In today's podcast, Scott Francis looks at the budget from the perspective of how the business of government works.  He breaks down the numbers in terms of revenue and spending and makes some interesting insights.

Please click the following link to be taken to this podcast - Business of Government.

In today's podcast, Scott Keefer outlines some of the detail from this week's Federal Budget which may impact on personal finances.

He suggests that there have been no major surprises but notes that each individual will need to look at the details to consider the bottom line impact on their situation.

Please click the following link to be taken to this podcast - 2008 Federal Budget - Personal Finance Summary.

In today's podcast, Scott Keefer outlines some of the benefits involved with making extra contributions into superannuation - tax effectiveness, investing for the long term, givernment co-contribution, self employed tax concessions and spouse contribution rebate.

He concludes that these benefits need to be weighed up against the inability to access this money until the lead up to retirement.

Please click the following link to be taken to this podcast - Benefits of Extra Super Contributions.

In today's podcast, Scott Francis looks at the topic of longevity risk.  He refelects that as we all are tending to live longer it is a risk that needs to be seriously considered.

In the podcast Scott looks at the strategies that need to be considered - having a greater exposure to higher volatility - higher expected returns assets, focusing on the income that is being produced by investments and the use of the superannuation environment providing tax free investment earnings in pension mode and tax free pension payments after the age of 60.

Please click the following link to be taken to this podcast - Planning for Longevity Risk.

In today's podcast, Scott Francis looks at the collapse of the Opes Prime stockbroking service.  He refelects that given that news plus some difficult news coming out of the USA today, it has been a good day on the ASX with the index slightly up for the day.  Maybe a sign of growing optimism?

In the podcast Scott looks at the aggressive nature of Opes' strategy and the end result for their clients.  The key message is the added risk involved with margin lending.  In strong bull markets, returns are increased but in falling markets, the falls are greater especially so if markets fall sharply and you are forced to sell assets in a down market.  Please click the following link to be taken to this podcast - Lessons from the Opes Prime Collapse.

In today's podcast, Scott Francis looks at how investors can access the best researched investment portfolio in the world and have others pay for that research - Index funds.  Scott explains the that a company share price is a collection of all the research in the marketplace.  By owning 'the market' through an index fund you are benefitting from all this research and are not paying for it.  Please click the following link to be taken to this podcast - Best researched portfolios in the world.

In today's podcast, Scott Francis looks at how the returns in the 12 months following a 20% or greater fall on share markets have on average seen a 30% rise.  He concludes with 3 basic principles  - (1) markets recover from falls, (2) market movements are very difficult to predict, and (3) returns from share markets have been 7% above inflation through history.  Please click the following link to be taken to this podcast - Market Volatility and 12 Month Returns.