Ark Informer January 13

Welcome to the first Ark Informer of 2013. The Ark Team are holding a really useful 30 minute webinar on the "top 5 Wealth Tips for 2013" on Wed 23rd Jan @ 6pm and Thurs 24th Jan @ 12:30pm. See below for more details. (Click on dates to register). Join Me on LinkedIn  http://au.linkedin.com/in/ivankayebsi ( I have over 3,500 contacts that I would gladly connect you with!)

January 2013 - A Webinar to kickstart 2013 Welcome to the first of our education webinars for 2013. In this webinar we unveil 5 effective strategies to help you manage and build your wealth in 2013.  In 30 minutes, we will cover the following; 1. Simple tips to help reduce your individual tax 2. A review of Home Loan Structures and a look at what interest rate you should be paying 3. An analysis of where you should invest your super and a look at some of the best funds from 2012 4. Where to put your excess savings? Looking at alternatives to cash.  5. How to organise and manage your finances easily These top 5 tips sound very generic and simple... and they are. They are not designed to be high risk or complex but to help you along your wealth journey.  At the end of the webinar, all participants will receive a copy of our new e-book 'Wealth Planning for Young Accumulators'.  If you can't make the allocated times, just 'click for an advisor' on the right and we can send you the relevant information. Regards, The ARK Total Wealth Team  www.arktotalwealth.com.au | info@arktotalwealth.com.au Webinars Top 5 Wealth tips for 2013 Wed 23rd Jan @ 6pm Thurs 24th Jan @ 12:30pm Duration: 30mins

10 Lessons From Black Monday

Tom Stevenson is an investment director at Fidelity Worldwide Investment. article from morningstar 

1. Keep calm and carry on. The FTSE 100 ended 1987 higher than it started and within two years the index had surpassed its pre-crash peak. By the time you have recovered your equilibrium, the moment to sell has very likely passed and by panicking at this stage you will simply miss out on the subsequent recovery.

2. Look through the market gyrations to what is happening in the real world. The 1987 crash was triggered by over-exuberance (the market had risen by nearly 40 per cent in the first nine months of 1987) and was then compounded by automated computer trading. The underlying economy was sound at the time - hence the quick recovery.

3. Take a long-term view. The 1987 crash looks insignificant on a long-term chart today even though, at the time, it felt like the end of the world.

4. Be prepared for the worst and don't put all your eggs in one basket. I was in Hong Kong at the time of the 1987 crash - the market there shut for a week, emphasising the point that emerging markets can sometimes be markets from which it is difficult to emerge in an emergency.

5. Don't try and time the market. When your emotions are running high you will make the wrong investment decisions because our brains are hard-wired to run from danger. The best investors do the reverse - they walk towards danger, albeit with their eyes wide open.

    

6. Invest regularly, a little at a time. This way, you will take advantage of market falls like the 1987 crash, picking up a few shares or units in a fund when they are cheap and even though your mind is telling you to put your money under the mattress.

7. Reinvest your dividends. The chart below shows the performance of the UK stockmarket since the 1987 crash - the lower line reflects just the capital growth while the second includes the compounded benefit of putting dividend income back to work in the market.

8. Keep some of your powder dry. Crashes happen, and when they do you want to have some ammunition ready to take advantage of them. It may be frustrating to have even a small proportion of your savings earning next to nothing in cash when shares are rising, but so too is being unable to capitalise on bargain basement prices when periodically they appear.

9. Beware of buying high and selling low. Remember that the stockmarket is the only market in the world in which we prefer to buy when prices are high and are put off by low prices. Think about how you would buy fruit and veg at a street market. You would behave in exactly the opposite way.

                                    

10. Watch costs but worry more about value. The difference between the charges on an actively managed fund and a tracker might be 1 per cent a year. If you back the right manager, however, that might be the best 1 per cent you ever invested.

‎5 Quick takeaways about the market ahead:

5 Quick takeaways about the market ahead - from John Mcgraths Facebook page

1. Interest rates will fall further. Aussie bonds rates are around 2.5%. This suggest that borrowing may come down under 5.0%. The professional markets rarely get it wrong. Good for FHB, investors & upgraders.

2. The Australian share market is around 35% off its all time highs. The US is now only 5% off & the FTSE around 16% down. So this suggest as the AUD comes down we should see a catch up in the ASX. Good for top end properties.

3. 41% of new mortgages last quarter (AFG) were to private investors. That means people are seeing property as again a blue-chip investment & a reason to re-deploy their cash savings in a better growth place.

4. Auction clearance rates have seemingly settled in around 60%-65%. This is right in the middle of what you would call ‘steady state’. A good sign.

5. Nobody wants to ring the bell but all signs are that we are beyond the worst. Most Australians de-leveraged during the GFC so are in better shape in many ways than beforehand assuming they kept their jobs.