trusts are highly sensitive to changes in interest rates, especially in this period where the general consensus is that US rates are on the rise. The A-REIT sector current yield is around 4.7% and the sector trades at a 23% premium to net asset values.

Turning to global markets, the S&P 500 index of US stocks gained 1.03% in April in local currency terms, but when converted back to Australian dollars the gain was 3.05% as the Australian dollar fell against the US Dollar over the month. The broader MSCI World index gained 1.33% in local currency terms, and 3.64% when converted back to AUD. In other regions, the MSCI Europe index gained 5.76% in AUD terms, as investors flocked back into the main Euro markets following the first round of French elections. The MSCI Asia ex Japan region gained 4.23% in spite of the serious tensions in North Korea.

Interest rates have been mentioned earlier, with reference to bond yields falling, which in turn increases the price of bonds, and the longer the term to maturity the higher the increase. The Bloomberg AusBond 0+ years index gained 0.69% during April. This was a turnaround from the previous six months (Oct ’16 to March ’17) when the index lost 1.21% in value thanks to rising interest rates that followed the surprise Trump election. We thought it would be useful here to comment on the impact of rising interest rates on the ‘average’ index tracking fixed income fund. In the period between 1 October 2016 to 16 December 2016, the US ten-year bond yield rose from 1.6% to 2.6%, an increase in nominal yield of 1.00%. The Bloomberg AusBond 0+ years index lost 2.66% of its value over that period. It is important to understand how fixed income, with longer durations to maturity, can suffer losses in a rising rate environment. Further, relating this to our earlier comments on A-REITs, that sector lost 6.17% during that period when US rates rose by 1.00%.

Overall, April was a fairly good month, in spite of the intra-month volatility.

Coming next week is our Australian Federal Budget. As we write this, the RBA board is meeting, but no-one is expecting any change to rates. Also this week, the RBA Governor speaks on “Household Debt, Housing Prices, and Resilience”. We all know that as the person at the head of the organisation charged with ‘financial stability’, he will most likely avoid the word ‘bubble’, but we would expect him to try to hose down people’s price expectations.

In late news over the weekend, we are watching closely the situation of a Canadian lender, Home Capital. It has about $20B in total assets, with about $15B of lending into the red-hot Canadian residential real estate market. The bank has just set up lines of credit for about $2B to replace depositor funds that sources say are leaving at over $200M per day. An old-fashioned bank run.  Apparently, there has been some fraud among the brokers that wrote loans for the bank. As if that is not enough, there is also some shenanigans with the funding of this latest line of credit, which reportedly may be costing between 18 and 22%. Clearly, that is a whole lot higher than the rate Home Capital are earning on their home loans.

Our next update will be a summary of the Federal Budget.

One of the key challenges for people approaching retirement is adequately preparing for it. The other big challenge is gaining greater confidence in how their finances might look once retired.

Getting the right advice helps enormously with this, and likewise beginning the planning process earlier rather than later will reap rewards.

What are the stats?

A recent survey conducted by Vanguard of more than 5,500 people aged 55-75, across Australia, US, UK and Canada, showed that many reported that they experienced an increased level of satisfaction with their financial position upon retirement.

One contributor to this result was the higher incidence of people within the first 10 years of retirement seeking financial advice, compared with those still up to 10 years away.

Even amongst those who had access to some form of financial advice during the lead up to retiring, some still experienced regret about how well they prepared.

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People’s biggest regrets

The biggest regrets of recent retirees included:

• Not saving enough
• Not starting the planning process early enough
• Not spending enough time planning for it
• Not learning enough about superannuation – in Australia, this included those with SMSFs
• Not learning enough about the government benefits available to them

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How ready are Australians?

Another recent study by Colonial First State set out to assess how ready Australians are for retirement. While the results indicated that about half (53%) of those surveyed should have enough money during retirement, this included income support from the Age Pension. Once this Age Pension support is removed from the equation, the adequacy of retirement funding dropped significantly to around 17%, a huge difference.

Colonial used the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s (ASFA) comfortable retirement standard, which is currently $43,372 pa for singles and $59,619 pa for couples, to define adequate retirement income.

Again, this emphasises the need for longer term planning and getting the right advice to ensure you give yourself the best chance of having enough in retirement.

Where to start

Some things you should consider to get this underway include:

• How much retirement income you will need
• How much of this will be provided by your current savings
• The risks and opportunities you will face in the lead up to retirement, and how to deal with them
• How to structure your wealth to your best advantage both before and after retirement
• Protecting your assets in the event of adversity

So, take positive action and get a head start on your retirement, and call your financial adviser today!

An article by Roger Montgomery, writing for the Weekend Australian, reminded me of something that we have been saying for several months now. Surging property prices in most capital cities and regional centres will end in tears for many that believe increasing prices and low interest rates are here to stay.

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The alarm bells

Probably the scariest statistic is in Brisbane where not only did the supply of new units increase by 5,500 in 2016 but they are now set to increase by a whopping 13,300 this year. Buyer inducements, lower revaluations of up to 30%, higher vacancy rates, and, most recently, banks starting to tighten up on borrowing limits are all signs of a looming collapse.

The question we may now ask is how soon will this occur and what will be the flow-on effect for other areas of the property market?

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Accessing super to fund a home deposit – let’s hope not!

One can only hope that the federal treasury is advising government to scrap the ridiculous idea that some politicians have been discussing about possible access to superannuation to fund a first home deposit.

This would only exacerbate the problem and potentially lead to a situation where a young person not only lost all the equity in their home but potentially their retirement savings as well.

Take a scenario where someone borrowed $450,000 to buy a $500,000 home, using $50,000 saved up in their superannuation fund as a deposit. Six months later, the property market corrects 20% and the property is revalued at $400,000. Even if the bank does not foreclose on the loan at this stage, there is still a high risk that the individual loses their job or interest rates rise. In this situation, a forced sale is likely which would lead to a position where all the money in super is lost and the individual still owes the bank $50,000.

This reads like a recipe for financial disaster which is one good reason why we don’t expect to see this initiative as part of the 2017 May budget.

The US Federal Reserve lifted interest rates by a quarter of a percent this week. According to normal expectations this was supposed to result in:

• Falling stock prices
• Rising bond yields
• Rising dollar and;
• Falling gold prices.

Guess what happened? None of the above. In fact, in all four assets the opposite happened.

• Stocks rose by almost 1%.
• The 10-year bond went from 2.6% down to 2.5%.
• The US dollar fell by more than 1% against the Euro and Yen and almost 2% against the Australian dollar.

Rising interest rates were supposed to make the US dollar stronger!  And rising interest rates were supposed to make gold less attractive. Yet gold rallied by $20 or 1.7% on the night.

All four of those major markets went the opposite direction to what economic theory would tell you.

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Why is this so?

It’s all about ‘buy the rumour – sell the fact’.

When an event is expected so widely as this Fed rate hike was, traders get themselves positioned well before the event. Sometimes the trade is so crowded that once the rumour becomes fact, everyone is positioned on the same side of the trade.

The interest rate rise at this month’s Fed meeting was indeed widely expected.

The minutes of the meeting confirmed what we had been thinking for some time, that interest rates, whilst increasing, would be at a moderate pace compared to previous cycles.

The global debt load, which has only increased since the GFC, means any little ‘pull of the lever’ (moving interest rates) can have a big effect, and as a result central banks around the world will continue to be cautious about the pace of raising interest rates.

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What next?

Based on the market reaction to the Fed increase on March 15, we would expect that another two rate hikes this year in America could be absorbed without requiring the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to make any increases at all.

We suspect the RBA would like to raise interest rates to fire shots across the bow of property investors, reminding them that rates can go up as well as down, before speculation gets out of hand. However the still weak economy and the risk of pushing the dollar higher is likely preventing that in the short-term. APRA and the RBA are more likely to wait and see if there are some adjustments to negative gearing and CGT in the budget to rein in property speculation.

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What’s the lesson?

The lesson from the market reaction to the Fed rate increase is that positioning is best done well before market events. Market participants tend to look at least 6 months ahead and get well positioned before announcements of things like GDP and inflation numbers, and often when the expectations are correct, markets move opposite to what might be expected, because the marginal buyer and seller is already well positioned for the event.

Whilst having dinner with friends recently, the topic of “charging your kids board” came up and it seems everyone has differing points of view on this.

The ‘anti-boarders’

One couple argued that they felt their kids would have time enough to pay their way once they moved out, and as long as they covered their other expenses like car and phone bills, lodgings and food would be free.

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The ‘pro-boarders’

On the other hand, myself and others in the group felt it was just a “rite of passage” to becoming a grown up. It never hurt us when our parents charged board and so it was something we were passing on to our kids.

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Is it just an outdated tradition?

While the discussion of pro and anti-boarding was going around the table, it did get me thinking – is it still relevant today or is it just an idea being passed down from one generation to another that bears no real financial learnings?

When our daughter commenced full-time work and the conversation was raised in our household about paying board, she argued the point of “why?”– what was different from when she was in school to now? Her thought was, nothing had changed at home and I can see where her argument was coming from; we provided a roof over her head and food on the table yesterday and we would still provide these things to her tomorrow, so why should she suddenly be paying for it?

So whilst it was a reality check for her, she acknowledged that it would be the cheapest “rent” she would ever have to pay. Where else would she get food, lodgings, free WiFi and Netflix for the small contribution we were expecting?

To us, it wasn’t about the $3,900 per year she would contribute towards the grocery bills or electricity bills. It was about teaching her a sense of responsibility and learning to budget in preparation for much bigger financial commitments ahead.

So much of what I’m surrounded by here at Quill, is financial planning and our advisers working with people to save for their first home, new car or simply managing their finances better. It’s not uncommon to see people stretching themselves and living outside of their means.

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Australians in debt

An article I read recently about the amount of debt Australians live with, explained that we have the fifth highest debt levels in the world. Since 1988, the ratio of household debt to disposable income has blown out from 65% to 185%. This article discussed the various contributing factors and suggested that people need to rethink the way they manage their everyday finances and day-to-day cash flow.

As an adult, you have access to financial planners to help you create plans to manage your financial future. As a parent, I think you can start helping your kids learn about cash flow and managing their money before they reach that time. Whether it’s through paying board, or not, or even pocket money, maybe these are the little steps you can take to get them thinking about these kinds of things.

I would love to know your thoughts, did you pay board as a teenager, and do you think it helped prepare you better for the real world?

This is a story about a very successful and astute businessman.  This man owned a number of successful businesses in a range of industries over a number of years.  This man never worked for anybody else.  He was a family man, a man who prided himself on being able to provide for his family.  He always said to his wife “you look after the family; I’ll look after the money”.

As clever and successful as this man was, there was one thing he could not do and that was predict the future.

 

This man was my Grandfather.  He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in his early 70s.

I could write for days on the impact that this has had on my family.  But I would rather stress the importance of estate planning to you all.

Whilst we had a Will and a Power of Attorney, the family had never thought about what to do with money, because he always looked after the money.  How would the money continue to come in?

The implications of him not being able to control the money became very difficult for the family, things such as whose names the properties were in had an impact on a number of things which have caused a lot of headaches.

 

Having this happen so close to home means that I now think of things, particularly estate planning, in a different light. So, my questions to you are:

1. What would happen to your family if something unforeseen happened and you were no longer here?
2. How would your business fare if you were unable to continue to run its operations?

Sometimes it isn’t practical to take care of everything yourself. You need to delegate, you need to inform your loved ones of your financial affairs, as it does involve them too, especially if something were to happen to you.

Most importantly, it is imperative to seek advice from the professionals.  You need to know that should anything happen to you, your loved ones will be taken care of and that your business will continue to run.  We have several professionals in our office that can look at your current situation and work with you in planning for your future, your family’s future and the future of your business.

Ahhh the household budget… I may loathe it but I must also be in control of it!! Which suits my husband down to the ground as he wants no part but to tell me I’m doing an amazing job.

Recently, my husband’s pay cycle changed from fortnightly to monthly whilst mine remained fortnightly. This brought me to the realisation that I would likely need to draw up two budgets, one for my husband’s income and one for mine. As a family of five, with three sons who eat us out of house and home, I need to be diligent about every dollar.

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The old jar system

This then brought me back to the principles that made my grandfather’s budgeting, although simple, so very powerful. Yes, gone are the days where we tucked away our pay in a collection of jars in the cupboard but the principles to Pa’s system remain the same and as effective.

Each pay cycle, Pa would sit down and list all expenses and how much he would need to put away into each jar.  Although in today’s budget there may be quite a few more “jars”, the theory is still exactly the same.

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How I tweaked our family’s budget

As most bills are monthly, I completely restructured our budget to monthly, leaving my fortnightly income for mortgage and childcare (ouch!). I quickly learned that a successful part of family budgeting is to be able to reconcile your budget with your bank account, far easier when this process can be done to line up with the end of each month.

Each month, I ensure money is set aside for the expenses we don’t like to think about until they are upon us and we have no choice. For example, things like but not limited to:

• Annual vehicle registration
• Six monthly council rates
• Body corporate fees
• Beginning of the year schooling expenses
• Christmas!

Again, it’s back to the jar system or rather in today’s terms – our allocated bank accounts.  I also find keeping a log and tally in an app or notepad on my smartphone of what funds I have allocated to which expense a necessity.

The importance of taking the time to thoroughly identify all my expenses proved imperative. Additionally, so is the importance of the cost of each expense, how frequently it occurs, and (where applicable) the next due date.

In a nutshell, once I got my head around the two budgets, identifying all my expenses and back to Pa’s jar theory, this all began to work!

 

What works for you and your family?

How can Quill assist?

Politics. Sex. Religion. Money. For generations, we’ve been told to not talk about these subjects. Today, we probably talk about 2-3 of them more than we should, but we’re still really good at NOT talking about money. In many countries and cultures, we’ve been taught to NOT talk about money.

A 2016 research by finder.com.au has revealed that almost half of Australians would rather avoid the topic of money.

• 42% of those surveyed find personal finances the most difficult thing to talk about, even more than religion (40%), sex (38%) and politics (23%).
• Only 18% of Australians regularly discuss money and Gen Y (aged 18-34) appear to be the most comfortable talking about it when it does enter the conversation, with one in three (33%) often discussing personal finances.
• Baby Boomers (aged 55-74) are the least comfortable generation when it comes to talking about money, with 56% never discussing it.

 

But it’s so important that we break that taboo because failing to talk about money means we often fail to align the use of our money with what we say is most important to us. Even the “experts” can struggle to talk about money in their personal lives.

 

The 2016 survey also included three reasons for why it is important that money matters be discussed. These reasons are:

1. Gain knowledge: Talking to someone who has more financial knowledge than you is a great way to learn new personal finance concepts.
2. Take action: Having a conversation with a friend can prompt the listener to take action on financial matters like looking for a cheaper home loan rate or drinking one less coffee a day to boost savings.Take act
3. Learn from their mistakes: Chances are that someone you know has learnt the hard way about a financial matter you are contemplating. By finding out what they would do differently, you then have a head start.

It is important that you help the people you love in your relationships and your family, to have these important money conversations, that will lead to quality decisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concessional contributions are those made with pre-tax income and can come in many forms, most commonly as

• Superannuation Guarantee contributions made by your employer,
• Salary sacrificed contributions made on your behalf, or
• Tax-deductible contributions if you are self-employed.

Below, we’ve summarised a few important considerations regarding the cap changes that became law on 29 November 2016.

1. A lower cap will apply from 1 July 2017

As part of the 2016 Federal Budget, the Coalition government announced plans to reduce the annual concessional contribution cap to $25,000 from 1 July 2017. The new cap will now apply to everyone regardless of age.

This will see the lowering of both the over-50s concessional (before-tax) contributions cap of $35,000 and the general concessional contributions cap (for under-50s) of $30,000. However, it’s important to note that the $35,000 and $30,000 caps still apply for the current (2016/2017) financial year.

2. Making the most of your caps

If you are looking to increase your pre-tax contributions to superannuation, now is a good time to ensure that you are making the most of your concessional contribution cap. This may involve investigating a salary sacrifice arrangement with your employer or reviewing an existing arrangement before the cap decreases in July. But it is equally important to ensure that you take action from 1 July 2017 to plan for the lower cap in the 2017/18 financial year.

Another important change to note is that from 1 July 2017, anyone who is eligible to make voluntary super contributions will also be eligible to make personal concessional (tax-deductible) contributions. Currently, people earning more than 10% of their income as an employee (i.e. salary and wages) cannot make a tax-deductible super contribution, so this recent change should provide greater flexibility with:

• end of year super top-ups by making personal concessional contributions to use up any remaining concessional contribution cap;
• deciding how to contribute bonuses, annual leave, and long service leave; or
• tax-effectively contributing lump sum leave payments received upon termination of employment.

3. Future indexation

While we will have to live with lower caps from now on, the government will continue the practice of indexing these in line with average wage growth. Therefore, we can expect the caps to increase every few years in increments of $2,500.

4. Carry-forward concessional contributions

There’s also good news for those with volatile or lumpy income, and those working intermittently. From 1 July 2018 onwards, if you fail to use your annual concessional contributions cap of $25,000, you can carry forward the unused portion for up to 5 years. Carry-forward concessional contributions may assist clients with breaks in employment to make ‘catch-up’ contributions when they return to work.

The provision applies on the condition that your total superannuation balance is less than $500,000 as at 30 June at the end of the financial year immediately preceding the financial year in which the contribution is to be made. Also bear in mind that as this new rule only takes effect from the 2018/19 financial year, you won’t be able to carry forward any unused concessional contributions cap until at least the 2019/2020 financial year.

5. Exceeding the cap

An important consideration is what happens if you do exceed the concessional contribution cap. Since the 2013/14 financial year, excess concessional contributions have not been subject to excess contributions tax. Therefore, if you do exceed the cap, the amount will be included in your assessable income and taxed at your marginal tax rate. In addition, the ATO imposes the Excess Concessional Contributions (ECC) charge so that a person does not obtain a financial advantage due to the delay in payment of tax on their ECC.

The ECC charge period is calculated from the start of the income year in which the excess concessional contributions were made and ends the day before the tax is due to be paid under your first income tax assessment for that year. The ECC charge rates are updated quarterly on the ATO website, with the current rate being 4.76% (Dec 2016 quarter).

What’s next?

So there’s plenty to think about in managing your concessional contributions this year and the next, so why not ask your financial adviser how you can make the most of the new rule changes?